213

Chapter 213 — Life Is Cruel (8)

KRAKABOOOM!

Thunder heard from point-blank range was not as enormous as I’d imagined.

No.

Maybe it was so ridiculously loud that it had blown out my eardrums, and that was why it felt that way.

‘…This.’

My body, which had just been cutting down a lava creature, slipped completely beyond my control.

It trembled violently and dropped to its knees.

My vision flashed white over and over, and my ears felt impossibly blocked.

Eeeeeeeeeee.

The ringing had become strong enough to make my head spin.

There was a reason FPS games smeared your entire screen white and chopped up the frames when a flashbang exploded right in your face.

‘…Damn it. Get up!’

“Cough.”

But I didn’t have time to waste like this.

There was still an enemy in front of me.

‘That fucking bastard. When did it get Leviathan’s power……?!’

Using the shred of reason still clinging to me like a hangnail, I somehow forced my eyes open.

My eyeballs felt as though they had been cooked, and the blood crawling beneath my skin felt like lava, but I gritted my teeth and endured it.

The same went for my heart, whose beating I could no longer hear.

I could feel the Mana that had been acting strangely for a while now gathering around my heart of its own accord.

‘This is dangerous.’

BOOM!

A sensation like a hammer smashing into my heart struck me, and the fragments of my reason snapped back together piece by piece.

My mind abruptly cleared.

‘Can I win?’

Clench.

At the same time, the arm I had forcibly brought back under control shoved against the ground, rolling my body away.

The lava creature’s arm smashed into the empty spot where I had been.

WHAM!

Immediately afterward, I kicked the add away.

The enemy was thrown back, and my upper body, which had risen from the recoil, toppled backward again.

My body had tilted slightly sideways as I fell.

It tilted farther until I was lying face-down.

One arm caught me against the ground.

“Ugh.”

Black blood spilled from my mouth.

Whether it was that color because it lacked oxygen or because the electricity that had swept through my entire body had cooked the blood itself, I had no idea.

My entire body stung.

My head spun.

[How remarkable. I didn’t expect you to withstand that one’s lightning.]

Yeah.

I’m honestly surprised too.

I’d heard the odds of surviving a lightning strike were higher than most people thought, but I never imagined I’d become one of those people.

And fucking hell, I also never imagined that a demon I thought could only control lava could use lightning too!

“Haaah.”

I somehow forced my body upright through the fog in my head and exhaled hot breath.

Maybe even my lungs had been cooked.

The air leaving them felt scorching.

Thanks to the Sea Dragon Orb, I didn’t actually feel hot, and yet I somehow felt overheated anyway.

Pretty fucking awful.

[More importantly, is the snake still not here?]

Rustle.

Even so, I had to fight.

The enemy was still alive.

There was still a fight left to fight.

…Because that was what I had to do.

[Honestly. Just what I’d expect from the bastard wearing the turtle’s shell. Slow as ever.]

Creeeeeeak.

A metallic screech sounded quietly in a range my ears could no longer hear.

Tap.

I bent at the waist to avoid a volcanic bomb and grabbed the Zweihander I had apparently dropped at some point.

My strength seemed to be returning little by little.

Control over my body was coming back.

Though the tips of my fingers and toes were still numb.

Slash!

Even so, the portion of the add I cut diagonally and then struck again with my foot was severed and collapsed backward.

Given that the thing felt damp and soggy like a mudflat, it would probably regenerate soon, but it should take at least ten seconds.

[…Ah, yes. I suppose thinking about something else while you’re in front of me would be rude.]

‘Damn it. Throw the sword upward and wrap yourself in Mana.’

Then, suddenly—

My body instinctively leaned to one side.

I couldn’t put strength into my toes, so all I managed was more of a sideways fall.

Whoosh.

At the same time, the Zweihander I had thrown upward floated into the air with strange clarity.

So did the sight of Mana wrapping around my body in a single layer.

KRAKABOOM!

Then the light shining through that Mana stabbed into my eyes.

Seen from nearby, the flash was nothing remotely like the warm sunlight of an afternoon.

A sensation similar to the one before swallowed my entire body.

This time, it didn’t even hurt.

Every sensation simply receded impossibly far away.

‘Ha. And yet you understand shit like this perfectly…….’

“Cough.”

Maybe it was because I had the Zweihander acting as an intermediate buffer.

Or because I had wrapped myself in Mana for protection.

Or maybe, after being hit once already, my body had somehow adapted.

I searched my memory for how many times something like this had happened to me during a fight and forced strength into my legs.

Of course, I kept my eyes closed.

Getting flash-blinded earlier had been too much.

