Chapter 69

“AAAAAAH!”

The roar that erupted from Flam’s still regenerating mouth, and the finger bullets she fired.

“OOOOOOOH!”

Luke let out an irritated cry, held out his palm, and twisted the space to intercept the attack. The forces collided and canceled each other out in mid-air. Taking advantage of the moment, he quickly closed in on Flam. Her vision had yet to return. In the darkness, she relied on sound alone and fired her regenerating left finger. It slashed her cheek, pierced her shoulder, and stabbed her throat. But Luke deliberately took the hits to get up close to Flam.

“OOOOH!”

Then he thrust his left arm, which was rotating, straight into the center of her face.

“AAAAAAH—”

Flam, extending her left arm without fingers, took the blow head-on. BZZT! The power exploded. They were both repelled, but her wrist was torn off by the impact. She quickly regained her stance and launched another spiral punch at Flam’s head. This time, she guarded with her right arm, and her flesh and blood scattered. She had no more hands to guard with. But instead of retreating, Flam stepped forward. Her left arm, which had lost everything above the wrist, approached Luke’s right side. But just before it touched him—GUGU, GUCHA, her arm began to rotate. She had set a trap, anticipating the attack. So Flam’s sacrifice didn’t reach him... or so it seemed.

“AAAAAAH!”

A scream and a burst. Magic concentrated at the elbow, inverting the inside and outside, and launched her left arm like a cannonball.

“O... OHH!?”

It broke through the force field surrounding Luke’s body and embedded itself in his side. Blood gushed from the wound above Flam’s elbow, where her arm had been severed. But for her, who had already lost her humanity, it was a minor matter. She extended her right arm, concentrating magic at the elbow, and—

“...Ah.”

Her brain regeneration completed. Regaining her senses, she looked at her arm, remembered what she had been about to do, and what she had been doing—and, hesitating, turned her back on the stunned Luke and ran with all her might. It was a golden opportunity; if she had launched her right arm, she could have inflicted even more damage. But more than that, she couldn’t accept what she had done. She had killed people, sacrificed her body in battle, and often mocked herself for becoming inhuman, even if it was due to the curse. But this—converting a part of her body into an attack—was something she had never done—

“Oh... oh, no... no, really, no more...!”

Tears welled up in Flam’s eyes as she watched her left arm regenerate and return to its original shape. What she hated was that once she recognized it, there was no going back. A close- to mid-range attack with quick movements and minimal preparation, different from knight swordsmanship and inversion magic. It was an excellent option in combat. That’s why—she incorporated the tactic of using her body as a weapon into her strategy. If she hadn’t used it, hadn’t recognized it, she wouldn’t have resorted to such a monstrous method.

“Even now, of course...!”

Flam pressed her hand against the wall and looked down at the ground, her vision blurred by tears. This was her feminine side. Or perhaps it should be called “age-appropriate human nature”—a boundary she had set for herself, though it was “too late” as she often said. She had long known she wasn’t a normal human. Perhaps the absence of Milkit, her mental support in the capital, was also a factor.

She had allowed herself to be hurt by others. She had attacked and used that to catch them off guard many times. But using her own power to injure her own body in battle was different—

Ah, was this just “getting used to it”? Would she eventually accept it as “no big deal”? But if she did, even if she defeated Origin and returned to a normal life—could she really live a normal life?

Thinking about the distant future was pointless, she knew. But the hope waiting for her in the future was what kept her going through tough times. The happy days where no one would try to kill her were what kept her running towards that goal. Without that light, her feet would stop.

Even if it was a sweet thought, Flam told herself she must not stray from the path of humanity. But even so, the fact that there was no going back remained unchanged. If she was cornered again, the sane Flam would likely use her fingers and arms as bullets by her own will.

“...It’s no use complaining. Anyway, right now—”

There was nothing to do but fight. GROOOOOOO— A rumbling sound approached from a distance. He was probably creating another rock drill and firing it at the invisible Flam. GUGOOON! The wall behind her crumbled, and a spinning boulder appeared. She leaped over it without using inversion and drew her sword in mid-air.

“HAAAAAAA!”

She swung Soul Eater and released an Anti-Ki Sword Slash. Luke, as if anticipating her move, fired a spiral bullet from his extended fist. They collided, and a shockwave spread. Flam, amidst the blowing wind, landed and slammed the blade of her greatsword into the ground. An Anti-Ki Sword Storm. A storm of prana imbued with inversion magic erupted. But it didn’t reach Luke. Flam understood that. The purpose was not to attack but to detect the traps that were likely set. BZZT, BZZZZT! The inversion magic reacted, and the positions were visualized. Knowing the locations, Flam charged at Luke.

“OOOOOOH—”

Fists thrust, swords swung. The rotational force was canceled by the Ki Sword Slash, and the distance between them rapidly closed. Flam leaped in front of her enemy and brought down both arms like iron blocks. FON! The sword cut through the air. Luke, dodging to the side, immediately attacked with his rotating left arm. The spiral punch collided with the raised blade and scattered. They both staggered from the impact. Flam’s skull distorted from the shock. She kicked off the ground and lunged forward, and Luke immediately used his rotational force against her. Flam performed a backflip in mid-air. Luke, about to guard the blow from above with his left arm,—

Just before contact, Soul Eater disintegrated into particles and disappeared. Flam, landing on the ground, delivered a hand strike to his abdomen. And just before her fingertips touched—

“Fire away!”

She launched all five fingers, embedding them. The pain distorted her expression, but the damage she inflicted was greater on Luke.

“O... OHH...!”

He groaned. But he quickly counterattacked, reaching out with an invisible right arm created by rotational force. Flam tried to block it with her left arm, but it was beyond what human flesh could endure.

“Explode!”

At that moment, the inversion magic activated. She infused magic into her arm just before it was severed—

PAAAN! It exploded from the inside just after separating, right in front of Luke’s face. The shockwave blew them apart again. Her fingers regenerated. Flam, regaining her stance, drew Soul Eater with her right hand and approached, scraping the ground. Just as she was about to swing, a force field Luke had set twisted her wrist.

“Guh, again!?”

She couldn’t swing her sword. This time, Luke approached her, aiming his spiral arm. Flam transmitted magic to her feet and activated inversion. The ground beneath his feet flipped over. Luke’s body tilted, but the swirling force field shattered the ground, and he wasn’t crushed. But it created an opening. Flam, without hesitation, aimed her twisted right arm, “Since the regeneration time is the same anyway,” and launched the wrist and above in pieces. Bone fragments and frozen flesh pieces, dozens of projectiles, pierced Luke’s deformed body. Each hit made his body tremble, and he groaned, “O, OHH.”

After launching all the projectiles, she drew her sword with her left hand.

“Got you!”

The tip of the sword caught Luke’s heart. He tried to block it with his arm, but it was too late. The black blade and the black crystal inside his body clicked together.

“Reversal!”

The inversion magic flowed. Origin’s spiral began to reverse, generating “negative energy.” The crystal couldn’t withstand it and shattered into two pieces.

“O... OHH...!”

His red, fibrous body began to dissolve. His left arm, which had been spinning violently, stopped and hung limply. Flam, confident that the battle was over, watched as Luke’s face partially returned to its human form—

“Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, 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