He brought out a small device similar to the one Mr. Sancho had used and determined whether or not the item I had was counterfeit or not.
“It’s the real deal... Hrmph... Let me think... Mm... Hm...”
He began pondering to himself, eyes fixed on the ingot. I was hoping that this transaction would be good enough, I’d already lost money by paying for fees and stuff. I would have liked to have paid the full price with ingots exclusively, but that would’ve looked too suspicious.
I could tell the man was weighing the worth on proverbial scales in his head. He was measuring the worth of three unactivated Etoiles against a whole ingot of incredibly rare material.
Eventually, he stopped focusing and smiled softly.
“Very well, laddie. I’ll accept your offer. You can have all three for that much.”
“It’s a deal, then.” I handed over the goods, and he happily relinquished the Gollems. I bought all three so I’d have spares just in case anything happened... Is what I’d say pragmatically, but a softer side of me felt bad separating them. They looked kind of like sisters all lined up as they were.
I suddenly invoked [Storage], sucking up all three of them along with their display cases. The shopkeeper seemed almost disturbed by the sight, but he pretended not to be too bothered.
“Even if they are Etoiles, are you sure about having three of them?”
“Mmm... I dunno, but the way I look at it is these are really high-tier ones, right? I might never get the chance to buy one again.” I shrugged toward Nia’s comment. Either way, that was one objective down. Now all I had to do was secure a place to set down the disruptor. I wondered if flying out to an uninhabited island might be the best idea. Just as I was thinking about my next step, I heard a sudden scream.
“...What’s that?”
“...Huh?” I suddenly stopped in my tracks, prompting Nia to ask me what was up. She hadn’t heard it.
I heard it again. There was screaming mingled in with the hustle and bustle of the crowd. I could hear it clearly. It wasn’t just one scream. There were a lot of people screaming now.
I looked to the side and found that Rouge had also stopped dead in its tracks. It looked upward. Of course, upward... The screams were coming from the floor above.
“La, la... Lalala...”
What the...? Just as the screams died down, I heard a happy singing voice take their place.
In a flash, the heavy door that led to the underground was sliced in half and knocked down.
The door was now on the floor in pieces, and I could clearly hear more of that joyful voice coming from the darkness. The singer was coming toward us, down the stairs.
“...Such beautiful, sparkling eyes...♪ Let’s take a spoon to them...♪ From blue, to green, to black, to red... Let’s make a mess of them...♪”
“Wait, that voice...?!” Nia reflexively stiffened up and turned her gaze toward the darkness behind the doorway.
After a short time, a lone girl appeared and clambered over the debris.
She wore frilly purple clothing with a bit of a gothic aesthetic. She also wore a short skirt. She also carried a purple umbrella. Her aesthetic was similar to Leen’s, but a lot less prim and proper.
She also wore slim-framed glasses, but the deep purple eyes behind them looked almost lifeless... She was smiling broadly, but there was just something entirely wrong about her.
Her long, amethyst hair spilled down far past her shoulders. She resembled a doll in some ways. And then, as she stepped fully into the light, it became clear that both her skin and clothing were adorned with patches of fresh blood.
Perhaps what concerned me the most, though, was the Gollem standing next to her. It was tiny, almost like a knight, and it was deep purple. The scythe in its hand and the ragged black cape over its shoulders made me subconsciously liken it to the Grim Reaper himself. The aura it exuded, and its physical features... They were almost identical to the red Gollem by my side.
“H-Hey, who are they...?”
“That purple Gollem is a crown. Fanatic Viola. And the woman with it...”
“Luna... Trieste... It’s her... The Frenzied Mistress...”
Frenzied...? She seemed calm to me... As I wondered how they knew her, or what that nickname meant, the woman started to spin around in front of the doorway while twirling her umbrella.
“Please, please...♪ Oh pretty, pretty please...♪ I’ll gouge you oh-so-neatly, so please give me your eyes...♪ Please let me take your heart...♪” She kept singing to herself, as if oblivious to the blood smeared on her... As if oblivious to the horrified crowd around her. But then, her smile widened. She stopped twirling, and she acknowledged her onlookers.
