The Former Child Prodigy Vs. The Undead Ii Cherni

Before me stood Ii Cherni, shredded until it was in tatters.

“…Did it finally die?”

“No, not yet.”

The moment it said that, with a loud rip-rip! sound, Ii Cherni shed its skin.

What!? It shed its skin!?

Its tattered outer skin fell to the ground. And there, standing beneath it, was a brand-new Ii Cherni, unchanged from when we first met.

I am fairly sure the depth of my slashes went beyond just the outermost layer, but for some reason all the damage had vanished completely.

“Fuuuuuuuh…!”

Even though it had no mouth, Ii Cherni let out a huge breath.

“I underestimated you, for a mere human! To think you would actually drive Ii Cherni this far!”

“Well, thanks for that.”

“In that case—then I shall kill you carefully…!”

From that point on, Ii Cherni changed its fighting style.

The undead around us, which until then had merely been watching, all began swarming toward me. Apparently, it had switched to a strategy of crushing me with sheer numbers.

Zombies, ghosts, skeletons— none of them were especially strong, but even so, this many were a real nuisance!

On top of that, true to its word, Ii Cherni carefully kept its distance from me.

“Now then, if you take your time, you will be blown away, you know?”

Ii Cherni began firing dark red flashes one after another. Without caring at all that its own undead subordinates got blown away too, it kept blasting them at me relentlessly.

“Do you not feel sorry for your subordinates?”

“Hahaha, how kind humans are. They spawn infinitely anyway. There is no need to care.”

…From my perspective, not being able to use the undead as shields made this extremely troublesome.

Ii Cherni’s new tactic was indeed solid—but that was all it was. It had become so defensive that unless I made a mistake, it had no way to finish me off.

“You think that as long as you do not make a mistake, you cannot lose—is that it?”

With a meaningful chuckle, Ii Cherni said exactly that.

“Unfortunately, that thinking is naive. First of all, you humans become unable to move once you grow tired. How long can you keep enduring? The moment you make even one mistake, it is over, is it not?”

Then, after a brief pause, it continued.

“And besides, there is no time—look.”

Ii Cherni pointed upward.

When I looked up at the night sky, I saw some large, shining object there.

“…What is that?”

“A meteor. Its impact point is exactly here. Not a single tree or blade of grass will remain. This whole place will be reduced to ashes.”

“At this timing, a coincidence like that?”

“Of course not. It cannot be coincidence. That meteor is being controlled by magic. Someone learned of the disturbance in this area and decided to blow away the entire region with a wide-area spell.”

“…If a meteor hits directly, would even you die?”

“Fafafafafafafa! Regrettably, I would not die! It is impossible to kill me! I am not like you inferior species!”

“How enviable. Would you mind eating the meteor with your ‘Magic Eater’?”

“That is impossible. A meteor drop is a technique that affects gravity and draws a meteor to the ground. At the moment of activation, perhaps—but now that it has already been pulled down, magic is no longer involved. It is just an ordinary meteor now. Stopping it is impossible.”

Then Ii Cherni laughed to itself.

“Of course, even if I could, only you would die. I have no obligation to eat it for you.”

“That is certainly true.”

Good grief— in front of me was a self-proclaimed immortal creature, all around me were endless undead, and on top of that there was now a time limit in the form of a falling meteor… Was this not a bit too much like hard mode?

Well, I had no choice but to do it.

“Human. At least choose for yourself how you die.”

Ii Cherni’s offensive resumed.

Just as before, it was long-range attacks while using infinitely spawning undead as shields. A style that simply waited for me to grow impatient and make a mistake. It was an irritating endurance battle, but when you factored in the meteor as the finishing push, it was extremely rational.

Ii Cherni laughed.

“What is wrong, what is wrong? Are you all right on stamina? Are you all right on time? I am the only one who benefits from dragging this out. There is nothing in it for you, you know?”

That was perfectly true. I understood that too. But it was equally true that I had no way to break through Ii Cherni’s ironclad defense from my side.

And yet, even so— while slashing away the undead, I gave a small laugh.

“…Well, perhaps there might be at least a little something in it for me too.”

“You are bluffing!”

Once again, the contest of endurance between me and Ii Cherni began.

Cut and cut and cut and cut and cut— dodge and dodge and dodge and dodge— and as that went on, the point of light in the sky grew visibly larger. My fatigue steadily accumulated. Ii Cherni’s laughter, convinced of its victory, only increased.

At last, I stopped moving.

Haa, haa, I exhaled heavily over and over.

Ii Cherni laughed.

“What is wrong? Is this the end already? Can you no longer move?”

“Perhaps so—maybe it is fine for this to be the end.”

“Hahahahaha! I understand exactly how you feel!”

Ii Cherni pointed up at the sky.

It could no longer be described as merely a point of light. It was clearly a massive object—something engulfed in flames—bearing down upon us. In just a little longer, this whole area would be turned into scorched earth.

“You have no choice but to die now! I understand the depth of your despair, you know!?”

The undead all stopped moving.

With heavy thuds, Ii Cherni advanced its giant body toward me.

“As a reward for your effort, Ii Cherni itself will kill you!”

Ii Cherni raised its right arm high,

“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

and with a scream, swung it down— or it should have.

That hand did not move as Ii Cherni intended. It merely trembled in place.

“W-what!?”

“Haha, hahahaha—”

Laughter spilled from my mouth.

“Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

“W-what is so funny!? You, did you do something!?”

To the Ii Cherni whose face had changed with panic, I held out what I had been carrying in my left hand. It was the red gemstone Fiona had given me—the very item that had caused the gate to open.

“I ‘analyzed’ this thing.”

That was why I needed time. It had quite a complicated structure. I too had my own reason for buying time.

An endurance battle had suited me just fine as well.

“Analyzed?”

“Yes, I analyzed it. The mechanism by which it opens the gate. By the way, did you know?”

I gave a faint smile and continued.

“A key can open a door—but it can also close one.”

“W-wh, what did you say…!? Then you—do you mean that after analyzing it, you reversed its function and closed the gate!?”

“That is right.”

“Impossible!?”

Ii Cherni screamed. With such force that it seemed absolutely unwilling to accept it. As though denying the very fact that, once acknowledged, would confirm its defeat.

“That cannot be possible! It is a mere theory on paper! That thing opens—it cannot close—!”

“Who decided that?”

Having grown tired of it, I cut off Ii Cherni’s words.

“Do not force your own limitations onto me. I can do it. I can do it as naturally as breathing. If you want to decide something is impossible for you and give up, do as you please. But do not make that my limit too.”

Letting out a sigh, I continued.

“Something like this is normal, is it not?”

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Ii Cherni screamed in pure rage.

But no matter how much it screamed, the fact that it could not move did not change.

And then— the time of reversal arrived.

A tremendous gale, like a typhoon, burst forth. From our world toward theirs. Toward that gate. Yet strangely enough, that wind did not push against my body. It did not stir the trees, nor even a single leaf.

It only began sucking in the undead at terrifying speed.

Naturally, Ii Cherni was no exception.

“Yoooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”

“Sorry, but I have something else waiting for me. Hurry up and disappear, Ii Cherni.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

With that scream, Ii Cherni’s giant body too vanished beyond the gate.

After swallowing up all the undead, the gate shattered like glass.

Phew, is it over?

…No, not yet.

I looked up into the sky.

Right there— the gigantic meteor was closing in.