Screeeech...
Ugh. The place is so dreary that even the sound of the door gives me the creeps.
More importantly, that thing...
When we passed through the rusted door that let out that skin-crawling screech, what welcomed us was a place that looked almost like where employees would rest... yes, a room that could be called a staff lounge.
"Well, this should do."
Faust stepped abruptly in front of Dante.
"Dante, close your eyes and find the star hidden in the darkness."
"The star of truth, neither too dazzling nor too faintly revealed."
"A star...? It won't hurt, will it?"
"If you're only looking for the star, then it won't hurt."
...Ah, I remember now.
What Faust just said was similar to what she said when we first made our contract with Dante.
Was that "star" from back then the same "star" Faust was talking about now?
"When you open your eyes again, the distant star will..."
"Be looking back at you."
"It's... beautiful."
Is that... a "star"?
Could I really describe it with just that one word?
At the center of the swirl of blue and red light, what glowed softly was... so mysterious that my meager vocabulary couldn't begin to capture it.
"Is that light... only visible to me?"
"No. Through you, now everyone can see it."
"Though it's inside the dungeon, everyone will be able to gain the benefit of being connected to you through the star."
"Then hurry up and turn the clock back. My shoulder blade feels like it's been dislocated for a while now."
Hey now, don't ruin the mood. No sense of romance. None at all!
"Turn it back? That clock... you could really turn it?"
"Not just turn it. It has an incredibly remarkable ability. Yuri, you should take a look too."
"...Does nobody care about my pain?"
"Um... hang in there, Dante."
Well, I don't have anything to say to that.
"Thanks... even if it's just empty words..."
With Dante's weak voice, the clock turned back.
The mysterious phenomenon of twisted bones snapping back into place and scattered blood returning to the body.
"Ghh!!"
And Dante's scream.
...I don't feel at ease.
"Ah~ what a refreshing feeling."
"I feel like I'm going to die..."
"That clock is really amazing~ I've never seen or heard of technology like this."
"At this level, it's practically a Singularity... just what kind of Wing is behind it..."
Hopkins greedily stared at Dante's head.
Maybe because of that, Dante suddenly grabbed his own head.
"Dante? Why are you holding your head?"
"N-nothing."
"Miss Faust, can the Manager's clock restore their lives as well?"
"The clock only works on the prisoners."
So Yuri and the other Fixers only get one life, then.
...I hope they don't die. No matter how many times I see it, watching someone I know die right in front of me... I don't think I'll ever get used to it.
"Ahh~ That's better, honestly."
"If there's a hole punched clean through your gut, wouldn't it be even more horrifying if you couldn't die and just came back to life?"
"No, if your stomach gets pierced, you're lucky. You die within seconds..."
Swish, swish.
"Huh...? Wait...!"
-Thud
"Ah."
Huh?
What just happened?
For a moment, I couldn't make sense of the situation.
But as time passed, the stiffness in my head naturally loosened.
What came into view was Ms. Aya, her stomach pierced by something like a plant stem.
"Everyone, prepare for battle."
"...I told you."
"I'm always... lucky, after all..."
"Ms. Aya!!"
Yuri let out a shriek as she saw Ms. Aya collapse limply, but...
"She's already dead."
What came back was only Yi Sang's cruel death sentence.
"..."
"N-now, isn't this exactly the time to keep your head straight?"
Even with Gregor's words, my frozen hands showed no sign of loosening.
Even if it was only within the City, I had been a doctor in my own way, and yet to have to watch someone die without being able to do anything about it...
It was worse than I'd thought.
"B-but..."
Faust's mechanical analysis cut off Yuri's pitiful words as she clutched Aya's already dead body.
"It's not taking the form of a normal attack. It's highly likely to be an [Abnormality]."
"Manager. I request your orders."
How could they be so calm?
They had clearly been together just moments ago, and yet at times like this, they felt terribly far away from me.
I clung to the faint hope that Dante might be different and looked at him, but...
"...Yuri, Hopkins, Aya. I can't save the three of them."
"If we want to avoid more casualties, we need to prepare to fight right now."
"A wise judgment."
