5
The massive creature had been caught by the back leg and was mercilessly slammed into the wall. Brute force made possible by a monstrous strength beyond human comprehension caused the large creature to let out a hideous cry. A discordant shriek like countless babies crying split the air.
“ Giiiiiii.”
The massive, hideous demon beast was knocked away, but the half-human, half-horse gabaou—the ravenous horse lord of the desert—immediately leaped to its feet on the tower’s balcony, flames erupting from its mane.
“ ”
The next instant, a white flash pierced the torso of the raging gabaou, causing it to swell from the inside. The white light transformed into a torrent of blades, shredding it to pieces.
No matter how monstrous a creature’s vitality, it couldn’t avoid death when every last one of its internal organs was destroyed at the same time. That ravenous horse-beast was no exception, and it fell gruesomely before the light.
And the woman who did it—Shaula—didn’t stop there.
Shaula’s battle with the demon beasts was playing out on the fourth floor of the Pleiades Watchtower. The balcony on the outer wall was several hundred yards up in the air, but some of the monsters had wings, and there were many that could easily climb the walls.
As the invaders scaling the wall were swatted down one after the other, the balcony transformed into a sea of blood. Despite the scale of the slaughter, Shaula wasn’t even out of breath.
The thought of trying to count the number of monsters storming the tower was enough to drive anyone crazy, but the fact that they were not barreling into the tower already was due to her overwhelming strength.
But the dangerous equilibrium that Shaula was maintaining…
“Shaula!”
“Ghhh, uuuuuugh…!”
A high-pitched voice called her name, but she couldn’t respond. She just grimaced and brushed aside the line of flying beasts with her white light.
Red flowers bloomed in midair, and the monsters stopped their follow-up attack. But Shaula was unchanged after driving them back. She cradled her face and stomped the ground.
As she was doing that, peeking through the gap between her fingers, her black eye split, and a red pulse began. A compound eye was developing. A change was happening in Shaula’s body.
“Someone… Someone broke the rules…”
Covering her face with her hands, she groaned painfully.
While that was happening, she still shot down the onrushing demon beasts one after the other, but her movements were growing rougher, losing refinement.
“Not good. She’s at her limit. Meili! Can—?”
“As you can see, my hands are full, dealing with the flying beasties! If the half-naked lady can’t fight anymore, we’re going to be really shorthanded!”
“I figured. This is…pretty rough.”
Watching Shaula struggle, Echidna—still borrowing Anastasia’s body—had a grim look on her face. Meili, who was busy using her blessing to defend the tower, was much the same.
The three of them were holding the tower—though unlike Meili, with her blessing that allowed her to control demon beasts, or Shaula, who brought the real firepower, Echidna couldn’t do much herself and was largely on the sidelines.
“But it’s getting harder and harder to let it just stay that way…”
Going through what few cards they had to play, she gritted her teeth, watching their lifeline, Shaula.
The change overcoming Shaula was probably caused by something rooted deep inside her. Something she couldn’t resist, some sort of limiter. Echidna could recognize it from being in a similar sort of situation as an artificial spirit herself. It wasn’t something that determination could change.
If what she had said was true, then someone somewhere inside the Pleiades Watchtower had broken a rule. To correct that, she had to act as the guardian of the tower.
“…Talk about ironic…”
Because she had remained the tower’s guardian all this time, she’d managed to reunite with the person she wanted to see most. But because she remained the guardian of the tower, she couldn’t disobey the order to hurt the person she wanted to see. The tragedy of a created being.
Echidna had the thought that she and perhaps Beatrice, as fellow created beings, were the only ones who could understand Shaula in the realest sense.
So…
“—Durrrryaaaaa!”
When she saw a figure rush through the passage leading to the balcony with a forceful shout, Echidna gasped as her eyes shot open.
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