Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 142

“I never expected to meet here… But I’m certain. There’s no room for doubt. I knew the moment I saw…”

Vile grabbed Oscar with the tentacles protruding from his back.

The black cats Oscar summoned tried to bite those tentacles, but instantly more tentacles shot out and threw them away.

“Hmm, and you use such interesting magic. No, is this magecraft? Very interesting… I like you more and more.”

Vile caught one of the cats with his tentacles and brought it closer to examine.

“Indeed, you must be my Alice… Alice… I’ve been searching for so long…!”

Vile pulled Oscar closer.

I needed to do something but my limbs were bound too tightly.

What should I do…!?

“Stop right there!!”

Just then, Hilde rushed in and cut through the tentacles binding us with her Executioner’s Axe in one strike.

The severed tentacles writhed as if in pain, but their strength was gone and we could shake them off.

“This…!”

Vile reached out a hand toward Hilde as if to do something, but hesitated momentarily upon seeing her face.

Though it was just a brief hesitation, it gave me enough time to grab Oscar and run away.

“Stop! Stop right there! Give Alice back!!”

“There is no person called Alice!”

Then Hilde stood in front of Vile, as if protecting my escape route.

For a moment I worried about Hilde, but she should be fine.

The Vile that appeared here must be a puppet he’s controlling rather than his main body, so Hilde should be able to escape too.

*    *    *

“Damn it! Who are you?! Having a face so similar to Alice…!”

Vile clicked his tongue.

The reason he hesitated earlier when trying to attack Hilde was because of her appearance.

Looking closely, her face was completely different from Oscar’s, but her hair and eye color were exactly the same, causing that momentary reaction.

“I told you, there is no person called Alice…”

Hilde was gauging the difference in ability between herself and Vile.

She didn’t have a definite feeling she could win.

However, unlike when facing Blanc, she also didn’t have an ominous premonition of certain defeat.

Considering Vile was a behemoth, he was probably using a technique to send out and share consciousness with an avatar, like Pinocchio did.

“No, Alice existed… That boy was Alice! That boy will become my Alice! No one can interfere!”

Red liquid burst from the cross-sections of the severed tentacles for an instant before they all regenerated back to normal.

The tips of those tentacles gathered at one point and red light began rising from there.

“…!”

Instantly recognizing what it was, Hilde threw herself sideways.

As Hilde dodged, the small light transformed into a massive beam that flew past in an instant.

It was clearly the same attack that Sephira had detected earlier.

Though the power was dizzyingly overwhelming, Hilde keenly noticed the tentacles going limp right after firing the beam.

As powerful as the attack was, it surely had preparation and after-effects.

Though it seemed like a good time to close in, Hilde first drew her pistol and aimed for Vile’s bird beak mask.

“Ugh!”

The bullet bounced off the mask but left a clear wound on its surface.

The reaction was also quite dramatic for something just hitting a mask.

That must be a face that looks like a mask.

Moreover, unlike how it appeared, it wasn’t hard and couldn’t dodge either.

Having gathered some information about her opponent, Hilde put away her pistol again and gripped the Executioner’s Axe tightly with both hands as she charged forward.

Using [Acceleration] to reach explosive speed, she instantly arrived before Vile and swung the massive axe sideways.

The tentacles that had somewhat recovered from the beam attack’s after-effects responded to block the axe, but couldn’t completely negate its power.

Vile’s body was cut near the ribs and the force sent him flying slightly to the side.

“Don’t interfere!!”

Vile’s tentacles gathered at one point again to prepare another beam attack.

However, this time Hilde also used a momentary [Acceleration] to draw her pistol and shoot at where the tentacles were gathering.

In Blue Paper Moon this was a skill called [Quick Shot], a technique where Hilde imitated how Eugene used [Acceleration] just for aiming.

“Arghhhh!”

A popping sound and small explosion occurred where the bullet hit, making Vile’s posture falter greatly as he let out an even louder scream than before.

“Damn it! Tweedledum! Tweedledee!”

As the battle turned unfavorable, Vile called for the two newborn Beasts he had sent against Sephira earlier.

Though they lacked intelligence and special abilities, they had the highest physical capabilities among high-tier Beasts – they were custom made.

One Beast immediately rolled over at Vile’s call.

Though its house-sized body was over 3m tall, its entire form was egg-shaped like a ball with only stitch marks where eyes, nose and mouth should be.

It had no legs so it rolled around like earlier, but instead had muscular arms as huge as its own body.

“Tweedledum! Mark that woman… Where’s Tweedledee?”

Just as Vile finished speaking, Tweedledee, who looked identical to Tweedledum, came flying from the opposite direction.

Vile’s body on the side where Tweedledee flew from was covered in an enormous amount of blood.

“…Damn it.”

Vile clicked his tongue seeing Tweedledee arrive cleanly cut in half, spurting blood like a fountain.

“You are surrounded.”

Sephira walked over, having quietly yet swiftly cut down not just Tweedledee but all the surrounding Trump Soldiers as well.

