Yobidasa Reta Satsuriku-sha

“Ahaha! How about it? You were surprised, right?” (Agathion)

Agathion swings the left arm which previously vanished up to the elbow. The torn and tattered cross-section has a rough feeling similar to the white sand wall at the neck.
Hifumi even saw the left forearm bursting open, but he didn’t understand the theory behind it.
While protecting his throat and face by placing both arms in front at the moment he was repelled, he went flying to the back. However, the damage he received was serious.

“Magic, huh…?” (Hifumi)

“Yes, that’s right. It’s beyond the imagination of the human you. How was the explosion of pure mana? I wonder how it feels to have both arms broken and in tatters?” (Agathion)

As Agathion says with sneer mixed within, both arms of Hifumi are bloodstained from the tips up to the elbows.
The sleeves of the dougi have become short as if they had been forcibly torn off. The exterior of the forearms, which he had put in front of him to protect himself, has the skin ripped up even though the bones themselves are fine. With the muscles having snapped, he can’t move the arms up to the elbows.

“It’s the first time. For me to get done in this far.” (Hifumi)

“Oh, you are unexpectedly calm about it. I believed you would cry about it a lot more though.” (Agathion)

“How regrettable”, Agathion shook his head.
While repairing the gouged out throat, the left arm begins to grow little by little as well.
It’s only natural, but Hifumi’s state isn’t something that can be fixed spontaneously. The dripping blood doesn’t stop.

“It looked like you were breathing though.” (Hifumi)

“Am I?” (Agathion)

“It’s fake though”, Agathion laughs.
With an assembly of raw materials transformed into a substance of mana, he is just maintaining a fake human shape, but nevertheless he is reproducing breathing and palpitation.

“Even if things may appear this way, I was a normal demon once before.” (Agathion)

“Due to a magic failure caused by me manipulating my unique magic, my entire body ended up getting rearranged by that magic and transformed me into a substance, but you won’t understand anyway even if I explained”, Agathion talks about the further details.

“Well, if you knew about me not being able to get killed in a normal way… let’s finish this, shall we?” (Agathion)

Phegor will likely die any time now, too, Agathion averted his look.
In that moment Hifumi once again fiercely ran up to Agathion as if not feeling any pain.

“Huh? Have you become desperate?” (Agathion)

“That’s no fun”, Agathion shoots pellet after pellet.
Hifumi, who eluded those rocks by forcibly bending his body, held out a jet black blade from his right arm.

“Ue!?” (Agathion)

Agathion, who unintentionally made a shrill and nervous voice, had the regenerated left arm cut at the shoulder by the black blade while still not comprehending the state of affairs.

“W-What’s this!?” (Agathion)

“I wanted to test it out, but it seems to have gone smoothly.” (Hifumi)

The true identity of the black blade was something changed into the shape of the darkness storage’s outlet simply created with darkness magic.
It’s thin to a degree that one won’t be able to see it if looking from the side. And since it doesn’t penetrate living creatures it’s possible to use it as physical weapon if it works properly, he thought.

“Just right if it’s usable.” (Hifumi)

While pressing on with a brute force approach, the strange sword attacks of Hifumi continue.
Agathion tried to pin down the blade, which struck him diagonally from below upwards, but had his right forearm cleaved arbitrarily.
Moreover Agathion evades the diagonally downward-swung slash of Hifumi by taking a half step back.

“Oh?” (Hifumi)

Hifumi, who is heaving heavily while losing blood, noticed something odd.

“Why is there are need to avoid? If it’s a body changed into a substance by mana anyway, there’s no problem even if it’s cut, right?” (Hifumi)

“F-For some reason or another! I just got startled since you used strange magic!” (Agathion)

Hifumi calmly observed the attacking pellets and cut them down.
He has become used to the speed and trajectory of Agathion’s attacks.
Stepping even further in, Hifumi points the blade at the torso and face after the limbs.
It was at the time he slashed for the 4th time.

“Uh-oh!” (Agathion)

Agathion raised his voice and dodged the slashing attack by bending his body.
Accordingly Hifumi’s movements come to a halt.

“… What happened, human? Are you gradually hitting your limit?” (Agathion)

Agathion ridicules Hifumi in order to provoke him, however Hifumi’s shoulders are trembling.

“…?” (Agation)

“Fukukuku… Hahahahaha!” (Hifumi)

Although Agathion was puzzled, he once again placed around 10 pellets in mid-air, but at that moment Hifumi burst into laughter.

“W-What is it…?” (Agathion)

Suddenly ceasing his laughter, Hifumi stared at Agathion with a serious look.

“From now on I’m going to kill you. If you can kill me before that, it will be your win.” (Hifumi)

At the moment Agathion knitted his eyebrows asking “what are you saying this late in the game?”, Hifumi’s fierce attack began once again. However, unlike before, he is persistently wielding the blade while aiming at the chest.

“Gu!” (Agathion)

Agathion barely averts the the slashes and thrusts, which are approaching him many times over while aiming at his chest, by sacrificing his arms.
While staying silent, Hifumi swings his right hand which had transformed into a blade.
Within the long exchange of blows, Hifumi’s blade cleaved open Agathion’s chest in a straight horizontal line. However, Agathion showed a smile.

“What bad luck. At least my chest was cut.” (Agathion)

However, Hifumi doesn’t reply to that.
Hifumi, who was struck by pellets hurled at him from the front as counter-attack, had the joints of both his shoulders broken and even his right hand blade vanished from the tip of his arm which dangled loosely.

“See, it’s my win…” (Agathion)

Hifumi, who doesn’t stop even then, pins down Agathion left foot by stepping on it and thrust his head into the armpit of the still remaining left arm.

“Eh? What are…” (Agathion)

“Ooooh!” (Hifumi)

Hifumi, who roared a war cry, raised his body and was able to forcibly throw up Agathion’s left arm.
Originally it’s a move to stab a dagger into the part which has no armour by opening up the flank of the opponent with the body, but the aim this time is another.

“Wh-Wha!?” (Agathion)

The chest wound, Hifumi had caused before, opens up by force.
In there something red with a diameter of around 10 cm, just like a gem buried in sand, is pulsating.
Agathion, who noticed that it had become exposed, spoke in a way of behaving as if he had the leeway even while becoming pale.

“Oops! You got to see my heart, how embarrassing.” (Agathion)

“I found it. This pulsation was what I was looking for. It’s also what you frantically protected.” (Hifumi)

“Uguu… But, well, you likely can’t move both hands anymore. How regrettable.” (Agathion)

“That’s not really a problem.” (Hifumi)

Sweeping the foot he stepped on, Hifumi thrust his face into the chest of Agathion who toppled over while facing upwards.

“N-No way… stop…” (Agathion)

Ignoring the pleading, Hifumi opens his mouth widely and his teeth sink into the heart.

“Aaaaaahhh…” (Agathion)

Forgetting to use magic, he beats Hifumi’s shoulder and back with his left hand.
However that doesn’t last for long either.
Crunching on the hard surface and the soft inside, Hifumi’s front teeth bit into the heart mercilessly.

“Phooey.” (Hifumi)

Once he spit out the objects he held in his mouth, fragments smeared with a red fluid were thrown onto the ground.
A syrupy and sticky red fluid spills our from the remaining heart and is absorbed by the surroundings which has taken the shape of sand.
Agathion died while his eyes were wide open in terror.

“… At last he shed blood, eh?” (Hifumi)

Hifumi has also lost a considerable amount of blood.
Losing strength in his knees, he sat down on the ground with a thump.

“Ah, it was close.” (Hifumi)

Even while sending the arms flying and gouging out the throat at the time he fought with Agathion, he didn’t have the actual feeling of stealing life.
But now, with him having been basked in the fragrant liquid after biting into the pounding object, he finally obtained a sufficient amount of that sensation.

“Yea. Stealing the lives of living creatures which can use words is a good feeling after all.” (Hifumi)

He earnestly muttered within his dimming consciousness.

☻

“… Huh? Has he died, I wonder?” (Pheres)

“Pheres, have a look.” (Njal)

“No way. You go, Nyal.” (Pheres)

With pebbles and sand spreading and a pile of debris rising in the centre, that, which ought to be a hall you could even call impressive, has lost its shadows.
The ones peeking at the situation from the left and right side of the entrance are the two demon girls who magnificently barfed in front of the gate after following Vepar.
In the hall itself, there is Phegor, who has fallen to his knees and is pitching forward as if about to fall while being pierced by the katana, and the figure of the king, who collapsed with a pale face and red blood shedding from his chest on a platform visible inside the hall. Next to him was the figure of the human who was sitting as if watching over the king.
And, none of them even twitches.

