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I can see a swarm of small monsters inside of the fort too, probably the reason why the bodies are in such a state. They aren’t too strong, but their numbers are staggering.

They all came from the grass and plants nearby, which turned into monsters when Erika bathed them with mana.

She can do that anywhere as long as there’s plants and she has mana, so I can even see the traces of uprooted plants in the fort’s courtyard, as Erika turned those into monsters as well.

I still need to figure out where Dominic went, or at the very least regroup with Erika.
As I think about that, I notice that the small monsters have started moving, opening a path.

“Over there?”

I follow that path through the fort, reaching one with a large hole in the wall. I doubt it was built that way, and the small monsters are definitely not strong enough for that. The only explanation is that Erika broke through it.

As I get closer to the hole, a strange sensation fills my body. I’ve…felt this before. I think it was back when Arrold escaped…it has to be teleportation magic!

“Dominic is trying to get away!”

I get into the hole and follow the corridor inside, seeing a familiar figure by the end. That enormous green monster is clearly Erika.

“Erika!”

Just when I call her name, Erika’s body staggers and then tumbles over.

“Huh?”

I don’t know what just happened. But I start running by instinct. When I get closer, I realize that Erika’s whole head is missing.

“!”

I grit my teeth as I look past her body, to whatever she was facing. There, I see a portal of teleportation magic, and in front of it…

“What?”
“No way, this has to be some sick joke?”

This can’t be possible. Or actually…

I’ve heard of this before, but I just never imagined it would happen to me too. I see… So this is how Vlad III felt back then. Now I can understand why he felt the need to act that way.

“State your name, just in case.”
“Are you serious? I never thought I’d hear myself ask for that. You already know the answer.”
“Fair enough.”

I never thought I’d see that face again, and the response he gives erases any doubts I had. But yeah, that was a ridiculous question to begin with. I know better than anyone else just who’s standing there. And I’m sure he’s aware of that too.

“Hahahah.”
““AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!””

We start laughing in unison. Or rather, laughing is all we can really do. And once the laughter is over…

“ “Die!!” ”

I, as Natalia, face off against my former self, Honjou Itsuki¹… And Honjou Itsuki turns against me… We take our guns and aim them at ourselves, and then pull the trigger without any hesitation.

My bullet is dodged, and Honjou Itsuki’s bullet hits my shoulder.

“…!!”

It hurts so much!!

Now that the portions of our fractured soul are so close, my very self becomes extremely sensitive, making each of my injuries flare up in pain. But the hatred and desire to kill the being in front of me that surges from deep within me is even more powerful than the pain.

I’m standing in front of me, just in a different body. That alone produces such a foul emotion within me that I can hardly express it with words. Not to mention that he was helping Dominic.

“Heh, who would’ve thought that the person following me was me all along. And I guess Ophelia is also gone then.”

My previous self says that with a mocking voice, and hearing those words makes me forget all the pain.

“So you’re the one who revived Ophelia?”
“Yeah, I just wanted something to hold back that arachne and ended up with an incredibly powerful sorceress.”
“…”

Huh? Then what? It was me all along? Helping Dominic, reviving Ophelia, trying to kill Oliiva, actually killing Erika…it was all me?

“Shut up, that’s all b̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲!”
“B̲u̲l̲l̲s̲h̲i̲t̲? So you’re saying you wouldn’t have done the same if you were in my position?”
“I…”

There really is nothing I can say against that.

“You are me, and I am you. I’d do the same thing you’d do, and you’ll act the same way I have. I get why you’d be irritated considering we’re on different sides, but you have no right to condemn me for my choices.”

As frustrating as this is, I can’t argue back. I know I would’ve done the same if I was in his shoes. I’ve already left people I didn’t like to be eaten by wild monsters in the forest before. If I knew how to use necromancy, I would’ve used it to put my enemy against someone close to them, inflicting more emotional damage on them.

“Well, either way I don’t really care about you. I’d like to kill you right now, but I’m pretty busy so let’s just leave it at that.”

Saying that, he takes out a black lump, similar in size to a baseball, and then walks backwards into the portal while casually throwing the lump at me. The portal closes right after, and the black lump begins to glow.

A moment later, my body is hit by a powerful impact and a wave of heat which destroys the whole room.

I’m also blown away while the walls and ceiling start to collapse. Everything is shaking and I’m buried under the falling rubble.

Now that he’s teleported far away, I no longer feel any pain, and since my last limiter is off, I end up taking far less damage than I anticipated. Once I felt like the destruction calmed down, I pushed the rubble aside and pulled myself out.

Now that I’m out, I realize that the explosion was far more destructive than I thought at first, as this whole section of the solid stone fort is gone.

The grass monsters also were caught in the blast, their bodies strewn around immobile. Then again, they were only monsters for a momentary time, as they would return to being plants once they ran out of mana. But more importantly…

“…Hahah.”

Now that I think about everything over again, I can’t help but laugh at how ridiculous the way it all connects is.

Dominic had already taken the lives of Ophelia and Shuma, and wanted to kill Olivia next. And I already had a run in with his company too. My other self was helping Dominic with all of that², marring Ophelia’s honor, and killing Erika. Knowing that there’s another person who’s me also feels disgusting.

I’ll kill both of them, no matter what. That’s all I have to do.

Actually, Dominic has a whole company with guys like Arrold. I’m sure my other self also has plenty of people on his side. I don’t know how many enemies I have in total. …But that doesn’t matter, thinking about it won’t change anything.

“No matter who they are or how many there are, I’ll just kill anyone who gets in the way.”

I sit atop the rubble as I mutter that to the air.

1. Robinxen: I know the author wasn’t exactly subtle about it, but I feel vindicated for having the theory they were the same person from the moment he was introduced as having a damaged soul.
2. Robinxen: It still feels out of character even with the forced “you would have done it too” so I will stick with the idea that the soul damage warped his thinking a little. I just can’t see how someone would condemn innocents after being an avidly protective person… even if they were on the other side. Anyway, I like this twist in general outside of that, like you are your own worst enemy come true. Great stuff.

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