“Gyaaaaaaah!”
“N-Noooo!”
“L-Let goooo!”
“Damn it, what are these arms?!”
Each time a Gireusu member was seized by a magical arm, a scream pierced the air. The dull thuds of limbs being torn off echoed through the room. The Gireusu members resisted, slashing at the magical arms with spells and swords, but the weaker ones had their heads and limbs ripped off in quick succession, meeting their ends.
“Damn it, you intend to wipe us out? Morisa, do it!” Orion commanded.
“Yes, sir!”
At Orion’s order, his trusted confidant launched an offensive against Absolute. Before him was a multitude of magical arms. But Morisa advanced without hesitation.
"Skill: 【Super Acceleration】."
Accelerated by the skill, Morisa instantly closed the distance to Absolute.
Those who fight mainly with magic tend to be weak in close combat. I’ll just cut him down and be done with it. Fool, his luck ran out when he came here without any guards.
Weaving through Absolute’s magical arms, he finally closed the distance to his striking range.
Got him!
He swung his sword, aiming to sever Absolute’s head. The man, known as the God of Death in Gireusu and a level 40 combatant, was certain of his victory. He swung his arm with all his might. However, his blade never touched Absolute. In the instant his enemy attacked, Absolute drew his sword and instantly severed both of Morisa's arms.
“I-Impossible…”
“Hmph, you assumed I’d be weak in close combat and let your guard down. There’s no way someone who can’t fight up close would come to enemy territory alone. Farewell.”
As if echoing his parting words, magical arms entwined around Morisa. Countless arms seized his body and crushed it.
“Gwaaaaaaaah!”
With his entire body destroyed, Morisa was dragged into the darkness by the magical arms, utterly helpless.
“Impossible! Morisa! Damn it… I won’t forgive you!”
Gireusu’s leader, Orion, displayed anger at his subordinate’s death, but he steadfastly defended against Absolute’s Dark Hole. He cut down any approaching arms with his sword and resisted by constantly shifting his position.
There’s a kid here, so I’m not going all out, but as expected of a former top dog. He’s used to life-or-death situations. To instantly see through the weakness of my magic…
【Dark Hole】 was an original magic that crushed with magical arms and dragged victims into a dark, alternate dimension. It was a magic Absolute frequently used, and its strength lay in the user's ability to freely change the range by expanding the user's dark magic power into the field, allowing for all-range combat from close to long distances depending on the user. Its weaknesses were the high magic consumption and the inevitable slowness of the magical arms due to the complexity of controlling them. Absolute had no worries about the amount of magic, so he compensated for the slow speed of the magical arms by using more magic to increase the number of arms.
(If I could use my contracted spirit, Toa, this would be over in seconds, but Toa is keeping watch on the peeping Toms. Speed is a future issue. I want to move the kid at least, but he’s behind the Gireusu guys and looks half-dead and unconscious. Can’t show any weaknesses by letting them do something strange with the kid. Sorry, but you’ll be left alone for a bit until I kill these guys.)
With only the leader remaining, Absolute dispelled the Dark Hole. The Gireusu leader, who had somehow managed to withstand the magic, was understandably battered.
“Why?! We only came to become allies. We didn’t come to start a killing spree! We’re not even enemies, so why attack us?!”
“...The Ark House doesn't do such despicable acts as kidnapping, and we don't need guys who do. Besides, just entering Ark House territory without permission is a capital offense. Now, if you don't want to die, try resisting?”
Absolute thrust his sword at Orion, intent on finishing him off.
♢
"What's wrong with kidnapping? Kidnapping has been frequent in the Suiloku Kingdom since I was a kid, and my sister and friends were kidnapped too. Despite that, are you denying kidnapping!"
Orion, the leader of Gireusu, was from the slums of the Suiloku Kingdom. Every day was filled with the question of whether he would be able to get a meal that day, but even so, he had memories of a life that wasn't so bad. Orion was mysteriously the type of person who attracted people, and even in the slums, children of similar ages and circumstances gathered around him.
