The Swordmaster Wants to Fall in Love — 62. Named Request (5)
From the bisected body of Low-Medon, tentacles began bubbling forth. The appendages reached toward the severed half of his body, but when Evan cut them down again, the regeneration slowed.
—St-stop... spare me...
“I thought you said you couldn't die?”
—This is all... because of you—!
Having exhausted his willpower protecting the meteorite from Evan's earlier attack, Low-Medon's voice dripped with resentment as his tentacles trembled.
But Evan, watching the pitifully quivering tentacles, felt not a shred of sympathy — only disgust. It was like watching a non-human monster play at being human. An unbearable revulsion rose from the depths of his chest.
“This is revenge for the people you killed. Die.”
“That won't be possible.”
Clang—! Evan, mid-swing, realized his blade had been stopped by something. He flinched and turned his head.
A girl stood beside him — he hadn't sensed her approach at all. But instinct told Evan that this girl was no human either, but a monster of the same kind as Low-Medon.
The girl who had blocked his sword looked down at Low-Medon with a face utterly devoid of life.
“Disappointing. You.”
—Ah, aaah... Forgive, forgive me. Lady Llyeh...
“To fail even this simple task.”
The girl called Llyeh spoke, and by some unknown power, she began lifting Low-Medon into the air. Low-Medon groaned, but after a moment he had recovered his original form and immediately knelt before Llyeh, begging forgiveness.
—Kill me, please, kill me.
“No. You'll be used to breed combat units.”
—Aaah, no, please, no—! Please, anything but the breeding pens...!
Llyeh turned her attention away from Low-Medon, who was trembling at the fate awaiting him, and looked toward where Evan had been.
“You. I need a word...”
But when she turned, Evan was gone. She tilted her head. When had he moved, and where to?
—Krrrrgh—!?
“A word about what?”
Appearing from behind Llyeh, Evan had already torn Low-Medon — still prostrate on the ground — into dozens of shreds. He grinned at Llyeh.
One to one. She'd landed a hit on him, and he'd landed one on her. They were even.
“This bastard's a thief who tried to steal our kingdom's meteorite. And you're his accomplice, helping him. Is there anything to talk about?”
“That meteorite is a gift from our Father. The rightful claim belongs to us.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, too bad. This meteorite wasn't dropped by some 'Father' of yours — it was a gift from our kingdom's god. Looks like you've got your facts wrong.”
The moment Evan realized he was dealing with a crazy bitch who wouldn't listen to reason, he adopted the same tactic she had used. Against lunatics, the same kind of lunacy was the only effective approach. Evan, who didn't believe in any god, shrugged as if to say, Now what are you going to do?
Llyeh understood that Evan was deliberately mocking her by copying her own tactic. And beyond mocking her, he had insulted her Father.
“—You.”
An unknown malevolent energy began to pour from her body. A presence that could never be felt from a human. Sensing that aura — the kind only felt from monsters like yokai, demons, or demonic beasts — Evan gripped his sword hilt and ran his tongue over his dry lips.
She blocked my sword like it was nothing. It wasn't like Low-Medon's barrier — it felt like striking layer upon layer of compressed steel...
Evan immediately began searching for a way to cut down the Llyeh before him. But faster than he could act, Llyeh's body began to swell rapidly. Tens of thousands of tentacles — large and small — that made up her form burst outward all at once.
“Crazy—”
Facing the tidal wave of countless tentacles surging toward him, Evan let out a hollow laugh and gripped his sword. Each of those tentacles carried an energy surpassing the barrier Low-Medon had used. Which meant that cutting even a single one would take considerable effort!
“Huuuup!”
Shwaaaak—!
Evan cut through one tentacle, and the thought came: I can do this. In the next instant, his blade split into nine, and he began severing the tens of thousands of tentacles one by one.
“UOOOOOOH—!”
Swing and swing and swing again.
Having blocked the hundreds and thousands of tentacles crashing down on him, Evan gasped for breath, glaring at Llyeh, who remained completely unfazed. She still stared at him with that utterly emotionless, lifeless expression — so devoid of vitality it was hard to believe she was a living creature.
Behind her, Evan could see Low-Medon, who had already recovered his body, muttering some kind of incantation. With no respite at all, if even one of Low-Medon's spells struck him, his life would be in danger.
Is this it?
Coming at him two-on-one like cowards. Evan grit his teeth in resentment. If they were weaker, he could handle numbers. But opponents whose strength matched or exceeded his own, attacking in concert — he truly saw no way out.
If I'm going to die anyway—!
Evan gripped his sword, ready to use the technique he had employed earlier. Whether it would work on Llyeh was questionable... but it was better than dying without even trying.
Hoo— Evan exhaled, about to use a Sky Slash with two layers of Absolute Severance stacked on it.
“—That's enough.”
A blue lightning bolt crashed down from the sky.
