CH 49

Linus wandered around the West Ward looking for Spiral Children.

However, Maria was always on his mind.

He hoped to find her so strongly that it bordered on being "just for the sake of it."

As he was walking along a street, a particularly deserted street in the West Ward, he noticed the smell of blood coming from a house right next to him.

It looked vacant and unused for a long time.

But the smell wafting through the air was new.

He reached for the front door.

It was unlocked.

He forced open the poorly-fitted door and stepped into the dusty interior.

The floorboards creaked eerily.

It was dark inside, even in the daytime, and if he did not look carefully, he felt as if he might bump into a piece of furniture.

Linus stopped and listened carefully.

He heard a faint sound, like the shifting of cloth.

There are signs of people, and it seems that someone is still lurking here.

Is it Cyrille, Maria, or a vagrant?

It's a bad neighborhood, so there's a good chance it's someone using an abandoned house as a home.

Without expecting too much, he pulled a dagger from my waist and prepared myself to be attacked at any moment.

The inside of the house is not so spacious.

He continued down the hallway and stopped in front of the room at the end of the hall.

He put his hand on the door, paused for a beat, regained his grip on the knife, and slowly pushed it open.

The room is darker than the hallway.

Linus could see clearly that someone was sitting in the corner of the room.

Wearing a rag as a robe and holding her knees, the blonde ・・・・ woman - she looked a lot like the person he was looking for.

"Maria, is that you?"

"......."

There is no reply.

However, as if in response to the voice, there is a burbling sound, and the red liquid dripping from her face spreads on the floor.

"Oh, hey, you're hurt!"

Linus was worried and tried to run over to her.

"Please don't come!"

But she clearly refused.

However, because she raised her voice, Linus realized that she was Maria.

No matter how much she refused, he could not stop now that he realized that she was the one he had feelings for.

Linus approached her, crouched down, and touched her arm that held his knee.

"Don't come, please. ......"

If I was about to give up on you here, how could I say I've been in love with you."

Linus's gentle voice seeped into her heart.

He would not pry open a door that had been closed, but would try to open it from the inside with sweet words.

"That's not fair"

"What?"

"Linus always ...... is such a coward, teasing me like this. I'm sure you've hit on other women like that anyway?"

"I've been single-minded about Maria since I met her."

As it was not a lie, Linus said so with pride.

Still, Maria knows what he is talking about.

She knows that if he sees her now, he will be disillusioned.

"Let's just see your face for now, with all this blood loss, you must be pretty hurt, right?"

Linus thinks that she doesn't want to show him because she has a scar on her face - that's what he thinks.

But on the other hand, he also wondered why she did not use recovery magic on herself.

"No, I'm not injured"

"How is that possible with this amount of blood ......?"

"No,...... really, this is the kind of thing,・・・・・・, Mr. Linus."

Then Maria looked up.

And what appeared before Linus' eyes was a swirling mask of flesh.

The whole thing was pulsating, glistening and slick with blood, drops dripping from its chin.

"How ugly, isn't it?"

With each word, the whirlpool trembled finely, secreting more blood.

"I'm like this, but you say you like me?"

Her voice trembled.

Even though she has given herself up to Origin and given up everything - in front of Linus, her age-appropriate self comes out.

That's what love is; it's not something you can do anything about by trying to suppress it.

That is why I despair.

Maria was going to say goodbye and leave this place once she was sure that Linus' feelings had left him.

And this time, she would completely abandon herself as a person and fulfill her role as an apostle of Origin.

But he did not move as she expected.

Without saying a word - he reached out to his face and touched the place where his cheek used to be.

The slimy, sticky blood stains Linus' hand.

"...... eh?"

Maria was stunned.

Linus said apologetically.

"Ah,...... sorry for touching you without your permission. Does it hurt?"

I don't know what he is talking about.

Why isn't he afraid, why isn't he cursing?

Why does he just stand there in front of this monstrous figure and say, "No, look, there's blood."

--Why does he not fear, why does he not curse, why does he say, "No, you see, you're bleeding, you're bare?

"Why ......?"

"What do you mean?"

"Please don't touch me, I'll get ...... your hands dirty, Mr. Linus."

'I'm not sure if it's dirty or not, but I don't care. What could be more important than touching Maria, dirty or not?"

He laughs.

He defies expectations, transcends, and destroys Maria's resolve to leave everything behind.

