by Fujino Omori
He laid the groundwork and waited for just the right moment to attack.
Usually the ones who sang songs were females with long ears. If he beat them to death first, the other people became amusingly upset. In that moment, he would hit them, splitting their heads open and throwing the contents around. Trampling on these beings who had caused him so much suffering filled him with a dark excitement and joy.
The females shrieked and cried a lot. For some reason, when he heard them, he felt better. It was as if those cries fulfilled something within him, and so time and again he grabbed their thin, twiglike hands and feet and swung them around and beat them on the ground. He bit them and hit them many times. “Please!” “Stop!” they would cry. He did not understand their words, but the tone of their singing made him feel good. The flesh of the females whose mouths frothed with blood tasted better to him than the flesh of other people.
Ah, I want to kill.
I want to bite them to death over and over.
Over and over and over.
Even if I fall over the precipice of death and am reborn…
But he had started out weak, and he was careful never to give himself wholly to his instincts. He gave precedence to the intellect that had saved him, and that choice served him well.
He never, ever let humans who tried to escape get away. If they escaped, he was certain they would change, like he had. He knew it intuitively. And he was right. The reason he had descended from his birthplace to the water’s edge was partly to find better magic stones and partly to be sure adventurers did not escape. The thundering of the water drowned out their screams. The water was his ally. He learned to use it. If he threw the bitten corpses into the current, no one would discover what he was doing.
In situations where he determined he could not kill all the humans, he planted seeds in them and retreated. These second selves grew into ivy that weakened his targets and alerted him to their location. It was exceedingly easy to devour the weakened humans. The seeds were his most prized creation.
He still had a lot to learn, so he still felt afraid often. He had felt most frightened of all when he saw the girl with the golden hair and golden eyes and her party. Even though they were far away, they terrified him. They would be impossible to defeat. He knew he must not take them on. Before they could draw near, he ran for his life into the depths of the labyrinth. There were other humans like her, too. Beings he knew he should not under any circumstances engage in battle. At the very least, not yet, not when he was still weaker than them. That was something else he had learned.
He also noticed that among his brethren was a certain strange subset. These were heretics who had betrayed him and the other brethren. Many times, a powerful hatred and an anger that seemed to burn his body overtook him, and he nearly gave in to his impulses. But the wisdom that whispered in his ear won out each time. He knew he could not beat them, because they formed gangs. He had to gain the strength to take them down single-handedly. He sought greater power so that he could one day bury his fangs in those heretical brethren—especially that siren who looked so soft. To start with, he would go after the females who lived here.
He had learned to hunt at the proper time.
At some point, he had become proud that he was a hunter.
His mace scraped along the ground as he walked down the crystal path.
Illuminated faintly by the light from the white crystals, he stroked his body with his fat, boneless fingers. The cut inflicted by the blade on his torso was already healed.
He thought back to the hunt that had occurred earlier.
Although the opportunity had presented itself by chance as he was chasing the prey that had run off with the magic stones, he hadn’t been able to finish them.
In particular, there was that white-haired human who had injured him.
He would be a pain to deal with.
The brown female in the rear also concerned him. He shouldn’t underestimate the ones who had withstood the ricocheting seeds, either. He knew full well that a group of talented surface dwellers meant serious trouble.
He decided he would have to trap them.
He stopped and used his mace to demolish the crystal column he had been looking for, then slid into the gap he had created. Beyond it was a small cave.
Several pieces of leftover food that he had caught and hidden in the cave were rolling around at his feet. He’d use those.
“A-ahhh…!”
“Stop…!”
The long-eared people were shivering. Tears pooled in their eyes.
He knew that many humans were unable to abandon their brethren. No matter how severely injured a person was, if he scratched one of their brethren a bit and made it cry, the other human would fly into a rage and bravely face him down. But in the end, that human would itself be attacked.
Perhaps he should torture the females to death. The idea occurred to him, but he decided against it. He had learned that it was folly to lick his chops while the prey was still there. He must not let down his guard until the last human had stopped breathing.
Slowly, he raised the mace that he held in his right hand.
“Stopppppp…”
“Please, don’t…”
He was unmoved by the pleas, the meanings of which he did not understand. Without pausing, he brought down his arm.
“Aaaaaaaahhhh!”
The next instant, unbearably ugly screams rent the air.
We set off, heading first for the area where Luvis separated from his party.
Leaning on Daphne’s shoulder for support, the one-armed elven archer looks down through blurred eyes at the map Lilly has unfurled. Struggling through his exhaustion, he points out the direction we should go. Cassandra carries Chigusa on her back.
“I’m…sorry…” Chigusa whispers faintly.
“N-no, it’s fine. I may be a healer, but I’m Level Two. I don’t care a bit…!” Cassandra says, shaking her head resolutely.
We’ve decided to avoid evacuating the injured from this floor and dividing our forces. Splitting up in the lower levels would be extremely poor strategy. Instead, we’re aiming to kill the enhanced species swiftly, with as much force as we can muster. That’s what we decided after listening to the advice from Lilly, Daphne, and Aisha.
