...?!

!!!

Lily's grip on my shoulders that was used to push me down, moved to my neck suddenly.

"L-Lily?"

She didn't stop, and put even more force into the grip instead.

"L-Lil...s-st..."

I was trying to tear her hands away from the strangle, but she was overpowering me physically.

I flailed my arms around frantically and tried to pull her away from my body. Sensing this, she snapped the bone from my shoulders to the elbow.

"GAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

I felt an incredible surge of pain through both of my arms to my brain. Endorphins quickly rushed to my head to prevent me from going insane. But-

Lily suddenly whipped out a knife from within her breasts.

?! ?! ?! ?!

My senses were ringing like a fire alarm, that my life was in immediate danger.

"Aha~ You peeked, didn't you~ But is it okay? You're not going to want to see what happens next~"

In order to stop me from struggling, she pushed her knee forward in between my legs and pinned them down.

When Lily had noticed that my eyes were still widened in shock, she clicked her tongue irritatedly. For a moment there, her face had turned extremely ugly.

"No seriously. Close them."

I was so affected by that cold tone in Lily's voice, that I unconsciously closed them as ordered. My lips were trembling as my mind couldn't keep up.

"Hmhm~ Good boy! Welp, here~ We~ Go~"

With that as the warning, she plunged the knife deep into my left wrist.

AAaAAAaAAAAAaaaAAaAAaAHHHHHHhhhHHHHHHHhhHHHhhhHhHHHHH!!!

My body was convulsing violently because of the unfiltered shock.

Strangely, my brain did not spare me from this pain with my bodily anesthetic. Something should have came out from experiencing pain to dampen the shock... But to my horror, it didn't. It didn't register at all.

The pain. It coursed through my entire body like waves of lava melting my skin and bones.

Drool was leaking out of my mouth without restraint. I had lost control of my jaws. My eye whites were showing on my face.

I was in danger of being killed.

What is happeni-

iiiiiing!!!

I had no time to collect my thoughts, as Lily stabbed my wrist again with the knife. Blood crawled out of my skin uncontrollably.

I was face-up on the bed with Lily stradling on top of me, but I could not register how things had escalated to this point.

It was dark, but I could make out a sinister smile from her face.

A worm-like thing crawled beneath the skin of her face. It made it seem like beneath the beautiful exterior, the interior had already been filled with worms.

T-This isn't Lily... Who is this person...

The demihuman girl loosened her grip a little enough for me to breathe, and started to cackle.

I started to cough heavily as I finally got a chance to inhale oxygen properly.

"HAAH, HAAH, HAAH, ...!

I could feel her rising climax of euphoria, as she suddenly raised her head up to the ceiling. A wicked laughter, like a witch, resounded within the room.

"K-K-KYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! The Chaos Serum is working very well indeed~"

?! Chaos... Serum?

W-was that it... That thing that made me feel this much pain!!!

This scene was unreal. Her face had been disfigured so much by her exaggerated look of pleasure. Her appearance was contorted like a unsatiable monster; Cheeks widened so much that they could break, and eyes that seemed to almost pop out of their sockets.

This illusion that I had of Lily was shattered this very instant.

"W-...why?!"

The cackling stopped.

The girl in front of me looked sideways, as if deep in thought.

Then she returned her gaze to me, with an expression like she was talking to someone not very intelligent.

"..."

"Why? ...Are you an incurable moron? Oh right, I guess you never caught up on things."

"H-Huh?" I choked out.

"You're truly a broken man, and a hypocrite who believes in your own sense of idealistic justice.

...Might that be giving you too much credit...? Mn, let me correct that.

You're just a boy, ...trying to become a self-righteous hero.

-Thinking everything was a game, you bought into the premise that things would turn for the better once you were through the beginning stages...?

Naive~ You're so naive it's cute~

Truly, the name White does sound like a derogatory term!"

"?!"

The change in her attitude scared me.

How did she know all these words? Games? Stages?

"As white as emptiness, not knowing anything at all, brainless and empty. KAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! White, your parents sure are a fine piece of work naming you that~"

Lily's voice distorted slightly.

My mind went blank.

"Did you really think, everything was a coincidence, White?"

...

"The moment you came to this city... no...

...The moment you met me in the Soul Forest... already set you on a path of increasingly heavier despair~"

The demihuman started to cackle again crazily. The worms inside of her body became even more agitated, and crawled around inside her skin even faster, creating a very revolting scene cast upon her face.

...Soul...

...Forest...?

My blank eyes started to widen. I started to choke. My tears stopped forming as uneasiness slowly crept into my skin.

...It...I-It can't be...

"-Oh yes it can, it's Rululu, the faiiiiiiiirryyyyyyyy~ Time to save the world! Ehehe, what are you, an idiot? Why'd you think things would carry out the way... it would, in a book of fiction?

-Say... even if that were the case, why would you even entertain the notion that I would pick someone... as weak as you..., among a large pool of better candidates~?"

That flamboyant manner of speech...

N-no way... that's not possible... After all, Lily is...

"You are truly dense, ...so dense that I'd actually throw up. Poor poor boy... Coming from a person as cautious and perceptive as you..., I can't believe you'd still fall for something so simple.

-But well~, I still have to give props to myself for this. It's something I'd come up for a longer time than you would have imagined after all~

So would that mean, ...I've outsmarted you... or just the simple fact that you're naive enough~? Ahahaha~

-Ah, I'm going off a tangent, aren't I~

Still, ...Magic, which you are not capable and knowledgeable of, ...isn't that a very universal thing?"

