The Beast's Tail (2)
The Beast’s Tail (2)
“...Uh, yes? Whatever do you mean...?”
Boötes pretended not to understand. Watcher ignored it and continued.
“I’ve killed countless monsters on the way here.”
He’d felt like a traveler exploring a desert, fighting through fierce sandstorms.
Monsters had swarmed him in numbers beyond counting, like grains of sand.
Most were C-rank or B-rank monsters, but occasionally an A-rank or higher appeared—strong, but not quite S-rank.
Monsters who possessed multiple stars but had not become a constellation.
He’d heard rumors of their kind but had never seen them openly until this journey into Dark Matter.
Their intelligence was childlike, and their strength unremarkable compared to constellation-class monsters.
The peculiar thing was that not a single one of them possessed an ability like the constellation monsters did.
They held more stars than Jason of Pyxis, but their actual abilities and power were far beneath his.
Still, they couldn’t be entirely ignored. Dealing with all those assorted monsters rushing him at once had been a real struggle.
He’d been slaughtering monsters for over half a day.
Thanks to that, he’d been able to gather a great deal of starlight.
“I don’t know if you’re aware, but I can obtain starlight from defeated monsters. When I approach an ideal, my starlight grows stronger as well. And it seems my star is connected to memory—activating a star lets me see memories.”
Watcher pressed his fingers to his forehead, recalling the memory from moments ago.
“Just now... I saw one. It was brief. Very brief. But intense.”
Retracing the memory, he slowly lifted his head and looked at Boötes.
“I... was here. Right here. The place the Belt directed me to.”
In that place, Han Jae-jung had been running like a madman. The scenes flashing past his eyes were otherworldly.
Collapsed high-rises, windows overgrown with vines and moss, abandoned red cars tangled in the same vines.
No matter how fast he ran, the landscape showed no sign of change.
The city appeared to have been abandoned for a very long time—not a single human shadow could be seen. Instead, there were creatures that walked upright on two legs but had shed all human shape. Monsters.
Sand, dust, thickets, and buildings. Gray and green crossed each other, creating a tranquil atmosphere. Wilderness and savagery blooming in what had once been a human place.
Shadows swallowed the space above Han Jae-jung as he sprinted. A building had toppled sideways and become like a bridge. He set foot inside.
“And I... was being chased by you.”
Behind him had been a person. No—only more humanlike than the other monsters. The figure had unmistakably been a monster.
A goat’s horn growing from one side of the head. Hooves for feet.
Long pale-green hair like vegetation streamed in the wind, and long ears sliced sharply through it. Flowers adorned that hair and those ears—white, yellow, red, bright and vivid.
Unlike the other monsters, this one wore clothes. A dress. Over the white dress, instead of jewels, ribbons, or frills, vines and stems with blooming flowers wrapped around the body.
Most unusual of all were the arms. Not two arms like a human, but four.
That bizarre yet mysterious appearance was enough to make someone mistake the being for something from myth.
“What made you think that was me? You’ve never seen me.”
“Because that being was holding that wooden staff you carry.”
Clasped by the two right arms, crossed, was a long wooden staff fit for a shepherd’s use.
“...Haha, really? That doesn’t mean I’m a magical girl—“
“No. You were a magical girl.”
That short memory had made him certain.
“Because the only time someone’s body is only partially transformed—becoming a monster like this—is when a magical girl has fallen into Corruption.”
The Corruption of a magical girl.
The moment she abandons the power of love and peace and accepts human Negativity, a magical girl gains a new star.
A new star.
For a magical girl meant to handle only one star, it is an unforgivable taboo.
The instant a new star is born within Negativity, the magical girl’s mascot meets its death, and the purification of magical power becomes impossible.
Exposed to starlight that contacts the body without any filtering whatsoever, the magical girl’s personality and body both change.
It doesn’t fully escape the human body the way ordinary Monsterization does—but it is no longer human, either.
You must live as a monster in a state close to a human body.
This is the Monsterization of a magical girl.
