Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Mortal Combat

Lily, spear in hand, stared at the arachne with a stern expression. Rose stood at the ready right behind her, her axe prepared at her hip. With the arachne’s fingers still around my throat, I remained there staring at their shadows.

They came for me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think they would come. On the contrary, I was convinced they would take chase. But actually witnessing their dedication right before me as they braved danger sent a burning warmth through my chest. That simple sight was enough for my heart to recover. As I thought before, I was hopeless without them.

A charming voice tickled my earlobe. “Hmm. So you chased me here. I see. This is what they call a reckless disregard for your own life.” Her fingers let go of my neck, and the white arachne turned to face Lily and Rose.

“Hak... gak...” I fell back and broke into a coughing fit. A single tear spilled from my eye. That brought me back to reality.

“You’ll die if you fight me.”

This wasn’t the time to be celebrating. My captor was the white arachne. She was an incarnation of tyranny. Saving me meant standing against that horror. In other words, they were leaping into the jaws of death.

Aah, dammit. Why couldn’t I prevent this from happening?

I knew full well it would happen, yet I could do nothing about it. My body trembled with regret. Lily was sure to have lost her composure when I was kidnapped. I didn’t know how much Rose had managed to calm her down, but there was a pretty high likelihood the two of them would charge in here recklessly.

They were challenging an opponent they couldn’t defeat. Fortunately, it seemed my safety was guaranteed—setting aside how dubious that was coming from this spider. They could have spent several days forming a plan and perfecting their preparations before challenging her. That possibly could have taken too long, but it was infinitely better than taking decisive action to attempt a rescue mission that was destined to fail.

As it was, I knew these girls were incapable of thinking this way. I knew it would end up like this, yet I didn’t prepare anything in advance. This was my mistake. I should’ve planned for this beforehand. There was no way anybody out there would cover for my mistakes.

“How pitiful it is to rush to your deaths.” The arachne moved behind me and faced Lily. “I can at least understand the obsession you worthless specks have for My Lord,” she said as she squinted her red eyes. “I can understand, but unfortunately for you, I won’t hand him over. He is mine. You shan’t steal him, and I shan’t lose him. I possess the power to make it so, after all.” Her spiderweb-like fixation spilled from her red lips. “Begone, you boring pests.”

“You’re the boring one.”

I was faced with hopeless despair, yet I saw something completely unexpected. Even as she stood before a mass of bloodlust that could freeze one’s veins, Lily remained dignified. She didn’t give the impression she was facing off against a horror far beyond her means.

Seeing her like that, I suddenly realized my own misunderstanding. Lily hadn’t lost her cool. I felt her anger through our mental path, but she was suppressing it and was far calmer than I expected. It showed that she didn’t charge in here completely influenced by her emotions. I could tell that she came here after having hardened her resolve. So, just maybe, she properly thought things over before deciding to come here.

Did she have a chance?

But how?

I believed in these girls more than anybody else. However, that had nothing to do with the situation we were in. My sense of reason was telling me they were going to be torn to shreds.

“...I’m boring? How admirable of you, little girl.”

The white arachne’s bloodlust flared up, supporting my ominous conviction. Even though I couldn’t sense mana, I could feel how much of an extraordinary threat she was. The thick air coiled itself around my body. Despite being in a nest with no walls, it was difficult to breathe through this oppression.

This wasn’t going to work after all. The girls I found more dear than anything else were about to be mercilessly killed in front of my eyes. And now that I was convinced of this, I had to say something, even if I knew it would be useless.

“Stop! Leave me! Run away! Please! Just run!”

“I shan’t allow it.” The arachne’s voice was filled with a fervor. She couldn’t overlook Lily and Rose. “You’ve claimed that my dearest wish is boring. I must put that bravery of yours to the test...” Her enormous body sank to the floor. “...I shall devour you piece by piece!”

She unleashed her strength like a wound-up spring. There was no stopping her anymore. No matter what I did, this was going to unfold.

And just before the slaughter began...

“It’s okay, Master.”

Watching me tremble at the premonition of losing everything, Lily smiled like a blooming flower.

◆ ◆ ◆

The spider leapt through the air. Just that sent the nest shaking like a ship in a storm.

“Shaaaah!”

Jumping in the air using six legs was practically like being shot out of a cannon. The ten meters between the white arachne and Lily shrunk to zero within milliseconds. Before such jumping power, a wait-and-see approach would never succeed. Much like how Rose had been struck down by a single blow before, for example.

