107. Labyrinth
107. Labyrinth
The One-Inch Force. It was a technique Arisa favored, closing the distance to the absolute limit.
I'd been hit by it a few times myself, and I'd quietly picked it up to understand the principle and apply it.
That was how I'd been able to unleash the One-Inch Force just now.
That said... what I'd just done wasn't at the same level of refinement as Arisa's.
Even by my own reckoning, the refinement was lacking.
"Whoa..."
The power... was far, far greater than I'd expected.
My stance had crumbled slightly at the end, so I'd assumed the force would be weaker. Even so, it was this much.
Samaella was slammed into the wall. Her ribs were probably all shattered. If I was lucky, one of those ribs might have pierced her heart, but unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
Still, her spine, ribs, and a few organs looked crushed, so I should be satisfied.
I let out a satisfied sigh and glanced down at my still-tingling fist.
It wasn't just my fist that was tingling. My legs, my back, my shoulders all throbbed. Of all of them, my fist hurt the most.
My fist seemed to be cracked. It was only because I'd wrapped it in bandages that I could manage; otherwise, I'd have struggled to even make a fist.
My shoulder felt like the ligaments were damaged, and my back muscles... had they seized up? If it hadn't been for that damn period, my stance never would have crumbled.
If my stance hadn't crumbled, my body would've been fine. If my body had been fine, I could've chased that bitch into the wall and beaten her without pause.
Then... I could've killed her for sure.
"Hah."
I set aside the disappointment and steadied my breathing. I circulated Mana rapidly through my body, forcibly dragging my condition back up.
I unwound the tattered bandages and wrapped them tightly around my left arm, which was even more tattered than the bandages.
I'll have to learn the parts I'm lacking from Leona.
The moment I finished my maintenance with that thought.
Goosebumps erupted across my entire body. My breath caught, and dizziness swept over me. A stench—the smell of rot.
Thick, viscous Demonic Energy blanketed the area. Terrifying killing intent coiled around my whole body, and my instincts screamed a warning.
Intuition. My intuition, sharper than in my Past Life, was shouting.
You can't dodge this.
Block it.
You absolutely have to block it.
I clenched my teeth. I raised both arms. I wrapped my whole body in Aura and planted my legs firmly into the ground.
I definitely did.
"Kuh... ke-hek...!"
I'm rolling across the floor.
I can hear Stella's scream. The sound of viscous liquid splattering onto the ground, the sound of my heart pounding. It's hazy.
What, just, happened?
Did my consciousness just... cut out?
My thoughts keep snapping off. They won't connect. The inside of my head is hot, and my insides are hotter still. Black, dead blood pours from my mouth. Not just my mouth. My eyes, nose, ears.
Blood pours from all seven orifices.
My vision is red. My breathing won't come freely. Blocked, suffocating, and from inside, a surge—blood poured out again.
Only then did the pain register.
A massive boulder, a Monster? Pain like being rammed by something pounds through my entire body. Blood pours from my left arm, the one I'd stopped with Mana.
The wound hadn't just reopened—it had grown.
My whole body was like that. Holes were punched through me here and there.
Their shapes were all identical. A snake's fangs.
Around them were countless cuts, as if my body had been slashed to ribbons by blades.
When the hell did that happen?
There was no time to dredge up an answer to that question. I immediately hurled my body to the side. BOOM—! The ground where I'd been sprawled just moments ago was torn up.
Blood gushes up from my throat. Every bone in my body feels shattered. I can't possibly move. Crunch— I bit down on my lip and wrapped myself in Mana.
Then I manipulated that Mana in fine detail to substitute for my bones. Like that, slowly, my body moved again.
"Hoo... kuh-ruep... ptoo."
I hauled my staggering body upright. I blinked to correct my blurred vision. Once more, I spat out the blood rising up my throat and looked around.
The thickly billowing dust had poison dissolved in it, and within it, glittering glass fibers and blade-like things drifted.
