The Faraway Paladin, volume 2: The Archer of Beast Woods.
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Chapter 5.
All kinds of things continued moving forward at an incredible pace. After all the merrymaking was over, I put in a formal request to Ethel and the vice-bishop and received permission to go demon-hunting. Ostensibly, I was a single priest doing some independent charity work, but I had the backing of proper authority and power. The scale of what I was now involved in was incredible, but this was the smoothest way to get things done. If there was any trouble from now on, it would probably be necessary to demonstrate my allegiance to the bishop and the duke, but that was the price to pay for my new authority. I couldn’t imagine that anything would develop that quickly, so I decided to think about that later.
Bishop Bagley supplied me with a number of priests, including Anna, who could use benediction and was versed in all kinds of ceremonies, from celebrations to funerals. The priests all had a wealth of experience, reliably making up for the areas where I was lacking. I felt so indebted to Bishop Bagley that I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to fully pay him back.
Tonio seemed to have used the festivities surrounding the knighting ceremony to collect donations and contributions for my work. He’d gathered together lots of carts and wagons, agricultural and workshop tools, textiles, consumables, seeds for commercial crops, and animals cured of their injuries and diseases. And he’d found workers to manage them all.
Tonio laughed and said, “I might be able to start up my own trading company soon with all of this.” I nodded enthusiastically, thinking that I would very much like him to do that, and he said with a mischievous smile, “I can look forward to receiving your business, then.”
I put the ruffian adventurers I’d contracted to work as convoys guarding our purchases, and we all returned to Beast Woods. That was the start of yet another hectic period.
I dropped by each of the villages we’d visited on the way to Whitesails, giving them a further round of medical treatment and having Anna help me organize religious festivals. With help from Tonio, I lent out draft animals and various kinds of tools in exchange for providing us shelter; I also allowed the villagers to buy them from us and pay in installments.
When there were reports of demons or beasts, I had Reystov and some of the other adventurers form a party and go out to hunt them. Reystov in particular was incredibly skilled; by and large, the corpses of the beasts he brought back had been penetrated straight through their most vulnerable spots, just as his nickname boasted.
Just out of curiosity, I asked him, “Can you do that to a wyvern?” and he replied gruffly, “If it’s within sword’s reach.”
That wasn’t all. When there were disputes between the villages, I mediated them. When there were crimes in a village, I asked for the help of the priests and we held trials for those involved, so the matter would be solved as fairly as possible. I hadn’t originally been planning to do so much, but Tom, the elder of the village I’d first helped when a dispute arose, asked me if I’d help him out again since I’d done it once before. I couldn’t say no. And as my reputation spread, other villages also started to request my help to handle disputes that were getting out of hand, and I found myself with more and more to do. That’s how I ended up I traveling all over the place, doing all kinds of work.
When I heard about a village I hadn’t come into contact with, I got someone from the village we were currently in to introduce us and forge a connection, and then I’d do the same thing there. Bee really came in handy for making friendly first contact with unknown villages and whenever we had some message we needed spread around. I got the feeling I was paying for that with all the embellished stories she was also spreading about me. Maybe I needed to think of it as the cost of doing business.
Of course, if I kept on doing this kind of thing, I’d quickly find myself in debt in the literal sense. But while that was true, the livestock and agricultural tools that I’d lent out and sold off to the villages hadn’t gone anywhere; they remained in the village as valuable community property, and were visibly accelerating the villages’ development and production. These villages were essentially nothing more than places where vagrants had gathered together, so for many of them, just a plow, an iron axe, and a hoe would be tremendously valuable additions. And if we made that a plow and a horse to go with it, and threw in a ten-piece set of metal farming implements and other tools, work efficiency would jump up dramatically. If that improved, there would be more fields giving greater yields. With greater yields, the people would be able to repay their debts to us, and they’d become able to afford to purchase goods.
In parallel, I and the adventurers would be clearing Beast Woods of the dangerous demons and beasts, making the area safer. As the area became safer, merchants would be able to go to and from the villages without the need for heavy escorting, which would lead to a burst of commercial activity. The Fertile Kingdom’s authority didn’t extend here anyway, so it wasn’t like there was going to be a toll for them to pay. They could do business here freely. And with more merchants coming in and out, the villagers could buy things with currency. Their improved production capacity should lead to them obtaining all kinds of things with money. Before long, an increasing number of those places would start dabbling in commercial crops in their desire for cash, anticipating demand for them from the city. And once money and goods started changing hands, neighboring areas would naturally become more interconnected for the sake of commerce. Access and transportation would improve. This was what Gus lovingly called “living money,” money that moved around and made itself useful.
“And then one day, perhaps we can climb back out of the red,” Tonio said, while doing some estimates on his abacus. “That is, if you and I are both still alive.” That was definitely something I was aiming for, living at least long enough to get back out of the red.
Of course, we had only just gotten the ball rolling, and not everything was going according to plan. Often, people would try to engineer things so they’d keep all the profit for themselves, or intentionally default on everything they’d borrowed. I tried to contain situations like that as much as I could. Usually, this was by getting help from Anna and the other priests, who knew about law and how to persuade people, but some of the scarier-looking adventurers were also effective deterrents. Fortunately, in the short span of time that we were involved, there wasn’t anyone dangerous enough to try something too disruptive. Even if a person like that was lurking somewhere, it was probably natural that they hadn’t tried, in a way. If you did something like that in place like this, you’d find yourself surrounded and beaten until you became tree food.
Mary had once told me, “The greatest trap one can fall into when trying to do something good is to make the mistake of thinking that because you are acting with a good goal in mind, you are bound to get results.” Even if you decide to do something good, the people around you won’t lend you their help unconditionally, nor will the gods bless you with protection. Results come only by setting a reasonable goal and using appropriate methods to achieve it. And so, Mary had told me, the most important thing is to be practical and realistic. I took advice from everything Gus had taught me about money and regularly consulted with Menel, Bee, Tonio, Reystov, Anna, and the elders of villages all over, all of whom were very familiar with this world and its customs.
And together, we moved things forward. We went all over Beast Woods, back and forth, and as the winter transitioned into spring, I started to get the feeling that I was seeing more smiles in the villages. I felt as if there were now slightly fewer people who had no idea what tomorrow would even bring, who would wear gloomy or expressionless faces, or who would lose it completely and go off the rails. Perhaps that was what triggered the memory of something that Gus had once lectured me on.
— If you want something done, you don’t have to use magic. You just buy the tools you need or hire some people. Reshaping the terrain is a powerful piece of magic, but if you’ve got money, you can just hire laborers and workmen to do construction for you instead. Make no mistake, the ability to earn money and make it work for you is just as important as magic!
“Yeah…” I finally understood what Gus had been getting at—and he was right. Even when he said something that made you twist your head, Gus’s lessons were always right. Making people smile and giving them hope… It felt like magic greater than magic itself.
◆
Under a canopy set up in a vacant lot I’d rented from one of the villages, I was giving Pale Moon an inspection, checking that the neck of the blade and the metal collar were in good shape. As I idly wondered whether summer might start to make itself felt soon, a gruff voice called out to catch my attention. I looked up as Reystov came over.
“Pip’s party’s not come back,” he said. “They were the ones searching the west.”
Pip… If I remembered correctly, he was a young lad who’d come from some farm. He’d been in a party with two other men, Harvey and Brennan. “How long have they been gone?”
