NOVEL NEXT WORLD As I move forward, I jump high, kicking off the floor.
My target is the face of that cheeky doll ahead.
I’m definitely slower than before, but I charge at it with enough speed that it’s still hard to react.
I step on its face, pushing it down from above.
The moment its back hits the ground, I stomp down hard on its face.
“―――Crack!”
I feel something crunch underfoot.
Amid scattered debris and dust, I see the smashed face of the doll.
Yet, the real goal beneath my foot remains unharmed, looking perfectly fine, and after grabbing me like earlier, it threw my body towards the wall again without hesitation.
“――Thud!”
My body, propelled through the air, collides with the wall.
Once again, debris from the wall piles on top of me thickly.
I roughly shove aside the stones and rise again from within the hole in the wall.
That thing lying in the hallway also cleared away the wrecked body of another doll beneath it and was getting back on its feet.
“It’s annoying.”
Well, I get the gist of it.
It must be one of those annoying powers like regeneration or replication.
I don’t know why I have to see a cheat like that even in my hometown, but since I’ve faced this type of opponent a few times before, I had an appropriate countermeasure in mind.
“I guess I can’t use it right now though.”
The problem is, there are still too many people nearby.
The huge cracks in the walls created by it and its replicated dolls.
And considering this place is already nearly in tatters due to the destroyed pillars and wrecked floor…
There’s no guarantee that using that method won’t cause the entire space to collapse.
Can’t burn down the whole house just to catch a pesky bug.
“For now, maybe I should just hold it off until the evacuation is complete.”
I stepped out from the hole in the broken wall and walked toward the thing standing in the hallway.
I had a rough idea of how it worked. After all, I’ve charged into it a few times by now.
Every time I attacked it, another doll would suddenly appear, as if it was taking on the injuries I inflicted.
It was probably a power that generates a replica to take the damage upon receiving a shock.
Truly, I wanted to ask what kind of cheating ability is that.
But the moment I toppled it just now, I realized its ability is about creating replicas to take the hits, not ignoring physical force altogether.
So, if I can just avoid dealing damage, I can hold it in place indefinitely.
As long as I keep it restrained, once everyone nearby finishes evacuating…
Well, it’ll have to pay for mocking me.
The doll’s arm moves.
With a sharp and pointed weapon, it could create a gigantic hole in a person’s stomach just by bringing it down.
The doll pressed the sharp part of its arm against its own body.
It drew a small scratch, then created a replica of itself.
“――Screech!”
As if a soul was bursting out of its body, another doll with a scratch was born from it.
An absurd phenomenon that seems to disregard the law of conservation of mass.
But it doesn’t matter. The strength of the doll itself isn’t much of a threat to me anyway.
Knowing this, the doll probably chose to try to shake me off instead of directly attacking me.
Now that it’s making replica dolls, I don’t care if it creates a bunch.
The doll and the replicated dolls.
They seem to lower their stances, preparing to charge at me.
Almost simultaneously, they stomp their feet and spring away from that spot.
“Eek—”
A startled voice escaped my lips briefly.
I never expected them to act like they’re about to charge, then just run away.
But I didn’t have time to look at them with disdain.
The doll’s footsteps weren’t heading away from me; they were headed towards the people who had yet to evacuate.
“This is really annoying…!”
I immediately started chasing after them.
For a moment I was taken aback by their sudden escape, but it wasn’t fast enough that I couldn’t catch up.
During this time, the doll kept scratching itself to create duplicates.
But as always, I stomped and crushed each of them as I approached the original.
Just before one of its arms could reach a person in the evacuation, I leaped onto it.
“――Thud!”
As it fell to the ground, a replica spawned immediately, but I stomped it right after and held the doll down firmly.
Now all that’s left is to just keep it from moving.
However, holding down a massive doll that thrashes around like it’s self-harming requires surprisingly precise control of strength.
The moment my focus wavered as I dealt with its flailing limbs, the doll took advantage of the weakened grip and slammed its head violently into the ground.
“――Thud, thud, thud, thud!”
Several replicas with cracks in their heads were generated in an instant.
Simultaneously, their gaze shifted toward the people evacuating.
If I simply let this go, it would turn this place into chaos again while I’m holding it down.
Out of sheer frustration, I released my hold and pursued the dolls rushing toward the people.
Fortunately, before they could cause any harm, I smashed them all to pieces.
However, while I released the original doll, it rapidly generated numerous replicas and started fleeing away from me.
“…If I catch you, you better believe I won’t go easy on you.”
I thought bitterly, reinforcing my determination that I wouldn’t let that brat die gently.
I took off, using the dolls spread throughout the hallway as markers to quickly catch up to it.
While diligently crushing the remaining replicas, I soon escaped the now chaotic space and transitioned into a cleaner area.
It wasn’t long after that I heard loud noises coming from somewhere not too far away.
“―――Rumble!”
Then accompanied by the sound of small stones falling in a cascade.
It was clear. Something had broken through the wall.
And thinking about the current situation as I was almost closing in…
It was obvious that if I continued, I would get caught, and that thing had chosen a different escape route from before.
‘This has got to be it.’
As I advanced, stepping on the heads of the far fewer remaining replicas, I quickly spotted a rough, torn-open door.
Beyond the long hallway, I could see nothing, so it must have passed through here.
