40. Clash, Sloth VS Patience
40. Clash, Sloth VS Patience
-Rrrrrrrrmble.
Space itself shuddered.
Here in this windless gap between the cliffs, a vibration ran so deep it set even the pebbles on the ground trembling.
It was unmistakably born from the music echoing in the distance, and it reached everyone present at this scene.
The demons, steeped in desire, burned to rampage with competitive fury. The humans, driven by the urge to survive, twitched with the thought of fleeing this place.
-Rumble, rrrrrrrrmble.
And yet, not a single one moved. They all stayed to watch, because they couldn't defy the oppressive presence of the one who still controlled this space.
Hellcry.
All because of the sheer force of spirit radiating from the being who sat with arms crossed, merely observing.
'Whatever.'
The Demon of Sloth brushed off that overwhelming spirit with sheer apathy.
Then he glared at the human who was enduring it through sheer grit.
Because this human had driven him—a being steeped in laziness—to the point where he actually felt his life was in danger. It was irritating. Infuriatingly so.
-BOOOM!
The moment that will crushed the ground beneath him, his power erupted, and his body shot forward, becoming a blur.
A brutal charge with no thought for aim or changing direction.
-CRAAASH!!
The violent attack gouged into the cliff face, fracturing the surface, but there was no trace of crushed flesh or blood to be found.
He missed.
His opponent, who didn't even seem to register the attack, simply stood there in plain sight.
-THUUD!
If once wasn't enough, then twice. And if ten times wasn't enough, he'd strike a hundred—carrying that same momentum.
-CRASH, CRASH!
With that, a violent rampage began, bouncing between the cliff walls. The human's breathing rapidly grew ragged, to the point where even considering getting out of the way became difficult.
"You crazy bastard...!"
"Going crazy is too much of a pain."
The sheer brutality of it meant the mere shockwave from his passing was tearing at collars.
Sloth, gradually tightening the encirclement with his rampage, soon slammed his body into a boulder that had crumbled before him.
"Fighting... talking... it's all such a pain...!"
Debris exploded chaotically in every direction.
And toward the human who had been stopped in his tracks by it, Sloth's charge—surpassing even the flying debris—began to close in with deadly accuracy.
But in the process, a 'THUNK!' rang out, signaling a sudden deceleration. His vision lurched.
The moment he realized a shudder had run through his body, Sloth's gaze reflexively snapped to the spot he had just passed.
What he saw there was a single spear, its haft driven deep into the ground.
The result of someone who couldn't read his movements roughly predicting the trajectory and setting a trap beforehand.
-CRUNCH!!
Seizing the gap created by his slowed speed, the man who had summoned the spear unleashed a furious flurry of strikes. Blood burst from Sloth's body in multiple places.
He had no carapace to protect him.
Now that his sole advantage—speed—was broken, every accurate blow aimed at him posed a genuine threat.
"Ah, aaaahhhhhhhhh!"
Despite this, Sloth did not stop.
With the spear still embedded in his shoulder, he took a single step forward, closing the distance, and readied the magical power gathered in his mouth.
"You fucking—!"
-BOOOM!
The moment the fired crimson beam erupted with force enough to melt everything before it.
I barely managed to evade the attack, but in focusing too much on keeping him in check, the distance widened too far.
"It's all a paaaain, everything is such a paaaaain!!"
A continuous wave of energy burst from his mouth alongside a monstrous roar.
While that attack indiscriminately saturated the surroundings, I could feel the gaze of the one watching for an opening to strike.
That gaze was profoundly irritating.
Even attacks he would normally just endure and tolerate now felt utterly annoying.
Because he could feel the music echoing from afar, amplifying his very Sloth in this moment.
"Aiming, precision... it's all too much trouble......"
His opponent would surely feel it too, just by sensing the shudder of his spreading power.
That what came next wouldn't be any technique—merely an attack consisting entirely of overwhelming force.
"Then I'll just sweep it all awaaaaayyyyy!"
His body moved quickly, ever more quickly, until it finally halted and swung its fist.
-CRASHAACK!!
The attack, unleashed at peak acceleration, swept through the air, and the entire front face of the cliff exposed to it began to crack.
"Wh-what the hell is that crazy bastard doing...!"
"Everyone run!"
The moment the onlookers, wary of the cliff collapsing from the impact, scrambled to flee the area.
But their screams meant absolutely nothing to him.
-BOOM!!
The only thing that bothered him was that one man.
To kill that single being, he had to pour everything out.
-CRASH, BOOOM!!
A leap through the air, followed by a collision with the cliff.
And as the charge continued, riding that momentum, the upper part of the cliff scraped away and collapsed, ceaselessly spawning falling rocks aimed at whatever lay below.
-BOOM!
And not just on one side—the opposite cliff as well.
