Ah, sweet release. I won’t have to suffer anymore… My life was ending. Soon it would all be over. Very soon now…… Hmm? What’s happening? Why do I feel so…alive? Death felt nothing like I’d imagined. The strange feeling that had been growing inside me over the past few minutes throbbed, harder and harder. The pain in my chest was more vivid than ever, and the sensation of being wrapped in several layers of warm blankets went away. No, something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. This didn’t feel anything like the first time I’d died. It had been like everything fading to black. Like sinking into an inky sea. Like everything I treasured slipping through my fingers, as if it were sand. “Ggh… What’s happening…?” This time, it didn’t feel like that. It felt like waking up. It felt like something entering my body, not leaving it. “We are partners,” said Minnalis. “Partners in crime. We are indistinct, inseparable! Tee-hee-hee! Tee-hee-hee! Oh, why didn’t I do this a long time ago? It was so simple!!” “M-Minnalis? What have you done?” Slowly, but steadily, the gears of my mind began to turn. My eyes and ears regained their clarity, and I could even find myself thinking clearly once more. What I saw was the hilt of my soul blade, sticking out of my own chest. It pulsed with a faint, yet powerful crimson light, and I felt a pain within me throbbing in concert with it. As soon as I noticed that pain, it began to subside, but not because something was dulling my senses, as before. If anything, my senses were sharper than ever. Instead of my power transferring to Minnalis…it was as if she was coming into me. “Stop it…” I protested. “There’s no point in giving yourself to me!! Kill me!!” At this rate, Minnalis’s whole being would become a part of me instead. “Oh, don’t worry, Master. I’m just giving a light to your flame, just as you gave me all that time ago. Now, we shall truly be one and the same.” “You…do you know what you’re doing?!” I felt her essence being drawn through the soul blade and into me. This was no mere healing magic, but a melding of souls that only the Holy Sword of Retribution could facilitate. “Stop it!” I yelled. “If you keep this up, you’ll…!” “…I won’t let you wriggle your way out of this one, Master. I don’t believe there’s no heat left inside you. That’s just not possible!” “What do you…mean…?” “Because it’s so, meltingly, bubblingly hot. It sticks in the throat and scorches our eyes. It roasts our skin and turns our brains to mush! There’s no way we can ever be rid of it!! Hee-hee-hee!” I couldn’t tell if she was looking at me or through me. There was an interminable void of swirling madness in her eyes. “N-no… It is gone… It was never mine…,” I said. “My vengeance was fake; it belonged to the power of the hero, not to me…” “Ah-ha-ha-ha! They really do have you fooled!” “Grgh…! Minnalis! Please…don’t do this!!” She laughed. As her essence became mine, something inside me began to split open. “Oh, Master!! Calling it a fake! You’re so silly!” Each pop was followed by another. It felt like I was about to burst. It felt like my insides were being mixed together. Then, just as the corners of Minnalis’s lips dropped ever so slightly, and I thought her bout of madness over at last, a crazed look possessed her eyes, and she smiled wider than ever before. “See? I found it!” “Grh?!” I felt her fingers close around something that was hidden deep inside me. That sense of unease, previously on its way out, was suddenly engulfed by her. I felt a calming, motherly presence…along with a devious, inescapable gaze, like I’d fallen into a den of vipers. But I was confused by what I felt. Because I had the uncanny feeling it was something I remembered. “Master, perhaps the power of the hero really has bolstered and guided your desire for revenge.” Minnalis wore an ecstatic, almost sultry grin, but I didn’t have time to admire her. Because a feeling was working its way around my body like a breath of life. A feeling that had been my steadfast companion for so, so long. …Hate! Hate, hate, hate, hate! Make them pay! Make them pay! Make them pay! Why should you get to live?! Why should you get to be happy?! A voice so dripping with malice it felt like it would drive me insane. “…But that feeling belongs to you and you alone, Master. Nobody gave it to you. It isn’t fake in the slightest!!” I tried to suppress it, but the hate kept back flaring up, like a fire doused with oil. As the forces struggled in contention within my body, the only thing I could hear clearly was Minnalis’s voice, slightly tinged with pain. Much of her had already assimilated with me. It was