Life Is Cruel (9)
Bang!
The bullet did nothing extraordinary. It simply struck its mark almost in the same instant the device detonated—scarcely a heartbeat after it left the barrel.
Some of the soldiers never even thought to lift their heads, mistaking the blast for the device itself going off.
Rumble…
That lasted only until the heavy splash of something massive hitting the water reached them.
"What are you waiting for? The mermen are climbing!"
Someone had already turned his gaze seaward faster than those who looked up at the sound.
Meister had never lowered his head to begin with—he had merely slipped on earplugs for a moment to protect his hearing. Trusting the Inquisitor’s barrier, he had watched everything while standing. Now he hurled a yomgitan and shouted.
"Ah, I know."
The Inquisitor came next.
Slightly rattled by the stronger-than-expected shockwave, she scrambled to her feet at once.
Crash!
A merman that had been rising at exactly the wrong moment slammed into a barrier that sprang up out of nowhere and crumpled. Had it been human, it would have suffered a concussion at the very least.
Thud!
To the one that slipped past the barrier and clawed its way up came the mace of justice. She steadied her breathing, composure returning to her face.
Complete calm, however, still eluded her. The overwhelming demon energy rolling from the rear of the city and the unbroken peals of thunder kept her endlessly on edge.
Her throat burned dry.
"…Did we finish it?"
Deathbringer rose awkwardly as well and nocked an arrow. "There’s a hole!" Soldiers who had been crouching half-risen one by one took up their spears again.
"Probably not."
"…Unfortunately, it doesn’t look that way."
Two voices answered Deathbringer’s question. Meister and the lord of the city both scowled deeply as they stared out over the night sea.
They carried items that could pierce the darkness. Meister was using the lord’s; the lord had all but snatched another commander’s.
"Still, if we play it right we might be able to kill the thing."
"Going for the head? I vote no, Meister. Too easy to miss."
Observing the giant turtle, they soon located the aftereffects of their earlier shot.
The bullet had punched clean through the shell and sheared away a chunk of the rock clinging to it. In the process it must have clipped the neck as well; blood was seeping steadily from the wound.
In short, while the shell itself took little structural damage, the flesh beneath could be penetrated without difficulty.
"Even if we don’t aim for the head, the area under the neck looks promising."
"We’ve only got three devices left. One’s already spent. Think we can even land another hit?"
"If we miss, we miss."
"…Fine."
The neck was long, after all; there were plenty of targets besides the head that rode higher than the shell—places where the body inside connected to the neck, for instance.
Goooooo!
"…!"
"Something’s coming!"
"I’ll hold it!"
But would the enemy simply stand still and let them take the shot?
At the turtle’s roar the Inquisitor decided to prepare for the worst. She cast a blessing that would reinforce the entire wall.
The earlier effort had already strained her, yet this much was still within reach.
She closed her eyes, quietly glad she had conserved her strength at the start. How am I supposed to deal with the one behind us? A thin thread of doubt stirred in a corner of her mind.
No matter how carefully she had husbanded her power, using it like this would leave her hard-pressed against the demon still waiting. The doubt was only natural.
"Demon Knight… I trust you."
Yet there was no longer any ground left to retreat to. From this point forward people would die in numbers that made her earlier thrift look almost frivolous.
So what choice remained? A bead of sweat formed on her cheek, and the whole stretch of wall shone with a pure, clear gold.
Crackling…
In the end the blessing proved somewhat redundant.
The attack that came was not the turtle’s own.
[Mom, Mom! Where are you?]
[Dih, my love. Where did you go without me? I’m so scared.]
[Sweetheart, you’re still all right, aren’t you? You’ll come back to me, won’t you?]
[Help me. Help me… Ar…]
"Seiren!!"
From the natural rock formations that had grown across the turtle’s shell, demons with the lower bodies of birds and the upper bodies of humans began to take flight.
Seiren—demons that mimic the voices of those most beloved, luring humans to their doom.
[Dad, I don’t know the way. Where are we supposed to go?]
[Fire! There’s fire! Lucas, save me!! I can’t get out of here!]
[Thinking of coming with me? I can protect you, you know.]
[When you come back, I really will accept your confession this time!]
They beat ash-gray wings fused to human arms as they flew. Beneath sky-gray hair, faces without eyes or noses possessed only gaping mouths.
"Snap out of it, all of you! Don’t fall for the enchantment!!"
"Ugh, goddamn demons. This world’s got things like that too, huh?"
They appeared so rarely that everyone had half-hoped they would stay away this time… of course they had come after all.
The lord’s eyes went wide; he barked frantic orders to those around him. Yet the seiren’s voices remained terribly clear, terribly distinct.
