Chapter 61 61: Sunwater

— — — — — — Gene Lock: Tier 3, unlocked. With his brain running on overdrive, Veyron quickly recalled where he'd seen those names before— ≪Kuroinu: Kedakaki Seijo wa Hakudaku ni Somaru ~ The Noble Lady Knights Become Chained Cumdumpsters≫ ...! Yeah, that one. It's an AVG (adult visual game) made by Liquid, which also got an anime adaptation (Hentai) and a few novels on the side. But what really stuck with him the most—unsurprisingly—were those six episodes of Hanime. Honestly, the total time he spent watching those episodes probably outweighed how much time he'd spent on Highschool of the Dead, though the genres and focus were completely different. The moment he saw those keywords, the memory clicked instantly. If you asked him who "Olga Discordia" was— he'd probably blink and ask "Who?" But if you said Dark Elf Queen... oh, now that he knew way too well. Once he figured out which world it was, he checked the chat group system's note: the evil god's authority of Lust— just a fragment, pulled into that world by the Will of the World. Suddenly, Veyron felt like... yeah, that tracked. After all, Kuroinu falls under the "eroge" category. Just Hentai with a plot. And what's hentai? Put simply, it's the kind with barely any plot, but tons of "scenes"—you know what kind. Purely made for men's lust. Which, coincidentally, fits way too well with the concept of "Lust" as a godly authority. Now the only question was, is this evil god wielding Lust one of the Dark Gods from Warhammer—like Slaanesh—or just some unknown entity who happens to have similar powers...? ... "Evil god?" A moment later, after hearing Veyron's explanation, Houraisan Kaguya and Yagokoro Eirin exchanged glances. "If you're saying it's an evil god who can pollute an entire world," Kaguya said thoughtfully, "then it's probably on the same level as my father." "Hmm.... If it was the god's actual body showing up, I wouldn't even think about fighting it. But it's just a projection of power, right?" Veyron shrugged. "Plus, the World Will is supposed to be on our side this time." Kaguya rolled her eyes. "You say that, but this whole mess started because that world's Will let it happen in the first place." Couldn't argue with that. Eirin gave him a level look. "Other than that woman who'll be going with you, I assume you've got something else up your sleeve that makes you confident you can survive over there?" "Hmm... how about this?" Veyron held out one hand, and a black-and-white flame ignited in his palm. "???" "!!!!" Kaguya raised a brow. Eirin's eyes narrowed. "...Death?" "It's a manifestation of death," Veyron explained. "I got this power the day after I returned from that zombie outbreak world. Remember the panacea I gave you guys? This came with it." "If the situation in that world is really just a case of some minor pollution," Eirin said as she reached toward the flame, brushing her fingers just shy of its edge to feel the death energy. "And the connection to that god should already have been cut off by the World Will..." She nodded slightly. "Yep, with this power, you might actually stand a chance." "Eirin!" Kaguya frowned. But in the end, she knew that when Veyron had brought this issue to them in the first place, he was already set on going. So Kaguya took a small step back, her figure flickering as she vanished into a rift in space. When she reappeared, she held a small glass vial in her hand. "This is the Hourai Elixir," she said. "I've told you what it does before." Kaguya gently pulled Veyron's hand—the one that wasn't holding the death flame—and placed the bottle in his palm. "If things really go south, drink it and——" "Kaguya, Relax. If anything feels off, I'll run the hell out of there." Veyron closed his fingers around the bottle—and around Kaguya's hand too. "We had a deal back then, remember? I'm still supposed to raise you properly. No way I'm dying somewhere and breaking that promise." The Hourai Elixir. Back in the Moon, this forbidden medicine was created by Eirin using her unmatched pharmacology, aided by Kaguya's ability to manipulate eternity and the instantaneous (the Moment). It's also the reason why Houraisan Kaguya, the princess of the moon, was exiled to Earth. Just like the myths Earthlings made up about a drug with the same name, the real Hourai Elixir grants something close to eternal life. But it doesn't work by giving someone an endless lifespan. Instead, it freezes the user's time at the exact moment they drink it. From then on, their time will never move forward again. Wounds, death—it all resets. But the price is this: their physical form also gets locked in that moment, forever unable to improve or evolve. "Ahem." Eirin cleared her throat and passed a small cloth pouch to Veyron. He let go of Kaguya's hand, extinguished the black flame with a thought, and took the pouch. When he opened it, he realized the inside space had been expanded with a kind of mini-dimension trick. Despite its small size, the pouch held dozens of golden-colored potion bottles the size of fists. "...This is... the sun?" Veyron felt something familiar radiating from the golden liquid in all the bottles. "A byproduct of one of my earlier experiments," Eirin explained. "At the time, I was trying to turn certain abstract 'concepts' into medicine. That Hourai Elixir the princess just gave you? That was the ending of the project." She gestured to the pouch. "And what you're holding now—this contains the concept of the sun. Or more precisely, of sunlight." "For regular people, it just gives a sense of warmth for a while. But with your current body, I imagine you'll get something much more." "Yeah... I can tell." Veyron pulled out a bottle, popped the cork—and immediately saw a wisp of radiant light start to drift from the opening. He had planned to just take a sip, but after seeing that, he swallowed the whole thing. As soon as the potion hit his stomach, he felt sunlight blooming through his entire body. That uplifting warmth, the unstoppable vitality, like every cell in his body was absorbing sunlight even though he was indoors—it felt amazing. Exhaling in satisfaction, he asked, "What do you call this stuff?" "3-49-81." Eirin answered flatly. Veyron blinked in surprise, and Kaguya nearly burst out laughing. Eirin just shrugged. "Of course, you can name it whatever you want. Like how Kaguya named the other one 'Hourai Elixir' after her ability." "...Then I'll call it Sunwater." Veyron thought for a moment and gave the potion a name that fit it perfectly. . . .