Iguvua was also mobilizing all the fading consciousness he could muster and smiled in victory at Zaryusu and his rapidly weakening resistance.
He would kill this lizardman, and then he would kill the other two who had come at him. These are probably top-class lizardmen. So if he killed them, they would be fitting sacrifices to the Great One, his creator.
His expression spoke louder than words, so Zaryusu could tell what he was thinking.
“Diiiie!”
Zaryusu’s body wouldn’t move right. He could feel his temperature dropping, like poison was coursing through his body. It was even hard to breathe. Only his mental faculties were sharp in that world.
He couldn’t die yet.
Rororo had run so hard.
Zenbel had been his shield.
Crusch had used up all her magic.
And that wasn’t all. He could feel on his shoulders the weight of all the lizardmen who had fallen in this battle.
Faint noises came to Zaryusu’s ears as he frantically groped for a way to fight.
…Crusch’s kind voice.
…Zenbel’s cheery voice.
…Rororo’s cry for attention.
He shouldn’t have been able to hear them. Crusch was unconscious and Zenbel was in a coma. And Rororo was far away. Was his brain just imagining the voices because his consciousness was muddled? Imagining words from his friends he’d met only a week ago, the cries of his family?
No.
No, he wasn’t imagining them.
They were all there with him.
“Yaa, yaaaaaaaargh!”
“?! You still have that much power?”
Half-conscious Zaryusu raised a war cry at the same time Iguvua shouted in surprise. Zaryusu’s eyes rolled to stare down Iguvua.
Iguvua’s face was twitching with rage to see the energy in Zaryusu’s gaze, where before the lizardman hadn’t even been able to make eye contact.
“Crusch! Zenbel! Rororo!”
“What are you planning to do?! Diiiiie!”
Where did that life force even come from? With every passing moment, the vast negative energy sapped and devoured it. Really, Zaryusu’s limbs were heavy, and his body felt as cold as ice.
Still, as he shouted each name, he felt warmth. The power welling up in him wasn’t life force—deep in his chest, it was heart.
Something made a squeaking noise. It was Zaryusu’s right hand. He’d balled it into a tight fist. In it, he’d gathered all his remaining energy.
“Of all the ridiculous—! Why can you move?! You monsterrrrr!” Iguvua couldn’t believe his eyes that the lizardman could still move. A creeping horror rushed through his mind, but he frantically suppressed it.
He was Iguvua, the one deployed from the Great Tomb of Nazarick to command the army. And most importantly, he had been created by the Great One, Ainz Ooal Gown. He couldn’t allow himself to be defeated.
“D—!”
“This is the end, monster!”
One moment faster.
Yes, the full-force punch came one moment before Iguvua could flood him with more negative energy.
Zaryusu took his tightly balled fist and slammed it into Frost Pain’s hilt.
The blow, hard enough to draw blood from Zaryusu’s hand, caused the tip of the sword in Iguvua’s left orbit to go completely through his head.
“Arrrrrgh!” Iguvua was undead, so he felt almost no pain, but he could comprehend that he was losing all his false life. “Ahhh…argh…how…st…pid… Lord…A…nz…”
Iguvua’s eyes showed complete understanding that he’d been defeated.
Zaryusu’s body collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut, and as he splashed into the marsh—
“…forgi…ve…me…”—Iguvua crumpled, apologizing to his master.
A silence fell over the room. Unable to believe what they’d seen in the mirror, no one spoke—besides the maid, Entoma.
“Master Cocytussss, it appears Lord Ainz is calling youuuu.”
“UNDERSTOOD.” With his head hanging down, Cocytus slowly turned to face Entoma. Feeling the anxious gazes of his minions, he bit back the humiliation.
On the other hand, however, he admired the lizardmen.
It had been a magnificent fight.
Against what should have been overwhelming odds, they’d achieved victory. Certainly the elder lich wasn’t perfect, but he still should have been able to win.
“MAGNIFICENT. JUST MAGNIFICENT.” The repeated word revealed Cocytus’s genuine feelings. They had cleared an impossible hurdle. “…IT’S TOO BAD,” he murmured at the scene in the mirror of the lizardmen cheering with joy at their victory.
