Chapter 189
Chapter 189
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 189
Chapter Title: S4. Succubus's Stomach / Pitch-Black Swamp -2
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Previous episode.
To save Pingbalrez, I infiltrated her mental world, which had been seized by the Succubus Queen.
But the queen I thought I was fighting was a fake. The real queen had been hiding in young Yuri's body, biding her time──and struck me with a fatal blow the moment I let my guard down.
Battered in body and soul, I plummeted deeper into the mental world. That place was the Succubus Queen's stomach, where she digested any prey that entered. The real Pingbalrez, who had been devoured first, was there too.
Could I escape from here...
"Don't just stand there in a daze—fight!"
I snapped out of the flashback after getting chewed out.
Bennett's fable 《The Wail》 was... disappointingly underwhelming.
Its power—that it wouldn't break unless one's heart fully gave out—had extremely limited applications. It might have been useful if it were a large shield, but as a sword?
Unless the crumbling entrance of a collapsing mine shaft just happened to be narrow enough to prop up with a single blade, or a star-shattering strike conveniently focused right on the flat of the sword in pinpoint fashion.
Otherwise, it was just a highly durable sword with a sub-space storage function. Lying in bed under the covers, I'd occasionally brainstorm improvements.
What if I built her a railgun launcher and used the unbreakable 《The Wail》 as the projectile? She could recover it via dismiss-and-resummon.
Or maybe gift her a thrown sword technique manual. No matter how I thought about it, this thing seemed better suited as ammunition than a melee weapon.
That line of thinking led me to the concept of a 《Combined Fable》.
Fable variants always came with a weakening or nullification of the original ability. Like Elaine's high-burst turning into a general-purpose tool, or Roderus's mana materialization getting nerfed.
So what if we kept the original fable intact... and overlaid a second one on top? Making them synergize.
That sparked a hypothetical scenario I'd jotted down.
'What if Tara's soul coexisted in Bennett's body and they could both activate fables simultaneously?'
The unbreakable property of 《The Wail》 combined with the energy absorption of 《Utmost Regret》.
Clang! Claaang!
Shadow Bennett smashed the swords in her hands together. Each clash sent massive sparks flying, fierce mana flames roaring up like wildfire.
Absorb power into 《The Wail》 with 《Utmost Regret》 until it would shatter. But 《The Wail》 would never break until the heart gave out.
Infinite power unleashed until resolve burned away──《Wail Zenith》.
The infinite engine magic sword was complete.
Whoooosh──!!
Shadow Bennett swung her blade, black flames rippling across it and scorching a 30-meter radius. I rolled across the ground.
Pingbalrez flattened herself too, listening quietly to my explanation before asking,
"...The theory sounds solid. So, what's the counter?"
"Call Yuna."
Against infinite engine types, the orthodox solution was overwhelming firepower. Drag it out, and you'd see hell.
"No signal."
"Yeah..."
That said, it wasn't like we couldn't win. It was just a fake, after all. If we weren't melting into black tar and hemorrhaging every scrap of info we had, we'd have crushed it ages ago.
A battered Pingbalrez couldn't take Shadow Bennett solo.
A battered me couldn't either.
We had to pool our strength.
"...Got an idea. Might feel kinda gross, though."
"Better than dying. Get on with it."
"Might feel worse than when you strutted up to the queen all cocky and got nabbed."
"Hey, I've never even known love till now──"
She lunged right back at my jab, which felt like the go-ahead. It looked undignified, but... I hopped onto Pingbalrez's back. Wrapped my legs around her front and locked in tight.
After we fell here, I'd reconstructed her legless body for her.
Possible because this was her mental world and her flesh was like overcooked ribs. I could interfere with her.
In other words, fusion.
"...Isn't this dangerous?"
"Don't talk."
Of course it was dangerous.
If we fused but couldn't separate, our consciousnesses would merge for good. We'd end up as one deranged Yuri Lancer mage.
