Life Is Cruel (10)
“I have to get over there right now…!”
The Inquisitor reflexively turned her steps.
Stagger.
Yet her body swayed helplessly, even though she had already released the sanctuary once it was no longer needed. The aftermath of pouring out too much power at once had been carved deep into her flesh.
She wiped her burning face and gripped the battlements for support.
Boom!
“Ah, we’re screwed.”
The ringing sound and Meister’s flat mutter arrived at the exact same moment.
A chill raced down the back of her neck. The Inquisitor turned her gaze back toward the sea.
Kyaaaaaaah!
The monster whose neck had been punched open by a small bullet, its insides churned to mush, was howling.
Ssssss.
What was new was the pure-white something now crawling out from inside the wound.
“…Head division?”
A head that resembled a turtle’s—yet thinner, finer, smoother in line—burst free from the hole. It looked exactly like a new head growing through the tiny wound. The white scales, gleaming eerily even through the darkness of night, felt nothing but ominous.
“No. That’s closer to a snake.”
If it had truly been a turtle’s head, the two heads would never look so different. Nor would the turtle’s head and neck be shriveling like emptied husks.
The pure-white head coiled in a tight spiral around the drooping turtle neck and skull. The turtle head propped up by the white one looked like nothing so much as well-dried leather. Not a single twitch of life remained.
“…We run for now. There’s no way left to attack that thing.”
“Go. I’m staying here.”
“Suit yourself. Hero will do the same, right?”
Yet one truth stood clear amid the entire spectacle.
“…I.”
The battle here was not yet over.
“…I.”
And behind her, soldiers were only just now leaving the walls.
“If I fall back from this place, what becomes of here?”
The soldiers who would be crushed flat if that monster’s advance was not stopped.
Meanwhile, at the very moment the people on the walls had yet to fire even the first cannon—
I ran forward to reclaim the zweihander lying alone on the ground. With the longsword shattered, the only weapon left to me was the zweihander. There was no choice.
Sizzle.
The blade that had just been swallowed by lightning was scorching hot, but I ignored it. Whether my palm burned from gripping a weapon heated by a thunderbolt or from catching the lava that demon had poured out bare-handed—same difference.
The faceless demon brought one pair of its three pairs of arms together, fingertips touching, and let out a laughing sound.
Rumble—!
Of course I couldn’t just swing that zweihander around freely. It might not break, but a True Zweihander was still steel, and metal conducted lightning. Dammit.
So I snatched the zweihander up, stuffed it into my inventory, and rolled into a sprint. Whoosh. The hem of my coat flared out behind me.
Bang!
Lightning struck a hair’s breadth behind me. My body—half standing, half crouching on the coat—kicked hard off the ground. The coiled knees exploded forward with the stored force. Back into the lava field.
Crash!
Rock spears came screaming toward me. As a bonus, thorns erupted half a beat late from every spot my foot had just left.
The vicious design forced me into top speed so I could barely dodge the spears flying from the front. Pure genius malice.
But if they thought bare hands meant I couldn’t deal with it, they were dead wrong.
I wrung every drop of focus from my brain and operated mana with extreme precision. The goal was the thinnest possible layer—just enough to protect my hands and nothing more.
Tak.
I seized the first rock spear that reached me. It felt like catching an arrow. I clamped down harder on the shaft already sliding past my palm and swung the whole thing.
The rock spear spun like a windmill and knocked every other projectile aside. Similar hardness, maybe. Instead of shattering one-sidedly they chipped each other down and were soon tattered. I had never planned to use it long anyway.
I jammed the nearly broken spear into an incoming volcanic bomb, yanked the bomb downward, and used the recoil to launch myself into the air. Thorns missed my heel by a fraction. Midair, I kicked another bomb. Core strength alone flipped me once, and I landed where no lava waited. The dagger from my inventory left my hand in the same motion.
Rumble. The clouds roared.
Bang!
Just as I thought. Lightning slammed into the high building fragment where I had thrown it. Electricity spidered across the ground and stung, but it was bearable.
I marked the next good spots for daggers while dodging the heaving earth and the lava giant’s fists.
Splash!
Then water began to fill the waterways. Magma meeting water raised a thick white steam and cooled solid. After almost sinking slowly the last time I stepped wrong into lava-filled channels, this was not a bad development. If the water could not cover everything, at least it would solidify the paths so I would not fall in. The spread of lava through the channels would shrink as well; the cooled edges would become walls on their own. Better for later.
I ignored the question of why the water was rising and dragged my boot. The sole scraped stone, then my foot left the ground.
