Volume 2 Chapter 2 (1/2)

WARNING

Trigger warning: Gore This chapter gets disgusting in vivid detail

Trigger warning: Mentions of suicide

Please read at your own discretion

By the ti the loot we had found in the hidden room in e from somewhere far away

Eru snorted, as if to express how lonely he had been, and waved his tail widely as he restlessly snuggled up to ently pat at Eru's throat as he pressed his face againstne——”

I was startled by the look on Louie's face when I tried to ask hirey world with a harsh look on his face

”Let's hurry”

”O, okay”

I nodded in a hurry, beaten back by the strong tone of his voice that refused to allow for any refutation

He apparently sa lacking I was in dexterity while I fue of clothes we had obtained on Eru's back Louie reached out, swiftly fastened everything down, and pickedabout it

”Louie!”

Even when I cried out it surprise, Louie, who see else, was indifferent towith the luggage

”We'll leave the village fro to was in the complete opposite direction to the direction we had caed Eru along even as I was bewildered and we pressed forward in so, was fully tense and was looking around at our surroundings with extree sense of anxiety that I couldn't quite put into words at the stiff atrabbed Eru's fur with both hands and looked to the buildings on either side ofto melt into the faint darkness

”Hey Louie, we're hurrying because it's alht?”

I didn't receive an answer I knew that I couldn't be too far off the mark because of the way Louie refused to allow his caution to loosen even in the slightest I ran s one more time

It was then

”Oh!”

I let out a loud shout

Eru and Louie quickly turned tohad s I don't think ood vision

”Youall forh that I could warn hi that I had seen too, but he was trying to pretend that he hadn't And, he was i me to do the sanored it like this if it was a dangerous monster or beast We would only be in more troubled if it followed us, if that was the case

”Wait a sec, Eru”

I wanted to knohat it was before we ran away This hy I had Eru stop

”We e first”

Louie was acting obviously strange He was so desperate not to let me see whatever it was that he had lost his composure It was completely different froo when aI saw……by any chance, is it…”

——A Reim?

I was sure it was I was convinced and was enveloped by a sense of elation I grew confident in my instincts, and I started to think that it was the most important and correct assessment possible at the time

”I came here to turn Rei to return ho in an unfamiliar world made me feel

And that's why I can't just run away!

”I'nored the sound of Louie's voice and pulled out Olin's sword, which was fastened together with the luggage, in a hurry

I sprang off of Eru's back with sword in hand

”It's a Reim, isn't it?”

”——Hibiki!”

Louie raised his voice in frustration

”If that's a Reim, a revenant, there, then I have to face it!”

Louie blocked row rew sullen at his declaration

”……How can you be so pessi yet?”

Louie flinched ever so slightly when I subconsciously ended up glaring at him

I……was still unable to walk away fro

Louie wasn't even includinghis hopes only on the princes who could wield divine swords

I never learned my lesson no matter howlonely about never being relied upon for anything

But before that, I alanted to somehow find a way to decrease Louie's burdens, since he had endured soatmanner He was always afraid that I would shatter at the sile object That hy I wanted to show his done when I tried

”Eru!”

I called out to Eru in a strong voice At this rate, Louie would stop h to slip away from him

……But even Eru looked hesitantly to Louie as if to ask for his opinion when I called

I was shocked I felt like I'd been betrayed

——That's so ain, this tiht away and hesitated for a little bit He finally moved after our eyes met, if only out of his sense of duty For the purpose of obeying o!”

Eru circled around Louie, as reaching out toward us, and let out a lol

”Hibiki! Please!”

”I'll be okay! I won't let rip on the divine sword to s I was in such high spirits that it was al at my back It bothered me, but I knew that I'd surely start to doubt myself and lose heart if I turned back now

I resolved s To where so there

”——Huh?”

It was different froe of a revenant that I'd had in e of a Reim that I'd had in host, like the ones that show up in horror films It was because I still remembered how Olin had once called the up fros…

It was certainly, most certainly, a type of undead

”——This is a Reim?”

