Well, then. Tonight I need to go and settle the score. The plan was originally to have the Hero return home without incident, but if there’s a possibility that the holy sword is controlling him, we can’t ignore it. To do so would be to put Zenobia in danger. “Grwl! (My king!)” As soon as I arrive near the camp with spatial magic, Garo is there to welcome me. I was having her keep watch on the Hero while I was gone, but she seems somewhat panicked. “Woof, woof? (What’s the matter?)” “Grwl. (I apologize. Things have taken a turn for the worse.)” The monster evacuation is finished, and as far as I can tell, there haven’t been any issues in the forest. What could have happened? “Grwl… (Well…)” Garo and the others have, at my request, been surreptitiously observing the Hero. In order to stay out of range of the SS-Rank adventurers’ senses, they’ve been doing so from a great distance…but that seems to have backfired. “Grwl, grwl. (A labyrinth has appeared in the direction they are heading, my king.)” A labyrinth: a naturally occurring dungeon, created when a large quantity of mana coalesces at a single location. They spread their roots over the land, absorb mana, birth and raise monsters within themselves, and gain sustenance from the intruders that venture inside and perish. They also produce aromas at their entrances, similar to pheromones, that attract monsters. These beasts are often lured inside, allowing the labyrinth to control their minds. “Arwf, arwf… (I guess it’s too late for me to go over there and destroy it myself…)” “Grwl… (Yes, my king. I am solely to blame for our lateness in discovering it. Please do with me as you wish…)” I could never criticize you or the others. Normally, the Fen Wolves report to me the moment they find a labyrinth, and I just shoot a beam at it to obliterate it—a simple job, all things considered. This time, though, the entire Fen Wolf species has been busy with the evacuation, which explains why the forest patrols have been neglected. What would the Hero and Zenobia do if they found the labyrinth? Turn back and report it to the guild? Probably not, considering how cavalier the Hero is when it comes to monsters. He’d go straight in to clear it. If the two of them enter, I won’t be able to destroy it from outside anymore. “Arwf, arwf. (No need to apologize. You’ve actually done very good work here. Thanks for that—not only you, but the rest of the Fen Wolves, too.)” If a labyrinth is nearby, it must be difficult for the Fen Wolves to remain here. It doesn’t mean anything to me, but I hear the scent that labyrinths exude is difficult for even the Fen Wolves to resist. They’ve been working for days now on evacuation and observation, so they’re probably all exhausted. They’ve done enough work. “Woof, woof. (Shiro and Kuro might be lonely, minding the place on their own. Go back and be with them.)” “Grwl…?! (Not only would you forgive our transgression, you would grant such words of kindness to me…?!)” “““Grwl! Grwl! Grwl! (Our king! Our king! Our deeply magnanimous king!)””” “Arwf! (Shh! Quiet! They’ll spot us!)” “““Grwl…! Grwl…! Grwl…! (Our king…! Our king…! Our deeply magnanimous king…!)””” I didn’t mean say it softer. It looks like they didn’t consider the option of not chanting. After showering me with their cheers, the Fen Wolves scatter deeper into the forest. “Arwf, arwf. (I guess we should hurry and catch up to them for now. According to Garo and the others, they’re almost at the labyrinth.)” “Mew? (I should have put an anchor on the Hero, huh?)” “Squeak, squeak. (There is no use regretting it now. Since our goal is to steal the sword without being spotted, we wouldn’t have been able to teleport too closely to them anyway.)” With Len and Nahura on my back, I run, following the labyrinth’s distant scent. “Woof, woof? (By the way, is the labyrinth’s scent not bothering either of you?)” “Squeak, squeak. (Just who do you think I am? If it thinks to control me with such a mild aroma, it is one thousand years too late.)” Should have expected as much from the thousand-year-old kid-sized-cradle-robbing-furry-muscle-for-brains-spinster-dragon. So reliable. “Mew, meow… (I’m a homunculus to begin with, so, y’know, I’m not actually a monster at all…)” Nahura, I’ve seen your head pop off to reveal tentacles