Bang!
Two volcanic bombs cratered the place I had just been standing.
You’ve been nothing but dodging this whole time. Cute. Looks just like a guinea pig. Ah, you know what a guinea pig is, right? A rat about this big…
Guinea pigs aren’t muridae, you ignorant demon bastard—they’re caviidae. Calling them rats is wrong.
I thought of the guinea pig a friend of mine used to keep and swallowed a breath. If that guy had heard the demon he would have told it to stop stinking of stupidity and get lost before it made even him look dumb. Pity.
Thud!
My body, cutting through the lava, delivered a flying kick to a trash mob made of the stuff. I would have preferred a dropkick, but I had no confidence in the breakfall—and the floor was lava—so I settled. Of course I stepped straight across the fallen body and kept going. Bang! The volcanic bomb and rock spear that had been stuck behind it exploded a hair too late, spraying lava. Magma spikes formed in midair and barely missed me.
Groooar!
Not only that. The lava giant, after swinging its fists again and again with zero result, changed tactics to vomiting.
Uegh—lava poured down like rain, aiming for the upper body I could not fully shield.
Give up even now and instead of killing you I’ll raise you specially, Gretchen!
“Get lost.”
I had already endured too many shitty moments to fold for something like this. Just today the lightning strike had been worse. Enough said.
My body shot forward, weaving through the falling magma. A few drops I failed to dodge melted cloth and left deep burns across my shoulder, but it was somehow bearable. Lightning had hurt more.
Haha. Right. Honestly I never expected you to accept.
Around then the demon standing in the heart of the lava finally moved.
Coming in person? A thin thread of hope flickered inside the chest that had been going mad from all the poking at range.
Expectation? Wouldn’t you reverse-suspect instead?
A volcanic bomb flew in his place.
This fucking—
Bang!
Worse still, it was nothing like a normal volcanic bomb. I watched the thing inflate to absurd size, clad itself in thorn armor, and roll toward me— a thorn ball?—and my lips twitched. Several curses that a filtered game would have turned into little hearts swirled on my tongue. The vow to cut back on swearing looked ridiculous.
But honestly, wouldn’t even the Buddha give me a pass here?
Field trait forced constant mana drain just to move, so I could not waste mana on attacks. Enemy projectiles never stopped, so deal windows never opened. The boss stayed far away and even the rare openings got erased!! Would the Buddha stay calm through this?!!
Ptooey!
And on top of the giant spitting, the trash mobs were copying it. I could not even roll on the lava surface, so I twisted my whole body and barely dodged. When it got desperate I briefly summoned the zweihander from inventory.
Rumble!
To think the moment I overwhelm you has finally come. The world is full of surprises.
Stuff it, you stupid bastard!
“……!”
After nearly taking lightning again I became reluctant to pull the sword out at all.
Thud!
But while desperately dodging thunderbolts I learned one new fact.
The lava trash mobs exploded when struck by lightning. Hot liquid or not, they could not handle the injected energy and simply went pop.
Looking away is unfair!
Then… could the giant do the same? Could I make that damned giant explode too?
Rumble!
The clouds roared right on cue. Lightning would fall in about three seconds.
“Hup!”
I answered the now-familiar pattern with the matching dodge and flicked a glance at the demon’s hand. The fistful of pearls looked disgustingly smug.
Pak!
The dagger I threw half in hope sank point-up into the giant’s forearm.
Lightning struck the arm the next instant. Overcurrent raced through the lightning-rod dagger and into the lava body—
Pop!
The giant’s hand and forearm separated cleanly.
……!
“……!”
I had wondered. It actually worked.
Ha. Like this?
Good. From now on the giant was the designated lightning rod.
I shot forward through the gap left by the missing arm. Dodged a thorn ball, stepped on a volcanic bomb for height— the demon was almost within reach. Hearing no cloud-rumble I drew the zweihander again, both hands locking tight, power flooding in.
“……!”
You fucking demon bastard—come get it.
I had conserved mana so tightly I could even wrap the blade in sword aura. Chances to close this far were rare. I had to pour out everything now.
I’ll praise you, Gretchen—!
Suddenly a tearing laugh rang through the air.
I didn’t see this coming!
No! If I get closer—!
Unease hit me with the laugh, yet I closed the last distance in one breath. The illusion of a faceless smile flashed an instant later.
Splash! The demon submerged into the lava and slipped my sword path. This bastard? My brain short-circuited for a second.
Behind!
Slash!
