The Case of Being Reincarnated as a Heretic Mob Character in an Eroge Where Everyone is Extremely Determined - Chapter 58

Chapter 58: Irreversible Destruction

This time, the communion unexpectedly dragged on.

When considering storage, it would start with the organ located at the back when viewed from the front of the abdomen and then proceed to the hands.

However, Oakley was struck by a hallucinatory somnambulistic state the moment the first organ was transplanted.

The lives and pride of two people, along with their stubbornness, will, and personalities, were mixed together, and amidst intense pain and impatience, his mind was seared away.

Oakley, who had a mind closer to that of a sane person even among madmen, couldn’t bear it.

On the other hand, Joanne was a thoroughbred madman.

Having the ability to convert even the most desperate situations into pleasure, the mental states of the two clearly diverged.

For Joanne, it was merely a matter of trembling in ecstasy as the mind of her beloved flowed into her, but it wasn’t so simple for Oakley.

Not wishing for a change from his original mind, he had his spirit burned to the core, causing a disconnection of consciousness.

“Oakley… Oakley!? Hey, pull yourself together!”

Joanne, covered in blood, clutched Oakley. However, she couldn’t stop her hands.

If she didn’t pack flesh into the cavity opened in the torso, he would die from excessive bleeding.

She also had to connect the correct blood vessels and perform healing magic, so Joanne had no time to hesitate.

She had no choice but to completely ignore the burden on Oakley’s mind.

As Joanne bid farewell to each piece of flesh, she restored his body to its original state. However, Oakley’s heart did not return to normal.

With his eyes closed in a sea of blood, he never woke up.

Had he bled too much?

That’s what Joanne thought as she placed her hand on his chest, but his heart was beating wildly.

The wounds on his body were also closed, at least for the time being, and there shouldn’t have been any mismatches in the blood vessels or nerves.

So why wouldn’t he wake up?

Joanne grieved that the fear that had been flickering in her mind had become a reality.

Unable to withstand a second memory transfer, the mind collapsed. It was only that one time that the limit was exceeded.

Even the memories spun with Joanne were lost, and upon awakening next, probably nothing will be remembered.

“Th-That’s right. I must call for Aaros-sama—”

Joanne sought help from Aaros. With his power of the shadows, it might be possible to retrieve Oakley’s memories.

At any rate, Oakley’s mind must be protected without a moment’s delay.

The girl woke up Celestia, who was sleeping soundly in a private room and dragged her to the kitchen that had turned into a scene from hell.

The silver-haired nun, rubbing her bleary eyes, choked out a voice clogged with the suffocating smell of iron.

Pushing the back of a now fully awake Celestia, Joanne entrusted the reluctant girl with a protective charm.

“W-What do you want me to do…?”

“He’s unconscious due to various circumstances. I’m asking you to watch over him.”

“Unconscious… it looks just like death――”

“He’s not dead! Anyway, I’m counting on you!”

Hoping that Stella wouldn’t be lured by the smell of blood, Joanne began preparing to take off towards the holy land of Metashim.

She severed Oakley’s ring finger to prevent it from being caught in the regeneration and placed it on a cutting board.

Celestia was grimacing at the edge of her vision, but Joanne continued her preparations without concern. She stripped off the precious robe of Oakley and changed into her usual white shirt and miniskirt.

“Celestia! Which way to the holy land of Metashim!?”

“Huh? It’s southwest…”

“That’s helpful!”

Joanne dashed outside, scantily clad. The vast wilderness, devoid of any light, bared its fangs at the fragile girl.

She didn’t mind her wildly disheveled hair and glared intently at the compass she had snatched away.

Skin whiter than snow is battered by the storm as peony snow lightly accumulates and melts away.

Snow quickly piles up on the surface of the compass, hiding the needle’s figure.

Wiping it with slender fingers, she shivers her numb digits, relying on the compass to adjust her position.

“Is it there?”

Joanne, having pinpointed the south-southwest direction, pulls out a large tree that had been lying at the entrance of the cave from its roots while snow from the darkness strikes her face.

Holding the trunk of the tree effortlessly in her right hand, Joanne points towards the south-southwest direction with her left.

She holds her breath, concentrating her mind. Her torso, turned to the side, twists even more, sinking deeply.

