Under the Ruins of the Ancient Future (5)

“Ah… hehe… hnn♡ Mmmph… glp… glp♡”

Yessss♡ Mmm, mmm, Kaira, Kaira, nnngh, ehehehe… alive, al—, alive… I’m… here… heh♡

That’s right, that’s right, my pussy’s all stretched out, nnngh, stretched so wiiiide… even an adult man’s arm can fit inside now♡ Ehehe, heh… even my asshole… hnn… can feel things now… Ahh, right now, I’m… going, go—, going…

And… Kaira’s… body… ehehehehehe… it’s all dried up and twisted… ahaha, like a mummy… like a zombie, it’s funny… A skull-like face with sunken cheeks… and you can see all my ribs… My breasts… they’re gone… Ah! Ahaha, well, they were never really there to begin with…

“Mmmph… hohhh… hoh, hee… Hyo, hyoa… aaah…”

My pussy feels so good… I think I’m going crazy… Ah♡ Ehe, I’m already crazy… but if I go even crazier, that would be… nice…

Right, I’m sorry… I can’t… hold on anymore… My arms and legs… they’re so thin now… all wrinkled… I’m going to die soon… Nnngh. The demon’s babies… six? Maybe seven… Ahaha, I gave birth to them…

Nnngh… I can see the future… This auditorium… nothing left… just like Kaira, everything erased… a future of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing…

Now, magic… ma—, magic… only one sip left… Kaira is happy… dried up like a fish in the sun, twisted and ugly, her pretty face… completely gone… turned into a skull and dying… Yeah, this… feels so good…

Ehe, aaah♡ Ehh, hnn♡ Ma—, magic… being… sucked out… my nipples… being sucked… sucked by the baby… hnn♡

Kaira is…

Right… here…

Eh… divine…

Ahaha… Kaira doesn’t… believe in gods…

Of course not…

Gods existing… and helping you if you believe and follow them… Hyaa♡

What a stupid thing to say…

…Rewind.

And everything rewound without leaving a trace.

My mana circulation system, which had been flickering like a dying ember after having all its mana stolen. My body, reduced to a skeletal husk from malnutrition, forced nursing, and mana absorption, so emaciated it was hard to tell if I was still alive. My brain, its intelligence completely destroyed until it could only produce broken moans like a piece of meat. My womb, swollen into a sphere too large to hold in both arms as it expelled one newborn demon after another.

“I really am awful. Getting raped until I’m on the brink of death in this hideous state, my mana circulation destroyed, every trace of my existence erased… Well, that kind of end would be happy and pleasant, but no matter how much I want to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be destroyed, I can’t actually go all the way. Kaira is a good girl. She can’t do that. Even though there are people waiting for me, I still can’t…”

“You too. Trying to turn me into a specimen was fine. I wouldn’t have minded being preserved. But… tampering with my mana circulation system was going too far. Or rather, it was a mistake that would cause problems. Because that mana absorption technique… it pulls mana toward the side with more mana, doesn’t it? Like a small meteor being drawn toward a heavy planet.”

“You just assumed that because it was a demon made of magic, and an ancient, powerful one at that, it would have more mana than a mere human female. But that wasn’t the case.”

As the demon’s mana was sucked toward me, its tentacles—those that had tasted my body, smelled my scent, listened to the music of my moans, and watched me climax with my tongue hanging out—dried up and crumbled. The fragments of the broken tentacles turned ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into glowing particles of mana and seeped into my circulation system.

“…I had far more mana. I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t erase a being that has lived so long and knows so much… but to protect this body, Kaira’s good body, I had no choice.”

I reached out with my left hand. In it was the tool created long ago by the great mages and heroes, designed solely to disintegrate a single powerful demon without harming anything else around it. I knew all twelve spells stored within. I only needed to choose one and use it.

Ke-Zaan’s Vain Oxidation……

The spell, originally developed to slay dragons that were purer masses of magic than even this demon born from the grace of the beyond, shot forward as an ominously glowing yellow-green beam at the speed of light.

The demon, unable to move its body from the very beginning, the ancient being that had spent nearly ten thousand years simply collecting knowledge after being born from the greed of those who sought it, could not avoid the ray. Even if the spell had been slow enough to make one sigh, it still would not have been able to dodge.

The Curiosity Demon’s body, which had towered up to the auditorium ceiling in an uneven, elongated shape, glowed once with a soft green light before collapsing with a soft pop. Like well-baked charcoal blown away after burning through the night, or like powder snow on a dry winter road scattered by a howling wind.

All the power that had maintained the false flesh binding the Curiosity Demon to this world was severed. The demon turned into dust contaminated by overflowing mana and scattered, briefly tinting the collection it had gathered over countless years with a faint glow. Like the tail of a crushed, dying firefly.

“Haa……”

And my body, filthy and ruined with dried sweat, saliva, fluids, urine, and mana-infused milk, collapsed on the spot. As I knelt in the pool of amniotic fluid and love juices from giving birth to the demon’s offspring, a sticky, unpleasant sound echoed.

The ring’s stored magic… but it’s such a grand spell that my mana circulation is still throbbing from the interference. This is going to be incredibly exhausting……

I fiddled with the ring. I considered rewinding time to refill the magic I had used, but I feared that arbitrarily rewinding a ring containing such grand spells would severely distort causality and open a rift connecting the world to its existence. Even just once before had startled Master Viran greatly.

