TEOCH 13

“Urgh!”

A sudden, searing pain made me let out a sharp scream. One of the countless spines on the creature’s foreleg had pierced deeply into my side. The praying mantis swiftly snatched my body and hoisted me into the air.

I struggled desperately to break free from the mantis, thrashing with all my might, but each movement tore the wound wider, causing blood to gush out.

“Ro, Rohan!”

Panicked, Rikiel shouted and charged at the mantis, but its still-intact left foreleg lashed out at him with ferocious force. Rikiel gritted his teeth and retreated. Seizing the moment, Tristan attempted an attack, but the mantis swung its forelegs widely from side to side, blocking his approach. In the end, Tristan, too, could only falter, unable to close in easily.

In my desperation, I raised my sword to strike the foreleg but clenched my teeth. The backlash would obviously hit me hard. Of all things, the enhancement type was “counterattack”!

The mantis, its foreleg’s shell severely cracked, shook my body back and forth in a rage. The agony, as if my stomach were being torn open and my guts were spilling out, made me feel like I might faint.

“Damn it, how did I end up facing something like this so early on…!”

In the midst of excruciating pain that threatened to make me lose consciousness, I cursed the bad luck that had plagued me since the first scouting mission, spitting out fierce profanities. To be attacked by a demonic beast in a situation where I didn’t even have proper equipment, and on top of that, for that beast to be an “enhanced type” hosting a parasite!

Some of the more intelligent demonic beasts would allow parasites to inhabit parts of their bodies, like arms or legs, to compensate for their lack of strength. Of course, since this was the demon realm, even the parasites were far from ordinary. Most parasites slowly devoured their host’s body from the inside, leading to death.

However, a select few parasite species provided their hosts with beneficial enhancement abilities, forming a kind of symbiotic relationship.

Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t encounter an enhanced demonic beast in the first stage. That’s only natural. The insect-type demonic beasts living here aren’t particularly intelligent, and the idea of hosting a parasite, let alone distinguishing between beneficial and harmful ones, is beyond them. After all, with their insect-level intelligence, who’s controlling whom?

So, in all my previous playthroughs, I wouldn’t encounter enhanced demonic beasts until at least the second stage, and my policy toward them was always “run away without question.” The risks of facing those creatures far outweighed the rewards of defeating them.

Even with decent equipment gathered through the first stage, it was that bad. There’s no way we could handle an enhanced demonic beast encountered during the initial scouting mission.

In simple terms, this was a fight we had no chance of winning.

―Kiiii-!

The black, gleaming eyes, filled with voracious hunger, approached me as if mocking me. They were the eyes of a predator. I glared back, trying to think of a way out, but perhaps due to the blood loss, I was so dizzy I could barely keep my eyes open.

The mantis’s spines had ravaged my stomach, and the sensation of my guts spilling through the gaping wound was so revolting, no matter how many times I experienced it, I could never get used to it. The mantis, seemingly convinced of its complete advantage, opened its mouth wide, as if savoring the moment.

“Is this… game over?”

The thought sprouted deep in my mind. No way, there has to be some way out. I muttered to myself, trying to deny it, but once the thought took root, it wouldn’t easily go away.

It was a damned chronic habit. The moment the situation turned slightly unfavorable, the urge to give up surged within me, this utterly cowardly tendency.

“Maybe it’s for the best? You didn’t really think you could kill the Demon King in this run anyway, did you? What’s the difference between dying now or dying months from now after pointless struggling?”

I know it’s a weak thought. I know that I need to keep trying as much as I can to adapt to the changed difficulty, and that if I die now, I’ll have to stare at that infuriating, unskippable game over message again. But the problem was that the temptation of death was strong enough to overwhelm such rational logic.

The countless futile deaths I’d experienced had secretly gnawed away at the corner of my heart where patience and courage once resided, filling it instead with compromise and excuses. As my memories of the original world faded, my motivation to clear the game grew dimmer. The more life in the demon realm ravaged my body and mind, the greater my longing for the human world became. Not my world, but the world where Tristan and the royal castle existed.

If only I could die. If only I could start over from the beginning now that things had come to this. Every time my heart weakened, that feeble desire kept creeping into a corner of my mind. It was an allure I couldn’t easily resist.

It’s okay to rest a little, the weakness whispered softly in my ear. Come to think of it, I hadn’t even taken proper rest during this run before being forced to dive right into the game. If I died to this mantis now and started over, I could take a bit more rest before entering the demon realm in the next run.

Sure, I’d have to endure the tedious game over message, but when I opened my eyes, Tristan would be there, smiling gently at me. I want to see that person. I want to talk with him longer, stay with him longer…

The next moment.

A desperate cry snapped me back to reality.

“Let him go!”

The mantis, which had been poised to tear into my head, whipped its head around fiercely. A sharp, metallic clang, like metal striking metal, pierced my ears. I struggled to move my barely responsive body, trying to figure out what was happening.

And then I realized. While Rikiel was barely holding off the mantis’s foreleg, Tristan had infused his sword with purifying energy and struck the mantis’s torso.

―Kiiiiiiik-!

The mantis let out an enraged scream and swung its left foreleg. Rikiel, who had been holding on with all his strength, was flung back like a piece of paper. Tristan, who had just managed to drive his sword into the mantis’s torso, was also sent flying by the foreleg’s attack.

Tristan, I screamed, my voice hoarse. My mind snapped awake. How could I have been so foolish?

“Damn it, Tristan is right there!”

Not the Tristan sitting by my bedside with a gentle smile, but the Tristan fighting desperately to save me—he’s right there.