“They said they’d take ten days at the longest. They’re over by two already. And those guys have skills.” He was obviously implying that something must have happened for them to be this late.
“All right. We’ll go out and search for them.” I thought for a moment about who should go. It was possible that there had been some kind of accident, or they’d been attacked by wild beasts. But there was also the remote possibility that Pip’s party had been spotted by the demons’ lookouts. In which case, we’d need party members with combat skills. Also, to be absolutely sure we could follow their trail, we’d need a hunter or ranger skilled in tracking.
“Me, Menel, and you are definites. Also, whichever two parties you think are most skilled at forest exploration, I’d like to merge those into our search party as well. Are you okay with that?”
Reystov nodded to say he was happy with my suggestion. “I’ll get everyone together right away.”
Our party members gathered quickly in the village square. I explained the situation to them simply. I could talk about the details once we were on the move.
“Pip and the others are two days past their return date. We’re going to go searching for them, but there’s a possibility that there’s been more than just an accident. They may have been spotted by the demons’ lookouts. If that turns out to be the case, we may also end up in a battle against demons.” When I said that, I noticed everyone’s faces visibly tense up.
“It’ll get a bit more peaceful around here if we take them out.” Menel nodded in response.
It wasn’t a certainty that there’d be demons—it might just have been a simple accident that had befallen them—but the tension in the air was palpable as we all got ready and headed out.
◆
“Hey, uh.” Menel called to me as we were walking. We had followed the trail of Pip’s party and were just about to enter where they had been planning to search. “I gotta… thank you.”
We were hanging back from the group. Ahead of us, Reystov and the other adventurers were deep in discussion about the trampled leaves dotted about the forest floor.
“Umm… For what?”
“A bunch of stuff.” Menel’s jade eyes weren’t looking at me. In fact, he was practically facing the other way as he talked. “Without you, I would’ve hit rock bottom. And now I’m living for something good, and that’s ’cause of you. So… Uh… Yeah.” He paused awkwardly for a moment, trying to get the words out. “Thanks, brother,” he said, still looking in the other direction.
I felt something warm filling my chest. “I’m the one who should thank you. Thanks for helping me out when I was so ignorant about the world.” I smiled and nodded at him. “But…”
“What?”
“Say it again while looking at me.”
“Feck off!” He stormed away, still refusing to look me in the eye or even turn his face towards me. The other adventurers collectively ooh’ed in our direction.
The search for Pip’s party continued.
It took several days before we found their bodies.
◆
Several days after we left the village in search of Pip’s party, the dense greenery of the forest which had been around us for so long disappeared, and a blue sky came into view. What lay ahead of us after we exited the forest of green was a valley of craggy rocks. Beyond the valley was more forest, and beyond that, I could see a reddish-brown mountain range: the Rust Mountains. It was probably safe to assume this valley had been created by a flow of water pouring down the mountainside. The flow had either changed or dried up, and only the valley and rocks had been left behind. The valley wasn’t that deep, but it ran for a good distance, and where the riverbed must once have been, there were a lot of round stones lying around.
Pip and the others had been scattered around that area. It looked like the kind of mess left behind after a young child’s playtime—as if a child had gotten their hands on something insubstantial, like a paper doll, and clumsily pulled it apart, ripped it into many randomly sized pieces, thrown them everywhere, and then moved on to something else.
Menel and the others chased away the birds and other animals that had gathered around. Crows took off, their black wings flapping noisily, and other carrion feeders large and small darted away in all directions.
“Look at this.” Menel’s eyes stopped on some tracks. They were the footprints of a beast, stained with blood, each about as large as the shield I had over my back… “Extremely large. What kind of beast is this?” Menel asked, and the other adventurers also gathered around and stared hard at the tracks.
“Hm… Not sure.”
“It’s big. Bigger than a manticore.”
“A wild creature living in the valley? Or…”
Was the demons’ stronghold somewhere deep in this valley? I got that far in my thinking when one of the adventurers said in a chipper voice, “Well, they got to fight a monster. Good way to go. I’ll bet Pip, Harvey, and Brennan are pretty damn satisfied with that, and kicking themselves, too.”
“Yeah. Bet they’re saying, ‘How awesome would it have been if we could have killed that?!’”
“They died good deaths. Adventurers’ deaths!”
“O gods of good virtue, please grant their souls repose!”
“Have a last drink on me, lads,” one of the adventurers said, and took a bottle out of his inside pocket and poured its contents over the scattered body parts. I did my part too, using the blessing Divine Torch to make extra sure that their corpses wouldn’t turn undead. Menel and a number of the others talked and kept an eye over the area while Reystov went around the bodies collecting clippings of hair, which were often kept as mementos.
“Hmm?” Reystov sounded confused. “There’s only two heads. They’ve been damaged so badly it’s hard to tell, but…”
I looked around. Now that he’d mentioned it, I was kind of getting the feeling there should have been more here. “Probably just got eaten, right?”
“Plausible.”
“No… wait,” Menel said, raising his voice. He’d noticed something. I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw that there was a sword, a shield, and gauntlets scattered on the ground along a line that seemed to be heading into the valley.
“Did he… run away shedding his equipment?”
“Why into the valley?”
“If it blocked him from going into the forest, he probably wouldn’t have had another choice.”
“Good point.” We all nodded to each other and went down into the valley to check.
◆
We walked down into the valley.
Helmet, breastplate…
After following the trail of dropped items that far, something suddenly occurred to me, and it seemed to have occurred to Menel and Reystov at the same time. “That’s weird…” I muttered. Menel and Reystov both nodded in agreement.
“Yeah. This is strange.”
“What’s strange?” one of the others asked.
“The ground in this valley is pretty bad…”
There were loose rocks scattered everywhere. It certainly wasn’t suited to sprinting. And as for useful obstacles to hide behind, there was only the occasional large boulder; the view we had down the valley was actually pretty clear.
Let’s assume that the large, unknown beast had been preoccupied with slaughtering the other two people. Even if that was the case—in a place like this, over this distance, there was no way a human could get away from a beast of that size.
I gasped. I’d seen it now, but far too late. As if to prove my fears correct, placed on the top of a large boulder in the middle of the path ahead was a decomposing human head.
“It’s a trap! Retreat—” I had barely started to speak before my words were drowned out by a deafeningly loud roar that echoed through the valley. It was coming from the forest we’d just left. No, they were coming from the forest, towards us. Several beasts—a giant, two-headed serpent, a huge deer with bloodshot eyes, a wildcat that could have been mistaken for a leopard… Everywhere I looked, there were beasts, beasts, beasts. Every one of them was spewing miasma from its body. Someone gasped out a terrified scream.
“Don’t panic!”
“Keep calm! Wall of shields!”
The adventurers who had shields all stepped forward and lined up in a row, protecting each other, and Reystov and I stood on either side to protect the line. Now that we’d fallen for the trap, we’d just have to push through it.
No sweat, I told myself. We should be able to deal with guys like these.
The beasts and their miasma closed in.
Right… That gas was poisonous. I quickly used a number of spells and blessings, and cast Vitality and Anti-Poison on everyone. From the looks of it, Menel had also called to the fairies and given everyone some protections of his own.
“You have my gratitude.”
“Thanks, guys!”
“Real help!” They shouted their thanks one after another.
