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“There are a lot of them……”
Squirm, squirm.
The Titanos Mares swarmed as if to fill every gap in the forest.
A horde of black-scaled snakes, and among them, a white-scaled snake, a woman, glowing dully.
“Alone, ufufu, I wonder how that feels. For me, yes, it was so very, very cold and miserable and sad. Fluffy, fluffy. The sea was so very wide, so I was all alone at the bottom of the water, fufufu.”
The snake woman laughed while swaying her wet body sinuously.
His tactics were already fixed. A method he could use precisely because he had no companions with him.
He would not hold back. He would not repeat the mistake from before. He would use his strongest trump card to the fullest.
“……”
A sudden nausea and dizziness. A relapse. The backlash from the relic he had used several times to get here was already close at hand.
“Hihi, you can keep chatting a little longer, you know. You called Lazaar because you wanted him to listen to your story, right? Come on, I’ll listen in his place.”
“……Ufufu, so that is how it is. Sorry, Tooyama Naruhito. We will never underestimate you.”
“Oh yeah? Then let’s begin.”
How to fight monsters. Tooyama Naruhito had one personal theory regarding that challenge.
Tooyama broke into a run.
“Raaah!!”
Keep attacking. Humans and monsters. If one became calm, there was no way the human side could win. It was a fight with worse odds than encountering a man-eating bear in the forest.
“Sharo!!”
“You’re huge. Seriously makes me sick.”
Without hesitation, without flinching, without lamenting, he gripped the cheap spear on his back with both hands and stabbed it into the body of the nearest snake monster.
Deceive yourself, deceive the monster. Convince yourself that you can fight monsters.
If he became sane, he would notice.
He would notice that humans were nothing more than food for monsters. Therefore, there was only one way for humans to fight monsters.
“Sharororo!!”
“Ooooooraah!!”
—Fight.
“I’ll kill you. I’ll absolutely kill you.”
He twisted the spearhead, clung to the screaming monster’s body, and aimed for its head.
He was not food. He was absolutely not food. Surprise attacks and carefully arranged hunts were no longer possible.
“Hahohoho, sharororororo!!”
“Damn it!!”
Tooyama clung to the body and aimed for the head. Another Titanos Mare targeted him and swung the arm and weapon growing from its mouth.
“Jah?! Ah, aah?!”
He immediately leaped away and rolled across the ground. The axe blow swung at Tooyama split in half the torso of the Titanos Mare that Tooyama had been clinging to just moments before.
Twitch, twitch. The writhing Titanos Mare soon stopped moving.
“No hesitation at all, seriously. That’s cheating, you octopus-snakes.”
It was not one-on-one. It was many against one. If he focused on a single Titanos Mare, he would be attacked by the surrounding Titanos Mares.
He wiped the mud stuck to his cheek and readied his spear.
Laugh, sneer, fight, kill.
If he was even a little afraid, they would find out. This was no longer a “hunt” conducted by human knowledge and will.
“Aha, Tooyama Naruhito. Your hand is shaking.”
“It’s called trembling with excitement.”
With madness and killing intent, staking everything he had—
“Kill them all, Relic Blade.”
It was a “fight to the death.”
“Jah?!”
“Ooooooh?! Winter, the pain of winter that kills ussss?!”
White mist kept spreading from Tooyama. It devoured the snake monsters.
Slice, slice. Starting with the monsters closest to Tooyama, they began bleeding from their bodies and writhing.
“Ah, you’re trying so hard. Fufu, ufufu.”
“I’m definitely going to smash that smirking face of yours into mush, uwabara!!”
He pointed the tip of his spear toward the white Titanos Mare enthroned deep within the swarm. As he did that, one dying monster turned its great mouth toward Tooyama as if collapsing onto him.
He narrowly dodged it.
“Oh, you’re used to this…… Ufufu, you are used to being alone, aren’t you?”
“Could you not say that like I don’t have friends? That hurt, so I’m going to kill you.”
“Snake…… Jah……”
The giant snake that had bitten into the ground apparently no longer had the strength to regain its posture, its massive body already carved up by Relic Blade.
“Second one.”
He drove the spear hard into the snake’s head. He gouged it as if stirring it around and finished it off.
“Aha, but I still have so many friends.”
“It was rough, but I spread it far enough. All of you are within range.”
“Relic Blade, increase output.”
Carve, carve, carve.
Using the relic while prepared to self-destruct. In its normal operation, Relic Blade was a weapon that should be used after setting up the battlefield more carefully and thoroughly.
“Jah, aaaaah.”
“It hurrrrrts, aaaaaha.”
By its nature, the blades of mist also wounded Tooyama himself. Setting the density of mist that would not engulf him, roughly determining the range, and moving within it kept shaving away both his mind and stamina.
“Not yet. More, more, more, right to the limit……!”
Using Relic Blade in a tight battle was undoubtedly a bad move.
