With the fierce battle between Rei’s group and Oricule unfolding in the distance, Byune kept her presence hidden as she moved away from the scene of the combat.
Her destination was a corner of this vast room where Pri Masterche lay—her limbs severed, her ribs crushed, yet she remained trapped in a state where she could not even die due to the healing effects of the jewels she had created.
She went there to obtain those very jewels.
As she focused on what she sought, a dark, murky emotion inevitably welled up in her chest.
Though she had overcome this feeling once thanks to Vihera, seeing the enemy of her parents directly with her own eyes—and being alone with the woman in a place where no one else was looking—triggered an impulse to torture her, to make her suffer in regret.
However, she decided that such actions would make her no different from Pri. Steeling her will, she suppressed the darkness in her heart and reached the woman's side.
"Kill me... kill me... please, kill me..."
The voice came from Pri, who lay like a heap of discarded waste on the floor.
She had escaped death by blood loss thanks to the jewels' effects, but because the healing itself was not particularly potent, she was forced to endure the unending, unmitigated agony of her severed limbs and crushed ribs.
She suffered without the mercy of death.
Pri had even considered biting through her own tongue to end it, but the wounds began healing from the edges the moment she tried, again due to the jewels.
An eternal living hell.
That was exactly what Pri's current state had become.
She suddenly realized that someone was near her.
Having no hands, she couldn't prop herself up; she turned only her face toward the presence, her cheek almost licking the floor. Standing there was a girl of about ten years old.
Upon seeing Byune, Pri let out a breath of relief despite herself.
She thought that someone had finally appeared to kill her.
But her hope was effortlessly crushed in the next moment.
Byune said nothing to Pri; she simply began to wordlessly fumble through her clothes.
...More accurately, she was searching for the jewels that Pri likely had hidden away.
"...I beg you, take the jewel from the hair ornament as well. If you do, I will be released from this suffering."
"..."
Hearing the pleading voice, Byune ignored it and continued her search... eventually finding what she sought.
It was a small cloth bag containing several jewels.
Peeking inside, she saw the Orange-red Jewel and the Light Blue Jewel that had been created by sacrificing her own parents. Those two were wrapped in paper and treated with special care, but there were more than ten other smaller jewels inside the bag as well.
All of these... and though only the necklace, hair ornament, and earrings remained on her person now, there were also the rings, bracelets, and anklets that had been on the limbs scattered elsewhere. Every jewel attached to them was the result of sacrificing human lives.
Knowing this, Byune couldn't help but frown.
But it was a fact that they had to use the power of these jewels to deal with Oricule.
Therefore, holding the jewels, Byune opened her mouth.
"Jewel, explode, use, teach."
Her pronunciation had become considerably clearer compared to when she had first called Vihera's name, but she still managed only short, clipped phrases.
For Pri, however, this was a chance to end the pain that might otherwise last forever. She did not miss the opportunity and spoke while enduring the agony.
"Ex... explode? Are you talking about the method I used, where I released all the Magic Power in the jewels to make them detonate?"
Byune nodded silently, prompting her to continue.
"I-If I teach you... will you save me... from this pain?"
To the woman who asked while still suffering from the intense pain of her severed limbs, Byune thought for a few seconds before eventually giving a small nod.
For a moment, Pri cast a suspicious gaze at the girl, but in the end, she had no choice but to believe her.
"The activation isn't difficult. Just flow Magic Power into the jewel as if using a Magic Item and speak the keyword. Basically, I only imbued one effect per jewel, but as an exception, I imbued that explosion into every jewel. The moment a jewel shatters is so fragile, yet so beautiful, after all."
Pri wore an ecstatic expression as she explained.
Despite the fact that she was plagued by pain, the way she became so absorbed in talking about jewels that she forgot her agony, even if only for a short while, was a testament to her obsessive devotion.
Byune frowned unpleasantly and prompted her to go on.
"Continue, say."
"Y-Yes. Anyway, flow Magic Power and chant the spell 'Return All Thou Art to Nothingness,' and it will explode."
"Jewels, all?"
"Yes."
Byune stared at the nodding woman... and suddenly spoke.
"Jewels, revival, impossible?"
Unable to understand the meaning of those words, Pri thought for a few seconds.
Then, she realized the girl was asking if the people sacrificed to create these jewels could be revived. She shook her head.
"It's impossible."
A single word. It was a short word, but it completely nipped the bud of possibility that had faintly existed within Byune—the hope of reuniting with her parents.
Byune, whose expression rarely changed, warped her face in sadness, and a few tears rolled down her cheeks and fell to the floor.
But that was only for an instant. Seeing the fierce battle with Oricule taking place across the room, Byune turned her gaze back to Pri and reached out her hand.
Faced with Byune's action, Pri froze for a moment. However, she soon realized that Byune's hand was heading for her head—specifically, the Jewel of the Hair Ornament, which held the power of recovery. She let out a small sigh of relief and softly closed her eyes.
(Finally, finally, I'll be eased of this pain...)
She waited, yet the intense pain from her stumps did not stop.
Why? Opening her eyes again, Pri saw Byune looking down at her.
Though she was only a child, her gaze was fixed on Pri with absolute, unwavering resolve.
She flinched.
The reason was unknown, but a sudden terror sent a shiver down her spine, and she couldn't say another word.
"Need, jewels. You, don't care."
For a moment, Pri couldn't understand the meaning of the words, but the realization soon hit her.
Byune had said that what was necessary were only the jewels; she didn't care what happened to Pri herself. She was that insignificant.
She no longer even looked at her as an enemy to be hated, but as something equal to a pebble on the roadside or a piece of trash. Having this asserted to her caused Pri's anger to briefly override her physical pain.