In an instant, the lightning incinerated tens of thousands of tentacles. Evan looked up at the sky quietly.
“...Count Stell?”
“—You held out well, Evan.”
Above, Count Stell hovered, his blue murderous aura rippling. No, to be precise—
“...Your Majesty, the Spear King?”
“Indeed.”
Stell — no, the Spear King — descended slowly to the ground and spoke.
“I have arrived.”
The moment a Transcendent joined him as an ally, Evan realized the odds had turned. He grinned and stepped forward. In stark contrast to his confident advance, Llyeh and Low-Medon — who had been shooting out tentacles with murderous intent toward Evan — showed the opposite reaction.
“Spear King.”
“Llyeh, is it? It's been a while.”
“Do you intend to interfere?”
“Interfere? I have no idea what you're talking about.”
At the Spear King's words, Llyeh bit her lip, visibly furious. There was not a single change in her facial expression throughout the process, so to anyone watching, it might have looked like she was biting her lip for no reason.
But Evan and the Spear King, standing before her, were different. They could hear the rage contained within her words.
“That meteorite is a gift from our Father. It is not something for you to covet.”
“Hmm — then why don't you ask your Father to send another gift? I am not so generous as to yield something that fell in my own front yard.”
“Do you really have to make enemies of us like this?”
“You have already made an enemy of us, have you not? Look around. See how many of my kingdom's people have died.”
The Spear King gestured at the workers, knights, and mages scattered around — those who had failed to withstand the aftermath of the Transcendents' battle. Tentacles were sprouting slowly from their faces. It meant they were no longer human. They had become children of the Great Father, Kra-tos.
But Llyeh shook her head, denying the Spear King's words.
“They are not dead. They have been reborn. As Father's children.”
“The fact remains that you touched the people of my kingdom.”
“—So you want to see this through to the end, is that it?”
Llyeh began shooting out bundles of tentacles once more. Only then did Evan realize where those tentacles came from, and why Llyeh had no expression.
She was a mass of tentacles compressed into human form. Her skin, her hair, her pupils, even the clothes she wore — all of it was woven from countless tentacles large and small, packed tightly together. It was only natural that she couldn't form fluid expressions. The tentacle bundles were not organically connected.
So that's why... the sensation I felt earlier...
Evan finally understood the nature of the sensation he had felt when he struck Llyeh. Tens of thousands of tentacle bundles had blocked his sword, creating that feeling. And if each of those tentacles carried the same defensive barrier as Low-Medon's, then to cut her, he would need to stack Absolute Severance tens of thousands of times.
That's impossible.
Evan was still contemplating how to escape this situation when the Spear King stepped forward.
“Let's settle it this way.”
Like a king, the Spear King spoke with an arrogance that matched his overwhelming confidence.
“I will spare the two of you.”
“...Arrogant.”
“Then do you wish to fight? On our side, we have the Swordmaster who was handling the two of you alone, you know?”
The Spear King wrapped an arm around Evan's shoulder as he spoke. It wasn't exactly 'alone,' Evan thought, but fortunately, he wasn't the type to be pedantic about facts in a situation like this.
Llyeh looked back and forth between the confident Spear King and Evan standing beside him, then quietly turned and glared at Low-Medon.
“Can you do it?”
—Y-yes? D-do what...?
“Can you beat either of those two? Anyone, I don't care which.”
—I-I'm sorry, Lady Llyeh. I don't think that's possible...
“Pathetic.”
With his willpower already exhausted from the earlier battle, Low-Medon had no ability to handle even a single Transcendent. Hearing his words, Llyeh turned back to the Spear King and Evan.
“Fine. This time, I'll do as you wish. But next time — there won't be a repeat of this.”
“How terrifying.”
No sooner had the words ended than tentacles pulled from Llyeh's body began to wrap around both Llyeh and Low-Medon. Evan, thinking it might be some kind of attack, gripped his sword hilt, but the Spear King stopped him and quietly watched the scene unfold.
“...They're gone?”
“It's one of her abilities. Spatial movement. It has various limitations, but...”
After confirming that Llyeh had vanished, the Spear King finally let out a hoo— sigh and began to relax his tension.
“That was a close call. I almost had to fight her.”
“...Is she that strong?”
“No. If you and I join forces, we could certainly kill her. The problem is... she is a princess. If we killed her, the monsters under her command would invade our kingdom. They would not care whether they lived or died...”
If that happened, even the mighty Spear King would have no choice but to accept massive casualties. What would remain was mutual assured destruction — annihilation. The Spear King, who had built his kingdom through great hardship, could never tolerate that outcome. He would rather die himself.
“Thank you, Evan.”
“Huh? What do you mean, all of a sudden...”
“For not killing her.”
Evan looked at the Spear King, who was expressing gratitude, and pressed his lips together.
...I don't think now is the time to mention that I almost died, let alone kill her.
He had enough social awareness to recognize that the Spear King was misunderstanding something about him.