But the current Tooyama knew the future that awaited if he did not do it. Back then, in his final battle in the modern dungeon, facing many monster species, he had hesitated to use Relic Blade.
“I’ll never die again from holding back!!”
He spread the mist. In his left hand, the broken blade. In his right hand, the cheap spear.
“A-Aaaaaaaaaa! Oraaaah!! Dieeeee!!”
“Ji, jah, shaaaaaaaa……”
He targeted and killed the giant snakes rendered immobile and near death by Relic Blade.
“Thiiird oneeee!!”
He thrust the spear into the wound carved open by Relic Blade, made it bleed, then, once its movements slowed, ran up its body and stabbed its head repeatedly.
His face stained with spurting blood, he roared with fiery spirit.
Rouse yourself, go mad, laugh, kill. If he stopped even one step, if he was afraid for even one instant, he would be hunted down.
“Next, next, neeeext……”
An adventurer stood atop the corpse of a giant snake collapsed on the ground.
He stood in the death zone, holding a broken blade wrapped in white mist and a spear clotted with blood.
The tactic Tooyama had chosen was simple. There was no longer strategy or bargaining there.
Full-power use of Relic Blade.
The only reason Tooyama had not yet been crushed by the Titanos Mare swarm was because, through the use of Relic Blade, he was constantly cutting apart many monsters.
“Aha…… Fufu, no, no. Even so, we will not perish. Our scales are undying scales. They go round and round foreeever.”
“Feed Skill: Undying Scales.”
“Hihi…… Is this a gimmick boss? Harvey! What the hell is that?!”
“Get to the point!”
“Got it. This game is trash.”
“Fufu, in despair, it blooms softly. Cold morning, sweltering noon, deep night. I wonder what will happen to you.”
“You monster.”
Tooyama Naruhito was by no means a superhuman.
He could not conduct high-speed combat like Stolu Pula, where one might mistake her for wind or a beast, nor could he perform three-dimensional combat using shadows like Lazaar.
And he could not overwhelm everything with power like those dragons.
“……If only I had even one handgun.”
Giant snake monsters with weapons growing from their upward-looking mouths. On top of that, they would not die even if killed. A swarm of them.
Their unknowable leader.
Even if he had one or two automatic rifles, it would not be too much of an advantage. But Tooyama had no such weapon in his hands.
“Aah fufu. How sad. Those children abandoned you and ran away. Those children will live. You will die.”
The monster whispered. An obvious death. An obvious ending.
“……You say nasty things.”
But even so, he had no choice but to do it. Within the range of human athletic ability, he would fly, fall, jump, swing, stab, and scream.
In other words, as usual. He would bet everything and struggle.
“Fluffy, fluffy. You will never shine again. Fufu. The light-blue child will cry. If the shadow person lives, he will suffer. Your death will become that ordinary sadness.”
“Who knows? They might get over it surprisingly quickly.”
The white Titanos Mare, the woman growing from its mouth, grinned.
Words were no longer needed.
Relic Blade, full-power use.乱 battle, run through, all enemies, kill them all.
“A-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
Carve, cut, die.
Use all his strength and destroy everything.
It felt as if something inside his body was being consumed, and something else was filling the space in its place.
“Aha, pushing yourself too hard?”
“I’m fine, monster.”
Mist spread with Tooyama Naruhito at its center.
The pure-white mist that violated the world enveloped and spread through the giant snake swarm, cutting the monsters to pieces.
“Shaaaaaaa……”
“I-bya, jaaaaaaa.”
The Titanos Mares that tried to attack Tooyama screamed and writhed.
“I’m going!! This time, for sure, this time! I’ll destroy all of you monsters, and I’ll live!!”
With the iron spear gripped in his right hand, he mercilessly, ruthlessly finished off the writhing giant snakes one by one.
“Hah, hah, hi, hihi, haa……!”
He clung to the giant body of a writhing snake. The giant snake, carved by Relic Blade and bleeding from its body, moved slowly. With precision, he drove the spear into its head.
Splurt, squish.
He pierced the jewel-like eye on its forehead, and the spearhead crushed something.
In a death zone where undying snakes that would not die even when killed squirmed, Tooyama Naruhito was still permitted to survive solely because of the power of the mist whose origin he did not know.
“Ugh, bleeegh.”
Vomit. He leaned against the corpse of the snake he had just killed and emptied his stomach. The more he used Relic Blade,
the more his body was consumed. It used all the power and heat needed to live.
“Keep going.”
His face pale, he wiped his mouth and looked forward. Nausea blurred his mind. He staggered and sank to one knee.
“……I hate those eyes. I really hate those eyes…… That’s wrong, isn’t it? Those aren’t the eyes someone should have when looking at despair.”
Even so, Tooyama’s eyes shone fiercely. Even when stared down by despair, this man—
“Fourth one.”
Never looked away.
Advance, advance, advance. Back then, it had not worked. He had been lacking. He had made a mistake.
“Hatamura, Kusakabe…… This time, I will……!”
