410. Sunrise (2)
410. Sunrise (2)
- 1 -
'That's impossible.'
Serica felt boundless fear.
She hadn't grasped it when she saw Tiamat from a distance.
Now that she was close, her body froze without her even noticing.
Tiamat.
The presence she now confronted in reality was beyond imagination.
The mana pouring out from the massive dragon form warped the very atmosphere.
'For such power to exist in this world...'
She could understand the power of the Archangels and the Demon Realm Archdukes.
They were beings beyond the norm, only eleven existing in the entire world—so exceptional that even the Goddess had deemed the Archangels alone insufficient and created additional followers.
But this being had been sealed by the combined assault of the surface world, had she not.
'And yet she still has this much power... the title of Archduke truly isn't just for show.'
Libertas did not normally reveal her full power.
So Serica had almost never experienced this kind of overwhelming force.
Still, it was fine.
'I will stand by Rita's side.'
In her heart, an unbreakable, steadfast will had already been forged.
To Serica, only one thing mattered.
That Libertas accepted her.
That alone was enough.
Whether she was an Archduke, the Demon King, or even a god.
"Don't listen to that woman, big sister. She's just trying to use you."
She stepped forward, clenching her fists and wearing a confident smile at the corner of her mouth, not cowed in the slightest.
『... And you are?』
"I am Serica Baritra. The first promised one of the most precious demon in the world."
In her eyes, there was only pure certainty.
- 2 -
Behemoth was still glaring at me.
- Grrrrr...
A low, weak growl.
It was the sound made by a young predator meeting a being stronger than herself for the first time.
The massive roar that had seemed to tear eardrums had ceased, but the hatred and fear within it had not vanished.
'If I were to be hit by that hand...'
My gaze momentarily fell upon that hand.
A small hand covered in blood.
The massive forepaw that once tore the earth apart had now become nothing more than a gaunt, skeletal hand.
But its power still remained.
For now, she was simply curled up tightly, reeling from the pain of being beaten for the first time in her life.
If she grasped her fist with mana and swung at me, even I would be helplessly beaten.
I carefully approached her. One step, another step.
"I am sorry."
- ...?
Behemoth blinked her eyes. As if she had heard the 'intent to apologize' for the very first time in her life.
She seemed unable to understand why the being who had beaten her down was apologizing.
"Won't you give me your hand?"
I slowly knelt down before Behemoth.
Becoming defenseless before the Archduke of Slaughter.
It was an action fraught with danger, where a single mistake could cost one's life.
But the moment I looked into her eyes, I felt certain.
That she would not do such a thing.
I slowly held out my hand.
Blink.
Behemoth blinked her large eyes once more, then cautiously held out her hand.
The moment our hands touched, the small hand flinched and curled inward.
Sliding my hand into that grip was a dangerous attempt, but thankfully it succeeded.
- ... What are you trying to do...?
Only then did she convey a proper intent.
A pure, innocent intent.
She did not even know what it was that she herself had lost right now.
That instinct which had swallowed several cities and devoured thousands of heroes.
That ferocious predation was now trapped in a small body, losing its sense of purpose.
Normally, she would have had to undergo the process of meeting a parent or a guide to control her instincts and become a rational monster.
I didn't know what her relationship with Tiamat was like... but if what I was seeing now was correct.
She had never, not even once, met such a being. Not once.
"I am going to heal you."
- ...
Behemoth remained silent.
I raised my other hand and brought it to her forehead.
"You must have been in pain."
Flinch!
Behemoth recoiled in surprise, stepping back.
- ... It didn't hurt.
The 'little' giant monster was putting on a show of pride.
Still, there was a communicative intent mixed in there. Clumsy and awkward, but it was there.
If that was the case, then as one who walks ahead, shouldn't I look back over my shoulder for her?
"Right. Because you are strong. This is proof of that."
She raised her own hand and carefully touched her forehead.
The very spot that had exploded when struck by my magic while she possessed her giant body.
