As the barrage of mysterious projectiles continued raining down, Origa felt the crushing pressure around her neck suddenly vanish. She collapsed forward, gasping desperately for air.
“Kahh! Gahh, guh—haa… haa…” she choked out between ragged breaths.
She clutched her throat, struggling to draw breath. Having been on the verge of blacking out from oxygen deprivation, every gulp of air now burned. What she wanted more than anything was to fall over and rest until her lungs stopped aching, but she knew she couldn’t afford to. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself upright and quickly scanned the battlefield.
What she saw left her speechless.
“Bubububububububububububububuuu!”
“Moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”
There stood Vitor, his body riddled again and again by high-speed projectiles so fast even Origa’s eyes couldn’t track them. Beside him was Lulune, puffed cheeks and wild hair flying, shoveling those very same projectiles into her mouth with gleeful abandon.
“Routier… Zora…”
Origa stared at the two with a blank expression.
I saw nothing.
Making that silent decision, she turned away and hurried to Routier’s side, who still lay unconscious on the ground. Pulling out a recovery potion, Origa carefully poured it over her.
“Ugh… Wh-Where am I?”
“You okay?”
“Y-Yeah… Ah! Wait, what about him?!”
“I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
Routier blinked in confusion at Origa’s calm tone, but quickly turned her gaze to their surroundings.
“—Buheh! —Guheh! —Agah! —Pugyo! —Hibeh! —Pupa!”
“NOT ENOUGH—IT’S NOT ENOOOOOOOOOOOOUGH!!!”
“Let’s pretend I didn’t see that.”
Routier made the exact same decision Origa had.
“Zora…”
“Mhm. I’ll undo the petrification now.”
Drawing a shimmering vial from her pouch, Origa moved to Zora and poured the contents over her. The stone encasing her began to crack and flake away, until finally Zora’s body was freed.
“Hah—! O-Origa-chan! Routier-san! Are you okay?!”
“Yeah. We’re fine.”
“So am I.”
“Th-Thank goodness… Wait, where’s that guy?!”
Zora had good intentions; she truly did. Like everyone else, she was focused on ensuring her friends’ safety. But unlike Origa and Routier, when she glanced toward the chaos just a few feet away… she simply couldn’t look away.
The surreal, unthinkable scene before her was too much for her eyes to ignore.
“U-Um… what exactly is going on over there?”
“Who knows?”
“Wh-Who knows?”
“It was already like that when I woke up.”
“I-I see… So I wasn’t seeing things after all.”
Routier stared off into the distance, as if trying to escape from reality.
After all, the person who had completely thrashed them earlier was now getting torn apart by some incomprehensible flying objects, and to top it off, Lulune—who should have been just as beaten—was eating those flying objects. Her emotional state was more than understandable.
From Routier’s perspective, Vitor was a dangerous threat. Ideally, they would like to take him out while he was getting hammered by the mysterious barrage, but since they still didn’t fully understand his power, they couldn’t recklessly make a move.
On the other hand, ignoring Vitor and moving forward would require them to protect the injured Lulune while navigating through the flying storm, something clearly beyond their current capabilities.
The only silver lining was that none of them had been caught in the chaos… yet.
But even if they were lucky enough to escape, there was no telling what Vitor might still be capable of. He clearly had long-range options.
Unable to act, they could only silently watch the surreal scene unfolding before them. Then finally, the mysterious barrage came to an end.
What remained was a ground carved up like shredded paper, a thoroughly battered Vitor, and Lulune, cheeks puffed out and chewing, yet somehow looking dissatisfied.
“Tch… What a waste… an unforgivable waste! How many of those delicious things did I let escape?! My mouth is far too small to devour them all!”
“The glutton’s talking nonsense again.”
Despite having been completely wrecked just moments ago, Lulune looked full of energy.
Normally, catching supersonic seeds with one’s mouth would be utterly impossible. Still, for Lulune, the embodiment of appetite and a consumer of the Fruit of Evolution, it was just another day.
Still wary of the battered Vitor lying on the ground, Origa and the others quickly rushed to regroup with Lulune.
“Glutton.”
“Hm? Oh, it’s you guys. Are you all right?” Lulune turned toward them, casually brushing off the chaos around her.
“Well… more or less. We were this close to dying just a few minutes ago,” Origa replied, still catching her breath.
“I-I still can’t believe I petrified myself with my own power. How pathetic.” Zora added, looking ashamed.
Before the mood could settle, Origa’s expression grew serious. “Forget that for now. We need to get out of here. I still don’t understand how his power works, but if we can avoid fighting him head-on—”
“Ahh, damn it… You pieces of shit!”
The seething voice cut her off. The group froze and instinctively turned toward the sound. There, already healed from his previous injuries, stood Vitor, his body upright, his eyes burning with hatred.
Once fully standing, he glared daggers at them, the malice in his voice palpable. “Hey, who said you could run? Huh?!”
Origa flinched at the sheer weight of his presence.
“This doesn’t make any sense. What the hell were those things flying at me?! My body’s healed, so why the hell won’t the pain go away?!” Vitor gripped his sides, frustration pouring out of every word. “My body’s been reset over and over again, yet it still feels like I’m being torn apart!”
“Reset?” Origa echoed under her breath, confused by his phrasing.
Vitor scowled at them, then shook his head as if trying to clear it. “No, my ability hasn’t stopped working. I know it hasn’t. That much is obvious; those weaklings started breaking apart just from hitting me. If that bastard who shot those things at me is still alive, there’s no way he didn’t get shredded by the backlash. He should be dead by now. But then… why? Why does my body—this body that should be completely hollow—hurt so goddamn much?!”
As his voice rose to a scream, a violent shockwave of magical energy exploded from his body. Origa and the others braced themselves as the force threatened to blow them away, barely holding their footing.
Back when Vitor first started using his strange ability to reflect damage, Lulune’s attacks had clearly hurt him; he had even said so himself. But now, his twisted expression showed a pain far deeper than anything they’d seen before. His body bore no wounds, and yet his agony was unmistakable.
Bloodshot eyes locked onto them as Vitor let out a crooked, almost deranged grin.
“One more time. I’ll drag you all back into hell one more time. I’ll use the pain you give me to test the limits of my power.”
Vitor staggered toward them with unsteady steps, but his murderous intent was clear. Origa and the others wracked their brains, trying desperately to decide how to act.
Running wasn’t an option; only Lulune had the speed to possibly outrun him. If Vitor targeted Routier, Origa, or Zora, escape would be impossible. Standing their ground and focusing on defense also wasn’t viable—he was simply too powerful. And attacking would only replay the nightmare; his ability would just reflect it all back at them again.
None of them had a solution. Not Origa, not Routier, not even Zora. All they could do was stare helplessly at the steadily approaching Vitor.