Chapter 8 - Undesirable

His laugh sounded like he was enjoying the current situation, no, it was like he was being sexually aroused.

"..." Rei picked up another knife from the ground, prying it from the inventory of a corpse.

"Fighting till the end, truly commendable, but one could only come so far without the help of magic … that weapon just now, was it a magic tool? It certainly looked like a magic tool, however I felt no magic?"

"Was that what the Travellers called the 'gun'? I can see why it would be the standard weapon in your world, yes, truly interesting …"

"..." Rei hid the knife inside her sleeve, whilst picking another one in her left hand silently.

"Hahaha I see now, you've managed to last this long against me despite being magicless! You, who is incomplete and clearly hated by the gods! It is truly a commendable achievement!" Lionel once again fixed his posture, except his left arm was still dangling around motionlessly, at the next moment something made the hairs on Rei's skill stand up.

"This feeling...is it what they call an adrenaline rush?? I like this feeling … Yuusha, can I go serious for a second?"

Rei stared at Lionel in disgust, and it had seemed like Rei and Lionel's attitudes had suddenly and mysteriously done a big 180°, both imitating each other's previous attitude.

And then, all of a sudden, the atmosphere changed.

It was the feeling of magic converging inside Lionel.

Lionel's rapier coiled around like a spring, the hard and sturdy compressed like a spring until it had no more than a tenth of original length.

His rapier glowed a grey hue, as if sucking the surrounding particles into it.

For Rei every cell in her body only told her one thing, as well as the Essence of Gluttony seemed to be communicating with her.

'Dodge it, at all costs'

That's what it was telling Rei.

Rei picked up the corpse she just looted, as if shielding herself with it, however Lionel paid it no heed.

'It's all useless resistance' is what Lionel believed.

And he had enough reason to believe in his next actions, they were his trump card.

'You wield your strange otherworld weapons which know no orthodoxy or honour, however I was trained by the crown prince himself, wielding my father's sword, formerly wielded by his father before him!'

Ursus took one deep breath before chanting.

"--AND IT HAS NEVER KNOWN DEFEAT!" Lionel thrusted the coiled rapier forward, and screamed–

"Spring Thrust!"

The blade, which was compressed enough to make it look like a short cylinder, thrust at a lightning-fast speed, far surpassing the speed of the bullets which Rei had fired upon him earlier.

With speed almost impossible to see, it cut through the air like a hot knife through butter and pierced Rei's human shield.

However, at that moment, Rei tilted her human shield while the lightning fast blade was still inside of it.

Thus the trajectory of the thrust had been driven off of its original course when it had come out from the other side of the body, grazing Rei's neck.

'A magic spell!'

At the next moment, Rei immediately started closing the distance.

There was no need for any thought, the enemy now had an increased range, and keeping distance was now no longer a viable solution.

'I need to kill him as quickly as possible!' Rei thought, paying no heed to anything else despite the risks, seeing this situation as one she couldn't run from any longer.

"HAHA YOU'VE MANAGED TO AVOID THAT! HOWEVER IT'S NOT OVER!" Lionel screamed.

His blade retracted, once again forming a compressed spring, it was then that the words 'Spring Thrust' were repeated on clockwork and started stabbing and retracting multiple times, ignoring the rapidly closing distance, instead welcoming it as it made her an easier target.

"Spring Thrust! Spring Thrust! Spring Thrust! Spring Thrust! Spring--"

Rei relied on nothing but sheer luck and instinct to guess which part of her 'shield' the blade was going to stab through, but unfortunately since her luck was literally almost non-existent, she had to rely on technique instead, by guessing the trajectory of the stab with only Lionel's hand movements alone, adding in extra risk as she exposed her head to attack.

Rei started to close the distance, still shielding herself with the corpse she picked up, as she could not change the trajectories fast enough while flailing her arms around, her wounds accumulated, however that did not stop Lionel from spamming Spring Thrust just like a mediaeval keyboard warrior.

Lionel did not even bother using other magical attacks, as the sight of Rei attempting to close in and defending against his snipes filled him with ecstasy.

'This insane bastard!' Rei cursed inwardly.

Once Rei was within arms reach of Lionel she immediately hit his head with the corpse she was carrying, and as Lionel fell down he lost grip of his rapier, Rei then took out her knife and tried to stab Lionel's forehead on the ground using her left hand, however Lionel moved in accordance in order to counter such a movement and Rei's knife hit the stone floor, putting some distance between the two figures.

