Chapter 40: The First Kiss of a Rampage

Having used Silence for the third time, Bliss arrived at the Riga villa, its facade engulfed in scarlet flames that licked voraciously at the air. The distinct scent of oil suggested Zaisler’s handiwork.

“Wouldn’t it be better to call in the teleporters?”

A nearby unit member suggested, but Bliss merely shook his head.

“We don’t know how many Espers, including the Lord, might be injured inside.”

“But every single entrance is blocked! Waiting for the fire to die down would be—!”

A hail of bullets.

Once more, bullets rained down upon them. The Esper unit members deflected them with their psychokinesis, yet without a defensive Esper to erect a shield, anxious glances were exchanged.

“Colonel! It seems a laser attack is imminent!”

Just then, a thin membrane of water enveloped them, instantly drying the floor that had become damp from the heat. Realizing it was Bliss’s water ability, the unit members cried out, trying to stop him.

“Colonel! Conserve your power! You’ll put yourself in danger!”

Bliss scowled.

“If you moved instead of shouting, I’d be a little more comfortable.”

“……My apologies!”

“Let’s go.”

They plunged into the fiery curtain.

****

Whoosh!

The raging flames surged toward them as if possessed by a will of their own. The captain beside Bliss cried out, his face utterly pale.

“It’s a fire-elemental Esper!”

“…Damn it.”

An unfiltered curse escaped Bliss’s lips, and the water membrane protecting their bodies instantly intensified.

Espers who wield fire, water, or electricity can generate their respective elements. While the size, quantity, and range varied with their rank, directly creating these elements rapidly drained an Esper’s mental and physical reserves.

Thus, Bliss had opted to use the more readily available water around them. This particular Esper, however, had created an entire fiery barrier, waiting for them—it was a trap.

“How much time until our rear unit arrives?”

“Approximately ten minutes!”

The fire could not be controlled by psychokinesis. Instead, Bliss’s unit members used non-flammable objects to block the inferno.

However, this fire, dominated by an Esper’s power, struck them with a tangible weight and greater force than ordinary flames.

Boom! Crash!

“Lieutenant Joshua!”

“Aargh!”

Flames leapt onto Lieutenant Joshua’s body. As the fire, fueled by oil, clung to him, water generated by Bliss surged over his form, extinguishing the blaze with a forceful wash.

Horrific burns marred his arm and right side of his face, wounds that would appear ghastly to an ordinary person. Yet, knowing they were recoverable with sufficient rest, guiding, and medical treatment, Bliss exhaled a sigh of relief.

Simultaneously, a wave of nausea washed over him, as if he had been sprinting at full speed for an impossible distance.

Ugh—

“Co-Colonel!”

The unit members’ faces twisted in alarm as Bliss once again coughed up blood.

****

Ha. Bliss offered a bitter smile, then activated his throat microphone. He needed his words to reach the squad leaders of the Antares Unit and Captain Chase, who were fighting their way through the enemy at the rear.

“While saving many would be ideal, we are revising our objective to saving only the Lord of Riga as a minimum. Send as many mobile teleporters as possible, along with Espers, to infiltrate the villa.

Locate the Lord of Riga within two minutes, and all unit members are to rejoin their respective units. All Antares Unit members are to immediately cease their advance and retreat beyond a 10km radius of Bliss Moore. Evacuate as many civilians not hidden in shelters as possible.”

“!!!”

[Are you insane?! We’ll be there in five minutes! Do not use Silence! You’ve already used it three times! Colonel!]

Captain Chase’s urgent voice through the in-ear receiver was almost a plea.

“No, Colonel!”

“We’ll find a way—! Ugh!”

A choking gasp.

The unit members, unable to finish their pleas, cowered in suffocating silence. They burst open oxygen capsules and struggled to regain their breath, but Bliss had already used his ability, and they had lost theirs.

Wordlessly, the unit members reloaded their weapons, their hearts heavy with despair, as they scanned their surroundings.

“Cough!”

One of Zaisler’s Espers, who had been hiding behind a pillar of fire, stumbled out.