“Here we go. Those brutes think they caught us in a trap. We better remind them who’s the hunter, and who’s the prey.” It was rare to hear banter like that from Reystov.
I could feel Menel calling to the fairies and readying his bow behind me. The other adventurers were also holding their weapons and shields up and trying to steady their breathing. The group of monsters approached slowly, slowly, as if to strike terror into us.
Still holding up my shield, I took some stones from a bag hanging from my belt, then pulled out my sling. I put a stone inside and spun it around with one hand, faster and faster—
“Now! Fire!” The distance carefully judged, Reystov shouted the command and arrows flew, inflicting serious wounds on several of the beasts. I let my stone fly as well, blowing off one of the beasts’ heads. The attack set the rest off, and they charged. Even as they did, more arrows were fired, and I smashed two more heads with my stones.
“Braaace!!”
Everyone bellowed in unison. We dropped our center of gravity, ducked behind our shields, and prepared for impact.
That was the moment an enormous shadow was cast over our heads.
The winged shadow effortlessly leaped over our frontal defense, attempting to attack from the rear. I wanted to go deal with it, but I told myself no. I had to keep the beasts from advancing.
“Menel!” I continued facing forward and shouted out the name of the person I trusted the most. I want you to buy us time somehow—
“Gahackk—”
I heard a sound like… a slab of meat being punched.
I couldn’t bear not knowing. I turned to see.
As if he were nothing, Menel, the person I trusted more than any other, had been smacked by the giant beast and sent flying.
◆
The beast was enormous.
Extending upwards from the soles of its feet, which were as big as shields, were great, thick legs that looked like barbed wire had been twisted and coiled together. The typical farmhouses I saw in the poor villages around here were far tinier than this monster, even if it curled itself up as small as possible. Even the wyvern would have looked slimly built next to this thing. Standing in front of its lion-like body felt overwhelming, like standing directly in front of a towering cliff face.
The beast had three heads: a goat, a lion, and a demidragon. Each of those heads was filled with contempt, ridicule, and malice for everything smaller than itself. It was a chimera—an extremely savage, dangerous beast created by crossing other beasts in a blasphemous ritual.
“Oh—”
It looked like Menel had called to the earth elementals in an attempt to protect himself and those of us behind him. The wall of stone and earth jutting out of the ground, a huge chunk taken out of it by the chimera’s elephantine front foot, was proof.
Menel’s body slammed against a sheer wall of rock.
The chimera looked at him—
“Stop—”
—and, with a gloating grin—
“Stop!”
—from its demidragon head—
“Nooooo!!”
—it breathed fire.
Menel’s body flailed within the flames, burning. He was going to die—he was dying before my eyes—
I heard something snap inside my head.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
My boiling blood dyed my vision red. I’d never felt this much anger, even when the wyvern attacked the city. Filled with that boiling emotion, I incanted the Word of Lightning.
“Tonit—”
At that instant, there was a heavy impact on my shield.
Oh, right, the beasts… were charging…
The Word… died in my throat…
Misfire. Backfire.
Those fragmented thoughts flashed through my head, and not an instant later, the lightning I’d failed to activate ran through me. I shook. My body convulsed. I collapsed.
Wh-What was I doing? Why was I being so pathetic? I had to fight. I had to protect everyone. Why was I letting myself get destroyed—
As I fell to the ground and my vision clouded, I saw the other adventurers trying to somehow endure. Reystov was fighting for his life, swinging his sword fiercely, but I doubted he would last long.
A despair colder than arctic ice washed over me and extinguished the flames of my anger. Why? What did I get wrong? I’d been doing pretty good, hadn’t I? Where—Where did I go—
A serpent head closed in on me while I lay on the ground. It opened its mouth to swallow me whole. It lunged at me, and I—no, my body, trained by Blood… drew Overeater as if by instinct.
Slash. The serpent’s head flew off. Crimson thorns shot through the air. My wounds disappeared. Life force filled me. I roared, even louder than before.
Everything began to fade, began to grow cold. All thought disappeared from my mind. Everything emptied to white, until only the positional relationships of me and the beasts occupied my head.
A slaughter began.
◆
Fangs came from the right. I slashed.
Claws swung at my left leg. I let them hit me, then slashed. The pain was excruciating.
I slashed. My wounds healed. The excruciating pain was gone.
I slashed the next foe. Deep red thorns filled the air.
I punched with my shield and slashed. Let them stab me and slashed. Let them bite me and slashed. Held them close and slashed.
Slashed. Slashed. Slashed.
Thorns. Thorns. My vision bled red.
I roared.
It was shameful, blind desperation. My trained muscles, my polished technique, my fortified spirit—none of that was there. I was just leaving everything to the abilities of my demonblade, and slashing and cutting my way through without any strategy or grace. It was an incredibly, hopelessly pitiful, embarrassing, and saddening battle. I felt like I’d failed them all. I felt pathetic.
I slashed and cut the beasts down like a madman, tears spilling from my eyes. Drenched in blood and guts, I’d lost count of how many I’d slain so far. But I had to kill more. More. More—
“Stop! That’s enough!” A voice shook my eardrums. Someone had forced my arms behind my back.
It was Reystov.
“Huh—Ah—”
I realized that nothing was moving. The chimera had run off somewhere. The area around me was a literal sea of blood and guts. Reystov and the other adventurers weren’t uninjured, either—
“Heal Menel! He’s going to die!!”
I snapped back to reality. “M-Menel!!” I sprinted, almost tripped my way over to him.
He was charred black, and his beautiful face was burned beyond recognition. His arms were twisted, and he was missing several of his fingers.
I started hyperventilating.
I prayed and prayed.
The miracles of the god of the flame began to heal his body.
“P-Please—Please—” Tears filled my eyes. “Wake up… You can’t… You can’t die…”
He was so gravely injured. The healing was progressing slowly, but he wasn’t opening his eyes. I prayed, prayed, prayed…
I was feeling very faint. I’d swung that demonblade so much and indulged in its power for so long. Maybe that was taking its toll on me.
But I… have to heal… Menel…
And while I was still mid-thought, the ground suddenly tilted at a strange angle, and I blacked out.
◆
When I woke up, Reystov was there to explain the situation to me.
I was in a village close to the valley, and this was an empty house that they had allowed us to rent after being filled in on what had happened. After the battle, Reystov and the others had retreated here, carrying Menel and me over their shoulders. Fortunately, I had cut down the entire horde of beasts, and after the chimera’s retreat, there had been no sign of it attempting another attack.
Menel had escaped death.
It was probably thanks to the number of spells and blessings I’d cast on him beforehand. It had also majorly paid off that Menel hadn’t foolishly attempted to hold his ground when the chimera struck him, but had rolled with the blow and willingly been knocked away. The collision with the rock wall and the chimera’s fire breath had both nearly killed him, but the magic I had bestowed upon him had somehow kept him breathing, and my blessings had made it in time.
However, because I overused my demonblade, I had passed out halfway through treating Menel, so he hadn’t come to yet.
“For now, just rest a little more,” Reystov said.
“But—”
“Meneldor’s condition is stable. You’ve exerted yourself too much. Rest,” he said emphatically, giving me a hard look. Then he left the room.
He’d looked exhausted as well. There must have been other victims besides Menel and me in that chaotic battle, but he hadn’t mentioned anything, probably deliberately.