Reflex tears streamed endlessly down my face.

Well.

Maybe that wasn’t the only reason.

‘The fucking contract really picked the right person, didn’t it?’

Click.

Instead, I drew the sword at my waist.

Its leather-wrapped hilt had been scorched completely dry and still held glowing embers, cooking my leather glove yet again.

‘Goddamn it… This is bad. If this keeps up…….’

But the blade I drew crumbled apart in fragments.

A cautious glance through my hazy red vision confirmed the same thing.

‘F*ck.’

Apparently the lightning strike had shattered it.

The situation kept getting more and more insane, and nothing I had on me was actually useful.

A dry laugh escaped me.

Clatter!

Still, I could probably use it for throwing.

I dropped it straight into the magma—the adds were technically made of magma too, right?

It was already broken anyway.

After thinking it over, I realized keeping it on me would make it nothing more or less than a walking lightning rod.

The same went for all the daggers packed inside my clothes.

Unlike during the Moby Dick raid, I didn’t have Inquisitor here to make a ceiling over me.

I roughly shoved all my metal equipment into the Inventory.

Thank God I still had some spare space.

BOOM!

A volcanic bomb struck by my leg veered off course, team-killed one of the adds, and sprayed magma everywhere.

[Come now. Let’s continue.]

That was when one of the six hands of the demon clutching riches raised a handful of pearls.

All the lava coating the ground began boiling at once, forming countless spikes, while the clouds started howling again.

[Because I truly am curious whether that one’s power was weak… or whether you are simply that strong.]

‘…Damn it! Move!’

KRAKABOOM!

Then lightning struck the ground.

At the same instant, one pearl vanished from the demon’s grasp.

There were now roughly a hundred left.

Maybe more.

Shhhhhhh.

The sound of water began coming from somewhere.

* * *

BOOM!

When the third lightning bolt struck, the lord finally came back to his senses.

His body shuddered violently, seized by an instinct that could not be explained through reason.

“Hero.”

But this was no time for that.

No support-request flare had been launched.

The place he needed to concern himself with right now was not over there, but here.

“We possess a weapon capable of attacking that beast. However, we have very few of them, and activation takes time. We may require your assistance.”

“…Ah. Yes. Yes.”

The Hero’s somewhat dazed eyes regained their light.

Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she did not reveal what was on her mind.

“Furthermore… we cannot be certain whether it will produce a clear effect. So… assuming that creature proves hostile, if by some chance the weapon is ineffective…….”

That was fine.

The lord was more concerned with saving his city and his soldiers than with the Hero’s personal circumstances.

Not because he was a selfish man.

It simply could not be helped.

That was the greatest responsibility resting on his shoulders.

“Uh, uhhh!”

At that moment, a soldier stationed higher up let out a strange sound.

Naturally, everyone who heard it—and had enough freedom to pay attention—waited for the soldier’s next reaction.

Click, click.

A light transmitted some sort of signal.

People from other cities would not have understood it, but the lord knew the signal well.

Wanting a more detailed view, he hurriedly used the observation item.

The device Meister had returned brightened his vision.

“…Ha. So even if it isn’t a demon, it’s still our enemy!”

He saw the giant turtle raise its body and then slam itself down.

It was clearly an action intended to create a wave.

An act openly hostile toward their city.

“The sluice gates…….”

Grinding his teeth, the lord considered how to respond.

Unfortunately, he knew only one method.

“My lord?”

“We need to open the sluice gates…….”

In a situation like this, the gates had to be opened.

There was no other choice.

The water here had to be drained if they wanted to lower the incoming wave by even a little.

But…….

He turned around.

To the west and south, where the giant of fire was not rampaging, countless points of light undulated like waves.

They were the torches of people leaving the city in obedience to the evacuation order.

And in that situation, open the remaining Gates One through Four?

Even though the number of mermen had decreased greatly, some would undoubtedly slip through.

If this were a normal situation where guards could be stationed there to hunt down any mermen that entered, perhaps.

But as things stood, the civilians would be placed in danger.

“We will not open the sluice gates! Hold your ground! We are people capable of fighting, but if we open those gates, people who cannot fight at all will be the ones forced to face the mermen! Gladly meet death for the sake of the citizens!!”

“YES!!!”

He clenched his teeth and made his decision.

Then he turned toward the Hero.

He would have preferred the Hero to speak first if possible, but there was no time left.

They had to stop that wave.

“Hero!”

“…Yes!”

The forceful call finally tore the Hero completely free of her distracting thoughts.

For an instant, the golden barrier pushed the demons back once again and cleared the sea around them.

