Chapter 103: Mercenary, Assassin, Vampire · Variation
Humiliation.
"This feeling of you and my love sharing life and death together—I don't like it."
Sigma froze entirely upon the soil of the hospital's backyard.
Standing before him was a young man in a suit. He curled his lip, wantonly revealing teeth sharp enough to bite through skin. Upon receiving the killing intent directed solely at him, Sigma's Magic Circuits screamed unsteadily; beside him, Assassin lowered her body, teeth clenched as she endured the crushing pressure through her sweat.
The young man walked toward them step by step. The wounds previously inflicted by Assassin healed instantly without a trace.
They were only dozens of meters away from Tsubaki—from the girl in the hospital. Among all the various figures entangled in the chaos, only Sigma's duo had reached the hospital gates, one step away from saving her. But Sigma and Assassin could not advance an inch.
That was because "that thing" stood in their way.
"That thing," if defined by professional terminology, was a high-ranking Dead Apostle. In his entire life, Sigma had never seen a bloodsucking species as wretched as "that thing."
The chill was piercing.
The prana was overflowing, exceeding the amount required to supply a single Heroic Spirit. Putting aside these anomalies among anomalies, and speaking only of its mode of existence, Sigma had indeed encountered "something that was not a simple bloodsucker" once before.
A world-renowned magus, a spellcaster who used magecraft, and the least conspicuous among them, Sigma... Everyone had joined forces in a life-and-death struggle, barely managing to defeat that being. That was a defining moment in Sigma's life facing a powerful foe.
And Sigma understood clearly now.
Even that thing they had defeated through sheer numbers, which was now a mere husk, would likely be easily dominated by "this thing" individually. It was like the relationship between a commoner and an aristocrat—an absurd disparity.
"Are you still going to try and fight me, my love? Ah, I'm not saying you can't; do as your whim dictates. But you know, no matter how many times you try, the result is always the same. It's been a long time since the theater; I've truly missed you."
"Enough, you monster!"
Assassin roared, her face filled with rage. It was an expression brimming with hatred toward the enemy and her own powerlessness.
No matter what she did, it was futile. No matter how much she tore away, he wouldn't die. Biting and piercing were of no use. Her hand aimed for the heart would be deflected. When poisoned, he would first isolate the poisoned area and then recover almost immediately.
This absurd "thing"... it was so ridiculous that Assassin couldn't conceive of a way to kill him!
"To emphasize once more, my name is Jester. Jester Karture. Please use that name if possible. By the way, my love, it seems you aren't aware... you, the useless human over there, a question: Do you know where that arrow that struck me just now came from?"
As Jester walked closer, he gestured with his eyes toward a fragment of an arrow nearby. Sigma wasn't listening to him at all; his brain was working at high speed.
"Was it made by that Noble Phantasm group at the theater? Strange, they shouldn't have that kind of power and precision. But since it was ineffective against me, it couldn't have been a Heroic Spirit. ...Ha, I was actually startled for a moment; turns out it's just a mere human after all."
The Dead Apostle muttered with a sense of inexplicable indignation. Sigma still ignored him.
What was needed here was a strategy.
A strategy to let Assassin escape from this desperate situation. A strategy to let the weak Sigma, who could be killed by this Dead Apostle at any time, turn the tables.
Think carefully. The situation was far from as hopeless as it seemed. While Assassin could do nothing to him, conversely, the Dead Apostle Jester hadn't been able to deal damage to Assassin either. And he frequently deflected the ultra-long arms Assassin sent toward his chest—could it be that the move was actually effective?
Sigma quickly formulated a plan. He was able to think of it thanks to Assassin testing all her moves right in front of him. Sigma exhaled a lungful of stagnant air and began to execute.
"Assassin, listen to me."
This was the practical magecraft, [Telepathy].
"Set your finishing move to the heart-targeting [Zabaniya] from earlier. I suspect he is wary of that. However, attacking directly is too obvious. If you can use it, please prioritize deploying the mist-generating move. I will create an opening. Wait for my signal—there's no other way anyway, you'll have to make use of me too."
Assassin looked at Sigma in a daze for a moment. Then, she nodded.
"[Zabaniya (Unfeeling Agility)]!"
Assassin chanted in a low voice. Immediately, mist began to pervade the area. The thick fog manifested into countless giant beasts lunging at Jester, who was just inches away.
However, even Assassin herself knew... this move was useless. Even if it could tear off the Dead Apostle's limbs, he could regenerate instantly.
