Cooperation
Cooperation
What the hell was a Demon Sword, really?
No matter how generously I'd imagined it before this moment, a Demon Sword had to at least be a 'sword' first and foremost.
"A Demon Sword stops when its wielder dies! That thing will try anything to save its master!"
I listened to Seneran's shout as I poured Magic Power into my blade, continuing the thought.
Whether it turned you into a homicidal maniac the moment you gripped it or babbled endlessly until blood poured from your ears, I'd never once entertained the idea that it would shed the form called a sword. Fine, given enough leeway, I could grudgingly accept that form fused with the arm as within the realm of expectation.
But everything else was beyond expectation.
-Grrrr! Grr! Grrr!
And so the reality before me, that this shitty mutt was a Demon Sword, felt unbearably alien. No matter how charitably you looked at it, that thing was a twisted lump of molten metal with fangs from the netherworld, not a 'sword'.
"Die!!"
What's more, forcibly imbuing life into a bastard who should've been a corpse with my needle lodged in his forehead was a capability I'd never even heard of. At that level, it wasn't a sword but closer to some monstrosity that used a human as a host.
"No, you die, you undead unicorn."
A living creature in a situation where it should be dead provoked an instinctive revulsion beyond imagination. Because of that, my swing carried more Magic Power than intended, but I didn't hesitate. If that thing really was a Demon Sword, I figured it was better to just half-kill it outright.
Judging by its current sorry state alone, that thing was as purely and utterly harmful to humanity as any demon.
-Screech!
I swung my sword with the intent of splitting the Demon Sword in half while using magic on the needle still embedded in its head. Whatever force had canceled out all the rotational and penetrative power, the needle began spinning once more to pierce through the bastard's skull.
-Clang! Grrrrrind!
But both were blocked. The Demon Sword tried to gnaw at my blade, holding firm without splitting, and the needle lodged in the bandit's head spun furiously, struggling to dig deeper, but produced only a sound like grinding solid metal, unable to advance.
"Grugh! Urghggh!!"
That didn't mean it was taking it calmly—its eyes rolled back and it began clenching its molars. Whether its brain had turned into metal like the Demon Sword or what, it didn't seem capable of completely nullifying the shock.
-Grrrrrr!
The Demon Sword, too, unlike when it had been lazily chewing the needle earlier, was now trembling as if just holding on was a struggle. From my perspective, that alone was astonishing enough. To be so durable it wouldn't split even with Magic Power applied. I could finally understand why so many bastards threw their lives away for this unknowable thing, be it dog or Demon Sword.
Suddenly finding myself in the role of locking the creature down, Yekaterina swept in from the side and shouted.
"Eldmia! Mind if I smack the needle?"
"Strike with enough force to turn it to powder!"
Honestly, even as I said it, I wondered if hitting the head instead of the needle would be the right call, but Yekaterina once again, without fail, made me marvel.
Compared to her war hammer, the needle's tip was nothing, but she aimed for it and swung—a lightning-like strike that smashed down as precisely as if measured with a ruler, kicking up a deafening roar and sparks.
-Claaang!
"Gak!"
A blow that would've made perfect sense to tear the whole head off only managed to snap the bandit's neck. Still, that was a fatal wound, and just as the thought arose that maybe this time he was truly dead, Seneran shouted from above.
"Got it!"
That single word, packed with so much meaning and spoken by the one who'd earned the name Golden Mage peddling magic items, was enough to loosen the tension in all of us. And indeed, the bastard's knees hit the floor and he collapsed backward right after.
"Wow, what the hell. What is that thing made of?"
Amid the relief that things hadn't escalated further, I looked at Yekaterina, who was examining the spot where she'd struck the needle with wide eyes.
A hole had been punched in her war hammer where there'd been none before, so I couldn't help but widen my eyes just the same.
"The hole in your hammer is shocking enough, but I'm starting to worry whether my needle's intact."
"You said to turn it to powder."
"That... was more about the attitude being fine. If it actually turned to powder, my heart might ache a bit..."
I smiled sheepishly and channeled Magic Power into the needle. Fortunately, it responded. The needle, driven far deeper by that strike but still unable to punch through the head, was spinning diligently, trying to extract itself from the corpse.
But even after several seconds, the needle didn't come out.
Simply lodged too deep? If that were the case, the toughness had been a property of the Demon Sword. With the bastard dead, the Demon Sword should have lost its function and reverted to an ordinary corpse...
"Shit, Yekaterina! Fall back!"
-Grrrooo!
No sooner had I shouted the warning than the Demon Sword took on the true form of a shitty mutt and launched itself upward.
"Hup!"
It was a situation where freaking out would've been perfectly natural, but Yekaterina reacted in an instant, swinging her short-gripped war hammer and smashing the Demon Sword straight on. Even with a two-handed weapon gripped and swung like Thor wielding Mjolnir, the dog-shaped Demon Sword couldn't even put up a proper resistance as it was swatted aside and sent flying.
