172. This should be enough, right?
172. This should be enough, right?
Perhaps it was only natural.
The setting of this world was, after all, an 'NTR eroge'.
So it was not strange at all that 'such words' were being spoken.
"I..."
So, I could understand it.
Those words. Those remarks. What kind of meaning they carried.
I could understand it all the more because I had experienced a similar situation just recently.
"I am, well..."
But.
But... still, still, I was human too.
"You all... I thought you would be different."
Seeing her together with Mars, I had unconsciously thought this.
Even though this was an NTR game world, Mars was still growing up in a happy family.
Mars was. Still growing up happily in a happy place.
So at least, I thought, I didn't have to worry about 'that kind of situation' from Mars's family.
But what was the reality?
"You people... you lot are all the same."
They treated Mars like a tool.
They did not treat a person as a person.
They treated her like an 'object' to be used anytime, anywhere.
...No, that wasn't it.
Even setting those facts aside, I was personally furious.
'No matter what, this is just wrong.'
I could understand saying they couldn't permit an engagement.
I could even understand telling me to train until I surpassed a certain standard.
It was even within the realm of understanding and acceptance to tell us to keep our distance entirely.
But, even so──
'──This is not something you should do.'
I reached out my hand.
I simply surrendered my body to instinct.
I could tell. I felt like I knew.
This thing I had not used until now.
This thing I had unconsciously ignored because I hated using it, felt reluctant to use it, and feared it might be some unknown 'bomb'.
"[Advent]"
I put it in my mouth.
I opened my lips and recited it.
*******************
"[Incarnation of Cronus]"
"......Hm..?"
The young punk's aura was strange.
He hadn't possessed an overwhelmingly strong aura to begin with──but now his presence was gradually fading, as if he were dead and vanishing.
As if he hadn't existed in that spot in the first place.
Like a corpse that had lost its fighting spirit, its will.
Yet the instincts of the man facing Chrono were screaming at him to flee this place immediately.
'This... is even more than when I cut down my eldest brother.'
His eldest brother was different from him.
He never flaunted his power and thoroughly hid his strength.
Then, when a crucial moment arrived, he revealed his majesty without reserve.
That sensation approached like an 'absolute law'.
It was never boisterous. Never clamorous.
Just naturally. Step by step. Slowly. But surely.
"......Fuuu..."
It was cold.
A chill climbed up his spine.
But burning his heart more than that, he stoked his fighting spirit with all his might.
"Yes... you're not just some chaff!"
He could no longer treat this as a joke.
The man discarded his toy-like sword and drew 'his own sword'.
"[Heaven Breaker]"
A sword that shattered the heavens.
The 'symbol' bestowed upon him, who had finally grasped the world by breaking through his personal absolute heavens──his father and his eldest brother.
The man radiated a completely different aura from before and advanced towards Chrono.
"Heu───Aaaaaaaaap!!!"
A simple downward slash.
But the power and divinity contained within it were not simple.
A body honed over a long time. A fighting spirit forged in battle. And divinity that filled his entire body from walking the path of Ares' will.
The downward slash that combined all of this, an attack of pure, simple brute force, tore through everything trying to block it, living up to the name of the sword.
And so
─Kuwooooooong!!!
".....You bastard..."
The greatsword that swung down as if to shatter Chrono's head
"Using dirty tricks again.... always using dirty tricks instead of fighting fairly!"
"............"
Did not hit.
It didn't even graze him.
Chrono was just standing there, but the sword wouldn't go forward.
To be precise, Chrono's body.
Just when it seemed like it might graze even a hair on Chrono's head, at that moment, the trajectory of the sword twisted away to somewhere bizarre.
'What... what the hell is this!'
He slashed with all his strength.
He swung with everything he had.
But it wouldn't hit. It wouldn't connect.
His full power scattered into the air and vanished.
Meaninglessly.
Worthlessly.
Chrono stood still in his place and said.
"Do you want to kill me that badly?"
"Yes, you son of a bitch! I keep telling you, I will never forgive any motherfucker who touches my daughteraaaaaa!!!"
"Ah."
I see.
Chrono nodded in agreement.
He agreed─
─Crack!
"Wha....?!"
─And just like that, his head shattered.
"Whu.... tha..... uhh...?"
A sense of absurdity that went beyond astonishment.
The attack that hadn't connected at all until just now, this time, shattered Chrono's head just like that, so very easily.
"Wh-What is this───Huh, huueok...??!"
The moment the strength almost drained from his hands
─Crunch.... Grind, craaack...
"....Crazy..."
He was getting up.
A corpse was getting up from the spot.
The shattered skull was restored.
The grey brain and the cerebrospinal fluid flowing beneath it returned.
The half-dislodged eyeball, the teeth fragments scattered below.
"Ah."
The completely crushed corpse returned to its original state, as if undergoing reverse regeneration.
"I think I get it now."
"Crazy."
A short, concise word.
The man asked.
"Are you, a monster?"
The man's single word.
Monster. Abyssal Monster.
A monster of the Abyss.
"No."
Chrono denied it.
"I'm worse than that."
A 'scythe' was grasped in Chrono's hand.
As if to say, my turn, this time.
*********************
[Keuagh....!]
He was cut.
[Aaaagh......!!]
He was cut again.
[Ah... shiit, you bastaaard──!!!]
His whole body was hacked at by the scythe.