The soldiers, finally given room to breathe, roared as they hurled spears.

Thrown items exploded across the sea’s surface or froze sections of it.

“The giant beast has just created a wave. Do you have any way to stop it?”

“…Yes. I should be able to!”

The lord asked without allowing himself too much hope.

Fortunately for him, however, the Inquisitor had once stopped an incoming surge before.

“Then may I ask you to—”

“That is my mission, my lord! You need not ask!”

At the mention of the approaching wave, the Inquisitor fixed her gaze on the sea and blinked her wavering eyes.

“It is my mission to offer this body and save people! Was that not why I conserved my strength until now, precisely in preparation for a situation like this? So it is all right. No matter how difficult your request may be, so long as there is a just cause behind it, I will never retreat!”

The wavering in her eyes was not because she wanted to avoid the task after realizing how difficult it would be.

Nor was it because she regretted that the creature had ultimately proven to be an enemy.

Well, perhaps there was a little of the latter.

But that emotion was nowhere near enough to trouble her this deeply.

That was not the cause.

“So please, do not worry. Focus on the battle.”

And yet the reason she kept losing herself in thought—

The place she had been unable to stop thinking about ever since earlier was…….

Read only on MUGEX

“We need to finish this battle as quickly as possible.”

The slick bastard placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Miss Prim-and-Proper.”

The Inquisitor did not answer the call.

Her eyes were opened wide, and she breathed rapidly like someone driven to the edge of a cliff.

“Clear some space!”

Just then, someone shouted in a cracked voice.

Even when raised, it refused to climb beyond a certain pitch.

Meister.

“Move!”

Meister arrived with several craftsmen, bringing an enormous device.

Two thick iron rods were fixed parallel to each other at its front like the number 11, while the outside was densely engraved with formulas of some kind.

It was so enormous that merely lifting it onto the wall looked like an undertaking in itself.

“Should we move it?”

“I’ll help too.”

“That would work, but…….”

Fortunately, there was someone here capable of casually lifting even the Inquisitor while she was wearing a full suit of armor.

There was also a young man who, although only by ordinary-human standards, was surprisingly strong.

Ber—no, Weapon Master and Deathbringer temporarily stopped skewering mermen with their spears and helped move the device.

Though apparently even they—Weapon Master especially—found it too heavy to simply lift and carry, because it had been hauled there on a cart.

“It’s rather heavy.”

“That isn’t something a person who moved it without stopping for a single breath should say.”

THUD!

They positioned the machine on top of the wall so that the rods projected past the battlements.

After answering cynically, Meister immediately began preparing to secure the device firmly in place.

“Meister!”

“Yes?”

“Fire it! Kill that thing!”

“Ah… so it really is an enemy after a—Shield! I know I specifically told you to put the shield up first!”

Meister had immediately accepted the lord’s order without even showing disappointment, only to suddenly explode in anger.

The person beside Meister flinched and hurriedly formed a barrier.

Apparently Meister had brought a Mage along as well.

Several others besides the one who had created the barrier—they appeared to be Mages too—placed their hands on the machine.

Judging by the flow of energy, they seemed to be pouring Mana into it.

Only now did everyone learn that the device required no fewer than three Mages feeding Mana into it at once.

The formulas engraved across its surface began releasing blue light, concentrating that light into the two rods.

“What is this thing?”

“A failure, a money pit, and a single-use item.”

“…Pardon?”

“More importantly, Hero. I understand you’re saving your strength for that turtle, but shouldn’t you conserve it according to the situation? Can’t you see the wave and all those mermen coming?”

As if on cue, the mermen began charging toward them all at once.

It resembled the way dozens of them would leap up whenever a spell began, trying to absorb the magic’s power with their own bodies.

The creatures had somehow recognized that something enormous was coming and swarmed forward to stop it.

Behind them, the sea level that had temporarily fallen was rushing back toward the wall as an enormous wave.

“Waaaagh! It’s coming!”

“Hmm. Fighting in water really is troublesome.”

“The mermen are coming! Engage them!”

“Everyone, put some effort into it. The moment this thing breaks, thirty million gal of investment goes straight down the drain.”

“Thirty million… Huh?”

While fastening chains around the battlements, Meister casually tossed out what was apparently supposed to be encouragement.

Presumably, the intention had been to motivate everyone…….

The Inquisitor’s eyes widened at a sum she had never imagined.

Meanwhile, the lord, who had been gathering the soldiers, suddenly felt his stomach hurt.

People liked to say one hundred million gal, but if one counted the full investment poured into the anti-colossus weapon project, it had easily exceeded one billion gal.

