Chapter 40: Like a Cirsium IX (2/2)

My world was dark and stagnant. At the edge of the darkness, someone was there. I instinctively realized that it was a woman. I realized, but I didn’t bother with her and moved forward. My legs weren’t moving. My left arm had also stopped moving. My right arm still moved. It would do.

I dragged my heavy and feverish body forward with one arm.

「You fool」

I heard a voice

Even though I couldn’t even hear the sound of the wind, her voice came through clearly.

Before I knew it, she had come up to me.

Who is it?

Rana?

No way.

But don't get in my way. Only this, it’s the duty of a fool. If I can't see this through to the end, then I’ll be the same as pigs.

「Souya」

「Misu, ranika, sama?」

Oh, so it's my god.

Soft obstacles impeded my progress.

She had embraced my head.

I was enveloped in a sense of security that felt as if it was inviting me to my death.

「It’s a little late, but the subjugation of the evil title was brilliant. Your infamy, the resentment and jealousy directed at you, they’ve reached this Misuranika of misdeeds in a truly pleasing manner. I’ll bestow my grace upon you. That unsightly appearance, that pathetic look as you struggle frantically while vomiting blood. You’re undoubtedly my follower」

My right arm had stopped moving.

I had also stopped being able to breathe as I wished.

This curse was so deep and bottomless that even the power of the Lycans couldn't devour it all. It was like I was at the bottom of the ocean. I could do nothing but simply die.

「Misuranika, the dark fire, asks again. Your sword will earn no honor, your blood will enjoy no prosperity, your soul will know no peace. But still, you move forward on this path. Someday, you’ll lose everything, forget, be forgotten, and fall into empty solitude. Souya, my beloved one and only follower. Do you have the fighting spirit to overcome even death? If you have no objections, together with that name, do you swe………………swear to me」

My voice failed me.

In many ways, my body had died.

It's regrettable, but this is what I amount to. This is how my life ends. Although it was the only move I could have played at the time, to meet my end because I had meddled with the curse of death, I had done something idiotic. I'm an idiot, but……

But, well......

At the very end, I should at least be manly.

At least a few words.

With that spirit alone, I moved my heart.

「…………Gi………………Sou, ya, swears. Swears to Misuranika」

「I forgive you. Only I forgive everything. Therefore, those blood and bones, resentment and curses, I will take them all to the very last drop」

The goddess sucked on my lips that were dirty with bloody vomit.

My heart, which had almost stopped, slowly began to beat.

It was weak, but strength that was typical of me returned.

「Now, for the sake of accomplishing what you can accomplish, gaining what you can gain, seizing what you can seize, stand up, my follower. Then call my name, and use my miracle and grace as food to obtain strength」

I clenched my fist.

Now that my sight had cleared, I looked at my god.

「I'm so glad」

「What about?」

「That you were an incredible beauty」

I was moved to tears.

She was a tremendous beauty with long black hair. Her arms and legs were slim and her white skin was set off by the darkness. She looked like a Japanese-style vampire. She was wearing a black dress with a large opening in the back, and she was barefoot.

Her breasts, well, they weren't as big as I had expected, but she had such beautiful looks that it was scary. Most men would probably be captivated by her and offer her everything. A devilishness that was the exact opposite of divinity shone in her eyes.

When I pictured how her thin lips had touched mine earlier, my face grew hot.

「What an insolent follower you are」

「I'm sorry. It's because the only appearance you've shown me is that of a useless cat」

Just like when she was a cat, she snuggled up and rubbed her cheeks on me.

Even when covered in blood, the beauty of my god didn't change.

「It might be good to sleep with me as a “cushion”. But that’s for another time. Go」

「I'm off」

Letting go of my god's hand, I stood up.

I moved forward. I didn’t look back.

Misuranika-sama was seeing me off. I knew that without needing to check.

There was pain in my joints, but I could walk.

I moved forward.

For now, I simply moved forward.

I moved my right and left foot alternately. When the pain got in the way and I couldn’t move them alternately, dragging that one foot, one step at a time, little by little, I moved unmistakably closer to the enemy.

『So………………ya………………』

A communication mingled with static came in.

「Izora, is that you?」

『………………is………………sent.........to you』

The communication cut off, but I received an email.

Written in it, was a message and one incantation.

（These are the words that I've put together by consolidating the information of this world. Please make use of them. This is probably the last thing I can do）

I felt a sense of unease at the word『last』.