He says, "Too bad, I could never hate you, Maria-chan.

...... whether you like it or not."

I'm sorry," she said, breaking down Maria's resolve to leave nothing behind.

Of course, Linus would have preferred the original face.

Linus was in love with not the outside, but the inside.

But that's why the loss of it doesn't make the feeling go away.

"But ...... what do you say you are going to do?　You can no longer undo it by your own will. Even if you fell in love with me like this,......"

"You mean you're worried about what other people think of you? Then, when things settle down, maybe I'll find a place to live in the countryside where there are no strangers."

"You ...... would be throwing away your position and honor if you did that,...... Linus-san!"

"So what? If it's money, I can eat for the rest of my life with the savings I've made so far. The other thing you should do is to cultivate a field, do some hunting once in a while, and live in peace.　Would that be too boring for Maria?"

It was neither a lie nor an ideal, but Linus was seriously prepared to do it.

If anything, he had already begun to formulate a plan in his mind.

First, he would protect Maria in a safe house in the royal capital.

Then, after the battle with the Children, the two of them would leave the capital and go into hiding in a remote area where there would be no fighting.

The inconvenient life in the countryside would be difficult until he got used to it, but he is sure that he can enjoy the hardships together with her.

"No,......, no, I would never do such a thing. But,...... ah, such a, such a dreamy thing,......."

"A dream, huh? A dream, huh? I'm glad to hear Maria say that much, that's my dream. So, I guess it's settled then, that we're in love. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have a happy life together."

Maria, was beginning to wonder if she would be able to bear a child with this body.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No chance

"But there's one thing that's really troubling me."

"What is it?'

Linus scratched his head and said with a wry smile.

"Where am I supposed to kiss in this case?"

"...... well, that's ...... something even I don't know."

If she had looked normal, Maria's face would have been as red as a ripe fruit.

Even without a face, he could understand the feelings.

In the end, after much deliberation, he took Maria's hand and kissed the back of it with a pledge.

"Let's go then, princess."

Maria's heart was pounding and her feelings of "love" were swelling to the point that she felt dizzy.

Then she took his hand and surrendered herself to a dream of bubbles.

◇◇◇

After leaving Reach's house, Flamm made a quick tour of the East Ward and then headed to the Central Ward.

Almost no one was out and about in the East Ward, probably because of that morning's incident.

She had encountered Nect and Mute there, and thought it unlikely that they would be still.

"The whole thing just seemed strangely noisy ......."

Flamm still didn't know about the incident of the runaway horse-drawn carriage on the main street.

She only vaguely noticed that the people passing by all looked somewhat panicked.

So she continued on her way and reached the front of the church.

"I wonder if Sarah is safe."

Flamm stopped, looked at the place where Sarah was born and raised, and suddenly remembered her.

She says she is working with Neigass, but is that demon tribe really a trustworthy partner?

She seemed to be very fond of Sarah when she saw her for the first time, and it seemed safer than leaving her in the Capital.

"It's awfully quiet over here, unlike other places. ......"

As she gazed at the church while thinking, Flamm noticed something unusual.

Although not as large as a cathedral, the churches in the central district were quite large.

Yet, there was hardly any sign of people on the grounds.

"Is everyone out, or is there something going on inside?"

If they were out, it means that a large number of people were injured in the royal capital.

Either way, there was no doubt that something was wrong.

As she was about to head for the chapel, searching for signs of my surroundings - she heard the sound of someone's footsteps rushing up behind me.

"Ha, ha, ha. ...... phew. I finally got to meet someone whose face I recognize. Miss Flamm, I believe?"

A man with golden hair spoke to her in a familiar manner.

"I'm sure that's Mr. Slough, isn't it?"

"I'm just calling you Miss Flamm because you're the guild's favorite."

"Well, then, slow down. By the way, what happened to you running in out of nowhere?"

"I'm not sure, but listen..."

He grimly told Flamm about what had happened on the main street.

A carriage suddenly ran out of control, resulting in numerous casualties.

It was Gadio who saved the day.

And that he was caught up in the chaos caused by the fleeing people, and was jostled around.

Apparently, they escaped from there and finally made it to the church.

"The runaway carriage ...... maybe it was Luke who did it."

Luke, the last remaining Spiral Children Spiral Children, was a brash-looking boy with golden hair just like Slough.

