Black Beetle (5)
"We could absolutely do it."
"But we'd take heavy losses. So this is the wise choice. There's no need to force a life-and-death struggle with rats backed into a corner."
"I know that. I'm just disappointed, that's all."
Lena clicked her tongue at the sight of Forum's towering walls, then gave a soft snort. In truth, she was feeling rather pleased with herself. Her body was still slick with slime, not even fully dried, but that hardly mattered. She had received an investment and evolved again; to her, that was proof of his favor.
So this is the runt sitting at number one.
Watching her, Robinson merely tsked and did not bother picking a fight. After all, Lena's assumption was true. Right now, she was the strongest being in the faction, and the one receiving the most investment.
Having spent years in an organization, Robinson was sensitive to rank. At a glance, he could tell who the one was that ruled them through the Great Lord—and who that ruler cherished most.
"Either way, we have to carry out the order. Let's move. Looks like the other territories don't intend to help this place after all."
Then Karin pointed to the two sides of Forum Castle.
The order delivered to them through the choice was simple: bypass Forum Castle, which had already finished preparing for a desperate defense, and strike other places first.
There was no need to worry about their rear being attacked. For Ascalas's soldiers, supply lines were meaningless anyway.
"I'm taking the left."
"Do as you like."
Lena chose the left road, recalling the map she had etched into her mind. There had been no detailed instruction about who should take which route, so that part could be decided freely.
The left road led to the city of Gid, the barony's logistical base.
That was also where the barony's finest knight order was stationed. Karin and Robinson both understood why Lena wanted the left route, but neither objected.
"So you mean to accept our plan."
Karin glanced up at the sky and nodded after a moment. If he, the one surely watching this scene, were to reject the plan, it would show; yet for now, nothing happened.
"Then let's move. Don't push yourselves for no reason. If it's certain that the other territories are abandoning this place, then all we need to do is buy time."
With Robinson's words, a growl rumbling from beneath his black helmet, the vast army that had scorched the entire region, taken its leisure to reorganize, and then gathered before the castle slowly began to move.
"They're moving! W-Wait—"
"Huh?!"
Of course, the humans inside the castle steeled themselves for a desperate last stand. But the black army that had started to advance simply ignored the fortress, split to both sides, and went around it.
Stunned, the people inside could do nothing but watch, trapped within the castle walls.
***
...I'll prove it. No matter what.
After parting from the other commanders, Lena cut rapidly across the blue sky—so strangely at odds with the calamity that had blanketed the region—her pair of translucent wings, strengthened by dark crimson mana, beating swiftly.
Her face was set in stone as she stared down at the ground with the crimson pupils gleaming in her black eyes.
The main force she led was following behind her, but Lena's temperament would not allow her to move at a leisurely pace with the others.
I will.
The instant her senses caught something, she clenched her teeth and twisted her face.
There was only one desire burning in her heart now: to grow stronger and win even more military merit.
And the purpose of that desire was, naturally, his recognition and love.
Back when she had been nothing more than a frail village girl who knew nothing and possessed no power, there had been no other path she could see. To hurt people, to become a terrifying monster herself—none of that mattered to her anymore. It was all just a step toward her goal.
"T-They're up there!"
"Aaaagh!"
Before she knew it, she had caught the tail of the evacuees who had thrown away their belongings and started running.
Die.
With a wicked twist of her lips, she gripped the spear she had drawn and plunged herself from the sky like a streaking meteor.
The people's screams, their faces going pale with terror—all of it pleased her. Their deaths would fill the hunger in her heart.
"Aaagh...!"
"Watch out!"
A thunderous impact, then an explosion.
Some of the evacuees fleeing in all directions along the road that cut through the plain were caught in the shockwave and thrown to the ground, rolling across the dirt.
"Cough... khk..."
Those who survived only by a hair's breadth because they had been just outside the blast radius coughed through the dust blown in from every direction and struggled to their feet.
"Ugh..."
The boy Lark was no different. Barely opening his eyes, he clutched at his throbbing leg and forced himself upright with the others around him.
