As I made my way back to the mansion after escorting the two of them to their dormitory, Laila suddenly appeared before me, her face pale with panic.
"Kai, have you seen Lumine?!"
"Lumine? No, I haven't seen her today. Did something happen?"
A bad feeling seized me. Just to be safe, I had several operatives from the Goddess Coalition covertly guarding the two of them. I wanted to believe she was fine, but unfortunately, not everyone in the Goddess Coalition specialized in direct combat like Shirayuki. If someone around my caliber attacked them, they would likely be overwhelmed. A worst-case scenario was entirely within the realm of possibility.
"Apparently, she forgot her favorite doll in her classroom at Ouboro Academy and went back for it on her own, but she still hasn't returned to the dorms!"
If it had been anyone other than Lumine, I might have optimistically assumed she was just dawdling somewhere. But Lumine was said to possess a remarkably rare and specialized power known as a Singularity. There was a constant risk of various organizations targeting her.
"Laila, head straight back to Babel and report Lumine's disappearance to the Chief Headmaster or his staff! That should get them moving immediately!"
"Y-Yes! But what about you, Kai?!"
"I'll scour every place that comes to mind!"
Laila stared at my face for a moment without blinking, then gave a firm nod.
"Understood! Kai, if you find Lumine, please protect her!" she pleaded, her expression deeply earnest.
"Yeah, leave it to me!"
"Kai, please don't do anything reckless!"
Leaving me with those parting words, Laila sprinted toward Babel and vanished into the bustling crowd.
Once she was out of sight, I slipped into a dim back alley.
"Shirayuki, are you there?"
"Yes! Right here!"
At my call into the shadows, a lovely young girl clad entirely in white garments with a matching hood knelt before me. Shirayuki was an intelligence specialist residing in the Subjugation Compendium; while technically part of the Goddess Coalition, she operated directly under my command for reconnaissance missions.
"Lumine has gone missing. Have you heard anything about it?"
"Yes! That is—"
Before Shirayuki could finish, a crimson sphere manifested beside her, coalescing into a human silhouette. There knelt an incomparably beautiful woman draped in revealing crimson cloth.
It was Nemesis. For her to show up here meant...
"Just a moment ago, this was delivered to the mansion, addressed to the Great One."
Nemesis handed me a scroll. I unfurled it at once and skimmed the contents.
Kai Heinemann! We have Lumine Helner. Remove all stat-boosting magic items and report to the designated location! Offer no resistance whatsoever! Disobey, and the girl dies!
A map was sketched at the bottom of the parchment.
"Is this your doing?"
I asked Nemesis in a tone so icy it sent a chill down my own spine. Perhaps sensing the venom in my voice, Shirayuki kept her head lowered, her small frame trembling slightly.
"It is not mine. However, this marks the beginning of a vital ordeal meant to reclaim the heart of that hopelessly obstinate child. That is all I can disclose for now."
Nemesis offered the deflection with an utterly serious expression, though it hardly amounted to an answer.
The Goddess Coalition operated under a vastly different mindset than Girimehkala. While Girimehkala recklessly distorted my intent to go on self-serving rampages, the Goddess Coalition formulated what they believed to be the optimal path for the women of this world and carried it out faithfully. At the very least, Nemesis was convinced that this kidnapping was an indispensable trial for Lumine's growth.
Once they took that stance, getting any information out of the Goddess Coalition was an exercise in futility. And every second spent arguing here put Lumine in greater jeopardy. Bringing this incident to a swift end had to take precedence over uncovering Nemesis's motives.
"Track down whatever idiot orchestrated this!"
They had laid their hands on someone who was practically family. They were going to pay for it. I would grind them into dust so thoroughly that not even weeds would take root where they stood.
With that vow, I dug my heels into the earth and shot toward the location marked on the map.
Soon, I arrived outside the designated mansion.
"You! Kai Heinemann—"
The two men in black guarding the entrance tried to shout something, but I drew Raikiri and reduced them to a splatter of severed flesh using Death Line. There was no point in letting such small fry draw another breath. Leaving a couple alive who knew the mastermind behind the scenes would suffice.
I carved the front doors to ribbons and strode inside.
