The sudden curtain of rain caught everyone completely by surprise at that moment.
Fujiwara Chika instinctively raised her hand, trying to block the falling muddy water. Takumi, however, was distracted by the sudden situation, and at that very moment, Kawano abruptly raised his handgun and aimed the muzzle at Takumi.
Bang!
In the next instant, amid the sharp gunshot, a burst of blood sprayed from Kawano's chest. He staggered back a step, staring at Takumi with an expression of utter disbelief.
The enhancement provided by S-rank physical attributes allowed Takumi to complete the draw-and-fire motion even faster despite being momentarily distracted. Although Kawano had also cleared Dusk-level instances more than once, unfortunately this man had only ever achieved a B-rank instance evaluation at best. While his physical attributes had indeed received a significant boost, they were still nowhere near enough when facing Takumi, whose capabilities had already surpassed human limits.
Boom—
In the following moment, the surging muddy water came crashing down like a deluge, instantly slamming all three of them to the ground.
A torrent of mud cascading down from dozens or even hundreds of meters above, pounding into a human body, was nothing that mere rainwater could compare to. Caught completely off guard, Takumi was smashed to the ground by the rushing water, his head slamming heavily against a rock. The instant, intense pain and dizziness nearly caused him to lose consciousness on the spot.
Kawano's situation was even worse. He was almost entirely swept along by the current, his whole body smashed into the ground, then lifted again and hurled against the wall to one side. Blood immediately sprayed out, making it look as though a sharp stone had been driven into his body.
Only Fujiwara Chika had noticed the torrent falling early on. With no time to warn Takumi, she threw herself prone on the ground and protected her head. Combined with the fact that she had not removed her helmet, she narrowly escaped without injury. Even so, the girl struggled to keep her balance amid the violently churning flood. After several desperate attempts, she finally swam over to Takumi, dove beneath him, and braced against his chest, forcing him up out of the water. With his nasal passages finally exposed to the air, Takumi took a deep breath, clenched his teeth, and struggled to maintain his consciousness. Only then was he able to regain control of his body and swim within the rapid current.
Boom, boom, boom—
An even larger surge of floodwater was still crashing down.
In just a few seconds, the lower area beneath the Great Cliff was completely submerged, and the water level was still continuing to rise.
Not only that, because the entrance to the [Blood Vessel] lay at a lower elevation, a whirlpool actually formed there. Takumi's backpack was swept up by the vortex and, in the blink of an eye, dragged straight into the [Blood Vessel]. If a person were caught by that whirlpool and forced into a narrow area like the [Blood Vessel] under such circumstances, the consequences would be unimaginable. Even if they were not forced into the [Blood Vessel] and merely slammed into some rock halfway, it would still be far beyond what players made of flesh and blood could endure.
"Hold on tight."
Takumi reached out and grabbed Chika, shouting a warning to her. Then he suddenly exerted force and actually hurled Fujiwara Chika's entire body up out of the water, throwing her toward a protruding section of rock on the cliff face. The flustered girl failed to steady herself and crashed hard against the stone, but immediately afterward she grit her teeth and held on, using both hands and feet to cling to the protruding rock and climb up.
Right after that, Takumi himself grabbed several jutting stones and, with a burst of strength, hauled himself out of the muddy water. The existence of the [Blood Vessel] slowed the rise of the water level to a certain extent, giving him a brief moment to catch his breath. Just as Takumi thought this and climbed a little higher, Kawano suddenly burst out of the water and seized Takumi's back, dragging his entire body back down into the flood.
'Damn it, this guy—'
Muddy water instantly swallowed his vision.
The violent current relentlessly battered his body, making it difficult for Takumi even to stabilize himself.
[Die for me… just die…]
Amid the chaos, Takumi could hear Kawano's voice. Even within the raging torrent, it was still exceptionally clear and chilling.
He had been controlled by an Obsession Item.
Takumi could sense this from the change in the aura coming off Kawano.
At this moment, Kawano was somewhat similar to Takumi himself during the second run of the Shirakawa Apartments, when he had worn the Rescue Team Badge for too long—gradually undergoing a transformation from human to something eerie. The difference was that Takumi at that time had been able to maintain himself through sheer willpower, whereas Kawano, who clearly lacked such ability, was now completely controlled by the power of the Obsession Item.
No wonder those earlier blows couldn't kill him. This was trouble—especially running into an enemy under these circumstances.
Takumi closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.
