A Knight's Valor Knows No Recklessness (5)
A humanoid god.
Beings called Human Gods were, even among divinities, the ones that must never—absolutely never—be worshipped.
Gods born of nature took the shapes of trees and stones, and were, as a rule, harmless to people. Beast-formed wild gods carried a certain wildness, yet even that wildness stayed basically friendly toward humans, or at least indifferent, so long as one did not rouse their wrath.
A Human God, unlike those nature gods and wild gods, pointed in an entirely different direction.
What does that mean?
"From now on, I'll rule you."
They meddled far too deeply in human society, and they wanted to reign. That was why a Human God was called a horrifying being.
And well they might be. A Human God was a god made in the image of a human. How terrifying a thing was that?
Hm? Not following?
It's simple.
Because they were gods sprung from humanity, they were greedy without limit. They carried the lust for power, the lust of the flesh, the lust to show off—appetites a god had no need of, appetites that belonged to humans—and worship alone did not satisfy them. They wanted to stand over people and rule them like the king of a nation.
...Someone, perhaps, would object.
If a god of absolute power became king, wouldn't the country be free of corruption—an eternally happy paradise on earth? Must one look at it only as evil?
...So they would say.
Yes. That argument is also right.
But that paradise on earth has one flaw.
Namely this.
"Why should I have to do as you say?"
The flaw was that the paradise was not humanity's ideal, but a paradise built on nothing except the god's own whim.
What if the god made an ideal in which violence solved everything?
What if the god made an ideal in which anyone who was not beautiful to look upon had to die?
What if the god...
"I want that country. Let's go to war."
...issued a childish command like that?
It might all sound like exaggeration and lies, but this was, if anything, the softened version—nothing more than a handful of the footprints Human Gods had actually left. Read on into the ancient records and it becomes plain how dreadful, how skin-crawling, a nation under a Human God could be. Historians knew that truth well enough.
And so they judged them thus:
A child holding absolute power.
A single sentence on what a Human God was, and no one called it extreme. Even with a bomb in hand they would hurl it at a person for fun and cackle; no matter how many ages passed, they would never, ever grow up. That was a Human God.
Therefore humanity must never become entangled with them. For their own amusement and their own ends, they would do anything.
A stern warning from the historians....
The Great Evil Spirit.
Among Mordred's warriors, there was not one who did not harbor hatred for it. That monster was the very source of all this suffering, the calamity that had forced them to endure it. A foe they loathed, a foe they were determined to kill....
"A... human?"
Those seeing the Great Evil Spirit for the first time doubted their eyes. It resembled a human—and a very beautiful woman at that.
"To be precise, a Human God. And that thing is only wearing a woman's shape. It is a creature with no sex to speak of, so do not be deceived by the outside. Even that appearance is nothing but a theft of someone else's face."
"!?"
"From what I have heard, every certain generation that monster devours the human called most beautiful and takes their looks for its own. For no reason but beauty. Which is to say, it devours men and women alike. Do not, under any circumstances, be bewitched."
"......"
A dry swallow.
It was their lord's warning, sharp as a rebuke, and they swallowed against a dry throat. The shocking facts pouring in all at once scrambled their minds, but one thing was clear: that thing was by no means a being that worked for humanity's good.
As if to prove it—
Whoooosh—!
Around the Great Evil Spirit, a rasping energy like muddy water circled, vivid and thick. Ghost-qi, which ordinary humans ought never to see—yet so dense that it showed even in other people's eyes.
And toward that ominous existence—
"Die, monster!"
Ganok swung his sword without hesitation.
Vmmm!
Ganok's blade raised a powerful sword-cry. At his level, Sword Resonance was something he could call up as easily as breathing, but the resonance pouring from his sword was ordinary Sword Resonance with one thing added.
The wailing of ghosts. The strength of spirits joined Ganok's Sword Resonance, and the blade poured out a might unlike anything yet seen—a violet Sword Qi so dense it would not be too much to call it a Sword River.
Fwoosh!
That relentless stream of sword-force stretched outward, and the hundred-odd monsters around Ganok were cloven in two all at once. For a moment, the blow showed just how fierce the sword-force of Mordred's strongest knight could be when he swung with everything he had.
