"Tenma... If you hadn't been here, Ricardo and the others wouldn't have died!"
"Give Celia back!"
Uncle Mark and Aunt Martha were closing in on me with demonic expressions on their faces. Behind them stood the survivors of Kukuri Village who had made it through the Dragon Zombie attack, all glaring at me with the same look in their eyes.
(Not again... How many times is this now... being killed by uncle and aunt...)
How many times... no, how many hundreds of times would I have to be killed? The people I had encountered throughout my life... those who had become like family—Primera, my father, my mother, my grandfather; people I lived alongside, like Amur and Jeanne; people I could call close friends, like the members of the Dawn Sword and Albert; people I was on friendly terms with, like Chris, Din, and the King; people whose faces I could barely remember whom I might have passed by somewhere; even enemies who had opposed me and whom I was believed to have taken their lives—I was killed by all of them, in scene after scene.
At first, I had been able to move freely right up until the moment of death, but the instant I tried to flee—or when the other person moved to kill me—I would instantly lose the ability to move. And then I would be killed while completely powerless. Once I died, the scene would shift, and I would be killed by someone else in a different way.
At the moment of death, I thought I could feel pain. I say "thought" because it seemed like my sense of pain would dull at the instant of death—even for lethal blows like having my neck severed or my heart gouged out, I could somehow understand what the person who killed me was saying and what expression they were wearing, all the way until the scene changed. Even if my head had been completely crushed.
As this repeated over and over, I gradually stopped moving from the very beginning and simply waited to be killed. It would have been easier if I could have lost my sanity, but even though I could feel my mind growing weaker, there was no sign of it breaking.
That was exactly why, even knowing I was about to be killed once more, I watched the two of them approach to kill me as though it were someone else's problem. However, this time the ending was different.
Normally, the weapons my uncle and aunt held would come crashing down on me, and the scene of them celebrating my death would—
f
l
ow
for a while. But this time, the instant those weapons were about to hit me, the two of them vanished, and I collapsed alone in pitch-black darkness.
I didn't know why the scenery had changed before I could be killed, but this time, I suppose there must be a—
tw
ist.
Sooner or later, someone would probably appear from somewhere and kill me.
As I thought that,
"Tenma."
(Amour? ...No, wait. The God of Death? Are they going to kill me now too, appearing in the form of gods?)
I don't know why I confused the God of Death with Amour, but my judgment must have grown that dull.
"No, the real thing. I came to save Tenma."
The woman before me, appearing as the God of Death, claims to be the real God of Death, but I can't tell how she's any different from the people who've killed me time and again. And besides—
"Then what's that behind you—"
"Bl..."
"ack..."
"thing—"
"what is it?"
The large dark shape that hadn't been there moments ago was right behind the woman who claimed to be the real God of Death, and it—
was...
watch...
ing...
me...
.
Yet even though I could tell it was looking right at me, I couldn't make out its form—it was hazy, as if shrouded in mist. All I could discern was its color and size.
The things that had killed me up to now weren't only human—they included Monsters like Slarin as well. So I'm fairly certain that black thing is a Monster. But I have no memory of a large, black Monster like that. If I had to say, a Dragon Zombie would be closest in size, but... from that monster, I could sense something far more—
Omi...
nous...
"shi"
"sa"
"...could not be felt."
"This is, for Tenma, both the Monster closest to being a source of power, and the Monster with the deepest ties of fate..."
The ones who had been a source of power close to me were Slarin and the others, but I wouldn't say we shared any deep ties of fate. If I had to pick who was most likely in that regard, it would be Raiden, who once stood against me and carries the soul of Baikon—but he didn't feel any closer to me than Slarin and the others. Besides, that black Monster was far larger than Slarin or Baikon.
As I gazed up at the black Monster, still mulling over the woman's riddle-like words,
"You still don't understand? Well,
back
then,
I
was
nothing like how I look now. But even so,
your
parent's
killer
right before your eyes, and you just stand there blankly... how utterly pathetic."
"...What did you say?"
I froze for a moment, unable to grasp what the black Monster had said—then it hit me. A black, enormous Monster that checked every box for being my parents' killer. I reflexively tried to cast a spell, but... perhaps from all the accumulated fatigue, I couldn't fire my magic like usual, and a feeble Fireball like something a child would send off went drifting in the completely wrong direction.
"Oh my... not bad at all."
