Awakening in the familiar conference room, I left without uttering a single word and knocked on the door to Char's quarters.
"Gil, what's wrong? You're as pale as a ghost!"
Char clung to me, looking up with genuine worry in her eyes.
"Char, I'm sorry!"
Scooping her up into my arms, I took off at a dead sprint.
I had had enough. The pain, the sheer terror—I had endured every bit of it only because I believed we could all return to that mundane yet warm life together. But I had hit my breaking point. No matter how many times I tried, I could never reach that place. It had to be fate.
If that was the case, I had only one choice left: get Char, and Char alone, away from this living hell. Sheer cliffs? To me as I was now, obstacles like that were child's play.
(That's right! I should have just done this from the very beginning!)
Still clutching Char as I ran, a cliff edge came into view ahead. If I leapt from here and used Mimicry to copy a flying monster, we could break out of this nightmare.
Just as I used Mimicry on the Garuda Tribe and prepared to take flight from the precipice—
"Guh!"
A savage blow slammed into the side of my face, skipping me across the wasteland like a stone over water.
"My, my! Look who hit the jackpot right off the bat! Pepper, you haven't forgotten our little deal, have you? This one is mine~"
A dark-skinned woman with an eyepatch over her left eye grabbed Char by the collar, hoisting her high into the air with a gleeful squeal.
"Tch! Never should've agreed to that damn deal!"
A short, hunchbacked man—Pepper—spat bitterly onto the ground.
"Let go of Char!"
Roaring in fury, I used Mimicry to channel the strongest being, ripped Flame from its sheath at my waist, and kicked off the ground with everything I had straight toward the eyepatched woman.
"Wha—?!"
As she let out a startled shriek, I severed her right arm clean at the shoulder, drove my empty left palm up into her chin, and whipped a right roundhouse kick into her in the same fluid motion. But just as I reached out to catch Char as she fell alongside the severed limb—
"Don't you dare look down on Kyou!"
Brimming with fury, a voice barked out as a crushing impact slammed into my left flank. My body tumbled wildly through the dirt, hurtling across the wasteland until I violently collided with a rocky crag. Pulling myself out from the shattered rock, I spotted Pepper hovering in the distance, Char tucked securely under his arm.
Pepper's body had swollen to several times its original size; black bat wings sprouted from his back, and horn-like appendages jutted from his head. He had morphed into an entirely different beast altogether.
"Hey, Vinegar, how long do you plan on napping?!"
At Pepper's bark, the eyepatched woman I had sent flying—Vinegar—leapt straight to her feet.
"Kill, kill, kill! I'll butcher yooouuu!"
Her eyes bloodshot with malice, Vinegar shrieked in bitter hatred as she tore off her left eyepatch. Instantly, flesh surged from the stump of her severed right arm, rapidly undergoing Restoration. At the same time, a third eye pushed its way onto her forehead, and a grotesque mask formed over her face, leaving only the forehead exposed. A crimson fighting spirit erupted from her entire frame, swirling into a violent vortex above her head.
There was no question about it—their strength was on a whole other level now. But to me, none of that mattered.
"Give Char back!"
Screaming at the top of my lungs, I tightened my grip on Flame's hilt and charged headlong at Pepper.