Some soldiers’ weapon hands simply froze in mid-motion.
Those men would soon be shredded by the claws of the mermen still climbing, or receive a seiren’s fatal kiss.
"Wake up!! They’re fake! Do you hear me—they’re fake!!"
The lord spun toward the alarm bell—then froze. [Wilhelm.] At the sound of that voice he squeezed his eyes shut and set his foot on the ladder.
"Everyone—! Come to your senses—!!"
BOOM!
Suddenly an enormous bloom of golden light exploded across the top of the wall.
Holy power unleashed without first dismissing the wall blessing, because the soldiers were already too slow in meeting the mermen.
Cold sweat beaded on the Inquisitor’s cheeks.
[Kyaaaaah!]
[Kiaaaaaaa!]
Yet the price of her effort was worth every drop.
Those caught in the enchantment regained their reason; seiren and mermen alike, seared by holy power as lethal as any poison, screamed and recoiled.
Their skin and feathers were lightly scorched.
[Mom, Mom! It hurts!]
[Lucas, Lucas, please! Just…!]
[Aaaagh!]
Even so, demons remained demons. Even as they fell back under the holy onslaught they raised their voices again, determined to lay their curse on someone—anyone.
Thud!
[Ghk!]
"How dare you."
That purpose was cut short by someone vaulting over the battlements.
"How dare you…!"
A two-meter giant swung her spear; the seiren struck by the shaft had its neck snapped clean. The way it plummeted left no doubt it was already dead.
"A filthy demon dares insult my sister!"
Slash! That was only the beginning.
She used another seiren as a springboard, leapt again, impaled a third through the solar plexus, then hurled the impaled body into yet another.
Thud. The two colliding seiren tumbled helplessly into the sea.
"I’ll tear every last one of you apart—!"
The voice that tore from her throat was pure, murderous fury. A glacial blue, the color of a frozen wasteland, faintly rimmed the spearhead.
"I was wondering why you hadn’t come down yet."
While everyone else was still startled by that ferocity and busied themselves with their own tasks, Meister suddenly popped up from nowhere.
A new cart and a new device rode in his hands. The faces of the soldiers clustered behind him were flushed scarlet—the look of people who had thrown every ounce of strength into the haul.
"Move!"
After more scrambling the second device was finally emplaced, and the same firing sequence began once more.
Boom! Because they were firing from a different position—there had been no time to clear the debris—the angle should have been nearly impossible. Meister still managed to put the shot near the neck.
Splash!
Rock near the hole crumbled away, and the turtle, drawing ever closer, let out a long, drawn-out cry.
Even more seiren living on its back joined the battle. It was almost unbelievable that so many of such a rare demon could exist.
"Laura…"
[Lucas! You finally came!]
The greatest problem, though, remained the soldiers’ discipline.
There were simply too many seiren; restoring those who fell under the spell was becoming nearly impossible.
Even with the Inquisitor continually detonating holy power and the Weapon Master—Berserk—slaughtering seiren left and right, some still succumbed.
Splash! Two or three soldiers toppled into the sea at a seiren’s gesture.
Many more had their tongues and entire faces chewed away by a single kiss. Headless human trunks plummeted through the air—three or four of them in this stretch of wall alone.
In sectors beyond the Inquisitor’s and the dual-personality warrior’s reach the casualties would be far worse.
"Damn it, my lord! Our numbers—!"
"Just a little longer—hold a little longer!"
Worst of all, the holes torn in the ranks by the seiren allowed mermen to punch through the wall with increasing frequency.
The remaining mermen seemed to understand this was their last chance; they fought with redoubled frenzy.
For soldiers already exhausted by a battle fiercer than usual and whose morale had been shredded by every new variable, it was the worst possible development.
Boom!
"It’s too close… far too close…"
By then the turtle’s bulk had already passed the halfway mark of the embankment. That line had been the lord’s final, private threshold.
He had calculated the time needed to evacuate the soldiers before the giant turtle reached the wall itself, and drawn the line accordingly.
Crash!
"This is the last one! At this range we can’t miss!"
Yet just as the order to pull back was about to leave his lips, the final bombardment device finished installation.
That made him hesitate for a heartbeat. If they evacuated and then the shot brought the turtle down, the withdrawal would have been for nothing.
Worse than nothing, perhaps—the mermen would never leave an abandoned wall alone.
Soldiers’ lives, or the gold that would later rebuild the city.
The lord who had just severed a seiren’s wing fired the very last signal flare he had been saving.
"Retreat!"
There was no real question. A city could always be rebuilt; human lives could not.
"Everyone in the center, fall away to both flanks!"
