Chapter 23: I Must Kill. I Must Kill Her. Right Now. Here. Even If It Means My Own Demise...
I Must Kill. I Must Kill Her. Right Now. Here. Even If It Means My Own Demise...
After exchanging their honest feelings, the two stepped out of the theater.
"Fufufu~! I got the limited-edition Samek-kun keychain~!"
Click-!
Norn held up a shark-shaped keychain to the Black Knight.
"Wasn't that the bastard who got blown to bits in the first act?"
"That was Shashame-kun~!"
"All these little shits look exactly the same..."
The Black Knight scoffed in disbelief.
"Here, you should take this."
Click.
Norn extended the keychain toward him.
"What? I thought it was limited edition."
"One per ticket~! This is your share~!"
It was a black shark keychain.
"This fucker. Isn't he the final boss?"
"That's Kukusha-kun, who got eaten by Samek-kun in the finale~!"
"Motherfucker."
Swish.
The Black Knight examined the keychain with mild interest.
"Doubt I'll have much use for it."
"I hope you keep it with you."
Swish.
Norn's cheeks flushed slightly as she spoke.
"And... I'd like it if you brought it when we meet again..."
"So you can rob me next time?"
"Of course not~!"
The two waited for Bella near the ticket booth.
"That brat... Has she been sitting on the toilet for two hours straight?... Her asshole's gonna fall out..."
"I'm starting to worry a little."
"Come to think of it, we're almost out of time."
It was currently 8 PM.
In thirty minutes, they'd be leaving this place with Shala.
Swish.
"Oh, there's something I forgot to say."
Norn looked up at the Black Knight's visor.
"Huh? What?"
"Today was super-duper-duper-duper fun~~!!"
"............!"
"It's the first time I've ever gotten to play so freely in my life—!! Black Knight-kun—!!"
"Hey. Why the hell are you calling me '-kun' now?"
The Black Knight found it absurd, reminded of the mayor's speech habits.
"To me, '-kun' is for someone precious..."
Norn whispered quietly, making the Black Knight tilt his head.
"What?"
"N-Nothing~!! More importantly, we should go find Bella~!"
"Was the restroom that way? Let's go."
"Understood..."
SPLAT-------!!!!!
A sound reverberated through the air.
The sound of something being torn apart.
Dripdripdripdripdrip...
Then, the sound of liquid splattering across the floor.
"Huh...?"
A black hand had pierced through Norn's chest.
With a dull thud, the fingertips burst out from her back, scattering crimson blood across the ticket booth floor.
"...Ah."
A weak groan escaped Norn's lips.
Her face drained of color in an instant as she slowly looked down at her chest in disbelief. Her wide, trembling eyes filled with terror and despair, her lips quivering without forming any words.
Her legs gave out, leaving her body impaled and suspended in midair by the black hand.
Time seemed to stop for the Black Knight as he witnessed the scene.
"What..."
His voice trembled with disbelief.
His vision sharpened—the blood-soaked floor, Norn's expression drowning in despair.
Then his gaze snapped to the figure behind her.
"I need this. I'll be taking it for a while."
SCHLUCK—!!
Someone yanked their hand out of Norn's chest.
And then...
Dripdripdripdrip...
Thud.
As she collapsed to the floor, her chest perfectly mended itself.
As if it had never been pierced at all.
The blood on the floor might as well not have been hers.
"Black Knight... kuuun..."
Squelch.
Norn weakly called out to him before collapsing into the pool of blood.
"Hey... What the..."
The Samek-kun hat they'd bought together that morning was now soaked in blood.
As if tarnishing all the happiness they'd shared that day.
Slowly, it darkened.
"All I needed was the heart, so I neatly restored the rest~!"
A woman with long, jet-black hair cascading down to her waist stepped out from the ticket booth corridor, clad in a deep blue cloak. Her crimson eyes, stark against her porcelain skin, glowed ominously like bloodstained jewels, and a faint, knowing smile played on her lips.
Her attire resembled that of a phantom thief or a magician.
Crackle.
In an instant, she crystallized the heart she'd torn from Norn and held it in her right hand.
"You... fucking bitch..."
The Black Knight hadn't sensed her presence at all.
This was impossible.
A magical signature he'd never felt before—there was no way it could have appeared so abruptly.
"Well, since I've accomplished what I came for, I'll take my leave now."