I stood still in durotesque thing crawled up in strangely sluggishwail that al

”It's neck……, why is it like a rokurokubi?”1

No, the skin on its neck had si rubber Its skin would stretch like toffee every tis

”But isn't that……huh h …”

It wasn't translucent or an evil spirit It had a proper body of flesh and even had hair!

”No way……”

I broke out in goosebumps all over my body Its appearance retained too much of its human form It had normal skin color and the lines of its shoulders were properly round

Except, its li

The Reim stirred as I stood before it, speechless, and picked up its head, which had been rolling on the ground, with its extended arled hair in an awfully conscientiousirl?”

She looked like she was in her late twenties She was a delicate woman with pale yellow hair She was naked and she seemed sad——and terribly lonely

I subconsciously stumbled backward The inside of my throat was painfully dry

”……What…is this?”

It was all I could do to take a few steps back I was unable to round

The woman……the Rei to tell round with unreliable fingers

——No, this is gross

Words of rejection sounded clearly in one corner ofpierced through my chest Yet, I couldn't take my eyes off of it for even a ure were unbelievably repulsive to me

If only it was more……if it looked a bit ain

It wailed, and wailed, and wailed, and its tears tu with its eyeballs

Its eyeballs

”Huh……?”

The Reian to rock its body A white line of liquid hung down froh from its eye sockets like a strand of boiled noodles

And then, the Reim slowly transformed into a repulsive monster

The Reiony or like it was itchy all over Its torso rotated all the way around Its skin ripped whilenoises as it did Its abdoans, covered in faintly colored blood, dropped to the ground et sounds as soon as the soft flesh isted off

”No, no ait…”

I couldn't stop getting the chills I wanted to cover my eyes, but I couldn't

”Is, is this really a Reians that had fallen out of its flesh were steanify how fresh they were Its blood vessels were pink The reddish , obscenely-colored intestines, which looked a bit like rope, were flopping vigorously on the bloody ground like a dying fish The resulting splashes landed on my cheek as I stood there absentmindedly

I s flesh

”Stop it…”

I pleaded before I knehat I was doing But the shocks weren't over yet

The Reiround, shoved thean to chew

Its neck, stretched out like rubber, sed it all and swelled up like a balloon It reminded me of a water hose with a bubble of blocked water in one spot

The Reile-mindedly dismantled its own body apart and devoured it

But, no matter how much it ate, its torso was rent and twisted The parts it ate fell out between its broken bones with a disgusting sound and its coround

It continued its pointless mastication so endlessly that it almost pissed me off

Finally, the Rei neck

It rolled up its skin with rougha temper tantrum, and forcefully shoved its head into its torso It was as if it was trying to aether various parts of various toys Then, it broke off its ribs and began to lick the apart

I watched it unfold right before an to move more violently It shook its body, ripped out its hair with both hands, scalp and all, and even tore out its tongue Its hu apart

Chills ran up fro at?

”Hibiki!”

Louie's voice sounded far ahen he calledaudibly

No, it was ht

I felt likewith the Reilued on the Reim My feet wouldn't rew extremely nauseous and dizzy Its humanity was so, so broken down

”Don't look”

Louie was standing next to me all of a sudden A reality so terrible it felt more like a picture of hell peered back atme

What had Olin and Silvai said when they warned me?

They had asked me if I could really kill a Reim They had warned uished about that, hadn't they?

Louie, too He had been so concerned about the with things so hideous that you couldn't help but look away from them

——I' for now Forget about this”

”……Forget this?”

Forget…this?

How aure from my mind?

If there existed a spell to ht now

”It's still safe ——The Reihton the waves of a distant shore, back to reality

”It's skin……what?”

”It won't attack until it's completely shed its 'humanity'”

——Until it's shed its 'hu about?”

”It's all right if you forget This isn't so”

I heard Eru cry out helplessly

”Wait, hold on a sec I don't understand What do you ainst my temple with my hand I was surprised at hoettoo, not just ht, Hibiki, so fall back”

What did I come here to do?

——I'm scared, I'm so scared So like this I just can't, it's too gross!!

