Leave a comment

“It got fixed in an instant…!”
“Eh-heh-heh!”

Less than a kilometer from the castle, the two kids had repaired Gungnir. It took barely any time at all for Sakura’s magic to fix the spear.

“Then, shall we head back?”
“Yeah.”

They teleported up to the point where their skills were just barely usable, and then hurried back to the castle.

With this, it should be over, they thought.

“Shuu, we fixed it!” Kanata relayed to Shuu, when they reached the throne room and could see him straight ahead.
“Oh! Then we’ll first-”

The moment Shuu and Rir were about to get up, a dazzling flash of light raced through the room.

“Sorry, just got a bit dizzy…” Shuu commented, as he staggered onto his feet.

At his feet, where nothing was before, now something had appeared, while the person who’d been next to him, was gone.

There were a lot of things. The clothes, bag, and bracelet of the wolf girl, who’d told them she’d been saved by Shuu, plus a large amount of ash were scattered at Shuu’s feet.

Both kids were smart, so they could immediately guess what this was. It was, or rather, it used to be Rir.

They couldn’t find the words. Shuu seemed to grow suspicious about the way they looked at him, but he hadn’t noticed the ashes.

“Ah… Sh-Shuu… b-behind… you…” Kanata squeezed out in a trembling voice.

Just as Kanata had told him, Shuu checked what was behind him, but only verified that the evil god was still there. However, when he turned his gaze back at Kanata and Sakura, he noticed.

“Huh…?

That was all Shuu managed dumbfoundedly. The situation was incomprehensible to him. After looking at the ashes and clothes for a while, he inclined his head.

“Hey, Kanata, Sakura. What’s this stuff…?”

He looked at them with empty eyes. His face told them he didn’t want to believe it.

“T-That’s… uhm…”

The kids still couldn’t find the words. Kanata’s mind had frozen up.

“This is… Rir’s underwear… her bag… the bracelet we found in the dungeon… what’s goin’ on? That’s… ash, right? How… and why would she take off all her clothes and leave behind ash? My messages to her won’t connect… Is she wanderin’ around naked? Why’d she do that…?”

He picked up a handful of the sand-like ash and let it fall to the ground again. He then looked at Kanata and Sakura again.

“…? What’s goin’ on, what is-”

It happened when he said that.

There was a sudden gust. It picked up everything that used to be Rir, except for the ashes Shuu was still holding, her clothes, bag, and bracelet, and soon turned into a whirlwind. With Kanata and Sakura unable to do anything, seeing they still couldn’t use any magic, said whirlwind tore a large hole into the wall and escaped outside.

No one knew where it was headed. Or rather, they had no way to know.

“Hah… this ice is friggin’ cold.”

They could hear a voice from the throne.

The sages, except for Shuu, turned there. The ice that should have been imprisoning Loukis, was gradually melting. Even more, the spear made of mithril had also started to melt.

A short while later, Loukis emerged from the ice, as if nothing had ever happened. He picked up the arm lying next to him, and when he pushed it against the part where it had been cut off, it immediately reattached itself. It looked like his other wounds all had healed, too.

Loukis, or rather, Surtr grinned, and then started to talk in an unpleasant voice, that seemed intended to enrage the listeners.

“Huh, oh my!? Aren’t we missing someone? I wonder, did something happen while I was in that block of ice?”

Surtr started walking towards Shuu. However, the latter just kept looking outside where the ashes had disappeared, and didn’t display any reaction. Kanata’s mind had frozen up, mainly due to the loss of Rir and Surtr’s sudden activity.

“…No reply? Well, not a big deal, right? Just some smelly beastfolk slave who got turned into ashes and blown away with the wind, right? Not something to worry about, right?”

He finally reached Shuu, sat down next to him, and continued talking while looking in the same direction. Shuu was still in a daze and didn’t seem like he’d pay any attention to his surroundings.

“Oh, by the way. That dimwit Loukis has a skill called ‘Limited Instant Death’. If you gather a certain amount of magic power over several days, you can kill anyone you like. Though it can only be used once per year, you see. So, I put MY abilities to good use and strengthened it! Surprise, surprise, I made it so whoever is killed is turned into ashes!”

Surtr brought his face close to Shuu’s without hesitation and met the latter’s eyes. The Black God grinned broadly. His mouth warped the most it had up to this point.

“By the way, no matter what you try, you can’t bring her back to life! Even the sages’ Restoration Magic is meaningless! To begin with, with the amount of ash you have, you can’t do anything, Master Shuu! …Well, she was just a slave anyway, wasn’t she? Or a former slave, doesn’t matter. Not a big issue, right? Right?”

He understood. Shuu knew that this had been Rir.

“R-Rir… You… ba̲stard…!”

Surtr’s words broke something within Shuu, and together with a snapping sound, he grabbed the Black God at his collar and was about to strike him-

TL notes:
And everything goes to shi̲t. When you look back at chapters 350 to 354, it becomes clear that Surtr was putting on an act with the singular goal of sending Shuu, his main target for possession, into a rage. It also shows just how extensive Dace’s future knowledge must be, for her to plan it to this extent.

Support Us

Unlock Early Access ------- Select Project ------- Project Gender Bender Project Necro ∴ Support your favorite series and unlock chapters before the public release.