Yet the Monster that appeared to be a Dragon Zombie sounded almost surprised at that child-level of magic. It didn't come across as mockery—rather, it seemed somehow... pleased.
"Tenma, you should refrain from using magic here. The strain on your body and mind is far too great."
I ignored the woman's attempt to stop me and tried to cast a spell once more, but my magic power felt even harder to wield than before. Still, one more try...
"Don't bother. It's impossible for you in your current state, no matter how you struggle. If you're absolutely determined to land a blow on me, then focus all your effort on recovering your stamina for now. In the meantime, I'll tell you a little story about the old days."
I didn't know what this thing was after, but in my current condition there was no way I could so much as leave a scratch on it, let alone mount any kind of proper attack.
It galled me, but I should do as the Monster said and devote myself to recovering as much stamina as I could.
"You may have a bored look on your face, but what I have to say concerns your past... Kukuri Village, was it? It connects that place to the situation we're in now. You won't regret listening."
If this thing truly was a Dragon Zombie, then it was no mere bystander—it was the very cause of Kukuri Village's destruction. Still, I couldn't help but wonder what possible connection it had to the predicament we now found ourselves in.
"I see you're starting to come around. Ages ago—I've long since forgotten how many thousands of years it was—I was born into this world as one half of a pair of twins. Our parent was merely a high-ranking dragon, nothing more—nowhere near what you humans call a Dragon King. Looking back now, the fact that both of us twins ended up becoming"
"'An"
"cient"
" Dragon'"
"was nothing short of extraordinary. As you can see, I have this black body, but my other half was white. Our personalities and builds were completely different—we had almost nothing in common. And yet, even though it would have made more sense for us to have hatched from separate eggs, my white half and I somehow understood that we had been born from the very same egg."
The black Monster seemed lost in old memories as it spoke, and at times it felt as though it weren't addressing me at all, but speaking to someone in some faraway place.
"For the first hundred years or so, we were raised under our parent's care. But because black-and-white twin dragons were exceedingly rare, word of our existence gradually spread, and all manner of creatures came to gawk at us. Still, our parent was a high-ranking dragon—one of the most powerful species there was—so no matter what creatures showed up, they posed no threat to me or my white half... until the Red Dragon King arrived. The Red Dragon King must have believed that consuming rare creatures would enhance his own abilities, because he launched a surprise attack late at night. Our parent, a high-ranking dragon despite everything, fought back desperately against the ambush, but the fundamental gap in their power was simply too great, and defeat was inevitable. And yet, right to the very end, our parent remained our parent—it bought just enough time for me and my white half to escape before being killed by the Red Dragon King. I don't know whether it was devoured, but decades later when I returned to that place, not a single bone could be found."
For someone whose parent had been killed, the Dragon Zombie didn't seem particularly grieved—though perhaps that was only natural, given that the story was thousands of years old.
"After that, my white half and I traveled together for several hundred years. Looking back now, it's honestly astonishing that we managed to stay together that long. You see, my personality and that one's were about as different as two beings could get—hardly what you'd expect from twins."
The black Monster let out a nostalgic laugh as it continued its tale.
"It was over a thousand centuries after my half and I parted ways that I had somehow become what is called an 'Ancient Dragon.' I'd had a vague sense that I was drawing closer to such an existence, but distinctly..."
"I had"
"chan-"
t
I
"was when I realized it—after I devoured the Dragon called the 'Wind Ancient Dragon.' It was a green one, and it was remarkably fast, but on the other hand, it was the fragile type. I remember feeling that I had definitely grown stronger when I devoured it and all of its subordinates. The reason was probably that I had absorbed the Magic Power of my prey into my body. Thinking about it that way, the Red Dragon King's idea of devouring me and my white other half wasn't entirely wrong, I suppose."
The black Monster let out a different kind of laugh from the reminiscent chuckle earlier, and after finishing, fell silent for a short while.
"Having grown stronger, I grew arrogant and challenged Behemoth—the strongest of the Ancient Dragons—and was defeated. The reason I wasn't killed was probably because he showed me mercy."
He spoke of his defeat at Behemoth's hands with genuine, heartfelt bitterness.
"At that time, even though I was an Ancient Dragon, I was still immature—clearly weaker than I was during my prime afterward. That said, even if I had fought Behemoth during my prime, my chances of winning wouldn't have been half. At best, I might have had a little over thirty percent."