I had no idea what lay inside that made it choose this as its escape, but if I left it be, who knows what it would do? Plus, I was already pretty ticked off at it for being such a nuisance.
I pushed aside any potential risks inside and dashed through the torn door without hesitation.
Beyond the roughly torn door, what first caught my eye was a space vastly larger than the previous room.
What followed was the enormous cubical shape in the center of the room.
‘…A cube?’
I furrowed one eyebrow in slight disbelief as I looked at it.
A massive cube sitting all alone in the middle of an unnecessarily large room certainly looked incredibly suspicious to anyone.
Yet right now, I didn’t have the luxury to worry about that, as I was also pretty fed up dealing with it running off and creating duplicates.
With the intention to deal enough damage to the facility to hold it back this time, I hastily searched for its location.
“―――Screech!”
The sound of mechanical gears clashing.
Hearing that now-familiar sound, I turned my gaze to where it came from.
There, precisely opposite from where I entered, I spotted it trying to quietly dig a hole in the wall.
As soon as I laid eyes on it, I bolted straight toward it.
As I leaped over the enormous cube in the center, I caught a glimpse of its startled face turning back at me.
However, the hole in the wall was still far too small for it to enter.
In just a few strides, I was almost upon it.
Just before I reached it, I stretched out my hand to grab it, but in the next moment, I sensed something was off as the surroundings suddenly darkened.
Looking up for the reason behind the sudden darkness.
‘…A shadow?’
The giant cube I had seen before was now floating in the air, blocking all the light around it and casting a massive shadow.
‘Ah—’
And then, as it rapidly descended toward the ground, it seemed destined to crush everything beneath it, including me.
“―――Boom!”
The cube landed with a tremendous rumble, filling the vast room with vibrations and noise.
Yet despite that, the impact outside was minimal.
This room was designed with the cube’s special properties in mind.
No matter how strong the impact or how much the room trembled, the people outside the isolation room wouldn’t even feel the vibrations.
“―――Screech!”
After the sound of mechanical gears, a monster resembling a doll reappeared.
Unlike the girl crushed beneath the cube, it seemed perfectly fine.
Of course, it had to be fine; it was exactly what it had set up.
Naturally, if it got crushed beneath it, it would be trapped without a way to move.
But knowing how this operated, it wouldn’t be too difficult for it to pull parts of its body out in advance and escape.
――――――
It stared silently at the cube.
It was a strange creature.
Despite having executed countless living beings since its creation, I had never encountered an opponent that instilled such a sense of powerlessness.
It seemed more akin to its kind rather than human, but that did not grant any sense of kinship to it.
“―――Screech!”
The doll let out a brief noise, moving its body toward the outside.
Regardless of how this played out, it was already dead.
As a living being, it couldn’t survive being crushed beneath this weight.
Once the obstacle was gone, it would simply continue whatever it had been doing.
The doll’s body began to move slowly, inching forward along the cube.
As if it was aware that there was no longer any means to stop it, it began to walk at a much slower pace than before, almost humming a tune.
Finally, as it neared the midpoint of the room, just as it was about to walk away from the cube.
“—Gotcha.”
With that sound came the voice of the girl who was definitely crushed beneath the cube.
Her small hand emerged, breaking through the wall, grabbing its neck, and in an instant, she was sucked into the hole created in the cube.
“―――Crash!”
The body was forced into a hole that was far too small, being ground down to fit through.
Consequently, several replicas were created, but they were of no help in the current situation.
As it barely reached a space enough to maintain its form after squeezing through the tight hole, it found itself in the presence of a tunnel-like space resembling the interior of the cube and a girl glaring at it with narrowed eyes, her expression twisted with irritation.
“…”
A small sigh escaped her lips.
She seemed momentarily relieved as if the tension had dissipated, but the strength in her hand gripping the doll’s neck showed no sign of loosening.
It wouldn’t be allowed even a slight movement.
“I don’t know if you’ll believe me, but I’ve seen plenty of beings like you. So, you know, those ‘immortals’ and whatnot.”
The girl began to speak to the doll.
Of course, she didn’t expect any answer.
There was no point in trying to converse with a monster that kills indiscriminately.
These were nothing but meaningless mutterings to relieve her pent-up emotions.
“However, for such a grand title as ‘immortal’, none of them truly possessed abilities fitting the name.”
Recalling countless beings she encountered while sifting through vague memories.
Beings that could rapidly regenerate their bodies, have multiple lives, or even had no concept of death at all.
Many labeled themselves as immortal or were labeled so, yet in the end, most met their demise.
Some were burned to ash, others fell prey to the one who returned to the past, and some even experienced complete obliteration of their existence.
Yet, none of that was her doing.
Although she was reborn in a fantastic world, she was oddly distanced from magic or supernatural powers.
Then how exactly did she manage to confront those who claimed to be immortal?
The answer to that was remarkably simple.
“…Well, how about you?”
As her fist rose high, a silent moment began.
With her small fist tightly clenched.
Sensing something ominous, the doll thrashed about as if trying to escape.
But in this confined space, there was nowhere for it to flee.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze, everything unfolding in a slow-motion sensation as if enveloped in a dream――
Suddenly, tearing through the air, the sound echoed.
Her fist plunged down onto the doll’s face.
She would beat it to death.
That was the most certain method she knew.
And she had never encountered an opponent for whom that method wouldn’t work.