[......Something dangerous is coming . ]
[Ruin, what the heck are youââ]
[Everyone, get into battle positiooooonnnnsssâââ!]
Ruin exclaimed .
The other three realized in an instant .
That thereâs something going on .
Everyone immediately switched their awareness .
Ruinâs intuition told him something .
They have been together for a long time .
At times like this, nine out of ten, a real crisis was imminent .
How many times has Ruinâs intuition saved them?
So, they shielded each otherâs back and formed a circle .
Looking over his shoulder, Yuugungu asked .
[Is something dangerous coming!?]
[I donât know what that isââ- but thereâs something absurdly dangerous thatâs coming!]
They donât have any specific information .
However, they didnât doubt his words .
[Myana, put up the Fortress of White Noise!]
[Ehh!? I- Is the fortress really needed!?]
[Quickly!]
[I- I understand!]
Myana fits her right hand into a gauntlet .
Itâs a gauntlet with a dark purple color that doesnât reach her elbow .
Itâs a chanting magic tool with distinctive horn-like protrusions .
The only one who can use these kinds of chanting magic tools are the people chosen by the tool .
And this magic tool had chosen Myana .
When magic power is imbued within the gauntlet, the crystalline parts carved into the magic tool emitted a bluish-white light .
Thereupon, letters of light appeared around her .
These letters are floating around Myana, making it seem like she was in the middle of a ring of light .
These floating letters are the text she needs to chant .
However, she doesnât need to read these texts anymore .
Myana begins to chant .
[ââ-Ye who canât see, take heed...... Ye who fiddles with the dramatic fate, the sinner who plays with intangibility...... By the sixth name decapitated by the blade of the God of Destruction, the noisy magician who yearns for the silver maidenââ- âWhite Noiseâ!]
After chanting, the light of chanting text is absorbed into the back of her hand .
And thenâââ
A square-ish transparent plate appeared in mid-air .
The plate is a square of about 2 raeteres (2 meters) in length and width .
Thereâs a pattern showing the appearance of a sandstormââ- No, that âsandstormâ was moving .
It was as if a sandstorm had occurred somewhere and was being projected onto the plate .
Hence, this plate obstructs the field of vision of those who looked at it .
However, thatâs exactly what Ruin was aiming for .
Myana produces a number of these plates .
And while adjusting the amount of magic power she uses, she fixes the boards in place in midair .
As expected of Myana .
In the blink of an eye, she finished placing these plates around them in a near semi-circular sphere .
Fortress-mode .
This board also functions as a defensive wall .
In the past, it was often used in the event of a disadvantageous defensive battle .
However, after a certain period of time, it wasnât used anymore .
[I wonder when was the last time you used the fortress-mode . ]
Yuugungu said, warily looking out through the gaps .
They were completely covered by an ill-formed hemisphere, but they arenât completely sealed .
There is an opening that allows them to pass through if they lower their bodies .
Howeverââ itâs impossible to see their âwhole bodyâ from the outside .
If the people outside want to see their whole bodyââ-
They would need to get close to the opening and look inside from there .
[.....................]
Heâs still wondering though .
Even though Myana had set up this fortress, Ruin still wondered .
âItâs dangerous if my whole body is in view . â
He doesnât have any reason .
Itâs his intuition thatâs telling him .
Howeverââ- What exactly is this danger?
Is it alright if they see âhalf of our bodiesâ?
Why did he think that it would be dangerous if their whole body is in full view?
He doesnât know .
Moreover, it is now dusk......
When the darkness arrives, everyoneâs vision naturally narrows .
That will also blur everyoneâs sense of depth .
(If itâs dangerous if the enemy sees our whole body, should we wait until the night completely envelops everything in darkness......?)
[..................... . ]
(No......)
He should reconsider that .
His intuition tells him .
âThat the time of complete darkness is even more unfavorable for them . â
And when he thought so...
(Does the enemy have night vision? In that case, as expected, it must be a monster huh?)
The more he thinks about it, the more uncanny he felt their situation is .
(That means that the enemy is good at long-range combat huh......?)
Heâs confident in close combat .
Heâs confident that he can beat anyone in a head-to-head battle .
Even if itâs that âHumanityâs Strongestâ .
Shortly before this mission, the Goddess said to Ruin .
âYou and Satsuki-san are my precious trump cards . Itâs dangerous to rely on âHumanityâs Strongestâ or the Heroes from Another World for anything . I need a decent ally who understands reason . Yes, thatâs right . If âHumanityâs Strongestâ or the Heroes from Another World become deranged and revolt against me, I need virtuous people to protect me . However, I donât want it to be known that I have allies who can oppose them at this point in time so...... For now, please keep your true strength hidden from the world as much as possible . It still isnât time for you to show your strength . â
(At that time......)
