Chapter 520: Dead or Alive

Chapter 520 Dead or Alive

A certain amount of time has passed since the battle between Haruna and Akira began. The laboratory, which was filled with the roar of zombies and the sound of Haruna’s throwing magic and Doggan’s Staff, is now dominated by silence. It seems that the hustle and bustle caused by the battle has subsided.

「Haaa....」

In the center of the battlefield, Haruna took a deep breath. Haruna’s Doggan Staff is now coated with the blood of the zombies she fought off, and the black color is mixed with the blood, turning it into an even more ominous color scheme. Around her feet, the remains of those who were once human were scattered. The pieces of flesh were from dozens or hundreds of people, but the amount of blood is worse than that. It’s easy to imagine that she has defeated more.

「That’s everything, I guess?」

「Assemble....」

Responding to the call, Akira’s armor was reassembled at a position some distance away from Haruna. However, something is not right. The parts gathered to make up the armor are very few, and only a little more than half of the full-body armor, excluding the head, could be formed. Other parts didn’t respond to Akira’s words, and no matter how long he waited, they wouldn’t gather. Also, the black mist that appeared on his head after the construction of the armor is not stable, as if reflecting his inner thoughts.

「As I thought, the parts that were swallowed by the black hole don’t come back. It seems that the end is near.」

「You monster...!」Thê source of this content n/o/v/(el)bi((n))

Still, these were natural results. When Haruna fought against the group of zombies in which Akira’s parts were implanted, she used everything she could use. She used her fantasy martial arts that were optimized for the situation, the Doggan Staff that crushed and decapitated everything after neutralizing the opponents’ magic, powerful gravity manipulation, deadly poison that created a sea of rot, throwing black holes, etc. Moreover, they were more powerful than what Akira knew. Along with the zombies, his currently lost parts were crushed, rotted, swallowed by black holes, and so on.

(Damn it! What the hell is this body creaking!? I’ve become an undead, and a Dullahan at that, so I’m not supposed to feel pain! And yet, and yet! Why do the parts that were destroyed by Katsuragi hurt like burning!?)

The reason Akira feels pain probably because of the harmful effect of the evolution. Akira became an undead, but at the same time, he was getting close to a human being. An inorganic Dullahan doesn’t have a sense of pain, but if he were human, it would be a different story. The intense pain that even the zombies wouldn’t have felt ran through his body, eating away at his soul.

(Ah, aah, aaaaahhh....)

No matter how much he kept up appearances and made effort for his goal, it is meaningless if he’s shaken with just that. It’s as if everything about himself is denied when facing Haruna. And then, Akira’s soul has finally reached its limit.

「.........!」

The Doggan Staff, which was about to smash Akira, stopped just before it collided with him.

「.........」

Haruna narrowed her eyes and observed Akira again while pointing the blade of the Doggan Staff at him. The unstable mist on his head has completely dissipated, and his arms hang limply as if he lost consciousness.

「...... Aw, I was one second too late, huh? If possible, I wanted to defeat him in his best condition. It was an intense battle, and yet...」

Haruna confirmed the disappearance of Akira’s soul. Her face breaks down in obvious disappointment and she lets out a sigh. It’s not a problem since the death of the emperor is the condition for winning this war, but Haruna seems to be unsatisfied with this development.

「Well, there’s no point in complaining. It’s disappointing, but with this, Vakala-san’s trial is cleared.」

The Doggan Staff started to move again. Then, the jet-black black crushed Akira――

「Yeah, you cleared it. But before that, let me give you a special gift to celebrate it.」

――Or so it was supposed to be.