However—
Thud!
"Dangerous. Truly. Old as you are, you're still a strong human, aren't you?"
"......"
...When had it appeared?
What had stopped the blow into which Ganok had poured his all was, of all things, ten grotesquely shaped undead.
"D-Death Knights?"
At a glance they looked like fallen knights, Death Knights, but these things stood a good five meters tall and were wrapped in enormous, brutish muscle. What was one even supposed to call them?
"I remade fallen knights. To deal with you, I prepared knights who were quite strong in life, and I crammed a thousand Ghouls into each of their bodies. Even you should find them troublesome to face, don't you think?"
"...You prepared a nuisance."
The Great Evil Spirit might be arrogant, but it was no fool. Decades ago Ganok had wounded it and broken free of the curse by his own strength; it had been wary of him ever since, so as not to suffer as it had in the past.
A mere Death Knight would already be a high-grade monster—and it had mixed a thousand Ghouls into such a Death Knight to make this undead!
"Chimera Knights...."
A mutter from one of the knights, and a fitting name. At the same time, a name that from this day forward could not help but become a nightmare bleak enough to invite despair.
Whoosh—!
"Hup!"
With the sound of ripping wind, a Chimera Knight swung a huge spear that seemed to have come from nowhere. It was not a mindless heave of raw strength. The stroke showed the technique of a renowned martial art, and galling as it was, the Great Evil Spirit had spoken true: in life, this had surely been a knight of high renown.
Crack!
But the moment that sublime technique was joined by vast power, it was no longer a blow one could simply slip aside. Literally—
KRRRUM!
—a blow that shook the earth.
"...This won't be easy."
Had there been only one, bearing it would not have been difficult. Unfortunately, there were ten Chimera Knights.
And not merely ten....
Huuuk!
Whik.
"They even coordinate!?"
As if to prove they had been knights in life, the ten chimeras moved with strategy, and Ganok, past mere disbelief, broke into a cold sweat. The pressure was like facing an entire knight order alone, and in an instant he realized that overcoming it would cost a considerable investment of time.
And during that time, without a doubt....
"Kill that old human, no matter what. He's old and ugly now, so I don't need him. Ah—if you can't kill him, then you must hold him. Until I have killed every one of those humans."
Rattle.
"Yes. Good. If you carry out the task, I'll give you the body of a living person. Hehe."
Rattle!
Crimson eyes flickering with a baleful light blazed, and the chimeras poured out a momentum even more ominous than before. The body of the living. That is, the chance to live again—and to those who endured inside death, it was a temptation beyond compare.
Even so, for men who had been knights in life, it was an act that could not even imagine honor. A passage that explained why such a name of ruin clung to the fallen knights, the Death Knights. Ganok ground his teeth.
"The shame of knighthood—you lot commit all of it!"
With a roar full of rage, Ganok charged again, as if he would break through in a single stroke and reach the Great Evil Spirit.
But—
BOOOOM!
Rattle.
"!"
The chimeras' dreadful wall of flesh allowed no gap.
Rumble.
"......"
Slowly, it drew near. At its leisure, as if savoring the attention, its face all smiles.
When barely three hundred meters remained to the fortress—
"Surrender. Kneel, and bow your head. If you do only that, I'll forgive you even now."
The Great Evil Spirit opened its mouth.
Skreeee...!
Though it stood some three hundred meters out, a skin-crawling voice bored into every ear, and their faces hardened. Not because of that skin-crawling voice....
"For... give?"
"Yes, forgive. I'll forgive you for what you've done wrong to me. Isn't that merciful?"
"......"
Creak!
Because that impossible nonsense was more than enough to spark rage on its own. Their gazes grew a shade more murderous. Now—had it dared spit the word forgiveness in front of them?
"You squat on our land as you please, call yourself a god, and try to toy with the living—and you speak of forgiveness? Is that a word that ought to leave your mouth, you worm!!"
"I'm not a worm, I'm Inanna. Why won't you listen?"
Hoooooo—.