like being drowned in a font of gushing blood. It was surely just as painful for her as it was for me, if not more so, and yet through it all, her voice sustained a burning heat—the heat of life itself. “I’m not going to let you make excuses,” she said. “I’m not going to let you run away. I won’t allow it, Master, and neither will any of us. If you trip and fall during the race, Master, you’ll crawl your way to the finish line.” Those thick, dark words felt like a curse. The very same curse I had cast on Minnalis when we first met. After all this time, it had come back to haunt me. “Master, you are an avenger.” “Urgh…! Graah!! Aaaaaghhh!!” It burned. It burned. It burned. The cursed flame inside me burned with such intensity that it threatened to spill out at any moment. Then, as if those flames had spread to her, Minnalis burst into black fire. “Master, you are an avenger.” There was little of her left that hadn’t merged with me. Slowly but surely, she was melting away, giving her body as fuel for the black flame of hate that had been smoldering within me. As the black ire ate away at her, it was like she was disappearing. But she wasn’t disappearing. She was becoming part of me instead. “Master, you are an avenger.” At her words, I felt my contract—my curse—rearing its head once more. It all fed the hatred I had been trying to ignore. Minnalis held onto the blade, and kept smiling, while the rest of her crumbled away. “Master, you are an avenger. From the tips of your hair to the marrow of your bones. It is who you are, and who you will always be. Forever and ever…” A sweet taste, like poison, caressed my lips. Her very last words were, “Now, you are mine.” Then… “Wraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggghhhh!!” The emotions burst through my skin like it was wet paper. Minnalis’s dark flames engulfed me, burning away the connection between the white giant and me, separating us. “GRRROOOOAAAAAAGGGHHH!!” The giant’s scream sounded like it was coming through thick walls. Everything was tinted red and black, yet I could see it with startling clarity. However, my thoughts could not keep up. One singular emotion outstripped all my capacity for rational thought; the very same emotion that had eclipsed my mind at the moment of my premature death. Let the world fall into ruin. Let everything rot in hell. That hate, that singular, inescapable hate encompassed all else. And yet it still wasn’t enough. Some irrational part of my mind cried out for more. Drink. Swallow. Kill and take back what is yours. “…Kill…me…” Even now, I struggled against that desire. Leticia, Shuria, Mai, and Metelia stood around me, yet I couldn’t look a single one of them in the eye. “…Kill me… Kill me now!!” I’d forgotten all about bequeathing my power. I no longer had the luxury to think about it. Because now that Minnalis had reminded me of the flames of hatred within me, they had grown into an uncontainable conflagration far beyond my control. And yet. And yet… “Assimilation, eh?” said Leticia. “I suppose that is a fitting end for us. And it’s not too dissimilar to how I was with Kaito previously. Yes…it’s not an end; just going back to the way things were…” “Can you hear me, my idiot brother? Your darling little sister is so madly in love that she’s willing to be with you forever and ever. Even death cannot do us part after this…” “My life has always been yours, Master,” said Shuria. “You can do whatever you want to me…” “Kaito,” said Metelia. “We have been apart for so very long now, and I cannot take being parted from you again. If my life is what must sustain you, then so be it…” None of them wanted to stop me. In fact, they were offering themselves to me. Not only allowing it but demanding it. And yet in truth, this “assimilation” was just another name for absorption. Once mixed with me, I didn’t know how much of their original personalities would remain. But despite that, I… I… “AAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!” Something snapped. Before I knew it, I had pulled the Holy Sword of Retribution from my chest. “Rrragh!” “Gph!! I…I should have known it wouldn’t be painless…,” muttered Mai, my blade lodged between her ribs. “But I’ll always love you, dear brother… Even this beastly side of you…” Her essence poured into me through the medium of the Holy Sword of Retribution. Just like with Minnalis, a black fire consumed her, slowly melting away her flesh. At the same time, the hatred inside me shivered with pleasure, filling in another missing piece and taking one more step to achieving its true form. “We may have been brother and sister,” she said, “but I loved