Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 6 - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Surpassing the Limit

“We’ll do something about that,” Lily declared, pursing her lips tightly and staring down the Mad Beast.

For some reason, she looked different than usual. My eyes remained glued to her profile. Her expression was unyielding and dignified. She was acting true to herself, true to the facet of her that had constantly attracted my heart. This was the Lily I was used to seeing. Nothing was out of place. Was it just my imagination? Still, my mind was caught on something. Something was different in her eyes, something small enough it could be brushed off as a simple misunderstanding.

“Let’s go!” Lily yelled gallantly, encouraging herself forward.

“Graaaah!”

The Mad Beast also cried out, baring its brutal nature and charging toward her.

Lily stepped forward without any hesitation, though without her favorite spear in hand. They were both empty-handed. Be that as it may, the Mad Beast’s arm was a dangerous weapon that could crush the human form into an unrecognizable shape. It wasn’t something to face unarmed.

“Graaawr!”

The beast could no longer distinguish its targets from one another. Its giant arm, the very definition of a lethal weapon, came soaring down. Lily could still evade it. Without any weapon at hand, there was nothing she could do other than attract its attention and run around it. That was what I had done, so I thought she would do the same.

Lily, however, chose an unexpected approach. She planted her feet into the ground and stretched out her arm, almost casually.

“Graaah?!”

A surprised shriek followed a heavy thud. I was lost for words as I stared at the unfolding scene. Lily had caught the Mad Beast’s attack one-handed.

That was impossible. Though she didn’t look it, Lily was actually tremendously strong. The Mad Beast was on an entirely different level, though. Regardless of its wounds, it wasn’t an opponent one could deal with head-on like this. It wasn’t supposed to be, anyway. And yet Lily had done just that.

The scene before me seemed unbelievable...but that wasn’t the most surprising part. Something even more shocking lay in my field of vision—Lily’s hand that had stopped the Mad Beast’s devastating attack.

Everything from her elbow down, which was normally elegant and slender, now resembled the Mad Beast before her. Lily’s disproportionately large arm was something I’d seen before. It was the powerful arm of a rough rabbit, a monster from the Depths.

What’s more, the tip of the rough rabbit’s arm had turned into a giant turtle shell from the wrist down, which was what had caught the Mad Beast’s blow. The shell was so large that it was resting on the ground. It was even larger than Lily’s body and was likely from an armored tortoise, one of the many monsters Lily had eaten at Fort Tilia. The shell had splendidly fulfilled its role as a greatshield.

What was going on?

“Is that...partial mimicry?” I murmured in a daze.

Lily could mimic all sorts of abilities while maintaining her form as Mizushima Miho, but unless she took on the shape of the monster she was mimicking, the abilities went through significant degradation. Partial mimicry was an idea to fix that shortcoming. It was still an incomplete technique, though. Lily had been stuck for a long time at the insurmountable wall of her limits. I knew very well how much she had agonized over it.

“She succeeded?”

Thinking back on it, how had Lily managed to break the magic chains binding her? She shouldn’t have been able to do it unless she had strength comparable to Gerbera’s. The fact that she’d managed to regain her freedom on her own was proof above all else that she’d surmounted that wall.

“Graaawr!”

The moment I saw the surface of the shell ripple, the roaring head of a firefang surged out of it. The gray wolf, composed only of its upper body, snapped at the Mad Beast’s elbow, piercing the beast’s skin with its sturdy fangs.

“Gaaaaah!”

The Mad Beast’s face contorted as it shook off the wolf through sheer force. The wolf crumbled to bits, and the fragments of meat transformed into slime, splattering across the ground. Now free from its bite, the Mad Beast tried to attack back, but six snakes came rushing at its head.

“Hsssss!”

Before I knew it, Lily’s left arm had transformed into multiple snakes. This came from a lesser Hydra, a monster from the Fringes. The Mad Beast was taken by surprise and fell back. It flailed its arm around while retreating, bashing the oncoming snakes and their poisonous fangs.

“Hngh!”

Lily, who had displayed a surging wave of nonstop attacks, stopped there. In the meantime, the Mad Beast regained its footing.

“Even with help, my simultaneous limit is four, huh?” Lily muttered to herself with a grimace.

Her new partial mimicry was powerful. Even if each individual monster wasn’t particularly strong by itself, focusing entirely on their specialties created a significant threat. Now that she could connect all these species together, she could stand on equal ground with Gerbera. Still, it seemed there was a limit.

“Graaaah!”

The Mad Beast, which functioned on pure instinct rather than intelligence, found some prospect for victory. It let out another war cry and charged at Lily. If there was a limit to how many tricks she had up her sleeve, then it merely had to overwhelm her with an attack that she couldn’t counter. I wasn’t sure whether the Mad Beast had actually thought it over that far, but that seemed to be its aim.

“Lily!” I shouted.

“I’m fine,” she replied, her back still turned to me.

She casually held up her arm toward the oncoming beast. There was strength in her smile.

“As we are now, we can overcome any limits.”

Oddly enough, this was the same decision I had made earlier. She was going to use her maximum power for a single instant—a definitive strike that didn’t pay heed to what came after. A terrifying amount of mana swelled up within her body.

“This is everything I’ve accumulated! Stop it if you can!”