He swung the spear, gouging and piercing monster flesh. The heavy sensation of penetrating flesh felt like stabbing a stick into muddy clay.
He thought of his old companions.
He remembered the people he had left behind. He remembered his companions from his explorer days, the ones who had made Tooyama Naruhito human.
He could no longer meet them, no longer talk to them. Because he had lost. Because he had failed back then.
““Jah, shaaaaaaa.””
Tooyama advanced. Kicking away the corpses of giant snakes, he isolated himself in the middle of the swarm, within enemy lines. Deeper and deeper into the death zone.
Two wounded giant snakes lifted their bodies and approached Tooyama. To protect the final hope of the Titanos Mares enthroned deep within the swarm, they too tried to live by killing their greatest enemy.
“In my way. Relic Blade, move them.”
The broken blade in his left hand. He pointed its tip forward like swinging a conductor’s baton.
““! Jah…… ah.””
Twitch. The two giant snakes trembled and stopped moving. Then, immediately, they sank weakly to the ground.
Shredded. The invisible, microscopic mist mixed with the air and carved the giant snakes from within.
“Five and six.”
This was a relic holder.
One qualified to handle an item of supernatural power that could not be explained by the science contained within the modern dungeon.
It was something that broke the hierarchy. The predetermined hierarchy between monster and human, predator and prey.
“Now then, you. It’s your turn.”
Tooyama Naruhito, the relic holder, broke that hierarchy. Training wheels that raised his rank as a living creature by one level—
“Aha, amazing, winter. Huh, so that is what killed so many of my friends. Fufu, it suits you perfectly. Such strong and very cold fangs and claws……”
“You’re calm. But it’s over.”
He was in range.
After forcing his way through a large part of the swarm, killing monsters and climbing over corpses, Tooyama had arrived.
“Aha, hello.”
“Yeah, goodbye.”
Ahead, the target.
White scales, a writhing snake body, and a human body standing from the wide-open mouth.
The white snake woman. Tooyama had already caught her within Relic Blade’s range.
“Die.”
He pointed the broken blade and swung it. That was all that was needed. Just swing it while wishing to kill.
With only that, the white snake’s body would be torn apart—
“Scaaary.”
Squelch.
“Huh?”
It happened in an instant. The white snake woman vanished.
No, wrong. She had not vanished. Tooyama saw the gouged-out ground. The wet, soft ground. The white snake woman had burrowed into it in an instant.
“Aha, I’m going to be happy.”
At the same time her voice echoed from beneath his feet, Tooyama’s body was blown into the air.
“Crap.”
Tooyama was blown away like a toy, spinning and turning. As he floated, he belatedly understood his situation.
He had been blasted away.
The white snake woman had dug through the ground, burst out, and launched him upward from below.
Only ringing echoed deep in his ears, and he could not tell whether his body hurt or felt hot.
“Gah, ha—”
“Ah, that looks painful.”
His eyes were stolen.
That female body growing from the snake, the armless woman formed from white scales and skin.
She was like the Venus de Milo.
Even though this was not the time for that, his thoughts blurred.
“Aha.”
The white snake woman had emerged from the ground. Splurt. What grew out was an arm. Not from the female-body portion, but from the snake body. She drew back the arm that had grown there.
“Wai—”
“Smaaash.”
She swatted Tooyama down as he floated in the air.
Rotation, impact, pain.
It felt as if the world split and shattered into pieces.
“Geho.”
First, the smell of soil.
Then, what he slowly heard was a high-pitched ringing in his ears.
“Not yet, everyone. Ufufu, fluffy, fluffy, drifting. Undying Scales.”
Squelch, slurp, slurp.
He heard the sound of flesh boiling and blood swelling.
“Shu, rorororo.”
“Rararoro, ooooooh, our lady, our endpoint.”
“……Damn it.”
Finally, his vision returned. The blurred image slowly regained focus. Apparently, he had hit his head. It throbbed with pain, and at the same time, his vision returned to normal.
A hard sensation against his back. It seemed that after being knocked away, he had been slammed into a tree.
“Aha, only you, all alone now.”
“……Seriously, what a garbage game.”
The snake swarm was still intact. The snakes he had sliced apart and the snakes he had killed by stabbing spears into their heads bubbled at their wounds and rose again.
“Sharororororo.”
“Rororororororo.”
“Jarororororororororo.”
Among monsters that did not die even when killed, Tooyama was alone.
“Haha.”
A dry laugh spilled out unconsciously. He could only laugh now.
He checked his weapons. Perhaps because he had lost consciousness for an instant, Relic Blade had been stored inside his body. As for the cheap spear, because he had reflexively used it as a shield, it was no longer in his hand.
“Aha, what’s wrong? Hey, does it hurt? Does it huurt? Fufu.”
The white snake woman swayed her body sinuously. Tooyama had misjudged her fighting power.
She had probably understood Relic Blade’s traits instantly.
