#079 Sympathy
#079 Sympathy
An enemy.
An enemy he would have gladly chewed to pieces stood before him.
A blond-haired young man.
And a red-haired witch.
The monsters who drew the true Holy Sword in the Holy Sword Village and slaughtered the tribesfolk indiscriminately.
What?
That the goblins attacked to eat humans and got killed?
'What do I care? I'm a goblin!'
Goblins are Demonfolk.
Whether Demonfolk capture humans and make them slaves, or kill them and toy with their corpses—what does any of that matter?
What mattered now was revenge.
It didn't matter that the tribesfolk had charged in like idiots without a thought and died at the Hero's hands.
To take revenge on those humans, Amutar received Acedia's baptism.
So he would kill them no matter what.
He would wipe them out along with the village—erase it entirely.
RATATATAT——!!
The armored beetles under Amutar's command kept firing their rounds.
From inside their bodies, from within their own bodies, they fired their venom like bullets, hammering at the barrier.
FWOOSH, FWOOSH!!
Each time a venom round struck the barrier, the barrier began to blaze up.
If the barrier had simply failed to function, venom like that in the Narag Venomous Insect's venom sac would have spread inside.
"Taste the power of the Narag Beetles!"
The Narag Venomous Insects modified by Acedia had lost their wings, but in exchange gained steel carapaces and projectiles.
As beetles that now crawled on the ground, they had gained formidable lethality.
Before, they had to drive their venomous stingers in directly; now they could concentrate their venom and fire it like bullets.
If not for the barrier, they could surely poison all those humans.
"Grraaah...!!"
He thrust the giant golem's hand forward and spread its fingers.
After spreading the five fingers in all directions, he fired the concentrated venom stored in the forearm through the hole in the center of the palm.
"Belphegor Beam——!!"
WHOOSH—!!
A powerful water cannon of venom struck the barrier.
Acrid, noxious smoke began billowing up as the venom burned away in the barrier's flames, and Amutar quickly pulled on the gas mask he had prepared in advance.
"Haha, die, you trash humans!"
They'll try to blow the venom away with wind?
It's useless against the beetles.
It's useless against Amutar riding in the golem.
Even if they break through the barrier and come to attack directly with weapons, the venom in the beetles' bodies will splatter and flow through the air.
This may not bring down the Hero, but it can bring down the villagers and that accursed witch.
"Grrr."
Even wearing a gas mask, he could still sense it.
The utterly delicious scent emanating from the witch's heart.
It was far stronger now than before, but the taste and smell of the mana dwelling in the witch's heart were still intense enough to sting his nose.
The scent might have been illusory, but Amutar knew.
That witch.
That female.
That insolent human woman who didn't hesitate to kill goblins—he would make her a goblin bride, the matriarch of the great goblin tribe he would lead.
"So die, all of you!! Hahaha!!"
RATATATAT.
Every time the venom rounds struck the barrier, red flames shot up and white smoke billowed.
And then.
The barrier slowly began to thin.
* * *
'So they turned Narag Venomous Insects into steel armored beetles.'
With biological weapons, the basic principle is to modify them over time to match the flow of a new era.
The armored beetles had completely changed in form, but they still carried the deadly poison of the Narag Venomous Insects.
Just like me, who changed bodies but kept the Demon Core, those aberrant venomous insects might best be regarded as entirely separate creatures.
Steel defense, and poison for offense.
To modify a living species like that—how utterly—
'An annoyingly effective improvement.'
From the receiving end, it was troublesome beyond measure.
The Narag Venomous Insect's weakness was that it had to drive its stinger in directly.
They improved that into a method of firing rounds from long range like sniping.
What's more, since it fires venom, even if you block it with a physical shield, the venom splatters everywhere and gets on your body.
If we weren't completely blocking it physically with a barrier like now, someone would surely have been hit by the venom at a microscopic level invisible to the human eye.
Even if you purify the venom with flames as we're doing now, if it produces smoke like that, you can absorb venom droplets through breathing.
It was unpleasant in many ways, yet strategically sound.
From the receiving end, it was irritating beyond measure, but knowing the descendants of the Demon King Army had devised it made me feel a little proud.
I'm not defending the method.
I'm praising the will to improve tactics that didn't work against humans and try them again.
Modifying living creatures themselves is Beelzebub's way.
Their method was clearly proving highly effective.
"What should we do, Hero?!"
Because of the villagers thrown into confusion by the completely unfamiliar attack method, it was hard for us to make calm judgments.
"Please calm down!"
Your carrying on like this is of no help whatsoever.
Rapid seemed to force down the rest of his words, and Lucius and Rosemas also calmed the people who were desperately trying to rush forward.
"......."
Liliez stood still, having quietly driven her Holy Sword into the ground.
From the people's perspective, they could only be bewildered.
"Everyone, please calm down. You are safe."
Everyone began to listen to my words.
