Ishura - Volume 9 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Kadan Third District

As sentient creatures capable of understanding Word Arts, the monstrous races were recognized to have a certain number of rights—this “certain number,” in effect, meant not equal rights as the minian races.

The Monstrous Races Protective Camp was, despite the “protective” descriptor, largely constructed the same as a jail.

The thick metal door to prevent escapes had only a small slit in it for passing through meals, and it was impossible for Kuze to figure out from the outside if behind it was an ogre, a lycan, or some other creature.

At the very least, there weren’t vampires behind the doors—since they were immediately disposed of when found.

This is a real depressing facility.

To successfully postpone the eleventh match, he needed to convince Uhak the Silent, who was to fight in the twelfth match.

He figured someone else was more suited for the role, but the explanation he got was that, currently, he was the only other person living in Aureatia who had any connection with Cunodey the Ring Seat.

There was some possibility that this was an expedient on Aureatia’s part.

Kuze didn’t want to suspect there was a hidden meaning to everything, but perhaps Aureatia’s people had, through some means, learned about Uhak’s power of Word Arts negation and planned to use him at the right moment to snuff Kuze out.

There were plenty of reasons for him to be treated like this. With Rosclay—the only one who knew his secret plan—dead, there was in effect no power capable of restricting Kuze’s movements. It would be better for Aureatia if he were to simply die, in an accident if possible, while they were still able to dispose of him.

“He is in this containment room.”

“Thank you for showing me here. Is Uhak behaving himself?”

“Yes. In fact, I’ve never seen an ogre as calm as him.”

After the soldier showed him to the door, Kuze took a step inside Uhak’s cell.

It was a clean room. His garments were folded along the wall, and the small dishes from his finished meal were neatly lined up together, with Uhak himself sitting unmoving and staring out the window. His living arrangements looked like those of an Order priest who had given up all worldly desires.

“Heya there, Uhak. Been a little while.”

When Kuze greeted him, Uhak reacted by turning his white eyes in his direction.

He was a gray and large ogre.

Nastique meanwhile…

He strained his eyes at the empty air, but the usual figure of the angel was nowhere to be found.

Nastique really didn’t show herself around Uhak, after all.

Death was only ever about Kuze when he stood at Uhak’s side.

He thought that perhaps having Uhak kill him here, exactly according to Aureatia’s plans, might have brought him much greater salvation.

“Haven’t seen each other since the almshouse attack, am I right? Bweh-heh-heh… You really saved my butt there.”

He didn’t know how it may have looked objectively speaking, but at least to Kuze, he had been saved.

After the fifth match, when Nophtok the Crepuscule Bell spurred the Sun’s Conifer to attack the almshouse, Kuze had gotten through it without killing anyone. Uhak had fortunately stopped Nastique from slaughtering them all.

“I just thought I never really thanked you for that… So thanks.”

Uhak nodded, like a great tree tilting forward.

Though they were both students of Cunodey’s, Uhak remained composed, completely opposite of Kuze.

“I’ll get straight to the point. Something’s come up that you need to help out with, as a hero candidate. Kadan Third District’s been swallowed up by a swarm of constructs, and it’s put Aureatia in danger. I want you to come with me to put them down. Right now, if possible.”

He was told that not a single vestige of the city remained in Kadan Third District.

Mushrooms taller than buildings forested the area, blocking out sunlight and contaminating the air with thick spores, with unknown fungal life-forms that walked and crawled around flourishing as well. The phenomenon had been caused by a fungus by the name of Nectegio the Ravenous Rot.

“Look, I get you may not have any reason to hear me out, but…even then…we’re still hero candidates. Can you help me save everybody?”

Uhak, held captive by Aureatia, was to be deployed to Kadan Third District and destroy Nectegio. In light of this judgment, Kuze felt it even more likely that Aureatia had grown wise to Uhak’s powers.

If the enemy basepoint was both clearly visible and stationary, then wouldn’t it by far easier for Aureatia to clean up the situation by using Mele the Horizon’s Roar’s precision, long-range bow fire to blow away the entire district itself?

Sending a regular ogre into that nightmare would be condemning them to a meaningless death. Are they trying to confirm for themselves if he really does have the power to negate Word Arts or not…? And if he truly has the will to battle as a hero candidate?

Uhak didn’t possess the power of Word Arts. Ultimately, he didn’t give any response to Kuze’s request, as expected.

He simply stood up quietly, as if he had decided what needed to be done.

Kadan Third District was covered in a thickly layered fog that gave off a metallic glow.

It was impossible to grasp the situation in the district from the outside. The only certainty was at nightfall, the eerie bioluminescence would pulsate through the fog.

The metallic fog that sealed away the Third District didn’t originate from Nectegio the Ravenous Rot’s spores—it came from one of Aureatia’s magic tools, Liquified Rampart.

It was an oil-like magic tool that possessed an unnatural rainbow luster. Possessing a mass density far greater than what one would expect from a liquid, and an effect that dissolved living bodies like acid, it was a formless defensive wall the shape of which could be freely transformed at the user’s will.

