Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 14 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Hatred of One’s Own Kind

“Travis Mortimer...?! Why are you here?!”

An assault carrying murderous intent answered my question.

“Maaaaajimaaaaa!”

By all rights, it shouldn’t have reached me. However, the countless limbs holding its swollen body up possessed a strange elasticity.

“Katou!”

I immediately scooped Katou up and kicked off the ground to escape the attack. Unlike Dora, I was already quite far away when it set its sights on me. Such a straightforward strike was easy to read, so I succeeded in avoiding it. I didn’t feel relieved, though. Instead, my blood ran cold.

The stone floor shattered under the blow, scattering small fragments of debris into the air. The ferocity of the attack gave me chills. Even if I blocked that with my shield, I’d get crushed. Slamming against it with the power of the Great White Spider would be one thing, but if I did that too often, I’d get exhausted in no time. My only choice was to dodge. I protected Katou from the small flying fragments and fell back away.

“Majimaaaaaa! Aaaaaah!”

Travis—no, the horror’s eyes saw nothing but me. Having lost all sense of reason it once possessed as a human, its back scraped against the high ceiling as it charged forward at a terrifying speed.

“How unpleasant,” Kudou spat, his expression filled with revulsion as he spread four colored wings against the oncoming charge. “Friedrich, deploy.”

He activated grade 3 magic. This was the peak of what was achievable by the people of this world. Magic nearly beyond even the monsters of the Depths shot forth. His timing was impeccable, choosing the moment the horror had closed the distance.

Although, maybe there wasn’t much point going out of the way to time the attack so that it couldn’t be avoided. The horror didn’t even try.

The violent storm of blades shredded one of its long legs. Fluids splattered across the stone floor. Even chunks of meat flew about. The price for carelessly stepping in was far too great. As it writhed in pain, it was time to attack once more—that would normally be the case. However, the sheer abnormality of the horror casually threw such common sense out the window.

“Out ooooooof! My waaaaaay!”

“Wha?!”

The horror didn’t falter for a moment and launched a counterattack. The Lord of Darkness didn’t possess any strength in battle himself. He couldn’t even dodge.

“Kudou...!”

A human mass flew through the air like a ping-pong ball, passing right by me even though I’d gotten pretty far away from the horror. It wouldn’t have been strange for Kudou to be reduced to a lump of meat after that. However, I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about him.

“Majiiiiimaaaaaaa!”

“Ugh?!”

Using the one instant I had my focus taken away by Kudou, the horror launched an attack on me. I stooped over to dodge the horizontal sweep.

“Senpai! Above you!” Katou screamed from within my arms.

I reflexively jumped to the side, dodging a downward stomp. The floor shattered spectacularly. I shuddered. I’d been inches away from being reduced to a stain.

“Dammit!”

Just barely having gotten away, I slipped in among the flying debris to get some distance from the horror. However, sitting atop the horror’s body, Travis’s cranium didn’t lose sight of me for a second.

“Crap!”

By the time I realized, it already had its arm raised. I couldn’t dodge this one.

“Hah hyaaaah!” it raised its voice in joy. “Maaaaajimaaaaa!”

And just before the grotesque arm came swinging down...

“Shut up.”

A suppressed voice of violent rage cut off the manic roar. A shadowy blade cut through the air, lopping off the raised arm.

“Dora?!”

It turned out that, even after eating that earlier attack, she could still move. The shadowy girl stood in the horror’s way, spitting blood from her mouth.

“Go to my king’s side,” she said.

“Thanks!”

I ran off, and the horror roared behind me.

“Doooon’t! Get in my waaaaay!”

“How dare you bring shame upon me before my king!”

Insanity and wrath, shadowy blade and grotesque limb clashed. And as Dora stalled the horror, I ran over to Kudou.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yes... I’m not dead.”

Before I got to him, Kudou rose to his feet. Judging by how casually he wiped off the dirt, he wasn’t in any pain, despite having been on the receiving end of such a powerful blow. All around him, what looked like green mud lay on the ground. This was Kudou’s armor and shield, the dirty sludge Caesar. A normal person would likely have exploded under that horror’s strike, but Caesar’s defense had apparently gotten him through it.

“I see. Glad to see you aren’t hurt,” I said, sighing in relief.

“Senpai! Dora!” Katou yelled, tugging my collar from inside my arms.

I came to my senses and turned around. Dora was in the middle of flying through the air after being struck. Both she and one of the horror’s arms were spinning in midair. She executed a beautiful landing, then ran over to us.

“Forgive me, my king! I can’t hold it back any longer!”

Both of Dora’s blades were broken. She had one eye closed, and her gait was a little awkward as she ran. This was a result of her short yet intense battle. She hadn’t only been content to stay on the defensive, though. The horror in a frenzy behind her had lost several limbs.