And no wonder—as soon as I said a word or two to Liliez, she immediately planted her sword in the ground and stood still.
"I understand you need an explanation. But if you keep talking like this, it will interfere with the large-scale spellcasting."
You're noisy, so shut up.
"Please trust us. The current barrier cannot completely stop the enemy. So the Hero will use her power to raise a new barrier."
We'll handle it, so sit quietly and stay out of the way.
"Everyone, do you believe in the Hero? Do you believe in the power of the Holy Sword? If so, trust the Hero and pray quietly. The Holy Sword's power will protect you."
Anyone praying to the Azure Moon Goddess, I will personally throw outside the barrier.
I barely swallowed the words rising to my throat and managed to calm the people.
"Lucius, and everyone. Watch closely."
Actually, only Lucius needs to watch.
But saying something like "You, watch and learn" to Lucius would be like telling Lucius to watch and learn from me.
Wouldn't that sound like telling him to watch and learn from a senior as a Holy Sword Hero?
So I speak as if addressing everyone, but in truth, the words are meant for Lucius.
"The barrier of flame cannot stop their venom rounds. It can block them, but once the mana runs dry, the barrier will vanish."
I stoked the sense of crisis.
Someone tried to speak, starting with "But still—", but the quick-witted among them made him shut up.
Interrupting the Holy Sword Hero while she's concentrating?
That's treason that would get everyone killed.
"So while my barrier holds, the Hero will raise a new barrier. She is concentrating right now to create a massive barrier that will cover this entire village, so please trust the Hero and wait."
What Lucius needed to see was another power of the Holy Sword.
"...It seems preparations are complete."
I raised my staff high toward the sky.
Then, from the center of the dome-shaped barrier spread across the sky, flames began to rise as it was slowly drawn into my staff.
'I'd deployed an installable barrier knowing this would happen.'
So I could recover it at any time.
If I could use boundless mana like a Holy Sword, that would be one thing, but for people like me whose mana recovery is only possible by consuming Mana Stones, we have to recover the mana used in barriers like this.
Whoosh.
As the barrier of flame vanished, rectangular walls of ice began rising around us at the same time.
Walls of white ice, different from water, impossibly hard.
"...Wall Glacia."
Crack!
The moment Liliez opened her eyes, a rectangular ice wall protecting the village was created in an instant.
The barrier of flame was immediately absorbed into my staff, and I slowly breathed some of the mana used in the barrier back into my heart.
"Tsk."
15%.
It had been fine when dealing with the Narag Venomous Insects, but after taking hits from those armored beetles' venom rounds, my mana had dropped significantly.
If Liliez hadn't been here, far from recovering this mana, even more would have drained away.
'At least that's a relief.'
Recovering even this much was something.
And even without recovering that mana, having someone here who could perform as well as I could was something in itself.
RATATATAT!!
The armored beetles diligently sprayed venom at the ice barrier, but against the ice wall with the hardness of steel, the venom merely scattered onto the ground.
"Wow...."
Everyone let out exclamations of awe at the magnificent ice wall.
Lucius, too, voiced admiration at the tremendous power manifested through the Holy Sword.
"Master?"
"I'll explain the details later, when it's just the two of us."
There were too many ears listening right then.
But at least then, even if I couldn't explain how to use it, I could tell people this much.
"Each Holy Sword has its own barrier. Like the Curtain of Fire that the Flame Hero Bareness displayed at Normance's north gate, it's possible to spread the Holy Sword's power like a barrier in that way."
Of course, the scale was clearly different.
If Bareness, who had achieved First Awakening, spread a curtain in a flat plane.
Liliez, who was just before the final stage, had created a perfect rectangular ice wall like this.
The reason it's ice is because it's a bit easier to create than water.
Later, after achieving final awakening, she'll be able to create a massive water droplet that will never burst even under external impact.
"......."
Strength entered Lucius's fist.
I could see he wanted to perform like Liliez someday.
RATATATAT.
The armored beetles diligently sprayed venom, but the ice wall never crumbled.
If they scraped at it with their steel bodies, that might be different, but no matter how much venom they fired, not even a scratch appeared on the thick ice barrier.
"While the Hero has raised the barrier, we should devise a plan to eliminate those things...."
At that moment.
SKITTERSKITTER!!
The armored beetles began clinging together around the giant golem.
I felt a sense of familiarity from that sight.
Small individuals, colonies gathering into one to form a single massive shape.
Beelzebub's specialty.
"...Synchro?"
Centered on the giant golem, the armored beetles began clinging together all at once.
"Wow."
Then there was a flash of light, and what appeared before our eyes was a giant in the truest sense.
"...A Colossus."
The silver-armored giant, like an insect monster, drew its right arm back behind its shoulder—
[For the Great Demon King Belphegor————!!]
With a mighty shout, it swung a steel fist the size of a house at the ice barrier.