My Body Grew Bigger
"A powerful mana surge has erupted in the northern reaches of the Gehenna Great Forest."
"We can’t observe it from outside the Great Forest, but it looks like a blood moon phenomenon has occurred."
"The number of monsters is increasing explosively! The ghouls identified so far already number over twenty-five thousand. Each one is at least D-rank!"
Clamor spilled out from the top floor of the Wood Magic Tower.
The communication crystal installed there was blazing brighter than it ever had before.
The Wood Tower Master pressed close to the crystal as voices crackled out of it and rattled off orders in quick succession.
"Have the surveillance team keep watching the Great Forest! And tell the communications team to warn every territory near the forest to prepare for a disaster!"
"Tower Master! The communication crystal linked to the Toris and Bereta domains still hasn’t been restored!"
"Use messenger ravens and spatial-transfer mages! And tell the other magic towers to send over every mage they can spare!"
"Ah, understood!"
Someone snatched the crystal from the Wood Tower Master’s hand.
"The disaster level is Demon King. Yeah. Make sure you tell them the disaster level too."
The Wood Tower Master shot a glare at the Fire Tower Master.
The Fire Tower Master handed the crystal back to him.
"You don’t have to glare at the person who came to help, even if we are divorced."
"I just don’t like your reckless attitude, barging into the tower master’s room without permission. Haaah, fine. Given the situation, I’ll let it go."
The Wood Tower Master let out a long sigh.
"Between the mana explosion and this mess breaking out while His Majesty is lost in an ancient dream... honestly, you’ve got it rough too. Do you know what caused it?"
"The True Ancestor’s revival."
The Fire Tower Master laughed.
"Liar."
"It’s true."
"Are you serious?"
The Fire Tower Master’s expression twisted.
The Chosen sealed away by the Emperor in a distant age had broken free?
"That’s a pretty big problem. Do you know who did it?"
"We’re checking. But the management system that collapsed in the mana explosion still hasn’t been fully restored."
"Restoration rate?"
"Thirty percent."
"...At this rate, even identifying the real culprit could be difficult."
It was, quite literally, a total disaster.
The tower masters who led the magic towers sat in their chairs and took a moment to breathe.
"The other magic towers aren’t doing much better. Strange things are happening all over the empire—no, all over the world. It isn’t just the mages. Everyone is exhausted."
Gehenna Great Forest wasn’t the only place in turmoil.
The monster population in the Osiria Mountain Range had exploded as well.
A mysterious giant egg had fallen onto the Sky Tower, and word had spread that griffons and wyvern dragons were clustering around it like a swarm, brooding over the egg.
In the deep sea monitored by the Water Magic Tower, an anomaly had been detected: one percent of the marine life that sustained the abyssal ecosystem had failed to appear.
The Emperor had better wake up soon.
"...It’s proof that the end is drawing near."
"You still believe that lunatic’s... no, your master’s prophecy book?"
The Fire Tower Master looked at him as though he couldn’t understand a word of it, but the Wood Tower Master didn’t care.
He only held his master’s prophecy book and stared out toward the Great Forest.
"How long do you think the demi-humans in the Great Forest could hold out against the True Ancestor?"
The Wood Tower Master answered at once.
"Three days. And then annihilation is certain."
"The demi-humans scattered all over the world after that exile incident, didn’t they?"
"When I checked last year’s data, the number of demi-humans left in the Great Forest was barely ten thousand. They can’t possibly stand against the True Ancestor’s army. But... "
"But?"
One variable floated up in the Wood Tower Master’s mind.
That beast might be a calamity, but it wasn’t on the True Ancestor’s side.
If the True Ancestor decided that Behemoth was in its way and the two of them fought, the result might be rather interesting.
"If there’s a monster stronger than the True Ancestor, and if that monster moves, the outcome could change."
"What nonsense. I’ll help with the observation work. Contact me immediately if anything happens."
After the Fire Tower Master left, the Wood Tower Master raised his gaze to the night sky.
The True Ancestor’s mana had spread over Gehenna Great Forest, but it hadn’t reached the Wood Magic Tower.
From here, the moon was pure white.
And yet the reason the Wood Tower Master kept staring at it so intently was simple.
"Wasn’t that definitely a crescent just a moment ago?"
The moon’s shape had changed.
It had become a full moon.
Unfortunately, there was no one present who could answer the question he had whispered to the sky.
All the elves of Rough Wood Forest had raised their staffs and were maintaining the mana barrier.
They could feel it.
The army of monsters was coming to prey on them from beyond the horizon.
The ground trembled.
The red moon blazed with light, as though mocking their miserable fate.
The stink of rotten corpses stabbed at their noses.
The eerie screams of the dead set their ears on edge.
An ominous, colossal mana made every sense in their bodies stand on end.
It felt as though an indescribable terror had been branded into their souls.
"Everyone, hold out as long as you can."
"When the greatest number of ghouls are clinging to the barrier, Nillia and I will use explosive magic."
And yet they did not run.
They held the line because they were not alone.
The village chief and his younger sister stood at the center, binding the elves together as one.
"When you feel like you’ve reached your limit, remember Behemoth’s song."
"..."
"We were freed from the Demon Tree. Behemoth gave new life to the elves who had been sickening and dying. He gave us that life. He saved this village. So we cannot fall here in disgrace and repay that kindness with ingratitude."
Remembering the being who had saved them, the elves began to sing.
Then the ghouls came into view.
Far too many to count at a glance, they surged toward the elven village like a tidal wave.
"Grrr! Grrr!"
"Kraaaagh!"
The ghouls plastered themselves against the mana barrier.
They began gnawing at it with teeth and clawing at it with their fingernails and anything else they had.
