Chapter Season 2 730

Translator: Alpha0210

–A Demigod.

The two realized it almost simultaneously, but Kasajin was the first to act.

Kasajin kicked up the foot he had beneath the table, overturning the entire thing.

Crash!

“W-What are you doing?!”

The Innkeeper stared dumbfounded at the overturned table, but his voice never reached Kasajin’s ears. His fist, at least twice as large as an ordinary person’s, curled shut as power began to gather within it.

He meant to smash through the table with this blow and send the Demigod beyond it flying as well, but.

“Stop!”

Just before he struck, Lucid’s urgent voice rang out.

Kasajin did not withdraw the power packed into his fist.

His calm concentration accelerated only his awareness, and in that fleeting instant, Kasajin was able to look at Lucid. Uncharacteristically for the normally composed man, cold sweat covered him. Strangely, Lucid’s eyes looked so vivid that they were almost unnerving.

Why was he telling him to stop? Because he had seen something.

Lucid stood between the Demigod and Kasajin, not in a position where the overturned table could create a blind spot. Come to think of it, while the overturned table had blocked the enemy’s view, it had also blocked Kasajin’s.

That thought naturally led to a single question.

…Just ‘what’ was Lucid looking at right now?

A sudden chill ran through Kasajin, and he pulled back his fist. At the same time, a sickening, viscous sound came from beyond the table. It was a nerve-grating noise like sewage flowing backward, and before he could react, the table was yanked away.

Krrrkk!

“……!”

Instead of breaking, the table that had been dragged away began to be torn apart.

Could a table even be torn apart like that? Of course, if someone forcibly ripped at one, it would probably be possible… but this was strange.

It felt as though the table itself were suffering, breaking apart piece by piece all on its own, and the sounds made by the wood as it was forcibly twisted resembled screams.

While Kasajin faltered, the table was completely disintegrated and left scattered across the floor, revealing the Demigod beyond it once more.

The old man was gone.

A pitch-black droplet floated there.

Ominous, reflecting absolutely nothing–.

…A confined space put them at a disadvantage!

Kasajin and Lucid reached the same conclusion at once and smashed through the walls on either side before bursting outside.

Gloop, gloop!

Meanwhile, the black sewage swelled larger and larger until, in an instant, it completely engulfed the inn where they had been staying. Had their judgment been even slightly slower, they would have been dragged into that droplet.

They had not even properly begun fighting, yet cold sweat had already broken out. Kasajin wiped his forehead and spoke.

“Damn it……. Lucid, you okay?”

“I am fine.”

“Ah, aah. My shop…….”

The Innkeeper muttered with a devastated expression.

Lucid seemed to have snatched him up just before escaping. Nice reflexes.

“Innkeeper, sorry about your place, but at least you made it out alive. Hang in there.”

Kasajin blurted out words that were absolutely no consolation whatsoever to the person concerned. Perhaps it was fortunate that his voice never reached the shell-shocked Innkeeper’s ears.

“Anyway, what the hell kind of ability is that?”

“I do not know. In the first place…….”

Lucid stopped midway through his sentence.

Kasajin was not particularly quick at picking up hints, but even he could guess the rest of what Lucid had swallowed back this time.

'–Analysis was Lukas’s or Schweizer’s role in the first place.'

Right. That was true.

Only afterward would Lucid check whether there were any contradictions in their analysis, and finally Kasajin would throw himself into the fray to confirm that their conjectures matched reality.

…It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Now they had no choice but to confront an unknown enemy directly and uncover its abilities one by one through actual clashes. Just how great would the risks they had to take because of that become……?

Kasajin stared at the pitch-black Space spread before him, then kicked a loose stone lying in the street toward it.

––.

The pitch-black Space simply swallowed the stone, yet not a single sound accompanied the process. Only an unpleasant ripple passed across its surface, and even that happened without the slightest sound or sign, making the sight inexplicably unsettling.

“W-What is that?”

“That’s where the inn was…….”

Anyway, this Sewage Space–Kasajin’s own arbitrary name for it–was roughly the size of an entire building and immediately drew everyone’s attention. Not only ordinary citizens, but even the Warriors who regularly patrolled the city could be seen approaching one after another.