wriggling around inside your body. That was pretty monstrous, if you ask me… “Arwf, arwf. (In that case, we should be fine.)” As I continue along the forested path, muting my footsteps as much as possible, I begin to sense Zenobia’s and the Hero’s presences mixed in with the labyrinth’s scent. “Arf. (Looks like we caught up.)” The two of them, however, have already arrived at the entrance. “It’s enormous…!” “Yeah. Even I’ve never seen a labyrinth this big.” Wait, really? They’ve been popping up all over the place recently, and this is just another of the kind I destroy regularly. From their point of view, it must be a pretty terrific labyrinth, though I’ve never gone inside to explore one, so I don’t know what kind of monsters are inside. It’s easy enough just to nuke the core with my beam; maybe it’s more of a chore than I thought to actually clear one. Labyrinths that show up on the ground look like anthills at a glance—just raised craggy areas. At first glance, they appear to be caves that don’t go very far. Get down inside one, however, and you’ll find a labyrinth sprawling like tree roots underneath. “It’s dangerous to go in without preparation. I’d like to go back and report this to the guild first, but…” “We don’t have that luxury, do we? Monsters that spill out of labyrinths are more dangerous than the ones in the wild. You know just as well as anyone that they’ll attack any human on sight, don’t you? And if the labyrinth has grown this much, I think it’s only a matter of time before the monsters flood to the outside.” “Ugh. And if that happens, the first to be attacked will be those at the mansion…” Zenobia clenches her teeth in frustration, setting down her metal case, opening it, and producing the large black blade from way back when. The separate handle and blade give off sparks as they combine, forming a huge sword that’s longer than she is tall. “Finally up for using it, I see! I’m glad, Zenobia!” “It’s to protect the mansion. I don’t intend to go back to being an adventurer.” “That’s fine. I still get to fight alongside you… And with the labyrinth being this large, if she is cut down and her power stolen, my seal will be completely…” “…Alstera?” “Hm? What’s up, Zenobia?” When Zenobia speaks up, the Hero, who was muttering, eyes wavering and unfocused, returns a confused look. “Nothing…” “Anyway, let’s get moving! We can kill as many monsters inside the labyrinth as we want and no one will complain, right?” “Uh, right.” After the Hero takes out the holy sword and starts running, Zenobia follows, plunging into the labyrinth herself. “Arwf… (Hmm… Yeah, definitely being controlled.)” Given what Mircalla told me, there’s little doubt the Demon Lord’s general Belgor-whoever is possessing that sword. I’ll have to wait for an opportunity during their labyrinth exploration and steal it. “Arwf! (All right, we’re going in after them!)” I’ll leave the monsters inside to you two. My beam stands out too much, and I could never possibly fight at point-blank range. “Squeak, squeak. (My, my. Using a great dragon like myself as an outrider… Well, it is the duty of the male to defeat the main target, I suppose.)” Huh? Wait, no, I was gonna leave the entire playthrough to you. Len, nodding to herself, convinced, jumps onto my head and swings her tail. Once we descend into the labyrinth, she’ll probably change it into that steel whip of a dragon tail. I follow behind, my entrance into the labyrinth coming last, in pursuit of Zenobia and the Hero. After falling down several meters from the entrance, we make landfall. The interior is a fairly large space with a bunch of tunnels leading in all directions. “Arwrw… (Ugh, that reeks…)” The scent is apparently too good for monsters to resist, but for me, it’s no better than a smelly rafflesia. “Squeak, squeak. (I don’t think that’s the only reason for the stench.)” When I look more closely in the dimly lit labyrinth, I see the corpses of monsters littering the place. “Arwf?! (Urgh?! Explicit imagery?!)” It’s not an image—the corpses are really there, right in front of me—but it definitely doesn’t feel real. At all. “Meow. (I heard adventurers collect materials after slaying monsters, but these ones have been neglected, huh?)” It seems the Hero really is only after the slaughter of monsters. “Squeak. (If