An older sister-figure who took good care of the younger ones, and younger brothers and sisters who always wandered around. They had no money or home, but everyone surrounded Orion and led a lively life.
However, Orion and his friends lived in a slum. In the slums, everyone was responsible for their own actions. The guards didn't come, and fights and kidnappings were frequent. That evil hand began to reach out to Orion's surroundings as well.
The first to be kidnapped was an eight-year-old younger sister. She was a lovely child who looked up to Orion as an older brother. He still remembers the feeling of his knees collapsing and his strength draining away when he was told by a friend that she had been kidnapped. He knew that this was a slum and that kidnapping was within the scope of daily life, but he never thought that it would happen to his friends.
After that, his companions frequently decreased one by one, and finally it was about to happen right before his eyes. Orion's older sister-figure was about to be kidnapped.
She was being carried away by several kidnappers, with her mouth and limbs bound to prevent her from speaking or moving. Orion tried to help her somehow and confronted the kidnappers. However, the difference in strength between an adult and a child was too great, and Orion was beaten by several kidnappers and defeated. The kidnappers laughed and abused Orion, leaving him unable to move, and took the girl away.
(I won't forgive them. Kidnapping is normal in this country, but I won't allow you to lay a hand on my friends. I will definitely kidnap you and sell you off.)
Orion, who was from the slums and had no education, didn't know the law and didn't know that kidnapping was a crime. Having grown up in a world where kidnapping was normal, his common sense and values became distorted, and he himself began to engage in kidnapping.
After that, Orion gathered the remaining members and formed Gireusu. The purpose was to take revenge on the organization that was selling their friends. Fortunately, he was blessed with companions, and Gireusu quickly grew and succeeded in taking over the slums.
He captured all the members of the organization that had been selling Orion's companions and sold them off to slave traders and nobles with abnormal sexual preferences. While investigating the organization, he found out that nobles were behind it, and of course he took revenge on those nobles as well, selling off the territory residents and family members. As he repeated this, Gireusu became the number one organization in the Suiloku Kingdom. For Orion, kidnapping was something that happened every day all over the world, and it was a means of revenge.
While carrying out kidnappings, Orion is still searching for his kidnapped companions, believing that they are safe. Until he was defeated by another emerging organization.
♢
Orion wanted to repay Absolute in some way, but the difference in their strength was too great, and even that was not possible.
Orion was seriously injured by Absolute's swordsmanship, and while leaning against the wall, he weakly swung his sword to check Absolute, who was trying to approach him.
"Haa, haa... Is this the end for me...? It's good to be you, being able to do whatever you want with that great power of yours. It must feel so good. You can do whatever you want with organizations like ours and those other nobles over there. But... why do you always have that look on your face! What is it! That look in your eyes, that face! If you're so strong, then laugh and hurt people like those guys do. Don't look at me like that... guh!"
Thud...
Before Gireusu's leader, Orion, could finish speaking, Absolute thrust his sword into his chest, and he collapsed weakly and died.
"The smell of blood, the feeling of stabbing with a sword, I hate everything about fighting. If I enjoyed that kind of thing, I would no longer be evil, but a monster... Don't put me in the same category as those guys."
After that, he used Dark Hole to drag the bodies of the Gireusu members into the darkness to dispose of them. Then, seeing that the battle was over, the Browser House, the cleanup crew, approached Absolute. Their faces were hidden with wrapped cloths, but it was probably Mist.
"...Mist?"
"Good work. I've left the peeping Toms alone, as you said. The bodies... it seems you disposed of them yourself again. You don't have to do everything yourself, Absolute-sama. The Browser House will do it, you know?"
Concealing evidence, disposing of bodies, and dealing with witnesses were the Browser House's jobs, and when Absolute carried out missions, he always disposed of the bodies himself.
Absolute intended to offer requiem to those he had killed by burying them in his own darkness, but Mist and the Browser House felt sorry that the top of the faction was doing their job.
"Anyone can do something like this. Well, it's true that it's faster if I do it. Besides, you hate disposing of bodies, don't you?"
