[668] To Radum (3)
"Lemo!"
Yordic ran to the fallen Lemo and shook him.
A veteran of countless wars as a war-chariot guild member, he couldn't accept that the man had died of sheer terror.
Besides, members of Silvering and Bloodrose were perfectly fine.
"Get up! What kind of disgraceful stunt is this? Open your eyes, now!"
Yordic, unable to contain his anger, flinched—then slowly stepped back.
As if gravity had failed, Lemo's corpse rose to its feet—not standing naturally, but lifting as if being reconstructed.
"This is—"
The world itself had been warped.
Yordic realized it and turned to Shirone, shouting, "What's going on? This wasn't in the briefing!"
"Anyone can die. Didn't you join the mercenary unit knowing that from the start?" Lupist's voice was still cold.
"Anyone can die? Do you think this looks like ordinary death? No—why are the bodies standing?"
"Don't get worked up. They're dead." Shirone's reprimand shut Yordic up.
There were indeed fatalities, but the crucial issue was mind control.
"Chairman, explain properly. We can't continue this mission without a convincing explanation." At Shirone's words, Lupist removed his mask. There was no point hiding his identity now.
Jane removed her mask as well.
Just seeing the association chairman and chief secretary confirmed reduced the troops' panic a little.
"It's a kind of human trap. And I think this one was set specifically to catch you." Lupist pointed at Shirone and continued, "Ra Enemi dominates people's pasts through sensory memory, but that method doesn't work on you. So they added another step: they control a specific person's past to create this present future, and then make that person control your past."
Jane added, "The 'common brain' isn't a mental spell. Simply put, it perceives the world in a way completely different from the five-sense method you've known."
Hearing that, the mercenaries looked around at the scenery, which warped and shifted by the second, their expressions turning grave.
Buildings had turned into fibrous tissue that throbbed like hearts; blood seeped from the gaps in ribbons.
Corpses stood on tiptoe, candles burned before statues of demons both large and small, and skulls rolled across the floor.
"So you're saying it's always been like this, but our five senses couldn't detect it?"
The chill came from knowing this wasn't some madman's fantasy come true, but an actual landscape produced by altered perception.
"The senses are everything." Lupist pressed his palm to the wall of muscle; dozens of tendrils burst from the fibers and reached to swallow his arm.
Feeling real warmth and a pulse, he withdrew his arm before it could be grabbed and went on, "Maybe our senses are letting us feel the true world. That could explain why the hells described in so many works resemble this—perhaps they're products of visceral sensation."
"Nonsense! You don't even have proof! Spreading weird rumors to incite fear won't help!"
"Don't look away. If a certain signal is being directly implanted into the brain, Lemo's death becomes explainable. From now on, suppress your emotions and think carefully. The moment you lose reason, Hell will swallow you." While the troops swallowed nervously, Meirei calmly covered her ears.
"I can't hear the voices." With the five senses already distorted, hearing was being hijacked by the Common Brain's trap as well.
"Take off Nemesis. Right now it's only a hindrance." When the core members opened Kubrick's slot, the rings on their fingers vanished as if by magic.
Shirone issued the order. "First survive, then escape. Search the area and secure a safe zone. From there we'll find a way out."
Radum's structure had changed; this place was no longer the entrance. The mercenary unit reorganized and began to move.
Staring at the grotesque landscape made them realize how hollow their sensory memories had been until now.
"Damn it. How did we get dragged into this?" The glass-like boundary that scattered the red sun made them feel even more trapped.
"Stop. Ghouls." Three ghouls clung to the wall, tearing at the muscle; their nervous systems seemed paralyzed—their bellies burst open and intestines flowed out.
In a world like this, madness almost seemed preferable. Then the ghouls turned their heads.
"Food… food…" Before they could take a step, screams came from around the corner.
"Aaaah! Save me!" A horde of ghouls, terrified, charged toward them.
"Devils! A devil has appeared! Ugh!" A lead ghoul screamed, crumpled under fear, its eyes rolling back as it died.
"Captain! What do we do?" When the swordsmen drew their weapons and shouted, Shirone stepped forward and fired his Photon Cannon.
The Photon Cannon, manifested through the Spirit Zone, flared clean and bright as before and struck the ghouls.
Good. The Spirit Zone isn't distorted.
The ghouls were wiped out in an instant, but before relief could arrive, the ground rumbled deeper in the alley.
"What is that?" Two-meter-tall figures approached, their faces wrapped in black cloth, cleaver-like blades attached below their elbows.
Their bellies were grotesquely swollen; crude stitches crawling with maggots closed the seams.
Ugh. Even looking at them induced nausea, but Shirone only considered their size and weight.
'Barely two meters twenty tall. If the ground's shaking, they must weigh over a ton each.' Meirei said, "Gallopers. Cooks of the Otherworld."
Shirone snapped his head around. "You knew of them?"
"No. This is my first time here, too. But I heard of them in an oracle report." The Gallopers who had spotted Shirone's mercenary unit exchanged looks and began chattering in an unfamiliar tongue.
