Instant Death

Volume 4, Chapter 18: Stop it with the shameless sexual harassment remarks!

‘What the…what the hell is happening?’

Unable to speak, Ayaka thought to herself.

Unless she had turned into a ghost, she should still be alive.

However, she could not see. Her physical senses were all hazy. She knew nothing of her current situation.

‘It’s likely an atomic bomb. Judging by the shape, I’d say it is a Fat Man. While pretty old, its power has been proven in the past.’

‘You should have said that earlier!’

‘You wouldn’t have been able to dodge it anyway. Really. This only happened because you let your guard down.’

‘What…what is happening to me?’

She didn’t know.

And there was no way to find out.

She couldn’t see anything. She couldn’t hear anything. She couldn’t smell anything. Her limbs wouldn’t move. She couldn’t touch her own body to see if it was there.

Numbness seemed to have enveloped her body.

And to Ayaka, that was scarier than anything.

‘Why was there an atomic bomb! What is going to happen to me!?’

She thought back on the pictures of victims she had seen a long time ago, and she felt nothing but despair.

‘Calm down. First of all, you don’t have to worry about the effects of radiation. As the next generation of humanity, we’ve been designed to be able to survive in a world that is post ‘nuclear war.’’

‘However, the heat that radiation causes through the excitation of atoms in the atmosphere is a different story. The effects of that are serious.’

‘60% of our bodies are gone.’

60% gone from the body. Ayaka didn’t want to even think about it.

‘And while we are still alive, we cannot move.’

‘What about her? What happened to Takekura Kiyoko!’

‘As if a mere human would still be alive in the blast center.’

However, Ayaka had lost almost all of her senses.

She would not know if Kiyoko was now approaching her in order to deal the final blow.

‘What am I supposed to do!’

‘First, you must recover.’

‘It wouldn’t be possible with just your original body, but luckily, we have the power of the dragon.’

‘We will unleash it.’

‘And use Dragon Heal.’

‘If such convenient magic existed, you should have used it already!’

‘There are points to consider.’

‘By using this ability, an irreversible change will occur to us.’

‘And so it requires the consent of the personality unit.’

It had been a while since she last heard it. Ayaka was reminded that she was only a part of this artificial intelligence. A unit.

‘What do you mean, irreversible?’

‘The dragon’s healing ability. After healing, you will, of course, turn into a dragon.’

‘But that doesn’t mean the dragon is going to take over, right?’

‘That is something we considered carefully. But there wasn’t anything within this dragon flesh that we acquired that would suggest that its spirit was still within. And so it’s not possible that it will take over.’

‘Still, becoming a dragon is quite different from what our goal was supposed to be. While it may take time, there is still hope of recovering with the healing ability we already possess.’

‘Do you really think we have time for something like that!?’

She decided immediately.

Who knew how long it would take if she waited in order to be healed with her original ability?

The very idea of remaining in this vague state where she was certain of nothing. It was unbearable.

‘Confirmation acquired.’

‘Then chant.’

‘Dragon Heal.’

In an instant, her body distorted.

Her flesh pushed out and tore through her burnt skin.

Her eyeballs regenerated, and she was able to see her surroundings again.

But there was nothing around her.

The castle walls and trees had been blown away without a trace.

The only thing left was a storm of blazing heat.

The tornado caused by the rise in temperature continued to ravage the area.

Ayaka was absorbing the heat. She was using it to heal. She didn’t understand how this dragon body worked. However, it wasn’t like any mere reptile.

Giant feet grew out. Claws appeared at the tips and pierced the scorched earth.

What grew where her arms used to be were wings. This dragon had no arms. It stood on two legs and had giant wings.

Her entire body was covered in green scales. And rough horns ran down her spine.

It did not take long for her body to heal completely.

“Surprisingly, it’s not as offputting as I thought.”

She had expected to be troubled over how different her body was. But Ayaka adjusted to the dragon form smoothly.

She crushed the ground under her feet and flapped her wings.

Her tail swung and she tried opening her jaw.

Everything felt right.