Even if her mini-pod was destroyed, Izora should be able to go back in service after transferring her personality into another pod.

But I didn't have the time to clear my doubts right now.

「Izora, I’ll use them」

I don't know what kind of power these words would produce.

But so what? Haven't I always played things by ear?

Dragging one foot, slowly, steadily, moving at crawling speed, I arrived before the hero.

「Yo」

With a casual manner, like I was meeting a partner-in-crime that I had known for ten years, I called out to him.

Perhaps because I had come into contact with these guys’ curse, I felt a little bit of affinity with them.

「Screw you」

He had both knees pierced through by arrows and one lung pieced through by his own sword, but for all that, the hero was still fully conscious as he spat out a curse.

Maybe it was due to the fact that in some way, the same blood flowed inside them, but I felt that Varner’s face was reminiscent of Irvin’s.

「But fine. You’ve won. Feel free to take this head and challenge St. Lyridias and Elysium to a fight. You won’t have an easy death. First, your party members, then their families, their blood, they’ll all be crushed like gnats. Until the moment of your death, the fact that you laid your hands on a hero will make you regret, lament, wish for death and then die」

His words were light.

If anything, they felt pleasant, perhaps because I had come into contact with several hundred years' worth of resentment.

I should clear up his misunderstanding.

「I won't kill you」

「What did, you say?」

A question mark popped up as the hero vomited blood.

No matter how tough he was, he likely didn't have much longer.

「Tonight, I came to hunt a beast」

A long,

Long,

Silence followed.

「Ha.........haha」

On the hero's face, which was as white as a sheet after the blood had drained from it, was a look of despair.

I'm not going to kill a hero.

What I'm going to kill is a terrifying beast that attacked Lemuria.

「My god, oh Lyridias」

Varner extended his hands to the heavens.

「Following your doctrine, no matter the hardships, I’ve overcome them and reached where I am. For the sake of protecting our honored blood, no matter what kind of misdeeds, I’ve taken them in and endured, even when I’ve had to lay my hands on babies……………… Is this the final moments of such a hero? Are you telling me that this is the end? I don’t acknowledge this, I won’t acknowledge this! Unknown to anyone, in such a remote foreign country. To a small fry foreigner. Varner・Kalbezzo is the beast hunter hero! For the final moments of a hero to be an ending like this, who will acknowledge this?!」

After a violent fit of coughing, he vomited blood.

Pitifully, the hero wept.

「Oh god, my god. Please answer me. Are you saying that I did something wrong? I defended your teachings, brought prosperity to the nation, hunted beasts, and lived my life doing as I’m told. What kind of sin have I committed by doing that? Why………………are there such beasts in our blood?」

Disgraceful.

It's the height of unpleasantness.

「Oh my god, please save me」

You idiot.

Even now, you guys are undoubtedly being saved by Lyridias.

The gods aren’t omnipotent. There is a limit to what they can do. Why can't this guy understand her dedication in desperately suppressing the beast until the soul had disappeared into the abyss of death?

Lyridias had tried to cure them. That’s all. That’s really all she wanted. There was no desire for prosperity in her intentions. In the worst case, she had tried to cure the beasts without even sparing a thought for her own life. However, her wish had not come true.

Her doctrine was perverted and exploited, and yet, Lyridias suppressed the beasts devotedly.

Her wish for a cure won’t be fulfilled. Nevertheless, she suppressed the beasts desperately.

And then,

「………………I curse you. First is you, foreigner. Next are your party members, Lemuria’s king, people, adventurers, Popes, black elf, Elysium’s ignorant masses, knights, Dilbert, and everything in the world. Be cursed! Be rotted by impurity just like me, and in the end, all of you………………become beasts!」

All that remains is a curse.

Even so, that pure desire of wanting to save them had created a nation with poison in its insides. Her own descendants were vomiting out the poison and beasts in their final moments, and embroiling all sorts of people as they headed to their deaths.

How would it feel to be shown such people endlessly, I wonder? The worries of a god are unfathomable to me.

Varner's consciousness came to an end.

He had faced his end with a smiling expression that looked broken.

There was a moment of silence and the sound of the wind.

Evil awakened inside his body.

In response, my heart beat faster in my chest. My regeneration point came to a boil.

There's something that I'm sure of. The focus of the Lycan's curse is already flowing inside me. It’s something from which there is no escape. It's a curse that even Misuranika-sama can't break. A curse that devours curses and turns it into power. No, is it even a curse? Well, who knows? I don't know god's machinations.

