The Night of Demonic Possession [2]

"Damn it... What do we do now?!"

Subaru desperately searched his mind for every possible scheme. Was it really going to happen again-Return by Death?!

Rem said nothing. She tightened her grip on Subaru's hand, their two small hands clasped together as though holding on to the only light in the darkness.

Her blue eyes did not turn to the frenzied beast outside the cave. Instead, they rested quietly on Subaru's profile, entrusting all her unease to him.

"Anta? Have you thought of something?!"

Subaru received a stream of messages from the Lesser Spirit. He froze for a moment, then abruptly released Rem's hand and rushed to the rock wall at the deepest end of the cave.

An ice pick formed in his palm.

Subaru swung the ice pick and began frantically chipping at the rock wall, following Antares's guidance.

"Is there... some treasure here that could help us?" Rem came closer and peered into the crack he had opened by Antares's faint light.

Soon, a crystal-clear stone emerged from the rock.

"Is this... magic ore?!"

Rem recognized the stone for what it was, a hint of delight entering her voice.

Magic ore was crystallized mana, formed only in veins with a high concentration of mana. And the cave where Subaru and Rem were hiding turned out to be a natural magic ore mine.

"Can I use it like that?! I see! Rem, cover your ears!"

With Antares assisting his spellcasting, Subaru poured a continuous stream of his own mana into the magic ore. After a moment, the light flowing inside it turned a dazzling crimson, and the entire stone trembled violently in his palm.

Subaru took a baseball pitcher's stance, used sheer willpower to kick the searing pain in his leg to the edge of his consciousness, and hurled the stone with all his might at the enormous crocodile mouth at the cave entrance.

"Burn, Antares-! My body might have turned into a kid's, but with mana enhancement, my grip strength is well over seventy kilos!"

The instant the magic ore left his hand, Subaru swiftly drew the magic pistol at his waist and fired repeatedly into the air.

The Lesser Spirit's spellcasting assistance really was impressive. Even after releasing the magic, Subaru could still exert a little control over the arc of its trajectory.

The magic bullets trailed crimson flames as they collided violently in midair with the magic ore flying toward the giant crocodile.

"Boom-!!!"

A crimson fireball exploded across the crocodile's face, and a searing blast swept rocks into the cave.

The magic ore's explosion blasted part of the giant crocodile's mouth black, shattering scales and tearing flesh open. Flames clung tenaciously to its upper jaw, refusing to go out no matter how it shook.

"It worked! I never thought there'd be magic bombs all over this place! We're so lucky!"

Subaru shouted like a petty man drunk on success, though the Witchbeast couldn't understand human speech anyway.

"Get out of here, quick! Or I'll treat you to another-"

"Roar!!!"

The beast's roar shattered Subaru's triumphant declaration. It seemed genuinely angry.

But that wasn't the only strange thing. Every syllable of the roar stirred visible purple ripples in the air.

The next moment, the air inside the entire cave began to hum eerily. Purple light poured through the entrance, flooding every inch of rock wall like a tide. Subaru's smile froze on his face.

"What's going on?! What is this thing doing?!"

"...Magic?! It can use magic?!"

Through Antares's senses, Subaru finally understood: the mana inside this Witchbeast was surging wildly into the cave.

It wasn't a low-level Witchbeast that could only ram things with its body. It was one of those legendary Witchbeasts capable of using magic. He really had been unlucky from beginning to end. What would happen next?!

Subaru tried to raise his gun and aim at the giant crocodile, only to find that he couldn't lift his hand at all.

"...My body... is so heavy..."

The first thing to hit him was weight.

It was an all-encompassing heaviness. Subaru heard his knees creak under the unbearable load, and the force squeezed the already bleeding wound on his leg, sending blood gushing out and staining the cold rock beneath his feet red.

"Subaru-!!"

Rem's voice came from beside him. She tried to step forward and take his hand, but found that she couldn't control her body either-though in a different way.

Her body had lost its weight. Her feet left the ground, and she drifted slowly into the air.

Unable to reach Subaru, Rem looked around in a panic and saw that the pockmarked, low-quality sweet potato in the basket she had been carrying in the crook of her arm had also begun to float.

"Wh-at-is-go-ing-on-here-"

The words from Subaru's mouth stretched into an incredibly slow drawl. Time was slowing down for him.

His body was pinned to the ground by gravity, while Rem had lost all weight and floated in the air. Two completely opposite losses of control were happening at once in the same space.

In Subaru and Rem's gradually blurring vision, only the giant crocodile continued to roar.

Purple light poured from its gaping, bloody maw, flooding the entire cave with an apocalyptic radiance.

The last image left on Subaru's retinas was Rem, floating in midair with her hand reaching toward him, silently turning in the purple sea of light. Then everything was covered over.