Chapter 52: Everyone’s Trauma

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Translator: Soafp

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Lidiel left Hange Fortress in the middle of the night and hurried toward the site where the rear guard unit had been attacked.

What she saw there was truly a mountain of corpses and a river of blood.

And standing alone against a wickedly smiling female demon was a man wearing jet-black clothes and a skull mask.

“W–why is No-Name here!?”

Lidiel cried out in shock.

But her surprise lasted only a moment. The instant No-Name struck the female demon, his arm vanished.

Her torso split open, a huge mouth gaping wide as it lunged toward No-Name's head.

Lidiel instinctively released the power of her sacred weapon.

“—Sacred Power Release: Holy Rain!!”

Countless arrows of light poured down from the sky, dealing massive damage to the female demon and drawing her attention away from No-Name.

At the very least, No-Name should have escaped danger.

Just as Lidiel thought that, the female demon turned her gaze toward her and smiled wickedly.

A chill ran down Lidiel's spine.

She froze like a rabbit stared down by a lion, seized by instinctive fear.

That hesitation proved fatal.

“Ah—eh—no way—”

As if snacking on a treat, the female demon bit off No-Name's head.

A spray of fresh blood burst from the severed neck.

No-Name's body collapsed limply, while the female demon licked the blood dripping from her lips.

“Hey hey hey heeey!! I've been wanting to meet you, Lidiel-chaaaan!! Mmm!! Such a cuuute name~!!”

“W–who are you? You know me?”

“Of couuurse!! I saw you fighting monsters before, you know~!! Oh, my name's Zenapart. I'm called ‘The Devourer of Life,' or ‘The Bottomless Stomach'—but whatever!! More importantly, can I eat you?”

“…Huh?”

Lidiel couldn't comprehend what had happened to her.

All she could register was that one of her hands had suddenly vanished.

A huge amount of blood spurted from the stump of her arm.

Clear bite marks remained, as if something had torn it off with its teeth.

The intense pain came a moment later.

Faced with unimaginable agony, Lidiel collapsed to the ground, letting out a scream with no voice.

“—Tsaah!!”

“Ahh♡ What a lovely voice♡ Mmm♡ Hey, hey, show me your face!! Let me see that cute, pitiful face twisted in pain♡”

“H–!”

Zenapart grabbed Lidiel by the hair and peered into her face.

Lidiel understood.

The wickedly smiling female demon before her was an opponent she could never defeat, no matter how much she risked her life.

And most likely, she hadn't even been serious when fighting No-Name.

This was the first time Lidiel had ever encountered a despair that courage alone could not overcome.

Forced to confront her own helplessness, Lidiel's face twisted in fear.

She slumped to the ground, wetting her pants.

“Huh? Huhh~? Did you pee yourself? Sorry, sooo sorry!! I scared you, didn't I~!! Mmm!! It's okay~!! I'll eat you gently, nice and slow, while you suffer♡”

Imagining the fate that awaited her, Lidiel became completely unable to move.

She lowered her golden crossbow.

As she reflected on her brief seventeen years of life, the first face that came to mind was her father's.

Was he doing well, still working in the dangerous mines as a fifth-class citizen? Had he fallen ill?

And then, the next thing she thought of—

(I should have at least said goodbye to him before coming here…)

The face of the overly capable boy she had only traveled with for a few days.

Her first male friend.

She remembered how nervous she'd been, unable to sleep, when they'd spent a night together in the same room at an inn.

As she thought that far, Lidiel suddenly realized something.

(Last? What do you mean, last? Was I about to give up? —Don't be ridiculous.)

Lidiel became furious with herself.

Giving up without accomplishing anything was what she hated most.

So what if one hand had been bitten off?

She still had one hand left. She could still grip a weapon. Strength still filled her legs.

“—Sacred Power Release: Holy Rain.”

Lidiel released the power of her sacred weapon and fired it straight upward above herself.

A rain of light poured down.

Zenapart leapt back to evade the unexpected counterattack, but many of the arrows struck Lidiel herself.

The arrows of light only dealt serious damage to evil beings; to humans, they caused little more than mild pain.

But when hundreds struck at once, even that added up to considerable damage.

Lidiel endured it all.

“Mmm!! What are you doing? That kind of attack won't hit me~? Were you trying to kill yourself?”

“…No. I was giving myself a wake-up call.”

Lidiel stood up and glared fiercely at Zenapart.

“I've always been like this. Whenever something unpleasant or scary happens, I try to run away. It makes me so angry. There are so many people in this world who work harder than I ever have. So I can't stop trying. I mustn't.”

“…Mmm!! Oh, I like that~ I like it a lot~!! Those honest eyes, that dignified face—I want to dye them in the kind of fear I looove—”

“Be quiet.”

Lidiel fired a light arrow straight at Zenapart's head.

Tilting her head, Zenapart easily dodged it.

“Wipe that smirk off your face. If you take someone's life, then mourn it. If you can't do that, then stop killing altogether.”

“Eeh? No waaaay!!”

“Then I, Lidiel Rhydiel, will pass judgment on you myself!”

“…Mmm!! If you think you can, then try—”

That was when it happened.

“Guh!? Huh? Wha—?”

“…Eh?”

Lidiel couldn't believe her eyes.

Because from the abdomen of the enemy she had just resolved to fight to the death, an arm suddenly sprouted.

No—more precisely, someone had burst out from inside her stomach.

Was this another of Zenapart's abilities?

That thought crossed her mind for a moment, but she quickly realized it wasn't so.

Because even Zenapart herself looked confused.

“H–huh? What? Wh–what is this…?”

“Hm? I was aiming for your heart, but I guess I missed.”

“E–eek—gyaaah!?”

Zenapart's abdomen bulged grotesquely as something tore through flesh and blood from within.

Organs scattered. Blood sprayed everywhere.

“There's a movie I like—one that traumatized everyone—about an alien that plants eggs inside people. When the egg hatches, it bursts out through the host's stomach. Right now, I kind of feel like that alien.”

The next moment, a familiar naked boy crawled out through Zenapart's torn abdomen.

Zenapart shouted, cold sweat pouring down her face.

“W–why are you alive!? I bit your head off!!”

“You didn't chew properly. Humans can stay conscious for a few seconds even after being guillotined.”

“D–don't tell me… you regenerated your body from the neck down inside my stomach!? That's impossible—what kind of healing skill and mana would—no, that's not it!! My stomach acid melts even iron instantly, so why—!?”

“…Guts?”

“G–guts!?”

Zenapart was left speechless by the unexpected answer.

“That's impossible! You should've been wracked by unimaginable pain!! No one could stay sane through that!!”

“It did hurt when I healed and got melted again. But I'm used to pain. Besides, it was better than what I went through before. You wouldn't know, would you? The feeling of your organs slowly rotting away and turning into machinery. Compared to that, having skin and muscle melt away is nothing.”

“M–machinery…?”

“But hey, thanks, pathogen. Thanks to you, I finally confirmed that the ‘beheading avoidance method' I'd been thinking about actually works.”

Zenapart couldn't understand what the human before her was saying.

The only thing she did understand was—

“…Y-you're insane…”

The boy stripped clothes from his own headless corpse and put them on.

He took up the great scythe reminiscent of a grim reaper and wrapped silver chains around his arm.

Seeing that sight, Zenapart suddenly gasped.

“I see. I see! You—you you you you you you you you you you you!!”

“…What?”

“I remember now!! I remember, I remember!! That jet-black outfit!! That great scythe!! Those silver chains!! That undying body!! Why are you alive!? You accursed—Black King!!”

“Black King?”

The boy felt like he'd heard that title somewhere before, but…

“Eh, whatever. No point listening to a pathogen. I'll finish this now.”

“Don't mess with me, don't mess with me, don't mess with me!! I won't let you end me—once, let alone twice—by your hand againnnnnn!!”

Just as he was about to bring his fist down on the dying Zenapart, she opened her mouth wide and spat bodily fluids upward.

It blocked his vision, forcing him to prioritize defense.

It was only an instant, but—

“Hey, pathogen. I'm not letting you get away.”

As he tried to chase the fleeing Zenapart at full speed, a heavy thud echoed behind him.

“Eh? Lidiel?”

“D–don't worry about me. Go after her…”

“…”

The boy made his decision without hesitation.

“With that amount of blood loss, you'll die. —Extra Heal.”

“Why… if you don't chase her, more people will—ugh…”

“That's true. But leaving someone to die goes against my principles. Besides, that pathogen lost a lot of blood too, and I crushed her heart when I burst out of her stomach. She should die soon enough.”

“…I see. Then… that's fine. By the way, why did you come out of her body? And that outfit—don't tell me you were No-Name all along?”

“Huh? Ah—”

The boy—Ask—finally realized that the skull mask he'd been wearing had melted inside Zenapart's stomach.

Crap. What do I do now.