Along with the Soul Eater, I had paralyzed multiple targets—the zombies as well.
The zombies' movements have stopped too.
I deliberately let myself be driven back against the wall in order to secure the right angle.
"Making it look like I was the one cornered—"
With my back against the wall, I could gather all the targets in front of me.
"In reality, it was you guys who were the ones cornered."
I thrust both arms forward.
"[Poison]"
I designate multiple zombies as targets.
I apply poison.
The condition of the poisoned zombies begins to change.
Just like with the dragon zombie, it seems effective even against the "dead."
"These zombies had clear killing intent toward me. Even if they were monsters created by exploiting the information from the discarded ones' souls… there's no reason for me to hold back."
Evil intent meets evil intent.
Killing intent meets killing intent.
I crush them.
I walk between the immobilized zombies.
Perhaps due to the damage, some of the zombies' legs have melted into sludge.
They drop to their knees.
It looks almost as if they are kneeling before a king.
With the poisoned zombies behind me, I stand before the Soul Eater.
"In this ruin, my status is probably the weakest. But being the weakest wasn't so bad."
The Soul Eater glares at me with a grinding expression.
Its tentacles are twitching with faint convulsions.
It can't move.
It seems unable to fire that beam either.
"I'm glad I was the weakest—it let you underestimate me. That's exactly why I survived."
I—
There were others who didn't survive.
The skeletons of the discarded ones I encountered.
Skeletons that had been toyed with by monsters.
The four skeletons that made it this far.
The Dark Hero.
It might be hard to call them "comrades."
I don't even know what kind of people they were.
In fact, they probably wouldn't have considered me a "comrade" either.
People discarded by that shitty goddess.
That's precisely why they were probably "decent" human beings.
They were discarded because they were decent.
But I can't think of myself as "decent."
My goal is revenge against the goddess Vysis.
A discarded hero consumed by vengeance.
It's not an ambition anyone would praise.
I'm not some admirable person.
It would be presumptuous of me to claim any sense of camaraderie with them.
But right now, I am incredibly irritated.
When I think of the discarded ones' regrets.
When I think of their humiliation.
When I think of their despair.
"I just can't help but feel pissed off…"
"Gugigigiiiiiiii—!"
How much suffering must they have endured, having their souls bound by this thing all this time?
Dying in a place like this after being discarded was painful enough.
Being tormented and killed by monsters was already unbearable.
Yet even after death, their souls remained imprisoned.
The discarded ones who continued to suffer.
That's why I wanted to give it to this thing.
Regret.
Humiliation.
Despair.
To the Soul Eater.
"[Poison]"
The Soul Eater's face turns purple.
Its body begins to foam.
Pop pop,
Pop…
Poison succeeds as well.
[Skill level has increased]
[LV2 → LV3]
I stare straight back at the Soul Eater, which is trying to shoot me dead with a murderous glare.
I slowly draw closer until I'm right up to its face, nose to nose.
The hatred and anger that had built up inside me were on the verge of exploding.
So I decided to laugh as hard as I could.
I open my eyes wide and look down on the Soul Eater.
"A lowly piece of trash that thought it could toy with a discarded weakling—suddenly getting poisoned by that very discarded weakling—"
I pull the corners of my mouth up to the limit.
"—and in an instant, plunged into desperation—"
A vicious grin.
"Pretty pathetic way to die, huh? Isn't it, Soul Eater?"
I open my mouth and stick out my tongue.
"!? U, o—i, gi, iiiiiiiiiii…! Ni, i, gihiiiiiiii—!"
It seems to have reached the peak of its rage.
Lost in ultimate fury.
Does this thing understand human speech?
Or is it just vaguely sensing my intent?
The Soul Eater's body begins to convulse violently.
Bushu, bushuu!
Bushaaa!
Bushuuuuu!
Blue liquid starts spraying from the Soul Eater's body.
A different color from the red liquid before.
That blue blood might be equivalent to actual blood.
Blue liquid scatters like a fountain of blood.
Feeling somewhat refreshed, I step back to a spot where the blue blood won't reach me.
I begin observing.
"Hm."
The phenomenon unfolding before my eyes.
I form a hypothesis.
"If it tries to force itself to move while paralyzed… it seems to take additional damage to its body like that…"
Probably only possible because the Soul Eater has absurdly high base stats—this kind of on-site death experiment.
"Good sample."
Thanks to this, I won't have to wait endlessly for death by poison alone.
Will I even need the [Sleep] I had prepared?
Well, the sooner it dies, the better.
It saves time.
If it's in such a hurry to die, I'm grateful.
The Soul Eater's killing intent and rage show no sign of stopping.
It must have spent all this time constantly taunting the discarded ones.
But perhaps it had never been on the receiving end of taunts before.
In this discarded ruin, it believed itself to be the strongest.
It must have believed that the whole time.
Perhaps the reason I was able to defeat the Soul Eater was precisely because the previous discarded ones couldn't stand up to it.
That's why it underestimated me.
In the end, the past discarded ones had laid the groundwork for me.
Crack,
Snap,
Crunch—
Cracks run across the stone face.
About half of the surface stone peels away.
The flesh beneath is exposed.
A mix of black, red, and pink flesh.
The meat is coated in blue blood.
Cracks run through its teeth as well.
It feels like collapse is near.
"Gu, gi, iiiiiii…!"
Even so, the Soul Eater's fury doesn't subside.
Perhaps it can't suppress its emotions with reason.
All I feel is—killing intent, killing intent, killing intent.
"..."
As I wait for death, the yellow gauge is nearly depleted.
"That's enough."
The words I suddenly spoke weren't directed at the Soul Eater.
They were for—
"Sleep."
For the discarded ones whose souls had been imprisoned—
"[Sleep]"