we leave them be, the labyrinth will just reabsorb the corpses and use them to birth new monsters.)” That seems like a well-designed cycle. Labyrinths absorb the life force of monsters and adventurers, cultivating them as much as possible, and when their source of nutrition is exhausted, they naturally collapse. As they do, they apparently spew large quantities of rampaging monsters to the outside. “Arwf. (That’s more trouble than I ever want to deal with.)” The Fen Wolves can’t do anything to the labyrinths, either, so they’ve probably been hunting the vicious monsters that escape them. The forest cannot be peaceful without the Fen Wolves’ presence. They are such hard workers. As the king of those hard workers, I feel guilty for being the paragon of lazy bums. Not that I have even the slightest intention of working, of course. “Squeak. (That, in essence, is how labyrinths work.)” “Arwf. (Huh. Len, you’re pretty smart.)” “Squeak, squeak. (I am, aren’t I? I’m the perfect wife, with both beauty and brains.)” I mean, I didn’t say all that. We proceed through the labyrinth, the air thick with the stench of blood, as I listen to Len’s lecture. “Arwf, arwf. (We shouldn’t have much trouble with directions, at least.)” After all, they’re leaving a trail of monster corpses in their wake. This looks less like an exploration and more like they’re going wherever they want, killing monsters as soon as they find them. We haven’t run into a single live one this entire time. I’m grateful we won’t have to do any fighting, but still, the Hero’s utter lack of mercy is striking. We keep running for a few minutes, following them. Finally, we start hearing sounds from up ahead. They’re all dangerous ones, like kzzing and shpsshhh, but mixed in with them I can hear the Hero whooping and laughing. “Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! That all you got?! I’ll take you all on at once!!” In front of the Hero stand three large men sporting giant horns. Their faces and legs resemble those of bulls, and they grip giant battle-axes in their hands. “Squeak. (Those are minotaurs. They’re very high-level monsters…)” With physiques large enough to scrape their heads against the high ceiling of the labyrinth, they swing their battle-axes, attacking the Hero from three directions at once. “Ha-ha-ha! You’re so slow!” The Hero ducks, dodging the axes, before jumping right up close to the minotaur in front of him and slashing his holy sword through its knees. “Bhhmmooooo!!” I can’t tell what the minotaur is saying; its reason has been stolen by the labyrinth’s miasma. Even with its legs cut off, though, it hasn’t lost its will to fight. It swings its battle-ax again, its eyes filled with rage. But it can’t even graze the Hero. Evading a second ax swipe, the Hero dashes up the minotaur’s collapsed body, then slashes up at its jaw. Its face splits in half vertically, and then it falls over, faceup. “Ah-ha!” The Hero, landing a moment later, uses his falling momentum to drive his sword into the creature’s head again. Brains splatter, but only after confirming the ax has fallen from the minotaur’s hand does the Hero finally decide he’s finished it off. ““Bhhmmooooo!!”” Their friend has been killed, but the other minotaurs are still raring to fight, and they still challenge him. They deliver strikes vertically and horizontally, as if aiming to cut a cross through the Hero. But to the Hero, they might as well be standing still; he laughs and deals with both of them in the blink of an eye. “A-arwrw… (I feel like they’re in a different world over there…)” My spirit might break if I keep witnessing this explicit content. “This is dredging up memories from the good old days, huh, Zenobia? How nostalgic!” cries the Hero gleefully, wiping the blood spatter from his cheek. Zenobia, her face dark, meets his gaze. Her sword is clean. Maybe the Hero has been defeating all the enemies by himself. “Can’t believe three minotaurs showed up, though. Normal labyrinths would have just one of those protecting the core. Like I thought, this is a really high-difficulty one! Still, with you and me here, we should clear it pretty easily!” The Hero sounds really excited. Is he drunk on the bloodshed? “…Alstera, have you forgotten what happened between us? It was…major. We can’t