Chapter 111 - Damn Reincarnation

Flames

["Don't use that."]

Senya hated Ignition.

["Hamel. You're too ignorant to understand this, apparently, but a core is an extremely delicate organ. Humans aren't born with one. It's an organ artificially created through mana training. That makes it imperfect and leaves it with all sorts of risks."]

Several times in his previous life, after he had used Ignition and collapsed from exhaustion, Senya had sat beside his helplessly prone body and nagged him all night.

["You're the only person who can even use that technique. Do you understand what that means? You're such a dumbass that you apparently think something nobody else can do must be an impressive specialty. To me, that's not a specialty. It's a disability."]

["... Isn't that a little harsh?"]

["This is harsh? I'm holding myself back right now. Really holding back, over and over. Thanks to you, we're out of danger, but you, you dumbass. You! You're in danger now. What the hell are you trying to accomplish? You're lying there unable to lift a finger. You've actually crippled yourself."]

Whenever he lost his temper and argued back during her lectures, Senya always reached the same conclusion.

Yes, you're the dumbass.

["Do you understand, dumbass? You must never let your core run out of control. It's already right next to your heart, so why do you keep doing it? An ordinary person—no, not just an ordinary person! Even I, humanity's greatest archmage, would die or end up crippled if my core went berserk!"]

["If I can do something even you can't, doesn't that make it a specialty?"]

["... Oh, sure. It's a specialty. You're special. A special dumbass with a special disability."]

Vermouth usually dealt with most dangers. But he wasn't a god, either, and several times they had faced dangers even he couldn't handle.

Times when he couldn't protect his companions, for instance. However exceptional Vermouth was, he was still just one man. There was a limit to what he could hold off alone.

That was why he had companions. Just as Hamel had stepped forward for them time and again, so had Moron, Senya, and Anise. They had all stepped forward for their companions, again and again. Each did their utmost so Vermouth wouldn't have to do everything, so they wouldn't hold him back.

["Hamel. That technique will kill you someday."]

Senya wasn't the only one who hated Ignition. When he collapsed from its backlash, restoring his ravaged body fell to Anise.

["I know that your control over mana is far superior to other people's. Senya worries that runaway mana might kill you someday... but I think differently. Hamel. You won't die from your mana running out of control."]

["Then what will kill me?"]

["The human body isn't as sturdy as you think."]

Anise hadn't worn her usual smile when she said that. In his previous life, Hamel had been more afraid of Anise's unsmiling, serious face than of Senya hurling insults at him.

["Yours in particular, Hamel. Your body isn't as sturdy as you think it is. If you'd been born with an absurdly tough body like Moron's, I wouldn't even be giving you this warning."]

["What's wrong with my body?"]

["Hamel. You were born with a genius's talent for regulating mana... but not with a genius's physique."]

He couldn't argue with that. He had felt the truth of it dozens, hundreds of times in his previous life. As a mercenary, he had never realized it.

Had his body been weak? No. It had been good enough to make him mistake himself for a genius.

But every one of his companions was a genius in their own field. Moron and Vermouth, in particular, had bodies so strong that comparing his to theirs was embarrassing.

["That technique, Ignition, doesn't merely send your core out of control. It places far too much strain on your entire body. Especially your heart. As Senya has warned you so many times, your core is close to your heart. That's what makes runaway mana dangerous... Hamel. You're overworking not just your core, but your heart and your whole body."]

["... I can't help that. Of course more power means more strain on my body—"]

["Even machines made of metal break when you push them beyond their limits. Hamel. You're not a machine. Your body isn't made of metal."]

["..."]

["You must feel it yourself. However many miracles I can perform, I cannot return something utterly broken to the state it was in before it broke. Hamel. Do you understand what I'm saying? That technique damages your body, and it's already damaged. Someday your heart won't be able to beat as it used to, and your body won't move properly, however desperately you want it to."]

["... Well... you know... fighting... No. Not just fighting. In life, you have to accept a certain amount of risk..."]

["Are you an idiot or a dumbass?"]

["... Do I have to pick one?"]

["Hamel, would I be keeping you here to lecture you if you weren't acting like an idiot and talking like a dumbass? Even Moron, whom everyone considers an idiot, at least pretends to listen when we tell him not to do something. Why are you behaving worse than Moron?"]

