The Death King Descends
Was she walking toward him out of the same terror as the man before her, begging for her life? As the child moved, the zombies froze in place, and every hostage’s gaze snapped toward her. At the same time, the man’s eyes filled with madness, laced with a flicker of curiosity and doubt as he stared at the girl.
Hoo. That stare made her hands and feet tremble violently. She wanted to collapse again right then and there. Her heart hammered so hard it felt like it might burst, her legs went numb, and she was terrified she might lose control of her bladder on the spot. Still, she desperately fought down the urge to run away. Gathering every ounce of courage she could muster, she looked the man straight in the eye and somehow forced the shaking words from her lips.
“I’ll do it.”
“Huh?”
“Being the first to die. I’ll do it.”
It’s okay. Uncle is downstairs.
She knew. Her uncle, who spent every day lounging around like a jobless bum, never lifting a finger around the house. She knew he was hiding something special. Yes—if it was Uncle, he would definitely come to save her. So all she had to do was buy time until he arrived.
“Instead, I get to choose how I die. Is that fine?”
Arina boldly negotiated with the man, using her own life as collateral. Had he never imagined a situation like this? A flash of bewilderment crossed the man’s eyes.
“How do you want to die?”
He asked because he was genuinely curious what this little girl would say.
“Let me fight one of the zombies one-on-one.”
She didn’t want to die without a fight; that would be too unfair. Maybe the conversation had given her a bit of courage. Using that as her excuse, Arina’s clear eyes met the man’s gaze head-on.
“And while I’m fighting, don’t touch any of the people behind me. I’ll definitely be the first to die anyway.”
I see. So she’s trying to stall for time?
Only now realizing the child’s cute little scheme, the man burst into a low chuckle.
“What a strong sense of self-sacrifice.”
It was far better than the man who had clung to his pant leg earlier, or the hostages still trembling and cowering behind the girl right now. For a split second, he had even forgotten about revenge and thought, Maybe I could spare a kid like her. Even though he was the one behind the terror attack, she was so impressive he almost wanted to clap in admiration.
There was no real reason to accept such a pathetic attempt at buying time, but he agreed to her terms for exactly that reason.
“Fine. I accept your conditions.”
Well, it should be fine. She was just a child, after all. Killing her wouldn’t take long. Besides, the death of a child like her will have even greater impact. Since ancient times, the deaths of children and animals had always been among the strongest triggers for people’s sympathy.
At a flick of the man’s finger, one zombie shambled forward to stand before the girl. The sword wound carved across its abdomen marked it as the very store clerk Arina had spoken with when she first reached this floor.
It’s okay. I can do this.
She took a deep breath. It was only one zombie. Sure, it had been strong enough to take down the department store’s security guards, but if she didn’t let her guard down, holding out should be entirely possible.
Humm.
As she slowly drew up her mana, the man’s eyes widened again in clear surprise.
“You’re a supernatural?”
The general term for those who used mana to create special phenomena—magic, dark magic, martial arts, spirit arts, supernatural abilities, and so on. Just as the man had guessed, Arina was a mage who had learned magic.
“And a 2-star at that.”
Every supernatural possessed stars within their body—repositories that stored mana. The more stars one had, the greater and more vast the mana they could wield. Reaching 2-star at Arina’s age was an incredibly rare achievement, something few people across the entire continent could claim. Even the man himself—the one causing all this chaos, who was more than three times her age—had only reached 3-star.
How annoying.
Was it because he himself lacked much talent? The admiration he had felt toward the genius child vanished, replaced entirely by envy and jealousy.
Seemingly unaware of the man’s malice, Arina focused every ounce of her attention on the zombie.
……
In her early childhood, she had begun learning magic with her father’s help. After he passed away, she had studied alone using the magic books he had bought her while he was alive. She had used magic a few times before, but this was her first real battle. And anyone would be nervous on their first try.
Whoooosh.