However, that now remained merely as a trace, nothing more than a small bump.
I gently laid my hand over it.
Hoo-oohk —
The blooming darkness transformed into a shape that people commonly picture when they think of a 'flower.'
A garland woven with purple Dimor Poseka. It wasn't a real flower, merely a phenomenon created by magic.
I could not heal this wound immediately.
Though it looked like a simple bump on the surface, in reality it was the result of the massive wound her giant body had sustained, compressed to an extreme degree.
It was a manifestation of her very survival instinct.
"Do you feel a bit better now?"
- It doesn't hurt...
However, easing the pain was entirely possible.
「Regained Purity」.
It was an ironic situation where a hero-grade dark magic, originally meant to devour the very 'causality' of a target 'having been wounded,' was being used merely as a painkiller.
But it was an example proving her strength.
- ... I'm hungry.
I felt a flinch of tension from behind me.
It was a natural reaction.
She had erased five cities to sate that 'hunger' so far.
If we had arrived just a little later, this place, Nyutardon, would have met the same fate.
- Grrrrr...
As my close aides' wariness grew stronger, she too hunched her shoulders and tensed up.
The moment even a little power gathered in her, the nearby atmosphere trembled.
"It's alright."
I directed the words to both sides.
With one hand, I gently stroked her shoulder, and with the other, I gestured toward the back to calm them down.
Then, I brought the hand I had stretched behind me forward again.
"Here, do you want to eat this?"
What lay on my palm was bread.
A highly nutritious bread made from Asphodel bulbs, a specialty of Kiza.
- This... it's too small... won't fill my stomach...
Though she complained, she obediently accepted the bread and began to eat.
The bread gradually disappeared with the sound of her teeth chattering, 'tok-tok.'
It seemed to suit her taste, as she ate it quite well.
- ... Strange.
The light in her eyes gradually brightened.
Having finished all the bread, she looked at me and gave a bright smile for the first time.
- I'm not hungry!
Her eyes were wide and round.
Eyes that had never reflected light before now held light for the first time. Just like a real child.
- I'm full! Strange!
"Are you alright now?"
- Yeah!
A girl smiling brightly.
Feeling 'satiety' was a sensation that was for the first time... no, for the first time in a very, very long while.
For beings possessing more than a certain amount of power, meals were nothing more than the act of ingesting surplus material to be broken down into mana.
Becoming a being that 'has no need for biological activities,' as often joked about in illusions regarding idols.
A normal creature would continue feeding activities even upon reaching the realm of transcendence.
Because they had to maintain an ego matching that level.
But for the current Behemoth, making her maintain such an 'underdeveloped ego' was rather dangerous.
Imagine it.
The stomach empties.
If hungry, she eats. Until she is full.
But her digestive ability is so overwhelmingly superior that everything she eats is immediately broken down into mana.
The stomach empties again.
When the stomach is empty, she reflexively feels hunger.
And then she eats again.
And there is no being that can stop her.
The result of that is the giant, ferocious bull that swept through entire cities and organic matter.
The Archduke of Slaughter, Behemoth.
'The problem hasn't been resolved yet.'
Within this small body, the near-infinite stomach of that giant bull still slumbered.
That was why I had handed her that bread.
The core I had implanted within the bread would, as long as her mana permitted, continuously absorb it and swell its own volume—that is, the bread itself.
She would digest that ever-increasing bread and convert it into mana.
An infinitely continuing cycle of proliferation and digestion.
As long as this cycle continued, she would have no reason to feel hungry under normal circumstances.
Once she became accustomed to that state... eventually, the times she felt hunger would decrease.
For ultimately, her ferocity was the instinct of a beast, an excessive manifestation of that very nature.
'She might get hungry briefly if her activity becomes intense, but.'
I explained this causality as simply as possible.
"Your hunger is a lie. In truth, you can live perfectly well without eating."
- ... But I don't like being hungry...
