The Death of the Foolish Sheep (9)
The Death of the Foolish Sheep (9)
#48
A crimson downpour cascaded down once more.
『—Ab orbe sēcērne—』
The girl raised her one remaining hand into the air and incanted.
The red pillars that had been plunging from the void halted, their sharp tips aimed at us.
It felt as if some immense power was excluding all interference from the small space we occupied.
"Th-this... is my highest-level defensive magic. It severs all interference from reality... It won't last long, so please listen carefully. Our opponent is a Hunter capable of doing this to a Countess's household in the middle of Arcanum."
"..."
"Even with my power, a provisional mage, supporting you, there's no way you could defeat that Hunter. Even this momentary reprieve is nothing but her amusement. I'll place a limitless Contract on you, along with all the mana you have left—"
Hurrk—
Shwaaak! CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
The barrier was on the verge of shattering.
"Get out of here somehow... Hah... Hah... That red sky is likely a siege barrier. While intrusion from outside may be impossible, escape from within should still be possible. Fly towards that door above. If the Hunter is off guard now, you might be able to reach it."
It was true.
A black door was situated at the very center of the red sky. This was a strategy that could only be attempted now, before the enemy grasped the situation.
But...
"What about Lady Estelle?!"
"What that woman wants is my life. Those with power must fulfill their given duties. The time has simply come for me to do my duty."
"... Let's run away together. I can't leave you behind."
"What were you listening to just now?! I no longer have the time to persuade you, Mr. Do-yun. Now, go on!!"
Let's not look back.
Let's face reality.
Because there was no helping this.
The Hunter's oily smile was visible beyond the cracks in the barrier, which had already reached its limit. As the girl said, an attack of this caliber was definitely not the enemy's full power.
Just look at that leisurely smile.
Estelle was absolutely right.
The Hunter was merely enjoying a brief bit of play before her meal. Any resistance would only lead to a dark death, waiting with its filthy maw agape.
Swallowing the moisture that welled up in my eyes, I accepted the golden Contract.
『—Ad ultimum superstes manē—!!!!』
Overwhelming golden vitality coursed through my body.
Blazing steam coiled around me, and familiar golden wings sprouted from my back. The muscles of my entire body tore, and new muscle filled in along the ripped seams. Sharp claws, already having lost any trace of human form, took their place on my hands and feet.
At that moment, the intruder with the dark-blue eyes had countless red pillars floating behind her.
Ah, seeing through the developed eyes of a beast made it clear. Those weren't pillars, or anything of the sort. They were simple iron skewers. Extremely heated iron spikes, optimized solely for killing people.
Just as that thought occurred to me,
red rain poured over my head once more—
Whoosh—CRUNCH!!!!
At the same moment the barrier protecting the frail body shattered into pieces,
a beast soared through the torrential rain and entrusted its fate to God.
***
The moment I blinked, I had reached the edge of the red firmament.
A black door.
If I could just open this door now, I would survive.
I would be freed from the fear of death.
The moment I placed my hand on the black door, an oily voice reached me.
"Haha, impossibly fast. I was going to play with you, but I got too careless. Is this the power of a Countess's unique magic, even when it's rotting away?"
The Hunter was looking this way.
But it didn't matter.
I knew instinctively— if I just opened this door and got out, everything would be over.
"Opening that right now would be a problem. The moment you open that door, the Masters of Arcanum will come charging in."
"Then that's all the more reason not to open it."
"Is that so? Try putting so much as a single finger on that door. The instant you do, I'll split the head of that mage down there in two. Isn't she your precious mistress?"
You bastard.
But thinking about it calmly, opening the door was the correct choice.
Estelle had clearly said the red sky was a siege barrier. That woman also said that if the door opened, other mages would come in.
In other words, the space surrounding the mansion was itself a barrier specialized for defense, like a fortress. Even at this moment, mages from outside might have been attacking the fortress. This was the Eurasia mansion, right in the heart of Arcanum.
If I opened the door, the mages attacking the fortress might immediately unleash their magic through the opened gates and protect the girl.
A perfect victory, then.
A perfect victory that would preserve both my life and Estelle's life, and even deal with the Hunter.
But that came with one premise.
"Right, even your stupid brain knows that, doesn't it?"
... Whether I could gamble Estelle's life on it.
"Come on, let's settle this with a duel, just us. I won't touch that woman then. That works, right?"
"How can I know you won't kill me and then harm Lady Estelle? You targeted Lady Estelle to begin with."
"Hahahaha! Good, good, good. Open that door right now. I'll tear your mistress's little head apart for you."
The tips of the spears, filled with red malice, were aimed at the girl's head.
The moment of choice had arrived.
***
「——————Goooo!!!!!」
A beast's roar that tore through the red sky filled the inside of the barrier.
"N... no—... Mr. Do-yun!!!!!!!!!"
It was already too late. The golden beast, trusting only in its powerful body, charged at the Hunter.
He couldn't abandon the girl in the end.
Despite their brief encounter, he had developed some feeling for her, and he had gambled his own life to protect her.
But tragically, his desperate struggle could never reach the Hunter.
Look.
At the beast's final moments.
The beast dodged all the iron skewers and rushed right up to the Hunter's eyes.