She had measured his methods using her forces and carried out countermeasures against Relic Blade. Indeed, if she escaped underground, she could avoid Relic Blade drifting in the air.
“You’re smart.”
Still resting his back against a hollow in the tree, Tooyama muttered.
This was bad. He might not be able to win. The feeling that had been disguised by intoxication was slowly returning through pain.
“Ugh.”
Stomach acid spilled out. The price of full-power use of Relic Blade was certainly consuming his body.
The situation was bad. This was seriously bad.
His body was still numb. He had taken the monster’s attack head-on. It might be lucky enough that he was not dead.
“Fufu, I held back, so you won’t die yet, right? Hey, adventurer, winter adventurer who kills so many of us, how do you feel right now?”
“Relic Blade……”
He had no intention of conversing with the monster. Even covered in wounds, Tooyama still called that name.
“Aha…… What’s wrong? There’s nothing there.”
The white snake woman laughed. The black snake monsters swarming around them also kept staring at Tooyama with their emotionless reptile eyes.
“Damn it……”
At last, he no longer had the stamina to use Relic Blade. His senses did not align well with the relic sleeping inside his body.
“Damn it……!”
There had been no mistake. He had not messed anything up.
This time, he thought he had made use of his reflection from last time.
He had not held back Relic Blade either. He had fought at full strength from the very start.
And yet, here he was. Simply put, this monster was stronger.
“……Geho.”
He spat out blood-mixed saliva along with a cough. Let us say he had only cut the inside of his mouth.
The feel of the tree trunk he leaned against, the smell of blood rising from his throat. He was still alive. His body could move.
But he could not stand. The numbness from being slammed by the monster’s long, supple body had not gone away.
This was bad. This time, it was seriously bad.
“Ah, ah, ah, I am the greatest me. Soft and squishy, floating and drifting, I become a fledgling. I am a fledgling.”
A monster.
It laughed while coiling itself and flicking out its long tongue.
The white female body writhed, and the armless shoulders trembled and twitched.
He had thought he was used to hunting monsters. But that really had only been his imagination.
The core of his body was cold. Tooyama knew this feeling. It was the same feeling as that moment he had faced alone inside the modern dungeon.
His own defeat and death appeared with a sense of reality. But more than that, there was something Tooyama was concerned about.
Had Stolu managed to withdraw with Lazaar?
Was Lazaar alive?
How much more time did he need to buy?
Was Stolu’s help coming?
“……Last time, it didn’t……”
No. Don’t remember. Don’t remember.
Why was he thinking about that time now?
“Back in Babel’s Great Pit, it didn’t come……”
Tooyama died.
He died in the modern dungeon. He was killed by a monster.
And now, even in another world, by a monster.
“Ah.”
Before he knew it, his hands were shaking. His lips trembled too, clack, clack, clack, clack. What was that sound?
“……No.”
Clack, clack. When he wondered what that sound was, it was the sound of his own teeth chattering together. He could not stop trembling.
“I don’t want to die……”
He was scared.
At last, that emotion had caught up to Tooyama. The excitement of killing monsters and the frenzy of swinging around his own power had cooled.
It cooled, and he woke up.
Ah, he was unbearably scared of dying.
“Kusakabe, Hatamura, I’m going to…… again……”
Here, alone—
“I was the same.”
The monster bloomed into a smile.
“That face.”
Squirm, squirm.
The white snake woman advanced through the swarm of snakes. The surrounding Titanos Mares all prostrated themselves and yielded the path to her.
“That face, yes, that face. That is the face I wanted to see.”
The white snake woman peered down at Tooyama as he leaned weakly against the tree. She widened her all-black eyes and simply stared at Tooyama.
“I know. I know. The fear of being cold, sad, scared, and having nooo one help you. Here, look. Slowly feel the fear of never being able to come out from the bottom of the water. Splash, splash, splash.”
The woman opened her mouth. In contrast to her white porcelain body, a long red tongue. It shone wetly and eerily.
“Hey, look, look, look. I, I, I turned into this. Hey, look at me.”
Slurp.
Wet and warm. The woman’s red tongue licked Tooyama’s cheek.
It smelled of thick blood and flowers.
“Look, look, look at me.”
“Gah, ah……”
Small needles grew from the sticky red tongue and stabbed into Tooyama’s cheek.
A fusion of monster function and human talent. The white snake woman’s “skill” activated.
“Good One, Think of My Tragedy.”
Crack.
What flowed in were images and voices. Directly, through flesh and flesh, the white snake woman and Tooyama connected.
Memories.
The face of a green-haired woman spread across his vision. Nobility and sharp intelligence coexisted in her.
Crack.
The image changed.
In his vision, a man was dead. His eyes rolled white, his body twitching and convulsing. His tongue had spilled from his mouth.
His neck was snapped, twisted all the way around.
In his vision, the eyes of the corpse thrown into the garbage bin were looking this way. Accusing eyes, dark eyes that should no longer have reflected anything, continued staring this way.
