Chapter 68: A Monster

"..." Nio flies over a swamp. It took her several hours of flying to reach the place where a monster was supposedly located.

"In the game, the Headless Hunter was pretty strong, could talk, and dropped something really valuable. If he actually exists and no one’s killed him yet, then he’s my golden key to getting a piece of the battery to make my island fly again," Nio murmurs as she soars over the swamp.

The battery that kept her palace airborne was difficult to make, but the game forced the user to only craft one. Some of its materials were exclusive to it and couldn’t be obtained if you already had it. That’s why Nio had no way of making another or saving the materials to make another one later.

But now she has a chance to get one of those materials, supposedly, since she doesn’t even know if it’s still possible to craft that "battery" for her island.

"The Headless Hunter is a monster that uses a sword... I could easily kill him with long-range magic since he has zero ranged attacks, but I need to train... I should beat him with just my fists or a weapon... he’s level 60 in the game... should be easy." Nio spots traces of his lair, a darkened environment where the swamp water is much darker.

"..." Nio stops without entering the cursed area. She knows even she would have problems because of the Unique Debuff this curse carries. It’s the Curse of Three Faces. It has three effects that can trigger randomly every five minutes, while the curse itself lasts three hours.

The first is [Organ Loss], the second is [Theft], and the third is [Mana Sickness]. Organ Loss drains HP extremely fast. If taken literally, it means Nio would slowly lose organ after organ from her body.

Theft literally steals items from your body, meaning losing a valuable weapon or piece of armor. And Mana Sickness makes it so the more magic you have, the more damage you take from any attack by the Headless Hunter.

"His debuff is a complete abomination, but as long as I don’t enter the Cursed Swamp, I can’t get it... I think I’ll just blow everything up." Nio spreads her wings fully and opens her mouth, forming an attack with her flames. A sphere of fire begins to take shape in her mouth.

But before she fires, she sees the Headless Hunter. He’s a humanoid in completely black armor. He has four arms and a giant eye on his chest, and obviously no head. In its place, a black crystal floats—the item Nio came for.

"Wait!!!" To Nio’s surprise, instead of attacking, the Headless Hunter throws himself to the ground inside the Cursed Swamp, speaking in a pleading tone.

"Please don’t attack!!!" Nio has already formed the flames and can’t just swallow them and let them explode inside her. She considers for a few seconds and then spits the fireball in another direction, far away.

The sphere travels extremely fast and then hits a hill. The explosion of flames is so immense that debris reaches this location from the intense winds.

"Why are you humiliating yourself like this?" Nio asks, confused. He was an extremely aggressive Mini-Boss in the game, so the situation leaves her puzzled.

"Please, I beg you, don’t destroy this place!! I sensed your magic!! I’m begging you!" The Headless Hunter’s tone bothers Nio.

"And why should I?"

"M-My children!! My family!! My friends! They’re all here. They depend on the swamp. If you destroy everything, they’ll die!! I’ll do anything!! But please don’t launch an attack like that here. They won’t stay alive if the Swamp dies..." The Headless Hunter’s tone resembles someone crying, and you can feel the complete desperation in his voice even though he has no face to show his expression.

"...Bullshit... you’re a demonic aspect, a race that can’t even have children."

"Y-You’re right that I can’t have children, b-but I adopted... they are my children! I chose them and I would choose them every single day of my life." When he says this, Nio looks around. Her eyes see, hundreds of meters away, several "children" playing, a small village in the trees. They look like some kind of insectoid lizard monster.

’Wait, they’re alive even while inside the Cursed Swamp?’ Nio looks at the dirty, filthy water, this environment contaminated by the curse.

"How are they alive?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"The curse in the soil, in the water, and in the air should have killed them all." When Nio says this, there’s no answer. The Headless Hunter has no idea what Nio is talking about.

’Wait, he doesn’t have it? He no longer has the Unique Debuff effect? Why?... He existed in the game...’

"[Nio, the game isn’t a good foundation. Things that existed in it might not exist in reality.]" Nioh speaks to Nio, something that rarely happens outside of dreams.

"Ahh..."

"[I know what you want from him. If you kill him, you’ll take him away from family and friends. You understand that isn’t something humans in a normal situation would do, right?]"

"...You... I want that thing on your head..." Nio says, pointing to the crystal floating above his empty neck.

"I-I’ll hand it over!! But please promise you won’t attack this place with those terrifying flames!! Let them live! They’re not guilty of anything and haven’t done anything wrong!! I’ll give anything so you won’t try another attack." Seeing a literal ’monster’ with so much empathy and protective emotions toward something makes Nio feel a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Fine, I just want this crystal and nothing else..." Nio says, descending to the ground while stopping before entering the swamp, still not trusting that it isn’t cursed.

’In the game, only he could stay in the Cursed Swamp without being cursed... could it be that here, without the Unique Debuff, he... there are beings that are friendly toward him?...’ Nio looks at the Faceless Hunter as he approaches.

"You can take whatever you want from me."

"Is your life worth so little? You’re going to give it up for trash below level 10? Seriously? I can feel your strength, at least level 50... why sacrifice your life for that?" Even though Nio loves the palace she built and wants to defend it.

If it were between her living and the palace being destroyed, she would choose to survive, because Nio doesn’t have a person she loves, so she doesn’t recognize the difference between both protective emotions.

"Yes, I swore to protect them from anyone, but I’m no fool. I see no future where I can even manage to hurt you, so I offer my life in exchange for theirs being protected." Despite what he says, the desperation in his voice, which sounds shaky, is palpable.

"...I wanted to fight..."

"...I can’t let this place be destroyed... please don’t launch any attacks, just take what you came to take from me." He speaks with an unshakable determination, which makes Nio bite her lips.

"What am I to you?"

"...A monster—" Nio pierces his body with her hand, impaling him. Her nails grow like claws, something she didn’t even know she could do. His body is completely pierced through by her hand. She moves her hand, tossing the body aside as blood stains her complexion.

"[You chickened out]"

"...Shut up..." Nio looks at what she came to get, watching it stop floating and fall to the ground. A level 50 being could easily attack in this situation, but he chose to die and didn’t even resist, just to protect something, even if his blind trust that Nio would keep her word came from desperation.

"..." Nio stomps the ground hard, spreading her legs and wings slightly. She forms a sphere of flames in her mouth, even more powerful than the previous one, and fires it forward. An explosion of flames with a sound like a sharp scream occurs, expanding and scorching everything, destroying even the water vapor itself.

"..." Nio, unsure why she chose to destroy everything, simply grabs the item she came for and takes flight. The place becomes a plain of black and purple sand due to the composition of the muddy soil.

"[...]" Nioh says nothing, leaving Nio to deal alone with what she’s done.