“Please let me take your blood, your guts, your spine...♪”
◇ ◇ ◇
“There are a lot of pretty little Gollems here, hehe... It’s a horrible waste, isn’t it? Should I trash them all? Should I smash them all? Should I turn everyone here into sticky, squishy messes...? Who doesn’t want to get hurt by mommy Luna?” The smiling, bloodstained woman finally identified herself as she folded up her umbrella.
“Viola, sweetie. Please go right ahead.”
“Beep.”
The small Gollem leaped down into the marketplace. It swung down the oversized scythe as it landed, cleaving one of the massive display Gollems in half. Whoa, that’s some edge!
“What the...?!” The man who was selling the now-bisected Gollem looked on in shock. The purple Gollem then transformed the scythe into a naginata spear and thrust it deep into the salesman’s chest.
“Whuh...?” The weapon slid back out of him and he fell to the ground, blood gurgling from the gaping wound in his torso. People in the area began to scream at the sudden, unexpected kill.
The screams quickly chained from person to person, and everyone began to run in all directions.
“Rouge!”
“Acknowledged.” At Nia’s command, the red crown turned to face the purple crown down. Rouge launched a punch, which Viola blocked with the handle of its weapon.
“Ohoho? Little red’s here...? I wonder why...” Luna tilted her head softly before staring over at us.
“You bitch! What are you and that purple thing doing here?!”
“My, my... It’s little Nia... What a funny little coincidence, hehe... Or maybe this was fate.” Rouge and Viola continued to clash in the marketplace, as the woman named Luna drew out an exaggerated look of surprise.
Rouge didn’t have a weapon on hand, so it was fighting at a disadvantage against Viola. Plus it was so small, so it was majorly lacking in reach as well. They were both crowns, so they were probably evenly matched... Which meant the presence of a weapon could have been the deciding factor.
Rouge was trying to lead the fight to a less populated area, but it was struggling. Every time Rouge dodged an attack, Viola brought its weapon carelessly crashing down. With each new strike, more innocent bystanders were sliced into meaty chunks, and more Gollems were reduced to scrap metal. Blood, guts, and robotic components soared through the air with each successive slash.
“Kohaku, Luli! Get people to safety, now!”
“As you command!”
“Very well!” Kohaku and Luli returned to their Divine Beast forms, moving to rescue any stunned or fallen people in the area.
Viola continued to recklessly attack Rouge, without any consideration for its surroundings.
“Luna! Stop Viola at once! Why are you doing this?!”
“Hmm? What do you mean by why? I don’t understand you at all, cute widdle Nia... I’m only here because it’s a fun party, don’t you think...?” Luna tilted her head to the side again. Her behavior was... Weird, honestly. She was freaking me out.
“It’s oh so fun, don’t you think? Gouging out eyes, I mean... Everyone’s eyes are so different. Don’t you think they’re pretty? There are red eyes and blue eyes... All kinds of eyes! The only bad part about them is how quickly they shrivel and rot... But... Mmf... Ahhh.
.. Gouging them out is so fun that it makes me oh so quivery and shivery between my legs...!”
“You bitch...!” Pointless talking to her... I don’t know if she actually means the weird crap she just said, but this is clearly a dangerous situation... Despite the ongoing carnage, the girl continued to walk down the steps while waving her umbrella around.
I moved forward, intent on taking Luna out, but the ground suddenly began to shake. A group of men and two large Gollems stomped out in front of the woman. They were the guards from the Casino entrance... That probably meant they worked for Black Papillon.
“Hey, psycho! Call off your Gollem now!”
“And if I say no?”
“Then you can fuckin’ die!” The man ordered his Gollem to swing its fist down upon Luna, and it obeyed. The three-meter tall Gollem struck the girl directly in the chest. A sickening crack rang out as her ribcage was caved inward, and she was blown backward into the wall. Her body rolled along the ground like a ragdoll. The attack had instantly killed her.
“What a fool she was... Now take care of that purple Gollem, and hurry up!” The huge Gollem stomped its way over to Viola.