With an indiscriminate rampage that continued in both directions through continuous leaps, he was gradually widening the area of effect and narrowing the possible range of escape.
-THUNK!
Even that was blocked by something like a stake driven into the path he was taking. His body lost acceleration and power, plummeting to the ground.
Just like before, a spear had been thrust into his trajectory, obstructing the path.
-BOOOM!!
But even that was a shallow trick, easily ignored.
His falling body twisted, his legs kicking off the cliff surface. Rebounding from that, his body crashed to the ground.
But the body that should have been sent tumbling didn't stop. It burrowed inward, and soon began madly digging into the earth.
And seizing that moment, he released the magical power remaining in his body.
-BOOOOOOOOOM!
The expanding magical power filled the excavated pit, and soon everything that existed above it erupted upward again in a violent explosion.
A scene akin to a disaster where everything crumbled, leaving a gigantic crater at the bottom of the valley.
At the end of it, the monster of Sloth, having escaped from underground, rose to his feet and began to open his mouth toward the sky.
"Ah, aah...."
The moment he poured out everything he could for the desire being amplified even now.
The possibility of a human—whose only asset against that full force was grit—surviving was, it could be said, virtually nonexistent.
Because a human body, unlike a demon's, is far too frail to withstand a catastrophe like the one just now.
"Now... I can rest...."
-CRUNCH!!
The moment a spear thrust from behind overturned that conviction, blood spurted from his mouth.
His trembling head turned around, and the sight of the human who had hurled the spear at him came clearly into view.
"You......"
The ground level, now much lower, and the footing completely ruined.
The body of the one standing upon it was covered in dust, mingled with bruises and blood, yet he was still alive.
Dragging his trembling body, he was glaring at him with a ferocious gaze.
"Human, you bastard......!!"
"Yeah, I'm a human. And you're just a brainless monster!!"
The man charged at him just like that, gripping the spear embedded in his back and applying force.
Even though it was a being clearly born weaker than him, he felt his own feet being pushed back by that violent charge.
"Seems like you went all out because you wanted to end this fight quickly, but what now...? I'm also in a state where I'm giving it everything I've got just to survive."
Indeed, large-scale saturation attacks were only effective against armies.
When dealing with an individual, it was far too inefficient—a pointless attack against anyone with the leeway to escape its range.
Just as his own Sloth was amplified by the performance, his opponent's will to live was also being stimulated.
To him, who used that will to find a spot that minimized the damage, the monster's draining stamina was itself a source of hope.
"Even thinking about that is too much... agh...!"
But Sloth was called Sloth precisely because it couldn't even be bothered to consider such weaknesses.
-RIIIP!
His body swung around, utterly ignoring the spear impaled in his back.
The moment the spear was ripped out by the force, a charge from a body that couldn't even keep its balance came flying at him.
"That's why... I don't get it......"
A contest of strength with the spear shaft between them.
Sloth, gripping the shaft, pushed off the ground and began to pour in strength with momentum to overwhelm his body.
"Even while suffering so much pain, why do you struggle so desperately?"
*Crack, pop!*
Simply from this struggle of strength, every joint in my body screamed in protest. The moment I began to slowly retreat from the pain.
Even so, the venom drawn in the gaze facing me did not disappear.
"What meaning is there in such an agonizing life, that you struggle so desperately just to protect that shabby little life of yours?!"
"...What reason does struggling need? I'm just living because I can't even manage to die."
Even as my body was breaking down, I exerted a zeal that threatened to overwhelm even him—who found forcing his way through the creeping slothfulness exhausting.
"Is it really a matter worth clinging to with such vicious tenacity—this struggling just to try and live that insignificant life with some meaning!?"
With that shout, he succeeded in shoving me away. He drove the shaft into the ground and began to support his collapsing body.
Even as merely breathing sent shivers through me, and just standing made me feel my muscles and joints deteriorating in real time, he did not give up.
"In the first place, you too... if living is such a pain, you could just go kill yourself somewhere. Why did you crawl all the way here to throw a fit?"
The moment that spite-driven cry reached his ears, Sloth momentarily halted his body, which had been about to charge, and was lost in thought.
Fighting, talking, even breathing—all of it a pain.
If, as he said, everything is truly so bothersome, maybe the right answer would be to just quietly end his own life without any further trouble.
Then why was he going against the very root of his own desire, following his commander's order to fight this man?
"...I don't know."
"Don't know my ass—!!"
"It's not something I should care abooouuut!!!!!"
There might have been a trigger, once upon a time.
Something that made him feel even a slight sense of responsibility in carrying out his commander's orders—orders he followed only reluctantly in this moment.
-CRASHAACK!
But in the end, that's a story of the past.
Looking back on the past goes against the very root of his desire—which is Sloth.
