EP.10 The Wolf Chasing the Moon -2
EP.10 The Wolf Chasing the Moon -2
Miho's ability let her cast illusions and materialize the objects within those illusions into reality.
Just hearing about the ability made it sound like a seriously broken creation-type power, but in practice, it came with a lot of restrictions.
To give a representative example, there was the limitation that she could not materialize anything that Miho or the illusion's target did not know about.
Only things that Miho—or whoever she cast the illusion on—could picture in their mind would appear within the illusion.
For instance, if Miho cast an illusion on me, and neither Miho nor I knew what a rock was or what it looked like, then she could neither manifest a rock within the illusion nor materialize it.
In other words, we could never manifest anything we had never experienced.
So normally, it was obvious that something like a falling meteor was utterly impossible for her to manifest.
No one there had ever witnessed a meteor strike.
Except for exactly one person.
One single person existed who could manifest a meteor,
and that person was, of course...
"Dear husband~!!"
Yata, flying toward me slowly.
"How was it?! The meteor the fox bitch and I created?"
"Ahh... it was big and beautiful, sure, but isn't it a bit too much?"
A crow who could peer ahead into aeons of future time—not just hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of years.
She had been able to see, through the future, not only meteors but absolutely everything that existed in the world throughout her life, so to put it bluntly, there was probably nothing she hadn't seen.
If Miho cast an illusion on someone like her and then used the materialization ability, it essentially meant there was nothing they couldn't manifest.
Miho and Yata.
They fought constantly, as if their personalities were oil and water that couldn't possibly mix, but when it came to combining their abilities, I thought there genuinely wasn't a duo as perfectly matched as the two of them.
"It's fine! I picked a size that's only big enough to obliterate the village and the nearby forest. And Tia put in some effort to make sure the impact wouldn't reach the evacuees, so there shouldn't be any problems, right?"
"Kkyu-oo!"
"R-right, then."
This time, the baby dragon was bobbing her shoulders with pride, insisting she had worked really, really hard.
I wanted to pet her like crazy and tell her she'd done a good job, but I was so frustrated that my hands were currently completely shredded.
"The crow who sees the future...!! So it was you who devised this scheme after all!"
"Hmm~ It's a bit iffy to call it a scheme, you know? We merely prepared a meteor. The only one who bought time during the preparation was my dear husband alone, through his effort and wits."
Yata and the ice wolf Hati looked like they knew each other.
Were they previously acquainted?
"Do not lie!! Did you not tip him off in advance so that the human could buy time against me?!"
"There is genuinely not a single element I interfered with in the fight between you and my husband. In fact, if I had told him how to handle you, the future would have flowed in an even worse direction."
Yata gently pulled the battered wreck of me into an embrace and stroked my head, telling me I'd done a good job.
Right after that, she even rubbed her cheek against my face, and my face grew so hot it was almost burning from sheer embarrassment.
"We reached this point entirely because of our husband! See? That is the man I am so proud of!"
"Shut your mouth...!! You Corrupted One who broke the Divine Beast Rules and formed a contract with a human that must never be made!!"
"If you're shackled by nothing but convention, you can't see a good future. Which is why you've fallen into a crisis like this."
The meteor was gradually reaching the village where we were located.
I realized that even if we started running now, it was impossible to avoid the collision between the meteors.
But wait, didn't that mean we were in danger too?!
"Hmph! Then we shall perish together! I will not die alone—you bastards are coming with me!"
"I wonder~? Is that really so?"
"H-huh...?"
My viewpoint was gradually rising...?
"Hey, Yata...?!"
"You don't have to be so flustered. I was simply planning to fly you to a safe place, husband!"
Yata's black wings, beautiful every time I saw them.
Her wings shone brilliantly against the dark night.
"B-but isn't there not enough time to escape?"
"Kkyu!!"
"Ah, aha...!"
Come to think of it, we had Tia.
If Tia just eliminated the air resistance during flight, getting out of here would be instantaneous.
The thought of reliving the pain and terror from the amusement park was unbearable...
"Anyway, we'll be off now~! Go on and survive all by yourself, swishing your tail side to side, wolf!"
Yata was sneering at the wolf with the single most obnoxious expression in recorded history.
All the provocations I'd pulled off up until now felt cheap by comparison.
"Did you think I would stand by and quietly watch you escape?!"
Enraged by Yata's mockery, the wolf created every form of ice he could and hurled it at us.
For him, this was a desperate, life-or-death attack.
Unfortunately for him, though, we already had the ultimate defensive barrier, thoroughly field-tested...
"Kkyu-it!!"
It was Tia's wind curtain, which pulverized every single shard of ice fired at us into powder.