Aureatia used water and sewer infrastructure to make Liquid Rampart flow into Kadan Third District and permeate the soil, which served to just barely prevent the spread of the contamination. The fog was the Liquid Rampart in a vaporized state.

Although at present, Liquid Rampart was breaking down the spores and preventing any further spread, it didn’t prevent the district’s complete annihilation. The speed of the spores’ production and adaptation far outpaced the speed of the disintegration.

The labyrinth’s growth was under careful observation and all citizens were strictly prohibited from going to and from the area.

Arriving at the temporary checkpoint set up on the road was a minia in black robes, and an ogre dressed in white.

The greatshield-bearing man with a vaguely ill-omened aura about him was Kuze the Passing Disaster.

The club-wielding ogre, placid in contrast to his massive body, was Uhak the Silent.

“Bweh-heh-heh… Heya there, looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you. Kuze the Passing Disaster, and that’s Uhak the Silent. Now this sure is something, huh?”

Kuze languidly raised up his hand and greeted the checkpoint soldiers.

“I should be saying that to you, Master Kuze. Thank you for your cooperation. Truth is, the situation here is terrifying…” the soldier said, turning back to look at the soaring layer of fog behind him.

From afar, the area reflected light like a mirror, so Kuze had no way to know, but after getting this close, he understood.

On the other side of the fog was the outline of a dense, grotesque forest.

Stalks well over ten meters tall rose upward in a serpentine, and countless mushroom caps stretched out as if putting a lid over the sky.

The outlines of the buildings that originally made up the cityscape were either rotting or crumbling away, while others still were unnaturally growing outward, and it was clear to see that absolutely everything had been covered in some enigmatic fungi.

“I get it… Yeah, no wonder Mele can’t use his arrows in a situation like this.”

Kuze’s idea that mobilizing Mele the Horizon’s Roar could clean this up had been naïve.

If Mele’s arrows destroyed this hyphal labyrinth now, there was no telling just how far these unknown fungal spores would fly beyond the district’s borders.

“Incineration, disintegration, whatever it is, the only way to handle an ecosystem like this is to destroy it down to the root… Oh yeah, this is asking the impossible, all right.”

“Liquid Rampart is only keeping it back because this enemy doesn’t intend on trying to attack aggressively. Just two days ago, a fungi variant we believe was cultivated within the labyrinth attacked the ninth checkpoint. Five were killed taking on the lone creature, and two among the survivors died from some unknown plague later that day.”

“So it’s staying quiet to prioritize producing more of those things, then… You guys have done a great job. Bet it was terrifying being here.”

“I would be honored to be able to give my life for the Kingdom.”

The soldiers maintaining the blockade must have been constantly exposed to dangers far greater than the hero candidates faced in their matches. The danger didn’t only come from direct threats like a fungi assault, either. They were left in constant fear that they’d be affected by the spores that got through Liquid Rampart, and even the fog from Liquid Rampart was dangerous in and of itself, disintegrating all living cells in its wake.

Guess this means that Aureatia was in such chaos and so pressed for help, they had no choice but to leave a labyrinth this dangerous to be dealt with later…

“We’ve prepared protective gear developed by the Equipment Agency. The ogre-sized gear was specially made to order, so you should first go to the cantonment and… Is something the matter?”

“Er, well…”

Kuze looked at Uhak, lingering in silence.

It was evident that the ecological monster that constructed this hyphal labyrinth—Nectegio the Ravenous Rot—was a construct.

Yet, Uhak the Silent hadn’t erased this abnormality.

If Uhak felt like it, he should have been able to completely kill off Nectegio, growing lush across their entire line of sight, even as Kuze stood there chatting with the soldier.

Is there some reason why he shouldn’t kill Nectegio…? Wait, if I were Uhak… Maybe he senses that Nectegio’s too big in scale, and he’d be forced to get the people inside mixed up in it all, too? It’s definitely not just because he doesn’t feel like it, right?

“Sure is inconvenient that I can’t just ask you at times like this, you know?”

Kuze scratched his head.

Just because Uhak wasn’t making a move didn’t mean it was okay for Kuze to do nothing.

“Bah… Sure, sure. So, protective gear? How long’s that gonna last inside there?”

“As long as it doesn’t suffer any impacts, we’ve confirmed it can at least handle searches twenty meters past the barrier. Any farther and there are fungi wandering about, so…”

“Bweh-heh-heh… The mushrooms are just too strong, huh? Got it.”

Borrowing the protective gear that engulfed his entire body like an animal costume, Kuze took his step into the Third District.

He knew full well he risked death. While the attacks from fungi didn’t pose him any threat, the toxins—without any life of their own—were the most dangerous of all. Depending on the density and properties of the spores, it was highly likely the protective gear would completely dissolve away.

Even still, if there was something inside that made Uhak hesitate to enter, Kuze, being harder to kill than anyone else, needed to be the one to go in and check.

