Blood Will Flow (3)
In my memory, the Iron Giant looked like a savage knight brandishing an iron club. Its body was covered in jagged armor and iron plates, and when it stood at full height, its massive seven-meter frame shook the ground with every step. It was the ultimate familiar and greatest asset the Six Swords of the Demon King could command, all sharing the common mechanism of "iron." That was why it earned the title of an A-rank monster. If left unchecked, it would inevitably bring localized annihilation wherever no force existed to stop it. So the fact that Vankite even considered dropping it into a training ground packed with students was incredibly bold. The Imperial Knights would have to be deployed for any chance of victory. Yet the students alone were expected to handle it.
Thinking back to the field training episode where Eclipse and the party members I had gathered managed to stop it, memories of those sleepless nights spent pulling my hair out came flooding back. Because of that, I could recite the perfect way to neutralize it with my eyes closed. But even without that method, I could handle the Iron Giant alone. Thanks to Burga, my very existence was a counter to the Iron Giant and, by extension, the Six Swords. Anything made of iron was doomed the moment it encountered her, since she could devour any iron she came across.
So facing the main body itself would be no problem. My mere appearance would suffice. Any steel storm it unleashed, I could simply tear apart. The real issue was that I only had one body. What made the Iron Giant terrifying was the sheer quantity of minions it could forge from iron. The Iron Beasts it created were its subordinate monsters—essentially subcontractors of subcontractors. Individually they weren't that strong, but each possessed the strength of a C-rank monster. If they swarmed in disgusting numbers, even ordinary students would be slaughtered without much difficulty. And the same would likely hold true for me. Even if I wiped out the endless tide of beasts, the Iron Giant would simply create more and keep pushing forward. Moreover, since these creatures took on different forms based on the traits of whichever of the Six Swords empowered them, facing the ones granted Yagnus's wings—creatures that darted through the sky like hawks—would be utterly nightmarish. Without flight capabilities of my own, I had no sharp answer to them.
However, when I discussed this problem with Hilken, her eyes lit up and she offered me an idea. More precisely, she declared she would give me a gift. After confirming the students had scattered from the treetops, she led me somewhere.
"Here, Senior."
"Oh... it's huge."
The place was a stable where the hunting ground keepers shared their mounts. I nearly froze in surprise at how large the building was, but the creatures kept here were far from ordinary. They weren't the combat horses one might expect. This was a nest for dragons.
"From that end all the way over there. These are all the ones we're raising."
"You're... raising dragons?"
"Yes. Every one of them hatched from eggs obtained by hunting dragons."
"Still, raising dragons must cost quite a bit to maintain..."
That question was quickly resolved once I remembered the keepers of Karlandel were directly under imperial command. Every dragon here belonged to the imperial family.
"There's not much in the way of maintenance costs. They only need their habit of loving treasure managed, so we just carve shiny stones and place them in their nests. It's simpler than you'd think, isn't it?"
"...Amazing."
"I was surprised when I first learned about it too. There are only five of them, but they require a lot of attention and are very attached to people."
Each had woven soft straw into cozy nests and appeared to have been napping until someone arrived. I had heard they were territorial creatures, but these were still baby dragons, so that trait seemed absent.
At that moment, Drakaris, who harbored an extreme hatred for dragons and even possessed a dragon-slaying trait, began thrashing about inside my mind.
'Calm down. We're here to receive help this time.'
After I said that much, he seemed to accept it for the time being, though I would need to explain properly later. What struck me most, however, was their size. They had only just hatched—roughly the size of three horses lined up end to end. That was still enormous for living creatures, but it immediately explained why Hilken had called them a gift.
"Senior, you said the Iron Giant itself wouldn't be a problem, but the flying minions would be, correct? And that we would need swift mobility to deal with their numbers."
"If we release these dragons, they'll naturally sweep the skies and handle them."
"Even though they're young, their abilities surpass ordinary creatures. To them, C-rank monsters are nothing more than paper. Since the beasts are made of shining iron, they might even find them interesting enough to bring home."
"...Good. Hilken, you deserve a sticker or something."
"Kihihi, think about that later, Senior—"
Hilken pulled back the black blackout curtains covering the nests and showed me the faces of all the dragons.
Grrrk— Krrr—
'Wow, they really do look cool...'
The stable was cool and dimly lit, yet their scales shimmered beautifully even in the faint light. Just as one's gaze would be stolen by a fine car passing by, I found myself honestly admiring their magnificent forms.
Then Hilken, hands clasped behind her back, asked me, "What do you think, Senior? Aren't you feeling a little greedy?"
"...Don't tell me."
She nodded as if confirming my suspicion.
"The hunting ground keepers have been abandoned by the imperial family. That means the people managing imperial property will suddenly find it empty, won't they?"
"Good grief."
"Well, I'll pretend I didn't see anything, so pick whichever one you like, Senior. If you're meeting a lady after so long, you ought to ride a proper mount."
After hearing that, I decided there was no need to refuse. I looked around and searched for one that caught my eye. It wasn't difficult to choose.
Krrr—
While scanning the area, my gaze landed on one staring back at me with an innocent tilt of its head—a jet-black dragon with striking coloration. When I couldn't tear my eyes away, Hilken laughed.
"Your tastes run consistently dark, from armor to sword, so I figured you'd pick that one."
"What's wrong with that? Black is cool."
"That one is the largest here, and female. Her name is Jabberwock. She's a good girl who likes meat, so please take good care of her."
"Of course."
