Chapter 2: Onslaught! Beast Empress Maria
“Wheew~, what a magnificent power that li’l sword has.”
Having witnessed the effect of the holy sound amplified by the pillars, Ymir’s interest turned to the Sword of the Unicorn.
“I had heard about its power, but seeing it in the flesh is a totally different story altogether!”
Leina sandwiched the weapon between her cleavage as she listened to her companion. Up till now, the tip was visible even amidst her breasts, but now it had shrunk so much that it got completely buried within her chest, invisible from outside.
“What, you’re hiding that fine treasure? What a waste.”
The dwarf muttered, looking up at her chest regretfully.
“I’m not hiding it, this makes it easier for me to feel Fio’s presence.”
The heiress closed her eyes and focused her consciousness. Ever since they had landed on Fiend Island, Fio’s signs had become clearly easier to perceive. On the other hand, the Sword had been gradually shrinking.
[Just what might be happening to him?]
The mere thought made her shiver.
There was no time to lose.
“Let’s hurry up. The skeleton soldiers might resurrect.”
As immortal as the word ‘undead’ suggested, they couldn’t be stopped unless one completely broke each and every bone in their bodies. If the curse that was giving them ‘life’ was 100% purified by the holy sound, Leina’s party wouldn’t need to worry, but under the current condition where the Sword kept weakening, they couldn’t very well expect it to manifest its full effects.
The Vance girl made her way towards the island at a quick pace, through the cobblestone streets that had begun to wither.
“W-Wait for me! How impatient.”
With her legplates rattling, Ymir hurried to chase after her.
“There’s a chance an even more bothersome enemy than the skeleton soldiers will pop up.”
If she thought about what she had faced so far, the skeleton had been just the opening act.
[If any enemy with sharp swords and unbreakable bodies—like the ever malleable Melona—appears, or if it’s someone without a physical body like Airi or the wraiths, it’s all over for Ymir and me.]
“Even if that happened, you’d be able to rout them with your Sword like those undead. There’s nothing to fear.”
Ymir was ever optimistic, having witnessed that power from earlier.
“Well, I… don’t want to use it too much.”
The heiress hugged her chest. Using the Sword of the Unicorn while the Devil Ring remained fitted in it could be causing all kinds of side effects to Fio, as far as she knew.
[I’ll only use it once more.]
Given how often she’d tend to rely on the Sword’s power otherwise, she set a limit for herself.
“I see, not much we can do about it then.”
Whether she was really convinced or not, Ymir returned the battleax to her shoulder.
“Although, if it was me, I’d get the most mileage out of it as I could.”
Leina moved the hands away from her chest, and looked ahead of her.
From the shadow of the pillar of a giant temple that was about to rot away, a figure appeared. The person moved with quick and agile motions, like the wind, her footsteps making no sound whatsoever, and without apparent weight in her movements.
[It’s not Airi.]
The blonde could tell that much, from how the newcomer was actually walking on the floor.
“Seems we have a new contender here.”
Ymir glared at her, the battleax at the ready.
“Whoever that is, one mere person is no threat for us.”
“Wait!”
Leina restrained Ymir—who seemed ready to attack at any time—with one hand, carefully studying the features of the opponent standing in front of the temple.
She couldn’t help but gasp when she saw the face of the were-beast covered with hair reminiscent of a white tiger.
“No… it can’t be…”
The face of the were-beast that twisted her supple womanly body and approached on her tiptoes with a bastard sword was that of someone she knew well.
“Ymir…”
The heiress’ voice was trembling slightly now.
“What?”
“I’ll take care of her.”
[If that were-beast has the same abilities, those same skills as the person I know, there’s a high chance she can beat both of us.]
“Ymir, you run towards the temple and help Fio.”
“Are you ordering me around?”
“I’m not ordering you. I’m begging you.”
She asked as a favor. If possible, she’d like to run herself as soon as she could towards the temple to help the boy. However, she couldn’t afford to let Ymir face the opponent that had appeared before them.
