Black Badger

My senses stood on edge, razor-sharp.

What the hell.

Kairos, that bastard, tamed a Reversed God.

“Why’d you stop?”

I had been crushing the Creatures swarming the lamp staircase one by one when Yun noticed I’d frozen mid-movement.

Karl, who had once grunted that “my medical skills improved thanks to you,” also looked back at me.

A slope so gruesome a regular Badger would’ve vomited their guts out.

I blinked twice.

“It’s nothing.”

And while my hands kept hunting automatically, I sharpened my instincts.

A Reversed God running wild — I could feel it.

Kai, please.

I suppressed the urge to grab my head with both hands.

For you, it must be such an easy creature.

A Reversed God’s true body is a tiny black parasite.

Depending on what kind of living being it infests, the difficulty of controlling it changes. If it had taken a simple creature like a pig as host, even I might have been able to control it for a few minutes.

But this Reversed God chose a Five-Eyed Worm. A massive caterpillar with five eyes had become its host.

A limbless crawler that sees through five eyeballs. Kairos had managed to tame the thing that used that as a host.

In one sentence: he tamed something I couldn’t manage even if I spent ten years trying.

You overestimate my abilities way too much!

Kkyeeeeeek!

Noise echoed down from the 4th floor.

The moment we tilted ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ our heads up together, a mage’s sharp scream reverberated.

『Hildebert!』

Why.

『You were hiding this level of control!』

Ah...

No.

I glanced away diagonally without meaning to.

Lucky for me that mage doesn’t know a damn thing about me.

『I never heard you could even control Creatures!』

Well, that’s because I’m not good enough to brag about it...

I heard the mage furiously striking the Reversed God. We needed to use this gap to reach the 3rd floor.

I signaled with my fingers; the seniors nodded. Both men were injured all over, but already recovered.

Just avoid anything with toxins we can’t detoxify.

Crunch.

I stepped on something like intestines. We climbed the fleshy slope, stepping on squishy things, staying alert for whatever Creature waited on 3F while listening for any steps from 2F.

BOOM!

A thunderous blast erupted from 4F.

The sound of a Reversed God bursting.

And then the sound of a comrade immediately controlling the next one.

...No.

Does he think I can control a plant-type monster?

I couldn’t speak into the comms while infiltrating.

Once we rescued Shu safely, I’d have to talk to the controller. With that thought, I drew my dagger.

Nothing special happened while climbing. Soon the lamp staircase ended, and we arrived on 3F.

That moment, Yun forced mine and Karl’s heads down.

Zzzt

Good.

Zzzzt...

Foot-dragging sounds came from the stairs.

We hid behind the wall and waited for the Slip-Ghoul.

Once it crests the slope, its head goes flying—

Bwoooong!

A resonance rang out from the stairs.

A bright light spread into the air.

A teleportation array?

Recognizing the sound, I urgently darted my eyes around, searching for the teleport formation.

Is he trying to teleport the Slip-Ghoul toward me?

No.

That’s not it.

『Pop that disgusting octopus-leg thing!』

I cursed and sprang to my feet.

I kicked off the floor, leaping onto the lamp stair railing.

And there, I saw the Slip-Ghoul falling into the teleportation array.

If he put it in front of me, its head would be gone, so instead he must be planning to teleport it to 4F to sweep the rampaging monster.

The mage shouted:

『No! Everything except flowers and humans!』

Kairos!!

I hurled myself toward the Slip-Ghoul dropping into the array.

I couldn’t feel what the controller was doing, but there was no guarantee he wouldn’t fall into the Slip-Ghoul’s sightline. His presence wasn’t detectable — which made it worse.

I fixed my gaze on the Slip-Ghoul half-sunken into the teleport and called the controller.

More accurately, I let my emotions spill out raw.

Fear.

Slash!

Kkyeeeeek!

The upper half of its brain was sliced off.

Thump! The severed brain and skull dropped onto the lamp stairs. The Slip-Ghoul’s cerebrum lay exposed.

Its body vanished past the teleport.

I should’ve split the eyeball in half.

Is it dead?

I twisted my body and looked up at the seniors.

“Fourth floor!”

They didn’t ask questions.

***

Kairos vaulted through the window into 4F.

The Reversed God held his full attention. The black mage sounded panicked, calling Hilde’s name. As planned, he seemed convinced Hilde had controlled the Reversed God.

The controller kept his body hidden in the darkness staining the wall as he moved slowly.

『You were hiding this kind of control!』

Not really, but Hilde would be good at it once taught.

『I never heard you could even control Creatures!』

I’d love to teach him someday.

He simply isn’t interested, but he’d learn well. He has talent. Hilde’s instincts are far sharper than an ordinary person’s — as expected of a Swordmaster — and he’s gentle toward monsters.

Too in love with his sword to make time for anything else, though.

He pressed a palm to the wall, moving through the corridor where moonlight didn’t reach, inching toward the flower.

The flower was enormous. Its silhouette alone stole his gaze even in darkness.

Stems as thick as human torsos covered the floor.

Kairos began climbing the flower from the side opposite the black mage.

A potent cloud of pollen stabbed his nose.

Grrrghrgh.

Good thing he wore gloves.

He slid a hand between petals as he climbed. The petals — making noises like a coffee-filled empty stomach — were thick with pollen. Probably not healthy.

Smart of him to cover his nose and mouth with a balaclava before climbing.

BOOM!

Ah. The Reversed God is dead.

