Chapter 63: The Worst Heavenly Festival

Yoshino blocked my path with a wall of ice just as I leapt toward Diva.

“Useless!”

There was no way a measly ice wall was going to stop me.

I pulled Yhorm’s Great Machete from my inventory, equipped it, and smashed straight through the frozen barrier.

Crack!

“Found you, Miku~!”

“Eeeek!”

Seeing my face through the shattered ice, Diva let out a scream.

Hah. Screaming in my face like that was a little hurtful.

No, wait. That’s not the point.

Having broken through the ice, I immediately swung Yhorm’s Great Machete, attempting to smack Diva with the flat of the blade.

“Kyah!”

That is, I would have, if I hadn't heard a scream from behind me.

As Tohka shrieked and Diva looked shocked once more, I spun around. I saw the photographer from the school trip, equipped with a CR-Unit, pushing Tohka back.

“Tohka!”

Knocking Diva out could wait; Tohka was in immediate danger. I pivoted and hurled [Sorcery: Soul Stream] at the photographer.

Fwoosh!

The massive torrent of energy launched from my hand struck the photographer dead on.

I couldn't relax, though. The CR-Unit was equipped with a barrier, so I threw myself into the smoke generated by the Soul Stream.

Clang! Clang-clang!

The sound of metal clashing echoed through the haze.

I knew that sound meant the photographer and Tohka were locked in combat.

Pinpointing the source, I swung Yhorm’s Great Machete toward them, only for the attack to be deflected by the photographer’s barrier.

“Ghk...”

Just how tough was that barrier to survive a direct hit from Yhorm’s Great Machete?

“You... you're the one from that time...”

“Hey there, Photographer. Long time no see.”

The photographer turned to look at me, her eyes widening slightly. “You’re a Knight?”

“You’re only figuring that out now?!”

Crack!

The barrier shattered under another full-force blow.

The photographer looked genuinely flustered, as if she’d never imagined her barrier could be broken.

I didn't miss the opening. I continued to swing the great machete as I shouted, “Tohka! Get everyone else out of here!”

“W-what? But—”

“Don’t look away!”

“Ghk...”

Lasers fired from the photographer’s CR-Unit pierced my arms and legs.

Then, with a swift motion, she sliced both of my arms off with a laser blade.

“I really can’t understand...”

“H-Hieta! Your arms!”

Despite being the one to cut them, the photographer looked shocked that they had actually come off.

Of course, Shido and the others were horrified, but they knew better.

They knew that something like this wasn't enough to incapacitate me.

Crack! Shatter!

I bit down on the Fire Keeper’s Eyes, crushing the vial and swallowing the contents.

Glass shards scraped down my throat along with the liquid, stabbing me here and there. It hurt, but thanks to the item, my severed arms and pierced legs regenerated completely.

I retrieved Yhorm’s Great Machete from the ground, returned it to my inventory, and switched weapons.

With the glacial attack speed of the great machete, I couldn't keep up with the photographer's agility.

I needed something faster. I chose a curved sword.

Specifically, I equipped the Demon’s Scar, which could compensate for its close-range weaknesses with sorcery.

Strictly speaking, the Demon’s Scar wasn't a sword, but fire taking the shape of one.

In other words, mere contact was a nightmare for any living thing, as it burned skin away instantly.

Despite being made of flame, it possessed enough physical force to block attacks.

“Hup!”

With a shout, I swung the Demon’s Scar at the photographer.

Sssss!

“Useless,” the photographer said calmly as the sound of searing heat rose.

Her barrier had already been restored.

“Is that so?”

I didn't mind her letting her guard down.

After all, I had infinite lives and she had only one. The fundamental structure of this fight was in my favor.

“Tch.”

However, the photographer did have one advantage.

I had no way to fly.

She could soar through the sky with her CR-Unit, while I was tethered to the ground.

As if to prove the point, she repeatedly tried to draw the fight into the air.

That didn't mean I was out of options, though.

There were plenty of ordinary people below us who had been brainwashed by Diva, meaning I couldn't use any wide-area attacks.

But why not just use a wide-area skill as a single-target attack?

I put every ounce of strength into my legs and leapt toward the photographer.

“I told you it was useless.”

The photographer calmly deployed her barrier again.

I simply smiled.

When the distance between us narrowed to almost nothing, the Demon’s Scar and the CR-Unit’s barrier strained against each other—like a spear attempting to pierce a shield.

Then, I grinned. “Zero-distance boomer!!!”

“What—!”

At my shout, a violent explosion erupted from the Demon’s Scar.

The reason was simple: I had cast [Pyromancy: Flame Whip].

The Flame Whip touched the barrier the instant it appeared and detonated. The blast shattered the photographer’s barrier as if it had burst from the inside.

Since the photographer was well within the blast radius, there was no way she remained unharmed, even if the barrier had provided some initial protection.

I could only guess, however, because the smoke from the explosion obscured her from view.

More importantly, the blast had sent my own body flying, and it would take a moment before I could regenerate.

“Hieta!? Are you okay?!”

“Ah, here! I’m here!”

The spot where my head had parted ways with my body happened to be exactly where Shido and the others had evacuated.

“So everyone was here!”

“H-Hieta?!!!!!”

Shido freaked out the moment he saw me.

“Huh? Shido? Why are you sooooo shocked?!”

“What the hell?!!!!”

Everyone who saw my current condition lost it.

“Hero, why is it only your head...”

“Ah, haha. Well, I kind of self-destructed, so...”

It was basically a self-detonation, so it wasn't a lie.

I had done it to buy us time to escape.

The people brainwashed by Diva had started chasing us, and the photographer had appeared to threaten Tohka. In such a desperate situation, it was the only viable retreat tactic.

Seeing that the photographer hadn't emerged from the smoke, it seemed my plan had worked.

“Seriously, you scared me to death... One second there was this huge explosion, and the next thing I know, a head is falling from the sky.”

Shido seemed genuinely shaken, patting his chest with one hand as he spoke.

I could only give him an awkward smile.

“But what do we do now...? Yoshino and the Yamai sisters are brainwashed, and the others are too. They're all chasing us...”

Rinne was right.

Our situation was bad.

No, not just bad. It was completely fucked.

Every spirit except Tohka was brainwashed, that photographer could target us again at any moment, and Diva herself was hunting us.

It was the absolute worst-case scenario.

“...For now, I think we should get out of here,” Shido said after a moment of thought.

The others nodded in agreement.

“Then, could someone please hold my hea—”

“Isn’t that Hieta’s body?”

Just as I was about to ask someone to carry my head, Tohka spoke up.

At her words, everyone's eyes shot toward the sky.

I rolled my eyeballs upward as far as they would go to see.

In the sky, the photographer was carrying my body and heading somewhere.

“What the hell?”

She could still move after taking that blast at point-blank range?

That should have been impossible.

But that wasn't the only problem.

I didn't know where she was taking me, but if this continued, we were completely screwed.

Because my body regenerates toward the larger mass.

Normally, if I were split in two, I would regenerate at the spot where I stood right before death. But if one piece moved beyond a certain distance, I would regenerate toward the larger piece instead.

I had assumed my body had been blown to pieces by the explosion, but that wasn't the case.

Which meant—

“I never thought I’d get to watch my own body get NTR’d in real time.”

My head was slowly turning to ash and disappearing.

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