Lionel then moved his hand, grabbing Rei's arm with the intent to crush it with his own brute strength, and that made Rei let go of her knife thus prompting Lionel to switch their positions.

Rei was now lying on the ground with Lionel on top, however Rei took out her second knife with her right hand and went on to stab Lionel's neck.

"Animate Flesh!" Ursus shouted.

And in the next instant, Lionel's left hand which was supposed to be immobilised made a cracking sound grabbing Rei's wrist and then prompting her to attempt to ease Lionel's grip with her left hand.

Lionel, now with his free right hand then grabbed the first knife that Rei dropped on the floor, holding the knife in his right hand in a reverse grip, and then brought it down to Rei's neck with all of the force he could muster, which Rei stopped using her hand, and unable to have enough leeway to grab the blade by its sides, she let the blade run through her hand itself, cold steel piercing through her delicate flesh.

"FUUUUUUUUU-" Rei screamed with a closed mouth, her face visibly contorted in pain.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU TRULY ARE THE BEST YUUSHA!"

The knife in Lionel's right hand that was embedded through Rei's palm forced her to close her eyes due to the blood getting in her eyes; however she did not put in any less strength in her hands for all sorts of obvious reasons.

However Lionel's right hand slowly descended despite Rei's effort, since aside from Rei just being vastly physically weaker than Lionel, she had also been worn out because of injuries and fatigue.

However, just in the nick of time, under what would have seemed to be Rei's unavoidable death, something unexpected occurred.

"GET OFF OF HEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!"

A figure wearing a Japanese highschool student uniform charged towards Lionel, bumping into him and knocking him off Rei, and then after looking at Rei to check if she was still alive, the figure then proceeded to pick up a sword on the ground which he awkwardly held.

Needless to say, it was Hiro, the First Hero.

"Who dares!?" Lionel recovered rather quickly and stood up on his feet, his face looking enraged, however when he saw the person in front of him his expression turned completely different in an instant.

"Why are you doing this!?" Lionel shouted, his face dyed in confusion.

'Why is he even here, did he somehow escape his escorts!?' Lionel thought, gritting his teeth in what could be said to be pure frustration.

"Hero! Please leave! It's dangerous here!" Lionel's attitude had once again reverted back to his knightly self.

It was different if he was alone with his prey, however if there was somebody else in the room alongside him.

The innocents simply took priority first.

'Thou shalt not put the innocents in danger.' The first code of the Malthan Chivalry Codex.

"What do you mean it's dangerous!? All I see is a knight trying to kill a defenceless woman!" Hiro snapped back, rage clear in his voice.

'Does everybody think that she's a defenceless girl!?' Lionel cursed.

He picked up his rapier and held it in his hand.

"No, that's wrong! She's a monster! She killed all these people!" Lionel replied, closely inching towards Hiro.

"Huh? What the hell do you mean? Rei, is this true!?" Hiro asked Rei who was slowly getting up, her right hand wiping the blood away from her eyes and then quickly answered back.

"I didn't do such a thing! I was just taken down here with some escorts when he just suddenly arrived! He killed everybody who was with me, and then they told me to come to this chamber, and then he followed me and slaughtered everyone else who was left! Even though everyone was so nice to me …" Rei said, sniffling as she faked tears, holding the wound on her hand, making sure Hiro could clearly see it.

"Why you!" Hiro looked back at Lionel, who was now simply looking at all of this with shock imprinted on his face.

Rei lied as naturally as she breathed, and despite her being a girl that at her core, was prone to falling to her emotions, even back on Earth her acting skills were polished to a degree that even actors from the old days of Hollywood would have to acknowledge her superiority.

"--he killed all those people just because I made Princess Vitorja collapse! Even being a yandere has its limits!" Rei exclaimed.

The lies that she layered on top of another were so ridiculous, however it was clear that Hiro had already made his choice, and that anything Lionel said would only further damage the situation.

But even still …

"Hero just please trust me on this!" Lionel pleaded.

"Shut it! You're a liar! I will report this to the King, and I will make sure you'll pay for all the deaths of the people you've murdered!" He snapped back, not taking anything Lionel said.

