How To Survive A Cute Ghost Yandere
Chapter 22: The dead don’t fight

Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The dead don’t fight

’Am I dead?’

Viena felt pain wracking her entire body. Her breath came ragged, and the moment she opened her eyes, she found herself somewhere impossibly dark.

The ceiling looked impossibly far away above her. She bit her lip and tried to pull herself up, feeling something soft beneath her, and quickly glanced down.

"A-ah...! Ah... No, this can’t be...!"

What she saw was a body, badly wounded. Blood flowed from his head and every part of his body, his eyes open, showing no sign of life at all.

No breath, no movement whatsoever. Viena ignored the pain in her own body, searching through her Saintess robes, and found something resembling a bracelet.

"P-please...! D-don’t die!"

Tears streamed down her face, her hands trembling as she rushed to fasten the bracelet onto the young man’s wrist—Eiros’s wrist.

Watching the bracelet fail to respond at all, her breath caught, and her heart felt like it had simply stopped.

"No, no, no, this can’t be happening...! T-this can’t just happen...! I... I shouldn’t have...!"

Viena sobbed helplessly. If only she’d actually been useful, if only she hadn’t just been dead weight, this death would never have happened.

She never should have joined this group. They were kind people, and because of that, she shouldn’t have been so selfish, burdening them like this.

"Ah..."

Was this the Goddess’s punishment for her selfishness?

She cried, bowing her head, clasping both hands together.

"Please, have mercy on this innocent young man, oh Goddess Crelesta."

"He’s nothing but a victim in all of this, please grant him salvation... Please, tell me what I should do... Please, help me."

"I’ll do anything. Please, save this innocent young man, he... he deserves so much better than this."

But there was no response of any kind. She kept praying and praying, her sobs growing more and more frantic.

Until finally, she felt something tremble not far from her. From deep within that unfamiliar tunnel, she saw a giant serpent approaching.

It was a horse-headed basilisk.

Its body, hidden within the darkness, was still clearly visible thanks to the emerald crystals embedded across its skin, casting a faint glow through the darkness.

Its hissing was the only sound breaking the silence. Its reptilian pupils locked onto Viena, and without a shred of hesitation, it began closing in.

’Ah.’

Viena’s heart went cold at the sight of the serpent. Here, right now, this might really be the end for her.

"Haha..."

A hollow laugh escaped her lips.

Even facing death itself, there was nothing she could do. What kind of Saintess was she, what kind of prophecy, what kind of girl closest to the Goddess...?

From beginning to end, she’d only ever been an ordinary girl from some remote settlement.

"I’m... I’m sorry, I’m so sorry... Forgive me."

For everything that had happened, for the mistakes, for the tragedy brought about by her own foolishness.

Just as she thought it was all about to end.

"M-miss...!"

A supervisor, his left arm visibly wounded, emerged from the shadows. His face was wrapped in thick cloth, marking him clearly as one of the evaluation supervisors.

The man, without a shred of hesitation, charged forward to attack the two-headed Basilisk. In his hand, an axe crackling with bluish lightning materialized out of empty air.

"Die! You! Damn it!"

The man shouted, slamming his axe straight into the Basilisk’s body.

Baam—!!

The strike unleashed a fairly powerful explosion. Then a bolt of lightning shot out of nowhere, striking exactly where the man’s axe had just landed.

The serpent, which had only been able to hiss until now, finally let out a low, guttural scream. Its long body thrashed wildly, slamming into anything within reach.

The man took a step back after carving out a large gash. Revealing flesh from the Basilisk now blackened, dripping green blood.

Axe still drawn, he refused to let his guard down. He charged again, and unlike before, the Basilisk wouldn’t let itself get caught off guard so easily this time.

Whoosh—!!

A spray of sticky green fluid shot from the serpent’s mouth. The supervisor stopped mid-stride, dodging the attack.

The fluid struck the rock behind him, which immediately melted away into nothing.

Then its other head suddenly let out a piercing shriek. A sound no serpent should have been capable of making.

That shriek made the man shudder, clutching his ears in pain, and the same held true for Viena, who looked deathly pale, utterly helpless.

The two-headed Basilisk was a genuinely powerful monster, operating in a range close to that of the professors themselves. More accurately, its level matched that of the supervisors assigned to this evaluation.

Which meant this fight likely wasn’t going to unfold the way Viena had always hoped—the way she’d always believed goodness would simply triumph in the end.

***

A sea of red, a red gateway, a red moon spilling blood, a red sky scattered with red stars.

Everything was red. The whole world had turned entirely red, while Eiros floated above that crimson sea, his face utterly exhausted.

’...Is this the world they see?’

The world inside a Stigmata itself—something one had to comprehend in order to activate their own power.

Of course, that only applied to those who actually needed comprehension to unlock it. Eiros, meanwhile, seemed to be here because he’d already satisfied the activation condition. Namely, death.

So, what came next?

He raised his hand, trying to do something.

"...!"

Right then, his hand, which had been resting against the water’s surface, suddenly felt like it was touching something solid. Eiros was mildly surprised, but he didn’t dwell on it, climbing up onto the water and standing firm.

After a tired exhale, he looked around at this Stigmata world.

"Do I need to open that door?"

He wondered for a moment.

Then, a wave rose from the distance, crashing against an island made of blood-red earth.

Given that this was Leiden’s Stigmata, Eiros had no idea what to say. If Leiden had to enter this world every single day, what exactly was he trying to understand here?

It couldn’t be far removed from the red lightning rumbling across the sky, the sea of blood stretching out everywhere he looked, and now, a door standing right in front of him.

Would Leiden actually open that door?

Or, maybe, this simply wasn’t a door he was meant to open at all.

Eiros took a few steps forward, positioning himself right in front of the door.

Was this what they felt...?

Experiencing death itself, experiencing the very condition required, seemed to be gradually helping him understand exactly what this Stigmata was trying to convey.

Eiros closed his eyes and gripped the door handle. He emptied his mind and tried to pull the door open.

It was rigid, refusing to budge, locked tight from the inside.

But he didn’t lose heart. Instead, he opened his mind and awareness even further.

"This entire world represents hell."

Every single piece of it.

"The activation condition is death."

Which meant leaving life behind entirely, dying, and only then successfully awakening the Stigmata.

But how was anyone supposed to use that Stigmata once they were already dead?

"Coming back to life. Breaking the law of death itself, defying the very principle governing life and death."

But how could anyone possibly come back to life? How could Leiden possibly have any way to break a law like that?

There was no answer.

So then, was Leiden simply fated to never awaken his Stigmata at all?

And what about Eiros?

He was the one who could break the law of life and death.

Rising from death and living again like any ordinary person, exactly as he’d been before, without a single flaw.

What this Stigmata was trying to convey was simple.

"Don’t let death be the reason you consider yourself finished."

The world then rumbled violently. Eiros didn’t hesitate—he pulled at the door handle. And then, the door opened.

No particular emotion colored Eiros’s face. Just as he was about to step through, a voice echoed through the silence.

"The dead don’t fight."

Eiros stopped.

If the definition of the dead was someone no longer capable of fighting...

Eiros turned around.

"Then don’t count me among the dead."

He stepped forward, through the gate, onto a path leading into darkness and the unknown.

***