3
“—!!”
The black ground dragon raced through the corridor, bleeding where the thrown short sword had cut into its scales.
The sensible dragon activated its wind-parting blessing and sprinted at full speed to escape the sinister Gluttony, careful not to let the blue-haired girl on her back fall. That was the key to victory here.
It was a commendable effort. Lye had nothing but praise for that drive. However…
“You’re a good ground dragon. A hard worker and so faithful to your master. If you were a person, you would surely have been a dish worthy of a gourmand such as ourselves! But, but, but, but but but but but but but but! How sad that a ground dragon can’t fill our stomach!”
It didn’t matter if they had a will, a soul, memories, a name. Gluttony’s authority couldn’t consume it from anything other than people.
And so Lye couldn’t savor this dragon the way he wanted. Just like how there was no way to eat a painting of food.
“Ahhh, that’s it! That’s it exactly! When our stomach is soooooooooooooooo empty and we’re so hungry! Seeing this picture of a food that looks so delicious is torture. This is child abuse!”
Chasing after the racing dragon, he blew a bit of clotted blood from deep in his nose.
In the fight earlier, his face had been crushed, and something around his right eye must have gotten broken, because it was rolling around freely in its socket. His teeth were shattered, and his tongue was torn. The bleeding in his mouth hadn’t stopped, drenching his lower jaw in gore. But none of that mattered.
The thought of Ram seeing this scene right now gave him a thrill that started from the bottom of his heart.
“Sister is…”
Pure, noble, and perfect. A fully perfected being without any faults.
That was what the memories slumbering inside Lye said. After coming exceedingly close to getting killed without being able to do a thing, he agreed it was a fair evaluation. Lye couldn’t hold a candle to Ram’s true power. If Ram truly got serious, she could probably wring the neck of any Archbishop with ease.
Maybe Regulus could have given her a run for her money with his absolute authority, but…
“There’s no way that idiot could kill Sister. Even if she didn’t manage to kill him outright, she would just drop him down the Great Waterfalls or something and end it that way.”
Even if Regulus couldn’t be killed, there were plenty of ways to contain him. Just like the Witch of Jealousy. Even the three great heroes couldn’t kill her, so she was still sealed away in a shrine here.
The current Lye was unbelievably proud of Ram and of how wonderful she was.
“As her little sister, we have to show how much we’ve grown. Anything less would be shameful.”
With a swelling sense of purpose, Lye drew more memories out.
One aspect of Gluttony’s authority was Eclipse. In essence, the ability was split between Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse, and it was extremely difficult to use.
Lunar Eclipse was a phenomenon that could be seen when the moon disappeared. Put another way, it was something performed by pulling out a memory that he had eaten and re-creating it using his own body. Ordinarily, Lye was perusing memories of all sorts, combining them into the ultimate mixed martial arts. This could be considered the Lunar Eclipse’s true domain.
On the other hand, Solar Eclipse was a phenomenon where the sun itself was hidden. Put another way, it was a method for not just re-creating someone’s memories, but for embodying their very being, allowing him to use their abilities with the same proficiency as the originals.
However, when he transformed into another person, there was a risk of his mind changing too much to match the body, and so unless there was a pressing reason, Lye and Roy avoided it.
Lye Batenkaitos primarily relied on Lunar Eclipse.
Louis Arneb used Solar Eclipse without concern because she lacked her own body and lacked a solid sense of self to begin with.
But during the battle with Ram, where he was beaten half to death, Lye had broken out of his shell the moment he recreated Leaping Dorkel’s Teleportation. He had successfully used the Solar Eclipse that he normally avoided out of fear of losing himself, confirming he could maintain a firm grip on his sense of self.
Now he could more perfectly savor someone’s life without any waste.
“Growing in the middle of combat should not be something a withered old husk like us can do, ha-ha! This is perfection! Isn’t that right, Sister?!”
Thanks to establishing such a stout consciousness, Lye was feeling better than ever.
He wanted his wonderful sister to see how much he had grown. To do that, he had to pick a method that would provoke her hatred even more.
For example, the person on that ground dragon’s back…
“Come to think of it, that’s something new. Killing yourself as yourself. Maybe this’ll lead to something interesting…”
“—!!”
In a wink, the world changed as he leaped through space.
The ground dragon whinnied loudly in shock as Lye suddenly appeared in front when he should have been behind. She tried to race past him without stopping.
“—!!”
“Now, now, don’t struggle. You’ve earned your participation trophy already.”
As it passed, he struck like the Fist King, slamming the dragon into the wall. But even as she slumped down and curled in on herself, she did everything she could to protect the girl who fell off her back.
What a heartfelt gesture. However, that spirit was nothing more than a spice for the tragedy to come.
“Know! Your! Place!”
With each word, Lye hammered the black dragon again and again.
The merciless punches broke her cheekbone and front legs. That was more than enough to teach her a painful lesson. Fortunately, Lye couldn’t eat the hunched-over dragon’s memories, so killing her would be pointless. Besides, he wanted to share the memory of what happened today.
All that remained was…
“To kill Sister’s precious Rem with Rem’s own—”
“—Spare me such creepy ramblings.”
Just as he was about to straddle Rem, a dignified and clear voice called out. He raised his head only to be greeted by two shoe soles landing directly on his face. The impact sent Lye sliding across the floor on his back.
“Aha-ha-ha-ha-ha…you finally caught up, Sister. We…ah? We sisters…we siblings…? …We Rems were waiting for you.”
He slowly stood up, using only his legs.
And when Ram looked upon her beloved twin, she looked like she was seeing something for the first time.
“…You’ve become quite ugly in the short time since I last saw you.”
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