Makai Hongi

Chapter 347

The number of celestials that were chasing after me…were in the hundreds.

“There are so many that I can’t even count them!”

Apparently, they had been covering the sky over the ‘Negative Mist.’

It must have been because of all the reinforcements they called for. And even more of them seemed to be arriving.

At the very least, this was not a number that I could deal with.

Even if it was just a fraction of them…like a hundred, it would still be too much for me to fight at once.

It didn’t matter that their strength was halved. They were too strong.

Well, there was only one thing to do then. Have Melvis protect me.

I did a 180 degree turn and ran.

I was dashing in the direction that the celestials were moving. My heart pounded furiously.

However, Melvis was up ahead.

If I could reach him, I might have a chance.

Thankfully, there were no signs of long-ranged holy attacks yet. But that was only a small relief.

They were still a big threat.

—Chuudooon!

Or so I thought, before Melvis blew them up with his magic.

He was shooting them out of the sky as if they were flies.

Melvis had returned to his fury mode.

And once again, the shockwaves nearly killed me.

“I’ll die in an instant if I’m caught in the attacks!”

It was like having a tiger in front of you and a wolf in the back. Which way was I supposed to go?

I had a feeling that I would die regardless of the route that I took.

Perhaps I should just risk it, and fight the celestials? However, they had overwhelming numbers.

“My king cared about his comrades.”

Just then, I heard Melvis’s voice.

It sounded fragmented, but it was because it was being erased by the sounds of detonating magic bullets.

However, Melvis continued to talk.

“I always wished that he would be freed from that curse.”

He was still talking about Yamato.

“While he said that he hated people relying on him, he still took them in… I told him so many times that he should abandon them.”

The residents of the Celestial World attacked Melvis.

They saw him as the main threat that had to be eliminated first.

“My master did not exist for your sake.”

“Shit!”

Melvis’s magic energy swelled up like never before.

He was incredibly angry now.

“He is not someone you can use for your experiments. This arrogance of yours is deserving of ten thousand deaths!”

I ran.

I had strengthened my body to the limit. And so I ran without looking back.

Behind me, I could feel his malice spreading.

The residents of the Celestial World were now swarming around Melvis.

Their ability regarding crisis management seemed to be nonexistent.

If I were them, I would run to the end of the world.

—‘Eternal Sleep.’

I heard the impossibly ominous words.

“Opphh!”

My stomach turned. Shit. I was almost knocked unconscious.

I was so far away, and yet I had still been within the area of effect.

“…I-I have to absorb mana.”

If it is magic…I should be able to absorb it.

And if I didn’t, I would fall into an eternal sleep.

As my head seemed to sway, I desperately absorbed the mana around me.

At the same time, I absorbed other things into my body.

Will I be killed first? Or would I absorb enough in time?

“…Ah, it might be the end.”

My body wouldn’t move.

I had strengthened my body, but my joints felt like they were in hardened wax.

I had to move… But as I thought this, my consciousness sunk into darkness.

White mist covered everything.

“Surely I’m not…inside of the Orb of Control?”

It looked familiar. The place that I had shared with the other me.

The one place where we could talk together.

Sometimes we would talk of stupid things and have fun, while other times we would work together in order to overcome obstacles.

As we were fused into a single soul, we could not come to the surface at the same time.

There was always someone on the outside while the other was inside. But it was different here.

It was the experiments of the celestials that had caused our souls to be fused and… Huh?

“Could it be…those words…”

Earlier, the residents of the Celestial World had been chasing me.

They had even called in reinforcements… It felt like they did not want me to escape no matter what.

“They were…they had looked at me and said something about the only example of success.”

Could it be that they were talking about me and the other me?

Now that I thought about it, there were other things as well.

When I was in Tralzard’s lands, I had seen the celestials for the first time.

And they had said something.

—We found it at last.

That’s what the celestial had said.

I didn’t know what they were talking about, but they had indeed seen me and said, ‘found it.’

In other words, they had been looking for me. Probably for a long time…

And then today…

“So the Enra Institution is searching for me? They had been able to fuse our souls together, making us a success? After that experiment, we ran away, didn’t we?”

The soul of the other me had been the base, and my soul was fused to it.

That’s why he remembered it better than I did.

I suppose it was a type of Personification.

We regained consciousness while being inside of a vessel. It was the other me who started to move in that body.

That was why.

After that, we were reincarnated into an Ogre body.

Had I been the lead, we might have been reincarnated as a human.

But that was fine. The problem was the reason that they were targeting me.

After thinking it through, there was no doubt in my mind that I was this ‘sole example of success.’

“…In that case, does that mean they’ll target me forever?”

The residents of the Celestial World would do anything for their experiments.

And they did not give up just because something was troublesome.

“…This is bad.”

I knew now that it was the Enra Institution who was after me.

It was the worst kind of information.

“If only the other me was here… Damn it. There’s no point in wanting what you can’t have.”

He had gone away so that I could live.

I could not meet him anymore.

I realized now just how much I had depended on him.

It was painful to have half of yourself torn away.

But I couldn’t stop here. I had made a promise.

“I have to act in a way that wouldn’t shame him… Now, to find the exit.”

I walked through the white mist until I found the familiar hole.

If I jumped in, I could return to the real world.

And so without hesitation, I threw myself in.