Dora had suffered too much damage to really call it a draw. If things had gone on like that, it was highly probable she would’ve lost, so she’d backed off before things reached the critical juncture.

“Let’s run away, Senpai,” Katou said, tugging my collar once more. “There’s no need to go out of your way to fight that thing. Thanks to Dora, it’s slowed down. We should be able to get away now.”

“You’re right.” I had no obligation to put up with this monstrosity’s unjust resentment. I nodded back to her and started running. “Kudou, let’s get out of here!”

“Understood.”

Kudou nodded. The inorganic wings on Friedrich’s back quivered, lifting his slender frame into the air. These wings weren’t just for show. They also allowed him to fly. Much like how Caesar specialized in defense, Friedrich specialized in magic. Kudou had told me that he generally didn’t fly because it consumed mana to maintain. It seemed there was no other choice at this point. Dora also started running, and we all went back down the path the way we came.

“By the way, Senpai,” Kudou said, looking down at me from above. “That thing’s been calling your name rather passionately. Are you acquainted?”

“Just a little, in a horrible way,” I answered. “That’s the commander of the Holy Order’s Fourth Company.”

“Aah. The one who attacked you in Aker... That’s quite the personality.”

“He didn’t look like that before, though. His Holy Gaze was troublesome, but he didn’t have this kind of strength. Before all that, after we repulsed his attack, for some reason his soul was turned into a weapon using a relic of salvation called Holy Water...”

After explaining that, something suddenly bothered me.

“Wait. In that case, what happened to his body after having his soul torn out?”

As we spoke, we came running around a corner in the corridor.

“Senpai?” That was when Katou raised her voice. That said, she was being shaken about by my running, so her speech came out in spurts. “Much like...how his soul was...used for Holy Water...couldn’t his body...have also been used...for another magic tool?”

“That’s what I’m guessing. Also, you’ll bite your tongue if you talk too much.”

Regardless, Katou kept going.

“Does such a...magic tool...”

“I bet it exists. Travis has transformed into that horror and all.”

“No... I’m not asking...whether it exists... Why does...such a thing...? And this place too... It’s weird... Maybe it’s...”

“Hey! Behind us!” Dora screamed, cutting off our conversation.

I turned around without slowing down and saw the horror behind us.

“It’s chasing us?!”

It was important to analyze our situation, but we had to deal with the threat before our eyes first. I changed gears to focus on that instead.

“Tch! What the hell is that thing?! We should’ve given it the slip!” Dora yelled in annoyance.

“It doesn’t have eyes to begin with. Maybe we can’t lose it just by getting out of sight,” I said.

Perhaps it was accomplished by scent or some magical means. Either way, it had the ability to track us. There was also another reason it had managed to catch up with us despite our peeling away earlier.

“Its legs are back. It can regenerate,” I said.

Cutting a few of its limbs off like Dora had would only buy us a little time. It meant we were capable of slowing it down, but...

“Each time we buy time, you’ll get hurt...” I said to Dora.

“Mrgh. So what?” Dora raised a brow. She restored her two broken blades, then rubbed them together menacingly. “Don’t belittle me! I don’t fear getting hurt for my king’s sake!”

“That’s not what I’m saying. If you get hurt for no good reason, you’ll eventually be incapable of fighting. That’ll be bad. The situation will just get worse and worse. I’m saying this precisely because we’re relying on your strength.”

“Mrgh...”

The abomination using Travis’s flesh wasn’t as strong as a cheater, but it was pretty close. The only one who could face it head-on was Dora.

“I understand what you’re saying, but what should we do, then?” Kudou said as his subordinate fell silent. “Having a poor plan will only make the situation worse. Against such powerful regeneration and that massive body, there are very few ways of dealing a fatal wound. Cutting off its head seems like the only way...”

“My king, forgive my insolence, but I’ve already tried that. The horror’s defenses are unexpectedly tough. My blade never reached it.”

Having fought the thing directly, she knew it would be difficult for her to take the horror’s head on her own. It was mysterious that even in its current state, totally bereft of reason, it still maintained some sense of self-preservation. Travis’s vast experience was still powering that monstrous engine of destruction. I doubted his personality remained intact, but even after being reduced to such dregs, he was a huge pain. This meant we needed some kind of plan. What strategy could hope to best such a creature?

“In that case, shall we have Dora stall it?” Kudou concluded with ease. “We can’t resort to half measures. We can have Dora persevere to the end to buy us a significant amount of time. That’ll allow us to run far enough away that it won’t be able to catch up so easily.”

“You mean to sacrifice her?” I asked.

“My subordinates exist for that reason.”

