Prologue – A Cry Rings Out Because You Died
“I suppose I was right. I am stronger than you now.”
Mary grinned as she calmly spoke.
“In other words, I am now the killer instead of the killed.”
She calmly declared the change of positions, and approached Magrat.
“What a relief, what a relief indeed. I mean… my head is just so full of all this boiling hatred right now, and I can’t think about anything but revenge.”
Black flames burned in her pupils as she approached closer step by step.
“How shall I kill the man who took my sister from me? Time to kill, time to kill, time to kill. My head is filled to the brim with nothing but those words. I’ve become very used to it now. I feel a sense of unity with this power filling my body, it’s quite uplifting.”
Exactly as stated, Mary’s cheeks flushed and the corners of her mouth lifted upwards, expressing her excitement.
“So, I have to kill. No matter what, I have to kill. Mr. Magrat. You’re the only one, the only one, the only one I will never forgive. My sister’s grudge, and my grudge. Time to kill, because no matter what happens here, I promise that I’ll kill, kill, kill, kill, kill you!!!”
Her eyes seemed vacant, yet they also harbored hatred at the same time.
She almost seemed emotionally unstable, as a hand growing from her back swung down on Magrat.
He took a protective stance and leaped sideways, trying to defend himself as he rolled on the ground.
The hammer of the dead smashed against the earth and shook the land.
(What a joke. I can’t believe the power of arcana awoke in her in the fucking depths of hell! Considering the missing number, the power of arcana which awoke in this bitch is probably Death God. I think it was a power that revolved around corpses.)
He knew a lot about arcana.
So he could deduce what Mary’s power was.
“You ate, didn’t you, you fucking bitch? All those corpses below the cliff!”
“Yes, I did indeed!”
Growing stronger according to the number of corpses, that was the arcana governing over death- Death God.
The corpses she ate became sustenance for her flesh, raising her physical power and her toughness to incomparable heights.
Magrat swung his fists and dodged.
He used Hermit and struck at Mary while she mowed down the bullets.
He dodged, ran, counterattacked, but could do no damage… and Mary was closing in on him.
Finally, a long arm growing from Mary grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Time to return the pain.”
She tore Magrat’s arm off.
“Gah, aaaarrrgggh!”
He screamed and collapsed to the ground.
“That makes us even now. Well, mine is already healed, but still.”
Mary’s broken arm was completely healed.
On the other hand, Magrat was crawling on the ground and biting down on his teeth in pain after he lost his arm.
“I ain’t gonna die… I ain’t… gonna die until I see the fate of this beautiful world…..!”
“What an arbitrary sense of duty. Is that why you cut down the ugly humans? In my eyes, you’re the ugliest of them all.”
“What’s wrong with being selfish!? There’s still trash to take out of this world! There’s so many people who should be murdered by me! So, Hermit, please, let me live…..!”
Magrat barely uttered a prayer.
Then, he instantly disappeared.
“He’s gone! The power of the Hermit allows one to freely transform objects into things that cannot be seen, right? But I can’t believe it can go this far! You used your power on your own body, didn’t you?”
No answer.
Even if there was one, his words would not reach Mary’s ears.
“I don’t sense him, I can’t hear him, and there are no footsteps. That’s a shrewd… and incredible power. It must be very useful as a hitman!”
Mary looked all around herself.
For now, she could not sense where Magrat had gone off to.
“However, if you use your mana to hide yourself, you will have less to use for offense. You can’t break through my bones anyhow. Hey, Mr. Magrat, do you hear me? Don’t tell me you’re running away or something?”
◇◇◇
Magrat had turned her back to Mary, and was running away.
He was pushing down on his hemorrhaging wound with one hand as he ran through the night forest.
Of course, the blood spilling from him was also being hidden with the power of the Hermit.
“Aaah…… Aaah…… I failed the job…… Shit, I threw my phone away when I thought it was over! Ahahaha, what a mess! Pheew…… Man, how am I gonna explain this to my customer…… to the boss…..? I gotta hold a kneeling party.”
He would be lucky if kneeling down was all he had to do.
His boss would not kill an arcana user, but there was no knowing what kind of punishment that tyrant would bring down upon him.
Magrat couldn’t help but look forward to it.
He had to look forward to it, because he knew he would not survive it otherwise.
“Haha, but, things will work out if I survive. I can have fun, as long as I’m alive. Even the debacle today is sustenance for me, as long as I stay alive. Yeah, as long as I stay alive. I can keep killing. Life is happy, life is genocide! Ahahahaha!”
As long as he could think so, it was no debacle at all.
It was a winning run.
All he had to do was to head for the way out and escape with a pleasant smile on his face.
“Ahahahaha! Haha, haha, haaa!”
But, Mary had passed him already and was waiting ahead of him.
Then, she put her hand up in anticipation for Magrat, even though she should not have been able to see him.
Piercing through the palm of her hands and growing from her body was a mass of sharp bones.
“Ten Corpse Burial Cannon.”
Her body leaned backwards with a rumbling noise as she fired it.
Her target was Magrat.
The mass of bones aimed at him with accuracy, speed, and directly bore through his abdomen.
Magrat dumbfoundedly looked down on the hole in his abdomen.
“Hah…… Guh…… Buh, ungh…..!
Blood spurted out from his mouth, and the power of the Hermit was lifted.
Mary approached him as she spoke in a cold tone.
“You cannot get away. Because there must be only one choice left for you- to die in pain as you lament killing my sister.”
“How…… did you…… know…… where I was….?”
“You’re the one who killed my sister. You’re the one who carried my sister’s corpse to the Death God’s Valley. So, you had my sister’s hair on your clothes.”
It was just one, two strands at most.
But that was enough.
“And now, my sister dwells within me, she is one with me. We are connected.”
“How did you…… ugh….. ungh…. Shit…… but I’m an arcana user…… I can’t… die in a…… place like this……”
Magrat was regretful, as if he had lived the life of a proper man.
Mary’s heart was completely cold.
“A wretch like you deserves no tears as he dies. Please die already.”
Not even permitting him the agony of his dying moments, Mary crushed his head with her hands.
It was over.
She left Magrat’s body on the ground as his foul blood spurted out of it, and the monsters peeking their heads out of Mary’s chest wolfed it down.
As for whether the grudge she held for Francis’s death was cleared away, the answer would be a no.
(This scumbag’s life isn’t enough to pay for what I’ve lost.)
Still, she felt a lot better after killing him.
Besides, there were still people she had to kill.
Her father, her mother, her brother, the members of House Slava, they all shared the sin of her and her sister’s murder.
“Now, who shall I take revenge on next?”
Finishing her meal, Mary triumphantly headed for the way out as her skirt swung along with her steps.
The arms growing from her back disappeared, and the holes in her dress were mended.
Even the gothic dress she wore was created by the power of the Death God.
“Lord Romeo, I can’t wait to see your face when you realize that I’m back.”
How pathetic would he look in his shock?
Just imagining it was enough to make Mary smile.