"E-Enemy att—"
Catching sight of me standing in the foyer with Raikiri drawn, another man in black tried to sound the alarm, but I severed his head before the words left his throat. Without missing a beat, I unleashed Death Line to dice every other man in black in my line of sight into mincemeat, sparing only a single survivor right before me.
"Uwah..."
Amidst the shower of blood, I grabbed the paralyzed, dazed man by the collar and hoisted him into the air.
"Where is Lumine Helner?"
I glared down at him, my voice flat and terrifying even to my own ears.
"T-The great hall on the second floor! P-Pleaz forgiv m—"
Before he could finish, Raikiri carved a cross through him, vaporizing him on the spot. I sprinted up the staircase toward the second floor.
"—ngh?!"
Before the grand double doors, two more men in black spotted me and tried to yell, but I shredded them along with the heavy wooden doors. Stepping into the hall, I swept the room for Lumine.
Over on a bed in the corner, I spotted Lumine stripped to her underwear, trapped in a full nelson by a burly, short-haired man. The moment my brain registered the raw terror contorting her face, a surge of pure fury ripped through my entire being.
In an instant, I materialized behind the brute.
"Out of the way."
With that cold command, I clamped my right hand over his skull, threw him violently backward, and scooped Lumine up from the bed.
"Big bro... Kai?"
Tears welled up in the eyes gazing back at me.
"I'm sorry. I'm late."
"—!"
She must have been terrified out of her mind. Lumine buried her face into my chest and began to sob uncontrollably.
She had finally gathered the courage to attend Ouboro Academy on her own. And now, this incident had shattered all of that progress.
"Lumine, rest for a while."
The moment the words left my mouth, Lumine slipped into unconsciousness. Given the immaculate timing, there was no need to wonder who had cast the spell.
"Look after her."
Sure enough, Nemesis was already kneeling behind me. I handed Lumine into her arms.
"As your heart desires!"
With that, she melted into thin air.
Now then. You bastards have had your fun. I'm not letting you off easy. I will utterly dismantle every last one of you.
"Damn it all! A worthless piece of trash like you dared lay a hand on me?!"
With thick veins throbbing across his face, the short-haired brute scrambled to his feet and lunged toward the wall. Snatching up the greatsword propped against it, he leveled the blade at me.
"Hey! What the hell are you idiots doing?! We've got an intruder!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.
Glancing around the room, I assessed the Ouboro Academy students. One was critically injured and clinging to life; another was dead—no, wait. That corpse held not a single trace of a soul. If it were a genuine cadaver, I should have sensed at least a faint spiritual lingering. Which meant this whole setup was a calculated farce. Even so, the scumbag who staged this was going to pay the appropriate price.
As for the students, they had willingly dragged an innocent Lumine into their petty scheme just to get revenge on me. They had brought this on themselves. They ought to be grateful they were still breathing.
"It's no use. Everyone in this mansion outside this room is dead. You're the only ones left."
I coldly shattered whatever desperate hope the boss clung to. I was probably angrier in this moment than I had been in a very long time.
"Don't screw with me! There's no way in hell—!"
I closed the distance in a few swift strides and swept his legs out from under him.
He flipped through the air, crashing flat on his back with a ragged groan, before I kicked him up off the floor.
He tumbled across the room, slammed hard into the stone wall, and finally slumped to a halt.
"Save your breath. Get up. You have only two choices: kill me in combat, or lose and become the subject of Belze's torture."
The short-haired brute snatched up his dropped greatsword, aiming the trembling tip at me.
"T-Those movements! You bastard, you're using magic items, aren't you?!"
He threw out an utterly ridiculous accusation.
Magic items? Ah, that baseless rumor about me winning the Sacred Martial Arts Tournament because I was decked out in enchanted gear. He must have swallowed that moldy old gossip whole.
"And what if I am? You no longer have Lumine as a hostage. There is nothing left to protect you."
Closing the gap once more, I drove a knee into his gut.
"Guh-gah?!"
Even with me holding back considerably, the short-haired man's massive frame bent like a bow and vaulted into the air.
He flew in a straight line, crashed into the wall again, and crumpled onto the floor like a ragdoll.
Spitting blood onto the stones, the fight had completely drained from his eyes, replaced entirely by thick, suffocating terror. He was thoroughly broken.