Then, as if to release all the pent-up energy at once—she throws.

“Ugh, aahh!!”

A great migration spanning the land. Her throwing ability, with a range of tens of kilometers, bares its fangs.

A storm raged. Buffeted by snow and wind, vision and hearing were unreliable.

The recoil from the throw twisted her right arm, shattering the bone and severing it from the elbow down.

The torso that had supported that arm burst from the inside of the clothes, becoming minced as it was pressed into the ground.

Of course, not all of the body was obliterated, so revival was always possible.

Joanne, with her clothes torn like rags hanging from her body, lifted herself up with healing magic, fully restored.

Glaring at the great tree that had flown piercing through the clouds, the girl inserted her thumb into the hollow under her jaw.

With a pull, she severed her head and neck. A squelching sound, like stepping on mud, and Joanne’s height increased by a head.

Controlling her torso, connected by a mental force called resolve, she held her head in her right hand and aimed with her left.

It didn’t matter if her entire body collapsed. With such intense passion, she threw with all her might again.

The body at the point of launch disintegrated perfectly. It was launched at a speed far exceeding that of the great tree thrown earlier.

Joanne’s throwing range could reach tens of kilometers, but there was still more distance to the holy land Metashim from the northeast branch.

Repeated throws would cause a deviation in direction, and above all, considering Oakley’s mind being destroyed in real-time, the fastest method was the right choice.

Joanne’s thrown head caught up with the great tree that had been thrown before.

Piercing through the blizzard, dancing in the sky, even piercing through the dark clouds, it reached the world above the clouds.

Timing it just right, Joanne regenerated her body from her head and landed on the great tree, speeding through the sky at supersonic speed.

Looking down at her feet, thick clouds, looking up, a sky full of stars—a wondrous experience.

The girl, seemingly uninterested, glanced at the view and began to prepare for another throw at the parabola’s apex.

At an altitude of 10,000 meters, where no bird or dragon can reach, a girl pushes through, leaving contrails in her wake.

From a height not even Aaros can attain, she looks down upon the world, confirming that she has passed through a heavy snowfall area as the clouds beneath her grow thin.

“This is my first time doing this. I hope it goes well.”

She severs her own head from the propulsion-less trunk of a tree.

It’s akin to a two-stage rocket, a cheating technique that transcends a range of tens of kilometers, reaching hundreds of kilometers.

Slicing through the wind with her whole body, she readies herself once again to throw.

At the moment when the stars are closest, the girl’s body sways greatly.

――Launch.

The flesh projectile, ejected from the high-speed flying trunk, shatters the original torso and the wooden foothold with the recoil.

The head, now traveling at a speed surpassing the speed of sound, is multiplied by the same velocity as the foothold.

Skipping over the living areas of millions in an instant, striding over numerous landscapes shaped by the earth, the girl’s head, now ablaze, lands on a mountain near the holy site of Metashim.

“Puhah――! Can it really arrive in about a minute? I feel bad for Oakley, but it’s easier to do without any restrictions.”

This was the ‘transfer’ of the body that could not be done while containing Oakley’s innards.

If she had thrown her full power, Oakley body would not have come out unscathed.

Joanne does not possess any unique magic.

However, she has honed the ‘throwing ability’ that humanity possesses to an abnormal degree.

The extraordinary nature of this throwing ability harbors a destructive power far greater than what the Executives of both factions imagine.

As Joanne returned, creating a massive crater, Aaros peeked out from the outer wall of Metashim.

After regenerating her half-destroyed head, Joanne, while regrowing everything below her neck, waved her hand grandly.

“Joanne. What brings you here at such a late hour?”

Aaros, who had been manifesting a giant shadowy hand, thinking it might be an enemy attack, retracted his hostility upon realizing the visitor was Joanne.

He descended from the outer wall to Joanne’s side and, without hesitation, draped a robe over her naked body.

The girl pulled the cloak closer around her shoulders and let out a breath of relief as if feeling a bit more at ease.

“There are limits to recognition inhibition. I would prefer you not to do anything too conspicuous…”

“Lord Aaros, please help Oakley! He’s in a pinch right now!”

“…Oakley-kun?”

Upon hearing the name of the promising young talent, Aaros twitched in response.