Thud. The garbage-bin lid was closed.
Crack.
The image changed.
Men who felt vaguely familiar were putting on their clothes while grinning foolishly.
Every last one of them looked satisfied, like they had finished something.
In his vision, she accepted the permit offered with trembling hands.
A man grabbed her arm. His filthy face filled her vision. The smell of a beast flooded in all at once.
Crack. The image changed.
Crack. The image changed.
Crack. The image—
Tooyama understood. These were the monster’s memories. This monster had been human. A human who had failed everything and ruined everything.
Crack.
Again, the image changed.
In complete darkness, only a voice was heard.
That was the white snake woman’s final moment as a human. The words that had never been heard by anyone reached Tooyama.
The memories of the woman that the good one, Lazaar, had also seen.
The end of the woman who had everything stolen from her by the world and by all of the adventure city was to be swallowed whole by a snake and melted.
The woman’s memories and thoughts flowed in. Resignation and exhaustion. Only those were there.
It was not the woman’s voice.
Someone, at some point, had directed that voice to this woman. Within the darkness, only that voice, one single sentence that had reached the woman in the darkness of resignation and despair, existed.
The woman murmured that name.
The darkness cleared.
Images and scenery flowed.
A beautiful moonlit night. Ah, the body inside the snake’s belly melted once completely. But the woman did not die.
Slurp, slurp, slurp.
She was reborn. The Titanos Mare, as a species facing crisis, and the human of noble, chosen blood who, in despair, noticed a dark wish.
They mixed, twisted, distorted, melted, and became one.
A white arm reached out as if to scoop up the moon.
From a dark wish, it was born.
It was the avenger created by the adventure city and adventurers.
Under the starry moonlit night, the woman murmured softly.
Crack.
The image cut off.
“Hah, hah, hah…… What was that……?”
The glossy sensation on his cheek pulled away stickily. The white snake woman separated her tongue from Tooyama’s cheek.
“My memories, which I showed to the shadow person too. Fufufu, fufufu. Hey, how was it? Fufu, ah, but I’m sure it doesn’t resonate with you.”
The white snake woman was an existence born from a human changing into a monster.
Tooyama thought. It was an unbelievable story, but in this world, such things must happen. For now, that was the only conclusion he could reach.
His head hurt, and his body remained numb.
The heavily wounded Tooyama was not in a state where he could think properly. Perhaps that was why, without thinking, words slipped out softly.
“……No, not really.”
“Kusukusu. Really?”
Because the white snake woman was a monster born from a human, she had been able to corner Tooyama Naruhito this far.
Through intelligence derived from humans, she had outwitted Tooyama and created a situation where she could kill him anytime.
“……Yeah, I saw it. All of it. It was pretty rough.”
“Heeh, those eyes of yours mean that sincerely……”
And because the white snake woman was a monster born from a human, she had still not dealt the finishing blow to Tooyama Naruhito.
An emotion that a monster living only by instinct would never hold toward prey.
Interest.
Because she had begun to feel that toward Tooyama, she still had not dealt the finishing blow.
“Hey, hey, do you really, really understand? It hurt. I was sad, scared, and cold.”
The white snake woman drew closer to Tooyama.
Due to exhaustion and consumption, Tooyama could only watch. No Speech Challenge, no message, nothing appeared.
So, vaguely, Tooyama wove words as he was, as his heart told him.
He had one impression. After seeing her tragedy shown to him by the white snake woman.
Lazaar had seen that and had probably sympathized with her seriously. By trying to stand beside her pain, he had been caught by her power.
Then, Tooyama—
“……You are me.”
“………Eh?”
“You messed everything up. Everything was stolen from you, and you went all the way to the end.”
Tooyama had no sympathy. He was not the kind of person who would stand beside that. However, the strong killing intent and malice he had directed toward enemies until now were also absent.
He simply stared at the white snake woman and murmured.
“You are me if I messed everything up. Me after coming to this world and losing Lazaar, Drako, the kids, Stolu, and maybe even the Dragon of Human Knowledge too. Me after losing all of them.”
“Eh, eh?”
“I understand. I too might become like that. I understand. I can understand why you went mad.”
He desperately pressed his collapsing body against the tree trunk and maintained his posture.
The surrounding black snakes showed no sign of attacking.
“Ah, ha, ufufu. You understand? You understand me? Fufu, that makes me so happy. Fufu, then it can’t be helped, right? I don’t want to be the only one who is sad. I want everyone, everyone to become sad.”
“……No.”
“What is?”
“What you should be doing. You should be taking revenge on everything that made you like this right now. At the very least, you shouldn’t have time to mess with good guys like Lazaar.”
“Oh, fufu. Kusukusu. Yes, perhaps so. But you are different, aren’t you? Everyone, everyone in this forest wants to kill you. You, who bring winter to us together with laughter.”