“You there! You two, the outsiders!”

“What the hell are you doing?!”

The Warriors approached with hostility in their bearing.

Kasajin could feel the situation getting complicated. How was he supposed to explain this to those bastards? This sort of thing was not his specialty either. Something like Schweizer’s Eloquence or Iris’s Illusion…….

…That was when it happened.

Several of the approaching Warriors began poking at the Sewage Space with the spears and swords they carried.

Those crazy bastards?

“Hey! Stay away from it!”

Kasajin hurriedly shouted a warning, and they turned toward him.

“You two, what the hell is this? What did you do?”

“If you don’t give us a straight answer… Ugh!”

Before they could finish speaking, their weapons were abruptly sucked inside. Several Warriors hurriedly released their weapons, but those who reflexively kept a firm grip were dragged into the Sewage Space along with them.

“W-What the hell?!”

“Lakta! Togar!”

“I told you to stay away from it!”

Kasajin caught another lunatic by the back of the neck as he tried to leap into the droplet to save his comrades, then hurled him backward.

“H-Help me……!”

Meanwhile, one of the Warriors who had been sucked in first was already submerged up to the waist. What was he supposed to do? Damn it… There was no time to think!

Kasajin grabbed the man’s wildly flailing hand and pulled with all his strength, and the Warrior let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered. Was pulling him out by force the wrong thing to do? Kasajin hesitated for a moment, but immediately afterward, the question became meaningless.

The pulling force from the droplet suddenly vanished, and the Warrior came free with almost absurd ease.

It was only half a rescue.

“U-Uaaaaagh…….”

The Warrior’s lower body was gone. It looked as though something had ripped it away… His severed spine and thick, spilling entrails were plainly visible. Even Kasajin, who would hardly blink at most gruesome sights, fell silent for a moment at the sheer horror of it.

The Warrior foamed at the mouth and died soon afterward.

The area became a scene of pandemonium.

Even ordinary civilians witnessed the sight and began screaming. As the Warriors defending Sarman gathered, the droplet heaved once.

“–My Authority is nothing grand.”

A calm voice came from within.

“Space, Death, Lightning, Sand……. Especially compared to my brethren who can wield such things. I am not speaking of its level. I mean only that my Authority is that simple.”

The undulation gradually spread across the entire droplet until it became a distinct ripple, and then something began pattering down from its underside.

Kasajin’s face stiffened when he saw what the droplet had vomited out.

Fragments of metal, cloth, sand, bones, blood…….

“I merely disintegrate every substance that enters my Space, thoroughly.”

By ‘Space’, did he mean that enormous black droplet?

Kasajin and Lucid exchanged glances at the same time.

Both of them were close-range fighters…… and neither had much of anything in the way of ranged attacks.

And their opponent was a monster that disintegrated everything it came into contact with?

“…Fuck.”

Faced with the worst possible matchup, the curse slipped from his mouth before he even realized it.

That was the last moment he had to complain.

The droplet immediately surged toward them with savage force.

***

He could run away.

He had never thought that before. It was an option he had never once even considered.

That things were hard, that he was going to die, that he wanted to die.

He had indulged in plenty of complaints that were not quite complaints, but he had never contemplated running away.

…No. Was that really true? He honestly did not know.

Perhaps the thought had crossed his mind tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of times, only for him to forget it whenever dawn came. In any case, this was the first time he had considered the possibility while his mind was this clear.

“…….”

He could not deny that the idea tempted him.

This incident had made Lukas realize something.

I’m not all that remarkable a person. Everyone around me is always making a great fuss over me, calling me the greatest genius since the birth of Magical Studies, the Grand Sorcerer, but that isn’t the truth. I’m weak enough for my mind to collapse over a mere tragedy like this.

The Demigods are undeniably unforgivable enemies, and that conviction has not changed. But the person who fights them should be someone more heroic.

Call me selfish if you like, but this is as far as Lukas Trowman goes.

Giving up here is the right thing, both for him and for the world.

“…A master, huh.”

He recalled the title some people used for him.

