CH 143

Chapter 143: Shaman VS Spirit Master (2)

Inside Seyram’s watery insides, I stopped thrashing about. Swimming won’t do me any good here. Once you’re in this damned aquatic prison of a body, there is no reason in struggling, there’s no way out.

Now’s around the time my oxygen bar runs dry and my HP starts to drop instead… But no worries.

The Shaman is weak. Weaker still when, like in my current situation, he hasn’t had any decent prep time. I can proudly admit I know exactly where my strengths lie.

But I went and did it. Despite knowing that this guardian beast Seyram was protecting Reina, I carried out my plan anyway.

Even a single one of these guardians are way too strong. Even with ‘superior’ Rem, no, even if all of us ganged up on one, I don’t see a way we could win. I mean, she’s literally made of water right? Don’t think physical attacks will work that well. So despite my hesitation at first, I did it regardless.

What I’m trying to say here is that I wasn’t underestimating these things thinking I could take them if it’s one by one.

But let me just say this –– If it’s this one here, I can work something out, no problem.

“… Blubh!”

Curse time. I open a palm and let some blood flow out. It’s my blood. A shaman’s blood: Black Bloodline.

That blood quickly dissolved into the fluid currents. Should be enough. One drop is always all it takes.

Now, let’s get the party started –– eat acid, Rotten Bog.

“RRRHHAAAAAAA!!”

“Waaghh!?”

With an ear-splitting scream, she spit me out. It was so fast, I couldn’t react at all and landed face first on the grass. My nose, my poor nose.

My nose is numbed from the pain, but I still make out the damned water spirit screeching like she was calling ‘Onee-sama!’ at Reina.

“Huff… haaa… Hah, HAHAHAHA! Like that? That’s the feeling of getting your body getting pumped full of acid!”

Operation complete. Feels so good, I’m cackling like a generic villain.

Right now, Seyram is screaming in suffering and agony. The cause being naturally, me, as I’d manifested my Rotten Bog inside it.

This instance of Rotten Bog made using my own blood didn’t need to be in the ground. It called forth its acid on the spot. Usually, the curse makes a bog of a limited radius, but there’s always plentiful bog acid to go around. I estimate it’s enough to easily fill up a bathtub.

I blasted the water spirit with all that acid smack dab inside the stomach.

“Kyaaaa! Sey-san! Noo, Sei-san!”

“OOOO, KIAAAA!”

Yeah, of course, Reina would notice. And not only because of the screaming. With the bog acid bubbling inside, the guardian’s watery body was quickly saturated with the stuff and the whole thing became a vivid muddy-red.

I can hypothesize that Seyram should be fine with some poison or other harmful liquids getting inside her. If she’s meant for combat, this sort of defense, immunity? Internal plumbing? Anyway, she ought to be built in with that kind of stuff.

But if the icky piles up so much it literally makes her color change, I doubt she can clean up fast enough. She was in too much pain to do anything.

Seyram, right now, couldn’t focus on her enemy or her master. She could simply writhe under my cursed acid as it melted apart her delicate liquid body.

But it still isn’t dead. Let’s not leave things undone.

“Soar, oh wings of misfortune, rooted in this –– Contra-beat Butterfly”

Been a while since I used this one. This time, I’m using antidote made from blueflowers as the root. This curse will turn my poison relief into a poison aggravator.

Seyram is currently in a state where her whole body is bubbling with poison, so this will work just wonders.

The swarm of butterflies makes their way towards the red and rotting creature of water. With the power to seriously ruin your day, the butterflies quietly and gracefully land on her as if she’s a delectable flower.

“RRRHHHAAAAAA ––– ”

Just as the swarm touched Seyram, they became phantasmal particles of light and vanished. And with the last of its death throes, the guardian beast was no more. Seyram’s body lost its shape as she splattered onto the fairy square grass, now looking a lot like sewage, like a disgusting pile of sludge.

It was me, a weak Shaman, versus her, an overpowered guardian spirit of water. My victory was solely due to exploiting its elemental weakness.

Yup, looks like guardian ‘beasts’ aren’t all that smarter than normal ones. To win, Seyram should have kept hitting me with waterballs, killing both of us. If she did, I’d be dead, and Reina would be fine.

She thought she could kill me indirectly by drowning me inside her body, but that plan didn’t go that well now did it?

Guess I can say I was sure Seyram would never choose to sacrifice herself for a ‘lowly’ shaman like me. Ultimately, it was Reina herself who didn’t want to lose her precious guardian.

