Chapter 16: I do not believe in the superstitious

With our backs pressed against the walls of fate, I looked at Wein again and he gazed back into my eyes. Deadly monsters lingered on the other side, waiting for our arrival. Either we have our limbs chopped after this or we go back rewarded, it all depends on his plan.

He passed me a knife. A simple knife used for cutting, but the blade shone like a polished marble and the knife’s slanted edge told me that a single cut at the right place would be deadly. I spun it in my hand, and when my fist clench the leather grip, I realized it was just the right size.

I looked back at him. His blue eyes stared into my own, but he did not say a single word. I nodded my head, implying that I was ready, and he took a silent deep breath.

The air pooled in stillness as he kneeled on the ground with a serious face.

He ran his palm across the air, as if he wrote something in invisible ink, and writings that I haven’t seen in my life reflected into my eyes with a bluish light. After those runic markings etched on the air, Wein closed his eyes, as if he was praying in a silent grief.

He raised his left hand with three fingers up. The number of his fingers signifies the time when our plan will fold into action.

I was but a civilized human being. I could not believe that I planned on doing a massacre—which will no doubt leave a really bitter taste on my tongue—along with this guy whom I knew nothing about.

However, the time to turn tail had long passed.

Since the beginning, I’ve been trying my best to cope up in the unnatural torrent of events, but now that I was pressed into making the same choice, I chose to do it once more.

Wein lowered his middle finger, then his index, and before the last second, I clenched the large halberd on my right and sneaked a glance on the other side.

And with a loud *voom*, formless swords of darkness, like a death spike, plunged all of the monsters from underneath.

This sudden attack threw them into an unorganized chaos: They all squealed in pain and a good number died instantly, which gave us the time and favor to initiate our wicked plan.

I swiftly dashed into the middle and bashed the halberd’s blade on the nearest monster, straight to its face. The monster stood like a statue, squirting blood on top of the large hole that erupted in its chest. With a large metal piece adorning its head as if it was a decoration, the monster soon dropped on its own crimson pool, and that liquid splashing signaled the start of my monstrous actions.

One hit, one kill. I slit their throats using the sharp knife I just got from Wein.

In a matter of seconds, only one of the eight monsters that stood on guard here was left. Of course, I have no plans to let it live, but looking at the monster from behind while disregarding its deadly talons, it really was no different from a human female.

“Nooo,” the monster shriek and dragged its wounded body away from me.

Something about its cry made me look away and an unpleasant emotion circulated in my very being. I felt a helpless sinking of the heart for reasons that eluded my humanity.

“Reimuz!!!” Wein yelled.

As his loud yelling shook my brain to work, I saw the monster’s talons centimeters away from my face. My wind prevented the first strike from going through, but the monster paid it no mind and released a flurry of deadly slashes.

I moved my head out of the way to avoid the killing blow, but I was a second too late. It drew a line of blood on my cheek, a painful mistake that almost cost me my life.

It broke my bewilderment and I realized: There was no need to hesitate any longer.

I kneed the monster on its flank, sending it sprawling on its back. I walked towards it, and with a single swipe of this knife, I ended its life.

Shortly after I killed the last remaining monster, the same monotone voice rang inside my head. Not once, but twice.

*Pi…!*

Alignment shifted towards Neutral Evil

Prerequisite alignment fulfilled. You learned the skill: Kill Zone

*Pi…!*

Acquired a new title: Inhuman

I held my face with one hand. The blood streaming down my right cheek covered my fingers in seconds and the excess made a pitter-patter noise on the ground.

When I turned my head to look at Wein, a fist met my jaw. I couldn’t withstand the force behind it and I was knocked on the ground, questioning the reason behind this action.

“That naivety will get you and I killed!” Wein exclaimed through gritted teeth. “When faced with an enemy, hesitation would only spell your death. Remember that my soft hearted friend,” he twisted around with both of his hands balled into a fist.

I pushed myself up, leaving a red hand print behind. Gurgling, I spat the unpleasant taste in my mouth and threw a question at his back.

“What are you?”

“What am I, huh?” Wein expressed a laugh, but his voice told me he felt otherwise.

“Yes, what are you exactly?” I repeated my question as I walked to grab the knife I dropped.

Wein must’ve his share of secrets with him, nonetheless I was determined to know. If not, I was afraid that I would have to plunge this knife on his back, or die trying, just to answer my fearsome uncertainties.

“Just like you,” he turned to face me, yet his gaze lingered on the bloody floor. “I was but a pawn given an ability to rule. To stand above kings and emperors.”

“How about explaining it in words I could understand?”

“As I said, I’ll explain later—”

*Bang, bang, bang!!!*

A series of gunshots fired from the the gigantic room behind him, and multiple finger-sized holes blasted out of Wein’s chest. His body pitched forward and upended himself on the ground.

“Wein!!”

Somebody shot him, not just to wound, but to kill. A few more gunshots erupted from the room ahead, preventing me to offer my help. I leaped to the side and rolled, desperately taking cover on the massive arch entryway.