you more than any sister ever did.” I had no idea what I was even doing anymore. All I knew…was that Mai was happy. I could feel her merging with me, filling in the cracks in my heart. “I’ll never have to leave you again, my dearest brother. I love you.” Then I felt another touch on my lips. It wasn’t sweet, like Minnalis’s, but instead fresh, like mint. Leaving only that taste behind, Mai disappeared inside me. “More… Need more…” “Agh!! H-hee-hee-hee… Aah, I feel your love, Kaito. Even though I was made the priestess, we never got to be together as I hoped…” After my blade skewered Metelia, a dizzying pleasure flowed from her body and into mine. Her every thought, her every emotion became mine. Is this really it? Is this really what you want? Is this really how you want it all to end? “But now,” she went on, her face cast in dark light by the flames, “you are the hero no longer. I am the priestess no longer. We can finally be together, not as our respective roles, but as a man and a woman…” The pain, the pleasure, the sadness, the loneliness, and joy. All of it came at once, so tightly it was impossible to unpack. “You will always be my hero. The most wonderful of them all. I love you…” Metelia’s lips were sweet and soft, juicy like nectar. After her kiss, she disappeared inside me like all the rest. “Arghhh…! Aaagh! Why…? Why can’t we…?” “Eek! That hurt! Oh, it hurts so good! You haven’t hurt me in so long, Kaito, I was getting frustrated!” I had devoured three of them now, yet the beast inside me still hungered for more. I couldn’t fight it, and the person in front of me did not show any signs of wanting me to. Before I even had time to guess at her motivations, I felt her mind inside my body. “This pain is where I started,” Shuria said. “I was treated like dirt, only allowed to suffer, but then you came along and painted my whole world black. Ever since then, I’ve always, always considered myself a part of you.” I didn’t know what was happening anymore. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. But I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop it now. “I love you, Kaito. I love you so much. And now, we’ll always be together! You are my partner in crime, and you mean more to me than anything in the whole, wide world!” Her soft lips touched mine, accompanied by the bittersweet smell of unripe fruit, and then Shuria became a part of me as well. In the end, only Leticia and I were left. “Well, looks like it’s me last, Kaito,” she said. “All of you… Is this really what you want?” I asked, practically begging to be told otherwise. “Ah-ha-ha-ha! What a crybaby! Of course it is,” answered Leticia, laughing. That couldn’t be right. If I just stopped and thought about it, this obviously wasn’t what anyone wanted. As beautiful as they made it sound, these girls were nothing but sacrifices, tossing themselves onto my pyre to keep the flame alive. And yet Leticia began walking toward me. “Even if our flesh and blood should disappear, we shall never leave you, Kaito,” she said. “We never want to be separated from you again. No matter what happens, we shall stay by your side.” She spread her arms invitingly. “Do it, Kaito, and make it quick! You’d better not chicken out now, or there’ll be hell to pay!” Seeing her like that, something inside me snapped, and I let the anger take hold. “Rgh… Rrraaaaaggghhh!!” “Guh… Heh-heh-heh… Aah, how strange… Though I met my end on your blade once before, it didn’t feel anything as nice as this…” “You’re so…stupid. Why are you all…so…stupid?” I hungrily drank of Leticia’s essence. “Heh-heh. Haven’t you worked it out yet? Any woman who falls in love with you must be a terrible fool indeed.” The dark flames that engulfed Leticia grew in intensity as her essence became a part of mine, almost like a fire on the verge of extinction flaring back to life. “But you, Kaito, are the biggest fool of us all, are you not?” “Yeah…I am. Goddammit! Damn it aaall!” It was me who’d made the choice. It was me who’d betrayed them. I’d forced them into this contract because I couldn’t abide betrayal, but in the end, I was the one who had betrayed them. “Heh-heh-heh. You crybaby, Kaito. Nobody’s dying. We’ll be part of you from now on. You’ll have five pretty ladies living inside you, you lucky man.” “What are you doing still cracking jokes? Don’t you have something more important to say at a time like this?” “Heh-heh-heh. Then allow me to be more like a demon lord…and place a curse on you.” Her outstretched fingers cradled my face. “Kaito, you must finish what you started. No running away, no giving up, no standing around. I’ll be within you, by