Besides, the bombardment device needed no mass of soldiers to fire. At most it required Meister, someone to feed it mana, and a handful of skilled fighters to protect them.
With so few—and all of them elites—it would be far easier to withdraw once the turtle closed in.
Having made the efficient choice, he sent the soldiers first. No one accused him of weakness or coldness.
"My lord, you may order a faster retreat if you wish."
Most simply obeyed without thought; the Inquisitor even supported the decision.
Hair plastered to her face with sweat, she drove her mace into the stone to proclaim a sanctuary. Light denser and richer than any she had released so far washed over the wall like a golden tide.
"…And under no circumstances send anyone to the northern gate. Even if a rescue signal comes. You may keep watch on the area, but do not approach it directly."
"…?!"
"…Hey, bookworm, what the hell does that—"
"Anyone who goes will die. Ordinary people can no longer help that fight."
Immediately afterward the Hero, face on the verge of tears, finished declaring the sanctuary. Deathbringer, who had clearly wanted to ask more, closed his mouth tight.
With the sanctuary established, the soldiers could withdraw more safely.
"Go first, my lord. What’s a supreme commander still doing here?"
"…Dietrich, Franz. Stay and assist them. I wish you both fortune in battle."
Forced by duty as both lord and supreme commander to leave first, he turned with an expression of quiet shame and followed the retreating soldiers.
He would now choose their withdrawal routes, receive reports on the civilian evacuation, and drive the refugees onward still harder.
Those who remained waited for the device’s mana to reach full charge.
Rrrrrumble!
Far across the city, the northern gate—already beginning to burn—was still filled with the roar of thunder.
Boom! Boom!
The turtle was now only a few dozen meters away. The piles of spikes underfoot seemed not to bother it at all; it simply crushed everything as it advanced with mindless, headlong force.
Slash!
"So that’s the nest of these bird bastards?"
"Probably."
The warrior who had slaughtered most of the seiren still remaining after the sanctuary was declared finally returned to the wall.
The fact that she had nearly fallen into the sea several times seemed to hold no terror for her; her blood-soaked face remained as fierce as ever.
"Will this kill it?"
"If it can, great. If it can’t, we run."
Weapon Master… no, right now it was Berserk, wasn’t it? Deathbringer, who knew of her dual personality, felt a flicker of unease as he met those eerie golden eyes.
"If that thing can’t kill it, Berserk will. Without fail."
…So the Weapon Master—Berserk’s sister—was more than just an alternate personality?
"Well, if you can pull that off we’ll be grateful."
"Wait— I know you’re strong, but how exactly do you plan to—"
"Leave her, Franz. She’s saying it because she can do it."
Otherwise she would never have snarled “don’t insult my sister” at a seiren mimicking someone.
Almost unconsciously he began analyzing Berserk’s situation as he watched the monster now right before them. It no longer looked like an enemy so much as a natural disaster.
A disaster that had simply chosen the path that happened to run through their city.
"Hero! That thing’s going to reach us first! Do something!"
Yet sometimes even natural disasters had to be faced by human hands.
At Meister’s shout the Inquisitor, still maintaining the sanctuary while holding off mermen and seiren, wrung out one more surge of power.
"O God, grant me the strength to protect them all."
Radiant light became a single barrier that blocked the turtle’s advance. Because the creature was not a demon it suffered no burning, yet by the caster’s will it could not pass through the wall.
Giant monster and Inquisitor’s resolve crashed against each other, testing strength. Crackling sounds rose as the barrier fractured and repaired itself, shoving the turtle back.
Trickle…
Blood flowed from the Inquisitor’s nose and mouth, then burned away to nothing.
"Done!"
And in the instant her body finally swayed, the device reached full charge. Meister yelled.
"Drop the barrier on my signal! Even sooner is fine!"
"…You two take the mages and get out first. You too, Slicker!"
"…I’ll be right behind you!"
"Four, three—"
"Young hunter, take the Demon Knight’s horse as well. It should be nearby."
"What?!"
"Go!"
KRAAAAAAANG!
A colossal detonation shook heaven and earth, pierced the approaching monster’s neck, and tore deeper into the joint connecting neck to body.
GROOOOOOAR!
The beast thrashed its neck wildly and staggered backward.
"Ah."
At the same moment the Inquisitor’s head snapped around. The rampaging giant no longer occupied even a corner of her attention.
Her green eyes filled with ground already engulfed in flame.
Fweeeeeee… Boom-boom-boom-boom!
And from the heart of those flames a signal flare rose.
It was a plea for help, a cry that salvation was needed, proof that he could no longer manage alone.
The Demon Knight had failed to eliminate the demon.
Demon energy as overwhelming as if the Overlord of Evil itself had descended surged across the night.