Grrrk—
Jabberwock, was it? I had only just met her, but I already liked her a lot. When she lowered her head toward me as if bowing, I gave her a light pat, and she didn't reject it. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it. Just like a puppy.
"Is riding them similar to riding a horse?"
"It's quite similar, except for the added sensation of a new axis. You'll understand the details once you try it."
More like going from driving a car to piloting a fighter jet. It didn't seem that similar, but it would work out somehow.
"Alright..."
By now, Vankite had probably begun moving. With no time left to form rapport by being on the same team as the young lady, and with the wide-range sealing formation already deployed, the fastest and most natural way for events to unfold would be to summon the monster directly. In that case, what I needed to do was cut off their supply line to stop the endless wave of Iron Beasts. I had to rescue the living sacrifices.
'A kind of regression perk, I suppose.'
I remembered the location. All I had to do was fly straight through the center of Karlandel. Nothing else to it.
"Hilken, do you have one too?"
"Of course. I used to ride this one called Amber often. Would you have been disappointed if you'd picked her?"
"Then let's take Jabberwock and Amber out and get moving. At full speed."
Time was of the essence.
***
That was how we arrived here. This was the suspicious cave where they were simultaneously summoning the wide-range sealing formation and the Iron Giant. The surroundings were so buried in collapsed earth that it was impossible to tell where the entrance had been, but the combined breath of Jabberwock and Amber had been more than enough to bore through the mountain. Once we entered through the newly made hole, a wide cavern spread out before us rather than a narrow tunnel. As a bonus, there was the bizarre facility where Yagnus was performing his strange work and creating his minions.
'Tch... doing such disgusting things.'
What were those things hanging from the hooks? Human skins? The sight made me frown involuntarily. I wanted to kill them all. How could they do something like this and still think they'd get away with it? Just as in the original story, every single one of the intended sacrifices lay naked, spread-eagled with their stomachs opened. As always, no matter how hard they tried to look human, they could never truly become people.
Vankite and Yagnus were nowhere to be seen, just as expected. The reason they had buried the sacrifices in this cave and kept their stomachs open—inflicting pain that felt like death without actually killing them—was none other than to maintain the quality of the Iron Giant. As long as the victims remained alive and continued feeling agony, the Iron Giant Yagnus extracted would possess power exceeding A-rank and would produce an almost infinite number of Iron Beasts. No matter how much damage the main body took, it would regenerate at an uncontrollable speed. The source of that power was right here, still alive.
When I said I would cut off their supply line, this was exactly what I meant. I had come to uproot this entire scheme. They had never imagined someone would find this place, hidden beneath collapsed earth. Even if they had considered the possibility, they would have assumed it impossible for unarmed students to dig through the soil and enter. Just like in the original game.
'That was your fatal mistake...'
So I thought to myself. In a way, trying to make an enemy of someone who was replaying a new cycle was a mistake. In the distant past, when I had cleared the game by brute-forcing the Iron Giant after countless retries, the first step had been coming here to rescue these people. In the first playthrough, one was usually too busy being dragged along by events without knowing anything, so most never even dreamed these victims were dying here. But later, when compiling the casualty list from the field training, the realization that they had been dying all along came as a shock to the majority. Some even got angry upon realizing that was why the difficulty had been so high. Saving them to make things a little easier was a strategy only possible from the second playthrough onward.
Yet how many times had I been playing this world by now? Just from what I remembered, this was the twenty-first playthrough, and including the reality I was living in now, the twenty-second. Having lived that long, this was simply something that had to be done.
Vwoom—
"...They should still be alive."
Hilken and I dismounted the dragons and ran toward them. The more I looked, the more horrific the scene of organs on display became. It was pitiful that they hadn't died despite this. The priestess who had endured without losing consciousness was truly remarkable. Spotting me, she screamed.
"A, Aaaah—! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts...! I don't want to stay like this anymore, kill me, please kill me—!!"
"Don't talk. It's already horrible enough."
"Mom, Mom—! Why can't I die...!!"
Upon closer inspection, the reason the priestess hadn't died seemed to be because the ring she wore contained a narcotic painkiller. Even though her clothes had been stripped, her accessories hadn't been taken, so she must have injected whatever was inside. Priests often carried such things to treat others in emergencies.
'I never thought she'd use it on herself, though.'
She probably hadn't expected to remain conscious for so long either. With her stomach split open, she must have thought the heavy bleeding and pain would cause her to go into shock and die relatively quickly. So she had injected it herself to at least reduce the pain before dying. But unfortunately, dying wasn't so easy while lying on this original model designed for torture. Thus she couldn't die, and even though the drug had taken effect, the wound was so severe that true numbness was impossible. She was left feeling a pain that was "just bearable enough to feel like dying." She was clearly trapped in a complete dilemma. How pitiful.
"P-please kill me... Hunting ground keeper. I-I studied medicine, so I know... With my body like this, only a high-grade miracle could save me. So at least I didn't want to die in pain, which is why I took the painkiller. But why... why can't I die...?"
"Ugh, Senior, she looks like she's in so much pain. Please do something quickly—!"
Unable to bear watching that pitiful sight any longer, Hilken pecked at me from the side. But I had already intended to act. I grabbed the shoulders of the delirious, screaming priestess and whispered softly.
"May the Goddess's blessing be with you, poor soul."
Crack—
Then the priestess's open stomach closed once more. While some made grenades out of pinecones, I healed people without a scalpel. Thank you, Roban.
"...Hah, hah!"
The priestess's eyes widened as she looked at me.
...What was the context here?