Neither Sephira nor Robera in her hand had even a single drop of blood on them, still maintaining that bleached white color.

“Surrender.”

Sephira pointed her sword at Vile.

“Don’t make me laugh… Don’t you dare laugh!! I must find Alice! My Alice!!”

“Alice…?”

Along with Vile’s enraged cry, the battered Tweedledum beside him and the bisected corpse of Tweedledee merged with him.

Sephira sent a blade of energy toward it which inflicted deep wounds, but not enough to kill.

“I will never let go!”

Tweedledum and Tweedledee’s bodies combined into an even larger ball, and their massive arms became front and back legs, transforming into a quadrupedal creature.

“Alice!!!”

Vile, transformed into a giant newborn Beast, bounded toward where Eugene had fled with Oscar.

Just his running shook the ground with his enormous weight.

“Stop right there!!”

Hilde coated her axe in blue moonlight and swung, sending a crescent-shaped light that severely cut his left ankle.

The running Vile lost balance and fell.

“…Wait, that technique just now…”

Vile seemed to realize something and hesitated.

Meanwhile, Sephira launched a massive white energy blade in the shape of a skull.

The blade tore apart Vile’s defenseless back as he lay fallen, leaving a huge skull-shaped mark.

“D-damn… Alice…”

The puppet sharing consciousness with Vile died with final death throes.

An enormous amount of organs and blood poured out from where Sephira’s blade had torn it apart, instantly making the air filthy and damp.

“That was excellent work. You’ve grown a lot, Miss Hilde.”

Sephira said while sheathing her sword.

“No, I still have far to go. Such power like yours…”

“That level is already quite impressive. When I was around the same time since joining as Miss Hilde, I couldn’t even manage an attack like that. Rather, I want to ask – how did you learn something like that?”

“Well, I’m not really sure myself… Training with Senior, I somehow learned it… In the end it feels like it was all thanks to Senior.”

“…Miss Hilde.”

Sephira spoke with a serious expression as if having made some decision.

“Yes?”

“You, toward Eugene…”

“Oh, is it over already?”

Zepetia’s voice cut off Sephira’s words.

Looking that way, Zepetia had returned with Dominic at some point.

“Hmm…”

Sephira frowned briefly seeing Zepetia but only let out a small groan before returning to her original demeanor.

“The scene hasn’t been fully cleared yet. Ms. Zepetia, it would be better if you returned later…”

“It’s important to examine while fresh.”

In Zepetia’s hand was the Dismembering Cutter she had used to observe the Cheshire Beast’s head after tearing it off while alive.

“It’s dead right? Then it’s fine.”

Without asking permission, Zepetia examined the corpse of Tweedledum and Tweedledee’s fusion that Vile had controlled.

“Hmm, you made quite a mess of it though.”

“…Ms. Sephira? What were you trying to say earlier…”

“Is it over?”

Just as Hilde tried to ask what had suddenly occurred to her, Eugene returned.

“Ah, Senior. And… Oscar?”

Oscar was being carried on Eugene’s back.

“Vile targeted Oscar earlier. Is everything alright now?”

“Ah, yes…”

Only then did Eugene let Oscar down from his back.

Oscar who had been targeted by Vile showed no particular reaction.

Realizing anew that the old Oscar was truly gone now, Hilde’s expression darkened again.

“…Come to think of it, earlier Vile was saying something about Alice.”

Sephira said.

“Ah, right!”

“Ahh…”

Hilde and Eugene recalled what Vile had said.

Vile had blatantly targeted Oscar while calling them Alice.

“Alice? What’s that?”

Dominic who hadn’t heard anything asked.

“We’re not really…”

“Hmm…”

“…Did you just say Alice?”

Just then Zepetia, who had been dissecting the giant corpse while wearing a mask, turned her head toward them.

“Ah, does Ms. Zepetia know something?”

Dominic asked.

“I saw it in grandfather’s diary…”

Zepetia looked at Oscar.

“Did grandfather really call that one Alice?”

“Yes. Vile definitely called Mr. Oscar Alice.”

Sephira said.

“Really…?”

“What exactly does Alice refer to?”

“Ah, well… that’s a bit delicate…”

Zepetia showed an awkward expression and appeared troubled for the first time.

“Though I’m not certain… Alice is, well…”

“Well…?”

“Grandfather’s… um… ideal type… something like that… Ah jeez…”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Oscar again.

“…”

Oscar still showed no reaction.

“I heard earlier…”

Eugene said.

“That even being a boy was fine… Well, maybe things like gender don’t matter.”

Eugene also hesitated a bit, seemingly finding this situation awkward.

Eugene knew about various sexual identities like homosexuality, bisexuality, or pansexuality due to knowledge from his past life, but in this world all such things were expressed with the word ‘abnormal’.

“…Sorry. This is quite shocking after all. I need a break…”

Zepetia stopped her work and walked to a corner.

“Such cases do exist sometimes.”

Dominic said while taking out a notebook and writing something.

The humiliating sentence ‘Vile is a sexual deviant’ was added to the notebook.