Countless screahout

I had seen it clearly I'd seen its hu was actually a hu a Reiure of a 'hu' had been burned into my mind

I can't do this anymore

Now that I knew of this, I couldn't rid e of a 'person' no inal for its appearance became

It was heavy The sword in my hand felt so heavy that I couldn't help it

I hate this——

”Hibiki!”

My body lurched Louie immediately supported me up I didn't have the leisure to thank hi before ure of the Rei around the asphalt on a hot su down the back ofheat haze, the s over the asphalt, the bodies of the ants being dismembered by the bottom of my dirty shoes

This was my secret Even now, I don't knohy I did it

In any event, soed ever since that time

”Now, step back Turn around”

Louie's low voice broke the heavy silence that made it hard to even breathe He pushed entle e sword out it its sheathe

I aiaze from Louie to the Reie of its transfiguration

It fell on all fours and convulsed violently on its partially destroyed lied up and splintered Its back opened up inside-out like a flower lustrous lu it look like it had sprouted some kind of carnivorous flower out of its back

The Reirowled like a beast and looked to me for a moment

I paled because I instinctively knew that it was looking at h it didn't have any eyeballs

”Lou……”

Right after I subconsciously grabbed hold of Louie's robes

The skin on the Reirape

”Wha——”

Its skull was laid bare for all to see Its whiteness ely in the faint darkness

The fibers of its skin stretched out in long strings like liquid

The words that Louie had said flashed beforeits 'humanity'

I bit down hard at my lips as I was assaulted by a violent sense of nausea The tips of rew as cold as if I'd touched ice

I wanted to pass out if I could Just as I was irresponsibly wishi+ng for this, Louie silently took a step closer to the Reim

”Louie……!”

”I have to kill it soon”

Soan to rise up out of the Reim's back, which had opened up like a flower

”……Wha, what is that?”

No, perhaps it was better to say that its heart had ether with blood and flesh and started to swell than to say that so up out of it?

Whatever it was, is rapidly grew larger and transfor out of the Reim's back It was a row as if to declare that it was the real Rei born”

I cowered as Louie whispered so to himself

A part of the flesh ans stuck to its dented cranium Its pink veins took the shape of crude lips

The ”Reim” crushed its seedbed-like flesh and repeatedly ed in color as it did

Its body changed shape to so similar to a balloon and its flesh became translucent

It was covered in skin that was partially translucent, like scales Chunks of bloody meat and shards of bone circulated inside of it

Soonally froh ……For a ht that its body looked like a mix-and-match puzzle The mix-and-match body was defective and dribbled milky-white liquid all over the place The white stuff looked like melted fat

Louie stood directly before the Reim and raised up his sword

Then, he suddenly stopped it midair

”——Hibiki, can I……ask you to step away a little further?”

His low voice was colored by conflict After a brief moment of absentmindedness, I suddenly understood why

Olin and Silvai had said that it wasn't possible to revive Rei to that effect But, they had also said that it was just barely possible to annihilate them

In other words, didn't that mean that it was possible to destroy a Reiht before they transfor was correct, then this was cruel not only to the Rei the sword that would kill it

Not only did you have to see the Reim while it still looked humane, but the Reim was also completely helpless because it was in the ained even a little of your coust, but you'd also feel extreuilt and pity

”I'll finish this quickly I just don't want you to get caught up in it”

I stared fixatedly at Louie's back after he spoke His tone was kind But he never once ht It was entirely possible that he'd had to kill a criminal or an enemy soldier before in his past

But noso that required the up of the fact that in this case, it was the life of a nor——

This is why Louie was so adae unprepared

It was certainlyin the forest, but noas sure that there was an ee as well

I then made yet another realization Louie waselse, wasn't he?