“...That’s pointless, silly. Viola can’t break... Viola is Viola, after all...”
“What the...?!” Luna slowly rose from where she’d fallen. Her arms were snapped and bent backward, and one of her shins was bent at an angle.
A strange purple smoke rose from her body, and I heard the sounds of mending, clipping flesh and bone. Her limbs snapped back into their proper positions.
“How did she do that...?”
“That’s the purple crown’s ability. Its master is granted an immortal body... And the crown itself can regenerate as well.” An immortal body...? Is she undead or something? Gross! I nodded along to Euri’s explanation, when suddenly Rouge was struck by Viola’s weapon, causing Nia to scream.
“Rouge!” Nia dashed toward Rouge, a look of horror on her face.
Viola turned around, ignoring the other crown and its master, before setting its sights on the massive Gollem headed toward it.
The purple Gollem dodged the lumbering fist with ease and brought its weapon, now transformed back into a scythe, slicing through the giant’s body. A screech of metal sliding against metal echoed out as the Gollem fell apart.
“You sillies... How boring can you be...? Why don’t you try killing me, you old grumps? But I bet you can’t lay a hand on me...”
“Bitch...!” One of the guards charged forward and thrust his spear toward Luna. It sank deep into her chest, and the bloody tip spurted out of her back.
“H-Heh... There, take that... I killed you... How do you like th— Wha?!”
“So boring... It’s just so boring, ehehe...” Luna shrugged off the hit like it was nothing, and gripped the spear embedded in her front. She jerked her wrist and snapped the weapon like it was a toothpick. What the hell?!
I remembered that some undead species had their mental limiters removed, giving them reckless levels of muscle strain that they couldn’t tap into while they were alive... I wondered if it was the same for this woman.
“Hmph!” Luna reached into her own torso and pulled the spear back through her body. She then twirled it around and drove it into the horrified face of the guard she’d been attacked by, pulverizing his brains.
“Here’s your weapon back, cutie!” The man fell to the ground like a sack of bricks, blood spilling from his head. The girl smiled wide as she spun around and thrust her umbrella at another guard, who was frozen in fear.
“Hngh?!” A crumpling sound reverberated as the umbrella stalled, bent... And after a little more force, burst out of the man’s back.
“Aww... It broke. That was my favorite umbrella too, you old meanie... It’s all your fault, you know...? How about you say sorry by letting mommy Luna dig your eyeballs out?” The immobilized man began to weep in despair as the girl’s slender fingers reached out toward his face.
“[Teleport].” I teleported toward the girl and grasped her hand. It was slick with blood. I could feel her struggle against me. Holy shit, she’s strong... Just where the hell is she keeping power like this in a body like that?!
“Goodness me... Where did you come from...?” The purple girl looked at me through her glasses. She seemed confused. I placed my other hand on the wounded man and invoked recovery magic.
“Oh my... Mister... Who are you? Do you have a problem with mommy Luna...?”
“I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I can’t just sit by and watch you kill anyone else. Even if I have to use force, I’ll stop you.”
“Ahahahaaaa! So weiiird! Why would you even do that? And how...?”
“Like this... [Gravity].” I flowed magic through the hand that grasped her wrist, and she began to collapse until she was completely immobilized.
“Oh goodness... What’s all this...? I can’t even move...”
“Now! Get her!” The guards immediately charged her and moved to restrain her. But the purple Gollem noticed what was happening, and leaped to its master’s side. The sickle flashed in the dim light of the room as it swung around.
“Guh!” I jumped backward a good distance to avoid its scythe, but the guards weren’t so lucky. They fell to the ground, their innards spilling out all over the place.
“Beep.” The purple Gollem made a robotic noise as it transformed its scythe into a naginata once again. I instinctively took out Brunhild from my waist and transformed it into Blade Mode, then swung back against the weapon as it came soaring toward me.
“Be-Beep?” Viola stopped for a moment, realizing that my Phrasium blade had actually broken the handle of the spear. I charged forward, using the opening as a chance to slash the Gollem itself.