“Yeah, I bet. Kill to live, and be killed. Living things all live like that. Hey, you. After you kill me, what will you do?”
“Fufu, you too should become like me! I want to see the faces of the shadow person, the strange-scented light-blue-haired child, and the people who fled while leaving you behind, when they see you changed beyond recognition. I’m sure it will be so fluffy and floating.”
The all-black eyes laughed. The white snake woman, sunk into tragedy. It seemed the humanity she had possessed when she had been human had long since vanished.
Tooyama let out a deep, deep sigh.
He had heard that answer. Ah, then that was enough.
“Fufu, good. I am starting to want to know you a little. Surely, you can become like me.”
If this thing lived, then someday, without fail, Lazaar, Stolu, and Tooyama’s people would be harmed.
That reason was enough.
Tooyama reached his answer. Whether it was right or wrong did not matter.
“No good. I absolutely won’t let that happen. I’ll absolutely never show them such a lame form.”
“Lame?”
He felt a chill. At the thought of himself losing, dying, and then having Lazaar and Stolu see that defeated self.
Ah, what kind of feeling was it? The feeling of someone whose companion had remained in the death zone and died.
How had Hatamura and Kusakabe felt back then? He had done something unforgivable to them.
If Lazaar and Stolu saw him after he lost and died, how would they feel?
And on top of that, if he became like this white snake woman, what would Lazaar, Stolu, and Drako think?
“No way. I’ll absolutely never show them something that lame.”
That too, was desire.
Tooyama Naruhito had pride. Showing his companions and friends himself as a monster, much less showing them a defeated form—
“I have no choice but to die.”
The same answer, no matter how many times.
It was the same as that time, his final moment in the modern dungeon. Even if he died, he would not show his companions something lame.
Even if his hand could not reach the desire he had arrived at, at the very least, he would end everything while falling forward.
“Relic Blade, everything, everything, everything.”
He placed his hand on his neck.
“?! No way.”
The white snake woman seemed to immediately realize what Tooyama was about to do.
She tried to leave that place and flee. But it was already too late.
Back then, Tooyama had chosen. When letting his explorer companions escape, the moment he volunteered to act as rear guard, he had given up everything.
Tooyama had known. Unless he exchanged his own death for it, he could not let his companions escape.
That was why—
“I’m scared of dying, but now I have no choice but to die.”
Relic Blade’s ultra-wide-range activation. It did not matter how many monsters there were.
Using himself as the origin, he would spread the highest lethal concentration of mist as far as possible and dispose of everything, everything.
A self-destruction technique premised on suicide.
“You intend to die…… Fufu, ah, if only I had courage like yours.”
“Relic Blade, kill—”
Everything.
He only had to put that into words now. He had recovered enough energy to activate Relic Blade one more time.
He had made his resolve. All that remained was execution.
He did not want to die, but he would die and kill this thing.
So he only had to say it. Say it, say it, say it.
“Just kidding. Skill Another activated. Remember Your Days.”
“Ah—”
Tooyama’s movements stopped.
Even at this last moment, the white snake woman surpassed Tooyama. That woman had already advanced her own talent further and stepped into the next stage.
—Naruhito, do not stay in the water too long. You will catch a cold.
—Tooyama! I am not satisfied with that, Dis! Even if you subtract three from two, it does not become negative one or whatever! Look! Even these stones here do not become that negative thing!
—Big brother, thank you for finding us.
—Bro, give me orders. I’ll follow you.
—……About that time, with the wallet, I’m sorry.
That skill was nothing special.
It was only a power that made the person it was directed at remember their ordinary days.
Why such a power had sprouted in the blood of one connected to the royal family of the Kingdom could no longer be known now.
But.
—I am the smartest dragon, just for you, who will make you happy.
—Naruhito, you truly are a great fool.
But now, at this moment.
For Tooyama Naruhito, who had abandoned everything in order to choose everything, this, those days, were far too heavy and cruel.
“Ah, ah, aaah……”
Relic Blade did not come out of his body.
Kill, kill. Those words did not come out either.
“Fufu. Lame, huh? Hey, how does it feel? Hey, even though you had resolved yourself to die, you remembered them, didn’t you…… Fufu, you said I was you, but is that really true?”
The white snake woman looked down at the frozen Tooyama, swaying happily.
Then, suddenly, her expression vanished.
“I never had days like that.”
“Ah, ah……”
No good.
His hands trembled. Death, death, death. Even though he had decided once, even though he had been able to do it back then in the modern dungeon.
Tooyama Naruhito had remembered them. Those enjoyable days. The days in another world that had been short, yet filled with warmth and joy.
He could not die. Even though he could not defeat her unless he died, he could not die.
Ah, that was so frightening, so terrifying, he could not bear it.
“Fu, fufufu, aha, hahahahahahahahahahaha, human!! That! That, that, that, that! That was what I wanted to see!”
The white snake woman laughed, trembling her armless shoulders as she writhed.