The Aureatian soldiers, with death coming to them far easier than anyone else, had summoned up all their courage to maintain this current situation.

If he wasn’t able to fight now, then he didn’t understand why the angel of death was haunting him at all.

…A guy like me, not putting his life on the line? No way can that happen.

An Aureatia army garrison lay near the southern part of Kadan Third District.

There was no trace of its regular appearance left. The military base had collapsed from the weight of the fungal sporocarps and their abnormal growth, and everything—not just organic but metallic objects as well—was being devoured by an unknown mold. With the density of spores, the air was now tinged with viscosity, turning into dirt-brown smoke and covering the area.

In the middle of the smoke, amid the gregarious sporocarps, there occasionally flashed a baleful bioluminescence in pink, light blue, and red.

The irregular luminescence almost appeared to be the atypically massive organism’s neural transmission.

“Aha! Aha! Aha! Now isn’t this interesting!”

A man stood atop a building that was beginning to collapse.

He wore a white lab coat with spotty moth-holes and had hair discolored by chemicals. Inside this space where any and all non-fungi ecological systems had been eradicated, he was the lone minia. The self-proclaimed demon king, Yukis the Ground Colony.

Yukis was able to survive in this atmosphere, filled with lethal spores, in part because Nectegio continued to adjust the environment surrounding him, but also because—after using himself as his lab rat for so long—he had acquired a resistance to several types of toxins and fungi.

“Oh, yes, yes, how! Wooooonderful! Oh no, but it cannot be, can it?! There really is a creature capable of undergoing Nectegio’s absolutely sublime response to eradicate any foreign bodies, and yet still not be incorporated into the ecosystem!”

On the drilling grounds directly below the building where Yukis stood was a white writhing mass, like a cocoon, covered in several layers. With it came the sound of hyphae, as tough as steel, being snapped apart.

“Then, oh goodness, does this mean there is another besides me who can share in Nectegio’s wonderfulness?! How about it?! Will you be my friend?!”

“Ngh… Hraaugh!”

The girl’s shout echoed, and the white mass burst from within.

Long legs kicked the ground and fled from the sea of hyphae.

Her green eyes left an afterimage in her wake. She was faster than a musket shot and more powerful than a tank. The momentum of the girl’s escape was enough to send her through the collapsing defense barrier, and she dug into the ground with her bare feet to stop.

Her long chestnut-colored braid trailed behind her.

“I didn’t…hear anything you said! Friends, uh…what was all that?!”

Tu the Magic.

She was a former hero candidate, separated from Flinsuda the Portent’s control, and released into Aureatia.

“I’m Tu the Magic.”

“Magic?! An amusing name indeed! The supreme being you are currently bearing witness to would be none other than Nectegio the Ravenous Rot! The species restraining you just now was the sixth-generation variant of the spinning species, Nelmerorie Lyadatiesna! Incidentally, I am Yukis the Ground Colony!”

“I came here to stop this thing! Can’t it be stopped somehow?”

Though her position had changed, Tu’s actions remained the same.

In the massive coup, she had used brute force to mediate fights and made every effort to rescue any citizens caught up in the strife.

As many times as she intervened, she wasn’t able to save all victims of the coup, either. The rumors about Kadan Third District’s eradication took a big month’s time after the tenth match to reach her ears.

There was guaranteed to be casualties she couldn’t save and atrocities she’d be too late to reach.

Nevertheless, she wasn’t wrong for continuing to help what was right in front of her.

By accepting Flinsuda’s words, Tu felt that she had gained a spirit core to her actions.

“How am I supposed to deal with this mushroom thing?!”

“‘Deal with it,’ I have no…huh?! You don’t think it’s amazing? Wouldn’t it be grand to gaze at Nectegio with me and bask in the beauty and mystery of biology, enjoying unlimited pleasure? Why, you are especially grand yourself, Tu! Your keen ability to appreciate Nectegio… How I wish you would share it with all miniankind!”

“If you know about this…uh, Nectegio thing? Then help me! There’ll be even more casualties if it keeps up like this! I have to find its main body somewhere…”

“Brzzzzz. Analyzing the tar, get. Brzzzzz. Tu the Magic. Nectegio will, use target’s, self, certification as identifier.”

The noise, like the air being caressed, reverberated from somewhere unknown.

Several of the mushroom lamellae vibrated.

The noise may have been coming from all the air surrounding Tu.

“Strengthening, restrain fibers. Producing, brzzzz, corro, sive poison instead of, neuro, toxin.”

“Aheeeeeh!”

Yukis suddenly screamed and collapsed on the spot.

Tu was left bewildered.

“What happened?!”

“…Awah?! Forgive me! Nectegio’s voice was simply so divine, I believe it caused a tachycardia-induced cardiac syncope! Yes, yes, but! This is proof that my body is able to perceive Nectegio’s brilliance like normal…!”

“I have no idea what’re you talking about… Am I just too dumb to understand…?!”

Egg-shaped sporocarps were now growing in an encircling formation around Tu.