That’s why Lily had decided on what to do before the battle even began.

“Haah!”

Rose unleashed a shriek and swung her battleaxe from behind Lily. At the same time, Lily vigorously threw herself to the ground without worrying about what was in front or behind her. As a result, the space that Lily occupied just an instant earlier now had a wooden axe cutting through it.

“What?!”

The white arachne was targeting Lily. She was surely planning to stab the brazen little girl with a single strike. But Lily had read the arachne’s move and thrown herself to the ground. When one’s target suddenly vanished, it gave birth to a moment’s hesitation, if just for an instant. This was especially the case when jumping in at full force. Even a horror would have trouble coping with the immediate situation.

The spider’s strike only managed to cut off some of Lily’s flaxen hair. But that wasn’t all. The arachne’s body was now flying toward Rose’s brandished axe. There was no mistaking that Lily provoked her to create this exact situation.

And so they clashed.

Despite being made of wood, Rose’s battleaxe was strengthened with mana. Its hardness surpassed steel. When swung with the physical strength of a monster, the amount of destructive force behind it was nothing to scoff at.

Rose’s axe dove into the arachne’s lower body with a thunk—somewhere a little to the right of the spider’s cephalothorax. The simple yet well-made blade tore through her tightly packed white hairs and even managed to smash past her thick husk, sinking into her muscle and causing a small amount of blood to spray out. However, the axe was unable to withstand the force and burst before it could sink to a decisive depth.

“Gyah?!”

Rose had lost in terms of speed, toughness, and, above all else, the weight of her strikes. The enormous white body of the arachne charged past her like a blur. She managed to get out of the way as the spider grazed by, but it proved the difference between them. Rose’s body span like a top and blew away. Her axe-wielding arm wasn’t just broken, it flew off entirely. Her body slammed into the makeshift ground of the nest and bounced off.

The arachne landed with all eight legs and then leaped up to finish off Rose in mid-air.

A scream rang out. “I won’t let you!”

Lily was on all fours, but she invoked the magic she already had at the ready. It was grade 3 wind magic composed of 37 blades. Its power wasn’t all that high, but it could cut up a wide area. This was one of her specialties.

The raging wind blew like a storm. Several of the lights dangling by spider threads were blown away, and the thin flooring clattered as they whirled up into the air. Even a high monster wouldn’t be able to get away unscathed. That was my opinion while watching from a small distance away.

Just as I felt satisfaction over that...

“This is nothing!”

The white arachne escaped the effective range of Lily’s magic with impossible movements. Right before the magic activated, she stopped her charge and shot out a spider thread at one of the surrounding trees. Everything was a reapplication of what she’d done with me and the firefang last time.

She pulled on the thread with superhuman strength, which uprooted the tree, and glided through the air. Her enormous body vanished from my vision entirely.

Lily didn’t lose sight of her though and let out another cry. “There!”

“You fool!”

I heard a loud snap. By the time I turned my head to look at it, the arachne had already thrust out one of her legs. Lily had taken aim at her with her spear while she was still in midair, but said spear was now snapped in two and flying all the way up to the ceiling.

“G-Guh...” Lily groaned as both of her arms were partially torn apart and bent back the wrong way. She was now completely defenseless.

The white arachne wasn’t going to let that opportunity pass. She landed and stabbed her hand at Lily’s face. Lily couldn’t get away from it. Imagining what was to follow, I was on the verge of screaming.

“Not... yet!”

In the next instant, Rose charged in at the arachne’s flank.

“Wha—?!”

Lily’s wind magic had sent most of the nest’s woodwork flying into the air. Rose, who was supposed to have been defeated already, managed to slip into the arachne’s blind spot by using the wreckage as cover. As sisters who shared a tight bond as my servants, their wave of attacks managed to create an opening.

“Haah!”

Rose had lost an arm from the previous exchange, so she now had her spare axe in her other hand, which she used to strike at the white arachne’s open flank.

“U-Urgh?!”

However, this attack wasn’t enough to deal a fatal wound. Rose then aimed the axe for a critical hit on the arachne’s graceful neck, but she used one of her legs as a shield and blocked the strike. As a result, that leg was severed and flew into the air.

That was still far and away from a fatal blow. Nevertheless, a wound was still a wound. In fact, getting injured by a clearly lower-ranking opponent perhaps dealt a deep blow to the white arachne’s pride.