“If you’re begging, I reckon I have to accept.”
Her earnest wish might have come through, for the princess placed the battleax back on her shoulder.
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Come to think of it, I don’t know the face of that Fio kid, alas…”
The other looked up at her with a troubled face.
“If there’s a boy inside that temple, that’s Fio.”
“I see.”
As they talked, the were-beast slowly approached. When her figure became clearly visible, Leina’s suspicions came true.
“Good gracious…”
The heiress couldn’t hide her unrest. The face of the creature in front of her was undeniably that of her mother—the Master Swordswoman Maria.
She knew from listening to Menace that the Swamp Witch—mistress of Airi and Melona—sometimes reanimated the deceased to add them to her army, but she would never have imagined someone related to her would be revived like this.
“Grrrrrr…”
Facing Leina’s gaze, the were-beast let out an animalistic growl.
[The fight can begin anytime.]
A volatile atmosphere began to drift between the two.
“Ymir! Run!”
Leina cried as she reached for her sword. At the same time, Maria charged, thrusting the bastard sword at the heiress.
Protecting her body with the battleax , Ymir ran towards the temple.
“Sorry, but I don’t like battles that aren’t profitable!”
Ignoring the fleeing dwarf, the were-beast rushed at the Vance daughter like a gale.
Leina swung down her sword, aiming at the tip of the looming barbarian sword.
[There’s nothing to fear from a charge as straight as that, if I deal with it calmly.]
However, the other’s speed was much higher than she expected. Her blow, that should have knocked off the barbarian sword of her foe’s hands, only made sparks come out of their weapons.
As soon as her opponent saw her sword’s point had deviated from Leina’s body, she settled for a ramming attack, keeping the momentum from her charge.
“Kuh!”
She bit her lips to suppress her surprised voice and jumped aside to avoid the ramming. But the were-beast moved quickly, and kicked the ground to attack with a sharp jumping kick before she could land—some would call it a dive kick.
Leina had no way to dodge it in midair. The most she could do was twisting her body and reducing the area the other would hit, however little.
*Thump!*
Sharp claws that grew from her toes carved a deep groove in her bronze armor.
Thanks to her protection, she hadn’t suffered a fatal injury. Without it, her skin would have gotten torn apart far too easily.
“Guhah!”
Due to the kick’s impact, she fell down on the ground.
She broke her fall, prepared for the were-beast’s follow-up attacks… however, unlike what she was expecting, her foe wasn’t setting up her next attack.
“Shaah!”
The beast only barked briefly, as if saying: ‘Stand up!’
Seeing from up close those well-proportioned features and that golden hair fluttering in the wind, her hands trembled.
[There’s no mistake. It’s not just the facial expression. The speed she wields the barbarian sword with, the way she can switch her strikes halfway through… the skills this were-beast possesses are definitely those of the Master Swordswoman.]
It seemed to Leina as if, even with Maria’s body having completely changed, the nobility her heart gave off remained the same.
“Mother… it’s me, Leina!”
The few doubts she had been harboring finally cleared up.
Eagerly, she tried talking to Maria, who had turned into a were-beast.
However, the beast didn’t reply to her words, jabbing her sword at the daughter, who had begun to stand up.
“Kuh! What kind of regrets did you have?!”
She parried the other’s weapon with her own.
Menace had said that when the swamp witch revived the dead, the driving force behind it were the regrets one had had back when still alive. So, if her mother was here right now, it only meant she bore some lingering regrets.
“Grrrr.”
With a beast-like roar, seeing her barbarian sword parried, her foe bared her fangs; in the Master Swordswoman Maria’s teachings, there was no such thing as ‘retreating’. Like in the case of her charge earlier, avoiding her poorly only meant receiving a follow-up.
[Then, I can only meet her head on.]
The other raised overhead the sword that had been stopped, and thrust it at her.
[I can see right through you.]
Leina stood up, raising her shield.