Bang!

As the Esper’s head exploded from a gunshot, nine teleporters with grim expressions and four physical-attribute Espers materialized.

Bliss grimaced. Five of the teleporters had appeared without any passengers, clearly intending to take him as well.

“The order is to bring the Colonel back with us! The unit is to wait beyond a 3km radius—!”

“What if it’s not a flare-up?”

“Colonel!”

“If it were a mere flare-up, only this villa would be destroyed, and that would be the end of it. But what if it’s not? Are you suggesting some kind of ‘suttee’ ritual, like those popular in ancient times?”

At that moment, the Espers emerged, carrying the Lord of Riga, who was unconscious and missing one leg. Blood began to trickle from Bliss’s nose.

He felt the gloves Ethan had given him disintegrating. Pain began at his fingertips, a creeping vine of thorns gnawing at his nerves.

“Get out. That’s an order.”

As they began to vanish, their faces hardened by the Lord’s critical condition and Bliss’s imperious command, Captain Chase’s panicked voice came through the open in-ear receiver.

[W-wait! Where are you going?! Captain Liam Stare!]

Captain Liam Stare. That was Liam Stare’s rank before he was discharged, the same Liam who now served as Ethan’s guard. Bliss tried to ponder why that name had been uttered but quickly gave up.

He felt the spreading pain hesitate where the patched fabric pouches inside his clothes were, a sign that they were still somewhat effective. However, even that was now reaching its limit.

“Ugh… Damn it. This… is going to be dangerous.”

The pain, spreading like thorns, began to take form. A red, thorny pattern, likely already coiling around his upper body, emerged on his neck.

It was a distinctive design created by engorged blood vessels and burst capillaries. He had to hold on for just a little longer, to buy his unit time to retreat.

Sweat dripped onto the damp floor, mixing with oil and water. He couldn’t tell if it was tears or sweat flowing, or perhaps the lingering heat from the fiery barrier, which, though fading, still burned.

Ethan.

Within his blurring consciousness, he habitually recalled the word he had thought of and remembered most often lately.

As the thorny vine pattern consumed his face, reaching the crown of his head, he felt the pain surprisingly recede.

‘Ah. This is a rampage.’

A state where an Esper unleashes all their power, feeling nothing.

Ethan.

Forcing himself to repeat the name that now surfaced sluggishly even in his mind, Bliss slowly blinked, his eyes widening slightly.

‘Is this also part of the rampage?’

“Ugh!”

The man bent over, retching in front of him, was incredibly familiar. As was the man patting his back.

Suddenly, Ethan shot up, shouting something. Liam, his face flustered, reached out to Ethan, but Ethan’s face instantly filled Bliss’s vision.

“Hmph!”

He had thought every cell in his body was buzzing with excitement since Ethan approached, but suddenly, everything just flew off into space.

‘I must finally be insane. Who knew a rampage could feel this good?’

With a short groan, Bliss’s consciousness faded to black.

****

[…All Antares Unit members are to immediately cease their advance and retreat beyond a 10km radius of Bliss Moore. Evacuate as many civilians not hidden in shelters as possible.]

“Are you insane?! We’ll be there in five minutes! Do not use Silence! You’ve already used it three times! Colonel!”

Aaaah!

Shouting and wildly shaking his head, Captain Chase desperately pleaded with Liam, who had just appeared in the middle of the combat zone with Ethan, yet seemed perfectly fine.

“I don’t know how you got here, but the Colonel is in danger! You may have been discharged, Captain Liam! But could I ask you to move with the other teleporters? We need to rescue as many people as possible!”

The squad leaders, having heard the communication, were seen hastily drafting others in addition to the teleporters already prepared for escort. However, after those transported by the first wave of aircraft, not many teleporters remained.

Liam, however, was solely focused on calming Ethan, who was still feeling dizzy.

Watching the quickly gathered teleporters vanish, Captain Chase couldn’t suppress the surge of anger within him.

