Only I know that this world will end – 100 | Sousaku – 創作

Necromancy and Compression

"Eek!?”

When she saw the woman who had suddenly appeared, Nao let out a small scream. Looking at her, her face was stiff and tense.

(Come to think of it…… I remember that Nao-san was scared of ghosts and other supernatural phenomena)

Akira suddenly remembered this as he watched her pale with fear as she slowly backed away.
He thought that since monsters scarier than ghosts actually appeared, she must have gotten over that, but apparently, this was a different matter.

"G-g-g-ghost!? A ghost!?”

Nao, in a voice that verged on a scream, looked at the woman who had appeared behind Arthur and exclaimed.
Arthur chuckled at Nao's reaction and then opened his mouth as he turned his gaze to the woman floating behind him―― Olivia.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. As you can see, she's already a dead person…… With my unique skill, Necromancy, I was able to materialize her soul into this world. To put it simply, she is what we would call a ghost, but that makes her lonely. I hope you can treat her as you would any living person."

At his words, Nao looked at Olivia.
Olivia met Nao's gaze and smiled a gentle, reassuring smile.

"Does she have an ego?”

Seeing Olivia like this, Nao muttered in a scared tone.
In response, Arthur nodded as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Of course. She can hear and understand our words. The downside is that I'm the only one who can hear her…… Well, that's not something you guys need to worry about. I want you to know that she is my partner, in name and practice."

Arthur smiled kindly at Olivia, then turned his attention back to Akira and company and continued his words.

"So leave the small fry outside the door to us. Well, don't worry about it, okay? My back is feeling better today. You guys can sit on the sofa there and enjoy your tea time peacefully. By the time you've finished the tea, we'll have cleaned up too."

Saying this, Arthur started to walk away accompanied by Olivia, as if they were going out for a walk, with a relaxed, tension-free gait.

Seeing him so unfazed, Akira couldn't help but speak up.

"W-Wait! Are you sure you want to go alone!?”
"Of course. We are more than enough to deal with this many opponents. Right, Olivia?”

At Arthur's question, Olivia clenched both fists in front of her chest as if to show her motivation. Arthur smiled at the sight of Olivia and added as if suddenly remembering.

"Oh, one more thing. This knife I was offering to you guys, I'm going to use it, okay? Until I met you guys, I had no intention of fighting monsters today, so this is the only weapon I have on me."

Arthur gripped the handle of the knife tightly as he held it up, swinging it in his hand.

"――――Well then. ……Olivia, it's time to fight. Are you ready? It's a good opportunity to show them what we can do. Let's not be stingy in showing off, and let's go all out."

At Arthur's words, Olivia gave a soft smile and nodded.
Arthur also smiled softly in response, then turned more serious.

"On my signal, you open the door. ……On three, one, two, three!”

Arthur shouted and Olivia reached for the door at about the same time.
With a click, the door opened with a loud slam, even though no one had touched it.
In a split second, the darkness that stretched out beyond the door was torn apart and cleaved by the impact of the door opening. Or rather, the Giant Bats, which had been crowded together so much that you would have thought darkness was enveloping the area, suddenly started to move all at once.
The Giant Bats, with their blood-red eyes, looked at Akira and the others, and one by one they flew into the room.

"Tch!”
"Ha!”

Akira and Nao's bodies moved reflexively. However, it seemed that Arthur had anticipated Akira's move. As soon as Akira and company started to move, Arthur said in a calm voice as he stretched his arm to hold them in place.

"I told you to leave it to me, didn't I?”

It was then that the cries of the Giant Bats echoed through the air.
On closer inspection, the Giant Bats that had been flying into the room suddenly stopped mid-air, as if they had run into an invisible wall. This was not the only strange occurrence. The bats, which had stopped moving, began to spurt blood all at once, making cracking sounds as their bones broke.

" "What!?” "

Akira and Nao were both surprised by the scene, as it was so unbelievable.
At the sight of the two of them, Arthur smiled again and began to speak.

"Are you surprised? This is our―― Well, her power."
"Hers? Is it possible――――"

Akira turned his attention to the woman standing next to Arthur.
Olivia was staring at the Giant Bats with a serious expression on her face. The hand that had been stretched out as the battle began was half-closed as if to grasp something invisible. The bones of the Giant Bats, which had stopped moving in mid-air, shattered as that hand tightened its grip, little by little, as if to exert force slowly, eliciting cries of pain.

