Chapter 171
Chapter 171
If Canis Is Alive (2)
The temporary leader of the Duhein Extermination Unit took in the man before his eyes. A man drenched in blood from head to toe.
Not only were the strange scales protruding from his skin unusual, but the fact that they were stained red was no ordinary sight either. It should have been an exceedingly easy mission, but an unexpected variable had appeared.
‘Ambush.’
The temporary captain gave a hand signal. One of the Extermination Unit members who recognized it charged at the man.
Despite knowing they were Duhein, the fearless man collided with the first Extermination Unit member to rush him.
The red sword and short spear(短槍) clashed. Duhein spear techniques were precise and ingenious. The spearhead, knocked away by the recoil of the collision, burrowed inward.
―Clang.
The man recognized the attack aimed at Canis and thrust out the right side of his chest. The Extermination Unit member driving in the short spear let out a hollow laugh.
Was he merely an insignificant small fry? His spirit was admirable, but his response was utterly careless. He put more strength into it, intending to pierce straight through him.
However, the moment the short spear touched the right side of the man’s chest, it slipped aside and bounced away.
―Kiiing.
The easiest response to an unexpected situation was evasion. The Extermination Unit member immediately threw himself backward, attempting to widen the distance.
But just as the man’s gauntlet seemed to glow for a moment, an intolerable chill engulfed the Extermination Unit member.
“Graaaagh!”
Throwing his head sharply backward prevented his entire body from freezing, but the same could not be said for the rest. His lower body, struck directly by the chill, froze completely solid.
The Extermination Unit member, who had leaped far backward, could not even land because his legs were frozen and toppled over, and unable to withstand the impact, his lower body shattered like pieces of ice.
“Insidious bastards.”
The man continued with his insult. But the Extermination Unit did not waver. Another one of them hurriedly charged in.
Two short spears chaotically swept through the air. The Extermination Unit member facing the man was dumbfounded.
‘How can he be this tough!’
His skill was nothing remarkable. At the very least, it could not compare to theirs. But his body was the problem.
Four out of ten attacks landed, yet barely one of them could actually inflict damage. Whatever had been done to his skin, the blades slipped whenever the short spears touched it.
He had charged in after seeing the man’s movements become more sluggish than before, but instead, he had only ended up wasting his own stamina.
“Hmm.”
The Extermination Unit member, who narrowly avoided the sinister red sword, retreated a considerable distance.
“Something is strange.”
“I feel the same way.”
At the Extermination Unit member’s words, the temporary captain’s expression hardened as well. The man’s unrefined momentum was like that of a beast. In truth, his movements were merely somewhat quick, with nothing efficient about them.
Yet every attack against him was useless. They had never encountered a case like this before. The temporary captain realized they were in no position to hold anything back.
“We’re going all out. Watch out for the cold.”
“Yes.”
The magic Duhein took pride in. Blessed by the sea, the magic that resembled the sea surged.
The fickle and intense magic, like waves, seeped into the short spears. Harpoons with fluttering blades formed.
“……What a monster.”
A spear throw without a single wasted motion. The harpoons flew at speeds impossible to follow with the naked eye. The two harpoons finally pierced through the sturdy skin.
The right side of his chest and his left thigh. Despite the considerable pain it should have caused, the man’s face did not so much as twitch.
The temporary captain clicked his tongue at the sight. Where had such a terrifying bastard come from?
“Duhein spears are harpoons.”
But once the body had been pierced by harpoons, the fight was already over. The temporary captain chuckled softly.
“And harpoons are meant to keep things impaled.”
The two Extermination Unit members pulled their hands back with all their strength. Thin threads of magic connecting them moved the harpoons.
Now the man would be dragged toward them through the air, and all they had to do was cut down the bastard once he was airborne and defenseless.
Even if he braced himself with both legs, the pulling force alone would make the harpoons inflict devastating damage around the areas they had pierced. Or so they thought.
“Huh?”
In the meantime, the man had put down the child who was their target and was dragged toward them without much resistance. The temporary captain, who had drawn his sword to cut him down in midair, suddenly flinched in shock.
What the man held in his hand was a book radiating a brilliant light.
―Kiiing.
The yellow thing that burst from within made a strange sound the instant it was exposed to the air. This was no ordinary thing. It was dangerous.
The intuition he had honed over four years on the battlefield was screaming at him.
“Dodge!”
The temporary captain shouted that to the remaining unit member and turned around. A threat he had sensed through nothing but instinct, without any evidence whatsoever.
After rapidly putting distance between himself and the threat, the temporary captain glanced back.
“Ah.”
It was not something that could be dodged. An enormous source of light soared high into the sky. The man, holding a pillar of ferociously roaring electricity, drew his arm back.
The posture of a spear throw. A spear thrown from an awkward position in midair would be far less powerful. But if what was being thrown was something like that instead of an ordinary spear, posture did not matter.
A savage smile appeared on the man’s face. And the spear of lightning that was launched carelessly struck the ground.
“…….”
Silence followed. The temporary captain quietly closed his eyes. A wave of electricity spreading across the ground overwhelmingly overturned the entire area.
***
―Oooong.
“It really is powerful.”
An entire section of the forest had been completely blown away. A storm of lightning had erupted in the direction I threw the Lightning Spike, and nothing remained.
The lush vegetation and dense forest. Even the two Duhein members who had been within it. They had evaporated without leaving a trace.
I examined the wounds where the harpoons had pierced me.
“Oh. Even this heals.”
My scales had gritted their teeth and tried to endure the surging magic harpoons, but in the end, they had yielded my body. They had suffered damage severe enough that it would not have been an exaggeration to say they were ground away in the process.
I summoned the Circle of Reincarnation and healed my wounds. The scales that had been ground away along with them also regained their original color.
