It happened in an instant.
Hamyuts showed herself inside the Imaginary Entrails and Ruruta recognized her figure. The distance between the two was not even five meters. The moment Ruruta realized this abnormal situation she leapt at him.
I can do it, Hamyuts was convinced. Ruruta was frozen, still pointing at Colio. His shock at Hamyuts’s appearance as well as the doubts he felt due to Colio created quite enough of an opening.
She pressed near him with a single step.
“What just…”
What just happened. He wasn’t able to speak it until the end. By that time Hamyuts already made contact with him. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders.
Ruruta was the world’s greatest warrior. Once he sensed danger his body moved instinctively.
If Hamyuts had used her sling here Ruruta would have definitely responded. Whether she tried clenching her fist, sending a kick, or showed any form of attack, Ruruta would have made a reflexive counterattack. However, all Hamyuts did was grab Ruruta. Her movements were definitely not an attack. And since they weren’t he could make no response.
Hamyuts pushed down the sitting Ruruta.
And then forcibly kissed his lips.
“What the…”
Colio could do nothing but mutter this. He couldn’t even confirm by sight what was going on. He had failed convincing Ruruta. Both the destruction of the world as well as his death were unavoidable. But the next instant a human figure appeared and flew at Ruruta. She then embraced him and locked lips with him. How could he understand any of that?
He recognized that figure as Hamyuts Meseta. But that only made him more confused.
“…Is that you, Hamyuts?”
There was no reply. He could only faintly hear Hamyuts’s tongue entwining Ruruta’s lips. Ruruta was also frozen with shock. Everyone there ceased their movements.
After about three seconds, the pair began moving. Ruruta who had been pushed down hit Hamyuts’s stomach. She was blown about five meters away and landed on top of the stage.
“Hamyuts… Meseta… why are you… here…”
Ruruta said, holding his mouth with a hand.
“…Huhuhu, your lips are so soft.”
Saying this, Hamyuts wiped her mouth using the back of her hand. The lipstick smeared down her cheeks, creating a red line.
“Why are you here, and what have you done?”
Ruruta said. Hamyuts did nothing but show an eerie smile. Colio couldn’t do anything; he only stared at the two.
“Answer me! What have you done?!”
“Do you really not know? What I came here to do should be obvious.”
“What?”
Something abnormal suddenly occurred. Ruruta greatly convulsed as if something exploded inside his body.
“Gah!”
Ruruta grabbed his throat. A voice like someone vomiting leaked out. He coughed painfully several times. His body began to shake violently. Colio reached out his hand to help him, but stopped himself.
“What… is… this…”
Ruruta fell to his knees and vomited. However, only a few drops of saliva were scattered and nothing else came out of his stomach.
“I’m obviously here to kill you.”
Hamyuts smiled from ear to ear. Even her body was trembling with joy.
“Is that you, Hamyuts? W-what does all this mean!”
Colio raised his voice. Hamyuts turned around, showing him a repulsive smile.
“You’ve done a great job, Colio-kun. It was perfect.”
Ruruta stared at the flustered Colio.
“What have you done to Ruruta, Hamyuts?”
“Didn’t you hear me? Also, can you not tell by looking at him?”
Hamyuts came to kill Ruruta. And she succeeded splendidly. Even Colio understood that much. But why had she kissed him?
“It’s simple. It’s something that took place countless times in history.
The end of a tyrant should be obvious, right?”
“What does that mean?!”
“Betrayal and poisoning by his own underling… that is the obvious end of a foolish tyrant.”
Poisoning? Colio couldn’t understand her words. Ruruta was dying. It didn’t feel real to him. Could someone as powerful as him even die? The moment he thought this, the collapsed Ruruta raised his face.
“…So it was Makia Dexiart…”
He said, glaring at Hamyuts.
“Correct.”
Hamyuts said in a carefree way. Ruruta’s line of sight was directed at Colio.
“…So that’s… how it was… Colio…”
He glared at him.
“You’ve… completely fooled me… that’s how it was!”
Ruruta slowly stood up. Colio as well understood the situation little by little. He had been used by Hamyuts. Looking at it from Ruruta’s point of view, it would seem like Colio only came there to distract him.