Unable to see his opponent clearly within the muddy torrent, Takumi simply stopped trying to look. Instead, he used the blessing that distinguished good, evil, and the inhuman as a locator. Clenching his fist, he suddenly twisted his body and threw a powerful swinging punch straight into Kawano's face, smashing it so hard that his entire face was violently deformed. The grip holding Takumi immediately loosened. Takumi then followed up by kicking him away.
Right after that, Takumi quickly began selecting Obsession Items from his watch. Blood Puppet… this could restrain Kawano immediately, but in this environment, trying to hit the target with a throw was far too difficult; Faceless Head-Eater… no, in his current state he was no longer fully human, so this might not necessarily work; Blood Scissors… it was still the same problem as the Blood Puppet—this kind of weapon that required manipulation was extremely troublesome in a situation like this. Wait—if that was the case, then he should use something with the simplest effect!
[Die for me… just die…]
In the relentlessly rising current, Kawano charged forward once again.
Then Takumi's scalpel cleaved his right hand on the spot, brutally severing it off from the upper arm.
At this moment, the rising water had already submerged the position where Fujiwara Chika was. The girl had no choice but to struggle upward and climb higher. Fortunately, because the Great Cliff was a very famous exploration scenic area, there were many pitons and climbing frames left by explorers on the cliff, allowing the girl to keep forcing herself upward.
On the other side, Takumi was tackled to the ground by Kawano, who now had only one hand. The two of them fell back into the muddy torrent again, swept along as the current slammed them hard into the rock wall to one side. Then Takumi kicked Kawano away. Just as Takumi was about to counterattack, he was struck by a rock falling from above, and in an instant he was smashed down into deep water.
"Takumi-kun!"
Chika had not expected that Takumi, who had been gaining the upper hand in the fight, would be struck by a rock. Startled and panic-stricken, she cried out, only to be immediately splattered all over by falling rubble and clumps of mud.
More rocks of all sizes followed, falling from the top of the cliff, smashing down and knocking Kawano down as well as he struggled to do something else.
Amid the roaring noise, the torrent was growing even more violent. And gradually, Chika discovered in mounting fear that bodies were beginning to surface on the water… no, clothes—the things floating up on the water were pieces of tourists' clothing.
Takumi did not surface from the water.
Fujiwara Chika took a deep breath. Staring at the muddy, turbid water, she released her grip, leapt down from the climbing frame, and jumped straight into it.
Boom, boom, boom—boom, boom, boom—
The dull roar of the current was like thunder, each surge reverberating again and again within the murk.
The beam of her headlamp could not penetrate the muddy water. Fujiwara Chika could only dive as deep as possible, swimming toward the direction where Takumi had fallen, guided by her memory.
Boom, boom, boom—
More and more rubble plunged into the water.
A blood-red color gradually began to replace the dark yellow of the muddy water.
Fujiwara Chika saw Takumi—his body and arms pinned beneath several chunks of rubble, and with Kawano also pressing down on him, choking his neck.
At this moment, Kawano had already become as terrifying as a ghost. Half of his face was drenched in blood, his mouth split open in a feral grin, while the other half of his face had already turned into that of another person—a young man with a bluish complexion, a blank expression, wide-open eyes, and white foam continuously spilling from his mouth.
At this very moment, just as Chika was swimming toward Takumi, that bluish half of the face was actually still able to turn and look at her.
Kawano's face was torn apart like this, a large amount of blood spraying out, revealing the horrifying sight of his flesh and nerves being ripped open alive.
However, immediately afterward, because the eerie entity possessing Kawano had its attention diverted, Takumi broke free from Kawano's grasp in an instant. The scalpel then chopped straight down at his head, from the forehead, through the nasal cavity, and all the way to the chin, almost completely splitting his head in half.
The reason it was only almost was that Kawano's hand had once again grabbed hold of him—or rather, the hand of the out-of-control Obsession possessing Kawano had grabbed him. Moreover, that thing's previously severed hand was already gradually regrowing. Takumi could even see that the newly grown hand was holding a medicine bottle.
It looked like a bottle of sleeping pills.
Was this the Obsession Item that Kawano had used in order to pass through the [Blood Vessel], the one that went out of control and led to him being possessed by the eerie entity?
Boom—
A chunk of rubble about the size of a washbasin fell from above and smashed into Kawano.
His movements faltered for a moment, and at that instant Takumi's left hand had already taken out the Blood Puppet and directly slapped it onto his opponent's body.
