The King of Division, threat level S+, named Dictatorship.
"Dictatorship......"
"Now that I have revealed my identity, should you not show the etiquette appropriate to it?"
At Dictatorship's words, Haseol gripped Waycut more tightly.
"Weapons are prohibited."
At Dictatorship's words, Haseol threw the Waycut he held behind him.
He looked as though he could not understand his own action.
"And looking upon the sovereign's visage also requires permission."
At Dictatorship's words, Haseol dropped to his knees, and his head bowed as though he were prostrating himself.
SPLAT!
His forehead struck the floor, sending blood splashing upward.
"Nngh. Nnghhhhhhhh!"
Haseol braced both hands in the pool of blood and tensed his entire body.
His hands trembled violently.
His forehead rose the slightest amount from the blood.
Blood covering his entire face settled stickily onto the floor.
"I am Dictatorship, so my words carry compulsory force. This ability is called Subjugation Enforcement."
As soon as Dictatorship finished explaining, Haseol's head was driven back into the pool of blood.
"Nnghhhhhhhh!"
"I do not believe the explanation was difficult, but no matter how you strain yourself, it is meaningless. By explaining my ability to you, the effect of Subjugation Enforcement has grown stronger, and you do not have the ability to overcome it."
"Huff. Huff......"
With his head pressed into the pool of blood, Haseol breathed rapidly.
"How did you come here?"
"I came to rescue Asha."
"The Usurper? What is your relationship with this Usurper?"
"I am her successor."
"A successor? A successor appears while the Usurper has not even died."
Dictatorship leaned forward with interest.
"What is your name?"
"I am Si Haseol."
"How long have you been an Usurper?"
"It has not been a week."
"I see. It seems you have not been one for even a week, so you do not understand us well yet. That is why you were making a meaningless resistance."
Dictatorship nodded as though it understood.
"I will explain. We ghosts are born from negativity. Do you understand what that means?"
"I do not know what answer you are asking for."
"It means we were born from human will. That is why our abilities are greatly affected by human perception."
"I understand."
"Oh? Tell me what you understood."
"I think it means that the more the target understands an ability, the more clearly and strongly the ability can be used on that target."
The other ghosts had introduced themselves for that reason.
With his head bowed, unable to resist at all, Haseol continued giving Dictatorship the answers it wanted.
"Correct. Unlike this Usurper, you are quick-witted."
Dictatorship smiled at ease.
"That is why resistance became meaningless the moment you heard an explanation of my Nature. Ah, Nature is the term for a ghost's ability."
"I understand."
"Then you may think that, even if a Nature works more strongly, hiding its effects might be better. What would you do?"
"I would hide it."
"Rational."
Dictatorship smiled.
"Explaining an ability may make it stronger, but it also makes it easier for the opponent to respond. That is only natural."
Dictatorship nodded.
"But that is what I am. What we are."
Dictatorship slowly rose from its chair.
Slap. Slap.
It walked through the pool of blood in black shoes.
"Look at me."
At Dictatorship's words, Haseol's head slowly rose.
Blood on his forehead slowly ran down Haseol's face.
"Are you ready to see my Nature?"
Dictatorship slowly raised a hand.
"Four Assassins."
"Hmm?"
"We have them as hostages."
"Hostages."
Dictatorship laughed as though it found that amusing.
"Do you think that will mean anything to me?"
"I do not think it will."
"Then why did you ask?"
"I have already killed one, yet you did not question my words. It seems that even a king of the same type does not know everything."
"Oh."
Dictatorship looked down at Haseol.
"Even in this situation, you are extracting information."
Dictatorship looked down at Haseol and smiled.
"I am certain now that you must be killed as quickly as possible."
Then it turned away from Haseol with a serious expression.
Haseol put strength into both hands and his entire body to rise.
But now, not even a tremble showed.
He could not open his mouth, and he could not even put strength into his body.
"The first of my Natures is Subjugation Enforcement. The second is Ordnance Enforcement."
Dictatorship went back to Asha's side and sat in its black chair again.
