Companions
"Heh… heh heh… So that's how it is. Even though I left my mark on history, you and your father did not. Poor little firebird."
The old man who called himself Elaha — the necromancer — looked at me with a mocking smile, as if genuinely delighted.
"Dana, Dana, Dana, Dana…! If that wretch were still alive, I would have torn her apart a thousand times over — ten thousand times — and yet she fled like this…!"
All at once, the necromancer erupted in a fit of rage like a madman.
"No help for it. I'll have to content myself with you instead. If you must blame someone, blame your insolent ancestors and that worthless god of yours."
…Just what had she done to earn this kind of passionate devotion?
Even I found that a bit much.
He's always been like that. Just ignore the noise.
"It seems fairly certain he's an enemy," Lucy said, stepping forward as murderous intent exploded outward in every direction. I swallowed hard and took position behind her, watching the enemy carefully.
Don't do anything stupid. At your current level, if you fought him a hundred times, he'd toy with you a thousand. I'll tell you the techniques to watch out for — just focus on escaping somehow.
…Easy for her to say "escape."
"…Was it you who did that to those two?"
Hearing Huey's voice thick with rage, it was clear he had no intention of backing down.
Judging by the situation, one of those three black auras he'd sensed earlier must have been this necromancer.
Then—
"Answer me…!"
"Dodge, you idiot!"
Sensing a presence above my head, I kicked Huey square in the chest — just as he was about to shout another word at the necromancer — and shoved him back.
Crunch!
"Guh— let go!"
Pain shot through my leg as a mass of flesh instantly swallowed it whole. I slammed the thing into the ground.
Fortunately, aside from a slight burning sensation, there was no real wound. I shook off the remaining flesh with a few hard swings.
"Ren!"
I shouted toward Lucy, who had spun around in alarm.
Sizzle…
"I'm fine — watch the front!"
Looking at how everything the flesh mass had touched was melting away, if it had swallowed anything other than my leg, I'd have been in real trouble.
"Heh, heh heh… I trust that answers your question?"
As the necromancer laughed at us, I approached the idiot who still showed no sign of getting up off the ground.
"Hey."
"…Ren."
"Got a death wish or something? Cool your head."
I kicked Huey in the face as he stared blankly at me.
"What are you doing, Ren?!"
"Lucy. Take this idiot and fall back for a bit."
"Ren!"
"As if a guy who's already useless in the rain wasn't bad enough — now he's lost his reason to rage. What am I supposed to do with that?"
I grabbed the startled fool by the collar with my foot and flung him far away. Someone who'd lost their mind to anger was completely useless.
"Ah, seriously…! Don't push yourself too hard!"
Watching the corpses gather one by one toward Huey, I glanced at Lucy as she glared at me briefly before running after him. Then, once she had dragged him out of sight, I spoke to the necromancer — who had been waiting patiently without doing a thing.
"How considerate of you."
"Heh heh. Even if they are descendants of my sworn enemies who must be crushed underfoot — my philosophy is to be generous with children."
And yet this was the guy who'd ambushed us intending to kill from the start?
He's a lunatic, plain and simple. From now on, no matter what you see, no matter what you face — never let it touch you.
Taking Dana's advice, I readied my stance.
"Well then… what shall I do with you…"
But the necromancer stood alone, chin in hand, pondering something as if I weren't even worth his attention. He seemed nicely distracted, so I moved to close the distance in one burst—
Rip—!
With the sound of flesh tearing, a massive maw burst from midair and lunged at me, jaws yawning wide.
"Kh!"
I slammed to a halt mid-stride, ignited flames across my wings, and leapt clear of the maw with a powerful beat.
"That's right."
In an instant, black liquid orbs glowing green from within surrounded me on all sides.
Spread the flames! Hurry!
I know, I know…!
I urgently spread the fire from my wings like a curtain around myself, and at the same moment a sickening sound like pus bursting filled the air.
When the curtain that had blocked my vision vanished, every tree in sight was melting away.
And then—
"Perhaps I'll start by letting the corpses have their way with you for a century or so, while I take my time deciding."