The warriors reflected in the mirror looked so small and weak, but they’d set his heart on fire. “AHH, WHAT A WASTE…” Cocytus wasn’t sure what to do. Of his countless thoughts, he grasped one—the most horrible one. He thought hard on it and gave his conclusion. “I GUESS I SHOULD GO.”
6
Zaryusu felt his body being lifted out of a pitch-black world. It was a pleasant sensation. His eyes opened. The world looked hazy through his freshly woken eyes.
Where am I? Why am I sleeping in a place like this? A number of questions came to mind, and at the same time, he realized he felt a weight on top of him.
White… When he looked, that was the first word that came to his still-groggy mind. Then as he woke up, he understood what it was.
Crusch. She was sleeping on top of him.
“Uh…”
She was alive.
The relief was so strong he nearly vocalized it, but he managed to hold it back at the last second. He didn’t want to wake her up. He frantically suppressed the urge to touch her. Just because a female’s scales were pretty didn’t make it okay to stroke her while she was sleeping.
Zaryusu chased her out of his mind and tried to think about something else. He had a lot to consider. First, the reason he was here. He searched his memory to try to remember what had happened. His last memory was destroying Iguvua. His recollection cut off abruptly after that, but his lying here instead of being captured meant that the tribes must have won.
Careful not to wake Crusch, he breathed a sigh of relief. The weight of the past few days seemed to lighten a little. Certainly, thinking with a level head, the burden was still heavy. They didn’t know the true identity of their enemy yet or what they were after. There was more than a good chance that they would attack again. No, if his hunch was right, they would come again.
But just for right now, he wanted to be allowed to relax. He sighed lightly again, feeling Crusch’s body heat.
Then he gently flexed his muscles from head to tail. He had no problems moving. He thought he might have lost something, but everything seemed to have gone all right.
Then he remembered the comrades he’d fought with. There were no other lizardmen in the room besides Crusch. Then where’s Zenbel? A flicker of anxiety crossed his mind, but at the same time, the certainty that a male as strong as Zenbel couldn’t possibly have… welled up inside him.
Perhaps responding to Zaryusu’s slight movement, Crusch stretched slightly. It felt like a core had formed in her soft body. She must be about to wake up.
“Nngh…” Crusch made a cute noise. Then she flicked her hazy eyes around, taking in the area. Then finding Zaryusu underneath her, she broke into a smile. “Mmmm…” Crusch groggily wrapped her arms around Zaryusu and rubbed her body against him, just like an animal leaving its scent.
Zaryusu froze and let her do as she pleased. In a corner of his mind, he also had some less noble thoughts, such as Well, she started it.
Her glossy white scales were cool and pleasant to the touch. The fragrant herbal scent that hung in the area was entrancing.
Maybe I can put my arms around her, too?
As he was anguishing over the question, Crusch’s eyes gradually began to focus. Then she turned them to Zaryusu beneath her.
She froze.
She’d st
opped moving with her arms still around him. Zaryusu considered what he should say first and ended up choosing the most benign thing he could come up with. “Can I put my arms around you, too?”
Benign? In his excited state of mind, he’d thought it was.
Crusch made a threatening noise and thrashed her tail around. Then she rolled away from Zaryusu’s body, not stopping until she crashed into the wall.
Facedown, she groaned softly. He also heard her say, “Stupid, stupid, I’m so stupid.”
“Well, I’m just glad you’re safe.”
At those words, she must have finally regained composure; her tail was still wriggling around, but she looked up and smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re safe, too.”
Seeing her kind face, Zaryusu had something else on his mind, but he held it back with all his willpower and asked a serious question. “Do you have any idea what happened after all that?”
“Yeah, an idea. It seems like the enemy retreated thanks to your victory over Iguvua. And your brother managed to beat the monsters, too. Then the three of us got saved… This was all yesterday.”
“So Zenbel isn’t here, but he’s…?”
