Chapter 25 (2/2)

Yumis was getting paler as she spoke .

“Oh yeah, there’s gonna be some casualties, sure . ”

I replied to her joyfully .

In reality, the earlier explosion had already made people aware of the zombie dilemma . We’d limited how many we’d summon there, and there were also specialists from the town church who could take charge in the extermination, so I didn’t think there’d be too many deaths . Although, I saw no reason telling Yumis that .

I still estimated a hundred or two casualties among the civilians, but they were necessary sacrifices .

“Look, I need a lot of them to die tonight . Sear it into their memories as a catastrophic event, you know? I know it’s sad, but this is something I need to do to fulfill my dream . I’m sure you know the feeling, don’t you, Yumis . ”

“Kh, bastard… !”

I chuckled, kuh kuh kuh, and continued further,

“Also, what’s with your ‘innocent civilians’? Like you give a damn about them . Well, I understand, you don’t want to admit it do you? Whatever will the commoners think after this event, surely you’ve realized?”

“W-what are you…”

“Hey tell me will you, kind Yumis nee-sama? Please teach this innocent Shuria who doesn’t know the ways of the world . A sudden explosion at the research institute that my nee-sama personally oversaw, and from within came a horde of undead . What would they think of as the most likely scenario? Whoever will they deem responsible for this madness?”

Kusukusu, Shuria laughed as she played provocateur .

“No, NO! You’d have me put to blame for all this!?”

“Correct, correct, aaaand CORRECT!! AHAHAHAHA!! That’s right, this is what you all did to me in the first world! You put all the evils of the demon lord on to me, the hero who saved your asses . And just like that, I’ll be tearing down your image as the intelligent, kind fief lord, and expose you as the criminal who did illegal monster experiments to make her magic tools . But look, the big difference is that you actually did all that! AHAHAHAHA!!”

This is so ironic . In my 1st run, I’d helped them fight back the army of undead, but this time, I’m causing the attack .

“Oh, but you won’t be atoning for any of these crimes . You can’t right? Since I’ll be killing you right here . Of course, none of them will know that . You’ll just quietly disappear on this day . Now, who do you think will have to carry that blame once you’re missing indefinitely?”

“It, would be…”

If the main culprit of this disaster on Elmia, that is, Yumis, is missing, what then?

Yumis’ crimes are her family’s crimes .

Nevertheless, they could settle the matter by offering only Yumis’ head . Even if all her family were blamed, the damages were minimal, so if they offered up the fief lord’s only child, the rest could get away unscathed . But if it turns out that Yumis had gone into hiding, the blame would pour down on anyone related to her .

First of all, her relatives would be executed . I don’t know how much of her extended family this’ll effect, but her parents, the mother and father she respected and wanted approval from, would both be on the chopping block, definitely .

“You, damned, monster!!”

“KUHAHAHAHA!! This is something you all did to me . Since you have your old memories, you have to know how this country killed my family and friends to summon me here . You heard from that fucking princess didn’t you? You hunted me down and tried so hard to make me slip up by bringing that up over and over again . How’s it feel now? How’s it feel to have the same happen to you? How’s it fucking feel to have your past, your future, and everyone, everything important to you, tarnished, stolen, destroyed!! Ahah~♪ AAHAHAHAHA!!”

I can’t stop, I can’t stop, I can’t stop .

It’s so fun, so much fun, I just can’t stop laughing .

I still remember all those miserable days I spent wanted and hunted .

Burning in anger and humiliation, but still packing it inside, all that rage, all that unbearable rage . It was all for today .

“You, insane hero…! I’ll never forgive you, go to hell!”

Burning in anger and humiliation, Yumis directed all her unbearable rage at us .

“Die, you need to die!! You as well, Shuria you wench!! Why are you two even alive!? Ghosts of the past should stay in your place in hell!!”

Her eyes were dyed in wrath .

The best proof that Yumis was truly suffering .

“Kyahah! KyahahaHAHAHAHA!! You’re talking nonsense now, Yumis nee-sama . We’re already in hell, the very bottom of it . If we weren’t, how else could we drag you down to its depths?”

“Oh, that one’s pretty good, Shuria, AHAHAHAHA!!”

That’s right, we’d been sent to the pits of hell, and chose to live in it .

Rather than escaping from it with how scarred we are, we decided to get everyone to join us .

Yumis had it right . The moment we decided to embrace the idea of exacting revenge, we’d become ghosts, demons of the past .

“You’re, you’re all mad…!!”

Our mad cackling overlapped and resonated with each other .

I couldn’t get enough of Yumis who still put up a strong front despite being scared shitless .

