Instant Death

The Seat of the Holy King.

It was both the center and the holy land of the Axis Church. In other words, a place you might call the head temple.

Situated in the royal capital of the Kingdom of Mani, it boasted the control of all of the biggest religious organizations in this world.

And long ago, a Holy King lived there.

Once the Holy King was no more, after being sacrificed in order to seal away the Demon Albagarma, he was worshipped as a symbol.

Over the course of a thousand years, it was expanded as a religious facility.

Just as the name implied, the symbol of the Axis Church was an axis. It was supposed to resemble a celestial axis that pierces the center of the earth. Not only that, but the architecture of all buildings related to the church were made to be cylindrical in shape.

Currently, the Seat of the Holy King was a jumble of cylindrical black and white buildings that were connected by bridges. A most intricate and bizarre sight. There was something about it that overwhelmed all those who saw it. It was more than enough to make you feel a sense of reverence towards it.

And there was the upper layer.

That was where the Archbishop’s office was located.

Now that there was no Holy King, the Axis Church was operated by a council of ten Archbishops.

The Archbishops usually worked in their designated districts, but there was always one Archbishop who stayed at the Seat of the Holy King. They took turns filling this role, and the man who was there currently was called Horalis.

Horalis was standing by the window in the office and looking outside.

The Seat of the Holy King was the second tallest building in the royal capital. And so you had a good view of the town from the top.

It seemed like there had been some kind of accident, and much of the town had been destroyed by it.

However, Horalis hardly cared about such things at this point.

This was because Horalis was sure that there was no future for mankind.

He himself had felt the return of the Devil Mana in his bones.

Humanity did not know.

They didn’t know that the demons and monsters had already come outside.

If they wanted to, they could easily destroy this country.

But Horalis had a role. He was to entertain this Mana, that was sealed in the demon world.

That was why he had entered the biggest religious organization in this world and gained the authority to manage the entrance to the demon world, which spread out underneath the town.

If you could not go out, you had to call to the outside for change.

However, just calling them randomly would not be very entertaining. So there had to be some rules.

And so he made it that explorers could enjoy adventuring within the demon world.

However, that was all over.

Now that Mana was back, he didn’t care about the explorers anymore. And there was no point in continuing his role as Archbishop.

What would Mana do on the surface?

That was something that even Horalis did not know.

Of course, he would obey any order that was given to him.

Horalis was looking forward to the appearance of Mana.

*****

“…Um, the seal has been broken now. Has anything changed?”

Hanakawa had gained complete authority over the demon world and had broken the seal that imprisoned Mana.

Indeed, the half-sphere that had been surrounding the bed was now gone. However, Mana had never seemed to be bothered by the seal in the first place. It was as if it made no difference if it was there or not.

“I have strict orders from my older brother that I’m not to leave this place. The barrier was a symbol of that. However, now that it is gone, it must mean that he is allowing me to leave!”

“Ohh…I don’t really understand your reasoning…”

This older brother was the Devil, Albagarma. And he was already dead. In that case, there was no point in caring about it. But apparently, the seal was important.

It seemed as if the promise had to be kept forever. But in any case, all that was needed was for the person who Albagarma had entrusted the key with to break the seal. Then it would undo the promise as well.

It all felt very strange, but Hanakawa decided not to think about it. That’s just how it was in her head.

“We-well, as promised, the seal is broken. You will help Lute now, won’t you? And uh, I can take my leave now, yes?”

“Indeed. After all, having to look at a chubby, hideous person like you for an extended period of time will put me in a foul mood. Why don’t you leave, before I change my mind?”

“Uh, oh… You’ve always been rather rude towards me, but you’ve never called me ugly straight to my face before…”

Still, he couldn’t feel sad about it for long.

He did not know when her mood would change.

“No-now. Lute. You will go too. Mana has been released. The only thing to do is wait for Takato to run wild until he dies…well, who knows how much damage he will actually do, but his life is like a candle in the wind! Ah, Heal!”

Hanakawa cast healing magic on Lute, who was curled up on the ground.

But the lost arm did not return. If you looked closely at Lute’s arm, there was no blood or wound at all. There was just nothing past the elbow. That’s how it was.

“You must do your best. Don’t you want to see Takato die? Don’t you want to get revenge!”

“Ah, uh, yes. I came this far.”

Lute got up weakly to his feet.

And then he walked alongside Hanakawa.

First, they needed to get out of the dimly lit room.

Hanakawa turned around. It seemed like Mana had no interest in them. However, they couldn’t waste any time either.

They were walking very slowly as to not attract any attention. That made the door seem very far away.

“Hmm? It seems oddly difficult to walk…”

It was as if something was holding his feet back.

As it was dark, he could not see what it was. But it felt like his feet were sinking into the ground.

“Ehhh… This gives me the creeps…”

Eventually, it became clear what was happening.

He could feel the gooey, sticky sensations through his feet. But he did not want to look.

“…Now that the seal is broken, Mana’s body is expanding to the outside…”

“What!? So this floor is…”

“…I am not sure…but I think she is preparing to give birth to the Lord…”

“Uh, oh… I don’t want to even think about it. But this place…”

“We’re inside of Mana.”