Kudou’s answer was just as expected. I took a glance to see Dora listening to her master without questioning his words. I’d almost forgotten due to her emotional transparency, but she was no more than another of the Demon King’s pawns. This was perfectly normal to them. However, for an instant, the image of a two-headed wolf came to mind.

“No, let’s think of another plan,” I said.

Dora looked displeased. Her attitude really did remind me of when I first met Berta. On the other hand, Kudou looked as if he’d figured I’d say that.

“Is that so?” he said, backing down unexpectedly fast. “What other choice do we have? We don’t have much time.”

“Let’s see...”

Kudou was right. We were still some distance away, so it was going to take around five minutes before it caught up to us. We had to decide on how to fight it before that happened. We didn’t have many options. I thought it over a bit before answering.

“We just have to make an opening large enough for Dora to take its head.”

“An opening, huh? Well, that’s true,” Kudou agreed, throwing a glance at Dora.

“Of course, my king,” she said, nodding. “I’ll prove I can lop off that repulsive head.”

“There’s your answer,” Kudou said.

“P-Please hold on...a minute,” Katou interjected.

It was hard for her to talk because of all the shaking, but she felt compelled to regardless. She looked up at me from within my arms.

“Who...w-will create...that opening?”

Dora had been bearing the brunt of things until now. However, this plan relied on her dealing the finishing blow. As such, Kudou or I would have to stand against the horror. Perhaps because she’d seen him get sent flying by the horror’s attack while looking perfectly fine, her eyes drifted to Kudou.

“Kudou...”

“I know what you’re trying to say,” he said.

Katou’s pleading gaze met Kudou’s narrowing eyes. That was when I realized that this was the first time these two had spoken to each other. I’d been so focused on whether Kudou had any animosity toward Katou that this had never come to mind.

Meaning...they’d been avoiding each other? That was probably the case.

Kudou was expressionless. No. Maybe his brow was slightly knit. When he acted as the Demon King, he always had a smile on that hid his true emotions deep within him. Erasing all expression from his face was a sign that things weren’t so calm within his heart.

If not for our current situation, maybe Katou would’ve never started a conversation with Kudou, nor would Kudou have started one with her. However, as things were, Katou had no other choice.

“Please... I have...no power...so I can’t...do it.”

Her voice, broken up intermittently by the shaking, sounded so helpless. It turned out that being unable to fight in this situation still weighed on her mind. Or perhaps...this had always bothered her. Katou’s extremely gloomy expression gave me that impression.

“If only...I had the power...of a visitor,” she said, the shadow over her voice getting darker. “I’ve long...had a wish...so why...am I still powerless?”

I felt something slightly out of place. If I wasn’t mistaken, I felt something closer to guilt than helplessness in her voice. But I didn’t get it. So long as her power didn’t manifest, she had cause to be disappointed, but not apologetic. The Katou Mana I knew was clever enough not to mistake one for the other.

So why? It was strange. However, no matter how much I questioned it, it didn’t change the fact that she harbored dark feelings about it. That was why she pleaded with Kudou, whom she’d been avoiding. However, faced with her desperate pleas, Kudou grimaced a little.

“That’s not how it goes, though,” he said.

“Huh...?”

“You’re misunderstanding. Unfortunate as that is,” he continued with an air of resignation, “in truth, I can’t do it either. Taking on that horror, I mean.”

“Huh...? But earlier...”

“That’s what you’re misunderstanding. I wanted to keep this from Majima-senpai, though.”

With that, Kudou held out his left arm. His movements were stiff. Caesar was wrapped around his arm. No, that wasn’t quite right. It was more accurate to say the green sludge was moving his arm. But why would that be? As if to answer that, Kudou rolled up his sleeve.

“Hey, your arm?!” I shouted, my eyes wide open.

Under his sleeve, Kudou’s arm was a crushed mess. It’d only appeared to be fine under his clothing because Caesar had been supporting him.

“You didn’t defend against that attack?!” I yelled.

“Caesar isn’t that powerful a monster,” Kudou said, contrasting my panic with a calm demeanor despite his broken arm. “The one facet it specializes in is powerful, but it has its limits.”

“Now’s not the time to—!”

“I don’t really care,” Kudou said, pulling his sleeve back down. “I’m not a fighter, so I won’t be using my arm in battle. Besides, I was lucky. I’ve been on the verge of death for quite some time.”

“The verge of death...?”

His dispassionate voice gave me the chills for some reason. That was when I came to a late realization. This situation was far too strange.

“Hang on... Aren’t you in pain?”

For a while now, Kudou hadn’t shown the slightest hint of his hidden agony. I was late in realizing that his wound wasn’t at a level that could be ignored through willpower. Judging by the state of his body, showing no signs of feeling any pain was abnormal.

“Kudou, what’s up with your arm?”

