Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Longing for Esira
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"E-Esira... I want to see Esira. Please. Esira..."
"Why... why say such cruel things?"
"...You have to say something believable."
I knew Asrania was an extraordinary being, but the Blood Cell replacing her heart?
Absurd.
It was a setting never once mentioned across the entire original story.
Not even the existing Exims would know about it.
Sage clenched his fists, trembling violently.
"This is the first I'm hearing this from Mom."
"I never imagined I'd hear such nonsense from the Abyss either."
Sage slowly closed his eyes.
A moment later, a grotesquely smooth smile spread across his quivering lips. The eyes that reopened gleamed not with despair, but with a chilling madness.
"Sad. Mom doesn't trust me."
"...".
"But I understand. I was too sudden, wasn't I? Mom's always been suspicious."
It was an innocent, childlike smile, yet something sticky and ominous coiled within it.
"No helping it then. I'll have to take you by force and explain slowly."
"What?"
"To keep Mom obedient, maybe break a leg so you can't run?"
I let out an incredulous laugh and tightened my grip on my sword.
"What kind of child threatens to break their parent's leg?"
"Who knows? Esira might be just like us."
My brow furrowed instinctively.
"That child shares our essence. I can smell it."
"...Don't speak my daughter's name with that filthy mouth."
"Really? Someday, the moment Esira chokes the life from you... it will surely come."
Enough with the curses.
It was nonsense that wouldn't faze me.
Black energy erupted from behind Sage, swelling like an angry tidal wave.
It writhed as if thousands of snakes were twisting together.
'Now he's coming at me for real, hell-bent on killing.'
I hurriedly swung my greatsword up toward the incoming tentacles.
Boom!
"Ngh...!"
An immense shock surged through my wrists into my entire body.
It felt like tons of iron pressing down from above.
If this weren't Asrania's body, I might have been crushed flat, defenses or not.
No sooner had I blocked than the next attack flew in.
Left flank, right, overhead.
Black tentacles assailed me relentlessly from all sides.
I gritted my teeth and swung my sword like a madwoman.
Parrying, slashing, dodging.
It wasn't enough.
They didn't tire, regenerating the sliced spots in an instant. Their healing outpaced my blade.
'...Damn, no end to them.'
Cut one down, and two more sprouted. They closed in from every direction.
Sage stood back at a distance, tilting his head as if watching a circus act.
"Don't resist, Mom. I don't want to hurt you."
"Shut up!"
I launched myself aside to evade, but a tentacle tore across my side.
Throbbing pain came with a gush of red blood soaking through.
'This approach has no chance of winning.'
I couldn't keep up with that regeneration.
I needed something to turn the tables.
In the end, only one option.
I held my breath and gathered my senses toward my heart.
I didn't know the principles of the Blood Cell.
What did theory matter?
No, I didn't even know if a Blood Cell existed inside me.
That didn't matter.
'Just follow instinct.'
My heart pounded wildly. Heat surged through my veins like molten lava.
"Hoo..."
Mana exploded from my body, enveloping the greatsword. It turned pitch black.
"Wha...?"
Sage's relaxed expression hardened for the first time.
As I swung, a massive fan-shaped slash devoured everything.
The Abyss. Sage.
One strike swept them all away.
"Gah!"
The tentacles crumbled to black dust without regenerating.
They'd lost too much at once; regeneration hit its limit.
"Ah... Aah..."
A groan escaped Sage as he crawled on the ground.
His waist neatly bisected in a gruesome sight.
Not a drop of blood spilled.
Sticky tar-like darkness. The pitch-black Abyss filled the severed cross-section.
"A-as expected... of Mom."
Sage dragged his upper body alone across the floor.
Black smoke billowed from his mouth, yet his lips curved in a bizarre grin.
"Can't win. Too strong."
"Of course."
I approached the halved Sage.
"As if I'd lose to those crude tentacles."
"Ugh..."
"Any last words?"
"M-Mom..."
I had no intention of waiting for a reply.
Sage was a shell created by the Abyss. The Abyss wouldn't die from being killed.
"How many times do I have to say it? I'm not your mom, you piece of trash."
I slammed the greatsword down toward his crown.
At that instant, Sage pulled a red gem from his bosom and popped it into his mouth.
Blood Cell.
'Swallowing that?'
Despite his lower half gone, the grotesque sight of him chewing and gulping it down was nauseating.
Boom!
The greatsword halted against an invisible wall. A solid barrier.
Blood Cell power.
"Hah, playing dirty."
I tested it a few more times with no change.
Solid.
Forcing through would take considerable time.
"Just watch from there. The real body is over yonder."
His limbs already gone.
What trick could he pull in that state to stop me?
Sorry, Sage, but I needed to shatter that heart for sure.
Even if it revived in that husk, it'd be useless.
And if it somehow came back, what could it do in that form?
The blood flowing now suggested no hope anyway.
I turned toward the cave...
No, the depths of the ruined city.
Was I lucky, or did the Abyss instinctively protect its heart?
All my slashes had annoyingly spared just the heart.
'That's Sage's heart.'
The closer I got, the stronger the foul blood stench and the thump, thump of pulsing.
Smash that, and this tedious space ends.
I raised my sword.
"Let's end this."
The blade tip aimed at Sage's heart—right then.
Thump.
"...Ugh?"
A bizarre pain pierced my chest. Like my heart being crushed.
I'd felt a similar omen before today's checkup, but this was on another level.