“I’ll kill you bastards!”
Ruruta shouted. At the same time Hamyuts grabbed Colio’s belt. She picked up his body and threw it away lightly. Colio flew through the air along with a scream.
“You’re in the way!”
He could hear Hamyuts shouting. Colio, thrown out of the theatre, hit the sand and rolled off.
Having gotten rid of the hindrance, Hamyuts pulled out the sling at her waist. Ruruta was somehow able to protect himself against the instantaneously launched gravel bullet.
“Now then, let’s start the real show.”
Ruruta didn’t even think about Colio anymore. His enemy was Hamyuts. As well as the poison poured into him.
Ruruta repelled the gravel bullets that shot at him as if from a machinegun. Normally Hamyuts would be the kind of opponent he could kill instantly. However, right now simply protecting himself took everything he had.
Poison. It was an attack he had no experience in.
It was attempted on him countless times obviously; those who had tried to kill Ruruta used thousands of poisons. However, he possessed a Magic Right that allowed him to nullify all poisons. Whether it was a well-known poison or an unknown one, no poison should have been able to affect him.
And yet Hamyuts’s poison was effective. For some reason his Magic Right didn’t work at all.
He desperately analyzed the current situation while defending against the gravel bullets. His symptoms were nausea, convulsions, and the feeling as if a foreign body invaded him.
“Guh!”
“First strike!”
His defense was incomplete. A single gravel bullet grazed Ruruta’s ear. He grimaced at this physical pain he hadn’t felt for who knows how long.
“Let’s keep going!”
Hamyuts’s expression was full of joy. Wearing that kind of face in front of Ruruta… he felt humiliated.
“You idiot, Ruruta! Have you really not noticed?”
Hamyuts lightly evaded Ruruta’s lightning strike. She kept launching gravel bullets while running around the theatre.
“Even though I’ve been next to you for more than ten years!”
It was a blunder. He had asked Makia Dexiart to kill him fifty years ago. It was a name he already forgot.
After running into Chacoly Cocot once he thought that his battle with him was over. However, there was another person to bear his “legacy”. And she was so close by, too.
He invoked his needle-controlling Magic Right. It was the power he had used to kill Hamyuts earlier. However, she also evaded it. He wasn’t able to aim well.
“And so!”
He fired yet another needle. This time he tried to pierce her entire body.
However…
“…Ah… Gwahhh!!!”
The poison stopped his movements. As if his body pounded against something. His aim was off and Hamyuts ran to outside the theatre. The needle did nothing but pierce a small sandstorm.
Rather than any pain he felt the sense of foreignness in his body. Something terrifying had invaded his inner depths. Neither coughs nor vomits could pull it out of him. However, he also realized that it wouldn’t be as simple as spitting it out.
Gravel bullets came flying from outside the theatre. Ruruta extended a barrier around him and the statue of Nieniu. And he floated up the air.
“First I have to calm down.”
He said to himself. Below him was Hamyuts, running around the desert and shooting her gravel bullets.
The gravel bullets were trivial. The only problem was the poison.
His body could move. His awareness was clear and he could use Magic. It wasn’t a quick-acting poison that could take his life instantly. His throat ached and his heart throbbed with strange palpitations. However, he didn’t feel like he was about to die.
Besides, Hamyuts attacking him with her sling meant that she couldn’t kill him with the poison alone. If so then there should be some countermeasure.
Ruruta had the powers of the tens of thousands of Books he had Eaten thus far. If he mobilized them he would surely find an anti-poison Magic Right. He only needed to ascertain what sort of poison it was.
“…Hu.”
Ruruta laughed. At such times one should laugh. By laughing he could retain his composure. If he’d lost that he would act according to Hamyuts’s expectations.
Seeing Ruruta laugh, Hamyuts wore an unsettled expression.
“Shall I go outside for now?”
Ruruta looked at the “outside” reflected on the sky. By exiting the Imaginary Entrails, Hamyuts’s attacks wouldn’t reach him and everything would end. He was a bit anxious about not understanding the poison, but that was the same if he remained inside.
He flew towards the sky. By passing it he would reach the outside world. However, Ruruta was stopped by an unseen force. Rather than being pushed back, it was more like he felt as if he lost his strength the more he approached the exit.
