Daub charged straight toward him.
Rei thrust the Twilight Spear at the oncoming Daub.
Had Daub not evaded, his balloon-like body would have been pierced clean through.
But that was only if he didn't evade.
Daub used the rapier in his hand to deflect the Twilight Spear's strike.
Deflecting the Twilight Spear with a thrusting weapon like a rapier was naturally an extremely high-difficulty maneuver—one that alone served as proof of just how skilled Daub was.
But as far as Rei was concerned, he already knew from their exchanges so far that Daub possessed considerable skill.
Given that, having the Twilight Spear deflected was something he had anticipated from the start.
That was precisely why, even with the strike deflected, Rei showed no sign of disturbance and swung Death Scythe as a follow-up.
"Multi Slash!"
He used the same skill that had wounded Daub and made black liquid spurt out earlier.
"Nuuh!"
But having already taken the hit once, Daub naturally knew what kind of skill Multi Slash was.
The moment he saw Death Scythe swinging toward him, he instantly retreated.
However, he was too slow.
If Death Scythe's slash had been a single strike, he might have dodged it. But the Multi Slash Rei used unleashed three additional slashes on top of the normal strike.
Even if he could evade the blade of Death Scythe itself, he couldn't evade all three of the newly spawned slashes.
"Guuh!"
With a groan, Daub pulled away from Rei.
In doing so, a small amount of black liquid once again spilled onto the floor.
"Eh?"
Rei, who had been about to press the attack, let out a sound and stopped in his tracks.
Normally, that would have been the finishing blow.
What halted Rei's feet was a sense of dissonance.
More precisely, the dissonance that had plagued him since entering Gilm—and had grown stronger after entering this building, the Clown hideout—had suddenly weakened.
For Rei, who had been tormented by that dissonance, having it fade was completely unexpected—and at the same time, it gave him hope.
And if asked what had caused it to weaken, only one thing came to mind.
"I see. So that black liquid had something to do with my dissonance. I still don't know why it got worse after I entered this building, though."
"..."
Daub said nothing in response.
But the fact that Rei's dissonance had diminished when the black liquid spilled from Daub's torso was undeniable. Given that, there was no need for Rei to bother listening to whatever Daub might say.
(Though I'm pretty curious about what's going on with that torso of his. From the way Death Scythe connected, I was completely convinced it was muscle.)
In any case, now that the situation was clear, what Rei needed to do hadn't changed.
After all, the dissonance he'd felt since coming to Gilm was the main reason he'd decided to assault the organization targeting him.
And right before him was the very source of that dissonance—the one afflicting both him and Set.
Under these circumstances, there was only one thing to do.
"Now then, I'm not letting you escape. I'll take you down right here!"
With those words, Rei launched himself at Daub, preparing to counter whatever the man might throw at him.
His fighting spirit was evidently clear to Daub as well.
Even through the makeup, the irritation on his face was plain to see as he thrust his rapier toward Rei.
But in terms of pure ability, the gap between them was already obvious.
Daub likely knew it too, but with Rei bearing down on him, he had no choice but to fight back.
The rapier shot straight toward Rei's face, aiming to pierce it.
Rei's eyes widened in surprise.
Daub's hand holding the rapier had stretched like rubber.
Because his arm had extended, the rapier's blade reached Rei even though Daub was standing outside the Twilight Spear's range.
That said, just because the thrust reached him didn't mean it could deal damage.
Rei tilted his head, letting the extending rapier tip sail past, and released the shaft of the Twilight Spear he'd been thrusting forward.
Naturally, this let him attack beyond the weapon's normal range.
Of course, releasing the shaft mid-thrust meant that while the reach extended, the power was inferior to a properly planted strike.
Inferior—but the blade still had enough sharpness to open a wound on Daub's face.
"Nuuh! How dare you!"
Rage spilled from Daub's mouth.
His true nature had surfaced. No—having been on the receiving end of Rei's attacks this entire time, he had simply lost the ability to maintain any composure.
But Rei looked at Daub's face—no, at the black liquid flowing from the wound—and raised another question.
(What's going on? Even when I cut his face, it's not blood but that black liquid that flows. What exactly is he? ...No, actually, this works in my favor. The more that black liquid flows from him, the better it is for me.)
The dissonance he'd felt since arriving in Gilm was a genuinely troublesome thing.
But if there was a way to dispel or eliminate it, Rei had no reason not to take advantage.
If wounding not just his torso but his face—and likely any part of his body—caused black liquid to flow, and each spill reduced the dissonance, then that was exactly what Rei wanted.
After all, he just needed to land a hit somewhere. Anywhere.
"I don't know what you are, but it seems the more that black liquid flows from your body, the better it is for me. So I'll have you die as quickly as possible!"
Rei swung Death Scythe at Daub, who shrank back, desperate to avoid another blow.
"Flying Slash!"
A flying slash tore through the air, ripping open Daub's stomach and scattering black liquid across the surroundings.
