As soon as I went outside, a blue light flashed in the distance and several buildings were buried in ice.
I'm not the only one who came out at the sound of the explosion.
People staying at the inn I came out from are also coming out wondering what's going on, and some people are even coming out of private houses holding weapons.
Maybe because of the nature of this world, I can see many people wearing swords or armor.
I walked across them towards the most intense scene in this village.
It's a village with low density, with hardly any buildings exceeding 3 floors, but there are many people.
There's an acrid burning smell and a faint smell of iron mixed in between.
The city center.
Where there's a building surrounded by barbed wire.
Soldiers and people are fighting there.
Usually, when soldiers and citizens fight, you'd think soldiers would one-sidedly kill people, but here there are many people who have a certain level of force individually.
That certain level doesn't just mean fighting with clubs.
Some people are defending in front holding swords, blunt weapons, and shields, while others are firing powerful magic from behind.
If the citizen side looks like a force group that popped out of fantasy, the army facing them looks more like a future army, holding weapons using clockwork machines as if they popped out of steampunk.
It's strange.
What's strange is that there's no one using clockwork machines on the citizen side.
Because unless you're quite poor, you use clockwork machines.
Thinking about the clockwork machines that suddenly started killing people on the airship, I get a rough idea. For some reason, they became unusable.
While gradually grasping the situation like that, I arrived at the fierce battlefield. Because I'm stupid, reality hits before I can properly understand anything.
"Aaaargh!"
Next to me, a man with half his body cooked by fire is wailing. On a battlefield where magic is flying around, life disappears in various ways.
It's fortunate he didn't die instantly.
I crouched down next to that man. And waited until the screams subsided. The point where his mind becomes hazy from pain, and almost all energy to move his body has disappeared.
After enduring until the situation reaches where he needs to grasp even a rotten rope, I ask like this:
"Do you want to live?"
The man mumbles that he does. However, he's lost too much strength so it doesn't come out properly as sound, but I can understand.
Therefore, I recite the contract text.
"I'll give myself to you. Instead, when you finish everything later, I'll take everything you have then. How about it?"
Looking at the context, it's strange. After asking if he wants to live, I say I'll give myself. If he were in his right mind, he'd ask what on earth I'm talking about.
But what if it's in this situation? Wouldn't you grasp at straws, whatever it is?
Crack.
Soon his whole body hardens like porcelain then falls off, and blue skin shows from inside. Oh. He was really dying.
While limbs flying off or ordinary diseases end with white skin.
Anyway.
The man stood up with a dumbfounded face. I also stood up from my spot, then said this to the man:
"Do what you want to do."
Then I move on to the next target.
Among those who witnessed the man coming back to life, the person who is injured himself approaches first.
I recite the contract text.
That person heals their injury.
As this happens more, the number of people seeing me heal injuries increases, and one by one, they run to me asking to be saved.
Hehe.
"That bitch is healing people! Kill her!"
Then someone shouted loudly from where the soldiers are. When I turned my gaze there, soldiers wearing brass exoskeletons are approaching me holding weapons.
Then the harvesters block them with serious expressions.
When you become a harvester, all functions increase overall. Even the ability to use magic power increases.
Those who were once defeated return to the battlefield, becoming stronger.
Moreover, intelligence also increases.
It means they strike weak points a bit better.
As the balance of power changes, the soldier side gradually starts to get pushed back. Injured people become harvesters and rush back to fight.
Someone's fortune is someone else's misfortune. To catch me who appears to be a healer at first glance, heavy brass armor rises into the air spraying blue magic power, then flies towards this side.
But unfortunately, all their attacks ended in failure.
As soon as they flew up, they were hit by magic flying from all directions and fell to the ground. The aspect of the battle has changed.
The soldiers are trying to kill me, and the citizens are trying to protect me.
As soldiers' corpses start to pile up, this time I approach a soldier. A soldier dying trapped in crushed brass armor.
His half-burst side is full of broken gears. It's a wound that wouldn't be strange if he died instantly.
I approach that person and recite the contract text.
At that moment, the surroundings became quiet.
"Why...?"
The dying soldier asks me.
So I said this:
"Because you're dying."
I believe he won't refuse to become a harvester. And he answered that belief.
His whole body changes like porcelain, and as the brass armor splits, a man with blue skin pops out like hatching from an egg.
"From now on, do what you want to do."
Then he planted his head on the ground. In other words, he bowed.
"I will follow you."
Something, it's full of religious feeling. And what's scarier is that it spreads instantly.
People around also bow towards me one by one.
No, isn't it a bit strange that some kind of cult is being created when I don't want it? Isn't it normal here to just say thank you and praise my morality?
Or ungrateful behavior like "Thank you for healing me. Now die!"?
There's no brainwashing function in making harvesters!
"Belle? What is this, now..."