Mana condensed around Arina. It was one of the most basic spells a mage could use. She shaped her mana into the form of an arrow and hurled it straight at the zombie in front of her.
“Graaaah!!!”
The zombie simply endured the attack with its bare body, charging forward even as the mana arrow pierced through it. Arina, her body reinforced with mana, quickly leaped to the side and dodged.
“Ugh!”
It was fast. Even with her body strengthened, dodging was all she could manage. Then again, if it hadn’t been strong, the security captain—who was definitely stronger than her—wouldn’t have been taken down so easily.
I need to create some distance.
The truly terrifying thing about her opponent wasn’t just its speed. The pressure of knowing she could not sustain even the smallest wound weighed on her. A single scratch would turn her into a zombie just like the clerk and kill her on the spot.
“Graaaahk!”
Perhaps it was forcibly twisting the laws of physics. The zombie deliberately twisted its knees and joints, ignoring inertia as it made an abrupt turn. Completely disregarding the ergonomic design of the human body created by the gods, it simply moved its feet and charged at her with its twisted legs.
Boom!
The ground shattered beneath the zombie’s charge. Its foot caught on the jagged surface and it stumbled. That bought her a little more time. The moment she felt relieved—
“Aaaahhh!”
A scream suddenly erupted from behind her. When she whipped her head around, she saw one of the zombies biting into a hostage.
“We had a deal!”
You said you wouldn’t touch them!
At her protest, the man tilted his head with hollow eyes and let out a low chuckle.
“I changed my mind.”
Consumed by envy and jealousy, he no longer had any intention of keeping his promise to Arina. Instead, he cackled with delight at the sight of her furious expression.
“Aaaahhh!”
“No! Get away!”
“Honey! Damn it!”
Chaos erupted among the hostages. As Arina panicked, the man mockingly spread his fingers toward her.
“Do you really have time to look away?”
“……!”
At those words, she desperately threw herself to the side. The zombie that had closed in right in front of her barely missed her, rushing past where she had just been.
Damn it.
This was bad. The screams of the dying people clouded her mind. Just like when the man first appeared, the slaughter had resumed. People were dying all around her.
“Everyone, snap out of it!”
In the middle of it all, Nel swung her handbag and smashed a charging zombie in the head, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Even a child younger than us stepped forward to fight and save others! Aren’t you all ashamed!?”
Hiding behind a little girl, unable to even think of resisting, only screaming and running from the zombies—how pathetic.
“There’s nowhere to run anyway! If you want to live even a little longer, grab anything and swing it!”
She kept smashing the drooling zombie’s face with her handbag. The bag tore open and its contents flew into the air, but Nel didn’t care. Instead, she grew angry at the still-unharmed zombie and hurled herself toward a nearby glass display case.
“As expected, a handbag doesn’t do any damage. Is there a gun lying around somewhere… huh?”
They say luck favors those who make an effort. The magic bullet gun that the dead security captain had fired as his last act lay on the floor right in front of her.
Jackpot.
Nel quickly snatched it up. Click. But there were no bullets left; only the dry click of the trigger sounded. Faced with the zombie shrieking right in front of her, the absurdity of the situation made Nel burst into helpless laughter.
“You should’ve left at least one bullet, you know.”
Security captain, you greedy bastard.
Cursing the man inwardly, Nel squeezed her eyes shut.
Crackle!
But no matter how much time passed, the pain never came. When she cautiously opened her eyes, she saw a girl with yellow hair standing over the fallen zombie, holding some strange rod.
“Are you okay?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
At the girl’s casual tone, Nel instinctively replied with polite speech just like before. Her gaze shifted to the rod in the girl’s hand.
Is that a self-defense artifact?
Electricity crackled and sparked from it.
What the heck is that? If she had something like that, why didn’t she use it sooner?
“Don’t look at me like that. This is its maximum output, believe it or not. My brother said it was dangerous and wouldn’t buy me a stronger artifact, so the battery’s almost dead after using this much.”
