Mock's hideout was being swallowed by a dark, transparent red. It was covered in a substance that looked like both a plant and an inorganic crystal.
Inside, there was a hollow space. A man was crouching there. In that abnormal space, the man was alive. He lay there with his limbs bound, unable to move. It was the man who had appeared from Pejjo's photograph.
The girl looked down at the man. With a sweep of her hand, the man's restraints were severed in a single stroke. However, even though he was free, the man took no action. With hollow eyes, his mouth—now freed from its gag—muttered monologues in a voice like a mosquito's buzz.
The girl struck with her hand again. The man's head was severed from his torso.
Wasn't it that she wanted to save that man? Wasn't that why she had displayed such power? In the end, she killed them all. I couldn't bear to look at the man who had become a silent corpse, so I looked away. As if responding to that rejection, the video on the monitor cut out.
I had been watching every single one of the girl's actions through this monitor. I had also seen Pejjo and Mock being transformed into incomprehensible entities. Apparently, this monitor displayed exactly what the girl saw.
I was in an unfamiliar place. It was a room as large as a concert hall. The floors and walls were made of steel plates. There were no windows, no proper lighting to speak of, and red lamps installed on the walls here and there dimly illuminated the surroundings. On the desk sat several old, boxy computers. The monitor I had been looking at until a moment ago was one of them.
My body had become the girl's. My original form was nowhere to be found, and I couldn't feel any connection to it. Immediately after I had resolved to save the man from the photo, an abnormality had appeared in this body. Without understanding what that meant, I found myself in this place when I realized it. When the flash of Pejjo's camera hit me and my vision cleared, I was already standing in this room.
I suspect that camera has a function that sucks in the person it photographs. The man in the photo must have been captured in the same way. It's a ridiculous story, but since I know my common sense isn't very useful here, I can't say it's impossible.
If so, is this the world inside the camera? What was the scene shown on that monitor? Was it just my delusion, and in reality, are Pejjo and Mock still alive and well?
Because the images on the monitor were so shocking, I ended up staring, but it's about time I thought about leaving. I don't know if I can get out, but I should make the effort. I don't want to be in a place like this forever.
The room, lit by the dark red lamps, was overflowing with creepy things. Oval-shaped capsules were stuck to the floor and walls. They broke easily when touched, and something semi-solid oozed out. They looked like the eggs of something, but I didn't feel any sign of life in any of them.
I walked toward the back of the room. The ground beneath my feet swayed slightly. It swayed left and right at regular intervals. It felt as if the entire floor were moving. Perhaps this place is inside a ship floating on water.
After walking for a while, I saw a door. If things went easily and this was the exit, that would be great, but I don't think escaping will be that simple. For now, I open the door.
"Oh, hello."
Something was there.
It was peeking at me through the gap in the slightly open door. It seemed as though it had been standing there from the beginning, waiting for the door to open.
It was a girl with exactly the same appearance as me. The surreal feeling, as if I were being spoken to by myself in a mirror, sent something cold down my spine.
I instinctively backed away, wanting to turn and run back the way I came. But when I looked back, the wide room from before was gone, replaced by a small room I had never seen. I had been trapped in a narrow room with no escape before I knew it, as if I had been driven into a dead end.
"I'd appreciate it if you could open this for me."
The girl pointed to the gap in the door. The door was held by a chain lock. Unless the chain was removed, the door wouldn't open any further. It seemed the girl didn't intend to force her way in. I regained a little of my composure.
"...Fine, stay that way then. I just wanted to talk for a bit. By the way, the message I sent was helpful, wasn't it?"
A message. I thought about the word, which seemed to have no context.
"I wrote 'Save them' in blood to tell you, didn't I? Following that advice, you brilliantly brought out the power of this body and defeated those despicable Hunters."
The girl said that everything I saw on the monitor really happened. Then what is this place I'm in now? Where is this, and who is the girl in front of me?
