Black Carnival (2)
Benny looked down, trembling. She hoped the floor beneath her feet had collapsed only because of Siloje’s flawed design, artistic in name alone.
A maw bristling with the fangs of a massive carnivore. Was there anything more terrifying? There was. Something without even a maw, let alone a head, yet still moving and alive. The nightmarish Imperatora roared at Benny. A thunderous bellow like a giant horn, issued without a mouth.
Benny fought to keep her tears in check. “Nathan. Do you think you can beat something like that?”
Nathan searched for an answer. Was there a method suited to this moment among the dozens of abyss-extermination techniques he had learned in the knight order, or the hundreds of violent methods Orcus had drilled into him?
“Uh… I did overhear something from Father once. He said never to charge in if the weight difference exceeds a hundred times.”
“…How wise of him.”
It was truly wise advice—though utterly useless. Benny swallowed a silent scream and tried to climb back up the stairs.
“Wait.”
A single word from Santra, who had lain motionless until now. Nathan turned to the owner of the Great Arena slung over his back.
“Wait?”
The monster was already shifting its weight, ready to leap. Even without a direct collision, the stairs would collapse if it charged. The drop was high enough that getting back up would be nearly impossible. Even if they survived the fall, another problem remained. The creature was a Void Maw—a monster revived by the abyss from those slain before their time. Its sole purpose was to drag the living into its ranks. Anyone killed by a Void Maw would rise again as one. Shattered pelvis from the fall, spine crushed beneath the dinosaur’s foot, yet unable to die and doomed to wander in limbo. How splendid.
So Nathan cut her off. “Wait for what? Are you insane?”
Unlike the group, the monster did not hesitate. It launched itself forward, intent on ramming them with its full mass. There was no time to dodge. Nathan set Santra down behind him and prepared to jump. He had never been taught how to kill a beast of that size, but sometimes one had to face challenges without preparation. From now on, he would have to think fast. How to bring down a ten-ton monster with an eighty-seven-kilogram body.
I’ve caught a dragon before. It can’t be heavier than five hundred orcs put together. So maybe…
His head pounded with feverish blood. Nathan crouched low.
I might actually win this.
“I told you to wait. I didn’t tell you to jump.”
A pitch-black circle opened before them, wide enough to blot out the Imperatorasaurus entirely.
Rumble. From beyond the circle came the heavy sound of metal sliding. Yet all the group could see was the back of the circle. What was happening on the other side, they only learned after Santra later dispelled the magic.
The thunder Santra had summoned through teleportation was a long, heavy steel H-beam framework. One end rested beneath their feet; the other was driven diagonally into the ground. In the middle, the Imperatora hung limp, impaled through the body.
Nathan blinked, his mind suddenly clear. Memories of trying to attack Santra flashed past like a zoetrope. His imagined future self, crushed like a cookie beneath rebar. Fortunately, Santra seemed to have no time to repeat the act. The owner of the Great Arena coughed repeatedly, having formed a hand seal with her bandaged hand. A few drops of blood fell onto the emergency stair floor.
“Santra, are you alright?”
Santra swatted Benny’s supporting hand away with her good arm.
“As if.”
“Arena Master. Can you create a teleportation gate for our escape?”
“Can’t. Making a gate large enough for me to pass through is harder than the rebar. Because of the scale of my mana. So don’t look at me with hopeful eyes.”
“What about a gate for just the two of us?”
Nathan turned his head, pretending not to notice Santra’s scolding gaze.
“I can make one for the other two, but not for you.”
Nathan momentarily forgot the image of being flattened. Damn woman.
“Yes. Of course you can.”
“It’s not about liking or disliking you. It’s because there’s an enormous being inside you. To move that through a teleportation gate, I’d probably need three of me right now.”
Nathan recalled the incident in the abandoned building in Graveyard Valley. The unknown ghost that had tried to seize his body within his mental space.
“That thing possessing me? It can’t be that great.”
“What’s possessing you, Nathan? Are you okay?”
“Huh? No, it’s not serious…”
Aspen’s eyes widened, ready to press further, but stopped at the woman’s urgent gesture. The Arena Master’s finger pointed at the rebar.
“Step on that and go down?”
Santra nodded weakly. Sweat beaded on her veil. If this was the idea she had squeezed out with her last strength, it seemed a decent improvisation—except for the high risk of falling.
The surface of the rebar was far too smooth. But with the stairs collapsed, there was no other way. Vibrations from the courthouse hastened their decision. Nathan picked Santra up again and took the lead.
“I’ll test it first. Aspen. Benny, once I get down safely, follow—”
The sensation of a distant fall. The moment he stepped on it.
Nathan took a moment to curse Santra. What kind of nonsense was it to lay out something that would slip the instant you stepped on it and tell them to go down this way?
It was a misunderstanding. The entire emergency exit, a temporary structure, was detaching from the courthouse. The last thing Nathan saw as he was pushed off the rebar and fell was Aspen throwing herself into the building while holding Benny.
Thank goodness.
Until the moment his head struck the floor, Nathan thought so.
[Can’t you just die already?]
What?
[Normal people would have died dozens of times over in situations like yours, yet you’re still fine. Do you have a conscience? Are you even human?]