Ayaka was able to control this dragon body freely.

“So. I must continue my revenge then.”

‘…Can’t you see where you are? Everyone you’d want to kill is already dead.’

“If I know that they are all dead, then I will be satisfied.”

‘However, you can’t use Dragon Sense here… Hmm. But there is something that you can do, now that you have this body.’

“What?”

‘Dragon Warriors. You can make them with your fangs.’

Ayaka pulled out some fangs from her jaw.

As they regrew immediately, she did not mind doing it.

The dropped fangs sunk into the ground and something else came out.

It was Ayaka.

Ayaka, before she had turned into a dragon. They came out of the ground, one after another.

They were wearing helmets and armor and held spears.

‘You should unleash them. Everything they see and hear will be known to you. And if they encounter an enemy that they can beat, they will.’

“It sounds like you’re just too lazy to do anything now.”

‘It just seems like a waste of time. I cannot believe that anyone could have survived.’

And so the Dragon Warriors spread out in every direction.

Ayaka had encountered Takekura Kiyoko when she reached the walls that used to be here.

In that case, the other classmates would have been close by. And now that there were no obstacles to hide behind, they should be easy to find.

And they were.

Three girls and one boy who was carrying someone. They were walking in the hellish wasteland.

Her classmates, Dannoura Tomochika, Ninomiya Ryouko, Carol S. Lain, and Hanakawa Daimon.

Just like she had noticed them, they noticed the Dragon Warriors. Perhaps they knew about the main Ayaka as well. She was huge now. She would be seen easily from far away.

Ayaka decided to attack through the Dragon Warriors.

She no longer fixated on doing it with her own hands.

Or maybe it was because it seemed more fitting to get her revenge by using the Dragon Warriors, who were made in her original image.

She gathered the Dragon Warriors together in a tight formation.

Then they held their spears ready and prepared to charge.

The enemy would have abilities too, and they would fight back. But she didn’t mind. At least she would find out what they were capable of.

“Go.”

She ordered.

The spears pointed at the enemy and the charge began.

However, it stopped suddenly.

The Dragon Warriors began to fall like flies.

“What happened!?”

It hadn’t looked like her classmates did anything. They were just walking.

And yet the Dragon Warriors were no longer moving.

Ayaka gave an order to the Dragon Warriors that were in a different location. Gather here and kill those people.

But the result was the same.

Once they stood before her classmates, they started to fall one after another.

‘Wait! Something is wrong! Don’t waste any more soldiers!’

‘This…phenomenon…’

‘Alpha Omega…is…here…?’

“What are you talking about?”

Ayaka didn’t understand.

However, the units with her seemed to have an idea.

‘This is where your revenge ends.’

‘Retreat at once.’

“Huh? What are you…”

‘We cannot win against that. We cannot fight it. We must not get involved.’

‘We can’t even detect this person. We can’t even begin to fight him.’

“As I said! Explain yourselves! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

‘Do you remember what we said about being prototypes for the next generation of humans?’

“Yes. That’s why we can survive a world after a nuclear war.”

‘That was one of the threats that mankind could face, but the creators also had another more pressing danger in mind.’

‘Something much more dangerous than a nuclear war. In other words, we were to be the next generation of humankind in the event that humankind went extinct due to the being known as Alpha Omega.’

‘We cannot detect the presence of the one who has stopped pretending to be human, Takato Yogiri, the Alpha Omega. Because even detecting him means being affected by him.’

Why were they suddenly talking about Takato Yogiri? All that guy did was sleep all of the time.

Ayaka was even more confused. None of this made sense.

“Stop…talking so much nonsense! Retreat! Didn’t we transform into this in order to get revenge!? Our target is right there! What is my purpose for existing if I’m just going to run away!”

Flames were coming out of her jaw. Ayaka opened her mouth wide.

Fire swayed within. It was as if they were answering to her anger.

Dragon Breath in her true form.

It was not the same as when she did it as Ayaka. It wasn’t an imitation. This was the real, true power of the dragon’s roar.

However, Ayaka was unable to unleash it.