Sure, if she actually played that ‘master’ part of Spirit Master, She’d be wary of my Rotten Bog and realize how it was, affinity-wise, disastrous for Seyram. She should’ve come at me with the resolve to lose her beast. See, I don’t actually know if these spirits can be revived, or if they die when they’re killed.

But there are certainly no extra lives for Reina herself. Even if she lost Seyram, she can just strive to get stronger as a Spirit Master, and maybe in the future, she would have gotten her hands on an even stronger spirit, maybe even a higher tiered Seyram, like, greater water spirit or something.

And there you have it. Reina was a fool to think she could get by doing absolutely no work. That’s why she lost.

“… Reina”

“Hiii!?”

Her last ray of hope gone, Reina’s face dyed in fear. In her eyes, I must look something like a devil or the grim reaper. Not that I disagree.

“Any last words?”

I draw my insta-kill weapon, Red Knife, and inch towards her.

“N-No, please, no, don’t do this, noo…”

Reina quickly degraded to a sobbing mess. Co~me o~n. We were in the same team for a bit, so the least I could do is hear your parting words. Goodness, the same egotistic child as ever I see.

But that’s staying in character I guess. It’s thanks to this attitude of yours that we ended up like this. But you don’t regret any of that do you?

“Sure sure. My words won’t get through to you anyway. Guess, this is it then… I don’t need the whole ‘let you beg for your life and then kill you’ shtick”

I stop around 3 meters away from her. Reina herself is so weak, even I could kill her with just a knife. But you can never be too careful. I’m thinking of those action drama’s where the two people get into a last struggle, the one with the knife finally ending up stabbed instead. Yeah, no thanks.

So I’ll be using blackhair bind to murder her safely from a distance. From here, I can stab the neck or heart or wherever I please.

“Die bitch!”

“KYAAAAAA!!”

With 100% accuracy, my red knife pierces Reina’s neck –– Not.

The scorching red blade won’t reach. It stopped dead right at her neck.

“What the fuck!? Can’t move it! Move damniiit!”

“NOOO!!”

My blackhair tentacle isn’t moving no matter how much I push, no matter how much mana I pump into it. It’s completely frozen in place.

The hell man, don’t fucking tell me, ‘In the crisis of her life, Reina awakened the psychokinetic ESP sleeping inside her’? Im-fucking-possible, How the even –– No wait.

Maybe not so im-fucking-possible. It’s not ESP, but I do know of something similar.

“No… it’s not, Sacred Tongue: ‘Word of Rejection’!?”

That’s what the Sage Takanashi Kotori had. It’s a self-defense magic that, from just her shouting, any physical attack would be rendered immobile.

I’ve seen it in action too, so I connected it to this.

I already know there’s intermixing of skills amongst different callings. So ‘Word of Rejection’ is likely a rare skill granted to mages and not a special skill only for the sage. Hell, I could even believe Reina suddenly getting this power now that she lost all her spirit beasts and was forced to fend for herself.

Who knows, it could even be one of her three starter skills.

“Motherffff… you just HAD to get a stupid power-up!”

I am not, NOT, letting this become a ‘hero turns the tables with last-minute deus ex machina’ cliché.

I retrieve the knife, planning to finish her with my own hands.

Good thing Sacred Tongue: ‘Word of Rejection’ doesn’t deal any damage.

That time when we had to deal with a swarm of ants plus the mantis, the skill was overruled. With willpower and tenacity, I should be able to do the same.

So I make my attack to end this.

""

“Noooo! Get away! IhateyouIhateyouIhateyou-I-HATE-YOU!!”

“Ngahh!?”

Under the power of Reina’s utter and complete rejection, my body was paralyzed head to toe in the ‘I’mma stab you’ pose.

Ugh, I-I can’t… Can’t move dammit! Wait, what’s, I’m having trouble breathing and, and I kinda feel something, like something grating inside me… it, it hurts!?

“Ghgh, ghaa…”

“IhateyouMomokawa-kun!”

Sh-shut up you. I can’t stand that squeaky voice. It grates on my mind… shit, what the fuck is this, is this really ‘Word of Rejection’?

No, maybe not. It could be a stronger skill that stops the enemy AND causes damage.

“Don’t-come-close-to-me, EVER-AGAIN!!”

“GUOOOOO!?”

It feels like all the muscles in my body are tearing off and my head stings like crazy. I have no idea how, but I’m definitely sustaining bodily damage. It’s not like I was cut or tackled but this damn pain, it’s like a telepathic attack on the mind or like a physical effect generated via pure mana. Dammit, dammit, I can’t think of anything to fight this.

