The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: About Stella’s Strategy

“A strategy to conquer Stella-sama? That’s ridiculous… No, first, please show me your body, Joanne-sama. Are you injured in any way?”

Putting aside the bombshell declaration that she had thought of a strategy to defeat Stella, the first priority was to ensure her physical safety.

Joanne, who seemed a bit pleased to be touched, writhed her body and said, “Don’t worry, there’s not a single scratch on my body or ring finger,” as she lifted her robe up to her knees.

Like someone showing off a ring, Joanne extended her left ring finger and then demonstrated that the clothes under her robe were undamaged.

Since her healing abilities don’t extend to the clothes she wears, her statement that her torso was unharmed seemed accurate.

However, the right sleeve was missing, meaning that her right arm had been lost and regenerated multiple times.

To think that after a battle fierce enough to shatter the earth and collapse mountains, she only sustained such minor damage… Is her combat sense too keen?

“…Sigh, I’m glad you’re safe. Joanne-sama’s body isn’t just your own, so please be careful.”

“Hehe. I understand.”

By the way, I wonder if there’s no internal damage from massive blood loss or the strain on organs from superhuman exertion.

Since blood is produced in the bone marrow, not the organs, Joanne, who can infinitely regenerate blood, might be saying my organs are safe… But the strain on ‘my’ heart from leaping tens of meters in a single bound or gouging the earth with a single punch seems like it would be incomparable to usual, right?

Maybe she’s managing it with magical power.

Having confirmed Joanne’s safety, I decided to delve deeper into the strategy for defeating Stella once again.

“You said earlier that you could defeat Stella-sama, but… Joanne-sama, you can’t possibly break through her barrier without magic. It’s impossible.”

The only humans capable of directly breaking Stella’s barrier would probably be the Orthodox Executive ranked number one, Saren Deputy, and Guru Aaros.

The only ones who could brute force their way through a magic-absorbing barrier are these two.

As the top of both factions, the magic of these two possesses an incomparable level of expansiveness and power.

In Saren’s case, if she were to focus her full-power flames at one point, the barrier would not withstand it, and Stella would be burnt to a crisp.

In Aaros’s case, a high-density ‘shadow’ would exceed the barrier’s absorption capacity and lead to its destruction.

Perhaps the only other possibility is Pomett Yosta, ranked fourth in the Orthodox Executive.

Her magic manifests a ‘blade of spiritual energy that can cut through anything.’ Depending on Pomett’s mental state, if she’s in top form, I can’t imagine her losing.

It’s uncertain what would happen with Juanquiro’s magic.

The issue is how the ‘chains’ that curse and kill the target are judged—but anyway, it’s impossible for Joanne, who lacks offensive magic.

For someone without attack magic, there’s not even room for discussion.

“What’s with that, so cold. I’m pretty confident, you know.”

“Then please tell me. What method can defeat Stella-sama?”

“Okay.”

……

According to Joanne, it was her first time fighting Stella, but she vaguely knew about Stella’s ability to ‘reflect physical attacks and absorb magical attacks.’

Deciding to give it a try, she punched with her right hand, which resulted in her right arm’s sleeve bursting off, and it seemed her forearm exploded from the elbow down.

At this point, she confirmed that ‘pure physical attacks will not work under any circumstances.’

When she tried to grab Stella and throw her, her fingers bent backward in the wrong direction.

Even if she managed to hook Stella’s clothes and toss her, the impact of hitting the ground was reflected, causing no damage to Stella whatsoever.

Even as lasers melted the snow around them and turned the battlefield into a scorching heat akin to being steamed, she didn’t sweat a drop. Not even her clothes could get wet.

This meant that her defensive barrier even blocked the surrounding temperature, and it was probably impossible to drown her and aim for death by suffocation—after all, Stella was not the kind of person who would let herself be drowned without resistance.

The more Joanne fought, the more she was amazed by the perfection of that defensive barrier.

This was specifically regarding her resistance to physical attacks, though.

