Part 20
Looks like we're attacking! In the meantime, I believe somebody requested Ciel's lesson from the shark death. Now you can all see just how fucked up the post-death lessons are.------------------------------
Music: play track 3
Question denied.
----Now then, Tohno-kun.
I think it's good to be prudent, but this time, it seems to have backfired.
Basically, you are a hero, so a little recklessness will be forgiven.
It will be forgiven, but in a case with an absurd animal like a shark, I guess you couldn't do much.
You'll just have to abandon Arcueid this time around.
---Abandon her!
"Kyaah! No violence!"
Anyhow, please prepare yourself to explore the hotel alone.
Inside, you'll find a whole animal kingdom.
As the representative of mammals, let's show the beasts what we've got.
Music: stop
I run.
Only a matter of steps before I can reach his back with my knife.
His back.
His defenseless back.
There's no mistake; he does not sense me.
"----"
One more step.
Then it's all over.
"------Eh?"
I stop.
What?
What... is his body------!?
"No----where."
Nowhere.
Nowhere, nowhere, nowherenowherenowherenowhere......!
There's not a single "line" anywhere!
Impossible, no such "life" is possible----
Looks more like a red point to me."------!"
----There.
That should be where his fatal flaw is.
...... There's something wrong with it being a point rather than a line, but anyway----I'll stab him there!
...... This... isn't right.
This doesn't feel like his "death".
These are more like heterogeneous aggregation.
His----His body, what the hell is it----?
"----Shiki!"
...... Arcueid's voice.
No, I don't have time to think now.
His back is right there. Right now, I can just pick any one of his "points" and it will be over.
"----There!"
I bring my knife down as I yell.
However, before then,
Nrvnqsr's back rises up like a balloon.
Pop.
A black dog appears from his back as if emerging from a black sea.
Its trajectory does not stop.
"Gah----!"
Whud!
The black dog rams its head into my stomach.
"-----Ggh!"
What strength.
I fly back several meters and get pushed down on the ground.
The black dog then tries to bite into my neck.
"Ha...... aa----!
I pierce the dog's right abdomen with my knife.
My knife enters the black dog's "Point of Death" as easily as going through air.
The black dog's movements stop.
In that instant----its body becomes a black fluid and pours over me.
"...... It seems so. You weren't even looking at anything but me, yet you still reacted to the danger behind you. That is the strength of a collective, is it not, Nrvnqsr Chaos?"
Arcueid narrows her eyes slightly and walks toward Nrvnqsr.
but three giant leopards larger than Nrvnqsr himself, like large demonic silhouettes.
"------"
Arcueid can't move.
Three leopards run, cracking the bricks under them just by running.
They're far faster than Arcueid, who is trying to run away.
----The three beasts pounce towards Arcueid.
It's over quickly.
Beasts emerge from Nrvnqsr's body.
The instant it emerges, the lion's head is grabbed and torn apart from its body.
The leopard is killed the instant it attacks Arcueid by getting pierced by her punch through its head.
The tiger is torn apart like clay.
Everything following them suffers the same fate.
The same with the flying eagle and the giant grizzly bear.
The same with the shark swimming in the ground.
The same with the ridiculously large elephant.
In the end, they can't even stop her, and turn back into a black, sticky fluid.
"----Wha..."
Nrvnqsr tries to escape.
Arcueid swings her claws.
----After the sound of ripping flesh,
Nrvnqsr's body is split in two from the neck down.
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!"
Roaring in pain, Nrvnqsr leaps away from Arcueid.
Split from the neck to the waist, he's lost over half his body.
Splat.
The rest of his body falls at Arcueid's feet.
I can hear heavy breathing.
...... It belongs to Arcueid.
Ragged, painful breathing.
Why is that?
Arcueid's breathing sounds more painful than Nrvnqsr's, who is torn in half.
Music: play track 6
"--It is quite unbelievable. Weakened as you are, you still have that much power. As expected from the executioner prepared by the True Ancestors.
...... Do not face the white vampire princess----It seems the warnings of others were correct."
Nrvnqsr's voice isn't dimmed at all.
----I feel,
a horribly sinking sense of despair.
Arcueid tries to catch her breath as she slowly draws near Nrvnqsr.
Splash.
Something moves quickly at the edge of my vision.
"A----"
Behind Arcueid.
The half of Nrvnqsr's body which was cut off by Arcueid is shaking.
It rises up in a large clot and shoots toward Arcueid----.
The large serpents wrap around Arcueid and return to a black fluid.
Arcueid is pinned to the ground like me, but the pressure is hundreds of times worse.
"Wh, what----no way......!?"
As she is pushed down, Arcueid tries to escape.
"It is useless. You should understand what that is, Princess of the True Ancestors."
".........!"
Arcueid's face lights up in pain and surprise.
The remaining half of Nrvnqsr raises its voice almost as if howling.
"----Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666---Haha, are you pleased with the chaos within my body, Arcueid Brunestud?"
"Are you sane......!? A human body... having more than three hundred factors compressed in something as small and closed-in as a human shape, this is just like----"
"Indeed, no different from the Primordial Sea.
I am not making my body up with other animals. I merely use the factors called 'animals' as my body, mixing them like mud."
