Chapter 36: Anomaly Catching Anomaly

How to Kill What Doesn't Die (10)

Advancing, I kick off the floor and leap high.

My target is the arrogant doll's face in front of me.

I rush at it with a speed that's slower than before, but still hard to react to.

I stomp on its face, knocking it over from above.

The moment the back of its head hits the ground, I forcefully stomp down on its face.

―――Crack!

A sensation of something being crushed travels up my leg.

Through the scattering fragments and dust, I see the doll's mangled face.

However, the real target under my foot remains unscathed, as if nothing happened.

Just like before, it grabs me and throws my body against the wall again without hesitation.

―――Thump!

My body, launched into the air, collides with the wall.

As before, fragments of the wall pile thickly on top of me.

I roughly push away the rubble, and stand up again from within the hole in the wall.

The doll, also lying on the floor in the hallway, brushes off the broken body of another doll beneath it and rises to its feet again.

'Annoying.'

Well, I get the gist of it.

It's probably some troublesome ability like regeneration or replication.

I don't know why I have to see a guy with such a cheat-like trait even after coming to my hometown.

But I've faced this type of opponent several times before, so I have a suitable countermeasure.

'Though I don't think I can use it right now.'

The problem is that there are still too many people nearby.

The large cracks in the walls caused by it and the replicated dolls rampaging.

Considering the current state of this place, which is almost in tatters due to the destroyed pillars and shattered floor...

There's no guarantee that this entire space won't collapse the moment I use that method.

I can't burn down the whole house to catch a flea.

'For now, I'll just hold it back until the evacuation is complete.'

I step out of the hole in the broken wall and walk towards it, standing in the hallway.

I think I roughly understand the principle. I've rammed into it several times for that purpose.

Every time I rush at it, another doll suddenly appears, created as if to take the damage inflicted on it.

It's probably an ability to create a replica that takes the impact instead.

Truly, a trait that makes you want to ask, "What kind of cheat is this?"

But I realized the moment I knocked it over just now.

Its ability is only to create a replica to take the hit when it receives damage, not to ignore physical force itself.

So, if I don't inflict damage, I can keep it in place indefinitely.

While I hold it back, after everyone nearby has finished evacuating...

Well, I'll have to make it pay the price for mocking people.

The arm attached to the doll's shoulder moves.

A sharp, pointed weapon that could create a large hole in a person's stomach just by striking down.

The doll brings the pointed part of its arm to its own body.

It draws a short line, creating a small scratch, and then creates a replica of itself.

―――Screech!

As if a soul is popping out of its body, another doll with a scratch is created from it.

An absurd phenomenon that throws the law of conservation of mass to the dogs.

But it doesn't matter. The doll's own strength isn't much of a threat to me anyway.

Perhaps the doll knows this too, as it hasn't been directly attacking me, who's been sticking to it since earlier, but only trying to shake me off.

Now, no matter how many replica dolls it creates, it doesn't matter anymore.

The doll and the replicated doll.

They lower their stance as if to rush towards me.

Almost simultaneously, they kick off the ground and jump out of place.

Not towards where I am, but in a different direction.

"Eh―"

A flustered voice leaks out briefly from my lips.

I didn't expect it to run away so anticlimactically, after acting like it was about to attack at any moment.

But there's no time to look at it with disdain.

The doll's footsteps are heading not in the opposite direction from where I'm standing, but towards where the people who haven't evacuated yet are.

"This is, really annoying…!"

I immediately start running after them.

I was briefly flustered by the sudden escape, but it's not like I can't catch up.

In the meantime, the doll continues to scratch its body and create replicas.

But as I've done so far, I use them as stepping stones, crushing them all as I approach the main body.

Just before its arm touches one of the evacuating people, I manage to jump and climb on top of it.

―――Thud!

As it's pushed to the ground, a replica is created, but I immediately stomp on it and crush it, then firmly hold the doll in place so it can't move.

Now, all that's left is to hold it still so it can't move.

But just holding onto the giant doll, which is thrashing around like crazy to hurt itself, requires much more delicate control of strength than I thought.

The moment my focus is momentarily drawn to its wildly moving arms and legs, the doll takes advantage of the weakened force and slams its head madly against the floor.

―――Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Several replicas with cracked heads are created in an instant.

And at the same time, their gazes turn to the evacuating people.

If I leave it like this, they'll turn this place into a scene of carnage again while I'm holding it.

I stop suppressing it, thinking that I have no choice, and chase after the dolls running towards the people.

Fortunately, I manage to smash them all before they can cause any damage.

But in the meantime, the main doll has created numerous replicas again and is running away from me.

"...If I catch you, you're really going to regret it."

I think to myself, with a fed-up feeling, that I'll never let that guy die peacefully if I catch him.

Using the dolls that have filled the hallway as signposts, I run as fast as possible to catch up to it.

While smashing the remaining replicas and steadily chasing after it.

Before long, I escape from the chaotic space and move into a relatively clean space.

From not far away, a loud noise echoes.

―――Rumble!

And following that, the sound of small piles of stones falling, rumbling.

It was obvious. Something just broke through a wall.

And considering the current situation, where I've almost caught up to it.

It was clear that the guy, thinking he would be caught if he continued like this, had chosen a different escape route than before.

'Looks like it's here.'

Stepping on the heads of the replicas, which are much fewer in number than before, I soon see a door that has been roughly slashed and torn off.

Since I can't see anything beyond the long hallway stretching out in front, it must have passed through here.

I have no idea what's inside that made it choose this place as its escape route.