just go back to the way we were before.” The Hero and Zenobia tried to kill each other in the past, right? The Hero doesn’t harbor any of the ill feelings Zenobia does. It’s almost as though he doesn’t remember the past at all. “Hm? Major…? What was it that happened again?” The Hero tilts his head, lending credence to my theory. “You just disappeared on me one day, and I looked for you for a really long time. How come you left me behind like that, all of a sudden?” “You…” Zenobia doesn’t seem to have thought he’d have forgotten about nearly killing her, either. Speechless, she tries to say something, then just shakes her head. “…Never mind. Do you still plan on continuing all this?” “Continuing what?” “Monster slaying.” As Zenobia’s voice lowers, the Hero’s eyes start to sparkle with pride, like a little kid’s. “Of course! That’s our job as adventurers, isn’t it?” “No!” Zenobia waves a hand in disagreement. “Killing monsters isn’t the only job adventurers have. If you kill too much, you’ll ruin entire ecosystems. Part of our duty is to protect the environment, remember? Is it necessary to wipe out the monsters who aren’t even hurting anyone?” “Yeah, it is. Monsters are evil. There’s no guarantee they won’t harm people in the future.” In contrast to his high-pitched state earlier, the Hero answers Zenobia with an impassive voice. “…There are some monsters with good hearts. I’ve learned not all monsters are evil,” confesses Zenobia, holding back the heat hidden in her breast. “Are you talking about that white monster that was at the mansion?” Zenobia brings her face up, startled at the Hero’s pointing that out. “That was an incredible one. I’ve never seen a monster that strong, even though it was trying to hide its true ability. And it even looked like it was hiding its full power. How amazing—if I kill that, I’ll gain even more strength… Much greater heights as the Hero…” The Hero is acting weird again. He has a tiny smile, and it’s like his eyes aren’t looking at anything. “Alstera—,” starts Zenobia in worry. “Oh, that’s right,” interrupts the Hero, stopping her with a hand. “Yeah, I remember now. You said that before, too, didn’t you? And then we… Wait, what happened after that…? I… Did I do something to you…? Ahh, my head hurts so much…” “Alstera, are you…” “Hm? What is it, Zenobia?” One moment he’s holding his head in pain, the next he’s suddenly back to his energetic self. Emotional instability only accounts for so much, you know. If this is that holy sword’s fault, we have to confiscate it as soon as possible. “I’m not going to stop hunting monsters. I’m the descendant of the great Hero, after all. That’s what everyone always told me when I was growing up. I have to meet their expectations.” “……” “This is the right thing to do, Zenobia. Even after you left, I’ve slain thousands of monsters. And I’ll go on to slay ten thousand more…because I’m the Hero.” The Hero answers with a smile, divinely sparkling holy sword in hand. Zenobia, dumbstruck, simply stands there. “Arwf! (Crap!)” He’s even more insane than I thought. It’s enough to make even an edgy middle-schooler go pale. No matter how I look at it, leaving Zenobia with him like this is too dangerous. Still, I’ll complicate things even more if I go out now. I’ll just have to wait for an opportune moment when they’re separated. We’ll track them for a little bit longer. I don’t want them to notice us, so I don’t get too close. As we pursue them, the sounds we hear are horrifying. It’s background music to make you go mad, playing on repeat: the Hero’s high-pitched laughter and the dying screams of monsters, alternating constantly. Wow. What a warmonger. Zenobia addresses the Hero again; maybe the wave of monsters has pulled back for the time being. “Alstera, how did you get that strength…? You’re far stronger than when we were in a party together.” “Hey, you know why. I have this holy sword. Your sword is a fine one in its own right, but the power of a Hero is prodigious, right? The more monsters the Hero kills, the sharper it gets, and the stronger I become.” “…After we parted, how many monsters did you slay?” “Didn’t I mention? Thousands, at least. I killed and killed and killed. Thanks to that, there’s nobody who can stand against me now. “Not even you,” he adds, heading even