Volume 1 – Following the Maze Drawn With Lines of Blood
Mary approached Ami and touched her cheek.
Unable to see the arcana user who had seemingly entered this place, the confused woman doctor in white robes asked Mary:
“Oh…… Princess Mary, is something happening here?”
“The arcana user who invaded the building has entered this room. Didn’t you see anyone?”
The doctor and the nurses were surprised and shook their heads, and said at the same time: ‘Noone came in.’
Did she run away somewhere?
Was she watching this room from somewhere else?
That’s what Mary was supposed to focus on, but she couldn’t push down the sorrow rising up within her as she sensed how soft, but cold Ami felt from the palm of her hand.
“No external wounds……. And her face, she looks so peaceful……”
“She didn’t seem like she suffered.”
“……I suppose that’s our one and only solace.”
That couldn’t be much comfort.
Because Ami shouldn’t have died in the first place.
“Ami. Let’s go together.”
Mary transformed her arm and created a head big enough to swallow a human being.
It opened its mouth lined up with sharp teeth, and just as it was about to swallow Ami, her finger slightly twitched.
“……Ami?”
Mary thought she was seeing things, but her body shivered again after that.
Rather than Ami being alive and moving herself, it looked more like something hiding inside her was forcefully controlling her.
Then, her abdomen and chest started bubbling in waves.
It was very clear that something inside her was moving her body.
The doctors watched on in shock, and Mary transformed her right arm into a blade and put it on Ami’s torso.
She took a big breath, and cut Ami’s skin along with the thin shirt she was wearing.
“Uh……”
A wheel the size of a fist and covered in blood fell out of Ami.
Mary reflexively raised her voice.
Wheels started pushing out of the small opening and uncontrollably flooded out.
Even Mary, who should have been used to this thick iron smell, had to cover her mouth.
“There are wheels…… buried in her body…… Ahh, that means, Ami……”
Only one thing came to mind when Mary saw this.
“Wheel of Fortune…..! She was killed by Hemlock…..!”
“Just as I would expect of Hemlock, very reliable.”
Mary heard a woman’s voice behind her.
“Shut uuuuuuup!”
Mary quickly turned her arms towards her and extended the blades she grew out of them.
The sharp edges stabbed into the wall.
But the long haired woman was no longer there.
Yet, she had not come out only to instigate Mary.
For some reason, a worker nearby was pushing on his neck.
“S-Something stings……”
Following those words, Francis’s voice resounded from ‘inside’ Mary.
“Mary, kill him.”
No hesitation.
Because Mary already intended on doing that.
She returned her blade to its original length, swung and beheaded him.
“Lady Mary!?”
“Even if I let him live, it wouldn’t do him any good anyway.”
But it was too late, as things may have been decided the moment something ‘stabbed’ him.
The head that fell to the ground did not move, but his body was standing on both legs while trembling.
“Go outside, everyone!”
“Lady Mary, what about her corpse!?”
Mary kicked the floor and shot bone fragments at the trembling man’s body, and approached Ami’s corpse.
She then held it up with both hands, and threw it to the woman doctors.
They staggered but held it together, and escaped through the open door.
Mary faced her foe in the room where they were left one on one.
“The power of Death God is refusing to eat him – does that mean he’s still alive despite having no head?”
“Unfortunate. Really, yes, from the bottom of my heart, it’s such a shame.”
She heard the woman’s voice again.
This time, she only heard her voice and did not see her.
“Hey, my name is Aoi. I’m a type beta homunculus, same as you. I’m your older sister. Remember that. When you die, and go to the other world.”
“I don’t care about your name! Please explain what you did!”
“Goodbye. Ah, I wanted to be the one to kill you, but……”
The voice went further away.
Mary bitterly grinded her teeth.
But, she couldn’t ignore this ‘thing’ in front of her and chase after the woman.
The part where the neck was cut started wriggling.
Muscle fibers grew while making nasty sounds, and something resembling a human head regrew.
On the other hand, the clothes on his torso melted, the skin peeled off, and red flesh became exposed.
This monster who made a ‘mouth’ ineptly started speaking human words.
“Humans cannot become goddesses, and when one tries and arrives at this shape, I call that an angel.”
There were two eyes, one nose and one mouth on the face looking at Mary.
The amount was the same as a human being’s, but their positions and sizes were irregular and had no sense of unity.