Rululu went on and on, as if she was intoxicated in her own victory. Her face was struck with euphoria.

!!!

I recalled the words of the mage doctor at that time.

"...Magic might be useful, but it isn't universal. I hope you take that... to heart."

That's right... he didn't hear my monologue at that time. How did he conveniently answer what I was thinking?! It's almost as if...

"He was reading my mind~"

A cold chill went down my spine the moment Lily, no, Rululu said that.

...The Chaos Serum she mentioned earlier... was definitely something that nullified my endorphins from working, ...did the doctor puncture my wrist with that at that time...?!

No...

I don't remember him piercing me with anything...

It just responded with a sting on my wrist, when he did so...

If that was the case, then she had probably inserted this thing into me at a previous time...?!

...What else...

What else had she implanted in me?!

I began to panic even more.

It all made sense, how Richard the clothes owner knew my name.

How the slave trader Olga was looking at me as if I was a piece of delicacy.

How they were the only ones... who could speak the same language as me in this foreign world...

...How I was led to believe, ...

...I had to buy this slave from among the dead-looking ones.

H-hahaha... Thinking about it, there was no way a slave would openly be happy about being bought right after being captured huh... Those eye contact that the two made at that time, did they take notice of my naivety to not use the Slave Choker to bind Lily?

...

A fairy who drives people to despair... In that case...

There was probably no greater plan that I had to fulfill to save the world.

I was chosen indeed...

Chosen to die.

Cliche? What cliche.

I'm a fool for even believing in something...

...and someone again.

Everything, everything was a lie.

...

It all made sense.

Mustering all the strength left in me to speak, I tried to question Rululu, who was somehow in possession of Lily's body.

"W-Why are you doing this?! Man-manipulating people like this... Lily had nothing to do with this, nor anyone you had brainwashed!"

"Clutching the last straws of your reasons for justice now..., huh White?"

"?!"

"I have a special set of skills that target a person's mind, you see. Something like Expose Inner Consciousness, I can do that easily as well~

So you see, o' righteous and chosen hero, everyone that I've been tagging onto, ...had ill intentions from the start~"

...

"Like this girl over here. Lily, was it? KAKAKAKAKAKAKA~, that's a hilarious joke!

Even hiding her real name from you, humans are indeed naturally untrusting within their hearts~

Her real name is Eluna, and she's a man-hater.

Deep inside, she just wanted to kill you for her own freedom. Not keeping her in check with a Slave Choker? How naive can you get~

The insides of people are filthy, I thought you understood that~"

-My last stand was broken just like that.

...

"You're not responding too much aren't you? That's no fun at all~

Well~ ...Since I'm feeling good today, I'll let you in on my little secret~ I am a Parasite.

A very picky one you see~ Creatures like us seek out prey from other worlds who are close to death and bring them to our domain to feast on their flesh.

We're what you call Grim Reapers in a senseee~

...But well~, sometimes... we do tinker with people's lives so that they end up dying for our eating pleasures too~

Truly, truly a worthy sacrifice, don't you think so too White~?"

P-parasite...?! A fairy... not.

Truly what it sounded like...

A monster.

I made a petrified and strained expression.

"Allow me to introduce myself formerly~

My name is Ru'Ah. Take this name, to your grave~ Ahnnn~ Taking a boy's first life like this, I'm so happy~Oh right, I've forgotten to explain to you right? My reason for ecstasy? My drive for doing such teeerribbbleee things to you~?

See, a person injected with Chaos Serum, gathers the negative emotions of the host and fills it with Royal Jelly that us parasites crave forrr~!!! How about that~ Doesn't that make you suuupeeerrr happy? You're going to be part of me within a few more moments you know~

Aren't you happy~? Hey, hey~ Aren't you happy~ Say something already~ Heeeyyyy~"

N-no... no... no...

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-

"Do you understand now? There was no escape from the start, I orchestrated this, for a more satisfying meal~ Ahh! The joys of preying on these shut-in kids~ You're like a very efficient sponge, it's a pleasant surprise it only took me 2 days to fill you up~ Looks like meddling with the forest you were sleeping in was worth it as well heh~"

The realization of everything only sent further chills down my back. I could not resist at all. The pressure coming out of Ru'Ah's body were like a multitude of arms, entangling me into a pit of quicksand... a pit of darkness...

She was a being of malicious intent, I realized that too late.

Ru'Ah was fiddling with the bloodied knife around my eyes.

"See White, I kept thinking... about the best way to make you feel despair. How would you like, having your prided eyes gouged out before you're eaten alive?~"

"!!!"

H-haha...hahahaha...

I couldn't think anymore.

At the very end, I was too trusting. And that trust was betrayed once more.

Something broke in me.

There was nothing. I have nothing. Everything...

Is a lie.

Tears ran down my face uncontrollably.

Despair, I was feeling lots of it.

Kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill me, kill m-

"Fuuu~ I'll have to enjoy this body while you're at the peak of negative emotions right now. It's a shame you didn't feel anger right down to the very second. I'd have a much easier time removing those Eyes of Fear~"

I did not hear her at all. She, who was wearing the face of Lily...

...No, ...Eluna.

...I passed out deep into my subconsciousness, unable to take in anything anymore...