May You Depart for a Better Place

"Whew. Looks like it worked out, somehow."

Dan Miryu let out a sigh of relief. He had not been sure the power would arrive in time; he had flung it out in a rush of desperation. Fortunately, it seemed to have been taken in well. Not long after, the maddened killing intent boring into his mind vanished without a trace.

"The Third Apostle... lost?"

The Second Apostle murmured it, hollow, her pupils jittering without pattern.

"That fellow seems to have won. He's out cold, though."

"That's impossible..."

She opened her mouth and closed it again, like someone meeting a situation for the very first time, sweeping her hair back over and over as unease crawled through her.

Dan Miryu clutched the shoulder blade that had been half sheared away—a wound he'd taken because his attention had been on Sword.

It isn't healing well.

Even infinite Life could not mend it easily. The Second Apostle's blood and Life were locked in opposition, and a stinging pain throbbed through him.

A few more minutes.

He had to finish the treatment while she was still rattled.

"Anyone can lose. Why the fuss?"

Ah. That wasn't the line he'd meant. He needed to buy time.

The Second Apostle's pupils contracted like a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cat's. Her hair bled. In the dark she cocked her head at a perfect right angle and stared straight at him, and at a sight that belonged in a horror film every pore on Dan Miryu's body opened at once.

"The Third Apostle... he isn't someone who ends here..."

Drip. Drip. The words she forced out were foul. As if to prove the old saying—that a woman's grudge can lay frost even in the height of summer—the air around them sank, and a place thick with the heat of battle turned into the cold of the Arctic.

"...He has to make them know his grudge...! He has to meet the ones who left him...!"

A wave of blood flared and surged. He unfurled Life and barred it from closing in.

What is this?

A hollow laugh escaped Dan Miryu at the sight the wave revealed. From every direction, Second Apostles rose. They wore not a stitch, and yet there was nothing of a human skin tone on them: Second Apostles made of blood, creatures born from blood that held not a shred of vitality. No reason. No feeling. Dolls that moved only as their master's emotions moved them. He nearly mistook the place for the inside of a horror film.

Has she gone berserk?

Maybe he shouldn't have provoked her. He had only meant to rile her a little and be done with it, and instead she had flown into a rampage all on her own. He ought to have ignored the wound and struck while she was still reeling. But what had happened had happened. When had a Heavenly Punishment ever been easy?

"...There's no way the Third Apostle dies in a place like this!"

KRAAAAAAAH!!!

The scream of someone who refused to accept it. The confusion of someone who refused to believe. The pain of someone who had lost what was precious. A thousand emotions were braided into the shriek she hurled. The Second Apostle's eyes flashed white as they snapped open, and every twitch of her fingers set the surrounding blood vibrating.

"Yes... the Third Apostle only stepped aside for a moment. No—Lord First Apostle must have saved him. That's the only explanation."

Mutter, mutter. Like a woman who had lost her mind, the Second Apostle bit her own fingers and tore out her hair, and the dolls did exactly as she did. Amid that scene of collective self-mutilation, Dan Miryu did not lose his focus.

Set beside what Mr. Phantom showed me, this is nothing.

The horrific meal he had witnessed on Jeju. A party of Chaos, enjoyed with a smile. Beside that, the Second Apostle's eccentricity was a child's game.

Here she comes.

Whatever conclusion she had reached, she finished her meaningless muttering, seized her own throat, and tore.

"...Die!!!"

KYAAAAAAK!!!

The dolls screamed.

Crack!

"...Damn!"

A fissure split his barrier. A mere scream had become a sonic weapon; had it struck him dead-on, his eardrums would not have survived.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!!!

The dolls charged the barrier. As if the very idea of striking with hands or feet did not exist for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them, they slammed their bodies into it or flung their heads—methods too crude even to be called barbaric. The recoil burst them like water balloons, and the barrier was painted over in blood.

KYAAAAAAK!!!

The screams never stopped, no matter where they sprang from. The dolls killed themselves, and in dying kept up their suicide charges.

Crrrack!

The cracks spread like a spiderweb. It would not hold much longer. Dan Miryu abandoned defense. In a war of attrition he would win in the end, but he was not the only one out there.

She's fixed on me because she's lost her reason. No telling when she'll get it back.