“Besides, that nickname for Sky Polaris you mentioned before—Ungnyeo... You must have been fairly close to her, weren’t you?”
Boötes listened to him in silence.
“The green hair and face I saw back then. The time Green Arcturus went missing, which coincides with when the Boötes Monster first appeared in Russia. Green Arcturus, the magical girl famous for being Sky Polaris’s closest friend... At this point, I couldn’t pretend not to know even if I wanted to.”
Watcher walked toward her. He laid a hand on the hood concealing her face. Boötes simply smiled.
“No, honestly, I could tell just from the face in the memory. I love magical girls, you see. Even if they’re figures from the past, I remember their faces.”
“...Oh. I see.”
He slowly drew back the hood.
“You caught me, huh?”
There, revealed, was a monster identical to the one he’d just seen in the memory.
Long, wavy green hair flowing down. A goat’s horn at the right temple. Pointed ears. Apart from those unusual features, a face that was perfectly fit to be called a girl’s.
Her golden eyes curved gently, like moonlight.
“I’m sorry. Back then I had no choice but to chase you out. I can’t very well leave a wolf loose in the meadows where my lambs are growing, can I? Humans who aren’t prey don’t belong here.”
As he’d thought. Han Jae-jung had been inside Dark Matter in the past. Madness. What had possessed him to enter a place crawling with monsters?
He couldn’t understand his past self.
“Going by those words, wouldn’t that make you the wolves?”
“Hmm... To my eyes they look like lambs, so I’ll just call them lambs!”
Boötes raised a finger and pointed at Watcher.
“And you’re a blind sheep. You know the path exists, but you can’t see it, so you can’t walk it.”
“Do I look like someone you need to look after, too?”
“Of course. Among them all, you’d be someone I’d pour particular affection into looking after.”
Her eyes and fingers slowly traced the monster bloodstains left all over Watcher’s body, and Boötes smiled.
“I’ll overlook this.”
The tone of a parent soothing a child. The gaze of someone bestowing affection from above to below. Naturally, a manner that looked down on Watcher as beneath her.
Arrogant and doctrinaire, but that attitude held certainty and composure.
The characteristic gaze of the strong. It seemed to say, without the slightest concern, that she could kill you.
“This is why I want to give you the Belt. I need to find a new comrade, don’t I? Your journey will be truly difficult. It will feel like walking a pitch-black night without a single light. Wouldn’t you need a friend to walk that path together through the darkness?”
It was unwelcome consideration.
Handing over a Belt wouldn’t instantly produce a new comrade.
Watcher knew that using the Belt required qualifications.
In that case, how did she plan to find someone with those qualifications?
“Boötes, it seems you’re capable of controlling multiple monsters.”
“That’s right.”
“Then you can also give them orders.”
“That’s a harsh way to put it. This is simply a request.”
“Now that you mention it, monsters kept advancing endlessly in the opposite direction I was heading toward you. Until just now I thought it was to attack me... I think I’ll need to reconsider.”
Around Watcher’s body, starlight like fireflies began to leap up. In a place where darkness had settled deeply, green light illuminated the world.
The gently flickering, ember-like starlight shone on Boötes’s face.
“Boötes, how exactly do you plan to find an owner for that Belt?”
Boötes gave a rueful, bitter smile.
“...Isn’t a hero normally born in a crisis? I had no choice if I wanted to find a suitable talent to wear the Belt.”
Taking Watcher’s hand, Boötes said,
“Just wait a little. My lambs will find your comrade soon.”
It had become clear.
Right now, numerous monsters living inside this Dark Matter were advancing on the human city.
For one reason: to find a new Belt’s owner through the assault.
It was madness. He couldn’t comprehend it. To throw monsters she claimed to love into a death trap—to make them attack people—for no better reason than that.
“Do you think I will wait?”
“Mm... Of course not!”
A careless laugh. The expression was far too idyllic and simplehearted for someone commanding a slaughter at this very moment.
“So, I’ll have to make you wait.”
[Quest completed.]
“Do you know something? There are many monsters here. Monsters who haven’t completed their constellation. Those lambs are preparing to go out into the world someday.”