What in the world kind of ability did he use to make the carriage go out of control?

It would have been easier to deal with her if she knew, but Slough didn't seem to have seen that much detail.

He was like, "You know the culprit?　You're a hero."

"Don't talk like that, I just have an idea. So, you're saying that the reason there's no one in this church is because everyone has gone to treat the wounded?"

Maybe not, I've seen the nuns running around. But this doesn't mean I can't do the errands that IIra asked me to do. ...... haha."

Slough unfolded the crumpled note clutched in his hand and sighed as he looked at its contents.

Flamm could understand the feeling.

"I think she'll forgive you if I tell her it's an emergency right now."

"But she'd definitely get cranky."

'Wow, that sounds like a possibility ......, so why don't you follow me to the guild?'

"Really?　That would be seriously helpful."

The commotion seems to have been settled by Gadio, and it is difficult to gather information in the central district where the chaos continues.

Flamm was about to move the location of the investigation to the West Ward while sending Slough.

Once the conversation was settled, the two left the church and began walking side by side.

Immediately afterwards, they heard a cry of "Watch out!

"Whoa!"

Flamm felt a deadly force approaching from behind and quickly pushed Slough away.

"Huoh!"

Something invisible was spinning at high speed as it passed by where he was.

"Slough, you might get caught in it, so run away!"

"What?　What's happening?"

"Just hurry!"

Slough, not understanding the situation, sat on the ground and store in amazement.

Meanwhile, Luke readied his fist, thrust it forward, and at the same time - released the next bullet.

"Rotation!"

Flamm interrupts the line of fire and catched it with a jet-black blade drawn from another space.

"Gggg......!"

Gaghigh, gaga gaga gaga gaga gaga!

The air spins around Flamm's arm as if to cut away the blade.

It was a force similar to that of the first deformed ogre he had fought.

No - rather, it was identical.

Luke's ability, which he received from Origin, is probably "rotation."

He was probably the one who made a horse-drawn carriage run over a person on the main street, as well as the culprit of the twisted corpse found this morning.

As for the horse-drawn carriage, it is thought that he made the cart go out of control by spinning the wheels of the cart at a high speed.

After a few moments of endurance, the bullets spontaneously disappeared.

In the meantime, Slough ran toward the nearest building--the church.

"What the heck is that creepy-looking thing!"

While running away, he checks Luke's status on his scan.

Luke Furup

Attribute: Earth

Strength: 3298

Intelligence: 3792

Endurance: 3512

Agility: 3148

Intuition: 4215

His status was one of the reasons why he was always insisting that he was "different" from the first generation.

The first generation, Ink, was not well adapted to the Origin Core and was physically similar to a mere human being.

The second generation, however, benefited from the Core in terms of physical capabilities.

As a result, they were able to acquire a physical body on par with that of an S-rank adventurer.

However, since they had received little combat training, they had not mastered martial arts or magic.

But even taking this into account, they were more than capable.

Slough's face paled when he saw the numbers.

Although he was not an adventurer, he too had some confidence in his ability to handle magic.

He was hoping to be able to help out a little bit.

"Eh, S-rank ...... impossible, I'm running."

The moment he saw the status, his heart broke.

Slough looked only ahead and ran as fast as he could to get to the church.

"Tsk, you got in my way."

Luke glared at Flamm and swore.

He was too rough to be eight years old.

"Why did you go for Slough!"

"What does it matter, he's going to die anyway--turn around, Rotation."

He was not communicating, but he was not denying it either.

She guessed it was Slough who was targeted after all.

Flamm readied her sword, ready to fire a shot.

But it was not her fingertips that Luke turned, but his feet.

The circulating air scraped the ground and enabled him to move at high speed in the manner of a wheel.

"Fast!?"

Luke approachesed Flamm at a speed faster than expected.

As soon as he approached, he attached air spinning like a rock drill to both his arms and thrust them out with his right fist.

GAGGIN!

Flamm counterattacked with her soul-eater, but her hands went numb as if she had struck a solid rock.

Then, when she was repelled by the spinning, a left hook struck her hard in the side.

"Agh, gaaaah......!"

Flamm's left side was blown off.

The spiral of his left arm was stained red as blood curled up.

Then he followed up with a straight right to the face, which clashed with Flamm's sword.

Next, another left fist - but it's was a one-track pattern, and as expected, this one was read.

