What a Hassle. I Lost.

"Kyahahaha!"

Oni's laughter shook heaven and earth. She swung a club that looked as if it had been plunged into black mud and wrenched back out, and the blow sank into the Fourth Apostle's arm as though the weapon were being swallowed whole.

THUD!

"Ngh!"

His brow twitched.

Whoosh!

The Fourth Apostle swung his arm. Oni, still grinning, rode the recoil and shot into the sky.

"Kyahah~!"

Dozens of meters up, she twisted her body with perfect freedom. From the grip of the club a sticky aura spilled greedily into the empty air, and filth spread across the sky.

Crackle. Crackle.

The Sixth Apostle tore a portion of its torso free.

"Over here."

"Nod."

The Fourth Apostle seized a handful of straw and flung it skyward. The straw drank the air, swelling until it became an umbrella.

Shoom!

"Kkihik!"

Oni accelerated. As if a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠jet engine had been strapped to her back, she blew past the speed of sound in a single instant.

KWA-AANG!

The straw umbrella was ripped to shreds. The black speck did not stop. It came on, straight for the Fourth Apostle.

Riiip!

The Sixth Apostle's mouth gaped to its limit, and a scream that held an abyss poured out.

"────!!!"

"Kyak!"

Blood streamed from Oni's ears. The shock had reached her skull; her pupils jittered wildly. Before she could gather herself, a mountain slammed into her.

BANG!

A noise like a falling missile rolled across the ground, and a vast crater opened in the earth.

"Keoheok!"

Oni lay spread-eagled, groaning, as black blood burst from every part of her body. A shadow fell over her.

"Monster."

The Fourth Apostle looked down with cold eyes.

"You. Do you remember yourself?"

"Kyahak!"

Oni rolled her eyes and thrashed, her soft mouth clacking as she shook ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her head. Black energy poured from the crater, thickening as it came. Several kilos of dry ice buried in the pit would not have done this.

Boom.

A drum sounded.

"I see. So this is the outside. This is what they were making."

Lament and resignation mingled with the beat.

Boom!

"A pity. That our enemy."

Boom! Boom!

"Is nothing. But this."

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The drumming quickened until the strokes nearly overlapped, mad and relentless.

"The First Apostle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was right."

"Nod. Nod."

"KYAAAAAA!!!"

How sorrowful.

Where did corruption end? What he had seen with his own eyes was already wretched enough. Had there been something worse than even that?

"Pitiful. How pitiful."

What had turned this woman into such a thing? He almost missed that first impression of her, petty and small as it had been.

THUD!

Creak. Creak.

Oni's body swelled. The horn on her forehead grew sharper, and her eyes lengthened as if measured with a ruler. Her skin roughened. Her veins passed blue and sank into indigo.

"Krakak?!"

She must have crossed some threshold. The shriek faded, and reason began to return. Her energy settled into order, and the club vanished.

"Fast."

"Kkirik."

Best to end the stray thoughts here.

THUD!

The drumming stopped.

The Fourth Apostle let both arms hang, then clenched his fists hard enough to break bone.

CRACK!

The drum shattered. His muscles finished their breath.

Vein and muscle, beginning at the heart, turned to power. His whole body flushed red and blue by turns, and his bulk began to grow. Muscle swelled like a balloon on the verge of bursting. The veins in his eyes thickened. When the growth ended, the Fourth Apostle was a giant more than ten meters tall.

"Hoo."

He exhaled, and smoke poured out that might have been mistaken for a factory's exhaust.

"Kyaak."

Oni had broken free at last.

The Fourth Apostle brought his fist down at once. The speed did not match his size.

KWAAAANG!!!

An earthquake struck. The earth was plowed inside out and hurled into the air. His red eyes gleamed with killing intent.

"Die."

Monster.

Hundreds of meteors poured down.

KUKUKUKUKUKU!!!

He hammered them in. He annihilated evil. It was not that he bore any special grudge. He simply could not bear a monster wandering loose along the road. And so—

That was the role of one who inherited the will of Heaven. A better world. A better future. A future in which a five-year-old child was courteous, and in which someone could give that courteous child a single piece of candy. A future like that had no need of a thing like this. He would not stop until this hand rotted and fell to pieces.

KUKUKUKUKU!!!

The meteors fell without end.

Without end.

Thwack. Thwack.

The Sixth Apostle rapped the side of the Fourth Apostle's head.

"All right. I'll stop."

He drew back a fist crushed flat. The skin had been scraped away down to the bone.

"Sulky."

The Sixth Apostle covered the raw skin with straw. A stinging sensation followed.

