「... Even if you wake up now, it'll only hurt. It's going to hurt so, so much! Right now, you can't even control it because of the seal, so really...!」

The sobbing voice began to yell, almost as if trying to scare me. I wondered if they hated me waking up that much.

* * *

Demonic energy corruption is truly potent and insidious, so at first, there is no pain at all. Until your eyes turn red and black veins bulge out, you don't feel even the slightest hint of pain.

However, by the time a shred of reason is chipped away, the situation changes.

It hurts. Not an excessive pain that makes you pass out, but a pain that slowly eats away at you. It was like peeling off your flesh layer by layer. The pain accumulated and came crashing in like a wave.

"Hah!"

But so what? To someone who endures even having lava poured over their entire body, such pain is meaningless.

What mattered to her was right now.

"Die!"

It was fine if she broke. It was fine if she died. She had already prepared herself for that from the moment she left her hometown and stepped foot on this land.

But even so, she would not go alone. Especially if the target was a demon!

"Uwahahaha!"

Leaving her shoulder flesh gouged out by a Merman's claws as it was, she swung the hand holding a stone.

Instead of her fist, which could never become harder than stone no matter how much she trained, what was once a fragment of a rock smashed the Merman's skull.

It was similar to when she smashed her master's head. The scalp tore, bones shattered, and it spewed out brains and blood.

Following that, she slightly twisted her waist to dodge the attack of a Merman rushing at her from behind. Despite carrying eggs, the sluggish-less creatures' claws inevitably left a wound on her waist, but it wasn't deep enough for her intestines to spill out.

Moreover, as if to compensate for that wound, her empty left hand pierced the eyeball of the Merman that had just attacked. Her curved fingers yanked the eyeball out to give it a tour of the outside world.

"You're not even a match for the Trial of the Glacier!!"

If one were to compare the Trial of the Glacier, which only the most carefully selected Great Warriors of the tribe could face, with a mere, commonplace demon, the latter would naturally fall short... but that was none of her business.

She mocked the Mermen and kicked a Merman's belly with her foot. SMASH! The demon that had tried to make her its nest died instantly, and the ones that rushed in as emergency reinforcements from the outside filled the newly opened space.

'You know.'

CRUNCH!

Still, it didn't matter. She splashed the pooled blood and threw the stone she was holding. Even a rock thrown without a sling became quite threatening with her muscle power added to it.

The bodily fluids flowing over the Merman's outer skin made the rock slip, but the impact of the collision did not completely dissipate, causing the creature to stagger a couple of times.

'If we really die here.'

Her grip did not miss that opening. Grabbing the Merman's hand, she snapped its wrist, creating a scene where it died stabbed in the neck by its own claws.

The Merman, dead from being stabbed by its own claws, let out a croak and stuck out its tongue as it fell backward.

'Which Vidr's death will you mourn?'

SLASH! And it was torn into five pieces. It had aimed for her, but due to poor positioning, it ended up shredding the innocent corpse of its kin instead.

SPLASH. However, the Mermen were not the only ones attacking their own kind. Her movements paused for a split second before she barely dodged an attack from another entity.

SLASH! The attacks she couldn't evade left their marks on her body as wounds.

'Me? Or...'

"Stop."

Her fingers hooked inside a Merman's mouth.

RIIIP! Hooked skillfully past its teeth, her fingers tore its mouth open before they could be bitten off.

"We promised not to talk about that."

'But we're facing death right now.'

"Sister."

'Berserker.'

Then, her body bent flexibly.

As her upper body leaned backward and her waist muscles, arched like a bow, momentarily supported her entire body, a Merman's claws sliced through the empty air just above her stomach.

SWISH! And the moment the claws passed her, she snapped her body forward. Her serratus anterior muscles, which had been pulled taut alongside her waist muscles, released and immediately shot her shoulder forward.

The Merman, struck precisely on the jaw by her palm, went flying backward.

'Or should I call you Weapon Master?'

"Sister..."

'Yeah. Either is fine. I just... want you to face reality.'

Her abdominal muscles then twisted like a whirlpool to dodge the claws by a hair's breadth, and the forearm that had been raised when her waist arched came down to grab the Merman's neck.

Unlike a human's, the neck—thicker than its head—filled her forearm completely.

'Your contradiction of mourning while also saying the one you mourn is still alive.'

CRACK. But there is usually only one future for a neck trapped between a chest and an arm.

She applied force and snapped its neck bone. It struggled and left claw marks on her thigh and pelvis, but it wouldn't be a major problem. Probably.

Instead, she grabbed the corpse with her remaining free hand and swung it just like that. Several incoming attacks were blocked by the meat shield and fizzled out.

'Calling something that is merely a part of you 'Sister'... I want you to stop doing that.'

She could not afford to feel relieved and complacent just because she blocked the enemy's offensive. She took advantage of the gap in their attacks and lunged into that space.

