As she watched the fierce battle between Rei and Oricule and the others ahead, Byune hid her movements as much as possible as she moved away.

Her goal was to get to the corner of the room where Pree was, who was missing her arms and legs in addition to having her ribs crushed.

All in order to obtain the gems Pree had.

While she was aware of her goal, a dark feeling still welled up in Byune’s chest.

Previously, she had been able to overcome it thanks to Vihera, but even so, to be alone with Pree with no one watching, she couldn’t help the urge to hurt Pree and make her regret all she had done.

However, Byune felt that if she did do that, she would become the same type of person as Pree, so she willed herself to suppress her dark thoughts as she reached Pree’s location.

「Kill me……kill me……please, kill me……」

That voice came from Pree, who looked like a piece of trash that had been thrown to the floor.

Death from loss of blood due to the amputation of her arms and legs had been avoided due to the effect of the gems she wore, but healing effect itself wasn’t that strong, so Pree was stuck in endless pain from her missing limbs and crushed ribs. She continued to experience that pain without any pause.

And all while unable to die.

Pree had even thought of biting her tongue to kill herself and had even tried. But, due to the gems she wore, the injury on her tongue healed as soon as she bit it.

An endless living hell.

That was how Pree looked like right now.

In such a state, Pree suddenly noticed someone close by.

Unable to get up without her arms, she used her tongue to push against the floor to turn her head to find a girl about 10 years old.

Seeing who it was, Byune, Pree gave a sigh of relief.

A person who could finally kill her, who had killed Byune’s parents, had appeared.

However, Pree’s hopes were quickly crushed.

Byune didn’t say anything to Pree as she silently began to search her body.

……Or more precisely, to find any gems that Pree might have hidden in her clothes.

「……Please, take the gems from my hair as well. Then, I will be free from this suffering.」

「……」

Ignoring Pree’s begging voice, Byune continue to search her……and eventually found what she was looking for.

A small cloth bag containing a number of gems.

Looking inside, Byune found the orange-red and light blue gems that had been created from the sacrifice of her parents. The two where treated differently, wrapped in some kind of paper, but there were also many other small gems inside the bag, another 10 or so.

All of these……the necklaces, hairpieces, and earrings that remained as well as the rings, bracelets, and anklets Pree had been wearing when her arms had legs had been cut off. All the gems on them had been created through the sacrifice of many people.

Knowing that, Byune couldn’t help but frown.

But……even so, the only way they could ensure they could deal with Oricule was to use the power of these gems.

Because of that, with gems in hand, Byune spoke.

「Gem, explosion, use, teach.」

Compared to when she had spoken Vihera’s name, her pronunciation had improved a lot, but even so, Byune was only barely able to speak by breaking up sentences into individual words.

That said, from Pree’s point of view, Byune was someone who could free her from this endless pain. She didn’t miss the opportunity and spoke as she endured the pain.

「E-Explosion? You mean the way I released all the magic power in the gem to make it explode?」

Byune silently nodded as she urged Pree to continue.

「I-If I tell you……will you save me from this pain?」

Pree asked while still bearing the excruciating pain.

For a moment, she looked at Byune doubtfully, but in the end, she had no choice but to believe that Byune would free her.

「Activating the gems isn’t difficult. All you have to do is to pour magic power into the gem and say the keyword that was set in advance, just like using a magic item. Each gem has a different keyword, but the keyword to explode them is an exception and was given to all the gems. The fleeting destruction of the gems is also a beautiful sight.」

Pree had an enchanted expression on her face as she spoke.

Even now, she was suffering from the pain, but when she was talking about gems, she became so absorbed that she even forgot about her pain for a moment. It must have been due to her great attraction to gems.

Byune frowned unpleasantly as she urged Pree to keep going.

「Continue, speak.」

「Y-Yes. Anyway, if you pour magic power into the gems and say the keyword 『Return to nothing』 , it will explode.」

「Gems, all?」

「Yes.」

Staring at Pree, who nodded……Byune suddenly asked.

「Gem, resurrect, impossible?」

Unable to understand the meaning of Byune’s words, Pree thought for a few seconds.

Was she asking if it was possible to bring back those who were sacrificed to create the gems? Realising Byune’s question, Pree shook her head.

「Impossible.」

Just one word. It was short, but it completely destroyed the faint hope Byune had of reuniting with her parents.

Byune’s face, which hardly ever showed a change in expression, distorted in sadness as several teardrops ran down her cheeks and fell to the ground.

But it was only for a moment. Byune, who glanced back at the fierce battle taking place with Oricule, turned back to face Pree as she stretched out her hand.

Pree, unable to resist, stiffened for a moment, but soon realised that Byune’s hand was on her head, or more precisely, on her hairpieces, which were keeping her alive. Giving a small sigh of relief, she gently closed her eyes.

(Finally, finally, an end to this pain……)

However, the severe pain from her amputated limbs didn’t stop.

Why? While thinking in her mind, Pree opened her eyes again and saw Byune looking down at her.

Even though Byune was only a 10 year old girl, she looked straight at Pree without the slightest hesitation.

Shiver.

Pree didn’t know what, but she felt a kind of fear that sent shivers down her spine.

「I need, gems, you, I don’t care.」

For a moment, Pree couldn’t understand what Byune had just said, but she soon realised as her eyes went wide.

This was what Byune meant.

All she needed were the gems, she didn’t care at all for what would happen to Pree.

Rather than seeing her as an enemy, Byune saw her as nothing more than a rock or trash lying on the side of the road. For a moment, Pree’s anger made her forget her pain.

「Wai-!」

Just as she was about to curse at Byune, who was standing right in front of her, Byune moved her hands with the deftness of a thief and quickly pulled out the hairpieces in Pree’s hair.

