Tsyon happened to find a room underground. The location had nothing to do with powering the city, but in the large space was a huge glass case containing a man and a monster.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“What are you doing? This is my room.”
“Wait, I’ve seen your mug somewhere before… Oh yeah, that’s right. The church. You’re one of the cardinals. Toytzo or something, they said. I’ll ask you again. What the hell are you doing?”
“Exactly what you see.” Toytzo turned to look behind him, gazing at the monster in the glass case. Tsyon should have been able to see the back of the monster’s head when it turned around—but where there should have been a back, there was another face there.
“What the hell?! There’s another old fart on the back of the one old fart?!”
“We tested the procedure before connecting His Holiness and His Majesty. Following this success, we had the honor of being able to perform the procedure on the two of them.”
The man now speaking respectfully was Slowanak, a powerful figure in the church who was entrusted with managing the Chimera. The other person, Cardinal Toytzo, was an influential person rumored to be the next pope. He was also an adviser to the current pope.
“You casually turned two powerful people, the king and the pope, into monsters and discarded them, like sacrificial pawns… You sure are confident, aren’t you? You believe that your victory is absolute and that the world will inevitably be destroyed by Origin. You wouldn’t have gone this far without firmly believing that.”
Tsyon looked once again at the monster in the glass case. It was clearly a literal “chimera,” created by connecting the bodies of demons. “I’m not gonna reject the idea of believing in a god. Sometimes people need to believe in something. But wrapping other people in it, manipulating them, and treating them like toys isn’t faith—it’s just heresy!”
“I had just so happened to get my hands on some suitable materials, so I tried connecting them is all. They are not toys. I did it out of scientific curiosity. Demons are tougher than humans. They are surprisingly hard to kill, no matter what you do to them. They are much more fun to play with than the leftovers from the Royal Army and the Church Knights.”
Toytzo and Slowanak paid no heed whatsoever to Tsyon, whose fists were trembling in anger. “A long time ago, my elderly mother used to enjoy knitting as a hobby. When I watched her, I wondered what was so interesting about it. But when I tried it myself, I found it to be quite enjoyable. So? How about you?”
But now Tsyon had reached his limit.
“Drop dead and go to hell, you shitty old fucks! Graaaaaah!”
His fist went through Toytzo’s cheek. At the same time, a burst of flame magic exploded, blowing the heads off both men. But new heads immediately grew back.
At the same time, a scream came from the demon Chimera behind the enemy.
“What was that…?!”
Part of the Chimera had disappeared, as if they had been gouged out.
“Didn’t you notice? Those who are ‘connected’ with us will shoulder our burdens for us.”
“If you hurt us, your comrades will die.”
Toytzo and Slowanak were already using the bodies of captured demons as a resource to extend their own lives.
“How can you treat demons’ lives like that…? I’ll burn you to ashes, along with your filthy souls!”
Flames burst forth from Tsyon’s body, enveloping the underground space in blistering heat.
✦ ✦ ✦
Amid the fighting that had broken out in various locations, Flum and Rischel advanced underground. Descending step by step from the barracks where she had been imprisoned, Flum had now arrived at this place, which she recognized.
There were crude lights that she had only seen in factories; exposed pipes; gauges displaying numerical values that she didn’t understand; machines whose purpose she didn’t understand, spewing smoke; thin, bare metal floors that echoed with every step; unusually low and flimsy handrails; and beyond that, a bottomless abyss…
She figured that this was probably a repurposed version of the air circulation system and agricultural area used in the underground shelter in Tokyo.
“Wow, so this is what it’s like underground,” Flum said in a somewhat forced manner.
“The upper levels are full of Chimera, so it might be dangerous for you, Flum. Which is why we’re going this way.” Rischel happily answered Flum’s questions for some reason. Flum had figured she would.
“Who am I going to be fighting?” Flum looked at the tattoo etched on the back of Rischel’s hand as she spoke. Thanks to that hand, Flum’s Souleater, which had been stored in another room in the barracks, had been returned to her own. Flum had also been taught how to handle Epic equipment, and she was able to summon protective gear such as boots.
In other words, she was able to kill Rischel at any time.
“Don’t know. If we run into somebody, let’s kill ’em. But you don’t have to worry. Just having you here with me is good enough for me, Flum.”
Rischel was trying to get Flum to kill her former comrades from this world. This alone proved what a despicable person she was—and that she deserved to die.
“Oh, look. Someone’s there.” Rischel pointed over to the other side of the handrail…toward the floor below, visible across the abyss. There, wandering uneasily along the wide corridor, was a young girl with her face wrapped in bandages.
Flum used Scan without hesitation.
Milkit
Affinity: Darkness
Strength: 11
Magic: 8
Endurance: 9
Agility: 6
Perception: 11
Flum saw a name that shouldn’t have existed.
“Milkit…?” Flum unintentionally let her voice slip, but fortunately for her, Rischel didn’t seem to suspect anything.
“Ah ha ha ha! It’s that weakling! This is perfect—it’ll be great for your first battle, Flum!” Rischel was so excited that she wasn’t really looking at Flum.
Their clothes and their body types are different, but they’re similar in other ways. Is that you, Milkit? Is it really—
Flum, on the other hand, was confused. If that really was Milkit, or her reincarnation, then she could only believe that it was fate that had led them to meet in this era, in this place.
“She’s a total idiot, so I’m sure she’ll come right over if you call her. Go ahead, try calling her.” And Flum could only think that it was fate that Rischel was here with her, too.
She’s trying to kill Milkit again. I am not going to let that happen. The darkest murderous intent that Flum had ever felt in her entire life began to well up inside her.
“Ah ha ha, this is quite a coincidence. I never imagined that she’d be all alone here—”
While Rischel was entranced by Milkit…
I’m going to kill you here right and now!
Flum called Souleater and raised it high. Rischel, turning around after noticing movement behind her, called her name. “Flum?”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!” Flum brought Souleater down. Rischel immediately summoned her axe and blocked the attack.
“Wh-why? Why did you do that?!”
“Rischel! You! You killed Milkit! Dieeeeeee!” Flum unleashed all of the hatred that she had been suppressing until that moment.
“That was Master’s voice up above, just now…!” And Milkit approached, drawn in by the two of them.