Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Enigma Auction Scramble (7)
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Actually, when you thought about it, the conditions couldn't have been more favorable.
They had two. We had three. They were the desperate ones. We were the ones with time to spare.
We even had holy magic, the ultimate weapon against the undead.
It was perhaps inevitable that the increasingly anxious Vita sisters would eventually reveal a critical opening.
And there was no way Alice and Tamamo, with their genius-level combat senses, would miss such an opening.
Tamamo broke through the solid defense, while Alice deflected a sharp sword strike and delivered a bold slash at the neck!
There was no need to see more. The match was decided.
"N-No way... To think I'd lose to such inferior beings... Lord... Morte..."
A thin white line appeared on the neck of Vita, whose eyes were wide with disbelief.
And soon, her head slid from her neck, rolling limply across the floor.
It was a truly fatal blow, one that even the necromancer Morte himself couldn't have reattached.
Perhaps because she had witnessed this victory with her own two eyes.
Tamamo's ears perked up as she cried out to Alice with joy.
"Alice! You did it!"
"Hah, hah... Yeah, we did it."
They say beastmen clearly express their emotions with their tails when they're worked up.
She must have been ecstatic, as her distinctively thick fox tail was wagging uncontrollably.
Well, her precious childhood friend, whom she hadn't seen in almost a year, had just shown her something amazing.
She must be feeling deeply moved. Their relationship is quite complicated in many ways, after all.
*Huh, now that I think about it, I have a tail right now too. Could it be...*
At the sudden question, I subtly turned my head toward my rear.
My tail was held high, as if asking what I was looking at, with only the tip swaying gently.
What on earth does this mean? No, just stay still. It's distracting.
As I stared down the long, sleek tail moving of its own accord as if in a staring contest.
Verita stood frozen in place, murmuring quietly as if she never expected this to happen.
"I never expected this. To think my sister and I would be overpowered."
It wasn't strange for her to think that.
A knight who never tires and a mage with infinite mana—on an Earth without holy power, the Vita sisters were a practically broken combination capable of defeating even higher-ranked foes.
She must have never dreamed they would be stopped so futilely in a place like this.
And not by famous Fixers like Victor or Raven, but by two high school girls who were merely promising prospects. The shock must have been doubly intense.
But even so, did she still have no intention of giving up?
Verita aimed her sword at Alice, radiating killing intent as if to continue the fight.
"Ha, you're still not giving up? It's three against one now!"
"That remains to be seen."
Perhaps intending to avenge her sister, Verita readied her sword and lunged at Alice.
But they hadn't been losing even with Vita around. With one of them gone, Verita had no chance of winning.
Still, Alice didn't let her guard down. As if determined to finish her here and now, she didn't back down and parried the sword forcefully.
"Alright! Let's see... Ugh?!"
But then, something unexpected happened.
Just as their swords were about to clash, Verita dropped her weapon and leaped backward!
Naturally, Alice, who hadn't expected the murderous opponent to drop her sword, saw her attack slice through empty air.
Retreating as if fleeing, Verita scooped up Vita's head from the floor and created a significant distance between them.
But what could she possibly do with a head that had already been severed?
Alice watched Verita with a questioning gaze, her sword still aimed.
"Her head...?"
"I admit it. Even with your holy magic, our defeat was due to our own weakness. For now... you are stronger."
Verita spoke in an emotionless voice, as if reading from a book.
Was she planning to run? The killing intent that had been so palpable just moments ago had completely vanished.
This... made it a bit difficult to finish her off.
Verita's physical abilities were so exceptional she could be called a death knight.
If an opponent was determined to escape, even at a cost, stopping them would be difficult.
Besides, while the civilians had all been evacuated, there were still unconscious or incapacitated Fixers at the scene.
If they chased Verita too far, they wouldn't be able to respond to another attack.
In that case... did they have no choice but to let her go?
As Alice and Tamamo watched the clearly retreating Verita with quiet caution.
Suddenly, Vita's head, held in Verita's arms as if dead, shot its eyes open and shouted.
"Grr... Don't admit it! There's no way we, creations of Lord Morte, could lose to such inferior beings!"
"I-It talked?!"
A severed head speaking—it was a terrifying sight straight out of a nightmare.
But if her head was detached, she shouldn't have any vocal cords. How was she talking?
As I felt puzzled by this phenomenon, wondering about the principle behind it.
Tamamo, however, spoke calmly, as if she had expected this, showing no signs of agitation.
"...As I thought, the redhead is a magic-using undead, a lich. Since she's already a corpse, she can still speak perfectly fine even if her head is detached from her body."
