The White Wind Howls (3)
The White Wind Howls (3)
#80
Purple Girl stood before me, her gaze wary as she slowly looked me over.
Coarse black hair drenched in sweat—
A completely unkempt, shaggy beard—
Bulging forearms and solid abs—
And finally, the massive monstrosity hanging below them.
It was far too large to be called a cock.
Immensely huge and thick and heavy, and crude.
It was, quite literally——
"I was going to hunt you down regardless... but here you are, coming to me of your own accord."
That was the end of her monologue.
"Send Lily back."
"Haha. Heehee haha!"
"What's so funny?"
"Do I actually need to? When I can just have both you and Lily."
Right. Hadn't thought of that.
"Anyway, you're a woman? Lily, poor Lily. How did you fall this far? Do you really think that just because you Deviants became mages, you're the same as us?"
"........."
No answer came from Lily. She seemed to be unconscious. Was she badly injured?
"Vulgar bitch."
I ran my mouth... but could I actually win this?
"I changed my mind. I'll just kill both of you."
No, I had to do this regardless. I'd already made that decision.
Within Purple Girl's hand, a compression of space—its true nature beyond comprehension—began to stir.
***
***
Overwhelming mana and mass surged before my eyes.
However——
It was slow.
Slow slow slow slow.
Far too slow.
As I slowly moved my gaze, I saw Purple Girl wearing an insignificant expression behind the raging torrent. And the robe-clad mages standing behind her.
What was embroidered on their robes... a brass fox on a slate-gray field.
I didn't know the meaning or significance, but they were probably Etchellan's lackeys.
With my current eyes, I could read it.
That each and every one of them was little more than an accessory to assist Purple Girl. The flow of mana seeping from those bitches' bodies.
The dissonance in their interconnected positions and space.
It was like a spiderweb centered on Purple Girl.
Then the answer was decided. The way to destroy a spiderweb— is to cut the threads attached to the wall first.
BOOM——!!!!
The ground I had been standing on burst apart without a trace, and my body pitched forward. What I reached with the sound of tearing air was one of Purple Girl's outermost lackeys.
"What is th——"
CRUNCH—!
That bitch's voice was no longer heard.
Because with the sound of a tomato bursting inside my palm, her cheekbone caved in and her eyeball popped.
Something mingled with blood and brain matter dripped from my hand, soaking the dark forest floor.
From behind came the sound of someone swallowing their breath, then a scream.
"———— Kill him!!!!"
A violet sword strike flew at me from the right, but I didn't dodge. When I raised my arm to meet it, a few drops of blood splattered with a slicing sound.
Ticklish.
This bastard was a swordsman?
The woman holding the violet sword stared up at me in shock. With this much of a height difference, if not for magic, I would've torn her apart long ago. I was going to tear her apart now anyway.
When I grabbed the sword with my hand, its owner spoke.
"——You want to test strength against me?"
Some kind of intense light swirled around her, as if her strength was growing.
But that was all.
Rrrip.
Her arm was ripped off at the shoulder. Though, it wasn't an arm anymore.
"Aaaaaah!!!!!!"
When I pulled out what had been an arm, blood gushed like a fountain, and a cute scream filled my ears. But this was only the beginning.
An enemy's scream is a fine thing. Wail louder. Something kept flying into my field of vision, but I ignored it all and advanced steadily, driving the bundle of torn flesh and bone into another bitch's face.
Thud.
Her eyeball burst, and her head bent backward.
After repeating this two, three times, I saw that the lackey bastards had retreated and formed a thorough defensive formation. Behind them, Purple Girl had lost her words.
Was this doable?
Hummm———
Violet mana resonated, filling the space before my eyes.
A collective incantation of mages.
『Claudite』
Close it.
『Cingite』
Encircle it.
『Erigite』
Raise it.
Huh?
Ah. So that's what those words meant.
Until now I hadn't really understood, but I finally had a rough idea of what incantations meant. Was it because of the power flowing through my body? Auto-translate was nice.
But it looked fucking intense. A barrier, as sturdy as a massive castle wall, was enclosing me from all sides.
Could I break through it with nothing but a strengthened body?
"You stupid fuck——this is how you use an Imprint."
Huh?
My back was burning.
At the same time, an unfamiliar man's voice flowed out.