Just as she thought to do it, and was about to roar, her heart stopped beating.

‘The personality unit is gone.’

‘I see. Considering that we haven’t been shut down, the complete replication of independent units must have some effect.’

‘It is too bad that we are unable to tell anyone about this.’

In the end, it was the personality unit that unified the being known as Shinozaki Ayaka.

Now that she was gone, Shinozaki Ayaka could not be maintained.

And so the units quietly shut down those functions.

*****

The semi-transparent blobs consumed the monsters of the demon world.

It was likely just anything they bumped into.

They took in things that were close by or they reacted to things that moved and approached them.

That in itself was not really intelligence.

Sometimes, they would react to Haruto, as he flew through the air. And then their tentacles would stretch out towards him.

Of course, they could not reach him. But still, Haruto flew higher, just in case.

“This is bad. I suppose I should consider the situation changed.”

If they continued to increase, the rest of his classmates would be dead. There was no point in thinking about the selection battle.

But, was Sage Shion aware of what was happening? If she did, should he look at this as part of the trial?

Thankfully, he was at least able to escape the blobs if he stayed in the air like this.

However, if the battle was still continuing, Haruto would be killed by Shion. He had not killed a single person since it started.

And so Haruto looked at the great hole to see what was happening.

Depending on how many blobs were coming out, the others would die very quickly. That meant he might become the sole survivor if he just stayed up in the air.

There was a change in the hole.

The number of blobs coming out was about the same.

However, things were different near the rim.

It was changing into something dark red that was writhing.

Haruto thought it looked like internal organs.

It made him think that the semi-transparent blobs were like white blood cells, whose role it was to wipe out any invaders.

And there was something else that was disturbing to him.

If the semi-transparent blobs alone were unbeatable. Then what was it that was controlling them?

Could it be some kind of unfathomable monster that carried the entire demon world inside of its body?

Perhaps it was waking up right now, and this change that was occurring was only a precursor to something else.

Haruto made his decision.

He would escape the demon world immediately.

If it was possible that he would die anyway, then he would rather take a chance and escape.

And so Haruto flew even higher up.

If you could fly, then it wasn’t too difficult to reach the first layer of the demon world.

The problem was the thing that protected the center part.

Anyone could predict that someone would try to fly ahead. And the reason that no one had tried it, is because something would attack you if you flew near the hole in the center.

As for this problem, the sage candidates had cleared this by using a durable hut that was dropped along the edge of the cliff, in order to teleport through the doors. However, what would happen if Haruto flew towards the first layer?

He steeled himself and rose.

Haruto flew for a while, but nothing interfered with him.

He didn’t understand why.

However, there was no time to consider it.

A flash of light.

The sound of an explosion.

Before he knew it, Haruto was being flung around by an immense power he didn’t understand.

A rising current that was burning hot.

His entire body was burned as flying debris smashed into him. Then he crashed into the ceiling.

It was about 6 kilometers from the sixth layer to the first. The incredible sound of the explosion and the resulting wind current had thrown Haruto into the ceiling.

His body was racked with pain as if all of his bones had been shattered. Still, he flew unsteadily into the blazing heat.

His wings weren’t moving as they should, but the wind somehow kept him in the air.

However, it would not stay like this forever.

And so it was necessary for him to reach the ground first.

Haruto was suddenly in a deadly position.

*****

“This is Shinozaki, isn’t it?”

Carol said as she stared at the girls who were suddenly falling to the ground.

They had been charging with spears. And now they were dead.

She was stunned, as it had all happened so suddenly. Still, this was Takato Yogiri’s power.

-They really do die suddenly, without any warning…

It was hard to believe even after witnessing it.

It would be easier to digest if something happened at the same time. However, Yogiri didn’t do anything in particular. The enemy just died. And Carol felt it was asking a little too much to just expect people to believe.

“It is Shinozaki.”

Ryouko said calmly. She was also seeing the power of instant death for the first time. But perhaps she had total faith in Yogiri’s ability because she didn’t seem surprised at all.

