The Variable (1)
All the preparations were finished.
All I had to do was stall for time.
By tomorrow at lunch—no.
Even by tomorrow morning, I could settle this without spilling a single drop of blood.
I had found the tracking artifact and confirmed they had no means of communication, so I had been able to prepare in advance.
Sending Mariel to the temple in the first place had been to keep her as evidence, in case Red Scorpion tried to cut off the loose end.
Even if something unexpected happened, I believed I could protect both Noah and Hepais in my current state.
It was a perfect plan.
I truly believed that.
But then… what the hell was this situation?
Hepais, who had finally fainted from the strain, was crushing my body under her weight.
Through a bleary haze and a churning stomach, I looked around.
Inside the once-neat ash-gray room, chunks of meat that no longer resembled anything human lay strewn everywhere.
And at the center of it all sat Noah, a shy smile on her face as scarlet blood-qi writhed around her, with a man who had wet himself crumpled at her feet.
Noah’s body was so ruined it would not have been strange if she died on the spot.
Skin she had torn open with her own nails.
Hands ground down by the edge of her greatsword until the bones showed.
A tongue chewed to shreds until it hung in tatters.
Ice crystals embedded in her right arm and abdomen.
Blood still gushed from the holes punched through her legs, and patches of her body were scorched and melted.
And yet Noah was still smiling.
She wore that endless smile she had only ever shown me.
I needed to rush over right now and heal those horrific wounds.
I needed to grab her by the pant leg if I had to and stop her.
But my body would not allow it.
My mind would not allow it.
All it permitted was sitting there, fighting down the rising vomit.
“No… ah…”
Even so, I clenched my teeth and crawled forward on all fours.
The single-minded desire to stop Noah’s bleeding dragged my body along.
Slick entrails coiled around my palms.
Soft, pulpy flesh squelched under my knees.
Vomit kept surging up my throat; the metallic taste filled my mouth as well as my nose.
But I did not stop.
I had to reach Noah.
I had to stop the Noah who had used the Fragment.
The Noah who no longer saw people as people, but as magic beasts.
The Noah whose thoughts had twisted…
I had to stop her.
“Hngh… No… Noah…”
The stench of foul filth stabbed my nose.
The nightmarish scenery clawed at my eyes.
“Look… look at me, Noah… please… look at me… kkh…!”
My trembling hand finally slipped.
My body tumbled across the floor.
The scraps of flesh, entrails, eyeballs, and teeth strewn across the ground stuck wetly to my shoulders, my waist, my legs, my hair.
Then, at last, Noah—who had been drifting farther and farther away—sat down where she was.
I bit my lip hard and forced myself upright.
Squelch—the things clinging to me peeled away.
I closed my eyes, held my breath, and crawled again.
When I had drawn close enough to hear Noah’s breathing, a bright, cheerful voice reached me.
“Want me to cover you with a blanket?”
It sounded absurd at first, but then I remembered what Noah had said earlier.
‘He was shaking so hard, so I, um, peeled off a subordinate’s skin myself and covered him with it like a blanket… it was really funny…’
I opened my eyes and lifted my head to look at her.
I saw her impossibly small back.
I saw Noah’s body, blood pouring freely.
And in her hands—
human organs, human skin.
No. No… absolutely not.
I don’t want this. I don’t want this. I don’t want this. I don’t want this. I don’t want this.
My brain rejected Noah.
Instinct.
Body.
Every nerve.
Every single cell rejected her.
“Kngh… hah… hhk… hngh—!”
I pounded my chest with my fist.
I clawed at my own flesh with my nails.
I slammed my head against the ground with all my strength.
I used the pain to force my mind awake.
Only then could I rise and wrap my arms around Noah’s back.
A body colder than ice pressed stiffly against me.
Sticky skin met sticky skin.
The nauseating stench of blood filled my senses.
Still I did not let go.
I held her even tighter.
I poured divine power into her.