"You—!"
Just as she was about to spit out a curse, Byune moved with the swiftness of a Thief and plucked the ornament from Pri's hair.
At the same time, the jewel that had managed to keep Pri's body together lost its recovery effect. From the ends of her severed arms and legs, blood began to flow once more.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"
Even without limbs, she writhed on the floor in agony. The blood that had been held back by the jewel's healing effect began to spread in a dark stain around her.
Byune glanced at her with the same look she would give a piece of waste, then she went around collecting Pri's severed hands and feet, removing the jewels from the anklets, bracelets, and rings.
Pri continued to struggle, but Byune no longer paid her any mind. She gathered the jewels and left without looking back at the woman even once.
"Aaah, aaaaaah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Her mind could not withstand the pain, and she writhed about in agony... until eventually, Pri's Flame of Life flickered out.
She met a miserable and pathetic end, one that no one would ever believe belonged to the Head of House Marstchel, one of the three families that ruled the Labyrinth City of Exil.
"Guooooooooh!"
Oricule took the full force of a strike from Bosk's Claymore with his arm. Perhaps because his skin had turned blue, while the flesh was deeply sliced, he was blown back without the bone being broken.
Normally, he could have defended against this using the Second Arm growing from his shoulder blade.
However, no matter how high his Regeneration Ability was, regenerating from nothing took a significant amount of time.
It would have been easy to reattach the limbs if the severed parts remained, but those parts had already been stored inside the Misty Ring by Rei.
Of course, they would eventually regenerate if given time, but it was clear that it would take hours.
"Take this as well!"
With a shout, Vihera kicked off the floor to get inside his guard and buried a fist clad in Gauntlets into his solar plexus.
The leather armor Oricule had been wearing was already in ruins due to the concentrated attacks from Rei, Elena, Seto, Vihera, and Bosk.
No matter how much he had become a Man-Demon, it was only natural when facing such a lineup alone.
However, despite taking attacks that could almost be called one-sided, Oricule still had almost no lasting wounds on his body.
The reason was the Regeneration Ability of the Man-Demon.
If a part was severed and taken away, there was nothing he could do. But conversely, as long as it wasn't severed—if it was just a cut, a fracture, or internal destruction—it didn't take much time at all for him to heal.
Because of this, although he continued to be pummeled, the battle was maintained in a strange equilibrium.
Yet, that equilibrium existed only because of Oricule's ability. In other words...
"Jewels, I brought them."
Oricule was dealing with Bosk's Claymore, Elena's Whip-sword, and Seto's Strike when Byune approached Rei, who was holding a Spear taken from the Misty Ring and waiting for an opening to throw it.
Rei showed a momentary flash of surprise at Byune's arrival, but now was not the time for conversation. He threw the Spear with a full twist of his body at Oricule, who had just evaded a strike from the Claymore. Seeing it pierce Oricule's right shoulder, Rei spoke.
"And how do we use them?"
"Magic Power, imbue. Keyword, 'Return All Thou Art to Nothingness,' explode."
"I see. Can any of the jewels cause an explosion?"
"Yes. Magic Power, needed."
Byune nodded.
Elena tried to swing her Whip-sword down in its longsword state, but Oricule quickly pulled out the Spear piercing his right shoulder and used it as a weapon. The moment he parried the Whip-sword Blade with the Spear tip, the Spear tip easily shattered.
"Wh—!?"
A voice of shock escaped Oricule.
Many of the Throwing Spears Rei used were ones that had become unusable in normal combat, and this was likely a mistake born from Oricule not knowing that.
However, Elena, who had been with Rei for a long time, knew what kind of spears were used for throwing. That was why she didn't care even when the tip shattered before her eyes; she continued to swing her Whip-sword, and Seto also swung its forefoot.
Vihera and Bosk were momentarily surprised by the scene, but they immediately resumed their attacks.
Watching them, Rei asked Byune once more.
"It needs Magic Power. In that case, can you use them, Byune?"
"Maybe."
The reason Byune didn't say she could for certain was likely due to the sheer quantity of the jewels.
Though she had trained as a Thief and her combat ability had been improved through training with Vihera, there were also time constraints that made it difficult for her at her age to have branched out into the handling of Magic Power.
Of course, she could activate common Magic Items used in daily life, but without training, could she detonate such a large quantity of jewels? Byune couldn't simply nod honestly to that.
On the other hand, if asked if Rei could use the jewels, the answer was no. In Rei's case, he had the role of destroying Oricule's insides with his Dancing Flame Serpent. He couldn't do both at once.
"Hah!"
While throwing a second Spear taken from the Misty Ring at Oricule, Rei quickly organized his thoughts.
(Since we have to put the jewels inside the opponent's body, we need someone who can move in Close Combat range. Thinking of that, it would be Vihera, but... how much has her Magic Power recovered? Seeing as she hasn't extended the claws or blades of her Gauntlets and Greaves, is she saving it, or has it not recovered yet?)
Vihera got inside Oricule's guard and crushed his ribs with her elbow.
Behind her, Elena was manipulating her Whip-sword in its whip-like form.
(In terms of the amount of Magic Power, Elena has considerably more to spare... but since her weapon is a sword, Vihera is superior when it comes to zero-range combat.)
Bosk was not among the candidates, as Rei judged that he was inferior to those two in terms of pure combat technique.
"Byune, who do you think is more suited to use those jewels, Elena or Vihera?"
"Vihera."
An immediate answer.
Was this choice simply based on the length of their acquaintance?
In any case, Rei decided that leaving it to Vihera was the best option. He gripped his Death Scythe and closed the distance to Oricule.
"Vihera, back off for a second! Go to Byune!"
He called out as he slipped past her.