“Wouldn’t you be able to understand, Senpai?”

There was a slight wryness to Kudou’s question. His face was far slimmer than when I first met him. It had been like this for a long time now. There was more than enough information for me to figure it out.

“A side effect of your power...” I said.

“I’m just a weak human, after all,” Kudou quietly admitted. “Because I reached for strength beyond my means, I had to compensate with something else.”

His face was so devoid of regret. I felt sorrow at this. A wish beyond one’s means destroyed one’s body. Or perhaps in this case, it was more directly a reflection of his wish. Kudou was resolute; he would follow his path as Demon King to its end, despite the despair and hopelessness it promised.

“You don’t really need to be concerned about it,” Kudou continued. “This is a suitable fate for the likes of me. That’s exactly why I’ll give you a warning.”

Kudou then turned to Katou. Behind his eyes was a clearly thorny emotion. If what he faced me with was sympathy for someone who shared his circumstances but walked a different path, then what he faced Katou with was closer to a hatred for his own kind. Maybe that was exactly why he could see through her. Kudou held out his sleeved left arm.

“You’re similar to me. This includes your weakness and your self-destructive disposition. I’ll declare it here and now. When your ability manifests, a horrible thing is sure to happen.”

Maybe this resonated with her. I could feel Katou jolting and shuddering because she was pressed against me.

“At the very least, as you are now, all that awaits you is ruin. If your ability isn’t manifesting because you fear that future, then you’re better off not thinking about any stupid ideas.”

“I-I’m...!”

Maybe she was trying to refute him. However, Katou didn’t say anything else. In truth, her ability still hadn’t manifested. Not that I believed this was a bad thing.

“Both of you, leave it at that,” I said.

We didn’t have the time to argue among ourselves, and there wasn’t much point in this conversation to begin with.

“I planned on taking this role from the beginning,” I added.

“S-Senpai...!” Katou called out in protest, but I didn’t back down.

“No matter how you look at it, that thing only sees me. There’s no need to discuss who’s most suitable to be a decoy.”

“But...!”

“My prospects of winning aren’t nonexistent, of course.”

Katou fell silent. Instead, Kudou raised his voice in interest.

“You have a way of winning?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Salvia.”

That was the name of my servant who’d remained silent this entire time. Mist spread out, and a young woman appeared in the air. Her full lips formed a reassuring smile.

“Thank you for waiting, my dear. I’ve figured it out to a degree.”

“How about the magic?”

“It can be deployed to a certain extent. Illusions are impossible, and it can’t cover a very wide range, though.”

“It’s enough if I can sense my surroundings.”

Salvia hadn’t shown herself until now, but hadn’t been sitting idle. This entire time, she’d been investigating why the Misty Lodge couldn’t be deployed and finding a way of dealing with that.

“Also, my dear, there’s something I’d like to talk about,” Salvia said.

“Got it, but leave it for after.”

She’d apparently discovered something new. I was curious as to what it might be. For now, I preempted further discussion.

“First, we need to deal with that thing.”

A corrupted roar echoed behind us. The horror was finally catching up.

“Senpai...” Katou said, her voice so forlorn.

She looked up at me, her face overcome with emotion. The horror approaching from behind was mighty. Maybe she thought it was useless to challenge it, but that wasn’t true. What I’d built up upon coming to this world wasn’t that weak.

“It’s okay,” I said, refocusing myself. “There’s no need for you to feel guilty. You don’t need to force yourself to do anything either. I...we will handle things here.”

“Masss—ter!”

“That’s right. Our master is strong now.”

Asarina coiled around my left arm, forming five bizarre claws. Mist oozed out of my body, gathering information from all around me.

“And Kudou,” I said before taking my leave, “I have something to talk about with you after this too.”

I glanced at his crushed arm, then glared at him a little. When I remembered Berta, I couldn’t ignore any matters related to Kudou’s well-being.

“Very well...” Despite the force of my gaze, Kudou smiled happily, then turned to the side in midair, deploying a glyph. “I’ll take charge of the first shot. I’ll use one of my trump cards.”

“It’s in your hands,” I said. Kudou’s smile grew deeper. It felt like an exchange between comrades, which didn’t feel bad for me either. “Dora, I’m counting on you too.”

“R-Right. Leave it to me,” Dora replied, somewhat unaccustomed to this.

I laughed a little, then stopped running. I put Katou down on the floor. That horror only had me in its sights. At the very least, until I was defeated, and if nobody took the initiative to get in its way, it wasn’t a danger to anyone else. It was actually safer for Katou to be away from me.

Also, now that I could use the Misty Lodge, I could finally fight at full strength. This was where the fight truly started.

“Let’s go, Travis!”

I readied my transformed left arm and ran toward the battle.