I recited prayers under my breath, forcing every last drop of my strengthened divine power into her.
But the blood-qi writhing around Noah’s body spat my divine power out as if rejecting it.
Worse, the divine power that mixed with the blood-qi flooded back into me and began to scramble my insides.
The pulse I felt against my chest grew fainter.
Her already cold body grew colder still.
The bleeding worsened.
“No… ah. Noah, please… please… I’m begging you…”
In that instant—
“You fucking bitch! I’m taking you with me!!”
The man who had been slumped in front of Noah fired an ice spear.
At this rate it could strike Noah square in the head.
Time stretched.
My body was still frozen, but my thoughts raced.
I cannot dodge.
My control of divine power is a step too late; I cannot block it completely.
The only option left is to shield Noah with my own body.
If the ice spear pierces me, I have to catch it with divine power before it can reach her.
I can do this.
The worst will not happen.
My body does not break, after all.
I am used to pain.
Move.
I hugged Noah’s body with all my strength and tried to turn.
I had to turn.
But Noah’s body did not budge an inch.
And then, completely out of place in this nightmare, a sweet voice drifted out.
“Heh… smells delicious.”
Noah’s hand rose.
The ice spear punched straight through it.
Without even pulling it free, she drove that same hand into the man’s skull.
His burst eyeball splattered across her face.
“Ghk… kkh… grrk—”
“Ru… bia… smell.”
Noah’s head turned.
Her creaking body twitched as she slipped free of my arms.
Gentle eyes.
A sweet voice.
An adorable expression.
All of them turned toward me.
“I… will eat well…”
“No… ah…?”
Noah’s mouth slowly opened.
She tilted my head back just like that.
Toward my unprotected neck.
Noah’s lips.
Her teeth.
Sharp.
And soft.
Touched me.
“Heh… smells delicious.”
Crunch—
“Ghk… kkh… grrk—”
I’m thirsty.
This feels good.
I’m so thirsty.
It doesn’t hurt at all!
I think I’m gonna die.
Right now I’m the happiest person in the whole world!
My throat feels like it’s being ripped open.
Look! There’s a hole in my stomach and it doesn’t hurt one bit!
There’s nothing left.
I’m bleeding this much and I’m still fine!
Nothing’s left at all.
Ehehe… I even took care of all the magic beasts myself.
They’re all dead.
The magic beasts were pretty strong, but I was stronger!
Dead ones are useless.
No need to tan the hides… kinda a shame I killed them, though.
Living ones.
But it’s fine!
Fresh blood.
That just now was so cool!
I need it.
Did Rubia see me?
My body can’t take it, but.
The Fragment… she told me not to use it.
But I still have to eat.
Am I gonna get scolded… uuu…
Ah.
Huh?
An intoxicating scent.
Sweet and familiar…!!
A delicious smell.
Rubia’s scent!
“Ru… bia… smell.”
I slipped free of the arms that had been holding me and turned around.
Even if I got scolded, I wanted to be held in that warm embrace.
And then—
“I… will eat well…”
I want to eat.
Right now.
Every last drop. All of it.
“No… ah…?”
A terrified expression painted itself on her face.
I opened my mouth.
I could feel her body trembling.
I bared my teeth.
Even so, the arms that held me tight.
I reached out and tilted her head back.
A voice that sounded worried about me.
I could feel the blood flowing from the shallow wound.
Warmth.
I pressed my lips to the flowing blood.
“H-hngh…”
Tears that touched my face.
I sank my teeth into the soft skin—
Everything that was Rubia.
Quenched my thirst.
“U-uum…?”
Suddenly.
The sensation that had made my lower belly tingle.
That had frozen my body in place.
That had filled my mind with bliss.
Vanished.
“Uuum…”
The memories are still clear.
The sensations are still there.
But I don’t know why I acted like that…
Even the fact that I’m sucking on Rubia’s neck right now—I wanted to do it, but I don’t know why I did… mmm…
“Hngh…”
“Uum? Om-nyom-nyom.”