“No-no-no! What do you mean, ‘it is Shinozaki.’ How many Shinozakis do you think there are!”

“About 20?”

“No, I’m not asking you to count all of them! It is strange that there is even more than one! That is what I’m saying!”

Hanakawa answered Yogiri, who looked serious.

“Well, there is no point in thinking about it. Maybe she just had that ability? More importantly, I’m worried about that thing over there.”

Tomochika said as she pointed to the left.

Up ahead, there was a fallen dragon.

Perhaps it was a monster that had died from the nuclear weapon, but it seemed oddly clean.

“That thing. It looks exactly like the one that attacked the bus when we first came to this world.”

“Ahh! The dragon car sex thing!”

“Stop it with the shameless sexual harassment remarks!”

Then Yogiri clapped his hands as if remembering something. Carol was also thinking that it looked like the dragon they had seen when escaping from the bus.

“You killed this one too, didn’t you, Yogiri?”

Ryouko asked. It seemed like she thought it was the most obvious thing.

“Yeah. That’s what I was aiming for.”

“Well, if it’s dead, then there’s no point in thinking about it, is there? Oh, by the way…”

Maybe it wasn’t something to talk about here in this situation, but Carol still wanted to know.

“What?”

“You can tell when you’re being targeted, and you can kill the person, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then, what about the nuclear weapon that caused all of this? Couldn’t you have done something before the explosion?”

Even now, Yogiri was apparently killing any threats that existed around them. He was shutting out the radiation, heat and strong winds. That was an incredible ability.

However, Carol couldn’t help but wonder if he couldn’t have stopped the whole situation, to begin with.

“Ah, I’m not sure how to say this. It’s kind of a vague way to put it. But I felt like someone did it because they were very desperate. And I felt bad about getting in the way.”

—This guy…!

Carol felt a feeling of unease over those words.

It was like she was talking to a creature from another world that had completely different values from her.

“By the way! This is not the place to be casually talking to each other! We already made our decision, so let’s get a move on! I don’t think we have much time left!”

“Time?”

“Ah, uh, um… Anyway, there is no harm in hurrying up!”

Hanakawa seemed frantic. He was clearly hiding something, but it was also clear that they couldn’t stay here.

Hanakawa put David down on the ground.

It would be Yogiri and Hanakawa that would go after all.

Carol checked the map through the system window.

While the walls in the area had disappeared, the boundary for the selection battle was still marked out with a red line.

They were just several meters away from it.

“Let’s go then.”

Yogiri grabbed Hanakawa’s hand roughly and started to walk.

“Uh… I suppose I should feel lucky that I’m not being thrown out…”

Hanakawa started walking without resisting.

And then, they stepped out of the boundary that Shion had designated.

“Hmm? Nothing seems to be…happening? But considering our surroundings, maybe the Sage doesn’t know what is going on anymore?”

While he said this, it was clear that Hanakawa didn’t actually believe it.

“No, no. I understand everything. All of this was well within my predictions for the fight.”

Out of nowhere, a woman in a white dress was standing before them. It was Sage Shion.

Carol had no idea where she came from.

There was nowhere to hide after the explosion. And yet, she was standing right there.

“So, you’re the Sage Shion person.”

“Hey! Maybe you should be a little more careful while talking to her!?”

“Yes. And you must be Takato Yogiri. I thought I heard something about you being dead…”

Just then, Shion suddenly collapsed.

It was like watching a drunkard lose their balance. Or as if she sprained her ankle. Regardless, she fell and landed on her buttocks.

Shion looked shocked. She could not believe what had just happened.

It was an unbelievable scene for Carol as well.

Up until now, Shion had been the one who toyed with and provoked her classmates. She was a monster that no one could go against.

However, she had fallen so easily to the ground. Yogiri was looking down at her.

“I have no intention of talking with you. Just answer my questions.”

Everyone stayed quiet, except for Yogiri. They didn’t understand what was happening.

“What. What is going on here!”

Hanakawa was the only one who was acting the same as usual.

“I killed her right ankle. I’ve been practicing.”

Yogiri looked a little smug as he said this.