"To explain Ordnance Enforcement simply, it is an ability that drops missiles or shells."
Dictatorship pointed at the ceiling with a finger.
"In a variety of ways."
Above Haseol's head.
The ceiling broke open.
Something emerged through the ceiling.
A pure white head and a pure white body.
At a glance, it even looked like a crayon.
But it was huge.
It had not even fully emerged through the ceiling, yet it was already larger than Haseol.
What that body carried could not be meant merely to add color.
But more quickly and intensely than anything else, it would paint the surroundings red and black.
Because it was a missile.
A time as brief as an instant.
The time between the ceiling breaking open and the missile reaching the floor.
An extremely short time.
What could anyone do in it?
At least for Haseol, there was nothing.
Even if his body had been free, there was a high chance he would not have been able to react to the missile.
For all its enormous size, the missile was plummeting at an absurd speed.
It might have been as fast as a bullet, or perhaps faster.
And Haseol's body was currently bound by Dictatorship's Subjugation Enforcement.
Because Dictatorship had not permitted him to lift his head, he lay facedown and could not take any action.
If he took a direct hit from the missile, it would be difficult even to find fragments of his body.
It would no longer be a matter of preventing his head from being cut off or anything like that.
Bisan said nothing.
There was no one to tell Haseol what he needed to do now.
Was it because there was nothing he could do even if told?
Because the result was already decided?
The missile struck directly in front of Haseol.
What followed was exactly the result that could easily be expected.
The floor exploded upward.
Red flames filled the space.
The pooled blood vaporized and scattered in every direction.
The shock made the ceiling swell like a balloon before it burst apart.
A pure white flash.
Then a deafening boom.
Gray dust spread afterward.
Stinging air extended outside the building.
Fragments of the building scattered in every direction through the town.
An obvious ending.
However, Dictatorship and Asha alone had escaped that ending.
Dictatorship was still seated in its black chair, and Asha still hung in the air with her limbs severed.
Though more than half the building had been swallowed by the explosion and vanished, neither of them was harmed.
Gray dust sank.
Fragments of flame faded.
"Hmm."
Dictatorship stared into the gray smoke filling its view, then turned its head.
It looked at Asha.
"Usurper. Do you believe your action has meaning now?"
Dictatorship asked Asha.
"......"
Asha did not answer.
"Go."
She was not answering Dictatorship. She was giving an order as she stared into the gray dust.
A figure steeped in white light slowly rose from the floor within the gray dust.
It was Haseol.
His face covered in blood, he rose from the floor while glaring at Dictatorship.
Only the red gleam of his eyes showed clearly through the haze, his body cloaked in white light.
"Si Haseol. Do you intend to flee, leaving your predecessor behind?"
Dictatorship spoke to Haseol as it stood from its place.
It picked up a broken steel pipe that had fallen when the building collapsed.
"Your predecessor is suffering this much for you."
As it said that, Dictatorship stabbed the steel pipe into Asha's chest.
SQUELCH!
The steel pipe pierced the center of her chest and emerged from the front.
Blood streamed down from Asha's chest.
"......!"
Haseol's eyes opened wider and turned redder.
Asha slowly raised her head.
With a faint smile, she said.
"Do not come again."
Dictatorship pulled the steel pipe from Asha's chest.
Asha's body shook violently with a clatter.
Her head fell forward.
Haseol's red eyes.
"......"
Turned in another direction.
And moved away.
He began to run through the gray smoke.
"Ordnance......"
Dictatorship moved after the wavering gray smoke.
Then it slowly raised a hand.
But it stopped.
White light had seized that hand and forced it down.
Dictatorship turned to look at Asha.
"Your strength cannot have that much leeway."
As Dictatorship said.
One of Asha's legs lost its white light and, no longer connected, fell to the floor.
At the sight, Dictatorship chuckled and looked at Haseol's retreating back.
"I will wait for you, Si Haseol!"
Then it shouted.
Dictatorship's voice rang out and spread even beyond Rootstream.
"......"
