121 – Decisive Battle (5)

Attempting to control such a mass of mana all at once after the burnt offering was taking its toll on her body.

She had to endure.

Composing her breathing, she spoke.

“Admiral, it’s over. Surrender.”

“Silence. Jenny, what did you just say?”

The Admiral’s condition was strange. As if possessed, he was staring blankly at the girl he held in his arms.

“Jenny?”

“Ugh…”

“Are you lucid? Do you know who I am?”

“Papa, Papa?”

The Admiral broke into a radiant smile.

“Yes, I’m your Papa! It’s been so long! It really has been a long time, ha ha ha!”

“Papa…”

Something was off.

No, this was wrong.

“Admiral Dietz! You must get away from that child immediately!”

“Silence! I’m talking with Jenny right now!”

“That is not your daughter!”

“Shut your mouth! What do you know! Have you even seen my daughter in person? Are you even this child’s parent? If you know nothing, stay silent!”

“Waaah.”

“Oh dear, I’m sorry. Papa’s voice was too loud, wasn’t it?”

The Saintess gripped my shoulder, shuddering. She shouted.

“Get away from her! It’s a demon!”

“A demon? A demon, you say? My daughter? Where did you learn to speak such nonsense!”

“A child of six or seven is wailing like a newborn! How could that possibly be your daughter!”

“If you haven’t raised a child, don’t speak! Oh, alright, I’m sorry, okay? Papa made a mistake. Do you know how hard I worked to bring you back to life?”

“Hee hee.”

“My little princess, even your laughter is beautiful.”

As the conversation continued, the eyes of the unit members began to hold a different emotion. Pure terror. One by one, they lowered their sidearms.

A few, quicker to grasp the situation, turned their gun barrels towards the girl.

“Admiral, you must put the girl down.”

“What in blazes do you think you’re doing? Are you betraying me, is that it, eh?”

“No, sir. We are only trying to protect you.”

“If you want to protect me, turn those damned muzzles around. Now.”

“We cannot obey that order. That child…she doesn’t seem… human.”

“What are you talking about? My daughter isn’t human? Where do you see that? What part of her isn’t human?! She has eyes, a nose, a mouth! Rosy cheeks! She’s absolutely adorable! What right do you have to spew such garbage from your piehole?! Eh?!”

“She’s speaking in the Ancient Tongue!”

“My child was raised with elite tutoring! She knows basic magic, so what? What’s so special about speaking the Ancient Tongue? There are kids who speak eight languages these days!”

The Admiral, having shouted himself hoarse, took a steadying breath and continued in a calmer tone.

“…My daughter lost her mother early, and I raised her alone. She only had me, and I only had her. No one knows how much I’ve endured these last twenty-odd years.”

[“Aha-ha, Papa.”]

“My eyes do not deceive me. This child is my daughter. Even if all of you point fingers and call her a demon, spread all sorts of slander, she is still my daughter.”

Just then, the girl cradled in the Admiral’s arms turned her head.

Our eyes met.

Black sclera, with crimson vertical pupils.

“…Reverse eyes?”

The girl grinned.

Then, she unhinged her jaw, splitting her mouth open like a snake.

A black hand reached out from deep within her throat.

Then her limbs twisted, snapped, and grew like a sprouting tree, forming a grotesque shape.

“Guuuh… huh?”

The Admiral, crushed by the weight, dropped his arms. With a wet thud, the girl fell to the floor, writhing like an earthworm.

The girl’s head tilted back, her hair lengthening. Her eyes burst, blood oozing out, and her face turned as white as a corpse. Antler-like horns sprouted from her head, while her limbs mutated into the backwards-jointed legs of a deer.

In a word: a monster.

“Uh… uh?”

The Admiral, completely dazed, stumbled backwards.

“W-what is this? What is this?!”

“I told you, didn’t I!”

“Where did my daughter go, and what monster is this that’s sprung up! Jennie! What have you done to Jennie! She was just here, right here in my arms…!”

“Enough chatter, come this way! And you others, move it now!”

The moment I raised a magical barrier, a dozen or more tentacles erupted from the monster’s back. With a single lash of those tentacles, half a dozen National Intelligence Service agents and Admiral Deetz were ensnared in an instant.

Then, the monster opened the maw in its belly, shoving the captured people inside one by one.

Crunch. Crunch.

The sound of bones being crushed echoed with horrifying screams.

“Help me! Help me!”

“Gyaaah!”

“Jennie, why are you doing this!”

The sight of blood spurting and entrails spilling paralyzed us. My mind went blank. My heart hammered in my chest.

It was then that someone spoke.

“…We have to fight.”

Valkyrie, Rachel, uttered those words.

Only then did my frozen thoughts begin to stir.

The Saintess hastily began to chant a stabilizing prayer, and Liyo prepared to fire a flaming arrow. Salbira, as if fleeing, returned rifles to the approaching unit members, then joined me in unfolding magical power.

Ta-ta-ta-tang!

The National Intelligence Service agents began to unleash a hail of rifle fire. Lead and silver bullets slammed into its head, stomach, trunk, anywhere that looked like a weak point. Magic, too, hammered into that hulking body.

“Damn it, it’s useless!”

“Don’t chicken out, keep firing!”

It was then that the monster suddenly raised its tentacles.

I yelled.

“Get down!”

Whack! Whack! Whack!

The tentacles, slicing through the air like blades, sheared off the heads of several National Intelligence Service agents. Blood erupted everywhere, and severed heads rolled around like soccer balls.

“Ugh.”

“Is everyone alright?”

