Project Alice-02 (7)
A woman bloomed within the dream.
A mannequin-like form, with a heart crown resting above it.
When her pointed heel stepped onto the mist, the collar of her full, voluminous dress fluttered.
[♥]
Heart Queen.
The dream born from the girl walked through empty air.
Was it because of the presence she gave off?
A deathly silence settled over the battlefield that had been so noisy moments before.
““......””
The air was like a calm sea.
At a glance, it looked peaceful, but beneath that thin, fragile surface, an endless unknown lay hidden.
Fearing their actions might disturb that peace, the living things nearby quietly held their breath.
It had nothing to do with perception or learning. It was simply the result that came before the inevitable.
[♥]
Reason.
The instinct any being clinging to life ought to possess.
‘Death.’
That certainty stabbed into everyone’s mind.
Certainty pried open thought and made further reasoning impossible.
A sweet afterscent brushed their noses.
Ahh.
Great Queen.
O great Queen.
Click.
The heel that had drifted through the sky touched the ground.
After that light sound, dark-red cloth spread in full bloom.
A swarm of writhing chimeras. The Queen stood at its center.
The beasts that had been roaring and rampaging only moments ago were frozen stiff, as if someone had pressed their power button.
O Queen.
O Queen.
O Queen who resembles a heart.
The Queen wearing a heart crown.
That being reached out indifferently toward a nearby chimera.
A spotless hand settled on the beast’s hide.
My heart to you.
My heart to you.
Allow me to offer it.
Ahh, take my heart, laughing Queen.
Puh-eok.
A rupturing sound rang out, dry and indifferent.
Where the Queen’s hand had touched, the house-sized beast had vanished.
Only the traces of a body that had burst apart and been erased remained, along with a still-wriggling heart.
Squirm, squirm.
““......””
The smell of blood.
And yet, it was sweet as a dream.
Within the dreamlike mist, the intoxicated lives lived only in that instant.
Without sparing it even a glance, the Queen walked past the heart crushed against the ground.
The heart the beast had offered meant that little.
Click, click.
The even sound of her shoes came closer.
The Queen touched the beasts once more.
Once more, the beasts’ bodies were ground away.
Only hearts remained, and once more, the Queen passed them by.
O beautiful one.
O beautiful one.
One who will come like suicide, soaked in my dream.
It was a one-sided massacre.
No... it was far too elegant to be called a massacre.
As if they were admiring a masterpiece, each scene engraved itself into their pupils in rapture.
If they could be swept away by that beauty, then becoming part of the scenery right now did not seem so bad.
Puh-eok!
Puh-eok!
Puh-eok!
Some of the beasts even dampened the corners of their eyes.
Their emotions should have been removed, yet tears of unknown meaning ran down their hides.
<Kkik, kkik, kkik...>
<Dael, dael, dael, dael, dael>
<Nit, nit, nit, nit>
The Queen’s presence pressed down on the space.
Even so, only a few beasts that had managed to hold onto their minds bared their teeth.
The chimeras were badly cowed, but they still showed hostility toward the Queen standing quietly in place.
The dark mages, who had been rather dazed, were the same.
“The Queen...!”
“Everyone, snap out of it! We have to suppress the experimental subject serving as the host body at once!”
“As long as we do not suppress the host body, the entity classified as [The Queen] cannot be stopped...!”
They widened their eyes as if desperately resisting the dream.
The Cultist members drew up dark mana.
They were trying to wrap themselves in that wicked power and escape the Queen’s influence.
That idea worked, and thanks to it, the members began coming to their senses one by one.
“The sky! Intercept the experimental subject floating above us!”
“If we just knock out the host body, the entire dream will fade too!”
“Everyone, stay calm and deploy your magic...”
Tap.
At that moment, they all felt a sensation at once.
“......Huh?”
The Queen was touching every single member.
Slender fingertips rested against their chests.
Once they realized that, the members froze in disbelief.