But I didn't know what it would do if I left it alone, and I was quite angry about it bothering me.

I completely ignored the possible dangers inside and, without hesitation, turned and threw myself through the torn door.

Beyond the roughly torn door.

The first thing I saw upon entering was a space that was incomparably larger than the room I had been in before.

And the next thing that caught my eye was the huge cube in the center of the room.

'...Cube?'

I frowned slightly and stared at it for a moment.

A huge cube placed alone in the center of an unnecessarily large space, honestly, wouldn't it be a very suspicious sight to anyone who saw it?

But I didn't have the luxury to worry about such things right now, and I was quite fed up with dealing with the clones it was scattering while running away.

Thinking about taking into account the damage to the facility to a reasonable extent, I quickly looked for its figure, determined to catch it this time.

―――Screech!

The sound of mechanical devices meshing together.

As I heard that sound, which I was now familiar with, I turned my gaze towards the source of the sound.

I found the guy hiding on the exact opposite side from where I had entered, quietly trying to make a hole in the wall.

As soon as its figure came into view, I immediately started running straight towards it.

In an instant, I jump over the cube in the center, and its face turns back in surprise.

However, the hole in the wall was still far too small for it to enter.

And the distance between me and it was already only a few steps away.

Just before reaching it.

I reached out my hand to grab it.

But in the next moment, I felt a sense of unease at the sudden darkening of the surroundings.

I looked up at the sky to find the reason why it had become dark.

"...Shadow?"

There, the giant cube I had seen earlier was floating in the sky.

It was creating a massive shadow, having blocked out all the light around it.

'Ah—'

Soon, it fell towards the ground at a rapid speed,

and with the force to crush everything beneath it, it fell upon me.

―――Kuuuung!

The cube fell to the floor, and a massive vibration and sound filled the wide room.

But despite that, the impact that was transmitted outside was minimal.

This room was originally built considering the cube's unique properties.

No matter how strong the impact here, even if the entire room shook because of it,

the people outside the isolation room wouldn't even feel the vibration in the floor.

―――Kkigigigik

After the sound of machinery, the monster in the form of a doll revealed itself.

Unlike the girl who was crushed under the cube, it was still perfectly fine.

It couldn't be helped. Creating this situation was its aim in the first place.

Of course, if it had been crushed by this as well, it would have been trapped underneath without any way to move, but

since it already knew how this worked, it wasn't difficult for it to take out a part of its body beforehand and escape.

――――――

It stared at the cube without a word.

It was a strange creature.

Since its creation, it had massacred countless living beings,

but it had never encountered an opponent that made it feel so powerless.

It seemed to belong to the same kind as itself, rather than being human,

but that didn't mean they were given any sense of kinship.

―――Kkigik

The doll made a short sound and moved its body towards the outside.

In any case, that thing was already dead.

As long as it was a living being, it couldn't have survived being crushed by this.

Now that the obstacle was gone, it would simply continue doing what it had been doing.

The doll's body followed the cube, slowly starting to advance.

Perhaps knowing that there was no longer any way to stop it, it walked at a much more leisurely pace than before.

It made creaking noises as if humming a tune, and began to walk forward.

Finally, it reached about the middle of the room,

and the moment it tried to move away from the cube,

"――Got you."

Along with the voice of the girl who was supposed to be crushed under the cube,

its neck was grabbed by a small hand that burst out of the wall, and it was instantly sucked into a hole in the cube.

―――Udududududuk!

Its body was forcibly pushed into a hole that was too narrow to pass through, and its body was shaved off as if it was being ground away.

Numerous replicas were created as a result, but they were of no help in the current situation.

What came into its view when it reached a space where it could barely maintain its shape after passing through the narrow hole was a space that looked like a narrow cave, as if the inside of the cube had been hollowed out, and the figure of the girl, glaring at it with narrowed eyes, her mood twisted.

"... ."

A small sigh could be heard, "Hoo."

She seemed to have relaxed for a moment, but the strength of the hand holding the doll's neck remained unchanged.

The tightly gripped doll was not allowed even the slightest movement.

"You might not believe me, but I've seen a lot of guys like you. I mean, guys who are immortal or whatever."

The girl began to speak to the doll.

Of course, she wasn't expecting any kind of response.

There was no way that trying to talk to a monster that killed people for no reason would be a beneficial use of time.

This was nothing more than a meaningless soliloquy to relieve her pent-up emotions.

"But considering they claim to be immortal, none of them really have abilities that live up to that name."

She rummages through her old memories and recalls the countless beings she had met.

Those who rapidly regenerated their bodies, those who had multiple lives, or those who had no concept of death in the first place.

There were many who called themselves or were called immortal, but in the end, most of them met their deaths.

Some were burned to death without leaving a single cell behind, some were defeated by someone who went back to the past, and some even had their existence annihilated.

But, that was not what she had done.

She had been reincarnated into a fantasy-like world, but ridiculously, she was far from magic or superpowers.

So, how did she deal with those who were called immortal?

Well, the answer to that was simpler than she thought.

"...Well, I wonder about you."

As the girl's fist was raised high, a silent moment began.

A small, tightly clenched fist.

The doll, sensing an ominous energy, frantically shook its body to escape from this place, but

there was nowhere for it to escape in this narrow space.

In that moment, as if time had stopped, it felt like everything was unfolding in slow motion――

In an instant, along with an ear-splitting sound, the girl's fist slammed down on its face.

Beat it until it dies.

That was the most certain method she knew, and she had never seen an opponent that the method didn't work on.

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