Chapter 40

Chapter 40

***

It was a place embarrassing to even call a village. It was an extremely small village in such a remote place that it would likely not even be in the tax ledger managed by the lord.

One temple built of logs, and three or four houses scattered sparsely were all.

Although the shrine serving the god wasn't built using high-class construction materials, the sincerity of the people who built it was felt. It looked neat and solid.

However, things like doors and windows were smashed by someone.

Light entered through those smashed places like the gaze of a god. Following that light, inside was entirely a sea of blood, and corpses were scattered here and there.

As if it wasn't long ago, steam rose morak morak in the cold air.

"When, when the day of promise comes, the God of Condemnation will p-punish you all."

A clergyman who fell on the floor bleeding from his whole body said while dragging his body. He was moving away from someone.

It seemed wrong to run away anyway, so the man who made him like this just stood still and looked down.

The man didn't have the sword at his waist drawn, but was holding something like a sickle in his hand. Thick blood dripped tuk tuk.

People often have a face resembling an animal, and the man holding the sickle had a large lower jaw and it protruded, looking like a dog's face to anyone. He was like a very fierce fighting dog. However, his eyes were unexpectedly calm.

There were many small scars on his face, and among them, the one crossing his right eye was especially large.

That man said.

"When?"

"What?"

"I asked when on earth does he punish."

"W-what do you mean?"

"You don't understand words. I also prayed every day when I was young for divine punishment to fall. Asking to kill my dog-fucking mom and dad. Or kill me at least. But no matter how much I prayed, he only ignored me. So I killed them with my own hands. And I realized."

"......"

"There is no god. There isn't even anything similar."

The man insulted god too simply, as if it were nothing. At that, the clergyman opened his eyes wide as if that was more shocking than his current terrible situation. Devil...

"Even if I kill you, no divine punishment or whatever will fall on me. But if there is god's mercy, it fell on me. If you were caught by other kids, by now you would be begging them to kill you, not god."

The man walked to the clergyman. Because of the blood pooled on the floor, a squelching sound occurred with every step.

As the man approached close, the clergyman closed his eyes. And prayed.

"Oh God, save this pitiful person..."

"There is no divine punishment, and no salvation. But the shittier word between the two is salvation."

Swish! Thud!

The man's sickle struck the clergyman's crown. Then the clergyman flopped like a fish. At that time, someone called the man from outside the shrine. It was a cheerful woman's voice.

"Shuti! Shuti! Why are you taking so long!?"

The man called Shuti was Mad Dog Steiner. The quintet seemed quite close to each other, calling each other by nicknames.

Steiner looked at the clergyman he killed. The sight of him dead with a sickle stuck in his crown was passably to his liking.

However, such useless interest was momentary, and he turned around and left the temple. Outside, three people were waiting after finishing their work.

Among them, the woman who called Steiner was dancing flutter flutter, perhaps excited about something. While covering herself with several sheets of leather sewn together roughly.

It was human skin, and the patched skins were strangely different in skin color and texture.

However, the woman herself looked like a toad with darkish skin. It was due to training a Mana Drive deviating from the path. The woman was the Skin Collector, Erze.

"Shuti, why did you take so long. Ohohog. Look at this."

She approached Steiner, raised her arm as if boasting, and swept her arm with her hand.

"Isn't it super soft? My skin is becoming finer and finer. Ohohog."

"Yeah... But where looks Tony?"

Tony was Leto needed nickname. Leto, called the necromancer and experimenter among the Ehrenberg 5.

"That gloomy bastard went ahead saying he saved everything he needed to save."

A man wearing black clothes from head to toe said. He was a person called Ghost, also known as 'Ghost Sword'. But anyone could see he looked the most gloomy himself.

"I said let's go to the waiting place when work is done. Didn't you convey it?"

"Wasn't it what you did?"

Ghost asked looking at Erze.

"Why would I mix words with him? I thought Hati did it."

The man called Hati was inhumanely large in height and build like a giant in legends. And, the square shield placed next to him was large as a regular person. He was a person called Hannet, also known as 'Iron Wall'.

Standing leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, the top of his head almost touched the roof.

"Why are you suddenly dragging me into this? And I told him."

Except for Steiner, the remaining three pushed responsibility to each other. It was a somewhat unorganized appearance compared to their notoriety. However, they looked close to each other as much as that.

They were all from the same Academy, and although they bickered, they were like brothers and sisters to each other. Perhaps there was a bond stickier than real family.

Only, if there was one serious problem, it was that they grew up terribly twisted without becoming proper adults.

"They say Hati told him?"

"Ha..."

Steiner sighed. And said to Erze who was closest.

"Eri, you go and come back."

