6
Pit organs are an infrared sensory organ that some snakes have.
Snakes that live in jungles and forests are often nocturnal, and so they determine the location of their prey in the dark using their pit organ. Using that, they sense the body heat of their prey, allowing them to quickly capture prey even at night.
Thermography was developed on the same principles, but those snakes possess the ability naturally, making them like assassins in the night.
And aggravatingly, this giant snake also had a pit organ.
“ Tsss.”
As the snake slithered close, it was hit just as it was about to attack. It screeched and recoiled from the fire that scorched its nose while Abel immediately slashed in.
Determined not to miss such a good opportunity, he aimed his thrust at the snake’s throat, carving deep into the demon beast’s scales—or so it seemed.
“Kh…!”
Abel groaned, and his right shoulder recoiled.
His blade had made a shallow cut into the scales before being blocked from making further progress. His positioning had not been ideal, but he’d still launched the attack with all his strength. And it had not landed.
“Again!!!”
The demon beast glared at Abel, who was pulling back, and was preparing to attack him when a fireball crashed into the side of its head.
A red light and blast of heat erupted, scorching the humid jungle air, but the damage to the snake was minimal. It stuck out its long tongue, licking its scorched cheek, then turned its yellow eyes toward Subaru and let out a howl.
“Crap!”
This was just the start—they were not even thirty seconds into the fight. But in just half a minute, it was already clear that neither Subaru nor Abel had any chance of winning. Abel’s sword couldn’t pierce the snake’s scales, and Subaru’s tricks were poorly suited for dealing with it.
Of course, not really having a chance against overwhelming force was the norm for Subaru.
“Goa! Goa! And Goa some more!!!”
Subaru swung his left arm at the giant snake as it came after him, haphazardly firing off a series of magic blasts.
With each one, the ring flickered with light, and the flames missed the demon beast, hitting the side of the valley where they were fighting and causing part of the wall to break, which separated them from the demon beast for a moment.
“Hey, Mizelda! This is—”
He’d been about to say how rough they had it, but then he gulped.
Up above, the Shudrak were watching their fierce struggle—and they all had arrows nocked in their bows, aimed at the pair.
“ ”
Their faces were blank. All had the merciless gaze of a hunter watching her prey.
Mizelda, Talitta, the friendly yellow-haired woman, even Utakata. Every single one of them was looking down at Subaru and Abel with cold eyes.
“The ritual has begun. There is no escape from the ritual of blood. If we do not defeat it, then not only will your wish not be fulfilled, but your life will be forfeit,” Abel announced.
Subaru froze under the Shudraks’ cold gazes.
It was yet another example of the different views of life and death he had experienced since being sent flying to Volakia. The Shudrak could kill someone they had been laughing with just moments ago.
Based on Utakata’s behavior, it was probably a view that was ingrained in them from a young age.
There was no meaning in trying to argue the right or wrong of it here. This was not a place to be debating someone on the merits of their beliefs.
What Subaru needed to do was pass the ritual of blood on their terms, and by their rules.
“We cannot pierce the scales of its torso. If piercing its heart is out, then take aim for its brain through its eyes or mouth?”
“The brain being a weak point is true for all living creatures, but…that would probably be rough. In which case, the win condition we should go for is just a little bit higher.”
“Higher.”
It would be difficult to defeat the giant snake. So they had to aim for the weak point that all demon beasts possessed.
“If we break its horn, it will submit to the one who breaks it. —That’s the only way.”
“Your plan?”
“The same as before. I’m the decoy, and the shady guy in the mask is the attacker.”
“‘Shady’? There is naught but a noble masked man here.”
Subaru took a deep breath, then exhaled.
They had agreed on how to win and settled how to go about it.
Under the cold, watchful eyes of the Shudrak above them, they would have to prove themselves warriors and face the snake that claimed the jungle for itself.
Proving myself as a warrior doesn’t really fit me, and I’ve never really wanted something like that, but…
“If I can’t reach you without it, then I’ll just have to go get it.”
—With thoughts of Rem, who remained in the imperial army’s camp, in his heart, Subaru stepped forward forcefully.
“ Tsss.”
The snake burst through the cloud of rubble with its mouth wide open.
Subaru held out his left arm straight and pointed it directly at the snake in front of him. The moment it noticed that, the snake’s yellow eyes filled with caution, and it closed its mouth and shifted its head to the side. The lowest-tier fire spell was not particularly damaging, but it had at least done enough to make the snake not want to be hit head-on again.