Daub reached toward the wound half on reflex—which meant he was leaving himself wide open.
"Power Slash!"
A sickening squelch rang out.
A strange sound, nothing like what striking living flesh should produce, echoed through the room. Daub was sent flying, crashing hard into the wall.
It was a skill that traded sharpness for raw power. Used carelessly, the recoil could easily have damaged Rei's hands, wrists, or arms.
Fortunately, he absorbed the shock without issue and took no damage himself.
The impact of being slammed into the wall forced more black liquid from the wound on Daub's stomach, further erasing the dissonance within Rei.
"What's wrong? I'm a little disappointed you thought I was someone you could fight while protecting your body!"
He didn't actually mean that—it was pure provocation.
But surprisingly, it had an effect on Daub.
Knowing he was at an overwhelming disadvantage, Daub couldn't help but react.
If he'd still had some composure to spare, he could have handled Rei's moves more calmly.
(The black liquid flowing from his body is probably why he's panicking. Which means I need to make as much of it spill as possible. ...It's not blood, is it?)
Even to Rei, that liquid couldn't be mistaken for blood.
And more tellingly, it lacked the rusty iron smell that blood carried—another reason he'd ruled it out.
Given how panicked Daub had been when the liquid spilled, spilling it might not have been a true weak point, but it was undoubtedly close to the worst possible outcome for him.
"I've still got other organizations to crush today, so I can't spend too much time on the Clown. Time to end this."
Rei spoke as though certain of his victory, and that struck a nerve with Daub once more.
Rapier in hand, he glared at Rei with naked killing intent—visible even through the makeup.
But the trick that was probably Daub's trump card, extending his arm to thrust from beyond the Twilight Spear's reach, was something Rei had already seen.
Extending one's arm could catch an opponent off guard on first encounter, but once you knew it was possible, countering it wasn't difficult.
(Still—black liquid from the torso, arms that stretch like rubber. He's not a kappa, for crying out loud.)
When Rei was in Japan, there had been a fairly large swamp along the road to school.
Local legend said a kappa had lived there since ancient times. According to the stories, a kappa's arms were connected inside its body—when one arm stretched, the other shrank. Rei recalled that old tale...
"Whoa!"
As if seizing on that momentary lapse, Daub thrust his rapier from outside the range with his extended arm.
"What's wrong? For someone who said they'd end this soon, you seem awfully careless."
"This isn't carelessness. It's called composure."
He said that to buy time, then closed the distance with Daub.
Daub tried to keep him at bay, but his movements were sluggish.
(Is this because the black liquid spilled too?)
Despite the question lingering in his mind, Rei's footwork was sharp. In a single burst, he brought Daub into Death Scythe's range.
"Pain Burst!"
What Rei activated was a skill that amplified pain when slashing with Death Scythe.
At its current level of three, the pain was eight times that of a normal slash.
Why use such a skill? Because from where Rei stood, Daub didn't appear to be made of flesh and blood at all.
On the surface, he looked like a living person. Granted, with the Pierrot-like makeup, he couldn't get a clear read on the face.
But still—slash the balloon-like belly and black liquid leaks out. Arms stretch in ways no living tissue could.
Add in the fact that the black liquid was connected to Rei's dissonance, and expecting him to judge all of that as flesh and blood was simply unreasonable.
That was why he chose Pain Burst.
Daub noticed the skill activate—he tried desperately to evade the oncoming blade.
But Rei wasn't about to let him escape. He couldn't split Daub's torso cleanly in two, but he succeeded in tearing it wide open.
Black liquid gushed from the wound even more spectacularly than before.
"Nuuh!"
But Daub merely groaned and pressed his hand against the wound.
The fact that simply pressing it caused the flow to stop on its own—and more importantly, that he showed no sign of pain despite it being a slash enhanced by Pain Burst—told Rei everything he needed to know.
As expected, Daub's current form was not flesh and blood.
(Is it some kind of Powered Suit? Or is he being remotely controlled by some means? I can't tell which... but if it's a suit he's wearing directly, that'd make things simple.)
If it was the remote-controlled type, then even defeating the Daub in front of him might mean the same Daub could reappear later.
To prevent that, he'd need to track down and eliminate whoever was pulling the strings.
But if it was a suit that someone was wearing in Daub's likeness, then he just needed to destroy the one standing before him.
(Guess I won't know until I take him down. ...In that case...)
Steeled with resolve, Rei stamped his foot against the floor and surged forward.
"Magic Shield!"
A Shield of Light materialized—but Daub saw it too.
He knew the shield would block his attack, and he also knew it would only work once.
That was why he quickly loosed two thrusts in rapid succession, but—
With a sharp metallic ring, the second thrust was deflected by the Twilight Spear. In the same motion, Death Scythe came down, cleaving Daub's torso clean in half—upper and lower—as the Twilight Spear drove through his skull.