"Hold it! Hold it with everything you’ve got!"
"If the barrier breaks, we all die! Bite down and keep it up!"
The elves fought to keep the barrier standing.
"Nillia, now!"
"Yes!"
As Nillia and Nillius thrust their staffs skyward, a massive explosion roared to life and swept away every ghoul clinging to the barrier.
"They’re coming!!"
"There are even more of them than before!!"
"Keep the barrier up! Nillia! Use explosive magic again!"
Noise and flame and storm erupted endlessly, interweaving in a chaos that seemed never to end.
Fire began to spread through Rough Wood Forest.
Seeing the very nature that gave birth to life go up in flames, the elves squeezed their eyes shut.
There was no time to grieve it.
They had to fight to protect what they could.
Even as the ghouls kept coming without end, the elves resisted.
Still, the difference in strength was obvious.
"How many are there? There’s no end in sight!"
"My mana... is reaching its limit..."
"The barrier... it’s breaking..."
If only every problem in the world could be solved by will and determination.
The world was not so kind.
Watching the mana barrier splinter and fail, the elves despaired.
This was the end of the road for us.
"Behemoth-sama..."
An elf girl, clutching her brother’s hand tight, squeezed her eyes shut and whispered.
For the last time, she prayed to the black beast who had saved the elves from the Demon Tree.
Please save us from evil once more.
And then, perhaps the heavens answered her prayer.
The barrier that had been crumbling only moments ago restored itself in an instant.
In addition, a blaze several times larger than the explosion Nillia and Nillius had conjured swept over the ghouls.
The burning forest fell silent in an instant.
The elves stared blankly around them.
What on earth had just happened? What miracle had they witnessed?
"B-Behemoth-sama...?"
"Behemoth-sama?"
Had Behemoth truly bestowed a miracle upon them?
Soon, they understood the truth.
A demon with wind-tossed pink hair was flying through the sky.
Its golden eyes gazed down at them.
The demon, juggling flames in its hands, somehow looked strangely terrified.
Taking a deep breath, the demon shouted, "Too bad I’m not Behemoth! Unfortunately, my name is Satania!"
The demon jabbed a finger up at the sky.
"But that doesn’t mean you’ve got the answer completely wrong! Everyone, look up!"
The elves lifted their gazes.
At that very moment, they probably weren’t the only ones looking up at the heavens.
The beast-folk fighting the ghoul army that had invaded the village, and the lizardmen who had come to aid them.
The dwarves, orcs, and goblins who were battling ghouls that had smashed through the hatches and invaded underground.
Every living being on this land was likely looking at the sky.
They were trying to confirm the existence of Behemoth, who blocked out the night sky and the red moon alike.
"The red moon is the sign of the True Ancestor. It’s the supreme being, the powerful bastard sealed away by the Emperor. The True Ancestor has broken free of its seal, and it’s trying to destroy this Great Forest!"
Satania did not flee.
She trusted her precious friend.
"Behemoth-sama..."
The elves were overwhelmed by Behemoth’s vast, terrible form.
Look upon Behemoth.
That sight of him tearing at the earth like a bull had been made alongside us when the gods created us.
Look upon that ironbound waist, upon the power rippling through the flesh of his belly.
Look upon the tail stretched long as a great serpent, upon those thick legs as massive as the tallest tower.
Look upon the bones like steel pipes, the ribs like iron bars.
A dragon walking across a plain covered in black steel.
That was Behemoth.
The first masterpiece God ever showed us, made to protect us.
Even if hail were hurled down upon him, he would not so much as flinch, and even if lava from a volcano poured straight into his mouth, he would swallow it without concern.
Who in the world could possibly...?
"Do you think you can stop him?"
Satania grinned fiercely.
He’s hiding his true form, you know. Behemoth only gets huge under the full moon.
The demi-humans remembered what Lizardrin had said during the first Gehenna Great Forest regular council meeting.
Behemoth had finally revealed his true form.
The beast-folk who gathered herbs in the forests and mountains would probably need a full ten years just to climb up his head.
His black scales were tougher than the steel the dwarves cherished so dearly.
The black spines covering him were sharper by far than the roots of any tree the elves despised.
"How dare some pathetic True Ancestor think it can stop Behemoth!?"
At Satania’s shout, the elves came to their senses.
The light returned to their eyes, which had been hollow with despair just moments before.
"Haaah... so, don’t give up."
Satania let out a breath of relief.
The elves suddenly became curious about the demon who had saved them from disaster and spread the teachings of Behemoth.
"W-Who are you?"
"What is your relationship to Behemoth?"
Satania froze for a moment.
"M-Me?"
Then she thought about it.
What exactly was her relationship with Behemoth, anyway?
"I guess we’re close enough to share even a slice of my treasured Ppangdu..."
Satania’s answer never reached them.
One of the elves blurted out her identity in a torrent of words before she could finish.
"You all know about the shrine to Behemoth that the beast-folk built, right? This lady’s the one who cleans it and lives there!"
"If that’s true, then considering she saved us in our moment of crisis and has been teaching us about Behemoth... she must be a priest of the Church of Behemoth, no, a saintess."
"Even her words are full of unwavering faith in Behemoth-sama. She must have been serving Behemoth-sama longer than we have."
Satania blinked.
What on earth were these elves talking about?
"Long live Satania! Long live the saintess! Long live Behemoth!"
"Behemoth will guide us!!"
The corners of Satania’s mouth twitched.
"Ahem."
Satania wanted to say something to the elves, but more ghouls were showing themselves once again.
Ugh, whatever. Anyway... we can win, right?
Looking at the enormous Behemoth walking toward the direction of the True Ancestor, Satania began to weave her magic.