Immediately reading the situation, she ran through them all. Her goal was the supersized sporocarp stretching close to twenty meters in the air.

Behind her, the egg sporocarps burst, and a restraining fluid shaped into strands scattered everywhere. It wasn’t able to catch her.

At the same time, as if predicting Tu’s trajectory, small mushrooms that gave off a violet glow flowered en masse.

“Corrosive Species, Colkatisano.”

What would be an instantaneously lethal chemical substance to a normal life-form had scored a direct hit on Tu, but her speed never slackened whatsoever.

“Hyaaah!”

Tu sent a kick into the towering mushroom edifice. She cleaved through more than half its diameter and kept going.

Next, swiping it with her fingers, borne like claws, she fully severed it at the base.

With this, the colossal sporocarp collapsed, previously looming as the largest in the whole area.

Tu’s mind was unable to determine which part of the rampantly proliferating Nectegio she needed to destroy to get this situation under control. From first arriving in the district, until she made it to where she was now, she had deforested all the colossal sporocarps she laid eyes on.

“…!”

New giant sporocarps began rising up like trees, buildings and earth splintering apart as they grew.

Simply, punches or destruction didn’t prove at all effective against this enemy.

“Er, Tu…? I think you mentioned that you need to find the ‘main body,’ yes? ‘I cannot say that will be a constructive endeavor, no siree! We multicellular organisms may all be a single colony, universally composed of microorganisms known as cells, but…would you yourself be able to verify—hee-hee-hee—verify which one of the cells composing you is the main body?!”

Before she even reacted to Yukis’s voice, Tu jumped down from the remains of the pillar with a spin.

Immediately afterward, thick sticky arms smashed the area where she had just stood.

There was now a seven-armed monster, composed from a mesh entanglement of hyphae— There hadn’t been any signs it was approaching. It had likely been cultivated underground and germinated at that exact location.

The arm that swung down at her then burst, apprehending Tu with its tenacious fungal tissue.

“Cleanup Species, Neltoral Tetsnyates! Hee-hee! A rare one indeed, this one!”

“Get the heck…away from me!”

Tu immediately tore off several threads of the restraints. She could tell that they had become far stronger than they were before.

Tu the Magic didn’t die. While Nectegio would endlessly grow and adapt to its enemy, it couldn’t compose a fiber that was able to completely stop Tu in her tracks.

In the same vein, however, Nectegio was boundless. The landscape, as far as the eye could see, was all Nectegio the Ravenous Rot. Unless it was all eradicated simultaneously, this enemy would not fall, and by breeding new species, it could immediately supplement any functionality it lost.

But…if this foe’s a construct user, like Krafnir…

As she continued this morass of a battle, Tu’s attention turned to Yukis, standing atop the garrison.

It was entirely unthinkable, given the situation they were in, but Yukis was totally unprotected. For construct users like Izick and Krafnir, it was normal to have the constructs they created themselves stay at their side like guards, but Yukis didn’t even have Nectegio properly protecting him.

Amid her close-ranged exchange of blows, her leg was caught by hyphae.

The leg was swung about by the colossal fungi, and she was slammed into the avenue.

The buildings, eroded by the hyphae, weakly crumbled away like a baked confection.

The sticky liquid packed inside it flowed out. Accumulated inside were dissolved minian skulls.

“Urk…ngh…!”

Even as she tried to talk with the man rationally, Tu understood.

Yukis was a self-proclaimed demon king, able to kill this many minia without any guilt at all. No matter how much love he may have showed his creation, this fact didn’t change.

Spinning her body around like a top, she twisted apart the restraints.

Intersecting the colossal fungi’s follow-up attack, Tu used her claw-like hands to sever its leg. She raced past it.

Behind her, the massive fungi began to fall, having lost its balance.

Exiting into the roadway, Tu’s sights once again focused on Yukis the Ground Colony.

If there’s too many constructs to handle, maybe if I defeat their creator…

“Whoa, whoa… What’re you doing here all by yourself?”

The voice that interrupted Tu’s thoughts sounded genuinely surprised.

It came from the opposite side of the street. She had heard that voice before.

A low voice that sounded run-down and worn out.

“Huh…?”

Kuze the Passing Disaster wasn’t wearing his usual black vestments and was fully wrapped up in gray, ungainly protective gear.

Kuze beckoned her over to him.

“Come on, Tu the Magic. Fighting here isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

“Wait, but, Kuze…?! What’re you doing here?!”

Kuze didn’t answer, pulling Tu’s hand back toward the city.

As she ran, pulled along by Kuze’s hand, she noticed a bizarre change.

The path Kuze had passed through, and only this path, was clear of the spore smog, as if the sun had shone down on the area. The slime mold and lichen that once submerged the street like floodwaters had dwindled enough for the ground surface to become visible again.

“Tu?! Where are you going?! I must insist we admire dear Nectegio together! I absolutely must have you experience this scientific religious experience!”

While Yukis’s screaming at her back faded in the distance, she felt the firmness of Kuze’s fingers at the same time.