There were still many spells left. The only ones I had used and lost were Ke-Zaan’s Firm Rest, which Master Viran had used to petrify Pirel, and Ke-Zaan’s Vain Oxidation, which I had just cast. …Even Ke-Zaan’s Scattering Storm, said to emit lightning that could purify the world, was too much for me to cast, so excluding that, nine spells remained.

But…… what was that, really? Just now… I only had two choices. Either have all my mana drained until I became a hollow mummy and my existence completely erased, or have that being, wary of breaking its vessel, descend by consuming me while I was too weakened to resist.

So, the reverse flow of mana toward me should have been impossible. Unless that being had descended, the mana of a small human girl could never have surpassed a demon that was the very crystallization of magic itself.

Really, what was it……

But it definitely wasn’t a descent. I hadn’t heard that usual voice. The mocking yet possessive whisper of the god from beyond, carrying an unmistakable transcendent will. It had been the same back at the cabin.

Without even asking for my consent, it occasionally intervenes and lends its power?

But if that were the case, it would be easier to keep interfering with my mind, constantly whispering mockery and trampling me until I went mad. That way, it could enjoy taking my body.

More than anything, just now… it hadn’t felt like something had seized my body and forced it to move…

It had felt more like… something inside my heart had surged up…

And I had moved of my own will……

My head was a mess.

For now, I should rewind my body’s time a little more… no, rewind it to when I was nineteen years and four months old, and wash away all the dried filth. Rewinding to that time wouldn’t erase the horrific memories I had gained here, but it would make me feel better.

Only then did I sense a presence and look at the small demons that seemed frightened. So they hadn’t been erased yet. Of course—they were separate entities from the Curiosity Demon, which had been formed from a massive concentration of magic.

…Some of them must be the demons I gave birth to. I could tell which ones were my “children.” Pitch-black figures mimicking human infants were mixed among the eyes, noses, ears, and tongues.

I put on my clothes and spoke softly to the demons that were either watching me, smelling me, listening to the sound of me dressing, or licking my calves wistfully.

“I’m going to record what happened here and send it to Master Viran by carrier pigeon. Since your master is dead, the magic preserving the specimens here will weaken. They were important specimens to your master, but they’re important to us too… Please protect them so the preservation magic doesn’t break until Master Viran or the expedition from the Magic University arrives. I’m counting on you.”

I parted my lips slightly, then added one more thing, turning my face away in embarrassment.

“…I’m counting on you. As your mother.”

I slung the backpack I had left on the floor over my shoulders, lit a weak illumination spell, and walked back toward the ladder. The backpack felt especially heavy today, my shoulders slumped as I trudged along. …Thud, thud.

I reached the ladder, but the stone lid that had closed on its own when I entered was still shut. I couldn’t push it open with my own strength, so I used the telekinesis spell I had learned from Master Viran’s book once more. I opened the stone lid and pushed it aside, but it was still dark above. Only a faint light like pearl dust shone through the round gap at the top of my head.

It’s night.

How long had I been down here? Was it only one day, from morning to midnight, or had I spent several days being milked of mana… even having my nonexistent breasts forcibly sucked… acting as an incubator for demons?

Even as I pondered this, I gestured with my left hand and used the remaining telekinesis to fling the backpack outside.

The book said… if they don’t resist with their will, even living creatures can be lifted.

I wondered for a moment if I could lift my own body, but the sudden floating sensation frightened me, and I worried that reflexively struggling would count as resistance. I didn’t want to gamble, so I quietly grabbed the cold ladder instead.

This is exhausting……

With all my strength drained, even climbing the ladder one rung at a time was difficult. But there was no other way. After several rests, I finally pulled myself out of the hole and collapsed, panting.

Somehow gathering the strength to climb the ladder with my limp body, I poked my head out of the hole and offered a farewell. Looking down at the small demons staring up at me like puppies who had lost their master.

“Goodbye, little ones.”

The moment I finished speaking, the stone lid moved on its own, and the round hole soon closed again. It seemed the magic that opened and closed the door hadn’t been cast by the Curiosity Demon.

“Haa……”

I let out a sigh containing hours—perhaps days or weeks—of anguish, and collapsed in the middle of the ruins. Half-lying down with the backpack as a pillow, in a completely disheveled posture.

Staring blankly into the distance, I saw stars in my unfocused eyes. Countless stars. The Milky Way. Proof that I… that all of us walking this land… existed on an ordinary planet within some galaxy, an immovable truth.

Did the elves from thousands of years ago see this too?

I glanced at the two halves of the reflector telescope’s mirror still lying discarded and thought this as well.

Well, that small telescope wouldn’t have been enough. The wavelengths were probably only visible light anyway, and they probably didn’t even know about radio waves……

My body was gradually relaxing. Before I knew it, I was lying comfortably on the ruins’ floor with only the back of my neck resting on the backpack, limbs spread wide. The cold from the ground crept slowly up my back, but I didn’t care.

That Milky Way… is it the same one I saw from Earth… the one we called the Milky Way? If so, I wonder where Earth is in the sky I’m looking at right now. ……Mom, Dad, are you still alive? My little sibling must be almost fifty by now.

My eyes were closing.

I should have laid out the sleeping bag, but my mind was too exhausted to move.

The night wind on the plains was dry and cold, but since I was inside the ruins, there were walls to block some of the wind. Though my calves, knees, and a bit of my thighs were exposed between my boots and the hem of my dress, the parts covered by the dress and robe were still warm… so I wouldn’t freeze to death.

I miss them. My old family, my friends… Even if it’s just a useless daydream, even if it’s a story without context when I try to recall it after waking, I hope I dream… of Earth…