"That difference—back then, I couldn't see it," the black Monster said. Unlike before, he didn't seem all that bothered by it anymore, perhaps because what truly stung wasn't being weaker than Behemoth, but having been shown mercy.
"Most importantly, back then I either didn't notice the gap between myself and Behemoth… no, perhaps I didn't want to notice it, but in any case, I became desperate to obtain strength beyond his. I attacked every being called a powerful existence and devoured them all. Among them were the 'Water Ancient Dragon' and the 'Fire Ancient Dragon.'"
"Didn't you attack humans?"
Before I knew it, I was asking the black Monster a question of my own volition for the first time.
"Hm? Oh, I did attack them. Well, at first I was only mildly interested in creatures that had apparently evolved from apes and expanded their territory without me noticing. But before long, they started forming groups, and when I saw them fighting among their own kind, I decided to stir things up… but they were too weak to even be worth mentioning. After that, somewhat stronger ones did show up here and there and came at me, but most of them could barely manage to scratch me at best. Those that actually drew a clear amount of blood—there were probably less than ten percent of them."
From the way he spoke, the black Monster himself hadn't been particularly interested in humans. Most of the encounters had been them picking fights and getting struck down in return.
But if that was the case, there was one thing that didn't add up. That was—
"The kingdom's records state that a Monster resembling you attacked the Royal Capital several hundred years ago and caused devastating damage."
At my pointed remark, the black Monster went completely blank, as if every emotion he'd been feeling had suddenly vanished. However—
"That's it… that is the cursed bond between me and this situation—no,
between me and
that bastard!"
Just when I thought he'd started speaking calmly again, he suddenly erupted with emotion and roared. That presence surpassed even the Dragon Zombie's roar, making it unmistakably clear that this black Monster was a far more formidable existence than the Dragon Zombie that had attacked Kukuri Village.
"What appeared before me—who had been defeated by Behemoth yet had slain two Ancient Dragons—was the white half, who had herself become an Ancient Dragon. To her mind, stopping me from running wild must have been the mission she, as my twin, was born to fulfill. But for me, having devoured three Ancient Dragons in battle, the white half was beneath me—even if she too was an Ancient Dragon... or so it should have been. The result was three days and three nights of fighting that ended in... a draw that left me at a slight disadvantage. In terms of raw power, I was undoubtedly far superior, but the damage I had taken from fighting the water and fire Ancient Dragons, combined with the white half's sheer stubbornness, had erased the gap between us."
According to him, the reason neither side achieved a decisive victory was that both realized the longer they kept fighting there, the higher the chance of unwanted interference arriving. So they both withdrew at the same time.
"I had been hiding in the mountain that the wind Ancient Dragon had made its stronghold, nursing the wounds I sustained from fighting the white half... but that was when she appeared. The woman behind this entire catastrophe!"
The black Monster's rage toward that woman was immense—the kind of fury that made you think he might lose control and start rampaging right then and there. And yet, strangely, I didn't feel the slightest bit afraid. If anything, I even found him reassuring... Well, maybe I was just imagining things.
Whether it was because the black Monster's story went on longer than I expected, or simply because my body felt considerably better, I had grown curious about what kind of grudge existed between the black Monster and that woman. So I decided to stick around and listen a while longer.
"My apologies—I lost my composure. That woman latched onto me while I was sleeping to heal my wounds, and before I could wake, she used a suspicious spell to immobilize me. By the time I sensed something wrong and opened my eyes, I couldn't move a single finger. In that state, I spent decades—perhaps even centuries—having my mind tampered with continuously. And when I say tampered with, I don't mean it was physically rummaged through—it was done through magic. To her, it was something like an experiment. During all that time, I could neither move nor speak. All I could do was think—how to escape this situation, and how to annihilate that contemptible woman."
No matter how weakened she was, she was still an Ancient Dragon—perhaps even on par with or surpassing the Dragon Zombie in strength. Rather than defeating her, this woman had restrained her with magic for decades or more, while simultaneously layering yet other spells on top. She was certainly
an existence
that surpassed an Ancient Dragon.
"I don't know how much time had passed, but the woman suddenly vanished from before my eyes. At the same time, the magic that had sealed me broke free... but I could no longer move of my own will. From that point on, I became a catastrophe manipulated by that woman's magic, rampaging across the land. At first I destroyed Monster lairs, then I turned to ravaging towns where humans lived, and in the end I struck the Royal Capital of your kingdom."
