Mushoku Tensei — Chapter 182 - Island 2

Rudeus's Perspective:

I used the teleportation circle to reach the island. It was already afternoon.

I looked down at the town from the air.

Not a single person.

Not one.......

That was wrong. Way too wrong.

I kept flying, following the coastline until I heard the noise. I climbed above it and looked down.

A young girl, alone, facing several thousand people.

She was already done for, poisoned, clearly. Below her chest, a wound had gone clean through. The crowd facing her had no technique, no formation. They were just waiting. Planning to outlast her with sheer numbers until she dropped.

Hmm.......

Ariel had mentioned the investigator looked a lot like Aisha.

I began descending.

First things first, Gravity Magic to pin down that crowd of cultists.

By the time the magic landed, the girl had already collapsed.

I glanced at her.

Ho.......

"She really does look like Aisha."

Short hair, wine-red. Her other features I couldn't quite make out. Her face was covered in blood.

"Your name is Aisha?"

The girl on the ground gave a small nod. Then she went completely still.

I lifted her with magic, applied Detoxification Magic, then Healing Magic.

"That just leaves the cultists."

I touched down.

Turned around.

Rows of people pressed to their knees by the weight of my spell, old men, women, men, children. The leader was a suited man, face almost to the ground.

"Why......."

"What?"

"Why can you still use magic?!"

I looked down.

There was a Magic-Sealing Circle beneath my feet.

I hadn't noticed.

Not that it mattered anymore. Magic-Sealing Circles are a restriction, nothing more. Something like a threshold. Push hard enough and you pass right through it. For someone like Orsted, they do nothing at all.

It used to be different for me. The moment I stepped into one, I'd feel my magic lock up, and because I believed that, it did. That belief was the cage.

Orsted gave me the answer: maintain enough mana output, and the circle barely registers. Keep your mana focused during combat, and even a Magic-Sealing Circle is just a faint discomfort. For someone without the raw reserves to push through it, though, stepping into one is a death sentence.

"That hair color...... that cloak...... that staff....... You — you're Rudeus?!"

"Yes. Are you the island chief?"

"Yes......."

"Being pressed down like that can't feel good. Here's how this works: I ask, you answer. Lie, and you die."

"Alright......."

"The noble young ladies who came to this island and disappeared. What happened to them?"

".......We offered them to our god."

"How exactly?"

"Dressed in wedding gowns. To dance with the flames......."

"Meaning burned alive?"

"No — sometimes they were already dead before the dancing......."

"Heh. What lovely phrasing." I held his gaze. "Next question. The local girls from this island who went missing, what happened to them?"

"Women from outside the island don't come here to play....... When there were no suitable offerings, we would select pure girls from among the island's own......."

"Understood. Last question. Some years you hold the ritual, some years you don't. Why?"

"........If the fruit harvest fell short of the mark, it meant the god was displeased....... We would hold a ritual. If the harvest was sufficient, we wouldn't......."

Ho.

A textbook cult.

Ariel had said killing them all was fine. She'd handle the aftermath.

Then I'd kill them all.

I hate the demon races. That's no secret. But a cult like this? I hate that too.

I looked around. Everyone seemed to be kneeling.

"Did everyone on the island come to this ritual?"

"Yes......."

"Good."

I activated my magic. Gravity, building, preparing to crush them where they knelt.

The suited leader felt the shift. He started shouting.

"I didn't lie! You said, lie and you die — I didn't lie!"

"I never said answering honestly would let you live."

His eyes went wide.

Then, with everything he had left, he wrenched his head up. Looked toward the sky. Screamed.

"God...... God! A demon has come to the island of your children! We beg you, bring down your divine punishment!"

The gravity kept pressing.

He turned his head toward me.

Honestly? I was impressed. Under that kind of weight, most people can't move at all.

"Demon! God will punish you for this! You will die a wretched death!"

"Unpleasant way to put it....... Actually, your god likes rituals, doesn't he? If all of you become the offering, maybe he won't punish me after all."

"What......?"

"To use your own words," I said, "that would be dancing with the flames."

I snapped my fingers.

A pillar of fire fell from the sky.

I picked up the unconscious girl and walked away without looking back.

Just before the flames hit, I heard his last two words.

"Divine....... punishment......."

➤ Next: Aisha — Face to Face