Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 158

Red Hood Karen knelt down and brought her eyes close to Vile’s.

Though both their eyes were red from curses, Red Hood’s shone like brilliant rubies while Vile’s were like murky, turbid bloodstains.

“What are you…”

“Even if your body is hidden somewhere, your consciousness is here right now, isn’t it?”

Red Hood’s eyes began to glow with a subtle light.

A light that distorts the soul connected from eye to eye, mind to mind.

“St-stop!”

Vile tried desperately to resist.

Even though this was just a bio-terminal, his consciousness was here right now.

If he suffered a mental attack, it would damage his main body regardless of location.

Most mental attacks could be resisted sufficiently by Vile as a behemoth.

But his opponent was Red Hood, who used the same type of curse – no, she was the original owner of the curse, making her assault relatively easy.

Moreover, Vile now had huge gaps in his psyche from the tremendous humiliation and powerlessness he felt.

Red Hood’s light seeped in through those gaps.

“Stop! Cut it out!”

Vile tried to sever the mental connection.

“Not yet.”

But Red Hood grabbed Vile’s head and forcibly maintained the consciousness link.

“Ah, no! Do you know what you’re doing?! My intellect is the greatest in this world…!”

“Shh, let me recite a poem for you.”

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses.

And all the king’s men.

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

“Hu-Humpty… Dumpty…”

“Yes. Humpty Dumpty is an egg. An egg is a harbinger of birth. You will be born anew.”

Vile began floating upward.

“You’ve been deceiving everyone until now. Saying you’re a Beast.”

“Uh, uhhh…?”

Vile’s body gradually swelled up.

Like a drowned corpse left for days, everything from his finger joints to his sunken cheeks inflated.

His voice came out strangely too, as if his tongue and throat were also swelling.

“No need to lie anymore. I’ll make you real.”

Red Hood stretched out both hands toward Vile who had left her embrace.

From those hands emerged a thick, tenacious curse like a snake that could devour reality itself, entering Vile’s body.

“Agh, agack?! Auaaa?!?”

“Now! Be reborn! Into your true form!”

The curse spewing from Red Hood’s hands grew stronger and stronger.

Though the curse clearly targeted only Vile, it filled both his body and mind to overflowing, with fragments beginning to spread to the surroundings.

The abundant weeds scattered messily on the ground grew strangely long, splitting and tangling in various directions like human arms.

A single nameless flower that had been crushed to pieces swelled and grew as if given new life, with a split forming in the middle of its yellow stamen before suddenly opening a bright red eye.

Even the invisible air began rippling and taking on a sticky viscosity as sunlight falling from the sky turned red.

A truly demonic scene.

Reality itself was being distorted.

The reality that was Vile transforms into the curse called Humpty Dumpty.

“Ugh… Jabawack!!!”

Though his voice could barely emerge properly, Vile squeezed out his final consciousness to call Jaberwock again.

As if responding to its master’s call, Jaberwock, who had been dying with its maw pierced by Snow White’s spear, bit and shattered the ice chunk before raising its head toward Red Hood.

“Ahaha! For a human, you have such amazing skill! My sisters were doing such a wasteful thing, trying to kill a human as fun and full of potential as you! The moon’s true owner is already gone anyway!”

“Graaah! Kill! Kill that witch!!”

Flames surged in Jaberwock’s tattered maw.

Though it could no longer create the massive inferno from its first appearance that seemed able to devour mountains, it still had enough power to reduce a human to ashes.

The dragon’s flames bore down on the witch.

“Ha!”

Red Hood grabbed her axe again with one hand and threw it toward the flames.

Red light blazed from the axe blade as it flew, splitting the flames in two.

Like parting the Red Sea, the axe cleaved through the flames and embedded itself precisely between Jaberwock’s eyes.

“Oh, ohhh!!!”

Jaberwock let out an agonized groan, thrashing its head around before rolling back down the mountainside.

The axe that struck down the dragon returned to its master on its own.

“How adorable?! You can make even greater things, right?! You’re capable of it! Release your true nature! Use more, more imagination!”

“Imagination…”

As Red Hood injected more curse into Vile with both hands, his body transformed even faster.

The boundaries of his finger joints had already disappeared and his body was halfway to becoming balloon-like.

Even his screaming mouth grew quieter as it was buried in swelling cheeks and lips.

And just as he was about to completely transform into an egg shape, a heavy bullet that tore through the ears flew toward Red Hood.

Red Hood half-turned her body and caught it.

The silver mass caught in the small white girl’s hand instantly crumbled like rotten scrap metal.

“Ahah.”

Before Red Hood stood a hunter aiming a gun at her.

A weak, scarred hunter who wore his hat pulled low and even wore a mask to hide the suffocatingly thick curse.

Red Hood smiled a smile reminiscent of Blanc.

* * *

After the witches’ gathering ended and I rejected Rusalka’s invitation, I went down the mountain.