"Damn it! Hey, Guest, what the hell are you just standing there for?! I paid you a fortune! Help me!"
His voice broke with agony and panic as he shrieked at an unhealthy-looking, gaunt man in a hat whose cheeks were mottled with scorch marks.
"Ihihihi! Very well, then! I needed to pry the whereabouts of that Singularity from him anyway!"
A Singularity, huh. That was a word Asta tossed around constantly. Which meant these creatures were...
"So you aren't human."
"Why, of course not! I am an existence that lowly lifeforms like you should not even dare address!"
The gaunt man in the hat spread his arms and tilted his head back toward the ceiling, practically singing his declaration.
"Lowly lifeforms, is it? You shouldn't look down on us so easily. Compared to non-human monsters like you, we humans possess an overwhelmingly greater number of truly powerful beings."
"Monsters? You vermin... did you just dare refer to me as a monster?!"
"Oh? You actually have the nerve to get offended? No matter what you claim to be, in my eyes, you're nothing more than a monster. If you want to argue otherwise, try proving it by force."
The gaunt man glared at me with pure venom, as if looking upon the slayer of his kin, before snapping his fingers.
"...Surround him!"
He struck the floor with what appeared to be a walking cane. Instantly, countless magic circles erupted across the ground, and figures in white robes and hats emerged from the light to encircle me.
"This routine again, huh."
I could tell just by instinct. I couldn't sense even the strength of a common slime from this rabble. To think they could boast so grandly with such pathetic capability.
"What is the matter?! Surrounded by this many divine soldiers, are you finally losing your nerve and preparing to beg for your life?! But alas! You dared brand me a monster! No matter how much you weep and wail, there is nooo way I shall forgive you! I will take my sweet time dismembering you piece by piece. While you soil yourself in terror, you will grovel at my feet for—hyeeh?"
The gaunt man, who had been grandstanding with an expression of pure ecstasy, was suddenly seized by the head by a massive right hand and hoisted into the air.
"..."
His jaw slack with terror, the short-haired brute looked up at Girimehkala clutching the gaunt man's head, his mouth flapping soundlessly.
"Eeeeeeeeeeek!"
A chorus of ear-splitting shrieks rose from the white-robed figures around me. The followers of the Girimehkala Faction had materialized, completely surrounding them in turn.
"This can't be... A divine pillar of Evil Wickedness?!"
Gazing at the terrifying fiends encircling them, the gaunt man squeezed out a strangled rasp, his entire body shuddering uncontrollably.
"A-A piece of sh-shit like you dared say you would dismember our great Master?! L-Let alone――――!"
Girimehkala unleashed a deafening roar. Caught at point-blank range, the gaunt man was instantly obliterated into minced meat, while the shockwave sent the other white-robed soldiers flying, slamming them hard into the surrounding walls. Miraculously, all of them seemed to still be breathing. Even the short-haired brute clung to life. In such a towering fury, I doubted Girimehkala had shown any mercy. The Ouboro Academy boys had vanished as well, likely teleported away by Asta.
Furious bellows from the rest of the Girimehkala Faction reverberated throughout the hall.
"You bastards, do you honestly think we will forgive this trash?!"
"Unforgivable... Unforgivable! Unforgivaaaable!"
"K-K-K-K-K-Kill thhhheeeemmmmm!"
Some of them were so consumed by rage that they could barely articulate words. At this point, nothing I said would rein them in. In that case...
"Asta, you're there, right?"
"I am standing by, indeed."
To Asta, who materialized behind me, I gave an order.
"Heal them. I can't stomach letting them off this easily."
"Understood, indeed."
Asta snapped his fingers. A crimson fluid rained down from the ceiling, and in the blink of an eye, every last one of their wounds was pristine and mended.
For a moment, the mercenaries and soldiers stared in dazed confusion. But as they registered the demonic glares directed at them by the Girimehkala Faction, the color drained from their faces, and they began to tremble violently.
"Now then, back to where we left off. I'll tell you one more time. If you want to survive, your only option is to kill me. Pick up that sword."
Jerking my chin toward the greatsword lying on the floor, I delivered the cold command.
"P-Please spare me! I'll do anything! That's it—why don't you join us?! If you come under our banner, you can have all the wealth and women you could ever want!"