At the same time, Sigma, sharing the mist, began to run. With leg strength enhanced by magecraft, he quickly reached the flank of the combat zone. Inside the thick fog, he could barely see the silhouette of the Dead Apostle. For Sigma, that was enough.
Sigma pulled a submachine gun and a grenade-like cylinder from his coat. At the same time, he said to Assassin via telepathy: "Use the heart-targeting [Zabaniya] immediately after you hear me speak. Your vision might go white for a second; don't panic."
Sigma pulled the pin of the cylinder. Inside the cylinder was a magic formula to inhibit mechanical movement, allowing for a delayed activation; Sigma set the timer to ten seconds. He threw it into the center of the battlefield, then immediately raised his specialized firearm.
Two gunshots rang out, and two bloody holes appeared in the side of the Dead Apostle's head.
The Dead Apostle's movements paused. He turned his head irritably to glare at Sigma through the mist, the holes in his temples healing instantly: "Still playing these little tricks? Do you want to die, human?"
Sigma ignored him and continued to fire. Unimaginably, Jester was able to boredly deflect the bullets with one set of claws while dodging the tearing mist-beasts.
But Sigma wasn't counting on this to deal actual damage. Estimating that the timing was right, Sigma spoke for the first time since the battle began.
"Are the 'bullets' in your body still sufficient, Jester?"
He threw out bait accurate enough to grab the Dead Apostle's attention, making it impossible for him to ignore. Sigma was weak. The only thing Sigma possessed was the ability to dig up information... and the wisdom to use that information.
Jester had six "cores" in his body that he called "bullets," and four remained. He could instantly restructure himself—both body and even soul—by switching cores. This sentence made the opponent waver; Jester's eyes began to bulge toward Sigma's direction, and in the next moment, a flash erupted.
"[Zabaniya (Delusive Heartbeat)]!"
The assassin shouted the True Name, and Sigma fired his bullet. At the moment Jester froze, the unleashed double-attack swept the high-ranking Dead Apostle into its wake.
Sigma didn't know if it would succeed, so he waited silently for the scene that seemed frozen in time.
Then, he saw a movement he probably couldn't replicate in a lifetime. Jester tilted his head the moment the gunshot rang out, letting the bullet miss. At the same time, even though his
eyes should have been unable to see for that instant, he reached out his hand and, after a brief hesitation, aligned himself directly with Assassin's charging attack, making a motion to flick something away.
What he flicked out was a whirlwind. This whirlwind once again caused Assassin's red arm to deflect uncontrollably.
The wisdom of a mortal lost to such a simple gap in raw strength.
"It's the scent. The scent. At my level, one is also sensitive to smells. If you had blocked my sense of smell too, there might have been a sliver of a chance for success."
Hearing Jester's tone—which was more of a boast than a sigh of relief—Sigma and Assassin had no words.
"You won't have another chance. After all, you're about to die. I don't care how you knew that information. I'm more interested in the fact that—you were commanding my love, weren't you?"
The moment he heard those words, the hair on Sigma's neck stood up. Jester intended to change his target to Sigma. At the same time Sigma realized this, Assassin had already gritted her teeth and charged forward.
STOP...
The place where Assassin charged was directly in front of the massive pillar of fire Jester unleashed.
"[Zabaniya (Decisive Body Temperature)]!"
Assassin, who had switched to defense at the first moment, was sent flying.
Finally... Jester looked at Sigma with a smile and lifted a small car beside him.
"Do you regret it? If you hadn't come to rescue Tsubaki Kuruoka, it wouldn't end like this. This hasn't benefited you at all; you encountered this situation because you broke your own mercenary creed. I'm afraid you'll never have sufficient food or peaceful sleep again."
Behind Sigma, a "shadow" that only he could see spoke. It was the projection of the being that continuously provided him with information.
"..."
Instead of using [Telepathy], Sigma responded with his vocal cords for the first time: "I don't quite understand what there is to regret.
At least, I learned before that saving someone is a matter where one should have a 'no regrets' mindset. ...Probably."
The object was thrown not in a parabola, but in a straight line. Death sped toward him.
The "shadow" smiled. "Well, it seems you won't be dying for now," he said suddenly.
"?"
The iron block, turned into a lethal object by the Dead Apostle's throwing speed, drew closer and closer. Sigma witnessed it all from a distance where dodging was impossible.
At the very last moment...
A giant petal, unlike anything he had ever seen, bloomed in front of Sigma. The small car slammed into it and split apart on the spot, its two halves rushing past the sides of the shield and scraping red sparks against the ground. They vanished behind the dumbstruck Sigma.
There was the presence of a person at his side.
Beside him, at some unknown point, a red-haired youth had arrived.
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