The Great Evil Spirit made a show of being deeply displeased at being called a worm and spewed ghost-qi, and each time it did, the monsters poured out a powerful Fear as well. They had halted their advance for now, but the moment its order fell they would hesitate no longer and charge straight in—so their bearing said.
"When you run your mouth, you ought to think twice before you speak. But I'm merciful, so I'll say it again. Surrender, swear loyalty to me, and offer a sacrifice. I don't need much. Prepare a million living bodies and souls, bring your own child with your own hands, and tear out the heart. If you do only that, I'll make you the king of a nation. I'll promise you immortal life as well."
"......"
"A truly merciful offer, isn't it?"
"...You've lost your goddamn mind, worm."
It was a proposal that made the guts boil just to hear, and the soldiers felt the same. Even if they had not been Mordred's warriors but merely greedy men, they would not have accepted that offer. Listen to it quietly and, in the end, it was no different from being told to become an obedient, immortal slave. Their anger was only natural.
"I told you I'm not a worm!"
Fwoooosh!
Yet without even knowing what bizarre thing it had said, the Great Evil Spirit swept a hand through the air, contempt in its eyes.
"Kek, kigigik...!"
"Kiii."
"Kiiii!"
The moment the Great Evil Spirit grew angry, the wraiths revealed themselves. Fully twenty thousand of them....
"H-how can there be so many wraiths...!"
"Good heavens...."
"D-don't tell me—it's using the souls of the monsters we just killed?!"
The wraiths kept multiplying, and one of Mordred's staff officers spat out the guess that the Great Evil Spirit had forced wraiths into being from the souls of dying monsters. The number was much the same as the twenty thousand monsters killed so far....
This—th-this isn't a problem you solve by killing monsters!
The officer's face went pale. If the guess was true, then the more monsters they killed, the more wraiths would endlessly increase. Killing a monster only gave birth to a new one, and if a person's body didn't go cold upon realizing that, they could only be someone who had lost the very seat of fear.
"Haha, good, good! That face is really fun!"
The Great Evil Spirit laughed as if delighted, as if the expressions of despairing humans were endlessly amusing. And it wanted the humans to despair a little more. It wanted those who dared forget its mercy and go on resisting to regret it.
"More—regret more, suffer more, please...!"
Eyes shining as if it even felt a thrill of pleasure, the Great Evil Spirit was just like that when—
"Oh, give me a break. Why are you out here directing a misery piece all by yourself?"
"...?"
...it blinked.
"No, think about it. It's weird. You're acting like the victim, but you haven't been harmed at all, have you? And yet you play the victim. Yeah. That's just a hopeless criminal bastard, that thing."
"Oh my?"
Despite hearing such insolence, the Great Evil Spirit let out a sound of admiration. Among the things it loved most was none other than beauty. Paintings, sculptures, jewels—it loved beautiful things, and within that beauty it also loved those called handsome men and beautiful women. In that sense, the human who had just spoken so insolently possessed a beauty more than sufficient to satisfy the Great Evil Spirit's sense of the beautiful. A beauty that, had he only possessed spiritual power, would not have been lacking even as a Vessel.
"Not bad as a collectible, are you? No. Do you want to be my slave? If you only do that...."
The Great Evil Spirit meant to offer that proposal once more out of a merciful heart, but that was a fatal mistake.
And well it might be....
BANG!
Because it had given him the opening to kick off the ground in one breath, soar into the sky, and reach the Great Evil Spirit itself.
"!!"
Seeing a human close the distance through the air and arrive right before its nose in an instant, the Great Evil Spirit had no choice but to be badly startled. But a god, however rotten, was still a god.
"Kigigigigi!"
Shaaaaa!
Twenty thousand wraiths swarming around the Great Evil Spirit rushed in to stop him, and for a moment it looked as if the evil spirits would crush him and smash him flat.
...By common sense, that is.
"About time I let this transformation loose properly."
CRRRRACK—!
"!!!?!!"
In the next instant a tremendous sonic boom erupted, and its shockwave tore the Great Evil Spirit and the twenty thousand evil spirits to shreds without mercy.