Hel & Brunhild

“I am Silvia and this is Brunhild Eiktobel. Simply put, we’re your enemies.”

“Fine then.”

Without hesitating, the patched-together girl pulled the revolver’s trigger.

With a dry gunshot, a highly deadly 45 caliber bullet was fired, but it was no match for the mass of steel that was the ship. It would do nothing more than scatter a few orange sparks and make a sound similar to a pot being struck.

That was all it should have done.

That was the common knowledge of the world.

And yet…

With a great roar, the entire steel supply ship was enveloped in crimson flames.

Nothing had been ignited.

Even if all the fuel stockpiled aboard the supply ship had caught fire, the flames would not have spread so evenly. It would have instead exploded at a single point, breaking the ship in two.

The unnatural flames had been caused by the girl in the bloody dress.

“I can draw out causes of death from the residual information of the dead, store them in existing weapons, and swap out the causes of death. I can strangle you with a sword, drown you with a train, crush you with a blowtorch, and burn you with a handgun. That is a suitable reason to bear the name of Hel, the queen of Niflheimr who rules over the dead.”

When the ship had been struck by Hel’s bullet, it had been heated all over as if it had been “stuffed head first into an oven”. Everyone aboard, be they expert or amateur, soldier or magician, would be roasted like turkeys.

However…

A sound like shattering glass exploded out.

The flames enveloping the supply ship were suddenly blown away and the ship appeared unscathed from within.

It was similar to peeling away sunburned skin. The supply ship’s exterior was actually a bit shinier than before.

A woman’s voice came from the speaker as if nothing had happened.

“Sorry, but barriers are my specialty. If you want to kill the crew of this ship, you’ll have to take care of me first.”

“I see,” was the girl named Hel’s only response.

She spread her arms to show off the candle-like flames scattered as far across the icy ground as the eye could see.

“Ten thousand fifty three causes of death have appeared here in all. As expected of a location deeply related to the world’s largest gun nation, many people have died here. …I will use all of these to kill you. And if I kill you, I will use your cause of death somewhere.”

“Hel, hm?” said the other female voice. It was a bored-sounding voice. “People once called me Hel. I never thought I would run across an idiot who proudly showed off the sinister name of that queen of the underworld.”

“Now you have my interest.”

“Not mine. Let’s just get this over with.”

-Toaru majutsu no index NT vol 8 ch 4