Receiving a sudden burst of power, her bulging thigh muscles spewed a streak of blood as they propelled her body to a relatively safe spot. The enemy that had been at her landing spot died with its forehead crushed by her foot, so there was no need to worry about it.

A moment to catch her breath emerged.

'Let's please stop this.'

"Haa."

Did it emerge? She let out a hot breath.

If one were to measure the cause of that heat, it was impossible to tell whether it was from moving a few steps without breathing, or because the demonic energy corruption was right on the verge of reaching the top of her head.

'If this keeps up, we won't even be able to properly mourn Vidr's death right at the moment of our own.'

She merely wanted to run away.

Even knowing that she could no longer run away.

"Damn it!!"

Suffering as the rising demonic energy made her head dizzy, or perhaps howling because the choice she stubbornly refused to admit had been shoved in her face, she moved her hands.

CRUNCH! Another Merman had its eyeballs crushed and eye sockets shattered in her hands.

"I know, I know too!!"

'... Berserker.'

"I know it well too!!"

SLASH!

However, she was slowly reaching her limit. The number of swarming Mermen was too high, and her reason, clouding over from the demonic energy, was also driving her into a corner.

Her mind, which blurred the line between right and wrong judgment, ultimately resulted in a piercing wound near her lungs.

"I know that you're dead too!!"

And for a moment, everything stopped.

No. Time continued to flow. Even her time, which had stopped in her childhood at 13 years old, began again.

"I know that my sister is dead too—!!"

RUMBLE!

"...!"

Instead, right when she thought time had stopped, the floor collapsed. The rotting flesh had failed to support the weight of dozens of Mermen, dropping them into the empty space that had formed underneath.

THUD, THUD.

The uneven terrain dropped her, rolled her, and dropped her again.

Her massive body rolled over the slippery chunks of flesh, becoming completely blood-soaked. Berserker. It was an appearance truly befitting that name.

ROLL.

But as if that wasn't enough, her body headed for an even worse place. Her body arrived at the most massive pit of blood.

SPLASH!

Rather than trying to stop rolling, she had let herself be carried away to temporarily pull herself out of the situation, and only raised her body after she had fallen into the blood.

SPLASH. Even though it was the edge of the pit, the blood that came up to her shins created ripples and sloshed around.

It was like looking at a lake.

"Hah."

The Mermen must not have rolled all the way down here, as any presence other than hers was still far away.

She staggered once and leaned her body against a nearby rock—she didn't know what it was, but at any rate, it wasn't flesh. DRIP. The blood that soaked her body all the way to the top of her head trickled down.

"I... I know too..."

In tandem with that, a voice akin to a lament also echoed over the pit. It was a resonance like the dying words of someone who sensed the end of their life.

"I know, but... how, how could I stop."

She still remembered. The person who shone like the sun and illuminated the snowfields. The being who raised and supported her in place of their parents. That embrace that felt endlessly vast...

"How, how could I."

'My sun. My world. My giant.'

'My...'

"Sister..."

In truth, it had been a very long time since she realized her sister's death.

The reason she challenged the Demon Knight to a spar but couldn't bring herself to ask him to kill her, the reason she quietly listened to her master's wish instead of smashing it, and the reason she didn't end her life on that snowfield that day were all for the same reason.

If she died, the mourning for her sister would become strange. Should she mourn the persona she had fabricated, or mourn the one who was already dead but whom she had turned away from?

Going round and round, she would ultimately be forced to face reality.

'Let's stop being stubborn.'

"Please, Vidr."

'I'm okay. We were always one to begin with.'

"My poor sister."

'We're just returning to where we originally belonged, so what's the problem.'

She hated that. She hated that so much.

["I request a challenge, Great Warrior."]

That you died in a place where even the sun did not rise. She did not want to admit your end, walking into the jaws of death yourself just to save her.

["There is only one condition. If I manage to leave even a single scratch on you, you must take in my younger sister."]

She didn't want to accept that a miserable end, where not even your remains were recovered, was the final destination for you, who had once been her entire world...

'So... let's stop this, if only for our sake, and for Vidr's.'

"You're, you're so selfish..."

However, a child's stubbornness must come to an end someday.

The stubbornness that had persisted for over 30 years was no different.

Just as the halberd—passed down from master to master, and from that master's master to his master, carrying on for over a hundred years—had shattered.

What was meant to break eventually had to break.

She sobbed like a young child refusing to grow up and raised her body. SPLASH, SPLASH.

Along with that, something rose from within the lake-wide pool of blood. It was the most massive and hideously formed Merman she had seen so far.

["Y-You, ca-ca-can't, co-come, he-heeeere."]

'And honestly, if we're going to die and go to Vidr's side anyway, it's better to be a whole one rather than two split apart.'

["H-H-Human, n-no."]

'Right?'

Was she afraid of it? If asked, the only answer she would return was absolutely not.

"... Yeah."

The Berserker finally admitted it.