“Yes yes, yeshyesyesYES!! Get ready for the climax now! This’ll be the final act! The main course today is your dream, Yumis! Shuria, I believe you’re ready?”

“All in order♪ Nee-sama, let me have the honor of presenting to you our final actress .  Metal-san, come on in . ”

Shuria called on her third familiar .

And with Metal-san moving her body, the woman who started off tonight’s festivities once again dragged herself out of the forest . This time, it was indeed the real Sori .

She was still in her usual long skirt maid uniform . She looked to be walking alone, but hidden inside her bones lay a sinister trap . It was Metal-san, a joint creation by me and Shuria, where I melted some highly pure mithril using the firevenom of the 【Fire Spider’s Leg Blade] and Shuria gave it life with her Spirit Puppetry .

“You won’t trick me-No, that’s, SORI!!”

“Yumis -sama . . . ”

Upon seeing Sori’s terrified face, this time, Yumis really did have all the blood drain from her expression, she became white as a sheet of paper .

Her strong front, which was in the end, only a front, was rapidly breaking apart .

Now I was sure, this woman was everything that signified that bitch’s dream .

“No, please no, please don’t, not her, not my Sori…!!!”

She began to quiver intensely .

“This last act is called Dream Balloon . Shuria here’s implanted her familiar within this maid’s body . Just like we showed you, night after night . ”

“! No, then, that dream…!!”

“Yes, I especially asked Teddy-san to show you those dreams . How were they? Good fun, right?”

Sneered Shuria, to which Yumis reacted with even more apprehension .

“Ah~ that’s it, I love that face . It appears there is value in poking at this filthy worm ♪”

“Kyah!! ghuhh!!”

“SORII!!”

Making Metal-san manipulate Sori’s body to make her grovel in the dirt, Shuria stomped down on her back and laughed .

“The rules are simple . Our Metal-san is inside your fuckmaid here, and once Shuria gives the signal, the little guy will start expanding out . Now, you don’t want that to happen, since…”

I intentionally cut off my explanation, and did a quiet chuckle .

“Nooo, please don’t kill me… Hic, uuh . ”

“… …”

Sori wept in fear of death, while Yumis was close to doing the same as she imagined what I cut off describing .

“But alas, I am kind . I’ll tell you the one way you can save her . Pour your mana inside the maid . Shuria’s familiar happens to be a magic creature, and those, as you should know, tend to stop working if they get overloaded with mana, don’t they?”

The momentary light of hope on Yumis’ face when I told her that was dyed back into despair just as fast .

Since she realized that she’d used up a lot of that MP during her fight with me .

I then removed her mana sealing shackles .

As for Shuria she also removed her foot off Sori by kicking her away .

“OK, start . Do be careful now, or your dream balloon will get too big and pop . ”

“Wh-, n-, please wai-…!?”

“That’s a no♪ There!”

Shuria cut the tape commemorating the start of the game without a care for what Yumis had to say .

“Ah, AaAAAAHHH! Stop, no, STOP IIIT!!! It hurts id hurdsidhrdshh!!”

“SORI!!”

Metal-san started expanding right away, and Sori wailed in pain from having her bones start rupturing from the inside .

Yumis desperately dragged her feet hearing the cries of her beloved, and started her task of filling her with the little remaining mana she had .

“Khhhuuuuuu!!!”

“Ghhhhuuu!! Help me, Yumis-sama, id hurds zoo mujj!!”

“You’ll, be fine, I’ll save you right now!!”

Yumis was clearly giving her all in this . However, she was hardly at full strength, and basically, she just didn’t have enough to overload the magic creature that Shuria took lots of time and effort to manifest .

“Ghha, ahhh, AAAAHHHH!!!”

Yumis had, as expected, quickly run out, and then began forcibly squeezing out even more mana, something I’d also done once . As a result, lesions started popping up all over her body .

―― ―― But even that wasn’t quite enough .

“Ghh, gah, Ah, AAAH!!”

Sori’s body convulsed violently, her tears mixing with the blood dripping off from Yumis . And then, even that last surge of mana gained at blood price fizzled into nothing .

“No, NonoNOnOnNOOOOO!! I beg you, I BEG OF YOU, oh great hero, Shuria my love, I’m sorry, I was the fool, I’ll do anything I swear, please, pleaseplease forgive me!! Please don’t kill Sori!!”

Yumis pleaded while descending into tears .

That Yumis who despised me, used me, betrayed me, was now in such a deplorable state .

“HAHAHA! Can’t do that, bitch!! You said it right, we’re ‘ghosts’, we’re ‘dead’ already, how are we supposed to listen to living people!”