That caution backfired on it, though, since Subaru no longer had the ring on his left hand.
“My left hand isn’t aiming for your face—it’s aiming higher!”
Subaru swung his whip with his left hand.
His master Clind had taught him how to use his left and right hands equally well, and even with only two fingers that could really function, his left hand was more useful than a right arm that he couldn’t raise, so he was subjecting his left hand to even more abuse.
The whip was aimed not at the snake’s scales, of course, but overhead, to a thick tree branch growing up above. Winding the whip around it, Subaru leaped up into the air.
“Ngh!”
The snake’s jaw stretched as it chased after Subaru, who was airborne.
If he hadn’t pulled his knees in, it would have closed its mouth around his lower body and pulled him down.
“Ngh! Sister! He is running!!!”
Seeing Subaru spinning in the air above the battlefield, Talitta shouted these words, but…
“No…”
Mizelda, green eyes shining, pushed Talitta’s bow down, stopping her.
“He is not running. He intends to fight!”
She was almost cheering as she watched Subaru spin through the air, hanging by his whip.
He had jumped into a spin like a swing ride at a carnival and took aim at the edges of the valley with the ring on his right hand.
“Gooooooooooooooo!!!!”
It was more a shout than a cast.
The flames erupting from his hand became a furious blaze that scorched the edge of the cliff, burning the vines and branches hanging over the battlefield.
“Aaaaaah?!”
“Waaaaaah! Be careful, Utakata!”
“Aaah, sister! Sister! Is this really okay?!”
As the valley went up in flames, the Shudrak began to shout.
Utakata and the yellow-haired woman hugged each other, and Talitta looked to her sister for permission to shoot Subaru down, but Mizelda, eyes shining, did not hear their pleas. She just clenched her fist and watched.
“Yes, yes, this is good!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
Mizelda’s cheer and Subaru’s shout as he ran out of steam coincided.
The light from the ring went out, and as if answering his final desperate shout, the fireball it sent out collapsed a section of the cliff on top of the giant snake that had been avoiding the falling rocks.
However…
“ ”
As the snake slithered backward, it realized it had nowhere to escape to.
Burning branches and vines had already fallen into the valley, and there was no longer any need for torchlight.
And more than anything, after he had flung so much fire all around them…
“So it mostly sees through heat? However, that is no longer reliable.”
The snake had lost track of Abel, who’d hidden himself with his cloak in preparation for leaping out at just the right moment.
“ Tsss!!!”
Sensing danger, the giant snake’s eyes gleamed fiercely. But Subaru was up above it, oozing with miasma; and its infrared vision no longer worked with all the fire around it; and Abel was invisible.
What it did next was simply rush in the direction with the least fire.
And that was just the escape route that Subaru had set up when spewing fire all around them—
“Haaaaaah!!!”
The next instant, Abel leaped down from above, attacking the snake’s head.
His sword traced an arc through the air, slashing into the twisted horn growing from the snake’s head. It cut deep into the horn, trying to sever it in one go—
“ Tsss.”
Just before the horn would have gone flying, which would have caused the demon beast to lose control, it twisted its head in an attempt to flee the blade. But it was a vain struggle. Its desperation would have amounted to nothing—if it had been struck by a warrior.
“Gah—”
Abel’s slash was deflected by all the twisting, and his attack came to a stop halfway into the horn. Before he could push any harder, a swipe of the snake’s tail caught him.
Struck by the tail, Abel’s slender body was knocked aside. Unable to catch himself, he rolled through the fiery valley, coughing up blood.
“Cough… A blunder… It would seem things do not always work out like they do for that fool…”
The snake turned toward Abel, who was coughing up blood, hunched over in the dirt.
The snake’s eyes gleamed menacingly; it had sensed the perfect chance to counterattack and slithered over toward Abel. Abel couldn’t stand after taking that blow, and he did not have the time to hide himself with cloaking.
The demon beast opened its giant mouth, as if to swallow Abel whole.
There was no time for Subaru to think.
“I come back from the dea—”
It had been a long time since he had blurted this out, but having retraced his steps through the books of the dead in the Pleiades Watchtower, trying to lure a demon beast with this trick was a vivid experience.
That was why he’d even managed to think of it in the moment.
“Gah, gaah…”
Color drained from the world, sound faded, and he couldn’t feel the air passing over him. Instead, a dark shadow spilled into the still world.
It was a thing of the same quality as the massive wave of dark shadows rushing toward Subaru when he’d been so battered and exhausted after they’d completed the examinations, after he had lost Shaula.