He had asked if he could wield the divine sword and had wanted to revive the princes as soon as possible

He wasn'tstubborn He had si his upmost to protect me from his cruel reality

”And yet, I…”

My world spun I was about to ht like Louie, because I thought that we could help each other out if I did…”

”Please step back, Hibiki”

He cut throughand resolute tone

If Louie wielded his sword in my stead, the person before us would never be able to revive again

They would be annihilated, soul and all, as a monster known as a Reim forever

”Wait, please…”

Louie was about to atone for ain

This was just like what had happened with the insects from the other day I was the one who'd been reckless And yet, Louie didn't blahtest and tried to take responsibility for my actions

But it orse this ti out someone else's life

Just how much did you resolve yourself when you picked up your sword?

”——Louie”

I instantly reached for Louie's ar down his sword

Louie jerked a little and finally looked my way His eyes only held the kindest consideration, as I'd expected The moment I saw them, an impulse that refused to be put into words rose up to my throat

——Move, and don't you dare run away!

My inner voice sounded like it was coest bluff I could e

”No, you can't kill theht back soon, before the Reim becomes complete”

”They won't turn back 'human' unless it's by my sword”

Louie bit down on his lip, perhaps because he was growing i, and tried to pushmy head I stared back into his moon-colored eyes to pretend that I wasn't afraid

”It's okay, Louie Let me do this”

Liar Liar! In truth, I really didn't want to do so I wanted him to do this for me so much that it hurt

”I was prepared for this when I ca ”okay” about this at all I wasn't prepared in the slightest I felt like my heart would shatter even now, like I'd overfloith screams

Even still, my voice sounded no different from usual as it fell into the faint darkness I was internally relieved by this fact

Louie abruptly opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't say a word

”I was just a little surprised But, you knoas planning on beco Divine Destruction Girl down the line, so……it'll be okay, Louie, just step back for a bit”

After a breath, I pulled the sword I was holding out of its sheathe

Unlike a norranted lance The back of rip around its hilt

I guess the place where Olin had blessedto the sword The sensation felt like it was co from far away, and I felt like I hadn't fully adapted to it yet

”Eru, look after Louie forrestlessly behind us In between the lines, I wanted him to make sure that Louie wouldn't interfere

The ever intelligent Eru understood e body in between us and began to push Louie back with his forehead

I turned back to face the Rei this

To kill it

——What do I do?

The back of ain around the hilt ofdown my sword That's all I need to do

But, where was I supposed to cut? Its head? Shoulders? Limbs? I had no idea

Olin, Uncle Miharu, I'ht after all!

A s stirred up a ind inas I held up my sword

No, I can't do this, I wanna run away

But if I didn't hurry, the Rei', peeled off its 'hu out of a costuan to eat away at it audibly

Then, it picked up its skull, which had fallen to the ground, and drank the greysure to stir it up first——and then it placed the emptied skull on its head like it was soinal human shape anymore

It was a haphazard ers looked like an insect's legs

——This is a Rei terribly far away for a while now and I kept hearing static noise It was like there was suddenly so in my chest and the voices in er

Maybe it was becausebefore me

——I don't want to kill it……

Is this really real? I have to be the one to kill it?

My teeth wouldn't line up properly andon my ears

I'd rather die than kill it, I can't bear this any downdown the skull on its head

This was the ht my heart would shatter into pieces

It was a cruel fate of killing that stretched out before e

I know I felt the feeling of cutting through a luers through the hilt oftoldalive' whether I wanted to know or not

”It didn't cut all the way through……!”

I hadn't put enough strength into anize had gotten in the way

After cutting through the Reiross sound, the sword that I'd blindly swung got stuck in its shoulder

”No……!”

The Reim cried out in pain and twisted its body in rejection My sword shook each ti with it Heavily viscous bodily fluids, either a glob of blood or a chunk of flesh —I didn't knohich—, spurt out from its wound and splashed on my hands, still on the hilt ofof the lukewarm liquid, which conveyed the Reiet it out!”

Stop, stop et ent cry from directly behind me But I couldn't answer I didn't have the leeway to!

Help hts, Louie did not come to cover my view

I had asked Eru to make sure he couldn't come near

No more, I hate this!!

I wanted to cast away my sword and cover my eyes and ears anyso repulsive? Just why?