I supported Tiria and Liyo, who were retching.

Whirr-whirr-whirr!

The monster swung the tentacle clutching the Admiral violently. As a result, several bullets fired by the National Intelligence Service agents struck him.

“Ghk.”

“Admiral!”

Heh heh heh, the monster wore a chilling smile. Laughing until the corners of its mouth tore and bled, the thing seized the flailing admiral by the waist. The admiral gasped, forcing the words out.

“Let go! Let go of me! I don’t want to die!”

Chomp, the monster’s mouth opened.

“I have to go home to my daughter! Why! I was almost, almost there! Jenny!”

The maw snapped shut.

“Keeeeaaagh!”

Opened again, then closed once more.

It repeated dozens of times. Teeth, like those of a shark, rotated like a grinder, slowly tearing into the admiral from the tips of his toes.

“Help me! Please, Jenny! Don’t do this! It’s your father! It’s me, your father!”

[“Daddy, tastes good. So good.”]

“Keeeeaaagh!”

[“Daddy, we are one now.”]

“What are you all doing! aaargh! Quickly! Keu-haaagh! Do something, anything! Why are you just standing there! Don’t you know the value of a human life…! Ghk!”

When the monster’s maw had swallowed the admiral up to his waist, he could no longer move his tongue. Only a gurgling of blood, protruding intestines, and eyes emptied like a dead fish were visible.

“A-Admiral…”

“Dead, he’s dead.”

The vampire chuckled.

“Hmm, it seems one can’t revive the dead to sanity. Something neither demon nor devil nor human was created, eh? In the end, the offering failed, and I’ve lived doing only foolish things for hundreds of years, haven’t I…”

I ground my teeth.

I had come to hate the admiral enough to want to strike him down myself, but I hadn’t wished for him to meet his end in such a manner. It wasn’t a proper procedure, and justice wasn’t served. It was merely a revolting sight.

“Everyone, you saw it, didn’t you.”

Commander Adora spoke calmly.

“This is what happens to those who try to deal with demons. There’s a reason Jeriel insists so strongly that the pact of the mages be kept. You all followed the admiral in breaking the pact, so while alive you will be torn by that monster, and in death you will be violated by demons.”

“T-Then what do we do?”

“Who knows.”

Adora pulled out a stick of gum and began to chew it. Tiria snapped.

“You can chew gum at a time like this?”

“This was the last one I had. Let’s see… tsk, what an unlucky day.”

Adora sighed, having checked the fortune written on her gum wrapper.

The monster drew closer, its tongue flicking.

[“Let’s play. Let’s play together.”]

[“I want something yummy to eat.”]

[“Ouch, ouch, it hurts.”]

[“Bephisa, you have done well. I, I, I, shall bestow a reward upon you.”]

Multiple voices poured from a single maw.

Souls neither ascended nor fallen. Beings forcibly sacrificed, ensnared by the demon, their voices echoing from their former lives. Among them, surely, was the Demon King’s own. But even he seemed devoured by the true *Shimma*.

Darkness fell on all sides.

“Chief.”

“Chief!”

“Chief Giffold, Sir!”

The surviving agents of the National Intelligence Agency bowed their heads to Adora. They trembled, their voices hushed with dread.

“What is it, now?”

“We were wrong. We need, we need orders!”

Until just moments ago, these people were the enemy. But now, there was no other way. Even dogs, warring amongst themselves, will unite when a tiger appears; how could humans be any different?

Scratching his head, Adora adjusted the grip on his sword.

“Fight as if you are already dead. Then, perhaps, you will return alive.”

*

When Chief Adora spoke of fighting as if they were already dead, few were those who nodded in agreement.

First, there was Adora himself, given a second life by Erich.

Then there was Saint Tiria.

The sapper Riyo, Erich, and Salvira, too, prepared for what would be their last battle with a detached acceptance of fate.

Of them all, Rachel had the least attachment to her remaining time.

Rachel kept checking on Erich’s condition whenever she could.

It felt as though he could die if touched just a little wrong.

“Ughaaak!”

“Kghaaak!”

“Help me, someone please help me!”

And yet, whoever cried for help drew his attention; he deployed his magic in their direction. It was clear that his posture was collapsing, over and over.

Even with Erich giving his all, the National Security agents, paralyzed by their own fear, were crumbling fast. Terrified of death, they paradoxically fell the swiftest.

“Hah.”

In the end, not a single one survived.

When this battle was over, even Erich would die. Having used a pyre to save three lives, the devil might claim his own as payment.

Rachel, who had once lost everything, now had only him left. If he, too, were to cross to the other side, what on earth would she do?

She didn’t know.

Exhausted.

She felt as though she couldn’t go on any further.

And yet.

“…Hah…”

Rachel vowed to protect him until the very end. She would fight. She would defend. She steadied her breath, pointing the spear crafted by Erich and the fox sisters toward the monster. Brushing the blood from her cheek, she clenched her teeth.

If that man were to die, she too would abandon any lingering attachments to this world.

“Goddess of Battle.”

So, rather than a graceful end…

Grant me the strength to defeat the enemy before my eyes.

To the maiden’s prayer, reckless as it was, the Goddess of Battle responded.

“.”

Rachel gave a wry smile. With a mighty roar, she surged forward with fierce intensity, leaping toward the ceiling.

From the spear’s tip, an unprecedentedly brilliant light exploded, piercing the monster’s neck.

Salvira and Vefisha, witnessing that light, simultaneously flinched.

[“…That’s!”]

“The radiance of a hero… isn’t it?”