They were gnarled and far weaker than Tu’s, and yet despite that, so very strong.

…Kuze.

Their encounter had been so sudden, Tu wasn’t sure she knew what she was supposed to say.

“Thank you,” maybe? “Good to see you again”?

Or perhaps, hearing “How could you do that to Rique?” would have eased Kuze’s heart the most.

“Look. You see those mushrooms growing up like towers? Like that one you just brought down…”

Kuze was the first one to speak up, glancing out at the scene of the writhing city.

“That’s probably like an artillery battery for firing spores way out into the distance. It’s fermenting all sorts of things inside… It planned to build up pressure and expand its domain out all at once. At least, that’s what the Aureatian scholars hypothesized, anyway.”

“…Hey, Kuze. Just now, I—”

“It’s fine.”

Right. It felt like Kuze had saved Tu just now.

Even if her life hadn’t been in danger, she might have taken a single step toward a critical moment in her life.

If Kuze hadn’t pulled her hand at the moment, she might have considered killing Yukis.

“You’re a real kind girl, Tu, see… Am I wrong? So, well, bweh-heh-heh… What this old man’s trying to say is, I’m sure your rampaging around has saved a bunch of people…”

“Yeah… Thanks.”

“Bweh-heh-heh… Not sure I deserve any gratitude, if I’m honest.”

Kuze’s smile looked weak and exhausted.

Though Tu didn’t actually know the expression he had underneath the thick protective bodysuit.

As Kuze continued forward, the thickly growing creatures all seemed to disappear somewhere, as if avoiding Kuze entirely.

The tide of death filling the town pulled away. Anything that tried to kill Kuze would perish itself.

The countless microscopic fungi around them were no exception.

“Tu. Can you see the outside of my clothes right now? If any part of it snapped or has one of the layers lifted up, can you let me know? The visibility’s so bad here, I can’t check for myself.”

“Sure… Ummm, while on the move? I have to look while we’re running?”

“Please!”

Designed to be equipped with the greatest physical abilities possible, Tu the Magic had always possessed excellent dynamic visual equity.

In the span of five paces, she would jump while rotating around, bending her body like a spring to bounce to another angle.

Tu jumped around Kuze’s vicinity like an acrobat and looked at the state of his body from several angles.

“Oh! The fabric on your back might be a bit rougher than the other spots…! Is that okay?”

“Sure isn’t! I can manage the bacteria, but lifeless toxins are tough… Especially since I plunged in here on my own. I planned on going back really fast, but…I spotted you and definitely wandered way too far inside. If it’s already getting rough, then I might be cutting it a little close.”

“Huh…?”

“Honestly, how do always get stuck doing this unproductive stuff? I mean, none of this matters at all, does it? For your mission to meet with Queen Sephite one more time…or my own goal either, bweh-heh-heh… Still, we always see this bad news through, don’t we…”

“I think…”

Kuze probably was just complaining to himself, but Tu felt like she needed to answer him.

“It’s better this way. This is fine. This feeling, like that I want to help the people I see in front of me, I think it just kicks me into action no matter what…even if I got other stuff to do, or I know it’ll just be a waste of time. But I’m really happy! You felt the same way too, huh, Kuze! Aureatia may be after me and all, but… I’m not all alone, after all.”

In spite of what she said, she couldn’t help feeling happy and smiling.

Though, she understood that it wasn’t the time for it at all.

“……”

“Oh, and…ah, that’s right! I even made a new friend! It’s this girl named Kia the World Word…so you don’t gotta worry about me at all! I even came up with a way to help out…! So, listen! You can’t let yourself die here!’

“I mean, you can’t fix failing protective gear with just willpower…”

“Which way?!”

Tu advanced forward a bit before turning back toward Kuze.

“Which direction do you want to escape, just point me straight there!”

“Bweh-heh-heh, I see… You always think up the wildest ideas, don’t you…!”

A radiant smile came to Kuze’s face, like the sun was shining down upon him.

A sound like a destructive landslide echoed all the way to the military base roof where Yukis stood.

“Huh?!”

Yukis ended up jumping from his prostrated admiration of the earth where Nectegio was rooted. From his face-down position, he was literally flown into the air.

“No, no, nooooo! Nectegio’s beautiful ecosystem! It’s being destroyed!”

From the rooftop, a story above every other building, he could clearly see the unfolding destruction as every part of the flourishing organic colony got mowed down, the buildings broken through. The smoke was creating a path.

It was Tu the Magic. With her unnatural durability and physical abilities, the girl thrust ahead, destroying all the obstacles in a straight line as she went.

“Tu! For your own sake, you mustn’t do such a thing! The time has finally come for you to be eliminated by the perfected organism Nectegio’s perfect defensive functions! Look, right as I say it, eight Cleanup Species, Neltoral Tetsnyates, are being formed at once…! The ninth generation… At this point, the generations have iterated so much, it could very well be something completely different biologically! Parasite Species, Kuyatie Photos, too?! Gaaaah, dying from that species is so very, very, very painful!