deeper into the labyrinth. “Arwf… (They’re gonna be here on the return trip, too…)” Thinking about having to pass all these corpses on the way back is bumming me out. “Squeak. (You needn’t worry. Labyrinths birth monsters, but they also consume them. The dead monsters will be absorbed into the ground momentarily.)” “Meow. (Oh, she’s right, Routa. Look behind us!)” I follow Nahura’s direction and turn around just as a pig-faced monster, sliced neatly in half, melts into the ground. “Squeak, squeak. (A labyrinth is a single creature. This cycle will continue, and it will keep on growing, until the day it collapses.)” “Arwf. (Normally, I could just wipe it out with a single beam, no sweat, though.)” “Squeak! (No one but you could do something so overpowered!)” “Mew! (It really is unfair, isn’t it!)” Ha-ha-ha. This cheat doesn’t make me happy in the slightest, though. I’d rather have a cheat that makes me look even cuter instead of this dumb laser. “Arwf? (Wait, aren’t we at the deepest part now?)” We’re at a dead end, but Zenobia and the Hero are nowhere to be found. We haven’t spotted the labyrinth’s core thingy, either. And there aren’t any more monster corpses to point us in the right direction; we must have taken a wrong turn while we were blabbing. “Arwf! (Crap! We have to get back!)” But considering how fast those corpses disappeared earlier, we wouldn’t have any signs left to go on, would we? “Squeak? (Can you not simply follow their scents?)” How am I supposed to do that in this stinky toilet place? Just then I hear a female shriek in the distance. “Woof?! (Zenobia?!)” Now it’s an emergency. We hurry back the way we came. The lord protecting the labyrinth’s core crumpled with an earthshaking rumble. The Hero’s holy sword had easily defeated even the mightiest monster in this labyrinth. The whole time, Zenobia hadn’t lifted her weapon once. There had been no need. The Hero was overwhelmingly strong. “How was that, Zenobia? With this, I’ve taken another step closer to becoming the Hero…” Though she was unscathed, the Hero’s gait was unsteady. The boss she had killed was a treasure trove of expensive materials, but she proceeded toward the labyrinth’s core without a second thought. “I will…become…a true Hero…” “Stop this already, Alstera! I know you’ve always wanted to be a Hero! But when I see you, I don’t see the Hero you aspired to be!” Zenobia raised her voice, intending to talk some sense into the Hero, but the Hero wasn’t listening. With her holy sword held in a reverse grip, she plunged it deep into the labyrinth’s core. The rocky eye-shaped object cracked, and its color drained. At the same time, the holy sword began to emit a dreadful, ear-piercing noise. It ravenously absorbed the mana in the labyrinth’s core. The Hero, gripping the blade, shook, blue veins pulsing beneath white skin. “Gah! I knew it! That sword is the reason you’ve been acting strange! Alstera, let go of it!” Zenobia grappled with the Hero from behind, yanking her away from the labyrinth’s core. “Let go of me!” The Hero flung Zenobia away. Her holy sword, having drunk only some of the mana, emitted an eerie glow. Its radiance was so harsh, it seemed to be making a mockery of the divine itself. The glow appeared to be urging the Hero to let it drink more. “Zenobiaaaa…!” Drooling, the Hero glared at Zenobia with eyes full of rage. “I won’t allow anyone to get in my way! Not even you!” Hunched over with her arms hanging at her sides, the Hero suddenly accelerated. “Urgh?!” Zenobia used her large sword as a shield against the heavy attack. “S-stop this, Alstera!” “Aaaahhhh! Why are you getting in my way?! Why does everyone leave me?! Why?! Why?! Whyyyyyyyyy?!” “Alstera…!” The Hero swung the holy sword around like a young child throwing a tearful tantrum. But the pressure from it was completely abnormal. Zenobia’s blade, a full size larger than Alstera’s weapon, was slapped away, unable to block all the momentum. Her feet slid backward along the ground, creating grooves in the dirt, until she was slammed into the wall. This was power that could suppress Zenobia, a front-liner. The Hero’s strength was clearly beyond human limits. In fact, the Hero’s arm—the one clutching the sword—continued to give off dull noises that sounded like muscles tearing. It was only