The Great Explosion

Traces still lingered on the path down into the basement.

"Just as I thought."

The deeper they went, the more evidence of a hasty cleanup came into view.

Sniff sniff.

"I smell it."

The same scent as the Spawn he served was rolling up thick from below.

"Who's there! Wait—Tiss…?"

"What brings you down here?"

The two Gregory Cult believers in the cellar started at the sight of Rox and came toward them, demanding to know how he'd made it this far.

Rox answered with a fist.

A sickening crunch. The believer who took the blow was pulverized on the spot.

"Getting in my way, you pieces of trash."

Having caught the believers' scent, Rox was certain a Spawn was inside.

He looked at Tiss—who hadn't so much as changed expression while two people died in front of her—and asked, perfectly calm himself,

"Tch. Boring little bitch, aren't you? Not even a scream watching people die. You just gonna switch the master your slave-self serves, just like that?"

"The cult's ultimate goal is for a Spawn of the great Calamity Abaddon to grow safely and become a new Calamity."

Tiss explained that while there were loyalist factions who insisted that only the Spawn they served was the true descendant of god—and who treated other monsters and believers as enemies—the cult's basic doctrine was that it didn't matter who became the new Abaddon. By the law of the jungle, it was only natural that the stronger Spawn would take that place.

"So that means… I can beat the Spawn in this place?"

"All of this must be Lord Abaddon's guidance toward a new Calamity."

Kyahahaha!

Apparently pleased with that answer, Rox laughed, clapped Tiss on the back, and told her he liked her for the first time. Then he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had her lead the way again.

Beyond a maze of winding passages, a massive door came into view. Even without stepping inside, you could tell—mana from someone who had been accumulating power for a long, long time was pouring out through the cracks.

A low hum. Deep darkness filled the slowly opening doors of the ritual chamber.

"Ohh…! At last!"

A wet crack of joints. Seeing the pure white altar at the end of that dark passage, Rox rolled his shoulders and dropped the disguise completely.

The monster that had discarded the mask named Rox returned to the form of a massive insect sheathed in steel.

"The Spawn who rules this land is inside that room."

"That so? Good work."

The instant those cold words left his mouth, Tiss felt her body lift into the air. Before she could even grasp what was happening, she flew at tremendous speed, slammed into the wall with a dull thud, and crumpled, blood streaming from her head.

"You look better dead, I'll give you that."

Satisfied at last by the sight, the Disguiser smiled and walked into the ritual chamber.

Ti…ss? Y-you're alive, right…? Breathe. Breathe! D-don't tell me you—you died? Did we… did we get 'em? No—did we get got…? W-what do I do.

"I'm okay…"

You can stop chanting the revival spell.

God, that hurts.

Good thing she'd prepared in advance. If she'd taken that hit dead-on with no protection, the damage would have killed her instantly.

Th-thank goodness. I was so worried the talisman might not work. I—I was terrified.

"The Protection Talisman did its job."

A dry crackle. The Ward—an artifact she'd gotten from her teacher—had completely shattered. Even after it offset most of the damage, the impact was still this bad… Yeah. I don't ever want to take that again.

I always thought the believers were just… beings whose purpose was to serve me…

Muttering with a gloomy face, Shan had clearly plunged all the way to the ocean floor.

"Feeling pretty awful?"

Yeah… Honestly… it's even worse than I thought it would be.

THUD. THUD.

"Kyahahaha!"

Rox's roaring laughter as he rampaged echoed through the underground.

One step. Then another. I dragged my staggering body toward the door.

A metallic click. I pulled out the crossbow I'd prepared and fitted the silver arrow I'd been keeping carefully against my chest onto the rail.

Tiss, please… kill that thing… I believe in you.

"Yeah. Just trust me."

Because I was weak, I was using every means currently at my disposal.

Hooo.

I took a deep breath and turned away, one by one, from every sensation my body was screaming. To survive, I focused every last nerve on a single thing: landing the silver arrow.

Killing a monster is hunting. You use every means available to lure your prey into a corner, then deliver the finishing blow.