For a person, that's an insignificant thing.

「Irvin」

Lend me your strength.

Please.

I pulled out his sword.

It was a heavy sword. With my normal strength, it was tough to hold it even with both hands.

Varner's body split open and sprayed blood everywhere.

First, his bones were crushed flat, sticking out and extending from his flesh. As if to support the protruding bones, flesh grew out. His face melted, his eyeballs and teeth fell out, and new organs were created.

It was big, haphazard, and ugly.

「Hey, Irvin. Your friend, Sanperie was quite a guy, wasn't he? All by himself inside the dark dungeon, he suppressed his own evilness even as he confronted his despair. He was praiseworthy, and a truly splendid knight. Look at this. Look at how wretched this guy is. Look at this shameless and pitiful beast」

Even its roar was ugly, and that voice, which sounded like the death cries of a pig, echoed through the moonlit night.

The roar that locks all contracts with the gods didn't work on me.

Even during the time with Sanperie, when I had checked the image afterwards, my regeneration point had not become empty.

There was also the power of the Lycans.

But more than that, there was Misuranika-sama's power.

Earlier, she had sucked out and neutralized the curse of death inside me. How ironic it was, for the god of misdeeds to erase and forgive the sinful curses of people.

That was why, rather than fear, the emotion that I felt for the beast was one called pity.

Varner・Kalbezzo had become a completely foreign beast that was probably similar to the old beastkin that they had overthrown.

It was 6 meters tall, and maybe about 4 meters wide. Its belly had grown too fat and had covered its lower body. Its arms were short and some traces of how they were like before death had remained. Instead, about five legs that were covered with beast fur had grown out from its upper body.

The armor had broken apart, and along with the arrows and the magic sword, they were swallowed up by lumps of flesh.

Its face had nothing that resembled a human’s face. One half looked like a cow, and the other half looked like a deer.

That wasn’t the end of it.

I wondered if its appearance was possibly an amalgam of the forms of all the beastkin that this guy had killed. There were claws of raptors growing on horse legs, eyes of snakes growing on the deer antlers, and about six tails, all of which belonged to different creatures. Large mouths also could be seen in the gaps all over its body. All of them had rows of sharp and scary-looking teeth.

It also grew wings that were larger than its body. I was relieved that only the skeleton of the wings had formed and it was likely impossible for it to fly.

One thing that was very distinctive was a beast growing on its shoulder that I couldn’t figure out the origins of. It looked very much like the beast depicted on the silver coins.

Aah, it was ugly and pitiful.

I couldn’t even feel hatred for it anymore.

I held the sword with both hands. Like a knight just like him, even if it was in appearance only.

I chanted Izora's words.

「My god, oh Misuranika, the dark fire.

I'm the one who devours the curses of people, uses it as food and turns it into power.

I'm your one and only follower.

Ra・Varuzu・Duin・Gargantua. We hate for eternity the origin of the blood of old.

With the echos of resentment and the voices of curses, I call the beast.

Oh goddess of the moon of misfortune,

Oh Lycan,

That power in this body, oh my god, forgive its sin of purging evil.

I harbor a beast while remaining in human form.

I hunt beasts while remaining human.

There is no night that doesn't break into dawn, no dreams that one doesn't awaken from. Someday, even the abominable blood of calamity will dry up and die out. Even so, now comes the night of the hunter」

A crack streaked across the container of my regeneration point. The steam from the boiling liquid escaped through it. My canine teeth, which I had bared, were probably the same as a beast's.

Just the power that responded to evil wasn't enough. That was what the instincts of the beast inside me were telling me. I wouldn't be able to defeat this with that alone.

The power of the Lycans turned the dark energy known as curses into power.

So long as it had curses to feed on, I would be able to wield limitless power.

However, if the curses exceeded the amount that could be absorbed, the leftovers would destroy my body. Like it did earlier.

That was why the grace of Misuranika-sama was used to erase the leftover curses. Moreover, the amount that could be absorbed by the power of the Lycans would also be enhanced by the prayer and words.

This is——

「Izora・Romea・Wild Hunt」

It was magic created by an A.I.

It was the wisdom of her, who loved people.

Just like how it was with Rana’s magic, Brinicle, the power of the alternate world was such that increasing the steps and procedures would dramatically enhance its effects.

There was no pain.

My sharpened senses expanded to the utmost. Each swing of the sword stirred up the wind. For a time, I had obtained the power to slaughter even heroes easily.

