The Beast's Tail (3)
The Beast’s Tail (3)
Pink Deneb’s head throbbed. Partly from the alcohol she had just drunk, but mostly from the reality crashing down around her.
“This is insane....”
The violet-clad woman before her only made an already overwhelming situation worse.
Where the whites of her eyes should have been, there was only black. Wings that had no place on a human back sprouted from her shoulder blades.
The alien figure made it instantly clear: she only resembled a person. She was not one.
Virgo laughed merrily and spun as if dancing. Light particles like firecrackers scattered along the clockwise arc of her body. Each was a force of destruction comparable to an explosive charge.
“Yeah! Let’s spin together!”
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
Deafening explosions shook the earth again. Monsters that had been swarming like a hive of bees burst like balloons and melted like cheese. Buildings caught fire.
“Isn’t it pretty?”
Virgo murmured, watching the scene as if in rapture. Behind her, the howls and footfalls of fresh monsters sounded without pause. The flames consuming the buildings were like torches illuminating that ominous advance.
Endlessly surging enemies, and a new worst-possible nemesis.
Pink Deneb felt like crying. She did not cry.
Past experience had taught her all too painfully that shedding tears never made anything better. She held it in.
Fortunately, most of the people here had been evacuated. But some might not have been found yet, and if the monsters were not stopped here and now, the entire reason for evacuating would vanish anyway.
If the magical girls all fell here, that monster horde would march straight to the shelter.
“...Senpai.”
She turned her gaze to Blue Sirius.
Blue Sirius was strong. Few would dispute it. Even Red Vega, who had grown explosively lately, was still a rookie before her. Sirius’s years of accumulated experience and magical power were unrivaled.
And yet, before Virgo, she was powerless.
Every magical girl would be.
Four Seasons, One Violet.
That power, which usurped magical force and wielded it at will, was fatal to magical girls.
“Ooh~! It’s kind of chilly today!”
Virgo scowled, rubbing her bare, pale, delicate arms with nothing to cover them.
At the same instant she voiced the complaint, the shards of ice drifting in the air gathered and began to coalesce. Every spell Blue Sirius had manifested fell beneath Virgo’s grasp. What had been scattered magic soon rounded into a single mass, like an enormous snowball.
“So, you know, don’t use the ice. Okay? I said I’m cold! Who uses ice magic in winter.”
Going beyond the snow and ice fragments, even the frozen ground on the streets and the ice encasing magically frozen monsters rose into the air, becoming part of that snowball.
Before anyone knew it, an artificial moon carved of ice had bloomed in the sky, blotting out the moonlight.
Fires burned throughout the buildings and roads, and above hung a sphere of ice. The two opposing sights of heaven and earth possessed an ironic aesthetics.
Virgo grinned and flew up to stand atop the colossal snowball she had made.
“Woah, it’s high up here.”
Around that snowball, the Crimson-Winged Crows Pink Deneb had spread across the area began to gather. Over them, Virgo blanketed her own magical power—violet flames.
A medley of noise mixed together. Ice cracking and crushing, the wingbeats of birds that called to mind a swarm of insects, the vibration of flames rippling the air.
Crack— snap— whump. The sound poured out ceaselessly.
The monsters on the ground began charging gleefully toward the city.
From the overwhelming mass and bulk perched in the sky fell a cascade of violet light like a sunset glow. The monsters’ advance was starkly visible.
As thousands of beasts raced forward, the ground shook as if in an earthquake. They tore through the flames, chewed through building wreckage, crushed it underfoot, and reached their claws toward the magical girls.
“God dammit! Senpai... leave this to me...!”
“What are you talking about? You got a death wish? Ugh...! I really do need to quit drinking, seriously!”
Blue Sirius conjured ice across the area, forcing monsters to slip. She hurled ice spikes into every one that fell, killing them instantly. She sent more ice spikes flying at the ones that kept their footing, raised walls of ice here, and unleashed winds of ice blades there.
It was magic bordering on artistry, but over half of even those spells were stolen by Virgo.
With magical power consumption higher than usual, her stamina drain was higher too. It was brutal on a head already fatigued by alcohol.
Pink Deneb poured out her own magical power without restraint. The Crimson-Winged Crows shot forth like sharp arrows and tore monsters apart.
The dead monsters erupted in explosions. Blood fountained.
By the time monster corpses outnumbered the building rubble and flames, less than a full minute had passed. Her face and clothes were plastered with soot and blood.
She needed to get up there and take on Virgo directly. The monsters gave her not a single moment’s breathing room.
Drawing ragged, desperate breaths without pause, she fought for her life.
It was a living hellscape.
High above, Virgo, who had been loftily savoring the chaos below, murmured.
“I hate being cold, but I also hate the noise.”
The mass, having fed on every kind of magical power in the vicinity, was now large enough to blot out this entire street.
Pink Deneb steadied her breathing for a moment and looked up at the sky.
“The world is so fucked....”
The altitude was not particularly high, but that plainly would not hinder the destruction in the slightest. With that much mass and size, it would be enough to annihilate civilization here and leave behind one enormous crater.
Virgo smirked and stamped her foot once on the mass she stood upon.
That was all it took.
The starlight that had veiled the moon lost its suspension and turned downward. Leaving a violet tail, it plunged toward the earth like a child dashing into its mother’s arms.
It was a baleful star in truth.
A comet. A star meant to kill and tear apart everything on the ground.
Pink Deneb laughed hollowly.
“You son of a—...”
KWAAAAANG!
The mass of mixed magical power and starlight slammed into the earth.
**
CRACK!
I kicked the head of a charging sheep-monster, then spun and cut another at the waist.