Tia, who had blocked all of Hati's attacks—including the wolf himself charging at us—was also smirking scornfully toward the wolf.
"Kkyu-i-it?"
Are you feeling the difference in power?—seriously, when did she learn to say something like that?
Tia, when even you mocked him, I almost began to pity the wolf...
"Will this be okay?"
"Are you worrying about that wolf, by any chance?"
"No, well, I do feel a tiny bit of sympathy, but that's not what I meant. The meteor feels like it's about to fall right on our heads any second now—I was just wondering if it's okay."
"You don't need to worry about that. I saw a future where nobody gets hurt! Besides, we have Tia in a pinch, don't we? That wolf would find it impossible, but for Tia, blocking a meteor of that size should be a piece of cake, right?"
"Kkyu-it!"
Yata was vouching for her that much...
I was once again freshly reminded of how incredible Tia's power really was.
"Anyway, shall we pick up the pace a little?"
"Kkyu-it!!"
"Uwaah...!!"
Yata and Tia began flying at a speed even faster than the roller coaster.
A sonic boom formed at that speed. I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting the same agony as before, but nothing happened.
The speed was so fast I couldn't see what was ahead, yet I alone wasn't being hit by any wind whatsoever.
"There's no way we'd handle our husband recklessly when he's already so badly injured, is there?"
"Kkyu-i!"
Thankfully, they'd paid attention to me and covered my body with a membrane of air to protect me.
How could I even begin to thank them for this...
"Hmm...! Looks like we made it right on time!"
"Huh?"
—Kwaaaaang!!!
A flash more intense than a flashbang, a terrifying explosion that shook the heavens and the earth, and a thunderous roar that felt like it would rupture my eardrums.
I recoiled in shock at the collision scene, so staggering I couldn't keep my mouth shut.
But only for a moment—the blast aftermath and all manner of debris generated by the impact began surging toward where we were.
"D-dangerous...!!"
But my worries were apparently groundless, because all the disasters spawned by the collision stopped exactly in front of us.
It was as though an invisible wall had stopped them...
This was probably the safety device Tia had created beforehand.
"Kkyu-oo!"
"Tia...!!"
Our Tia was so gallant...!!
Agh, I wanted to shower her with affection!!
"Husband!"
As that thought crossed my mind, a familiar voice called from below.
The ground was shaking as if an earthquake had struck from the collision, but my companion fox was running toward me as if it was nothing.
Wearing an utterly radiant smile, no less.
"Husband!! Husband~!! Hus..."
"Hm?"
"...band?"
Miho had been coming along perfectly fine just moments ago.
But when she saw something about me, the smiling expression vanished from her face completely, and she turned dead serious.
Her pupils soon trembled as though she had witnessed something forbidden, which only deepened my unease.
"Wh-why are you suddenly like that? You're scaring me."
"H-husband? Just what is that wound...?"
"Ah...!"
Now that she mentioned it, I was currently a blood-soaked mess.
It was only natural for Miho to react like that after seeing me in this state...!
I hurried to reassure Miho that she had nothing to fear.
sensation returned to the fingers that had been torn off along with chunks of flesh.
They looked as though they had been there from the beginning.
"Ah...! Thank you, Miho."
She had partially materialized my pre-injury appearance.
It was a healing method unique to Miho, and I'd already received it three times.
"Crow."
"What?"
"I'm just confirming in advance, but the bastard who hurt husband like this is that son of a bitch in there, correct?"
"That's right."
"Is that so? Then picture the meteor once more. Let's feed that son of a bitch another one!"
"W-wait...?!"
"Oh, shall we!"
"Why are you agreeing as if it's the obvious thing to do?!"
"Well, I didn't show it outwardly either, but I was plenty furious that the wolf bastard hurt my husband."
"Kkyu-i-it!!"
Let's go!!—was what she said...!
"N-no!!"
"Why not?"
"You've already revealed a significant amount of your power just with this, right? I don't think flaunting your abilities any more than this is a good idea!"
The first time could be dismissed as a true coincidence, but a second time would be intention, not coincidence.
A meteor falling on a village was so rare you could wonder if it was even possible—and two of them falling on the same village?
Anyone would think it was a situation someone had deliberately engineered.
Humans would assume it was a Divine Beast's power and have to live every day in fear, while the Divine Beasts would assume it was something my companions and I had done and would move swiftly to reject us.
I didn't know much about nukes, but at the very least, I didn't think a meteor impact was weaker than a nuke.
Just looking right now at the crater created by the meteor impact and the surrounding landscape was enough to make goosebumps break out all over my body.
It would be worse than a nuke, if anything, never weaker. Absolutely!
So we couldn't create something like this a second time!