“Brrzzzzzz. Analy, sis, impossible.”

“Ahh, so sonorous!! Wait, what?!”

Right after Yukis squatted down, clutching his heart, he abruptly returned to his senses.

Analysis impossible?

“You can’t analyze her, Nectegio?! In other words, you mean to say it’s impossible to produce a species that can deal with her…?! I’m so shaken that I can’t help but blabber on about facts that don’t need to be reconfirmed at all!”

“Tu the, Magic is being, dealt with. Dissolution. Blight. Quiescence. The life, spans of, species tasked with, disposing of her are, brzzzzz, are growing very short. No consistent, cause means Nectegio, cannot analyze.”

“Whaaaat?!”

Reacting with almost overexaggerated surprise, Yukis looked at the conditions on the ground.

Up until moments ago, there should have been eight colossal fungi heading to intercept the path of destruction.

Right now, they were all defeated. Two, scattered in all directions as if torn apart, had fallen victim to Tu’s direct attack. The other six, however, simply collapsed on the spot, without any evidence of combat movement, and dissolved away.

The destruction, thrusting in a straight line back toward the city, hadn’t stopped.

“Instant death…by a theoretically unclear cause! I do get the feeling… Miss Tuturi mentioned someone capable of doing this… Gaaah, I can’t remember! Since I had no intention on sparing any memory space on things beyond Nectegio and my fungi!”

“Brzzzzzz. Tu the Magic, has es, caped the Third District. Impossible to, pursue.”

“Phew… Thank goodness.”

What Tu had aimed to do was break out of the Third District using the most direct route possible. Physical obstacles were handled by her sturdy physical capabilities, and the organic obstacles form Nectegio’s defensive functions were penetrated with the ability of fundamentally enigmatic instant death.

Tu the Magic, an organism that even Nectegio the Ravenous Rot’s full capabilities were unable to kill, may have been the one exception that shook the fungi’s perfection.

Even this Tu had been too moved by her admiration to choose to hurt Nectegio itself. Truly a triumph of life and beauty.

“Nectegio! Nectegio! Neeeeectegio! From here on out, all living organisms will come to love Nectegio! Hee-hee-hee-hee! Just as much as myself! So, to you, Nectegio, I sa—”

The raving words spilling out of his mouth abrupt vanished.

“…Nectegio?”

Yukis the Ground Colony was standing on the military base rooftop. He looked down over Kadan Third District.

Ruins spread out before him. Cracked streets. Brittle, crumbling buildings. Bent lampposts.

Yukis learned, for the first time, that there had been a long downhill slope past the edge of his vision up until now.

A landscape of quiet death, withered and dissolved hyphae covered in gray dust.

Nectegio the Ravenous Rot had disappeared.

“Hwah?”

It was said that when a normal person encountered an ogre, generally speaking, if the ogre got within thirty meters of said person, all hope was lost.

Yukis’s vision had clearly caught that at the end of the long downward slope, about two hundred meters away, there had been a gray-colored ogre. However, even if the ogre had been in his line of sight, Yukis hadn’t actually been cognizant of his presence.

At that moment, Yukis exhausted all of his superb intellect on denying Nectegio’s demise and coming up with a rationalization on why it would appear that way.

“Nectegio… This can’t be, can it?”

A large shadow was cast over him.

The sprint from the base of the slope, two hundred meters in the distance, the acceleration, the jump, and finally arriving on top of the second-story rooftop, happened all within the span of two minian breaths.

Uhak the Silent swung down his club without a single grunt.

Yukis the Ground Colony splattered everywhere, transforming into vivid colors among the gray.

“Are you okay, Lord Kuze?!”

“Koff, koff… Oh, don’t worry about this. The sudden rush of fresh air just made me choke a little.”

Once back at the checkpoint, Kuze was doused in a large amount of water and chemicals, and forced to get washed down while still in his protective suit. He had also needed to ask Uhak to erase any Word Arts organisms. Among the fungi that Nectegio created, there were likely to be many strains that weren’t affected by simple washes and disinfectants.

“A really long time passed since you went inside there, so we were all very worried…”

The words came not from the man’s duty as a soldier, but because he truly felt that way. He was a good-natured soldier.

“Sorry! I sort of pushed myself a bit too far…bweh-heh-heh…”

“That said…”

The kindhearted soldier glanced over at Tu standing on the other side of the street.

Tu looked restless, fidgeting with concern over Kuze.

Her clothes had almost completely dissolved away, so she was wearing a military coat one of the soldiers had given her.

“Tu the Magic has left the control of her sponsor and we’ve been ordered to arrest her. There wasn’t any need to go to such great lengths to save her, was there?”

“Ah well, I suppose…”

He sat down on the side of the road. Right now, all he could do was answer vaguely and keep silent.

So not designated a self-proclaimed demon king like Alus, nor a wanted criminal like Kia…just an order to arrest, huh? Krafnir the Hatch of Truth was there at the tenth match, too… Guess he must have secretly negotiated with Rosclay, then.

