12 - Merloc Hunt ｢2｣

Pain.

If Johan could vividly describe one sensation with the fluidity of a world-renowned author like William Shakespeare, it was undoubtedly pain.

Pain wasn't a tangible factor, rather it was simply the nervous system alerting the brain of physical damage.

And regarding the pain that currently stabbed through his mind, it as was intense as it could get.

Johan didn't know why a rabbit would have such sharp teeth, but when the little Beast's maws clamped down on his hand, it was as if he had been caught in a rusted iron bear trap.

His gloves had been a pair of ordinary gloves, those black ones usually worn by biker gang members, not any kind of special Mystic Code.

Faced with the terrible fangs of the little Beast, the reinforced textiles came apart like silk to a sharpened blade.

It took only the brief span of a second before Johan's skin was torn apart, the sweet tang of blood assaulting his sense of smell as red splashed against the Beast's snout.

The pain was so great that the revolver easily slipped out from his fingers, dropping onto the floor.

He didn't have the time to scream, couldn't afford wasting the breath to do so...

So Johan did the next best thing as his Magic Crest flared up with a surge of Mana.

"Hadlakat-Esh!"

He shouted the incantation in Hebrew as flames erupted from his fingertips, swirling around his right limb like a serpent.

It was the same Spell from before, the one he had used to light the pyre, but now it had significantly more Magical Energy pumped into its thaumaturgical structure.

"Burn away!" He bellowed out, attempting to slap the Beast away with his flaming hand.

It immediately caught on fire but didn't seem even the slightest bit bothered, instead it looked even fiercer as the flames coiled around its body harmlessly.

Faced with both the Beast's fangs and its own wearer's flames, the glove completely burned to ashes, revealing the golden glow of Johan's ring.

Immediately, the little Beast chomped down on his ring finger.

...But instead of directly touching the ring, it bit down on the actual finger and did a spinning motion.

This motion was one that a rabbit shouldn't even know about—it was the 'death roll' of a crocodile.

"...A-Ah! Shit, shit, fuck!" Johan cursed as he bit his own tongue to surpress an agonizing scream.

His ring finger was promptly yanked out from the rest of his hand, blood spilling out as the only thing that remained being a bloodied small bone.

Johan groaned in pain before it further developed into a scream that he couldn't hope to contain.

The ring finger was spat out to the side as the Beast leapt back alongside it, leaving Johan to fall back on the floor.

"...Ha...!" Johan exhaled in pain as adrenaline coursed through his system, he barely had any time to react as his heartbeat sky rocketed.

"You!" His bloodshot eyes glared at the little Beast as it held his severed ring finger in his jaws, the Gobbler Ring just a few centimeters away from touching its snout.

The fact that it's been deliberately avoiding touching the ring meant that it must have somehow already been aware of the effects...

The Beast just stood there, nibbling on Johan's finger as its gaze was settled solely on the Gobbler Ring.

Johan exhaled deeply a few times as he knelt down and picked up his fallen revolver, aiming it at the Beast.

It did not react, and so, Johan did not hesitate as he pulled the trigger.

—BAAM~★!

The silent and invisible bullet shot through the air and pierced directly through the Beast's forehead, smoke erupting out from the spot that got hit.

But...

With an audible clang, the now visible bullet fell on the floor, revealing the Beast's completely undamaged forehead.

"...Huh..." The revolver once again fell out from his hand, his blooded fingers no longer having the strength to hold them after the recoil. "Fuck..."

It glanced up at him, the beastly eyes conveying a deep and vivid emotion, though Johan wasn't sure which kind.

His heartbeat surged, the adrenaline instigating his brain to fight for his life.

But Johan wasn't stupid.

He had the distinct feeling that, even if he used the strongest Spell in the Lawrence Magic Crest, it wouldn't do much against this monstrous opponent.

Johan trusted his gut feeling, it was rarely wrong.

The Magus glanced down, his expression more complicated than a mosaic.

His hands were trembling, the blood still flowing out from the wound and the stinging pain that came with it.

He closed his eyes and desperately muttered something in Ancient Hermes.

This language... it was the one found in most of the ancient documents and manuscripts that alluded to the Gobber Ring.

Ancient Hermes was said to have been the chosen language for Greek God Hermes when he spoke to his apostles, hence the name.

As for what Johan said? It was the phrase that had been ingrained inside his mind ever since he acquired the Gobbler Ring.

"I am that I am."

It was the phrase that had been engraved on the Gobbler Ring, and it was the same phrase that those mysterious figures uttered in Dreamland.

Obviously, it held some power.

Back when he first touched the ring, Johan remembered that he had been reading that phrase, right before he was sent to Dreamland.

So... could it have actually been the activation code to reverse the Timeline?

He didn't dare recite it before, after all, there was the risk of him returning all the way to day one.

There was no video game notification telling him when the checkpoint would change, for all he knew, it could even be random.

But in such a situation, what else could he do?

He couldn't lose the ring, he couldn't lose the ring, he couldn't lose the ring.

It needed to be said three times, he couldn't lose it, or else, his entire life up until now might as well been meaningless fiction.

So he uttered those words with conviction.

"I am that I am."

Immediately, a head-splitting migraine shot through his skull as Johan groaned in pain, he reached up and instinctively held his head.

Taking that as a positive sign, he opened his eyes, expecting to find himself back in the accursed parallel dimension that was Dreamland.

However, after doing so, he found that the only thing staring back at him wasn't a faceless naked body, but the pitiful expression of the little creature.

Ah...

He had been wrong.

It wasn't the magical activation code for time travel, it was just the cheat code to inflict a headache on yourself.

"This is embarrassing..." Johan cursed as he stumbled forward, his gaze darkening as he beheld the Beast. "You... you should be able to understand me, right?"

As the undoubtedly weaker party in this situation, there wasn't much Johan could accomplish if he escalated the attack.

So he decided to talk instead.

"If you want... if you want my meat, I'll give an entire arm, but please, give me back that ring." Johan pleaded as he reached out a hand, the same bloodied right hand.

"...Kyu?" The creature seemingly considered that offer, but it shook its head. "Fou."

It probably knew that the ring was more valuable.

"Ugh... shit." He cursed, trying to distract himself away from the pain. "Why do... why do you even want it anyway? Aside from looking pretty, it's more of a hazard to keep around."

It was only useful for its wearer, that being Johan. The fact that the little creature was smart enough to not directly touch the ring meant that it most likely knew of that fact.

"Fou, fou, fou!" The Beast eloquently retorted back. "Fou... kyu!"

"Did you just say fuck you or is that just my ears?" Johan muttered tiredly.

"W-Wait, do you actually want it just because it looks pretty?" It couldn't be, right...?

Unexpectedly, the Beast gave a nod.

Huh...

"Well, if that's the case..." Johan coughed as he walked closer to the Beast. "You.. you can have it!"

It looked surprised, but gratefully nodded its head.

"But can I ask for something in return? After all, it's a family treasure to me..." The Magus reasoned with a pleading tone.

It nodded again. "Fou...?"

"I want to be your slave!"