“Let’s sort out the current situation one more time!”
Subaru sat on the ground.
Compared to his first death, this time he had only died from hypothermia, passing away in his sleep without feeling any pain.
Because of that, he was able to calmly start thinking about his situation.
“First of all, those two paths can only be taken one at a time.
There’s basically no chance of turning back.
My stamina just can’t hold out.”
“Second, the left path leads to a huge hollow space.
There are a lot of corpses inside, and that monster is there too… I can’t beat it at all.
For the current me to challenge a monster like that is basically a joke.”
“Next is the right path.
Something there is definitely affecting my mind.
It makes every step feel insanely heavy, and I can’t keep going down that road.
At the end, there’s also that huge iron door blocking the way…”
“And finally!
The most important point.”
Subaru raised his hand and stared at his palm.
Then he said, “The supernatural ability I gained after coming to this world is Return by Death.
As long as I die, I can be reborn.
Looks like even time gets reset too.”
He glanced at the plastic bag beside him.
Judging from the time on his phone and the snacks inside the bag, time itself should have been reset.
In other words, it was a complete and total return.
“Ahh, this is seriously awful.
This ability is amazing, sure… but it doesn’t help me break through the current situation at all.”
Subaru scratched his head.
There was nothing he could do about the iron door blocking the path.
But that monster… It should not be some terrifying immortal creature, right?
And it clearly had a sense of territory.
The question was whether or not it could leave that place.
“All right.
This time, I’ll go down the left path again.
I’ll wait for that monster to move farther away, then search and see if there are any other exits.”
Subaru nodded and pulled himself together.
Picking up his plastic bag, he once again headed deeper into the underground palace.
Before long, he arrived once more at the split road that decided his fate.
The right path still gave off a nauseating stench.
Subaru did not know what it was, but either way, it could affect his mind.
As for the left path, even before he stepped into it, he could already smell something burnt.
That monster was definitely still inside that huge hollow space right now.
“Seriously, if I’ve already decided to go this way, then there’s no point being scared.
Natsuki Subaru, get yourself together!”
He encouraged himself, then stepped into the left passage once more.
He continued deeper.
This time, everything was the same as before.
Once again, he smelled fire.
Once again, he reached that familiar bend.
Last time, because he had been too excited and thought there were people there, he had run straight in.
As a result, he had fallen into that hollow space and been caught directly by that monster.
Now, returning to that familiar corner, Subaru carefully poked his head out and observed the situation inside.
The mabeast wrapped in flames was still there.
That damned centaur really did have a sense of territory.
Was this place its hunting ground?
Subaru gritted his teeth.
He could say that he knew absolutely nothing about this monster, whether it was its ecology or its habits.
After all, from the moment he encountered it to the moment he was burned to death, only a little over ten seconds had passed.
Looking closely, this monster really was strange.
It had no head.
Its chest was a huge hole, and its sharp teeth were all growing around that opening in its chest.
“Wait…”
No head?
Subaru carefully observed the monster’s full body once more, and finally reached a shocking conclusion.
“This monster… has no organs for sight!”
The place where its head should have been had no head at all.
That meant there was no part of its body that seemed to control vision.
Or perhaps, without his flashlight, there would have been no source of light at all.
Maybe this was the flaw of a creature that lived underground—degeneration.
“Ah, like a mole.
It adapted too much to living underground, so it lost its eyesight.”
Subaru made that guess.
If that was the case, then this problem was far from impossible to solve.
In other words, the senses that mabeast used in place of eyes had to be either smell or hearing.
“If it was smell… it should have noticed me already… So it really is hearing?
I remember moles have good ears, and compared to that, their noses are pretty dull.”
Subaru thought this to himself.
He held his breath and carefully approached.
Sure enough, the centaur did not notice him.
He looked around, then gently picked up a stone.
Bang!
The stone was thrown by Subaru and smashed heavily against the edge of the hollow space.
“——!!!”
That roar, like the crying of a baby, rang out again.
The centaur noticed the sound and reacted violently.
It swung its burning mane, its horse body leaping as it charged straight toward the source of the noise.
Without the slightest hesitation, it slammed its body into the area.
“Now’s my chance!”
Subaru remained careful, completely unwilling to make a sound as he moved forward.
He planned to circle around this death path and continue out of the hollow space.
Whenever the centaur completely crushed the stone he had thrown, Subaru would throw another one, creating a new sound and using it to continuously draw away the centaur’s attention.
He felt delighted by his own cleverness.
(Stupid monster!
Under my brilliant strategy, you can run around like a headless fly!
I’m not staying here to keep you company!)
Thinking that, Subaru continued walking quietly.
Every now and then, he threw another stone to make a sound and draw the monster’s attention away.
Crack.
Just as Subaru was about to leave this place and head deeper in, he accidentally stepped on something and snapped it.
