The Piercing of Sealing

The veil had collapsed, and the Succubus appeared.

"...?"

That brief reaction was all, and then a long silence followed. Perhaps because I'd been confronted with something so absurd the moment I woke, my mind was a complete blank—not a single thought would form.

"......"

How long did I stand there in a daze? When my senses finally caught up with me, I opened my mouth slowly.

"Wait. Is this a dream?"

But before the words had even finished leaving my mouth, I was already shaking my head.

"As if."

For one fleeting moment I'd allowed myself a sliver of hope, and I erased it just as quickly. Nothing felt any different, and there was no real basis for calling any of this a dream. More than anything, my expectations had already been shattered once before, and I wasn't optimistic enough to go hoping again this soon.

"Then again... why?"

Setting that aside, another question surfaced in my mind all on its own. Even the ceiling that had hung overhead without any support had taken days to disappear. And yet the walls, which had remained perfectly intact, were gone without a trace in a single day? By any common-sense standard, that made no sense at all.

"No. This whole situation never made sense to begin with. What the..."

Just as I was about to carry the thought further, it struck me how idiotic it was to be arguing common sense in the first place. I was trapped in an unreal situation from the ground up—what logic was there left to appeal to?

"Anyway. Ah, damn it. Seriously."

So I shelved the questions there and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠turned my eyes back to the reality in front of me, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the profanity came out on its own. Come to think of it, this was no time to be agonizing over any of that. What mattered now was how to deal with the variable that had just dropped into my lap.

"So... what do I do?"

I had, of course, settled on a course of action the night before, so what to do at this exact moment was clear enough. It was just that the situation had ambushed me without giving me so much as a breath to steady myself, and my body refused to move according to plan.

"Hmm... no. Never mind."

Just as I found myself drifting back into thought yet again, I shook my head and cut it off. It would only be rehashing last night's deliberations, and having already reached a conclusion, there was no point wasting more time going in circles.

"First things first—let me get the Teleport Stone out."

I wasn't happy about it, but for now I decided to stick to the plan I'd settled on yesterday and pull the Teleport Stone from my inventory.

"Inventory."

I opened the inventory window by voice, the motion already familiar. For the record, back then I had believed without a shred of doubt that all of this was a dream—but boredom was a separate matter. With nothing better to do, I'd experimented with this and that like the heroes of any number of novels, and thanks to that I more or less knew my way around the system. Most of its functions, however, only activated once I stepped beyond the veil, so this was actually the first time I was putting any of them to real use.

"Teleport Stone... Hm? What? Did I say it wrong? Teleport Stone..."

Since the interface responded to voice, I'd naturally assumed items worked the same way, but apparently things didn't operate the way I'd expected.

"What? The inventory window opened just fine, and my starting gear is right there. Don't tell me it needs a separate command? Like, 'Use Teleport Stone'? Or...?"

Still unsure, I tried tapping the Teleport Stone directly with my finger this time. There wasn't any particular reason for it. My hand had simply moved on instinct before my brain caught up.

"Oh. So that's how it works."

With a curious sensation, like something brushing faintly against my fingertip, a new line of text had appeared before my eyes. You had to wonder why they'd bothered splitting it up like this, but apparently opening the interface was done by voice, while the finer operations afterward were handled by direct touch.

"Hmm..."

Before long I was staring at the item description, my gloom having sunk a degree deeper. It was plain as day that the moment I set foot inside the village, I'd be swept into every circle of hell imaginable. Just thinking about it squeezed the air out of my lungs, and my brow knotted on its own.

"Ha... What the hell am I supposed to do about this."

Fussing over nothing, I raked my fingers through the hair at the back of my head and let another stretch of meaningless time drain away.

"?!"

Whoosh!

I whipped my head around, startled out of my wits, and scanned my surroundings. No monster was in sight, but for a message like that to appear could only mean something was hiding somewhere close. So I swallowed hard, every nerve drawn taut, warily watching all four directions.

"Where are you hiding?"

The situation was bad. This was a remote forest choked with dense undergrowth and towering trees, and I was standing in a small clearing at its very heart. The enemy could watch me from cover all it pleased, while I couldn't so much as tell where it was. It could ambush me at any moment, from any direction, and nothing about that would have been strange.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

I strained my ears for every sound around me, but my heart was pounding so madly that it filled my ears completely and drowned everything else out. In that suffocating tension, I rested my finger on the [YES] button, ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

...What am I doing right now?

The thought came to me unbidden. I was doing something genuinely stupid. Going by how the game had played out, the monster about to appear before me would be a goblin. Alongside slimes, goblins were treated as the weakest of the weak—but unlike slimes, whose attacks were purely erotic, a goblin could very genuinely kill a person. And I was supposed to stand and fight one of those things? Me, who had never been in a fight in her life?