Haseol sat outside Rootstream.
With his head hanging low, he sat roughly on the cold ground.
Bisan walked to Haseol's side.
"Eska took the three Assassins away."
"Ah, okay."
Haseol answered blankly with his head still lowered.
Still looking down, he rubbed his face hard with a hand.
"Um, Bisan."
"Yes."
"After Dictatorship came out, I could not hear your voice. What happened? Did I just not hear it?"
"I did not speak."
"Why?"
"Because I thought you were going to die."
At Bisan's answer, Haseol stopped speaking for a moment, as though he could not understand.
"If I looked like I was going to die, should you not have told me how to stay alive?"
"I told you that a vampire's reason for existing is obsession with life, did I not?"
"Yes."
"Obsession with life is instinct."
"That is true, is it not?"
"The more rational thought is involved, the less likely instinct is to manifest."
"Ah."
"Conversation and thought weaken one's instincts. That would be even more true if you took advice from another person."
"I understand."
Haseol nodded.
It seemed Bisan had judged the moment Haseol met Dictatorship and bowed his head that Haseol could not win as he was now.
That was why Bisan had said nothing. Haseol needed to feel the danger of death and act instinctively.
"Bisan."
"Yes."
"What are the odds that I can defeat Dictatorship?"
"None."
"None?"
"Yes. Zero percent."
"What if I dodge the missiles well and ambush it well? Would that not work somehow?"
"An ambush seems impossible inside this Rootstream, so it is zero percent."
"I cannot win without an ambush?"
"Yes. I do not think you can overcome it because of Subjugation Enforcement."
"Is there a way to block the ability called Subjugation Enforcement?"
"We would need to test many things to know how the ghost's Nature called Subjugation Enforcement works. Haseol currently lacks both the tools and durability for those tests."
"I see."
Haseol lowered his head and rubbed his face again.
Bisan looked steadily down at him, then opened his mouth.
"Are you still thinking of fighting?"
"Yes."
"You intend to challenge Dictatorship again?"
"Yes."
"Without the mysterious white light just now, you would likely have died with a ninety-nine percent chance. Even so?"
"What is the one percent?"
"Growth."
"Ah."
At Bisan's words, Haseol snorted.
"In that brief moment, you awaken your instinct well enough, use your blood well enough, and survive. Something like that."
"That is the only way there was."
"It is like a miracle, then?"
"That is right."
Haseol laughed with his head bowed, as though he did not attach much meaning to it.
Then his smile slowly vanished.
"The mysterious white light was probably Asha's power in that situation, right?"
"That is likely."
Haseol slowly rose from the ground.
"Then I should repay her."
He dusted his backside as though it were no great matter.
"You could easily have died just now, and you have hardly changed from before. Are you all right with that?"
"I will go back after I have changed."
Haseol rolled his shoulders in circles.
"Asha told you not to come."
"I still have to go."
"What if Asha is already dead?"
Bisan's words.
"Dictatorship clearly said it would wait."
"It did."
"That means I have a reason to come back to this Rootstream, and that reason will be Asha. That means it likely kept her alive."
"What if it is an object related to supernatural abilities? In a city this empty, it seems more likely that Rootstream appeared because of an object than a person."
"I have only been doing this job for a week."
"Yes."
"And Dictatorship beat me overwhelmingly and nearly killed me."
"Yes."
"It is difficult to imagine that someone like that would risk its life over an object rather than a living being."
"You think it would leave your predecessor as a large enough lure because it expects you to return?"
"Yes."
"That seems likely."
Bisan nodded as though he understood.
"So, what do you want to do from now on, Haseol?"
Bisan asked calmly.
Haseol slowly opened his mouth to answer, and.
Screeech!
An odd sound rang out beside the two before the words could leave his mouth.
A rectangle was being drawn in the air.
A completely different space could be seen beyond the rectangle.
It was Eska's Slap Portal.
"A Rootstream appeared."
Eska walked out from beyond it as she spoke, and Bisan looked at Haseol again as though demanding an answer.