“What...”
The Queen had extended only one hand, but that hand had touched dozens.
The next moment, dozens of hearts sprawled across the floor and wriggled.
Squirm, squirm, squirm.
Only slick lumps of life remained at their feet.
The chimeras around them that had bared their teeth were the same.
I call.
I call.
I call my heart to you.
The situation ended in an instant.
Only dead hearts piled up in the marketplace where rupturing sounds had rung out.
The force that had numbered in the thousands was slaughtered, and only the exhausted children remained, holding their breath.
Heart Queen.
A crown standing among dark-red fragments.
A world stained with hearts.
That was the woman’s kingdom.
“......”
Afterward, the Queen turned around.
With light steps, she returned to her master.
There stood Alice, wearing a black crown.
The Queen took both ends of her dress and bowed politely.
When Alice extended her hand as if bestowing grace, the Queen kissed the back of it, just as she had at first.
[♥]
A beautiful voice murmured something.
With that final scene, the Queen blended into the mist and vanished.
At the same time, the crown floating above Alice’s head also went out.
“......”
Srrrk.
The mist cleared, and Alice lost consciousness.
She seemed to have fainted after going far beyond the limits of her Stamina.
Her black hair drooped as her defenseless body toppled over.
“Miss Alice!”
“Hey...!”
The team members watching nearby caught the girl.
Thankfully, Alice only seemed to be asleep, and there was nothing wrong with her breathing.
Softly, softly.
““......””
Silence came again.
This time, unlike before, the air had settled into a lull.
***
“Looks like that side is finished too.”
The words left me indifferently.
I was standing with OZ pinned under my foot, slammed into the floor.
When I looked toward my team members, I saw the space turned into a mess of heart fragments.
<Ahh... what a truly beautiful sight.>
<So the concept beyond the window is such a beautiful thing.>
OZ wriggled under my foot.
His limbs had been cut off, and he lay face-down, unable to resist.
Even so, his grotesque face had been staring at Alice the whole time.
“You’re noisy.”
I put more strength into my foot so he couldn’t move.
He did have the authority called Rapid Regeneration, but even that seemed to have limits, because his regeneration speed was gradually slowing down.
Since I had cut him up without mercy during the five minutes the crown’s effect was active, I had managed to suppress him to some extent.
After that, I kept him pinned underfoot and personally cut him again whenever he tried to regenerate his arms and legs.
Slice.
I swung my scythe indifferently.
“I told you to stay still.”
<Whoops.>
“Don’t pretend it hurts. You have a body that can’t even feel pain.”
<Oh dear, you caught me. I was hoping to stir up even a little sympathy...>
“Even if you could feel pain, I would never have sympathized with you. I would have tortured you, if anything.”
Tch. I clicked my tongue quietly.
I threw out my words along with a few kicks.
Puh-eok, thud!
“How is it? It looks like your side lost.”
<Hmm... I suppose so. I never imagined Alice had grown that much. To think she could summon the Queen. Thanks to that, the experimental subjects and the researchers working with me were all slaughtered. And now I’m stuck on the floor looking like a caterpillar.>
“How about you surrender already?”
<Well.>
OZ’s response was indifferent.
His voice had risen as if he were holding back laughter.
After trembling under the pressure of my sole, he soon spoke in an excited tone.
<You people still know nothing.>
“Hmm, about what?”
<Many things. Among them is one rather shocking thing, but I will save that pleasure for later. If possible, I want to show it to you in a clearer form when we meet again.>
“That’s impressive. You can confidently talk about a next time in this situation.”
<It doesn’t matter if I die here anyway. My main body is somewhere else.>
“I noticed that much long ago.”
<Oh?>
“Of course. There’s no way your main body would be this weak, is there? You are one of the strongest even among the Cultists. What’s sprawled in front of me right now must be an avatar you sent lightly.”
There was no way this was the main body.
The one here was an avatar OZ had planted for this project.
