The emotion I felt as I made the man burst was, strangely enough, not guilt or anguish, but the tangible feeling of growth. In the past, my body felt like it would explode just from grasping an apple, let alone a person. Was it because of the Water Barrier?
With the robe added on top of that, I only felt a slight sense of resistance even after making a person burst. I couldn’t afford to waste it. Each time I used the water pressure, the Water Barrier would diminish.
After that, I would have to endure the same burden as before. In the first place, I never thought I had killed him with that.
“That hurts, you bastard…”
As I thought.
Splat!
In a crushed state, the creature that had leaped back to create distance grinned. It had a hideous form, like a burst sack, but after spitting out blood-tinged saliva, all its wounds healed. The same form I saw when I was with Dersia.
A lump of flesh made from pieces of human flesh stitched together. It had swelled into such a monstrosity. It was a form one could never get used to, no matter how many times one saw it.
A sharp remark escaped my lips along with an involuntary frown.
“Why does someone who can be anything choose to live as such a monstrosity?”
“Because I can be anything, you… Keuk, Ugh!”
The creature spat out several swords, then held one in each hand. In just a few seconds, a knight with a copper-colored skin and bulging muscles appeared. The knight slowly closed the distance and asked a question.
“Kairais. Do you know this man?”
“…I don’t. How would I know?”
Even his voice had changed, becoming low and imposing.
“He was an outstanding knight who served as the Knight Commander of a small country." "Had he wished, he could have become a part of the Empire and lived a life of pleasure without want, yet he was content with a small cabin and a single horse.”
“I’m not curious. What’s your point?”
Conversely, I stepped backward, measuring the distance. The mass walked forward, regardless of what I did. Then it suddenly stopped, made a blank expression, and looked around.
“…Where am I right now?”
“…?”
“Where is this place?”
Is he playing games? As I was thinking that, the mass suddenly looked up at the sky and muttered something.
“The last memory… yes. I fought the monsters that invaded to protect the kingdom. It was the end I wished for. I have no regrets. But…”
Stab.
He suddenly let go of the sword. The released sword pierced through the desert sand and stuck there. His expression, once filled with laughter and madness, was now embroidered with fear and enlightenment.
“—Wh-what am I now? Why have I become that monster?”
“…Are you acting?”
“Boy, where is this place? What about Ragritsa? What happened to everyone? Why, what are these memories? No, this. There’s no way I could have…!”
It was too realistic to be just an act. The trembling mass fell to its knees, clutching its head with a bewildered expression as cold sweat poured down.
“I-I remember the feeling. My lord, in his heart, with my own hands, I. I who was supposed to protect…”
“This is more or less why.”
Bang!
Tide Sense read the trajectory. The creature, who had suddenly grabbed a sword and charged, blew up the sand instead of my torso. The creature, once again wearing the mass’s vulgar smile, pointed the tip of its sword at me.
It took less than a second for it to pull out the embedded sword and swing it at me. The title of the greatest knight seemed to be no exaggeration.
“I’m in this damn form.”
“…It didn’t look like acting.”
“Well, I did loosen up a bit on purpose this time. But it really is like this, you know? It’s dangerous if I don’t keep a clear distinction. It’s a part you’ll have to be understanding about.”
“…”
“Well then, since I’ve told you a weakness, now it’s my turn.”
The mass suddenly put on a serious face and made a threat.
“What are you? Why do you look exactly like our puppets?”
“Do you think there’s any other possibility?”
“The original was thrown into a river when he was four, though?”
“I must have been lucky.”
“…Hahaha, that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”
He roared with laughter, then wiped the corners of his eyes.
“How absurd. No matter how desperately we tried to create a fallen one, they just died, but the one we carelessly tossed into a river comes back as a fallen one who can crush me to death…? Is this what they call the unpredictable nature of fate…”
“?”
They just—threw me in a river? That couldn’t be right. Dersia had insisted that my world was artificially created.
That damn elf shaman also said that a Great System wasn’t so easily made. This led to the conclusion that I had been subjected to something else by the Red Lotus. If the mass wasn’t lying, then it was likely by someone whose identity even the mass didn’t know. …I should subdue him later and interrogate him slowly.
Before that, there was something else I wanted to ask first.
“How many people do you have trapped in that head of yours right now?”
“Hmm.”
If the recent act was true, then that thing was a living prison. The people killed by the Red Lotus were being used as tools, unable to even find rest. It was to the point where I could understand why the Red Lotus cherished this monster.