In the next instant, a flood of monstrosities poured out of Lily’s palm. Each and every monster she’d ever eaten surged out as if they were coming from some comical toybox, swooping in on the Mad Beast. Its yellow eyes shot open and it ground to a halt. It was too late to avoid the oncoming tide, however.

It swung its massive arm, smashing aside the monsters at the front, but it was like swatting away a single droplet in a tsunami. The monsters behind them smashed into the Mad Beast’s enormous body. That impact alone wasn’t enough to take down this tenacious creature, but more and more monsters poured in one after the other. Even a sturdy rock capable of withstanding the force of heavy machinery could be washed away by a raging landslide. That was largely what I was witnessing here.

“G-Graaah?!”

The overwhelming weight was all it took to knock the Mad Beast over and trample it down. In the end, its monstrous body blew away like a leaf in the wind.

◆ ◆ ◆

The surging mass of monsters vanished shortly after. They all lost their forms at once, turning into a viscous liquid and returning to Lily’s wrist. I stood there in shock, gulping at what I had witnessed, as Lily slowly lowered her arm. Her gambit had been as exhausting as it appeared. Her breathing was ragged. The tumult of battle that had engulfed the mountain we were on faded away. The leaves swayed in the wind, filling the silence alongside Lily’s labored breaths.

The moment I thought it was finally over, the Mad Beast suddenly opened its yellow eyes. It was still on the ground where it had collapsed far away.

“Graaah!” it bellowed, standing itself back up.

“It can still stand?!” I yelled in dumbfounded shock.

The Mad Beast had been reduced to a tattered rag. The simple act of standing caused blood to spurt from the wounds all over its body. Its broken right arm finally fell off and tumbled to the ground. From the very beginning, it had been forcing its body to move through any pain. It was in no condition to fight. It was actually rather baffling that it could still stand.

“Graaaaaawr!”

Nevertheless, the Mad Beast continued growling. Blood splattered across the ground. This was practically suicide. If it continued its rampage, it would likely die before it could do anything to us. Takaya Jun’s inherent ability was perhaps one meant to hurt himself above all others. First his sense of reason, then his ego...and in the end, it would one day destroy him entirely.

Lily watched the snarling creature with sorrow in her eyes. “It’s useless,” she said. “I won’t be yours.”

Her voice was so tranquil and sad that it didn’t seem fitting in the midst of battle. I thought maybe she was conveying some sort of special emotion to the Mad Beast.

“Grrr...”

Suddenly, its growling grew quieter. Its muddy eyes stared at Lily. It was as if it was trying to confirm something. Lily suddenly turned my way. Her gaze...seemed different than usual.

“I’m going with him,” she said clearly, and once more turned to the Mad Beast. “So, Jun, I can’t be with you.”

It didn’t react. How could it? It no longer possessed the intellect to respond in any way. It wasn’t Takaya Jun anymore. It was just a monster now. The Mad Beast just stared at Lily and stopped moving. All of the hostility and malice it had built up until now were entirely gone.

Strangely enough, its gigantic body looked so empty now, as if it was made of papier-mâché. Seeing it like this, I finally knew that the fight was over.

The Mad Beast’s fur, which had been standing on end this entire time, settled down against its body, making it seem as if it had shrunk. Then it groaned quietly and leaped. It wasn’t dashing toward us, though; it had jumped backward. After throwing a glance our way, it turned its back to us with a single howl. That was the last we saw of it. The monster that had once been Takaya Jun vanished into the grove of trees.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Master.”

I watched the Mad Beast vanish deep into the trees and turned to the voice calling out to me. Lily walked my way with a sad smile.

“Sorry, I couldn’t finish it,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it,” I replied, shaking my head. “I think it’s better this way.”

Lily was clearly exhausted, and it wasn’t guaranteed that she could’ve safely continued to fight. If it had come to that, the Mad Beast would have eventually died from its wounds, but some of us might have accompanied it on its way out. There was no reason for us to brave such danger. So long as everyone was all right, I was fine with it.

In that sense, it was just as I had said to Iino. Besides, I’d promised her that I wouldn’t kill Takaya Jun. If it posed us no danger, I didn’t mind letting the Mad Beast get away. Also, I could somehow sense that it would no longer bare its fangs at us.

It was no more than a beast now. I wasn’t even sure if it could actually return to being Takaya Jun. It would live its life out somewhere and eventually die, just like any other monster.

Somewhere deep down, I felt relieved. Why was that? It was like I couldn’t let Lily kill it as she was now. I didn’t really know why I thought that way, though...

“What’s up, Master?” Lily asked, cocking her head when she noticed me staring.

“It’s nothing...”

In any case, the crisis was over and all was well. I was too tired to give it more thought. Honestly, now that all the tension had faded, I felt compelled to plop down right where I was. It was a bit of a pain that this wasn’t really an option right now.

First, I had to check on my injured companions and help them with any necessary treatment. It didn’t look like anyone had suffered any serious wounds, but that didn’t mean I could just leave them as they were.

“Hey, Lily. Do you at least have enough mana to cast—”

I was trying to ask about healing magic when Lily collapsed into my chest.

“Huh?”

“Sorry, Master.”

I could feel an abnormal amount of heat coming from her through her clothes.

“I think...I’m at...my limit...” she said between gasps.

“L-Lily?”

“Relax,” she said, looking up at me, her face flushed and exhausted. She was doing her best to give me a smile. “I just need...a little...rest...”

And with that, all the strength left her body.