Incomplete – rather, it was intentionally made to be this way.
“Long time no see, Mary Pulsherima.”
And finally, bones grew out of the body’s back and became glowing, bloody ‘wings’.
The wings were filthy and stained with a red color.
“Nnh, ngh, ah, aah……”
This creature, which called itself an angel, was adjusting its voice while touching its throat, almost like a person.
“Ahem. I’m sorry for the hard to hear voice, I’ve not completely generated my throat yet.”
“I don’t have any acquaintances with their flesh sticking out like you.”
“That’s sad, despite how long, and how close we lived together. You should remember, it wasn’t that long ago.”
“I’m already tired of finding new acquaintances I don’t know. Let me ask. Who are you?”
“I’m the God who will destroy this world.”
After such a simple declaration, Mary didn’t even feel like interjecting.
“Angel, god, you must be really busy.”
“This body is a representative of God, which I named an angel. Was that wrong?”
“So the thing controlling you is God…… Come to think of it, arcana were gods as well, right?”
“Heh, won’t you let me hear your thoughts? God is God. They lead people, and rule over them. Gods are Gods by birth and continue to be Gods after death.”
Mary suddenly remembered something after those words.
“Kings are kings by birth, and continue to be kings after death.”
Her father, Henry Pulsherima had said that.
Mary remembered that he had said this not with an attitude of wielding power, but with an attitude of acting as a king should, but……
(……But, my father wouldn’t need to hide his true identity.)
Henry showed up at the venue of Romeo’s party, along with his wife Catherine and his son Edward.
He also made contact with Dugan, and could be considered the person who created the opportunity for Mary’s murder.
In other words, it was possible he could be the person who sent the arcana user and created this monster, but in that case, he could have just said his name.
Mary couldn’t get rid of an unnatural feeling.
“Are you the leader of the arcana users who attacked me and my sister?”
“You could say that. But, Mary, they’re all gentle kids who move on their own out of a sense of gratitude towards me, instead of being ordered around by me.”
Mary didn’t care about that.
In the meanwhile, she used Analyze.
If this was an alive human being, she could calculate his power.
Numbers floated up in her view.
Mary immediately regretted looking.
(Sorcery Rating…… 35,000……)
It was absurd.
That’s what she instantly thought.
How could such a monster be created by simply injecting an ordinary person with something?
It made no sense.
Mary realized that the arcana users who faced her must have also felt this way.
“The only one left who needs to die is you. For all the Alphas and Betas, using up one’s life while fighting you is the best way to die. You may not understand, but I want you to stop making that displeased face.”
“Alpha? Beta? You using words I don’t understand like that and acting like you’re superior is what I’m displeased about!”
“Alpha are the homunculus based on Justice. Magrat, Hemlock, Kalinga, and Calaria qualify as one.”
Angel spoke plainly.
For him, this wasn’t something to hide.
“……!”
But Mary couldn’t hide her agitation.
She had guessed as much, and had talked about this before – but hearing it from the ‘enemy’ made it certain as the truth.
And, he knew.
One more truth that Mary did not know, and did not want to know.
“What, don’t you want to ask? As for the Betas-”
“I don’t care what my enemy tells me!”
“They’re homunculus based on King Henry. Aoi, and you qualify as one.”
That was already evident.
No matter how much she said to herself, ‘What if?’, and guessed this already, Mary still couldn’t hide her shock.
“……I’m a homunculus?”
“Didn’t you notice? You fulfill way too many of the conditions to be one.”
“Why do you know that!?”
“Because I’m your family.”
“Family…..? So you are my father, after all!?”
“And we went on different paths a long time ago. That’s why, before the world is destroyed, we’re going to fight to the death in order to see who’s right – can you understand that?”
“I can’t! I can’t understand anything! If you’re my father, why did you have to kill my sister!?”
“That’s an accident, just like Aoi said. Francis herself may have wanted that to happen, though.”
“But still!”
“Hmm, communication, it’s a hard thing, after all. It’s sad how much we don’t get each other.”
“Give me a proper answer, father!”
“Father…… Hmm. Definitions are difficult, aren’t they? Homunculus are born inside tubes. They have no father or mother. I suppose they do recognize each other as siblings, but-”
“I see. You say we’re family, but you’re also saying a homunculus like me isn’t even your daughter…… In that case!”