"Ow."

It pulled out still more straw.

"No. Stop."

"Pbbt."

"I said I'm fine. Spit on it and it'll heal."

It looked ready to keep pulling until it had his whole head, so he barely managed to stop it. The Sixth Apostle's gentleness melted, if only a little, the heaviness in his heart.

"Mm. Did I go too far."

The Fourth Apostle looked around. Would a magnitude 9.0 earthquake look like this? A wasteland no strength of flesh and blood ought to have been able to make lay spread before them.

"Good thing. This is. A separate space."

"Nod. Nod."

The Sixth Apostle agreed with violent enthusiasm. Had this been the original space, it would have gone past the collapse of a mountain and raised an entire range.

"Find me. Whatever's left."

"Sproing!"

A stick shot up over the Sixth Apostle's head, a hat dangling from its tip and spinning round and round.

"Perk!"

Its eyes drew narrow.

"That way?"

"Nod."

The Fourth Apostle walked carefully toward the place it indicated.

Thud.

He had torn the ground up so thoroughly that the footing was a ruin. Solid earth was hard to find.

"A sinkhole. Won't open. Will it?"

"Uh-uh. Uh-uh."

The Sixth Apostle shook its head, as if to say there was no knowing.

KYAAAAAAK!!!

A woman's scream cut through the air. Both apostles went still. They moved toward the sound.

"Keuheuheu—."

A blue-haired woman hung in empty air, turning into a mummy before their eyes.

"ONODERAAAAA!!!"

A black-haired woman wept tears of blood and wailed, but—

"You're noisy."

Her neck came off on the edge of a hand. One strike.

"Haa. Is it because a god's blessing got mixed with impurities? How fascinating."

Oni tossed the mummified woman aside and smiled brightly.

"Oh my, welcome. We're acquainted, aren't we?"

BOOM!

"You were alive?"

The Fourth Apostle growled.

"Yes. Thanks to you."

"How?"

He had gone all out. It was an attack none of the other apostles could have survived, save the three ranked above him.

"You focused far too hard on a single spot. So I slipped out. I nearly died."

Eyes wide, Oni licked the severed neck with her tongue. The neck began to wither dry.

She dodged the Sixth Apostle's surveillance?

It had not been a punch thrown without thought. The Sixth Apostle on his shoulder was no slouch at detection. She had evaded even that.

"Wee-oo. Wee-oo."

The Sixth Apostle snapped its stick upright. The hat fell.

Highest danger.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The ruined drum began to beat on its own.

"Weren't they. Your comrades?"

"These things?"

Oni flicked the neck away.

"They couldn't do a thing while you and I were fighting. What kind of comrades are trash like this? They're baggage."

She was not wrong. When they had fought her after she became a monster, the women whose auras had changed had been hardly any help at all. They had only peeked in for a moment. Even so, to treat them like this...

"You really. Became. A monster."

"A monster? I've become something greater than a god. The experiment ended in success."

Oni tore the corners of her own mouth. Gums and teeth drank the open air.

"With power like this, those damned Three Noble Gods won't be able to lay a hand on me. No—more than that! Give it time, and I'll kill them! And in the end!"

As if she could not bear the rapture, she hugged herself with her thin arms.

"I will become the one true god of this world."

"The word. Monster. Was too kind. For you."

The Fourth Apostle sighed.

"You're just. Something. That needs. To die."

"You couldn't manage it, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could you? So what will you do?"

"This."

KUKUKUNG!

Violence extended in time with the drum. The earthquake returned.

"Keuheu! It doesn't work~~!"

Blocked. His leg drove in, but there was none of the impact from before.

"What a hassle. I lost."

"Bee-ba-bom!"

The Sixth Apostle's straw came undone strand by strand. Lengthened like vines, it wound around the Fourth Apostle's entire body.

"And what kind of outfit is that?"

Oni sneered at the sight of him.

"A fusion."

The Fourth Apostle stood in clothes of straw, a straw hat on his head, the Sixth Apostle's face set into the center of his chest.

"Yes, well. You're going to die anyway, so thrash all you like."

Oni crooked a finger. At once the Three Sacred Treasures, dyed black, appeared and adorned her body.

"I don't. Get the joke."

"They're the divine treasures of the one true god. Don't you know?"

"As a joke. That's almost. Art."

She had well and truly lost her mind. What, in the end, had changed her into this? No one could say.

"If you're ignorant, it can't be helped. Die."

Oni hurled her sword. The Fourth Apostle wrapped himself in rampage.

Disaster rose again.