When Mist accompanied him on a mission for the first time, he froze during his first body disposal. He was frightened by the moment when life was lost for the first time, the unmoving body, and the aversion to death.
Absolute started offering requiem with his magic after seeing Mist's reaction.
"Haha, what are you talking about? If you're doing this because you care about me, then I got used to it a long time ago, so it's okay. You don't have to shoulder our burdens anymore. That's why all of us under your command have become stronger."
Mist's words made Absolute's eyes slightly water.
(He says something moving every now and then. I don't understand you. I feel like you're going to betray me any second, but you say things like this sometimes. Ah, I forgot about the kids.)
Absolute approached the twin sisters that the Gireusu members had kidnapped. The two were battered, with marks on their faces and bodies. Absolute used regeneration magic to heal them, but it wasn't a full recovery. It didn't restore the lost physical strength or mental state.
"Browser House, take these guys and retreat. Judging by their appearance and clothes, they might be nobles. I'll hand them over to the king later. What a troublesome thing this has become."
"Understood. What about you, Absolute-sama?"
"I'm going to collect a viewing fee from the peeping Toms."
◆
In a place overlooking the area where Absolute was fighting, a man was watching the annihilation.
He was a man with a mask and a robe that hid half of his face.
"To annihilate the crumbling Gireusu single-handedly... the Ark House is dangerous, as I thought. If you make someone like that your enemy, you won't have a decent death. Even though the amount of money offered was eye-popping, I should have refused after all. I'm telling you, my job is negotiation, but asking me to transport everyone to another country is the wrong person. Well, I wouldn't negotiate with the Ark House no matter how much they paid."
The man was known as the Negotiator, and no one who lived in the shadows didn't know him.
He could obtain anything with money and negotiation, and he was good at smuggling and smuggling. The nickname that came with that was the Negotiator.
He himself hated being treated as a handyman because the nickname forced him to do things other than his main job of negotiation depending on the negotiation, but he thought it wasn't a bad thing to become famous.
Because the more famous he became, the more requests he received, and the more money he made.
Money was more important to the Negotiator than life. He could never have enough, and even love and trust depended on money.
"I guess it's good enough to have seen the power of that Ark House. Powerful dark magic, a combat style specialized in annihilation, plus first-class close combat skills. This information will sell for a high price too."
As the Negotiator was about to leave the place using his skill, an unusually white woman with an otherworldly beauty suddenly appeared in front of him.
"This is... a spirit? And a very high-ranking one at that. Why is she in a place like this?"
While he was distracted by the spirit that suddenly appeared, he heard a voice from behind him.
"Oh... you know about spirits? Come to think of it, the leader of Black Fairy was also a spirit user. Are you perhaps acquaintances?"
"You are..."
Standing before the Negotiator was the man who had been fighting Gireusu until just now. Cold sweat ran down his back.
"It's a pleasure to meet you for the first time, Negotiator. I thought you'd be a middle-aged man from your image, but you're surprisingly young from your voice. Now, I'm sure you know, but I'm Absolute Ark. You're the one who brought the Gireusu guys here, aren't you? How dare you make me feel so unpleasant."
A heavy pressure, as if something was weighing down on him, assaulted the Negotiator. He experienced firsthand the reason why Gireusu had succumbed to the pressure just now.
"---!"
The Negotiator, who never fought himself, couldn't withstand this pressure. He knelt down and desperately tried to control his disordered breathing.
"Why are you silent? To ignore me, you've got quite the nerve. I'll kill you, you know?"
(Don't say unreasonable things!)
Thinking that he would really be killed if things continued like this, the Negotiator tried to escape with his Transfer skill.
But the moment he used the Transfer skill, the Negotiator was shocked.
He was still in front of Absolute. He didn't know why, but the Transfer skill hadn't activated.
(Lies?! Why, why isn't my skill activating?)
"【Transfer】【Transfer】【Transfer】【Transfer】【Transfer】【Transfer】【Transfer】【Transfer】!"