"Eek... A lich can survive being decapitated? How persistent."
Alice looked at the perfectly articulate, decapitated Vita with a fed-up expression.
Usually, zombies or ghouls controlled by vampires would stop moving if their heads were cut off.
This must have been her first time experiencing the tenacity of a true undead created by a proper necromancer.
But something seemed to have displeased Vita.
Held only by her head in Verita's arms, she shouted in a furious voice.
"Hey! You flat, purple fox! I'm not a lich! I'm a high lich! Do I look like some mere bag of bones to you?!"
"Ugh, w-who are you calling flat! I-I'm average!"
"Sister. You're making it hard to hold you. Stop squirming."
"T-Tamamo? Calm down!"
Had Vita's words truly struck a nerve with Tamamo?
Her tail puffed up thicker than usual as she made quite a ferocious face.
It was a look completely devoid of her usual composure, one of someone whose nerves were thoroughly frayed.
Hmm, it's true... Tamamo isn't exactly well-endowed.
But she's pretty and cute, so isn't that fine? What's there to get so angry about?
I quietly watched Tamamo, who looked ready to unleash all sorts of magic on Vita at any moment, and shook my head.
*Anyway. This means the situation here is pretty much over. After all, Vita losing her body is the same as being incapacitated. And Verita, who adores her sister, won't try to fight anymore.*
In the end, the situation hadn't changed at all.
The enemy had completely lost the will to fight, while we still had enough strength to continue.
In that case, it was no exaggeration to say that this battle at the Enigma Auction was the Fixers' victory.
I didn't know how things were going elsewhere, but this should have a significant positive impact.
Then my role here is done. I should run before my identity is revealed.
Just as I made that decision and was looking for the right time to withdraw.
*Rumble...!*
Along with a chilling sensation as if my body was floating, the ceiling suddenly collapsed!
"Ugh...?!"
"Th-The ceiling!"
"...!"
Fortunately, my reaction wasn't too slow.
I unleashed the last handful of holy power in my body, firmly covering Tamamo and myself with a barrier.
In that brief moment, I prayed for protection from the threat.
Sharp and dangerous debris slid off the barrier and fell around us.
We could have been crushed by the debris and ended up in a bad state.
Startled, Tamamo's eyes went wide, and she gave me a grateful bow.
But unfortunately, I couldn't return her bow.
Because as the ceiling collapsed, something absurdly dangerous had fallen with it.
*This is... Don't tell me...!*
A dangerous enemy appearing at the hotel at this timing.
No matter how I thought about it, there was only one possibility.
I instinctively felt a powerful sense of danger, breaking out in a cold sweat that soaked my back.
Just being in the same space as that being felt like my heart was being squeezed.
"This unpleasant sensation... It has been a very long time..."
Beyond my senses, which had sharpened since becoming a beastman, came a man's utterly unpleasant voice.
The repulsion was so strong, as if something non-human were mimicking a person, that it felt like I was being choked.
And soon, after the thick, ashen dust from the collapsed ceiling settled.
Beyond it, the figure of a gaunt fiend, well over two meters tall, came into view.
My ominous premonition had become reality.
The being before me had an appearance I remembered from the original work.
So I couldn't not know. It was impossible not to recognize him.
*That's... Morte of the Pestilence!*
His identity was none other than Morte of the Pestilence, one of the Seven Extremes of the Metahuman Liberation Army.
The ultimate necromancer... who had personally created the Vita sisters, with whom we had just fought a fierce battle.
Unfortunately, had that horrifying monster immediately noticed that I was wielding holy power?
He pointed a grotesquely skinny finger at me and whispered in a low murmur.
"Die."
*Crack.*
Something shot out from his fingertip.
No, to be precise, my eyes couldn't follow it.
It was only natural. Morte's level was among the top tier of the Double Number Fixers.
Even with holy power, the gap between him and me, who was barely at a Triple Number level, was too vast.
So, this was death.
My instincts, sharpened by becoming a beastman, told me so.
That no matter how I struggled in this moment, I could not escape this predetermined fate.
"I don't think so."
But something suddenly interposed itself between me and my inescapable death.
It was a single bullet made of shadow, far faster than sound.
*Screech!*
I heard the sound of something invisible being forcibly torn apart.
No, did I really hear a sound? Perhaps it was just an illusion.
Because a moment later, the fierce crack of a gunshot rang through the air.
And *thud*.
Someone dropped down from the ceiling and turned to us with a mischievous look.
"...!"
"Jin!"
"Yo, am I late?"
In the middle of this chaotic mess, it was the person I wanted to see most, the protagonist of this world... Raven.