Of course, that did not mean facing this thing here had been meaningless.
“If I kill your avatar, the backlash returns to you too, doesn’t it?”
<......>
“It’s no use pretending to be calm.”
This was not some avatar he had thrown together and sent over.
It was an avatar he had carefully modeled by cutting off a portion of his own soul.
So if the avatar was destroyed, the aftermath would reach his main body as well.
He would suffer permanent damage.
‘Sweet.’
OZ.
Even among the late-stage bosses, he counted as one of the most troublesome.
If I could affect him with just this much effort, it was pure profit.
At my words, the man’s expression stiffened.
<Huh... How do you know about that?>
“Does it matter?”
<You stimulate my interest.>
“So, how is it? Do you understand the situation now?”
<I have been completely read. But it’s fine. You people won’t even be able to catch the avatar here.>
“Where is that confidence coming from now?”
<A brilliant person always prepares a hidden trump card.>
Kuuuuung!
As if matching that line, a heavy rumble shook the entire space.
A massive shadow fell over my vision like night had descended.
A certain presence, an alien warning bell, rang in my mind.
When I looked up, I saw an endlessly stretching space.
“......”
And something enormous descending toward us.
It was swimming through the air as it came closer.
I had no choice but to stop breathing.
‘Ah.’
It was a familiar shape.
The sea serpent I had encountered earlier in the corridor.
A giant beast made by scaling that thing up several times over, until it reached hundreds of meters in size.
<It is a masterpiece I completed recently.>
<I’m sure you saw it in the corridor, yes? The failure derived from creating this child.>
An unreal size.
Just looking up at it made it hard to breathe.
The dark mana pouring from its entire body stained the space murky.
The other team members must have noticed it too, because they sat down blankly, their faces pale.
Ding!
[Name: Leviathan(Project Leviathan).]
-Species: Chimera
-Classification: Boss Monster
-Description: Run.
A note from the status window appeared before my eyes.
A vivid sense of oppression pressed down on my entire body.
My breath caught in my throat and stopped.
The pressure strangled me as if it were a real force.
Everyone nearby was dazed and could not even think of trying anything.
““......””
Everyone was exhausted.
Alice had fainted, and Caitlin was completely drained.
Ranne and Carmilla also did not have the strength to move a finger.
And in that situation, disaster had appeared overhead.
<You’ve gone quiet.>
<How is it? Do you feel like begging me to spare you now?>
I was no different from my team members.
My Stamina had hit its limit long ago, and the crown’s duration had ended.
My scythe’s [Predation] skill was on cooldown, so I couldn’t use it either.
Even if Javert’s strike had been charged, it looked impossible to take that thing down in a single blow.
<Too late.>
<Please, all of you, become part of my project together...>
OZ mocked us.
The beast’s gaping maw was so huge it could not even be measured.
At this rate, it would devour us, then swim upward and destroy the city.
‘But.’
Did he know?
This entire situation was also playing out completely in the palm of my hand.
“Pfft.”
A laugh I couldn’t hold back leaked from my mouth.
I pressed my mask down.
My hand calmly rummaged inside my clothes.
In a leisurely voice, I returned his provocation right back to him.
“You said it earlier, didn’t you? A brilliant person always prepares a hidden trump card... was it?”
I took something out of my inventory.
A dusty old book.
Its title had been scrawled in a strange language.
Ding!
[The White Knight’s Demise]
-Classification: Book
-Grade: ???
-Status: Unusable
-Description: A contract that can manifest an Apostle of the Evil God. It can summon [The White Knight], who governs plague among the Four Knights of the Apocalypse. Cultist faction-exclusive item. Cannot be used by anyone outside the Cultist side.
“Shall we?”
If that side brought in something huge, then this side should bring something in too, for balance.
This book was something I had kept for this moment.
I turned the thick pages.
Frrrrp.
“Hear my call.”
Furube, yura-yura.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter