Chapter 207: OZ (4)

A spotless white lab coat.

Even with intruders standing before him, Oz calmly flipped through a medical chart.

<More importantly, this is unexpected. I never thought you'd come looking for me first.>

The man had no face.

No eyes, no nose, no mouth, no ears.

A blank void.

The uncanny valley hung over that blank face.

A dark crimson, oppressive aura seeped out around him.

<Welcome.>

Presence.

A thick presence saturated the air.

It made me feel suffocated.

'Is this Oz's true body...?'

This was on a completely different level from the clone I had faced during the school trip.

The gap was so vast, it was hard to believe they were even the same species.

'If that clone was just a few fingers, then the Oz before me was everything else beyond those fingers.'

It felt as though my head could be lopped off at any moment.

The tension was razor-sharp.

The way he turned the pages of the chart, his loose lab coat, the dark crimson haze...

Every movement he made felt like a metaphor for death and passing into the afterlife.

<Ahem.>

An aura that would make anyone instinctively shrink back, if they were an ordinary living being who feared death.

The girls were no different, crushed beneath that presence.

Ranne and Alice stood beside me, their shoulders trembling.

"Ugh..."

"Like I thought, this pressure is absurd..."

Though the battle hadn't even begun, cold sweat soaked the backs of their necks.

Oz kept sorting through the chart as if none of it mattered.

Leisurely confidence seeped from his every movement.

Elegant and neat. That only made him all the more grotesque.

<The timing is perfect. I was just thinking it was about time to retrieve Alice. How kind of you to deliver her to me yourselves. I'll be taking that test subject back now.>

"Who says you can?"

<Why, I do. I'm her creator, after all. Isn't that right, Alice? Come to Daddy.>

"I'm sorry, but Miss Alice is mine now. I'd appreciate it if you stopped bothering her."

<Oh my. It seems Alice has found herself a rather awful boyfriend.>

"Miss Alice says she doesn't know someone like you. Mr. Would-Be Father."

<That's fine. Manners are something that can be instilled again. I'll have to capture all of you first. Then I'll torture you slowly in front of Alice. I'll show her how you die, in the most horrible and agonizing way. Pfft, she'll come to respect me in a few hours at most. She'll scream that she wants to call me Daddy while clawing desperately at the glass.>

"You crazy bastard."

<Just thinking about it makes me happy. Is this what people call paternal love?>

"I really don't think I can let you live."

<Oh? You think you can kill me?>

Oz's lab coat fluttered.

He had no features, but I was certain he was smiling.

<Aren't you getting a little too full of yourself after defeating one clone? This time, you're facing my true body.>

"Then that means I can kill you for good this time."

<Your confidence is admirable.>

"Without it, I'd be a corpse."

<Let's see whether your skill lives up to it.>

Rumble!

At the man's gesture, dark crimson energy began to rage.

At the same time, the entire laboratory writhed as if it were alive.

A scarlet scream burst in my ears.

-Oz Style Life, Unique Magic First Form-

'Quickening'

Boom!

The building began to move as though it had come alive.

* * *

Team A, led by Viktor.

While they infiltrated Oz's laboratory, the remaining Teams B and C held their respective positions.

"I shall go."

"Yeah. You first."

Team B, which included Carmilla and Rin.

The two slaughtered the swarming Chimera with their overwhelming firepower.

Their goal was to draw as much aggro[1] as possible so Team A could carry out its mission without trouble.

Blood and snowflakes covered the ground, while heaps of corpses piled up everywhere.

Of course, dealing with such overwhelming numbers wasn't easy.

For every few hundred they cut down, thousands of Chimera rushed at them to tear them apart.

"Hey, Princess."

"Why are you calling me when we're busy?"

"That. I think it's about time."

"I was already preparing it. There's no need to rush me."

Carmilla casually rolled up her sleeve.

She took out a capsule.

Red liquid sloshed within it.

Human blood.

Vital Blood taken from Viktor.

After taking a quiet breath, Carmilla carefully swallowed the capsule.

"Phew..."

Carmilla's entire presence changed in an instant.

The air around her turned scarlet.

Boom!

Oppressive killing intent weighed down the area.

The monsters rushing toward them froze in place.

Ignoring them, Carmilla held out her hand toward the Chimera.

-New Blandir Style Bloodcraft, Second Form-

'Cruelty'

Bang, bang, bang!

Hundreds of layers of thorns shot up all at once.

Blood-red straight lines filled the broad space as though someone had scrawled across it.

Those lines pierced the nearby monsters.

Butchered chunks of flesh dangled from them like meat on skewers.

<Grrrk...!>

<Kieek...>

Perhaps it was the gruesome sight.

The surviving Chimera hesitated, unable to approach.

"Ugh, phew..."

Carmilla let out a faint groan.

Her head spun.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine... It's not enough to make me lose my reason."

The strategy was to consume an extremely small amount of blood, briefly enter her awakened state, then turn it off again.

It consumed a tremendous amount of mental energy, but the risk of losing her mind was low.

In a situation like this, it was an excellent weapon.

The landscape had been completely devastated.

As always, Rin gave her assessment with a blank expression.

"Princess is strong. Cool."

"That's nothing new."

Their exchange was almost anticlimactic.

The two faced the oncoming horde of Chimera once more.

Elsewhere.

Team C, which included Javert and Caitlin.

The two stood in the way of researchers under Oz's command.

"Ah... What a pain in the ass. Why are they rushing us in a whole damn pack?"

"Student Caitlin. Do not lower your guard."

Caitlin adjusted her running shoes while Javert made Divine Power erupt from her fingertips.

Several researchers stood before them.

They were called researchers, but in truth, every one of them was a high-ranking Cult executive.

"Oh my, Javert."

"Killian."

The most noticeable among them was, naturally, Killian.

She was the most senior of the researchers under Oz's command.

At the same time, she was the enemy who had murdered Javert's foster mother.

"Did you come because you missed your big sister? What a shame... Big sister has somewhere urgent to be right now."

"What nonsense. From the moment you faced me, the only places you can go are hell or prison."

"How tough. Didn't you say the same thing last time and fail? You're no match for big sister."

"Why the fuck has that thing been going on about being big sister this whole time? She's obviously some ancient hag well over thirty."

"...What?"

"Student Caitlin. You should correct that. Killian is estimated to be at least in her sixties. She only looks young."

"My God. So you're sixty and still trying to get a twenty-three-year-old investigator to call you big sister? That's seriously disgusting."

"What did you just say...?"

"Hey, Grandma. Do your ovaries still work? Haven't you gone through menopause yet?"

"There was even a time when she pretended to be in her early twenties."

"Ugh, disgusting. I think I'm going to throw up."

Caitlin's disgust was utterly sincere, as though the thought offended her on a biological level.

Killian looked taken aback for a moment, then her shoulders began to tremble.

Open killing intent filled her arrogant eyes.

She pulled a whip from her clothes.

Oppressive demonic energy spread around her as though it were crushing the space itself.

Caitlin simply made electricity crackle at her fingertips.

"Ugh, you even use a whip? Don't you think you're too old for that?"

"You... Shut up! I'll tear that mouth to shreds!!"

"Relax that face, Grandma. You'll get wrinkles."

"Yyyyyygh...!"

"What, are you jealous? The investigator and I are still young and firm. Does it make you feel pathetic to see us when your body's gone through menopause?"

"Y-you...!!"

"A woman who can't even get pregnant has zero value. On the other hand, this investigator looks like she's already set on getting pregnant. You'd be green with envy when you saw her swollen belly in a few months. Of course, you're going to die here, so you won't get to see it."

"C-Caitlin?! P-pregnant? What are you talking about...?"

"What are you embarrassed for? You look like someone who's going to get knocked up and married within a few months."

"I'll kill you! I'll tear you apart alive...!!"

Low-grade trash talk.

Still, Javert understood what it meant.

Caitlin was angry on her behalf.

Tap.

Caitlin bumped her fist against Javert's shoulder.

She shot Javert an annoyed look.

"If you're going to get revenge, do it properly. Don't lose at something as simple as a war of words. Seeing you make that face pisses me off."

"...Thank you, Student Caitlin. Thanks to you, I've come to my senses."

"Don't make it weird."

Tap.

Following Caitlin's lead, Javert lightly bumped fists with her.

"They're coming."

"Yes."

The researchers charged at them with ferocious momentum.

The next moment, a flash born of electricity and Divine Power turned their vision white.

===

This chapter featured Caitlin and Javert.

I'll feature the other friends soon.

Footnotes:

[1] Aggro: Game slang for an enemy's attention and hostility toward a particular target.