To the Summit of the Mount of Demonic Beasts (6)
"Guhhk... kuh, augh. Ugh, that hurts..."
I writhed in the middle of my room.
Everything in my field of vision was red. The walls were red, the floor was red, the wardrobe, my phone, even the computer. The whole world looked like it had been dunked in tomato paste.
Was this what the world looked like when I used to have those nasty nightmares as a kid?
The difference was that back then it had only been a dream. Now, all of this was real.
"Ugh, oof. Good lord. Seriously... ugh—"
Only after wiping away a round of bloody tears did my vision clear. Fortunately, it wasn't that the blood vessels in my eyes had burst — my nosebleed had simply run backward and leaked out through them.
"Ugh. Uuuugh..."
Every muscle in my body screamed as if it had been worked to shreds. It was exactly like the muscle soreness the day after forcing someone who never exercised to run a half marathon.
I knew that one from experience. The day after a marathon had hurt a little worse than this.
I flopped around on the floor for a long while, then slowly crawled toward my phone. Between the muscle pain and the total absence of strength in my limbs, the crawl took forever.
Right now I was like a phone with a dead battery. Less than five percent remaining — absolute weakest mode. Thanks to that, I learned for the first time just how heavy a smartphone could be. My hands trembled violently as I tried to lift it, shaking at a level that rivaled a drug addict in withdrawal.
Tremble-tremble-tremble—
Both hands gripping the phone vibrated with violent intensity. There was no way I could play a game like this, so I simply flopped face-down onto the floor instead.
Lying prone against the warm floor, drowsiness started to creep in—
Crack! Crunch—
"Ugh! Aaaagh!"
The muscle pain detonated. Even the slightest movement made every muscle and bone in my body scream. Only after settling into position with extreme, painstaking care could I finally let out a sigh of relief.
Once the tsunami of pain quieted a little, drowsiness rushed in to fill the empty space. The warm floor and my completely depleted stamina made for a merciless combo. My consciousness flickered, and sleep poured down like a waterfall. My eyelids fluttered shut; I clearly wouldn't last much longer. They sank lower and lower, as if holding a knife to my throat and ordering me to sleep right now.
But—
"The... the raid..."
I was in the middle of a boss raid. I couldn't collapse until I'd at least seen the scouting party's situation with my own two eyes.
I forced my locking eyelids open and stared at the screen. Even so, those eyelids kept trying to close, and it was truly awful.
Tap. Tap-tap—
In a half-asleep haze, I swiped the screen this way and that. My index finger trembled so badly that simply moving the view was a struggle.
"Ah, this is..."
Then I saw it — a low cairn of stones. The place where the sacrifice who had been eaten by the demon was buried.
Even as snow fell thick and heavy all around, none of it accumulated near the stone mound. Instead, green grass and tiny wildflowers were tentatively lifting their heads. Even through the screen, I could almost feel the warmth radiating from around the grave — as if spring itself had arrived early, but only in that one small circle.
An unmistakable scene of miracle.
"...You did it."
I really had done it. By my own will, I had wrought a miracle in another world. Only now was it starting to feel real.
I clenched and unclenched a hand still tingling with muscle pain as I gazed at the screen. For just a brief moment, I let my guard down in that warm glow of satisfaction—
"Sss... krrr—"
And just like that, I fell asleep.
In the snow-dusted stables of the Montegros ducal estate, the stalls that would ordinarily have been full of horses held only deer. In this cold northern land, they preferred deer over horses, which were less hardy against the chill.
And among those deer, one presence stood out as utterly alien.
Pruurr—
A unicorn.
Lately, the unicorn had been extremely, extremely dissatisfied with his living conditions. That man who called himself his master worked a noble creature like him as if he were a common packhorse, and the maidens he so adored only scorned, denounced, and tormented him the moment they laid eyes on him.
And even the place he stayed — if that had been decent, he might have endured it. A noble fairy steed, reduced to what? A stable? Forced to share quarters with common beasts? He ought to have been enshrined inside a warm house, and instead they put him in a stable? And for feed, they gave him nothing but fodder?
Pruurk—! How offensive. Utterly offensive!
A front hoof stamped the ground in indignation. The frozen earth cracked and caved like soft mud beneath that casual strike.
Heeheehing—
A doe sidled up to the thoroughly disgruntled unicorn and nuzzled against him, her eyes full of a peculiar heat.
Away with you! I have no interest whatsoever in a beast like you!
Oddly enough, female deer thronged around the unicorn. Their eyes burned with passionate intensity as they circled him, courting him with aggressive enthusiasm. By animal standards, the unicorn was apparently a creature of extraordinary beauty.
He himself, however, showed no particular interest in the does. Given that he had declared himself a fairy steed who protected maidens, that was only natural.
Pruurk— pruurrurk!
I said it's offensive! Heehing— ...Hm?
Still grumbling as he chewed his fodder, the unicorn suddenly whipped his head around. The eyes that had been full of complaint filled with an unfathomable, profound light, gazing past the space around him toward somewhere far beyond.
Past the stable walls, past the castle walls, toward somewhere high upon a mountain. What those eyes beheld was his master, Hans, locked in combat against a great demon wearing the form of a colossal dragon.
Hee, heehing? What on earth is this...?
Why in the world was his master all the way up on a mountain peak fighting a great demon? The unicorn's eyes filled with questions. Having been more or less imprisoned in the stables all this time, he had no idea about the oracle that had been delivered to the scouting party.
