Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 12 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Battle in the World of Light

I opened my eyes, and the world of light spread out before me. I floated, my body now a glowing flame within the eternal darkness. This flame was my projection, and I could see my own figure. I’d come to this mysterious space before; it was a place only my servants and I existed in. However, a rotten scent lingered in the air now. It was something Edgar’s attack had brought in by using Holy Water. It was an unbearable, vomit-inducing stench.

“Welcome back, Majima Takahiro. Welcome to the world of nightmares.”

A face appeared from the depths of darkness. It was Travis Mortimer, the commander of the group that had attacked Kehdo, the Holy Order’s Fourth Company. He looked horrible. A deep laceration ran across both his eyes, and the contour of his face looked as if it was melting. He used to have graceful features, but they only highlighted how repulsive he was now. His hand, looking like some poorly made clay sculpture, grabbed my wrist. The force behind it was dreadful, and my wrist creaked and cracked with an awful noise.

“Guh...”

I felt my hairs stand on end. This was the sensation of my very core being threatened. Seeing me grimace, Travis’s melted lips twisted. He was smiling, malice oozing from his face.

“How does it feel to have your soul violated?”

Was this projection of myself what I was when reduced only to my soul? Judging by Travis’s hate-filled words, my very soul was under attack. Travis’s superpower, the Holy Gaze, the one he’d inherited as a descendant of a savior, didn’t have the capability to do this. Therefore, this was the work of the Holy Water Rose had spoken of. With this, I had a fair grasp of the situation.

I sighed, then asked, “Travis, why are you here?”

“Is it strange for me to be here?” he asked in turn, his melted face contorting in glee. “Are you curious why I’m tormenting you?”

He looked as if he was having so much fun watching me suffer. His emotions were far more repulsive than his appearance.

“Does it hurt? Do you suffer? Do you feel misery?” he continued, arrogant and overbearing. “Heh. Heh heh. Serves you right, you—”

“Don’t jump to conclusions and act all pleased with yourself. It’s pathetic,” I said, cutting him off.

Travis’s sneer stiffened. He hadn’t expected me to retaliate. Not that I had a reason to pay him any attention to begin with.

“Don’t misunderstand,” I countered. “I asked why you’re here. If I’m no more than a soul in this place, then so are you, so why are you in such a pitiful state?”

Now that I knew what was going on, it wasn’t all that hard to predict what had happened.

“Holy Water, a relic from a past savior...or the Martyr’s Arrow, was it?” I said. “Seems that it’s a special magic weapon activated by a knight’s prayer—by sacrificing their life to it. If you’re here, then that’s why. But in that case, there’s one strange detail. I doubt anything would’ve made you give up your own life.”

I hadn’t known him for long, but I could at least tell that Travis was entirely disconnected from the concept of self-sacrifice, so the reason he was here despite that fact meant...

“You had your soul ripped out of your body, didn’t you?”

Naturally, I had no idea about the particulars. It probably had something to do with his damaged eyes—something that had happened outside his battle against us. I didn’t know if this was actually related, but I was certain of one thing: this man, who used human life with abandon for the sake of furthering his own career, had met his end being used by others.

“Aaaah! You bastard!” Travis roared, confirming that I was pretty much on the mark. Rage dominated his features as if he were going to try and bite me to death. “You bastard! It’s all your fucking fault! Because of you, I... Aaaaaah!”

It turned out that this situation we were in wasn’t his intent. Having said that, it was unreasonable to pin the blame on me.

“My fault? Don’t be stupid.”

Travis was the one who’d attacked Shiran’s hometown for selfish reasons. He’d been driven away, and this was the result. He deserved everything he got. It was preposterous to try and shift the blame. There was no point humoring him, so...

“Wh-What?!” Travis exclaimed. He’d been gripping my wrist like a vise, pulling himself toward me, and I’d pushed him back ever so slightly. “Y-You bastard! How?!”

“It’s not all that crazy,” I said. I felt a terrible burden on me, but I didn’t let it show as I scoffed at him. “Holy Water converts a knight’s prayer into power, but from the looks of it, any type of desire manifests its effect. For example, it even works with your hateful grudge. A relic from a past savior that transforms willpower into a poisoned blade—that’s the true nature of Holy Water.”

The stronger the soul charging the weapon, the longer the poison could last. The more willpower a soul possessed, the more potent the poison. On that point, the person who’d chosen Travis as a sacrifice understood him well.

