Chapter 121
“Aaaah... Ngh... No... I don't want to be eaten... It hurts... Aaaahhhhhhh!”
It was the moment when we had defeated the second corpse as well.
The Necromancer Nocturne clutched her head and let out a shriek.
Again? At this point, having this bay laurel is starting to make me nervous.
Engravings of black markings writhed out from her hands and covered her entire body.
A girl with pale skin covered in black spots collapsed to the ground.
“You killed them. They're all dead. It's over now, hahaha... Ngh... urk...”
The girl's neck twisted unnaturally. Eyes blazed in the darkness beneath her robe.
“So I'll burn you the same way.”
[The Necromancer ‘Nocturne’ summons a random ‘Puppet 3’.]
[Infamy Difficulty has been set to 10.]
[The Empire's Last Swordmaster · Reinhardt Shipot (0/1)]
-It appeared!!!!!!!!!!
-Isn't the probability riggedㅋㅋ Today's stream is legendary
└ What's the probability?
└ Who knows? The story doesn't reveal the probabilities
└ In Challenger ranked games, the objective spawn rate is under 1%
-Normally we'd welcome this with open arms, but why did he have to show up at a time like this, fuck
-Welcome, World's No. 3~
-The whole world is bullying Adela;;
-What happens if this guy appears in a tournament? Has he ever appeared?
└ No, along with Mephisto, guys like this never appear at all. Think logically.
└ ACK has been around for ages, and there are still people who don't watch tournaments?
-Just capturing him would massively boost our combat power
“What is that guy, taking his anger out on us? Everyone who has the laurel seems to have a screw loose! Except you, sis...!”
-I think NoName is the biggest lunatic among them?
-Am-dela, shut your mouth!!!
-No time, go all-out offense!
“I'll explain everything later. For now, focus on the enemy.”
I thought knowing only the enemy's information would be enough to clear Nightmare, but I never expected to end up studying the world's lore during the evening downtime, too.
Thanks to that, now that I knew both Nocturne's identity and ‘my’ identity, I could fully understand her despair.
The air grew heavy in an instant.
It became difficult to breathe, as though the moisture already clinging to the air had acquired a sticky viscosity.
A clay puppet rose from the ground, gradually taking on color and form.
Within the surging vortex, a man reached for a greatsword.
It was definitely too far away for the attack to reach us, but...
[SaveTheGradStudent: I forgot! NoName, retreat right now!]
Adela, instinctively sensing the danger, shoved me away.
“Siiis!”
“...?”
A sword slash swept horizontally across the horizon.
Kwoooong-!
The violent blast of wind that followed swept across the earth.
“Ouch, it stings...!”
Adela, who had taken the full force of the impact, clutched her head and rolled across the ground.
The tip of her ear had been sliced off by the sharp blade.
“Heal...!”
Red blood soaked her face around the wound. I hurriedly tried using Mid Heal, but the magic would not respond.
[Reinhardt's barrier has been deployed. Healing magic cannot be used.]
It certainly tells us quickly.
In a hurry, I tore off a sleeve and staunched the bleeding from her ear.
“Hngh! My ear hurts so much... It wasn't cut off, was it? My ear's still there, right?”
“It'll hurt more if you keep worrying about it. Staunch the bleeding like this and get outside the barrier quickly.”
“If I leave, what about you, sis!”
“You won't be able to heal it once too much time passes. Do you want to live with half an ear forever?”
“Whaaat? It really was cut off? Nyaaaaaaaaaaah!”
What a drama queen. The girl who had taken a knife to the leg without showing the slightest sign of pain was now bawling over having her ear nicked a little.
At least she seemed to know tissue-regeneration magic, so she should be fine as long as she could use magic.
[LG Chaos: Sorry. Actually, I've never encountered this boss either...]
[SaveTheGradStudent: That's understandable, since this one doesn't appear in professional games. What do we do?]
A Swordmaster, huh.
A Swordmaster from this world should be about as skilled as Klaus, right?
Reinhardt Shipot had to be the same person Alphonse Shipot had mentioned before.
But a ranged attack right from the start, without even a warning...
Since I'd just had the chance to witness Alphonse's unique magic, I felt I had to show them what a true ranged attack was.