SHWAAAK!
Without wiping off the gushing blood, I advanced straight forward and swung my claws. Lightning arced, and about six monsters turned to ash on the spot.
I was losing track. I had not expected to face even more monsters than before. Even fighting in Dubhe form, which was suited for crowd engagements, I was severely strained.
My stamina and starlight expenditure were heavy, but I could not stop moving.
Five red lines appeared in my vision simultaneously. The Belt’s attack prediction trajectories. I could block four. The last one was impossible.
After tearing off four monsters’ heads, I presented my shoulder to that predicted path.
KKA-GA-GAK!
Hideous fangs sank into the armor at my shoulder. As the horrible sound of scoring steel rang out, I swung my arm. My claws pierced a monster’s belly and released lightning.
BOOM! The monster exploded around its punctured abdomen. Inside that giant meat bomb, I was drenched in blood. I roughly wiped what covered my visor and kept moving.
“This is some zombie shit....”
There was no end to them. Unless I blew their heads off, they kept moving.
How many had I killed? Hundreds, thousands—maybe it was approaching ten thousand by now. Perhaps because every monster shared the exact same appearance, there was no sense of accomplishment no matter how many I cut down. I felt trapped in infinite time.
How many people had been killed and remade into these monsters? Boötes entered a portion of my vision.
Surging anger and frustration drove me to move my feet, but in an instant, sheep’s heads filled my view. How considerate the monsters were to the shepherd who had raised them.
They probably did not know she was the one who had rendered them legally incompetent.
[SET. White Bear Twin Thunder Strike.]
I gathered pale-green starlight into my claws and released it without a shred of hesitation.
PA-JIK! KWA-GU-GU-GUNG! As lightning spread in every direction, the sound chased after it, and heaven and earth trembled. As if erased by an eraser, nothing remained before me but traces of ash. Clean again.
And then, just as swiftly, the space filled back up and blocked my view.
“Goddamn...!”
I clenched my teeth.
It was endless. Boötes still had not launched a single attack. Could I handle her and these zombie-like sheep at the same time?
Even if I beat every last one of them and fought Boötes afterward, that was also a problem. Could I even maintain a functional body against her while utterly exhausted?
“Hoo....”
I put some distance between us. My gaze stayed fixed on Boötes.
“Aren’t you killing my sheep a little too much?”
I had no strength to answer, so I just steadied my breathing and glared at her. Her golden eyes were absurdly benevolent, as if she could serenely forgive even this slaughter.
“Still, I suppose... you’re trying to stop me. I’ve no right to complain. But don’t be in too much of a hurry, child. Sometimes in life you have to take the long way around. If you always insist on charging straight ahead, you’ll exhaust yourself. You’ll collapse before you ever reach the end of the road. That’s all I wanted to tell you.”
I let those words go in one ear, and internally, I asked the Belt one thing.
Fortunately, the answer was advantageous to me.
“Besides, you don’t even know what you are, or what kind of responsibility will come back to you as a result of overusing the thing hanging at your waist.”
The monsters did not move while Boötes was speaking. Even if they charged again, I would only be blocked by more monsters. I used the time to catch my breath and listened to her for a moment.
Slowly, I gathered starlight in my hand.
“Right now, you’re blind. Blinded by your ideal, by that radiance. Do you know something? The human eye doesn’t go blind in darkness. It goes blind when it sees light. Isn’t that exactly your state right now? Rushing forward thoughtlessly, blinded by an ideal you don’t even properly understand. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
“Yeah.”
The starlight gradually took on a shape.
“You’re right. I’m ignorant. I possess only the vaguest scraps of knowledge, like scaling a peak of foolishness.”
Ignorant.
It was not wrong. No—it was accurate.
I have no memories.
Having no memories means I possess no foundation that constitutes who I am. To try to walk a path without even a foundation—how ignorant and foolish is that.
I am blind. She was right.
I do not yet know how thick and mighty the walls blocking my path are, how sharp the thorns grazing my feet may be, or how deep the swamp runs.
I might as well be unable to see.
Advancing down this road knowing nothing, I cannot foresee what consequences I will call down.
“But even an ignorant fool like me knows one thing.”
Even so, I have to move forward now.
“Right now, I have to stop you.”
By now the city must be in chaos. Thanks to the other monsters Boötes herself had ordered to act.
A number of monsters straight out of the nightmares of the past, when they first appeared, must be assaulting the city.
“The deaths of innocent people have to be prevented. That is a self-evident truth, not even worth thinking about.”
I fitted the piece in my hand into the Belt’s buckle, the central part where the lens sat.
“So I’m just doing the self-evident thing. There’s no need to even think about ideals.”
I had not yet filled in all the stars, but drawing out that power was possible.
Ursa Major. That savage power.
Of course, controlling it is beyond me as I am now. It does not matter. There is no one here I need to hold back for.
“Just as you say. I’ll become a blind beast.”
I turned the Belt’s focus adjuster, and a voice full of heavy noise poured out.
[UR■A M■JO■.]
**
Jo Ah-yoon opened her eyes.
Inside a cloud of smoke that threatened to steal her consciousness, shards of ice caught her vision.
Blue Sirius had used magic to protect her. She understood that.
She looked to the side.
Virgo had Blue Sirius by the throat, lifting her into the air.
She had protected Jo Ah-yoon, but apparently could not protect herself. Her entire body was covered in blood. Gripping the arm Virgo held her by, she trembled feebly.
“Oh my... how pitiful.”
Jo Ah-yoon rushed out without a moment’s thought. The Crimson-Winged Crows at her back, she moved fast.
Snatching at Virgo, she folded the sky and ran.