“Yeah, he’s safe. He must have more regenerative power than you. I heard he regained consciousness right after the healing magic was cast, and now he’s probably working on post-fight cleanup. I was so unbelievably tired I guess I passed out again after hearing that much…” Crusch stood up and went back to Zaryusu.
When she sat down right next to him, Zaryusu moved to sit up, too, but she gently stopped him. “Don’t overdo it. You were the one with the worst injuries out of all of us.” Perhaps because she remembered him as he was then, her voice became frail. “I’m glad you’re safe. I’m so glad…”
She lowered her eyes, and Zaryusu rubbed her back to comfort her. “I won’t die until I hear your answer. I was worried maybe you were dead!”
Answer. The word made them both pause.
Neither of them said anything, and the room got so quiet they could practically hear each other’s hearts beating.
Crusch’s tail slowly curled around Zaryusu’s. The tangled black-and-white extremities brought to mind mating snakes.
Zaryusu gazed silently at Crusch. She looked back at him. They could see themselves reflected in the other’s eyes.
Zaryusu quietly spoke. No, it wasn’t speech. It was a call, the same one he’d made the first time they’d met—a mating call.
After he called, he did nothing. No, he couldn’t do anything. His heart just beat earnestly, violently.
Eventually the same speech, the same call, flowed from Crusch’s mouth. The same high pitch, the same vibrato at the end. She was accepting the mating call.
On her face was an indescribably seductive expression. Zaryusu could no longer take his eyes off her. Crusch got on top of him, in virtually the same position as when she’d been sleeping on him.
There was almost no distance between their two faces. Their hot breaths mixed, and the beating of their hearts synchronized through their touching chests. Then the two of them became one—
“Yo, are you guys doin’ it?!” The door banged open and Zenbel barged in.
Crusch and Zaryusu both halted as if they’d turned into ice sculptures.
Perplexed, Zenbel observed the two of them, Crusch still on top of Zaryusu, and cocked his head. “What? You’re just getting started?”
Understanding what he meant, the pair moved apart without a word. Then they slowly stood up and approached Zenbel.
He’d been looking down at them with curiosity, but now he bent over double. “Guh-hngh!” The pair’s fists in his abdomen knocked the wind out of him, and his large body sank to the floor. “Urrgh… Nice equipment there…especially Crusch… Agh… That seriously hurt…”
Zaryusu aside, apparently even the female’s punch of rage had the potential to take Zenbel out. Of course, a single blow wouldn’t be enough to satisfy their frustration, but even if they pummeled him, the ruined atmosphere wouldn’t go back to the way it had been.
Although it couldn’t replace what they’d been about to do, grasping each other’s hands, they questioned Zenbel in order to ease the worries pricking at their minds like pins. “More importantly, we have a ton of questions. I asked Crusch, too, but please fill me in on our current status.”
Zenbel answered without paying attention to the fact that the pair was holding hands. “Hmm? The whole tribe’s celebrating our win!”
“So my brother is in charge of that?”
“Basically. We sent the hunters out to search for the enemy, but they couldn’t find ’em. No sign of any hidden follow-up wave. That big of a force would stick out if they were on the move. That was why, even though we’re still on guard, your brother declared victory for the time being. Actually, I’m here because of something your brother said to me.”
“My brother?”
“Yeah, he said, ‘Ga-ha-ha-ha-ha! We should let the two of them rest. Maybe they’re doing it, ga-ha-ha-ha! I don’t want to bother them, but I am curious. Ga-ha-ha-ha-ha!’”
“Don’t lie to me! What’s with the ‘ga-ha-ha-ha’?”
“Y-yeah. I guess he wasn’t saying ‘ga-ha-ha-ha.’”
“My brother would never laugh like that. Geez…”
“But no, it was that kind of undertone—”
“You’re the worst.” Crusch spoke with a voice chilly enough for another Icy Burst. It was so creepy that it sent shivers up even Zaryusu’s spine. Zenbel, at whom it had been directed, shuddered and froze for a moment.
“So, why are you here?”