All I heard was the rational answer that stabbed straight through my chest.
...And that rational judgment was cruelly correct.
Heh. Right, this was the City.
A place where it wouldn't be strange for people to die anywhere, anytime.
I steadied myself—no, I didn't really steady myself.
I simply forged that confusion into sharp hatred and loaded it into my spear.
If someone from my original world saw me swinging a spear around like a madman, they might point at me and call me a monster.
Maybe, as they said, a human consumed by emotion isn't all that different from a monster.
But I don't think I'll regret this choice later.
The enemy we need to cut down now is an unknown monster, an [Abnormality].
If we're going to kill the monster coming at us, then becoming a monster ourselves is probably the proper course.
"...That's the Manager's order, you underlings!"
"Form an encirclement. Target: the giant in front of us!"
At just the right moment, Otis's voice rang out, and I leveled my spear at it.
"Yes..."
"Though... I do wonder whether that thing can even be called a 'person.'"
There was no need for useless chatter.
What mattered was that the enemy was closing in.
A shadow several times larger than a human, dragging a long wooden vine behind it.
It was a monster that stood on a different level from the enemies we'd faced so far, one that could make anyone feel fear.
The only thing I felt now was that I wasn't afraid of it at all.
At last, the shadow lifted, and the monster's form was revealed.
Its head was shaped like an apple, and its body wore human clothing.
Where its arms should have been, wooden vines had grown in their place, serving as arms, and where its legs should have been, there was nothing but tree roots.
Swish... swish...
Even after coming into view, it did not stop advancing.
The moment it finally came within striking distance, it spoke to us.
"Bring Snow White."
The prisoners simply held their ground even after it addressed them.
Or maybe they were just frozen stiff by the shock of hearing a monster speak.
In any case, it seemed to realize that too, and drove all the vine-like tendrils replacing its arms into the ground.
"Everyone, dodge!!"
-Shrrrk!
At Dante's order, I hurled myself backward and rolled away.
"Ghh... ngh..."
Unfortunately, not everyone managed to evade it.
Sinclair died just a few seconds after the battle began.
I could also see that some of the other prisoners who failed to dodge had suffered injuries of varying severity.
One of our allies had clearly died, and yet my mind was growing colder by the second.
The moment I saw that its attack had ended, I lunged at the arm that seemed to be its weapon.
"Hup!"
-Pik
No feel to it.
My spear couldn't even pierce the skin of its arm and was blocked.
"Piercing doesn't work on the arms!"
After hearing me, some of the prisoners stopped trying to use thrusting attacks.
"I'll show you what art is!"
Then Ryoshu rushed in and cut off one of its arms.
-Shrring!
"Did you all see that! Its arms are weak to slashing! Focus on cutting attacks against the arms!"
At Otis's command, the prisoners and Dante changed their attack pattern.
"Haha, how's that?"
"Good, I'm going in!"
While the prisoners were making decent progress cutting through one of its arms, it attacked again.
-Shrrrk!
That attack killed Yi Sang and Don Quixote, who had taken heavy damage from the earlier strike.
"Hah! What an exciting moment~"
Hong Lu, who dodged it in time, finished cutting through the rest of its arm.
This was the moment. The moment its arm stiffened and its defense opened up.
"Now!"
Noticing the arm had gone slack, I rushed in quickly and severed it completely.
It was an achievement earned only after three of us had died.
But the battle was still not over.
The moment I thought that, the enemy attacked again.
-Kwak
The instant I saw it drive its arm into the ground, I prepared to dodge, but nothing happened to me.
What? A different pattern?
-Shrrrk!
Before I could think any further, Ms. Rodion's body collapsed, pierced through by vines all over.
Ah.
I'd been using anger as a mask, deliberately ignoring the death of my allies with my face.
But the moment I saw Rodion die, that mask shattered.
The strength in my hand went slack.
What filled my suddenly disordered mind was a primitive question.
Why was I... doing this again?
"Saramago! Snap out of it!"
Ah, right. The battle.
I was fighting, wasn't I?
The thought barely flashed through my head when...
-Whoosh, thud!
I was already slammed into the wall by the enemy's attack.