["You're being way too harsh..."]

["In any case, I've warned you. If you end up crippled, unable even to control your own body, then as your companion and friend, I will arrange for you to live in a luxurious nursing home in the Holy Empire."]

["If that really happens, will you take care of my piss and shit?"]

["I'll personally put you out of your misery before it comes to that."]

He had received all those warnings in his previous life. Even so, he had never hesitated to use it. Whenever he thought he had to use it, the situation truly demanded it.

Every time he used it, the result had been worth the damage to his body. It had carried him through several crises. It had proved particularly worthwhile when Incarceration's Sword, Gavid Lindman, ambushed him and Senya while they were scouting alone.

Had he not used Ignition then, both he and Senya would have died.

He had also used Ignition repeatedly in the Demon King of Incarceration's castle. That was how he had killed Incarceration's Shield and Incarceration's Staff.

And Hamel had died, too.

'... What is this?'

Barang heard a heartbeat.

The sound of that boy's heart was terribly loud. His bloodshot eyes sent a chill through Barang. His tightly clenched human teeth looked as savage as a predator's fangs.

'What did he do?'

Barang couldn't identify exactly what was changing inside Eugene's body.

It was a thought Eugene had had time and again since his reincarnation.

'Even now.'

If he used Ignition, he would win without fail. He could kill his opponent without fail.

'I can kill him.'

The mana in his core ran wild.

Four stars of the White Flame Formula.

The four stars spun furiously. The Ring Flame Formula, incorporating Eternal Hole, formed a single circle from those four stars. The mana within it exploded in a chain reaction. He refined the erupting mana into countless cores and brought them into resonance. The spinning ring of flame held the mana fast, preventing it from escaping.

The Ring Flame Formula amplified his core's mana and allowed him to use it without waste.

That wasn't enough. Amplification alone couldn't vastly exceed the total amount of mana he possessed. His heart kept beating. His core overheated. The stars spun faster.

Driven beyond its limits, the core itself began to distort. Explosion, explosion, explosion. He kept setting it off. The exploded mana spread throughout his body. The distorted core swelled larger and larger.

Ignition deliberately sent the core out of control, then spread the mana it unleashed throughout the body. It accelerated the heartbeat to match the increasingly violent flow of mana, bringing the entire body into sync with the runaway, overheated core.

He felt the heat of the blood flowing through his veins. Hot. His racing heart felt ready to burst. His entire body, connected to his mana, prepared for the next explosion.

Only a few seconds had passed since Eugene placed his hand on his chest and gripped his heart.

In those few seconds, Barang's perception of the boy standing before him had changed entirely. The mana beginning to run wild bore down on him. With every hair on his body bristling, he lunged at Eugene.

A beastfolk's hand had five fingers, just like a human's. But the sharp claws jutting from Barang's fingertips belonged to a predator, something no human possessed.

His huge body rushed forward. Eugene watched him approach through bloodshot eyes.

He knew for certain. Without Ignition, he wouldn't have been able to keep up with Barang's movements properly.

But now he could.

'I see.'

By the time Barang's slashing claws reached the tip of his nose, Eugene had finished his assessment.

'I can kill him.'

BOOOOM!

Barang was the one who had lunged forward and attacked with his claws.

Barang was also the one sent flying backward.

He couldn't understand what had just happened. How had—no, what had hit him? Why was he flying backward? What about his attack? His claws? Barang twisted in midair to right himself.

Every claw he had swung was shattered.

The instant he saw that, his palm split open and blood spurted out.

"Grrraah!"

His palm had been cut. It wasn't a shallow wound. His hand had been split in two. Barang roared more in anger than in pain. This wound was nothing to him. Beastfolk bodies regenerated injuries rapidly. The regeneration of beastfolk who had accepted demonic energy, like Barang, rivaled that of high-ranking demons.

Indeed, by the time Barang landed, his slashed hand had regenerated completely. But he couldn't attack again.

Eugene was nowhere to be seen.

["... Hamel. That is..."]

'A beast.'

["Shouldn't you use the Moonlight Sword?"]

'No.'

The Moonlight Sword was too conspicuous. If the situation demanded it, he would have no choice, but things weren't dangerous enough to require it now.

'I can win without it.'

Eugene felt the wind. The wind summoned by Wynnyd. Ordinarily, he would use it to accelerate his body, but there was no need now.