He told me that as a result of the black Monster's rampage, several small nations and many independent factions on the continent had been destroyed.
"Could it be that the people and Monsters who died in those attacks are being used as zombies in this current war?"
"That's almost certainly the case. Among the zombies, there were some unusually powerful individuals. She may have created some of them using different methods from the fodder, but more importantly, the raw materials they came from were simply that special."
"Special materials?"
"Yes—those who possessed a God's Blessing, or special beings like a 'Saint'... or perhaps even 'Reincarnators' like you."
"A 'Saint'? Someone like Jeanne?"
"A Saint—or holy person... they are beings created by the Creator Gods for the purpose of purifying what might be called the dregs of this world upon their death. It was one of the systems the Creator Gods built to protect this world. However, even that system was imperfect. As Saints died and were reborn again and again, their purification ability gradually weakened. Meanwhile, as the number of lives in this world grew, so did the quantity of dregs. To compensate, they drew lives from other worlds—like Tenma—and used them as a sort of catalyst. That should have kept everything running smoothly, but at some point it became increasingly difficult for Saints and holy beings to be born, and the effectiveness of Reincarnators began to fade. This happened roughly three to four hundred years ago."
"Even if that's true, isn't it strange that the gods never noticed that woman's schemes?"
"As Tenma says, normally they would have noticed—no, it would have been strange if they hadn't. But when it came to this matter, that woman outsmarted us all. Her true identity was a former god. She had grown too fixated on a particular individual, and when that person perished, she—"
"was thought to have—"
"I
...
was
...
the previous God of Death. I could disguise my own death and deceive the eyes of the Creator Gods — it wasn't impossible. I had the power for that... or so it seems."
The reason it added "or so it seems" was that this woman turned out to be that woman's replacement, and it didn't have any information beyond what it had heard from its companions.
"To get back to the story — when I attacked the Royal Capital, I killed every human who came out to defend it, no exceptions. Once the numbers coming at me dwindled, I set my sights on those scrambling to flee. I crushed them along with their buildings, swept them away with my tail, and reduced everything to nothing with my breath. That should have been enough, just as it had been everywhere else I'd attacked. But as I started making my way toward the center of the Royal Capital, I noticed something — a small white creature standing in my path. It was so tiny that it would've been perfectly normal not to notice, yet somehow I sensed something at my feet. That white creature was a human with white hair. Behind it lay another human, injured and collapsed, who looked remarkably like the white-haired one — probably a relative of some kind."
Hearing about a white-haired human, I couldn't help but think of Jeanne.
"By all logic, even though it was standing in my way, it was the kind of tiny creature a light puff of breath would send flying. I should've ignored it and simply crushed it underfoot. But at that moment, I was more intrigued by that white human than I'd ever been before. I wasn't supposed to be able to move my body of my own will, yet before I knew it, I had brought my face close to study that white human. And then I ate it. I tore it out along with the ground and swallowed it whole. I'd always thought there was no point in eating humans, but for the first time, I felt I wanted to eat one — no, that I had to."
The instant it said "ate," I — who had been picturing Jeanne — was overwhelmed with violent nausea and rage, and was on the verge of
retch—
—
—ing
I didn't lunge at the black monster because I hadn't recovered enough stamina yet, and because I understood, at least in my head, that it wasn't Jeanne who had been eaten.
"After eating the white human, I grew interested in the injured human lying behind it and tried to bring my face close... but halfway there, my body seized up as though struck by sleep paralysis. It wasn't as though I'd been moving of my own will before — I'd essentially been in a constant state of paralysis — but this felt different from that. And right after that paralysis struck, I was overwhelmed by a sensation like something was churning through my entire body. The moment that sensation subsided, I regained control of myself. Of course, I was so drained that even standing was a struggle, and I could barely move."
It seemed to dawn on the Dragon Zombie that this was clearly a consequence of eating the white human, but it had no idea why it had happened. It tried to rest on the spot.
But reinforcements from the Kingdom's Knight Order arrived, and the black monster, fearing the worst, decided to withdraw from the Royal Capital.
After that, the black monster kept flying in a dazed state until it found itself lying deep within the Great Old Forest.
"I tried to focus on recovering my strength, but even after a hundred years, the exhaustion hadn't faded — let alone disappeared. With no appetite and nothing to do but lie there, I naturally grew weaker... Well, at that point, my spirit was so broken that I was actually ready to accept death — utterly unlike me."