The thing that had caused this devastation was nowhere to be seen. Instead, I could faintly make out its form. A shape surrounded by the drifting dust.
Eight heads. Eight tails as well. Each of them moved independently.
It looked at me, opened its jaws, guarded its master, flicked its tongue, ground its teeth, spewed poison, smacked its lips, and gleamed its eyes.
Its body was one. Long and thick.
What gleamed faintly as it deflected the blades were the scales on its body.
From those scales, venom and thick blood continued to flow. It poured out in quantities that would fill this cavern in half a day.
Where did that thing suddenly come from?
There was no need to think about it.
The eight snakes that had been crawling around the area since I entered this room. Snakes made of Intent.
That thing, from the very beginning—
"The Eight-Headed Serpent (八岐大蛇)."
—was Samaella's Ideal Manifestation.
"I was going to take you alive if possible—no, kill you cleanly and take you. But that won't work."
Samaella laughed softly. At that, her Ideal Manifestation, the Eight-Headed Serpent, raised all eight heads straight up and revealed its complete form.
Red poison energy and blood streamed from its pitch-black scales.
It was so enormous that it looked less like a snake and more like a canyon pouring with waterfalls of blood.
A shape too vast and horrifying to be called a snake.
Did that thing ram into me?
It's a miracle I'm even alive.
"Goddamn..."
Cold sweat ran down my spine.
She wasn't 7th Circle. She was 8th Circle.
Not even the early stages of 8th Circle. If she could handle an Ideal Manifestation this well... she'd fully completed the 8th Circle.
And on top of that, she was maintaining her Ideal Manifestation at all times?
No matter how much Mana she had, no matter if she'd taken in a Legion Commander's Demonic Energy, a human couldn't maintain an Ideal Manifestation for long.
Maybe... 9th Circle?
No. She didn't look that strong.
Then...
"...You, are you a Demon?"
"Something like it."
"A half-breed, then."
"Oh my... your mouth is awfully foul."
Something... like it?
Stella had said she was a created being.
Samaella knew that.
Then was this Black Wizard also a created being? Mixed with Demon blood?
Stella too? A human-Demon hybrid?
My head was a jumbled mess.
Crunch— I bit down on my lip, feeling a new pain.
The pain was faint. Not just that—the sensation across my whole body was dulled. I'd been poisoned. By what kind? Could it be cured?
The feeling in my limbs was fading.
What's this? This is actually better...
It might be fatal to others, but for me, who can move my body by manipulating Mana, it's an advantage.
"Still, you can't hide your expression. Fufu. I do love that flustered face."
Click—
Samaella took a step closer. The Eight-Headed Serpent didn't move. It didn't need to.
It was so large that merely lowering its head could crush everything in this place.
"As I thought, sharp-tongued little brats like you get prettier—so much prettier—when that haughty expression twists."
"You like girls too?"
"'Too,' you say? I'm not like that crow. Still, yes. If it's a little thing like you, there's nothing not to like. The taste of breaking you, the taste of you pinned down and yelping—both seem like delicacies."
Samaella licked her lips and swallowed, as if she truly meant it.
"I thought a half-breed's eyes would be different, but you sure know how to spot a pretty thing. That's right. I am pretty. I can't help but smile every time I look in the mirror after a shower."
I sneered, forcing myself to ignore the goosebumps prickling all over my body.
All the while, I searched desperately for a way to win.
A way out... a way to win.
I can't beat that snake. In my Past Life, I'd have smashed it with a single flick to the head, but right now, that's impossible.
Then what do I do? There's only one way. I have to kill Samaella.
To do that... I'd have to dodge all eight of those heads and tails and beat Samaella down.
Even that won't be easy.
Samaella had definitely had her ribs shattered and organs pulped. Yet she'd recovered in no time.
Her regeneration was so astonishing it made my teeth chatter.
It was slower than a true Demon's... but still enough to say she was definitely Demon-like.