The mass tapped its head as if in thought.
“I stopped counting after a hundred, but I’d guess there are at least ten thousand.”
“…”
“Anything else you want to ask? Let’s continue this pleasant Q&A session. It’ll be better for you, too, wouldn’t it?”
It seemed he had some information he wanted to get out of me. Yes, he must have many questions. From how I found out where he was, to what methods I used to fall, and so on.
Of course, my answer was already decided.
“Do you remember our promise?”
“…”
“It’s hard to believe what you’re saying now, so I’ll have to beat you up and listen slowly. We have plenty of time.”
“…Heh, I’m in a bit of a hurry, though…”
A smile blossomed on the creature’s lips. The corners of its mouth rose to an impossible degree.
“Well, Suirak can hold on a bit longer, I suppose. I’ve gone through so much trouble, shall we play for a bit?”
It was utterly disgusting.
“Will you be alright without calling for more people?”
The mass didn’t charge at me like before, instead glancing at my hands. It seemed to be wary of the water pressure. Indeed, a sudden death by crushing without any warning must be a power hard to imagine, even for an officer of the Red Lotus.
“I don’t think you’re in a position to worry about others.”
The objective was to subdue him. Even if not to get information, he was a being that couldn’t be killed. Even Dersia had struggled with him for a long time.
It was correct to assume that his regenerative ability was at a level I couldn’t break through. Then, as long as it wasn’t enough to make him burst and die.
“…Oh, ooh…!”
Crack…!
I slowly crushed the mass’s body with water pressure. The creature, unable to even breathe, looked down at its own body in surprise and laughed like a madman.
“Keuk, keuk… as expected of a Great System. And to think, a sprout that grew into a Great System in this world without us laying a hand on it, one that is even invisible to me? Or perhaps…”
The muscles of the creature, who was trying so hard to fish for information, swelled up.
“Heh, Dersia, it must be that bitch. The one who made you fall.”
“…”
The muscles expanded endlessly. Instantly becoming a giant of three meters, he overcame the water pressure and slowly walked over. I narrowed my eyes.
It felt like I was crushing a giant made of steel. If not for the Deep Fusion state, I couldn’t even stop his movements, let alone crush him to death. The mass even showed the leisure of nodding his head as if he understood, slowly approaching me.
“It seems your master has realized it as well. That to reach the heavens, one must first touch the bottom.”
I let him have his useless delusions. It seemed I couldn’t inflict any damage with water pressure. It would be dangerous to allow him any closer.
In that case.
Whooosh!
I gathered the wind and created a single sphere.
“…Hmm? Wait a minute, is that magic…”
Before the perplexed mass could react, I fired it immediately.
Boom!
Thunder Wind, a bolt of pure wind, struck the mass squarely in the gut. A spear focused on a single point, one that should have burst him apart no matter how much like steel his body was.
That.
“…it is.”
In the next moment, he, having transformed into the body of the knight, easily withstood it. A body that endures the magic of a magic-reinforced body. A body that had mastered it.
He wasn’t unscathed, but a mere scratch was far from enough to stop a creature who had been crushed to death.
“Hmm.”
The mass smiled, looking even more intrigued.
“As expected of a 9-Star mage’s creation. It’s my first time seeing someone use magic in a fallen state. But that’s a bad move in this situation. Don’t do it again.”
“…What?”
“Borrowing the body of a strong knight is what I do best. Of course I’ve mastered the magic-reinforced body. It won’t be of much use.”
His calm, lecturing tone was so close to advice that it was absurd. Advising an opponent in the middle of a battle. Most of the time it’s a bluff, but this time his judgment was close to the truth.
In any case, I had no intention of firing another Thunder Wind.
“Don’t feel too bad. I’m impressed you came to meet me alone, so I can give you this much advice.”
The mass, with its arms spread, seemed to lack any sense of being in a battle since a while ago. Even after being crushed to death once.
“If it were up to me, I’d like to play a bit more, but if that guy Suirak is caught by a 9-Star mage…”
The mass, who had been scratching its head, let out a sigh—and violently shook off the water pressure. He, now in a slender, reddish-brown body, accelerated at an incredible speed and disappeared.
“…”
I was left alone in the night desert. It was a situation where I should have concluded that the mass had fled, but I knew he wasn’t that kind of creature. I quietly closed my eyes and narrowed the range of my Tide Sense.
There was no use sensing a wide area. At that speed, the scattered Tide Sense wouldn’t be able to catch him easily. As the cold wind chilled my body, twenty seconds passed— Bang!