“It’s so warm… No, that is not the kind of thing to be saying right now! We must hurry!”

But the more they rushed on, the more their legs seemed to get tangled. And they could not move forward.

“If this continues, we might just be expelled as waste, even without Mana willing it… I’m going to kick you out. Then you can run.”

“Ru-run? Where am I supposed to run!?”

“You have the full power of the demon world. And so you should know where the shortcut is. It connects to all of the floors. It will be easy to escape once you reach the first floor.”

“In-in that case, we can go together…”

“It’s impossible. We’ll both fall if we stay like this. Unless you are saying you have the power to throw me out of here?”

“Uh…that’s easy to say, but…”

“See you.”

Without waiting for another second, Lute kicked Hanakawa.

Hanakawa shot straight out of the palace.

He fell flat on his face and slid down.

“Lute!”

Hanakawa got up and looked around.

The white palace was turning into a dark red blob.

The palace now looked like exposed muscle or piles of guts. There was no longer anything to support its structure. It was unable to carry its own weight, and it was collapsing in a wet mess.

And this change was not happening to the palace alone. While slow, it was affecting the area around it.

Eventually, it would swallow up the neighboring towns and people as well.

“Ah-ahhhhh!!!”

He would drown in the sea of flesh if he didn’t move.

And so Hanakawa frantically set off towards the town.

*****

The sixth floor of the demon world. In a great dining hall of a fortress that was located within the forest.

It was here that Shion the Sage was talking to the sage candidates.

“Now, it would not be very fair if I told you all to kill each other right here and now. After all, there are some here who could kill everyone all at once. And so I shall give you an hour to prepare. Of course, you may not attack each other during this hour. If you do, you will be disqualified immediately. Also, I have deactivated all of your skills. You can fight honestly without them!”

“Ki-kill each other? Why would we do something so foolish!”

“E-exactly! Why must we do such a thing!”

“Yes! There is no reason for it!”

One person shouted, and the others followed. Before long, they were all opening their mouths and launching complaints.

“Isn’t it obvious? I am going to put you all in a situation where you’ll have no choice but to kill each other. Let me see… I will judge you every hour. And anyone who hasn’t killed at least one person by then will be killed by me. How’s that?”

“…Then you are the one who should die…”

It was Fukai Seiichi who stood up slowly. He was in the reaper class.

“Ah, that’s fine too. If you succeed in killing me, that would mean the end of your trial. The number of sages won’t change that way, but anyone who is capable of killing me is worth two sages.”

“…Surely you’re not going to tell us that our gifts don’t work on you?”

It was an obvious provocation, but a necessary one.

Shion was able to control the gifts she gave. And if the gifts were disabled, the sages would have no way to resist her. And so they needed her to make a promise.

Provoke her and make her fight fairly.

“I won’t say such a thing… But I still don’t think you can beat me. You should just be obedient and kill each other if you want a better chance of survival.”

“Die!”

Seiichi unleashed his power.

Shion swayed to the side.

That was all.

“It…it didn’t work! You liar!”

“No-no. It worked just fine. I could have killed you before you even used your power, but I let you do it on purpose. After all, I am quite interested in this instant death power.”

“Damn you! Why won’t you die!” ƒ𝓇e𝙚𝔀𝐞𝚋𝓃𝐨𝘷e𝙡.𝒄𝗼m

“As I said, it did work. In fact, I died just a moment ago. Of course, isn’t it the normal thing to come back to life after you’ve died?”

“Die! DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE!”

Seiichi unleashed his power over and over again.

However, Shion continued to walk towards him.

“Wh-what’s happening! What the hell are you!”

“Ah, that’s right. I haven’t told you about my power. I suppose you could call it a pulse linked level up? You level up with every beat of your heart. When this happens, your energy, health, and all status ailments are healed. And you come back to life if you happen to be dead.”

Seiichi was shouting ‘die’ nonstop as if it was the only word in his vocabulary. There was nothing else that he could do.

Shion didn’t seem to care as she continued to move closer.

“Well, I suppose this instant death ability isn’t much after all.”

Shion said as she stood before Seiichi.

“Now… It seems that the others are all watching us. That is good. You could all challenge me if you want, but be ready to die in the attempt.”

Shion swung her fist.

The straight attack was not something that Seiichi could dodge.

Bam!

There was a dry sound as his head bounced and the body crumbled.

With Shion’s abilities, there was no need for her to come so close and punch him directly.

And yet, this display of direct violence. The splattered blood and brain fluid. It was a powerful way to make them feel that death was near.

The lesson should be easily learned.

“So, let me explain the rules to you.”

Shion smiled as if the killing of Seiichi was of no consequence.

“The trial will begin in exactly one hour after I finish explaining the rules. You may not attack each other during that hour. If you do, I will kill you. The trial will take place within the boundaries of the sixth floor. If you go out, I will kill you. If you have not killed anyone after the first hour of the trial, I will kill you. After every hour, the boundary will shrink. Of course, if you happen to be outside of it, I will kill you. The last remaining survivor is the one who passes the test. I will not kill that person. That is all.”

And with that, the sage candidates pushed each other in order to be the first out of the dining hall.