“It does worry me that no sightings of the moss huge have been reported yet,” Aisha says.
“Most likely it avoids being seen…If it decides it can’t kill with certainty, it hides. It’s capable of something like that. The thing is cunning,” Luvis answers with ragged breath.
“Be on your guard…That monster is different,” he warns again. Just then—
“…! What’s this…?”
I’m leading the party, and I’ve spotted something in the intersection we’ve just reached.
A fat red line crosses the floor from the passage on the right-hand side…It looks like it was made by dragging something heavy.
“This red pattern can’t be…”
“…Blood?”
Ouka says what Mikoto is unable to.
We hurry on, our mouths clamped shut. We follow the red line as if it is guiding us forward. Our progress is impeded slightly by the occasional monster fight.
Finally, we arrive at the entrance to a “room.”
Inside, the stream splits and loops back onto itself like a spider’s web tangling with the shore. Clusters of white crystal stud the ground like huge chunks of ice. Perhaps because we’re near the Great Falls, the sound of pounding water echoes through the labyrinth even more loudly than before.
Our eyes are drawn to the central part of the room.
“That’s…!”
We’re looking at the base of one particularly large crystal enshrined in the center of the room. Two elven adventurers are sprawled faceup on the ground. One is male and the other is female. Parasitic vines are growing from their bodies, and their feet are pulverized as if a blunt weapon has smashed them.
“Oh no…!” Haruh
ime says, pressing her hand to her mouth. Her reaction is only natural; the sight of those gore-red limbs that bear no resemblance to their original form is truly terrible. I’m sure they can’t walk or move in that state.
And there, next to them, on a crystal pedestal…
“…”
“The enhanced species…!”
Just like Welf says, the moss huge is sitting right there, silently, with its chin tucked in. It’s paying no attention whatsoever to the people sprawled before it. It seems to simply be waiting for something.
“Shario, Lana…!”
“…So those are your companions?” Aisha asks.
“Yes. But one is missing…! Alec…!” Luvis answers. His face had turned white from weakness, but now it flushes red with anger, and his eyebrows draw together in distress. His eyes grow misty.
At his words, my own heart sends up a painful cry. Just like with Wiene, we weren’t able to save them…Maybe it’s arrogant to have such a thought. But I can’t stop this inexplicable emotion raging in my soul.
I squeeze my hands into fists. As I do, monsters begin to appear from multiple places in the intricate tangle of streams inside the room, exactly as if the smell of blood on the ground has drawn them here.
Blue crabs and other monsters begin moving toward the central strip of shore where the enhanced species and the elves are.
“Ahhhh…!”
The female elf, who is already on the verge of death, lets out a hoarse scream. With tears in her eyes, she wriggles helplessly on the ground.
“Oh man…Don’t tell me they’re bait!”
“You’re saying he used helpless adventurers as a decoy to draw us in here?!”
Welf’s and Ouka’s guesses must be right. There’s no other explanation.
That enhanced species intends to hold the adventurers hostage in order to draw us into this room.
I can’t believe it. To think that a monster would set a trap like this.
That monster is different.
Luvis’s words flicker in my mind.
I’m hiding in the shadow of a crystal column at the entrance to the room as I peer inside. Like Welf and the others, my face betrays a horrified expression.
“…Hey, shrimp, are you sure the punch line’s not gonna be that the enhanced species is actually a Xenos? I’ve never heard of a monster this sly,” Aisha whispers.
“I-I don’t know! The Xenos never mentioned anything like this, let alone Fels…!” Lilly says, clearly upset. The Amazon shrew scrunches her face into an almost saucy frown.
“And after he reels us in, is he intending to shoot us with those seeds or something while we’re fighting the other monsters…? Eternal Shadow, can you give us an estimate of how many there are?”
“No, it’s impossible. There are too many to count in this room…! And a lot are still hiding underwater…!”
Mikoto scowls in frustration as she scans the terrain with Yatano Black Crow.
That enhanced species probably chose this location for its trap knowing full well the advantages…
It still hasn’t made a move, maybe because it hasn’t noticed us yet.
“Miss Aisha…!”
I lean into the room, unable to hold myself back as the monsters draw nearer to the fallen adventurers second by second. Aisha nods in disgust, maybe because she can’t stand the fact that things are proceeding exactly as the monster has planned.
“I know. The simplest approach would really be to use magic from our position over here, but those elves would get caught up in it, too.”
Leaving Luvis’s companions to die is not an option. Not even if that means playing into the monster’s trap.
“Bell and I will take on the enhanced species. Eternal Shadow, you, Ouka, and Welf handle the other monsters. Once we get that huge thing away from the elves, carry them out of here.”
“Got it.” Mikoto nods.
“Haruhime, you guys move to an open area away from walls. Not here by the entrance. If monsters are spawned all of a sudden, things will get ugly fast.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Haruhime answers.