Granted, thanks to Elysia's stats my physical abilities were in a different league from a goblin's, but even so, the risk was too great. So the most rational choice was to get out of here right now—and yet the thought of the unspeakable things that would come after tied my feet in place.

Ha... Let's just watch for now. If it gets really bad, I can use it right away.

However I turned it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over, it was a hopelessly foolish call—but there was nothing to be done about it. If I'd been the decisive type to begin with, I would have moved to the village long ago and never run into this situation at all.

Rustle!

"?!"

Just then, from somewhere in the forest, came the snap of a breaking branch, and I turned my head straight toward the sound. Deep in the western woods, beyond the thick darkness, black smoke was shimmering like heat haze, giving off a faint glow.

"So that's demonic energy. Seeing it in the flesh... it really is as shitty as the game made it look. Seriously..."

Before long, an unpleasant silence settled over the clearing. Neither of us showed the slightest movement as we sized each other up for a long while, each stubbornly watching the other, neither willing to make the first move.

Step.

Then it was the other side that moved first.

Shhh...

The black smoke that had wavered like heat haze began slowly to swell. And before long, a new line of text surfaced within it.

"...!"

Without even a moment to panic, I hurriedly moved my hand.

Tap!

But in that very instant, as if time itself had stopped, my body froze solid as stone.

What? Why won't my body move?

Confusion scrambled my thoughts. My eyelids were the only things that still obeyed me; no matter how hard I strained, nothing else so much as twitched. Just as I was floundering, unable to make sense of why this was happening, the system supplied the reason.

...Why is there a Succubus here?

Once I understood the cause, a far more fundamental question reared its head. Why was a monster that only ever appeared in the final chapter here, of all places?

...No, wait. Come to think of it, this IS the final chapter, isn't it?

It was a fact half a second of thought would have uncovered, yet only now, far too late, did it dawn on me. In the story, Elysia had fought her final, bloody duel against the Demon King in this very area. Which meant the monsters that showed up here could only be of a caliber befitting the endgame...

I should have pressed it right away.

No sooner had the thought ended than crushing regret came flooding in. If only I'd used it ahead of time, I wouldn't be meeting my end so pathetically.

...Or maybe not. If anything, isn't this a good thing?

Hold on a second! This might just be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The curse meant I couldn't bring this journey to an end by my own hand even if I wanted to. Considering everything still waiting down the road, it might be better for it all to end right here.

"......"

In the midst of that tangled stream of thoughts, a strange sense of wrongness suddenly crept over me. For some reason, the Succubus hadn't moved so much as an inch—she simply stood there, still as a statue.

What is this? Don't tell me we're fighting turn-based, like in the game?

Just as I was racking my brain, trying to read the situation—

Whoooosh.

A gust of wind swept through, and I reflexively squeezed both eyes shut. It lasted only an instant, but for that moment my view was completely cut off.

Bang!

That was when it happened. A sound like the air bursting apart cracked through the clearing, and by the time I opened my eyes, the black smoke had already vanished without a trace.

What? Where did it go...?

Before I could even finish the thought, a hand shot out from behind me and seized the back of my neck.

Ziiiing...

The Succubus's movements were nothing like before—abrupt and aggressive. An eerie sound rang out without warning, and the next instant a searing heat pressed against the nape of my neck.

In that moment, I knew.

I was going to die.

Only moments ago I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thought death might be the better outcome, but now that it was staring me in the face, a longing to survive surged up in me, fiercer than in anyone alive. Wait! Fuck, I'm going to die like THIS?! It was so unjust I could have lost my mind. In the only part of me that could still move, tears had begun welling up before I knew it.

And just as I was screaming, desperately, inside my own head to live—

Shff.

Like a lie, the heat vanished. As if everything up to that moment had been nothing but an illusion. And in that same instant, an unexpected line of text appeared before my eyes.

...What is this?

It was a system message unlike anything I'd ever seen, and it left me bewildered. A cursed item? What on earth...

Sizzle!

Before I could even finish the question, a sudden heat flared in my chest. The word piercing set off a dreadful premonition, and I hurriedly looked down—but the enormous mounds in the way blocked my view, and I couldn't confirm a thing.

"Phew......"

Just then, a sigh of relief drifted from somewhere behind me. The Succubus stepped into view a moment later, laughing at me outright as she spoke.

"What, so it wasn't an act? Looks like you really did lose all your power."

Then she raised one hand and cocked it back, as if winding up for a flick to the forehead. And then, sweeping that hand straight down with a playful little sound of her own making, she taunted me.

"Jingle, jingle. It suits you, Elysia."

Ah, damn it.

Only then did I feel it: a cold, foreign sensation in my nipple.