36 – Advent – 6
I felt as if my body was twisting around the spot where Kartina had stabbed her hand.
The blood from the whole body was sucked into Kartina, and a terrible cold rushed from the tips of the fingers and toes, and they hardened as they were.
The expression “I can’t even move a single fingertip” was a feeling that fit perfectly.
Because all the blood was sucked in, the proper accident did not occur. My eyes were blurry. My throat was so tight that I couldn’t even groan.
I headed towards Kartina with a view that was gradually darkening. In contrast to me, Kartina was rapidly regaining her complexion. My pale face turned red, and the hand that held my arm tensed up.
Ugh, as if she had run out of blood to absorb, the flesh began to be absorbed into Kartina’s hand through the hole in her chest.
Now, only bones and internal organs were left, and the body was slightly distorted. First, the broken ribs were the signal flares, and the bones all over the body shattered with a groaning sound.
A warm liquid trickled down his cheek. Judging from the fact that there was no smell of blood, it seemed that the eye could not withstand the pressure and burst open, leaking its contents.
My oxygen-starved brain stopped thinking. It was just that I was feeling the sense of shrinking with the sound of bones breaking according to my instinctive judgment.
Something that was served as a god absorbed me directly. It might be possible to make me die like this, or it might be possible to suck up all my life and get rid of it.
Can I really die now? That was the last thought in my brain.
Of course not.
“Fuck.”
Seriously, I wish that was my last thought. At some point, my body bounced off Kartina’s hand and stretched out on the floor.
Of course, it was completely restored to its original state. My fingers and toes worked well, and my head spun. Needless to say anywhere else.
In contrast to my troubled heart, the sky was insanely blue. Is it natural that the weather has been clear since morning?
Someone from behind gently supported my head.
The touch of cold metal hit the back of his head. In one corner of her field of vision, her golden hair and eyes shining as blue as the sky came into view.
It was Serena.
Serena was raising my body, which had been sprawled on the floor, with a very complex and subtle expression.
His expression was a mixture of sadness and anger, joy and relief, but it was obvious why he was making that face.
Sadness and anger must be directed toward the helpless self and Kartina, respectively, and joy and relief must be feelings that come from the fact that I have a chance and that I am alive.
He calmly followed Serena’s hand and raised his upper body. Serena got down on one knee and raised the other to support my back.
I thought that I could do this kind of posture well while wearing the armor of the Royal Knights. Kartina was staring back and forth between her hand and me with surprised rabbit eyes.
“Are you God?”
I was the first to break the silence. I couldn’t make a good sound because I failed to die this time.
Did those pagan bastards worship not being able to kill a single person as their god? Even while making a grandiose wish, such as please exterminate all life in the world.
“I think that expression needs to be corrected a little. I am only receiving their faith, and I am not an existence worthy of being called a god.”
“If you receive faith, you are a god. What kind of sophistry is that?”
“I did not give them any power. God is a word that refers to an entity that bestows divine power in exchange for faith and continuance. They just called me God.”
Was it a contractual relationship?
“If you judge only by pure ability, the woman behind you would be more suitable for the title of god. Isn’t this a woman I have not even touched. Although I have lived for a very long time, I have not seen a strong being like that woman.”
I know about two more.
While deliberating whether or not to stop Serena, who began to wrap her hand around mine, I turned my right hand back and slightly pulled Serena’s cheek.
The distorted voice returned. The soft feeling of the soft touch at the tip of the hand was very good.
Serena, who wiggled her hands hard and succeeded in fitting the pods, and Kartina looked at me who was rubbing her cheeks, and opened her mouth as if it was really amazing.
“I wonder if it’s the woman who was terribly angry just before. The relationship with you seemed really deep—”
Tuduk, the hair on Kartina’s right shoulder was cut into chunks and fell helplessly to the ground.
Serena’s left hand was outstretched, and a small piece of wood was held between the index and middle fingers.
Kartina stared at her own hair, which had been cut off in the blink of an eye, with a hard face, then carefully picked it up and absorbed it into her body while watching Serena’s eyes.
Shortly thereafter, hair of the same color swayed and grew back from the cut off part.
The atmosphere became chilly. Serena must have been glaring at Cartina with a ferocious spirit, and Cartina was busy keeping an eye on Serena.
It was a change that made me wonder if the gods of the pagans who had been trying to kill me with a high-handed attitude a while ago were right.
He tugged at Serena’s cheek in the sense of making an impression. At some point, Serena, who had thrown the block of wood in her hand, laughed hysterically.
“…Anyway, I’ll start with the conclusion.”
Kartina, who cleared her throat, forced herself to continue. It was worth it. I almost choked on mentioning Serena for no reason, so I’m sure you want to switch the subject to something else.
I fully understood that feeling, so I didn’t bother to mention it.
“I cannot kill you.”
It was the answer I expected, but it was quite bitter to actually hear it. When Kartina saw me smiling bitterly, she returned a smile filled with the same emotion.
