“Damn it!” he screamed. “But don’t get so full of yourself, you necrophile bastard! You thought you’d be able to turn me into an Undead and make me talk, right?! Hihi, too bad for you!”

“… What are you talking about?” asked Vandalieu.

“Those of us who are being reincarnated here, even if we die, we can return to the god before you can turn us into Undead! No matter how many times you kill us, there’ll be no end! We’ll just have the god reincarnate us over and over, and we’ll definitely kill you!” Kanata screamed.

Kanata had no intention of dying quietly and giving up on his reward. He intended to request Rodcorte for another chance to get revenge on Vandalieu, who was looking down on him despite being a dropout of a reincarnated individual, and next time, he would certainly receive his reward, the fourth life that he had been promised.

“I won’t let my guard down next time!” he shouted. “I won’t face you alone, either! I’ll cooperate with the others and we’ll torture you before we kill you! The god promised a fourth life full of luxury to anyone who kills you, so everyone will be aiming for you! Even Amemiya, even Naruse!”

Vandalieu’s tongue, which had still been extended outside, loosened and returned to the inside of his mouth.

Taking this as a sign that Vandalieu’s mind had broken, Kanata felt such joy that he forgot the pain of his body being burned.

“PREPARE YOURSEEEELF! After I kill you, I’ll kill those women around you – kaheh?!”

“– Sharp Tongue.”
There was a wet-sounding noise that was lost in Kanata’s scream of resentment, as well as the sound of a crack appearing in a hard object.

From Kanata’s point of view, it appeared as if Vandalieu’s tongue had pierced his chest. But there was no blood. Confused, he wondered whether he had accidentally used Gungnir, but Vandalieu returned his tongue to his mouth and continued speaking.

“I just used my spirit-form tongue to break your soul,” he said. “It’s my first time doing it with my tongue, so I couldn’t break it into pieces with a single attack. But I put a deep crack in it, so I’m sure it will break soon.”

“Eh? Huh? M-my soul?” Kanata repeated blankly.

“In other words, you are finished here. There won’t be anything after your death, no reincarnation, no fourth life.”

“Y-you’re lying! There’s no way such a thing – GAAH!”

Kanata’s face turned pale for the first time as he was consumed by a pain completely different from that of his body being seared by flames. The pain was intense, but he couldn’t tell which part of his body was hurting.

“The god, GAAAH! Didn’t mention… anything about…!”

Kanata’s body was still resisting the flames, but the crack in the important thing that made up the being ‘Kaidou Kanata’ grew deeper and wider.

“So, you didn’t know about it after all,” said Vandalieu. “If you did, you wouldn’t have said the stupid things you said just a moment ago. Well, even if you didn’t say them, I did intend to break your soul anyway.”

Kanata had been panicked and flustered up to this point, but he hadn’t felt the raw despair that his face was filled with now.

“No, stop it, how, how can you do such a horrible thing?!” he cried. “To think that there’s nothing left in the future for me… I-I still have a lot of things I want to do! I don’t want to die, please spare me!”

Kanata screamed, feeling the terrifying sensation of his very being collapsing steadily.