"Run! Run!"
But there was no time to sit and endure the pain. At someone's shout, Lark came to his senses with a start—and in the thick dust that had not yet settled, he saw her.
A black-haired girl floating above a large crater. The moment he saw the dark hair blowing around her and the red eyes gleaming from within the shadows, Lark felt as though time had slowed.
A spear?
And within that drawn-out instant, she raised the thing in her hand and swung it.
What extended from her grip like a spear was far longer than her own height.
"Ghk—!"
"Aaaagh!!"
But as the dark-red energy wrapped around it and it swept through the air, a violent gust rose with the dust, and screams burst out from every direction along with spraying blood.
Lark couldn't believe his eyes. Parts of the bodies of the people desperately running for their lives were flying through the air from every direction, mingled with the blood splashing everywhere.
Lena's spear was in fact a kind of tentacle that could freely manifest both length and elasticity like a whip; in a single strike, it slaughtered dozens of people around her before returning once more to the shape of a spear.
Why?
Lark staggered backward when he saw her eyes settle on him.
By now he was the only living person left in the area, yet she did not attack him. She merely glared at him with those slanted eyes.
"You."
"W-What?!"
That was when Lena opened her mouth and spoke to him. He had never expected her to talk, so Lark found himself blurting out a foolish reply without thinking.
"I can't kill you. He told me to leave at least sixty percent alive."
"What does that—"
Clearly dissatisfied, Lena pointed her spear at him and strode forward. Lark, still unable to make sense of what she was saying, could neither run nor do anything but freeze in place.
"Ah."
"There's a monster over there attacking the evacuees! It's a Black Beetle!"
But then came the knights on horseback charging from behind, and one of the arrows they fired arced through the air before burying itself in Lark's back.
Lena, for her part, repelled every one of the arrows infused with mana and, almost by reflex, caught Lark's body as he lost consciousness and collapsed toward her.
"These bastard—"
At the same time, her face twisted viciously. Mission failed. That single fact dominated her feelings.
"Looks like enemy strength has concentrated toward the side Lena went to."
"Does it matter? He would never, ever let Lena die. So I'm not going to waste concern on that brat; I'll only focus on what's right in front of me."
Just before the enraged Lena collided with the knights, Karin, on the opposite side, inferred Lena's condition through the connection bound together by the Great Lord.
But Robinson, standing beside her, did not so much as blink; he simply kept doing what he was doing.
They, too, along with numerous other troops, were currently assaulting evacuees who had failed to enter Forum and were fleeing elsewhere. Robinson drew his huge, thick bow and indiscriminately dropped anyone who tried to resist.
"There are some mana users among them. Mercenaries who got dragged into this place by accident? Hunters?"
Some of those in the crowd attempted a meaningful resistance against the minions, and he noticed them. As a man who had once been a mercenary himself, he recognized what they were.
"Don't just stand there admiring them. Take them out."
"You got it."
Karin, who had been looking elsewhere, ordered him to handle them. Smiling with satisfaction, Robinson aimed at them not with his hands, but with another part of his body.
"I like this. This power!"
What Robinson laughed and pointed at them with was none other than a long, curved scorpion tail. The tail was connected to the torso of a gigantic scorpion, with the upper half of Robinson's body rising where the scorpion's head should have been, bow in hand.
"Hah-hah!"
Feeling the power surging through that enormous body and concentrating in the tail, Robinson burst into a laugh of pure ecstasy.
Then a brilliant beam fired from the glowing red tail struck those who were fighting, detonating with an explosion that surpassed ordinary magic.
"How wonderful. There's no need to worry about what others think, and no reason to curse your natural talent. The more you kill, the stronger you become. The more devoted you are, the more you are rewarded. This is blessing itself!"
The line Robinson had evolved into was Artillery.
His modified body was a grotesque sight, almost as though a scorpion had been dragged out of nightmare, but Robinson rather liked this flesh, in which every point had been poured into sheer toughness.