Book and Dagger
"Urgh... O-Oppa..."
What the hell... happened.
"O-Oppa, are you oka—cough, cough."
Kang Jia was looking up at me, vomiting blood from her mouth.
"What is this! Miss Jia! What the hell do you think you're doing? You have a duty to bear the seed!!"
The principal, who had been oozing that slimy, leisurely tone until now, screamed in a rough voice.
Gurgle—gurgle!
Blood spread across Kang Jia's chest. I could see it pouring out from behind her.
She took the bullets for me.
"Why the hell would you..."
"Ji-Jia will... pro-tect... you..."
Blood poured uncontrollably from Kang Jia's mouth.
This was it. Certain death.
"Goddamn it..."
I'd seen Kang Jia die plenty of times before, but never like this—never sacrificing herself to protect me.
For some reason, my heart felt like it was going to explode.
It had been the same earlier. When that pig bastard started spewing disgusting crap about impregnating her, my guts had twisted in revulsion.
"You know what kind of power your oppa has, right?"
"Heh... hehehe... y-yeah... I kn-know..."
The light faded from her eyes.
I pulled her small shoulders into my arms without thinking.
"Next time, I won't let this happen to you."
Cough... "Heh... hehe... Oppa smells... so goo...d..."
Her voice grew weaker by the second.
"Sleep well."
In the end, Kang Jia buried her face in my chest, took a few shallow breaths, and stopped completely.
"You trash! Because of you, we've lost an excellent seed-bearer!!"
The principal checked her state and flew into an even greater rage, raising his gun again.
Bang!Bang bang! Bang!
Thud. Thud, thud.
The bullets buried into the back of Kang Jia's corpse, still cradled in my arms. Her body jerked with each impact—some muscular reflex, making it feel like she was still alive.
But she wasn't.
So in the end, this was all that was left to me.
The moment I reached into my pocket, a scream rang out.
"Kyaaaaah! N-No, don't, don't do it! I don't want to have a baby!!"
"..."
Splat!
Crack crack!
The hulking PE teacher pinned both of Lee Na-hyun's arms with one hand and ripped her shirt clean off with the other.
"Stay... still..."
Wham!
"Guhk!?"
A brutal punch sank into the gut of the wildly struggling Lee Na-hyun. His arm, veins bulging unnaturally—probably from some steroid shit—buried deep into her lower abdomen.
"Urk! Uwaaaaaah!"
"The teacher... doesn't want to ruin your womb either... so behave... and take the teacher's seed. It's the principal's order..."
"Hic... uh-hic... No... I don't want that... please... don't... do it..."
I pulled the black dagger from my pocket.
The goal: quick and swift death.
Quick and swift.
A clean death without pain.
The moment I steeled myself, I jammed the dagger into my throat. Stabbing the heart or brain might be faster, but piercing vital organs protected by bone was beyond someone like me.
Gush!
A dizzying sensation hit as a fountain of blood sprayed from my throat.
"Y-You! Where did you get that dagger!?"
Strangely, the principal seemed more shocked by the dagger in my hand than by my suicide.
Odd.
It had gleamed in my hand like it wanted me to take it.
Blood drained fast, consciousness fading.
This loop had yielded a lot.
The Equinox Book.
The Shakallu-Enshar ritual unfolding in the school basement.
New allies.
And their betrayal route.
The strange dagger.
And... Kang Jia's devotion...
The last thing I saw was her small body soaking in my blood.
.
.
.
Gulp gulp gulp
Somewhere, the sound of someone slurping liquid greedily.
I opened my eyes, but surprisingly, no Kang Jia. Just pitch-black darkness.
So what was that sound?
—Awakened?
"Who are you?"
After dying so many times, nothing surprised me much anymore.
—Look below.
Following the voice, I saw something unbelievable stabbed into my chest: the black dagger from the school basement.
"What... the?"
—One chosen as the final fang by offering your own blood. I have come following the light of your mission. Accept the mark of slaughter.
As I struggled to parse the cryptic bullshit, another voice echoed from the void.
[Kueh-heh-heh-heh. You obsolete worm-shit bastard. Spouting nonsense.]
What the hell was this?
To my left, a book floated in mid-air.
That was...
"The Equinox Book, right?"
[What a shitty name! Did that fucker name it? Figures a retard like him couldn't grasp my great forbidden knowledge.]
The voice was definitely coming from that book.
"What the hell is this?"
From what I'd observed so far, dying usually snapped me back like waking from a dream—to August 1st evening, in my bed, with Kang Jia's kiss.
But this space, these objects...
