I made my way back to Annette-chan's side.
As usual, a sinister red horn sprouted from the upper left of her head. To put it bluntly, there was no way to save her.
In truth, she had already passed her limit. Missing even a single dose of that "activator" must have been the tipping point. Under normal circumstances, we probably wouldn't have even been able to share these final moments.
And yet, here we were.
It really drove home the feeling that this was, after all, a game. Such convenient timing didn't just happen in reality. It was like a story event that stayed frozen in time until the player arrived to trigger it.
From the perspective of a game's script, Annette-chan was likely a character meant to die from the very beginning.
I decided to look at it that way. It was easier to process.
But how was I supposed to tell her that?
Besides, I hadn't found her sister. At least, she wasn't in this facility.
If this were a game with dialogue trees, I could have just clicked an option and been done with it.
"Welcome back... Miti-chan."
"Yeah, I'm back, Annette."
At the moment, I had Miti-chan keeping Annette-chan company in Auto Mode.
While they talked, I tried to figure out our next move.
"Annette. Do you want to eat this?"
"A potato? Thank you. Let's share it."
Annette-chan took the potato, roasting it between her hands until it sizzled, then handed half back to Miti-chan.
The roasted potato was fluffy and delicious.
"Annette. Your sister... she wasn't there."
"My sister? Miti-chan's? That's a shame."
"No. Annette's sister."
"Eh? I don't have a sister, you know?"
Annette tilted her head, looking at Miti-chan with genuine confusion.
Wait, what?
"Annette, you said you had a sister. Was that a lie?"
"...Ah, yeah, I do. Sorry, sorry. Just a joke. She's a little girl, about this big. A cute younger sister."
"You said you were twins."
"Ahaha. I'm the big sister, after all... Ahaha."
Annette gave a weak, hollow laugh. However, the smile vanished instantly, replaced by a look of sheer bewilderment.
"...Why? That’s right, she was there. My sister’s name... her face... why can't I remember...?"
"Annette? Are you okay?"
"I'm not okay..."
"..."
"Something is wrong with me. Please, help me, Slime-chan. I... I... no, stop!"
Annette began to claw at her head—the site of the erosion. Her hair sizzled as it burned away, only to grow back almost instantly. Something was running wild inside her.
She suddenly gripped the red horn growing from the side of her head. She squeezed it with enough force to suggest she meant to rip it out.
"This... it's this! This is what's wrong! Aaaaaah!!!"
"Annette, stop! That's dangerous!"
"Ugh... hack... bleh..."
Annette retched, coughing up the potato she had just eaten as she tried to wrench the horn free. Her left eye rolled back into her head. With a wet, tearing sound, the horn shifted outward by a single centimeter. Blood flooded from the base of the growth.
That was the breaking point.
Annette collapsed, splattering bile and gastric juices across the floor as her body wracked with tremors.
"Guh... uuuu..."
"A-Annette...?"
"Ah... h-haaa... pant... I... I scared you, didn't I...? I'm sorry..."
The horn was pulsing now—a rhythmic, sickening thump-thump.
"...Ahaha... I'm no good... no good at all... My sister, she’s so precious. Wait... precious? I can't remember her..."
Tears spilled from Annette's eyes, dripping onto the stone floor.
"...Miti-chan. I have... two requests."
"What are they?"
"My sister... will you remember her? In my place. I had a sister. I know I did. She was real..."
"Yeah. I understand. I'll remember. ...What's the other one?"
Annette-chan rolled onto her back, staring up from the floor.
"...Can I think of Miti-chan as my little sister?"
"You can do whatever you like... Lord Spirit. Is that okay?"
『Yeah.』
I couldn't exactly say no to that. I had no reason to refuse.
"Yeah, he said it's fine."
"...I'm so glad. I have a sister. A cute sister, a sister I love... Miti..."
As she spoke, a peaceful expression settled over Annette’s face.
And then, she breathed her last.
"...Annette?"
『...』
"You have to wake up, or we can't escape. Right, Annette? Let's go."
Only the red horn continued to pulse. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
I could see the erosion beginning to spread. It was moving fast.
『Miti. We have to consume Annette.』
"Lord Spirit?! Why would you say that? Annette is just sleeping!"
『If we don't eat her now, the red horn will claim everything!』
"............! P-Predation!"
Miti-chan reached out toward Annette's silent form. When she touched the areas claimed by the red horn, there was a hiss as moisture evaporated instantly.
She used Predation on the torso and half of Annette's head. The mission counter ticked up by one. The tips of the girl's limbs had already been thoroughly claimed by the parasite; the erosion was so advanced that Miti couldn't even touch them.
The remains she couldn't consume were completely claimed by the red horn, turning into withered, blackened husks of meat.
With its support gone, the red horn tumbled onto the floor of the cage with a dull thud.
Miti-chan couldn't touch the horn itself. At least with her current power, Predation wouldn't work on it.
"...I'll take you to where your sister is, Annette," Miti-chan whispered.
It was probably better this way than letting that horn have her.
Probably.
"Lord Spirit."
『Yeah?』
"What are we doing now? We're going to wipe them out, right? Every single person who did this."
『O-Oh, yeah.』
"Right, right! Aha, ahaha!"
Well, we still needed to consume eighteen more people to meet our quota, so that was the plan anyway.
But, uh... Miti-chan? She had suddenly become quite the talker. I wondered if the chemicals like the activator had accumulated in Annette-chan's body—some kind of biological accumulation that Miti had just absorbed.
"Leave it to me, Lord Spirit. Let me do it. I'm going to eat every last one of them."
As she spoke, Miti-chan wrapped a tentacle around the iron bars. They dissolved with a sharp hiss.
W-Wow, how reliable. But I wanted to do some real Monster Action too...
"Ah! We can just use Split! It'll be a competition to see who can eat more, Lord Spirit!"
『Oh, you're smart, Miti-chan! Alright, I won't lose! This is Annette's Mourning Battle!』
"Yeah!"
I spoke as cheerfully as I could to help her move past Annette's death.
Miti-chan was likely forcing the brightness too, but she was clearly ready to go on a rampage for Annette's sake.