Travis was a carnivore, readily trampling tens, even hundreds of lives just to nourish himself. Setting aside questions of morality, he definitely had exceptional willpower. What’s more, he’d suffered a counterblow from me, bringing him to ruin. His resentment and wrath were off the charts, and those negative emotions were the source of this Holy Water’s power.

In all likelihood, this use of Holy Water had an unprecedentedly nasty effect. Its target couldn’t endure through sheer determination—normally, that is.

“A savior’s power that affects the soul combined with a wicked soul that readily crushes all in its path. It’s true, the Travis brand of Holy Water is a fiendish poison. However...” I paused, glaring right at Travis. “It’s a different matter if I have something that can deal with it.”

“What the hell are you going on about...?”

“My soul transforms as my ability develops. Shiran pointed this out to me. To put it another way, my ability also affects the soul.”

This malicious Holy Water should’ve wormed through its target without opposition, but I could see and interact with Travis here because this world of light was created by my ability, one that affected the soul.

“A-And what of it?!” Travis yelled, his expression convulsing. “Do you think that’s enough to defeat me?!”

The pressure he exerted strengthened. The balance of power tipped in his favor again. The burden on my soul intensified, and the pain multiplied. But I was still fine. In other words, I was forcing Travis to exhaust himself. Unlike me, he was outside his physical body. Once his soul was depleted, that was it. I was okay, but it also wasn’t over yet.

“Hah... Ha ha... Ha ha ha ha! You shocked me a little, but in the end, this is all you amount to,” Travis’s vengeful apparition said scornfully, believing he’d regained the upper hand. “You cannot defeat me!”

“Yeah. You’re right. I know my limits,” I said. He wasn’t wrong. “This is as far as my strength goes.”

I didn’t need him to tell me that. I’d been aware of the limits of my own strength for a long time, so I couldn’t deny his words.

“But so what?” I added defiantly.

“Wha—?!”

“That doesn’t matter at all,” I declared with ease. “Sorry, this power of mine doesn’t exist so that I can fight on my own.”

“It’s just as you say, my dear,” a calm voice joined in, resonating in the darkness.

In the next instant, white mist filled the world of light.

“What the hell?!”

Travis couldn’t have expected this. He panicked, and before he could grasp what was going on, the thin mist twisted into a vortex and transformed into countless vines. The vines stretched in every direction and bound Travis’s body in an instant.

“Wh-What is this?!”

“Well done,” I said, drawing a hateful look from the dumbfounded Travis.

“It can’t be... Is this one of your detestable servants...?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. Salvia and Asarina. The two of them are one with me, so this Holy Water is devouring them too. That’s also why when I push back, I can borrow their strength.”

If he was close enough for me to strike, then it only made sense for me to do so. This was our world in the first place. To counteract a past savior’s relic, Salvia and Asarina had chosen to combine their powers, creating the vines that bound Travis.

“Salvia, Asarina, please lend me your strength.”

“Of course, my dear.”

“Sssster!”

The two of them answered my call, as reliable as ever.

“Get away from our master!”

“Ssster!”

They started pouring strength into the vines to tear Travis away from me. At the same time, I struggled with everything I had.

“Get off me and go to hell, Travis!”

I mustered every last ounce of power in me. I gritted my teeth and withstood the pain. My conversation with Rose came to mind. In the real world, they were desperately doing everything they could, so I had to fight to my very limit.

“This is our world! Get out!” I roared, turning the tide and peeling Travis’s hand off me ever so slightly.

“You can do it, my dear!”

“Ssster!”

Travis’s essence shook, and he started detaching from the world of light. With just a little more, we could—

“Heh. Heh heh heh...”

Just then, a laugh echoed around us.

“Heh. Heh heh. Heh heh heh heh.”

Travis was laughing. It sounded so repulsive. I should’ve ignored him, but I wondered why he was doing it. An ominous foreboding hung over me.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing. I just didn’t think it’d end up like this,” Travis answered with curious tranquility. He’d regained his composure despite being seconds away from being expelled. “I see how you’ve managed to overcome the many crises that have befallen you... But is this truly all right?”

I had no idea why he was acting so calm.

“While you focus within yourself, you may just lose something you can never recover,” he said mockingly.

“What are you...?”

In the middle of speaking, I realized what he was getting at. Or rather, something conveyed it to me. The darkness shook.

“This is...”

I could sense this anywhere. I didn’t need to be in this special world to do so. We were all connected, after all.

“Everyone...?”

The shaking was my servants’ agitation passing to me through the mental path.