* * *
[Vtube]
[World of Arseria] [@worldofarceria_KR]
[World of Arseria | Nocturne Nylingk Character PV - 「The Secret of Arseria Forest」]
[Warning: This video contains spoilers. Viewer discretion is advised.]
Hey there, handsome! I'm Nocturne Nylingk.
Are you busy? If not, would you listen to my story?
So, you see...
Every moment after waking up was a succession of pain.
[Nocturne Nylingk! Get out here right now!]
I did not open my eyes even when I heard them calling for me.
Because the moment my eyelids were pried open was when hell began.
[Is your brain rotten? You should be grateful we're keeping you alive, huh? Do you want to die like the others?]
Those are things they say to threaten me.
They can't kill me anyway.
I'm one of the few chosen experimental subjects, a resource, and nourishment. Those are names I've been called more often than Nocturne, perhaps.
Despite my struggles, I was dragged away by the men once again.
It was obvious what they wanted from me.
[Here, take it. There's no time, so swallow it quickly.]
What I received in my hand was a purple pill.
One month...
A pill containing a month's worth of demonic energy.
This had never happened before... The resolve I'd made to force myself to the brink and just die had become meaningless, and I was frightened before I knew it.
[What are you resisting for? Do you need us to crack your skull before you'll crawl in on your own?]
Even though I knew resisting adults was pointless, I struggled with all my strength.
But all that came back was merciless beating and regret. And endless self-hatred settled into the empty space where my emotions had been.
Before long, countless thorns shot up from the ground.
[Aah...]
The thorns, carrying the soft scent of earth, pierced my hands, my arms, and my legs without mercy. They went straight through me. The metallic smell of a forge filled the air.
As though I wasn't even allowed to let out a dying scream, the final thorn drove into my neck with a crunch.
A month of hell began.
...
...
Hell grew more terrible with each passing day.
What had once required a full month of rest after returning from a single day gradually began to occur at shorter intervals.
After emerging from a month in the darkness without even being able to cry out in pain, I began to wish I could just die.
Truly, no one could endure this. Not ever. Not if they were human.
I think I heard the men say that biting your tongue hard would kill you. Should I bite mine off right now? Or perhaps... I can see a sharp branch on the ground. If I slash my wrist with it, will I die?
My heart was pounding so violently that I could now feel the pain. And then, at that moment.
[Don't.]
[...?]
It was a voice as gentle as a spring breeze.
When I turned toward the owner of the voice, there was another experimental subject like me.
[Is this your first time seeing another experimental subject?]
That couldn't be. I'd already been here for five years. That wasn't what surprised me.
[Your ears...]
[Huh? Oh, these?]
Her ears were extraordinarily long.
They looked at least half the size of her face.
Even I, who could boast of having experienced every hell imaginable over the past five years, had only developed a small lump on my ears.
It was a side effect of the pills.
But if her ears had grown that long, just how long had she been trapped in this forest?
[I don't really know. Going by the most recent experiment alone, I think I've been here for a year. It had been that long, but it was cherry blossom season then, too.]
A year underground, in a place where she could not see, hear, or move, where all she could do was feel pain.
It wasn't normal. And just as she said, her mental state wasn't normal either.
She stuttered, forgot what she had just said, and sometimes left her mouth hanging open as drool ran down her chin.
But whenever her mind returned to her, we continued sharing the conversations we had never finished.
[They say a demon will be summoned into this world once that tree fully grows.]
I came to realize that the thorns rising from the earth were the roots of a gigantic tree. I even learned that the tree's name was ‘Yggdrasil.’
[It can't be much longer.]
Why would I care if a demon was summoned into this world? My every day was already hell.
[Do you have a family? Where in the Empire are you from?]
I did.
I don't remember clearly, but I had a loving mother and younger siblings.
I also told her that I hadn't forgotten being bound hand and foot and riding in a carriage for several dozen days to get here.
But how did she know that I was speaking the Imperial language?
[Didn't you know? Everyone here is from the Empire. You, me, and those men over there.]
What she told me was shocking.
So all the suffering we had endured until then had been for the sake of growing that tree...
Apparently, the Empire had used slave children like me as sacrifices.
[But it hasn't borne fruit for years.]
She also explained why the experiments had been growing increasingly intense.
[Even so, there is hope.]
She had sent a message for rescue outside through a pigeon, so someday, someone would come to save us.
Despair and hope arose at the same time.
If someone really came to save us, would the day come when I could see my family again, too?
I gathered a little courage and whispered to her.
“Let's definitely survive and meet again.”
But after one day passed, and then two, I could no longer find her in the forest.
Ah... wait...! I haven't finished my story yet...
Are you still busy?
If not, could you save me?
Here in Arseria Forest, where flowers in every color of the world glitter like dazzling stars.
The demons— Aaaahhhhhhh!
[Nightmare Ⅱ]
[-WareSoft-]
* * *
Watching Name easily deal with the Empire's last Swordmaster, Nocturne was experiencing a vague sense of absurdity—or perhaps fear.
‘The puppet is losing...?’
Even now, she was borrowing the demon's power, and her head hurt as though it were about to split open.
In exchange for sacrificing the rest of her life, she had drawn out all the magic power of the bay laurel and shared Reinhardt Shipot's field of vision.
A sword with no discernible edge came flying toward them.
The instinct the puppet had left behind from when it was alive sent out a warning.
If she did not respond right now, her head would be severed.
There was no technique or subtlety in its movements. Nocturne simply moved the corpse as it wished to move.
Swish-
It sounded like wind striking a window, but the force contained in that blow was considerable.
Her heart trembled violently. Every time an attack came flying, she found herself closing her eyes.
Nocturne was not accustomed to battles where her life was at stake.
Even so, the reason the puppet could continue facing Name was, in the end, the power of the bay laurel.
The puppet continued finding openings even amid the merciless bombardment.
And Nocturne, who felt this through her entire body, wanted to cry.
‘Just die... please! I'm telling you, just die!’
Perhaps that will was conveyed, because Reinhardt's body suddenly lurched forward.
He kicked off the ground and poured aura into his sword with desperate force.
Nocturne took on his behalf the pain of his arm muscles tearing and the hand gripping the sword being ripped away altogether.
“Ngh...!”
She had a powerful intuition that this might be the final blow.
That was why, this time, she forced herself to open her eyes—and could not close her mouth at the sight that followed.
The giant's body had been pierced through by her sword and hung dangling in midair.
She was aghast at the sight of one arm supporting the Swordmaster's thousand-pound weight.
How could a person become like chicken pierced by an iron skewer? She watched as the woman threw the sword, giant and all, into the wall and slowly began walking back toward her.
“D-don't come... O heir of Yggdrasil, come—no, I don't want... I don't want it! Don't come...!”
Although she had no weapon, it was only natural to feel fear upon seeing an abyss of immeasurable, unfathomable depth.
Tap-
Even though the footsteps of the grim reaper who had come to take her life had reached right in front of her, Nocturne Nylingk could not raise her head.
Her hands clamped tightly around her own neck.
So I'm going to die. In the end, I'm really going to die like this.
She remembered the days she had somehow entered the Crown Prince's service and clung to life for one or two more days at a time.
And when she realized that the karma of those deeds had finally come back to her, she resignedly looked up at Name's face—and was utterly bewildered.
“Sis?”
Her vision was dim and dark, right before she was devoured by the bay laurel, but there was no doubt that this was the experimental subject she had met in Arseria Forest.
“Sob... urk... hic... S-sis... it was you. I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you...”
The moment she realized that the grim reaper trying to take her life was the older sister from the experiments whom she knew, her sorrow welled up and tears burst forth. For some reason, she felt relieved as well.
“They said... my family... all of them died... The pope burned down the entire forest... Sob...”
“No. Your family is all alive.”
“...! Really...? Can I trust what you say again, like back then...?”
Tears flowed down her blackened skin. Name brushed away the deep shadows cast across her face with a finger and spoke.
“Yes, Nocturne Nylingk.”
“Thank you... You have to live... s...”
Nocturne's body went limp.
But her tiny, fern-like hand held onto Name's finger as though it were precious, refusing to let go.
[The Necromancer · Nocturne Nylingk has been defeated.]
She gently closed Nocturne's eyes, took the ring made of bay laurel, and left the cave.
Name suddenly raised her head and looked up at the indifferent sky.
In a world where the concept of elves did not exist, the low voice of a woman who called herself an elf rang out.
“This really is a fucking awful world, too.”
[Part 2: The One Sword of Eternity, Nocturne's Strange Tale END]
[Part 3: The Collapsing Tower of Babel]