Mary swung her scythe.
“I don’t have to hesitate to kill my father!”
Angel did not even defend, and leisurely received the slashing attack.
A deep wound opened up on his shoulder, and Mary showered in the gushing blood.
“This is a sad reality too, is it not? To fight to the death against family.”
Angel pointed at Mary with his index finger.
She felt a large volume of mana gathering up, and quickly leaped backwards.
The mana exploded.
Something brushed her cheek, scraped her ear, and flew by right besides Mary.
The curtain in its line of shot, while keeping its shape, had a perfect circle cut out of it and an impressive perfect circle also appeared on the wall behind it.
“First, one shot. Next-”
The next attack was coming – even knowing that, Mary didn’t make any moves.
It was too fast to see.
She immediately understood.
(I can’t believe how much of a difference there is between us……)
Indeed, this guy had a Sorcery Rating of over 30,000.
That was already amazing enough, but, there probably was not much mana inside his body.
Mana was poured into him by someone outside who was connected to him.
‘Sorcery Rating’ was calculated from the volume of mana someone possessed and the amount they could use at once – so the value of 34,000 was mostly made up of ‘mana output.’
In other words, one could say that this monster’s spells had the power of around 30,000 mana at once.
And as long as limitless mana was supplied to him from the outside, there was no need for it to be a single shot.
“Myriad of Souls.”
Angel squinted his eyes.
Particles of light filled up the room.
They transformed into swords, and all pointed their edges at Mary.
“Nemesis Sword.”
Their power was obvious.
Their speed was clear.
Mary could not dodge, and she could not block.
Her body would be cut up and blown off if one hit her, and she would die before recovering if many hit her at once.
Indeed, it was like a rain of death coming down from the sky.
She had no umbrella, of course.
(Am I going to die? Like this, without accomplishing anything-)
She got goosebumps.
She had an unpleasant feeling.
(No. I can’t die like this without learning anything. I won’t die halfway through, never!)
Mary strongly prayed, and the figure of her beloved sister appeared in a corner of the room.
She smiled while time stopped, and spoke.
“It’s okay. There is no ‘certainty’ in sorcery. There is surely a way out of this.”
Then, a ‘path of light’ appeared, weaving its way between the swords.
“Follow the guidance of the star.”
Directly afterwards, time started moving.
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
The route shown had many bends and twists in the air, it was a route that a normal human being could never follow.
Mary moved according to the guide, as the swords cut her skin and gave her pain.
But – she survived.
She weaved through the blades and landed on both feet, and while she was injured, she did not die.
She shook her shoulders, ‘Aaah, ahh’, and glared at Angel.
He clapped while blood trickled to the ground and splashed.
“Wonderful. I thought, what if, when you faced Calaria and Hemlock, but you really are using it well. Your Arcana Installation, that is.”
“Arcana Installation?”
Mary was confused after another term she did not know was thrown at her.
Angel seemed to know more about Mary than Mary did herself.
“It’s the special characteristic of Death God, which gains the power of the arcana it eats. It looks like you’re doing your duty as God’s prison.”
“No, the only one I ate so far is Hermit. I shouldn’t have a power like this!”
“No, you ate another one. The first one, the greatest sorcerer there was.”
Was that power taking the shape of someone?
It was easy to find the answer when Mary remembered that.
But her heart started beating faster in the face of this hard to accept truth.
“Wait, my sister, Francis?”
In that case, Mary could understand why she came to save her when she was captured.
Knowing information that one should not know, that was Francis’s arcana.
“My sister was an arcana user? Then you’re not my sister……”
Mary asked while looking at her sister’s figure floating nearby.
Then, she laughed with sorrow and replied.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to trick you. I do have a part of Francis in me. But, I’m not Francis herself. Because she’s already dead.”
The truth stabbed Mary.
But it was something that Mary already understood.
Mary knew she was not her sister.
“I’m the arcana Star. I will guide you with the light of the stars, in order to fulfill Francis’s wish.”
But she still looked like Mary’s beloved sister, and smiled in the same way.
Sorrow. Loneliness. Emptiness.
But, happiness overtook all these feelings just by Mary seeing her sister’s figure, and while Mary laughed at herself, thinking how obvious this was, she also had to recognize that this was why Star had done the right thing by choosing this appearance.