Earlier, because the fight had been taking place within the violently surging current, Takumi had not been confident he could restrain the opponent with the Blood Puppet. Now, however, he no longer had that concern. As a result, the Blood Puppet struck cleanly. One after another, horrifying, blood-soaked puppets formed from living humans appeared out of thin air, seized Kawano, and dragged him toward Takumi's side.
The eerie entity controlling Kawano's body could not resist the power of the Blood Puppet, and thus began to be dragged away little by little. Even so, the hand holding the medicine bottle still stretched out in front of Takumi. Immediately afterward, a third hand tore open a hole in Kawano's chest and drilled its way out, grabbing Takumi's mouth and trying to pry it open, intending to force the pills down Takumi's throat.
He needed to find another Obsession Item to restrain this thing's movements.
As Takumi was thinking this and trying to take out another Obsession Item with his left hand, Kawano's leg suddenly shot up, pressing its knee directly against Takumi's left wrist.
This damn thing…
Takumi saw the crazed expression on the remaining half of Kawano's face and understood. In the remnants of his consciousness, this man already knew that he could not survive, and so at the final moment he intended to drag Takumi down with him in death.
Unfortunately, his leg was pinned down by a rock. Still, forcing himself free should be possible—if so…
Pink long hair drew closer amid the swaying light.
Takumi turned his head and saw Fujiwara Chika struggling as she swam up in front of him.
In the girl's hand was a handgun—the same one that had been used earlier when Takumi and Kawano exchanged fire, and that had later been swept away somewhere in the flood. At this moment, she swam up behind Kawano, reached out and grabbed the remaining half of Kawano's head, and pressed the muzzle of the gun directly against the crown of his head.
The muffled gunshots sounded beneath the water, strangely eerie, and even seemed a little comical.
Clearly using a handgun for the first time, the girl exhausted all her strength and pulled the trigger repeatedly. After five shots, she actually broke the trigger. She did not notice at all and continued pulling the trigger more than a dozen times before finally stopping.
After five consecutive bullets were sent into Kawano's brain, even though this man was now possessed by eerie power, such pain was still unbearable. The knee pressing down on Takumi's left hand immediately loosened.
Immediately afterward, Takumi forcibly tore both of his legs free from beneath the rocks pinning him down. Even though the flesh of one ankle was completely shredded, exposing stark white bone, Takumi paid it no mind. He planted both feet against Kawano and kicked him away in a single motion, sending him flying and trapping him completely within the encirclement of countless Blood Puppets, unable to move.
Grabbing Chika's hand, Takumi surfaced in the next moment and quickly swam up to the surface.
By now, blood had flooded more than half of this continually rising pool. When Takumi and Chika emerged from it, both were covered in mud, their bodies riddled with wounds large and small, so filthy that their original appearances were almost unrecognizable.
Swimming over to the cliff face and grabbing the various auxiliary tools left behind by previous explorers, the two of them began to struggle upward, climbing as hard as they could.
The roaring sound of the water grew louder and louder.
Rubble kept falling, plunging into the water below.
Fujiwara Chika glanced back once at the water beneath them and discovered that one bloated corpse after another was floating there. Each one was lifting its head, staring toward her and Takumi. Frightened, she hurriedly turned away and continued climbing upward with all her strength.
Boom—
A large volume of muddy water poured down, almost sweeping Chika off the cliff on the spot.
Takumi reached out and grabbed the girl, pulling her upward as they continued to climb.
Amid flying rubble, the two of them were struck more than once. Under the present circumstances, Takumi had no good solution. He could only do his best to avoid the larger rocks—those that could easily knock them off if they were hit—then grit his teeth and continue dragging Chika toward higher ground.
Just how much farther… was there to go…
The girl's breathing had grown more and more erratic. She was already beginning to lose her strength.
She could not stop…
She could hear the hair-raising cries and pleas for help rising up from below.
If she stopped… she would be caught by those things… but… she was really exhausted… endure it… just endure it a little longer…
Struggling, she continued to climb upward with all her strength, inch by inch pushing herself toward higher ground, fighting her way along the rugged cliff face.
The dark red, blood-tainted water was still steadily rising.
The corpses in the water were letting out ever more piercing sounds.
[Weren't we just playing in a cave? Why did we end up here?]
[Mom, I want to go home, I want to go home, waaa—]
[How long have I been stuck here? It's so dark… so hungry… someone please save me…]
[Where is all this water coming from… no, no, I don't want to die, I don't want to die!]
[Help, someone help us, save us, save us, ahhh—gurgle, gurgle…]
It was as if something was crawling up out of the water, wailing as it tried to follow the movements of the two of them, trying to climb the cliff together with them.