Before I left the Goddessâ room .
She called out to me .
âIf âHumanityâs Strongestâ Civit Gartland is the strongest among humans...... The âHeroic Swordâ, Ruin Seal, is the strongest I know among those who carry the lineage of Heroes . Andââ when it comes to future growth, youâll far surpass the âHumanityâs Strongestâ . I can assure you of that . â
He even has the Goddessâ approval .
The strongest .
Warrior .
He once caught a glimpse of Civit Gartland before .
At that moment, he instantly knew .
That Civit Gartland had the kind of pressure that only the absolutely strong can muster .
(However, this âthingâ that wasnât approaching them...... had something different from that . )
Something is different .
The enemy isnât a warrior .
It just heldââ- pure ominousness .
Yes, something that holds such ominousness is approaching......
[......Fuuu . ]
(Thereâs no point in thinking about pointless stuff . Anyway......)
Ruin exhales, and pulls his thoughts back once .
(Iâll just have to trust my intuition here . )
Follow his prophetic intuition .
That is supposed to lead them to the right decision .
It has always been the same .
In a way, one could say that Ruinâs intuition might be similar to fortune telling .
He doesnât know the correlation between them though .
However, if he follows his intuitionâs advice, good luck will come his way or he will be able to avoid misfortune .
After regaining his composure, Ruin took a deep breath before calling out .
[Who are you!? Show yourself! We are the people who received the decree of Goddess Vysis, âHeroic Swordâ! I donât think thereâs anything in it for you to gain by antagonizing us! Or perhaps, you hold some kind of misunderstanding! What do you think!? How about we talk about it first!?]
He tried calling out to the enemy, but he received no response .
Just as the darkness was deep, it also brought upon a peaceful silence .
Arene, with a tense expression on her face, peered out through the gap .
[Hey, Ruin . Satsuki and the others...... Would they be alright?]
[......Perhaps, Satsuki and the others actually havenât encountered this anomaly . We may have been the only ones left here...... who have encountered this âthingâ . ]
Peering out with his great axe in hand, Yuugungu asked .
[What do you think? Do you think itâs a Human-Faced?]
[No, we arenât within the depths...... Rather, weâre closer to the outer rim . I donât think thereâs any monster around here that poses a greater threat than that Human-Faced we took down last time . ]
In response, the pale Myana gulps .
[Then, what the heck is this......]
[However, I know one thing that is certain . That we are close to the Faraway Country . ]
[ ! You mean, the other party sensed us and laid down an ambush first!?]
[Perhaps . ]
[D*mn it! I guess that means those fake-humans donât stay inside their hellhole all the time!]
[......Nevertheless . ]
The inhabitants of the Faraway Country .
Are theyââ beings that are this frightening?
He feels that something is different......
This feeling .
It doesnât feel like theyâre the same people at all .
They refused to fight .
Theyâre beings who just kept on running away .
In the end, they are cowards who have fled to their paradise .
(No, are we facing these kinds of cowards? In that case......)
[It is as Vysis-sama said . ]
[Ruin?]
[As expected...... We need to annihilate them, these b*stards from the Faraway Country . ]
This ominousness .
This sinister feeling .
He wouldnât be surprised if the true identity of this being in front of them was the Great Demon Emperor .
(Well, if itâs the Great Demon Emperor, we should have felt the influence of the Tyrantâs Miasma...... In that case, what in the world is the true identity of this being who possess such pressureâââ)
At that moment...
[ ! ]
Even the people beside Ruin noticed it .
[Someoneâs coming . ]
It was faint...... but they could hear footsteps .
They tried listening carefully .
The drifting wind...
And the swaying of trees, inhibiting the sounds that their ears could hear .
So, they focused more on their hearing......
[ââ-Ahh âââUgaaahhhâââ, ............ . !]
A voice .
Itâs a voice .
They put their backs against the wall .
[Is that a monsterâs yell......?]
They narrowed their eyes, trying to determine the identity of this voice .
âââ-click, clack, rustle, rustleâââ-
The sound of a branch breaking .
Then, the sound of leaves rustling .
They have a feeling that it wasnât Satsuki and the others .
They wouldnât be moving wildly like this .
However...
[Satsuki!]
The one who appeared was Satsuki .
The first person to notice that somethingâs strange though was Ruin .
[Satsuki......?]
[Guruuuaaaaaahhhhh! Gaaaaahhhhhhhhâââ!]
[Satsuki!?]