However, as long as Tu’s goal was to meet with the Queen, the situation surrounding her wasn’t going to improve from here. Eventually, Aureatia would discuss subjugating her, and in the end, one of the hero candidates—perhaps Kuze the Passing Disaster himself—would end up putting down Tu the Magic.

That’s one thing I can’t let happen.

He began to think if there was anything he could for her.

The future Tu the Magic was heading toward had absolutely nothing to do with the goal Kuze was risking his life to achieve.

However, when he’d accidently killed Rique the Misfortune, Tu the Magic had chosen not to kill Kuze in return. Kuze couldn’t help but think if there wasn’t some method to protect the light that was seared into his eyes that day.

Nastique. Is there any way I can save Tu? No matter how far I go, is watching people die all I’m good for?

Right now, with Uhak heading into the deepest section of the hyphal labyrinth, Nastique was at Kuze’s side.

During the hunt for Nectegio, Nastique had spread her bizarre, wing-like appendages and killed a nightmarishly great number of organisms, but just as the natural law of death itself never waned, Nastique’s hazy white form hadn’t changed whatsoever.

“Hey, Kuze! This coat has pockets on the inside, too!”

Tu’s cheery voice reached him, interrupting his thoughts.

She happily flapped her coat open and shut.

“See, look, you can put stuff in here, too!”

“Whoa, whoa, come on now… Don’t open up the front when you’re dressed like that.”

The Aureatian soldier coat was merely draped over Tu to replace the clothes she’d been originally wearing.

“Oh, whoopsie, ha-ha-ha… But it’s just sorta funny to actually wear the clothes all the soldiers are wearing…”

“Can’t take my eyes off you for a moment, can I…”

Kuze thought it was pathetic.

He was certain that Tu brought up this silly, useless topic of conversation because of how solemn and melancholic the look on Kuze’s face had been. Tu may have had a childlike ignorance of the world, but just like a child, she closely observed what was going on around her far more than Kuze expected.

“Mr. Soldier. About dealing with Tu, see—”

“…! Lord Kuze, look!”

When Kuze followed the soldier’s sights, Uhak the Silent was returning from the rotten city district.

Kuze felt Nastique disappear. Right now, even the soldier beside Kuze could kill him.

In the arm that wasn’t carrying his club, Uhak was dragging what appeared to be a tattered red leather belt. Hair burst out from the warped flesh, and it was coiled around scraps of a white lab coat.

Kuze could tell it was Yukis the Ground Colony.

“Uhak…”

Uhak let go of the corpse he dragged behind him. How much brute force did one have to hit with in order to reduce a minian body to this?

Another soldier at the checkpoint in full protective gear came running over and began to identify the corpse.

“I-I don’t believe it… Not only did he erase Liquid Rampart along with Nectegio, but this sheer fighting power… Lord Kuze, did you know? That Uhak would be able to defeat Nectegio?”

“…Oh no, of course not. Me, I was just doing what Aureatia told me to.”

This good-natured soldier didn’t understand the true meaning to Uhak the Silent’s terror.

The fact that Nectegio was erased was so horrifying, it couldn’t even be measured through the dimensions of fighting strength.

The construct that proliferated to an inextricable scale, itself turning into a labyrinth all on its own, Nectegio the Ravenous Rot—even though the fungi was able to repropagate itself if even the smallest bit of it was left over—Uhak had killed its entire body all at once.

Nastique can kill anything and everything that I can lay my eyes on. Uhak though… He entirely killed any colony of countless organisms that stretched far beyond his range of vision, all at once. Is there a chance that this guy doesn’t have any range restrictions at all? Assuming that, he must’ve held his ground because he could erase absolutely all of it and felt the possibility there was still a construct left alive in the third district…

Uhak possessed no means to explain himself, nor did he try to communicate with written words.

His real motives could only be interpreted by observing him from an outside perspective.

With this matter, Aureatia will be firmly convinced of the value in utilizing Uhak. A weapon to make the Sixways Exhibition go exactly as they want it to…acting as the “True Hero,” who doesn’t say anything inconvenient.

Even this good-natured soldier didn’t refer to the hero candidate as Lord Uhak.

Ogres were in a subordinate position to the minian races no matter where they went, only sought for their brute force while subjected to deep-rooted prejudice.

—Was there anything Kuze could do?

Not only for Tu the Magic. For Uhak the Silent, too.

It felt like a terrible act of bad faith to himself and to the Wordmaker to simply resign himself to following the great flow around him, even when he knew the end that awaited the pair.

Though he may have already guaranteed himself a place in hell, was there at least some good deed Kuze could do beforehand?

“…I think it’d be better not to arrest her yet. Tu the Magic has utility.”

He mumbled, lowering his voice.

Just loud enough for the kindhearted soldier next to him to hear.

“What do you mean…?”

“I only just heard about this from her, but Tu’s connected to Kia the World Word. I don’t know what’s going on with that girl, but…seeing as the search for her has intensified lately, she must’ve done something during the coup, right? I’m guessing she’ll be labeled a self-proclaimed demon king sooner rather than later.”

