The little boy's body fell to the ground, leaving an imperfect circle of blood on the damp earth.
Nero recoiled as if he'd been slapped, his eyes flashing fear, disgust, and contempt for Kōri.
"But what the... why the hell did you kill him?! Didn't you see he was a child?!" the dark-haired man shouted, his gaze shifting between the cold body and Kōri.
Kōri bent down and pulled the ice knife from the boy's stomach, completely ignoring Nero's screams. Kōri's face was nothing but a mask of skepticism and coldness.
"Kōri, damn it, I'm talking to you!"
She stood still. Then, she turned completely toward Nero and asked calmly:
"What's wrong?"
"What's wrong, Kōri... you just killed a child."
"Huh?"
Kōri lowered her head to the corpse lying on the floor.
"Uhm… I guess I did."
Nero looked at her, bewildered.
"What the hell, Kōri? There are limits, you know? For example, you don't kill a fucking kid!"
Kōri tilted her head, somewhat bored by the situation.
"I still don't see the problem."
"Well, the problem is that such a young child doesn't deserve to die in such a repulsive and cruel way."
"Let me see if I understand…"
Nero froze completely, his eyes staring at Kōri with a newfound fear, his hands sweating and trembling slightly.
Kōri straightened her posture, her gaze turning coldly toward Nero and something or someone else.
"If you kill a child, it's terrible, a sin. May the gods judge you and have mercy on your soul!... If it's a teenager or young adult, it doesn't matter, neither good or bad... If it's an adult, it's good, he deserved it for his sins!... If it's an elderly person, it's however you want to see it..."
She approached Nero and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her.
"So make up your mind. Is killing the same regardless of age, gender, or disability? Or is killing wrong regardless of age, gender, or disability?"
Nero lowered his gaze and roughly pushed Kōri's hand away.
"I understand your point, but..."
"Besides, he was our enemy... he was."
Nero sighed, reflecting on Kōri's cold words.
Kōri observed Nero calmly and then sighed heavily.
"Yes, I understand... but it's still wrong, isn't it?" Nero looked up at Kōri. His expression was no longer one of disdain; it was as if he were genuinely trying to agree with Kōri.
Kōri exhaled.
"Yes, it's wrong… but that doesn't mean it wasn't necessary."
Nero's mind repeated that last word… "necessary."
Kōri turned away, ready to rejoin the group.
Nero glanced one last time at the corpse on the ground. Then, he froze for a second before assuming a fighting stance.
On the ground, next to the corpse, was a symbol resembling a stone split in two.
What? Another summoning?!... Nero thought, stepping back.
Kōri turned around; she heard Nero's footsteps.
"Nero, what's wrong?... Shit, not again."
The symbol shot out a small gray stone—no more than 4 cm—which quickly multiplied, forming a mound of grayish rock.
The mound took the form of a 5-meter-tall Golem, slow, strong, and robust, with long, thick arms, faint purple eyes that glowed in the darkness, the figure of a gorilla, and teeth like sharp stone spikes.
Nero threw his card at the creature, but it simply bounced off and had no effect on the robust stone body.
Didn't they die in a single hit from something with an aura?... Fuck you, Merlin!
The Golem walked slowly toward Nero and Kōri. Each footstep echoed through the forest and in Nero and Kōri's psyches. The two humans' faces reflected a horrible fear, so brutal that it almost paralyzed them.
The Golem raised one of its enormous arms, while resting the other on the ground.
Nero and Kōri managed to snap out of their paralyzed trance and dodged the immense blow just in time.
The damp earth shattered under the impact, sending shards of mud and moss flying. The mud clung to the rocky body, but the Golem didn't react.
It seemed to feel nothing…
"It has no sense of touch," Nero said, running toward his card on the ground.