It was unmistakably Satsuki who came out of the darkness .
However, he clearly isnât looking right .
His eyes were white and saliva was drooling out of his mouth .
The way heâs walking is also awkward .
Itâs hard to imagine that this is the usual Satsuki .
On the hand of Satsuki, was his drawn out katana .
[ ! ]
And blood was dripping on the blade .
He hadââ cut something .
More importantly...
[Satsuki, whatâs going on!?]
Ruin called out to him, but Satsuki didnât stop .
It doesnât seem like heâs frightened of anything at all .
Itâs as ifââ- he had lost his mind .
[Hey, Ruin, thereâs something strange with Satsuki!]
[Y- Yeah......]
Though he said that, what should they do?
What is the best thing to do here?
If a monster is attacking them, they could eliminate it .
However, no matter how they look at it, the one who was attacking him is his âfriendâ who had lost his sanity .
Heâs an important friend of his .
[Guugaaaaaahhhhh!]
Bammm!
Satsuki crashed into the noise wall .
[Owaaahhh!?]
After being repelled and falling over to the ground, Satsuki quickly got up .
And then......
[Gugiiââgiiaaaahhhhh!]
He stabbed his katana through the crevice .
[Kyaaahhhh!]
[Oi...... Cut that out, Satsuki! Donât you know who we are!?]
Biting his lip, Ruin parried away the thrust of Satsukiâs sword .
Everyone moved away from the area where Satsuki was .
Thereupon, Satsuki quickly came around to where his blade could reach .
Once again though, Ruin parried Satsukiâs unrefined thrust .
[Satsuki, what the heck are you doing!? What happened during your search!?]
[Gaaaahhhhhhh! Gaahhh! Gaahhh! Gaaahhhhh!]
His thrusts donât seem to stop at all .
It doesnât feel as if he can understand their words .
The opening in the noise wall can be entered if they just lowered their bodies .
Anyone can understand that if they just look at it .
And yet, Satsuki can only see it that he canât enter their wall .
(I mean...... Whatâs with this killing intent? Why would Satsuki want to kill us like this......)
[Nâ- Noooooooo! I donât like thiiiissss! No, no, nooooooo!]
Holding her head down, Arene screams and crouches on the spot .
Blood drained on Myanaâs face, wishing for someone to help them, she looked towards Ruin .
[W- W- W- What should we do, Ruin!? Donât you have any way that you could think of!? Hey!]
[Caro and Nana Tout......]
[Eh?]
[What happened to Caro and Nana Tout?]
Turning stiff, he asked .
Myana began trembling so hard that her teeth were chattering .
[Hey, Ruin...... Could it be...... that the blood on that katana......]
Biting his lip, Ruin sadly spoke .
[Weâre still not sure of that yet......!]
Despair seeped into the four peopleâs faces, spreading out towards the others .
That Satsuki has fallen into this situation .
Then, the possibility that the other two, who are inferior to Satsukim are safe isââ
[Even though...... the Faraway Country is right before our eyes, what the heck is going on!? D*mn it...... D*mn it all!]
Thereupon, Ruin suddenly noticed .
That somethingââ
From Satsukiâs body, something that looks like bubbles......
[ ? ]
It...... wasnât an illusion .
They were popping out of Satsuki-sanâs body .
Thereâs definitely something that looks like small bubble-like substances were floating out of the air .
These bubbles float out of the skin and into the air, and it would pop and disappear .
(What are those bubbles......?)
[Guugiii, guugigigigigigigigiiiiiiii.........]
Suddenly, Satsuki began scratching at his neck .
The nails of both of his hands scraped and tore at the surface of his own skin .
[Wait!? What are you doing, Satsuki!?]
It looks as if......
As if heâs trying to escape from torment that he couldnât do anything about .
(Heâs suffering? However, if this stops his movement... . . !)
However, Ruinâs hopes werenât granted...... n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
[Gaaaaahhhhhhhh!]
Even as he was suffering, Satsuki resumed his attacks .
Ruinâs mouth is half open as he tries to assess the anomaly .
(Heâs getting weaker......?)
It appears like Satsuki is getting weaker and weaker .
(Was it because of those bubbles......?)
He doesnât know what happened .
He doesnât even know whatâs going on .
However, this situationââ- still continued .
[Kyaaahhhh!? R- Ruin! Satsuki...... Satsukiâs coming insideâââ!]
Satsuki began twisting his body into the opening .
[Oi, oi, what are we going to do!? Do something, Ruin!]
Yuugungu holds the axe horizontally and attempts to block Satsukiâs path .