[Quest appeared.]
Immediately after the quest-completion tone, a new quest was born.
“They still don’t know their own purpose, but it would be troublesome if they lacked power when it finally appears, wouldn’t it? To prevent that, I’ve been gathering—maximizing the brightness of every star. If those children complete their constellations, they’ll certainly be very strong. Very, very strong. And the world already has several monsters like that. Monsters who’ve maxed out every star in their constellation.”
[Escape.]
“For your information, I’m one of them, too.”
Boötes brought her hands together around Watcher’s, as if in prayer.
“I’d rather you didn’t resist. It seems making you stay quiet without hurting you will be a little difficult.”
Green starlight welled up around her body. Darker and blacker than Watcher’s own, a thick, sticky green like a swamp.
“Look here, Boötes.”
“Yes?”
“You called me a blind sheep... Honestly, I think that’s right.”
[SET. Rising Star.]
“I’ll throw myself at anything, fire or water, no matter the opponent.”
KABOOM!!!
A fist drove into Boötes’s stomach. A thunderous boom echoed. She flew into the sky. Up, up, as fast as a star falling in reverse.
“I knew you’d do this!”
Right before her body struck the building above, blue sky spread open.
The ground, a mix of asphalt and grass, transformed unilaterally into a meadow. The surrounding buildings and debris became boulders.
Nature unfurled through the city became something like a mountain path.
Space had been overwritten.
The Boötes Goldilocks Zone.
“Are you really going to do this? You can’t defeat me!”
“Yeah, I admit it. It’ll be hard.”
Watcher felt hundreds, thousands of gazes pinning him.
Monsters inside her Personal Domain. Pitiful beings who had originally been human, then died and were reborn as monsters.
A sheep-shaped monster began to surround him, making menacing sounds.
“But is that a reason not to act? Is a wall a reason to abandon the journey? No. A wall is simply something to leap over.”
The method to escape this place was nothing special. Complete the task she set, or crush the one who ruled this space.
Last time he’d chosen the former. This time he had no choice but the latter.
“I’m blind. If something blocks the way, I’ll choose to smash through it rather than search for another path.”
“You’re really good at being sarcastic...”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Watcher raised a finger and pointed at her. Boötes laughed hollowly.
“You—have you ever seen a star?”
Leaving those words behind him, thousands of monsters hurled themselves at Watcher.
**
“This is insane. Shit.”
Pink Deneb clicked her tongue. She struck monsters down, and more just kept charging.
Fortunately Blue Sirius was here, so handling this many monsters wasn’t much of a problem.
“Why now, of all times... I knew it, extermination is the only answer for monsters...!”
Clutching her head, dizzy from alcohol, she frantically scattered freezing cold. Dozens of monsters froze solid and breathed their last with each motion.
“Blue Sirius! I’m a fan!”
“Stop screaming and get lost! Hey, mister! Stop taking pictures and run!”
Pink Deneb was, naturally, handling the evacuations. She’d also scattered her Crimson-Winged Crows to survey the damage in multiple areas and move magical girls to where they were needed.
Her head throbbed. The tactical picture was one reason, but the excessive use of magical power was another.
Managing several tasks at once during the evacuation had drained both stamina and magical power excessively.
“Senpai! Almost everyone’s evacuated now! Let’s just—“
She raised her voice, about to tell Blue Sirius to cut loose without holding anything back.
That was when it happened.
A violet meteor descended from the sky. Pink Deneb, who knew exactly what that was, changed what she was about to say and shouted.
“Oh, shit!!”
The meteor plunged into the ground without a moment’s hesitation. The earth shook, and light the color of sunset blossomed in a hemisphere.
The ground caved in, smoke billowed up, and the nearby monsters instantly crumbled to ash and melted away.
From within the acrid gray smoke, a single girl walked out.
“Hi, everyone! I’m back!”
She shook the night, laughing gaily.
The magical girls’ natural enemy, Virgo.
The opponent they least wanted to face right now had appeared.