And why the hell isn’t pain return working on her? Did this power nullify even that… No, no, it’s because this isn’t being considered an active form of attack. Reina is simply standing there while I’m doing the attacking, so there’s nothing to Return.

Another way to look at it is that Reina simply laid down a trap, and I stepped into it on my own. If the enemy doesn’t directly attack, Pain Return doesn’t have a target to act on.

“Get out!”

“GAH AAAAGHHAAA…”

Blood spurt from my nose. Now it’s even causing bleeding. Fuck, I’m gonna die at this rate. This mystery skill is gonna kill me by bleeding me dry from all the pores in my body.

Should I back off for now? I kinda feel like this power isn’t preventing me from backing away. Meaning, I still have the option to retreat.

Yeah right. I’m never gonna get another chance to get this close to her if I let this go. I just know it. If I let myself accept this Rejection, there’s no looking back. I can’t do that.

That means, this, right here, right now, is my one and only chance to kill Reina.

“GET OUT!!”

“KHHAaaa…”

But my willpower isn’t enough won’t move my body. I’ll be dead before I can muster up that much.

No use, I can’t reach her. No matter how I struggle I’m forever a mere 30 centimeters away. My flimsy morsels of courage and guts weren’t doing shit to this invisible wall.

Pain is gnawing at my head and everywhere else. And it’s getting worse. At this point, my nose is gushing and I think I’m crying out blood.

“U ugh, bleergh!!”

And then there’s the vomit. That boar stew I treated myself as a last supper of sorts is all over the floor now.

Ahh, hell, I’m really gonna die here. I’m done, I’m so done. In the end, a chum like me can’t even hope to get vengeance.

The thing called pain, it makes everything its bitch. My seething desire to murder is cooling fast. It’s enough. I tried. There’s things you can do and things you can’t. A Shaman just can’t win against a cheat tier calling like Spirit Master. It’s time to face facts.

Yamajun wouldn’t have wanted me to do this. If he saw me right now, I bet he’d tell me to stop, with that worried look of his.

So this is enough. I really did get close to killing Reina. Let’s leave it at that.

Isn’t it fine? Just let this girl wander the dungeon forever with that fake Souma-kun.

Yeah, I’m, just, fine ––

“… You”

Yeah, I’m fine not killing her anymore.

“… Kill you”

So I’ll just, get some help.

“Reinaa… I’ll, fucking…”

Yo Higuchi. Lend me a hand here. Help me kill like you.

“KILL YOU!”

I drop red knife.

And in its place, grab Higuchi’s butterfly knife from my pocket.

It’s unbelievably sharp. And somehow, just holding it makes me itch for murder. It’s like the thing is possessed by all of Higuchi’s malice.

“AAAAAAA!!”

Am I real life? I can move. With this knife, I can move.

Those infinite 30 centimeters are finally reaching zero.

“NOOOO! Ihatey-AAAA!!”

“UOOOOOH –– ”

Scattering fresh blood from my nose and eyes while vomiting relentlessly, I go for the kill like a zombie seeking prey. Everything hurts, everything’s heavy.

I trip on my feet, knife on the ready.

“ –– A!”

When I came to, I was on top of Reina.

I’d blanked out for a second. But the knife was still firmly in my hand.

“KYAAA!! WAAAA!!”

Having become my mount, the girl seems to have finally lost it. She cried and screamed and struggled violently. But she lacked the strength to push off even a scrawny guy like me.

Reina’s Rejection was still working mind you. Every baby-punch of hers felt like holes being drilled into me.

Quickly, I have to finish this quickly or I’m dead.

“Hah, Haa…. Re-i-naA AA….”

I point my shaking knife at Reina’s petite chest. I, don’t have the strength left to stab it in. So, I’ll use my body, I’d use my weight to pierce her –– But looks like there’s still some fight left in her. Reina grabs onto my hands.

“No, don’t, don’t do it! Don’t kill me, someone please!”

“Dih-Die EEEEE…”

Reina used every once of her strength and delayed my hands.

Shitshitshit, I don’t have time for this. I’m so close, millimeters away.

One, more, one more push…

“Someone help! Yuu-kun, HELP!”

“ –– It’s over, Reina”

The knife, gently, pierces through.

It tears through her school uniform, and at long last, breaches her skin. Then, it ended all too fast. My butterfly knife smoothly reached all the way inside Reina’s chest.

“Ah, a… Yuu, ku…”

Her eyes were wide open, but I wasn’t the one she was seeing.

No there was only one guy she ever looked at. Souma Yuuto. And she died, still looking towards him, she died as a simple girl in love.