『Ālaya-vijñāna・Pursuit-Soul Usurpation』
Disturb even the rest of the dead, and steal without leaving a trace——
Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrggh!!!!!!!
Fuuuuck my backkk————
Something flowed in through the gaps in the torn pieces of flesh. Probably nothing good. Along with the pain of my back being ripped apart, a sensation of my soul being filled.
Soul?
What soul.
Had I always been able to feel something like this?
Everything from the women I had killed moments ago filled me. The fragments of mana used in combat, the violet remnants and the dregs of reinforcement, and perhaps even the last will that the dead had clung to until the moment of their death.
As all of it was sucked into the wound carved into my back, it felt like pouring another's screams and terror directly into a person's ego.
My knees buckled and I staggered, barely enduring it. The other side still showed no reaction. Had all of this happened in a single instant? To me, it had been such a long time——
When I lifted my head again, walls were rising in layers before me. Like a fish farm, one layer, two layers, three layers... dozens and hundreds of surfaces overlapped at different angles and depths, covering me from every direction.
At a glance, this was a textbook gank strategy. Whatever I did inside here, it would only waste my strength. A painfully obvious strategy: wait for me to struggle inside until I ran out of stamina.
Motherfuckers. So this was how Lily got beaten like a dog. Lily's Unique Magic was a Unique Magic that handled souls. A slash that severs souls could never have pierced these walls.
But——what the hell did that have to do with me? If the body's martial strength alone was sufficient, walls like these meant nothing.
There's plenty to tear through, at least.
"Hey. What do we do now?"
I spoke to the unfamiliar man.
......... No words came back.
That meant from here on out, handle it myself——
Fine. I only knew one Unique Magic anyway. Now I could understand its principles. I incanted along with the Omnisense that realized the power within me.
『Unique Magic—Equivalent Exchange』
O lingering echoes of the dead who could not enter the cycle of reincarnation,
pass through my hands——
and let even those sins and power resolve into a single ray of annihilation.
『Reversion Slash—還元斬』
Everything that had poured into me flew out with a singular directionality.
Incongruent with the name slash, it was simply a crudely swung hand.
Beneath the swung hand, not a single sound was heard.
The first thing to appear on the wall that had been blocking my path was a single, very thin hairline crack. A fissure so fine. Even I only belatedly realized it was a crack, so the other side probably hadn't noticed either.
The crack gradually spread vertically and horizontally, like a spiderweb. The sight of the cracks spreading across the entire wall of space stacked in hundreds of layers was so beautiful that I almost lost myself for a moment.
And the next moment——
CRRRRACK!!!!!!!!
The barrier didn't split. It wasn't that it split—the very concept of blocking something was torn apart, and the bodies of the Etchellan mages standing behind it all shifted out of alignment along the same thin line.
A woman whose shoulder and pelvis had come apart, and a woman whose neck and chest had slid off separately. A woman clutching the sundae spilling from her body after her waist had been split in half, wailing. A woman whose tongue dangled as the center of her face had been split open. Not even a scream could be heard. The components that had relied on their master's Unique Magic howled at the weakness of the master who had betrayed their faith.
Nice.
It was nice?
"Uh.....?"
"Aaaaa——aaaaaaaaarrrgh!!!!!!"
"Reattach! Reattach it!!!!!"
"Young lady——"
Mariel Etchellan immediately retreated backward and began to recite something. Yeah, I didn't think you'd be finished with just this. For a countess's heir, you wouldn't kneel from just this much.
"I'll kill you. Definitely!!!!!"
『Constringe』
Constrict.
『Complica』
Warp.
As Purple Girl's hand, reaching toward me, closed, the space around me began to be literally clenched.
CRUNCH!!!!!!!
My knees buckled under the pressure that felt like my ribs were being pushed inward. My spine screamed. My skin split first, then the blood vessels and muscles beneath tore, playing a beautiful melody.
But my smile showed no sign of disappearing.
An attack of merely this level couldn't force my body into submission. Moreover, I had completely grasped the source of this magic. Where the compression began, which mana lines were supporting its power, and finally, even the magic's weakness.
Good.
I'd pull it out.
I'd pull out the inner vessel engraved with the Imprint, neutralize it, and make it mine. If I didn't pull it out quickly, I'd be exhausted first—my instincts warned me.
When I forced my body upright, Purple Girl's eyes shook madly.
"Im... impossible..."
"Seems possible though?"