And so the Dragon Zombie was supposed to meet an end quieter than even it could have imagined, but just before death claimed it, that woman appeared once more.
"That woman didn't deliver the killing blow to me as I lay on the brink of death — she simply watched, observing in silence. She could have brainwashed me then and there, adding me to her pawns far more easily than the first time, yet she didn't so much as touch me. The reason why..."
"my..."
"body..."
"would..."
"first..."
"have..."
"to..."
"die."
"That's what..."
"I came to learn only afterward. She had been waiting for me to die so she could turn me into a more compliant zombie. That way, I'd be weaker than when alive, but in exchange, she could manipulate me however she pleased. And just as she planned, she obtained a powerful and obedient pawn."
That was the history between the black Monster... the ancient dragon and that woman.
"After that, everything went as you know. Though I doubt even she imagined she'd stumble at the very first step of her invasion."
If what the black ancient dragon said was true, then the woman was the mastermind behind the incident at Kukuri Village. As Tenma thought this—
"About Kukuri Village — the plan was never for me, a zombie, to take part in the attack. The Monsters under her command were supposed to march north from Kukuri Village toward the Royal Capital, while I attacked from the east. That was her original strategy, but it was changed more than a decade before the operation."
More than a decade was a long time for humans, but for an ancient dragon and that woman, it was hardly significant.
"The reason for the change... was you, Tenma. Somewhere along the way, her objective shifted to obtaining you."
"Me? So my father and mother died just because she was after me?"
"That's what it amounts to. If the attack on Kukuri Village had gone according to the original plan — with only the Monsters — there would have been casualties, but the village would have survived. That village had enough strength to hold off that many."
If that was true, then the anger of the Kukuri Village people that he'd been shown since arriving here — that was something that could have happened in reality too. No, even in reality, they might have simply hidden it, harboring hatred for him deep in their hearts.
"Tenma, that's not true! They don't think that way at all!"
"I suppose so. I know them well enough myself, but if they truly hid their resentment toward Tenma while putting on that act, they could have made a name for themselves as either legendary actors or master con artists."
When the black ancient dragon said that, I found myself oddly convinced.
Maybe it was because I'd heard everything up to this point, but I realized the anger I'd harbored toward the black ancient dragon had all but vanished. I couldn't say it was completely gone, but at least now I knew that it hadn't attacked Kukuri Village of its own will — that there was a side to it that was just as much a victim, manipulated and used by someone else.
"So, Tenma — do you intend to just keep sitting here? If you do nothing, you'll end up just like me: manipulated into helping destroy this country... no, this entire world."
"Like you... You mean turn me into a zombie? Is that why that woman wanted to get her hands on me?"
"Not exactly. That woman doesn't want to use you as a pawn, Tenma. She needs your body to resurrect someone dear to her who died in the past. The reason she attacked the kingdom before was to find a suitable sacrifice for the person she wants to bring back."
"That's why she locked you in here and tried to break your mind. If she'd damaged the body instead, there was a risk it could have been destroyed along with the soul after the transfer. Of course, the God of Destruction's Blessing protecting your mind was something she never anticipated — and that's precisely why we made it here in time."
Now I understood why my mind hadn't been destroyed, but even so — even if I somehow got out of here, in my current state I'd be captured again in no time, and it would just be the same nightmare all over.
"That's exactly why I'm here. Normally, a god intervening directly carries considerable risk. That danger extends to the one being interfered with and everyone around them, but exceptions do exist. The thing is, it could lead to a future you don't want, Tenma."
"So decide right now, Tenma. Will you sit here and wait for death, or will you take the God of Death's word and gain the power to crush that woman?
Of course, if you choose the first option, it won't just be you who dies — everyone you care about will die too. And knowing that woman, she'd probably make you, her new pawn, do the killing yourself."
The black ancient dragon told me to choose, but those two options barely counted as a choice at all.
"What should I do?"
"Aren't you even going to ask about the downsides?"
The black ancient dragon said it in a teasing tone, but the way things stood, I'd end up dead and exploited by that woman regardless. There couldn't possibly be a worse downside than that. At best, it was just a matter of dying now versus dying later.
"I don't know what it involves, but do that exception thing for me—
God
of Death."
Even if the woman before my eyes was an impostor posing as the God of Death, I had no other option but to put my trust in her.
"Alright. Then..."
With those words, the God of Death pressed her lips to my forehead.