Instant Death

In the forest, a boy in armor was facing a girl in a stage outfit.

The boy was the general, Yazaki Suguru. The girl was the idol, Akino Sora.

Four of Yazaki’s friends stood behind him.

A boy in a suit. Otori Haruto, the consultant.

A girl in a women’s suit. Koriyama Asuha, the beauty coordinator.

A girl in a cheerleader outfit. The cheerleader, Otani Yui.

A girl in a thick apron. The dressmaker, Harufuji Runa.

Each of them was armed with a sword and was part of the legion that the general commanded.

“You seem to have a little harem here, Yazaki. I didn’t expect you to be able to form such a group when we’re supposed to be killing each other.”

“They’re entrusting me with their lives.”

The ones that had gathered under him were all people who were not very strong when they were alone.

However, under his leadership, there was a chance of survival.

Or so Haruto had told them.

You won’t make it out there alone. In that case, why not follow Yazaki?

They hadn’t been prepared to go out and kill. And so this proposition was their salvation.

In any case, they were at least more likely to survive for the first hour.

As for whether or not they could kill someone within that time frame, they would consider it when the time came.

“Besides, you can always become stronger while you survive, right? We might gain the power of the sage and be able to challenge her. We might as well try if we’re all going to die anyway. That was my conclusion.”

“But you could have gone for anyone, but you came all the way here to kill me. So, did losing your position as the class leader hurt so much?”

Haruto’s problem-solving skill came from his ability to connect to the world archive and gain information. But as it took time to decrypt the information, he could not learn things in real-time. This meant that he did not know the precise location of every classmate, but if he narrowed his search down to a single target and pulled the information, he could get a good idea of that person’s current location.

“I won’t kill you if you cooperate. Why don’t you join our group? Your oath ability will be useful to us.”

“Ah, so you intended to put me into your harem. Well, I refuse.”

“I see.”

Negotiations failed.

Yazaki immediately commenced combat.

With the legion skill, he ordered his subordinates.

Haruto and the others moved to surround Sora. The order did not force them to move, it was just a way to smoothly pass on his will. If they wanted to, they could resist. However, they accepted it and moved on their own accord.

“Encircle and annihilate!”

“Oh, so you’re going to encircle me properly this time.”

Encircle and annihilate. It was one of his skills and a variation on a formation.

Even if you didn’t surround the person, it had the same effect. This meant that the enemy was restricted and could only move in a limited area.

And the formation had the added effect of strengthening the fighting capabilities of the people who formed it. Mostly, it enhanced their attack range, allowing them to fight multiple opponents at once.

It was one against five.

And it was hard to imagine that an idol would be very strong. And so it seemed as if the fight would be over before it began.

“!?”

However, those who were moving on Yazaki’s order suddenly stopped.

This was because Sora was not alone.

She was surrounded by many people. People who had not been there a moment ago.

“Oh? Did you really think I would be wandering around on my own? You aren’t much of an idol without some fans, are you?”

Sora shouldn’t have had any experience fighting up until now, and yet she had seemed incredibly confident.

Haruto had suspected that there must be some reason for this. Well, he had his answer now. He wasn’t sure what it was, but she could apparently call out her fans.

Haruto hadn’t been able to penetrate Sora’s ability, which in itself, spoke of her high skill rank.

“Ignore her! You can defeat all of them anyway! This formation is used to fight large numbers!”

Asuha was the first to attack the people that surrounded Sora.

Those who had received gifts from the sage had the minimum required power in order to survive in this world.

Even if she was more of a supporting class, her muscles were stronger than the average person and she had automatically learned the basics of using weapons.

So it didn’t matter if she was a beauty coordinator. Normal humans should be nothing to her.

And so Asuha’s sword easily cut the fans open.

Yes, they had no special abilities. They were just humans.

However, in the next instant, Asuha was being restrained.

Haruto looked around.

They were surrounded.

Haruto and the others had surrounded Sora. But now Sora’s fans had surrounded them.

“We can easily shake them off! Our power should be enough for that!’