At the same time, the gems that had been holding Pree’s body together lost their effect and blood began to flow again from the end of her severed arms and legs.

「GAAAAAAAAH-, ITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTSITHURTS!」

Even without her limbs, Pree started to roll on the floor in pain as the blood that had stopped flowing began to pour out again, worsening the injuries.

Byune just glanced at Pree as if she were looking at a rock or trash, just like earlier, before collecting Pree’s arms and legs and removing the gems from the anklets, bracelets, and rings on them.

Pree was still thrashing about, but Byune was already collecting the gems as if she wanted to forget she existed……to the very end, Byune did not pay Pree a single glance more as she left.

「AHHH-AHHHHHH-AHHHHHHHHHH!」

Unable to endure the pain, Pree thrashed about on the ground, and eventually, her life faded to no ones care.

Here, in the famous labyrinth city of Exil, one of the heads of the three ruling families, the Marschel family, would meet a miserable and pathetic end that would be hard to believe.

 

 

「GUOOOOOH!」

Oricule took a serious hit from Vosk’s claymore as he blocked it with his arm. His flesh was cut open to the bone, but his bones didn’t break as he was knocked back.

Normally, Oricule would have blocked the attack using one of his second arms.

However, no matter how fast his regeneration ability was, it would still take a long time to regrow an arm from nothing.

If the severed arm was still around, it would have been easy to reconnect it, but they had all be stored into the Misty Ring by Rei.

Of course, if Oricule had the time, he could regrow his new arms, but even so, it was clear that it would take several hours to do so.

「While you’re at it, eat this too!」

Vihera dashed forward with a shout as she buried her gauntlet clad fist into Oricule’s chest.

The leather armour that Oricule had originally worn had already been reduced to scraps from the concentrated attacks of Rei, Elena, Set, Vihera, and Vosk.

Even if he had transformed into an abnormal human, this was a natural outcome from having to deal with such a force on his own.

……But, despite continuing to receive such attacks in a one sided manner, Oricule barely had any scars on him.

The reason for this was, as a matter of course, Oricule’s ability to regenerate, which had gained after his transformation.

Just like his second pair of arms, if they were kept away, there was nothing he could do about it. However, conversely, injuries such as cuts, fractures, or internal injuries wouldn’t take long to recover.

Because of that, even though he continued to be pushed back, the battle maintained a strange sense of balance.

However, that balance was only possible due to Oricule’s passive regeneration. In short……

「Gems, I brought them.」

As Oricule fended off Vosk’s claymore and Elena’s sword whip, right after dealing with Set’s attack, Byune went over to Rei, who was waiting for an opportunity to throw a spear he had taken out from the Misty Ring.

Byune’s words took Rei by surprise for a moment, but that was besides the point in the moment. Twisting his body and throwing out the spear, which pierced into Oricule’s right shoulder as he evaded Vosk’s claymore, Rei called out to Byune.

「So, how do we use it?」

「Magic power, pour. Keyword,『Return to nothing』, explosion.」

「I see, can any gem cause an explosion?」

「Mm. Magic power, needed.」

Byune nodded at Rei’s question.

Elena turned her sword whip back into sword form as she swung it down. Oricule immediately pulled the spear out of his right shoulder and used it as a weapon, catching the blade of the sword whip……however, the tip of the spear shattered instantly.

「Wha-!?」

Oricule let out a startled cry.

Most of Rei’s throwing spears were unfit for normal combat, Oricule had made a mistake because he hadn’t known that.

On the other hand, Elena, who had been with Rei for a long time, knew what kind of spears he used for throwing. That was why she continued to swing her sword without care as the spear tip shattered. At the same time, Set also swung his claws out.

Vihera and Vosk were stunned momentarily by the series of events, but immediately attacked as well.

Seeing that, Rei asked Byune again.

「It needs magic power. So, can you use it Byune?」

「Probably.」

The reason Byune didn’t say yes was because she didn’t know how much the gems required.

Byune was trained as a thief, and while her fighting skills had improved through training with Vihera, due to her age, it was difficult to expand her skills to include magic power, which needed time.

Of course, she could use magic items used in daily life and was probably more qualified to use magic power than other adventurers. But, since she hadn’t trained for it specifically, would she be able to detonate a large number of gems? There was no way Byune could confidently say yes.

On the other hand, if asked if he could detonate the gems, Rei’s answer would be no. To be exact, it wasn’t a matter of if he was able to detonate the gems, but rather if he had the time to do so as he also needed to destroy Oricule’s body using 『Dancing Fire Snake』.

「Hah-!」

Throwing a second spear from the Misty Ring at Oricule, who was wounded but regenerating quickly, Rei swiftly gathered his thoughts.

(If wee need to put the gems inside his body, then it will be necessary to stick around in close quarters. Considering that, Vihera……how much magic power as she recovered? Seeing as she hasn’t brought her claws and blades back, I wonder if she’s preserving her magic power or still recovering.)

Vihera slipped in close to Oricule’s chest as she crushed his ribs with her elbow.

Behind her, ELena was controlling her sword whip in whip form.

(In terms of magic power, Elena has a lot more to spare……but since she uses a sword, Vihera is better at close quarters combat.)

The reason why Vosk wasn’t included in the list of possible people was because Rei judged him to be inferior to Vihera and Elena in terms of pure combat skill.

「Byune, who do you think is better suited to detonating the gems, Vihera or Elena?」

「Vihera.」

An immediate answer.

Was it an answer simply based on the length of their relationship?

In any case, Rei decided it would be best to leave it to Vihera as he closed the distance to Oricule with the Death Scythe.

「Vihera, step back! Go to Byune!」

Rei shouted out as he passed by her.

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