The Negotiator tried to use the skill many times, but the result was the same.
Seeing the Negotiator's flustered state, Absolute wore a satisfied expression.
"Did you think you could leave without saying anything to me, in front of me?
That's a bit too rude, don't you think?"
"A-Ah!"
The Negotiator couldn't hide his agitation. The reason he had been able to maintain his composure in front of Absolute was because he thought he could escape with Transfer at any time.
"What's sealing your skill is a teleportation inhibiting magical item. This magical item was created by Rainana Kingdom by gathering all its technology to prevent assassinations by teleportation by the Space Hero, who was once said to be the strongest on the continent. Well, the Space Hero is gone now, so I traded with the king to get it just for you. It seems to be working, which is a relief."
(A teleportation inhibiting magic tool?! He prepared something like that?)
"Why do you think you could leisurely watch the fight between Gireusu and me? It would be a hassle if you could escape, so I deliberately let you swim. There are a lot of things I want to ask you. For example, about you trying to release a large number of powerful monsters by taking advantage of the Rainana Royal Academy's field exercises."
The face behind the mask twitched.
The content that Absolute had just mentioned should only be known to those involved in the matter.
Besides, he also said that he had let me swim. Could that really be possible?
It was only recently that the Black Fairy and Gireusu had a conflict. And he even predicted that they would lose and ask me to defect to Rainana Kingdom?
How much foresight or information-gathering power would it take to do that? No, is that why the Ark House is at the top of the dark organizations?
His heart rate increased and cold sweat wouldn't stop.
He miscalculated the strength of the opponent he was facing.
And he realized what was about to happen to him.
The future that awaited him, who had made the Ark House, a huge dark organization, his enemy---
---was death.
"Now, you are... "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Before Absolute could finish speaking, the Negotiator screamed and ran into the forest.
Losing his composure and abandoning his pride, he fled while screaming.
Without any destination, he only prioritized running forward to escape from the symbol of death that was in front of him just a moment ago.
He prioritized only running forward, even if tree branches hit his body or his feet tripped on tree roots.
"Aaaah, gaaah, aaaaaaah, aaaaaaah..."
His voice became hoarse from screaming too much.
His breathing was disordered, and his whole body was heavy and he couldn't move well due to excessive tension. Even so, he whipped his body and ran through the forest.
He suddenly became concerned about what was behind him and checked.
Maybe he had given up. Such a sweet thought crossed his mind.
When he looked back, he was still chasing after him. It was clear that the other party was playing with him, as he didn't leave him even a single step behind, as if he were matching his speed. But if he didn't run, he would definitely be killed. He just kept running single-mindedly for his own sake.
---How many kilometers had he run?
The place where he continued to run was a cliff with no road ahead. When he realized that there was no more road, he lost the will to escape and sat down on the spot.
"Is the game of tag over?"
It was Absolute Ark. He was there without even looking out of breath. He was directing violence-like pressure and murderous intent towards him.
I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die.
His head was filled with terror.
He thought that there was nothing more important than money, but at the moment of death, he understood what was really important. There was nothing more important than his own life.
"Guh!"
He was kicked in the stomach and lost consciousness.
The last thing he heard as he let go of consciousness was this:
"Rest assured. Even though I look like this, I'm confident in my torture skills. I'll never let you die."
He cursed inwardly that he only felt uneasy, and then lost consciousness.
After that, the Negotiator was kidnapped by the Ark House and continued to be tortured.
He was tormented in body and mind for days in a space where the sun didn't shine. He was deprived of food and sleep, and this continued until his spirit broke.
The interrogation would have ended smoothly if they had just used the slave contract, but this torture was carried out to vent the guilt of killing Gireusu because of the Negotiator, and to make sure he understood the hierarchical relationship for the future.
After confirming that his spirit was broken and that he was obedient to them, they conducted the interrogation.
A shocking fact was revealed during the interrogation of the Negotiator.
"Hoh, it was the Rainana Church that asked you to release a large number of monsters?"