The resulting clash brought high-pitched noises of metal against metal, as well as a vibration that made her shield shake.
“Shaah!”
Maria uttered a beastly voice, and glared at Leina with her golden left eye.
Seeing that thin pupil, like those one would see in a cat, made a chill run down her spine.
“Mother, return to your senses!”
In response to her scream, her foe raised a beastly cry of her own.
“Gaaaaaaah!”
It was an intimidating roar indeed. An ordinary girl would have lost the strength in her legs with that, and would have gotten paralyzed in fear.
However, Leina wasn’t your ordinary girl. She had cast away her status of great responsibility in the family which ruled half the world, and had become a wandering swordswoman who traveled throughout the Continent. And naturally, getting attacked by beasts while she camped wasn’t something she had experienced just once or twice.
“I won’t lose to a mere beast.”
She raised her long sword overhead with all her might. Maria did the same thing herself.
The timing of the down swing for the two was about equal. The swords didn’t strike their respective opponents, they only scattered sparks as the sound of two people violently locking swords was heard.
“Gauh!”
With a short bark, the barbarian sword came close. With her long sword being held back as she was, Leina got pushed back more and more.
[Not since Risty have I met a formidable opponent with such raw strength. If I just try to do a brute force approach, I might lose.]
“It is a fool’s endeavor to fight strength with strength…”
“Gauh?”
“That was one of your teachings, Mother!”
The heiress lowered her waist as if she had been overwhelmed by the other’s power.
“Nyah!”
The beast lost her balance, and her posture broke.
Not intending to miss the opportunity she had created, Leina released a sharp roundhouse kick at the other’s feet, without a moment’s delay.
…However, her legplate-wrapped foot slid fruitlessly on the floor.
“Wha?”
Showing the same agility as a feline, Maria had jumped into the air.
From there, she swung down the barbarian sword with the momentum, adding her own weight into it.
[I can’t afford to dodge.]
She raised her shield at once.
*Claaaaaaang!*
A sharp metallic sound began to echo as her left arm grew numb.
In front of her eyes, the shield slowly broke into two.
“Kuh!”
The heiress predicted a second attack and jumped backward, but Maria instantly jumped into her bosom.
[She’s so fast!]
A power comparable to Risty’s. A speed beyond Elina’s. In every aspect, this Maria that had turned into a were-beast exceeding Leina’s abilities.
“Gahah!”
Maria’s shin hit the solar plexus over her armor. The impact made a heavy sensation run around her stomach, a shock through her internal organs that made her spit out her breath.
[Oh no, I did it again.]
Despite knowing that ‘retreat’ wasn’t featured anywhere within her mother’s teachings, now she was regretting having fallen back, getting into her usual fighting habits.
Still, Maria’s attacks continued mercilessly, showing no care to her state of mind. Barely standing, staggering as she was, there was no way the heiress could dodge.
The only thing she could do was move her body matching the direction of the upcoming blow, to soften the impact even if just a little.
When the barbarian sword hit her directly, her chest armor crumbled away, with her body dancing in midair just too easily.
Leina could only watch the armor separating from her body, the cut surface showing a glitter of bronze.
Maria then sent a flying kick towards the other, after blowing her into the air. The beast’s claws cut into her abdomen, now devoid of any protection from her armor.
“Kyaaaaah!”
As she screamed, she flung hard against a pillar with momentum. *Slaaaam*, a heavy sound reverberated in the structure with the strong shock.
“Gahah!”
After hitting the pillar, her body slowly fell to the ground.
[My shield has broken, I lost my armor. The only armor I have left is the leg plates covering my shin and the gauntlet in my left arm.]
However, strangely enough, her bones hadn’t broken, and her skin wasn’t torn either. It wouldn’t have been weird if that heavy blow, enough to rattle the huge pillar with the impact, had outright killed her.
*Throb*, went the Sword of the Unicorn inside her cleavage.
“Fio… is this some sort of divine protection?”
