The Old Dagger (2)
In the course of a life, we run into countless coincidences. You might bump into that awkward deputy manager on the morning bus, or step out of the office for a break only to come face-to-face with the team leader.
Unexpected meetings that arrive at the worst possible moment. Some people might even call them fate.
"Haah… What the hell is this supposed to be?"
It was so absurd I briefly checked out of reality. I thought I'd played every kind of game under the sun, but a boss that just randomly encounters you? That was a first.
Was this even an idle game, or had I somehow downloaded Pokémon?
Heat boiled up through my skull. Is this a game? You call this a game?!
"This is actually insane…"
A random-encounter boss? What kind of degenerate brain came up with that? If the developer who designed and green-lit this was standing in front of me right now, I was ready to cave his skull in on the spot.
What game—especially an idle game—makes its bosses appear at random?!
"This isn't just a shitty game. This is a full-blown dumpster fire."
I could feel the holes in my head slowly filling back in. All this time I'd been high on the big-weapon dopamine and refusing to look reality in the face.
I needed to delete this thing immediately. I closed the game and dropped back to the home screen.
Do you want to delete the 'Idle Weapon Crafting' app?
My finger moved without a second of hesitation. I was done being a whale.
—Flash.
"Huh?"
The exact instant I went to delete it, the spare phone I'd left plugged into the charger lit up.
…The phone just flashed?
—Fwoooooosh!
A blinding radiance erupted from the device. Light flooded the entire room; I threw an arm over my eyes on pure reflex.
"Aaaagh!"
In the pure white blindness, something seized me and began to pull. An invisible force was dragging me forward.
"Wh-what the hell is this?!"
I planted my feet and fought it, but the pull only grew stronger until I was yanked off the ground with no hope of resistance.
—Splash!
A sound like plunging into water filled my ears. Freezing wetness crashed over my body.
"Mmph!! Mmph!!"
Everything was black.
Bubbles rose around me.
Underwater? The ocean? What in the world was going on?
Am I dreaming again?
My thoughts couldn't keep up with the sudden shift. One second I'd been gaming in my room; the next I was in the sea?
"Mmph!!"
The air fled my lungs; my body screamed for oxygen. I kicked frantically upward—
—Swoosh!
"Hup?!"
From the pitch-black abyss far below, something snagged me around the waist again.
And hauled me straight down toward the depths.
Bubbles exploded past my face!
Pressure crushed my lungs until the last scrap of air was gone. My body sank faster and faster; my vision blurred. Sensation faded, everything turning soft and dreamlike.
As consciousness slipped away, a woman's voice drifted through the haze.
I'm sorry…
You really are the last hope…
What the fuck is she talking about.
There was one fact neither Kenis nor the priests had ever known. They understood that her soul was slowly leaking into the demon. But what filled the empty space left behind?
When something drains away and leaves a void, something else always moves in to occupy it.
As Kenis's soul drained into the demon, the demon's own soul seeped into her body in equal measure. Compared to the demon's true stature it was less than a speck of dust—no more than a single strand of hair—yet…
"Nngh…"
For a human like Kenis, even that was a crushing difference in rank. Like a single drop of ink falling into a small cup of water, the demon's soul gradually stained her consciousness.
An ordinary human soul would have corrupted in an instant. But Kenis's soul, blessed by the stars, only suffered a slow, creeping pollution.
"Ugh."
Kenis stared at the forest where Friga and the captain had vanished, then leaned against the carriage for a moment. A throbbing began behind her eyes… her head pounded as if a second heart had grown inside her skull.
She clutched at the sudden headache. The holy knight beside her startled and rushed over.
"Lady Kenis! What's wrong?!"
"Ahh… my head. My head hurts a little…"
Kenis pressed one hand to her pounding temples. It felt as though her brain itself were beating in place of a heart. The pain threatened to split her skull open.
Thump— Thump—
"Aaagh!"
She gripped her head and let out a strangled cry. Agony crashed over her as if someone were cracking her skull open and kneading her brain like dough.
"Lady Kenis!"
"Fetch the priest! Quickly!"
"Stay with us!"
Kenis could no longer endure it. She felt her consciousness snap like a cut string. The holy knights' frantic shouts reached her as if she were underwater—muffled and distant.