Apparently there had been a reason she hadn’t used it earlier.
“Well, it’s a good thing. If I make it out of here alive, I’ll have a perfect excuse to demand a better artifact.”
“Y-yes, I suppose so…!”
Nel threw the gun toward the girl’s back. A zombie that got hit by it stumbled backward. When the girl looked back in surprise, Nel shrugged triumphantly.
“That repays my debt.”
“The Majoan’s secretary is more calculating than I expected.”
The two of them began working together to deal with the zombies. Perhaps inspired by their example, more and more people started fighting back. The number of deaths didn’t stop entirely, but the pace slowed at least a little.
“So, what are you going to do? You’re the only mage left here, so you’d better work harder to save these people.”
In the midst of that hellish scene, the man spoke to Arina in a mocking tone. A 2-star mage. For someone Arina’s age, it was an unmatched level of skill, but among all mages, she was still just a beginner. She had no power to resolve this situation. Knowing that, the man let out a mad, giggling laugh.
2-star and 3-star. It was the difference between a novice and an expert, yet it was also a gap that normally shouldn’t have been this overwhelmingly wide. But the dark magic left behind by the Death King made it possible.
I can do this.
It was possible. With this, he could get his revenge on the Grant Company. The first terror attack had already proven it. Even someone like him, who had no talent for mana, could achieve revenge. The Death King’s dark magic was truly incredible. As he marveled at that fact, the madness in the man’s eyes grew even deeper.
“Huff! Hah!”
Arina’s breathing grew ragged. A child’s stamina was quickly exhausted after even a short fight. Her movements slowed more and more. She unleashed bursts of wind and shaped her mana into various forms to attack, but they had no effect on the zombies that felt no pain.
If I’d known this would happen, I should have learned some fire magic.
She deeply regretted not properly studying the spell formulas because she had been afraid of causing an accident by using them alone. No—she regretted neglecting spell formula studies in general while focusing only on gathering mana quickly. If she had learned more formulas, she could have used a wider variety of unorthodox attacks.
The downside of self-taught magic. Her lopsided balance decided the outcome of an already unfavorable battle far too quickly. If she had had a good teacher, this never would have happened. Or, if she had already enrolled in the academy before this incident, she might have been able to take down a few zombies at least.
“Ah?!”
But it was already too late. Arina tripped and fell backward. The zombie stretched out its sharp claws toward her.
……
Yet no matter how much time passed afterward, the zombie’s claws never came any closer than a certain distance.
“Huh?”
The man looked on with the same puzzled expression. Why had the zombie suddenly stopped?
Before he could fully understand the anomaly—
Thud.
Nel, the yellow-haired girl, and everyone else who had been fiercely fighting the zombies suddenly collapsed where they stood. And the zombies did not attack them. Instead, they slowly backed away. As if clearing a path for someone approaching. They moved of their own will, even ignoring their master’s commands.
It was only natural. Every undead in this world could never disobey his orders.
Night?
At the same time, the man realized something. The sky visible through the windows. The place that should have held a blue sun had, at some point, been dyed pitch black like the dead of night.
“Good work, kid.”
In the midst of it all, someone placed a hand on top of Arina’s head. With a rough, calloused touch, he gently stroked her hair.
“Rest easy and sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s all over.”
Ah, Uncle’s here.
At that familiar voice, Arina felt a wave of relief. Exhausted from fighting the zombies, she lost consciousness and collapsed weakly.
……
Kain caught her falling body and sat down right there. Then he slowly raised his head and met the eyes of the man who was staring at him with a mixture of shock and terror.
“So it’s you. The bastard who played around with my dark magic.”
Beyond the thick glasses, those utterly emotionless, desolate eyes met his. In that instant, the man’s breath caught in his throat. Before the man who had rampaged without fear of the world, the King of Death finally revealed himself.