"That's……"

A voice escaped from Akira's mouth.

"Her unique skill is Compression. She is now compressing the atmosphere that exists in that space. The amount of force that can be applied to compression changes depending on the strength value shown in the status screen, but the fact that the range that can be specified for compression is quite narrow can be a bit of a nuisance.…… But in a confined space like this, she can fully demonstrate her abilities."
"A unique skill―――― Can dead people use them too?”

Arthur answered Akira's question with a faint smile on his lips.

"In addition to the effect of being able to materialize the souls of the dead, my unique skill of Necromancy has two more effects. One is that the incarnated soul can use skills in the same way as in life, and that they level up when they defeat monsters. Of course, as her level increases, she will also be able to earn points like us――The points she earns flow into my possession, so in practice, it's as if she herself isn't given any points."

Then, Arthur turned his attention to the Giant Bats being crushed by Olivia's hands.

"But it is the second that is important. The effect is that I can strengthen the soul that has been materialized through Necromancy by spending the points I have. Do you understand what this means?”
"――――Raising their stats by spending points?"

Akira muttered in response to Arthur's words.
Arthur listened to these words and smiled with satisfaction.

"That's exactly right. For 『Compression』 all you need is strength. Normally, raising only the strength value in the stats would be too unbalanced. No matter how strong you are, if you move slowly, your attacks won't hit, and if you have no defense at all, you'll be killed in an instant. In that regard, she doesn't need to worry about it. After all, her body is no longer here."

Akira glanced at Arthur's face upon hearing this.
Arthur seemed very lonely, but he had overcome his sadness and was smiling with a sort of carefree look on his face.

"The day the monsters appeared in this world. Olivia was killed by a monster right in front of me. Unable to do anything, I cursed my own powerlessness as I held her, who was dying in my arms. ……This is when it happened. A pale blue screen appeared in front of me, and I was given a unique skill. After reading about the effects of the skill called Necromancy, I decided to use it on her. …………Then, I found out that Olivia, who had become incorporeal with my help, had been given a unique skill, just like me. I felt a mixture of regret at my own powerlessness and self-loathing at not having been given that skill, but―――― Now, I think that might have been a good thing. As long as I continue to live in this world, she will also continue to exist in this world with me. The thread that was supposed to end at that moment is still connected like this even now."

Olivia put more strength into her grip, as if in response to Arthur's words.

――In a moment, splat.

All the Giant Bats that had flown into the room were crushed and killed by an invisible hand.
As he watched the blood splatter on the floor, Arthur muttered to himself.

"Now you understand our power, don't you?”

Akira stared at the spot where the Giant Bats had been crushed, just like Arthur.
There were many bloodstains and pieces of flesh scattered on the floor and walls, it was gruesome. If this were a human instead of a Giant Bat, it would be enough to instantly make a great scene for a gory movie.
Akira looked away from the scene and let his thoughts wander.

(A unique skill whose power changes according to your strength, huh…… As Arthur says, it's not easy to specialize in strength and allocate status points to a single value when you're alive. The reason her― Olivia's ― unique skill is so powerful is because she died once and was brought back to life in a sense by Arthur's unique skill. Because she is a spirit and will never die again, he can allocate a large amount of stat points to her strength. The combined effect of these two unique skills is what makes Compression so powerful. But――――)

Akira murmured to himself and turned his gaze to Arthur.

"It's certainly very powerful."
"Hahaha! That's right, that's right!! I think you've all changed your opinion of me now, haven't you?”

Akira's words made Arthur laugh out loud.
Akira continued speaking while looking at his face.

"Certainly, it is a tremendous power. ……But there is one thing that concerns me."
"Hmm? What is it?”
"What were you doing in that fight?”
"Come to think of it, that's true. He said a lot of things before the battle, but in the end, it seems like he himself didn't do anything until the end……"

Akira's words made Nao agree, and she spoke up.

"…………"
"…………"

Akira and Nao's gazes bore into Arthur.
Arthur then hardened the smile he had been wearing and slowly averted his gaze from Akira and company.

"W-well then…… Let's pick up where we left off! Where was I? !”
"He ran away."
"That he did."
"Hahahaha!! I told you at the beginning that I was weaker than you, young lady!! In battle, my role is to support Olivia!! You can't expect this old man to do anything more than that, can you?”

Saying this, Arthur laughed out loud again.
Akira and Nao looked at each other at those words, and without hiding the fatigue they felt, they let out a big sigh.