“As an Aureatian soldier, I do not wish to act on mere speculation. However, the search for her has been slow going, and it’s been incomprehensibly difficult to pin down her location.”

“…If we tail Tu the Magic, you’ll be able to capture Kia.”

“Lord Kuze. This is not widely known among the citizenry yet, but we have been notified that Kia possesses some sort of means, either with a magic tool or something else, that uses extremely advanced and multitudinous Word Arts. This is my own personal opinion, but Kia must be utilizing some sort of specialized Word Arts to conceal herself, to prevent anyone from finding her location simply by tracking her.”

“All the more reason, really. I know what happened during the fourth match just as much as anyone else. Uhak the Silent is the only one who can break through Kia the World Word’s Word Arts. Given that we know we can use Uhak, now… While we still have Tu’s location locked down, it might be possible to round them up all at once. Bweh-heh-heh. Just something this old man thought up, though.”

“……!”

This soldier was good-natured and honest.

If Kuze proposed an effective strategy to maintain peace in Aureatia, he was guaranteed to approach his superiors with it.

After that, it was all for the upper brass to decide.

“I would like to discuss how Uhak and Tu are treated on our end as well. Therefore, Lord Kuze, if you could continue to keep control of Uhak…”

“Bweh-heh-heh… Sorry, but I feel like I actually did swallow one of the spores back there. I’ve had this nonstop chill going for a little while now… Honestly, I’m too exhausted to get up. If you wouldn’t mind, while you’re taking care of all that other stuff, could you get me a trip to the hospital, too?”

“Wh-what…?! That’s serious! Why didn’t you mention anything sooner?! Wait just a moment, I’ll head to the command post, posthaste!”

“Sorry ’bout this.”

Watching the soldier dash off, Kuze did truly feel apologetic.

…I really am sorry about this. For using your good nature for my own self-interests.

The poor health Kuze reported was a completely fabricated illness.

It was all to ensure he didn’t give Aureatia’s side the pretense that he had failed to keep Uhak under control. It was also to buy time until the eleventh match, following the twelfth, which was likely going to end without actually being held.

“Uhak.”

With the closest surveilling eyes send away, Kuze walked up to Uhak and muffled his voice.

“Aureatia is trying to use you to kill anyone that’d be inconvenient to keep around. If you get ordered to trail Tu, you should pretend to go after her, and flee Aureatia. If possible…and if your own conscience would allow it, I’d like you to save Kia and Tu, as well.”

Uhak’s opaque eyes simply stared back at Kuze.

Kuze believed that behind them was a conscience and a benevolent heart.

“Bweh-heh-heh… Sure, I’m the elder disciple here, but maybe I’m being too selfish. Even then, Uhak, I get the feeling I sorta know what you want to do… You want to do good, don’t you?”

Just like Tu the Magic, and the people living out their everyday lives, naturally wished to do.

It might have been Kuze the Passing Disaster’s own wish, too.

Around Uhak’s Word Arts negating power was the only time he was unable to see Nastique. He almost found himself comical that it was only when he was somewhere beyond the white angel’s eyes that he could openly speak of this wish of his.

With a sigh, this time he turned to Tu.

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Tu. You need to stop hanging around and escape, too. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but you’re a wanted woman, y’know.”

“Eh-heh-heh, I mean, sure, but I was worried about your condition, Kuze… Everyone’s real nice, so I just sorta stayed around. They have to be pretty nice if they’d give a construct like me clothes.”

“Yeah. But it’s a lot more painful to make enemies out of the friendly ones than the scary guys. They’re going to follow after you, but…I’ve talked it over with Uhak already. Can you protect Uhak for me, along with Kia the World Word?”

“Why’re you so worried about Uhak?”

“Well, we shared the same teacher, see. He did the memorial service for her… He’s a real stand-up guy, not like me.”

Tu the Magic coincidentally getting caught up in the hyphal labyrinth was likely an unexpected development for Aureatia, too. Kuze couldn’t give them time to get into the perfect position to hunt her down.

Thus, if Tu was able to immediately make her escape, it would be impossible for the capable players like the Twenty-Nine Officials and their ilk to respond appropriately to this situation. It was highly likely that they would utilize their own pawn here right now, Uhak the Silent, and as many other personnel they could mobilize to search for Tu and Kia’s base of operations.

“…Okay. I’ll protect Uhak, then.”

“Bweh-heh-heh, thanks. I really…only ever manage to cause you trouble, huh…”

“Hey, Kuze?”

Tu’s round green eyes stared straight at him.

“Will we be able to meet up again?”

“Oh yeah, sure we will. So long as the Wordmaker’s words guide us.”

She was a dazzling young girl.

Kuze wanted to talk to her about a lot of other things the next time they met.

About angels. About Rique the Misfortune. About the children of the Order.

So…don’t go dying on me, Tu the Magic.

Even knowing she was invulnerable, he still worried.