I had intended to get Marcus first, but he was either already taken down or went down himself as he wasn’t visible.

“I hope he’s alright…”

The bullet that went through Marcus’s side had caused some serious bleeding.

But it passed through a relatively shallow area rather than deep in his core, and Marcus himself was an experienced hunter so he probably avoided any vital organs.

Of course, given his age and the shock to his organs, I couldn’t say he was completely fine.

“Why did you have to do something like that.”

And I was shot in the leg too.

Skillfully done to avoid bone and blood vessels it seems, but I had to roughly cut the wound to quickly remove the bullet.

Though I can tolerate that level of pain now, I’ll never get used to it.

And I shouldn’t get used to it either.

Anyway, though it hurts I can still move, so I need to go down and help my comrades.

Vile… probably won’t cause any more trouble.

At least not today.

I need to gather the scattered trainees, tend to the wounded… there’s much to do.

“Hey. Over here.”

The other instructors waved to me from where we had gathered earlier.

Though the situation seemed resolved, they spoke quietly, probably still being cautious.

Marcus was also there leaning against a tree in the corner with bandages around his waist.

They said Auntie Beth went to search for the trainees scattered here and there.

“…So you made it back alive.”

Marcus said.

“What exactly happened up there? Beth came and brought me down later so I couldn’t see properly.”

“Ah, well… I’m not sure if I should call it good luck or bad.”

“There was quite a commotion up there, but is it all over now? Did a high-ranked hunter come to help?”

“No. The opposite.”

“Opposite?”

“Beasts even stronger than Vile came as a group, beat him up, and left.”

“What…? Then how did you return from there?”

“Well, their target was Vile, you could say… seems like he earned their grudge somehow. They wouldn’t care about a lower-ranked hunter.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

I couldn’t possibly tell them that three witches had shown up.

I’ll need to appropriately modify the story when questioned later.

Of course, I absolutely won’t mention being invited by Rusalka.

“Hmm… it’s not unheard of for Beasts to fight each other. Especially the intelligent and strong ones often fight over territory. We got lucky. Did that dragon fall too?”

“Probably? At least it won’t be able to do much right now. It took quite a beating.”

“That’s really fortunate. Then I suppose we can say it’s all over…”

Interrupting Marcus’s words, a dragon’s scream rang out from above.

We could call it a scream rather than a roar because it was unmistakably filled with agony.

However, we felt something even more unsettling than that.

Without a doubt, not just me but all of us could feel it.

This… overwhelmingly tangible presence.

Though just a sensation with no form that couldn’t be grasped by hand, it stuck to our skin like glue and seemed to physically squeeze our hearts with its overwhelming pressure.

We all looked toward the mountain peak simultaneously.

“What the…”

The mountain peak shone brightly as if it had become a lighthouse.

Such a bright, vivid red.

Though the curse was at a distance that would take a hunter 10 minutes to run to, it felt like something was happening right beside us…

“I’ll go check it out.”

I pulled my hat down and pulled up my mask to cover my nose.

A curse of that magnitude would affect even hunters with resistance.

It was already no different from real radiation or poison gas.

“Wait. We’ll go with you.”

Another instructor who could move spoke up.

But I shook my head.

“I’m the only one who saw anything of the situation up there. It’s safer if I go alone.”

“…”

Originally, I who uniquely knew the information should go down while someone who didn’t know should go up.

That way we could more safely bring information down below.

But they were weighing the options.

Calculating the probability of my returning alive.

They’re thinking of sending me down and going up themselves if necessary.

The fact that they can weigh their own life on the scales proves their excellence as lower-ranked hunters.

“…Go then.”

Marcus said.

“But sir.”

“We’ve come this far… we can only try trusting now.”

“Thank you.”

I bowed my head to Marcus.

“Just make sure you return alive… you have a sister too.”

“…Yes.”

I climbed back up the mountain.

I had already used up quite a bit of stamina and magical power.

But I had to push on for the sake of those who trusted and gave way to me.

And Gerda…

If I die, it would mean making Gerda lose family twice.

That absolutely cannot happen.

I must return alive somehow.

And that resolve shattered the moment I returned to the mountain peak.

“…Holy shit.”

I couldn’t help but curse.

What I saw was dirty blonde hair and a tattered red hood.

And a massive axe.

Red Hood Karen.

The final boss of Blue Paper Moon.

The curse emitting from that final boss spread like radiation, transforming reality into a nightmare.

Arms and eyeballs writhing and fluttering across the ground.

Air so toxic it made you dizzy just standing still.

And above all, Vile’s avatar who was the target of that curse was gradually transforming into something else.

That’s… Humpty Dumpty…

If it really becomes Humpty Dumpty…

Everyone on this mountain cannot survive.

No, a fate worse than death awaits them.

I can’t run away.

“Sorry.”

I apologized to no one in particular as I drew my Hand Cannon and aimed it at Red Hood Karen.