“You, you, you, you see! You were strange! So I was scared! You were the scariest, scariest, scariest one! The snakes were scared of you too! Because you! You didn’t look afraid of dying! Aha! But that wasn’t true! Ah, I’m glad, I’m so glad! You were laughing the whole time, so you were truly scary! But finally, finally, you know!”
The white snake woman, and the giant snakes surrounding them, smiled broadly.
“You finally stopped laughing.”
“““““Jaro, jarororororororo.”””””
“Ah.”
“Now, you will die.”
The white snake woman laughed.
The giant snakes slowly, slowly began approaching Tooyama as he still leaned his body against the tree.
“N-No.”
“It is not no. Fufu, what’s wrong? Come on, hurry. You were about to kill everything, yourself included, just now, right? If you were going to die anyway, you were going to take us with you, right? Come on, do it again.”
The white snake woman knew that he could no longer do that.
“Hah, hah, no, don’t come.”
His body was numb. He could not move.
Those days. The things Tooyama had built up had stolen Tooyama’s option from him.
His chance at reversal, the answer of self-sacrifice Tooyama had produced, had now been trampled.
“Jarorarororororororo, shurororororo.”
“Be afraid, despair, and imagine. From now on, you will be killed by unbearable suffering. You will protect nothing, gain nothing, and everything will be stolen from you and trampled. Ah, the sea is so deep, so it cannot be helped. This is the order of things.”
The time for answering came to an end.
Far from surpassing that day, it would end with him unable to do even what he had done that day.
“No, no! I finally made friends! I don’t want to die again! I still have so many things I want to do!”
“I was the same.”
The naked truth. Without intoxication, the white snake woman quietly replied to Tooyama’s lament as nothing but a small, exposed living creature.
Scary, scary, scary.
Everything was scary. What the hell, the snakes were too big. How would he be killed? Would he be strangled? Eaten alive? No, all of it, no.
Fear completely caught up to Tooyama.
Tooyama’s altered brain had been worn down by the continuous use of the relic and no longer brought him “intoxication.”
“Jaro, jarojaro.”
“Hi, hi, eek. No, seriously, stop. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!!”
Splash.
With his still-numb body, Tooyama finally fled. He showed his back, unable to even stand and face them.
“Ufufu, oh my, oh my. You have become prey.”
The adventurer Tooyama who had been there moments before was gone.
He had fallen into miserable prey crawling across the wet ground and fleeing.
“Sharo.”
“Ah……”
There was no way he could escape. A smaller giant snake caught up to Tooyama as he crawled away.
It was likely still a young individual. It was about the size of two Tooyamas.
“Imagine. From now on, that child will coil around you.”
As if responding to the white snake woman’s words, the Titanos Mare slowly began coiling around Tooyama.
Only the snake’s body was now reflected in Tooyama’s vision.
“Imagine. Once that child coils around you, you will be slowly, slowly constricted. Bones, muscles, organs, slowly, slowly, all of them will be crushed as if squeezed out.”
That was a story that also existed in the white snake woman’s memories. She spoke happily about what was about to happen to Tooyama.
Gradually, gradually, the Titanos Mare’s body wrapped around Tooyama’s body. It was cold.
“And then, and then, fufu. Even after your entire body is crushed, you surprisingly remain conscious. From there, you will be swallowed slowly, slowly. Fufu, it would be nice if you could suffocate, but this time, I’ll have it eat you so that you don’t, so enjoy it slowly.”
Squeeze.
Ah, before he knew it, Tooyama’s body was completely wrapped by the snake’s body.
He would die, die, be eaten. Reality caught up to Tooyama.
“Ah, ah, aaaaaaaaa?! No, no! No, no! Let go, let gooooo!!”
He thrashed wildly, but what weak movements they were.
More than half of his body was already wrapped up. It did not budge.
“Aha, energetic, energetic, energetic.”
“Jaro.”
“Gyah?! Geh, guh.”
The Titanos Mare tightened its body. With just that, Tooyama gave a short scream and went limp.
Agony and pressure.
His brain felt like it would burst.
Death was right there now.
Regret and reflection, those things did not exist before this “death.”
“Damn…… it……”
Ah, Tooyama realized it.
Last time and this time were different.
His death in the modern dungeon. Back then, however, Tooyama had won. He had drawn the monster horde, repelled the boss, and let his companions escape. That was Tooyama’s victory.
But this time was different.
This was defeat. He had been surpassed in everything.
Lazaar and Stolu would surely return to this forest. To search for him, no one else.
That was defeat. He could not let his companions meet this thing. It was a monster among monsters.
This was no good.
But there was nothing more Tooyama could do.
Ping.
“……Damn it. Like hell that’s acceptable.”
At the edge of his vision, which was congested and beginning to turn red, a message flowed.
Surpass that day. It was no longer at the level of that message. He had messed up.
He had lost. That much he understood.
“Fufu, you can no longer even speak. ……Bye then. It was fun. If we meet again, if you become like me, let’s talk again.”
