Black Carnival (3)

The powerful premonition hit him like a wave. The moment he took that hand, Nathan would become an existence unbound by the shackles of mortal life. An existence that would not crumble beneath any trial. And so, he would be able to achieve anything.

Nathan slowly extended his left hand. Very slowly.

The shadow smiled with dozens of overlapping faces, welcoming his decision…

Smack.

The slap that flew instead of a handshake shattered the shadow’s smile.

“Oh. It actually touched.”

The shadow whose face had touched the Miracle began to burn. It stamped its feet, clutching its scorching visage.

Watching the pathetic sight, Nathan grinned and lifted his foot.

“You made two mistakes.”

Its crumbling, ash-like cheek still clutched in its hand, the shadow stared weakly at Nathan’s face.

“First. Who the hell persuades someone like that? Your hidden schemes are practically leaking out all over the place. If I take your hand? Were you planning to tell me exactly what happens next? You want me to sign without even giving me the terms and conditions? Do I look like a fucking idiot to you?”

“Even if it’s not a lie, it can still be different from the truth. It could be a personal opinion, or you could have deliberately left out a few words. Go ahead, deny it.”

The shadow shut its mouth.

Nathan thought it really was an easy creature to read.

“If you truly wanted to bring me to your side, you could have run a much more clever scam. For example, telling me that if I joined you, my dick would grow an extra six centimeters. Ugh. Just saying it out loud makes me feel sick at the thought of falling for it.”

“It seems true that you can’t lie to me. You could have tried to deceive me if you really wanted to, but it doesn’t look like you make a habit of outright falsehoods. Thanks for that. If we ever talk again, I’ll filter what you say on my own.”

As he walked away, Nathan made a rude gesture.

“Anyway, that was the first mistake.”

“Second mistake. You openly hinted that you’d steal my body and use it however you wanted. Would you trust someone who said that? You’re telling me I have to hand my body over to you because Orkos is even worse than I thought? What kind of bullshit is that?”

Nathan extended his ring finger beside his middle finger. Double the insult.

“A ten-year-old kid with a grudge against the neighborhood bully usually creates an imaginary friend like you. I humbly admit I was a little immature. But I’m not stupid enough to mortgage my entire life to that imaginary friend.”

“Santra, you, everywhere I look there’s nothing but gloomy bastards. Turn on a damn light in your room, you piece of shit!”

As the Miracle’s light faded from his hand, the shadow stood up and walked back to the center of the room. It glared at the departing Nathan with eyes that looked like they would drip blood.

“What?”

Nathan shouted, “I can’t hear you, you moron! Speak louder!”

—

‘I’m going to die.’

The pain burned fiercely. When Nathan opened his eyes and blinked, he shook his head as if realizing something.

‘No. I can’t go back. Who would that benefit?’

Lying spread-eagle on a pile of garbage, Nathan looked down at his chest. Santra was breathing raggedly on top of him, completely squashing him.

‘Thank god it’s not the other way around. If I burst, who would clean it up?’

Nathan checked the unconscious Santra’s pulse. All her limbs were still attached. She was breathing. Her respiration was normal.

Nathan nodded. She was alive.

But strangely, he didn’t feel particularly relieved.

The arrowhead still lodged in his shoulder, however… The impact of the fall couldn’t possibly have had a positive effect. He didn’t know how advanced Heavenly medical care was, but if he didn’t get it treated soon, there was a high chance he would lose the use of his arm.

Grunting, Nathan hoisted the uncooperative Santra onto his back, stood up from the garbage pile, and immediately leaped away from the teeth snapping at his feet.

‘Jesus, you damn thing.’

A Voidjaw modeled after a human bared its teeth and growled. Nathan, whose mood had soured, landed by stomping on its head. Its skull shattered, and the Voidjaw collapsed into fragments that looked like shattered coal.

Wiping the thick fluid off on the asphalt, Nathan scanned his surroundings.

“Slide down the metal beams and make a quick escape?”

Nathan muttered quietly. He had to keep his voice low enough not to draw attention.

“If that was the plan, I picked the wrong direction.”

The Voidjaws were crawling out without pause. As if blood were oozing from a wound. From the deep pit torn open by abyssal flames near where the steel girders had impaled the ground, from a mass of boiling tar-like liquid.

Nathan felt despair at their sheer numbers. Just how many people had died around here?

‘They said the courthouse also served as an execution ground.’

Fortunately, there were no giants as massive as the dinosaur from earlier. Most of the dead possessed the bodies of humans or Eleim. And the majority of them weren’t even looking at Nathan.

The mournful roars of those who had emerged first drew the gaze of the newly crawled-out ones. Toward the two women on the fourth floor of the courthouse.

“Nathaaaan—!”

“Nathan! Are you okay?”

Voices from above the building. Aspen and Benny, who had been desperately calling for Nathan while he remained motionless, finally seemed relieved.

But Nathan in the shadows could not answer. The swarm of monsters was far too close. So the screams weren’t just out of worry. They were meant to draw the creatures’ attention.

Nathan bit his lip. Gratitude, and guilt.

Unable to make a sound, he gestured. Aspen, recognizing the Knight Order’s hand signals, answered immediately.

“We found an exit too! Just meet up with us below! Let’s meet outside, Nathan!”