And so, in this unoccupied house with its simple mud walls, I sat under a faint ray of light that shone through a gap in the roof, my head lowered in thought.
Where on earth had I screwed up?
Was it when I trusted Menel with defending against the rear attack? No, given the situation, that had been unavoidable. The choice ultimately resulted in our suffering a near-total defeat and having to flee with our lives, but nevertheless, from where I stood at the time the decision to leave the chimera to Menel wasn’t an obviously bad move. I was pretty sure of that. If I’d gone to handle the chimera myself, there was a chance that everyone else might have been trampled by the charging demons.
The worst moment for us was most likely when we fell for the trap that used the dead body. We had a good number of people, we’d been very successful up until that point, and we were acting a little braver than we should have to insulate ourselves from the shock of having seen the corpses of people we knew. All those factors combined must have resulted in each of us being a little bit careless.
We should have been on alert from the moment we discovered the bodies. We should have been patient and thorough, and sent out scouts in every direction. If we’d done that, we wouldn’t have aimlessly wandered into a wide-open valley and gotten lured into a battle where we were at such a disadvantage.
So the cause of this failure was a very, very simple lack of caution. We got our comeuppance for allowing ourselves to get distracted in enemy territory and take careless actions. End of story.
And yet—
There was something… something that didn’t feel quite right about this explanation. I was overlooking something critical. I could feel it. What was it? What hadn’t I realized…?
I was lying on my back with my head full of this feeling I couldn’t place when I heard voices through the thin walls.
“Forced to retreat, huh…”
“Unbelievable, right? It’s the Wyvern Killer and the Penetrator we’re talking about here.”
“There was some unearthly big chimera thing there, I heard. A horrible mix of different beasts.”
“What’s the plan to deal with that?”
“Beats me.”
“That mixed elf guy got injured badly too, you hear about that?”
“Yeah, he’s got it rough. He shouldn’t let himself get roped into the kinda battles the Wyvern Killer fights, it’s just suicidal. The guy’s a monster.”
The two of them—adventurers, I thought—passed by outside, probably completely unaware that I’d been able to hear their conversation.
A black realization flickered into my mind. Now I saw it. It wasn’t the strategy. It was the strength of our forces.
In my mind, someone talked in a sticky voice.
I trusted Menel to have my back. I thought that even if we were faced with a powerful enemy, Menel would be able to stave it off for a little while if I left it to him. And when the chimera appeared, I thought the same, as if it were a totally natural expectation.
However, what was the reality? Menel couldn’t put up any resistance against the chimera at all. He wasn’t as strong as I’d been casually expecting. I’d assigned him more danger than he could handle, innocently, without thinking twice about it. I treated him like a friend, and I just thought he could handle that much—
“Oh…”
It was all fitting together now. Something came crawling out of the very darkest part of my heart. It was probably something I’d been unconsciously trying to avoid confronting. I’d been putting it out of my mind, but I wasn’t going to avert my eyes from it anymore.
By this world’s standards, my level of strength was completely insane.
I had been told this countless times since leaving the city of the dead, both explicitly and not so explicitly. And every time, I’d smiled humbly and politely, and let those words pass me by.
Why hadn’t I thought about this until now? I’d probably unconsciously been avoiding thinking too deeply about it. No matter how much everyone around me praised my abilities, I kept on being modest. I elevated all the other skilled people I met, and felt shame at my immaturity. Because otherwise, it would have meant admitting it.
No matter how pitiable the people I met were, no matter how horrible the sights I saw were, I avoided feeling sorry for anyone. I just tried to be a good problem solver. Because otherwise, it would have meant admitting it.
That we weren’t equal.
And once I admitted that—
Once I recognized that I was above them, and everyone else was far, far below me—
Once I started to realize that asking someone to fight alongside me might be forcing a terrible burden upon them—
I could never be like them. Not like those three. Having each other’s back, supporting each other, respecting each other. I’d never have friends like that. Because I would be alone.
So I refused to acknowledge that there was a difference in our strength.
But what was the reality like? I wanted Menel to fight alongside me, but he was weak. I’d beaten him effortlessly when we first met. Even in my battle against the wyvern, all he did was spread out my Word and help me to drop the wyvern to earth. That was all. I’d been unconsciously averting my eyes from the simple truth that, compared to me, he was very weak. It was like it was something disgusting I didn’t want to look at.
Why? Why was being alone something to be afraid of?
The instant I thought that, a scene flashed into my mind, with a flash not of bright light, but of pitch-black darkness.
It was my old room, in my past life. It was an empty room with no one there, a house without parents, a place as silent as the grave. I was scared. I was afraid. I was lonely. I hurt inside. I couldn’t take it—
“Oh…”
Oh.
So that was it. It was so simple. I didn’t want to be alone. I was afraid of not having anyone by my side.
So even though he was someone I should have been protecting, someone who I should have been saving, I’d tried to see him as an equal against all reason. I made excuse after excuse to not think about the clear and obvious facts. I coaxed him into standing alongside me, and as a result, I nearly destroyed him. And it was all for the single, most despicable reason that I didn’t want to be lonely.
I finally understood… what I’d been doing wrong.
I got to my feet. I wobbled a little, but a prayer sorted that out with no trouble at all. There was no need to worry. I was very strong.
I started walking. First of all, I had to go see Menel. I had to heal him.
It had started drizzling at some point, but it didn’t bother me in the slightest. I felt like all my cares had been blown away.
And I laughed, from the bottom of my heart.
◆
It was drizzling outside.
Menel had been laid on a bed, in a farmhouse that looked like it had wealthy owners. His wounds hadn’t fully healed, and fluids were seeping out from the burns all over his body and soaking into his bandages. He looked like he was having difficulty breathing. His cheeks looked somehow sunken, and his silver hair looked dull.
This was my sin.
I was vaguely aware that I was overwhelmingly powerful, and at the same time, I tried to remain unaware of it. I feared being better. I shied from solitude. I ran away from being responsible for my power.
I caused this, I told myself. I’ll do it alone.
Do it alone.
I couldn’t force other people to bear the burden of standing by my side, especially not in battle. What did it matter if I couldn’t become like my parents, anyway?
I offered a prayer to my god. Gracefeel, please heal poor Menel, who lies before me. God healed Menel right away, just as she always did. His gruesome burns, his partially-healed claw scars—all of them started to disappear.
My vision suddenly warped disorientingly, taking me by surprise. I was experiencing a revelation.
I saw my black-haired goddess, who always wore a hood over her head and rarely spoke or showed expression. But she had her hood down now, and her lips were pressed sorrowfully into a thin line.
Oh, Gracefeel… Thank you for worrying about me, I thought. But it’s okay. I’ve been a fool. Just watch me. I’ll stop your sadness. So I beg you—put your mind at ease. I’ll save everyone, everyone within my reach, as your blade, and as your hands.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’ll solve everything, everything, all by myself…”
I walked unsteadily out of the room, and returned to the house where I’d been sleeping.
There was my equipment. I gave it a quick check. There wasn’t much of a need. All I really needed was myself, a sword, and a spear. I could heal both disease and injury. I could receive gifts of food from my god. And if I felt like it, as long as I had nothing by my side to protect and nothing else to consider… I could kill anything.
Yes—it was time to admit it. My strength was not normal for a person of this world. I’d killed a splinter of an evil god; I could kill wyverns with my bare hands. I was like a video game character who’d maxed out the level counter—or even a hacked character, created by using cheat codes to mess with the data. I was far and away stronger than anything else in this world.