Kairos pulled himself onto a petal while controlling the plant-type monster.

『What now?!』

Taking advantage of the mage’s irritation, Kairos climbed onto the top petal.

His vision brightened.

Where the stamens should have been was a circular pond.

Kairos saw a small Black Badger floating there.

“...Huh?”

What is that?

Eyes wide, he tried to understand something that made no sense.

He failed miserably. He rubbed his eyes with the bare skin between his gloves and combat top — maybe the pollen was making him hallucinate.

But the sight didn’t change.

The scene simply refused to make sense.

Under the pond, starlight leaked upward like a galaxy. But that wasn’t what surprised him. Creatures that emit light are common enough.

What he couldn’t understand was why Shu appeared doubled.

Like a computer screen glitching.

He closed his eyes, and behind Shu Diamond floating in the pond, her afterimage overlapped.

Her upper body, half outside the water, doubled and wavered.

If there’d been crackling static, he would’ve mistaken it for a hologram of Shu.

It wasn’t.

He snapped into focus.

“Senior.”

Sliding down the petal, he stopped at the pond’s edge and reached out.

“Diamond-senior.”

As expected, she didn’t hear.

Kairos leaned in. He stretched his arm long and grasped her arm, half submerged.

Splash.

His glove and sleeve soaked.

Ignoring it, Kairos gently pulled Shu toward him—

Hilde.

He heard Kyle’s voice.

Sound and image—

Shu vanished. Sensations he couldn’t name poured into him. Like someone was shoving a glitched monitor against his eyes and screaming. Countless sounds and afterimages crashed over him.

Ruins. Portal. Gray. Ruins. Mage. Ruins. Short hair. Ruins. A sharp cry. Ash-gray.

Blood. Ruins. Reversed eyes. Ruins. A voice full of rage. A voice full of resentment.

Footsteps.

Growing louder.

Ruins.

Is that... Hilde?

Hilde!

Again Kyle’s voice rang from somewhere. Like being trapped in a dream, someone else’s memories burst open. Tear-soaked golden eyes.

Hilde reaching toward him.

But Hilde’s hand instantly shifted into another scene.

Again ruins. Ash-gray city and ruins.

A shaking view.

Ruins. A blood-soaked sword. Whistling wind. Ruins.

Footsteps cutting off.

A shadow stretching over a pool of blood.

Don’t.

Someone laughed like crying.

‘You want to leave me in this hell and get comfortable by yourself?’

The scene changed again.

Another sense burst open like a bomb.

A man he had never seen before — black-haired, thug-like — grinning as he approached. “Our princess!” he shouted, opening his arms wide.

Pixel-art frames hanging in a cramped room swallowed the scene.

Hoverboards arranged in a row.

A neon-lit game shop...

『Pop that disgusting octopus-leg thing!』

A sharp voice stabbed his ears.

『Everything except flowers and humans!』

Kairos jerked, regaining clarity as the next sensation hit.

Fear.

A desperate warning from Hilde.

Move.

Splash!

Kairos did not hesitate.

Hilde’s emotions were always intense and honest, no matter when they reached him. Hugging Shu’s small body tight, he lifted her out of the water, then — without looking back — escaped the pond and dove between the petals.

Fwoosh!

A cloud of thick pollen engulfed him.

Instead of heading for a window, he hid beneath the petals.

BOOM!

Bang! Bababang!

And that decision proved right. Everything began exploding. Starting with the plant-type monster he was controlling, then everything around it.

Like fireworks going off one by one.

The smell of blood drowned the pollen. Metal stung his nose so strongly he lost the sense entirely.

Ah.

Now he had no monster left to control for defense.

Kairos unzipped his jacket completely and covered Shu with it.

No presence detectable — he didn’t know which way to flee. So he made another decision: hold position.

Hilde was coming. As long as he didn’t get discovered before then, it would be fine.

And even if he did get discovered, he could shield Shu with his own body.

Hilde once told him, “You don’t care much about people,” and it was true, but Kairos respected life itself. Even if they’d barely spoken a few words, he felt no hesitation.

Besides, rescuing her had been Hilde’s command.

Since their reunion, he’d resolved to obey Hilde’s orders absolutely.

Thus Kairos held his breath, unmoving, and when a Slip-Ghoul approached, brain exposed, he didn’t panic or despair.

He only curled himself to hide Shu.

Keep the small senior out of its sight—

Slash.

The eyeball split clean in half.

A white-haired man, panting.

The one who’d sliced the Slip-Ghoul’s eye looked terrified, gasping for breath.

Kairos couldn’t help a quiet laugh.

“Hilde.”

Golden eyes, soaked in fear, found him.

Kairos lifted the limp Shu into his arms and straightened.

“Don’t worry. We’re both safe.”

Tatatatatatang!

Gunfire poured from behind.

Yun and Karl, it seemed, had arrived.

Perfect timing, he thought, stepping out of the flower’s shadow—

and he froze.

Hildebert was suddenly right in front of him.

“Are you hurt?”

Hilde’s voice was hoarse.

His hand, gripping Kairos’s arm, trembled faintly.

Kairos looked down at that trembling hand, then smiled faintly.

“No. Thanks to you.”

Even so, the shaking golden eyes would not calm.

Hilde trembled for a long moment, then dropped his head low.

And he didn’t move for a long time, still clutching Kairos’s arm.

***

“What is that?”

Ami poked her eyes out through the plane door.

“What is... that...?”