Yazaki shouted.

He was right. Asuha had stopped out of sheer surprise, but if she wanted, she could easily shake them off.

But…

The fans started to explode.

As Asuha was close by, she was caught in the blast.

And just like that, Asuha’s entire torso was blown to bits.

“Yo-you bastard! You’re making your friends explode!”

“They’re fans of an idol. Isn’t that the bare minimum they should be doing?”

—This was bad. She was much more dangerous than anticipated.

Haruto started to think about abandoning Yazaki.

He had intended on staying with this group for a while to see how things went, but he now had to make a decision quickly.

He would escape.

That’s what he thought as he glanced over to Yazaki. And then Haruto saw something most unexpected.

The right half of Yazaki’s body had disappeared.

To be precise, it was his right shoulder to his waist. It had all been carved out.

Haruto turned towards Sora. At first, he assumed that it was another one of her attacks, but she was currently being swallowed up by some kind of semi-transparent blob.

From what he could understand, the semi-transparent blob had charged straight at them. And everything in its path had been erased.

In front of such a blob, the wall of human flesh that tried to protect Sora was practically useless.

“Ahhhh! Help me! Haruto!”

It was Otani Yui who was shouting. She was about to be swallowed up by a different blob. There was more than one.

In fact, they kept appearing one after another as they ate everything in sight.

They didn’t seem to differentiate between forest trees or Sora or Sora’s fans. It was the same with Yazaki and his legions. Everything was swallowed up.

Everything they touched was taken in, melted and absorbed.

Haruto flew.

Wings grew from his back and he rose into the air. This had nothing to do with the sage’s gifts. It was his own trump card.

Once he was high enough, he looked back down.

The semi-transparent blobs were appearing from the center of the demon world. There was a hole there where they were coming out from.

And as they flowed out from the hole, they absorbed everything in sight.

But seen from this height, he saw that there weren’t as many as he thought.

However, they were still increasing in number and spreading.

“What the hell… Something must be happening…”

It was so unexpected that Haruto was stunned.

*****

Her breathing became coarse and her heart seemed to thump loudly in her ears.

Her body was also drenched in sweat as she shook on her now unstable feet.

This was all the result of fear.

Takato Yogiri.

Romiko was so afraid of him.

But she could not understand why.

What was she afraid of? She did not have a clue.

Yogiri was just standing there calmly. There was nothing about him that looked threatening.

She had heard that his power was used just to kill bugs. He wasn’t particularly intimidating physically either. He wasn’t athletic.

She could use Mokomoko’s power to kill him in an instant.

And yet…

She was afraid.

It was as if waves of fear were crashing down on her with the kind of violence that would drive her insane.

She didn’t know what Yogiri would do.

However, even at this distance, and without showing any intention of acting, it was clear that her life was in his hands.

She wanted to flee.

But her body wouldn’t listen to her.

Her feet were frozen.

The fear was preventing her from running. This was ridiculous. Romiko cursed her own body.

And then she realized something.

This was the fear that Mokomoko was feeling. It had finally hit her.

However, she couldn’t understand why a spirit would feel fear in the first place.

While she was possessed, she was only borrowing the power. No matter what happened to Romiko, it wouldn’t affect the spirit.

And yet, Romiko was sensing the kind of fear from Mokomoko that would suggest the world was ending.

Spirits that were subservient could not go against a necromancer.

And so there was no possibility that Mokomoko was doing this as some kind of ploy against her. She just happened to be spreading the fear.

Romiko was starting to feel confused over what she was doing.

At first, she had only wanted to do the bare minimum, as it was all too much trouble for her. But once the killing started, she had risen above it and decided to do what she had to in order to survive.

That was why she had approached Tomochika and taken Mokomoko from her.

It was supposed to have meant that she had a clear advantage. And yet, she was now experiencing such fear.

The unexplainable despair was threatening to crush her.

Fear was a reaction to danger.

It was a reaction that caused you to want to escape from the thing that threatened your existence. It was something you had to use to aid your survival.