Thud.
I took one step forward.
A mountain-like pressure crushed down on my body, but it had no effect.
Thud.
That made two steps.
"S......stop——"
BOOM!!!!!!!
The spot where I had endured the pressure and risen was caved in and crushed without a trace. But I was already running!
Running was my specialty! Fleeing was my specialty!
Like a mad dog with rabies, I ran toward Purple Girl.
Mariel reflexively folded the space on her left. Then the opposite side would be empty. I kicked off the open gap with my toes and launched my massive body at Purple Girl.
Hummm!
"Jet kick!"
"Guaaargh!!!!!!"
It landed squarely.
The moment my toes exploded into Purple Girl's abdomen, the woman's waist simply forgot the angle a human body was supposed to endure. As if smashing a baby's cradle, Purple Girl's body folded like a shrimp from the kick that had planted itself in her, and she tumbled across the dark forest floor just like that.
The surviving mages under her command were convulsing like aspen leaves, watching their master's final moments. Worthless bastards. Bloody water burst from Purple Girl's mouth.
"Guh...... hk.........!!"
Her two eyes rolled back as if they were flipping over. Should I just pull out her eyeballs first? I'd already confirmed that Lily had lost her right eye. Thinking about what she did to Lily, just pulling them out wasn't enough.
Purple Girl began to crawl on all fours. Were her legs broken? It didn't matter much, since I was going to pull everything out anyway.
"Don't——come!!"
Purple Girl barely managed to squeeze out the words.
"This is just the beginning."
Grip.
I smiled and seized her wrist.
When I seized her wrist, something came crying into my palm. Something inside me stole what was Purple Girl's. Purple Girl's Unique Magic, the central axis of the void realm, the sensation of wielding the battlefield. Ah— delicious.
But my current self couldn't take it all. If I couldn't take it, then I would only break it. Isn't it best to kill a bitch you might meet as an enemy again someday?
A terror-stricken face screamed.
"D... don't——"
No?
With her hand firmly gripped, she clawed at the empty air, trying to fold space. As if that would work now. While holding her wrist with one hand, I placed the opposite hand on her shoulder. The place where the bone and muscle between the shoulder and neck met.
Purple Girl's face went pale white.
"No—— no— please don't——"
Good. She knew. What was about to come.
"You should have started that way."
CRAAAAACK———!!!!!!
The muscles tore away first, then the tendons stretched. Finally, the bone dislocated from the joint, revealing itself stark white. The concept of a shoulder was destroyed, and her arm thrashed in my hand. I ignored the screams that rang out. Not blood but a red waterfall flowed down, and Purple Girl's voice no longer even sounded human.
A moment later, when I looked down at my handiwork, Purple Girl had collapsed to her knees on that spot. Perhaps her lungs were damaged—she was making a very low gurgling sound, staring endlessly at the ground with eyes full of tears—
But my eyes, already ruled by the frenzy of violence, did not forgive the enemy.
At the same time, I felt the strength of my body running out. Regardless, if I didn't kill this woman, she would counterattack. If the power filling my body disappeared, all that remained for me was death. Killing this woman and plundering her power before the strength filling my body faded was the correct choice. Because now I could steal anything.
"Now, I'll be taking your Imprint."
"Please...... I'll do anything. If you tell me to spread, I'll spread, if you tell me to lick, I'll lick— please forgive me."
"Fuck off. I'm just going to yank out your womb. Any last words?"
"Please——just this once, spare meee I was wrong please......"
Purple Girl was sobbing madly, begging into the empty air with her one remaining hand.
Chin.
I placed my palm on Purple Girl's soft stomach.
Piercing through it just like this, the Imprint—
At that moment——from outside the forest, a violet pressure that seemed far heavier and more ancient than Purple Girl before my eyes began to slowly push into the space.
The woman's expression changed. The one hand that had been begging at the empty air stopped—and an expression of relief that overwhelmed the fear began to fill her face.
When I looked across with my transcendent vision, a woman who resembled this woman was approaching, leading a legion of mages.
Fuck? I thought she'd called her mom.
And almost simultaneously, from the opposite direction, mana of an entirely different nature rushed in. I looked behind me.
Cold and orderly, the golden lion.
The golden lion crests embroidered on white robes swayed as they approached this way.
.........An attack from front and rear.
Lily, it seemed that was as far as we could go.