Nero couldn't afford to create another card, as his aura was depleting, and Zero Stage could drain up to 30% of it in two minutes. Furthermore, in his normal state, he could create up to six cards by exhausting his aura, but with Zero Stage activated, the number of creations dropped to three. And if, for some reason, he ran out of aura… he would die a gruesome death.
Kōri smiled, looking directly at the colossal stone monster.
"Nero… I think he's deaf."
"What?"
"Look, it doesn't have ears. How could it hear?"
"Good question, but... watch out!"
Nero pushed Kōri out of the way of the stone creature. Then, he dodged the shards of mud and mold that resulted from the devastating blow.
Damn, damn, damn. At least I know it doesn't have a sense of touch, and maybe it's deaf.
Nero slid across the ground, wincing as he hit his leg. His mind was working like new gears, searching for something he hadn't thought of, a mistake, a doubt, a piece of knowledge... a moment.
Wait a moment...
His eyes widened with immense resolve as he noticed a detail. Something so obvious that anyone experienced in mysticism or the Sinner world would notice it.
How can the Golem move, attack, and see if its host and aura emitter is dead...?
Nero looked at the child's corpse a few meters away.
The body was still cold and inert, it seemed... so dead, but in reality, that child was nothing more than a vile imposter.
That child is still alive!... Nero thought, dodging another blow from the Golem.
"Kōri!" he shouted as he slid around the stone monster, "Distract it."
Kōri nodded and focused on the monster.
Her aura was depleted, but her role in the fight was merely a distraction; she had no need to attack, but…
Kōri inspected the frost knife in her right hand and then opened her left palm, thinking she wanted to see her aura.
The light blue circle glowed in the infinite "night," showing that she was roughly a quarter of an aura away.
Kōri laughed silently and created a razor-sharp frost blade.
She quickly began running toward the Golem. She dodged one of its massive attacks and climbed onto the back of the living mountain. She crawled down the Golem's back and plunged the frost blade and ice knife into both of the Golem's eyes. After the brutal attack, the creature began to vanish into gray fragments that quickly turned to dust.
"I guess that was its weak point…" Kōri murmured, falling to the ground.
Nero approached the boy's body on the ground and pointed his card at him. Then, he opened his mouth and said wearily,
"You lost. You can stop pretending now."
For a few seconds, nothing happened...
The "corpse's" eyes slowly opened. He clutched his stomach wound and groaned in pain. Then, he looked into Nero's eyes and said calmly:
"Ugh... it seems I couldn't kill my enemies. I failed the mission... I deserve to die."
Nero swallowed and raised his poker card to the sky, or perhaps the infinite ceiling of the cave. His mind trembled, sweat trickling down his temples. After a few tense seconds of silence, he shot his card at the neck of the boy lying on the ground.
It was... a quick death.
After observing the body on the ground for a while, Nero pulled the blood-soaked card from the boy's neck and wiped it on his clothes.
"Nero," said Kōri, trying to get to her feet, "I think I broke my leg in the fall."
"What? Really? Let me see."
Nero approached Kōri and examined both her legs. Her right leg was fine, but her left leg had a huge purple bruise, stretching from the sole of her foot almost to her knee.
"By the gods, Kōri, I don't think you can walk like that."
"Well, you'll have to carry me," replied the light-eyed girl.
Nero thought with some fear:
But Kōri, you must weigh about 70 or 80 kilos. Do you think I, a boy who was weak and scrawny just a month ago, can lift you in my arms and carry you like a princess?
Nero, being a smart boy, didn't dare say that to Kōri, knowing that the most likely reaction would be him with a few more holes in his body.
"Phew... come on, get on." Nero crouched down, turning his back to Kori.
The white-haired girl climbed onto Nero's back. The red-eyed boy almost fell over under all that weight.
"Uhm..."
"Is something wrong?"
"No, no, absolutely nothing..." Nero proceeded to think aloud, "Gods, I weigh as much as a sack of potatoes..."
"What...?"
Nero exhaled heavily.
Damn... I hope the others are alive....