Static

After annihilating the enemy troops with “Shizuka,” I used my sniper rifle, “Yayoi,” to shoot the guy standing on the castle turret in his eye.

Charlotte, who had been standing beside him, flashed a smile at me before disappearing.

(I’ll kill you last and put a bullet in your skull. Just you wait.)

I vowed as I took refuge in the shade of the stone fort.

My energy was depleting quickly due to using too many skills, one after another.

“...They’re not gonna let me rest, huh.”

The castle gates opened, and a new set of troops marched in.

There were twice as many soldiers as just now. The two units split up and charged at me from both sides.

“Platoon, halt!”

Once again, I used “Tsukasa” to immobilize the soldiers and attacked the unit on the left with “Yachiyo” and “Homura.”

Obviously, ten seconds wasn’t enough to wipe out two units.

While I was busy killing the soldiers to my left, “Tsukasa’s” effect wore off, and the unit to my right came rushing toward me.

It would take another minute before I could use “Tsukasa” again, and I wanted to save my strongest skills for last.

I reached for my giant sword “Daigo” on my back and extended it up to five times its original size.

(Let’s see how far I can go with hand-to-hand combat.)

I grit my teeth and flung myself at the soldiers, prepared to take a few hits.

Screams of anger and blood filled the air as I continued to swing “Daigo” around with all my might.

“Looks like I underestimated the situation.”

I’d suffered a lot more damage than I expected.

My left arm was almost torn off, barely hanging by a piece of skin, and my bones were broken in multiple places.

I’d also lost my right ear and left eye somewhere along the way.

Although I’d been pretty reckless, it wasn’t nearly as bad as when I tried to take on the lizardmen’s lair by myself.

I was truly an idiot back then. Not anymore, though.

As long as I survived, no amount of damage mattered to me.

“Ngh, nghhh!”

I’d bound and gagged one of the female soldiers and dragged her to the fortress.

She was the only one still alive.

The woman writhed on the floor like a caterpillar, glaring at me with hatred in her eyes.

“Do you despise me?”

“Nnngh, nnngh!”

The soldier began thrashing about as if to show her contempt.

“I see. In that case, you should come and kill me someday.”

“Hghhh!”

I took out my inverted cross pendant, “Chika,” which I wore around my neck.

“That was so scary, plus it hurt like hell! I don’t wanna use this skill ever again!!”

I remembered Chika’s words when she used her skill for the first time to save my life.

Despite not wanting to use it, she used her skill repeatedly to save my classmates and me.

I placed “Chika” on the soldier’s forehead.

“Aaaaagh!”

All of my injuries were instantly transferred to the woman.

My right ear and left eye grew back, and the soldier’s ear and eye disintegrated in turn. My left arm, which had been hanging on for dear life, reconnected to my shoulder, and all of my fractured bones healed.

The soldier, who now felt pain in all the places I’d been wounded, writhed about on the ground.

I heaved an exasperated sigh.

“You think that’s painful?”

I said, remembering Chika’s final moments.

“Have fun for me, okay?”

Chika, who had a low tolerance for pain, smiled at me as she took her last breath, her body battered and bruised.

She could’ve transferred her wounds to me, but she didn’t.

Physical damage meant nothing to me compared to the pain of losing my friends.

I removed the gag from the soldier’s mouth.

“Oh god, it hurts, it hurts! Help me, please!”

I stepped on the soldier’s head as she cried and bled.

“Looks like you won’t have your revenge after all.”

I stepped on her harder, determined to crush her skull.

Just then, I heard static in my head.

What was that? All of a sudden, unfamiliar memories flooded my mind.

“Ahem. Testing, testing, one-two-three. Do you copy? Itsuko here.”

“Th-this is Shoko.”

“And this is Mirai. It’s us, Uzattoki.”

I didn’t remember this conversation taking place.

The three of them talked to me from across something like a television screen.

“If you ever feel like crushing an enemy soldier’s skull...”

“You shouldn’t do it.”

“You’ll regret it later on. See you again next week!”

The voices blurred into static, and my memory faded away.

Could it be that they were trying to reach out to me from the past?

Mirai’s clairvoyance skill alone shouldn’t be able to do that.

They had managed to glimpse into the future, skip forward in time, and send me a message.

Had they combined their skills—clairvoyance, flying, and reconnaissance—together?

I paused with my foot still on the soldier’s head and covered my face with my hand.

I’d thought I was long done with crying.

“I’m sorry, everyone...”

I whispered the same words that I said back then.

“Please don’t kill me! I beg you...!”

I began stepping on the woman’s head again as she cried and begged for mercy.

“But there’s no stopping now.”

Using all my strength, I crushed the soldier’s skull.