"What? Me? Why?"

"Since that nerd bastard listens relatively well when you speak."

"Hing, that is true. Being pretty is tiring too."

Erze spun around once on the spot as if showing off her beauty and said. However, she was a woman exactly opposite to beauty. She was bizarre and terrible, and not in her right mind.

"Then we three will move ahead. Eri, please."

"Okaying..."

"But Shuti, did you hear that?"

Just as they were about to leave, Ghost asked.

"What?"

"They say heroes appeared in Siegfinger recently? Catching the thief guild and bandits and saving people. without payment. They say Haspiel died too. Auntie Lily too."

At that, Steiner seemed to think quietly, then spat out a word tuk.

"Must be quite perverted bastards."

Saving other people without payment? In Steiner's common sense, they were perverts he couldn't understand at all. And very terrible perverts at that.

Rickart experienced this terrain for the first time in his life, even including his past life.

The moss-covered ground was just bumpy, but when stepping on it, it wavered as if there was water right underneath.

Actually, the ground could suddenly sink and one's body could be sucked in and die in an instant.

Moreover, because snow piled up, he couldn't know where to step. It was a truly fascinating yet dangerous swampy land.

He was at a loss where to go to find Leto's laboratory in this vast wilderness.

One fortunate thing was that since it didn't snow recently, he could discover footprints. Judging by the size of the feet, it was clearly Nameless.

"Oh? It's Mister's footprints."

This time Bori-bori recognized it before Rickart who had good observation.

The footprints were heading north. Rickart and Bori-bori followed the tracks. Every time they stepped, the ground kept squelching.

How long did they walk? The two boys witnessed an unbelievable scene.

Geueue...

They were corpses with rotting flesh, but they were moving alive. It wasn't just one or two.

Some of the corpses scattered here and there were still moving. No matter how one looked, they were corpses that should have died long ago.

They rolled their white eyes, and there were some dragging around slowly even though below the waist was all blown away.

"It, it's a necromancer..."

Bori-bori muttered. Seeing something absurd, Rickart also momentarily had no thoughts. Is magic this terrible a thing?

Barely coming to his senses and examining the scene calmly, the corpses seemed to have been attacked by some large beast. Traces of being crushed, trampled, and chopped by an axe.

"It's Mister. Looks like Mister fought here."

Rickart said. At that, Bori-bori didn't look back and followed the footprints crossing this creepy scene. Rickart also hastened his steps.

Then from some moment, hazy fog started to rise even though it was midday.

It wasn't that severely dense so they could follow the footprints with difficulty, but the footprints cut off at a cabin looking gloomy and ominous. It was a place where the ground was somewhat solid in this swamp.

Rickart unslung the sword on his shoulder, held it in one hand, and walked to the cabin ready to draw it anytime.

And as he carefully opened the cabin door that wasn't locked properly, he witnessed a terrible and disgusting scene again.

All kinds of body specimens were in bottles with preservation fluid, but many of them were broken and scattered on the floor carelessly, and a strange smell pierced the nose because of the liquid.

And, his severed head was placed tuk on a place appearing to be the necromancer's desk. It was Experimenter Leto. He was already killed by Nameless's hand.

He probably looked bizarre even when alive, but being dead, he was even more bizarre, and perhaps because of what they saw earlier, it seemed like he would open his eyes suddenly.

"He left it for us."

Bori-bori said.

"Uh?"

"Otherwise Mister wouldn't have bothered to cut off the head and put it here."

"Could be..."

Certainly, Nameless wasn't a person to do this kind of thing in a fight. Then it meant there was another intention, and what Bori-bori said seemed correct.

However, right now finding Nameless was priority over taking the head. It was so for the two boys.

And since it wasn't chasing a wanted criminal but an assassination 'request', they just had to kill, so there was no need to take the head necessarily. Cutting off an ear, or taking a characteristic part or item.

"Oh my, who are these cuties?"

Suddenly a cheerful woman's voice was heard from behind. Rickart and Bori-bori looked back hwik reflexively.

Then a woman looking like a toad came into view. Not resembling a toad, but it seemed really a toad became humanized. And that woman was wearing human skin over herself.

Rickart realized immediately instinctively.

"Erze?"

"Oing? Do you know my name? Well, this beauty must be a bit famous."

Erze showed off her ugly appearance with unfit elegant gestures.

"Where are the rest?"

"Mm?"

"You guys are a quintet."

"Hey, how can we always stick together? They are probably in Lindveil."

Lindveil was the place where the quintet committed a village-scale massacre for the first time.

Whether coincidental, ironic, or nasty, Lindveil was also the place where Nameless lived.