“Because of your lack of ability?”
“You could say that too. As I said before, I am not a god. Although I am a very old being. I have no intention of giving away divine power or increasing the number of followers in exchange for faith like a normal god. It only came out because I offered this sacrifice.”
“Didn’t you accept the request to exterminate all life in the world?
“In the end, it didn’t happen because you guys blocked it.”
“Serena.”
As Serena started generating mana from her body at my call, Kartina hurriedly added.
“Oh, it can’t be helped! The sacrifice has already been accepted, and since it has just arrived, I didn’t know you guys would be this strong! If I had known that the woman behind you would be such a strong human being, I would have accepted the sacrifice and pretended not to know it! It was the first time that there was a being as strong as a woman!”
Certainly not something worthy of being called a god.
Hearing Kartina’s excuse, he nodded inwardly and agreed. Seeing them openly declaring eating and running like that, they are definitely different from ordinary gods.
After all, all the believers were brought as living sacrifices to this ritual, so there would be no humans to serve them anymore.
Well, since he himself said that he was different from the gods, he would not disappear or disappear because he had no faith. If it was going to disappear because there were no followers, it would have disappeared long ago.
“The way you talk is a bit light considering you’ve lived a long time, isn’t it?”
Looking at Kartina, who glanced at her side in case Serena might run into her, she said a word.
When he first settled into Kartina’s body, he spoke in a fairly dignified tone, but now it feels completely different. Compared to that time, it felt like my mental age had gone down considerably.
“That’s also thanks to the woman behind you.”
“Is it because of Serena?”
He turned his head back and met Serena’s eyes. Serena, who was glaring at Kartina as if she were going to kill her, was startled at my gaze and adjusted her expression.
Even so, I was pulling one cheek, so overall it was still a funny face.
“Are you scared of Serena?”
“It can be seen as similar. In order to survive that woman’s attack, I used all the strength that was offered as a sacrifice. Didn’t I say that if it wasn’t for the blood on your body, you would have been completely destroyed? The connection between my mind and this body became unstable, and the memories of this woman named Kartina came into the gap, so I spoke in such an ambiguous tone.”
“Does this mean that Kartina’s personality has mixed and her way of speaking has changed?”
“Yes.”
“Then Kartina is still alive?”
Kartina nodded.
“When the duration of my descent ends, the woman will naturally regain the initiative. Right now, her soul is just sleeping deep in her mind. If you weren’t here, I moved to another city and killed more people. If I hadn’t, I could have increased my strength and completely dispersed my mind and killed it completely, but right now I can’t do that because maintaining this body is my limit.”
What, what he said was true?
I remembered what the receptionist had said during the ceremony that there was a possibility that Kartina could be saved if the ceremony was completely over later.
I thought it was just a pointless lie to keep us from interfering with the ceremony, but it turned out surprisingly true. It means that I can drain all of her power before Kartina is completely engulfed.
He raised his hand, which had been touching her cheek, and stroked Serena’s head to show that she had done well.
Serena had attacked with the intention of killing Cartina, but looking at the result alone, the possibility that the lord’s Cartina would come back increased thanks to that.
As long as the fact that that existence couldn’t kill me was confirmed, there was no reason to hold on to this side.
Serena’s cheeks turned red at my touch. Even so, I didn’t forget to gently lower my head to make it easier for me to stroke it.
“Keep talking. Oh, let’s talk about the psyche. Starting with the fact that you can’t kill me with your powers.”
“…So, it seems that the power I possess cannot pierce your super-regeneration ability. It is very regrettable.”
“I know that. I’ve just been through it. Any idea how to suppress this damn resilience or stop it from regenerating altogether?”
Kartina shook her head.
“At least not in my knowledge. I’ve never heard of a human with the ability to recover like you, so it’s only natural if it’s natural. It’s the power to forcibly take even the body parts I’ve completely absorbed and restore them to their original state. It’s an incompetent ability.”
“…”
Certainly, my super-regeneration ability was different from normal recovery ability. I felt this keenly while shutting myself in the Magic Tower as a volunteer for all sorts of biological experiments.
However, no matter how much I researched the question, the only conclusion I could come to was that this was an incredibly powerful ability.
In the first place, since I was the only person like this in the world, it was great that there was no one to compare with.
I asked Charlotte if she had found out anything, but I only heard the principled answer that it was so powerful that it granted immortality.
“This is all I can say, my dear.”
“Do you really not have any other abilities? Why can’t you use magic like annihilating existence itself?”
The answer came back as if it was absurd to my words.
“If I knew how to use such magic, I would have used it on the woman behind you first.
“…Then it can’t be helped.”
I sighed, convinced that I had nothing more to gain, and tried to pack my things, but then I paused. I had the feeling that I had forgotten something important until now. And after looking around for a while, I realized.
The fact that nothing was left of this city, including the Adventurer’s Guild building and Scarface’s head, which he intended to leave behind as evidence.
“…”
How should I explain it later?