The short-haired brute screamed out a desperate plea that accomplished nothing but sealing his fate.
Drawing Raikiri from its sheath, I leveled the blade at him.
"Don't disgust me any further. I told you, didn't I? If you want to return to a peaceful life, your only path is to kill me."
Delivering the final ultimatum as if carving the words into stone, I slowly closed the distance between us.
"Damn it! Damn it all!"
Sobbing in terror, he swung the greatsword blindly, and with a single flash of my blade, I severed both of his arms.
"Gugyi! It hurts! It huuuuurts!"
Tired of his shrieking, I kicked him squarely in the jaw. He slammed into the ceiling before crashing back down to the floor. For a fleeting second, I worried I had accidentally killed him, but his twitching limbs confirmed he was still breathing.
"You lot in white are next."
I shifted my gaze to the gaunt, white-robed soldiers.
"P-Pleases forgiv..."
One of them pleaded in a voice so faint it seemed ready to fade away entirely.
"Oh? Do you grant mercy to those who beg for their lives? You don't, do you? That's what you were bragging about just a moment ago."
Looking down at the soldiers cowering like lambs without even raising their weapons, I shook my head.
"Not going to fight? Fine, then that's enough. Asta, heal that piece of trash one more time."
Asta snapped his fingers, and another shower of crimson fluid rained down, restoring the short-haired brute and dragging him back to consciousness.
"I shall grant you an agony that will feel like an eternity."
Pronouncing their sentence, I dropped my stance and angled the tip of Raikiri behind me. Simultaneously, a transparent, hemispherical barrier of magical power expanded outward to a radius of four hundred mel. Designating every enemy within the dome except for a single white-robed soldier and one man in black, I began channeling dense magical energy into the blade.
This technique was the foulest, most heretical art in my repertoire. Even within that Easy Dungeon, I had only deployed it a handful of times—reserved strictly for those I deemed utterly unworthy of existence. These bastards had crossed the line.
"True Kai-Style Swordsmanship: One-Sword Style, Fifth Form—Eternal Death."
Raikiri flashed in a single, pristine line across the trembling, pleading men. In an instant, their movements froze. More precisely, their perception of motion slowed to an infinitesimal crawl. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, their torsos began to split clean in two.
"Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Letting out elongated, drawn-out wails that sounded like a grotesque parody, countless fissures carved across their bodies, and their physical forms began to slide apart with tortuous slowness.
This was Fifth Form—Eternal Death. Originally, it was a long-range technique named Samidare, but over the course of registering entities into the Subjugation Compendium, the Eternal Death effect had permanently attached itself. In exchange for severely crippling the long-range utility of Samidare, this technique stretched the physical and sensory perception of time for designated targets within the barrier to the absolute limit. In essence, the victims experienced the terror and agony of being carved to ribbons across what felt like an eternity, until their souls could no longer endure the strain and collapsed into death. To be frank, there were very few situations that called for such a horrific technique. If anything, the original Samidare was vastly more practical. I had attempted to replicate the pure Samidare numerous times, but the Eternal Death effect was inevitably forced upon it every single time—likely a compulsory alteration driven by the Subjugation Compendium. Thanks to that, my only reliable long-range art had been rendered unusable.
Then again, against irredeemable filth like this, I could unleash it without the slightest hesitation, so it wasn't entirely useless.
"Asta, keep healing their minds and bodies for a full day. Once the time is up, hand them over to Belze."
Even a single day under this technique would feel like an eternity to the victims. I had tuned the art to unravel after twenty-four hours; after that, they could serve as Belze's playthings.
"Understood, indeed."
Asta nodded, his expression unusually stiff. The same grim tension hung over the members of the Girimehkala Faction, who had been howling in fury moments before. Naturally, there was one exception.
"Magnificent! An evil so thrilling it numbs the soul! As expected of our supreme and absolute Godddd!"
Girimehkala clasped his hands together and wept copiously. He was as sickening as ever.
"Good work, everyone. Belze, extract all the background details from the two left behind."
"As you wish, Great Oneee!"
The remaining man in black and the white-robed soldier were pulled down, vanishing into the shadows across the floor.
Leaving the mansion behind, I stepped out to handle the aftermath.