However, Romiko’s ability to think was at an all-time low.

All of her thoughts and emotions had been overwritten by fear. She no longer knew what to do.

She was feeling light-headed. At this point, she had given up and wondered if she was even herself anymore. That’s when she heard it.

‘Do you want power?’

Romiko thought she was hearing things.

In fact, it was quite similar to an auditory hallucination. Because it was a voice that came from within.

‘This is not the limit of a necromancer’s power.’

And then it hit her.

Awakening.

So this is what Shion had been talking about. Sudden growth that allowed you to escape fear and despair. That is what she had meant.

‘Now, release the source of your fear.’

The voice commanded. And Romiko came to a realization.

The fear she was feeling. It was Mokomoko’s fear. Then that meant she should just release Mokomoko.

It was such a simple thing. But she had been so overcome with fear that she hadn’t been able to think about doing it before.

‘Release!’

She unleashed Mokomoko.

All at once, the fear was gone.

It was hard to believe, but her heart was sound again. She was able to see clearly.

The world even looked like it was shining.

The fear had left and what replaced it was an overwhelming sense of power.

She recognized it. The power to control the dead. It was now so much stronger.

Things she hadn’t been able to do before, such as using faint residual thoughts as power, were now possible to her.

She could reconstruct the power of every person who had ever died in this land and use it.

Millions of dead spirits. She could unite them all and use their power. That was the being that Romiko had awakened to.

Perhaps it was because of this overwhelming power, that Romiko made the wrong decision.

*****

Yogiri decided to start his search by the castle walls.

This is where they had been the last time he had contacted Mokomoko. He would find them quickly unless they had moved again. And even if they weren’t there, there would surely be some clue.

As he walked through the forest towards his destination, he started to hear things.

There was the violent crash of a tree. And so he headed in that direction.

That was when he found Tomochika and Jogasaki Romiko facing each other. It seemed like they were arguing.

Yogiri didn’t know much about Romiko, but he could still tell that something was wrong.

Romiko was talking as if she were Mokomoko.

“Oh, sorry. I really am. But I’m the one managing the battle suit. Purge!”

Just as Romiko said this, lines ran through Tomochika’s battle suit.

Yogiri immediately understood what was happening, and so he unleashed a horizontal chop towards Hanakawa.

That must have been very unexpected. As he had been struck right in both eyes, Hanakawa dropped David and held his face as he fell to the floor.

Perhaps it really wasn’t a big deal, but there was a part of him that didn’t really want Hanakawa to look.

“Stay down there and keep your eyes closed. If you open them, I’ll destroy your eyeballs.”

He didn’t know if that was even possible, but he wasn’t actually going to try it. It was just a threat.

“And what do you mean, ‘good job’?”

Yogiri was the type to enjoy these kinds of situations, but he now felt a little bad for praising Mokomoko.

And so Yogiri took off his blazer and handed it to Tomochika before looking towards Romiko.

Apparently, Romiko had attacked Tomochika. And judging by the situation, Mokomoko had possessed Romiko.

“That’s Mokomoko, isn’t it?”

“How did you know?”

“By the way she talks, I guess. I’m not sure what’s happening here, but I’ll have to kill her if she’s attacking.”

That was how Yogiri felt about Mokomoko.

He wouldn’t go out of his way to kill her. But if she attacked, he would not hesitate to fight back.

Basically, if Romiko tried to launch a lethal attack, he would have to kill them both.

He had never before killed someone that was possessed while keeping the spirit alive, and he didn’t know if he could.

And while there were times where testing things were necessary, Yogiri did not consider this to be one of those times.

“Ah, I do remember you saying something about purging the battle suit so I can find peace.”

Tomochika had a very cold expression. She was clearly very angry.

While Yogiri wasn’t sure if she was joking, he felt that at this point, she would understand if Mokomoko died as a result of his attack.

Romiko didn’t move. He didn’t sense any hostility. He wasn’t even sure if she was looking at him.

And so Yogiri decided to wait.

However, things changed rather quickly.