My sword hand slipped from uncontrollable trembling.
'Suddenly, why...'
No. Focus. Finish it now or—
As I desperately clung to consciousness.
"Mom!"
A frantic cry burst from the darkness.
Someone came sprinting madly.
Small, frail build. A familiar silhouette.
"...Esira?"
Startled, I took a step toward the child.
I was about to scold her—why come here, why not listen when it's dangerous.
"Mom!"
The child smiled brightly and burrowed into my arms. Relieved, I lowered my sword and embraced her.
Shunk.
A horrific foreign sensation filled deep in my gut.
"...?"
Pain hadn't even registered.
My mind blanked in the surreal moment.
Trembling, I looked down at my abdomen.
Esira's small, delicate hand.
A dagger gripped in her childlike fingers.
It had pierced my belly deep.
"Wh-why...?"
Bare skin without obstructing clothes—the blade's entry was starkly visible.
"...E-Esira?"
I reached with shaking hands for the embedded blade, but my fingers had no strength.
Esira, hugged close, looked up at me.
Esira smiled.
Identical to her usual endearing smile. All the more chilling for it.
"It's true."
The child giggled in a clear voice.
"They said your weakness was Esira, but I didn't think it was really true."
I staggered back.
As the knife withdrew from my belly, red blood gushed out. I clutched the wound.
Searing pain like flesh burning assailed me.
"You... what the..."
"Does it hurt a lot?"
At my groan-mixed question, Esira made a pained face.
The mocking expression from moments ago vanished.
As if her own flesh were cut, she looked tormented.
'Why that face?'
Confusion swirled.
She should be gleeful at succeeding.
Why gaze at me like she might burst into tears any second?
"I'm Abyss too. More precisely, a construct forged by the Blood Cell's power."
"...Impossible. Humans aren't constructs."
"But I am. That's the Blood Cell's power."
Dizziness hit.
The weakest link in my memories.
Esira.
Sage's construction ability combined with the Blood Cell's creation force had perfectly manifested the child.
"It must hurt a lot."
The child whispered, sucking her bloodied finger.
"Even for Mom, fighting in this state is impossible."
Sure enough, my belly burned. Visceral agony stabbed my brain.
I couldn't collapse here.
"Hoo..."
I bit my lips until they bled to anchor my mind.
Leaning on the greatsword, I barely stood.
"Y-you're free to delude yourself."
"...Huh?"
"A hole in my gut won't make me lose to a fake like you."
Esira's eyes wavered. As I raised the greatsword, she hurriedly backpedaled.
Cringing in wariness.
A gap.
I ignored the child and turned to Sage.
"Show's over."
Sage, cocky behind his barrier. Fake with no lower body to flee.
"Begone."
The hexagonal barrier shattered like sugar craft. Already depleted, it crumbled easily.
I pulverized Sage's head. Black slime splattered everywhere.
The black mass melted into the floor and fled into the darkness in an instant.
"Haa... haa..."
Did smashing Sage's skull take too much? Or the gut wound?
My legs buckled, and I staggered.
"Even in this situation, you still can't kill me?"
The fake Esira muttered.
I glared in response.
"But you know, the moment your body was wounded... I already won."
"...What do you mean?"
Right then.
"Ugh!"
Black veins spiderwebbed from the dagger wound. Muscles stiffened rigidly.
"What is this..."
"The Abyss has already taken root in your body."
Esira smiled sweetly.
'...No way.'
My legs gave out. I lost balance and dropped to one knee. Propping with the greatsword failed as grip strength fled.
"It should have eroded you long ago. But Mom's too strong, so little effect. That's why I made a physical breach."
"A breach..."
"Don't you remember? Before coming here, you felt tired and listless bit by bit. Chest heavy, stuffy. Maybe even a prickling in your heart now."
"Th-that can't be."
"Well, things returning to normal. Mom was always with us."
The unexplained fatigue lately.
The faint heart pain during checkup.
All groundwork.
Now I got it. From the start, the Abyss's target was me.
Me.
"Sorry, Mom."
The fake Esira approached slowly with pitying eyes.
"But unless I did this, I couldn't bring you back."
Repulsive comfort. Revulsion made my teeth grind.
"Get lost...!"
I mustered every ounce of strength to hurl the greatsword at her.
Whoosh.
Esira twisted away easily but not fully.
The blade grazed her side. Clothes tore, red blood seeped.
Esira ignored it like a doll feeling no pain.
As if the wound meant nothing, she approached my stumbling form and hugged me tightly.
"...!"
I hated it.
Don't hug me with that body.
'Please, don't. I said no...'
Disgustingly warm.
Fake as it was.
Abyss as it was.
Why did it hold the same warmth as Esira?
I wanted to push away.
Against my will, my body collapsed powerlessly into the child's arms.
Not a finger could twitch.
"Your eyes will close now."
Her lips at my ear were chillingly cold.
"Don't worry. I won't harm you. Just sleep."
"...Esira."
"Yes?"
"E-Esira... I want to see Esira. Please. Esira..."
"Yes. Sleep and wake, then you'll meet the real Esira."
"N-no. Stop... "
This child wasn't Esira. Just an exquisite doll crafted by the Abyss.
I knew it was fake.
Yet instinctively, my trembling arms carefully pulled the child close.
False warmth or not, I couldn't push away the child burrowing into me.
Drop.
Vision tilted sharply. Strength drained like sinking into deep sleep.
S soon, light faded.
Blackout.