Like a puppet whose strings had been severed, she crumpled bonelessly to the ground.
—
Her awareness sank deeper and deeper into the unconscious. Deeper still, as though she were plunging into a bottomless sea.
— "Where… is this…?"
Kenis became aware of her own existence. Was she underwater? Falling? When she moved her limbs, a dull resistance pushed back.
Instinct told her this was her own unconscious mind—the deepest layer, a place she should never have been able to reach.
Even knowing that, her body continued to sink without end. A powerful force dragged her downward as if something far below were reeling her in.
— "What's that on the bottom…"
Far beneath her, in the depths of the unconscious, something writhed.
Something black, enormous… formless.
Kenis felt its gaze lock onto her from the floor of her mind. A being composed of pure, unadulterated evil.
A sensation like the skittering legs of countless insects crawled up her spine and set every nerve alight. In the darkness, a pair of narrow, serpentine pupils glowed crimson.
—Ssssshhh!
From the depths a vast darkness surged upward in the shape of a colossal water serpent and fixed its eyes on Kenis.
— "Wh-what in the world…"
At last Kenis confronted the immense evil that had been living inside her all along—something she herself had never known.
A thin, trembling voice spilled from the enormous black serpent's maw—a voice that, merely by being heard, seduced and bewildered the human mind.
Kenis's pupils briefly unfocused, then snapped back into focus.
— "You… what are you doing inside me? What do you want?!"
The serpent let out a thin, hissing laugh—kishishishi—as if something were endlessly funny. Then its vast pupils narrowed to slits and fixed on Kenis.
— "My soul…? My soul? You're the demon who carved the curse into me! You filthy demon!"
The giant serpent began to open its jaws wider and wider, as if it meant to swallow the entire space whole. The maw stretched without end.
The serpent's massive jaws yawned open toward Kenis. Beyond the throat lay a deep, lightless abyss.
— "N-no!"
—Gulp!
Kenis vanished into the serpent's maw with a single choked scream. The snake that had swallowed her in one effortless bite licked its lips with clear pleasure.
Still murmuring in delight, the serpent turned and swam upward toward the surface of consciousness.
Through Kenis's unconscious it rose, the demon beginning its ascent into her waking mind.
—
Clack—! Clack—! Clack—!
A single horse thundered down the well-maintained highway without pause.
Pale dust boiled up behind its hooves; a fierce wind shoved it forward from behind.
Faster…! I have to go faster!
"Hyah! We have to go faster! Move!"
—Crack!
Demonic drove the horse on again and again, his heart burning. Through Antonio's blessing he had glimpsed the near future: a demon hunting Kenis's soul.
Even now, at this very moment, the demon might already be reaching for her.
Demonic's teeth ground together with a savage sound.
Not twice… I will not lose her twice.
Feeling the weight of the locket brooch against his chest, Demonic cracked the whip once more.
Inside he prayed, over and over, that he would not be too late.
"Kenis…"
Ruel clung tightly to Demonic's waist from behind. From the Morning Star Staff strapped to her back a faint light spilled forth, stretching ahead of them.
It looked for all the world like a guiding morning star. Demonic and Ruel raced down the highway without hesitation, following that tiny star's lead.
—Snort! —Huff!
How long they had been riding, no one could say. The tireless horse finally collapsed at the roadside, its strength spent, heaving great ragged breaths.
"Thank you."
Ruel offered a brief word of gratitude to the sweat-drenched animal. Getting them this far was all the horse could have done.
"Priest Ruel! There's no time! We go now!"
"Huh? Hyaaaah—!"
As if even those few seconds were too precious to waste, Demonic simply scooped Ruel up and broke into a full sprint.
Slower than a horse, yet a paladin running at absolute full power still left Ruel's senses spinning.
"U-uek, ueeeek—"
Jolted without mercy, Ruel left a trail of short, pained squeaks. The long road echoed with the pounding feet of a paladin and the high-pitched screams of a young girl.
And then—
—KRAAAAAASH!
Far ahead, a colossal pillar of ice erupted skyward. Massive ice formations kept thrusting upward into the empty air, swelling larger by the second.
"…Damn it!"
Demonic poured on still more speed. This time Ruel did not make a single sound.