"This is inside your dream, and I'm just a part of that dream. Don't worry, once you wake up, your usual daily life will be waiting for you."
That's a lie. There's no way a delusion in a dream could move the girl's body in reality and leave a message in blood.
"You really worry about the small details, don't you? It's a dream, so it's not strange for contradictions like that to occur."
The girl was trying to dodge the question. It didn't seem like she would answer even if I pressed further.
"More importantly, what matters is the power given to you. You understand how to use it now, right? Just think about saving someone. It's a power you can't use for yourself. And the target you save must be someone you truly want to save."
Rather than how to use it, I wanted her to tell me the true identity of that power first.
"Identity? You don't need to worry about that. Does the will to save someone need a reason? If I had to put it into words, it's the noblest, most precious spirit of self-sacrifice in the world. You want to live not as an ant, but as a human. If so, could there be a more human-like spirit than this?"
Everything she said sounded like nothing but hollow platitudes. In the first place, if everything I saw on the monitor just now was true, what this girl did was just a massacre. She didn't save anyone.
"I saved him. I gave the mercy of death to the man who was suffering from poison and begging to be killed. I gave him freedom and then left the choice to him. While he could have just died on his own if he wanted, I went out of my way to get my hands dirty and release him from his suffering."
That's just self-righteousness. It only seems like an excuse for killing.
"Then let me ask you, what do you think the salvation you should have given that man was? Should you have just left him there? Should you have told him to keep living and enduring pain that made him wish for death? Or would you have taken him to a hospital? Are you saying you would have supported him through a painful medical struggle, hand in hand?"
She was being overly extreme. But as a practical matter, a line has to be drawn regarding how much one involves themselves with another. If I had been there, I would have left the man alone. It's harsh, but he wasn't someone I was so attached to that I'd want to save him no matter what, and I don't have the luxury of taking care of anyone right now. Since his life was saved, that would be as far as I could go. No matter how much I compromised, the most I could do would be to take him to town and call an ambulance.
That is the salvation I think of, but whether he would truly be saved is a different matter. If he truly wished for death from the bottom of his heart, could ignoring that be called salvation? Isn't it just for my own convenience because I don't want to be involved in a killing?
"Don't think too hard. Everyone has things they can and cannot do. What's important is to do the best you can with what you have. You have that power. It's a special power only for you, something a normal human could never do. In the name of salvation, you can transform into an invincible hero."
Why are you so obsessed with saving? This power can only be used to save. How did this power come to be, and how am I able to use it?
"Why, how... what good does it do to know that? It's just like a god who gives you a cheat ability. By the time you're reading the second chapter, it won't even be in the back of your mind. The only important thing is the fact that you gained power. How did you feel when you defeated Mock? When you pierced that crazy old man's gut and changed him into that pathetic sight, it must have felt amazing. They were evil. And you, who help the weak and crush the strong, are good. For evil, there is sin; for sin, there is punishment. The embodiment of poetic justice strikes with the hammer of righteousness. That is the meaning of gaining power."
She seemed to be answering, but in reality, she wasn't answering anything. Just listening to the girl's words made my heart feel restless and unsettled.
"Well, this time it certainly was an unpleasant scenario... but next time will go better. Oh, it will go well."
She had no intention of having a conversation with me. Everything was complete within her. She was just talking at me one-sidedly. I see; if she really is just a delusion I created, then she might not know anything specific from the start and simply can't speak of it.
A personification of an immature sense of justice, created by my deep psychology to affirm power and rationalize murder.
But even so, I wanted to ask one last thing. If this is my dream and the girl is just a part of it.
Who am I, the one seeing this dream?
"You are the 'King'. You were given that role and were the only one allowed to be born from this hell."
Those words jumped into my ears, though I had given up on getting a proper answer. When I tried to question the true meaning of it, the other side of the door suddenly became noisy.
"Did I talk too much? The Queen is angry."
Several figures appeared from the other end of the hallway. They all had the same face, the same body. Girls who looked exactly like me were swarming in.