When I turned my head, Victoria is standing a little distance away. Near her, Polaris is also trembling while grasping Victoria's clothes.
But Victoria?
Why are you making an expression like "finally, what was meant to come has come"?
Are you making an expression like it's natural to worship me? Hey? Did you forget the moment when you and I first met?
I was a fish monster well over 7m, right?
Right now it's very quiet around. Except for voices shouting to kill that bitch from the fortress surrounded by barbed wire in the distance, it's strangely quiet around.
As if they never fought, they've stopped fighting and are bowing their heads towards me.
No... Hmm.
At this time, let's just use it. I need more harvesters now. The person ordering attacks here now is likely not the person who committed all this.
In other words, I need more harvesters.
If clockwork machines turn against us, we'll probably be at a disadvantage. So I need more eyes, even to grasp the situation.
"Bring the injured people."
This might increase the number of people worshipping me, but later I can drive them away whether they serve me or not.
As soon as my words end, they bring people who are severely injured and dying from around.
One by one, injured people pile up in front of me, and I approach them and recite the contract text.
Maybe because it's close to a civil war, there are also people I made into harvesters earlier. I leave these to die. Once you become a harvester, you can't be healed again.
Becoming a harvester is like throwing a cup of person into a puddle of me. When I fill the cup, they become a harvester.
That's irreversible. Once something enters, it can't be put back.
Take it out and put it back in? Why? Why should I hand over the warmth that's come into my hands? I'd rather make the next harvester.
Anyway, if I ignore those who became harvesters, they'll understand that I'm not an object worthy of worship, right?
That's when it happened.
A faint beam of light shoots out from behind a building and grazes the place where I am. At that moment, the memory of the harvester I just obtained flashes.
The precursor of the great weapon Craft Nine.
And that Craft Nine is the weapon that fired a beam aiming at the airship.
Ah.
* * *
A very thin thread of light shoots out from a building wall, passes through where Belle is, and reaches the opposite building.
At the moment people are wondering what this light is.
"Everyone dodge!"
A man who was a soldier next to Belle shouted while hugging Belle and throwing his body.
Most people at the scene, including Victoria, froze in place not knowing what that meant, but some people moved.
For example, people who know what this phenomenon is like the soldier who wrapped Belle, or people who felt it instinctively before thinking and avoided, or people like Polaris who wanted to leave this place from the start and was holding Victoria's clothes, could move.
They threw their bodies to the opposite side of the light, holding what's precious to them.
And.
Fwooosh!
A thick pillar of light replaced where the faint line of light was, and simultaneously, tremendous heat heated the air along its path.
Instantly, dozens of people at the scene melt and evaporate in the beam.
Meanwhile, Polaris, who grabbed Victoria's body and pulled her back, took that heat wave on her back.
The weapon called Craft Nine is a weapon made to deal with huge objects like flying fortresses, airships, or huge flying monsters.
What happens if you fire it into a city street?
The excessive firepower not only literally evaporated all objects in its path, but also created secondary damage as the air heated instantly expanded and generated a shockwave.
But the attack itself is a simple beam.
The light disappears soon, leaving only a corridor penetrated by light where heat haze rises.
Victoria, who avoided fatal injury thanks to Polaris who hugged her body and pulled her behind herself, stood up when the force hugging her disappeared.
Then a scene of scorching hell enters her eyes.
Victoria turned her gaze to Polaris right next to her, and unconsciously let out a groan.
Polaris is dying with severe burns on her back and most of her hair stripped off. She'll die if some emergency treatment isn't done.
Thinking that, Victoria unconsciously looked for Belle.
Hoping that Belle would somehow heal her.
Amidst the boiling ground everywhere, and blackened corpses or people dying with burns, Victoria found the person she was hoping for.
More precisely, she found what used to be the person she was hoping for.
Snow-white hands and clothes hem.
Belle's hand.
But no flesh remains beyond that. Black charcoal extends to the elbow, and beyond that, snow-white bones are exposed.
Even that is bubbling and melting away.
The moment she realized what that means.
"Aaaaaaaaaaah!"
Victoria roared.
Now, let's look at the superpower Victoria has.
She controls water.
Filled with anger, she half lost her reason and drew up all her power.
And this is a port city.
Water is everywhere.
As if resonating with Victoria's anger, not only the moisture in the air but also the seawater around the port is dragged over Victoria.
Streams of water extend from all directions and gather above Victoria's head, forming a mass.
The gathered and massed water streams gradually fill the sky, and eventually the sky changes into a water surface.
Even after that, the water doesn't stop increasing its volume, drawing in seawater from far away.
Eventually, the small port city was literally underwater.
Deep in that ocean. In the middle of the deep sea where not a single light reaches. The girl who created a desperate prison of hatred to not leave a single enemy took a deep breath and exhaled.
And with a determined expression, Victoria Bete began to crush her enemies.
Just as she had done so at Great Kraken's advance base once.