Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
"Come here! Sinclair! Let us become one!"
Kromer, transformed into a hulking monster that looked to be at least three times our size, began to bear down on us while wildly swinging her enormous arms.
The Sinners were already exhausted and injured in large numbers... Aside from me, who had been forcibly pulled out of the fight over and over, there wasn't a single person in normal condition.
So naturally, I ended up taking most of her attacks.
"Aaah, Sinclair!!"
The problem was how to draw the attention of that insane woman who only had eyes for Sinclair...
Actually, in a case like this, the answer was simple. I just had to stand in front of Sinclair.
"Haa..."
One mistake, and I was dead.
With grim resolve, I blocked Kromer's path.
"Move, you rat!"
She raised her right arm and brought it down in a huge overhead smash. I quickly shifted a few steps to the right and dodged.
Boom!!
Then came a grotesque hand thrust out from something that looked like a mouth suddenly attached low on her body. I rolled hard to the right and avoided that too.
Swish, swish, swish!
Immediately after came a wide horizontal sweep from her left hand. I forced every joint in my body to move, bent my knees against their will, and threw my upper body far back to dodge it in an acrobatic contortion.
Shit, that hurts like hell.
Looks like the price for stubbornly dodging something I shouldn't have been able to dodge wasn't small.
...If I keep this up a few more times, I might tear a ligament and go down hard.
Before that happens, I need the Sinners to bring Kromer down.
Of course, the situation wasn't good.
Four Sinners had died when Kromer was still in her fully human state, three were badly injured, three had minor injuries, and two were just exhausted.
In practical terms, the only combat-capable people left were the five of us with minor injuries or less, myself included.
It was a hopeless situation, and I couldn't call it anything else.
Still, that wasn't a reason to give up.
As long as my stamina and body held out, there was no reason I couldn't keep dodging that crazy bitch forever.
From here on out, this was a battle of endurance.
Whether that lunatic died first, or my body hit its limit first.
Let's give it a try.
Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!
Kromer's arms smashed indiscriminately into the ground.
How long had the fight been going on...?
Well, who knew.
All the Sinners who had been badly injured were dead, and everyone who had been more or less intact had either collapsed from exhaustion or been injured to the point that they were effectively out of the fight.
That crazy bitch had started spewing some unidentified substance that seemed to melt everything it touched sometime in the middle of the battle.
Thanks to that, there wasn't a single unscathed part of my body either.
My body had reached its limit long ago after such a prolonged fight, but I was forcing my spirit up and somehow keeping pace with Kromer.
The people still capable of fighting... maybe it was just me and Sinclair, at this point.
There were a few others whose bodies could still move, but I couldn't feel any will left in them to do so.
...Maybe they'd instinctively sensed the end.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much hope either.
There was still a chance of winning, but it was so faint that I could barely see it unless I focused hard.
Most of the possibilities I could see pointed to our total annihilation.
After we were wiped out, Dante's future would be obvious. It would mean the complete end of the LCB team.
And yet I didn't stop moving.
If we were going to be annihilated anyway, I should at least finish my revenge before I went.
Maybe that faint possibility would come true and we'd win. Maybe, against all odds, Vergilius would suddenly show up and save Dante in some spectacular fashion.
"Heh..."
That alone was worth betting on.
With its huge lower mouth and both arms half-broken and no longer functioning properly, this was a fight we could still take if we had a little luck.
"Hah! Sinclair! You're going to become one with me too!"
Kromer came charging in with a wild laugh.
Seeing her raise the still-unbroken right arm high to smash down, I slipped inside her guard in an instant.
Boom!!
I saw the possibility of her mouth opening at that moment, but I didn't care.
I was faster.
Kudududuk――!!
I yanked the spear back out after it had instantly shattered her mouth and reclaimed it.
"Aaaah―!!"
Kwaduk!
Sinclair, who had rushed in at the right moment, finished off her right arm too. Now all that was left was the main body...!
That was when the anomaly happened.
The uncertain possibilities narrowed to one, and then, in the instant it was confirmed...
the hope in my eyes was dyed over with despair.
"Ha!!"
Kududuk――.
With a light cry, Kromer's two arms and lower mouth were restored.
Ah. So it's over.
