After leaving the A rank party, I aim for the deep part of the labyrinth with my former students
“Marina?”
“Yes, it’s me, Marina!”
Marina smiled brightly as always, though looking a little bashful.
Somehow, it felt… so nostalgic.
“Weren’t you captured or something?”
“Um, I’m not really sure… It was like I was dazed, or being controlled, or something… hmm.”
Seeing Marina looking troubled, “Mama” raised her voice.
“Marina? How did you break the hypnosis…? No, never mind. Come here. I’ll help you remember again.”
“Sorry, Mama. The hypnosis won’t work on me anymore. Because… I’ve already remembered everything.”
Marina gave a small smile as she stepped forward, holding a large black blade as if to shield me.
“Sorry, everyone. I guess… I wasn’t human after all. Um, I’m something like a homunculus, an artificial being, a living magical artifact.”
She spoke lightly, just like always.
“It’s not like I was trying to deceive you — I didn’t even know myself, not until these people came to take me back.”
“That’s right, Marina. You’re not human. You’re one of the ‘Children of Ankelias’ that we created. Now, come to me.”
“No. The ‘Festival’ is already over. Ankelias isn’t coming to this world.”
Marina’s blunt words made “Mama” flinch.
“I went all the way to ‘Another Regrettia of That Day Long Past’ and saw for myself.”
“T-that can’t be. Because Papa said that the ‘God Ankelias’ would come to this world and change everything…”
“Ankelias isn’t coming. That being just exists, that’s all. It’s not some god who answers prayers.”
Marina shook her head, and “Mama” began to tremble.
Muttering to herself, breathing harder and harder…
“…You really are a failure. Disobedient, useless. Fine — I’ll kill you right here along with them.”
“I won’t let you! Because these people… are my precious family!”
Shouting, Marina radiated a murderous intent.
Her words made my chest burn with emotion. Marina… had come back to us.
“Marina, be careful. She’s a beast-possessed lycanthrope. I don’t know what kind of beast dwells in her, but she took Rain’s magic without a scratch.”
“Oh, really?”
Marina tilted her head slightly at my words — I couldn’t tell if she was tense or not.
“I am the Seventh Cult’s masterpiece. In this world of darkness, I bear the blessing of never suffering a single wound. Your defeat is already assured.”
“Mama” let out a long snort through her nose. I clicked my tongue softly.
She was likely another test subject of the Seventh Cult’s experiments.
I could sense the presence of multiple beast factors fused into her.
No doubt she was an irregular born out of the Cult’s push to adapt to the “Achromatic darkness.”
“Now, be a good child and let yourself be devoured.”
“Are you stupid?”
Marina looked at “Mama” with eyes full of pity.
Truly looking as though she pitied her from the bottom of her heart, Marina let out a small sigh.
“…No. I’m sorry. Mama, you don’t really care about me, do you? Because… I’m just a failure to you.”
“What are you… saying?”
“It really pisses me off…! And I’m ashamed I let someone like you manipulate me for so long!”
Marina spat the words out angrily.
“I am Marina! A rare-type homunculus created by the Seventh Cult! Have you already forgotten the class — the role — you gave me?”
“So what if I have?”
“Mama” smiled with cool composure.
But at Marina’s next words, her expression froze.
“Have you already forgotten how you screamed in pain just a little while ago?”
“…!”
The giant beast-possessed lycanthrope’s face contorted in fear, and she stepped back.
In turn, Marina stepped forward.
“Marina, your real family is us, isn’t it?”
“No. My family… is everyone in Clover. You are my enemies.”
“We created you! For a great purpose! A child serving their parent is their duty!”
Shaking her head at Mama’s words, Marina stepped forward again.
“I was just a thing. The ones who made me a human… were everyone in Finis. The ones who made me family… were Clover. I’m not your tool anymore!”
Murderous intent surged as Marina’s great black blade gleamed.
A sharp, yet burning killing aura mingled with her magical mana, shimmering like a heat haze.
“I am Marina… Clover’s Magic Swordswoman, Marina!”
“You wretched little sacrifice…!”
Marina stared straight at “Mama,” who growled with a faint hint of fear. Marina gave a small nod, murmuring “Yeah… I can do this,” as she slid her blade back into its sheath.
“—Scatter like a fleeting blossom.”
A chill ran down my spine — a sensation like my blood freezing.
I’d never heard those words before, but they had a cadence almost like a magical incantation.
“I am the one who runs through every battlefield, who cuts down every battlefield, who severs every battlefield to its end—”
Marina’s killing aura, her mana, and something else entirely began to swirl together, all converging toward a single inevitable result.
This was the same kind of power as my own “culling.”
A power beyond human means, something far outside the bounds.
Where… had Marina learned to wield something like this?
“Die, Marina! Die and beg forgiveness!”
“Mama” swung her claws down wildly in desperation — but Marina drew her blade.
Quietly.
Smoothly.
Lightly.
Faster.
Even faster.
Swiftly — it was done.
Only the faint sound of the tsuba ringing as Marina slid her great blade back into its sheath remained, and by then… it was already over.
“—Secret Sword… Kukatachi of the Nine Calamities.”
As if offering a final tribute, Marina softly spoke the name of her supreme technique —
and at her feet lay the lifeless body of “Mama,” who was supposed to be invulnerable, now nothing more than a silent corpse.
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