“Oh?”
The moment I jumped to the side, the mass that shot out from the ground simultaneously cut through the empty air. He looked at me with curious eyes. How did you react?
That emotion was clearly visible. Giving thanks to Brimdal, who had trained my Tide Sense to the point of death, I once again brought the creature into the range of my water pressure.
Crack!
This time, I made sure not to let go, firmly applying pressure to its neck. The goal was to knock him out. I blocked every opening, not allowing even a sliver of breath, but— “Hmm.”
The creature remained calm, letting out a groan in its rigid state.
“What kind of world is this? Crushing to death, and feeling killing intent…? Is that it? I’ve never even heard of it.” —He was toying with me.
He wasn’t serious. I only realized it now, but it seemed this guy didn’t really care much about what happened to Suirak. Or perhaps he found playing with me more entertaining.
“Or is it…? I think I might have heard of it before…”
Blocking his neck was also meaningless. A mouth had already formed on his chest, and he was speaking with that mouth. It was quite a bizarre sight.
I had to admit it. This guy was impossible to deal with using only water pressure. The matchup was not very good.
My world was a power that could cause instant death without any warning, yet this guy revived no matter how many times he died. If I couldn’t even knock him out, the water pressure was meaningless. Of course, since he knew about the magic-reinforced body, even my Thunder Wind was ineffective.
Putting all that aside—he was an officer of the Red Lotus. I couldn’t even imagine how many tricks he had hidden up his sleeve. To be honest, I had no chance of winning in a one-on-one fight.
If that guy got serious, switched bodies to overcome the water pressure, and closed in for a melee, a countdown would begin from that point.
Of course.
I, too, had not come without a plan.
“…Hmm? Is that our medicine… no, it’s not.”
I took a red pearl from my pocket and swallowed it. Then, I slowly opened my mouth towards the creature who was watching me with interest.
“You seem curious about my world.”
“Looks like you’re finally in the mood for some Q&A. Good. I’m dying of curiosity. You have to talk if you want to live a little longer.”
I replied lightly to the smirking creature.
“It’s the Deep Sea.”
“What?”
Was this the first time I had said it to the Red Lotus? If this information got to them, I might become a primary target. Despite knowing that possibility, I explained it anyway.
“I live in the deepest, darkest part of the sea. Where you can’t breathe, where your body is instantly crushed into pieces if you relax your strength for even a moment, where you can’t distinguish front from back, up from down.”
“…W-Wait. The Deep Sea?”
For the first time since meeting me, the mass’s eyes widened in bewilderment.
“That’s a world that can’t exist. Are you mistaking it for the Great Ocean?”
“Then don’t believe me.”
“…”
The creature, one of its eyes twitching, suddenly looked startled as if it had realized something.
“S-So that’s it. Water pressure. Is that what you used to make me burst…”
“Yes.”
“…Hah.”
He scratched his head and then sighed.
“Damn it, why did you have to tell me…”
His aura changed. The knights from before were certainly strong, but the form he was changing into now was on a different level. Scars formed on his clenching fists, on his face, his back, his abdomen.
All sorts of horrific and brutal scars were created, making it look as if he were dying of his own accord. But the reality was different. I felt the mass’s presence blur within my Tide Sense.
The circumvention of Tide Sense that first-rate Divine Punishment Knights sometimes showed. The fact that the mass was changing now meant he was a knight of that caliber.
“Now I can’t enjoy this, you son of a bitch.”
Grumbling as if genuinely disappointed, he clenched his fist. With that single motion, I realized it. I could never handle the power contained within it.
No matter what water pressure I used to block it, it would surely break through and kill me. It was that kind of fist. Swallowing dryly, I took a step forward.
“It seems I’ll have to capture you and take you with me. I can’t play around anymore.”
“What a coincidence, I feel the same.”
“If you’re going to resent someone, resent the genius skill of your master who kept a being like you alive. No, how do you even create a living Deep Sea? It’s just impossible. The pressure of the Deep Sea is unbearable even with preparations.”
“Like you right now?”
“What are you talking ab…”
The mass, which had been about to step forward naturally, blinked and looked to the side.
“…?”
He must have seen the shape of something that had just passed by. It was more of a silhouette than a shape, something like that.
“…You, don’t tell me the reason you told me just now was.”
A trigger.
I gave a greeting to the mass, who seemed to have realized something.
“Don’t hate it too much. It’s a godforsaken place, but it’s my home.”