Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 93

Unlike her name, Thumbelina was enormous in appearance.

Her head alone was over 3 meters tall, likely able to swallow even me in one bite.

But that was all there was to her.

Thumbelina was an extremely deformed being with just a head and nothing below the neck.

Her dark green bob cut was filled with moss, flowers, and mushrooms, and the whites around her bright green irises were black.

Even her skin was murky like a swamp’s depths, giving off a completely alien impression.

She looked exactly like the Maia in my memories who had obtained forbidden knowledge and become an existence approaching that of a witch.

“How did… Could it be Princess Bari?”

Princess Bari was already here in this castle.

She must have given Maia forbidden knowledge and transformed her into this state.

And I… I was the one who sent Maia here.

“This is just fucking great…”

“Hello. Have you come back to see me? Kind hunter.”

Maia, no, Thumbelina repeated the same words as before.

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t come for you, I came looking for my friend… I’m truly sorry about what happened to you.”

But I don’t have time to wallow in guilt right now.

“Friend. Friends are good. I’ll make friends too.”

Thumbelina opened her mouth wide and shot out her tongue like a lizard, grabbed Chris and swallowed him instantly.

“…?”

What did she just do?

“What the hell did you just do!?

“Spit him out right now!”

I aimed the Hand Cannon at Thumbelina.

“What a lovely scent.”

The mass of silver bullets flew and hit her right eye perfectly before exploding.

A messy small crater formed in her eye like mud being trampled.

But just like mud, the hole gradually filled itself back in.

I can’t win with the Hand Cannon.

Of course, silver’s effects work on witches too, but this is like trying to break a boulder with an egg.

So how can I defeat Thumbelina and save Chris?

“…”

…

…My mind went blank.

Taking myself as an average 8th-rank hunter from Blue Paper Moon, there’s no way to defeat Thumbelina.

No matter how many silver bullets I pour into her, how many white phosphorus rounds I throw, or what performance enhancing drugs I take, the possibility of winning is…

“I’ll be relying on you until the end.”

I drew Crowty’s mithril dagger.

This is my only means of fighting against a witch.

Since I’m the user it probably won’t have such a dramatic effect, but it’s still a weapon that will work.

Of course, engaging a witch in close combat is suicide… no, trying to directly oppose one at all makes no sense.

But that doesn’t matter.

My arms and legs are intact, I’m still breathing, I have a goal, and I even have a luxurious weapon.

There’s absolutely no reason I can’t fight.

“What a lovely scent.”

Thumbelina said.

“Forgive me, Maia. I’m going to have to fight you now.”

Her becoming like this is my fault too.

Originally she would have devoted herself quietly to pursuing truth from behind the scenes, but because of me she met this end.

“Wrong. I am Thumbelina.”

Blazing flames rose from Thumbelina’s mouth as she prepared some kind of attack.

[Fireball], one of the basic sorcerer attack spells, no, looking at the shape it’s [Flame Jade]?

But it’s several times larger and more powerful than what a player would use.

A direct hit would mean instant death, with even the corpse reduced to black charcoal.

Before the attack could fly, I threw a smoke bomb at Thumbelina.

The smoke bomb hit her face and burst, black smoke engulfing everything.

“Ptui.”

With a somewhat cute sound, a massive ball of flames instantly incinerated the smoke and came flying.

However, I had already moved out of the [Flame Jade]’s path and was running toward Thumbelina.

At the same time, I took out my last throwing silver dagger with my other hand and threw it.

The dagger traced a shining silver arc as it flew and embedded itself in Thumbelina’s left eye.

The dagger instantly corroded from the green curse, crumbling to dust and disappearing, and while it didn’t seem to do much damage, it would have disrupted her vision for a moment.

“Pang!”

Another cute casting sound.

But with that single word, an intense shockwave spread out covering everything.

I would have been blown away too if I hadn’t instinctively ducked and covered my ears, but that didn’t happen.

I ran forward again.

Whether I can win or not doesn’t matter.

Even in the one in a million, billion chance that I could save Chris from Thumbelina, getting him out of here would be impossible.

Then the best I can do is at least free him from the curse so he can die as a human, and completely burn his body so Princess Bari can’t use it.

If it’s that… if it’s just that much, even this goddamn world should allow it.

“Whee~♪”

When Thumbelina whistled, the moss in the pit writhed and vines flew rapidly toward me.

I couldn’t dodge them all with my legs so I cut them down one by one with the dagger as I pressed forward.

Just a little more forward.

If I can get just a bit more forward…

“My, still not finished?”

That chilling voice from above.

Shaken by that voice, I failed to cut the final vine and was bound.

Looking up dejectedly, I saw Princess Bari gazing down at us.

“Even for a well-trained hunter, you’re only lower-ranked from the looks of it, yet you still haven’t dealt with him… Were you just playing around?”

Princess Bari was speaking to Thumbelina, not me.

“Yep! I was playing with the kind hunter!”

Thumbelina answered innocently.