Aspen and Benny vanished into the darkness inside the fifth floor. The Voidjaws crawled after them over the building’s collapsed debris. The price of drawing their attention.

Because their footing was unstable, the jaws kept falling, but by using each other as stepping stones, several of them looked like they would soon succeed in climbing.

They looked like a swarm of pitch-black ants crawling up a stalk of grass.

“Hey, you crow-shit-looking bastards!”

The moment one of them triumphantly placed its arm on the fifth-floor threshold, a rock flew and smashed its cervical vertebrae. The tower the dead had built with their bodies collapsed with a crash.

The Voidjaws that had fallen in a chain all turned at once toward the direction the stone had come from.

“I’ll give you the chance of a lifetime. Whoever catches up to me first gets the magician I’m carrying. Not me, though.”

The Arena Owner, her face buried against Nathan’s back, spoke in a voice that sounded on the verge of death.

“How touching.”

Shouts and growls. A large number of monsters began chasing after Nathan, spraying black filth behind them.

In the meantime, Nathan had already retreated to flat ground where an escape route was secured. Without looking back, he ran.

“First come, first served—one person—!”

—

Running breathlessly, Nathan reflected.

He was not the kind of fool who interpreted phenomena at face value. There had been times when the friendly farmer who was supposed to be rescued by the Knight Order turned out to be a sinister priest of the abyss. There had been cases where he was ordered to subdue a rampaging beast, only to discover that the spirits had used the knights’ hands to eliminate hidden demons.

That was how the world worked.

If only fools who judged everything by a single statement existed, humanity would have long since been buried ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠under its own stupidity and destroyed.

Even if that demon bastard had told him what he knew to be true, there was still plenty of room for different interpretations.

If he were to pick out the important parts of the creature’s statement…

First. It said Orkos had killed Nathan’s biological parents. But it didn’t tell him how or why it had happened. Who could know? It could have been a duel, friendly fire, or maybe he had treated them to a generous meal only for the meat to disagree with them and they died from an allergic reaction. There was plenty of room for self-defense.

Among the Nordin tribe that formed Nathan’s roots, there were still groups that worshipped the abyss and lived by eating people. If his biological mother, whose face he didn’t even know, was actually a cannibal who was basically a yeti without the fur, it would be a little depressing, but—

“I’m thinking here! Get out of the way, don’t block the path!”

While sprinting across a bridge, Nathan punched a Voidjaw blocking his way. The creature whose jawbone had been shattered tumbled limply over the railing.

The recoil made Santra’s body shake violently, but there was nothing he could do about it. She would probably have to endure that same recoil many more times. It seemed the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Voidjaws had taken over every corner of the city.

Second important statement. The Orkos who had hidden his identity had disguised himself as a citizen of the Federation and trained Nathan for a certain purpose. To become something that would fight for the Eleim and die. It sounded exactly like he had already decided Nathan’s fate would be as a spectacle in the arena.

But he hadn’t said it was definitely so. He had merely spoken in a way that made it sound that way. That part made Nathan extremely suspicious.

What if that “purpose” was actually the same as what Nathan already knew? What if it was to train Nathan well so he could fight the abyss? If the world became safer by Nathan’s share, that benefit would indirectly reach the Eleim in the Heavens as well. Even if they hid in a corner of the sky, they were still part of this world.

Since the mortality rate of Lion-Wing Knights was high, the statement that he would fight and die for the Eleim might be exaggerated, but it wasn’t wrong. See? You could make up as many stories as you wanted—

“I’m in the middle of reasoning, you sons of bitches—!”

When a fairly large Voidjaw charged at him, Nathan adjusted Santra forward and slid on his back. The werewolf’s claws, aimed at his neck, tore through empty air.

He couldn’t avoid the fight by running. Since the original of this Voidjaw was a werewolf, it would be much faster than a human.

Nathan quickly set Santra down on the roadside and urgently ripped off an iron rod from a hanging signboard beside him.

First strike. The werewolf’s claws sliced the rod in half.

Second strike. Nathan ducked under the snapping jaws and stabbed the now-sharpened broken rod into the creature’s foot.

Third strike. As it raised its head in pain and howled, he shoved the remaining piece of the rod into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠its throat. As roughly as possible.

Nathan rammed his shoulder into the werewolf’s chest, wrapped both arms around its neck, and threw it over the bridge.

The commotion behind him. The bastards he had provoked earlier were catching up. There was no time to waste.

Nathan hoisted Santra again and sprinted off. And he thought:

Third. He didn’t know what kind of game board he had been thrown onto, but according to the “rules”…

Because of the crises he had already faced, he should have already died or become a cripple and handed that wretch over to someone else. Without the help of the Miracle, he would no longer be of this world.

This was a rather big problem. It sounded like an implication that trials would continue to come in order to kill Nathan.

Fortunately, there was a clear way to escape those trials.

Submitting to the wretch.

A rebellious spirit boiled up fiercely inside Nathan’s chest.

“Eleim, wretch gods, they’re not perverts, so why are they so damn interested in someone else’s life!”

Leaping over the broken bridge, Nathan roared.

Dozens of pitch-black hands trying to grab him sliced through the empty air behind him.

“Watch me not give a single damn, you damned bastards! I will survive—!”