a matter of time before her body, unable to withstand the blow, gave out and collapsed. “Why…? Why…? I…I just wanted…to prove to everyone…that I was…” The Hero was crying. Blue blood vessels had appeared on her face, like a spiderweb, and tears of blood trickled down her cheeks. “…I see… So that was it.” Zenobia hoisted herself up with the help of her hefty blade. And then, having resolved herself, she quietly readied it in front of her. “I’m sorry, Alstera. I shouldn’t have run away back then. I should have gone to stop you after surviving—as many times as I needed to.” The Hero clenched her teeth at the sad look in Zenobia’s eyes. “Don’t… Don’t… Don’t you dare pity me!!” she screamed, charging straight for her. The horizontal sweep from her holy sword would surely cut into Zenobia and kill her. In response, Zenobia dropped her sword into a lower position. “Zenobiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” “Alstera…” They clashed for an instant. Zenobia’s sword struck out to push the Hero’s enraged attack upward. And then, from a high position, she would deliver the final falling blow. That had been the plan anyway. The deciding factor was the strength of their weapons. Against the holy sword, which had drunk the souls and blood of thousands of monsters and even absorbed the mana from labyrinths, Zenobia’s magic sword was outmatched. And through the shattered fragments of her blade, the holy sword plunged. It sank squarely into the center of Zenobia’s chest. “Ghah…” Zenobia coughed up blood, then fell to the ground, holding her chest. She collapsed facedown and then stopped moving. “……” The Hero looked down at her, but there was something distant and unfocused about her gaze, before a little bit of light returned to her eyes. “…Huh? …What was I…?” Unable to endure the sight in front of her, she let the sword fall from her hand. “N-no, it can’t be. Why would I do this to Zenobia…?!” She fell to her knees, then shook Zenobia, but she wouldn’t wake up. The holy sword had pierced straight through her chest. “Ah, ahhh… Ahhhh…!” she moaned, clutching her head and curling up. “…That’s right… I killed you back then, too, the same way… How could I have done this…again…?!” Who was the one she truly wanted to have acknowledge her? By the time she remembered what she’d felt at the very beginning, it was all too late. As if mocking the Hero’s pain, the holy sword began to vibrate. The subtle shaking changed into a twitch, a convulsion, and then finally into a voice that was actually laughing uncontrollably. “I say, humans are such foolish creatures! Assume the right appearance and you can fool anyone.” “Huh…?” Before the dazed Hero, the holy sword’s white color shifted into a toxic purple. The blade cracked, then parts broke off, making it look like a dead tree. It was no longer that divine weapon, but a cursed one, its appearance ultimately ominous. The purple steel branches swayed, murmuring, and the sword laughed. “For one thousand years, your foolish clan believed they were the sons and daughters of the Hero. And now you, their descendant, have offered the blood and souls of countless monsters to me, allowing my resurrection to at last be fully realized. I thank you.” The Hero didn’t understand the sword’s words. “I am one of the five great generals of the Demon Lord’s army, Belgor. Yes, the ambassador from the underworld himself. That cause to which you so tirelessly devoted yourself was the revival of the Demon Lord’s forces all along. Some Hero you are!” The faith of an entire clan… The effort of countless devoted lives… And Belgor’s words made a mockery of it all. The Hero simply could not accept it. “Ah, ahh, aaaahhhhhhh…” Her heart broke right in two. The sword watched as it happened, opening its three vertical eyes, narrowing them, and wiggling its body in delight. “Ah, how long these thousand years have been. When I was left on that battlefield, I thought I would simply rot away. I shall not soon forget the stroke of luck that led to your ancestors picking me up.” Even as it spoke, the purple sword’s branches continued to expand until it had grown to the size of a large tree. “So many months and years of brainwashing my wielders was difficult work indeed. Little by little, I convinced them that I was a holy sword, and they