"What's your name?"
Mayer tried asking, only to get a meaningless growl in return. A fierce red gleam flashed in Red Blade's eyes, that man-eating light startling Mayer.
"Red Blade?"
"Gah?"
"Red Blade!"
In her panic, Mayer called her Red Blade, and it seemed to dull Red Blade's devouring urge.
That was right. Her real name could no longer be known, and her limited intelligence made normal communication impossible. Mayer could only name her after her weapon.
Red Blade.
Her blade burned with raging flames, constantly releasing Originium Arts. Her life was already like a candle in the wind. Left alone, she would die within two or three months at most. No one would care about a mad dog dying alone.
No wonder all the Infected in these ruins were gone. A big boss like this had shown up!
Mayer deeply regretted it.
Red Blade suddenly turned around, her pitch-black eyes fixed on Mayer and making her heart pound.
"Technician."
She spoke a simple word.
"Dog... didn't explode."
"It'd be a ghost story if it had! If it blew up point-blank here, I'd be blown to pieces!"
"Death is good... living is painful... I want to sleep... I like black... I hate burning..."
She was done for. This was what happened when Originium Infection spread to the brain—unable to live, unable to die. Her words sounded as though they had been ripped straight from her language center, mad ravings in a language no one but herself could understand.
Red Blade pulled the enormous nodachi embedded in the ground. Flames flowed along its blade, and her black clothes had become even more tattered, giving her the look of someone from a post-apocalyptic wasteland. She first slashed a line into the ground, trapping Mayer within it, before heading outside.
"She's gotten smarter