96. This Isn't Enough. Harder!
96. This Isn't Enough. Harder!
For demons, desire reigns above all else.
No matter how much they might choose to coexist with humans, overcoming that innate limitation is impossible.
'Ahh, I shouldn't be doing this...'
Of course, if the object of her obsession possessed overwhelming power like her lord, she could endure it. But what stood before her was an existence infinitely frail by comparison.
Let alone rivaling the lower-ranked executives beneath her—if he had to fight a single ordinary demon bare-handed, it was clear he would die a gruesome death.
The race of humanity, trampled by the Demon Lord Army for so long, was that weak and insignificant a being.
'I know this torments Hyosung, but this side of him is just so adorable.'
Yes. Because his existence was the one and only thing that had freed her from an endless cycle—a cycle where she could now only realize her desires by reminiscing about former glories.
Even if he was a fragile human, even if he fell to a state lower than livestock or insects, this feeling would not change.
This unwavering emotion, unchanged no matter his condition, was without a doubt a sentiment fit to be defined as love.
'And that lovable person is dancing in my palm at this very moment.'
But in the end, even such feelings stemmed from self-interest, not altruism.
What stood before her was not an object of loyalty, but a means to realize her desire—or perhaps the very purpose itself.
'So, just a little more...'
The more she recalled her lord, who remained unmoved by her playing, the stronger that feeling became.
How could she, yearning for a bond with him, suppress this impulse?
'Just a little. Just a very little more...!'
"Marilyn."
But her performance, continued in a near-trance, halted just that briefly.
At the voice that followed from behind, Marilyn stopped her playing and quickly turned around.
To face her rival in love, and simultaneously the only being who could check her impulses.
"Ah, Airi?"
The chill in that gaze felt far more piercing than usual.
It was only natural. What they had originally discussed was gradually adjusting the intensity, conducting training suited to his level.
And yet here she was, acting on her own and trying to trample the seed before it could even grow.
From the perspective of someone who wished for his growth, anger was inevitable, wasn't it?
"Aha~ I'm sorry. I got a bit carried away...."
Marilyn belatedly realized her blunder and suppressed her impulse.
Of course, if they fought again, she wouldn't get thrashed like last time. But winning a fight like that wouldn't bring her any gain at all.
If her impulses kept being suppressed, a moment of uncontrollable outburst might come, but she wasn't quite at that point yet.
"It, it was just a joke. I didn't really mean it...."
"No, please continue."
What came back to her as she tried to wrap things up and step back,
was anything but the expected scolding. It was encouragement.
"Huh?"
"I told you to continue the performance from earlier. If anything, making the music more intense than now would be better."
At Airi's subsequent words, Marilyn stared at her blankly.
Don't stop playing, but continue? Even more intensely?
'What in the... Wasn't this woman supposed to be on the side of protecting Hyosung?'
For a moment she wondered if she'd lost her mind, but Airi's gaze had already left her and settled on him.
Her expression hadn't softened in the slightest.
That grave and sharp look remained just as it was...
As if to convey that from the very beginning, her emotion had been directed at him, not at herself.
"Ggkkeuk!!"
Receiving Airi's gaze, he exhaled a deep breath and gradually began to rise to his feet.
The playing had stopped, but its lingering effects hadn't faded.
The instincts awakened by it continued to draw upon mana, doing their utmost to suppress his actions.
"Huff, haah, haah...!"
Even so, the sight of him standing up using the spear shaft as a cane was far beyond Marilyn's expectations.
She had assumed he wouldn't be able to endure this much and would be down for the time being.
'Unbelievable. His opponent is the remains of a guy who rose to the rank of Four Heavenly Kings candidate.'
Though his competitive spirit had vanished after witnessing the end of the Demon King he revered, the desire of sloth should have only nurtured its potential the more he indulged in laziness.
Those remnants still persisted somewhat even after being processed into equipment, and the instincts that had been losing strength should have been drawn out into an even stronger force by the infusion of her own magic power.
Yet he was overcoming that level of power through sheer mental fortitude.
"Hyosung, are you alright?"
"Yeah... I'm fine."
Airi passed by her flustered self and approached him.
He answered her question quietly, and still resisting the armor's suppressive force, he tightened his grip on the spear shaft.
"It suddenly got heavy and surprised me at first, but thinking about it, I've endured much worse than this."
"You can't say you're fine, but you're saying you haven't reached your limit yet... is that it?"
"Yeah. In fact, being pushed this hard just makes me want to fight back even more."
His breathing was ragged, his complexion pale.
Cold sweat soaked his face, and the two legs leaning on the spear shaft were trembling.
"I wonder... how much longer the current me can endure this."
Nevertheless, the smile drawn on his lips showed a will to endure even the unchecked sadism she had wielded.
She had definitely thought he might be broken by her own hand, yet here he was displaying a fighting spirit and aiming beyond this point.
'He... doesn't break?'
Yes. The very moment this unexpected event occurred—
the moment she was confronted with this sight, Marilyn felt an unfamiliar emotion stir in her chest.
No. It was an emotion she had definitely felt in the past.
She had simply forgotten it after such a long, long time.
But there had certainly been moments when the person she longed for had needed her ability.
'That's right. He still won't break. Not with the amount I pushed him...'
Those times when he enjoyed her performances, felt excitement from her music, and wished to spend a longer time together...
She felt that a fragment from that glorious era—which she thought would never return—was humbly materializing in this moment.
"Marilyn. Could you raise the tempo just a little bit more?"
"...Pardon?"
"I said it's okay to make the playing more intense."
"Ah, yes... just a bit. Just a bit more, right?"
Feeling her heart swell, Marilyn began to move her trembling fingers toward the strings of her lute.
Just a very little bit that had been permitted to her.
She would raise the tempo just a very little bit, just enough so that he wouldn't break.
-Twing~!!
But there was no way such a thing would be possible.
Though she had grown accustomed to patience, her body knew the agony of that patience all too well.
Because she'd wished for her desire to last even a little bit longer, she had even affirmed the existence of her love rival who would check her impulses.
Now that permission had been granted allowing her to release that cautiousness, how could restraint possibly work?
"I'm sorry, Hyosung. I am aware that I'm doing wrong, but..."
And above all, unlike her lord who felt nothing from her music, Hyosung was being stimulated by her playing.
Because he was somehow enduring it and trying to turn this moment's pressure into his own strength.
"If you show me you can get back up from such a wrecked state, there's no way I could resist!!"
If he broke at the end of it, that would be the end.
But if, conversely, he proved he could endure to the end, wouldn't she then be able to freely express her love for him from now on?
-Tring, twing!!
Faithful to that desire, she put more of her emotion into her performance in this moment than ever before.
Faster, and more intense.
For just this moment, with enough momentum to bury everything that suppressed her.
While intoxicated by the maddeningly dizzy melody of enchantment.
"Aghk, ughk!!!"
The pressure created by that performance began to shake one human's spirit with full force.
Though not specialized in physical force, its potential was at a level befitting the second-in-command of the Demon Lord Army, successor to the Demon King.
An ordinary human wouldn't be permitted to resist; their consciousness would ultimately grow intoxicated by a madness stronger than any drug, becoming oblivious even to the fear of death.
"Ugh... Aaaaaargh!"
Yet he was enduring.
He was resisting having his consciousness swept away by her performance at this moment, struggling to maintain his reason.
And if he maintained that ferocious will, it would lead to an opportunity to control the immense power suppressing his body.
-Don't... you move...
Of course, the armor's increasing momentum was the same, but even that was now climbing to a level where contesting it was possible, unlike in the beginning.
-It's meaningless, anyway. Even if you struggle, the only result is ending up like that person...
"Shut your mouth, you lazy piece of shit!!!"
Yes. It wasn't an unbeatable opponent.
The fact that an enemy he'd already bested once was grabbing him by the scruff of the neck through a corpse was one thing, but to conclude it was impossible before even trying—wasn't that just pathetically foolish?
"With everything I've got to do in my life, what nonsense is 'rest and wallow'... If you're already dead, then just shut up and become my experience points, you damn dog of a bastard!"
With a fighting spirit born from that conviction, he suppressed the magical power the armor emitted, tightened his fist around the throwing spear, and attempted to steady his stance.
-Kugugugugugu!
The atmosphere trembled from merely standing.
A force powerful enough to make the very space around him shudder assaulted him, but even so, he did not fall.
He endured without falling and instead intended to make this explosive power surging through him in the moment his own.
"Uwaaaaaaaaah!!"
Alongside the roar that burst from him at the end, the tip of the spear was launched with all his might.
At that instant, the fierce magical power erupting from the armor concentrated at the spear tip, generating a devastating thrust that shot forward.
-Paaang!
A crashing sound one could hardly believe had come from a throwing spear.
Following that, the training dummy past which the afterimage flew, the outer wall of the building behind it, and the ceiling.
-Kwakwakwakwakwang!
The spear that tore through and advanced past all of that extended further beyond, eventually embedding itself into a nearby mountain and letting out a thunderous roar.
The practice spear had ultimately failed to embed itself into the mountain's surface, but even that was because the spear hadn't withstood the magical power and was pulverized midway.
If the spear had been able to fully withstand the force—
if, for instance, it had been made of a sturdy metal like mithril instead of wood or iron, then the attack in this moment might have caused a small landslide that buried everything below it.
"Huff, huff...!"
But the awareness that he had nearly caused such a disaster was absent from him in this instant.
He had simply given it his all, and at the end of it, he had succeeded in unleashing the power.
It wasn't at a level he could call proper control, and his stamina was completely depleted from concentrating solely on resisting and unleashing the force. But even so, simply by overcoming the oppression emitted by the equipment, it could be said he had secured the possibility of exceeding his own limits.
"He, he did it. He really... did it."
The one aware of this was Marilyn as well, who had been watching by his side.
A smile she herself didn't even recognize began to form on the lips of the woman who was watching his growth—his resistance to her sadistic feelings.
Because a belief was gradually beginning to take root that if this state persisted, he could overcome even her intensifying impulses.
"Good work, Marilyn."
But trying to revel in that achievement lasted only a brief moment.
Right afterward, Airi announced the conclusion of the first training session, passed by Marilyn, and began to approach him where he had collapsed.
Even though he had accomplished an incredible feat seemingly impossible for a human, her voice remained cold and grave, as if she had predicted even this.
"And Hyosung, good work to you too. Rest a bit, and once the elder returns, let's continue with the next training."
"Ah, yes... So this isn't the end."
"Yes, this is the beginning."
Her eyes, looking at his exhausted state, narrowed, and strength gradually filled that gaze.
"Because the trials Hyosung has to overcome from now on cannot be conquered with just this much."
An answer that made even this seem like only the start.
Hyosung, who was too deep in fatigue to properly hear those words, wore a blank expression, but even that was soon replaced as he sensed the presence of people encroaching upon the training ground.
"...It seems people have come looking after hearing the commotion. I'll step away for a moment to explain things to them."
"Ah, yes. Please do."
With that, Airi began to leave on his behalf, as he had collapsed from exhaustion.
Marilyn, who had belatedly come to her senses, immediately followed her and called her to a halt.
"Wait a moment, Airi."
"What is it, Marilyn?"
Swish. Airi stopped in her tracks and turned to face her.
The chill in those eyes was, indeed, significantly different from the emotional demeanor she had shown all this time.
Marilyn could vaguely guess the reason.
"You... are currently being affected by my power, aren't you?"
"....."
"...Just as I thought."
Yes. Because no matter if it was for his sake, pushing him this hard was at odds with her usual self.
Moreover, even knowing what would happen in the future didn't apply to a capricious demon whose actions even a prophet couldn't predict.
"Did you possess the awareness that you could potentially lose control over me?"
The reason she had egged her on despite that was perhaps because she too had lost normal judgment due to the performance.
"...Just what did you see in the future that makes you feel so impatient?"
Just what events would unfold in the future
to make her so ruthlessly overwork the one she loved and push for his growth?
"I'm sorry, but I'll tell you that later. Until the appointed time comes, it's best to minimize variables."
As if hinting that such speculation was not entirely wrong, she merely left the spot without denying her worries.
There was no confusion in her, nor self-awareness of having run wild.
Being affected by Marilyn's performance was true to some extent, but even that couldn't be said to have influenced her to the point of losing her reason.
"...It's not enough."
It had merely reminded her of what she had been forgetting.
That she was the last successor of the Haven clan,
and that she, inheriting the will of her clan, must prioritize the salvation of this world heading toward destruction.
"This much isn't enough, Hyosung. You can't defeat her with just this much."
And what awaited later was him personally stepping up to block the path of the dragon who had declared humanity's annihilation.
Since Transcendents were thoroughly entangled in that future, its outcome couldn't be guaranteed now.
Because it couldn't be guaranteed, the anxiety was inevitable even though he had achieved results exceeding her prophecy.
"So, you have to become stronger, faster."
"Even to prevent what Tasian will soon set in motion at this excavation site..."
Everything was for the coexistence of love and mission.
The first ordeal to make him the savior would begin with him personally eliminating the last remaining dragon in this world.