Viola shuddered and fell silent, cleaved clean in half. Both parts of the little machine rolled inactively on the ground. “Phew...” I let out a heavy breath before getting my bearings. There were dead people everywhere. Just as I was about to start treating the injured with my magic...
“Eheheheee! Wow, mister! You really cut Viola, huh?” The woman was clapping loudly. I turned around in surprise and found that Luna was still on the ground, but she was clapping her hands.
That’s impossible. I haven’t canceled my spell, how is she moving?!
“Hey... Mister... Can you tell me your name?”
“...It’s Touya. Mochizuki Touya.”
“Touuuuya? Oooh, Touya...? That’s such a pretty name... It’s so nice... You know, Tou... It seems like you might even be a match for mommy Luna... But not now, what a shame... We can’t do it today, okay? If it’s okay, could I ask that you kill me another time? In a better place?”
“Sorry, but I’m not really trying to make a habit of killing people.”
“Oh my...? You’re so shy, mister... That’s kinda charming too, though... Say, do you want mommy Luna to give you a spanking? What do you think, Viola?”
Luna suddenly looked right past me. I turned around in horror, to find Viola standing behind me. It was fully formed, regenerated just like Luna. Its weapon was still damaged, though.
“What...?!” Seriously?! The purple crown regenerates that fast?! Holy shit... I need to take this thing out in another way, I guess...
“Viola really likes you too, Tou... Ehehe... I’m really happy we got to meet you.”
“Don’t mess with us, you maniaaac!” A burning red fist slammed into Viola from the side. The impact caused the purple Gollem to slam into a nearby wall, leaving a dent in it.
Blood Rouge, the red crown, was standing tall and righteous. Its arms were engulfed in flames. It chased after its target and continued to attack.
Each follow-up punch landed with enough force to shake the entire casino. It’s like Rouge was a completely different machine. What the hell is going on here? “You purple witch... I’ll get you back for what you did to me and Rouge!”
“Oh dear, little Nia... Could you maybe stop being a pain?” Nia stomped out in front of Luna,
who was pouting. When I saw Nia’s state, my eyes went wide in shock.
“Wh-What the... Nia... Your hand...” A steady stream of blood was dripping from Nia’s balled-up fist. She clearly had a massive gash in the middle of her palm... So much of the sanguine liquid was coming out that her entire fist was dyed red.
“Please don’t worry. My blood is necessary to trigger Rouge’s skill.”
“But...” I couldn’t ignore that at all, so I cast restoration magic on Nia’s hand. The wound wasn’t too deep, so it closed up without too much hassle.
“Your magic is incredible, Touya...”
“It only patched up the wound, it didn’t restore any of the blood you lost... So don’t overdo it.” Luna, who had been watching us, suddenly blushed and stared at me with her dead, doll-like eyes.
“Oh my! Magic! You’re a mage, Tou? You’re really a mage? Ohhh... Aaah... That’s so nice, that’s... Mfff... That’s so good! I’m getting wet... Aaah...!” What the hell are you moaning about?! What the hell?! I looked at her with a disturbed expression on my face as she slowly rose up and bashfully hugged her own body. Then her hands slid down between her thighs.
Holy shit you’re actually worse than Cesca.
“She’s a perverted psycho...”
“That’s just one of my charming features, cutie! Ahh, ohhh... Ahhn... My heart’s going so fast! Gosh... I feel even hotter than I do when I pluck out people’s eyes... That’s amazing... I’m dripping...” Luna started talking nonsense before directing her gaze toward me. Her breath was growing increasingly sharp and ragged.
“...Mm... Let me eat you...” A chill ran right up my spine, and I shuddered as she said that. I didn’t want to hear that from her. Frankly, she was some kind of undead, and her saying that brought zombie movies more to mind than anything else.
Luna dashed toward me in a mere matter of seconds. I tried to step back, but she grabbed me and caught my leg between her thighs. Her speed was immense... I was completely sandwiched by her freakish strength.
Luna’s breath became more hoarse and ragged as she gasped and moaned, grinding her crotch up against my thigh.
“Please kill me next time... Mmff...” After she spoke, she stuck out her tongue and slowly dragged it along my cheek.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 13 Page 14