“Crap…”
There really was not much light here.
And because he had been hurrying to throw stones, he had no time to pay attention to what was beneath his feet.
He had already done his best not to make any noise!
“————!!!”
The centaur was attracted by the sound.
As expected, it noticed Subaru’s position.
There was no time to throw another stone.
Subaru could only turn around and run immediately.
“No good, no good!
I can’t outrun it!
And that thing can breathe fire too… I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead!”
The centaur, wrapped in raging flames, began to gallop.
It turned into a dazzling fireball and charged straight at Subaru.
Subaru’s heart immediately leaped into his throat.
“Move, damn it!!!!”
Forcing his body to obey, he threw himself to the side.
Sand exploded into the air.
Sparks scattered through the hollow space.
The fireball missed.
However, Subaru’s movement had completely drawn the centaur’s attention.
He understood that he no longer had the option of running away.
“I’m going to… die again?
Damn it… No, I don’t want this.
I don’t want to experience being burned into a piece of charcoal again!”
Natsuki Subaru shouted in anger, but it was useless.
The centaur roared, and the sound of its hooves trampling the sand clearly reached his ears.
It charged straight toward Subaru.
In just an instant, Subaru’s body would be smashed apart.
“I don’t want to die!
I don’t want to die!”
Subaru jumped again with all his strength.
The centaur missed, crashing into the wall.
He did not know how he had done it.
A monster charging at that speed was no different from a small car slamming into him at full speed.
And yet, he had actually dodged it.
Subaru patted his own chest, as if trying to calm his wildly beating heart.
His gaze remained fixed on the centaur monster before him.
The monster broke free from the ruined wall, then locked onto Subaru again.
He had dodged once.
He had dodged twice.
But what about the third time?
The fourth time?
Subaru swallowed.
He understood that if he could not defeat this monster, then continuing like this was meaningless.
Sooner or later, he would either become charcoal or a pile of torn flesh.
The monster galloped again, charging at him like a sports car at full speed.
He could not dodge.
This time, no matter what he did, he could not dodge.
Natsuki Subaru accepted the unavoidable fact of his death.
Facing the incoming blow, he crossed his arms in front of his chest, hoping he could block it.
But he knew very well that such a thing was impossible.
Boom!
Subaru was sent flying.
The centaur’s collision smashed into him, knocking him away.
His entire body spun through the air like a bamboo copter, before finally crashing heavily to the ground.
His arms…
He could not feel them at all.
Both of his arms had been destroyed in that instant of impact.
His bones had probably been shattered.
His chest was the same.
Pain came from his ribs as if they had collapsed inward.
Subaru felt as though even breathing had become a luxury.
“Ah… Ah… Ah…”
His eyelids felt heavier and heavier, while the centaur monster, stepping on flames, drew closer and closer.
“Again…”
His brain was already unable to bear the burden.
His consciousness grew murkier and murkier.
“!!!”
The centaur roared, letting out a cry like that of an infant.
It raised its horse hoof, intending to deliver the finishing blow to the man before it and make him pay for toying with it.
But in the next second, a white light shot out at terrifying speed and erased the monster’s upper body.
The upper half of the monster was wiped from this world by that horrifying beam of light.
It was not something as simple as being cut apart or crushed.
It was literally erased.
Immediately afterward, even more white light shot forth.
The once-powerful mabeast, along with all its flesh, was consumed by the light and blown away to somewhere that no longer belonged to this world.
Subaru stared at the scene in shock.
He almost forgot the pain in his own body.
There was a sound.
The sound of someone stepping on sand.
The sound was slow, and it was clearly coming this way, toward Subaru.
A power that could kill that monster in an instant…
Was the owner of that power also a monster?
Thinking that, Subaru’s heart was filled only with despair.
If it was just one centaur, then that would still be fine.
After he returned by death, he could use the same trick again.
But if there was an even more powerful monster here too…
A pair of legs entered Subaru’s field of vision.
He raised his head and looked toward the owner of those legs, who was most likely the true source of the light.
It was…
A human?
No, a woman?
The legs standing on the sand were boldly exposed all the way up to the thighs.
Protecting the woman’s lower abdomen was only a pair of shorts cut to the absolute limit.
Above that, her waist and navel were also bare.
Around her slender body, there was only cloth wrapped like a breastplate, as if meant to cover her chest.
However, she wore something like a wide brimmed cloak over her shoulders, barely protecting her fair shoulders and most of her exposed body from the sandstorm.
Her hair was a dark brown close to black, as though it might melt into the darkness itself.
Her long hair was tied into a single ponytail, highlighting the woman’s liveliness and nimble air.
“Found you—”
The woman’s voice clearly fell into Subaru’s ears.
At least…
They spoke the same language.
With that as his final thought, Natsuki Subaru completely lost consciousness.