With its sharp front paw, it would soon tear the enemy's face apart—
That was what the man had mistakenly believed.
"That's far enough—"
"Huh?"
The right front paw, which should have been swung toward the Hunter's face, was already flying past the enemy's head, grotesquely torn tendons dangling loosely—
'So tendons were white... Or maybe not. Maybe it was the blood, but there was a pinkish tinge.'
A massive iron spear flew in and pierced the exact center of his body before he could even feel the pain.
Like a cannonball in flight, his torso was completely caught and torn by the spear's shaft, spinning with its immense kinetic energy.
A sticky bodily fluid stretched across the giant cavity that had formed, and only a few strands of muscle, so thin they seemed like they would snap with the slightest push, remained connecting his upper and lower body.
Hahaha.
Of course.
It was only a natural outcome. The world always flowed the way it had always flowed.
The colossal body crashed to the ground.
Thud!
There was no pain. Why was that? It didn't particularly hurt.
The stretched-out carcass was already embedded in the center of the once-green garden, dyeing the blades of grass the same color as the sky.
"Haha, hahahahahaha. You're not even screaming. Ah, did that mistress of yours, who isn't even an official mage yet, put that kind of contract in as well? How kind. I'll politely sever that for you."
Snip—
With a single gesture from a true mage, something was cut off.
"Kuaaaaaaaah—
Graaaah— Guah, aaaaaaaah. Kuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—"
"Ugh, so loud. Well, thanks to you, I've reaped quite a harvest here. Once I deal with that brat, I'll have secured at least another 60 years to live, won't I? The Countess's byproduct is a bonus. You've fully played your part, my creation. Well then, goodbye—"
「Thuuk」
The searing hot spear tip pierced through the man's forehead.
***
***
#49
You fool... you should have just left me behind.
Why did you challenge the impossible to try and save someone like me?
It was all over now...
I had so wished that at least you, Mr. Do-yun, would survive.
Now that you're gone too, any attachment I had to life is also...
"You were meant to be our first sacrifice! So, any last words? I'll carve them onto the monument we'll build after we've burned all of Arcanum to ash—! Hahahahahahaha!!!!"
A mad Hunter.
Anyway, to think all of this was a scheme to kill me. Where on earth did it all start to go wrong?
"Just who is Mr. Do-yun? And what do you mean, burn Arcanum?"
"Your last words are something so dull? How boring. Still, since it's your final journey, I'll tell you."
"..."
"That man over there is the first Pseudo-Human I created. We Hunters always agonized over one thing. How we could twist an unavoidable fate."
"A Pseudo-Human..."
"Even if I absorbed a few dim-witted mages, the fact that I'll die someday doesn't change, does it? So we created this. A human completely freed from the Book of Fate. That's my first masterpiece, which took nearly 20 years to complete. Starting with this, we will soon tear apart and rewrite all preordained fates."
"That's... impossible."
"Hahahahaha! Impossible, you say? Look at the state you're in now. Isn't it laughable? Just because I tossed out one man who deviated from fate, you're pinned beneath my feet, facing a death that's now your destiny. And that, right in the middle of a Countess's mansion in Arcanum."
"..."
"Soon, starting with you, I'll kill all of Arcanum's Masters. Once I kill them all, I'll be able to meet those two great Dukes, and once I execute those bitches too, all of Arcanum will burn and the world we've longed for will arrive."
To utter such madly arrogant words when they hadn't even seen a Duke in person. Did they even understand what they were doing...?
If only this siege barrier wasn't here—
No, if only my mother had been here, we could have subdued her easily.
At the very least, if we hadn't been taken by surprise in the initial attack, I could have escaped beyond the siege barrier long ago.
Could it really be that Mr. Do-yun's existence twisted all of fate?
I... don't know anymore.
"Then, since time's about up, it's time to say goodbye to the world. They're clamoring outside to be let in."
Squeeze—
The girl gave up on everything and accepted death.
Death comes to everyone without exception.
However, in this moment, those footsteps did not reach the girl.
Because the beast before her eyes was intercepting the darkness meant for her, taking it upon himself first.
***
Brilliant mana, extending from the source of all life, covered over the skin.
Shining lines flowed over the gaping hole in the abdomen, and an unknown crest was carved into the back.
And then— finally, the mana overflowing from the source of life manifested the unique magic inscribed in the original Imprint.
The Unique Magic of Elysia Florentia.
『Unique Magic—Equivalent Exchange』
『Restoration—還元』
The light that flowed from the phallus—the Holy Sword—which had briefly lost its radiance, healed the colossal body of the beast. As if it had never suffered such a wound in the first place.
『Regeneration—再生』
The torn flesh rewound itself, and the severed tendons returned to their proper places.
『Repair—修復』
The giant cavity that had gaped red was filled in the blink of an eye, and even the skin that had been soaked in blood regained its brilliant vitality.
As if it were a guardian standing before its young, which it must protect even at the cost of its entire life— the beast blocked the way between the mighty Hunter and its wounded mistress.
"Mr. Do-yun...?"
「———————————Goooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!」
Before the girl,
a pure-white brilliance roared toward the red sky.
The Hunter's oily smile began to distort for the first time.