Even while unconscious, I could see Deus’s back as he continued dragging me somewhere. When I first regained consciousness, I was in a bright space, but when I came to the second time, it was inside a dark room. The last time I regained consciousness, it was a place like an underground bunker with walls covered in blood.
“Ugh……”
I opened my eyes, grimacing at the stench that assaulted my nose. The moment I checked my surroundings, the color drained from my face. I had clearly been inside the bright mansion until I lost consciousness, but now I was in a sealed room blocked on all sides by rusty steel walls.
There were even saws and hammers scattered throughout the room, bloodstains sprayed across the floor, and all kinds of organs in formalin bottles. My whole body trembled at the scene you’d only see in a horror movie.
‘My hands are tied.’
It was a mistake to think that Deus might have even a little humanity left in him. Deus was born with inherently incorrigible violence in his nature, and his ego had been trapped in the Void without even spending a proper childhood. Making this monster into an ally was impossible no matter how I thought about it.
‘First, let’s think of a way to escape from here, and also how to subdue Deus.’
Just as I turned over to check my surroundings more carefully, I made eye contact with Deus, who had been staring at me as if he’d been waiting. I got goosebumps at the face with only eyes visible peeking over the bed. Deus, who had been grinning at me, reached out his hand and flicked my nostril with his thumb and middle finger.
“Scared?”
“……”
“Want me to hold your hand?”
Whatever the lunatic before my eyes was muttering didn’t register in my ears at all. I just wanted to untie my bound wrists and escape from here. I asked, trying hard to ignore the agonized screams coming from the next room.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“This is my workshop. I made all the sows you saw here too.”
Deus, wearing only a smooth rubber apron over his muscular bare body with thick leather gloves on both hands, grinned creepily. It was a passage that roughly explained how he had been spending his time all along. Deus, who had gotten up and picked up a hacksaw from among the tools scattered on the floor, grabbed one of my ankles.
“I’ll tell you the plan. First, I’m going to cut off all your limbs. Then I’ll open your head to remove the emotion of fear, and if I sew pig skin onto your face, it’ll be roughly complete.”
“……”
“And when you enter the recovery period, I’ll open your belly and the womb……”
I tried not to lose my mind even while listening to the insane talk. After breathing shallowly, I kicked Deus’s stomach as he was fiddling with my ankle and jumped down under the bed. Just as I barely got up using my knees to push against the ground and ran toward the door, my hair was grabbed and my body tilted backward.
“Ugh……”
“We already took a walk earlier, where do you keep trying to go?”
Tears welled up at the strong grip that seemed like it would peel off my scalp at any moment. I suppressed the fear rising to my throat and said.
“I’m, I’m hungry……”
“……”
“I haven’t eaten anything since coming here. My stamina is much weaker than others. If I receive such major surgery without eating properly, I’ll die right away.”
My gaze went to the single-edged saw in Deus’s hand. Pieces of flesh from who knows whom were stuck all over it. After being silent for a while, Deus said with an expression like a child playing dumb.
“But I don’t really know what you mainly eat.”
“I eat anything well.”
“I felt like it was a really good flow? after a long time.”
“Really, I’m really so hungry. Deus…… please.”
I pleaded earnestly with a voice tinged with tears. Deus, who had been scratching his head as if troubled, made a grunt sound and got up from his crouched position.
“Okay…… you do need to eat well when you’re young. It’s also better to have some fat on you if you’re going to give birth to many babies later.”
“……”
“Wait a bit, I’ll make something delicious and bring it right away. Oh, right.”
Deus, who had been about to leave the sealed room, turned around again. A sharp saw was suddenly thrust under my chin. I managed my expression at the following cheerful voice.
“If you run away, I’ll kill you. You broke the good flow, so you should be prepared for that much. Understand?”
After finishing his warning, Deus left the sealed room. The iron door closed with a heavy sound. The breath I had been holding due to tension burst out all at once. I raised my upper body while suppressing the feeling of wanting to vomit. At the same time, the guide rabbit I had hidden in my pocket jumped out.
Squeak.