The necromancer, who until that moment hadn't so much as glanced my way, looked at me with a broad smile.
Then a massive arm appeared from thin air, reaching to grab me. Viscous fluid dripped from skin of every color, as if stitched together from rags.
"That smell is absolutely foul…!"
"Heh. Best get used to it. It may well become your husband, after all."
Okay — that gave me serious chills.
Husband? Is he actually insane? Oh wait. I already said he was.
"Enough games. Seize her, Kikal."
Then, as if everything until now had truly been play, dozens of massive arms identical to the one that had just tried to grab me erupted from every direction, reaching for me.
"Hah!"
There were far too many to dodge with flight speed alone. I drove my talons into one of the emerging forearms to brace myself and was about to push off when—
You idiot! I told you not to touch them!
Dana's voice roared inside my head, and at the same time hundreds of hands burst from the forearm I'd stepped on and seized my leg.
"What the…!"
I desperately blasted flames to shake them off, but the hands wove themselves around me faster than I could free myself.
"Damn… it…!"
As more and more hands gradually bound my body—
Crack!
"Bear with the pain a little."
A familiar voice accompanied the crack of lightning.
Rumble!
"Cheep—!"
Everything flashed white before my eyes, and when I came to, I was plummeting toward the ground, electrocuted.
"Honestly, why do you always insist on charging in alone?"
Small hands caught me as I fell.
"Lucy…?"
"Get yourself sorted out."
"Wah!"
She clicked her tongue and tossed me aside. I went flying, and sensing a presence right next to where I'd landed, I spoke.
"That hurt, you know."
"And I don't hurt?"
Huey grumbled in a calm voice completely different from before.
"Anyway, I'll let the face-kick from earlier slide on account of that."
"Bullshit. You're dead later."
Forcing the familiar bear plushie artifact — Bimaki — into his belt, Huey pulled a talisman from his coat and spoke.
"…Is he that strong?"
He seemed a bit unsettled that I'd wordlessly prepared to fight alongside them even after they'd barged in.
"Strong enough that running away isn't even an option."
I'd been toyed with so pathetically I could barely call it a fight — but even that was enough to know. I guarantee it: the moment we turn our backs to flee, we're wiped out on the spot.
"That bastard is still half playing with us even now."
As proof, he was licking his lips as he watched Lucy and Huey crash the party.
"Come to keep your companion from feeling lonely? What a lovely display of camaraderie."
As the necromancer said this and lightly clapped his hands, death energy began surging from every direction.
"I shall treat the young Apostle ladies with all due courtesy. As for you, however…"
The massive arms blanketed the area once more, and a giant liquid orb rose before the necromancer's eyes.
"I'm afraid otherworlders are no longer needed. Kindly die for me."
With those words, the black liquid orb that had melted the forest earlier was about to fire at Huey when—
"People like you always talk far too much."
Somehow she'd already closed the distance. Lucy had stretched her chains long and was swinging her coffin at the liquid orb.
Green liquid sprayed in all directions as it collided with Lucy's coffin, melting the ground — but far from dissolving, the coffin and chains began to gleam black instead.
"Heh heh. It's been so long since I've had a conversation with anyone, I found myself getting rather talkative."
But the necromancer simply flicked a finger and deflected the coffin swinging toward him. The massive arms reached their hands toward the now-defenseless Lucy.
"Lucy!"
Just as I was about to rush toward her, a hand suddenly grabbed the scruff of my clothes from behind.
It was Huey.
"—Heavenly Thunder."
In a calm voice, Huey used the technique he'd employed the day we first entered this forest to take down the brown bear. And Lucy, yanking her chain back to recover the coffin, raised it overhead to protect herself.
CRASH—!
Dozens of lightning bolts poured down on a scale incomparable to anything I'd seen before.
"Ren. I get that you used to be so strong we couldn't even compare."
"Even so, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop charging in alone all the time."
From within the swirling ash, Huey and Lucy said this to me.
"We're companions, aren't we?"
"If the three of us help each other, we'll do better than alone, won't we?"