Chapter 10 (2/2)

「Pftttt ahahaha! My bad, my bad . I guess it must be hard for you guys to see what’s going on right now, huh?」

The brat that’d beheaded us laughed loudly before approaching me . I felt the sensation of something pulling on my hair a few moments after his feet stopped right before my eyes .

「W-What the hell!? Th-th-the fuck’s going on!?」

I was hoisted into the air and given a better view of what had happened to me . More specifically, I was given a better view of my own body, twitching, convulsing, and spewing blood as it lay on the ground .

「Y-Y-You have to be fucking kidding me! The hell is going on!? Why aren’t I dead!? Isn’t that my body right there!?」

「Hahaha . Amazing isn’t it? We had Slucky attach a part of himself to each of your necks right when we cut them off . He keeps your blood flowing, at the right pressure, and full of oxygen so you can stay conscious and not dead, even without the rest of your body . He also serves as a substitute for your vocal chords, so you can speak all you like . Minnalis’ poison is keeping you paralyzed and free of pain, so you won’t die from shock either . 」

「Haaah!? The hell are you saying? Stop saying shit I don’t understand!」

「All it means is that you can remain conscious even as just a head . Here, you’ll understand if you just get a good look . 」

The brat shrugged in an overly exaggerated manner before putting me on top of the rock I’d just been sitting on . He somehow made his sword disappear before violently grabbing both Terry and Dot and holding them right in front of me . The two had rather spaced out expressions . It didn’t take me long to realize that I probably looked the same . I could see a slime-like thing wrapped around the bottom of each of their severed heads . A dark red liquid, their blood, moved around within it as it pulsed in a pump-like manner .

Knowing that the exact same thing had happened to me made me almost want to keel over and faint . It was almost as if I’d been remodeled into some sort of inhuman freak .

「So you understand what’s happened to you now? Isn’t this just great? Not very many people get to die while experiencing something this interesting, you know?」

The monster of a brat continued to smile as placed Terry and Dot beside me while getting ready to toy with our very lives themselves .

「Slucky . 」

「Kyupii!」

The slime cried in response as if to affirm the man’s words before slowly crawling towards us .

「O-Oi… What are you planning?」

The negative emotion swelling up within me led me to repeat the question I had asked earlier .

I wasn’t given an answer . My captor instead turned to the slime and spoke to it in a soft tone while stroking its head, a smile decorating his face the whole way through .

「Feel free to dig in . 」

「Kyupii!!」

「…STTTOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP THAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!」

The slime immediately kicked into action and began leaning its body on top of us in response to the brat’s words . The way it acted almost made it seem as if it’d been waiting for his signal the whole damned time .

「Whaaaaa!? Stop thaaat! Our bodies! Our bodies!!」

Our bodies started to make crunching sounds as the slime compressed them within itself .

「P-Please stop that!! Those are our bodies! Stop that right now! Stop messing with them! Who the hell do you think we are damn it!? Stop it! Stop it now!」

Terry began screaming at the top of his lungs the moment he saw the slime begin to consume his body .

「T-The hell is this!? No! I know, it’s a dream! Yeah, it has to be a dream! Gyahahahahahaha! I get it! This was all just a dream this whole time!」

Dot’s words were convincing . This just had to be a dream, a god awful nightmare .

「Heh heh heh . Well, what do you think? Isn’t watching a slime eat you while you’re still perfectly conscious just novel?」

The rabbitkin’s description of the event was spot on . The slime was translucent, so we could see inside of its body; we could see exactly what was going on within it, and we could even hear the occasional crunch through the slimy blob . We heard a particularly loud crack as the slime crushed Dot’s arm and folded Terry’s twisted legs in half . It then peeled off my leather armour, tore my stomach in half, and put my internals on display . I heard something important in my mind every single time a piece of one of our bodies lost its original form .

「This can’t be real . This isn’t possible . This can’t be happening . This can’t be happening . This can’t be happening . This can’t be happening . This can’t be happening . 」

「Arghhh! This was all our fault! I’m sorry, we’re sorry! Please, just stop already!」

Dot was the first to break, with Terry following soon after . The former began quietly muttering “this can’t be happening,” over and over while the latter began begging for it to stop . I, on the other hand, began letting out dry gasps . The fact that I saw my own body get broken down and consumed right in front of me made me feel like I was going mad .