“Ugh... You measly servant!” The arachne’s face twisted with hatred. A white leg thrust out like a spear.

“Gyah?!”

Having just swung her axe, Rose was unable to get out of the way. She took a direct hit. Her body flew off and smashed through two of the trees serving as the nest’s pillars before coming to a stop. The ceiling which was being supported by those trees began creaking and tilting over. This time, Rose was no longer moving.

Lily had lost both her arms. Rose had lost one arm and was down for the count. The fight was basically decided at this point. At least, that was what the arachne thought.

That was precisely the only opportunity for victory the girls had. Lily’s eyes glittered as she hung her head in pain. She looked up at the arachne at point-blank range and snapped open her mouth.

“Graaah!”

A red flame poured out of her throat. It was the flaming breath of a firefang she’d gained from mimicking one. It was a complete surprise attack. Even the arachne couldn’t avoid it. The flames directly struck her in the face.

“Uaaargh?!”

“They did it... Huh?”

I was hopeful, but in the next instant, my spine froze over. I witnessed white threads wrapping around Lily’s body. They tied her from her shoulder down to her chest, including her left arm, and her right side down to her legs. The sticky threads scorched my vision with white.

“What... do...” The white arachne muttered in a deep voice, her body bent backwards. “What do you think you’ve accomplished?! You insignificant pest!”

One of the threads was connected to one of the spider’s legs. She held the other in her hand. The arachne let out an angry roar and used a high monster’s strength to pull on the threads with all her might.

Even a small child could understand what would happen next. For example, say you took a plastic doll, like those targeted at little girls, and held its leg with one hand while pulling on its arm with all your strength with the other.

In the same way, Lily’s blazer and shirt tore apart with a rip along with the left side of her body.

“Ah.”

She let out a quiet murmur and collapsed like a marionette with no strings. She stopped moving entirely. An ominous silence sank over the area.

“That one... really gave me a chill.”

Lily’s feelings coming through our mental path were extremely faint. The white arachne was a servant just like her. The two of them were also connected through me. She must’ve also felt this from Lily because she made a ghastly smile.

“I never thought I’d be wounded so badly. However, now it’s all over.”

There was a slight blister on the arachne’s face. But that was all. The gap between them was just that far apart.

“Heh, heheh, heheheheheh.”

The bewitching girl’s laughter was like that of a devil. It was exactly as she said. This was a perfectly reasonable outcome. The obvious result occurred naturally. With the cruel reality of the world thrust right before me, I could do nothing but stand by and watch.

“Now that I think about it, you two truly are pitiful. However, do not resent me. Resent your own powerlessness. If only you had power, you would have been able to avoid death.” Her tone clearly ridiculed them, as if pity was completely unnecessary.

“Farewell.” The arachne raised her leg directly over Lily’s head. There was nobody here capable of stopping her.

In just one more second, that talon would tear into Lily’s body. I would lose that precious girl forever. There wasn’t anybody here who could prevent that future. There wasn’t supposed to be.

“That’s quite the sad misunderstanding you’re making.”

I doubted my own ears—

“K-Katou...?”

I didn’t believe what I was seeing. The one to step within the spider’s nest was, without a doubt, none other than Katou Mana.

That she was here wasn’t all that strange. If I had to guess, Lily and Rose brought her along and she was hiding outside the nest. But why did she show herself now? This was a battlefield. It wasn’t a place for a powerless girl like her.

“And who in blazes are you?” The white arachne gazed at Katou with a dubious look. “A misunderstanding, you say? What are you talking about?”

A slight sense of discomfort, a great bewilderment, and a hint of curiosity—a hectic swirl of emotions ran through the white arachne’s blood red eyes. “Why would a mere human like you stand before me? Do you wish to commit suicide, little girl?”

It was only normal for the white arachne to say this. She could kill Katou at any moment, and she surely wouldn’t hesitate to do so. The arachne’s claim made perfect sense. This was the same as committing suicide. Yet Katou didn’t look like she cared at all. She just shook her head.

“It’s not suicide to come out like this when I’m already going to die. The reason I stepped out here is... Let’s see... Because there’s one thing I’d like to complain about.” Her attitude as she stood in front of the white horror implied that if the arachne wished to kill her, then she could go ahead and do so. “There’s a lot I want to say to you servants. Thinking back on it, Lily was the same. Why be jealous of someone like me? Even if the lawn is greener on the other side, don’t you think it’s far too cruel? I’m the one who’s jealous.”