Flamm twisted his body and let go of his great sword.

Luke's attack only grazed her chest and tore her clothes.

"Damn it, I missed!"

"Your attacks are so repetitive!"

As if in retaliation, Flamm's right fist thrust into Luke's cheek.

The boy sprawled backward.

Once they broke the close contact, he was in the greatsword's line of fire.

Flamm followed through with a punch, used her momentum to spin around, and swung the black hunk of metal at Luke's head.

Staggering, he was unable to avoid it with his physical strength alone.

"Rotate, Rotation!"

He was impatiently exercising his ability, and managed to save the day by spinning the air under his feet at high speed.

But Flamm's offensive continued.

"I won't let you escape!"

Quickly, she sliced with a cross and ejected a blade of prana.

It was close to Luke's back as he tried to move away from Flamm, and just before he did so, he made a big leap.

Even taking into account his high status, this was an unusual altitude.

It was obvious that the spinning air had pushed him high into the sky.

Flamm immediately flew up and looked up at him, sword at the ready.

Luke, on the other hand, who had gained an advantage in height, gritted his teeth in frustration, bared his canine teeth, and glared at her.

Then he clenched his fists and launched a series of arm-wrapped spirals of power toward the ground.

ZUGAGAGAGA!

It poured down like rain, destroying the well-maintained ground and sending up stone rubble.

"It's a pretty tricky thing to do, coming from so high up, even for God's power!

Flamm ran around to avoid it, but she could find no counterattack against the incessant barrage of air.

Then a thought occurred to her.

If the opponent was "spinning," then there was no need to even run away in the first place.

That is the power of Origin.

Clockwise rotation is destructive only when it is in that direction.

If that were the case, then reversing the rotation would start the reverse rotation, emitting negative energy instead of positive, and it would disappear.

Flamm, who dared to stop, swung his sword in time with the invisible force flying toward him.

"Reverse it, reversal!"

She invoked the magic of reversal.

The power of Luke, which had been so powerful, easily dissipated.

".......What did you do?"

He was stunned, but he didn't learn his lesson and thrust out his fist again.

Gooooooooooo!

The blow, which was even more powerful than the previous one, cut through the air and came close.

"Erase with -- reversal!"

This time it was drowned out by Flamm's bare hands.

In short - Luke's ability to spin things around and Flamm's ability to reverse them was a terrible match.

Luke's five-energy attack could be canceled by Flamm's one-energy attack.

In other words, no matter how high his status was, as long as he relied on his "spinning" ability, he would not be strong enough to defeat Flamm.

Even so, Flamm would have no way to reach this altitude other than by prana flight, or so Luke thought.

But even this last hope was easily dashed.

Reversing gravity, she kicked the ground and leapt.

With her blade in the air and her sword held lower than her waist, she was within a blink of Luke, who was floating in mid-air.

"Impossible, you flew!?"

He rushed to shoot out a spiral, but it was already too late.

"Haaaaaaaaah!"

His soul-eater swung up with the intention of cutting off his neck.

Luke thrusted his right hand forward in an attempt to pop it off with a rotation of air.

ZASH!

However, the blade that contained the magic power of reversal cut off his arm, ignoring the power that cloaked it.

"Ga- aAAAAAaaah!"

Luke's elbow and beyond were lost, and a burning sensation rushed into his brain.

The wound twisted quickly and the bleeding stopped, but the dizziness from the intense pain had not yet subsided.

Flamm released her gravity reversal and, while falling, twisted her body to unleash the spirit sword slash 「Prana Shaker」.

Luke was distracted by the wound and was slow to react.

He leaned his body just in front of it and tried to evade, but just in time, the surface of his shoulder and his ear were blown off, unable to escape.

"-guuu......!"

Luke swung unsteadily from side to side in mid-air and lost his altitude.

It seemed that his injuries had disrupted the control of his abilities.

Flamm, who landed safely, ran toward the falling boy.

As soon as Luke saw this, he dared to deactivate his ability and speed up his fall, abandoning the game and attempting to escape.

However - it was clearly faster for Flamm's sword to strike him hard.

Flamm's hands tightened their grip on the hilt as she stepped in and tried to take the boy's life.

Luke was prepared for a fatal blow, so he shoved his hands into his pockets, deciding to use that thing Mother gave him.

But--

"Uu, UWAAAaaAAAAA!"