“Right, I just—”
“If you say you came here just to bother us, I’m going to blast you with every spell I can think of.” Crusch was dead serious. Both Zenbel and Zaryusu could tell.
“Ahhh. C’mon, what? I came to invite you guys. We’re VIPs, you know. We can’t not go. And when you think about what might happen in the future…”
“I see…” Catching the implied meaning in Zenbel’s vague words, Zaryusu smiled bitterly. It’s a good chance to talk up our strength in case there’s another battle? “Got it. You’re okay, too, right, Crusch?”
Her cheeks puffed up with just a bit of dissatisfaction, making her look like the dermes frogs who inhabited the marsh. Of course, they’re totally different on the cuteness scale, Zaryusu thought.
“Then shall we?” Zenbel asked the two, who were looking at each other, in a carefree voice.
“Y-yeah. I guess. Let’s go.”
Both of them agreed, so they joined Zenbel and went outside. The moment they stepped off the stairs of the house and into the marsh, Crusch and Zenbel lost sight of Zaryusu. Something huge had pounced and sent him flying.
Bam, flup-flup-flup-flup, ker-splash!
Those were the sounds of what happened next.
Rororo had taken Zaryusu’s place. His four heads squirmed healthily, and he happily turned his noses to Zaryusu, who had fallen into the marsh.
“Rororo! You’re okay, too!” Zaryusu stood up, covered in mud, and went back to Rororo. He gave the hydra a thorough once-over as he pet him. He must have been healed with magic; it was like the burns had never been there.
Rororo called out and wrapped his heads around Zaryusu for attention. They were so tenaciously curled around him that he was completely hidden.
“C’mon, Rororo, knock it off!” Zaryusu laughed and told Rororo to stop, but Rororo happily cooed at him without letting up.
Splash, ker-splash, ker-splash!
Suddenly Zaryusu heard a series of rhythmic splashes. When he looked for the source, he was puzzled.
It was Crusch. Her face practically glowed with emotion as she gazed at Zaryusu and Rororo. But her tail was beating out a regular rhythm on the marsh.
Zenbel had been standing next to her, but he had begun inching away, his face twitching.
Rororo stopped moving. He must have sensed something strange as well.
“What’s
wrong?”
“N-nothing…”
Zaryusu was confused when she asked him. She was definitely smiling. It couldn’t be anything but gladness that Rororo and Zaryusu were reunited. So why were this many chills going up his spine?
“Goof.” Crusch smiled again.
Rororo’s heads moved away from Zaryusu, freeing him. Zenbel twitched. Perhaps he opened his mouth to hide his inability to bear the awkwardness. “Okay, Rororo. Let’s you and me go on ahead of them.”
Of course, Rororo couldn’t understand lizardman language. But maybe he’d sensed the mood anyway, because once Zenbel was on top of him, they splish-splashed off at a pretty quick clip.
A bizarre silence fell between Zaryusu and Crusch as the other two fled.
Crusch held her head in her hands and shook it side to side. “Argh, gosh. What am I doing? It’s like my heart doesn’t belong to me anymore. Why can’t I stop it when I know it’s not smart? This is basically the same as a curse!”
Zaryusu understood how she felt—because that’s how he’d been when he first met her.
“Crusch. Honestly, I’m happy.”
“What?!” A splash, bigger than the others up till now, sounded.
Then Zaryusu went next to her. “Listen, can you hear that?”
“Huh?”
“It’s what we protected. And what we have to protect from now on, too.”
They could hear high-spirited voices partying on the wind. Everyone must have been drinking. It was a party to return the ancestral spirits and celebrate their victory but also to mourn the dead.
Normally, alcohol was a valuable item. The reason they could drink so much these past few days was that Zenbel had brought the Great Treasure that gave them an infinite supply, and since all the tribes were gathered, the resulting din was unbelievable.
Listening to the huge racket, Zaryusu smiled at Crusch next to him. “Maybe nothing is over yet. Maybe the Great One or whoever will attack us again. But just for today, how about we relax?” He put his hands around her hips.
The Lizardman Heroes Page 17