Though she was rather expressionless, her gloomy gaze glared at the white arachne as she spoke with resentment.

“Aren’t you the same? You have something I could never obtain within your reach, and yet you don’t even realize it. Isn’t it obvious that I’d like to at least complain about it?”

I couldn’t understand her meaning. Neither could the white arachne. She remained silent for several seconds with a crease in her brow. In the end, she couldn’t figure it out and slowly shook her head.

“That’s enough nonsense from you, little girl.” She swung her arm to the side. A thread shot out at a speed imperceptible by humans and wrapped around Katou’s neck. “You’re just prattling on meaninglessly. It seems you do not understand the situation here.”

Her life could now be plucked away with a small flick of the arachne’s wrist. Katou had no choice but to hold her tongue... Or so I thought. She completely betrayed my expectations.

“Oh, and one more thing. I have a goal, you see.” Katou didn’t yield to the fear of death. “Rose told me, ‘even if we stake our lives, we’ll need a miracle.’ Regardless, a miracle doesn’t occur all that easily. Reality is always cruel. But I don’t want to yield to such cruelty. I never want to go through that again. That’s why I decided to set my bed down alongside the lives of Lily, Rose, and one other.”

“So, what exactly are you...?”

“You don’t get it?” Katou smirked. “I’ve bought plenty of time... Right, Lily?”

By then, the situation was already settled.

“...That was way too dangerous no matter how you put it.” A slimy, transparent hand grasped the arachne’s face like an eagle. “But... Thank you for helping out. It really saved us. After all, our only chance at victory was in the fact that this arachne didn’t know I was a slime.”

“You... worthless...”

The spider’s eyes shot wide open as Lily’s slimy body wrapped around her.

“Didn’t you notice I was playing dead? This is my special move.”

As Lily said, this was the trump card of her mimicry. I had actually seen her play dead before. That’s why I could immediately tell that wasn’t what she did.

“...Just kidding. Ahahah. Maybe I’m bluffing too much. I really was close to dying there. I totally lost consciousness. It would’ve been bad if I didn’t have all that extra time.”

This situation was different from the time with Kaga. About half of Lily’s upper body coming out of her slime portion was in a liquid state, and even her contour was unclear. This wasn’t on purpose. She wasn’t capable of properly maintaining her human body.

Precisely because their bodies were so simple, slimes possessed tenacious vitality. But it wasn’t like they could be torn apart without taking any damage. Lily hadn’t been pretending to be dead. She had been seriously on death’s door after suffering a major wound.

Nonetheless, she had to do that. She couldn’t just pretend; she really had to be on the verge of death after taking a significant blow. That was what gave birth to a small sense of accomplishment within the white arachne and created a large opening.

And now the decisive moment these girls staked their lives on had arrived.

“I won’t let you get away,” Lily said with the arachne’s face in hand. She gathered what little mana she managed to accumulate while she was down and a shining glyph took shape.

“You pest...!”

The captured arachne immediately tried to tear off Lily’s arm. And just as her hands moved to grab Lily, an axe came flying in.

“Lily! Now!”

It was Rose. Katou wasn’t just buying time for Lily. Rose also used that short amount of time to pull herself back together enough to support her sister. Just throwing an axe wasn’t enough to amputate a high monster’s arm, but it was enough to throw off her aim. The arachne’s hands grabbed nothing but air.

This only bought a single second. But that was enough. Lily’s wind magic took the form of a bullet and exploded in the white arachne’s face.

“Uaaaargh?!”

The recoil sent Lily flying back against the floor. On the other hand, the arachne’s body simply staggered back like a firm rock.

“O-O-Oh...”

Her seven legs stumbled. Blood poured out of her nose. Her upper body swayed. But that was it.

“T-Time... and time... again... You insufferable pests!”

Astonishingly, the white arachne withstood the shot from point-blank magic. Lily didn’t have the leisure to gather much mana, so it wasn’t an attack with all her power behind it. But even so, it was an attack from point-blank. The fact that the arachne’s neck didn’t break, and that her face wasn’t even crushed, truly showed her abnormal sturdiness.

As a result, all Lily was able to do was stun the arachne for a tiny amount of time. But that tiny opening was enough to accomplish Lily and Rose’s goal.

“Lily! Rose!”

“Master!”

The two of them splendidly managed to arrive at my side with their lives intact.