Looking at the Disguiser's true form, it was a Steel Leaf Bug—the same ironclad-beetle type that had appeared as a corpse in the tutorial. A mutant of the species called metal bugs, it possessed powerful mimicry, plus the ability to eat iron, copper, and other metals, absorb their components, and wrap its entire body in an exoskeleton like armor.

The gap between torso and head that steel couldn't cover. I drew a virtual line toward the respiratory organ there. With the single-minded conviction that I would hit my target, I pulled the trigger.

A silver flash punched from the crossbow, drove through its vitals, and burrowed into its body.

Just one arrow. To a monster of that caliber it was no more than a toothpick—a single irritating shot. But that one arrow would become the dagger that cut its life short.

"What the…?"

Rox wondered about the arrow stuck in him. That little brat—she was still alive? Playing like she'd given up, then counterattacking after a blow that should have crushed her entire body. So the hardliner faction she'd mentioned was herself, huh?

"A wound like this."

He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ignored it. Judging that killing Abaddon's Spawn in front of him mattered more than pulling the arrow from his back, Rox focused on dismembering the massive Whispering One.

Having no idea it was a dummy Tiss and Shan had made, he rampaged to his heart's content, and only started to wonder once the dummy was half-torn apart. Why wasn't it resisting at all? For a Spawn's hideout, weren't there too few believers?

The moment he turned—

A deep, grinding boom. Bulkheads dropped from the ceiling one after another, turning the ritual chamber into a tomb with no exit.

To make sure it could never be opened again. Not slowly opened and closed by machinery—they had severed every chain holding the opening mechanism in place. In an instant, the ritual chamber became a perfect sealed room.

A tar-like sticky substance poured down from the ceiling, landing squarely on Rox. The slime was packed with flammable material Tiss and her teacher had worked hard to prepare.

"Grrrk!"

Rox thrashed, shaking his whole body. He tried to scrape off the slime clinging to him, but the more he struggled, the more it stuck.

"This little—!"

Only then, realizing something was wrong, he tried to wade through the wave of slime to smash the door—when his body suddenly listed. And he dropped to one knee.

"Huh?"

Rox was badly shaken to find his body freezing in place, refusing to move. Only then did he realize the silver arrow wasn't ordinary.

Rox had to pay the price for rampaging with that arrowhead still in his body. He thrashed in panic as his living body gradually hardened, but the more he struggled, the further it slipped from his control.

With Tiss's cold voice, the switch connected to the fuse was pressed.

Click.

Flames rose inside the ritual chamber. A wave of blinding white light beyond mere red fire filled the sealed room and swallowed the Disguiser. But as if that weren't enough, it slammed even harder against the bulkheads, endlessly unleashing explosive force.

Huh?

From outside the ritual chamber, Tiss watched white light spread through the gaps in the bulkheads—and suddenly the world began to move in slow motion.

T-Tiss! This is, um—

"We… might've overdone it a little."

An unexpected situation. The explosive force generated when the offerings and tokens of faith Shan had accumulated over all that time met the flames ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠far exceeded what the two of them had estimated. Beyond simply swallowing Rox, the fire punched through those thick bulkheads, blasted through the orphanage ceiling, and erupted all the way into the sky.

The sight of pure white light wrapping around her body was Tiss's last memory of the orphanage.

"Haaaaah!!!"

Am I… dead?

No. I'm alive.

Haa.

When I tried to move after drawing a deep breath, tremendous pain hit me. The moment I shifted, fierce pain arrived together with the presence of bandages wrapping my entire body.

"Is this… a hospital?"

An unfamiliar ceiling I'd never seen before came into view.

Tiss, you're awake!

Boing, boing. I could see Shan bouncing around inside me, tears of joy streaming.

Aaaagh! Even that tiny vibration registered as pain, and I screamed without meaning to.

"Shaaaan… that… hurts."

S-sorry! I—I got carried away without thinking…

Haaa.

A nurse who heard my scream called a doctor and ran a simple examination. When the doctor said it was a miracle I'd only been hurt this much after being caught in an explosion like that, I knew immediately that someone had carried me out. Only after the exam was over and I'd eaten some tasteless hospital food could I finally breathe a little easier.