His body gradually turned red. But it was fine. This level of injury was common.
As usual,
He just had to recover using his regeneration and divinity──but
[Grrrk..... Gugh...!]
"Recovery..."
Wasn't keeping up?
No, it wasn't recovering at all.
The wounds were increasing, deepening, but his body couldn't recover them.
Before he knew it, the floor below was filled with red sand, and even standing seemed precarious.
"Mama...."
"............."
Mars's worried voice.
But──Mama did not stop it.
'Honey....'
Because, the light in those eyes had not yet been quelled.
Because the light in both eyes was still alive.
The figure crouching,
Holding his breath,
Waiting for that single chance to counterattack.
[─Seugagagak.... Kakang!]
[Ugh....?!]
"Honey!"
At last, the chance for a counterattack he had found even as his whole body was being hacked to pieces.
He poured all his strength into his sword, into his soul, and screamed.
[Dieeeeeeeeeeee!!!!]
The strongest and final blow, unleashed with all his might.
The strike fired with his whole being as if there was nothing left beyond it...
[...What are you doing?]
[......Heuh...?]
...Vanished from that spot, as if it had never existed from the start.
".........."
It vanished.
Disappeared.
As if it had never been there from the start.
'Is that... possible with the power of Zeus?'
No. It could be firmly denied.
The power of Zeus could never commit such a bizarre feat.
If so, only one possibility remained.
"The premise was wrong."
That person was not the Apostle of Zeus.
Then who was it. Who was he connected to.
'There are hints.'
For example, in front of the hospital gate.
For example, while coming over to the underground arena.
For example, through the battle he had just shown in the arena right now.
"....Turning back?"
Turning death back into life.
"Erasing?"
Making things that existed into things that didn't.
"──No way."
Mama opened her eyes wide and observed.
She reviewed the CCTV footage.
In the process of finding evidence, confirming the phenomenon, and then applying the hypothesis left in her head....
"Time."
Mama said.
"God of Time."
Just as Chrono had said.
"Cronus."
If this was right, it was dangerous.
If this assumption was correct, if this speculation was the answer...
[Don't take me lightly.... Did you think my sword would be broken by the likes of you!]
[I see. A sword forged from your soul. I have... seen that in the 'original work' before.]
"....Honey."
What should she do.
Should she stop it. Should she leave him be.
In her heart, she wanted to tell him to stop.
But her hand wouldn't move.
Not simply because she felt 'fear' towards Chrono.
[My name is Malseu, Guild Master of this Ares Guild and the strongest man on earth! I haven't lived a life easy enough to lose to some punk like you!]
"Honey.... Honey....."
He didn't break.
He still didn't break.
So she couldn't stop it. How could she stop it.
"Please.... I beg you...."
All she could do was pray.
Mama clasped her hands together and prayed that at least he wouldn't die
─Kwakang!
"!...Mars? Mars!!!"
Her daughter ran straight for the underground arena.
"Please.... I know Papa is a son of a bitch, but he's not such a fucking bastard that he deserves to die!"
To stop Chrono.
To save Papa.
Everything Mama had said so far was a lie, he had already passed the test, and all that was left was to hold the wedding ceremony together with her.
To say that, Mars ran.
Ran towards Chrono.
"Faster... Fasterrrr....!"
A time of less than 3 minutes.
And finally, when she arrived at the underground arena
"Stop.... Stoooop!"
"....Papa...?"
Papa. Dad.
But it was wrong. Something was wrong.
─Seugak!
"Keu... Aaaaagh....!!"
His arm was cut by the scythe.
The muscular, always reliable arm of Papa was cut.
Skin was sliced. Blood flowed down.
And at the same time──Papa gradually began to wither, growing gaunt.
─Seuk! Seugak!
"Uaa.... Aaaagh! Stop! No more.... Don't take any more away from me....!"
The reliable Papa
Papa who was always sturdy, muscular, and proclaimed the strongest man of the Ares Guild
"I was.... I was wrong..... I was, wrong....!!"
"............."
Dried up.
Completely dried and withered.
Withered like a mummy on the verge of death.
Gaunt arms. Extremely thin thighs.
Hands and feet without any hint of training.
Scratches all over his body, bluish bruises.
Most of all, the eyes that were always upright and full of passion──had become eyes worse than those of a frightened sewer rat...
"Ah....!"
"Ugh──?!"
Eyes met with mine.
It was Papa. But it wasn't Papa.
Terrified pupils. In the form of a complete 'weakling'.
"This──was the sword you forged from your soul, wasn't it?"
In contrast, Chrono was, so to speak, the absolute strong.
In one hand, holding the sword Papa had been holding just moments ago
─Kkuwoouk..... Clang!
"Then, does this mean your soul is shattered just like this?"
"Aah.... Aaaaah......!"
He broke it.
Papa's pride. Papa's soul.
The source of the power that constituted Papa.
Shattered it and scattered it on the ground, mixing it with the dirt on the floor.
Worthlessly. Meaninglessly. Papa's life scattered and oxidized into sand.
And seeing that sight, that scene, to the bitter end, Mars...
"Stop...."
".....Huh?"
"I said stop, you fucker!"
"..........."
Blocked Chrono's way to protect Papa.
Even while her legs trembled violently and she looked like she would break down at any moment.
"This should be enoughhhhhhh!!!"
"..........."
She, chose to resist to the very end.