She didn’t know if this was the Sword’s miraculous power, or due to the Soul Drop she had smeared on her body to treat the boy, but there was no doubt that some kind of force was working to protect her.
“I can’t afford to lose here… can I?”
Leina barely managed to stand up, using her long sword as a cane to prop herself up.
***
“W-Wha-wha-wha-wha-wha!”
Watching from the watchtower of the Erebus, as it approached the Fiend Island’s bay, Elina couldn’t help but raise a surprised cry.
“What is THAT!?”
On the other side of the binoculars, her Big Sis—the person she loved the most in the whole world—was fighting an uphill battle against a half-human beast.
“I-I have to go help her!”
With that said though, she wouldn’t make it in time if she switched to a small boat and rowed ashore.
[How can I get there quickly?]
She looked to the ship below her, and her eyes rested on the siege bows installed at the left and right sides.
The Erebus was a cruiser ship specialized in attacking castles from the sea. As such, besides another sailboat to settle things in hand-to-hand combat, it had large-scale bows and arrows installed, with long range and great power.
“Seems I can use that.”
She left the binoculars to a crew member close by, and quickly got down along the rope, landing on the deck.
“Captain! Prepare the siege bow.”
“What do you intend to do?”
The captain leaned forward from the stern’s command post.
“How thick is the arrow?”
“I think it’s thicker than your waist, Miss Elina.”
Her eyebrows twitched at his joke, and she looked at her own waist.
“You're not thinking of riding on top of it?”
In contrast with the worried captain, she had a blooming smile on.
“Oh, I am.”
***
The inside of the temple was as cold as she had been expecting.
“I might be able to see without any light, but it gets boring if the whole thing is blue.”
As she complained, Ymir poked the floor of the shrine about to collapse with her battleax.
“Hm…”
[From the sound the floor makes, it doesn’t appear like it’ll crumble so easily.]
She gave a deep breath and went down the stairs leading to the basement. The dwarf didn’t mind going down or anything like that, but getting buried alive wasn’t something she was looking forward to.
Slowly and quietly, she advanced as she kept her hand on the wall.
“Mh?”
The feeling transmitted to her fingertips suddenly changed: from cold, hard stone, it had turned into something that felt like soft, slightly warm stone.
[How weird.]
She frowned and stopped in her tracks. Normally, one wouldn’t think of placing soft, brittle stones beneath the hard, heavy stones from above.
“Why doesn’t it collapse?”
Soft stone shouldn’t be able to support those kinds of stones without collapsing.
“I guess I won’t find the answer if I just ponder about it?”
She resumed walking. Shortly afterwards, the stairs ended into a dim hall.
“Oh!?”
Her eyes were drawn to an object casually lying around on the floor: a weapon. And it wasn’t the only one: weapons of various kinds were strewn around, as if discarded.
“Ooooh, now this, this is what I was looking for.”
With a smile, she swung her battleax towards those discarded weapons.
A heavy sound and a high-pitched metallic sound overlapped. Upon receiving the blow from her ax, the weapons broke so easily, it was almost disappointing.
“Rejected, these are just duds.”
Ignoring the weapons which broke down, she kept on crushing one after another.
Her goal in visiting Fiend Island was to search for a metal refined in the age of the gods, called ‘God Iron’. At the very least, it should have a strength comparable to the huge pillars lined up surrounding the shrine.
The fastest way she had to find it was to smash things around with her ax.
“Kuh~, seems it won’t be that easy.”
*Clang, clang*, went the dwarf through the hall, destroying the weapons on the floor.
Unfortunately, the weapons she was looking for were hard to find.
“Oh well, worst case scenario, I’ll take one of the pillars outside, right? If it’s impossible to carry it to the ship, I’ll just mark a claim for the Iron Mountains and collect it later… hm?”
Just when she started to consider giving up, she noticed a gap in the corner of the wall. That was the only place where the temperature was higher than its surroundings. Only a member of the Dwarf tribe—able to see in the darkness—would have been able to notice it.