"In the first place, I fought because I wanted peace, not because I was out to wreck everything. So no more meteor generation!"
"It's certainly not the worst choice, but it'd be a bad one."
"Kkyu-i..."
"I understand. I'll follow what husband says."
This time, my companions were obediently listening to me.
Thank goodness, our kids really were the type to listen when I spoke up!
"Instead, you'll let us finish off our confirmation kill, right?"
"Huh...?"
"I checked the future, and that wolf bastard is still barely clinging to life."
"H-huh...? R-really?"
"Kkyu-it!"
"But wait...! Kids?"
At the news that the wolf was still alive, my three companions' eyes lit up.
Now that the blast aftermath had died down, they were about to head back to where we'd come from, saying this time they'd kill the wolf for sure.
Feeling a sense of unease at their behavior, I had no choice but to return with them.
And so we came back to the village, but it was already so thoroughly devastated that calling it a village was a bit of a stretch.
How gruesome.
"Anyway, with it being this hot..."
The ground where the fiercely blazing meteor had scored a direct hit on the village was deeply caved in.
Barely a few minutes after forming, the ground already held enough heat to melt the flesh right off your body.
Just as I was thinking there was no way we could go down there, the wind Tia generated made the heat—and what's more, even the remaining fire—vanish completely.
...Honestly, without Tia, all of us—including the evacuees and agents who had escaped the village—might have died.
Looking at the crater, which had been generated precisely over the village and the nearby forest, I once again marveled at Tia's ability.
Now that my hands had healed, I could reward her with all the petting she deserved.
"Kkyu-it!!"
Finally feeling my touch, Tia began beaming brightly, saying it felt nice.
Her expression practically cried, This is what I wanted! She rubbed her face against my hand in bliss.
Aaah!! This was healing, all right...!
"Grurrr...!! You filthy...! Corrupted One scum...!!"
The happy healing time was short-lived.
A voice thick with both hatred and groaning entered our ears—undoubtedly Hati's voice.
A Divine Beast really was a Divine Beast, to still be alive after being hit by that meteor...
When I actually turned my head toward where the sound was coming from, a wolf who was still breathing was glaring daggers at us.
"Ah..."
When I first met the wolf, I'd been so terrified that my body froze up...
But now I didn't feel any of that fear at all, and on the contrary, the only emotion that surfaced was one of pity.
The wolf's body was wrecked to such a horrifying degree.
All the ice fur he'd been so proud of had melted away, soaked in blood, and his flesh was severely twisted everywhere—there wasn't a single part of him left intact.
It was the sort of injury where dying at any moment wouldn't be strange at all.
The only thing left intact now was his hatred and fury toward us.
"Damned human and Corrupted Ones! I curse you all...!!"
"Kkyu-i-it!!"
"..."
H-huh...? Don't stop petting?
Of all times, at a moment like this...?
"Kkyu-it!!"
Tia continued demanding affection, utterly uninterested in the wolf's final words.
"Euhm, guess there's no choice..."
I ended up listening to the wolf's dying words while continuously petting Tia.
S-sorry...! But please don't glare at me like you want to kill me.
How could I refuse when my adorable baby dragon wanted it so badly...?
"You lot broke the Divine Beast Rules and..."
"Sorry, but can you keep it brief? It's a bother to listen to all of it. I mean, you're about to croak anyway, aren't you?"
"..."
Y-Yata...? They were still a Divine Beast's dying words. Should we not at least hear him out?
The wolf seemed to accept that little time remained. His hatred burned brighter as he forced out his final words.
"Though I am fated to die here... my twin brother and my father will...!!"
"Why listen to this kind of bullshit any longer? Just kill him quickly and be done with it!"
"Miho?! Hold on...!!"
—Fwack!
With the dull sound produced by Miho's strike, the wolf's dying words were ultimately snuffed out before he could finish them.
I was sorry!! I was truly sorry...!!
"Ah! That's so cheap! I was about to finish him off!"
"Kkyu-it?! Kkyu!!"
"Both of you met husband earlier than I did, didn't you? So it's only natural for you to hand the wolf's finish over to me!"
My companion Divine Beasts, who didn't give a damn what happened to Hati, were starting to bicker with each other over such a trivial matter.
Were my companion Divine Beasts fighting like that knowing full well what kind of trash personality they'd just displayed toward Hati?
Yeah... that probably didn't matter anymore.
According to the wolf's words, his kin would come seeking revenge from now on.
In other words...
It meant that one day we would also have to fight Fenrir, the wolf infamous for devouring the world.
...
...
...
"Ah, I seriously feel like I'm gonna lose my damn mind...!!"
Why the hell did my life keep getting this tangled up?
I really wished someone would tell me...