Rei was already on her own feet, and went directly behind Hiro, acting like a damsel in distress despite fighting with such competence earlier.

'I don't have enough time for this! I'll just evade anything the Hero dishes out and then incapacitate him, he'll understand sooner or later regardless!' Lionel thought, seeing Rei recover.

'Fleeting Rush!' He used a special ability, quickly closing the distance between him and Hiro.

However, as soon as Lionel was inside Hiro's reach, something unexplainable happened ...

Nobody who even had a slither of goodness left in them would ever think about what happened next.

A bladelike object invaded Lionel's solar plexus, accurately hitting his vital points and it went all the way through him and protruded from his back.

It wasn't like it was Hiro who had stabbed him, as Lionel would have simply made null any moves that Hiro had done as he could tell that Hiro was simply an inexperienced brat, very much unlike Rei.

No, rather the long blade came out from his abdomen before striking Lionel.

"Wha--" Hiro was in disbelief, however that did not last long as the light in his eyes disappeared, fully indicating that he had already left this world. He had died without knowing exactly what happened to him.

However Lionel, who was very much alive even after having stabbed in one of his vital points, a testament of his inhuman endurance as a knight.

"Spring Thrust … was it? It's a rather nice technique, I think I'll take it, as well as everything else you've shown me." Rei said casually, her face peeking out of Hiro's back, grinning at Lionel who was basically living on borrowed time..

"You … bastard ..." Lionel said, coughing out blood as she glared daggers at Rei.

'Was that luck? Was that actually luck?'

Rei didn't have anything that could even be considered as a sword, and instead in her left hand was a rapier that could stretch longer than a spear at lightning-speed that was made of an unknown material originated from the still-bleeding hole on Rei's palm … it was her first manifestation of Aether.

And in her right hand … was a human heart.

Hiro's chest was caved in, his ribs looked sucked in and the colour of his face looked very pale even though he just died seconds ago.

As if someone had ripped out his heart from his back with their bare hands.

'I think I figured it out … nourishment absorption absorbs about half from the heart … well it's a rough estimate but I'll do more tests later.' Rei thought as she ate Hiro's heart in one bite, the corners of her mouth extending from ear to ear as she did so, a scene that perfectly depicted the true horror of the kind of creature that Rei had become.

In an instant, she felt reinvigorated and much stronger from the heart she just ate, the clear taste difference from the few humans she had eaten before.

[You have eaten a Hero's Heart.]

"You … MONSTER! You killed him!" Ursus shouted as his own consciousness was already fading away.

"Hmmmmm? But you were the one who killed him though?" Rei answered casually.

"What...shit are you spouting out?" Ursus retorted, barely holding on to whatever was left of his dear life.

"Because of you, Because you didn't finish me fast enough, and because you let your emotions play with you, your 'Hero' is dead, and there are only three left. Did your mother not ever tell you to not play with your food?" She asked him in a mocking tone.

"Don't you...talk...about--"

'--mother like that!' or so he tried to say, but his voice wouldn't come out.

"When food is being fed right in front of you, You have to eat it all...as fast as possible, before the one who fed it to you changes their mind." She said, really going off on infuriating Lionel in his final moments as much as possible.

Rei then proceeded to retract her Aether, and the hole on her hand was quickly plugged up, as if a hole had never existed there before.

And before both bodies hit the ground, Rei tore off Lionel's rapier from his cold and dead body, taking it as a trophy, and then ripped his heart out, consuming it.

'This one … is of a vastly lower quality compared to Hiro's … however it's still a cut above the rest of the ones I've eaten.'

"Or so I say, but I like to play with my food too, it...amplifies the flavour you know?" Rei thought as she looked towards Lionel, laughing, and then finally looking at Hiro's corpse.

She didn't really feel anything, but Rei didn't really feel any pleasure, despite the outstanding taste that his heart delivered.

"I can at least give you this …" Rei knelt, and closed his eyes, before standing up and turning around.

"Well, that's goodbye for me then." Rei said, not really meaning much with those words, looking away and finally intending to leave … or that was until another unexpected thing happened.

'!?'

A steel blade, stemming from her own chest, piercing her body suddenly came into her view.

"I could say the same to you as well." A voice, one that clearly came from a man of old age said from behind her.

"The name is Sebastian, a Traveller, a servant of the King of Maltha, and an operative of '■■■■■'."