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait for Captain Vepar…?”

“But, won’t she be even more upset if we didn’t save them although we could?”

Vepar valued the two girls, who are able to use healing magic, highly. They are brought along at every opportunity for the sake of rescuing wounded people who appeared during battles and in accidents during practise.
Bennia, who was the vice captain, summoned those two to the attack site because she feared there would be too much evidence left behind at the actual site if injured people emerged in a counter-attack, but Vepar truly thought that it would be the best if there are no wounded or casualties.
As result of that, the two girls haven’t grown in regards to combat at all. Stating it bluntly, they were useless on scenes with no wounded and at the front-lines where there’s no time to heal.

“… Let’s try to get close, just a bit?”

“Got it.”

They have been ordered to assist in bringing the chaos within the castle to a close by Vepar. Listening to people, who have watched the situation while hiding within the castle, they were ordered to heal the survivors’ injuries if necessary and to check the state of affairs in the hall where Hifumi was supposed to have headed.
Pheres, who is only one year older, timidly approaches Phegor and Nyal follows behind her.
Both of them are holding knives as an excuse of arms and are wearing capes with a flare skirt. However, they don’t really know how to use either.
Grasping the knives tightly with both hands anyway, they walk forward while somewhat silencing their footsteps by standing on their tiptoes although they wear boots with heels.

“Uwaaa…”

Phegor, who has died while clinging to the katana within a puddle of dried blood, has his face hidden and his expression can’t be seen.

“Phegor-sama isn’t in a state that he can be healed or such, is he?”

As one would expect, no matter how good one is with healing magic, it’s impossible to resurrect the dead.

“Hey, if it’s this sword…” (Njal)

What Njal pointed at is Hifumi’s katana which has penetrated into Phegor’s body.

“It’s the sword that human had, right?” (Pheres)

What Pheres pointed at is the figure of Hifumi who is sitting down with his back turned towards them.

“Yea. I saw it as well. At any rate, this is an amazing weapon…”

At the time when Njal quietly extended her hand towards the katana, Phegor, who opened his bloodshot eyes widely, lifted his face which had lost all its blood.

“You bastard are…” (Phegor)

He probably can’t see with his eyes anymore. Did he hallucinate that Njal, who is standing in front of him, is Hifumi? Opening the hand which grabbed the guard of the sword, he stretched it out towards Njal.

“Higyaaaa!” (Njal)

In front of a situation similar to a dead having started to move, Njal raises her voice into a scream and Pheres isn’t able to move either as she has become stiff.
However, repelling the stretched out hand of Phegor by kicking it from the side, it doesn’t reach Njal.

“The barrier was finally broken, huh?” (Hifumi)

Hifumi, who was the one kicking, looked down on Phegor who feebly collapsed.

“H-Human?”

“You were alive…”

Without listening to the girls, Hifumi grabbed the hilt of the katana which was stuck in Phegor’s chest and pulled it out in one go.

“Uaaa…” (Phegor)

Does he still feel pain? Holding down the wound from the extraction of the katana, Phegor groaned deeply.

“Well, it’s great that you survived. I’m able to finish you with my own hands after all.” (Hifumi)

Hifumi swings down the katana, he had raised overhead with the force of pulling it out, with his right hand.
As he had apparently already lost a lot of blood, not much of blood flowed even when the head was cut off.
Phegor’s freshly severed head rolled up to the feet of Njal and she sat down while unable to stand up out of fear due to his extremely gruesome expression that gives one an impression of his feelings of resentment.
Being hit by her knee when she did so, Phegor’s head rolled in the direction of the day after tomorrow.
Once Njal raised her eyes, there was the figure of Hifumi who is cleaning the katana with a paper.

“T-Than-n…” (Njal)

At the moment Njal, who thought that she had been saved, tried to somehow muster her voice to thank him, the katana was thrust before her eyes.
Remembering the katana, which had a beautiful lustre as if just having been washed, easily beheading Phegor before, Njal gulped down her spit while trembling.

“So, you are the next opponent?” (Hifumi)

She thought that she had been rescued, but it seems to be somehow different.
Even Pheres who is next to Njal and can’t do anything but watch the situation unable to say anything, this late in the game regretted while thinking it would have been alright even if we had simply ignored the dispatch order by Bennia.