Pruurrurk—!
He didn't know the full story, but once he confirmed his master's danger, what the unicorn had to do was perfectly clear. Like him or hate him, he and Hans were bound by a contract of souls. That man was his master.
Heeheehing! What a high-maintenance master you are!
The unicorn let out a powerful cry and kicked free of the stable. A mere wooden fence could never hold a unicorn. Until now he had obediently done as he was told, not wanting to earn the maidens' hatred — but from this moment, every priority had changed.
His master's safety came first.
The sturdy timber shattered like rotten twigs before the unicorn's kick, and he launched himself across the ground without hesitation. A long tail of dust trailed behind him like a comet's wake.
Clack! Clack!
Eeheehing!
And gradually, he rose into the sky. From his white mane, brilliant multicolored starlight streamed down, and in the eyes that had once sought out maidens, a deep and profound light welled up.
His destination: the summit of that high mountain.
The unicorn roared toward the heavens and streaked across the sky as a shooting star.
BOOM! Crash! Clang!
Hahaha! Is that all you've got? All you lot know how to do is hop around like fleas!
"Khuk!"
CRASH!
The demon wearing a colossal dragon's visage erupted with laughter as it drove Hans and the paladin back. Despite its enormous bulk, the demon moved with startling agility, herding Hans and the paladin into a corner even though it could have killed them at any moment.
This bastard's toying with us!
A massive claw slammed into the earth. Hans rolled clear just in time, but the glancing wind pressure left a light cut across his cheek. He gritted his teeth and looked up at the demon.
It was a situation much like that one before — the cave in the mountain village where he had faced a demon alone. Demons as a breed all delighted in toying with their opponents, inflicting pain, and killing them slowly. Perhaps, in their eyes, humans were nothing more than creatures they could crush underfoot whenever they pleased.
One hit. If I can just land one solid hit...!
Thump— thump—!
The Rune of Courage engraved on Hans's longsword pulsed and blazed like the sun. Power flooded through his entire body in time with that hot resonance. It wasn't the blood-boiling exaltation of that earlier battle, but strength far beyond his usual limits surged through him all the same.
The demon's pupils slit into thin lines as it looked down at Hans, turning its head this way and that, examining every part of his body. Its gaze felt so tangible that Hans almost imagined a sticky tongue licking over him from head to toe.
Hmm...? Are you truly an ordinary human? Strange and bizarre, yet fascinating. Mere letters elevating one's rank? No — merely catalyzing it, perhaps? Or is it a trick of the eye?
Interest and greed filled the demon's pupils. It seemed ■ had crafted quite an amusing toy.
If it devoured this together with the Star-light, it would be nothing short of a celestial delicacy. Drool dripped from the demon's maw.
I'll kill you first, then we can take our time talking! I'll simply ask your soul!
A pitch-black, razor-sharp claw swept through the air at terrifying speed. If it connected, Hans would be obliterated without leaving so much as a shape behind.
"Hoo..."
In that split-second contest of senses, Hans drew a deep breath. At his fingertips, the faint sensation from his journey to that sea still lingered — fragile, as if it might vanish at any moment — and he shaped his stance according to that delicate feeling.
At the same time, he recalled what he had learned sparring with Demonic.
Composure. A calm as clear and still as a quiet pond. Observe the enemy with composure, read the trajectory, then strike. Deflect the opponent's attack and land your own.
In his hand, a single sword. In his heart, a reason to return home.
Hans had never forgotten the advice a certain blacksmith had once given him.
The reason I take up the sword...
Because there were things he wanted to protect. That was why he always stepped forward.
This time was no different.
He took one step forward.
And then—
He swung his sword.
The demon's claw surged forward, filling every inch of space ahead. Hans's longsword rose to meet it. From the outside, it looked like a mantis — no, an ant — challenging a carriage.
But the result—
Slash—!
A mere ant stopped the carriage cold.
KRAAAAAH! You— you! How dare you—!
The pitch-black foreleg drifted through empty air. One of the demon's feet dropped free, showing a clean cross-section, and thick black blood began to pour out. It had never imagined it could be wounded by a mere human.
Shocked and enraged, the demon staggered backward.
"Khuhp—! Hoo... hup!"
Hans gripped his blazing sword and gasped for breath. Muscles wrung to their absolute limit trembled, and the longsword that had always felt light now weighed like lead.
He could feel it. That single strike just now was something on an entirely different level from the self he had been before his journey to that nameless sea.
Can I do it again?
Given enough time, it should be possible. He steadied his ragged breathing and leveled his sword with forced composure.
Rage blazed in the demon's needle-thin pupils. Flames churned in its slightly parted jaws, ready to erupt at any second.
Krrr—! You! I will not let you die easily—!
BOOOOOOM—!
Guh-haaaargh!!
Something plummeted from the sky like a bolt and smashed into the demon's head, driving it into the ground like a falling meteor.
"Wh-what?!"
The upheaval had happened in an instant. Startled, Hans and the paladin quickly fell back and raised their guard.
Clop— clack-clop—
From within the thick cloud of dust came the sound of hoofbeats. There was something oddly calming in the clear ring of those hooves.
Then, slowly, something emerged through the dust.
A pure white mane. Intelligent eyes. A single horn standing proud and tall.
Master! I have arrived!
The unicorn, descending like a comet, cried out with magnificent bearing.