"Shan, how long was I out?"

You slept for a full day and then some.

A day, huh. Considering the explosion plus the damage from the Disguiser, I'd woken up pretty early. Even if I wanted to move, I couldn't with my whole body wrapped in bandages like this.

I settled comfortably against the bed and asked Shan what had happened while I was asleep.

"What?"

The first shocking thing I heard was that not only had the orphanage collapsed—the explosion had also shattered the outer barrier, and monsters had come pouring in.

S-so, um…

Stammering, Shan began to tell me what had happened while I was unconscious.

Tiss, c-come on, wake up! Tiss!!!

Tiss's body, having completely lost consciousness, didn't so much as twitch. It had been a massive explosion. A fragment that came flying out of nowhere struck her unprotected head, and she blacked out on the spot.

W-what do I do? I… what am I supposed to do.

Panicking, Shan thrashed trying to wake Tiss somehow, but there was no sign she'd get up.

I-I think she hit her head really hard…

If this kept up, both Tiss and Shan inside her would be swallowed by the blaze and die. And even if Shan forced her way out of Tiss's body, she'd still burn to death just the same. She simply couldn't find the courage to abandon Tiss and run.

Uwaa… what do I do? What do I do? R-right, the spell! Did we get 'em, did we get 'em, did we get 'em, did we get 'em!

She chanted the revival spell Tiss had taught her, trying somehow to wake her, but Tiss only twitched briefly and her consciousness didn't return.

Hic…! W-what am I supposed to do at a time like this? S-someone help me. Am I… r-really, actually going to die?! We barely took that thing down… and now we just… die like this? For nothing?

Trembling.

Tiss, please wake up! Tiss!

Just as Shan was about to fall into full panic—

"Hmm? So you two were alive? Lucky you."

Through the thick smoke, Shan heard someone's voice.

E-Emily?

What emerged through the smoke was a red-haired huntress with slit eyes. Emily—a parasite type like Shan herself. She looked down at the fallen Tiss and Shan with hazy pupils, as if she found it interesting.

"To think you'd actually hunt a Disguiser with a body that's only just become a host."

Having heard the entire plan for this operation from Tiss, she'd prepared in advance and played dead—and thanks to that, she'd met an ending different from the original.

Caught in the explosion, the Disguiser's hard steel body couldn't withstand the heat and was being cooked alive.

H-help us!

Knowing she probably couldn't be heard, Shan still desperately begged Emily for help. At this rate they'd either suffocate on toxic gas or be crushed by the collapsing building.

"Don't worry. I owe that kid my life, so I intend to repay the favor."

Emily hoisted the unconscious Tiss onto her back and approached the Disguiser who had stolen Rox's name.

Together with the nauseating smell of cooked flesh, its blackened, melted-down exoskeleton was a grotesque form that suited the word "monster" all too well.

"Poor Chris. No eye for people, or just rotten luck?"

Limbs torn off, thrashing like an insect as it died, the Disguiser looked at Emily and muttered in disbelief.

"You bitch… to think you were… one of us."

Seeing Emily click her tongue at him as if he were pitiful, Rox finally realized what she was. His gaze drifted naturally to Tiss, slung over Emily's back. It was nothing like what he'd expected.

Even through the searing pain of his whole body melting, he reached one conclusion from the fact that Tiss was still alive after taking his blow.

"So… that brat was the master of this place! She had me completely fooled!"

He thrashed in that horrific state, trying somehow to get up, but it was a meaningless act that only made him leak bodily fluids and burn through his own lifespan faster.

A wet punch of flesh.

"You don't get to die on your own terms."

With the remark that it was more valuable harvested while still alive, Emily's hand mercilessly punched through Rox's chest.

"…!"

A wet, tearing rip. Then she seized the Essence—the source of all a monster's life, nested inside Rox's body—and ripped it out.

Essence torn free, Rox died without even managing a final cry.

Having harvested Rox's Essence, Emily slipped out of the orphanage with Tiss as if she'd never been there.

A long, splintering crack. Not long after Emily escaped, the orphanage, engulfed in flames, collapsed.