“A hidden room…? Let’s see.”
Ymir tried pushing the wall casually. Without a sound, it slid away, revealing the hidden room.
“Nuah… t-this is…”
The patterns floating all over the wall captivated her.
At times, the patterns gave a soft glow and the wall pulsated subtly.
“Is this alive?”
Ymir was impressed at that old-fashioned magic device, made in the ancient times, still being in operation now. She didn’t know much about magic, but from a glance, she could tell it was intended to be large-scale.
“Is this some ritual magic?”
As she looked around, searching for clues, her eyes caught the figure of a boy restrained in the pillar located at the center of the room.
“Mm?”
With quiet footsteps, she slowly walked to the boy’s side. The silver-haired boy was naked, bound hand and feet to the pillar; he probably had lost consciousness, for he didn’t even so much as twitch.
Although the fact that his chest moved up and down slightly with his breathing meant he was still alive, she could feel no traces of vitality from him.
“Are you Fio?”
He didn’t answer her call either. Just as if he was dead.
“Mh… this is…”
The pattern engraved on his chest made her frown.
“An activation technique for something?”
The shining pattern on his chest ominously floated in her eyes.
“H-How… t-this…”
She hurried to close her eyes and hold her head.
(Are you the ruler?)
Something whispered to her.
“I am… I am…”
(If you’re not the ruler, become my flesh and blood…)
Her instincts screamed danger.
“Ngaah!”
To escape the whispering voice in her head, she let out a strong headbutt against the pillar the boy was tied to.
*Slaaaaaam!*
“Oooooooow!”
The low vibration sound overlapped with her scream.
“Kuuuuuuh.”
She crouched down, her hands holding the severely aching head. A bump formed in her forehead.
“Ugh, that was a close call.”
She didn’t know what would have happened if that commanding-like whisper had taken control of her consciousness.
“Well, something is for sure. If I don’t rescue you, something dangerous will wake up.”
The dwarf looked up, racking her brain on how she’d release his bindings. As a result, she didn’t notice a pink liquid approaching from underfoot.
“Huh~, and just who went and invited you?”
Hearing a cheerful voice unexpectedly from her feet, she reached for her battle ax.
“So naïve!”
Faster than she could, though, a pink-colored grid rose from the floor to surround her. In the blink of an eye, Ymir had been imprisoned.
“We can’t afford to hand Fio over yet~”
From the top of the cage, the face of a woman welled up, with rabbit-like ears stretching from her head.
“Uhii… g-gross.”
Despite herself, Ymir fell on her backside.
“Hyaah.”
A strong feeling of stickiness was transmitted to her buttocks through her clothes.
“We’re close to achieving our plan, so I’ll keep you quiet until then.”
With another eerie transformation, the pink cage that had captured the curly girl became smaller.
“I don’t mind absorbing you while I’m at it.”
“Gyaa, stop! The dwarven flesh is hard, our bones are metal, we aren’t tasty at aaall.”
Ymir struggled when she heard she could be absorbed. However, no matter how she rioted, the amorphous cage neither stretched nor snapped, and ruthlessly swallowed her body.
“Oh well, I can hear you out until the end.”
Melona took in everything below the dwarf’s neck inside her belly, and kept talking, rubbing her stomach, like a pregnant woman talking to her child.
“A little more, and you would have been absorbed by this guy.”
“What WAS that guy all about?”
“Maybe I could say ‘this room’, or probably ‘this island’…”
The slime girl continued, fiddling with the black crown on her hand:
“Well, I don’t really wanna eat anything gross, so you can be relieved; I’ll keep you here for the next while, I won’t be taking your life.”
“Y-You want me to be relieved in this situation?”
The other protested, but Melona turned a deaf ear to her and produced her crystal ball, which started projecting the scenery on the ground.
“Oh, our Beast Empress is overwhelming her, isn’t she.”
The crystal ball showed how Leina was at the mercy of the were-beast. All that was left was how to place the crown on the latter’s head again.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment