Arc 8: Vincent Vollachia
Arc 8, Chapter 5 "Forgiveness"
"--They've only been zombies for a short time. There's even a mix of people who lived just a few hours ago. The man who died in this battle is being resurrected from one end of the line...... can't you determine that yet?"
"But I know what you mean about being a freshly turned zombie. We all feel like we don't know what our weaknesses are. We're not the only ones who don't know much about zombies......"
"They themselves are the same. However, if they have a talking head, they might as well have a thinking head. The more time you give them, the more you fill in those unknowns, the more you eliminate any weaknesses that might be there."
"That's why you have to make your move before they're at full strength--ah"
"What is it? What did you notice?"
"----"
"Don't be a pompous ass. Talk to me."
"I'm not trying to be a pompous ass. It's just that zombies don't really know their own bodies either. If that's the case, I'd be happy to teach them the opposite--"
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He clutches Louis to his back and squeezes Beatrice to his chest.
The same basic posture as when he was riding on the back of a galloping horse, except that the situation in which he was placed was quite extreme and he had no time to care for the girls.
The scene around them changed in an instant, and soon after, Subaru and the others appeared in the air, beside a house that was being smashed by a furious blow, taking the back of a hostile zombie.
Tanza throwing the house and Idola throwing rubble in waves--it was a rather literal battle strategy, but it is not only the literal but also the pictorial that is strange.
Not talking about why children and not adults are throwing the larger ones. In the first place, the tactic of throwing the house itself is ridiculous.
And yet--,
"As the favored girl of Yorna, I can do this much."
And if they can be so dependably accepted, the pictorial impact can be shelved for now.
In fact, the mysterious enhancement of the entire Pleiades group applies to Idola as well, but it is not as good as Tanza, which is in a layered state with that of Yorna. It's called being in the right place at the right time.
From this perspective, Subaru's team's surprise attack was a wave of attacks with large and small projectile weapons - once they had drawn the opponent's attention to Todd, Subaru's team's surprise shift took place.
"----"
A zombie twisting in mid-air, the enemy, whose face is characterized by its single eye, has the whites of the large pupil in the center of its face blackened and the golden pupils glowing brightly.
A terribly cruel, blood-scented evil laugh is etched on his mouth, sending shivers down his spine.
Was he always the type of person who would laugh hysterically in the midst of battle? Or perhaps he has changed since he became a zombie, but they don't know which.
Nevertheless--,
"El--"
Quickly, Subaru and Beatrice simultaneously hold up their hands and point them at the enemy in front of them.
If the other party shows no hesitation in avoiding Subaru's attack at all costs, then their strategy will fail.
Perhaps, despite their best efforts, they are very far short of this enemy.
But it was not to be, and so Subaru--no, Subaru and his team were packed.
"--"
Sure enough, the zombie turned around with a startling gait and, catching Subaru and the others in its large single eye, took a posture of swinging the battle-axe in its grip instead of taking evasive action.
Its strategy is to attack Subaru and his men and finish them off with a counterattack--a traditional tactic of cutting the flesh to cut the bones, but with a different level of desperation.
The zombie's body regenerates wounds inflicted in little or no time.
That is why the enemy thought he could eat Subaru and his team's attack with no risk and use it to launch his own counterattack.
That is--,
"Minya--!!"
--That is, without realizing that this was the path to defeat that Subaru and his team had carved out.
In the posture of swinging the battle-axe of counterattack, the enemy takes a serious hit from the purple arrow released from the hand held by Subaru and Beatrice.
Three brightly shimmering, purple-blue crystal arrows pierced the left half of the Monoculars' body.
"Brilliant tactics, but--"
The enemy bared its teeth and barked at its prey, Subaru and the others, without regard for the purple arrows that stuck out.
The zombie's body, oddly enough, retains some strength, but when it is shattered, it breaks in a brittle manner, much like pottery breaking.
The broken body is repaired like a video played backwards, and the zombie attacks as if nothing had happened--,
"W-what......?"
--They failed to do it.
The dark blue arrow that pierces the zombie's body does not shatter the zombie's body from there, but rather remakes the body into the same dark blue crystals as the arrow. The crystallized part of the zombie's body then cracks, and this time the zombie's body shatters, but the part does not regenerate.
The zombie special effect of negative magic--that is the enemy's weakness that has been identified during the retreat so far.
--Although there was not an abundance of opportunities to be sure over a long period of time, several common characteristics were observed in the zombie.
For example, the zombie's fatal wound is closer to the heart than the head.
However, since a chest wound is not fatal, fatal may not be the right word. Nevertheless, it was a fact that zombies, which regenerate wounds on their bodies with extraordinary resilience, heal more slowly when the wounds are close to the heart.
Since blood does not flow when an arm or leg is lost, it seems that the heart probably no longer serves to pump blood to the body, but it has not lost its function as the only vital part of the human body.
As such characteristics of the zombies that could not be defeated were revealed, it was Beatrice's shadow magic that was recognized to be effective when it could indeed defeat the zombies.
According to Beatrice's explanation, the shadow magic "Minya" is a kind of instant death magic that freezes the time of the target, which seems to have made it especially effective against zombies that are supposed to regenerate.
Todd says that if you burn the zombie's body to ashes, you can stop the enemy from regenerating in the same way as if you hit him with a Minya, but there's no point in asking for something you don't have.
"This is the strongest use of the hand we have!"
Regardless of the strength of the enemy zombie, no matter how big or small, if they hit Beatrice's Minya, they can defeat it.
The result was to make the enemy, who continued to demonstrate their abilities in life, understand the advantages of being a zombie.
"They don't get hurt when they're attacked. Anyone would think to count on the power of being beaten and soon to be cured, I suppose."
"I'm sure you would have easily lost it before you became a zombie."
"Awh!"
It was a declaration of victory for Subaru, Beatrice, and then Louis--or rather, both praise and pity for the enemy.
This warrior who came back to life as a zombie was undoubtedly quite a skilled fighter in life. Even as a zombie, there was no shadow of his fighting ability, but there was a distortion in his ideology for fighting.
If only he hadn't been so conceited as to think that taking an attack was nothing.
"There was no way I was going to take this one seriously."
"----"
The zombie's eyes widen as he spins around, the shock of the magic he has been exposed to.
Subaru bit his lower lip in a whirlwind of mixed emotions, a mixture of astonishment that passed through his eyes and understanding that he had realized his defeat, and cursed the unreasonable fate that had befallen this warrior.
Even if he was cursed by the person who crystallized the left half of his body and made him taste death for the second time, he would not be able to say who he was--,
"--Master Schwarz!"
For a moment, sentimentality passed through his heart.
When Tanza called his name in an impatient voice, Subaru suddenly realized the reality of the situation. The eyes of the enemy zombie, spinning in the air, turning away, and then turning back to face him again, their color changing.
Its golden eyes, characteristic of the dead, have not changed.
But the astonishment and understanding that had been floating around had faded, and it had been replaced by an intense hostility.
At one point, the enemy almost accepted his defeat with shock.
It changed the color of his eyes. --Perhaps primed by Subaru's last word.
"He's still--"
"--Not dead!"
In front of Subaru, who gasped at the sight of its eyes, the enemy, which was crystallizing on the left side of its body, kicked something in the air.
It was a shard of a shattered house cannonball. Even though it was a splinter, it was as big as a person's head. Kicking it away, the impact shattered the zombie's left arm from the shoulder and blew it off.
Instead, the kicked-off debris flew straight at Subaru's face--,
"Uawh!"
Just before he was hit, Subaru had a vision of himself being cranially broken by a splinter.
It would have been a death blow, but it did not reach Subaru. This is because the shadow that intervened before it hit Subaru, Louis, took its place.
"Louis--!"
Louis, clinging to his back, forcefully pushes Subaru's body down, moving him out of the path of the shrapnel and into the line of fire himself instead.
As a result, Louis ate the shrapnel unprotected and was ripped from Subaru's body and blown away.
"Subaru! Don't look away!"
Beatrice called out to Subaru as Louis was blown away and his consciousness flashed in that direction. She kept her body in Subaru's arms and reached out her hand to pursue the enemy.
However, the opponent was not so easy as to be fatally attacked twice.
"--"
With arm fragments flying through the air, the enemy skillfully read Beatrice's pursuit of Minya and took it with the slight remaining part of his left shoulder.
They took on the damage in areas that were already crystallized, minimizing the progress of cracking.
It is truly the skill of a warrior par excellence--.
"Uaw"
As soon as he is awed by the skill, Subaru's chest is grabbed by an outstretched arm.
It was a sign of the enemy's obsession to keep Subaru from escaping by losing his grip on the battle-axe--No, losing the power to wield the battle-axe.
"Ohhh!!"
"Gah!"
Subaru's body holding Beatrice is forcefully dropped to the ground as he is pulled back by the force of his arm. Choking from the pain of his back hitting the hard surface, Subaru quickly tried to turn his hand to look at the form of the enemy who was covering him up close and personal.
But, however, the opponent's determined form clashes with his gaze and he stops moving.
--The way he looked, full of high spirits and fighting spirit, which was hard to believe that he was already a dead body.
"--"
"Subaru!"
"Master Schwarz!!"
Subaru's neck is tightened and a desperate voice strikes his eardrums as he gasps.
Hearing the urgency in his voice and the sound of the bones in his neck creaking fatally, Subaru's arms still do not rise. He is not deprived of strength, but his mind is not inspired.
Even if you don't die, they will die.
Even if you don't kill them, they will kill you.
"Minya!"
Instead of Subaru, who cannot move, Beatrice, who is writhing, shoots magic at the enemy.
Covering Subaru is the same as covering Beatrice in his arms. Naturally, the magic lands from a distance that should be called a close shot.
But the enemy endured. --No, The right arm that tightened Subaru's neck was the only thing he defended, and even if his torso was crystallized, he at least tried to take them with him.
"Because you show strange compassion."
Immediately after these unaffected words were spun, the head of the enemy, which was trying to destroy Subaru with its burning eyes, was severed at the neck.
Instead, a cold-faced Todd appeared on the other side of the vanished enemy's head.
"----"
Todd swung the axe in his hand and decapitated the zombie.
The head that was cut off and severed by Todd tried to turn the hatred towards him,
"How dare you!"
And then, the diving Tanza's kick blew its head mercilessly off. As it was, the monocular head bounced down the street with the force of a soccer ball.
Then the torso, left behind from the blown head and left in its place, slowly crumbled, turning its entirety into a purple-blue crystal.
"Are you safe, Master Schwarz?"
"......Gahh, guhh, I-I'm fine. I'm sorry, you saved me."
Shaking off the crumpled torso of his enemy and its shimmering shards of purplish blue, Subaru raises his hand to Tanza, who rushes over to him, and tells him that he is safe.
Tanza was relieved at Subaru's response, and then Subaru looked aghast,
"Louis! Where's Louis? Cover for me......"
"She's all right, I'm sure. She seems like she has a concussion from the shrapnel."
The impatient Subaru was answered by Idola, who was bent over a short distance away.
At his feet lies Louis, her upper body held up, blood pouring from her forehead, her head shaking unsteadily.
"Her head's hurt......! Beatrice, help me!"
"--. Of course, I got it, I suppose."
"Please......!"
Subaru takes note of Louis's situation and rushes to her feet, pulling Beatrice's arm. For a moment there is hesitation in her demeanor, but Subaru does not notice it.
Beatrice is the only one who can use healing magic here.
The other user, Rem, is asked to aim for the city by bypassing the battle zone with non-combatants in order to avoid a total war against a strong enemy.
The more powerful enemies are pulled away from beside the city walls, the more likely it is that the girls will be able to get out of the city safely, but this is where the impact of the possible lack of a healer's hand came into play.
"Louis, it's going to be okay......!"
Crouching beside Louis with Beatrice, Subaru holds Louis's hand next to Beatrice's as she holds her hand over the wound on her forehead and activates her healing magic.
He squeezed it back weakly and said, "I'm sorry......," and Subaru repeated his apology.
He can only apologize for that. That was completely Subaru's fault.
"I was surprised to learn that the girl can also use healing magic. There are many unusual users around you, aren't there?"
So Subaru watches over Louis's treatment, and it was Todd who approached him.
He carries the axe that decapitated his enemy's head on his shoulder and looks at Subaru's profile, which is slightly tense,
"But if you keep going like that, you'll be a waste. You are aware of that, aren't you?"
"Todd......"
"Anyone who puts his certainty that he will not die in anything other than his own strength is fragile."
"----"
"The logic applies not only to the Monocular I just killed, but to you as well."
The reason why he can't say anything back to him is because he has unmistakably hit the bullseye.
That moment of weakness passed through Subaru's mind as he shook off his looming defeat and saw his enemy clinging to victory. It was, as Todd said, the result of being pushed aside by a thirst for life.
Subaru is not so insensitive as to be able to reopen that as inevitable, though--.
"It's not rude to talk like that."
"----"
"Master Schwarz is a contributor to the current battle. That's the way you refer to it......"
"Don't bite me. I'm giving you credit. It's just not enough. And the person who deserves the most credit is you or your fallen girl."
When Todd said this, Tanza's cheeks hardened.
The girl who took on a major role against a strong opponent is concerned about Subaru, who has not taken to heart the praise directed at her and has been subjected to heartless words.
Her facial expression does not change very much, but her inner feelings are rather thick.
It was understandable that he was insulted by Subaru, with whom he had developed a relationship in no small measure since the Gladiator Island, and that he would show a posture of anger on Subaru's behalf.
The absence of Katya, Todd's fiancée, at the event also helps to reinforce the strength of the speech.
"Do you think you're right about everything? If so, then......"
"So don't bite me. What I said was just a fact. That there are monsters out there who are so sure they're not going to die from sheer strength, and there are others who think they're not going to die for no other reason than that. --And neither you nor I are either of those things."
"That's......"
"If the former is on our side, things go easily, but the latter doesn't want to be on our side. If they are enemies, they can take advantage of you like they are doing now. Your people's plan was spot on."
"--tsk, You take Schwarz-sama."
She tried to bite him not to talk about it.
Tanza, her face slightly red with anger, tries to bite Todd. But rather than Subaru trying to stop him, Idola intervenes more quickly.
He held Louis's body in place and called her name, "Tanza,"
"That's enough. It's not like you. It's always been your thing to keep your cool."
"......I'm just not very good with emotions. Besides, you know what I mean, Idola."
"What I mean when I say I know is......"
"Idola and I are connected to Master Schwarz. I am sure that they know how you are feeling."
"----"
Idola frowned and kept his mouth shut at Tanza's appeal, her back still turned to him. Subaru gulped at the sight of Idola's expression directly in front of him.
It is a boon that the Pleiades group has received substandard reinforcement from the effects of Subaru's "Cor Leonis", but such inadequacies are also conveyed to the members who are closely related--Idola and the others, who are also from the same "union", and Tanza, who is more closely associated with them than the other members of the group.
There is a sense of relief for Tanza and her colleagues who do not see this as Subaru's fault or immorality.
On the other hand, he feels sorry and that it is not enough.
That's when Subaru thought.
"Ah, uh"
Suddenly, Louis gripped Subaru's hand back in his grip and spoke out weakly.
As usual, he doesn't know the details of what that means, unspoken. But he does know that she is concerned about Subaru. Even though he is in a situation where he is more injured than she is.
"If she can talk, don't worry. When you're done, I'll take you outside and let Rem take a look at you."
"Oh, I see. I've just found a way. If we keep on messing around......"
It was time to prepare for the fallacy that other zombies might gather.
--A strange sound was heard that cut the wind.
"----"
It sounded like the swinging of a string with something light strapped to it, but the events that occurred immediately after the wind noise was heard were not light.
"Kah"
And then a short moan spills out, and Tanza's body trembles.
Then she shuddered and looked down at herself, and her round eyes widened. --Through her back and abdomen, something like a tentacle with a sharp tip was sticking out.
A tentacle pierced Tanza's small body, and it extended from the direction of the street, which had collapsed in the aftermath of the battle, much further away from Subaru and the others.
The tentacles, extending out like a writhing snake, are the starting point of the snake--,
"......Huh?"
The zombie grew an oddly shaped torso from a kicked-off neck and extended tentacles at the end.
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"----"
Subaru's thoughts turn white at the sight of the momentary stagnation, the trampling of his imagination and understanding.
But a voice was raised to ensure that the moment would not be fatal.
"Subaru!"
Beatrice beside him screams in blood, which brings Subaru's consciousness back to reality.
Subaru hears the sound of blood coursing through his brain and once again sees the scene before him--a single-eyed zombie standing on a destroyed street, its deformed enemy in his eyes.
From the neck up, it is the same black eye with golden pupils as before.
However, from the neck down, it was not the body of a strong warrior, but a monster that could only be called deformed, with arms and legs, each with a different thickness and length for the paired left and right limbs.
The monster had tentacles from his right arm--No, that's not it. It was not a tentacle, but a finger. One of the monster's pointed fingers had extended oddly and was piercing through Tanza's body.
"--uh"
The moment the monster saw this, it retracted its long fingers, and Tanza's body trembled again.
Her body spurts blood as her torso is pierced, and she falls to her knees weakly on the spot.
"TANZA--!!"
"--! Oh no! Schwarz!"
Immediately after Subaru shouted this, Idola's palm, thrust out from right beside him, pushed him as hard as he could as he reached out his hand and started to run.
Subaru's body was lightly flung through the air by the enhanced Idola's thrust. However, his reversing vision soon caught on that Idola's thrust was the right one.
The monster's shimmering fingers attacked the position where Subaru had been until just before.
The horrifying cut that slices vertically through the streets and buildings on the way to the city destroys the city, and if Idola had not pushed him away, Subaru's body would have been severed as well.
As it was, Subaru's body flew with great vigor--,
"Damn! No way, it regenerated from a decapitated head."
Todd holds Subaru by forcefully pulling him in with an arm that extends directly below him.
Stiffening at the sound of Todd's voice falling from overhead, Subaru muttered, "No way" at the meaning of his words--regeneration from a decapitated head.
"How is it possible for someone to crystallize and shatter the torso and still move?"
"I don't want it to be there, but I have to admit that it is there. That creepy looking thing is......"
"The body's regenerative formula is buggy!"
It was Beatrice who offered the answer to Todd's question with Subaru and beyond.
She stared at the deformed monster with impatience on her pretty face,
"I wonder if this is the result of refusing to die from damage that should have killed me!"
"--. I mean, they're dirtier alive than the other zombies...... or, since they're already dead, dirtier in death would be more accurate."
"Guh......! Beatrice! Idola! Quickly, get Tanza to......!"
"I know! I know, but......"
Idola grits his teeth as he raises his voice at Subaru's desperate plea.
He is also concerned about the injured Tanza. However, if he makes a careless move, he will attract the attention of the deformity. Already, they have seen that the deformity's attack can pass through the Pleiades group.
If they get to idola, the chance of winning disappears.
It is--,
"No, in the first place......"
Louis was injured by shrapnel and Tanza was mortally wounded at first sight.
The zombies that they thought they had defeated could not be defeated, and in fact, they stood in the way, transformed into a deformed form. This is no longer the case, and they have entered a dead end roundabout.
"--Say something stupid."
Subaru dismisses the foolish thought that almost came to his mind for a moment.
There are times when you run into a cul-de-sac of fate, a situation that can never be overcome in its laps. Such was the case with Todd with Subaru.
But Subaru is here. --And moreover, Subaru was saved.
He can give up on himself, but he can't give up on everyone else.
"--You've got a weird look in your eye."
"Huh?"
"It's the eyes of someone who treats himself, others, and life differently."
Subaru switched gears with a sound in his mind. Subaru could not understand what was going through Todd's mind as he muttered this while watching Subaru's expression up close.
There should have been unmistakable disgust in it, though.
"Here we go."
Immediately after saying this shortly, Todd kicked the ground hard with Subaru in his arms.
And then, without a second thought, he turned his back on Tanza and Beatrice and the others, and fled the scene at a run.
"Wha?! What are you doing?! If you leave everyone else......"
"Look at me. It's after both you and me."
As he says it, Todd, leaning back, jumps into a side street.
A moment later, a finger was released to puncture the street to snatch Todd's afterimage, and the smell of burning air tickled Subaru's nostrils.
For a moment, he caught a glimpse.
That strange creature, its single eye glinting with a devilish light, was chasing after Subaru and the others.
"They say they're targeting me for the first kill and you for the second."
"......! So you pulled them in and got them off everyone's side."
"When others get involved, it slows your head down."
Then Todd looked down at Subaru with those green eyes.
Subaru is rocked in his arms, and as he looks into his cold eyes, he feels the same or even more fear in his spine as the deformity that is chasing him.
Even under these circumstances, Todd's eyes on Subaru were nothing more than a price tag.
"Can you think of a way to finish that thing off without a partner?"
"What if there isn't?"
"I hate it when that happens, but I guess I'll just have to leave my luck up to the heavens."
Subaru guesses that it never means exactly what it says.
As long as the conditions under which he and Subaru are being targeted are the same, Todd will make a move to use Subaru as bait to escape if the odds are against him.
The reason they don't do that right now is because the math is low that they can get away with using Subaru as bait.
To put it another way--,
"--If you have a hand, you lend it, don't you?"
"----"
At Subaru's question, Todd's expression tightens again.
Todd skillfully used obstacles to hide from the monster's view and continue to evade its attacks. With him holding hiim in his arms, Subaru's vision swept around and he searched for the desired building in the Imperial Capital.
It was the building that Idola had mentioned to him on the way to escape.
He had come up with a plan to hit a Minya, but he had no way to lead the enemy to that building, so he eliminated it as an option--.
"Can you do it?"
"--I'll do it."
"----"
Subaru answered immediately to the question, and Todd's eyes widened lightly at the answer, and the edges of his mouth twisted into a cruel sneer.
And then--,
"All right. --I'll take you up on your offer."
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--The "Giant Eye" Izmail's thoughts were in a thousand shambles as he chased after his fleeing target.
"----"
His vision flickered, his thoughts were scattered, and his movements were far from refined and unrefined.
Scraping his arms and legs of different lengths against the ground, unsteadily, like a newborn beast, he crashes to the ground against the wall, reaching his hand, his fingers, to his back, which is moving away.
Izmail cannot recall the reason for his obsession with the two fleeing enemies.
The deformed monster, almost oblivious to the fact that it was once Izmail, grows new limbs from cracked wounds every time it falls, further increasing its hideousness.
--That's exactly what Beatrice pointed out, the regenerative ability run amok.
However, the mutation of Izmail's body, which was revived by the will of others and was exceptionally far from death, is not something that even the surgeon can control.
What will happen to the monster after it slaughters its two obsessive targets?
"Ohhhhh......"
It is not to be interested in any of the horrifying, empty, yelping monsters.
"----"
The two targets are in a situation where the larger one is running away with the smaller one, and when its back is about to be captured, it pulls back and is forced to repeat the attack without hitting the target.
However, the opponent cannot keep running forever. The continued awkward running has caused Izmail to grow new limbs here and there on his fallen body, and he no longer falls.
Since they don't fall, it stands to reason that the one with more limbs will run faster.
Therefore, Izmail gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, squeezed, squeezed, squeezed the distance between him and the target he was trying to escape from--.
"Aoh"
With a short bark, Izmail's fingers gouged the fleeing target's back and shoulders.
Blood spurted and a wicked smile appeared on Izmail's face as he heard the screams of his enemies. It was pleasant. It was pleasurable, pleasurable, and he wanted to hear more blood, more screams.
Too often, he gets lost, and he feels a sense of desperation, unlike the other party had been before.
The target flees in desperation, not wanting to be chased by Izmail, hunted by the monster, and torn to shreds. It targets and wounds its limbs, especially its upper body.
Aim for the legs and the target will not be able to escape. Then this will be over.
When it's over, he'll be sad. He'll be sorry when it's over.
So, don't let it end, forever and ever--.
"Ooohhhn"
With a low, air-shaking yell, Izmail shatters buildings and stomps through the streets, kicking at the waterlogged ground in pursuit of his target.
The distance between them was quickly closing, and the fleeing enemy finally ran out of strength, bleeding and clucking his tongue as he jumped into a nearby building.
He made the foolish choice to jump into a cul-de-sac, with no way out.
Intuiting the end of this, the end of hunting time, Izmail--Or, the monster that is no longer Izmail, slams down the closed door and slides inside.
With his increased limbs, bloat, and incomparably larger figure than his original body, he could not easily open the door and enter the building.
Then, entering the dimly lit building from which the target fled, the monster looks around inside.
The special eye, which lacked a light source but remained unchanged even when so deformed, switched its view of the world with a blink of an eye, searching for the figure of its hidden prey.
Searching, the monster realizes.
"----"
--In the building he jumped into, the monster's whole body is so white and powdery that it is stained white.
The darkness was not the only reason for the dim visibility, but the powdery air that filled the building. He looked around and saw that the building was lined with shelves, each lined with bags filled to the brim with the contents of the bags.
That bag was ripped open and a lot of powder flew into the building.
"It ain't magic or special moves that's gonna bring you down."
The powdery monster noticed the state of the building and heard the voice from behind him at the same time. The monster turned around and saw a small shadow, bright red in color, in its field of vision.
That was one of the fleeing targets--No, before long, the fleeing target was alone. The smaller one, who had been out of sight, away from the larger one, was there.
And then--,
"Take that, quintessential science--dust explosion!!"
Immediately after that call, the small shadow's surroundings were also dyed red all at once--,
--A tremendous explosion blew up the grist mill and the monster was swallowed by a bright red red lotus.
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"--Look there, Schwarz, we'll use that mill as a landmark. It's the building with the waterwheel next to it."
Idola, riding a galloping horse with non-combatants in tow, is said to have been the son of a miller before he was sent to the Gladiator Island.
Subaru, too, was not familiar with the exact role of the miller's work, but he had been briefed that the miller used the power of the waterwheel to mill wheat and other products.
In other words--,
"If you use the materials in the shed, you can create a dust explosion."
A dust explosion is a phenomenon in which flammable powdery materials are scattered in the air, and when a spark of fire jumps into them, they catch fire in a chain reaction, igniting and exploding at once.
In addition to the enclosed space of a flour mill, there is a large amount of wheat dancing around, and if a spark of fire dances into it with clear vigor--,
"......I never thought that would be this powerful."
Leaning his back against the battered wall, Subaru coughs and mutters.
In front of Subaru's eyes, there is a grinding shed that was blown to pieces by a dust explosion that was established, and the wreckage of the monster that was burned up as collateral damage.
When he and Todd had to attract and defeat the monster, Subaru's plan of attack was a dust explosion using the mill.
Of course, a dust explosion is not an easy thing to pull off, and he had no confidence that he would be able to successfully induce his opponent in the first place.
So it wasn't just Subaru that made it work so well.
"......Are you alive, Todd?"
Blown away by the impact of the explosion, Subaru stands up, shaking his flickering head.
After dividing the roles, Todd took on the role of attracting the monsters and running away until the flour mill was ready, while Subaru sneaked into the shed and filled the building with dust.
When Todd saw the time was right, he jumped into the shed and led the monster out, and that's when he threw the spark into the fire. Todd was the one who prepared the spark as well.
"Todd, Todd......!"
"......You don't have to call me that pathetically, I'm alive and well."
"--"
Subaru, who had been calling out to the blast site and its surroundings, where the remnants of the fire asserted their presence, heard a slight snarl and turned his feet in that direction.
If you look, you will see Todd on one knee on the street where the wall of the shed that had blown down had fallen in place. When he saw Subaru walking up to him, he spat out the spit in his mouth,
"You almost killed me, man."
"......You're not a very good listener. I told you it was very powerful."
"Every once in a while, these kinds of accidents happen, but when I heard the principle, it made sense."
As expected, Todd falls flat on his butt on the street, breathing unevenly. As it is, he looks out toward the blown-up shack,
"Who's on the other side?"
"He's blown away. Well...... look."
Saying this, Subaru pointed to a part of the blown-up monster that was just visible from their position. Then, the part seared by the remaining fire crumbled like sand and lost its shape.
Like the dispersal of the other zombies, it was the result of completely crushing their regenerative abilities.
"What's the scar?"
This time, after confirming that he has defeated that powerful zombie, Subaru asks Todd.
In dividing the roles, Todd had no choice but to play the role of decoy, since he could not be caught by the enemy and could keep running for a while. However, he volunteered to take on this role.
Subaru's expectation was that he would absolutely avoid taking measures that would endanger his own life.
"If we spared no life, we'd be talking about nothing. We both just did our necessary roles. Nevertheless......"
"Uh......"
"I've been gouged out pretty good. I feel like I don't have enough blood."
As he said it, he raised one hand, and Todd's injury is quite severe.
Although he had no wounds that could be called deep, his shoulders and thighs were soaked with blood, and his face was bloodless due to the amount of blood he had lost.
If left unchecked, it would undoubtedly endanger his life.
"Soon--"
I'll go get Beatrice, Subaru said, trying to move.
Beatrice is probably in a panic now that Subaru and Todd have left the scene. However, he is sure she would give priority to treating Tanza.
He is concerned about the safety of Louis and Tanza, and he must hurry to meet up with Beatrice and the others.
And then--,
"--I'm sure Katya can't complain after all this."
"Huh?"
"We talked about this at the mansion. She seems to think I'm lazy. I let ourselves go, I defeated a powerful enemy, and I was wounded with honor. Don't take all the credit, will you?"
Subaru was taken aback for a moment by Todd, who shrugged his shoulders and said this with a bloodless face, and then let out a weak "Hah" breath.
With such a battered state, it was Katya who still cared. Or perhaps he had a plan to relieve Subaru's tension, in any case.
"You really care about Miss Katya."
"It's obvious. I'm engaged. Katya is my life herself."
Todd says it without any shame.
Subaru took a deep breath at the answer, held his breath in mid-stride, and said, "Okay."
Even now, he is still afraid of Todd. What he did to him has left him heartbroken.
Still, the fact that they worked together to defeat that monster here also remains the same. Even to the point of being battered and bruised, Todd did everything he could to bring everyone and Subaru and the others back alive.
Then it's Subaru's turn.
"Here, we'll...... no, here someone might hear the explosion and come. Once you find a suitable place, wait for me there. If you find a suitable place, wait for me there."
"Oh, okay. Please, no coming back."
"I'm not doing that!"
Todd made him think that he might not have to do that.
Even if he had remained hostile to Todd, it is doubtful that Subaru would have left him there to die.
"No, you can't think too much, you'll end up in a ditch. Anyway--"
Even if he were to give Todd a shoulder to lean on, they were too different in stature to make it work. Subaru looked around the blown-up hut, hoping to find something he could use as a walking stick at least.
And then he found a blown-out shelf prop in the cinders--,
"----"
--A moment later, a hard sound, echoed through the air.
"......Why the hell?"
The moment that hard sound echoed through the air, Subaru turned over and clenched his fists tightly. His lips trembled, his shoulders shook with a wince, and his dark eyes quivered as he muttered.
"Why the hell?"
"----"
There is no answer to the question, and Subaru looks back, exhaling.
As Subaru looked back, the blade of the axe was just inches away from shattering his skull, but it stopped moving.
--by the restraint of the "Unseen Hand", invisible to all but Subaru.
"Tsk, what a fail."
With a small click of his tongue, Todd let go of the axe and flew backward. Subaru gritted his teeth as his agile movements showed no signs of blood loss or wounds.
Even that is an act. The pain of his wounds, the fact that he asked Subaru for help, that, you know, he spoke of his feelings for Katya and relieved Subaru's heart.
"Why the hell......!"
Three times, he uttered the same question, and Subaru stared at Todd with a tearful look on his face.
He stared at him and felt tears welling up in frustration,
"I haven't done anything yet. I didn't kill anyone. I could have forgiven you!!"
"Slowly and quietly, you have undermined my trust in you."
Hearing Subaru's cries, Todd pulls out a knife in place of the axe he had let go and holds it ready.
That was the pronouncement that separated Natsuki Subaru and Todd Fang in a way that was hard to fill.
Arc 8, Chapter 5 "Forgiveness"
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"--They've only been zombies for a short time. There's even a mix of people who lived just a few hours ago. The man who died in this battle is being resurrected from one end of the line...... can't you determine that yet?"
"But I know what you mean about being a freshly turned zombie. We all feel like we don't know what our weaknesses are. We're not the only ones who don't know much about zombies......"
"They themselves are the same. However, if they have a talking head, they might as well have a thinking head. The more time you give them, the more you fill in those unknowns, the more you eliminate any weaknesses that might be there."
"That's why you have to make your move before they're at full strength--ah"
"What is it? What did you notice?"
"----"
"Don't be a pompous ass. Talk to me."
"I'm not trying to be a pompous ass. It's just that zombies don't really know their own bodies either. If that's the case, I'd be happy to teach them the opposite--"
△▼△▼△▼△
He clutches Louis to his back and squeezes Beatrice to his chest.
The same basic posture as when he was riding on the back of a galloping horse, except that the situation in which he was placed was quite extreme and he had no time to care for the girls.
The scene around them changed in an instant, and soon after, Subaru and the others appeared in the air, beside a house that was being smashed by a furious blow, taking the back of a hostile zombie.
Tanza throwing the house and Idola throwing rubble in waves--it was a rather literal battle strategy, but it is not only the literal but also the pictorial that is strange.
Not talking about why children and not adults are throwing the larger ones. In the first place, the tactic of throwing the house itself is ridiculous.
And yet--,
"As the favored girl of Yorna, I can do this much."
And if they can be so dependably accepted, the pictorial impact can be shelved for now.
In fact, the mysterious enhancement of the entire Pleiades group applies to Idola as well, but it is not as good as Tanza, which is in a layered state with that of Yorna. It's called being in the right place at the right time.
From this perspective, Subaru's team's surprise attack was a wave of attacks with large and small projectile weapons - once they had drawn the opponent's attention to Todd, Subaru's team's surprise shift took place.
"----"
A zombie twisting in mid-air, the enemy, whose face is characterized by its single eye, has the whites of the large pupil in the center of its face blackened and the golden pupils glowing brightly.
A terribly cruel, blood-scented evil laugh is etched on his mouth, sending shivers down his spine.
Was he always the type of person who would laugh hysterically in the midst of battle? Or perhaps he has changed since he became a zombie, but they don't know which.
Nevertheless--,
"El--"
Quickly, Subaru and Beatrice simultaneously hold up their hands and point them at the enemy in front of them.
If the other party shows no hesitation in avoiding Subaru's attack at all costs, then their strategy will fail.
Perhaps, despite their best efforts, they are very far short of this enemy.
But it was not to be, and so Subaru--no, Subaru and his team were packed.
"--"
Sure enough, the zombie turned around with a startling gait and, catching Subaru and the others in its large single eye, took a posture of swinging the battle-axe in its grip instead of taking evasive action.
Its strategy is to attack Subaru and his men and finish them off with a counterattack--a traditional tactic of cutting the flesh to cut the bones, but with a different level of desperation.
The zombie's body regenerates wounds inflicted in little or no time.
That is why the enemy thought he could eat Subaru and his team's attack with no risk and use it to launch his own counterattack.
That is--,
"Minya--!!"
--That is, without realizing that this was the path to defeat that Subaru and his team had carved out.
In the posture of swinging the battle-axe of counterattack, the enemy takes a serious hit from the purple arrow released from the hand held by Subaru and Beatrice.
Three brightly shimmering, purple-blue crystal arrows pierced the left half of the Monoculars' body.
"Brilliant tactics, but--"
The enemy bared its teeth and barked at its prey, Subaru and the others, without regard for the purple arrows that stuck out.
The zombie's body, oddly enough, retains some strength, but when it is shattered, it breaks in a brittle manner, much like pottery breaking.
The broken body is repaired like a video played backwards, and the zombie attacks as if nothing had happened--,
"W-what......?"
--They failed to do it.
The dark blue arrow that pierces the zombie's body does not shatter the zombie's body from there, but rather remakes the body into the same dark blue crystals as the arrow. The crystallized part of the zombie's body then cracks, and this time the zombie's body shatters, but the part does not regenerate.
The zombie special effect of negative magic--that is the enemy's weakness that has been identified during the retreat so far.
--Although there was not an abundance of opportunities to be sure over a long period of time, several common characteristics were observed in the zombie.
For example, the zombie's fatal wound is closer to the heart than the head.
However, since a chest wound is not fatal, fatal may not be the right word. Nevertheless, it was a fact that zombies, which regenerate wounds on their bodies with extraordinary resilience, heal more slowly when the wounds are close to the heart.
Since blood does not flow when an arm or leg is lost, it seems that the heart probably no longer serves to pump blood to the body, but it has not lost its function as the only vital part of the human body.
As such characteristics of the zombies that could not be defeated were revealed, it was Beatrice's shadow magic that was recognized to be effective when it could indeed defeat the zombies.
According to Beatrice's explanation, the shadow magic "Minya" is a kind of instant death magic that freezes the time of the target, which seems to have made it especially effective against zombies that are supposed to regenerate.
Todd says that if you burn the zombie's body to ashes, you can stop the enemy from regenerating in the same way as if you hit him with a Minya, but there's no point in asking for something you don't have.
"This is the strongest use of the hand we have!"
Regardless of the strength of the enemy zombie, no matter how big or small, if they hit Beatrice's Minya, they can defeat it.
The result was to make the enemy, who continued to demonstrate their abilities in life, understand the advantages of being a zombie.
"They don't get hurt when they're attacked. Anyone would think to count on the power of being beaten and soon to be cured, I suppose."
"I'm sure you would have easily lost it before you became a zombie."
"Awh!"
It was a declaration of victory for Subaru, Beatrice, and then Louis--or rather, both praise and pity for the enemy.
This warrior who came back to life as a zombie was undoubtedly quite a skilled fighter in life. Even as a zombie, there was no shadow of his fighting ability, but there was a distortion in his ideology for fighting.
If only he hadn't been so conceited as to think that taking an attack was nothing.
"There was no way I was going to take this one seriously."
"----"
The zombie's eyes widen as he spins around, the shock of the magic he has been exposed to.
Subaru bit his lower lip in a whirlwind of mixed emotions, a mixture of astonishment that passed through his eyes and understanding that he had realized his defeat, and cursed the unreasonable fate that had befallen this warrior.
Even if he was cursed by the person who crystallized the left half of his body and made him taste death for the second time, he would not be able to say who he was--,
"--Master Schwarz!"
For a moment, sentimentality passed through his heart.
When Tanza called his name in an impatient voice, Subaru suddenly realized the reality of the situation. The eyes of the enemy zombie, spinning in the air, turning away, and then turning back to face him again, their color changing.
Its golden eyes, characteristic of the dead, have not changed.
But the astonishment and understanding that had been floating around had faded, and it had been replaced by an intense hostility.
At one point, the enemy almost accepted his defeat with shock.
It changed the color of his eyes. --Perhaps primed by Subaru's last word.
"He's still--"
"--Not dead!"
In front of Subaru, who gasped at the sight of its eyes, the enemy, which was crystallizing on the left side of its body, kicked something in the air.
It was a shard of a shattered house cannonball. Even though it was a splinter, it was as big as a person's head. Kicking it away, the impact shattered the zombie's left arm from the shoulder and blew it off.
Instead, the kicked-off debris flew straight at Subaru's face--,
"Uawh!"
Just before he was hit, Subaru had a vision of himself being cranially broken by a splinter.
It would have been a death blow, but it did not reach Subaru. This is because the shadow that intervened before it hit Subaru, Louis, took its place.
"Louis--!"
Louis, clinging to his back, forcefully pushes Subaru's body down, moving him out of the path of the shrapnel and into the line of fire himself instead.
As a result, Louis ate the shrapnel unprotected and was ripped from Subaru's body and blown away.
"Subaru! Don't look away!"
Beatrice called out to Subaru as Louis was blown away and his consciousness flashed in that direction. She kept her body in Subaru's arms and reached out her hand to pursue the enemy.
However, the opponent was not so easy as to be fatally attacked twice.
"--"
With arm fragments flying through the air, the enemy skillfully read Beatrice's pursuit of Minya and took it with the slight remaining part of his left shoulder.
They took on the damage in areas that were already crystallized, minimizing the progress of cracking.
It is truly the skill of a warrior par excellence--.
"Uaw"
As soon as he is awed by the skill, Subaru's chest is grabbed by an outstretched arm.
It was a sign of the enemy's obsession to keep Subaru from escaping by losing his grip on the battle-axe--No, losing the power to wield the battle-axe.
"Ohhh!!"
"Gah!"
Subaru's body holding Beatrice is forcefully dropped to the ground as he is pulled back by the force of his arm. Choking from the pain of his back hitting the hard surface, Subaru quickly tried to turn his hand to look at the form of the enemy who was covering him up close and personal.
But, however, the opponent's determined form clashes with his gaze and he stops moving.
--The way he looked, full of high spirits and fighting spirit, which was hard to believe that he was already a dead body.
"--"
"Subaru!"
"Master Schwarz!!"
Subaru's neck is tightened and a desperate voice strikes his eardrums as he gasps.
Hearing the urgency in his voice and the sound of the bones in his neck creaking fatally, Subaru's arms still do not rise. He is not deprived of strength, but his mind is not inspired.
Even if you don't die, they will die.
Even if you don't kill them, they will kill you.
"Minya!"
Instead of Subaru, who cannot move, Beatrice, who is writhing, shoots magic at the enemy.
Covering Subaru is the same as covering Beatrice in his arms. Naturally, the magic lands from a distance that should be called a close shot.
But the enemy endured. --No, The right arm that tightened Subaru's neck was the only thing he defended, and even if his torso was crystallized, he at least tried to take them with him.
"Because you show strange compassion."
Immediately after these unaffected words were spun, the head of the enemy, which was trying to destroy Subaru with its burning eyes, was severed at the neck.
Instead, a cold-faced Todd appeared on the other side of the vanished enemy's head.
"----"
Todd swung the axe in his hand and decapitated the zombie.
The head that was cut off and severed by Todd tried to turn the hatred towards him,
"How dare you!"
And then, the diving Tanza's kick blew its head mercilessly off. As it was, the monocular head bounced down the street with the force of a soccer ball.
Then the torso, left behind from the blown head and left in its place, slowly crumbled, turning its entirety into a purple-blue crystal.
"Are you safe, Master Schwarz?"
"......Gahh, guhh, I-I'm fine. I'm sorry, you saved me."
Shaking off the crumpled torso of his enemy and its shimmering shards of purplish blue, Subaru raises his hand to Tanza, who rushes over to him, and tells him that he is safe.
Tanza was relieved at Subaru's response, and then Subaru looked aghast,
"Louis! Where's Louis? Cover for me......"
"She's all right, I'm sure. She seems like she has a concussion from the shrapnel."
The impatient Subaru was answered by Idola, who was bent over a short distance away.
At his feet lies Louis, her upper body held up, blood pouring from her forehead, her head shaking unsteadily.
"Her head's hurt......! Beatrice, help me!"
"--. Of course, I got it, I suppose."
"Please......!"
Subaru takes note of Louis's situation and rushes to her feet, pulling Beatrice's arm. For a moment there is hesitation in her demeanor, but Subaru does not notice it.
Beatrice is the only one who can use healing magic here.
The other user, Rem, is asked to aim for the city by bypassing the battle zone with non-combatants in order to avoid a total war against a strong enemy.
The more powerful enemies are pulled away from beside the city walls, the more likely it is that the girls will be able to get out of the city safely, but this is where the impact of the possible lack of a healer's hand came into play.
"Louis, it's going to be okay......!"
Crouching beside Louis with Beatrice, Subaru holds Louis's hand next to Beatrice's as she holds her hand over the wound on her forehead and activates her healing magic.
He squeezed it back weakly and said, "I'm sorry......," and Subaru repeated his apology.
He can only apologize for that. That was completely Subaru's fault.
"I was surprised to learn that the girl can also use healing magic. There are many unusual users around you, aren't there?"
So Subaru watches over Louis's treatment, and it was Todd who approached him.
He carries the axe that decapitated his enemy's head on his shoulder and looks at Subaru's profile, which is slightly tense,
"But if you keep going like that, you'll be a waste. You are aware of that, aren't you?"
"Todd......"
"Anyone who puts his certainty that he will not die in anything other than his own strength is fragile."
"----"
"The logic applies not only to the Monocular I just killed, but to you as well."
The reason why he can't say anything back to him is because he has unmistakably hit the bullseye.
That moment of weakness passed through Subaru's mind as he shook off his looming defeat and saw his enemy clinging to victory. It was, as Todd said, the result of being pushed aside by a thirst for life.
Subaru is not so insensitive as to be able to reopen that as inevitable, though--.
"It's not rude to talk like that."
"----"
"Master Schwarz is a contributor to the current battle. That's the way you refer to it......"
"Don't bite me. I'm giving you credit. It's just not enough. And the person who deserves the most credit is you or your fallen girl."
When Todd said this, Tanza's cheeks hardened.
The girl who took on a major role against a strong opponent is concerned about Subaru, who has not taken to heart the praise directed at her and has been subjected to heartless words.
Her facial expression does not change very much, but her inner feelings are rather thick.
It was understandable that he was insulted by Subaru, with whom he had developed a relationship in no small measure since the Gladiator Island, and that he would show a posture of anger on Subaru's behalf.
The absence of Katya, Todd's fiancée, at the event also helps to reinforce the strength of the speech.
"Do you think you're right about everything? If so, then......"
"So don't bite me. What I said was just a fact. That there are monsters out there who are so sure they're not going to die from sheer strength, and there are others who think they're not going to die for no other reason than that. --And neither you nor I are either of those things."
"That's......"
"If the former is on our side, things go easily, but the latter doesn't want to be on our side. If they are enemies, they can take advantage of you like they are doing now. Your people's plan was spot on."
"--tsk, You take Schwarz-sama."
She tried to bite him not to talk about it.
Tanza, her face slightly red with anger, tries to bite Todd. But rather than Subaru trying to stop him, Idola intervenes more quickly.
He held Louis's body in place and called her name, "Tanza,"
"That's enough. It's not like you. It's always been your thing to keep your cool."
"......I'm just not very good with emotions. Besides, you know what I mean, Idola."
"What I mean when I say I know is......"
"Idola and I are connected to Master Schwarz. I am sure that they know how you are feeling."
"----"
Idola frowned and kept his mouth shut at Tanza's appeal, her back still turned to him. Subaru gulped at the sight of Idola's expression directly in front of him.
It is a boon that the Pleiades group has received substandard reinforcement from the effects of Subaru's "Cor Leonis", but such inadequacies are also conveyed to the members who are closely related--Idola and the others, who are also from the same "union", and Tanza, who is more closely associated with them than the other members of the group.
There is a sense of relief for Tanza and her colleagues who do not see this as Subaru's fault or immorality.
On the other hand, he feels sorry and that it is not enough.
That's when Subaru thought.
"Ah, uh"
Suddenly, Louis gripped Subaru's hand back in his grip and spoke out weakly.
As usual, he doesn't know the details of what that means, unspoken. But he does know that she is concerned about Subaru. Even though he is in a situation where he is more injured than she is.
"If she can talk, don't worry. When you're done, I'll take you outside and let Rem take a look at you."
"Oh, I see. I've just found a way. If we keep on messing around......"
It was time to prepare for the fallacy that other zombies might gather.
--A strange sound was heard that cut the wind.
"----"
It sounded like the swinging of a string with something light strapped to it, but the events that occurred immediately after the wind noise was heard were not light.
"Kah"
And then a short moan spills out, and Tanza's body trembles.
Then she shuddered and looked down at herself, and her round eyes widened. --Through her back and abdomen, something like a tentacle with a sharp tip was sticking out.
A tentacle pierced Tanza's small body, and it extended from the direction of the street, which had collapsed in the aftermath of the battle, much further away from Subaru and the others.
The tentacles, extending out like a writhing snake, are the starting point of the snake--,
"......Huh?"
The zombie grew an oddly shaped torso from a kicked-off neck and extended tentacles at the end.
△▼△▼△▼△
"----"
Subaru's thoughts turn white at the sight of the momentary stagnation, the trampling of his imagination and understanding.
But a voice was raised to ensure that the moment would not be fatal.
"Subaru!"
Beatrice beside him screams in blood, which brings Subaru's consciousness back to reality.
Subaru hears the sound of blood coursing through his brain and once again sees the scene before him--a single-eyed zombie standing on a destroyed street, its deformed enemy in his eyes.
From the neck up, it is the same black eye with golden pupils as before.
However, from the neck down, it was not the body of a strong warrior, but a monster that could only be called deformed, with arms and legs, each with a different thickness and length for the paired left and right limbs.
The monster had tentacles from his right arm--No, that's not it. It was not a tentacle, but a finger. One of the monster's pointed fingers had extended oddly and was piercing through Tanza's body.
"--uh"
The moment the monster saw this, it retracted its long fingers, and Tanza's body trembled again.
Her body spurts blood as her torso is pierced, and she falls to her knees weakly on the spot.
"TANZA--!!"
"--! Oh no! Schwarz!"
Immediately after Subaru shouted this, Idola's palm, thrust out from right beside him, pushed him as hard as he could as he reached out his hand and started to run.
Subaru's body was lightly flung through the air by the enhanced Idola's thrust. However, his reversing vision soon caught on that Idola's thrust was the right one.
The monster's shimmering fingers attacked the position where Subaru had been until just before.
The horrifying cut that slices vertically through the streets and buildings on the way to the city destroys the city, and if Idola had not pushed him away, Subaru's body would have been severed as well.
As it was, Subaru's body flew with great vigor--,
"Damn! No way, it regenerated from a decapitated head."
Todd holds Subaru by forcefully pulling him in with an arm that extends directly below him.
Stiffening at the sound of Todd's voice falling from overhead, Subaru muttered, "No way" at the meaning of his words--regeneration from a decapitated head.
"How is it possible for someone to crystallize and shatter the torso and still move?"
"I don't want it to be there, but I have to admit that it is there. That creepy looking thing is......"
"The body's regenerative formula is buggy!"
It was Beatrice who offered the answer to Todd's question with Subaru and beyond.
She stared at the deformed monster with impatience on her pretty face,
"I wonder if this is the result of refusing to die from damage that should have killed me!"
"--. I mean, they're dirtier alive than the other zombies...... or, since they're already dead, dirtier in death would be more accurate."
"Guh......! Beatrice! Idola! Quickly, get Tanza to......!"
"I know! I know, but......"
Idola grits his teeth as he raises his voice at Subaru's desperate plea.
He is also concerned about the injured Tanza. However, if he makes a careless move, he will attract the attention of the deformity. Already, they have seen that the deformity's attack can pass through the Pleiades group.
If they get to idola, the chance of winning disappears.
It is--,
"No, in the first place......"
Louis was injured by shrapnel and Tanza was mortally wounded at first sight.
The zombies that they thought they had defeated could not be defeated, and in fact, they stood in the way, transformed into a deformed form. This is no longer the case, and they have entered a dead end roundabout.
"--Say something stupid."
Subaru dismisses the foolish thought that almost came to his mind for a moment.
There are times when you run into a cul-de-sac of fate, a situation that can never be overcome in its laps. Such was the case with Todd with Subaru.
But Subaru is here. --And moreover, Subaru was saved.
He can give up on himself, but he can't give up on everyone else.
"--You've got a weird look in your eye."
"Huh?"
"It's the eyes of someone who treats himself, others, and life differently."
Subaru switched gears with a sound in his mind. Subaru could not understand what was going through Todd's mind as he muttered this while watching Subaru's expression up close.
There should have been unmistakable disgust in it, though.
"Here we go."
Immediately after saying this shortly, Todd kicked the ground hard with Subaru in his arms.
And then, without a second thought, he turned his back on Tanza and Beatrice and the others, and fled the scene at a run.
"Wha?! What are you doing?! If you leave everyone else......"
"Look at me. It's after both you and me."
As he says it, Todd, leaning back, jumps into a side street.
A moment later, a finger was released to puncture the street to snatch Todd's afterimage, and the smell of burning air tickled Subaru's nostrils.
For a moment, he caught a glimpse.
That strange creature, its single eye glinting with a devilish light, was chasing after Subaru and the others.
"They say they're targeting me for the first kill and you for the second."
"......! So you pulled them in and got them off everyone's side."
"When others get involved, it slows your head down."
Then Todd looked down at Subaru with those green eyes.
Subaru is rocked in his arms, and as he looks into his cold eyes, he feels the same or even more fear in his spine as the deformity that is chasing him.
Even under these circumstances, Todd's eyes on Subaru were nothing more than a price tag.
"Can you think of a way to finish that thing off without a partner?"
"What if there isn't?"
"I hate it when that happens, but I guess I'll just have to leave my luck up to the heavens."
Subaru guesses that it never means exactly what it says.
As long as the conditions under which he and Subaru are being targeted are the same, Todd will make a move to use Subaru as bait to escape if the odds are against him.
The reason they don't do that right now is because the math is low that they can get away with using Subaru as bait.
To put it another way--,
"--If you have a hand, you lend it, don't you?"
"----"
At Subaru's question, Todd's expression tightens again.
Todd skillfully used obstacles to hide from the monster's view and continue to evade its attacks. With him holding hiim in his arms, Subaru's vision swept around and he searched for the desired building in the Imperial Capital.
It was the building that Idola had mentioned to him on the way to escape.
He had come up with a plan to hit a Minya, but he had no way to lead the enemy to that building, so he eliminated it as an option--.
"Can you do it?"
"--I'll do it."
"----"
Subaru answered immediately to the question, and Todd's eyes widened lightly at the answer, and the edges of his mouth twisted into a cruel sneer.
And then--,
"All right. --I'll take you up on your offer."
△▼△▼△▼△
--The "Giant Eye" Izmail's thoughts were in a thousand shambles as he chased after his fleeing target.
"----"
His vision flickered, his thoughts were scattered, and his movements were far from refined and unrefined.
Scraping his arms and legs of different lengths against the ground, unsteadily, like a newborn beast, he crashes to the ground against the wall, reaching his hand, his fingers, to his back, which is moving away.
Izmail cannot recall the reason for his obsession with the two fleeing enemies.
The deformed monster, almost oblivious to the fact that it was once Izmail, grows new limbs from cracked wounds every time it falls, further increasing its hideousness.
--That's exactly what Beatrice pointed out, the regenerative ability run amok.
However, the mutation of Izmail's body, which was revived by the will of others and was exceptionally far from death, is not something that even the surgeon can control.
What will happen to the monster after it slaughters its two obsessive targets?
"Ohhhhh......"
It is not to be interested in any of the horrifying, empty, yelping monsters.
"----"
The two targets are in a situation where the larger one is running away with the smaller one, and when its back is about to be captured, it pulls back and is forced to repeat the attack without hitting the target.
However, the opponent cannot keep running forever. The continued awkward running has caused Izmail to grow new limbs here and there on his fallen body, and he no longer falls.
Since they don't fall, it stands to reason that the one with more limbs will run faster.
Therefore, Izmail gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, gradually, squeezed, squeezed, squeezed the distance between him and the target he was trying to escape from--.
"Aoh"
With a short bark, Izmail's fingers gouged the fleeing target's back and shoulders.
Blood spurted and a wicked smile appeared on Izmail's face as he heard the screams of his enemies. It was pleasant. It was pleasurable, pleasurable, and he wanted to hear more blood, more screams.
Too often, he gets lost, and he feels a sense of desperation, unlike the other party had been before.
The target flees in desperation, not wanting to be chased by Izmail, hunted by the monster, and torn to shreds. It targets and wounds its limbs, especially its upper body.
Aim for the legs and the target will not be able to escape. Then this will be over.
When it's over, he'll be sad. He'll be sorry when it's over.
So, don't let it end, forever and ever--.
"Ooohhhn"
With a low, air-shaking yell, Izmail shatters buildings and stomps through the streets, kicking at the waterlogged ground in pursuit of his target.
The distance between them was quickly closing, and the fleeing enemy finally ran out of strength, bleeding and clucking his tongue as he jumped into a nearby building.
He made the foolish choice to jump into a cul-de-sac, with no way out.
Intuiting the end of this, the end of hunting time, Izmail--Or, the monster that is no longer Izmail, slams down the closed door and slides inside.
With his increased limbs, bloat, and incomparably larger figure than his original body, he could not easily open the door and enter the building.
Then, entering the dimly lit building from which the target fled, the monster looks around inside.
The special eye, which lacked a light source but remained unchanged even when so deformed, switched its view of the world with a blink of an eye, searching for the figure of its hidden prey.
Searching, the monster realizes.
"----"
--In the building he jumped into, the monster's whole body is so white and powdery that it is stained white.
The darkness was not the only reason for the dim visibility, but the powdery air that filled the building. He looked around and saw that the building was lined with shelves, each lined with bags filled to the brim with the contents of the bags.
That bag was ripped open and a lot of powder flew into the building.
"It ain't magic or special moves that's gonna bring you down."
The powdery monster noticed the state of the building and heard the voice from behind him at the same time. The monster turned around and saw a small shadow, bright red in color, in its field of vision.
That was one of the fleeing targets--No, before long, the fleeing target was alone. The smaller one, who had been out of sight, away from the larger one, was there.
And then--,
"Take that, quintessential science--dust explosion!!"
Immediately after that call, the small shadow's surroundings were also dyed red all at once--,
--A tremendous explosion blew up the grist mill and the monster was swallowed by a bright red red lotus.
△▼△▼△▼△
"--Look there, Schwarz, we'll use that mill as a landmark. It's the building with the waterwheel next to it."
Idola, riding a galloping horse with non-combatants in tow, is said to have been the son of a miller before he was sent to the Gladiator Island.
Subaru, too, was not familiar with the exact role of the miller's work, but he had been briefed that the miller used the power of the waterwheel to mill wheat and other products.
In other words--,
"If you use the materials in the shed, you can create a dust explosion."
A dust explosion is a phenomenon in which flammable powdery materials are scattered in the air, and when a spark of fire jumps into them, they catch fire in a chain reaction, igniting and exploding at once.
In addition to the enclosed space of a flour mill, there is a large amount of wheat dancing around, and if a spark of fire dances into it with clear vigor--,
"......I never thought that would be this powerful."
Leaning his back against the battered wall, Subaru coughs and mutters.
In front of Subaru's eyes, there is a grinding shed that was blown to pieces by a dust explosion that was established, and the wreckage of the monster that was burned up as collateral damage.
When he and Todd had to attract and defeat the monster, Subaru's plan of attack was a dust explosion using the mill.
Of course, a dust explosion is not an easy thing to pull off, and he had no confidence that he would be able to successfully induce his opponent in the first place.
So it wasn't just Subaru that made it work so well.
"......Are you alive, Todd?"
Blown away by the impact of the explosion, Subaru stands up, shaking his flickering head.
After dividing the roles, Todd took on the role of attracting the monsters and running away until the flour mill was ready, while Subaru sneaked into the shed and filled the building with dust.
When Todd saw the time was right, he jumped into the shed and led the monster out, and that's when he threw the spark into the fire. Todd was the one who prepared the spark as well.
"Todd, Todd......!"
"......You don't have to call me that pathetically, I'm alive and well."
"--"
Subaru, who had been calling out to the blast site and its surroundings, where the remnants of the fire asserted their presence, heard a slight snarl and turned his feet in that direction.
If you look, you will see Todd on one knee on the street where the wall of the shed that had blown down had fallen in place. When he saw Subaru walking up to him, he spat out the spit in his mouth,
"You almost killed me, man."
"......You're not a very good listener. I told you it was very powerful."
"Every once in a while, these kinds of accidents happen, but when I heard the principle, it made sense."
As expected, Todd falls flat on his butt on the street, breathing unevenly. As it is, he looks out toward the blown-up shack,
"Who's on the other side?"
"He's blown away. Well...... look."
Saying this, Subaru pointed to a part of the blown-up monster that was just visible from their position. Then, the part seared by the remaining fire crumbled like sand and lost its shape.
Like the dispersal of the other zombies, it was the result of completely crushing their regenerative abilities.
"What's the scar?"
This time, after confirming that he has defeated that powerful zombie, Subaru asks Todd.
In dividing the roles, Todd had no choice but to play the role of decoy, since he could not be caught by the enemy and could keep running for a while. However, he volunteered to take on this role.
Subaru's expectation was that he would absolutely avoid taking measures that would endanger his own life.
"If we spared no life, we'd be talking about nothing. We both just did our necessary roles. Nevertheless......"
"Uh......"
"I've been gouged out pretty good. I feel like I don't have enough blood."
As he said it, he raised one hand, and Todd's injury is quite severe.
Although he had no wounds that could be called deep, his shoulders and thighs were soaked with blood, and his face was bloodless due to the amount of blood he had lost.
If left unchecked, it would undoubtedly endanger his life.
"Soon--"
I'll go get Beatrice, Subaru said, trying to move.
Beatrice is probably in a panic now that Subaru and Todd have left the scene. However, he is sure she would give priority to treating Tanza.
He is concerned about the safety of Louis and Tanza, and he must hurry to meet up with Beatrice and the others.
And then--,
"--I'm sure Katya can't complain after all this."
"Huh?"
"We talked about this at the mansion. She seems to think I'm lazy. I let ourselves go, I defeated a powerful enemy, and I was wounded with honor. Don't take all the credit, will you?"
Subaru was taken aback for a moment by Todd, who shrugged his shoulders and said this with a bloodless face, and then let out a weak "Hah" breath.
With such a battered state, it was Katya who still cared. Or perhaps he had a plan to relieve Subaru's tension, in any case.
"You really care about Miss Katya."
"It's obvious. I'm engaged. Katya is my life herself."
Todd says it without any shame.
Subaru took a deep breath at the answer, held his breath in mid-stride, and said, "Okay."
Even now, he is still afraid of Todd. What he did to him has left him heartbroken.
Still, the fact that they worked together to defeat that monster here also remains the same. Even to the point of being battered and bruised, Todd did everything he could to bring everyone and Subaru and the others back alive.
Then it's Subaru's turn.
"Here, we'll...... no, here someone might hear the explosion and come. Once you find a suitable place, wait for me there. If you find a suitable place, wait for me there."
"Oh, okay. Please, no coming back."
"I'm not doing that!"
Todd made him think that he might not have to do that.
Even if he had remained hostile to Todd, it is doubtful that Subaru would have left him there to die.
"No, you can't think too much, you'll end up in a ditch. Anyway--"
Even if he were to give Todd a shoulder to lean on, they were too different in stature to make it work. Subaru looked around the blown-up hut, hoping to find something he could use as a walking stick at least.
And then he found a blown-out shelf prop in the cinders--,
"----"
--A moment later, a hard sound, echoed through the air.
"......Why the hell?"
The moment that hard sound echoed through the air, Subaru turned over and clenched his fists tightly. His lips trembled, his shoulders shook with a wince, and his dark eyes quivered as he muttered.
"Why the hell?"
"----"
There is no answer to the question, and Subaru looks back, exhaling.
As Subaru looked back, the blade of the axe was just inches away from shattering his skull, but it stopped moving.
--by the restraint of the "Unseen Hand", invisible to all but Subaru.
"Tsk, what a fail."
With a small click of his tongue, Todd let go of the axe and flew backward. Subaru gritted his teeth as his agile movements showed no signs of blood loss or wounds.
Even that is an act. The pain of his wounds, the fact that he asked Subaru for help, that, you know, he spoke of his feelings for Katya and relieved Subaru's heart.
"Why the hell......!"
Three times, he uttered the same question, and Subaru stared at Todd with a tearful look on his face.
He stared at him and felt tears welling up in frustration,
"I haven't done anything yet. I didn't kill anyone. I could have forgiven you!!"
"Slowly and quietly, you have undermined my trust in you."
Hearing Subaru's cries, Todd pulls out a knife in place of the axe he had let go and holds it ready.
That was the pronouncement that separated Natsuki Subaru and Todd Fang in a way that was hard to fill.