That sounded a lot like the gamblers at the betting house. What exactly do you want me to say? That I’m sorry for surviving and making things complicated? That I should just die to make up for it?
The absurdity of it all.
[A dragon breathed fire, but the trajectory missed. A dinosaur charged, but the mage whose fingers were blown off still cast a spell and lived. Then you fell from eight meters, and since you didn’t land in my domain, you survived again. Want to know why this time? Your skull’s too thick. And there happened to be a pile of trash where you fell. Ha! Ridiculous.]
That part had worried Nathan a little too. The senior knights had said that overusing a naturally gifted body would bring suffering in old age. If he kept ramming into things, would he eventually lose even the intelligence to read a picture book?
[No. Those illogical strokes of luck aren’t the real issue. Why, in this pristine city, was there a trash pile exactly where you fell? Why did the abyss fire from the swaying window—complete with a control room telling it not to miss coordinates—graze past you?]
Nathan gave the answer born from experience. Because they’re idiots.
[No. That’s not it. That cunning Miracle is holding onto you. The rules were never meant to work this way. You should have become a half-cripple or passed the chance to the next person. You were supposed to be unilaterally pressured until you gave up your agency.]
“Listening to you, it sounds like you’re printing nonsense like counterfeit bills. You’d make a great arena commentator.”
Nathan rubbed his throbbing head and sat up. The place was familiar.
“You again. Ghost?”
[You talk as if I came looking for you uninvited. I’m not the one going to you. You’re the one coming to me!]
A frustrated roar. Nathan couldn’t help the smirk that rose to his lips. He didn’t know why, but nothing felt quite as satisfying as watching this ghost grow exasperated.
[And I never told you to come here. And ghost? In all my long years among humans, I’ve never heard such a—]
The layered shadow, venting its frustration, shrank back as Nathan stood, brushing off his knees.
[Get rid of that.]
“Get rid of what.”
[Your arms. Shove them in your pockets or cut them off again—just get them out of my sight!]
Nathan looked down at the two hands the Miracle had granted him. In the dim space of his mind, their faint glow was far more noticeable than in daylight.
“How gracious of you to dislike them. Unfortunately, I’m a bit busy with personal matters. I’d appreciate it if you sent me back.”
[That’s up to your unconscious body. It has to wake up before you can climb back up.]
“Hmm. So struggling won’t help. Then let me ask you something.”
[I don’t want to.]
“After all that nonsense you spewed, what did you mean by saying I have to give up my agency?”
[I’ll tell you that when your head’s been cut off and is dangling.]
The insincere answer irritated him deeply. It stirred a sadistic playfulness in him. Nathan thrust both fists forward like a martial artist. Though the light was as faint as a dying campfire, the demon reacted with extreme sensitivity.
[Graaaah—!]
“Let there be sunlight in humanity’s future.”
[Stop it, you damned bastard! No wonder you’re Orcus’s rotten spawn!]
“You’re calling my father’s name like he’s your neighbor’s mutt. Did you know him personally?”
The shadow that had been retreating across the floor stopped abruptly. The next moment, it lifted its head with a triumphant smile.
[You wanted to ask about your father’s identity without being obvious, didn’t you? You’re dying for someone to drop a hint, aren’t you?]
“Your tongue’s long enough to wrap around the world and still have half a lap left. If you know, spit it out. If you don’t, shut your—”
[You’re right.]
Nathan, who had been approaching the shadow, froze.
“What do you mean—”
[You want to know what I’m thinking, don’t you? Didn’t I tell you before? I am you.]
The crouched shadow chuckled simultaneously through its many overlapping faces.
[Orcus Dispator is an Eleim.]
Nathan blinked.
“So what—”
[Orcus killed your mother. And your father.]
As Nathan stood speechless, the shadow pressed on triumphantly.
[He burned his own face like a thief hiding his identity after committing a crime. Then he came down to the Lower World and does whatever he wants with humans. Haven’t you ever wondered? Whether that man could really be human?]
He had wondered, more than once. A man who could decapitate a dragon—one that even four lion-winged warriors and their peers would struggle against—in a single strike couldn’t possibly be human.
[The Eleim who tried to control your life weren’t only in the Heavens. The grueling years you spent on the ground were also in their grasp. The Eleim designed your life as they pleased! To fight and die for them!]
“You’re reading my mind and lying—”
[I am you. You know that. I can’t lie to you!]
It was true. He could feel the creature’s sincerity. Whatever this demon’s true identity was, it was clearly rooted far too deeply in his mind. The thing that had lived inside Nathan all this time could not lie to him.
“Fine. Let’s say you’re telling the truth. So what?”
[The world torments you as much as it wants, then scatters caltrops on the path to revenge. The chivalry you cling to is an illusion they planted. Every struggle you’ve fought has been a lie. Everyone around you has their own agenda. Life holds none of the value you expect!]
The layered shadow embraced itself, beat its chest, and stretched out its arms. Every gesture of its passionate speech was performed simultaneously by each shadow.
[In this empty, uncomprehending world, I am the only one on your side.]
Nathan felt his body beginning to rise. It was the signal that his physical form was ready to awaken. But he only gritted his teeth, staring into the shadow’s eyes.
[Take my hand. Please.]