Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 4 - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Girl’s Resolve and Its Conclusion

Shiran’s arms and legs were splayed out as she lay facing upward. She wasn’t even twitching. Her body was covered in wounds that made it apparent how furious her battle had been. There were deep cuts in each of her limbs, and her left arm was severed completely from the forearm down. A gash ran down her brow, through her right eye, and down to her jaw, marring her beautiful face. Her waist was cut open, her entrails seeping out. And right in the center of her armor, her very own sword pierced clean through the metal and right into her heart.

There was no life in her wide-open eye. What lay before us was the corpse of a slaughtered girl. In contrast, the one who threw her body as if it was nothing more than an old rag was in perfect health. Juumonji didn’t have any visible wounds aside from the one cut on his cheek.

Judging by the direction he came from, he had taken a shortcut by jumping from the crumbled rampart of the inner wall all the way here to the outskirts of the fortress. The reason he went out of his way to bring Shiran’s corpse with him was either because he wanted to break our spirits or because he wanted to sneer at us while basking in his victory. In either case, there was only one truth before me now.

Juumonji Tatsuya had killed one of the strongest knights in the world. The girl who had believed in me, who had said she looked forward to speaking with me again, no longer existed. Despite her tremendous talent, she’d never stopped her pursuit of betterment—all for the sake of protecting her friends, her comrades, and the entire world. Yet a man who gained power by happenstance, just from being sent to this world, killed her.

This didn’t only apply to Shiran either. This fortress stood to protect humanity from the threat of the Woodlands. It was filled with people who risked their lives to do so. Each and every one of them kept fighting to this very day with such feelings in their hearts, much like her.

Here, all of their feelings had been crushed beyond repair. A savior who emotionlessly wielded a hollow power devoured them and reduced them to nothing more than his experience points. It was unremittingly tragic, and unremittingly unreasonable. But that was the reality we found ourselves in.

This was perhaps the true nature of the cheats lying within the visitors from other worlds. Just as the word cheat would imply, the power we had obtained truly was unfair. It was an absurd and dangerous power that could crush the feelings of others without a single emotion. How could such a thing be a blessing? What part of this was the power of the saviors of the world?

I stood there in shock as Juumonji’s voice reached my ears. “Even if it was for a short time, I’m surprised she could keep up with me.” There was pride in his voice. “But it seems that power of hers had a time limit.”

“A time...limit?”

What? I never heard anything about that. She didn’t ever mention it. And the commander, who should’ve known, didn’t say anything either... But I suppose it would’ve been a problem to mention it back then...

The commander had said that Shiran would fulfill her duty. She never mentioned anything about her survival. She knew what would happen to her precious subordinate. Thinking back on it, she had looked out of it ever since we’d parted with Shiran.

After giving it more thought, if Shiran’s power could be used indefinitely, she would always be using it. Normally, she only had that one yellow sprite with her. Using four spirits was like a full power boost for her. It was Shiran’s ace in the hole, her last resort.

“Didn’t I tell you? I look forward to speaking with you again.”

Shiran had already made her resolve at that time. She knew we would never speak again, yet she sent me away. What feelings went through her when she said that...? I couldn’t even ask.

“But I suppose she did her best. She did a good job just buying time with me as her opponent,” Juumonji said as he threw what was in his hand our way.

It tumbled across the ground and stopped before us. It was a girl’s severed arm. The bracer had fallen off somewhere, exposing a finger which wore a ring shining with a blue light, proving she was a knight.

“Looking at the outcome though, she only died in vain.”

Juumonji looked down at her arm and laughed. He was sneering at her desperate struggle and all the feelings she had poured into it.

“Juumonjiiii!” Hailing my emotions, a white shadow screamed and leaped past me. “You insolent cur! So you are my lord’s enemy?!”

Gerbera’s burning rage and fighting spirit scattered about as she threw herself forward like a cannonball. She thrust out her right foreleg, carried by her tremendous momentum, and aimed right for Juumonji’s chest. This was a genuine killing blow from the white arachne, a high monster. Not even a master of the spear could imitate such a wild and ferocious thrust.

“Whoa?!”

Her talon aimed to pierce through Juumonji’s heart, but right before it could, he evaded the attack with his abnormal reflexes and jumped to the side.

“Tch!”

“What the hell? I thought it looked weird, but that’s no normal arachne, is it?”

Juumonji landed and readied his still-bloody broadsword in a fluster as Gerbera charged once more.

“I’ll kill you! Know of my lord’s sorrow and anger!”

“You sure brought a troublesome one with you,” Juumonji said in irritation as he stepped forward with his sword on his shoulder. “Uoooooh!”

“Shyaaaah!”

The white tyranny of the Woodlands collided with the violence of the savior from another world. Spider leg and broadsword clashed countless times as torn hair and metallic sparks flew about. The Great White Spider, the strongest monster in the Depths, didn’t take a single step back even when faced with a savior.