When released from this body which is my territory, they will take form as some kind of 'species' for the first time.
They have no form of their own from the beginning. You can kill them outside of me, but once they return, they regenerate as a part of my chaos.
...... Though, even I cannot predict what they will become once they emerge. Understanding and controlling this disordered dendrogram is my eternal thesis."
The vampire with only half a body gives a boasting, muffled laugh.
"That's impossible......! To take in souls----if you encapsulate uncolored conceptualized existences, you yourself will disappear......!"
"Indeed. That is why this is not a single person here. The personality of Nrvnqsr already does not exist. We are not a single body, but closer to a limitless collective.
...... Certainly, there is no meaning of existence in such a life. There are already life forms in the deep ocean which can be termed eternal systems. This body will lose its intelligence and become a mere 'specimen' just like them someday."
"But, do you not find it magnificent?
There are things which swirl inside me, and you do not know what form they will take. This small world is like that of our world in its primal stages.
A chaotic space where what will be born is unpredictable.
The darkness of chaos just like this planet's dendrogram, while still having the possibility of dramatic change.
I wish to know what lies at its culmination before I disappear."
"This is why the Church gave me this name.
----Nrvnqsr Chaos.
Equipped with 666 beasts, no longer a vampire but a space which has become chaos, a heretic who broke the taboo."
"------!"
Arcueid's voice is held off.
The black fluid squirms all around her.
Even Arcueid's face is already half-covered----.
----But, that is all over.
I, Nrvnqsr Chaos, will accomplish a great achievement none could perform until now."
"--Nrvnqsr. This Reality Marble, who---"
"It should be easy to tell. Your nemesis "The Serpent" came to me to teach me, but not the current one from this generation. Before you killed him, he bequeathed upon me the method of making this 'cage'."
"------"
I can't hear Arcueid's voice anymore.
Looking, her mouth is covered in the black fluid.
"But 'The Serpent' is also a tragedy. What was once a priest of the Church can't live on just because a Goddess of Death like yourself is chasing after him.
If he had lived, he may have devised a means to control the chaos in my body. ...... It certainly must have been regretful not being able to fully utilize such a clear heresy before getting destroyed."
Absorbing your amount of will may require great effort, but it will make me the highest rank of vampire. A little pain is like a celebration for the new creation.
When that happens----even the professional killers of the abominable Burial Agency will be nothing to fear. I will eradicate all members of that moldy Church."
Arcueid's face sinks completely with a sucking sound.
Even the lines of her body which I could barely see before have disappeared.
----At this rate,
if I leave Arcueid alone, she'll be absorbed into the black fluid----
I breathe heavily as I stand up.
----I have to save her.
I have to save Arcueid from that monster.
But, how?
I can't even get close to Nrvnqsr.
Even Arcueid----as terrific as she was, she wasn't able to take him.
Then if I stand and face him, wouldn't I be killed instantly?
I only barely managed to kill one dog; I wouldn't last a second against those other beasts like the lions or leopards.
Furthermore,
I can see hundreds of "points" on his back.
I couldn't fully understand the conversation between Nrvnqsr and Arcueid, but it seems that each one of those beasts are him.
Then,
if I want to defeat the vampire Nrvnqsr, I will have to kill all the beasts having that "point"----
I hear a voice.
Nrvnqsr's voice is full of contained amusement.
No.
It's not his voice.
I can hear something like the sound of footsteps.
This isn't good. For her to come here, it means----
"Run away~~~~~!"
I scream.
I scream, forgetting that Nrvnqsr wasn't even paying attention to me or that he might attack me.
Yet, the passerby does not stop.
Not knowing anything, she casually heads for this place.
Half of the vampire in the black coat breathes out in content.
"...... My body has just been torn apart. I need more sustenance."
His half of a coat squirms like a living thing.
A repulsive, one-sided violence.
"Gah----!"
My head hurts.
My throat is starting to dry.
My mind starts to compress, and I can only see the enemy in front of me----
She's not there, yet I still hear the sound.
------Rip. Gorge. Gulp.
The sounds are coming from inside the man called Nrvnqsr.
The sound of dissolving flesh, shattering bones, the slow chewing of a human----
I can't think.
I just run towards Nrvnqsr.
"------"
"I said, let her go. I'm your opponent. You're nothing with that half body of yours."
"------"
Without a word.
Without a word, the vampire with the black coat looks both Arcueid and I over.
"You say you can be my opponent?"
"Yes. So I'm saying release her and then hurry up and return your body to normal."
"------, ----, ------"
His neck moves up and down.
It seems... like... he's laughing.
Flutter.
His remaining arm is lifted.
"----Such an inferior mental circuit. The price of your arrogance thinking you can face me will be your certain death."
Whoosh.
A warm wind blows.
Scores of beasts emerge from Nrvnqsr's half body.
I stick my knife into the neck of the black dog before me.
The black dog dies as it's 'death' is cut.
Instantly, the sound of birds' wings overhead.
With a grating sound, the meat of my forehead is taken to the bone.
Things can't keep going this way.
I will die. I won't last five more seconds.
My ankles are bit. Blood flows. My body feels like it will fall. If I collapse, it will all be over.
They will ravenously feast on my body if I hit the ground.
"No----"
No.
That is more fearful than painful.