As he listened to the story, it seemed that this Oakley was in a pinch.

Without a word of complaint, Aaros decided to storm into the Northeast branch.

Using shadow-based instant teleportation, it took Aaros five minutes to arrive at the Northeast branch.

Celestia was surprised by the sudden appearance of Aaros, but she had judged that it would be difficult to save him without borrowing the power of the Guru.

His heart was beating, but he was barely breathing.

It appeared as though Oakley himself, having been consumed by the madness of a lunatic, had given up on living.

“Lord Aaros. Oakley is already…”

“Wait. Let’s see what we can do.”

Just like when he had brainwashed Celestia, Aaros applied the power of darkness, conjured from the sleeve of his cloak, to Oakley’s head.

In an instant, Oakley’s body was enveloped by a black sphere.

Reading his mental state through magic, Aaros realized that Oakley’s soul was unbelievably tainted.

Irreversible destruction had occurred.

There were signs of being exposed to intense external factors for a long time and repeated interventions in the deep psyche.

It was a state of devastation that would not be surprising if an ordinary person went mad and ceased to live.

“…Joanne, his mind is on the verge of breaking. What on earth happened?”

“I don’t really understand it myself.”

“Well… I have a rough idea. Understood.”

Perhaps it was the impulsive behavior of youth.

As reported by Pork, Joanne and Oakley were probably indulging in perverse acts.

Acts that were an extension of self-harm and codependency—what specific acts they were will be clarified another time, but what to do about it?

Aaros pondered for a moment. Currently, Oakley’s mind was being eroded by ‘black madness.’

As a result, it exceeded Oakley’s mental capacity, and his memories were lost.

It would be easy to remove the madness within him, but the worst part was that Oakley’s ego did not want to let go of that madness.

As long as the boundary between Oakley’s ego and everything else was unclear, any careless intervention could lead to the loss of not just memories but also the ego, plunging him into a vegetative state.

The only thing to bet on was his own mental strength for recovery. Even Aaros, who had rewritten many people’s minds, encountered things he did not understand.

It was easy to change things for convenience but difficult to restore destroyed memories.

Aaros did not tamper with his heart. He did not peek into his mind either. To Aaros, Oakley was like a dear son or grandson.

It wouldn’t be fair to unilaterally spy on the memories of someone who is not an enemy.

It would be different if it were an enemy like Celestia.

However, he decided to perform just one manipulation on his psyche. His amnesia might be a stroke of luck.

Rather than infiltrating the holy city with all his memories intact, it might be safer to approach the temple as an innocent young man who has lost his memories without taking unnecessary risks.

Such a devilish thought crossed his mind.

Aaros placed a strong suggestion in Oakley’s mind. Just one phrase, “Aim for the heart of the holy city—the Temple of Phoenix.”

At the same time, he steeled his heart to abandon Oakley, swallowing his tears.

“If the approach to the Temple of Phoenix doesn’t go well, I’ll need to prepare a decoy for the mobile fortress. It’s going to be busy,” Aaros thought, organizing his plans in his head with a sense of resignation.

Oakley did not seem likely to wake up anytime soon.

A week, a month, or even longer. In any case, preparations must be advanced at a rapid pace.

Turning back to Celestia and Joanne, Aaros told Joanne, who was fixated on Oakley,

“I’ve done everything I can. Now, we can only bet on his own mental strength.”

“No, no… If Oakley doesn’t wake up, I…”

Joanne clung to the pale-faced Oakley.

Watching her, Aaros felt a mix of emotions. While her attachment was a strength, being overly obsessed was also problematic.

What kind of face would she make when faced with a ruthless decision regarding Oakley?

Would she be able to overcome that sorrow and become even stronger?

With a pang in his heart, Aaros called out to Celestia to prepare for the ‘Holy Relic’ heist operation.

Even if they lost Oakley, they couldn’t afford to lose Celestia.

Losing personnel was something to be avoided at all costs, but the value of Oakley’s and Celestia’s lives was different.

As long as she was safe, they could infiltrate the Temple of Phoenix as many times as necessary.

― At the same time, in a certain bedroom.

Stella, having awakened from a nightmare, realized that the sweet scent of her beloved was permeating the northeast branch.