The moment I felt that, Kromer swung her regenerated right arm and shoved every still-breathing Sinner off the hill.
Splat.
I heard bodies slam into soft flesh.
That flesh was also resonating strongly with Kromer's psyche, spewing out an acidic liquid that melted our bodies.
Sssssss――.
If not for that, my body wouldn't be making such a vicious sound.
So this really was the end...
It would be asking too much to hope Dante had some resistance to this acidic substance.
...Though even if not, would it have changed much?
More importantly, my body wouldn't move the way I wanted it to.
I should have been moving even if it meant running away with only Dante in my arms... I still hadn't managed to land a proper hit on Kromer because I'd been too busy dodging... and yet, for some reason, all the strength had drained out of me.
A lazy thought crept in: maybe if I just closed my eyes now, I could finally rest. I knew I shouldn't, but the temptation wrapped around my body and I couldn't shake it off.
Just as I was about to surrender my mind to that warmth and close my eyes, I saw someone.
Squelch, squelch!
Someone who was climbing the hill endlessly, even as every Sinner was melting under the flesh and even as they themselves were melting while forcing their way up the mound of flesh.
It was Sinclair.
I felt my eyes fly open.
Even that frail, harmless-looking kid was charging in like his life depended on it, and I was thinking of giving up first? I was so ashamed I could hardly lift my face.
"Yes! That's it! It hurts, doesn't it? You hate it, don't you? Take it all in! Every last bit of it!"
That loathsome voice rang from above.
I grabbed a spear lying nearby and took my stance.
"Look at me! This body, these flesh! The strength of purity that none of you can ever touch!"
As I felt my body melting, I carefully judged and adjusted the possibilities with my eyes and my body.
I hadn't fallen all the way to the base of the hill yet, but the distance between me and Kromer was still considerable. I knew that unless I aimed for a perfect strike, I wouldn't reach her.
"Aaah, Sinclair... You're too human right now! You can become like me too!"
"I... will... kill... you..."
"Sinclair, you were scared, weren't you? Losing your family, riding around on a bus with strangers, being forced to do things you didn't want to do."
...Not yet.
"You felt it, didn't you? That this wasn't really where you belonged?"
...Not yet.
"You wanted to run away, didn't you? You wanted to quit everything, didn't you? Right?"
...Now.
"I will definitely..."
Swaaaash!
At Sinclair's declaration, the spear shot forward with a vicious sound.
And that spear—
"Together—"
Thud――.
—buried itself, dead on, in Kromer's face just as she began to speak.
Kuduk.
I heard the sound of Kromer's face regenerating almost immediately.
But Kromer's expression...
"How dare you, how dare you!!"
...was twisted not in the madness she'd worn until now, but in pure rage, and it was almost laughable.
Then I gently raised my middle finger at Kromer, who was glaring at me like she wanted to kill me.
"Haha! I love that expression! How does it feel to have a spear stuck in that ridiculous face of yours?"
The sight of Kromer's face as I looked at it before collapsing... honestly, honestly, it was so exhilarating I wanted to remember it for the rest of my life.
After laughing my fill, I surrendered my body to the surging sleepiness.
I wasn't sure whether my body had finally run out of strength or whether I'd reached a point where sheer willpower could no longer hold me up.
Splat.
As I fell limply, I thought to myself:
So I'm dying.
Looks like the Limbus Company bus department's service is, regrettably, ending here.
A gacha game ending at Chapter 3 is... wait, a gacha game?
I'd forgotten because I'd been roughed up so badly over the past week, but isn't this game a gacha game?
And it ends here?
Even with a weird variable like me thrown into the mix?
Is there something hidden here?
Sssss...
As I died, the final question that flared up in my mind kept multiplying.
An existence capable of opposing Kromer, and yet someone who wouldn't be strange to see here.
Someone connected to Sinclair.
There's no way such a convenient person would exist...
Wait, there is?
The moment I realized it, a new possibility appeared in my vision.
In that newly revealed possibility, a pale boy wearing a blue muffler was descending as quietly as if he were floating down from the sky.
As soon as I understood who that boy was, I closed my eyes in relief.
There had never been a possibility in any future I'd seen where that boy didn't appear.
This too must be an inevitability arranged by someone.
Before long, my consciousness sank into sleep in perfect peace.