So we only shared what was necessary—laying down the framework for now.
Whoosh-!
Shadow Bennett unleashed a slash with no escape. The kind of area sweep that said, burn everything—where you gonna dodge?
Taat. Tat.
Pingbalrez moved with me clinging to her back. Her motion through the sticky swamp evoked a leopard—pure utilization of her body's functions.
While she bought time, I interfered deeper. Past her skin, her bones, inside her heart, reaching her soul.
I reshaped myself into a black cloak and dyed her black from within. Like melting inward. The bonding finished in an instant.
A mysterious beauty with black hair and yellow eyes: 'Mad Pingbalrez' makes her entrance.
"...Urgh."
Pingbalrez let out a shuddering groan, like someone who'd dumped a bucket of ice water down their neck. I backed up her slipping control.
Tap.
I touched her from within to move her.
Pingbalrez would've felt her body moving on its own. I extended her arm, stepped forward, pressed her palm to the superheated blade... and deflected.
This was the mental world, so those sword flames were just info clumps. Focus and you could redirect them or cut the damage.
And. Uh-oh.
"This body doesn't move like that. Factor in the two lumps of fat on your chest and adjust your center of gravity."
Busy partial-controlling to avoid full merge and shaving damage, I hadn't considered that. Fine, you handle it.
"Got it. Call patterns, keep buffs up... Thinking about my childhood at this timing? You want a scolding?"
Perfect. We were linked.
Seamless communication enabled true co-op. She'd move based on what I spotted; I'd act on her insights.
We fumbled a bit at first, but our synergy clicked.
After a grueling fight, we jammed 《The Wail》 down Shadow Bennett's gullet and ended it.
Shadow Bennett flailed like she was reaching for her little sister... then vanished.
Time passed. We'd been whittled down, but we were still kicking.
We fought the Heavenly Demon too (couldn't quite nail the recreation), and Namgung Cheonghwi (took her down easy). Built up experience along the way and refined things.
We fine-tuned this... fusion state. Grew a tail from Pingbalrez's hip and linked it to mine. Like tethering an info-sharing cord between us.
Full fusion was too risky, after all.
Crazy mage, greetings.
Hey there. Our thoughts poked in unexpectedly—a minor side effect—but we judged fusion mode advantageous for combat and kept it active.
No verbal chatter meant less risk of the queen eavesdropping.
We spent time linked like that. Chatting idly as we melted, fighting shadow enemies when they respawned. Then back to chatting.
All while biding our moment.
Yuna would know best that my lifeline was cut. She'd wait a bit, grow anxious, try a rescue... then unleash hell.
The connection path to the 'Nest' lingering in the Third Prince's head.
After the first shot through there, if things looked grim.
She'd unseal my body in the real world and pour 'that thing' from my head into the Nest. That's the plan we made.
"......?"
Not sure what it is exactly, but that sounds insanely dangerous. Pingbalrez messaged through our link.
Dangerous, yes. But better than dying here and now. It was our hopeless last-resort self-destruct.
Best case, 'that' neatly obliterates just the Succubus Queen and I reclaim it later... but things rarely go that smoothly. It might even break free into the wider world.
What exactly would happen then? No clue. But considering 7% Evil God-chan's temperament, nothing pleasant—for the world or me.
So our utmost goal?
Escape this place the instant Yuna Violetiris, the Violet Tower's archmage, unleashes her full barrage on the Nest.
If we fail, something nasty and terrifying gets loose on the world.
With merciless fire raining on her home base, even the queen would struggle to keep her wits. Still, we're not at full strength, so it'd be a tough fight...
What was the plan? How to drag her out, how to strike? We cycled through hypotheses: build, refute, dismantle, rebuild.
"Crazy mage."
"Yeah?"
Melted in patches, Pingbalrez spoke quietly.
"Being linked like this, I can vaguely sense it. Sounds weird, but... you seem to already have a fable."
