6
Ironically, the reason he first noticed the tremor was because he was kneeling on the floor.
It was faint, but gradually it grew clearer, until it exploded ferociously up from beneath them—in a beat, a pitch-black fog blew up through the bottom of the fourth floor and filled the passage.
“—Ngh.”
The fog exploded upward, blowing away the passage’s floor, walls, and ceiling in an explosion of dust. But the fog continued surging forward, greedily in search of prey, as if it were the manifestation of a desire to consume anything and everything within reach.
—The image of the dark woman who had looked at him crept into Subaru’s mind.
“ ”
The dark woman in a black wedding dress who had so thoroughly tortured his heart. The dark fog spilling in front of him resembled her veil of shade.
It tore through the passage, chasing Subaru, or rather the lizard carrying Subaru away.
“You…!”
It had started the instant the floor had broken apart. The fog was after Subaru.
Kneeling and unable to move, he should have been consumed in that first moment. But he was saved by the lizard. The lizard hooked its fangs into his shoulder and forcibly lifted him, trying to get Subaru as far from the fog’s furious onslaught as possible.
The speed was breathtaking, and seeing the black fog speeding up chilled him to the bone.
He understood it on an instinctive level. Being consumed by that fog would lead to a fate more terrifying than mere death.
“—!!”
He clung to the lizard’s neck as it ran, and the lizard’s fangs bit deeper into his shoulder. But the pain in the moment and his distrust of the lizard were dwarfed by his terror of that shadow.
“Th-the spiral stairs…”
While Subaru kept holding on for dear life, the lizard sprinted through the hall with the shadow in hot pursuit. Suddenly, his field of view opened, and Subaru’s eyes shot open.
The giant spiral staircase he’d dragged himself up and the three-hundred-foot hole leading to the lower floor had been consumed by a massive black fog, losing any distinct form.
In other words, the black shade had already consumed most of the lower half of the tower.
There’s nowhere to run.
For a second, Subaru considered the possibility of suicide.
“ ”
Being swallowed by that pit of darkness meant a more terrifying end than just death. In which case, wouldn’t it be better to throw his own life away? Because even if he died…
“No…”
He rejected that idea.
There was the possibility of return by death, but he couldn’t choose suicide. There was a chance that if he committed suicide, he might not get any more chances. Can I really reset if I don’t get another chance to try again after?
And why do I have to die anyway?
I haven’t done anything wrong, so why do I have to die?
“Nooo! I don’t want to die!”
Subaru wept without concern for shame or appearance.
But there was no human in the tower to hear his plea. Just the dead and the missing.
—So the jet-black lizard answered instead.
“—!”
Hearing Subaru’s despair, it let out a shrill whinny and, in the face of a world shrouded in darkness, began a head-on counterattack.
Spinning quickly, it slipped its large body past the fog closing in. In the narrow space, its scales scraping the wall, it ran in a fervent search for a path to survival.
In order to live—no, in order to save Subaru who had so desperately begged not to die.
“You…”
Trembling from the fierce pace, Subaru looked at the lizard in disbelief. Its face was unreadable, but its yellow eyes alone shone with powerful emotion.
Under the weight of the overflowing fog, the tower’s walls buckled, and the passage collapsed. But the lizard blazed its own trail, searching for a place where the grasping fog wouldn’t reach, earnestly running with all its strength.
“—!”
There was a dull ache from where its fangs bit into his shoulder. But what was seared into his mind more was the blood trickling from the lizard’s mouth—it was running from the shadow, but it couldn’t evade everything. Its body was in a terrible state, torn all over wherever the shadow had managed to reach it.
And yet, Subaru’s wounds were extremely limited. And the reason was obvious. The lizard was sacrificing its own body in order to make sure the shadow’s fury didn’t reach Subaru.
“—Ugh?!”
Subaru’s face tensed at that realization, but then the lizard’s fangs sank in a little deeper. There was more force in its bite as it twisted its slender neck and swung Subaru’s body.
The next moment, the fangs slid out of his shoulder, and he was sent flying with a sharp pain.
“ ”
It all happened as if the world was moving in slow motion.
The shadow had blocked the path both forward and back, sealing off any escape. Realizing this, the lizard had thrown Subaru toward the wall—but when he should have slammed into it, he instead passed through.
It was an incomprehensible, sudden thing. The wall was seemingly not real and just designed to appear solid. But none of that mattered in that moment.
The fact of the matter was that Subaru passed through the wall while the lizard was left in the passage.
And—
“Lizard…gh!”
He reached out toward the lizard. The lizard he had hurt in an unreasonable rage, that he’d cursed so heartlessly, but that had still run so gallantly trying to save him.
But he was powerless. His fingers couldn’t reach from here. The lizard was swallowed up by the onrushing shadow.
The lizard disappeared inside the shadow that contained a fate worse than death.
“Wh-why…”
Just after watching that, his body finished passing through the wall and he escaped behind it. After hitting his back hard and rolling, splayed out on the ground, he saw the night sky spread out above him.
The night sky—It was a balcony set into the outside of the tower.
There was no surprise that there was a place like this. But looking up at the sky in an unexpected place, Subaru heard his hollow heart crack.
“What is this…?”
Subaru didn’t understand anything anymore.
Something suddenly cut across his field of vision as he stared up dumbfounded. It passed from left to right through the sky, landing on the railing of the balcony to rest its white wings.
It was a single white bird. A big bird, looking at Subaru with emotionless eyes.
“Hah.”
The dead suspects, the suspects he hadn’t found, the lizard that had given its life to save him, and the white bird that suddenly appeared. And the tower gradually being swallowed by the shadows and disappearing into the hungry darkness.
“ ”
Feeling the end coming, Subaru sat up and reached toward the sky.
He could understand the lizard had tried so hard in order to save him. He could understand it, but that thought was still pointless in the end. All it had done was extend his time a little bit.
“ ”
And as he wasted that extra time, Subaru suddenly noticed something.
There was a presence behind him. Not the bird, not the lizard, and not the shadow.
There was a living person standing right behind him.
“…What are you…?”
Not having the strength to turn around, Subaru’s voice was listless.
There was a faint noise as whoever was behind him laughed at that question. It was a voice he hadn’t heard before.
“Try to catch me next time, hero.”
The next instant, there was a whoosh and Subaru’s view swung upward and started spinning.
As he flew up into the air horrifically, like a bird with a terribly light body, he realized.
Whoever was behind him had beheaded—
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