Ruruta looked down at Hamyuts. Her expression seemed to be telling him he couldn’t run away. As long as Hamyuts was inside the Imaginary Entrails there was no escape. It appeared she possessed that sort of ability.
“Well? Surprised?”
Hamyuts showed her composure. However, he already assumed as much. He obviously wouldn’t be able to run away from Makia’s assassin so easily.
“…Hey, what’s wrong? You’ve suddenly gone quiet. Come on.”
These were cheap provocations. There was no need to respond.
“Should you really ignore me? You’ll be killed at this rate.”
Ruruta paid her no heed and kept thinking about the poison. At that moment, he noticed that his suffering was fading little by little. He was still nauseous but not to the extent of wanting to vomit. The foreign sense in his body also gradually vanished. He felt like the balance of his body was being restored.
“…Is that it?”
Was it merely a somewhat special poison that took a little time to negate? If so it was a complete let-down. Makia Dexiart… Hamyuts Meseta… was that all his opponents were capable of?
He still had no idea how she had entered his Imaginary Entrails, but these were small details.
“It’s fine, Ruruta. You can be killed.”
Hamyuts at his feet looked small. The moment he thought of ignoring her and kill her, she spoke.
“I command you. Absolve all your defenses.”
She said while firing a gravel bullet. No way I’d do that. The gravel bullet was vainly repelled and vanished.
Or so it should have been.
“Guh!”
A pain ran through Ruruta’s side. A gravel bullet dug below his ribs. His barrier vanished without him noticing.
“We can still keep going, you can’t evade it. Please stay there.”
Hamyuts’s stones began assaulting him from every direction.
He tried turning his body to evade. However, he couldn’t move. All bullets hit him squarely. Blood began spurting from his back, stomach and sides.
“Why?!”
There was no way he couldn’t evade an attack on that level. And yet he was attacked as if he served for target practice. Although not restrained at all, he couldn’t move.
“Hey, I’ve hit you. What a surprise. You were so cocky I thought I’d failed.”
Using his super regeneration ability his wounds were healed instantly. But rather than pain his surprise was much greater.
Hamyuts’s consecutive attacks dug into his body. Flesh was ripped and blood scattered. He tried flying upward to leave the gravel bullets’ range. His body finally moved.
“Uwah!”
However, something impossible happened again. Although he rose upwards, he then descended a moment later.
This wasn’t him merely being unable to evade; he himself went to receive the attack.
Was this due to the poison? If it wasn’t a poison meant for killing… just what sort of poison was applied to him? A poison that made him unable to defend? A poison that made him unable to resist commands? He had never heard of such things.
“You bitch!”
He shot a fireball at Hamyuts. It landed completely off the mark. Next he scattered an icy mist approaching absolute zero. However, it vanished before reaching her. Then he tried launching an invisible slashing attack that would cut everything around. Yet this power, which was supposed to cut Hamyuts to shreds, and was above power even Shlamuffen, did not activate.
“I don’t understand, this is, this is…”
Ruruta felt fear for the first time. He couldn’t attack. He couldn’t defend. He didn’t understand any of it. Gravel bullets hailed down on him like rain. He clumsily curled his body and covered his head with both hands. Neither his barrier nor any interception ability was able to work. The gravel bullets all hit him right on mark.
“What’s wrong, Ruruta?”
Hamyuts shouted, swinging her sling.
“Are you — already?”
He couldn’t hear the words in the middle due to the impact of a gravel bullet grazing his head.
“What… was that?”
He asked back. Hamyuts shouted in an even louder voice so he could hear her.
“Are you feeling good already?”
“…About what!”
“About getting killed!”
Ruruta then noticed - he was experiencing a strange discomfort since a while ago. These attacks didn’t cause just pain. Aside from it there was also some intoxication he had never felt before.
“C’mon!”
A gravel bullet hit his knee. He felt his bones crack. And another feeling ran coursed through him along with the pain.
“Next your back!”
A gravel bullet penetrated his back. The impact penetrated his entire body. But why did he not suffer due to it?
“How about this?”
