A gigantic magic formation filled the air.
Sa Ujin let out a short sigh toward Hwa Yejin.
“It is commendable that you did not turn red and hide from the Lust Demons, but I have no interest in you. Have I not told you that before?”
“Shut up, you psychopathic murderer.”
Hwa Yejin’s staff drew a line through the air.
Flames began bursting from empty space, as though forcing their way out through a tear in reality.
“Grudge and resentment, wrath, and the tears of flame have forgotten when to cease. Let the Flame Immortal’s lament seek out the source and devour it.”
[Hwa Yejin has used the Skill 「Flame of Creation」(S).]
The wave of flame rose into the sky and passed through the magic formation overhead.
Then, after passing through it, the wave multiplied several times in size and temperature, becoming a massive tsunami of fire.
“I do not care about your disgusting tastes. Sa Ujin, how many people have you killed here?”
It was a sight that would make any human feel the threat of death carved into their instincts and become afraid.
However, before the wave that was so enormous it made even an erupting volcano seem laughable, Sa Ujin only smiled calmly.
“My, my. I am not the sort of person who counts how many times I breathe each day.”
At that, Hwa Yejin ground her teeth and drove her staff into the ground with all her strength.
The floor was made of stone, but the strength of an S-Rank Hunter split it apart like tofu.
“At first, I intended to give you one final chance. I was going to let you live if you promised to pay for your sins and use your power for justice.”
“How merciful. So?”
“So nothing. You are beyond saving. Die, Sa Ujin.”
The moment Hwa Yejin finished speaking, the massive wave of flame poured down at once to consume Sa Ujin.
Its range was indescribably vast, perhaps to prevent Sa Ujin from escaping.
“U-Uaaahhh!”
“The Empress of Fire Wings has gone insane!”
Several Hunters who had entered the Gate on their own were inside the range.
Even though their screams rang out, Hwa Yejin did not react.
Then the flames descended.
Once that catastrophe ended, screams and cries gradually turned into confusion.
“……Huh?”
“W-What? Are we alive?”
“I-I am not burned. The flames covered me, but…….”
Amazingly, those who had been engulfed by the flames were unharmed, without even a burn.
Leaving that commotion behind, Hwa Yejin bit her lip.
“Damn it.”
“Honestly, you are far too easy to read.”
Once the flames obscuring her vision cleared again, Sa Ujin was shaking his head with a relaxed expression.
In front of him, several forms blackened like charcoal lay scattered across the ground.
“「Flame of Creation」. It is a very good Skill.”
Sa Ujin walked toward Hwa Yejin one step at a time.
“It creates flames with the shape and effects you desire. It requires a matching chant, but with that, you can do a great many things.”
Crackle, crackle.
Charred forms—human corpses, to be precise—continued falling into Hwa Yejin’s sight.
“However, it is a great shame that you are its user. How can you use it with such a weak heart?”
Just as Sa Ujin had expected, Hwa Yejin’s wave of flame possessed one defining characteristic.
‘Only Sa Ujin burns.’
That restriction was why the buildings doused in flame and the ordinary Hunters remained unharmed.
“How did you…….”
“Haha, burning me means burning my Ability as well. So if I make dolls with my Ability, they become excellent shields. They are half ordinary people and half beings influenced by me, so the power will be halved as well.”
[Sa Ujin has used the Ability 「Pygmalion’s Web」(SS).]
Threads began flowing from Sa Ujin’s hand.
“Too valuable to kill, but I do not want to turn you into a doll, either. I suppose I will subdue you like this and throw you among the Lust Demons. Then you can have some fun as well.”
Just as the threads were about to fly toward Hwa Yejin, Sa Ujin’s hand stopped.
“……What is this situation?”
Dozens of Hwa Yejins were walking out from nearby.
Every one of them held a staff and a magic formation.
“Doppelganger? No, Doppelganger should only be able to create one clone.”
A strange gleam began to fill Sa Ujin’s eyes.
***
“Benefactor. Will this truly be all right? Miss Yejin is strong, but that Dollmaker…….”
“Filthily strong. No, rather than strong, ‘cunning’ suits him better. He is not merely an idiot with a powerful Ability. He has a deep understanding of both his own Ability and the Abilities of others.”
While Hwa Yejin had gone to stop Sa Ujin, Leia, Harmon, and I climbed upward one floor at a time.
Because Harmon prevented the other Lust Demons from approaching every time we went up a floor, we ascended faster than expected.
Perhaps my words made her uneasy, because Leia asked again.
“Can Miss Yejin defeat someone like that?”
“She cannot.”
“Pardon?”
She could not.
Hwa Yejin’s greatest weakness was her conscience and goodness.
Her Ability was specialized for killing, but because of her personality, which pursued nonlethal methods whenever possible, there were limits to how she used it.
In fact, around the 800th iteration, Hwa Yejin had lost her humanity and caused so many deaths that she became known as the Red Calamity. She had killed tens of thousands of people with ease.
“However, I never asked Hwa Yejin to defeat Sa Ujin in the first place.”
“Pardon?”
“Hwa Yejin only needs to buy time. And that is why I gave the Lust Demons that order earlier.”