Juumonji’s sword couldn’t break through the outer shell of Gerbera’s body, covered in supple white hair. Any minor wounds healed instantly thanks to the white arachne’s terrifying recovery speed. However, even though she overwhelmed Juumonji with her various attacks from every direction, she couldn’t drive in a decisive blow.

Both of them towered above normal in terms of strength and speed, leading to an ebb and flow of offense and defense. Sensing that he wouldn’t make any progress like this, Juumonji shifted his approach.

“How ’bout this?!”

He found an opening in the intense battle to deploy a red glyph. The fire magic burned through the threads Gerbera unleashed and closed in on her.

“Impudence!”

Gerbera charged right through the curtain of flames. She could easily endure anything up to grade 3 magic. The light burns on her arms she got from covering her face wouldn’t affect her in battle, and they would fully heal within a minute regardless. Even as a cheater of the exploration team, Juumonji, who leaned more toward close combat, couldn’t put together any useful magic against her in the middle of battle. Having said that, Gerbera’s threads were poorly matched against Juumonji’s specialty magic. This inevitably brought their battle into a close combat that neither could escape from.

As that went on, I ran over to the collapsed knight.

“Shiran...” I touched her cheek. I could sense heat in my palm. It was the residual heat from battle. This would only cool down with time. “Lily?”

Lily ran up with me and feebly hung her head. “It’s no good... I can’t do anything about this anymore.”

There was something I’d learned back in the Colony. There was no resurrection magic in this world. There was powerful healing magic that was extremely close to it, but magic couldn’t cross the boundary of death.

“Goddammit.”

I cursed and raised my head. I could see Gerbera running across the walls and ceilings with Juumonji taking chase.

“Ugh... What ridiculous strength,” she muttered.

“You annoying shit! Quit wasting my time!”

The cheater’s strength was slowly pushing Gerbera back, as terrifying as that was. Her fighting style was that of a beast to begin with. She had physical strength and reflexes none could keep up with, and she utterly crushed her opponents. In other words, she was very similar to Juumonji, who left everything to the combat abilities he was granted by this world.

With the gap in strength and speed closed, Gerbera couldn’t compensate with technique the way Shiran could. And with her threads rendered useless, it’d be difficult for her to turn things around. That didn’t mean she would go down easily, of course. Gerbera possessed amazing recovery abilities and had an abundance of combat experience.

There was no prospect of her winning like this, though. She couldn’t beat Juumonji on her own. It might’ve been possible if she worked together with Shiran, but she was dead. We had failed to make Sakagami remove the monsters, and now that Gerbera was pinned down, we were no longer able to break through the monsters surrounding the fortress. At this rate, we would truly be wiped out.

“Shiran?”

I heard a girl’s voice. I turned around and saw the Alliance Knights. They had finished defeating the monsters who’d blocked their way and managed to catch up with us. Among them, obviously, was Kei. She looked my way, but I wasn’t reflected in her eyes. She was staring at the dead girl in my arms with a vacant expression.

“Shiran!”

Kei ran over and stared at her sister, practically pushing me aside. The small girl looked down at Shiran’s face devoid of one eye and lacking any expression.

“Ah... Aaah...”

Shiran wasn’t breathing, and her pulse was gone. This strict yet gentle sister of hers would never smile at her again.

“No way...”

I could see despair freezing her heart. Tears flooded her eyes, which could see nothing except for her dead sister now.

“Gaaah! You fucking pain in the ass!” Juumonji suddenly yelled.

He was getting impatient with this even battle and kicked Gerbera with all his might. Gerbera groaned in pain as she was sent flying back. Juumonji was also sent soaring backward by the recoil.

Gerbera safely landed on her eight legs and poised herself for a follow-up attack, but she wasn’t Juumonji’s target. I realized this right away, but she didn’t.

“Oh no! Gerbera!” Lily screamed, realizing it at the same time I did.

By then, Juumonji was already moving. He turned on his heel and hurled himself forward. Gerbera’s red eyes shot open.

“Dammit...!”

She was positioned on the opposite side from us with Juumonji in the middle. In other words, he’d found an opening to attack us instead of Gerbera. She likely never considered her opponent would look for the chance to target someone weaker. She was an honest girl, so her poor compatibility against a sly human was exposed here.

Furthermore, Gerbera’s experience with life was awfully lopsided compared to her long years spent in isolation. She had an abundance of combat experience, but that was limited to one-sided battles. In other words, she wasn’t very good at protecting someone while fighting compared to fighting all on her own.

If she were to protect us, she would have had to pay careful attention to her position at all times—not that Juumonji was someone she could fight against while doing such a thing in the first place. Actually, in this case, Shiran was the abnormal one for succeeding in doing so despite being far weaker than him.