I finally realized that this playthrough was completely different from the ones before. In past playthroughs, there was nothing I had to protect. I had comrades, sure, but they were only fighting alongside me out of necessity, not people I’d risk my life to protect.

But Tristan was different. What would I do if he died? He might greet me with a bright smile in the next run, with no memory of what happened before the game over, but it’s different for me, who carries those memories.

The guilt would surely linger. The guilt of failing to protect him, of letting him die, would pile up, never to be forgotten.

So, my goal in this playthrough is simple and clear.

I have to protect him, the person I’ve only held in my heart until now.

“Ugh, aaaaah!”

I gripped the blood-soaked, slippery sword hilt with all my strength and raised the blade high, squeezing out every ounce of power in my body. The mantis, preoccupied with driving Tristan away, looked up in surprise.

I had pushed myself too far, and the wound had fully torn open, but I didn’t register that fact at all. At that moment, my mind was filled not with such trivial matters but with something entirely different.

If only I’d realized sooner. This angle, unexpectedly, was perfect for targeting the mantis’s head.

“Even if you’re an idiot, you wouldn’t have a parasite lodged in your head, right?”

―Ki, kiik?!

“Take this…!”

As the skill name “Cleave” appeared in my vision, I plunged the sword, brimming with purifying energy, into the creature’s head. It was a critical hit, perfectly piercing its right eye.

The revolting sensation of crushing a bug was unmistakable in my hand, and at the same time, the mantis’s other eye burst with a loud pop. The exact same wound I’d inflicted appeared on its left eye.

The mantis, its head pierced, flailed its arms wildly for a moment before finally collapsing under its own weight.

Boom!

With a tremendous crash, the canyon walls trembled, and dirt and pebbles rained down mercilessly. The mantis’s corpse, buried under countless stones, looked pitifully diminished compared to its earlier menace.

My body broke free from the mantis’s foreleg and rolled across the canyon floor. It was hardly a welcome relief. My freedom came not because the mantis’s foreleg had broken, but because my side had finally torn completely under my body’s weight.

Writhing in unbearable agony, I rolled on the ground. It felt like my vital organs were about to spill out through the torn wound.

“Rohan!”

“Rohan, are you okay? Are you still alive?!”

I wanted to scream that I wasn’t okay, that I was too badly hurt, but all that came from my throat were choking groans. Gasping for breath, I struggled to force out words.

I can’t die like this. We just killed that damned mantis, so for now, there’s nothing to threaten us. To die now and start over from the beginning, after the incredible courage Tristan showed for me just moments ago—it’s too much.

“The wound’s too severe, holy water…!”

“Holy water can’t handle a wound like this, Your Majesty!”

The desperate voices of the two rang in my ears. But Rikiel was right. Holy water was only for treating minor injuries, not for restoring someone whose body was practically torn apart.

What a shame. I thought I’d finally realized why I was playing this game, but now I have to start over from the beginning.

And in this run, we took down that incredible demonic beast without proper equipment. If we could just get the parasite from its body, it would surely make the rest of the journey much…

…Wait, hold on.

“Your, Your Majesty…!”

“Rohan?! Are you, are you conscious?!”

“The parasite, the parasite!”

“Parasite? What are you talking about?!”

“The right, the right foreleg of that demonic beast, the parasite should be crawling out of it! Normally, counterattack parasites are hosted in the abdomen, but we have no choice now…!”

“Counterattack parasite? What in the world are you talking about?!”

“Please, listen to me! Damn it, I can’t die like this! I need that parasite to live!”

Tristan, who had been staring at me with a bewildered expression, leapt up at my words about needing the parasite to live and rushed toward the beast’s corpse. Meanwhile, I shouted to Rikiel, who was trying to stop the bleeding. No, it was closer to a whisper now, my voice barely audible.

“Sir, Sir Rikiel, check my bag… there should be an ant pheromone gland. Hurry, sprinkle it on us.”

“What? Why on earth…?”

“This is… ant territory. With the mantis dead, they’ll come for the corpse’s scent. If we sprinkle the ‘warning’ pheromone on ourselves, the ants won’t come near us, so in the meantime, carry me to safety. If we don’t make it back in time, we’ll all die!”

Rikiel wore a similar expression to Tristan’s but acted much faster. Carefully laying me down to avoid further shocking the wound, he immediately rummaged through my bag and found the pheromone gland.

While he went to sprinkle the “warning zone” pheromone, Tristan returned. In his hands wriggled a parasite, about 30 centimeters long and as thin as silk thread. With a pale face, he asked me.

“Is, is this the right one? What are you going to do with this?!”

“You’ll… see. Hur, hurry… quick!”

My voice, whispering “quick,” was so faint I could barely hear it myself, but thankfully, Tristan understood and hurriedly held the parasite out to me. The next moment, the parasite slithered out of Tristan’s hands and burrowed into my side. I felt a burning pain in my side but no longer had the strength to scream.

“Ugh, urgh…!”

“Rohan? What in the world are you doing?!”

As Tristan shouted in horror, the parasite moved busily, stitching up the wound to save its new host.

I had no choice to heal this injury, it’s not harmful, so don’t worry. I tried to whisper that, but the excruciating pain of my stomach being torn apart completely blocked my throat. All I could do was let tears of agony stream down my face. I simply poured purifying energy into everyone, hoping they could keep breathing as long as possible.

I can survive now. That’s enough. Whispering that to myself, I closed my eyes weakly. Feeling the parasite swell as it replenished my blood and proteins, I lost consciousness.

I only hoped I wouldn’t stay unconscious for too long. That was all I could wish for now.