The white snake woman disappeared into the swarm.
The giant snakes lifted their bodies to the sky and began swaying as if singing.
“Jaro.”
Squeeze, squeeze.
The young Titanos Mare trying to finish Tooyama put strength into its muscular body.
Snap, snap.
Inside his body, several things began to break. That much he understood.
“Ah, I’m dead.”
As a living creature, Tooyama, Tooyama’s body, understood that—
Ping.
Flip. He heard the sound of a book turning.
That was not a message.
It was a voice.
He knew that voice.
It was the voice of the gray-haired woman who lived in Tooyama’s dream. The strange being who called herself the Familiar of Knowledge—
Before he knew it, the world had stopped.
Had he gone insane from fear, or was this what they called a revolving lantern?
Ignoring such questions, Harvey’s somewhat excited, bouncing voice echoed in his head.
Ah, but for some reason, Tooyama felt very, very—
Relieved.
Thump.
His heart beat.
Blood began circulating.
“Jaro?”
The Titanos Mare seemed to notice something strange about its prey. The instant it tried to tighten even harder—
“……Geho. This power-up event is hard to understand.”
Splash.
With the force of water spilling from a bucket, the Titanos Mare’s body burst apart.
Blood scattered, and Tooyama, who had been wrapped in that body, was released and fell with a thud.
“Jah…… ah.”
“Geho, geho. ……Ah, damn it. My head hurts, I’m scared, and this is seriously the worst.”
Splat.
Even so, he stood up. His body was covered in wounds. But now, Tooyama had something he had not possessed moments before.
“Oh? Fufu, amazing. You still stand? I thought you had already given u—”
“Just a little. Only a little, but I’m grateful to you.”
Interrupting the white snake woman’s words, Tooyama continued speaking.
“………What do you mean?”
“It’s a classic. Yeah, you seriously cornered me. You seriously planted fear in me.”
“Cornered? Hey, are you serious? That isn’t even the issue. Your mist cannot completely destroy us, can it? Or do you have something else?”
“Well, apparently, I do. ……I’m done thinking about complicated things.”
Tooyama scooped up wet soil and rubbed it into his hair. Using it as a substitute for wax, he swept his hair back, exposing his sharp eyes.
“……Everyone, kill him quickly. Something is strange.”
The white snake woman gave an order to the Titanos Mares, her species, in a low voice she had never used before.
All at once, the giant snakes surged toward Tooyama Naruhito like a muddy torrent.
Shuuuuuu.
If that was mist gathering over a plain,
then in the blink of an eye, it dyed the surroundings pure white.
White too dense was no different from deep black. It painted over everything and closed it away.
“Where……?!”
“Jarorororororororo?!”
“Shura?!”
The giant snakes, possessing excellent sensory organs and organs that detected heat sources, and the white snake woman all lost sight of Tooyama at the same time.
“This is…… Something is wrong.”
Plop.
It was a mist so thick that touching it would make such a sound. It swallowed the entire swarm of giant snakes.
The white snake woman immediately attempted to take shelter underground. As long as she survived, the giant snakes would regenerate again.
For her, having grasped the power of this mist, that was the obvious choice.
“Ah, uh. What was it again? Damn, the pain is making my head not work. Wait a sec, let me sort this out. Basically, it’s that. The relic. It’s something about Relic Blade and evolution, blah blah blah, right?”
Only Tooyama’s voice echoed from within the white mist, the dense mist.
The master of the mist, whose location could not be known, yet his voice certainly echoed from beyond the mist.
“Ah, yeah, evolution, evolution, evolution. Ah, wait. Come to think of it, that Paper Charm Macho said something about Relic Blade’s true power, didn’t he?”
“Ah, right. I remembered. In the dream, he said something about relic this and that, something or other.”
Even for the monsters, it was an unsettling time.
A monologue. Lines of inner thoughts, completely not meant for anyone else to hear, simply continued echoing from within the mist.
As if that fog, that entire mist, was—
“What are you intending? Where are you hiding?!”
The white snake woman shouted.
“All right, I get it. This is probably it. What Harvey was talking about.”
Plop.
Slowly, slowly.
A human shape emerged in the dense, liquid-like mist.
Tooyama Naruhito, who had vanished as if melting into somewhere, appeared once again.
“You, where did you come from?!”
Tooyama Naruhito had overcome several trials from the Quest Marker, the lover of bad endings.
Tooyama Naruhito had already received that reward from Fog Dream.
Pshh. He pulled the broken blade from his neck.
“Relic.”
A relic. The power to raise human possibility, human rank. Tooyama too had been chosen by it.
“Disperse.”
That was a domain that, in the modern age, a hero who would one day shine like a star would reach.
Understanding of relics, no, erosion into relics.
“Relic Blade.”
If he thought he could do it, he could. If there were powers that could only be gained by going all the way, then Tooyama would simply advance according to his desires.
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