A Reliable Person and a Cruel World

Every Witch Cultist gave off the source of the contamination. With no buffer and no time to react, the mana in the air was completely contaminated in an instant.

Many Oni villagers were horrified by the gruesome fate of their comrades. Watching the brothers who had just been fighting at their sides erupt in flames from within, screaming as they fell and turned into charred corpses, they had no choice but to retract the pair of horns on their heads.

But Oni without horns were like a pack of wolves robbed of their claws and fangs.

They still had strong muscles and sturdy bones, and could still wield swords, but without mana to strengthen them, their power had dropped by more than one level.

And their enemies were no ordinary people-every Witch Cultist was a madman who could use both magic and weapons.

"Ah-!"

An Oni villager's throat was slashed open by a curved blade. He clutched his neck and fell to his knees, and before he had drawn his last breath, a shortsword pierced his heart.

The casualties began to mount. Without their Oni horns, the Oni were not much stronger than individual Witch Cultists, but there were too many of the enemy. Every group they killed was followed by another.

And for every Oni who fell, another gap opened in their defenses.

Subaru frantically scanned the entire battlefield using Antares's senses, desperately searching for hope.

Sergei, whom he had just killed, had been the sole source of the contamination, and it really had disappeared when he died. But now every Witch Cultist was a source. Subaru refused to believe it. There had to be a core, a specific target!

As long as he found and killed it, all the contamination would dissipate!

But what Antares's senses relayed to him made his heart sink little by little. Every Witch Cultist gave off the same intense aura of contamination, with none stronger or more central than the others.

And black-robed figures continued pouring onto the battlefield from deep in the forest, no matter how many were killed or cut down.

Unless they burned every Witch Cultist along with the entire forest, there was no way to get rid of the contamination.

"Damn it! I'll fight you to the death, Witch Cult!"

An Oni man could no longer contain his rage, and a pair of white horns grew from his head once more. Strength poured back into his limbs. Roaring, he swung his blade and cut the Witch Cultist pinning him down in half at the waist, splattering blood and entrails across the ground.

"See that?! I'm going to kill every last one of you lunatics-"

Then, as he prepared to strike at his second enemy, flames burst from his mouth.

The agony of his internal organs burning robbed him of all ability to resist, and his convulsing body gradually turned into a charred corpse.

"What's going on with that brat's Lesser Spirit?! Why can it absorb miasma?!"

"Kill him, quickly! He's the only one here who can still use magic!"

The Witch Cultists had noticed Subaru. With all the Oni forced to retract their horns, the black-haired human child who was still casting spirit magic and firing that strange Meteor over and over stood out like a sore thumb.

Black-robed figures closed in on him from all directions. Rem immediately moved to step in front of Subaru and face the enemy with him, but before she could plant her feet, a tremendous blast of wind slammed into her and sent her flying.

Rem hit the ground hard. She paid no mind to the pain, scrambling to her feet and rushing back.

"Get away from him!!"

But another wave of Witch Cultists had already surrounded her, cutting her off from Subaru completely.

What do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do?!

Subaru racked his brains while Antares formed a shield of ice around him.

Contamination.

If every Witch Cultist is a source of contamination, then there's no avoiding it?!

The Witch Cultists hacked at the ice wall, but the impacts made their hands go numb.

"Antares! Forget about me! Go save Rem!!"

Subaru shouted. More than his own death, he feared seeing that scene again: Rem burned to ashes while saving him.

Antares hesitated. The emotions coming from the Lesser Spirit were full of resistance and reluctance to leave.

But just then, Ram had already rushed toward Rem. Resolve burned in her eyes; even if she herself were swallowed by the contamination, she would save her sister.

"Ram! Don't use your horns!!"

Subaru's voice and Antares rushed toward Rem at the same time.

Ram would rather burn all over than stand by and do nothing while Rem was in danger. But Subaru couldn't understand what was going on with the side effect affecting Rem and Ram.

"Slash-!!!"

Using her power, Ram shredded every Witch Cultist surrounding Rem into bloody pulp in an instant. As the pieces of black robes fell to the ground, on Rem's body.

"Ah-!!"

Rem let out a heart-rending scream. Flames began to burn on her small body.

"Why?! Rem?! What's happening?!"

Ram immediately cried out in panic and guilt. She saw no flames on herself, but saw her sister paying the price of the contamination in her place.

"Please! Anta!"

The Lesser Spirit lunged onto Rem's burning forehead. It unleashed its ice magic at full power, covering Rem's skin in frost and fighting a desperate battle against the flames pouring out from within her body.

Cold and heat clashed fiercely over the girl's body, raising great clouds of white steam. Antares exerted all its strength to keep Rem from burning to death, but its light was visibly fading.

"That's it! Anta! Can you absorb the contaminated mana in Ram's horns?!"

Trapped inside the ice shield, Subaru called out while using his own mana to repair the ice wall, which was riddled with cracks from the Witch Cultists' frenzied hacking.

