The Night of Oni Possession [End]

The scream tore uncontrollably from deep in her throat. It was a physical collapse. If this was a joke from heaven, it had kicked Rem into the deepest depths of hell.

"Give him back to me-!!!"

Before she could even form an expression of hatred, tears and saliva flew together from the corners of her twisted mouth. A scream came retching from her throat, mixed with her very innards.

Then Rem took the most foolish action possible. She hurled herself at the body bigger than a house.

"Bang-!"

The giant crocodile merely twisted its body and casually swept its tail, sending Rem flying backward into a thick tree trunk.

Agony spread from her spine through every limb, curling her body up. Every bone hurt.

But compared to the reality her mind was being forced to accept, compared to the image replaying before her eyes again and again, the pain was something she could actually rely on.

Where had the boy who had just made a pinky promise with her gone? Where had he gone? Where had he gone? Where was the boy she had guiltily resolved to stay beside from now on?

Right in front of her. In that crocodile's belly.

It had turned Subaru into mangled flesh. His body had not been left whole in death.

The future, all of it, had been swallowed by that beast. The future she had looked forward to, the future she had cherished, the future in which she would no longer be alone, had been devoured as food.

She had nothing left. Not a single bone, not a strand of hair, not even a scrap of his clothing.

She couldn't breathe. Her chest burned unbearably, with no escape. Her stomach churned violently, and her body desperately tried to expel something, but nothing came out except sour gastric fluid and wrenching dry heaves.

Her nails dug into the flesh of her palms. Blood seeped between her fingers. But Rem didn't even know she was hurting herself.

Every nerve that sensed pain was consumed by that image in her mind, leaving no spare channel for the insignificant wounds on her palms.

Hatred and screams stained Rem's world blood red.

In this blood-red hell, Rem's lovely face was horribly twisted. The well-behaved Rem, who had not even dared to cry aloud, now looked as savage as a demon that had crawled back from the depths of hell.

"...Give him... back-!!"

She knew. She knew there was almost no chance of saving Subaru. But between knowing and accepting lay an abyss she could never cross.

So she cried out anyway. Like a madwoman, she cried out at the world that had crushed everything she had.

The giant crocodile shook its head irritably. For some reason, it didn't look well after swallowing its prey. Ignoring the tiny blue figure at its feet, it simply twisted its body again.

Rem was knocked flying once more, her body plowing a long furrow in the ground.

"Give him back-!!!"

A shockwave of mana struck the giant crocodile's body. But it didn't even count as the most ordinary magic. The crocodile merely shook its body, dispersing the force into the air.

Cries of anguish poured from Rem's throat, slurred and broken, but the same few words came over and over again.

"Give him back... give him back!"

Give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back give him back-!!!!

Beneath layers of grief, despair, and the will to die, the deepest, heaviest thing in Rem's heart was her hatred and killing intent toward the beast before her.

As long as it remained alive, living and breathing freely after devouring her future, freely swaying that ugly tail-the mere fact drove Rem so mad that smashing herself to death against it would have been a release.

If she died, she would no longer have to face that world without Subaru.

Her small body charged forward again and again. An icicle appeared in her palm. With her mana completely out of control, it was the first time in her life she had produced magic that could solidify into a shape.

But the icicle's edges were rough and sharp, and the cold burned her skin as she gripped it. Her fire-attribute mana allowed Rem to control temperature, but in this unpracticed, out-of-control state, that power also gave the icicle itself a scorching heat.

Frostbite and burns afflicted her palm at once, peeling away her skin layer by layer. Still, she held on tightly and did not let go.

She threw herself onto the giant crocodile. She drove the icicle down with all her strength. But it could only leave a faint white mark.

She pulled it out and stabbed again. Pulled it out and stabbed again. She stabbed the same spot, the gaps between the scales, anywhere she could drive the point in, clawing at the scales with her hand as she stabbed.

Rem was going to tear the giant beast's body open and dig the person it had swallowed back out of its flesh.

The giant crocodile let out an irritated roar. Rather than immediately shaking Rem off its body, it twisted about strangely.

After swallowing its prey, its condition grew increasingly abnormal-its movements began to slow, and its roars carried an unusual note of pain.

Its enormous head swung several times, and its tail slapped the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Rem's body was flung away yet again. She had already lost count of how many times it had happened.

But Rem didn't stop to consider why the crocodile hadn't immediately swallowed her too, even though it could have crushed her in a single bite of its enormous jaws.

Why were its movements growing slower? Why did its roars carry that strange pain?

Rem was not unintelligent. Only one thing remained in her mind.

Kill the beast before her. Nothing else mattered. What would become of her body, whether she could make it home alive, whether her sister would be sad-all those thoughts had been pushed from her mind.

As long as she could avenge Subaru, she would not hesitate to offer up her flesh, her bones, her soul, every inch of herself that could be given.

This Witchbeast had to die. And it had to be now, this very instant, in this forest that had swallowed Subaru, while she could still breathe, while she could still move.

I'll kill you... I'll kill you no matter what-!!!

As the crocodile roared out a pained sound, it suddenly froze.

It could feel the mana in the air rapidly dwindling, converging in the same direction at an astonishing speed. The giant crocodile slowly turned its blood-red eyes toward the little blue thing it had never had time to deal with, yet had never been able to ignore.

She stood up again. And something was gathering on her forehead.

It was light. The light of mana.

From a hazy glow, it gradually took on a distinct shape.

A horn. A white Oni horn appeared on Rem's forehead.

Rem, who had been deemed untalented, unable to cast even real magic, treated by everyone as an "extra"-had awakened the true power of the Oni.

White smoke began rising from the wounds all over Rem's body, large and small.

Her crooked fingers reset themselves, her split skin closed layer by layer, and the exposed flesh was covered by new tissue.

The Oni's self-healing ability fully awakened at the moment of her awakening, reforging her battered body into a sharp weapon.

But the wound in her heart would not heal.

More precisely, how could something shattered ever heal? Rem had no intention of letting it heal. She would let it hurt forever, making it the source of her strength.

A tremendous chill swept outward with her at its center. Ice crystals crept along the blades of grass, and moisture in the air froze instantly, producing a dense chorus of tiny cracks.

The cold became a gale, freezing the giant crocodile's eyes so it could not fully open them. When it finally managed to wrench its eyelids free of the frost and open those blood-red eyes again, the night sky was obscured.

Countless icicles hovered in midair. Every one of them was aimed at it.

The giant crocodile opened its jaws wide, and light began gathering deep in its throat. It was going to release that magic capable of dragging everything into hell once more.

But a surge of agony came from inside its body. The magic was strangled in its throat, and a roar of pain erupted from the giant crocodile's mouth as its massive body began convulsing violently beyond its control.

Rem gave it no chance to catch its breath.

"Die-!!!"

The icicles rained down. They slammed into the giant crocodile's iron-hard scales with a deafening crash.

Cracks appeared in the scales. Repeated impacts widened them, and new icicles pierced the widened cracks.

At last, the scales shattered and fell away, exposing the flesh beneath. Struck from within and without at once, the giant crocodile's body convulsed starting at its stomach. Countless icicles bombarded its back, and blood gushed from its mouth, staining great patches of ground dark.

Rem's small body leaped high into the air, charging straight at the enemy that had devoured everything she had. A long blade of ice formed in her hands.

"Bang-!!!"

The long blade collided violently with the giant horn on the crocodile's head. The ice blade burst into countless fragments on contact, but with the tremendous strength brought by her Oni awakening, incomparable to what she had before, the blow channeled all its force along the blade and into the horn.

Against the night sky, the single horn that had struck fear into countless prey-cracked.