He was faster than the wind. It couldn't keep up with him.

His overloaded body was moving better than he had expected. He hadn't imagined it could move this well.

'Definitely much better than my old body.'

His arm felt as if it were being torn off. But that was only a sensation. His arm didn't tear off.

'Tempest.'

Eugene raised Wynnyd high.

'How sturdy is this sword?'

["... Hmm."]

Tempest gave a low groan and summoned the wind. Violent gusts wrapped around the blade.

["It will withstand your current full strength without difficulty."]

'Really?'

Eugene's lips twisted into a smile.

'Good, then.'

The sword—

No, the storm plunged down. Watching from a distance, Kristina seized Siknard in her arms at a powerful premonition. Her divine power flared, forming a radiant shield to protect the elves.

BOOOOM!

The forest shook. The plunging storm shattered—no, annihilated the ground. The wind swept down and spread outward, swallowing the buildings.

"GRAAAH!"

Barang howled at its center. The wind was slashing his entire body to pieces. He felt nothing in his left arm. The downward slash had severed it. Only because he had managed to twist his body had he escaped with just his left arm cut off.

"You... you bastard!"

Howling, Barang drew out his power. Pitch-black demonic energy coiled around his entire body.

Barang was strong.

Among the beastfolk led by Yagon under the Demon King of Destruction, his prowess ranked him among a handful of the very best.

That made this all the more impossible. Blon, who had boasted of being one of Shimuin's Twelve Champions, had been torn in half at the waist by one of Barang's hands. Yet that immensely powerful arm had been severed by a single sword stroke.

'My full strength.'

The attack had been too sudden. That was why he hadn't managed to counter it. He had underestimated the boy too much for being young, for being human. Lionheart was said to be the greatest human martial family. Of course someone hailed as a genius there would have a few astonishing tricks.

Now he knew this wasn't an opponent to take lightly. Things would be different from here on. His severed left arm? That was fine, too. He could regenerate it somehow.

First, he would defeat that brat. Then he would rip off his limbs and make him crawl like a worm all the way to the elves' domain. He would rape the saint to death before the boy's eyes. He would kill the elves, too, every last one, and make him weep tears of blood in regret.

Having resolved to do so, Barang swung his arm. His pitch-black demonic energy became enormous claws and tore the storm apart.

Eugene stood beyond it. Cloaked in ominous demonic energy, Barang shot toward him like a black cannonball.

'He doesn't compare to Oboron.'

Eugene took a step forward.

'Or to Amelia Merwin.'

Flames blazed up, burning blue as they became sword force.

'To think I have to use Ignition against a fucker like this.'

Facing Barang's ferocious charge, Eugene swallowed a sigh, lamenting his own circumstances.

So far away.

That was what Barang thought as he charged. Only a few dozen meters. A distance he could close with a single leap. But... but it didn't seem to be shrinking.

A strange sense of distance.

Barang didn't want to acknowledge it. It wasn't the physical distance that felt so great. It was his mind that felt it. The gulf between that boy... and himself was immeasurably vast.

That couldn't be.

'I have to reach...'

No.

He must not reach him. An instinctive warning drifted through his mind. Impossible. Barang denied his instincts. If he went forward, he would die. Impossible. He denied it again.

I am strong. That stubborn insistence kept Barang from stopping.

'I am...'

His hand reached forward.

The demonic energy scattered. His claws split, shattered, and vanished. His fingers, his hand, were sliced into dozens, hundreds of pieces that flew apart. With wide eyes, Barang watched his own body being destroyed. He saw it all with horrifying slowness and cruel clarity.

Barang could advance no farther. He stopped where he was.

He had no choice.

Barang coughed up a gush of blood and lowered his head. Blood and organs were spilling from his split-open body.

His outstretched arm... hadn't managed to become an attack. Had it at least served as a shield? If he hadn't even extended it, that terrifying slash would have torn his body apart completely.

"... You..."

Barang forced the word out, trembling. Unable to stand any longer, he sank to the ground.

"You... what... what the hell... are you?"

He could see Eugene wreathed in blue and white flames. With those flames wrapped around him like a mane, Eugene didn't look remotely human to Barang.

"Why ask when you already know?"

Eugene spat the words out, narrowing his aching eyes.

"Eugene Lionheart."