“Captain Liam Stare! Even though you’re discharged, entering a combat zone without authorization is considered obstruction of operations! Furthermore, this concerns Colonel Bliss Moore, who is both your current and former superior!”

“I’m sorry, Chase. My mission is to protect Ethan Prescott.”

“Are you insane?!”

Captain Chase clenched his teeth, looking between the two, but Liam simply hurried to offer Ethan water.

“Ethan, are you alright now?”

“Ugh. My apologies. I get terribly motion sick. But Liam, mucosal contact is effective, right?”

“…Th-that’s…”

“I understand mucosal contact includes kissing, oral s*x, intercourse, and foreplay, among other things.”

‘Surely not.’

Liam, who had been slightly red-faced and flustered moments before, narrowed his eyes at Ethan, who spoke with a solemnity that sounded like he was reciting from a textbook.

“Then, shall we hurry a little?”

“…Yes. Let’s go.”

Captain Chase shouted urgently, interrupting their private conversation.

“W-wait! Where are you going?! Captain Liam Stare!”

Ethan’s calm voice answered him.

“To Bliss.”

Simultaneously, Liam placed a hand on Ethan’s shoulder, and they vanished.

“What the hell?!”

Captain Chase yelled in confusion, but there was no one left to answer him. After fuming for a while, he quickly exchanged opinions with the squad leaders via his in-ear receiver.

****

“Ugh! Oh, I’m so nauseous, I could die!”

Liam patted Ethan, who suffered from exceptionally severe motion sickness, while his anxious gaze swept their surroundings. Bliss, on the verge of a rampage, was close by.

Had any other Esper ever witnessed a fellow Esper’s pre-rampage state this closely? More than that, his own excellent condition was utterly inexplicable.

It was already astonishing that guiding occurred simply by touching Ethan. But when Ethan directly extended his hand and focused on guiding him, Liam’s recovery was instantaneous, achieving a level comparable to intimacy with his matched Guide.

He was even worried that the imprinting he felt for his own partner might be shattered. Fortunately, since there had been no mucosal contact, such a thing hadn’t occurred. Truly.

“Ethan… Colonel Bliss’s condition is extremely critical.”

Before he knew it, the honorific had shifted from “Ethan-kun” to simply “Ethan.” Liam, whose trust had grown with their newfound intimacy and whose regret for his earlier suspicions added a layer of politeness, gently urged Ethan on.

Ethan, who had been bowing his head, suddenly looked up, as if steeling himself.

“My first kiss on a battlefield, then. Mucosal contact. Haha.”

Then, he charged at Bliss.

“W-wait! Ethan, E-Ethan!”

Liam called out to Ethan with a surprised expression, but Ethan, having already steeled himself, radiated a fierce aura as he grabbed Bliss’s dazed face and pulled him down.

“Hmph!”

He boldly pressed his lips against Bliss’s.

[Hey! Are you just going to headbutt with your lips?!]

‘That impotent bastard.’

Ethan squeezed his eyes shut, thrust his tongue between Bliss’s lips, and blindly rubbed it against them. In Liam’s eyes, it was certainly no kiss, but Yuwol, the child ghost, clapped his hands in delight.

And then.

Bliss fainted.

“……”

The rampage ceased, and the thorny pattern that had covered Bliss’s body slowly faded. A silence so profound fell that it seemed as though Bliss had died, once the markings had entirely vanished. Even the ghosts seemed bewildered, as Dongja’s voice had abruptly cut off.

“……Why is this happening?”

Ethan, who was meticulous only in the theory of kisses, mucosal guiding, and everything else, asked, genuinely bewildered.

Liam, anxious about Ethan’s apparent confusion, hastily reached out his arm, intending to explain using technical terms like ‘Esper’ and ‘guiding’ that one doesn’t feed meat to a starving child first. However, the deed was already done, so he, even more flustered, resorted to a lightning-fast analogy instead.

“……Ethan, have you, perhaps, heard of ‘death by orgasm’?”

It was a crude way of saying that it was a kiss, very much like CPR performed while standing, but it was so good that Bliss had simply fainted.

“……”