I knew that I was going to die . That, I understood . But the way I was going to die wasn’t something I could bring myself to accept . I didn’t want it to end, not like this .

「Hmmm… You guys are boring . You’ve all given up despite not even having felt any pain . 」

「We’ve even had goblins entertain us more than them . 」

「Right?」

We were no longer able to discern which part of the lump of flesh inside the slime belonged to who .

I wasn’t able to get what was going on anymore . My mind wasn’t able to keep up .

Why? Why…? Why!?

I wasn’t able to comprehend why the two people in front of us were smiling anymore . Why were they smiling and happily chatting away despite the fact that that had happened to me?

「Kyupuu!」

The slime that’d consumed us spat a lump of metal, our equips, back outside of it after it was done ingesting and processing our bodies .

「What did we do to deserve this!?」

「Huh? The hell do you mean by that?」

The brat’s words will filled with a burning, violent rage . To him, the answer was clearly an obvious one, but I couldn’t think of any prior events that would’ve led to me incurring his wrath .

「Weren’t you trying to backstab me? Didn’t you want to rape Minnalis right before my eyes? Hadn’t you planned on murdering me?」

「Y-Yeah, but that doesn’t justify something this horrible!」

「What do you mean “justify,” low-life? Didn’t you think you could get away with whatever the hell you wanted just because you were stronger than someone? Didn’t you think no one would care so long as you weren’t found out? Doesn’t all this just go along with that same school of thought? We’re doing as we like because we’re stronger than you, and because no one will know what happened . Shouldn’t we be perfectly justified based on your very own logic?」

「…」

「Don’t get all pretentious on us . Don’t be complaining about what we’re doing to you . You deserve this . As scum, you should die like scum . 」

Their words made me recall something the local priest had preached to me back when I was a child .

I guess this is what he meant by Karma . Someone did onto us what we did onto others .

I understood that .

But I still couldn’t it accept it .

「No…! No, no, no, no, no!!!」

I don’t want to die . I don’t . Want to die . I . Don’t . Want . To . Die .

Not like this .

I’d long abandoned even the consideration of a natural death . It was something I threw away the moment I became an adventurer . But I couldn’t stand going out like this .

I didn’t want it to end like this .

Not like this .

「It seems like it’s about time for us to bid our farewells . Minnalis, Slucky, we all get one each . Alright?」

「Sure thing, Goshujin-sama . 」

The rabbitkin reached into an item bag-like object and pulled out a rusty hammer as she spoke .

「This is allllllllll juuuuuuuust aaaaaaa dreeeeeammmmmmmmmm! IIIIIII’mmmmmmmmm juuuuuuuussssssssstttttttt drrrrreeeeeeeaaaaaaaamiiiiiiinggggggg!! Bye bygrophph!」

The sound of something whistling in the wind passed by my ears as she smashed the hammer into the spot right next to me . Dot’s still warm blood flew through the air and splashed itself onto my face as I felt a vibration shake through the thing I was situated on top of .

「Alright, your turn Slucky . 」

「Kyupii!」

The slime extended a pair of tentacles as it responded to the brat’s instructions .

「This can’t be happening! There’s just no way! This is way too unreal! It’s impoasdugkjhasdgjkh!」

The slime pulled Terry’s head into its body and crushed both his bones and flesh into a single small lump . One of his eyeballs flew out of the slime’s body after the rest was consumed, as if it was something accidentally spilled in the act of eating . But not even that part managed to escape, as one of the slime’s tentacles reached out, grabbed it, and pulled it back into the meat grinder that was its body .

「No! Not like this! Why… Why does it have to be like this!?」

「That’s a thought I’ve entertained quite a few times as well . I’ve caught myself screaming that exact question over and over . You see, you guys might not know the reason why this happened, but I do . And I’m pretty sure I’ve already explained it, haven’t I?」

The last thing I saw right before getting my head split in half was the sight of the brat’s bitter smile, one that contained within it scorn even for oneself .

[1] Original name is a Dragon Quest reference . Idk how they localized it, so I just did it my way . (Surakichi = Slime lucky = Slucky)