Blood spurt from his head. And yet it felt pleasant to Ruruta.
Yes, the more attacks he was dealt the more pleasure he felt. It was similar to sexual intercourse yet far above it. An abnormal pleasure assaulted him.
Ruruta then noticed - he was panting like a prostitute ever since a while ago every time he received an attack.
“So, doesn’t it feel good? It should feel like the best thing ever, Ruruta!”
Was this the effect of the poison? Hamyuts had poured inside him a poison that turned pain into pleasure. Impossible. However, that impossible happened. That poison ate into Ruruta’s body.
Further attacks assaulted him. Ruruta was unable to suppress his voice. He wasn’t emitting screams but sweeter, strange voices.
“Ahahaha! Nice voice there! You don’t have to hold it in! Moan some more!”
Once his defenses were breached they couldn’t return to normal. He was unable to stop himself from raising a voice.
“…Impossible, this, impossible, ability…”
Ruruta’s mutters mixed in with his sweet shouts.
Gravel bullets dug into his body. He felt enormous pleasure. Since it was so pleasant he couldn’t evade it. Since it was so pleasant he didn’t want to evade it. Once he received one attack he wanted the next one even more. He wanted even stronger, fatal attacks.
Ruruta screamed.
“As if… such a stupid… ability can exist!!!”
The only response was Hamyuts’s shrill laughter. Ruruta could hear from it Makia Dexiart’s laughter as well.
Ruruta kept enduring Hamyuts’s attacks for several minutes. Even while the sweet intoxication was dimming his consciousness he desperately searched for the poison’s identity.
His power of Book-Eating made every soul his own. Hamyuts’s memories were already inside the Imaginary Entrails. A small point of light was released from Hamyuts’s body while she kept flinging gravel bullets. Ruruta sucked it in. He then read a fragment of her life.
“It’s called Soul Fusion.”
The one to say this was an old man. He was a worn-out old man with gray hair, probably above 60 years old.
Ruruta realized that he was Makia Dexiart.
The place was a dim room inside a Magic research facility. Inside were Makia and one other person.
“…Soul… Fusion?”
The other person responded. She was a young girl. Ruruta saw Makia from that girl’s eyes. She was the young Hamyuts.
“What’s that?”
Hamyuts said, her voice colored by confusion. Her voice was very weak and small.
“Explaining it in simple terms, it is the ability to blend your soul with another person’s. You could also say it is the ability to give part of your soul to another person. That is the power I will teach you starting now.”
“Okay.”
Smiling, Makia kept speaking.
“We were able to analyze the structure of the Passed Stone Blade Yor. And we have also reproduced the Magic of Lascall Othello when he fused with a Librarian Angel. So I have decided to teach you the same power as Lascall.”
“What happens if I use that power?”
Makia continued.
“Fusing your soul means you will become one person. Of course, since you’ll be giving Ruruta only part of your soul, you won't completely be the same person.
For example… you love sewing. You will fuse the part of your soul that loves sewing with Ruruta.
If you do that then Ruruta will love sewing as well. You hate celery. If you fuse the part of your soul that hates celery with Ruruta he will hate it as well.”
“Is that it?”
“Yes, that is all. You will go inside Ruruta’s Imaginary Entrails with your inborn Book-Feeding ability. Next, you will restrain Ruruta with the power to block the exit of the Imaginary Entrails that was already transferred to you.
Finally, you will kiss Ruruta. And you will fuse a part of your soul with Ruruta’s.
That is what I am asking you to do.”
“…I don’t get it, dad. Will that allow me to defeat Ruruta?”
Makia spoke with a smile that was scornful, pitying and bizarre.
“Yes, you will defeat him with that.”
“How?”
Ruruta muttered. He could understand the mechanism of Soul Fusion. He now knew how Hamyuts had appeared inside the Imaginary Entrails and why she kissed him.
But how was that enough to beat him? Soul Fusion? Starting to like sewing? Starting to hate celery? Would such a thing really cause this abnormal situation?
Even now the gravel bullets were raining down on him. Every time he received a blow he would raise a voice of pleasure. This wasn’t a battle. It was rape.
“Huh? Do you still not get it? You sure are dim-witted.”