"If you stay by my side, I will fill that hunger for you anytime."
I held out my hand to her once more.
"So, won't you come with me?"
- ...
A brief silence flowed. And then.
- Yeah.
She placed her hand atop mine.
- 3 -
I had secured a clue to taming Behemoth, but the problem wasn't completely resolved.
Because the issue of Tiamat, who was still rampaging in the Holy Kingdom, remained, and an issue closer to me still remained.
"The estimated death toll is roughly a thousand people."
Evangeline's voice was calm.
It was a voice that was cool-headed, yet mingled with a strange heaviness.
Nyutardon was a place considered a relatively large city in Hilsa.
As such, there had been many people. Enough that nearly a thousand people had died in the brief time Behemoth had rampaged.
I couldn't think of any 'suitable' method to make reparations for such a massacre.
"... Haah."
'If I made the very perpetrator of the slaughter, Behemoth, work here...'
... Even I thought it was a foolish idea.
Behemoth could destroy half a city just by sleeptalking while asleep.
There wouldn't be many who could feel at ease with such a being beside them.
Even if I personally guaranteed it, it would be the same.
Nor did any other clear solution come to mind.
"It can't be helped, Master. This is like a natural disaster."
I nodded at Shue's words. They weren't wrong.
Behemoth had been born a predator from the beginning, and even her origin could not be known.
Even asking her personally, the only answer I got was that she had never perceived the concept of a 'mother' or 'father' in the first place.
'Separate from that, there is a vaguely familiar presence somewhere, but...'
That too was just a vague guess, not a certainty.
She had been alone.
Alone, she had grown up devouring countless savage beasts.
As a result of growing by preying on all manner of creatures like that, she was eventually completed as a monster that even devoured the 'dragons' of the Western Continent.
She was, literally, a natural disaster manifested in the form of a giant creature.
- Did I... do something bad...? Is Libertas angry?
Behemoth seemed to have realized the atmosphere was strange too.
The sight of her cautiously reading the mood was even pitiful.
It was all the more so because her outward appearance was close to that of a young girl, and she was holding my hand tightly, feeling anxious.
"Yes. You did something wrong."
But what needed to be taught, had to be taught clearly.
As I said, she was pure, not stupid.
- What should I do...?
At that question, I fell into thought for a moment.
It was something that happened before I took her in, but if I was to take her in, I naturally had to take responsibility for her wrongdoings as well.
I would somehow make recompense.
For a treasure like her, literally, even if all the gold in this world was offered, it would be difficult to pay the price.
And if one were to ask the cause of this incident, one would naturally have to ask the Holy Kingdom.
'The root cause is separate, but the most direct cause has long since been digested, so...'
Anselm, who had unleashed her upon this world, was himself dissolving within her stomach.
It was a fact I had only discovered after examining Behemoth's memories.
'There were two.'
At the same time, I could also learn another fact.
That there were beings who had intervened in Anselm's intent when he released their seals.
That Astaroth had planted the 'seeds' of his own intent in these archbishops was a fact I already knew.
But it wasn't just that.
'The Goddess.'
It was exactly as I had previously speculated.
She had intervened directly from the heavens.
The descent of the Archangels to the surface was proof of that.
According to Yuran's report, they were currently confronting the Demon Realm Archdukes after having stopped Tiamat.
'There's a high possibility that was a well-crafted coincidence.'
And if so...
'Tiamat.'
She would know, even if only dimly, who the being was that had intervened in her fate.
Because unlike Behemoth, she was a monster who had been sealed while possessing clear intelligence and reason.
"Behemoth."
- Yeah?
The method to achieve the next objective was decided.
"I would like it if you could persuade Tia. So that she can talk with me."
- Yeah! Tia listened to me well! She always made me happy! She's really, really kind!
"Good. I'm glad."
I stroked her head as I looked toward the east.
At the sky of the Holy Kingdom, which was still divided by light and darkness even now.