"You're right."

The yoke she inherited by killing her master, Weapon Master, was also her name.

["D-Di-D-Die."]

She could no longer hear the voice in her head.

It was painful.

* * *

「The demon might put you in a seal, where you won't be able to move an inch and will just feel pain. Even if by some chance you are freed from the seal, with your current physical condition, it's highly likely you won't be able to budge. Are you still going to wake up? Are you still going to choose to wake up even then...?」

However, the reason I didn't feel bad about that was probably because I could read the underlying worry behind it.

* * *

"Haa, haa."

The Inquisitor gasped heavily, trying somehow to maintain her breath that had risen to her chin.

The air she inhaled deeply through her mouth, her nose not being enough, thoroughly scorched her airway the moment it passed down her throat.

["Is it almost the end?"]

However, before she could fully catch her breath, a cannonball made of lava flew over and struck the right half of her body.

The lava pierced the chainmail beneath her armor, roasting her blood and flesh to a crisp. "Aargh." A scream slipped through her clenched teeth before stopping.

Her pride could not tolerate letting out a weak sound in front of a mere demon.

CRUMBLE.

In the meantime, some of the lava that had cooled and stuck onto the Inquisitor's armor crumbled and spilled dust.

It was a result of her lacking even the strength to purify impure things.

["How stubborn."]

Even so, she did not withdraw her barrier.

The Inquisitor swallowed the burnt taste clinging thickly to her tongue and twitched her fingers. Her heated armor clattered as the pieces struck against each other.

Even though it was a weight she had worn for half her life, she felt that it was truly heavy. Honestly, she had no strength left to move.

The edges of her smudged vision were truly blurry.

"... I."

Would not lose. Unable to even finish her sentence, she opened her mouth from the pain piercing her side.

By this point, it would have been nice if the sensation of pain disappeared. Why did this body insist on personally feeling every bit of pain. Her fingers trembled violently before completely losing all strength.

["Are you still being stubborn? You could just give up."]

But, but...

"Oh, God."

She prayed with her battered appearance.

Please watch over this city. Watch over the pitiful.

Watch over the devotion of the one who was merely encroached upon by a demon, yet was more noble than anyone else.

["Goodness me. Humans are..."]

... Also, if there is a next time, instead of this lacking person, please select a better person as the Hero and grant the world an opportunity.

["The title of Hero is ultimately just a name given to a suitable vessel."]

To someone who can save more people...

"Do not... insult Him..."

["Hah, you really hate seeing your god insulted, don't you?"]

"That noble, He..."

["So what. In the end, he's just a mere being on the same level as our King."]

Was it because he was certain he had won? Greed, in his true form, approached and trampled her.

As the leg made of rock and flames slowly trampled her, her armor heated up and directly melted the Inquisitor's skin.

The unescapable heat circulated inside her armor, compounding the pain.

["We do not even revere our King. Therefore, there is no reason for me to revere a god like yours."]

"Demons are..."

But it wasn't, wasn't over yet.

"All the same...!"

["...!"]

The Inquisitor sharply raised her once-drooping eyes and unleashed the sliver of power she had been scraping together all this time.

A slash using the edge of its surface slightly cleaved the demon's body, and Pandemonium leaped vastly backward.

["Right, this one was my mistake."]

"... You degenerate scumbags who don't even know the word 'serve'. Our God doesn't even want your reverence anyway. Just die."

During that time, the Inquisitor strove to elevate her physical condition. However, the lava remaining everywhere was the problem. The moment she recovered even a little, these things would shoot out all sorts of trash and thorns...

BOOOM!

SWOOOSH!

["...?!"]

Just as she was about to say something, something surged in from the distance. She didn't know how the canal had been burst, but it was a wave surging in with enough force to submerge a part of the city.

Some of the lava hardened and lost its heat the moment it touched the seawater.

["... I left you alone because you seemed like a rat that would die if I just left you be, but to think you would act like this."]

Pandemonium's brow furrowed.

["You, go kill her and—"]

CRASH!

In quick succession, the moment Pandemonium tried to order the demon guarding the antique structure.

Just as a massive wave of mana seemed to swirl, a streak of light akin to a meteor struck the ground. It was a light that precisely sniped the structure and the demon in front of it.

RUMBLE. The hole from which demons crawled out endlessly disappeared, leaving only the structure behind.

The demon guarding its front had also already died soundlessly, leaving only its lower half behind.

["..."]

Pandemonium fell silent.

"This is..."

On the other hand, the Inquisitor half-instinctively realized what had happened and awkwardly raised her lips.

She felt as if she could see the slacker waving his hand from somewhere out of sight.

["You foolish human...!"]

"You stupid bastard...!"

Strangely, she found the strength to stand up again.

Golden light once again blocked the lava that was writhing in tandem with Pandemonium's wrath.

* * *

Therefore, I smiled and accepted that worry.

Still, I might be able to save someone.