"I'd have used it by now if I did."
"It's like... half there. Incomplete, maybe?"
Incomplete?
I scratched my chin with my melted index and middle fingers, pondering.
Fable manifestation dyed the soul in an emotion's color. And just now, I'd been jumping rope with intense feelings.
Loving young Yuri, then eating a brutal betrayal.
Just like my students, dunked in the session and pulled out.
But no manifestation... so maybe the issue was on the other side? With my soul. Inside that unknowable black box.
If so, bad news. I'd been thinking of implanting something to force it, but emotions I could trigger dozens of times over. A busted soul? No fixing that.
Explains why it never triggered no matter how hard I pushed.
That's when Pingbalrez dropped a wild idea.
My soul's still intact, she said.
"......"
She hadn't reached sublimation. Wasn't in constant flux. Her soul only took on fable color when activated.
And we were intimately linked now. A slight lapse in barriers, and we'd be one.
So. If I dyed her soul with my emotions... maybe it'd spawn a new fable. Or alter hers.
In other words, 《Fable Corruption》...
"Let's call it 《Fable Fusion》, nice and clean."
She flashed a grin through the link, so I grinned back. We bantered, but the situation brimmed with thrill and peril.
We were definitely dying bit by bit. Might even die for real.
Just hadn't dwelled on it.
Splash. Pingbalrez leaned her head on my shoulder. Soft and sticky. Black tar everywhere, of course. I pretended reluctance even as I secretly liked it.
"...Clingy much."
"Pot, kettle."
Looking back.
Since isekai-ing here, I'd never deeply pondered emotions. Never truly faced them.
Lust boiled up? Crushed it with suppression.
Anxiety, anger? Prepped countermeasures with modules galore.
Love? Skirted the surface, all three of us.
Indifferent to my own urges, and mostly to others' feelings too.
Only now—faced with skin-crawling death, modules shattered, everything wrecked—did I recall that old trend from my past life.
If I died tomorrow.
How about it, crazy mage? Tomorrow at this hour, sentenced to the end of my brief life... grasping that vivid prophecy body and soul.
What would I do right now?
"Sex..."
God, you idiot.
I slapped my forehead, trying to wrench back to serious thought.
"......"
Whoosh!
Pingbalrez yanked away to a safe distance. Face beet red. I mulled the phenomenon... and it hit me.
All that yapping about not holding back, devouring me? Total bluff. And she bailed here?
Wait, so Pingbalrez's tough act was all front?
I'd been clueless. Made sense now. From my angle, I'd missed it, but a succubus bedding a guy and not laying a hand on him?
Means she chickened out.
"...I didn't chicken."
"...Then come here."
"Maintain safe distance."
I could've won by pushing harder!
I gave a wry smile at Pingbalrez's unexpected fragility. Nice to learn something new, but time to tease her with it might be short. Regrettable.
I looked up at the sky. Filled with pitch-black, nauseating liquid—but positively, like a starless night sky.
Squint to blur vision, and memories surfaced easily. Overlay constellations one by one on the murky black.
Their shapes diverged sharply from recollection.
Early isekai days: Big Dipper, Arcturus, Spica. Denebola linking to the Spring Great Triangle, sparkling Regulus. Earth's skies.
The stars I pictured now were this world's. Night skies gazed at post-research from the Magic Tower, savoring tea at the academy.
Might sound strange.
But right now, I could distinguish 'past-life me' from 'current me'.
The calm before the storm. Facing a fight that might kill us, I made a soft proposal to Pingbalrez.
"Just in case... let's leave last words, Yuri Lancer."
"Last words? When we're hand-in-hand grave shopping? Whose?"
"For each other."
Something ticklish stirred awake. Not mere melancholy—this process felt like it'd complete me, a vague premonition.
The final chance for emotion-crushing magic me... and fable-calming Yuri Lancer... to be truly honest.