Swish.
As the woman lightly bowed her head in farewell...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!
A massive shockwave erupted—no, not just the ticket booth. The entire shopping mall trembled.
Whoooooosh...
"My, my... You almost made the other guests interfere, didn't you?"
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!"
"Te—terrorists—!!"
Rumble rumble rumble...!!!
Panicked civilians began scrambling in all directions at the sudden explosion.
".........!!!"
The Black Knight sensed something off.
When Norn had been killed, no one had even glanced her way.
The screams should have started then.
This was too unnatural.
After a brief moment of contemplation, he reached a conclusion.
"Concealing your presence. And hiding your actions. That your ability?"
"Close, but not quite. Or maybe completely wrong."
"Whatever. Doesn't matter now."
Creak.
As the Black Knight took a step forward, the ground beneath him began to crack.
Creak. Creak. Creak.
"You won't be hiding anymore. You're dying here."
"Haha. I'd love to expect that outcome."
___. ___
The massive black flash that erupted over Starlight lasted only an instant.
At first, no one realized it was the beginning of a disaster.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR—!!
A deafening roar shook the entirety of Starlight as a colossal black shockwave exploded outward from the city center, as if dozens of buildings had been compressed into a single point of destruction.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!
It sounded like the world itself was being torn apart.
"Wh—what the hell?!"
"RUUUUN—!!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!"
Terrified citizens looked up at the sky as they fled.
But what they saw defied all logic.
The buildings touched by the black wave began collapsing—without explosions, without fire.
Skyscrapers dozens of stories high crumpled like paper, concrete and steel disintegrating into black dust as if their very existence had been denied.
Whoooooosh...
"This can't be real..."
"What kind of magic is that?!"
Even the magicians paled in horror.
They had studied countless spells in their lives, but the phenomenon unfolding before them was unlike any magic of any Tier.
It was beyond analysis.
No magical flow could be detected.
No cause.
No structure.
No laws.
Nothing.
The only explanation was that the world itself was breaking.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!
Another shockwave tore through the city.
The center of the plaza suddenly sank hundreds of meters deep, and black fissure-like lines appeared in the sky.
As if space itself had cracked.
"Is that a spatial collapse?!"
"No!! This is way beyond that—!!!"
"Then what the hell is it?!"
Even the magicians dispatched to handle the disaster screamed in terror.
Their common sense was being shattered.
Cars and debris began floating upward as if gravity had been distorted, only to be crushed back down by an invisible force the next moment.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—!!!"
The city was filled with screams.
"They're insane...! What are we even supposed to do here?!"
"That... That's not something a Disaster could even cause...!"
People fled without understanding why, and the A-rank magicians stood helpless.
No one knew why this disaster had struck.
No one knew what was attacking.
No one knew how to stop it.
They couldn't even tell if this was magic.
The only thing the citizens of Starlight knew was that their city was being annihilated at this very moment.
"Hah... Hahahaha...! I raised my evasion probability to 98%... and this is what happens."
A half-vaporized assassin lay sprawled on the rubble, muttering to herself.
Whoooooosh... BOOM—!!!!
The Black Knight descended from the sky, stomping on her abdomen.
Squelch squelch squelch—!!!
Her flesh scattered across the ground like gruesome confetti.
"Bitch. Why aren't you dead yet?"
The Black Knight's crimson eyes burned as he glared down at her.
"I never introduced myself. My name is—"
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—!!!!
Before she could finish, another black flash detonated over Starlight.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR—!!!
"Don't care. Shut your mouth and die."
SCHLUCK—!!!
The Black Knight manifested a greatsword from his gauntlet and strode toward where the woman had been sent flying.
"I am Hope Trust—a magician, a gambler, and the contractor of the Demon God 'Reiva.'"
".........!!!!!"
The woman stood before him once more, her body fully restored.
"Now that I've introduced myself, it's only fair you do the same."
"I'm the guy who's gonna rip you apart."
"No. You're that, aren't you?"
".........?"
"The Hero."
The moment those words left Hope's lips, the Black Knight's rationality snapped entirely.
("I must kill her.")
A thought that surged from the depths of his being.
("Right now... here... without fail...")
An act he had to accomplish.
("Even if... my body crumbles here...")
Even if it meant his own destruction.
("That woman... must die here.")