So there was no need to worry. I would kill the chimera. I would kill the demons. I would bring peace to this area. And I would make a bloodbath of any enemies who got in my way. That was the shortest, fastest, most efficient way to do good, to see justice done. It was the best path to making my goddess’s wishes become a reality.
I left the house through its gate and into the pelting rain, and headed for the outskirts of the village and the woods beyond—
“Hey!” A figure stood in my way. He had silver hair, sharp facial features, tightened lips, and jade eyes burning with anger.
I had no idea when he had gotten up, or when he had circled ahead of me, but one way or another—Meneldor was there.
◆
In a field near the edge of the village, Menel and I faced each other in the pouring rain.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked me, his voice sharp.
“What?” I tilted my head. “To kill beasts, Meneldor.”
Meneldor narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips together. “Alone.”
“Yes…?” Of course alone. “You can’t keep up with me. Right?” So I had to protect him. Wasn’t that obvious?
Meneldor’s expression twisted.
Feeling cold and empty, I slowly put on a smile. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay. I’ll go solve everything myself. I’ll kill the chimera and the hordes of beasts. If there’s demons behind it all, I’ll kill them, too.”
And then everything would be resolved. Why had I been overcomplicating this? This was what I should have—
“The hell you will!” With quick movements, Menel closed the distance between us.
He never swung his fist back. It was simply thrust at my face at close range. The motion was beautiful.
His fist collided with my cheek. “Wake up, you stupid shit!”
But all I felt was… disappointment. I was right. This was all he had. I hadn’t moved an inch. It just stung a little. That was all.
“Is that it, Meneldor?” I said quietly, his fist still pressed against my cheek. Even I thought my eyes must have looked terribly cold.
As I started to turn away, planning on ignoring him entirely and leaving, he lashed out with more punches and kicks. I made slight movements to change where the blows landed, and they barely hurt at all.
“Dammit! Why are you acting like this?!” He still wasn’t giving up.
At this point, I was starting to get a little irritated. I couldn’t have him following me. What could I do about this?
Maybe just one arm wouldn’t be too bad.
As he lunged out with his fist, I grabbed his arm.
“Wh—?!”
Then, I pressed it with all my body weight and dislocated it. The feeling of his shoulder popping out of its socket was horribly recognizable. Meneldor seemed to jerk, and then he let out a long, indistinct groan and fell to the ground, squirming in pain.
I’m sorry, I thought. It’s for your own good…
“Get someone to treat that for you.”
Figuring that now he wouldn’t be able to fight me, I started to walk off.
“I’m… not done with you yet…” From behind me, there was the sound of clawing at grass. I turned to see Meneldor with tears in his eyes, clutching his arm, and yet, staggering to his feet.
I sighed. What was I supposed to do now? I’d been the one trying to think of him as a friend; really, we’d only paired up because it was easiest, so I’d thought this would have been enough to get him to let this go. But for some reason, he was still keeping at it.
What could I do?
Maybe I could seal him from moving by using a Word. But Words were a little bit unreliable… Aha. I could choke him out by compressing his carotid artery. I took a step towards him.
“‘Gnomes, gnomes, form a fist! Clench your hands and strike the foe!’”
The ground behind me ruptured, and a great many small stones came flying towards me. It was the spell Stone Fist.
Apparently the pain was causing Meneldor to make bad decisions. That surprise attack from behind was something I’d already seen when I first fought him, and although this was certainly a powerful spell, it gave me a lot of advance warning. It was the kind of spell best used as part of a team. I could simply dodge it.
But as I started moving my feet, I realized. The spell was headed for Meneldor.
In that instant, I was pressed to make a decision. If I avoided it, Meneldor would take serious damage. So without even thinking, I stopped in my tracks and hardened my defense—and an endless onslaught of pebbles battered my body.
◆
I groaned. My body was throbbing all over. I lost control of my legs, and they gave out.
“Hah! ‘I’ll go solve it myself.’ What a load of pig shit!” Menel approached me while I was still in terrible pain from Stone Fist. “You’re just being a goddamn coward!” He kicked me in the stomach as hard as he could.
I was wearing mail, but even so, he’d kicked me in a spot where his spell had also hit moments ago. It hurt like hell. I crumpled to the ground, trying not to shout out in pain.
However, Menel wasn’t entirely unharmed himself. His shoulder was dislocated, and as I looked up at him, I saw that Stone Fist had hit him, too. That wasn’t surprising; he’d been asking for it with the way he used that spell. He was covered in mud, he looked unsteady on his feet, there was foam at the corners of his mouth, and his eyes were bloodshot. His usual handsome features were nowhere to be seen. It was painful to look at.
I shakily got to my feet. “What’s the point of you doing all this?” I suddenly found myself asking. “If you keep going like this, you’ll be putting your own life in danger. We were just together because it turned out that way. There’s no reason for you to go this far.”
“Hah. Maybe, yeah.” He smirked. “You’re right. I’ve got no reason to follow you anymore, and no reason to go out of my way to try to stop an emotionally unstable wimp who’d take things to this extreme and go running off just because he got horribly beaten one time.”
“Then why—”
Menel’s smile softened, and he cut me off. “See… We’re friends,” he said, with a mud-covered smile.
I almost doubted my ears.
“Friends stick together. When my friend goes nuts in the head, I feel like doing something about it.”
“Oh…” Those few words hit me much harder than any fist or spell.
“Where you came from is a mystery, you don’t know half the things you should, and I’ve sometimes thought you might be a bit suspect. But you’re a kind person, and you’re always trying your best to do things right. I know that.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“You saved my life, you saved the villages… And all this time we’ve spent traveling and fighting together was fun. And I’m really grateful for you sending off the people back at the village.”
Like holding my hands over a warm campfire on a freezing cold night, those words quietly warmed the cold and dark parts inside me.
“Will, you’re my friend,” Menel said, standing unsteadily in my way. “Friends don’t abandon each other.”
No words would come. Tears welled in my eyes.
“So… We still fighting?” He stood defensively.
I slowly shook my head. “You win.” My despair, my sense of being all alone, all of it had vanished without a trace. I didn’t think I was this temperamental. “Sorry. I was… I dunno. I lost control.”
Menel laughed dryly. “Happens.” He winced, clutched his shoulder, and glared at me. “You’re a real pain in the ass.” Then, his tone completely changed, and he said brightly, “A win’s a win, though. One to me, I guess!”
I grumbled. “I only said that so you’d quit bugging me!”
“Hah! Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that.”
I suddenly realized that the rain had lifted. We joked with each other and laughed together. It seemed that we’d had our first ever argument, and I had lost.
◆
There was a bit of a commotion going on in the village when we got back. After all, I, my equipment, and Menel had all disappeared. Reystov and the other adventurers had been just about to go looking for us.
“What happened?” Reystov asked.
I may have healed Menel’s wounds, but both he and I had come back covered in mud. It was no wonder Reystov had such a scowl on his face.
“I’m sorry for making you worry. I lost my head thinking I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt, and tried to do everything myself. And then Menel beat the stuffing out of me.”
“No no no. You don’t get to just skip over what you did to me. Feckin’ ruthless…”
“I’m really, truly sorry.” I abjectly apologized.