He had to end this quickly. The Second Apostle was no weakling he could fight while dragging dead weight. He turned over what he knew of her. Her ability was Blood Arts: a sorceress who wielded blood. She could control it, become it, and move at high speed—an ability close to all-purpose, and one that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠did not even require a separate supply of blood to activate. Because she could turn into blood she was immune to physical attacks, and wiping out every drop of it posed her no problem at all. She was not second among the Apostles for nothing.

That doesn't mean she takes no damage.

However great she was, a human was still a human, and facing a transcendent of Life was, for her, a misfortune. Among the subjugation force, only three ability users—Dan Miryu included—could bring the Second Apostle down. Or perhaps it was luck. One of them was so overwhelmingly great that speaking of victory or defeat was meaningless. Another was better left unmet. Had they met—

Dan Miryu, human by comparison, was the better of the options.

Shatter!

While he was lost in thought, the barrier collapsed. Blood-soaked Second Apostles rushed him.

Where are you?

A Second Apostle screaming. A Second Apostle in despair. A Second Apostle radiant with joy. A Second Apostle grieving. A Second Apostle fallen in love. Among dolls of every kind, he singled out the real one.

Thud-thud-thud!

A doll rammed his arm, and a massive bruise bloomed beneath the skin. A doll tore into his leg, and a chunk of calf came away. A doll bit into his shoulder, and the bone snapped. He was buried in a mountain of blood. There seemed nowhere to flee, and nowhere left to live.

He was wounded in real time, and he reversed it. It was not healing. It was forcibly seizing hold of life. Fierce light poured without rest from the necklace, proud as a sun afloat in the cosmos, never pausing for an instant.

Dan Miryu groaned in pain. To say it did not hurt would have been a lie. If he spoke his honest heart, he wanted to detonate Life this instant and shake them all off.

I have to endure...!

He overcame ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the temptation, shoved emotion aside, and put reason first. Taking it with his body like this was for one reason alone: to win. The Second Apostle would not die by any ordinary means. Find the true body. And kill it.

Kh!

Could he?

Doubt crept in. The dolls were produced without end, and the Second Apostle concealed her existence.

Then—!

If he could neither find her nor do anything about it, he would have to make her come out on her own.

"Miss Mila Gordon."

Dan Miryu spoke the Second Apostle's true name. There was no particular reaction.

"You've lost family again."

...Ah!

A sound from somewhere far away, like a wail from the edge of a cliff.

"What was your relationship with the Third Apostle? As I understand it, the Heavenly Punishment regard one another as colleagues who hold each other in respect... Is that true? If so, you must have cherished him a great deal."

A hand was forced into his mouth. An enraged doll stuffed its own body in.

Crunch!

He chewed the doll to pieces with his teeth.

"Did the two of you talk often? Did you build many memories? Then that's a mercy. All that's left now is to miss him."

The assault intensified. As if desperate to stop his words, they came at him by every means they had.

"Another person has been added to the photographs in your heart."

The kindly neighbor who had shared your roof. The daughter you bore through pain. Devoted parents. The husband who promised you a hundred years. A precious friend.

"And the Third Apostle, who shared your cause."

Dan Miryu copied someone's smile. He drew the corners of his mouth up as far as they would go, narrowed his eyes, let his tongue roll smooth, and poured out affection and warmth.

"Isn't it wonderful? I'll have to try even harder."

If you want to see them again.

"Ha ha ha."

"You piece of traaaaaaaaaash!!!!!!!!!!"

The dolls burst all at once. Eyes set in human skin and brimming with life lunged for his throat.

"Bingo."

Worked like a charm.

Nails dug in, crushing his Adam's apple. Blood surged backward of its own will and poured from every hole he had. It didn't matter. So long as his life held, he would live even if only his brain and heart remained.

He seized the Second Apostle's neck. The blunt shape of the cervical bone met his palm. She flinched. At last, as if she had grasped her own situation, shock flooded her eyes.

"A little too late to dodge."

───!

Crackle! Shatter!

Darkness collapsed, and blue Life welled up. Earth and grass. A clear sky welcomed them.

"Kuh—"

In the grip of Life, a frail life lost its light. The vessel that had held it crumbled, and as if the world itself would not permit her, she slowly turned to bloodwater.

Life pressed its hands together and bowed.

"Whew!"

Dan Miryu looked up at the sky. Relief shimmered in his tired eyes.

"...This side is settled."

He had to reinforce the others at once. There was no time to rest. He slung Sword over his shoulder and set his feet moving. A green meteor cut across the forest.

Where he had gone, there should have been only a broken sword and a pool of blood—

"You didn't have to go that far."

There was nothing.