Hamyuts smiled as if saying she grew tired. Anger welled within him and his body shook with murderous intent. However, he still couldn’t move.
Just what had Makia done to Hamyuts? I am about to kill myself. I am being tempted to do so. How can one accomplish such a thing?
At that moment he suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
“Oh. Have you finally realized?”
He rejoiced at him receiving blows. Soul Fusion. Hamyuts Meseta. The various pieces of the puzzle began clicking inside Ruruta’s mind.
I fused with Hamyuts. With that degenerate personality of hers.
Ten years before the fight of the Armed Librarians and the Indulging God Cult, Hamyuts had already known that Kachua was scheming a rebellion. However, she purposely didn’t speak of it to anyone.
Ruruta heard Hamyuts’s words from deep within the underground and perceived her true intentions.
She had two objectives. The first was the Indulging God Cult killing her. And the second was someone exposing her betrayal, leading to the Armed Librarians killing her. How strange, thought Ruruta. It was a betrayal that held no benefits for Hamyuts.
In the fight against the Cult ten years later, Hamyuts always threw herself into deadly predicaments.
For example the fight against Cigal. If, at the time, she had fought while running away and waited for Mattalast’s rescue, they should have been able to defeat Cigal easily together. However, Hamyuts chose a one-on-one fight.
Or the Monster Zatoh Incident. She without any doubt expected Enlike to turn into an enemy. She was convinced that he was far stronger than Zatoh.
As well as the battle against Mokkania, Volken’s Rebellion, and the final battle, the Deep Blue Curse Rebellion.
It wasn’t that Hamyuts was belligerent; she was trying to die in battle. He could think nothing else. And Ruruta was now fused with that Hamyuts.
He realized everything. He now knew about Makia’s goal and the poison Hamyuts administered to him. But while understanding it Ruruta was shocked. Even if he knew what happened he couldn’t believe it.
What Hamyuts gave Ruruta was the desire to be killed. Being assaulted, violated and murdered became pleasure, an abnormal desire. Should he call it a Suicidal Wish?
Using her Book-Feeding ability, Hamyuts came inside the Imaginary Entrails. Using Soul Fusion she had poured the poison of Suicidal Wish into Ruruta. Then, she intended killing Ruruta while he was ensnared by that. That was the method to kill Ruruta that Makia had thought of.
“Im…possible.”
He couldn’t help but moan. Since he wanted to be killed he couldn’t defend. Since he wanted to be finished he couldn’t attack. Those who wanted to be defeated, no matter what powers they had, would always lose.
If one makes another person want to be defeated, they would be able to defeat their enemy no matter how strong that enemy was.
What an idea. Instead of killing the opponent, they would make them want to be killed.
Such an attack should not exist. There was no way one could defend against an attack that couldn’t exist.
Ruruta had misjudged Makia. He had requested his best and worst opponent to kill him.
Suddenly Hamyuts’s attacks stopped. And she spoke to him. She seemed to understand that he had figured out Makia’s plan.
“Say, using your common sense, do you think it could possibly exist? A human like me, I mean.”
Hamyuts laughed.
“I mean, I’m completely abnormal right? My desire is to be killed and my pleasure is to be defeated. No way such a freak could exist.”
Ruruta didn’t understand Hamyuts. He knew that she was abnormal, but thought that she was merely a battle freak that enjoyed the thrill of being between life and death or a pervert that could only derive pleasure from her suffering. However, Hamyuts was not in that domain.
She wished for defeat more than victory, murderous intent pleased her more than love, and she sought death more than life. She was a person whose structure of pleasure was completely reversed from a normal person. No one would make being killed the goal of their entire life. It was impossible on a biological level.
“No way such a thing could exist. No way a person like me could exist.”
Then why did she exist? Ruruta had a guess but he couldn’t help but ask himself this.
“What did Makia…”
It was only a little bit, but he felt fear.
“What did Makia do to you…”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Hamyuts pointed at her head.
“Makia remodeled me! Both my head and my soul!
Death is my pleasure and defeat is my desire! He remade me into such a being!
Everything just to kill you!”
She pointed her fingertip from her head to Ruruta.
“…You can see my memories too, can’t you?”
