How To Survive A Cute Ghost Yandere
Chapter 34: There’s no way....?

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: There’s no way....?

The clash of sword against red crystal rang out. Blood was the only scent left lingering in the air. The atmosphere felt warped, tilted at some impossible angle, while his body slowly began giving out.

Eiros could feel it. He was still strong, still able to fight, his resolve unbroken, no despair in sight.

But his body said otherwise. Physical exhaustion was slowly, steadily making it harder and harder to move.

The man in the black suit was still there. Untouched, completely unscathed, that crooked smile still on his face, toying with him as if he were nothing more than an ordinary fly.

But well, wasn’t that exactly what he was? Just an ordinary fly?

Biting down on his own lip, Eiros swung his sword up, but the motion sent him stumbling sideways, his vision darkening.

Plant—!!

He drove his sword into the ground, using it as a crutch to keep from collapsing. He stared at the man, who smiled at him, amused, as he launched several more red crystals.

’This never ends.’

Eiros gasped for breath, raising his sword before swinging it, staggering like a drunk.

Slash—!! Slash—!!

Cut—!!

But in the end, he simply couldn’t hold on any longer.

His own body betrayed him first.

"Ugh...!"

He stumbled, dropping to one knee. His face, drenched in an alarming amount of blood, was enough to shock anyone who saw it.

Countless slash wounds covered his entire body. Meanwhile, the man hadn’t even sustained a single scratch.

But at the very least, he’d managed to draw him a little further away from where the crown prince and the others had been.

"A classic sacrifice."

The man murmured, amused. He took steady steps forward, stopping right in front of Eiros, whose consciousness was slowly slipping away.

’Alright, now all that’s left is figuring out how to catch this guy off guard, even just a little.’

Eiros lifted his head. His gaze met the man’s pitch-black eyes.

The man reached out, gripping Eiros’s hair and yanking him upright by force.

Eiros let out a low wince.

Remnant of Red Light seemed to be gradually reaching its own limit, as Eiros’s Soul Essence continued to thin out.

"Got something to say?" the man asked, tilting his head, that irritating smile still held with such arrogance.

Eiros closed his eyes.

Then, slowly, he parted his lips.

"Can I ask... what your actual goal is?"

"My goal? Boring. I thought you’d ask something else. But well, you’re boring. Look at yourself, you’re preparing to sacrifice yourself, and those people won’t even thank you for it. Well, they will, but eventually, as time passes, you’ll just become a thing of the past."

The man chuckled.

"Look. Look at me, don’t you think this is a little too harsh? Don’t you think you’re doing something utterly pointless? Don’t you want to live a better life instead of struggling like this?"

Ah, that same seductive line again.

Eiros held himself back from laughing, but in the end, his lips curved into a small smile anyway.

"Yeah, I really do want that."

The man’s face immediately filled with a wide, confident smile.

"Really? Then—"

"But I guess that’s not gonna happen when there’s some idiot out there targeting the kid destined for greatness, right? No wonder this world’s such a mess."

Eiros gave a small laugh. The man’s expression, that alone was worth watching, freezing solid as if he couldn’t quite believe what he’d just heard.

"What... did you just say...?"

Of course, Eiros was only guessing. But he hadn’t actually expected the man in front of him to genuinely have knowledge about them.

That "destined kid" seemed to be their enemy.

That was almost funny. But it also reinforced just how terrifying beings like this truly were, capable of toying with fate itself.

They could peer into it, even alter destiny directly.

’Think.’

Eiros racked his brain, needing to keep this momentum going. His mind spun hard, digging through everything he remembered from the webtoon, any spoiler that might help.

But with nothing coming to mind, his thoughts drifted wider, until something clicked.

’That topic... it’s taboo, isn’t it? Then...’

Watching the man stare at him, baffled, Eiros spoke:

"Could it be that you’re from there?"

"....?"

"What was it called again? Ah right, ’That World.’"

Surge—!!

Red crystals rose to the surface. Eiros’s pupils widened as he found those crystals piercing straight through his own body, leaving him suspended, riddled with countless holes.

Blood sprayed out. At this point, he might genuinely die from blood loss.

"Ugh...!"

The pain was so sharp he nearly screamed. But Eiros held himself together, his gaze locked on the man, his smile twisting into something forced.

"So it’s true after all?" He chuckled.

The man stared back at him, his face darkening, but a smile quickly returned to his face.

"I don’t recall humans ever becoming stupid enough to leak information about that, or is it that you already knew, purely by coincidence? Tell me, what exactly do you know."

The man’s expression shifted into something entirely different. The smile on his face turned cold, saturated with an overwhelming intent to kill.

Eiros felt like he was choking under that pressure.

Deliberately taking his time, he let out a breath, smiled, and coughed.

"Tell me!"

That only made the man grow more impatient as Eiros started laughing, his laughter mixed with coughing.

Yes, he was genuinely laughing, pathetically so.

"How should I put this? I do know about that world, but more details? Ah, honestly, I don’t know a thing."

The man went quiet, studying Eiros’s face as if trying to figure out whether he was lying or not. But then, he froze, his pupils blown wide with shock.

His body turned rigid as he glanced around.

"Nothing? Nothing? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Where’d they go?!"

The crown prince, the princess, and the Saintess were nowhere to be seen anymore. Nothing left behind but dried blood scattered here and there.

Eiros felt his heart pounding, but the smile on his face only grew more amused.

’Ah, I’m genuinely going to make him lose it.’

He just hoped this would end with simply being killed. And that he’d wait, before eventually reviving.

But...

The man stared at him, thick with hatred and rage, before finally muttering.

"I can’t kill you. That seed needs to fully awaken first. But it seems you’ve been living just fine this whole time."

".....?"

"In that case, let’s see. I’ll speed up that seed’s growth."

The man pulled something out from inside his black suit. It was a dark chalice, holding a thick, viscous black liquid.

Seeing that, Eiros felt a shudder crawl through his entire body. He didn’t know what it was, but his gut told him it was something terrible.

"...What is that?" With fear creeping in, he decided to ask.

"This?" The man laughed, his face showing just how furious he was over what Eiros had done.

"Alright then. Since you’ve made me suffer this failure, I figure it’s only fair I make you suffer too."

The man shrugged both shoulders, then added:

"That corrupted kid, what was his name again? I forget. But you must know exactly who I’m referring to—the bottom line is, it was caused by something called the Seed of Corruption. A seed carrying the genes of an entity from that world. It gets planted inside a human body. Normally, it takes centuries before it fully grows, but that process can be accelerated by feeding on negative energy from its host."

Hearing that, Eiros went silent, feeling his heart still pounding hard.

What did that have to do with him?

Why was the man telling him all this?

A seed...

Yes, a seed.

That awful feeling kept piling up heavier in his chest, and as a drop of sweat rolled down, Eiros’s face turned genuinely horrified.

’There’s no way....?’

Meanwhile, the man’s smile widened.

"That’s right! You’ve got that exact same seed inside your body too! And what I’m about to do next is...!"

Hysteria and madness, that was the expression the man wore as he spread both arms wide before finishing his sentence:

"Speed up that seed’s growth."

Eiros’s face darkened, filled with pure disbelief.

Yeah, there was no way that could be true, right?

***