Come on, Irvin.

Let's defeat this.

This is for your fame.

It’s Irvin・Foz・Gasim’s final battle.

After all, didn’t you say it? That there is nothing that we cannot accomplish.

I wasn’t able to answer you back then.

That’s why, right now, with this sword, I’ll answer you.

That's right.

For us, nothing is impossible.

Rather than bombshells, it's pretty much a carpet bombing now, but it's a long chapter, hence long explanation incoming……

To clarify, Ra・Guzuri・Duin・Oruosuouru are words with meanings, but since it’s recognized as a name, Babel doesn’t translate it, as Babel doesn’t translate names, or else Souya would have heard ”impurity” every time Rana's full name, Rauaryuna, is used. But once the two names are recited in succession, it’s like a signal telling Babel to translate it. However, because Japanese grammar is backwards, I can’t fit it in perfectly. So I’ve done the best I could, but the meanings are still a bit flipped. Here’s which word means what. Ra(We)・Guzuri(of old)・Duin(origin of the blood)・Oruosuouru(hate for eternity). And if I were to be free to translate it without being restricted by plot, I would say: “We hate for eternity the ancient origin of the blood”.

Also, a slight clarification on the power of the alternate world. Just like how Rana’s Brinicle is a combination magic using multiple magics and a bunch of items to bring about a freezing point depression of epic proportions, Wild Hunt is a combination magic using 3 powers, Misuranika’s grace, the curses of the descendants of the King of Beast Hunters, and the curse of the Lycans. And the way magic works in this word is that the more steps/procedures/magics are stacked up in a combination magic, the more their effects are amplified. Hence, Brinicle and Wild Hunt both cause their individual magics/curses to be more powerful that they would be when used by themselves, which is what he was referring to when he said that the words would enhance the power of the Lycans.

It goes without saying, but the contents of the chants and vows are super important. Especially since followers are “cursed” to follow their god’s footsteps. On that note, when Misuranika said that Souya is undoubtedly her follower, she’s referring to this, and implying that she had “struggled frantically while vomiting blood” before as well. With that knowledge, going back to read her vows back in Volume 1 will likely be very revealing. Also, kinda lost in translation is this part: “do you swe………………swear to me” To put it simply, she uses the questioning form of the word swear at first, meaning “do you swear to me?” but changes to the non-questioning form of the word swear, meaning “swear to me.” kinda like an order. And, you know how I’ve mentioned before that no one pronounces Souya’s name correctly? Only during the vows, both sides used the correct pronunciation.

And yeah, Misuranika was likely a kin of Roomen when she was alive. Her descriptor “傾国の美女” which has been used here and back when she contracted with Souya in the prison, means a tremendous beauty(figurative meaning), beautiful woman who ruined countries(literal meaning), prostitute(out of left field meaning). Don’t ask me why the meanings are so disparate lol, it is what it is. But if you’ve realized, Misuranika is sort of all of those things. On another note, while they do have snake women that drink the blood of humans and the like, Japan is one country that doesn’t really have vampires per se in its myths and legends. Hence, Japanese-style vampire doesn’t mean a specific monster in Japanese lore, but merely a (western) vampire that looks and feels Japanese. Also, did you realize now that she was hiding her powers when Souya was dying from Lumidia’s curse? That thing with the water and her explanation was just a camouflage, she only needed to kiss Souya to neutralize the death caused by Lumidia’s curse. And yes, what happened this time is much larger in scale and his death more imminent, but essentially, it’s the same as that time.

And, as for my thoughts……

I really love this kind of really old-school fade to black as the main characters jump out gun blazing in a final battle in which the result is obvious. It allows the viewers/readers to imagine it anyway they want to. It can be as easy or as difficult, as epic or as plain, as you prefer. Though it's usually unfavorable to the MCs...... But the talking to the friend who had died as if he’s right there, and going into the final battle with his sword is great imo.

How epic was that cruise-missile-like sniping though? Who needs guns when you can fire a sabot-like guided javelin 5 km to hit your target? And for people who lamented the loss of his guns and that modern technology isn’t featured like it is in Gate, usage of modern technology like this pops up every now and then in this series. It’s quite rare, but each time it does, the effects are pretty huge. I mean, at some point, he’ll even pilot something. Massively epic.

And who needs even that when you can go beast-mode and become OP......though......is that all there is to that magic? More in the epilogue, and there are a ton of loose ends that still need to be tied up, so don't miss the 2 chapter long epilogue!