Yeah, simply speaking, that was what it came down to. I tried to do everything myself and got punched. That summed the whole thing up. It sounded ridiculous, even to me.
“Tough-guy disease,” Reystov said, shaking his head.
Maybe he was right. This might have been the kind of idea that only strong people were susceptible to.
“And sometimes it kills them.”
That might actually have happened, had I just gone running off like that. I was so glad Menel had been there for me.
“I’m really sorry for all the trouble I caused. I’m okay now.”
“We won’t screw up next time.”
“Are you planning to take on that thing again?”
“Yes.”
Even now, I could remember exactly what that chimera had looked like. I remembered that huge body, bigger than a wyvern’s; the horde of beasts it had following it; the way it was charged with contempt, ridicule, and malice toward the small. I could remember vividly the wickedness dwelling in its glinting black eyes. That thing had to be hunted down and killed. And besides…
“Chimeras don’t come about naturally. That was definitely the product of a demonic ritual.”
There were definitely demons behind that, and more than likely, they still had their sights on that city of the dead and were intending on reviving the High King.
“Let’s bring them all down before they run off someplace else.”
The adventurers laughed when I said that.
“So we’re going right back up against the enemy we just lost to?”
“This is a dumb and fun-as-hell adventure, all right.”
“Right, I’m gonna go hunt down some reinforcements.”
“Let’s go big! We gotta show that thing who’s boss.”
The powerful enemy made them laugh all the more ferociously. They looked happy, like they were really enjoying themselves.
“Yeah, it’d bug me to let that beast have the last laugh. I’m gonna crack all three of its heads open.” Menel laughed, too.
“Yeah… Let’s get our honor back.” I grinned too, as if everyone’s smiles were contagious. And then, to raise everyone’s fighting spirit even more, I used one of Gus’s special tricks.
“One silver coin for every demon’s head! And for the head of the boss, I’ll pay ten in gold!”
The adventurers immediately broke into a jubilant uproar.
◆
After that, we spent a few days making preparations, sending out scouts (multiple times), and readying our forces—and then I, Menel, Reystov, and a large number of other adventurers made our way into the valley once more.
We weren’t going to be using any tricks in particular. The plan was simple: get enough people together, prepare properly beforehand, and overcome our enemies head-on. I had Pale Moon, Overeater, my circular shield, and my mithril mail. Menel had his bow, a knife, and leather armor. That was us fully equipped.
The trees were sparse. The river that had formed the valley had long since dried up, and where once there had been a river bed, there were now only rocks scattered on the ground.
We made our way deeper and deeper into that barren place, and before long, the long howls of beasts echoed around. I could sense their presence deep in the valley. It looked like the demons’ base really was down here.
“How many do they have?” Menel said quietly. “I think things might be pretty peaceful around here if we wiped out all of them.”
“Yeah. Let’s kill them all.”
“You come out with the most heavy shit sometimes, you know that?”
The adventurers chuckled slightly at our back-and-forth.
We had provided all the support we could by magic, benediction, and the use of fairies before we even stepped into the valley. All that was left was to fight.
“Here they come,” Reystov said.
All kinds of beasts started appearing ahead of us. Every one of them was gushing miasma and had eyes possessed by madness. Their numbers didn’t look as hopeless as before. Maybe I’d cut most of them down a few days ago.
“Hey. Will. I’ve got your back.”
“Thanks. I’m counting on you, Menel.”
Menel and I nodded at each other. Then, I raised Pale Moon, and shouted.
“We’ll storm them from the front!”
War cries came back, one after another.
“Readyyy!!”
Swords were raised.
“For the glory of the Beast Killers!”
Spears were raised.
“By Volt’s lightning sword!”
“Burn hot, fire of Blaze’s valor!”
“Whirl! Grant us winds that blow in our favor!”
We beat our weapons against our shields, a warrior’s gesture to gather the attention of the gods and intimidate our enemies. Everyone cried out the name of their guardian deity and wished for protection.
“May the good gods bless us all!”
“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Everyone’s mouths were curved into wild smiles brought on by the tension and excitement of war. They were sweating; their arms and legs were trembling. Then, as one, we drew a deep breath and roared. The war cry reverberated all around us, and everyone broke into a forward sprint, vying to be the first into battle.
“Fire!” Arrows from Menel and the others flew from behind me and into the beasts’ ranks.
“Sagitta Flammeum!” Several magic wielders cast a spell for flaming arrows.
The victory and glory-seeking adventurers sprang hungrily at the beasts, whose order had been thrown into chaos. Swords glinted. Shields were battered with violent sounds. Blood boiled. Hearts beat faster and harder, and muscles heated up.
This was war. Blood had talked fondly about this sight many times. This was war!
It was meant to be a terrible thing to witness, but for some reason, I was laughing. I felt like I’d arrived in the world of Blood’s epic stories, which I’d only been able to imagine while living in the city of the dead.
I chuckled. Now I was on the battlefield, I appreciated how small I really was. What had I been thinking, saying I’d solve everything myself? In the end, I was only a single element of this battle. A large element, perhaps, or a powerful piece, but not enough to decide its entire course.
For some reason, I was happy that the battlefield no longer looked like a place trivial enough that a single man of exceptional power could do something about it on his own.
I gripped Pale Moon. I could tell that my goddess wasn’t looking sorrowful anymore.
“On the flame of Gracefeel!”
I steeled myself, I shouted my god’s name loud… and I ran straight at the horde.
◆
I swung my spear around and forcibly cut down a pack of small beasts in front. A bull-beast bubbling blood from the edges of its mouth charged at me. I used its momentum and threw it. It smashed into several beasts that weren’t quick enough to get out of the way. A pack of our enemies had been disrupted. Other adventurers rushed in, weapons in hand, and added to the damage.
On the battlefield, it is often more effective to simply overwhelm your opponents with muscular strength instead of trying to add stupid little tricks. I incanted a number of Words as well, and restricted the movements of the enemy group.
While protecting my allies from side attacks, I pushed forward and through, letting nothing stand in my way. Swinging my spear in all directions and yelling, I impaled and struck beasts one after the other, their blood splashing over me, and pressed directly forwards. From behind me, countless arrows and wind and earth elementals helped to clear my way. I could feel that Menel was keeping up behind me and providing me support.
And after running all the way through and past the horde, I found the ruins I’d been looking for hidden between trees and rocks.
It was quite a large structure, made of stone and surrounded by stone walls. The entrance was large, as were the corridors and rooms. From its construction, I guessed that this had once been a secluded monastery where priests had trained; now, it was probably one of the bases of the demons running rampant around here.
The moment I sighted it, my senses, sharpened by magic, picked up a subtle presence. But I couldn’t see anything around that matched it.
“Omnia Vanitas… Erasus.” I quietly incanted a Word of Negation, aiming it forwards, and a large beast showed itself in the shade of a rock in front of the monastery. It had been hiding under the Word of Invisibility.
It had a goat, a lion, and a demidragon’s heads, huge wings, and a tail that was a venomous snake. And all of its heads, and all of its eyes, were filled to bursting with contempt, ridicule, and malice for everything small. It was the same disordered, blasphemous amalgamation of beasts I’d seen before: the chimera.
“Hello,” I said.
I’d considered the possibility that our second meeting would be like our first—that it would fly above us and try to attack us from the rear as the other enemies charged. We’d even prepared a means of shooting it down and made sure everyone knew in advance, but apparently the beast was intelligent enough to know not to use the same trick twice.