Mokomoko had jumped out of Romiko.

‘…Hmm. Uh, yes. I hadn’t anticipated something like this, and could not react in time. That’s how all of that happened. I wasn’t able to resist.’

“I don’t care about that. Can you return me my clothes?”

As Tomochika said this, the fragments of the battle suit gathered together and enveloped her body.

“So, what’s happening here?”

Yogiri asked the hesitant Mokomoko.

‘She seems to have had an awakening. Maybe she is what the sage is looking for.’

Romiko had regained her senses now.

She hadn’t even seemed present a moment ago, but now she was staring at them with clear eyes.

And behind Romiko, was a giant shadow.

The thing was getting larger as well. Perhaps it was a body of united spirits, because it oozed with a feeling of death.

It looked like it was made of white bones and rotting flesh. But overall, it had the shape of a human.

There were multiple expressions of pain on the surface, and they let out moans of resentment.

Wiggling arms grew from all over its body, and they also seemed to writhe in pain.

It was dark, big, sinister, and twisted. And somehow it continued to turn into an even uglier monster.

“Hey, Tomochi. Do you get it? I feel so good now. Everything in the world is bowing before me. I’m so happy. Look, I can even do this.”

Romiko laughed as she raised her arm.

She pointed at Yogiri.

“Die.”

But Yogiri moved first.

The monster stopped, and then Romiko fell powerlessly to the ground.

The monster fell apart and evaporated until there was nothing left.

Perhaps Romiko had wanted to kill Yogiri first, so that Tomochika would be forced to watch.

Yogiri had sensed the will to kill, and so he had unleashed his power first.

‘You could have at least let her do something interesting first…’ 𝙛𝐫e𝚎wℯ𝗯𝒏𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄o𝚖

“She would have killed me if I waited.”

“Mikochi…”

He had heard that they were friends.

However, Romiko had a very low priority in Yogiri’s mind. And he had not cared to look for another solution.

“It couldn’t be helped in this situation. I’ll get over it.”

Tomochika said. He doubted that was how she really felt, but at least she wasn’t going to blame him.

“Hey, Tomochika-tan! That’s not how the heroine should act!”

“Huh? Hanakawa? Why are you here?”

Tomochika finally took notice of him.

“I thought you would be crying more and saying, this is too much! It’s wrong! That is how a proper heroine would act! It’s these kinds of events that cause tension and misunderstandings! You fight and that is supposed to give me a chance to take advantage of the situation!”

“There’s nothing that could happen that would give you a chance of doing anything, if you ask me.”

Tomochika said with a serious face.

“Ooomph! By the way, I finally get to open my eyes again, but you are already wearing your clothes! No, well…that skin-tight suit has its charms as well!”

“Do you want me to take out his eyes?”

“I am so sorry!”

“So, why is Hanakawa here?”

“I don’t know the details, but I brought him with me because he was on the seventh layer. He’s useful because he can control the elevator to get out of the demon world.”

‘Well, we’ve reunited again. Now what?’

“Mokomoko, you may act like you’re a friend, but I haven’t forgiven you yet.”

“I-I’m sorry! It was just a little! I just got a little carried away. I shouldn’t have!”

“You can talk about that later. As for what we’ll do, since Hanakawa has been added to the roster, we’re thinking of all getting out of the combat area. Because, Shion will come for him if he tries to leave, right?”

‘I see. Then you will be able to achieve your current goal.’

“Yes, it would be pointless if we hadn’t been added. So it was a good thing.”

“Tomochika-tan! You’re supposed to stop him! I don’t think it’s right for you to agree to this immoral man’s plan!”

“…I think it’s fine. Probably.”

Tomochika said as she turned away.

Maybe it was immoral, but it was a good strategy.

“No! No! No! I don’t mind being used as bait. But my life has not been guaranteed! You do realize that it’s going to be me who is targeted!? You guys haven’t even been added!”

“…I’ll avenge you.”

“So now the goal includes my death!”

Hanakawa’s creepy shriek echoed throughout the forest.