Lawful Murder (5)
"Where are you?"
The steel cable hooked to the skull's finger rippled, and Natasha's speed picked up.
"There—right corridor."
The Smodo on Natasha's arm tracked Crouch's movements through the Cleansing Gaze.
"He went far. What's over there?"
"Nothing. He's trying to put as much distance between him and us as possible. This could be dangerous."
Since they were moving away from Habitz's apartment, it was obvious some unknown intent had been triggered.
"Turn left here."
Natasha pivoted at a right angle and sprinted down the long gallery.
"It's a trap."
"Probably. But not for us. We have to check."
They reached the underground prison beneath Imperial Marsak—the dead-end at the lowest level.
"He's here."
Crouch greeted them, holding a severed head in one hand.
"How is someone alive with their neck cut off?"
Natasha said, awestruck, while Smodo felt the situation's gravity.
"What are you up to?"
The severed head snapped its eyes open.
"Nothing. I'm only looking for a place to die."
"Is that so?"
"Grab him. Don't kill him," Smodo said.
Natasha's body seemed to evaporate, and she reappeared wearing Crouch's face.
Whooooosh!
That alone sent a gale crashing through the underground cell.
'No chance in a straight fight.'
Knowing Natasha's skill, Crouch willingly surrendered his face.
"Interesting. How are you going to kill him, though?"
As Natasha held up the face, the corner of Crouch's mouth twitched.
"Come to think of it, I never mentioned this."
At the same instant, the headless body lunged and drove a dagger into Natasha's abdomen.
"I needed someone to accompany me to the afterlife." The dagger's unique aura pressed hard against Smodo's Cleansing Gaze.
'Is that an object?' Smodo realized instantly.
"Damn—It's 〈법살〉!"
In the room lined with perverse implements, the heavy breathing of a man and a woman made the air hot.
Even as they shared a deep kiss, Alphapish and Abella couldn't bring themselves to hate Habitz.
I can't let this go. If the mission fails… For her, killing Habitz wasn't a simple desire but a duty—a will to repay what had been taken, the innocent life that died in her stead.
"Mister, let's begin."
Abella shoved at Habitz's chest and he collapsed onto the blood-red bed.
Climbing over his body, she pulled the chain shackle hooked to the iron head and clipped it onto his left hand.
Habitz let out a small, amused chuckle. Abella pressed a soft, tormenting kiss to him.
'This time the right hand.'
The chain scraped.
"Ugh—!"
Through the handle of 〈법살〉 Crouch felt a solid resistance and shuddered.
'Feels like stabbing rock.'
Although aimed at the heart, the muscles there clamped down on the blade like stone.
"Is he a doll, so he won't die?" Natasha drew Crouch's face nearer, as if indifferent to the blade in her belly.
"No. If that were all, you'd just smash the doll. You have multiple lives, don't you?"
Crouch stabbed with all his strength, yet the dagger still protruded more than halfway.
"So you're ultimately weak. If you were strong, you'd have used the same method I did."
Natasha was also a doll, but she was certain she could not be destroyed.
"How many lives? It can't be infinite. If you die now, do you come back? Want to test it?"
Natasha asked while studying Crouch's eyes, then smiled as if she'd reached a conclusion.
"This is the last one, right?"
"Natasha, don't be reckless," Smodo said.
The 〈법살〉 is rated humanity's worst weapon.
Lawful murder. This isn't something to sort out here.
Even seeing it for the first time, Smodo knew the dagger's bloody history demanded caution.
"Answer honestly. What are you planning? What is the intent sealed into 〈법살〉?"
When Crouch stayed silent, both of Natasha's arms swelled.
"Ugh—!"
The head caught between her hands cracked and collapsed like a burst balloon.
'The face's bones are steel, and yet—what monstrous strength.'
Under the control of an avatar, Natasha's physical limits meant nothing.
"Smodo, what do we do? He doesn't seem to feel pain. We can't even torture him."
"No. This is enough."
Smodo made his decision.
"Leave him like this. 〈법살〉 rewrites the Law. As long as it's embedded in your chest, nothing will happen."
"Ah, is that so?"
Despair filled Crouch's eyes.
"Hold here. I'll tell Balkan. If Abella—"
Ding. Ding. Ding.
As Smodo turned, a bell beyond the wall tolled midnight.
"Kukukuku."
Crouch's mouth split into a grotesque grin.
"I win."
"Natasha! Kill him!" Smodo shouted.
At once all her fingers extended, and as if squeezing juice out, Natasha crushed Crouch's skull.
'Nice muscles.'
At the edge of death, Crouch twisted the dagger's handle with every last ounce of strength.
'Even better muscles.'
So firm they could have shrugged off an arrow, the muscles made the dagger snap with a metallic ring.