"Huh? Wha-what? That shouldn't be possible?!"
I wanted to shoot Seneran, who was making dumbfounded noises, a look loaded with all the disbelief I could muster, but there was no time for that—the shitty mutt that had flown sideways kicked off the floor and sprang back up in an instant. In that brief moment, the Demon Sword had dramatically bulked up, and the dead bandit's corpse dangling and twitching from its hindquarters like a massive tail was beyond grotesque.
Just as I was agonizing over how the hell to deal with this bastard, Asilie shouted.
"Eldi! That Demon Sword is incomplete! It's rampaging to find a new host, you must not get caught!"
What exactly made that thing 'incomplete,' and what kind of freakish state would a completed Demon Sword look like—I was genuinely curious, but once again, there was no time to ask.
"Damn it! I'll block that snout first!"
-Fweeee!
Nine needles responded to the whistle, flying in to target the Demon Sword's face. If the bastard tried to chew on them like before, at least a situation where they got 'caught' in its teeth wouldn't arise.
But the thing shattered that expectation, dodging the needles with agile movements and charging straight at me.
"Uh-oh, that little shit is learning!"
From somewhere, Sen shrieked in horror at its response. Had they not just imitated a beast, but shoved an actual beast's soul inside it?
I didn't know exactly what Asilie's definition of 'getting caught' entailed, but my body making contact with it didn't seem advantageous.
"Eldmia, fall back! I've got better stopping power!"
Just as I was about to swing my sword, Yekaterina once again delivered a hammering to the Demon Sword's face.
-Claaang!
The overly detailed wide-open maw of the metal bastard couldn't withstand the crushing impact from above, snapping shut and getting slammed straight into the floor. As its iron-forged tongue got chewed up by its own teeth with a horrible grinding noise, this time Mr. Gin darted around to its rear and swung his axe to sever the arm connecting the bandit and the Demon Sword.
Fortunately, the bandit's arm came off easily with a slicing sound.
"Fire magic on the corpse, please!"
A brief question flickered—why had the arm cut so easily now when the corpse hadn't been normal when I'd tried to extract the needle moments ago—but stopping the Demon Sword as it struggled like mad, its head pinned under Yekaterina's war hammer while its front paw thrashed to claw at her, took priority.
"Just get cut already!"
I swung with more Magic Power packed in than before, but I still couldn't sever the front paw the Demon Sword lashed out with. Still, did I at least cut halfway through? Were all Demon Swords like this mess, or had it gotten stronger by killing and drinking the blood of many people? I didn't know, but it was a pain in the ass how tough it was.
It was a relief the blade had lodged even halfway. It let me pin it to the floor, blocking its attempt to claw Yekaterina. By the time the Demon Sword tried one last desperate flail with its other front paw, Mr. Gin had already swung his axe, locking down its movement just as I had.
-Grrrowl! Grrroo! Grrroo!
"Is it an actual dog? What part of this is a sword?"
Even as she pressed her whole body onto the war hammer to pin the Demon Sword's head, Yekaterina shook her head, clearly exasperated.
"Asilie seems to know something, so let's ask after we deal with this thing."
"That's better... Eldmia!"
Yekaterina, who had been shifting her gaze lightly toward me with a hollow laugh, suddenly shouted.
"Oh, fuck."
Before my body could even react, the molten metal oozing from the Demon Sword's half-severed front paw snaked out, coiling around my right hand with an oily swiftness.
"Eldi! No!"
"I'm caught...!"
A shock like being clubbed in the back of the head stole my words, and an irrepressible impulse surged from within.
[Kill! The ones making you angry! The ones enraging you! Kill them all!]
Not even fucking Bad Eldmia or Worse Eldmia this time...!
Amid the searing pain and the voice echoing in my ears, I dropped my sword and clutched my head without realizing it. It felt like an unknown someone's laughter was reverberating inside my skull.
"Elde..."
"Back..."
"Pih..."
As if I'd suddenly climbed to a high altitude, my ears clogged and the sounds around me vanished. The more that happened, the clearer that strange cry seemed to become, resonating as if from inside my own skull.
[Look around you! They're hostile to you! They're trying to torment you!]
"Hostile... to me..."
Hostile? Torment me?
[Yes! They're the ones ruining you! You have to smash them all!]
"Ruining me..."
Absolutely not. Even if the first time couldn't be helped, a second time was impossible. No one gets to fuck up my life on their terms.
I'd smash them all.
[Yes! That's it!]
"So...!"
[So right now, you...]
"I'll smash the Demon Sword...!"
[...Huh?]
Amid my vision staining red, I locked eyes squarely with the Demon Sword. Those eyes, clearly not the eyeballs of a living creature, still seemed to churn with a viscous emotion. The moment I saw them, fury surged as if my head would snap.
Why are you looking at me with eyes like that?
I bared my teeth and drove my fist into the bastard's face.
-Yipe?!
"Smash it!"
I'll smash the Demon Sword that's trying to destroy my mind.
That was my only thought from the very beginning.