- If Hwa Yejin appears to be in danger, all of you transform into Hwa Yejin at once. If you do that alone, Sa Ujin will not be able to act recklessly.
“The number of dolls Sa Ujin can make is limited. Low-ranking Hunters do not matter, but for A-Rank or higher, he can make only one per hour. For S-Rank, it is even more restrictive. So, what happens if he chooses the wrong person among dozens of candidates and turns an A-Rank or higher target into a doll?”
“Will his most threatening Ability be blocked?”
“Right. That intelligent lunatic could not possibly fail to think of that. People who use their brains tend to think too much and end up unable to act.”
I gave Leia a suitable explanation, but the actual reason Sa Ujin could not act recklessly was slightly different.
Among all those candidates, he might choose the real Hwa Yejin and turn her into a doll.
Well, that was not important right now.
What mattered was that even if Sa Ujin tried to resolve the situation, it would take a long time.
I simply needed to do what I wanted before then.
One floor at a time, we eventually reached the top floor.
Unlike the other doors, a much older and simpler door stood before us.
It looked shabbier than the doors of the ordinary Lust Demons, let alone those of a Succubus Queen like Harmon.
This was the boss room.
“I will be back.”
“W-Wait, Benefactor!”
Leia urgently called out to me.
“What? Why?”
“Um, you did not tell me what I should do this time……?”
I had explained beforehand what Leia needed to do inside the Gate. From creating ice footholds to watching Hwa Yejin, who had been surrounded by Lust Demons, so that she would not act impulsively.
It seemed she was flustered because an unfamiliar situation had suddenly appeared.
But that was natural.
“You would obviously die if you followed Hwa Yejin, so I only brought you here. Just stay here.”
She had nothing to do now.
When I opened the door and entered alone, I heard a small voice behind me.
“……B×stard…….”
I heard all of that.
We would talk after you got out.
“Anyway, putting that aside.”
I shifted my gaze to the bed in the center of the room.
The person lying on it was slowly sitting up.
“I should finish what I came to do quickly.”
Even after sleeping for so long, her fine white hair was not oily in the least. She had a calm impression, blue eyes, and long eyelashes. Anyone would have no choice but to call her beautiful.
A woman whose every exhale seemed beautiful slowly turned her head toward me.
“Did you sleep well, Princess?”
“You are…….”
Rather than answer, I drew the sword I had kept strapped to my back since entering the Gate.
[Apprentice Hunter’s Sword (E-)]
It was not even a proper item, only a lump of steel slightly sharper than a kitchen knife, but that did not matter.
“Did you come…… to kill me?”
Her emotionless voice echoed.
This was why I never wanted to come here again.
“No.”
The woman’s eyes widened slightly.
The ninth Gate’s boss, the ‘Princess.’
Her exact name was ‘Sleeping Beauty.’
This boss had several characteristics.
First, the longer she slept, the stronger her Ability became.
Second, the boss, ‘Princess,’ and the ‘Demon’ were separate people.
Third, this woman……
“Could you just…… kill me?”
She was a Resurrector who wanted death, yet revived again and again.
***
Once upon a time.
There was a very beautiful Princess.
Whenever the Princess suffered pain, she possessed an Ability that gave Mana to those around her.
The Princess loved this world.
Although the King desired the Princess’s great Mana and exploited it, the Princess loved her father.
Although the knights repeatedly cut the Princess and healed her to become stronger by receiving her Mana, the Princess loved them.
Although the Mages repeatedly burned the Princess’s flesh and healed her to receive her Mana, the Princess loved them.
And the Princess did not love herself.
She cursed herself, saying that all this suffering was her fault.
However, it seemed that people loved the Princess.
The kingdom’s Mages bestowed blessings upon the Princess.
The Blessing of Beauty, the Blessing of Wisdom, the Blessing of Grace, the Blessing of Dance, the Blessing of Music.
And the Blessing of Immortality.
Even when the Princess died, she awakened again. The longer she slept, the greater and stronger the Princess’s Mana became.
The people of the kingdom, blessed by her Mana, cheered.
“Long live the Princess!”
“Long live the Princess!”
“Long live the Princess!”
“Long live the Princess!”
And because the Princess loved the people who loved her.
She offered her neck to the knights’ blades once more.
***
“You are a Hunter, correct? I have never seen you before.”
“Right. Though I am a pathetic one.”
The Princess bowed her head toward me.
Her white hair flowed beautifully downward, revealing her clean neck.
“I have heard that if a Hunter kills me, all of my blessings will disappear. And if you kill me, a great amount of Mana will flow to you.”
I understood the desire to die well.
At first, one might endure for a sense of duty. Then for a faint hope. Then for something else. But when it continued over and over, only one thing remained.
Resignation.
After I understood that, I never once came to find this woman again.
If I did not come, Sa Ujin killed the Princess on his own.
“I told you that I did not come to kill you.”
“Then why did you come here……?”
I held the sword in a reverse grip and answered.
“I came to do something terrible to you.”
The moment the Princess saw what I was doing, she jumped from the bed and rushed toward me.
Because I pulled the hilt with all my strength to stab myself in the stomach.
STAB!
Dark red blood splashed against the lights, and the room grew slightly darker.