Even setting aside that regeneration, Samaella's own combat ability wasn't lacking either.
Her body was damn tough, too. Phaid's bones had shattered from a light tap, but this bitch only had her bones broken by a One-Inch Force delivered with everything I had.
And even that, she healed in an instant.
So, is this unwinnable?
"E-Eliarnes... are you... are you okay? H-how... you're hurt so, so much... this, hic... th-that thing..."
Stella, who had crept up behind me at some point, tugged at my clothes. Despite having crawled over on all fours, sniveling and sobbing pathetically, she pulled me toward herself.
"Can you... hic, can you move? F-first... first, run... run away. I'll... I'll, I'll hic, I'll buy you some time..."
"You? Against that thing?"
"Y-yeah... Samaella, that woman said she won't kill me... so, I'm... I'm fine. If I try to... take the attacks in your place, hic, then you... at least you can get away."
"How very... kind. So human. Unlike me."
At Stella's sobbing voice, Samaella smiled a strange smile.
"That's right, Stella. My dear niece. As you say, if you block your auntie with your whole body, auntie won't be able to kill your friend. She'll have no choice but to watch your friend run away."
"D-did you hear that? So... Eliarnes, you... you run. I just... I just need to stay here. Those people seem to only need... me and Pina..."
Stella's trembling hands gripped my right hand tightly.
Cold and clammy.
She was crying so hard I could hear the teardrops falling.
And yet, telling me to run—it was admirable.
This had happened during the entrance exam too.
It wasn't exactly the same as then, but it was similar.
It had been like that then, too.
Squawking that the exam labyrinth was a real labyrinth, with a magic-immune basilisk right in front of us, Stella had told me to run.
What had I said back then?
Right. I'd said it was fine.
Why? Because I was certain I could take down that basilisk no matter what.
Then what about now?
"It's fine."
It's fine now, too.
I'll win.
"What's, what's fine...! That, that thing... that's an Ideal Manifestation. Th-that Black Wizard is 8th Circle! So what do you mean it's fine?! Hurry... run away...! Hic... you crazy bitch... you're this hurt and you still want to fight more...!"
On top of Stella's hands, as she finally burst into the tears she'd been holding back, I placed a completely crushed macaron and a piece of candy.
"...Hic? This, this... why this...? Hey! I told you not to do this! Run... I said run! Why the hell are you trying to fight?! You'll die!!"
"Quit being dramatic. If it were me, I'd have smacked your ass already. You little brat. Go sit in the corner over there and watch."
I carefully released Stella's hand and took a step forward.
"This'll be over before you finish eating those."
I faced forward.
Samaella.
An 8th Circle Black Wizard who maintained her Ideal Manifestation at all times.
A half-breed, possibly mixed with Demon blood.
Behind her loomed her Ideal Manifestation, the Eight-Headed Serpent.
Eight heads. Eight tails.
A body vast as a canyon. Spewing poison energy.
And in front of it, I stood.
A girl not even 145 centimeters tall, weighing around 40 kilograms.
A Martial Artist. An academy student. Tier 5.
Eliarnes Eustetia.
I can't win. The only reason I'm still standing is because that Black Wizard showed mercy. Gave me a reprieve. Found me interesting. Found me amusing. That's why I'm alive.
Eliarnes Eustetia can never win.
But.
Ronan Luzarak.
Half of what I had back then.
No.
If I only had thirty percent of the power I had back then.
I'd win.
My left hand. I unwound the bandages I'd tied tightly.
The dried blood scabs fell away. Blood seeped from the open wound. The pain was still faint.
I raised that arm.
An open hand.
Five fingers.
Five gates.
Among them, the little finger.
Among them, the first.
"I should at least carry a dagger around."
I clenched that finger and twisted.
"Purgatory, First Gate."
Crunch— along with the sound of breaking, the blocked acupoint burst wide open.
"Release (開放)."
Cherry-blossom-colored Mana raged.