My screao of the hilt of rew stor as horrible as this I'd co powers froht that I'd be able to accomplish my mission in a cooler, more favorable manner That when it was my turn to shi+ne, I'd be able to use special powers like a savior from the fantasies and act in a polished manner

But what the hell was this!? I wasn't cool at all In fact, I just wanted to run away so badly!

My sas still stuck in the Rei to run away from reality or not

I shuddered when I realized this I still have to kill it!

I forcefully turned the anger, disgust, and fear that threatened to rise up out of th I stiffened up ainst the hilt of e noise as it buried deeper into the Reim's shoulder

I couldn't help but tremble at the scene before rew die reality——

”Hibiki”

Louie's voice slipped in just before I fainted

I blinked multiple times and sed the spit that had pooled in my mouth

If I passed out now, Louie would have to finish the Reim in my place

”……I'm okay, just wait a second”

I hadn't come here just to be protected

Even if it was unreasonable, even if I was scared and wanted to cry, this was the fate that I'd chosen of my own accord

It's okay, it'll be over soon I won't run away I've decided to do o back hoh

”I'll turn you back huht, if I killed this monster called a Rei to kill the the to be afraid of, I'

I repeated these words into them in an effort to justify my actions

I wielded the last of th in ainst my sword

The Reim's shoulder finally rent in two as I heard a sound si droplets of water

A shrill death cry, horrible enough to freeze my heart solid, spread out into the diered heavily backward froht that I'd fall down just like that, but I crashed into so soft instead Eru's fluffy fur tickled the back of e hand helped round where I stood

”Louie……, Eru”

I almost cried out loud the moment that my whisper left my lips The relief and the pain and the exhaustion all juushed out of my mouth as one I held it back and purposefully turned away fro before me

A pleasantly savory sound reached ood food The Reiuish It re doll

”What? It's not over yet!?”

”No, that's not it This is…”

Louie tightened his grip on my arm

Pieces of the Reim's flesh scattered and dispersed like sparks It was like a co taken apart Then, the scattered chunks of flesh and blood were drawn back together as if by aelse

”Is it really…?”

Louie said blankly to himself The lump of flesh had taken on the form of a cocoon before I'd realized it

An anatoan to foric White skin, proper ars The Rei's in fast-forward

The terrifyingly fast recovery was restoring human-like order to the Reim

——Was I successful?

Tears threatened to spill froeneration together with Louie

A miracle that cancelled out all the fear that had cut deeply intoplace

”——They came back to life”

Louie's voice, filled with disbelief and wonder, reached my ears

The membrane ripped apart and a vermillion fluid, which apparently served as soushed out A woround immediately afterward

The Reim had really turned back hu body that swayed with each breath

A single woman had successfully revived before our very eyes

Hers was the first resurrection I had witnessed since I'd stepped foot in this land

”……I……”

The woround covered in fluids, looked up at us in a daze

”Where a voice that was so quiet it was hard to hear

——She really turned back!!

”Thank goodness……!”

My senses, which had seemed far away until now, suddenly caed into one tele all the way down to ht I felt like all of the cells in un to !

I have the power to help the people of this world too

I'll be able to keep going at this rate It's only scary when I have to kill theht afterward!

I let hts and co important in the process

The woman had been resurrected not by my power, but by a iven tothat immediately turned on me and mercilessly cut down my joy

”It's okay now! We saved y——”

Eru's low, coiddy fro in

I stopped as I was reaching out for the woman and turned around with a stupid smile on my face

”……Huh?”

The difference betweenin joy, and reality was too vast My heart was unable to catch up to the scene before s were enveloped in a dark atmosphere

It was sunset

The darkness heralded the beginning of a fierce and gruesome reality

”……No way”

We had become surround by so, so many Reims

”Hibiki!!”

Louie, as the first to return to his senses, pickedin shock A bullet razed his side and burrowed into the place where I had been standing just as he did

The ground that the bullet had struck quickly changed in color and began to decompose as if it had been laced with a deadly poison

”——What on earth……?”

