Infiltration: The Hero's Other Long-Time Friend (4)
“Kh…!”
Shiiieeeek!Schuk!
A merciless strike lunged from the blind spot, like the fangs of a beast targeting her life without mercy. Yet Mona barely dodged it.
With a slippery slide down the corridor—juuurrrk—her feet never left the floor, but she used the shadow beneath them to move in a way that defied all reason.
“……!”
Whiiik! Realizing his failure to take Mona down, Chris immediately hurled the dagger in his hand into the air. His target: the magic stone lamps illuminating the corridor.
The two lamps shattered instantly against the mana-charged dagger, plunging the hallway into sudden darkness. But with other lamps scattered intermittently, it wasn't pitch black.
If Chris had meant to shatter the lamps, obscure vision, and flee, the plan had failed.
“Whew, that was close… That was really dangerous just now~.”
Putting distance between herself and Chris, Mona sighed and muttered nonchalantly. In that moment, the armored guard golems converging on the area arrived, positioning themselves protectively around her.
Behind Chris, too, a swarm of golems blocked his retreat, crowding in.
‘…Damn it, I'm screwed.’
Chris drew a spare dagger from his belt, scanning ahead and behind while clicking his tongue inwardly. The failure of that earlier strike was regret number one. Had he severed Mona's neck then, he might have at least escaped through a window.
‘There really is a demon here…!’
He'd known something unnatural hung over Melrn Count's mansion—a bizarre magic. From the count's deeds, he'd deduced feats beyond a mere alchemist's ability.
So he'd suspected the count dabbled in forbidden arts…
“Oh my, giving up already? Well, struggling in this situation would be pointless anyway~.”
Mona spoke mockingly, eyeing Chris—who had lowered his dagger hands and stood defenseless—as if appraising him.
Her red eyes scanned him from head to toe. The hood had fallen, exposing his body fully for her judgment.
Dark hair like the deep night sky, tinged faintly blue-black. His small frame for a man, slender and refined, could pass for a woman, a pretty boy, or a young man.
Simple pants and shirt, but Mona instantly saw the padding inside concealing his body's true lines.
‘What a cute girl♪’
Mona licked her lips with her tongue, thinking. He might fool others into thinking he was a boy in disguise, but before her, that pitiful maiden's crossdressing couldn't hide.
And another peculiar trait—
“Those ears… Not a long-eared noble… You're a half-breed. A demon hybrid.”
Mona's eyes finally fixed on Chris's exposed ears—slightly longer and pointier than a human's, but half the length of her own restored demon ears.
The world had long-eared folk, sometimes called elves, whose hybrids with humans appeared occasionally. Pointed ears were an elven trait, but elven and demon ears differed subtly upon close inspection.
Even in hybrids, those traits stood out starkly to each race's eyes.
Moreover, unlike elves who carried the scent of forests and nature just by existing, this intruder reeked of profoundly dark mana. Much like what Mona now held.
“Not a half… More like a quarter?”
“Shut up.”
“Hee hee, running into kin like this in a place like this makes me so happy. Come here, you adorable little cutie—let big sis hug you?”
“Shut your filthy succubus mouth!”
Chris gripped his daggers tightly and shouted.
“I'm human! And don't call me cute! I'm a man!”
“No need to pretend. I can tell you're a girl at a glance?”
“……! You…!”
Thud! Driven by rage, Chris slammed his booted foot into the corridor floor.
Beneath that foot stretched a thick shadow connecting Chris, Mona, and the golems behind.
Recognizing the mana spreading from that foot, Mona grasped the situation instantly.
‘Breaking those magic stones earlier wasn't to blind me…’
Shattering just two wouldn't plunge the hall into total darkness. So Chris's goal had been simply to increase the shadows' volume and density.
For this very strike.
Pssshhhhhh!Crunch!Krunch!Crack!Snap!Snap!Snap!Snap…!
In an instant, the corridor filled with black thorns.
Chris's front and rear—the fairly wide passage—became a tangled thicket of massive thorns erupting from shadows on floor, walls, and ceiling.
The golems in the path had no chance to evade. All skewered like kabobs, riddled with holes, they screeched kiiik-kiik-kiik amid the thorns.
Unable to move, shredded and impaled.
Had they been living humans instead of golems, it would have been a blood-soaked horror.
And at the heart of that thorn forest—
“—Wow~ Impressive. Pulling off a ritual like this in a blink. Demon blood aside, you've got talent~?”
Impaled on the shadow thorns—or so it seemed—Mona clapped slowly.
But no. The thorns meant to pierce her bent unnaturally just short, as if dodging her.
Thus, Mona stood unscathed amid the black thorns, utterly relaxed.
‘…Wasn't expecting much anyway.’
Chris clicked his tongue inwardly again. From her initial shadow emergence and evasion earlier, he'd realized she wielded the same dark attribute—shadow magic, like him.
Against her, his specialty wouldn't land a fatal blow.
Yet her casual handling of his surprise magic left him awed. It wasn't mere proficiency. She wielded shadows like her own limbs.
Chris had great confidence in his magic aptitude. He could handle two or three mid-tier demons alone against most foes.
But instinctively, he knew this top-class opponent was beyond him, alive or dead.
—To inflict a fatal wound on her…
His specialty magic was useless. Without shadows, his spells were merely excellent, not enough for this demon.
Judging that, Chris raised his lowered dagger. Bluish mana gathered on the spare blade.
If not magic, then close-quarters combat.
“Ahaha. So that's how it is. I'm pretty weak to brute-force brawling. Always been more of a brains type—left the fighting to the kids.”
Despite her words, Mona sauntered through the thorn forest casually.
The rampant shadow thorns parted for her, bending aside or melting away.
“Mm, and I hate seeing cute kids get hurt~. Really don't wanna fight~.”
“……”
Chris didn't reply, lowering his stance deep. Then, coiling power into his planted foot like a spring, he launched.
Twang! Instant acceleration. Like a beast low to the ground, he pounced at Mona in one breath.
No golems shielded her now. If she dodged with that weird movement again, he'd pursue and tear her throat out.
Counterattack might come, but it was do or die. With resolve to lose an arm if needed, Chris lunged for her neck—
"■■■■, halt."
⟨ True Name Binding ⟩
“Guh?!”
With Mona's command, Chris froze mid-lunge.
His accelerating body halted abruptly. Momentum sent him tumbling across the floor in an undignified roll, which Mona sidestepped neatly.
Moments later, control returned. Chris stared at Mona in panicked confusion.
That word just now…
“Hee hee, that's your true name, right? Even a quarter-demon can't resist true name binding.”
Mona giggled. Demons, bound soul-deep to contracts and promises, became unable to resist when their true name was spoken. A special reason traced to the Demon King, but details omitted here.
“H-How…!”
“Who knows. Someone told me the intruder coming here goes by 'Chris' normally, that you're a demon, and your true name~.”
Mona beamed, approaching the seated Chris.
“So no more resisting. …■■■■, drop your weapons and prostrate yourself, ass up toward me.”
"■■■■, drop your weapons and prostrate yourself, ass up toward me."
⟨ True Name Binding ⟩
“N-No…!”
Her mouth denied it, but Chris's body obeyed naturally. Clink clink—the daggers fell limply to the carpet.
Sprawled vulgarly, she presented her ass to Mona like a bitch in heat.
“Haha, so cute♪”
Mona teased the thick-pants-covered rear—meant to hide her lower curves—with light kicks and prods from her foot.
Her beloved ass kicked and stepped on by the succubus's foot, Chris trembled in humiliation…