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“I’m fine,” he coughed up more blood as he forced himself to speak. “Take… the sword… I’ll follow once I’ve recovered…” He kicked the spirit sword to my direction and crawled his bloody mess of a body to take cover from the gunshots.

I took the sword by its flimsy handle, bemused at the sudden turn of events. That was a gun just now, but based from what Erumina had told me, they still haven’t processed these weapons themselves. Then who in the world was it? Who in this world had the capability to manufacture these weapons?

‘Brother, you’ll teach me how to shoot?’

My head throbbed, my pulse pounded as growing confusion vied for attention in my head. Not again…

I steeled myself. Since the monster from before completely broke all of my remaining wind shields, I am left with nothing to defend myself, except for this sword. But even then, I recoiled myself up and went inside. Something in the depths of my heart said that I have to know what’s going on here, as if my guts screamed for me to comply.

It feels like some kind of old ruin, and the ceilings are completely covered in blackness, as if it extended to the horizon itself. At the heart of this gigantic room stood a figure clad in dark robes, on top of a circular platform resembling an altar. It was the robed figure I detected a while ago.

“I didn’t think I’d see you here. I thought for sure you’d join and service the military—just like your dad,” the figure spoke, her voice reminded me of unpleasant memories.

“I would have joined the service without a doubt if I stayed there,” I warily drew closer with the spirit sword in hand.

I was not sure why she hadn’t fired yet, but she must’ve have a reason for idling a conversation with me. I stepped on the platform where she stood—at least three meters away—and seeing the black curly side hair sticking out of her hood gave me a sense of nostalgia. But I could not verily confirm. Underneath her hood, her face concealed by a mysterious mask.

“You haven’t changed at all.”

“And you haven’t told me who you are. How do you know me?”

“Now I’m hurt. My voice... Do you not recognize my voice at all?” Although I could not see her face, it felt like she pouted from her tone just now.

“I certainly recognize this tone, but none from one who’s still living.”

Yes, it cannot be—for she’s already dead.

“Ah, when you blew the robbers face along with my skull, they must’ve told you I died.”

“I killed no one back then.”

“You killed me.”

“So you’re a vengeful ghost now?”

“Maybe,” there it was again, her playful voice was stabbing me like a blade.

“Show your face already,” I said with wrench in my heart.

I wanted to see what type of expression she made behind that mask.

“Why? So you can shoot me once again?”

“Damn, I’m a civilian. Do I look like I carry a gun to you? And this is a different world for God’s sake.”

“You’re usage of damn still hasn’t lessened,” and again, her voice sparked a fluffy sensation in my chest. The more she spoke, the more she reminded me of my childhood memories.

No more, I do not want to hear anymore.

“That’s not the point here. Just tell me, what’s your role in all of this?”

“To buy some time.”

“I see, I thought I could talk some sense into you, but this meeting has stretch on long enough, don’t you think?”

“So you’ll kill me too?”

“I’ve already come this far. Killing another pretty face won’t change anything.”

“You haven’t seen my face though,” she directed a finger on her mask.

“I have a feeling you’re pretty. Most evil women does.”

“You’ve watched too much drama.”

“Don’t make me do this, Cynthia.”

“My name… Hehe, you’ve finally called me by my name,” her laughter sounded so pleasant in my ears it was almost like a lullaby, but I didn’t want to like her laugh. It suggested to me that she was once an innocent child that I knew.

“Please, I’m begging you,” I pleaded.

“Sorry, I have my reasons,” she swiftly denied me with a shrug.

“Please,” I pleaded again and I’ll do it as much as it takes.

“Stop it. Don’t confuse my heart any further. If you want to pass then fight to prove it!”

She drew a small compact pistol in her side pocket—a gun perfect for her small hands, but deadly when shot at this distance—and pointed it towards me. The light in her eyes behind that tiny opening told me that she won’t hesitate to shoot, and I clearly have no way of avoiding her bullets, precise or not, at this short distance of ours. And besides, there was no questioning her aim. She shot Wein from this distance after all.

It was pointless to resist, so I released my grip at this spirit sword and crossed my fingers at the back of my head.

“Why?” She asked, and yet, her voice was trembling for a reason I could not think of.

“There’s no point. The results will be the same whether I struggle or not,” I stated the truth.

I wondered who seduced her innocent mind into the dark. I wanted to find that person, and inflict the bastard the pain this girl felt when she pointed her gun at me.

“Liar, you can do better than this.”

“Haha, I guess me being out of action for more than a year rusted my skills. Can you just answer a single question of mine before you shoot?”

“Speak,” she clinched her gun forward.

“Why was I—Why were we sent here?”

However the wheels of fate did not give us that luxury. A crumbling noise resounded from above, and a gigantic being landed and shook the very foundations of this platform apart.

“Cyn!!!”

Half of the platform was destroyed upon impact, and the place where she stood was lost into ruins, leaving nothing but a huge crater and a fearsome foe for me to face.