—No need for long thoughts. Son of Cain, take up the mark of slaughter and fulfill your final duty. Just say you'll offer your flesh and soul.
Son of Cain?
Cain from the Bible—the first murderer in human history.
[What a fucking moron. Still the same. No wonder you're still worshiping that desert trash god. That guy's been devoured by the Black Goat of the woods ages ago!! Kueh-heh-heh-heh!!]
—Gra'hthul. I can't fathom why a lowly parasite like you clings to the son of Cain.
[Fuck off! You nameless hack, stuck like shit on a outhouse wall!]
My head spun.
This made even less sense than facing those goat-masked freaks in the school basement.
"Answer me. What the hell are you?"
[Tsk tsk tsk. Ignorant little shit. Pity I'm stuck with a dimwit like you. I'm Gra'hthul, the true master of that grimoire you 'happened' to find.]
"The true master of the Equinox Book? No, the author was clearly Aleister Crowley..."
[Shut up! Don't even say that fucker's name. I don't know where that mongrel scavenged my legacy, but he just stole it and pretended it was his. I am the true god of mankind, terror of the west, supreme lord over absolute apocalypse, pinnacle of black magic—Gra'hthul!]
—A false god skulking underground like a worm, yet always so grandiose. No shame? You're unchanged from before...
I didn't get all the god-of-man, terror, apocalypse crap—like some medieval knight's titles—but I got that this guy was a black mage. And higher up the chain than Aleister Crowley, author of the Equinox Book.
Reason Gra'hthul—bound to the book, it seemed—latched onto me: probably that.
'Blood.'
My blood from a chance cut while flipping pages, seeping into the book.
Likely the medium.
"Then what are you?"
—So ignorant. Truly ignorant. Has modern mankind forgotten even this...? I am Cain's Fang.
"Cain's Fang?"
Given the dagger's pompous flair, it probably meant the blade Cain used for humanity's first murder.
—At least some intelligence...
It could read my thoughts, apparently.
Anyway, this Cain's Fang had latched onto me via my blood too.
Good situation or bad? No clue. These weren't normal items in this Altered Common Sense world overrun with weird shit. I could use them—or they could use me.
"What's your goal? Why latch onto me?"
—For humanity's salvation. So accept the mark of slaughter now and fulfill that noble mission...
[Kueh-heh-heh-heh!! Don't buy that maggot god's lackey's bullshit. He's just a blood-obsessed perv. He's telling you to hand over your body. Once you do, he'll rant about judgment and punishing sinners like a delusional psycho, then go on a messy killing spree. Using your body!]
—Silence!!
[If you're handing over your body, worry if he'll have enough cum. The premature ejaculator shits his pants every time he guts a human! Kueh-heh-heh!]
—...
I didn't know their past beef, but they clearly hated each other's guts.
Made sense. Cain committed murder and got branded a sinner, but he was still Adam's direct descendant—God's bloodline. Gra'hthul? By Christian standards, a pagan heretic. No way they'd get along.
Tick tock tick tock tick
Then, the sound of a clock's second hand echoed from somewhere.
[I'd love to savor this cute little party more, but time's up, human scum. Say it now: back to the very start? Or the last checkpoint?]
"What?"
[Speak, you worm!]
Crack! Crack!
Cracks spread across this dark space.
If it shattered completely, I doubted it'd end well.
"Explain. What's 'first' and what's 'last'?"
[Tsk tsk tsk, fucking idiot. Still clueless? How's a shit like you surviving between the crawling chaos and the Black Goat of Enkai's woods?]
Crack! Craaaack!
As Gra'hthul spoke, the black space tore open.
Like a chick hatching from an egg.
Beyond the rips, something appeared.
[Worm! Speak, now! Unless you want it worse than fucked, say it!]
Gra'hthul's voice was frantic—nothing like his earlier arrogant mocking of Cain's Fang.
I didn't need convincing. Instinct screamed there was no time for more questions.
Goooooooong
Because beyond the torn space, an unimaginably massive eye peered in.
Grrrgle—grrrgle—
The eye scanned inside, pupil contracting. That bizarre sight felt like a smile. A smile smiling smiling smiling infinite finality of all mankind's ascension trapped in the pupil—
[Snap out of it!!]
"Hahk—hahk, l-last! Send me to the last one!"
I didn't know when my mind broke or recovered, but instinct picked one of Gra'hthul's options. No meaning. Just fleeing this space.
Hummmmmmm—
A bizarre green light enveloped me, vision blurring. Then black. In my ears, the fragile shell forcibly tearing away, like hallucinations.
Craaaack—!
As the space's shell ripped further, I regressed into the past.