'This isn't a person killing him. The situation kills him.'
Crouch's body thudded down. Only then did Natasha glance toward her own chest.
"Smodo—the dagger…"
The blade that had been buried there thinned like a mirage and dissolved into the air.
"What? What Law is that!"
Everyone knew 〈법살〉's effects, but only Minerva truly understood its workings.
There was no point shouting at a dead man, so Smodo turned and left the underground prison.
"I have to tell Balkan!"
Natasha snatched him like a swallow and ran after him.
"Are you ready?"
Abella's mischievous voice made Habitz's face twist with something like pleasure.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
The bell tolled midnight.
'It begins.'
As if under a faint hypnosis, the chime made her blood boil.
"Yes. Everything is ready."
Having bound Habitz's limbs, Abella wedged his waist between her knees and sat up straight.
"Heh heh heh, a woman riding the Emperor. So… what will you do now?"
"If you wait, you'll see."
Her voice was cold, but Habitz treated it like amusement and nodded.
'The bell means—'
In some way, Crouch had vanished.
'〈법살〉…'
By stabbing Natasha, the target must have been switched and the user's murderous intent reset.
'It must have shattered.'
The 〈법살〉 Crouch risked his life to destroy would search out the closest user who hated the target most…
"Mister."
Abella tightened her grip.
"I'm sorry."
Holding the dagger reversed, Abella looked down at Habitz with a cold stare.
He blinked up at the vertically poised blade that seemed ready to pierce him at any moment.
"This isn't the game I had in mind." There was clear murder in Abella's eyes.
"You did a lot for me. You freed me from the fate of a witch, and I could open a pretty shop…"
The tip of the dagger trembled.
"But you've killed so many people. And you'll keep doing it—"
"Shh."
Abella flinched as he shrugged. Habitz slowly nodded and said, "If that's how you feel, then do it."
A vast terror seized Abella.
'What am I doing right now?'
If she were an adult walking a tightrope, it felt like the rope had snapped and she was falling toward infinite freedom.
"I will kill you!"
"I know. That's what you want."
No.
'I don't want to! He's a bad man, so he should die…'
What she truly wanted was—
'I don't know. I don't know what I should do!'
Who was Habitz, really? Did she have the right to kill him…?
'Who gives that right!'
If she killed him, what would happen to the world?
'I don't know anything!'
Perfect chaos.
For the first time since birth, Abella broke from the Law and trembled at the vast freedom.
"Your Majesty!"
With a crash the door burst open and Gustaf IV's entire retinue stormed into the room.
Everyone stood frozen—what they had imagined paled before the sight itself.
"Balkan."
Habitz turned his head.
"I told you no one was to come in. Today is mine and Abella's night."
"What are you talking about? You're about to die."
"Leave."
Habitz looked back up at the dagger.
"If I die, Abella becomes Emperor. Let her do as she pleases. She could turn the whole world into a flowerbed if she wants."
Zetaro chuckled and shrugged.
"Ha! That's hilarious—turning the world into a flowerbed."
Balkan, as a close friend who wanted his buddy to have his private first night with his wife, could hardly object.
"Understood."
With an almost hollow "Understood," they left, the other three following. The door shut.
'What? They actually left?'
"Abella."
Startled, she turned.
"Do what you want. Make yourself comfortable. There are things I've wanted to do for you for a long time."
"Ugh—! Ugh—!"
Her eyes burned hot.
"Why—why are you good to me? You've killed so many people! Why are you only like this with me?"
"Because we're friends."
The reason was simple.
"Sometimes when friends have too much fun together, you end up killing and getting killed."
Something that had held her together until now snapped in Abella's mind.
She bowed her upper body like a drawn bow and raised the dagger.
"Arghhhhh!"
With a ripping scream she curled and drove 〈법살〉 in deep.
Habitz didn't even blink.
As the blade grazed his ear and struck the bed, it suddenly began to vibrate violently.
"Grrk!"
The instant Abella let go, 〈법살〉 shattered.
'W-why?'
Kashan, Aganos—
"Uorin."
Minerva had burst through the door with her dagger, and there stood Uorin, holding the fragments of a porcelain doll.
"...She couldn't come back," Minerva said.
Even Minerva's blade hadn't cleaned up for her this time.
"If even one remained, I'd have retired it."
"To him, retirement would have been death. Let's call it the finest retirement ceremony."
Uorin gathered the shards carefully.
"How's Marsak?"
Minerva gave a thumbs-up. "Target extraction succeeded. Alphapish seems to have completed the mission properly."
"Good."
As Uorin rose, a grave resolve settled onto her face.
"Kando, assemble the 〈법살〉 team and the Ex Machina team. The real fight starts now."
"Understood."
Thus began the plan to assassinate Habitz.