Hamyuts answered, both hatred and sorrow in her smile.
“Try reading them. Try seeing the day my soul’s been remodeled. The day I’ve been transformed into a monster than takes pleasure in being hurt and in being killed!”
Hamyuts’s memories were brought to Ruruta. He vicariously experienced the happenings of that day.
It was Hamyuts Meseta’s twelfth spring.
She would soon be taken to the outside world. She would be taken to the place called a zoo, to the place called a department store, to the place called a cinema theatre, to the place called a school. She was supposed to have been free once all of that was over. Since she had been promised so, Hamyuts never disobeyed Makia even once.
“…Gah, agiiii!”
Hamyuts was constrained to an iron chair. Her wrists, ankles, knees, elbows, lower abdomen and chest were tied with a leather belt. The tips of her limbs were congested with blood, changing color to look like a pomegranate.
Her neck and head were affixed more carefully using iron fixtures.
“There are no signs of pleasure yet. Should we continue?”
Said the man standing next to Hamyuts. He pushed heated iron needles underneath Hamyuts’s fingernails. Hearing her shrieks, another man spoke.
“No need. Treat her again.”
Makia had told Hamyuts once. I will remodel your soul and plant a Suicidal Wish inside it. She didn’t understand it but nodded. She believed there was no way Makia would do anything bad to her.
“Activating Magic Right. Executing second stage of Soul Surgery.”
She couldn’t move but was conscious. She also knew what people around her were doing. She could also see the operating table in front of her.
It was part of her cranium. They cut open a hemisphere in a horizontal line above her eyelids.
Hamyuts was absolutely frightened. That thing there was her, with her cranium broken and her brain exposed.
No way she could live through something like that. A Magic tool she had never seen before was inserted into her brain. Yet she still lived.
“Yeah… Chacoly remembers it since you’ve done it to her as well, but seeing it from the side really makes her feel sick.”
Said Chacoly, standing nearby. She was watching Hamyuts going through such a thing while smiling.
“Magic Right properly carried out. Survival instincts were removed and transformed to Suicidal Wish.”
The Magicians surrounding her continued reciting horrifying terms.
Hamyuts was scared. She wanted to lose her consciousness. She wanted to lose her mind. She could do nothing in this crazy situation but go crazy.
“It’s useless Hammy. How annoying. Soul Sharing. Chacoly rejects Hammy losing her mind.”
However, Chacoly blocked her from going insane.
Blood trickled from the cut surface of her cranium and entered her eye. Her vision was dyed by red. Tears mixed with blood and the taste of salt and iron entered her mouth. In her extreme fear she broke her teeth biting the gag in her mouth. She soiled herself and coughed at the smell.
Someone’s Magic shook Hamyuts’s soul to the core and destroyed it. Her eyeballs rolled back and she saw the back of her eyelids.
“What a pity… and after Hammy was such a gentle older sister. But now she’s gone.”
Even Hamyuts was able to realize it intuitively: she was no longer herself. Every time they tampered with her brain using Magic she was dying. She was being transformed into someone she didn’t know. It was more horrifying than anything.
“The future Hammy will be nothing but a monster.”
“Chacoly, stop!”
“But it’s true right? Finding pleasure in being killed is weird. A monster.
Well, being a monster is fine though. Hammy’s just a tool after all.”
And thus Hamyuts Meseta was born. It was the birth of a tool that existed only to plant the Suicidal Wish inside of Ruruta.
And now that tool was attempting to accomplish her long-cherished desire.
“…You’re not… human…”
Such words naturally came out of his mouth. It was usually said by anyone facing Ruruta instead of the other way around, though.
“Yeah. I’m not human, I’m a tool.”
Ruruta was the one to tell Makia to kill him. He had also told him to use all of his efforts. However, he never told him to go that far. He never thought he would go this far.
“Good for you, Ruruta. You’re finally going to die. Isn’t that what you wanted?!”
“No! I just lost myself! It was a mere mistake! As if I’d die here!”
Ruruta shouted. Hamyuts laughed.
“No, you will die. And here.”
Ruruta knew - he had no way to repel her Soul Fusion.
No matter how much he shook with anger, Ruruta’s body sought death.