Aisha, Mikoto, Ouka, Welf, and I will rescue the elves. Lilly, Haruhime, Cassandra, and the injured Chigusa and Luvis will stay on the sidelines, with Daphne to guard them.
“—Let’s go!”
We have no time to spare. To save our elven comrades, we leap into the room all at once with lightning speed, heading from the entrance on the southeast side of the room toward the central area. Lilly and the others who cannot fight go to the room’s southernmost edge, which Mikoto has determined is safest. The monsters are gathering around the enhanced species. There is no sign of an opponent on the southern banks.
Aisha leads us as we leap across the streams, speeding up as we go. The monsters notice us and try to attack, but we either pull away or throw them off, refusing to fight. We are rapidly approaching the center.
But…why is the moss huge still not moving?
I furrow my brows. The other monsters have noticed our rapid advance, so there’s no way the enhanced species hasn’t noticed, too. Nevertheless, it sits on the pedestal not moving a finger.
What’s going on? Is it preparing an attack? Or does it have some other aim?
Once Mikoto has encountered a particular monster, it can never escape from the sphere of her perception. So unless she says otherwise, that has to be the monster we fought a little while ago. I glance at her. She’s staring intently at the stock-still enhanced species as if it’s some kind of puzzle. Welf, Ouka, and Aisha can’t hide their bewildered expressions, either.
We all sense something ominous, but our only choice is to keep approaching.
“…No, n…”
The fragment of a word reaches us from the male elf lying on the ground, but his voice is nearly drowned out by the sound of the flowing water. His lips move in spasms as he desperately tries to tell us something.
“…It’s not the monster…Don’t come over here…!”
The moment I make out what he is saying, I hear the soft sound of something falling.
A piece of moss has peeled away from the monster’s eye and fallen to the ground.
“…”
From beneath the fallen moss, human skin appears.
Then a human eye, so exhausted it is unable to focus.
It’s another elf, like the ones on the floor.
Luvis’s third companion.
Icy fingers grip my heart. I hear Mikoto’s breath stop short.
—I’ve heard about this.
While Mikoto’s Yatano Black Crow allows her to identify enemies, she cannot distinguish between individuals. It’s as if a piece of black paper unfurls in her mind and red dots appear on it, but those points representing monsters don’t vary in size or color.
Her skill did function properly. But it reacted to an outer shell.
The monster has covered an adventurer in masses of moss taken from its own body. We’ve been tricked by a simulation.
I’ve never heard of a moss huge using moss in this way.
“…?!”
A second later, Mikoto whips her face toward the south as if she’s been punched.
She’s noticed something—an enemy approaching Lilly and the other supporters with an intense energy, way beyond that of the monsters gathered in the center of the room. Her face goes white.
“Please run, Lady Lilly!!”
As I follow her gaze, I see it, too. A green form slowly emerging from the stream behind the spot where Lilly and the others stand looking surprised by Mikoto’s sudden scream.
The monster’s dripping-wet right arm grips a crystal mace as it stares at their backs with a blank expression.
“—!!”
And then.
Before I can even take in the scene before my eyes or hear Mikoto’s cry split the air, I freeze and stop running forward. I spin around, my feet scraping over the crystal floor as I am overcome by a horrid sense of inertia, and I peel away from the a
stonished Aisha, Ouka, and Welf.
I accelerate with all my might as I run toward the south side of the room.
“!!”
The monster raises its mace.
My left foot leaps across the stream to the next strip of land.
Finally, Daphne notices the form that has crept up on them without the slightest sound.
I kick off with my right foot, shattering the cluster of crystals I was just standing on.
I’m moving too slowly. I won’t make it in time. That’s what Daphne thinks, and her face freezes.
I breathe in, my lips trembling.
Lilly and the others freeze, too, as they glance back and see the monster about to inflict its deadly punishment.
I raise my left foot to take another step.
Ring, ring.
The soft sound of a bell comes from it, and it glows with white light.
I’ve charged for two seconds.
The ground explodes under my lowered foot. I have become a missile.
Whoosh!!
The force of my kick against the ground becomes a propellant sending me toward the ceiling. In an instant, this insane speed I’ve dared to unleash closes the gap between the threatened group and me. I draw the Divine Knife.
“Aaaaaaaargh!!”
I bellow out a war cry from the pit of my stomach and slash at the monster with a lightning-swift movement.
The flash of the black blade cuts through the blunt crystal weapon as it swings down toward Lilly and the others.
He stared in disbelief.
The trap composed of the bait and the replica of himself seemed to have worked.
He seemed to have snuck up successfully behind the female humans.
But then the boy with the white hair had rushed over with ridiculous speed and gotten in his way.
His favorite crystal weapon had been broken in half and sent flying toward the ceiling.
He was irritated. His carefully laid hunting plan had been destroyed, and his chance to eat magic stones had been stolen from him.
He listened to his anger and decided his first move would be to kill the boy who was skidding onto the ground.
“…”
But then the boy looked up, and he saw his eyes, and his instinct told him something.