Playing? A game?

So it was that kind of level after all.

It’s such an obvious thing that I’m not even disappointed.

“Kind hunter? …Could it be you?”

Princess Bari looked straight at me.

“I have some questions I’d like to ask you…”

Princess Bari descended to the bottom of this pit as if riding an invisible elevator.

Taking advantage of Thumbelina’s attention being drawn that way, I cut the vines binding me with the mithril dagger, poured all my remaining magical power into a final [Acceleration] and ran.

This time Thumbelina didn’t even pretend to block me, but conversely I could sense Princess Bari’s bewilderment.

“W-wait a moment!”

Princess Bari called out urgently but it was already too late.

I threw myself into Thumbelina’s wide open mouth as if it was welcoming me.

“Ah, delicious.”

I was devoured by Thumbelina.

Darkness that seemed to erase everything enveloped me.

And just before losing consciousness, I took out Mad Hatter’s watch.

* * *

“Sigh, what a well-trained hunter indeed.”

Bari sighed.

That hunter readily sacrificed his own life, perhaps to conceal information.

If his corpse had remained it would have actually made things easier, but since he went into Thumbelina’s stomach he would be digested and disappear.

“I heard Belle made some fanatics like Margarete… but what exactly could she have taught such a weak hunter?”

The reason that hunter wasn’t immediately eaten by Thumbelina was because she wanted to play.

But it wasn’t such a simple matter either.

The one who guided Thumbelina to this castle was someone called the kind hunter.

And she called the one she had been treating as a playmate until now by that same title of kind hunter.

Given the circumstances, they were likely the same person.

She absolutely had to capture him alive, or at least grab his soul and make him talk.

Something strange was happening.

Something that Princess Bari couldn’t even begin to guess.

“A failure is a failure. Unless we can cut open Thumbelina’s stomach… hm?”

“Ugh, urghhhhhh….”

Something was wrong with Thumbelina’s condition.

She was making a bizarre expression as if she would be writhing if she had a body.

“What’s suddenly wrong?”

“It’s sparkling.”

With those words, Thumbelina exploded.

“…?”

Her fragments scattered everywhere.

“What in the…”

And the head of Princess Bari’s avatar sharing her consciousness, frozen by the too sudden event, was hit by a mass of silver bullets and burst.

An attack she would normally have easily blocked, but she was caught completely off guard by this situation that far exceeded expectations.

“Hah…hah…”

As the smoke from the explosion cleared, the figure of the hunter appeared, aiming with a large gun.

In his other hand was a strangely shaped pocket watch.

That watch which had contained immense power crumbled to dust and disappeared after fulfilling its role.

“Gah!?”

The Hand Cannon Eugene was holding also exploded after a moment.

He immediately threw it far away and checked his injured hand.

He was just slightly burned, fortunately not seriously injured.

Looking down, he saw Chris and Maia collapsed unconscious.

“…!? H-hey, wake up!”

Eugene quickly grabbed Maia and shook her.

“Wake up, I said!”

“Ugh… Where am I…?”

Maia who had returned to her original form opened her eyes.

But much of that strange presence she had emanated was gone.

“Please, help me!”

“Huh? Eugene? What have I been…”

“Can you use healing magic!?”

“Wait, the situation…”

“I asked if you can use healing magic!?”

Eugene grabbed her and forcibly made her stand.

“Ah, that… Right now my magical power…”

“You don’t have magical power? Then… would blood or lifespan work?”

“Wait a moment. What exactly… ah.”

Maia saw the man collapsed on the other side.

His arms were gone from the elbows, and below his waist his body was gone as if melted away.

Various parts of his body were being eaten away by curses and the mark of death was clearly visible on his face.

“I don’t care what it takes, just hurry!”

“But… it will cost a lot of lifespan, is that okay? At minimum over 10 years…”

“I said I don’t care! Hurry!”

Eugene rolled up his sleeve and held out his arm.

“…That’s enough now.”

Chris opened his eyes.

They were more peaceful than Eugene had ever remembered seeing them.

“Are-are you conscious? Do you know who I am?”

Eugene hurriedly knelt down and cradled Chris’s remaining body.

He was already thin and light before, but now he didn’t even weigh half that much.

“Yeah… it’s been a while.”

His voice was weak too.

Anyone could tell it wasn’t just from lack of strength, but because his life was fading away.

“Just hang on a little longer. Soon…”

“No.”

Chris shook his head.

“Let it end like this.”

“Don’t talk nonsense!”

“It’s my turn now… I’ve been waiting…”

“Not yet! It’s not time yet!”

“It’s been long… I want it to end…”

“If you go too… if you leave too!”

“…I’m sorry. Going on alone again… just like that day…”

“No. Thanks to you… their sacrifice wasn’t in vain…!”

“Yeah… I want to see them… The seniors were… really…”

“Please… please don’t go…”

“Everyone… I’m… sor…ry…”

“…”

“…”

“Uuu… uwaaaahhhhh!!!”