I was still out of it My consciousness still refused to accept the situation no matter what

Only my body continued to trehly put rabbed his arm when I saw him try to hold his sword at ready

Our eyes met for a brief moment

Eru lowered his body a little i Louie to hurry up and get on too Norrave enough that Eru illing to let it slide for the tiotten too close to buy himself sohtly and growled threateningly at the Reims that looked like they were about to attack

I braced aze to our surroundings The world was dark It was really so helplessly dark

The Reiain like they were cheering

They had stout, muddily-colored torsos with s white skulls like helmets, but the shapes of their bodies were all over the place

——It's ih all of them

Fear crawled up my back I felt like my heart had suddenly squeezed itself smaller I'd finally remembered the obvious fact that there would be as e

This is why Louie was in such a hurry!

I'd hesitated so long just to kill one Reim

”There's no way I'll be able to kill so many……”

There's no e'll survive this unless we run!

”……Give hts and reached out for the woround, fros blankly before sluggishly reaching back out for me

Her hand was pale and delicate Hers was the kind of hand that was suited for picking pretty flowers

The tips of our fingers touched, and I was sure that I felt her war drawn in

”Oh”

The woht Somehoas able to count each of her eyelashes clearly even in the darkness

The ht that her eyes made quite the impression, the woth

I forgot how to blink as my eyes became fixed upon the scene that unfolded before un to bite her dainty shoulders and waist

”S, stop it!!”

I returned to my senses and leaned forward in a panic

”I have to help her……!”

She'd be devoured by the Reiht froo! We have to take her with us!”

”You won't make it in time!!”

Louie's ar that it angered me

”How could you……”

Louie's words ran amok in my head I won't make it, I won't make it……

”How…”

She had been resurrected

She had only just been resurrected o!!

Eru poised hian to scream Help me, no, please don't leave h the darkness and trailed off unnaturally like broken music

”I want to help her, she's only turned back 'hued to resurrect……!”

”Hibiki! Stoparound so much, please!”

A horrible and cruel scene burned itself intowoled for her life Pulled to the left, pulled to the right, her body jerked around countless times in between the Reims that had jumped on her

Her next screams were a cut more terrible than the rest I flinched as if I'd been whipped Multiple distorted hands grabbed at her swaying breasts and arms and ripped the

Steaans were casually removed from the woman's body, which was covered in fresh blood A monster had bitten into her velvety, tear-stained cheeks The screa resounded in turns They melted away my ability to reason

It was a banquet of madness My entire body became paralyzed and I couldn't even breathe It was like both my mind and body had been cast down into hell I don't believe this, some pleaseher already I' shi+ny was dancing in the air

It was as thin and delicate as a spider's web

It was as strand of the woman's hair, which had been ripped out

”A, ah, aahh”

I think I' crazy——

The woman let out an anith

My vision went pitch black immediately afterward

Louie had covered up my eyes with his hand He pressed my head into his hard chest as if to cut me off from all sound

But I could still hear the screa to my eardrums and colored every nook and cranny of my brain with fear

The air around me suddenly moved Eru had mowed down the Reims that approached us and had broken out into a run

My heart was racing and

For so sad cao?”

I whispered in a daze

The whole village was tee with Reims, to the point that I wanted to ask just where on earth they'd been hiding up until now

Countless nus, from under the trees, from the depths of the darkness

All I could do was quiver as I clung to Louie's chest

The Reiht; their so wails Their voices seeh the darkness

”There's so many……”

I couldn't finish my sentence

There were an abundant variety of Reims There were those that had overly swollen bodies and those that were so skinny it looked like they were being tied up They differed vastly in height, too, and the ly that they wouldpicture

The blood and ling There were Reis like spiders and Reiether There were Reiths There were even Reims that crawled like snakes

There were only a few that still retained the basic shape of a 'huust and fear

”But even still, these monsters——they used to be human like me”

They were people who had fallen in love, had soht with each other, and had lived out their everyday lives

”Do they really not re about when they human at all?”

”……Hibiki, you mustn't have any expectations of them Reims don't have 'human' hearts”

Louie declared fro my head down He continued,