“Hey. You okay?”
I headed straight toward where Canis was. She was exactly as I had carelessly thrown her aside in the chaos.
Canis whimpered as she touched her arm.
“Ugh.”
“Good grief.”
I examined her small, six-year-old body. Scrapes were hardly wounds, so I ignored those, and the arm she was holding appeared to have been dislocated.
“Calm down.”
I knew nothing about setting bones. There was nothing I could do for her. I calmed Canis down.
Perhaps because she could feel my warmth against the back of her head, Canis gradually stopped trembling.
“W-What happened?”
“There were attackers. That’s just how nobles are.”
I answered Canis without lying. Canis looked startled for a moment, but quickly collected herself.
Originally, Canis died here. Then Anger went berserk, resulting in the Canis of the present. What would happen if the original Canis survived?
I became curious.
“Don’t worry. Someone will come soon. People don’t die from an injury like that in the first place. You might end up crippled, though.”
“……That’s an electrifying consolation.”
Canis gave a faint chuckle as cold sweat ran down her face. With this much commotion, there should be some response from the Ulbushis side.
Just as I thought that, I felt a tingling sensation run through the back of my head.
“No. That’s not it.”
This was not the original world. It was merely a world so elaborate that it felt like reality.
This was nothing more than a fragment of Canis’s fragmented memories. After asking Canis for permission, I picked her up.
Moving an injured patient recklessly was not a good idea, but leaving her here alone made me even more uneasy.
“Ugh.”
“Endure it with sheer grit.”
Canis groaned at the rough movement. Sorry, but this was not a situation where I could afford to go easy on her. Since she was a child, I wanted to accommodate her as much as possible, but still.
“This is troublesome.”
A transparent barrier blocked me. There had never been a path to the Ulbushis mansion in the first place. This forest was the only space permitted to Canis.
“M-Mister.”
Canis, sensing my mood, trembled anxiously. With a shaking hand, she grabbed my sleeve.
It was sticky and soaked in blood. I put Canis back down right where we were. I couldn’t figure this out.
The transparent wall did not seem like something that could be broken through with physical force.
“M-Mister. A-Am I going to die?”
“I told you people don’t die just because their shoulder is dislocated.”
“Th-Then, can I see The Goddess?”
“Hey. Are you even listening to me?”
I ignored Canis’s nonsense and stood up. Sitting still like this did not suit my temperament.
There had to be something. But I could not think of what it could possibly be. This should have ended once I dealt with the Duhein Extermination Unit.
“M-Mister. Misteeer!”
“What.”
“Don’t go.”
Because Canis called out to me with such heartbreaking desperation, I sat back down. She clutched my sleeve tightly, as though afraid I might leave.
“Mister.”
“What.”
“Did something go wrong?”
Canis asked. Lost in thought, I wiped my left hand as clean as I could and touched Canis’s forehead.
“Huh?”
The hand touching her forehead moved toward her hair. It turned into me stroking her head. Canis, who had been startled, relaxed once she realized I was merely petting her.
“Does the blood smell strong?”
“It is strong, but I’m okay.”
“I see.”
Looking at Canis, who seemed to have calmed down somewhat, I let out a small sigh. Looks like I needed to call in reinforcements.
“I’m going to shout, so don’t be startled.”
I warned Canis beforehand.
“Mimi!”
I cupped both hands around my mouth and shouted loudly. Startled by the tremendous volume, Canis beside me flinched.
Even after waiting for quite a while, there was no response. I was wondering whether I should call again when I felt the space before me ripple.
―Mwi! Mwimwimwimwi! Mwi!
The Dream Bird burst out of space. The Dream Bird began angrily saying something to me.
Judging from the situation, was it scolding me? I roughly nodded along to words I could not even understand. I had wondered if it might work, but I hadn’t expected it to find its way even here.
―Mwimwi! Mwimwimwi! Mwiiii!
“W-What is that sound?”
―Mwi?
Frightened by the strange voice of another living creature, Canis asked. Only then did the Dream Bird notice Canis and tilt its head.
But the Dream Bird’s reaction was somewhat unusual. It narrowed its eyes and stared at Canis as though it had seen something it should not have.
―Mwimwi.
“What.”
―Mwii. Mwimwimwi.
Fuck. I have no idea what it’s saying. The Dream Bird was just as frustrated. Using its freely moving wing, the Dream Bird wrote something on the ground.
A line inside a circle. The number 5. A letter. I tilted my head as I looked at them.
“You’re going to bring a letter, so wait for five minutes?”
―Mwimwi! Mwi!
Apparently, my guess was more or less correct, as the Dream Bird nodded vigorously. Only after hearing my acknowledgment did the Dream Bird disappear into the rippling space.
It did not forget to warn me not to go anywhere until the very end.
“W-What was that just now?”
“A spiritual creature. It’s called Dream Bird, my sla……friend.”
“Old friend? Is that its name?”
“No. Its name is Dream Bird, and it’s my friend.”
I gave a rough answer to Canis’s question. I had nearly said slave before hastily changing it to friend. I began counting seconds in my head.
When exactly five minutes had passed, I called the Dream Bird just as I had before.
―Mwi!
The Dream Bird appeared the instant I called and held something out to me. It was a letter. Puzzled, I unfolded it.
―The soul of the deceased. The only things not recorded in the Palace of Dreams are inanimate objects or the dead. The little girl beside you right now is a dead soul. It is a strange magic created using that soul as a medium.
Leave that place immediately. If the medium disappears, the magic will be undone. Winter is worried. Aro is grumbling while cleaning.
That was what it said. It had probably rushed to Berrot and asked him to translate its words. I stared silently at the letter before shifting my gaze toward Canis.
“My condolences.”
There was nothing I could do for her.