Anyway, absurdly, Erze confessed their secret waiting place obediently. Looking at it one way, it could be because she didn't feel any threat from the two boys in front of her eyes.

Or, she didn't intend to just let them go in the first place.

"You guys are a bit old, but still your skin is quite good. Mm, decided. I'll add you to my skin. Thankful, right?"

Rickart and Bori-bori had never heard they were old anywhere they went. Everyone thought they were young, but it seemed not for Erze.

The woman looking like a toad laughed thickly and took out a sharp dagger. It wasn't a general dagger, but close to a tool used when peeling skin.

But approaching the two boys, she ended up seeing what was beyond them. The head placed on the desk. At that, Erze stood blankly for a moment, then started to tremble her body budul budul.

"T-Tony?"

They usually ignored each other and bickered, but that was all just mischievous pranks. To her, the Ehrenberg 5 were family.

Erze couldn't accept reality, then her eyes lit up with rage and her face distorted terrifyingly. Since she was so ugly, it was enough to be afraid it might appear in dreams.

"What did you do to Tony......!"

Erze shouted sharply, but couldn't finish. Because Rickart and Bori-bori drew their swords instantly and thrust them.

Tang! Clang!

However, surprisingly, the two swords only scratched the leather worn on the outside, which was originally other people's skin, and couldn't pierce her skin.

Rickart's Meteor Iron Sword was such a famous sword that it didn't break, but Bori-bori's sword imbued with mana broke in two. Even though it cut almost everything indiscriminately.

It really felt like hitting a stone with a sword. Rickart felt the vibration of the violently trembling sword ringing his bones through his hand. So he frowned and backed off hurriedly.

In the meantime, Erze rushed as if to kill Rickart.

"Ricky!"

Bori-bori holding his wrist in pain shouted. But at that moment, Rickart thought Erze was joking. Because the attack was too clumsy.

Is it because she couldn't control her emotions due to losing a colleague, or is her martial arts level just low while only her skin is hard? Or a trap? All kinds of thoughts occurred in a short moment.

However, Rickart, who had experienced unspeakable actual combat, found the answer even in that short moment.

Letting go of the sword from his hand, doing something pa-ba-bak, he broke her arm joint in an instant.

Crunch!

"Kyaaaaaak!"

In that gap, Bori-bori jumped up on Erze's back poljjjak. And wrapping his two legs around her waist, sticking close like a turtle shell, he put his two hands in her mouth and grabbed the upper jaw and lower jaw and opened them.

As mana spread to the muscles riding the blood vessels, superhuman strength spewed out.

"Eeek!"

Craaaack.

"Aaaaaaaah!"

Erze's jaw was dislocated and her mouth opened wide like a snake. She made a fuss, but Bori-bori absolutely didn't fall off.

However, as Bori-bori finally tore off the lower jaw, she lost her balance and was thrown down.

Crash!

Bori-bori flew far away and jumped up.

"Gueue......"

Erze only leaked voice barely like an undead, unable to speak. The tongue that lost its support hung down limply, and she tried to run away staggering.

"Where are you going!"

Rickart chased her with bare hands. At that, Erze was appalled and fled. But running itself, Rickart was much faster.

Catching up in an instant, he grabbed her leg, tripped her, and twisted her ankle just like that.

"Aaaaaaa!"

Erze struggled in pain lying on the floor. While doing so, she tried to grab Rickart, but Rickart had already backed off quickly again. And taking out a dagger from his bosom, he said.

"Are your eyeballs hard too?"

"Ueueue......"

"I hope they are."

Doing so, without listening to the answer, he stabbed her eyes with all his might. As the blade pierced the eyeball and reached the soft brain, Erze flopped her body. And soon hung limply.

If it were a general opponent, her skin where blades didn't work would have been sufficiently powerful, but the two boys weren't general opponents.

"Huff, huff, huff......"

Bori-bori approached and looked down at dead Erze hanging limply.

Rickart asked Bori-bori who was gasping for breath.

"Are you okay?"

"Uh, Ricky?"

"Me too."

"Then let's go."

"Uh."

The two boys took evidence that they killed Leto and Erze, and left for Lindveil immediately.

Even though they completed the request as Leto and Erze died, Rickart and Bori-bori's steps were not finished yet. They had no thought of finishing either.

However, Rickart had one anxious point. That wasn't something like worry about Nameless dying. Because he tended to accept death with detachment.

Only, if he dies after punishing himself like that, what meaning is there whether he achieves revenge or not.

Ricky of the past life and Nameless had different situations, but there were clearly overlapping parts. Rickart was anxious that Nameless seemed to be following Ricky's footsteps exactly. Because there is no salvation at the end of that.