If it had been generous enough to fly, I’d been thinking about taking away its wings and sight, slamming it into the ground, and thereafter having everyone beat it up at once. Unfortunately… this was a foe to be reckoned with. After the aerial back attack, it had chosen to lie low, hide itself, and aim for an attack from the side. This really didn’t seem like the intelligence of a beast to me.
“Do you have a bit of… demon in you as well?”
When I asked that question, the chimera’s three mouths all curved upwards into closed-mouth, crescent moon-like smiles.
Multiple beasts and intelligent demons had been crossed together to create an even stronger beast. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine how much blasphemy and bloodshed it must have taken to achieve such a feat. “Are you after the High King…?”
“Ohh…?”
The beast slowly emitted the common language from its vocal cords.
“You know of the High King’s seal. Are you a warrior sent by some god or other?”
I nodded, a little surprised at its lucid question. And if that was its answer to me, then I could be virtually certain: the demons’ objective was neither deep nor far from here.
The demons taking over this base had all been part of the greater plan.
That city of the dead, the ground of the High King’s seal, still wasn’t under the control of any power. If the demons could take the city, they could break the seal, and calamity would once again sweep across this continent. Conversely, if people could take the city, and came to learn about the seal, the seal would be strengthened further.
So, for the demons, Beast Woods was a place that had to remain ravaged. It had to be a crucible of conflict, poverty, and disorder.
They couldn’t allow mankind to advance any further south.
They couldn’t allow people to set their sights on the south.
They couldn’t allow people to think there was any hope to be found in the south.
Once you considered the existence of the demons’ king, their goal in subjugating beasts, attacking cities, and constantly applying pressure was incredibly easy to understand, and blatantly incompatible with the happiness of people.
“In the name of Gracefeel, I will destroy you all.”
“Ohh? But wait. It seems there has been a little misunderstanding. A false impression.”
The chimera’s enormous body slowly walked towards me.
“A false impression.”
“Yes. You see—”
It flowed from its slow walk into a horizontal swipe at me with one of its massive front legs. If it hit me, it would smash my head clean off in a single strike. I leaned back and avoided it, and as I did, I gave the beast a quick spike to send it a message.
“Ghh—!”
It leaped back and put distance between us.
“I’m surprised that demons still use those antiquated classics.”
My mild provocation enraged it. The chimera let out a loud roar and began to charge at me. Real battles rarely began with a clear “ready, set, go”; usually, they started just like this.
I wasn’t going to use any clever schemes this time. There was only one main aspect to my strategy, and it was very ordinary: to make full use of all the power at my disposal. This wasn’t like my battle against the god of undeath, where there had been an overwhelming difference in power between us. This time, I had properly prepared, discussed, taken all measures that could be taken, and now, I was going to win—because that was perfectly possible, as long as I didn’t lose my cool.
“Menel!”
“Gotcha!”
Shouting out a signal to my partner behind, I faced the chimera rushing at me.
◆
The chimera’s huge body came towards me. As I faced it, its demidragon head was on the left, the middle was the lion, and on the right, the goat.
From behind, Menel ran around to the right in a wide arc. The goat’s mouth spoke in a muddy and indistinct voice, and Sagitta Flammeum came flying at Menel.
“You’re not getting me with that!”
The sylphs changed the arrow’s direction, offering him their Protection From Arrows.
Keeping Menel in the corner of my eye, I faced the rushing chimera head on. I was staring down a frontal assault by a beast of greater mass than a wyvern. I may have been strong, but with my small body, it was going to be impossible to physically block or throw this thing.
So I prayed for protection with the blessing Sacred Shield. Drawing from my experience with the wyvern, I set up the shield at a diagonal angle.
The wall of light rose in front of me. The chimera collided with it, its momentum was redirected by the diagonal wall, and it glanced off to the right. Instantly, I erased the shield, and with a shout, I stabbed Pale Moon deep into the chimera’s right side.
“‘Gnomes, gnomes, take his feet! Harden, bind, and nail him down!’”
It was the spell Hold, sent out just at the moment when the wall of light and my spear together had slowed the chimera’s charge. Menel’s spells wouldn’t have been powerful enough to do anything about a chimera in peak condition, but his timing was exquisite. Forced to devote most of its attention to me as the closest attacker, the chimera got its feet caught in Menel’s trap.
Menel sprinted nimbly over the craggy ground. It was hard to run in this place, but the fairies were making sure the path was clear for his feet.
With a proper front-line attacker in front of him, Menel’s skills at mid-range were more impressive than I imagined. It was true that I’d overestimated him, but apparently I had been underestimating him as well. People are so complicated and multifaceted. I realized that coming to a quick conclusion about someone and thinking you had them fully understood was a very foolish thing to do.
As the chimera fought to shake off the earth and stone clinging to it, I took my chance. Screaming a war cry, I relentlessly gouged into it with the blade of my spear. The chimera finally gave out a roar of agony. Its demidragon head attempted to bite me, but stopped dead an instant later. On the other side of it, Menel had shot an arrow towards one of its goat eyes.
Being a multi-headed beast meant it had multiple brains, and if each issued a different command for a different reflex action, it was obvious that the body receiving them would become confused. This beast was simply unnatural as a living creature.
As the chimera fought and screeched wildly, I ran to the other side, where Menel was. The chimera’s enormous body was causing it problems. It couldn’t fully keep track of my movements. Having a huge body made it strong, and fast by the same token, but that body was obstructing its field of view, and there was nothing it could do about it. Having something dance about in close proximity to it was probably the behavior the chimera found the most unpleasant.
I stabbed it repeatedly with my spear, twisted it in the wounds and making it bleed. I avoided it when it tried to bite me, and deflected its heads with my shield.
There was no need to win cleanly in a single strike. I just needed to fight normally, and win by being better. I didn’t have any spectacular tricks up my sleeve, or any ultimate moves. I just had what I’d been taught by my parents, which had raised all my abilities to an equally high standard. So I would put them all together, and press forward to victory. Through experience, I was finally beginning to understand that that was the way of fighting that suited me best.
With the help of the wind elementals, Menel fired off an arrow accelerated to terrific speeds. I didn’t miss the chimera switching its attention for an instant. I swung down Pale Moon with all my might.
The goat head was crushed. Its teeth smashed together and flew everywhere, and blood squirted out of its broken skull. The chimera screamed in obvious agony.
“One down!”
There was just the demidragon and lion heads left, plus the venomous snake tail—no, that was already gone. Menel had found an opening to sever it with a spell. He was quick.
While Menel was using Stone Fist to crush the head of the snake that had fallen to the ground, I decided to do something about either the lion or the demidragon head. But before I could, the two heads let out a terrible howl, and I sensed something dreadful coming. Menel and I both leaped back and kept our distance.
“It is an accursed dragon power, but you leave me no choice!”
Dragon? I thought, but had no more time to think about it. The chimera’s veins turned black. Its muscles swelled, becoming misshapen and even thicker than before, and miasma gushed from its entire body.
“This guy, too?!” Menel spat out, infuriated.
“Menel, stand back and stand by.”
“Got it.”
Poison didn’t work on me. I’d been raised on Mary’s holy bread, and I had the stigmata of Mater on my arms. So—
“I’ll beat him down now.”