Yet their bodies could not leave the surface of the water, could not truly escape from this place.
Countless corpses piled up within the water.
A fetid stench spread outward.
They were swelling, they were rotting, they were dissolving.
They were left here, wandering endlessly in the darkness, silently melting away within the water.
"Urgh… ha!"
Takumi was the first to reach the top of the cliff. He forcefully tore a thick iron piton, about as thick as a finger, out of the rock face. Gripping it tightly, he then leapt up and drove it hard into the ground. Using this piton to brace himself, he forcibly withstood the violent battering of the flood, then stretched his hand downward toward Fujiwara Chika, who was struggling to follow behind him and was now approaching the limits of her strength, barely able to climb any farther.
"Hurry! Hurry up!"
Takumi shouted loudly at the girl.
Reach out.
Grab the iron pitons and frames left behind by previous climbers.
Endure the burning pain in her arms.
Mustering all her strength, the girl climbed a little farther upward.
Her breathing had become extremely heavy.
Her vision darkened at this moment, almost unable to make out anything at all.
No… she still couldn't stop here…
Takumi was right above… she… had to…
Reach out again.
But she could no longer see where there was anything she could grasp.
Her consciousness was growing muddled.
In her blurred vision, her arms and legs had already lost their strength; she could not even maintain her balance anymore.
Then, something slipped around her wrist and suddenly tightened.
"Hold on tight!"
Amid Takumi's voice, Fujiwara Chika's entire body was lifted into the air, rapidly pulled upward, and brought right in front of him.
It was a blue safety rope—one of the pieces of equipment Takumi carried as an [Explorer]. Because he had deliberately chosen a smaller size that did not take up much space, it usually hung at his waist and went largely unnoticed.
In the critical moment just now, Takumi noticed that Fujiwara Chika's stamina had already been exhausted. Acting in desperation, he tied a slipknot in the safety rope and threw it down. Fortunately, the girl happened to make a reaching motion at that exact moment, allowing him to loop the rope around her hand and pull her in front of him.
With one arm, he held the nearly unconscious Chika against his chest.
Takumi stood up in the turbulent current and moved forward step by step, each stride heavy.
The combined weight of the two of them and his own powerful physical constitution allowed Takumi to forcibly withstand the rushing water, but it also restrained him, leaving him almost unable to make any further movements. Yet at that very moment, beneath the cliff behind them, as the water gradually submerged the area below the cliff completely, Kawano—his body drenched in blood, his head split in two—actually floated up from the water and crawled toward Takumi and Chika.
"Are you a boss from Resident Evil or something? Why do you keep playing this never-ending pursuit?!"
After cursing once, Takumi had no way to spare any more focus. He could only do his best to increase his speed, pushing forward as fast as possible toward the direction of the Big Slide ahead.
The girl held in his arms had by now completely lost consciousness and passed out.
Takumi's own condition was also extremely poor. The wound on his head was still bleeding, his torn ankle was likewise in unbearable pain, and as for the bruises all over his body, they were simply too numerous to count. If not for the power of the blessing easing his pain, Takumi truly could not say how much strength he would still have at this point.
[Why… won't you… let me die…]
From behind Takumi, Kawano, crawling closer step by step, let out a slurred, indistinct voice.
"What the hell are you talking about? I can't wait for you to die right now, okay?!"
Although he knew that it should be the bizarre entity controlling Kawano that was speaking, Takumi still could not hold back and snapped back with a retort.
They were already right in front of him.
Takumi could now see clearly the place ahead—the winding upward area known as the Big Slide.
At this very moment, massive amounts of muddy water were pouring down from above.
And Kawano, who was chasing from behind, had also closed in to a distance where he could reach out and grab Takumi at any moment.
"Phew…"
He took a deep breath and stepped forward again.
Takumi's gaze locked onto a protruding platform not far away on the Big Slide. There was a section on that platform that had not yet been submerged by the current, where it would be possible to rest for a while.
However, judging by his current stamina, it seemed that he might no longer be able to hold out until reaching that spot.
As Takumi was thinking this, he saw a figure stand up on that platform and aim a handgun at him.
"Turn your head."
The other party spoke.
Takumi slightly tilted his head, revealing Kawano, who was relentlessly pursuing him from behind.
Bang!
In the next instant, with the gunshot ringing out, Kawano's body suddenly shuddered, instantly lost all strength, and was swept away by the raging current, falling once again into the dark red pool of water below the cliff.
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