“Are you mocking us? See here Yumis nee-sama, I chose this path to hell just to have my revenge . So… ―― Please rest assured, you WILL suffer, kyahahaha!!”

“!!! You, damned, DEEEMOOONNSS!!”

We were beginning to hear the creaks and cracks of Yumis’ dream bursting apart .

“Ah, gahh, uah…”

“Sori!! SoriSoriSori!!”

“Yu mis -sama… a…”

It ended like a water balloon, filled far over capacity .

With a splashing sound, like something that would really make you think about how the human body is mostly water, Sori’s body became nothing but a lump, no, lumps of meat .

“… Eh, ah, e?”

Yumis muttered blankly after that sudden gush of blood got coated all over her .

She could be trying to deny the reality in front of her, or maybe she just can’t fathom what just happened .

The thing called Yumis was, right now, something like a loose house of cards .

So, I went to her, brought my mouth to her ear as she kept sitting there, and said the words I’d been dying to say to her, all this time,

“Hey, Yumis . Just now, just like me, your precious dream, it broke . Just one last time, I want to hear it from your mouth, how does it feel?”

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHH . NOO NOO NOOO!! WHY, WHY, NOO, WHY, NONONONONOOO!!!”

“AHHAHAHAHA!!! YESSH, That’s it, that’s just what I neeeded Yumis!!”

“Kyahah♪ Cry more, scream more, suffer more!! Loud enough that even mother and Shelmy can hear from heaven, cry, scream!! Kyahahahahaha!!”

1 scream to 2 joys .

Ahh, this is it . THIS is it .

This is everything I wanted, and more!!

I live for this, I started life a second time for THIS!!

“Well then, that’d be the end of everything we prepared for you . You’re welcome, Yumis, glad you enjoyed it . ”

“Nee-sama, you yourself raised the curtain that started this play . Now we will be the ones to drop it . ”

Let’s conclude this charade of idiots and fools .

Shuria and I each took out a simple, unadorned sword from our respective round pouches .

“NO, no, I don’t want this!! This has to be a lie, it’s all fake!! Tell me it’s all fake, tell me!!”

Yumis reeled, scratching at her head like a child throwing a temper tantrum .

She wailed as if to deny anything and everything .

“Ahahah, see ya, Yumis . ”

“Farewell, Yumis nee-sama . ”

We both raised high our blades of revenge .

“NOOOO-GAHH,Bgh!”

As if we were one of heart, both blades sunk deep into the mage’s heart .

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! AHAH, AHAHAHAHA!!”

“KYAHAH! KYAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

Again, and again, and again, and again, and again, andagainandagainandagainandagain ――― ―― .

Within the chilled night air, that one place raged in heat .

My crazed laughter in resonance with that of Shuria’s appeared as if we were playing a piano duet together .

We lost track of time and just kept stabbing her .

By the time we stopped, we were only going at what could be called minced meat .

The swords in our hands weren’t just covered in ample blood, they even had small chunks of meat sticking to them .

☆

There sat, covered head to toe in the blood of another, a boy who could only be described as unique thanks to his black hair and black eyes, and a girl who looked like a dark skinned elf . They sat together, each leaning their backs on one another .

All around them were meat, blood and fragmented bones in disarray .

There lay a corpse, that is, something that was a corpse, but was now disfigured beyond all recognition as one . One couldn’t tell at a glance if that thing was even alive at one point .

“Shuria, your personal revenge should be over with this, so what now? Are you staying here?”

“I can’t say I’m fond of such jokes . My revenge won’t be over with only this . ”

The girl said, pouting,

“The grudge that you and Minnalis-san have shared with me is now mine as well . It’s a fact that the target of my first revenge has been dealt with, but I now have many more . I could say that my revenge has yet to begin even . So no, you will not leave me out of it . ”

“Huh, you’re right . Sorry, I said something dumb . ”

Within him, the boy now felt a new rage from the girl, one she hadn’t had before .

Though the origin of this hate may be his, what he felt now was fully a part of the girl .

Guess I got a little sentimental now that I had the first of my revenge, whispered the boy as he glanced up to the sky .

“Sure was fun, that . Wonder when I’ll have my next one . ”

The girl kept silent at that, but as a reply, leaned just slightly more on the boy .

They dreamed .

They dreamed that someday, they would drag every last person that wronged them into the pits of hell, they dreamed that after that, they would finally rest in peace .

The moon too silently cast its light upon them, accepting them for all they were as dawn arrived .

― ―… Their vengeance had yet to end .

For it was a pitch black flame that could even blot out the sun .