Although I’d used this magic spear, Pale Moon, for a long time and felt very comfortable with it, I hadn’t had great results with it against stronger enemies. I thought that it would probably like some glory of its own soon. I held my spear tight by my side and ran toward the chimera once more.
◆
It struck at me with a ferocious swing of its front leg. I ducked under it and swung my spear upwards. The lion neck bent and avoided it. Its right foreleg swiped towards me, trailing miasma. I’d seen it coming; I dodged with a back step. As its right foreleg completed its swing, its demidragon neck stretched towards me. It was about to breathe fire.
Back when I fought the wyvern, I’d avoided this by choking it just before it got the chance. But this time, I’d only moments ago leaped backwards. With my center of gravity tilted back, I couldn’t just leap forward like I had before. Moreover, its lion head was still alive. If I attempted a strangulation move, I would be snapped up in its jaws.
So I held my shield firm and pressed my feet into the ground. As the fire belched out, I prepared myself for what was coming. It was possible that I would be burned all over in an instant or my eyeballs would boil. Yeah, it was possible—but surely just an instant of fire would be fine! I was using defensive blessings! That fire was probably only just a little warm anyway, appearances can be deceiving! Don’t hesitate, I told myself, charge in!
Telling myself anything that came to mind to muster up my courage, I held my shield up in front of my face and charged forward. I closed the distance in less than a second and slammed my shield into the demidragon head’s wide-open mouth.
I felt the all-too-real sensation of slamming into flesh. Several fangs broke off in different directions, and the fire breath stopped. The chimera stiffened for a moment. Maybe it hadn’t expected me to come straight at it through the flames.
“‘Gnomes, gnomes, form a fist! Clench your hands and strike the foe!’” Menel cast Stone Fist. There were a lot of small stones scattered all over the ground. They leaped up like a rising fist, and pounded into the chimera’s vast belly.
The chimera let out a cry of intense anguish. As it writhed in agony, I thrust my spear through its demidragon neck, finishing off its second head. As soon as I felt the spear sink in, I immediately pulled it back into my hands. I stepped in closer, spinning the spear as I did, and flicked the heavy metal end upward, cracking it into the lion head’s jaw.
The chimera flailed and threw its front legs around me, trying to grab me. My way forward was completely blocked by the lion head, and left and right were closed off by the wide reach of its front legs as they closed in. There was nowhere for me to escape.
“Acceleratio!”
Except up.
I leaped almost directly upwards. The Word of Acceleration was one of my favorites, but I hadn’t used it even once in this chimera battle until now. The ground was just too unsuited for it. If I tripped on one of those stones after speeding myself up, it was very possible the momentum would carry me face-first into rock.
Unlike Menel, who had completely ignored the problem by using his elemental powers to run everywhere, I hadn’t been using any particularly fast maneuvers this entire time. So this move was one the chimera had no knowledge of.
It lost sight of me for an instant and then, realizing what had happened, it looked up—and was momentarily blinded by the light of the sun.
“‘Gnomes, gnomes, take his feet! Harden, bind, and nail him down!’” Simultaneously, Menel cast Hold, with perfect timing.
I roared, and with the sun at my back and Pale Moon in my hands, I let my fall give me momentum, and drove the spear down into its lion head.
I felt it sink through skin, muscle, and bone, and then the impact of my landing. I immediately tried to pull the spear out and leap away, but it was stuck. I had an instant of panic, and I released the spear and leaped back without it. Then I realized. The chimera had already expired.
It was no wonder I couldn’t pull out Pale Moon; it had sunk all the way through the chimera’s lion head, and was stuck in the ground on the other side.
◆
I turned around to see that the beast extermination was almost over as well. Most of the beasts were already sprawled on the ground, and even those that were still running about looked badly wounded. It didn’t look like the others needed any help.
“We won!”
“Nice!”
Menel and I high-fived. It made a satisfying sound.
This hadn’t been the kind of magnificent victory I’d scored against the god of undeath. It wasn’t a triumph of the underdog against the obvious favorite; it was an ordinary, routine win. But even so, I thought that was fine. If grueling battles like the one I’d fought against the god of undeath were a regular occurrence, that would be unbearable. And besides—we still had enemies ahead of us.
“Moving on!”
“Ya!”
Wary of traps, we stepped inside the ruins of the monastery.
The inside was being kept illuminated by magic, which had probably come from the demons. The place had been stripped of its former stillness and holiness and transformed into a place of hideous rituals and research. We ran down long corridors, passing room after wide-open room, taking side glances at their contents: blood, meat, guts, beastlings preserved in strange fluid, magic circles in ghastly colors of paint.
They had to already know about our assault. It was possible that the demons who were controlling this base would choose to flee, and if that happened, the same thing might repeat somewhere else. We had to finish them off here, and both I and Menel were determined to do whatever it took to make it happen.
We burst out of the corridor. Our view opened up.
We were in the monastery’s chapel.
It was a very spacious place where sculptures of the gods were enshrined, and reminded me of the temple in the city of the dead that had once been my home.
But the several statues of the gods lined up at the back of the chapel had the details of their faces scraped off, just like the ones I’d seen previously in that village. The text honoring the gods, which should have been on the wall, had been scraped away. In its place were Words of praise for the god of dimensions, written large in darkened blood in a unearthly style that was nauseating to look at. And there was Dyrhygma’s crest, featuring arms grasping the eternal cycle.
It was a demonic ritual site.
“Took you long enough.”
A quiet voice echoed about the chapel.
When Menel and I heard that voice, our eyes bulged. There was a bearded man there looking at us, wearing a scratched-up cloak and holding a sword. And on his face he was wearing a grin the likes of which I’d never seen.
No way…
“Rey…stov…?”
“Yeah.”
Unbelievable.
How on earth—
How—
His grin widened as he watched me try to make sense of this.
“You owe me ten gold coins,” he said cheerily, and pointed to the body of a large demon lying dead on the ground.
The demon, which was turning slowly to dust before my eyes, looked like a cross between a bat, a wolf, and a person. I had a memory of learning from Gus that these demons, called belalgors, were Commander demons considered to be extremely powerful for their rank. And this belalgor’s chest had been penetrated with a single, beautifully clean strike.
Yeah… so… in short… what had happened here was…
“You beat us to it?!”
“No way! How the hell did you do that?!”
“Went around. You guys were fighting the chimera. Thanks for that, by the way. Made it nice and easy.”
Reystov had made his way inside the monastery while we were desperately fighting the chimera. He’d hunted down every last demon here and stuck them all with his sword; and then, here in the chapel, he’d confronted the belalgor who had been the unifying force for this base, and stuck him, too.
Of course, it couldn’t have been as simple as he’d made it sound.
“Reystov the Penetrator, my god… You live up to your name.”
He clearly hadn’t been given it for nothing.
“No wonder you get all the glory… You are way too good at getting the jump on people.”
“You need to be to land the real tough ones,” Reystov answered, sounding for once like he was in a good mood.
From the entrance to the monastery, I heard a jumble of noise and voices.
“Okay, now watch yourselves! Who knows what traps are in there!”
“We’ll be first in! Hope you’re all ready!”
“For honor and glory! And ten gold coins!”
They sounded pretty pumped up. I laughed weakly.
It was a pretty unsatisfying conclusion, but for some reason, I felt that was fitting.
◆
Diamond. diamond. diamond.