Rubia, twitching in my grip, tasted so good that I sucked even harder.
Sluuuurp—
“Kngh— ha, hngh… No… ah…”
At the end I was playing with the magic beasts and Rubia almost got attacked, but I barely managed to protect her.
Haa… I got too careless after getting high on the Fragment…
Slurp— sluuuurp—
Anyway, the Fragment’s effect is insane…
In the game it just had stuff like nullify rigidity, nullify stun, continue combat, so I thought it was pretty good.
But it made me not feel pain at all?
The downside is that it only lasts as long as I keep seeing blood, but it’s completely broken!
Mmm… I do get the urge to drink blood…
But when I’m hunting, magic beast blood gets in my mouth all the time anyway, so… not that big a downside!
Slurp— sluuurp—
Uh… wait.
Huh…?
Then… when does the penalty—
“Kngh—?!”
Agonizing pain exploded from the hole in my arm.
From my abdomen, my legs, my back, my neck.
Not a single place was spared.
All of it.
Pain that felt like it would kill me right this second crashed into me at once.
My body, contorted by agony, shoved Rubia away.
I rolled across the corpse-strewn floor, grinding my teeth.
I barely clung to my fleeing consciousness and twisted my body.
No—am I twisting it, or is it twisting on its own?
I can’t pass out.
If I pass out like this Rubia will worry herself sick.
I at least need to explain.
I don’t know. It hurts. It hurts so much!!
Would it stop hurting if I just let go of my mind???
If I wake up after Rubia finishes healing me it’ll hurt less—
“Kyaaaaaaah—!”
While thrashing on the floor a shard of glass stabbed into one of my wounds.
The extreme pain made me drop my greatsword.
I can’t see anything.
I don’t know, I don’t need it.
It hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts!
Tears streamed down my face.
No—they just burst out!
It hurts it hurts! It hurts so much…
“No… Noah!”
“Huuungh… kiiih… augh…”
Familiar hands pulled my body close.
Warm energy immediately wrapped around me.
The energy that had been circulating through every corner of me soon grew hot enough to burn my insides and began to dig in fiercely.
“Kyaah… uup… keh— kkh… kuhk…”
Pitch-black blood punched up through my throat and exploded out of my mouth.
“Kahhk— kek, keh… ueeek…”
Again and again and again.
I kept vomiting the reverse-flowing blood until it choked off my breath.
Only after a long while did the endless flood of blood finally stop.
Torn and split skin knitted back together.
I felt the holes in my arms, legs, and stomach filling in.
Then the scorching energy racing through my body halted, and the pain faded away.
“No… Noah… Noah Noah!!”
Rubia’s frantic voice hammered my ears.
“Uh… uuh…”
I didn’t know where Rubia’s face was, but I stretched out my arm anyway.
Mmm… this is her nose.
I lowered my hand a little and pulled her neck closer.
“Noah…? Is that really you, Noah? Are you really Noah? Have you come to your senses? Hm?”
“Yeees… hah…”
The way she kept saying Noah Noah Noah made her sound like one of those dolls that talk when you squeeze them, and a little giggle slipped out.
“Huuuungh— No… Noaaaaahahaha uwaaaang—!”
“Ugh… sh-shut up…”
After hugging me tight and bawling for a long time, Rubia finally managed to stop crying—while dry-heaving.
“Ueeek… uek…”
It felt like she cried for a solid ten minutes…
“A-are you done crying…?”
“Huuu… uek… kngh… hup— snff!”
Her head bobbed a little, so I figured that was a nod.
Then…
“C-could you find my greatsword for me…?”
“Kngh… y-yes… hhk… okay.”
Rubia slowly pulled away from me, then came back with a wet squelch-squelch, and placed the greatsword in my hand.
“Thank you… ah?”
The moment Qi Sensing activated—
I saw a woman carrying Hepais over her shoulder.