I closed the door. There was no light in this room. The faint light that had been coming in from outside the door was cut off, leaving only pitch-black darkness.
"It's no use running. Even if you deny me, the result won't change. You gained power. Once you have it, you'll eventually have no choice but to rely on it. You will definitely return to this place."
The sound of many footsteps approached. In front of the locked door, I held my breath and waited for the storm to pass.
"Well, see ya."
With those final words, I could no longer hear anything. The sound stopped as if it had vanished. I could see nothing, hear nothing, and was left alone in the dark, narrow little room.
---
I can hear birds chirping. When I open my eyes, I see a sparrow walking quickly past me.
There is nothing wrong with the girl's body. Since she was sleeping naked on the snow, it's quite cold, but not enough to freeze to death. I think frostbite-like damage is being automatically healed.
This place is definitely reality. My bug body was also nearby. My main body woke up as soon as my consciousness returned. It seems I was able to return safely.
What on earth was that place I was looking at just now? Was it the world inside the camera, or just a dream? Either way, one thing is clear.
There were two giant red objects. Several spherical cactus-like lumps were connected and growing from the ground like a great tree that looked over a thousand years old. However, the texture was more like a hard, shining mineral crystal than a plant.
If my memory is correct, these are Mock and Pejjo. As I thought, what happened while I was dreaming was real. The girl left my control and completely shut down the enemies with terrifying power.
The red plants that showed such rapid growth have stopped for now. The flowers that were firing seeds like bullets are also silent. I don't know if this is still alive or dead, but I don't think it can be returned to a human form.
It's true that I was saved by this power. If not, I would have been killed. But there is a horror that prevents me from being purely happy. Until now, I've been manipulating the girl's body without much doubt, but this incident makes me realize I really understood nothing.
I felt anxious. But even so, I can't be separated from this girl. There's the issue of consuming life force as the distance increases, but for more spiritual reasons, I am dependent on this girl. Seeking life as a human, and seeking the power to live.
I don't know what Mock and the others were targeting me for, but I can't say for sure that I won't clash with possessors of strange powers like them in the future. To live, strength is necessary.
However, from now on, I'll need to think more deeply about the powers this girl and I can use. Especially that 'Power of Salvation'—I don't want to use it again. I feel like the more I use it, the more there will be no turning back.
I intend to look into this power. For that, I must leave the island. There is no information to be gained by staying here. This isn't something I can easily ask people about, but if I go to town, I should find a way to gather information.
From the world's perspective, three people have gone missing on this island. It's a full-blown incident. And I am a party to that incident and, although it was unavoidable, the perpetrator as well. It would be wise to run. I can't be optimistic enough to think it's safer to be protected by the police.
Once I've decided to run, the sooner the better. First, I have to put on clothes. The clothes I took off during the torture are in Mock's hideout. However, that place is buried in cacti. I remember there was a hollow space inside and the body of the man from the photo should be there too, but I couldn't find anything that looked like an entrance. Giving up, I go to the mountain hut where I had been living to get a change of clothes.
After getting dressed, I headed for the boat landing. I've lived on this island for over a week and walked around various places, but today was the first time I encountered other people. I had a hunch that Mock and the others might have just arrived at the island by boat. If so, there should be a boat docked at the only landing on the island.
Praying that it would be there as expected, I arrived at the shore and indeed, there was a boat. I can leave the island with this. I climbed aboard, filled with joy.
From what I could see, it seems to move by turning a screw with engine power. Of course, I don't know how to drive it, so I'll just have to manage through trial and error. As long as the weather doesn't get rough, an amateur should be able to drive it. I feel like it's better than being told to suddenly drive a car on the road.
When I looked from the summit of the mountain in the center of the island, on clear days, I could see a faint shadow of land across the horizon. For now, I'll head in that direction. There are cans of fuel, so I think I'll be fine even if I have some trouble with the controls. Probably...
Anyway, the problem is how to start the engine.