your side, always watching.” Even as she spoke the words of her curse, Leticia wore a benevolent smile. “Kaito,” she said. “No matter how many times this world repeats, I shall always be by your side. My love for you is the one thing that can never be changed.” Leticia’s lips were like burning fire. After she was gone, the only thing left in my mouth was a delicate taste that made me want to cry. “…” I was alone. In the end, there was only me. Everyone else had become a part of me. “GROAAAAAAGHHH!!” Without the others keeping the enchantment in place, the white giant finally shattered his ice prison and rose to his feet. “…Shut up.” “GRAAAAAGH!! GGGRAH!!” The Holy Sword of Retribution glowed with an ink-black flame, as if reflecting the deep, dark fires of my own emotion. With one swing, I lopped off the white giant’s arm. “GAAAGH!! GAAAGH!!” It quickly appeared to realize that its usual regeneration trick wasn’t working. Its dull-witted reaction irritated me to no end. “Shut the hell up!!” I yelled. My whole world was red. This was it. This was the emotion I remembered. “GRGHH!!” I sliced, I cut, I minced, until not a scrap of meat remained. All that was left was a fine, red mist, and the place fell silent once more. “…What have I become?” I had taken out my anger, but the hate inside me still wasn’t satisfied. “…What the hell have I become?” I looked down at my hand. It was empty. I had always been walking. Because I knew that the moment I stopped was the moment everything ended. After walking so far and losing so much… …what did I have left? “Gyah-hah-hah!! So, we meet again!” As I was pondering this, the fine, red mist coalesced into a human form. It was the very shadow with which I had been conversing right when I first came to this place. Now, he looked exactly like me in every way, except drained of color, like some bonus character from a fighting game. “So?” he asked. “Did you remember who you are yet?” “…I never forgot.” I was an eternal avenger. That was all I was. I was nothing without the will to exact payback on those who had wronged me. “Wonderful! Marvelous!” the shadow rejoiced. “So, what are you going to do now?” “You say that like you don’t already know the answer,” I replied. “Since you won’t let me refuse your choice entirely, there’s only one thing I can do.” I still didn’t know if this hate was my own, or if the power of the hero had given it to me. But it changed nothing either way. “I’ll choose,” I said. “That’s what you all want, right? That’s what…we all want.” Taking up the sword, I obeyed the raging fire within me and swung at the shadow. He chuckled and transformed into mist once more. “I see, I see. What a troublesome fellow you are.” Afterward, the Holy Sword of Retribution began absorbing the mist. I leveled my gaze and muttered my determination. “The path I walk…is the avenger’s path.” With that, my blade finished absorbing the last of the mist and exploded in a gout of flame. Black fire that would spread its hate and malice to all who gazed upon it. Meanwhile, the fire seemed to harden around the sword, growing it into a new form. System Message: The hero has awakened. Holy Sword of Retribution Reverting to true form. System Message: Prerequisites Fulfilled. Holy Sword of Retribution admitted into Swords of Sin series. System Message: Holy Sword of Retribution is now named Sword of Sin: Apostate Wroth. A robotic voice rang in my mind, and the soul blade in my hands transformed. Its slender blade vanished without a trace, replaced by an inelegant slab of obsidian, which burned with such greed as to incinerate everything in its vicinity. When it was done, those black flames spread to me as well. “I see,” I said. “So this is my soul blade.” The Swords of Sin embodied the powers, regrets, thoughts, and feelings of the heroes that had come before me. It was only fitting that I would eventually come to count myself among their ranks. That was what this sword, Apostate Wroth, was offering me. “The deadly sin of Wrath, huh? I like it. It does sum me up quite nicely, doesn’t it?” That was all I was now. An embodiment of hate and anger, directed at injustice, at cruel fate, at the world, and at myself. “I suppose it’s time, then.” In my world of darkness, a soft, warm crack of light shone. I turned my back on it. Because I knew the exit I sought could not be found in light. My road was cloaked in such blackness as to render even the next step utterly invisible. Instead, I walked in the other direction, away from the light. Back to the path I had always walked. “Time to keep going.” Once again, I walked the path of vengeance.
Chapter 123
17 min read