Did the enemy care that I was flabbergasted? Of course not. I heard the unnatural splash of magma and answered instantly. The sound came from right behind my feet.
Crash!
I twisted as fast as humanly possible and swept the zweihander low, scraping the ground.
Clang!
The hand that had been about to slice my calf met the blade instead. Of course the bastard had six hands, so I backstepped immediately.
The next set of hands carved the empty air where I had stood. Correct call.
Hahahahaha!
The unpleasant laugh swirled through the air as the demon melted back into the magma. I landed on a collapsed building fragment and cranked every sense to the limit.
Merchant bastard, if only I could step in myself…!
Dammit. Beneath the raised reason, boiling emotion filled me to the brim.
But… but Gretchen. Looks like prepared me is stronger than flame-less you.
Fuck, is a fight this unfair even allowed?
Is this a raid?
Ahahahaha!
This… this kind of—
Rumble.
Too far to throw a dagger at the giant. The moment the dark clouds roared I hurled the zweihander as far as I could.
Ground lightning struck a hair later. Bang! The sword, already hit, began to fall glowing.
“Goddammit…!”
At the same time the floor under my feet heaved, preparing to erupt. Far off I spotted the demon’s form again, and the thorn ball rolling toward me. My fist clenched hard.
Bang!
Before the lava exploded beneath me my body launched itself skyward. The red-hot zweihander slapped into my palm a heartbeat before it would have sunk into magma. Heat-warped leather stuck to my skin.
Really, I quite like that angry face of yours. If you had truly been Wrath I never would have gotten to see an expression like that.
Still gripping the sword I twisted midair, cut down a trash mob, and ran past the one-armed giant still vomiting magma.
Boom!
A thorn ball blocked the path again, but this time I held steel. Regretfully I wrapped a long edge of sword aura around the zweihander and split the ball, advancing through the gap.
Pooled lava began to glow in circular patches; thorns surged upward. Above them lightning fell in random, noisy sheets.
But playtime is almost over.
Can you dodge after seeing the light?
Answer: no.
Carelessly wasting an opening is not a merchant’s job.
Shit, dodge—!
Dodging after seeing the flash is physically impossible. Winning a race against light speed without even knowing the impact point? Laughable.
Until now I had listened for the rumble and lured or simply sprinted. When thunder rolled from every direction at once even that became impossible.
Rumble!
“Keuk!”
Fuck!
I finally took a direct lightning hit, then immediately ate a punch from a trash mob that had risen right beside me. The numbed body flew like a ragdoll and crashed far away.
Even then lightning struck twice more. Vision flickered black, then white, then red.
Unfair.
An empty laugh escaped; resentment quietly lifted its head.
Thud!
The funnier part was that my landing luck scraped absolute bottom. A sharp building fragment punched clean through my shoulder; prickling shock and a spray of blood followed.
“Keup.”
Something ran from my mouth and nose. The flames dancing all around helpfully informed me it was blood. My entire body burned, then burned hotter.
“…….”
Really, only empty laughter remained.
Just checking—do you feel like dying?
…What meaning did a fight like this even have? If it was always going to end this way, what value was there in running until my feet sweated?
Hard to attack, the hard-won distance erased in an instant, and the final reward a random hit that dropped me…
“Cough.”
I did not bother holding back the blood that welled up. Focus wavered; vision blurred, sharpened, blurred again. The field of view felt wrong—reduced to two-thirds.
If you feel like dying, tell me. I need to preserve you.
Hm. Ah. One eye must be cooked.
I told myself I was collecting every possible experience—including eyeball cooking—and forced strength into legs and shoulders.
If someone asked why I kept going while it hurt this much… well. It was already too late to look for reasons. Fighting the demon had become less resolve and more pure inertia.
The same inertia that took one more step toward the illusion called “ending.”
Sssss.
So even while only laughter came out I stood up. The fragment that had pierced my shoulder tore free. Blood ran freely from the hole left by the sharp wood.
Still having strength left to stand is surprising in its own right.
Fuck. I’ll kill whoever designed one of the few Great Demon raids to be cleared on a blind first try. The operator who says “just walk into the brand-new raid with zero guides and clear it” will die too.
I covered the emptiness with a joke as best I could and pulled out a dagger for cauterization. One dip into magma, pull free—glowing red—then laid it straight across the wound.
Sizzle.
Cauterizing with fire. An ancient, time-honored method of stopping blood loss. Or so they say.
Weren’t you human? Can a human life really be this tenacious?
Even with pain sense regulated the sensation was still filthy. Fresh anger bloomed from that fact; I spat a hot breath. Stagger. Damage stacked faithfully even when I could not feel the full pain; the body shook for a moment.