were the descendants of the Hero. Generations of self-proclaimed heroes, all feeding me the blood of monsters. All so that I could gain enough magic power to break my seal!” The shaking of the branches sounded like many people laughing in unison. Scornful laughter. Insulting, contemptuous laughter. A devil laughing at the farce of rendering an entire clan’s history meaningless. “……” “Hmm. Has your heart shattered to pieces? How dull. Your despair was delicious indeed, but I won’t get to savor it if you break so quickly. No matter. My seal is almost fully broken. I will further accelerate the process with your blood and soul.” The countless splayed branches of the sword moved to skewer the frozen Hero. “My foolish, beloved clan… You have offered yourselves to me for a millennium. And now you, the descendant, will be my sacrifice!” The branches bent like insect legs, surrounding the Hero. The Hero didn’t resist; she simply cried herself into a stupor, in front of Zenobia, whom she had killed with her own hands. And then…the wall exploded. A dense cloud of dust rises. I manage to somehow crawl through the hole I opened. “Arhh, arhh! (Blech! There’s dirt in my mouth! I demand to know what moron decided we should dig through the wall to make a shortcut!)” “Squeak. (It was you, milord.)” “Mew. (It was you indeed, Routa.)” Yeah, yeah. All right. It was me. After all that, we couldn’t catch up with Zenobia no matter what path we took. And then, to round things out, we got lost. I couldn’t barf up any beams because they might have hit Zenobia and the Hero, so I’ve been using my front legs to dig through the walls toward the sounds I’m hearing. And now my precious nails, cared for and polished to a sheen, are thick with dirt. I’ll have to take a bath when we get home. The maids are gonna be really mad when they demand to know where I was out playing. “You’re…the one from before…?” I heard the gist of it all from the other side of the wall, but the situation is way worse than I imagined. Zenobia’s down for the count, while the Hero does nothing but kneel there crying. He doesn’t look like he’ll be much help. “Arwf. (Len, Nahura, you take care of them for now.)” “Squeak. (I’m to guard them, then.)” “Mew. (And I’ll heal her.)” Fully understanding what I meant, the pair runs over to them. That leaves the enemy up to me to handle, but if I fight here, it’s sure to expose my identity, huh… “Arwf, arwf. (Well, guess I can’t worry about that now.)” With the Hero and Zenobia behind me, I stand before the holy sword—now transformed into a monster—to block it. From what I heard through the walls, this guy is the underworld’s ambassador, Belgor. It all happened just as Mircalla said it would. “You… You’re that strange wolf from before… Excellent timing. Though my seal is mostly undone, I am still only eighty percent full! Offer unto me your blood and soul!” The sword, stretched out and split up like branches and roots, twists, steadily coming together. The purple tree-sword then evolves into a giant with four steel limbs. “A-arrrwwwf! (A-aahhhhhhh! It’s… It’s so scary!)” It doesn’t matter how strong my Fenrir body is. Scary things are scary. My legs are trembling; I can’t take a single step from where I’m standing. Causing the terrible noise of metal scraping against metal, the sword giant brandishes both his hands. They dismantle themselves, breaking into many pieces, before linking back together again—now holding a single giant blade. The Hero cries out upon seeing it. “D-dodge that! That weapon even broke Zenobia’s magic sword! If it hits you, you’ll die!” “A-arwf?! (Wait, huh?! You’re telling me this now?!)” That ship has long since sailed. The giant sword is already being swung down. “I’ll cleave you in two and scatter your entrails! And then I’ll slurp them all up!” The steel giant Belgor roars with laughter as his sword, wreathed in an incredible wind, comes crashing down toward my head. And then…it gets cleaved in two. The sword, that is. “Wh-whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!” The sword, broken along with his arms, shatters to bits and whips through the air. “A-arwf… (Th-that was scary…)” I pissed myself a little, but I took zero damage. It doesn’t even hurt. Just how strong is this coat of fur anyway?
Chapter 97
27 min read