“I love you.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard it a million times.”
The next instant, he felt a hand coil around his heart and a terrible pain, as if his entire body was being crushed. Instead of his vision turning red, it was more like his eyeballs were squashed by the destructive force.
It was a pain that never grew easier, and a despair and tenacity that never seemed to end.
But when it finally started to fade…
“Look at meeeee!!!”
As soon as the world’s colors, sounds, and smells returned, Subaru shouted these words.
Unable to ignore the sudden swell of miasma, the giant snake spun around, looking not at the weak, vulnerable masked man before it, but at Subaru who was cheerfully raising a stink overhead. When he met the giant snake’s eyes, Subaru cried:
“I’m counting on you…!”
He kissed the ring on his right hand, then let go of the whip so that he flew straight at the snake. He’d needed it to look up so as to reach its head.
That was why he had summoned the miasma. But also, just a little bit, it had been so that Abel wouldn’t die.
And…
“Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Landing with his feet on the demon beast’s upper jaw, he tripped and started falling forward pathetically.
The white horn with the sword still halfway through it was right in front of him. Just a little more and it would cut off the horn. Subaru punched its hilt with his right hand, using all of his might.
Of course, it was just a punch from Subaru. He did not expect it to be enough to break the demon beast’s thick horn. But it wasn’t just a punch, either. It was also a blow using a gemstone imbued with magic.
The jewel cracked as it hit the hilt of the sword, emitting a red glow.
The next moment, the light swelled, and an explosion erupted around Subaru’s right arm and the snake’s head, blinding and deafening him.
“ ”
Subaru spun as he fell to the ground before rolling a second, then a third time.
His whole body was hammered by the impact, and there was no telling how much damage it had caused. But the right side of his body felt like it was burning, and he couldn’t see what condition it was in.
Twitching as he lay on his back, yellow fluid trickling from his lips, Subaru could feel the ground tremble beneath him. But, on the verge of death himself, he didn’t realize that that sensation was the collapsing of the giant snake.
However…
“Subaru Natsuki! Hey, Subaru Natsuki! Stand! Stand this instant!”
Subaru was barely hanging on to consciousness by a single frayed thread as someone rushed over to him, wildly shaking him as they called out his name.
He couldn’t think of anything.
He wanted to just pass out already. The pain, the heat, the suffering, every sort of unpleasant word swirled around in his head…
“Stand and say what must be said! What of the woman, the woman called Rem?!”
“—Ah…”
“Speak with your own words! I cannot speak your wishes for you!”
The powerful, heated demands twisted their way into his ears, and his body was pulled up. He couldn’t tell whether his head or legs were higher, but still, he was pulled up.
He couldn’t hold himself up—it was probably just that his upper body was being dragged upright.
“Hear me, people of Shudrak! As you can see! We have completed the ritual of blood and proven ourselves warriors! As fellow Shudrak, you have a duty!”
“Yes—I, the Shudrak chief have seen it! Warriors! Our brethren! What do you wish?! Shout what you would have us do!”
Directly overhead, a voice echoed in his head.
It passed straight through him, as if there was nothing protecting his brain anymore. He couldn’t understand the meaning of the words, but they shook his shoulder, his head, and his soul.
“Answer, Subaru Natsuki. Speak your wish. Wring out every last bit of yourself.”
“—Oegh.”
“Trace what you desire on those closed eyelids. Nothing can be given to you if you do not speak your wish. There is no feed for an indolent pig!”
Trace what you desire on those closed eyelids.
He could see a silver-haired girl. A little girl with cream-colored hair, a girl with pink hair, a young man with gray hair and a boy with blond hair, and the faces of many, many more people.
—And a blue-haired girl was there, happy amid all of them.
“Rem…”
“What!”
“S-save…Rem…”
“ ”
He could feel parts of himself slipping away as his lips trembled. And once he had said those words, a strength filled the hand gripping his shoulder—what was probably his shoulder.
And then he could tell the voice’s owner said “good” with a nod.
“Did you hear that, people of Shudrak? This is the request of your newest member. He has proven himself by staking his life. What he wished, what he saw—!”
“Say no more. We have our pride and courage, too.”
“ ”
Subaru slumped, and his consciousness faded.
The voice that had forcibly kept him conscious did not try to stop him now. Slowly, slowly, everything faded…
“You have done your duty. Leave the woman to them.”
Subaru did not understand those final words, but they sounded reassuring, he thought.
He thought…
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