At the very moment when the game was about to be decided, a scream of a man who looked like Slough echoed from inside the church.

Flamm, concentrating, swung her sword without a care.

However, her stance was shallow, as if she had been unconsciously influenced.

The blow carved a deep wound in the upper left side of his body, but it did not cut off his head.

Flamm made a gesture as if to follow up further.

"Alright, that little boy is going to get eaten by a third generation .......?"

Luke chuckled and said, "Third generation."

The third generation - that was the term for the next generation of spiral children, Luke and his spiral children.

It was possible that he was bluffing, but it was also true that Slough was in danger.

As Flamm hesitated, Luke blinked away in a blink of an eye, moving at high speed through rotation.

It was not impossible to follow him, but she would have to abandon Slough.

"Aah again, he got away right in front of me again!"

Flamm got frustrated and headed for the interior of the church.

◇◇◇

-- A little bit back in time.

After escaping safely into the chapel, Slough sat on a couch at the far end of the room and leaned back.

Even though it was a sacred place, it was still quite eerie to be in an empty church.

Perhaps it was because he wanted to see Luke, the monster with the visceral face that he had seen earlier.

Slough gazed blankly at the ceiling, the altar, and the statue of 「Origin」, but when he felt its eyes looking at him, he exhaled and closed them.

From outside, he could hear Flamm and Luke going at it.

"Flamm-san, I hope you'll be okay ......."

It was a shameful thing for a man to be protected by a girl so much younger than him.

He thought the time had finally come for his self-taught wind attribute magic to come into play, but reality wouldn't be so lenient.

"But that guy ...... was after me, why me? Why was he after me? I'm an ordinary guild clerk, born and raised by an ordinary mother."

Nothing came to mind.

The only special thing about his life was that he never knew his father's face.

The rest of his life has been normal and uneventful, and he would continue to live a normal life with a modest income.

And from now on, as long as he had a reasonable income and lived a normal life, that would be enough.

The sounds of the fierce battle continued without interruption.

When he closed his eyes, he could hear it quite clearly, as if his senses were allocated to other parts of his vision.

Then he noticed that there was another sound mixed in, not from outside, but from the inside -- from the back of the church.

"...... fufuu ...... eh ...... kawa ...... ah.... ..."

Slough straightened up and stared at the door leading from the chapel to the back of the church.

"Is anyone there?"

If the nuns were still there, why didn't they come to see what was going on outside?

With all that fighting going on, they should have noticed something unusual.

Slough approached the door and nervously reached for the knob.

The area beyond this point was off limits to civilians.

The door was marked "Employees Only," as they say in stores.

But this was an emergency, and surely no one would be offended if he entered without permission.

"Excuse me for coming in."

Still, Slough said in a whisper and proceeded fearfully, killing the sound of his footsteps.

"My ......... good girl ........ yeah. Fufu ........ fufu. ........."

"Laughter, huh?"

The woman was just laughing, but because of the situation, it was made all the more creepy.

Slough, his body shaking with a shudder, moved even closer to the room where the voice was coming from and put his ear to the door.

"My child ...... my only ...... so cute, why so cute ......?"

Apparently, the person in the room was a mother who was loving her baby.

Well, if she had a newborn child, it would not be surprising if she remained in the church.

Slough, relieved to have identified the voice, left the room and returned to the chapel.

"Ara ...... how ...... you?　Mom and ...... the member ......?"

Zu-n, zu-n.

As Slough walked down the hallway, the floorboards shook as if something huge was moving.

".......me, still ...... oh, so ...... you ...... kill me, you kill me. I don't ...... want to."

Thud, thud, thud.

The sound gradually approached.

And then, just when it stopped for a moment - boom! and the door that had just been against Slough's ear was blown open from the inside.

The wooden door slammed into the opposite wall with tremendous force and shattered into pieces.

Slough, shaken by the violent sound, turned around and saw--

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

There was the face of a baby, with only its face sticking out of the room.

The width of the face alone, however, was over one meter.

A thick voice emitted from the half-open mouth, and a large amount of clear mucus spilled out.

"U......Uwa, ah......!"

Gleaming eyes stared at Slough, an ordinary citizen with no power and no knowledge of what is going on.

"Uuuu, Uwaaaaaaaaaa!"

Slough, unable to withstand the horror, slumped to the ground and let out a throat-crushing scream.