Juumonji’s large body closed in. He was aiming for me. He couldn’t defeat the monster, so he decided to render her powerless by killing her master. There was no way Lily was going to let that happen, though. She jumped between us and let loose grade 3 magic. Her specialty blades of wind cut through the air.

“No way!” Lily yelled in shock.

Juumonji also unleashed grade 3 fire magic. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a simple flame. He shot fiery bullets that exploded on contact. Lily’s shock only stood to reason. Such strong explosions would damage this entire narrow corridor, leaving nowhere to run. It could even cause a cave in if handled poorly. But perhaps that was Juumonji’s goal to begin with.

He was confident he could survive being buried alive. Fortunately, the fortress walls proved to be sturdy and withstood the force, but Lily’s wind magic had been scattered. Juumonji’s sturdy body barreled through the tide of flames that blew back against him, and he swooped down on her.

“Outta the way!”

Lily stepped forth to intercept him, but she couldn’t hold out for even a second. Her spear met his broadsword, bent backward, and flew out of the way as his sword dug into her shoulder.

“U-Ugh...”

Carrying that momentum, his blade sank all the way to her waist, but Lily didn’t give up.

“I won’t...let you...”

“Wha—?!”

Even though her upper body was vertically split in two, Lily thrust out her spear. Juumonji could never expect a counterattack from such a seriously wounded opponent, so he was full of openings. Lily had an overwhelming advantage here as she drove her spear toward Juumonji’s stomach.

“Ah.”

But Juumonji’s fist exploded into her face. Lily’s head burst open like a watermelon dropped off a cliff. He pulled his sword out of her body and ran by as her body collapsed. She wasn’t dead, but I could feel that her consciousness had faded through our mental path. It would take her a few seconds to reboot like this, but Juumonji was already through.

Lily wasn’t weak by any metric. However, the gap between them was just too large. This was a calamity. Lily’s do-or-die defense only bought a single second against this cheater. There was nothing left between Juumonji and myself.

I met his eyes. He had a scornful smile on his virile face. Knowing that Gerbera wouldn’t make it in time, I bit my lip. I had to do something on my own. While I watched Lily succumb to Juumonji’s attack, I’d already grabbed the dazed Kei in my arms as she continued staring at Shiran’s corpse. I stretched my left arm toward the wall, then jumped back with Kei as Asarina shot out.

“Grawr!”

Ayame shot a fireball to hold him back, but Juumonji cut the projectile in two and continued closing in. A red glyph took shape in his left hand. It took him no time at all to put together grade 2 fire magic. That much I could handle. It wasn’t a problem.

Just as I came to that conclusion, I felt Asarina plunging into the wall. With this, my means of evasion was ready. Or so I thought. By the time I realized my misunderstanding, it was too late. A small explosion broke out, burning Asarina’s elongated body halfway down.

“Crap!”

Juumonji’s devilish smile drew closer. I had no means of dodging anymore. It was hopeless. He was going to catch me. I heard my heart thump loudly. I was going to die here. I could vividly picture a single sweep cutting my body clean in two. And it wasn’t just me. Shiran’s precious little sister Kei would also be killed. I failed to protect her. That outcome, though impermissible, was right before me.

I clenched my teeth hard. I couldn’t possibly accept such a future.

I need to protect them, no matter what.

“Huh...?”

I strengthened my grip on my sword to put up one last vain struggle, and just then, I unintentionally let out a stupefied response. Juumonji’s eyes also shot open in shock.

A hand had grabbed his shoulder from behind. It had a firm grip characteristic of those who wielded swords, yet it was so pale it was unnatural. The bloodstained fingers must have had a terrifying amount of strength in them, seeing how Juumonji’s face was twisting in pain.

“H-How...are you...?”

Juumonji turned around and groaned hoarsely. What came in response...was a row of teeth tearing through his skin.

“Gyaaah?!”

Juumonji screamed. Realizing how abnormal this was, he had thrust out his arm to protect his body at the last second. The teeth sank right into his forearm. They tore through the sleeve of his blazer, gouged into his skin, and bit off his tough muscles. The sound of meat ripping apart resounded through the corridor.

“Aaaagh! Gaaaah!”

Juumonji’s broadsword fell to the ground with a clang. He dropped to his knees. A good semi-spherical chunk of his forearm was missing. A wet crunch filled the air. It was the sound of something chewing meat. Everyone was left speechless, frozen by the ghastly scene.

And with a gulp, something swallowed the meat.

“Aaah... Aaaaaah.” A hollow groan leaked through bloodstained lips. Soon after, it turned into the shriek of the dead. “Aaaah, aaaah... AaaaAAaaAAh!”

The dead Shiran had risen to her feet and roared, not a single fragment of reason in her eye.