He just wanted to rest.
That yearning soon erased even his retrospection, transforming even that wrung-out energy into power driving him forward.
"You are, after all, an obstacle.... Human!"
"So just die already! Don't disturb my rest any longer just to protect that pathetic little life of yours!!!"
A flurry of indiscriminate strikes rained against the spear shaft blocking his way.
Sloth, finally succeeding in cornering the body that had been enduring through guards against the wall, poured strength in again to shove away the shaft held in both hands.
To crush that neck with this shaft just like this—to strangle him and kill him.
"...If you want to rest so badly, I'll let you rest."
But he was equally exhausted.
The smile drawn on his face faintly showed what could be called a hint of victory.
He realized the reason when he was just a single step away from the strength draining from his arm.
-CRASH!
Yes, something he had thrown before they clashed smashed onto his head and shattered.
He thought it was nothing fatal—something he could just ignore.
At least for the moment.
"So, don't resist."
-Sssssss!
The liquid inside the broken glass bottle spread.
"Resisting will only make things more of a pain for you."
A potion that heals wounds.
It penetrated past the skin into the blood vessels inside, even scorching the internal wounds and forcing regeneration.
"Ah, aah..."
Sloth.
At this moment, when his spirit had been momentarily shaken by the words he himself uttered, causing him to even forget his own root.
"Agh, urgh!! Aaah......!!!"
The pain squeezing through the cracks opened in his body soon disrupted even his strength to push the man away.
"Urgh... ugh......"
The effect of that agonizing phenomenon was the same for his opponent.
The one aiming the spear tip, seizing the gap created when his body was pushed back, was also consumed by pain. But even so, he tried to endure it.
Overwhelming power, vitality, stamina.
Against a monster who overwhelmed him in every aspect, he relied solely on the mental fortitude that was the one thing he surpassed them in.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!"
Thus, sublimating his scream of pain into a battle cry, he shoved back the monster whose drive was weakening.
And then he swung.
-CRUNCH!
In a situation where the one stabbing was in more pain than the one being stabbed.
Even so, he gave his all, relentlessly driving the spear blade into that body.
"Just die already, you monster bastaaard!!!"
The weapon responded to the will that erupted with that fierce shout.
It drove the enemy back with the released magical power, laying the cornerstone for the finishing blow.
-BOOM!
Flesh and blood burst from the explosion that occurred on his face.
At the end of it all, the monster of Sloth, realizing his defeat was decided, watched the one approaching him and fell into thought.
'For what... purpose...'
He couldn't understand.
'What does this human struggle so intensely for?'
If a fight to this extent left him as ragged as this, his life even after escaping this place would be filled with nothing but pain.
Knowing that what comes after enduring and enduring such pain is meaninglessness, the Demon of Sloth couldn't understand the human's desperate struggle before him.
'Yes, everything is meaningless....'
The Demon of Sloth already knew that nothing but meaninglessness awaited at the end of a desperate struggle.
Because he still remembered the hollow figure of the one he had admired and followed—the one he had considered his future—who had achieved countless things yet felt nothing at all....
'Everything is meaningless. All that you achieve by living....'
As he looked back on that process, the stifling frustration he had kept suppressed slowly began to unravel, filling his head.
Like tangled threads swelling as they came loose, yet with too many corners still unravelled—so much so that it was overwhelming to even think about.
"Aaah, living, it's...."
Yes, the fact that he didn't have to think about anything anymore.
"Living... was it always something with so much to think about?"
Even that fact became a comfort to the powerless being.
Feeling that the time he had so desperately yearned for had finally come, he joyfully prepared to fall into slumber.
-BOOOM!!!
****
The head, unable to withstand the impact of the spear, finally burst.
With that burden off my shoulders, it was only then that I took the time to spit out the strain my body had been under.
-SPLURT!!
Blood vomited from the internal injuries sustained in the fierce battle.
But now, there were no potions left in my arms.
The other adventurers might have some left, but my mental strength was already pushed to its limit. If I expended any more energy on recovery, I might just drop dead from shock.
"...You won."
So I have to move right now. Just as I thought that and took a step, a single orc was waiting there.
"Y-yeah. I won. I won, I tell you...!"
The moment I faced him, I felt the tension that had been ongoing throughout the battle grow taut once again.
Because winning once wasn't the end.
Because I could feel the music resounding from beyond, stirring the desires I held.
-Ding-daling~♬
Marilyn Sutherland.
If things kept going like this, the bond I had formed with her might never be connected again.
"So, get out of my way. Right now...."
And so, in this moment, I impulsively aimed my spear at the one standing before me.
At the one who, just like me, was being consumed by the impulses from the performance echoing now.
At the vicious monster whose power was on a completely different level from the one I had fought before.