Great Master. It was an embarrassingly grand title. He had always thought teaching others did not suit him, but perhaps that was not necessarily true.

I was a lost cause, but perhaps someday I might be able to raise someone capable of standing against the Demigods. At that thought, a new wind blew through a heart that had previously known only despair. A wind called hope.

The fragrance carried by that wind was so sweet that he could not turn away from it. It was not wrong, either. And so Lukas would now gladly welcome that wind.

At the moment, he was on his way toward the Plaza so he could share those thoughts with someone and hear their opinion.

…Why had he suddenly wanted to see Pale?

Was he drawn to her? Romantically?

Who knew. He could not categorically deny it, but it was equally difficult to say yes. The conclusion was that even Lukas himself did not know what he was thinking as he headed toward the Plaza.

…But it was still better than staying at the inn.

The fact that Kasajin and Lucid were still there made him uncomfortable.

Friends to whom he had once been able to bare his heart had now become people whose presence made him uneasy. Lukas found that fact deeply bitter.

They must be thoroughly disappointed in me by now.

I’m ashamed to face them, but maybe we should simply go our separate ways like this–.

Boom!

At that moment, something like an explosion sounded from somewhere.

Lukas flinched and spun around. Beyond the rooftops lining the street, he could see clouds of dust rising into the air.

…By now, he had Sarman’s layout firmly memorized. He had stayed here for quite some time, after all.

Because of that, Lukas knew exactly where the dust was rising from.

'Water-Light Inn……!'

It was the very inn he had left only moments earlier.

The place where Lukas and his companions had stayed for so long. And where Kasajin and Lucid were probably still staying right now–.

By the time that thought reached its end, Lukas was already heading back toward the inn.

“There! It came from over there!”

“Hurry!”

The explosion had been more than loud enough to shake the silent city.

Warriors of the Church of Noxtantine. He could see those who served as Sarman’s Vigilante Corps rushing toward the scene in droves. Since they were headed the same way, Lukas soon found himself running among them.

“…….”

Lukas ran as though he were simply another member of their group when–suddenly, the scenery around him began to feel sluggish. Not only that, his feet started to grow heavy, as though he were walking through a swamp, and one by one, the Warriors who had been running level with him began to overtake him.

Before long, they had run so far ahead that they were beyond his reach.

“…….”

A short while later, Lukas stood stock-still, watching the retreating backs of the Warriors. And as he did, he asked himself a question.

Why did I stop altogether?

My feet feel heavy, the ground feels like a swamp. Don’t I know that all of that is nothing but an excuse?

The truth is obvious.

Right now, Lukas was hesitating, of his own will, to return to his companions. He was doing something that his former self could never even have imagined.

…Of course, perhaps it was nothing serious. Maybe the short-tempered Kasajin had gotten into some pointless squabble with Lucid, and in the process, a building had collapsed.

But the opposite was possible as well. It could be something truly serious.

It was not as though he had no idea what it might be.

The Demigod Noxtantine beneath the temple. He remembered the curse it had spat out as it died.

The Demigod’s brethren, or perhaps the being called Lord… They might have come here.

At that moment, Lukas understood why he was hesitating.

He was terrified that what had happened back then would happen again.

Because of my mistake.

Someone around me dying–.

“…Urk.”

The urge to vomit surged up for the first time in a long while. His head spun as though he were in a state of panic, and cold sweat broke out across his body.

Before he knew it, Lukas was once again standing in that damp, foul-smelling place. The throat of that disgusting Demigod. The place reeking of rotting corpses and gastric acid.

There was no longer only one corpse buried here. Schweizer was not the only one.

Kasajin and Lucid, Iris–.

“Uwegh…….”

Vomit splattered onto the ground.

Lukas bent over and collapsed to his knees, emptying his stomach for a long while.

By the time there was nothing left to bring up, he dry-heaved several more times. Afterward, a laugh slipped from him.

“Ha, haha…….”

Become a master? Had he really thought he was in any position to choose?

That was not the issue.

Only at that moment did Lukas finally comprehend the true state he was in.

…I couldn’t fight anymore.

*****

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