[D*mn it! Satsuki! Donât tell me that youâve forgotten our faces!?]
[Gaaahhhh!]
Swoosshhh!
[Guoohh!?]
The thrust that Satsuki released slashed off one of Yuugunguâs ears .
The slashed ear is ripped in half and it is split into an upper and lower part .
[Itââ hurts! It f*cking hurts!]
As if he snapped, Ruin raised his voice, with a blaming tone .
[You cut your own friend, Satsuki!?]
[Gaaahhh! Gaaahhhh!]
[D*mn it...... Please! For mercyâs sake! Snap out of it! Satsukiiiiii! Thereâs no way we would settle our rivalry like this......! I donât like this!]
Even when Ruin shed tears......
[Gaahhhh!]
A thrust passed right by Ruin .
Hanging down his head, Ruin held unto the sword in his handââ and put strength into it .
He doesnât have any options anymore .
[Satsukiââ-]
[Gugaaaahhhh!]
[............ . . ââââââ-Forgive me . ]
Fwooshhhh!
From below, rising up to the head .
A powerful slash was delivered with tremendous accuracy .
It was an accurate strike that follows âdeathâ .
It was too perfect of a swordsmanship .
[Gaaahhhh......!? Agaaaââ]
Satsuki leans back and drops his katana .
Thatâs when it happened .
The light that Ruin knew so well returned to Satsukiâs eyes .
[Ru...... in . ]
[Eh?]
The look in Satsukiâs eyes asked Ruin .
âWhy?â
Perhaps, in his last moments, the only thing that he recognized was that......
âI donât know why, but Ruin cut me down . And then, I died . â
ââwas what in his thoughts would be .
Satsukiâs corpse that ran out of strength, slumped in the middle of the opening......
Everyone looked at him for a while, dumbfounded .
Eventually, as Yuugungu held his slashed ear, he spoke .
[Satsuki, in the end...... Didnât he come back to his senses? No way...... If you had waited a bit longer, he would have returned back to normal......]
[Stop it already, Yuugungu!]
Myana hugs Ruin, who was absentmindedly looking at Satsukiâs corpse, and glared at Yuugungu .
[Whatâs with the way you spoke!? Itâs as if Ruin made the wrong choiceââ]
[......D*mn it! You think Ruin is right about everything!? Youâre always like this......]
[......Haahhh!? So what!? You have a problem with that!?]
[Yer freaking annoying...... Iâm the one injured here!]
[What...... is with the way youâre speakingââ]
[Stop it, the two of you!]
Ruin shouted, admonishing them .
[I know that the both of you are confused...... However, calm down . The crisis isnât over yet . ]
[Yeah, thatâs right...... Moreover, itâs Nyaki who was at fault here . Iâm sorry, Myana...... In the first place, the cause of all these is that d*mned fake-human . ]
[Ah, Iâm sorry too...... Youâre right . Iâll take all this angerââ out on Nyaki . ]
[......Letâs do this, Myana . ]
[Unnn, Yuugungu . ]
Bump
The two of them bumped their fist against each other .
[Iâll definitely catch Nyakiââ-]
[ââ-And I will avenge everyone . ]
The stormy atmosphere they had earlier, has returned to normal .
Ruin is relieved for now .
Thereupon, he took a glance at Arene, who was crouching down while covering her ears, and then......
[Scatter light balls around the perimeter, Myana . ]
Ruin instructed .
However......
[Iâll do it . ]
It was Arene who came forward .
[Light balls, right? Should I use everything?]
[Y- Yeah......]
[Understood . ]
Arene ran over to her luggage and began fishing out the contents .
Seeing her, Ruinâs lips loosened up a bit, as if heâs slightly pleased .
(My bad, Arene...... It seems that youâre a much stronger girl than I thought you are......)
Searching for the light balls, as sweat began dripping on her face, Arene spoke .
[Iâll make sure that Nyaki completely understands . ]
[.................. . ]
[The reason why all of this happened is because of Nyaki...... No matter what, Iâll make sure she will be held responsible for this......!]
Ruin was almost caught up with his emotions, but he somehow managed to control it .
Then, he only said a few words .
[Of course . ]
Ruin turns to the darkness outside .
[We are the âlightâ that illuminates this world . ]
Moving his gaze into the deepest darkness, he stared straight ahead without looking away .
[We will not let this wicked darkness defeat us . ]
We will definitely wiââ-
[ââââ-?]
[Whatâs the matter, Ruin?]
[......No . ]
Was it just my imagination?
It was very far away, but it was small .
Then, suddenly, I think I heard it .
A strangely, twisted voice......
âAre you having fun now?â