And merely developing that particular unit had cost roughly thirty million.

“…It cost thirty million gal, and it’s disposable?”

“Yep.”

And even that was merely a failed prototype that would break after one shot.

The device worked by concentrating Mana into the two rods until the two masses repelled one another, using that force to launch the projectile between them at nearly the speed of light.

The problem was that no material yet existed that could withstand the repulsive force.

More precisely, such a material could be made.

It just cost an absurd amount of money.

Truly.

Seriously.

A mind-boggling amount.

Enough that when the lord heard the price, he had no choice but to say, ‘Let’s give up on the launcher and just make the projectile out of that material…….’

Merely remembering it turned his complexion dark.

“Drive them back!”

The fact that he was still urging the soldiers onward even then was closer to an instinct born of duty.

BOOM! BOOM-KABOOM!

The gathered soldiers worked their spears as though their lives depended on it.

The mermen slammed themselves desperately against the additional barrier the Inquisitor had hurriedly erected.

“It’s coming!”

“Everyone, crouch so you don’t get swept aw—!”

SPLAAAAASH!

But the Inquisitor’s still-fresh barrier did not collapse.

Even the enormous wave was stopped completely by the golden membrane, which sent all of it surging back.

Those who had clung to the wall to avoid being washed away slowly lifted their heads with awkward expressions.

“God, grant me the strength to protect them all!!”

The golden barrier toppled outward like dominoes, pushing back all the water that had engulfed the wall.

The mermen were swept away by the surge, leaving the battlefield temporarily quiet.

Everyone stared blankly at the Inquisitor after witnessing the astonishing miracle.

“The Hero…….”

More than blessing the walls.

More than healing dozens of people in an instant.

More than pushing away several of the mermen clinging to the fortifications.

This had carved the truth of it into them more clearly than anything else.

“What are you doing?! Tie it down!”

Clench.

But Meister, whose attitude toward God was essentially God can eat my middle finger, was different.

Not sparing even a grain of attention for the Inquisitor’s miracle, Meister focused entirely on the device.

The trembling machine was pressed down and secured with the tools they had brought, wrapped in layer after layer of chains, and even covered with an iron net.

Every motion intended to root the device in place was extraordinarily meticulous.

“I-it’s shaking.”

“It’s not going to explode yet, so tie it down!”

Rrrrrrrr.

That vibration definitely did not look harmless.

Deathbringer joined in with a disgusted expression.

They restrained the thing so thoroughly that, had it been a person, it would not merely have been immobilized—it would have suffocated to death.

“They’re coming again!!”

“Re-form the lines! Attack!”

Meanwhile, the enemies the Inquisitor had pushed back returned.

Perhaps because they were trying to stop the device, so many had gathered specifically in this area that it was now fair to say there were “more mermen than water.”

“Kill them all!”

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

The machine that fired enormous arrows continued operating without pause, while Weapon Master, using a spear borrowed from one of the soldiers, selectively smashed in the heads of the Warrior Captains.

“Magic incoming!”

KRAKABOOM!

“Nice!”

The magical reinforcements, having grasped the situation and arrived at exactly the right moment, broke through the interference of the leaping mermen and fried dozens of demons to a crisp.

The soldiers finally gained a moment to breathe.

“It’s ready!”

THUUUD.

And after all that, the device that had been trembling violently began emitting light bright enough to hurt the eyes.

The turtle had come within a few hundred meters.

Rrrrrumble.

Perhaps it had stepped on an embankment built by the city, because the sound of ground collapsing rolled through the area.

“Hero! Can you form barriers on both sides of the device, above it, and behind it?!”

“I can.”

“Then the moment I give the signal, drop the full barrier and make those instead. Everyone else, get back!”

It was not a major problem.

Regardless of the turtle’s approach, Meister accepted the Inquisitor’s confirmation and ordered everyone away.

The Mages who had been supplying Mana withdrew first.

The soldiers fighting the mermen followed at the lord’s shout, their expressions equal parts fear and relief.

“Now! Make them!”

“Yes!”

Following Meister’s command, the Inquisitor’s barriers formed a cube around the device, leaving only the front and bottom open.

Guuuuuuuuu!

That was the exact moment the approaching turtle let out a long cry.

It thrust its head far forward, opened its mouth wide, and bellowed.

But it was already too late to cancel the attack out of caution.

The moment the creature cried out, a noise even louder than thunder erupted.

KAAAAANG!

The device blew itself apart, exploding inside the golden barrier created by the Inquisitor.

The explosion launched the pointed projectile forward as though violently flicking it from the machine.