-Those fellows can see us, it seems. The boundaries keep vanishing these days.
-They're weak anyway. Good for us.
They're coming! At the instant Shirone sensed it, the Gallopers all turned and charged.
-Cooking ingredients! As they cut through ghouls and closed in, the structures themselves began pulsing rapidly, as if infected by emotion.
"Damn! What now!" Tens of tons of mass charged straight at the mercenary line.
Ethella dodged a blade and drove one into a Galloper's abdomen, instantly gauging their strength. 'Too tough.' Whether it was sensory distortion or true durability beyond biological limits couldn't be determined—and in the middle of battle that analysis was useless.
"Yahaaap!" She shouted and unleashed consecutive strikes of Yin–Yang Wave Fist; the over-a-ton body shuddered.
"Ratra me dakaporga!" (These guys are strong!) 'I'll break them here!' The moment Ethella's twin fists struck the abdomen, a powerful shockwave rattled the Galloper's insides.
"Kraaah!" Skin bulged for a second before the flank burst open with a wet rip, spewing rotten entrails.
"Owww." Rubbing her sore wrists with a pale face, Ethella looked around in a hurry. 'What about the others?'
The core members had opened a gap, but the rear was holding poorly. As the Gallopers' durability defied common sense, the soldiers' faces drained of color.
No! Pull yourselves together! If fear consumes you, you die. It was like fighting on the edge of a mental cliff.
'I'll fight! We can win!' Trying to steel himself, Toto's face twisted grotesquely as his reason faltered; he swung his spear blindly and charged the enemy line.
"Dieeee!" His full-power strike lacked accuracy, and when his spear hit the toughest part of a body, the metal snapped.
Staring blankly at the broken spear, Toto watched as a Galloper raised its arm and brought the cleaver down.
"Uaaaaah!" At the same moment, Rian slid in and, like a shadow, intercepted the falling cleaver with his greatsword.
"Guh!" The brutal force contorted his face, but there was no time to think—he turned and shouted, "Move out of the way, quickly!"
When he looked back, Toto stood lifeless, eyes rolled white.
"Patungaar! Patungaar!" Chanting with a voice thick as if his throat were full of phlegm, Rian struck three times with his greatsword; nearby Gallopers were hit like rocks.
Push them back! Using the power of Divine Transcendence to heft the greatsword, Rian's knees slowly straightened.
"Patungaar! Patungaar!" Pressed in strength, the Gallopers panicked and used both arms to bring their cleavers down.
Even with sparks seeming to burst in his head from the shock, Rian planted his feet and did not yield.
Slice! The will of Divine Transcendence surged at Mach speed; the torsos of four Gallopers were cleaved sideways at once.
"Puh!" Swinging his greatsword through a heap of stinking bodies, chunks of entrails splattered outward.
"This won't be easy." Lupist, using steel magic to crush the Gallopers' bodies, answered Rian, "Feels wrong. Our troops are too concentrated—area spells are risky."
"Whatever the cause, the rules are strange. The fact that you die if fear wins only grows that fear." Lupist glanced sideways. "You're not an exception, are you? This is Hell."
Rian stared at the red sky and answered calmly, "…I always thought I'd end up here someday." Then he dragged his greatsword and moved back into the fray.
"People are the same wherever they live." Lupist watched Rian's back, turned to the other side, and smirked. "True enough."
Thanks to the core members, the fight stayed tense, but the real problem lay elsewhere.
'They're not killing us outright.' Shirone deftly avoided a cleaver, wiped his throat, and frowned. 'Winning alone won't be enough.'
Of the three deaths so far, two had been caused by internal fear.
"Rian! Take the troops and fall back!" It was unusual for a hastily formed team to hold together like this, but in truth there was nowhere to run.
'If your mind breaks, you die!' Everyone clung on desperately, and when Shirone's order came, no one hesitated to turn and retreat.
'This is the captain's command! I'm not scared!' Rationalizing that, they followed Rian back while Shirone himself blocked the alley.
"Captain! What are you doing!" Baikon's armor clanged as he shouted, but Shirone didn't flinch; he fixed his gaze on the Gallopers.
'I'll end this in one strike.' Light flared from Shirone's body like oil set alight, and a colossal radiant angel manifested, wings spread wide.
In the sacred glow that made even the tainted hellscape look holy, the angel raised a spear of light.
"What… what is that?" The radiant angel's manifestation—an Angel's Punishment.
A shaft of light plunged diagonally and pierced the fibrous floor clean through.
'Damn…!' Solid enough to walk on, the floor proved sponge-like against the incredible speed of the angel's strike.
For a moment of dismay, an underground shockwave inflated the surrounding structures like balloons.
Kuuuuung! The world doubled and vibrated; shockwaves burst from the walls with fountains of blood.
"Kraaah!" That alone shredded the Gallopers' steel-like skin, tearing them like dried fish across the floor.
'The structures absorbed the shockwave.' If so, they could apply area magic without harming allies.
"That's good, isn't it?"