Antares immediately flew off Rem's forehead and pressed itself against her Oni horns. It could absorb the mana in any object, and contaminated mana was no exception.

But only a few seconds later, the information the Lesser Spirit sent back made Subaru's heart go cold.

It couldn't do it. Not because it couldn't absorb the mana, but because it couldn't absorb all of it.

The absorption ability and mana capacity of the horns belonging to Ram, known as Oni God Reborn, were completely beyond anything a Lesser Spirit could match.

If the contaminated mana inside Ram were an entire bathtub of water, Antares was absorbing it at the rate of someone drinking through a straw.

"What do I do, what do I do- I'm sorry! Don't... Please! Save Rem! Ram doesn't know why this is happening! Why is the side effect happening to Rem?!"

About to cause the death of the sister she cherished most because of her own recklessness, Ram burst into tears. They fell onto Rem's still-smoking body.

Ram and Rem had completely lost the ability to fight back. At that critical moment, the white-haired old Oni charged over, his eyes full of anger. Setanta swung his great blade, hacking away the Witch Cultists trying to approach the sisters one after another.

Antares sensed the desperate obsession in its contractor's heart.

In Subaru's heart, although he wanted everyone to survive, the blue-haired Oni girl had always come first.

So it did not ask Ram's permission again.

"Ugh-!"

In the next instant, Ram felt a tremendous chill suddenly rise through her body, inside and out, as though she were being frozen into an ice sculpture inch by inch.

"...You can do that too? You can control the mana inside other living beings?! Ram! Don't resist! Antares is freezing the contaminated mana in your body!"

Ram could feel it. With a single thought, she could drive out the will of the Lesser Spirit controlling the mana inside her.

But after hearing Subaru's words, she gritted her teeth, her body trembling violently as she fought her instincts. Then she willingly opened her whole mind and body to it.

"...Mm... Sister...?"

At last, the blue-haired girl who had been engulfed in flames spoke in a weak but conscious voice. The flames on her body had gone out completely, and thin wisps of white smoke still rose from her burned skin, but her injuries had not worsened to the point that she could not move.

The price was that Ram collapsed to the ground, deathly pale and unable to move, having lost the ability to fight.

The mana in her body had been completely frozen, and all its flow had been forcibly halted. The extreme loss of body heat left her shivering violently, her lips purple.

Rem hurriedly held her sister tight, shielding her with her own body from the sparks and debris still flying around them.

Then she raised her head and looked past ranks of black-robed figures and burning trees until she finally found Subaru.

Rem suppressed the sorrow and fear surging in her heart, biting her lip hard and forcing back the tears threatening to spill.

What mattered was that Subaru was alive, and so was her sister. As long as those two were still here, Rem had lost nothing. As long as they were together, everything could still be put right!

"Little brother, looks like things are even more dangerous than you expected."

"Uncle Baren!"

The immensely muscular Oni man burst into the Witch Cultists besieging the ice shield. The physique Baren had built through years of smithing allowed him to hold out a little longer than the other Oni, even without horns.

But there was not a clean spot left on him. Wounds crisscrossed his body, and while some belonged to the Witch Cultists, more were his own. His great blade was covered in scraps of flesh and bloody grime.

On the other side, the white-haired old Oni had reached the end of his road.

"...Quick... Take Ram and leave-!"

Setanta roared hoarsely at Rem.

"Village chief?!"

"Ram must live! As long as Ram survives, there's still hope for the Oni's future! We must protect... the power of the 'Oni God'-!"

A pair of dazzling horns grew from the white-haired old Oni's head once more.

"Little brother. Run."

With his back to Subaru, Baren fought the Witch Cultists.

"You're human. You got dragged into this by accident. Start running, and once you do, don't stop. No matter what you hear, don't look back. Run straight out of this forest."

"What about you?!"

"Stop asking so many questions! A promise isn't something you can keep with words alone! You have to make good on it with action. I never make a promise that means nothing!"

"You have to live! You owe me enough already! Did you really think the Meteor was that cheap?! Get out there and learn about this world, you brat!"

Without Subaru continuing to repair it, the ice shield slowly melted. He was giving up on this cycle. He had to start over.

The thought burned into Subaru's heart.

Baren fought a desperate battle against the Witch Cultists closing in on him, using his battered body. But one man's flesh could not withstand their overwhelming numbers forever. The Witch Cultists surged forward one after another, stabbing their blades into his side, his back, and his legs.

The final warning bell had sounded for the big man's life. Then a pair of white horns grew from his head.

A blue figure came racing over, carrying someone. Rem held Ram, who was shivering all over from the cold, in one arm and gripped Subaru's wrist tightly with her other hand. Without looking back, she ran in the direction opposite the village.

The earth underfoot was scorching from the flames, and thick smoke stung her eyes so badly she could not open them. Behind her, fading into the distance, came the final roars of two demons.