The guide rabbit, which had been looking around, tilted its head. It had an expression as if asking what the hell this bizarre place was. I muttered weakly.
“Let’s think together. How we can escape from this fucking bastard’s fucking bastard world.”
* * *
Thanks to the guide rabbit gnawing through the rope, fortunately my bound hands became free, but even after searching every corner of the sealed room, there was still no key or anything that could open the door.
“Does this mean I have no choice but to undergo sow modification like those men?”
I sighed while leaning my back against the wall. I’ve felt this since reading the original work, but Ash gets caught up in these kinds of unfortunate events particularly often. I opened my mouth while looking at the ceiling with a vacant expression.
“Actually, I experienced a similar situation when I was young too.”
I stroked the soundly sleeping guide rabbit while ruminating on past memories. Rather, after giving up on everything, my heart felt much more at ease. Like feeling comfortable right before drowning.
“I kept staying at an orphanage, but just once, I was adopted by a couple. Of course, they adopted me to siphon off the support money, so I spent almost every day locked in a narrow room getting beaten.”
Ordinary people don’t know the feeling of being abandoned in a baby box right after being born. They don’t particularly try to know either. That, you see, was no different from the world sentencing me to death. A death sentence that even the parents who gave birth to you don’t want you. When I was young, I still had some fantasy about parents who loved me, but even that fantasy completely disappeared after meeting the parents who adopted me.
“I remember enduring it by drinking urine because I was too scared of being sent back to the orphanage to ask to be let out. But……”
It wasn’t a particularly good memory, but whenever life felt hopeless like now, that moment came to mind once. Because when I recalled that memory, I felt like I could do anything. I hugged the guide rabbit tightly and muttered with my face buried in its fluffy fur.
“Maybe that’s my only strong point.”
After taking a deep breath, I steeled my resolve. The tools scattered on the floor entered my eyes.
Creak.
“Sorry, I’m late. Preparing the ingredients was more troublesome than I thought……”
After waiting for some time, Deus, who had returned with an innocent face, stopped mid-step as he entered the sealed room. He seemed surprised that I, who should have been sitting bound and sobbing, was not visible. But it was natural that I wasn’t visible. I had been gripping a hammer behind the door until Deus returned. The moment Deus, who belatedly sensed the killing intent, turned toward me, I swung the hammer wide with clenched teeth.
THWACK!
At the attack that landed properly, Deus staggered. Blood drops fell incessantly. Deus, who was clutching one eye that had been struck by the hammer while bending his upper body, let out a groan.
“Ouch……”
While Deus was feeling pain, I quickly escaped the sealed room and closed the door. And just as Deus had done, I locked the door from outside. Deus, who had been groaning while holding one eye that wouldn’t open, suddenly chuckled.
“That worked out well, now I can keep winking at you.”
“I don’t want to receive your winks or anything.”
“But I want to keep winking at you.”
I could clearly see Deus’s eye, which had been distorted until just now, slowly regenerating. It was the self-healing ability that had appeared in the original work too. After completing his recovery, Deus continued speaking calmly.
“Even if you go outside, you won’t live long with that body anyway. You must know it too. That you don’t have much life force left.”
“……”
“The end is already clearly set anyway, so why do you try so hard?”
Just as I felt a surge of emotion at the annoying way of speaking that scratched at people, I let out a sigh.
“Because I might be able to change it.”
“Change what?”
“The fate of being turned into a sow by having you modify my body.”
The smile slowly faded from Deus’s lips, which had been grinning throughout. I clenched my fists and slowly continued speaking.
“I have a goal. To achieve that goal, I need strong power.”
“……”
“So……”
Light rippled for a moment in Deus’s pupils, which had been completely empty throughout. After pondering, I slowly approached the door. I spoke in an unwavering voice toward Deus, who was looking down at me expressionlessly.
“Right now, I need you.”
Although he had serious personality problems, Deus was certainly strong. My life or death was essentially determined by Deus’s answer. I looked at Deus with an expression clearly showing tension. Deus, who had been silent, slowly opened his mouth.