“Haa… haaa…. Haa … W-well that’s over”

And aren’t we taking this a little too casually? Don’t think it’s a problem though. Honestly, I can’t think straight anymore, so I’ll stop doing that for a while.

I can’t even lift a finger right now. I collapsed, still on top of Reina who still had the knife sticking out of her chest. From a different perspective, a scene like this is bound to cause a misunderstanding or two.

Whatever. I’m too tired to bother. I’m tired of dealing with this bitch, and her stupid whimsies….

“… I did it … I really, did it… ”

Right. This is after 10 seconds, 20? Or maybe more than 5 minutes after. All that gnawing pain was now simply gone, and when that happened, I came to.

Since Reina’s dead, her Sacred Tongue was, naturally, undone. But the damage I sustained is still there, and after that Olympic marathon of ‘IhateyouIhateyou’s I feel dead tired. But it doesn’t hurt so much that I can’t move. Plus, I can’t just lie on top of her corpse, totally not into that. Feels gross.

I somehow got myself sitting up and looked at her face.

“Higuchi’s was better”

Unlike that guy, who had accepted his death, Reina must’ve kept thinking, ‘why me’, until the bitter end. Never even tried to consider why I was doing it. With Higuchi, it was a true duel. Both of us went all out with everything to lose. But what happened today… Can I really call it a duel between shaman and spirit master? Was it simply my one-sided vengeance?

Is it something that the law, that ethics, or a third party could deem righteous?

Yeah, fuck that. It only matters that I deem is righteous. And I really believed that I had to kill Reina A. Ayase. Me. I had to do it. I took that vow, and now, I’ve realized it.

“Haaa… I’m tired”

There’s no joy or urge to laugh now that it’s done. I don’t regret anything though.

""

No really, I don’t feel anything seeing Reina’s ‘frozen in terror’ face.

It’s more a, ‘Yup, that’s done. It was tough. I’m tired.’

Guess I need to clean up. I slid out the knife. Didn’t consider it, but I guess if you popped the stopper off a fresh stab to the heart, the blood really fountains out.

“Ew”

Shit, got some on my face. Disgusting.

Whatever, I can wash up later. Both myself and my knife.

“…”

I’m, still pretty damn tired actually. Can’t really stand up. Here’s a thought, I can lie down again and sleep… but of course, it won’t go my way.

“Ah, finally…”

I can hear the jolly group of friends entering the square.

Reina being dead meant that the guardian beasts fighting them also went poof. Figured.

I can hear, yup all 4 of them. Ueda, Nakai, Shimokawa, and Yamada. Good. All of them made it out alive.

The dungeon goes on after all, and they’re all precious combatants. Can’t have them retire just yet.

“Haa… I should probably get an excuse ready… ”

I thought I planned this all out, but my head is drawing a blank as to how I’m going to explain my way out of Reina’s murder.

I was considering how to break the ice, but before that, they’d already come running to the crime scene.

“Oi, Momokawa! Where’s Re–– ”

At that moment, everything went white. If I had to guess, that was Ueda talking, but I can’t see anything now.

The light. It’s this light.

Light so bright and dazzling, it covered every inch of the fairy square.

What is this light –– the answer to which, I should have known. But with the piled up fatigue, my head refused to work, so I didn’t know. No, actually, I might be trying to subconsciously refuse that answer.

“ –– Momokawa”

That voice. That was the only voice I shouldn’t have to hear at this moment.

I turn to face it. I could’ve ignored it, but I reflexively face towards the voice.

“… Reina?”

With an expression of abject horror, standing there was, wouldn’t you believe it, guardian beast SOUMA YUUTO. Shit, this one’s still alive –– is me actually trying to be optimistic.

“S-Souma, Yuuto…”

He was the real deal.

Standing there was the one the only, the Hero, Souma Yuuto.

He’d landed at this fairy square after a transfer. That’d be the gist of how.

“Yikes, it’s Souma Yuuto guys!?”

“Oi oi give me a break!”

“Dudes, we better get outta here”

The totem-pole trio’s words fell on deaf ears. For both me and Souma-kun. They could be air for all we cared.

“H-huh… Is, is that Reina…”

Because this guy was looking right at me, no at my feet, where lay Reina in a pool of blood.

“No, she can’t… be dea…”

He was in despair as if the world had just ended.

Yet he, Souma Yuuto, is the hero. And the hero never surrenders to despair. For he is the one who drives it back.

He, the hero, thus fights. For he loathes the evil that creates such despair.

“–– Momokawa, so it was you”