Upon hearing Joanne’s words, I tilted my head in confusion.

“No, but Joanne-sama, you can’t use magic, can you?”

“What are you talking about? Of course I can.”

As Joanne let the freshly falling snow land on her palm, she extended her right arm forward as if checking a wristwatch.

Then, with a knife she had concealed, she sliced off her right arm.

A vast amount of blood gushed out, spilling onto the ground with a splash.

“What on earth are you doing?”

Swinging her severed right arm with her left hand, Joanne then flung it far away using centrifugal force.

She immediately activated a healing spell, and her right arm regenerated from the shoulder.

The arm that was thrown far away quickly turned purple, and eventually, it looked charred and black as it decayed and withered.

Blown by the wind, the edges of its form crumbled into dust and disappeared into the air.

Joanne, gripping her newly regenerated right hand, said,

“It’s healing magic. With this, I can break through Stella’s barrier.”

Healing magic as a means to break Stella’s barrier?

Healing magic should only serve as a means of recovery… Yet, something felt off.

As I dug through my memories to pinpoint the source of this discomfort, the image of a scene I had witnessed in the torture chamber surfaced in my mind.

I recalled the moment of the human experiment when I observed how Joanne behaved while regenerating from my ring finger, pushing aside the original flesh.

As Joanne grew a new body from my ring finger, the emerging flesh had displaced part of the back of my hand, causing it to vanish.

Understanding what Joanne was getting at, I clapped my hands.

“Are you saying we use the phenomenon we observed during our human experimentation?”

It’s a mysterious and irrational phenomenon caused by magic that defies physical laws.

It occurs precisely because the magic must perfectly replicate the original flesh, stretching nerve cells and bones into the void, fleshing out with blood and tissue.

The body restored by magic probably has a higher priority than the original one that existed.

“When the coordinates where my right arm was growing overlapped with Stella’s coordinates, I happened to notice. When the arm finished regenerating, Stella’s fingers were partially shaved off—my arm had grown back just fine. It seems that my healing magic has a higher priority than Stella’s barrier. I’ll use that to defeat Stella.”

“However, isn’t it still difficult to completely kill Stella-sama by generating a ‘push back’ with healing magic? She is also a member of the Executive… If even a single piece of flesh is left, you’ll be back to square one. Moreover, if the seed is cracked, she will be on guard, and that technique will no longer work.”

“That’s the problem! I would fed Stella a part of my body, and the moment it settled in her stomach, I cast healing magic, and her whole body was pushed back——well, it sounds too good to be true…”

That’s true.

Whether it’s feasible or not, using healing magic as a strategy remains merely a ‘trump card’ to keep up one’s sleeve.

It’s not something that can be relied on as a main strategy to fight head-on, and there’s no guarantee that Stella, despite her love for human flesh, will eat Joanne’s meat.

When Joanne betrays the cult, it might be useful as a parting gift to reduce their strength.

Still, the mere possibility of being able to kill Stella is more than enough.

“That’s why this strategy is a last resort. We can’t use this plan at its maximum firepower unless we restore each other’s internal organs, and it’s easiest to leave the basics to the orthodox guys, huh~”

“No, securing a means is significant. That was a good idea…”

The only thing I could think of before was to feed her a bomb and blow her up from the inside.

That idea is completely unfeasible, so it’s not even worth talking about.

I see… Even though I’m considered a weak character, having an Executive as my ally really broadens my strategic options.

Although I say ally, this one lacks the concept of communication, cooperation, consultation, and is an extremist who wants to slaughter everyone but me.

After that incident, Joanne has become quicker on the uptake, for better or for worse.

She’s transformed from a slightly dim-witted, muscle-brained psycho beauty into an unpredictable but reliable psycho beauty.

Having finished sharing the strategy, Joanne picked up the practice sword that the men from the northeast branch had brought.

“The reason I came here was to find Stella’s weakness. And I can say that this goal has almost been achieved.”

