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The erdgod’s stout arms extended toward Yukinari, aiming to tear him apart. Yukinari dodged, slashing into the erdgod’s palm at the same time. The feel of the slice was odd, almost like cutting into the ground itself. Feeling that his blade was sliding across the erdgod’s fur, Yukinari’s face creased into a slight frown.
“Ugh, really?”
“NWOOARRR!” The erdgod ignored Yukinari’s attack and continued trying to grab him. Even Yukinari would be in serious trouble if he were caught by this thing. Its size and muscles made it look like it could easily split a human being in two. That it had formerly been an animal was easy to believe. It was seriously strong. However...
“Heh!” Yukinari weaved between the stone pillars, to the left then to the right, continuing to dodge the erdgod’s arms. The sanctuary’s construction itself interfered with the erdgod, making the small Yukinari—small only in comparison to the erdgod, of course—almost impossible to chase. Its arms insistently stretched for him anyway. Yukinari knocked them away from him with Durandall. Arms already stretched to their limit didn’t hold even half of their normal strength.
“GRHH... YOU...” The erdgod growled in irritation.
Yukinari gazed at it, amused. “What’s wrong, beast? Forget how to string together a sentence?”
He cast a glance through narrowed eyes at the familiars crawling on the ground. Dasa had already killed ten. Apart from the erdgod himself, there were now only three or so of them left. This was Yukinari’s first time actually seeing an erdgod, but he knew what kind of being it was. He had been given that knowledge in advance. He was also roughly familiar with the theory the alchemists propounded regarding where the source of an erdgod’s intelligence and characteristics was located.
“How’s it feel to lose parts of your external brain? Goddy go dum-dum?”
“RAARRR!!” The erdgod roared in anger at Yukinari’s provocation. Apparently, he’d hit the nail on the head.
Maybe the erdgod had started to get impatient or forgotten itself in its anger. It forcibly broke a section of the sanctuary apart, pushed the large and tilting slab of stone slightly aside, and closed in on Yukinari. It planted its two back legs firmly on the ground, and with its remaining four legs—or were they arms?—the horrible monstrosity caught Yukinari from all sides.
Two “front legs,” either one of which looked like it could crush a human being, and two substantially thinner “arms” enclosed Yukinari from all four directions. The erdgod picked him up with those four “limbs,” and brought him up in front of its face.
“...DAMN... YOU...!” The jaw of its gigantic, human-like face opened as if to devour him, exposing its fangs and tongue.
“You really are a colossal dumbass,” Yukinari said casually, even as he stood moments away from being eaten head first. His eyes were focused intently inside the erdgod’s mouth—at the very back, where it connected to the throat. There was a small animal there, or at least the top half of one, baring its fangs. It was growing inside the erdgod’s mouth, a body living inside another body.
“Real smart move there, showing off your own weak spot.” Yukinari thrust Durandall at the head of the wild-dog-like thing at the back of the erdgod’s throat. Of course, the tip of his blade failed to reach. The sword’s point merely made a small nick in the erdgod’s comparatively soft tongue. That was never going to be enough to kill an erdgod. However...
“Just die already. Goddamn,” Yukinari said, and pulled the trigger. There was an explosion of sound from Durandall’s “mounting”—which was actually a cut-down, lever-action rifle, a Winchester M92 Randall. A large-diameter explosive round hit the wild dog’s head without the slightest deviation. And the next moment, the monster’s core scattered red blood and flesh in all directions, like a blooming flower.
✦ ✦ ✦
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The ground shook hard as the erdgod’s gigantic body hit the earth. Because of the weight of its body, the damp ground caving in was completely expected. However—
Berta gasped. The erdgod... had broken apart. Its huge body, which had functioned as a single god, broke up into disconnected “parts” like a tower of blocks collapsing. An instant later, those “parts,” which looked like chunks of flesh, changed shape once more, this time into small animals—although again, small only compared to the erdgod. A wild dog. A badger. A field mouse. A weasel. A number of such animal carcasses were lying on the ground. Berta realized that this was the erdgod’s true identity—the vessels that had made up its “holy body.” In other words...
“You felled...”
A god? By themselves? Just the two of—no, practically speaking, he had managed to kill it on his own...
Berta looked around, feeling like she had just witnessed something impossible. Already the familiars had returned to being the wild dogs and badgers that they had originally been. The traits that came from the erdgod’s divine spirit had disappeared.
“Those people—that person—”
Lastly, Berta stared stunned at the boy who had felled a god. Was it that weapon that had made this “deicide” possible? But no matter what weapon they had, was it really possible that an earthly being, a lone human, could kill a god? Wasn’t such an act... simply a miracle? She remembered the words the erdgod had spoken before it was felled.
— Even you humans... are merely... monkeys... with brains...
In the broad definition, monkeys were animals, too. And it wasn’t necessarily the case that humans were in an entirely different category of their own. If humans, too, were animals... maybe the same rules applied to humans as well?
In short... “Is that person—no, is he a person at all...?”
At the other end of Berta’s awe-filled gaze, the boy returned his sword to its sheath and casually stifled a yawn.
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“He killed an erdgod...?”
Even after saying the words out loud, the priests still couldn’t believe it. They had been tasked with the job of confirming, from a lookout platform a short distance away from the sanctuary, that the sacrificial “shrine maiden” did her job correctly. Specifically, it was their holy work to witness the entire course of events, until the erdgod and its familiars had devoured the young female sacrifice and left satisfied, and preserve it all into record. But...
“Who—no—What is that boy...?”
“The weapon, is it that weapon that’s the problem?”
“But I can hardly imagine...”
Their astonishment creeping into their voices, the priests exchanged glances. They had been taught that the ultimate greatness was to shut off their minds, for good or ill, and ensure that the preordained procedure—the ritual—was repeated. To them, continuing to follow the example of those who had come before them offered stability, security, and truth, and was the very definition of faith. And so, they were extremely weak in the face of an unexpected situation like this.
“This is serious. This is very serious.”
“We need to return to town immediately and report this.”
They spoke to each other in whispers and hushed tones, their faces close together—even though this place had been chosen specifically for its distance from the sacrificial ritual, and there was no way their voices would carry there. Then, they hurriedly climbed down from the lookout platform and scurried back to town.