Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World as a Skeleton

Chapter 281: The Blessing of Evernight

Sora was dragged like a rag doll by that massive, multi-eyed hand, her body

tumbling through the concrete stairwell. Her back slammed against the jagged

edges of the steps, the white-hot pain nearly sending her into unconsciousness.

But worse than the physical trauma were the voices.

Hundreds of faces manifested across the undulating surface of the monster's

mass. Men, women, elders, children—a gallery of the "Ordinary." Each face was

shrieking, their voices overlapping in a dissonant, accusing choir.

"Why are you so ungrateful?!" "Who did Mama toil for?!" "How could you treat

your mother like this?!" "Do you have any concept of the Od Mama spent to raise

you?!" "Why can't you just be a Good Daughter?!"

The voices were needles, stitching themselves into Sora's brain. On the walls of

the stairwell, photographs began to manifest—thousands of them. Each depicted a

girl. Some in Academy uniforms, some in nightgowns, some in that cursed pink

dress. Their expressions varied—smiling, weeping, stoic—but their eyes were all

identical: hollow, lightless voids.

Finally, the movement ceased. Sora was slammed onto the floor of the apartment's

entryway.

The shifting mass of limbs and organs began to contract, squelching and popping

as it reorganized itself. The screaming faces dissolved back into the black

tissue.

When the distortion settled, the woman in the floral apron stood before her once

more. She knelt, reaching out a hand to steady Sora, her voice dripping with a

sickly, apologetic sweetness.

"Sora, I am so sorry." "Mama was merely overcome with emotion." "I never

intended to damage your parameters." "It is only because I possess such

overwhelming affection for you."

Her fingertips touched Sora's shoulder. Sora flinched, her body rebelling

against the contact, but she lacked the strength to pull away. The woman hoisted

her up, propping her against the wall like a discarded puppet. She stood over

the girl, adopting the expectant posture of a parent waiting for a child to

admit a mistake.

"Sora, do you understand why Mama is saddened?" "Mama rises before the sun to

prepare your sustenance. Mama cleanses your garments. Mama carefully designs

your curriculum." "Mama discarded her own life, her own dreams, to invest

everything into you." "And yet... how do you repay the interest?"

The woman's features began to slip again. Eyes migrated toward her temples; her

jaw lengthened. Black ichor seeped from the fissures in her skin.

"YOU TRIED TO ESCAPE!" "YOU TRIED TO TERMINATE THE RELATIONSHIP!" "YOU VIEW MAMA

AS A LIABILITY!" "YOU PERCEIVE MY LOVE AS A CONTAINMENT FIELD!"

Her voice hit a shrill, piercing frequency. She seized Sora by the throat,

hoisting her into the air. A dozen identical faces sprouted from her neck,

shouting in unison.

"YOU SELFISH PARASITE!" "YOU INGRACTIOUS VARIABLE!"

Sora's consciousness began to flicker as the oxygen supply to her brain was cut

off. The edges of her vision turned a sterile, bleached white. The ringing in

her ears drowned out the monster's screaming.

But in this terminal second, her mind attained a state of hyper-clarity.

So this is the sensation of the Void, she thought. Not the grand, heroic end of

the novels. Just a quiet, clinical detachment.

It was like drowning in deep water. The sounds of the world were fading, leaving

only the slow, heavy rhythm of her own heart echoing in her skull.

Thump... thump... thump...

The beat was slowing. Fading.

In that instant, Sora remembered. She saw Master Vahn's face—"Maintain

hyper-lucidity." She saw Vivi's final smile—"Look after my mother." She saw the

empty desks of her classmates—the ghosts of those who had failed the Game.

Ah... I really do not wish for termination. I want one more cycle. Just one.

Her life had barely entered its primary phase. There were so many sectors she

hadn't explored, so many flavors she hadn't tasted, so many words left unsaid.

And then, she thought of Bochi.

The strange, naive "girl" who looked at the world with the eyes of a child.

Perhaps she will survive. Perhaps she can extract herself from this nightmare.

With that thought, the tension left Sora's body. If the outcome was unavoidable,

she would meet it with the dignity of her species.

She used the last embers of her Od to force her eyes open, staring directly into

the distorted, maddened face of the Anomaly. The woman's visage was a map of

insanity. Dozens of mouths were opening and closing, broadcasting the same

scripted questions.

"WHY WON'T YOU OBEY?!" "WHY DO YOU SEEK THE OUTSIDE?!" "WHY CAN'T YOU BE THE

IDEAL?!" "MAMA LOVES YOU!" "YOU ARE MY EVERYTHING!" "WHY WOULD YOU BETRAY

MAMA?!"

The voices were a physical weight. Sora's mouth curved into a smile—not the

submissive grin of the "Good Daughter," but a sharp, jagged smirk of pure

defiance.

She opened her mouth, her voice a barely audible rasp.

"You... wretched... monster."

The shrieking mouths stopped mid-note. Hundreds of eyes swiveled, locking onto

her with predatory shock.

Sora's face was a mottled purple from lack of oxygen, the veins in her neck

bulging, but her gaze was a piercing light.

"You warp our logic!" she wheezed. "You harvest our souls!" "You devour our

frames!" "But I tell you this, Anomaly!" "As long as a single human heart still

beats!" "WE!" "WILL NEVER!" "SUBMIT!"

The final three words were a roar that tore from her lungs, echoing through the

cramped entryway.

The monster froze. It seemed unable to process that a biological unit so close

to termination could still manifest such an intense, unyielding Will.

In the next micro-second, every mouth on the Anomaly's body unhinged, letting

out a deafening, reality-warping screech.

"THEN SUCCUMB TO THE VOID!"

The multi-eyed mass lunged forward, the primary maw opening to swallow Sora's

skull whole.

Sora closed her eyes.

Let it come. At least I had my protagonist moment.

But the clock stopped. One second. Two. Three.

The impact was replaced by a thunderous, structural crash.

BOOM!

The entire apartment vibrated as if struck by a falling dragon. Sora snapped her

eyes open.

The sight before her was something she would carry into the next world.

The heavy iron door of the entryway—the door that had been sealed by black Od

since her "capture"—was currently sailing through the air. It tumbled

end-over-end before smashing into the far wall, disintegrating into a cloud of

shrapnel and dust.

The blood-red moonlight of the city spilled into the hall through the new

breach, silhouetting a slender figure.

A girl stood in the doorway. She was backlit by the crimson night, her

expression unreadable.

"A commendable resolution," the girl stated.

She took a measured step forward. As the dust settled, the moonlight touched her

face, lending her a look of haunting, divine stillness.

It was Bochi. She slowly spread her arms, assuming a majestic, commanding

posture that she had seen Skele-Greed utilize during his diplomatic speeches.

"In light of your spirit... I find myself inclined to intervene. In the name of

my Sovereign."

"I shall bestow upon you the Blessing of the Evernight!"

The moment she spoke, an atmospheric pressure that made the earlier terror feel

like a breeze erupted from Bochi's form. Sora couldn't see the energy, but she

felt the gravity in the room intensify until her bones groaned.

The Anomaly felt it too. It released its grip on Sora, every one of its hundreds

of eyes locking onto the girl at the door.

For the first time in the Game, the Anomaly displayed the variable known as

Fear.

Bochi tilted its head, a smile breaking across its face. It was a sweet,

innocent expression—which, given the crushing aura she was radiating, was

utterly terrifying.

"Commence your prayers, pest."

Bochi reached forward with both hands, her fingers curling into a gesture of

absolute acquisition.

"I am Bochi! Foremost among the Legions of the Evernight!"

"And I hereby decree..."

"...your termination."

☆☆☆

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