Well… yeah. Only at that level could a mere vessel suppress Wrath.
But I could not stop. I could not stop.
If it’s unfair—get angry.
As I said before, I had already come too far to halt now.
Then I’ll kill that thing for you.
Squeak.
Somewhere metal scraped; my fist twitched.
Bang, bang. From the distant walls the sounds of fierce battle carried.
Somehow I’ll tear that bastard apart…!
That was another reason I could not stop.
Fuck, so get angry already! Quit hogging the initiative!!
The body that felt completely cooked after two direct lightning strikes forced itself fully upright.
“I’ll kill you.”
Where was the zweihander? Ah—I put it away. Yeah. Still in inventory.
“Demon.”
My body took another step forward.
There’s no way I’d just watch that.
Fuck!
Bang!
Suddenly an enormous pressure smashed into my entire body. I never learned what hit me. Lightning, maybe. Something else, maybe.
Not even a scream came out. Thoughts cut, rejoined, cut again. Time skipped. Pain itself drifted so far away it granted no sensation at all. The world went white.
“……!”
—But the entrance of the Pantheon is complete.
Thud. Several seconds. Or several minutes. Barely returned consciousness groped at the world. On top of the distant senses something heavy pressed down on me.
Dry vision blinked open and showed me what was crushing me.
Now even the hero cannot stop it.
A giant hand of rock.
…Ha.
A laugh escaped without permission.
Let’s go, demons.
From the beginning it had been a fight I could never win.
A fight with no possible victory.
From this day forward, the destruction of the East begins!
I stared blankly past the faceless demon. The black temple stood revealed in full, and from it poured an endless throng of demons.
So that was what he had been preparing—something like an infinite summoning circle. Had I known, I would have thrown my entire body at the ritual altar first.
Dammit. Hey—still dilly-dallying?!
…No. Even if I had known, could I have stopped it? I recalled every scheme that had returned to nothing and let my rustling eyelids fall.
That bastard doesn’t know the mechanism, but you do!
No. Even knowing, I could not have stopped it.
I was certain of it from a body that would not accept force, a body that no longer even felt like it had arms or legs attached.
No matter how desperately I wanted to stop that thing—I could not.
The start is this city. Kill every human inside it.
Yes. I cannot stop it.
Because I am weak.
Because it is far too strong.
Because it has shattered the balance so thoroughly that victory is impossible.
At this rate everyone dies! Not just you or me—every person in this whole area!
Fuck. Is this a game? Is this… this kind of thing…
Sorrow for my own lack of power, then pure resentment at the injustice and absurdity, welled up. Why did I have to suffer this fucking bullshit? Crystal-clear indignation melted and ran down the distorted flesh. Why was I forced into a fight this unfair? The shaped emotion slid past the damply carved corner of my eye, past the ear, and down the back of my skull.
Among a body that no longer obeyed as though every nerve had been severed, it was the only organ still reflecting my will.
You don’t even care about that?!
But even that was beginning to slip free. With the sensation that my extremities had simply vanished, moving my head itself became hard. Even thinking felt the same. My head kept trying to turn pure white, as if I had stayed awake three days and nights.
Thoughts were no longer thoughts. Thinking was no longer thinking. Hazy. I wanted to sleep.
Damn, damn, damn!
…If I slept like this it would be comfortable.
Dammit. Get up. Get up!
…If I die like this, no more—
Get up!
…Ah.
Um, Pantheon Lord. What should we do with that one?
You prepare to fight. Wrath will awaken soon.
I barely managed to lift my eyelids at the words that floated up. 『The lives of every evacuating person rest on you.』 Work still remained for me.
Yes, sir.
Therefore—therefore I wrung out the last of my strength. Luckily the rock hand had stopped crushing me and was being shoved aside. The sky opened.
Sss.
A signal flare appeared in my empty hand.
Huh?
Tak.
I forced the arm to move and slammed the bottom of the flare against the ground. The trigger fired; the signal ignited.
Piyuuuuung!!
Whoa! Pantheon Lord, that guy just moved!
What—still?
A faint thought drifted through. Was any force left that could come here? Did the hero’s party still have enough strength to reach this place?
But… even if they did not, it no longer mattered.
Even if they could not help me… at least the signal would tell them how dangerous this place had become.
Bang!
The light that had shot into the sky burst.
That was the last thing I saw.
…You’ve worked so hard.
Now… you can rest.
A gentle comfort, and vision cut off.
Clang. Something broke.