Joanne held a sword in her right hand and slapped it against the palm of her left-hand several times.

A dry, light sound echoed, and the girl with a wolf cut, having checked the condition, pointed the tip of the blade at me.

“What’s the reason you came to the Northeast branch? To serve a penalty? To rest? No, that’s not it. This is just the higher-ups’ story. Oakley’s goal is to steal techniques from the Northeast branch, the pinnacle of the order, and become stronger.”

The girl threw the practice sword at my feet and laughed, baring her white teeth.

“Neither you nor I have the luxury of rest… We only spend our days preparing for the plan. Come on, bring it on. I’ll train you up.”

―I see, she’s willing to be my sparring partner.

That’s appreciated.

I pulled the sword that was stuck in the ground and faced Joanne in a world where a whirlwind of snow began to rise.

Whip had said it. As a candidate for Executive, you have to be strong enough to take a swing against a current Executive.

“…Thank you in advance.”

“Hey. I can use healing magic, so I won’t hold back.”

A thin, even layer of powdery snow had accumulated on the blunted blade of the practice sword.

The wind and snow grazed over my eyelids, distorting my vision. It felt as if my eyelashes were frozen.

The skin on the windward side began to lose body heat, and my white breath grew more pronounced in color.

I glanced over the sword from the hilt to the tsuba, and up the blade, glaring at the opponent before me.

The one in my sight was the person with whom I had experienced a deep exchange of love—Joanne Sagamix.

She is the human I love the most in this world, and yet, someone I must kill without fail someday.

Just as Joanne had been devising a strategy against Stella, it wouldn’t hurt for me to plan her assassination.

Her emerald eyes didn’t blink even amidst the falling snow.

Those spiral-shaped pupils gazed at me with affection yet stared down like a snake eyeing a frog.

Her lips bore a hint of anticipation.

She must know everything.

That inside my heart, I’m plotting to kill Joanne.

While we share the same goal of wanting to destroy the Aaros Temple Order, I do not wish to destroy Kenneth Orthodox.

That if we continue along our respective plans, an unavoidable battle to the death will ensue.

She just doesn’t say it. She knows about me and lets me swim along.

This is my conjecture, but she probably thinks, ‘Even if we take separate paths along the way, it’s fine as long as you’re by my side in the end.’

But that future will not come——I won’t let you.

I will annihilate the Aaros Temple Order and save this country.

I won’t even consider a future with you, Joanne.

The moment I do, my ego will be eroded by the memory transfer.

To be honest, I want to love her more than anything.

I want to think about our future.

—But I can’t. I would lose my sanity.

(Come to think of it… is this the second time I’m facing Joanne in a match?)

She stands beyond the focused tip of my sword.

The first battle was a mad organ exchange brainwashing battle, staking each other’s advance and mental domination.

Today’s second match is a serious contest under the guise of training.

The tension was higher in the previous one, but as this is a match based purely on physical prowess, there is no assurance of victory using her mad love.

Joanne, using her healing magic as a shield, will seriously try to crush me.

At the very least, she’ll want to beat me half to death.

Why?

Because she wants to break my spirit and draw me into her own plans.

Though it’s called training, it might turn out to be quite a serious match.

“――――”

The snow piled up on the sword crumbles down.

I swing the practice sword with all my might towards the intimidating girl.

It’s a full-force, satisfying flash of a strike.

There might only be a handful of times in my life when I could deliver such a perfect blow.

However, there’s no resistance.

As if slicing through nothingness, all my movements come to an end.

The next moment, a voice pokes at the tip of my nose.

“You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you? That was a good swing.”

The sword before me sinks.

On top of the sword, which should have been still after completing the follow-through, there were thick-soled boots.

My forehead was flicked with an index finger, and I involuntarily retreated in surprise.

I knew it, there is an insurmountable gap in strength between an Executive and an ordinary person.

Even so, I absolutely cannot give up until I wrench one from her.

I clench my grip on my sword as I realize the size of the wall that stands in my way.