Chapter 70: The Black Knight and the Growth Monster (2)
The first emotion Sacred Knight felt upon seeing it was “ugly.”
It was an extremely unbalanced form.
The torso was about a child’s, yet the limbs were abnormally long and enlarged.
As if a child’s limbs playing in a park had been cut off and the limbs of a muscular man attached—such a chimera-like form.
The skin looked soft like a child’s, yet the raised blood vessels and swollen muscles screamed that it was not only soft.
Messily grown golden hair hid the face and the naked lower body, so she could not guess with what face it was looking at her.
“Fight her. Then your desire will be fulfilled—now, Grace. Fight as you like.”
Knight was confused.
Because she could not understand the Black Knight’s scheme.
(Because—there is not a single element by which I would lose to a Monster Villain of this level.)
She observed.
The giant before her eyes, the existence called the Growth Monster Villain.
The reason there was not a single wound even though she had burned it with flame earlier—probably self-regeneration.
The sensation transmitted through the flame had certainly been burning the Monster Villain before her eyes. It should have taken corresponding damage, burns.
In addition, those limbs.
Leg strength and arm strength should both be correspondingly powerful. Not only rock, even iron would be crushed.
Those specs were truly fitting to be called a monster—
(Weak.)
—Fitting, but not enough power to overthrow a Sacred.
A weakling without a fragment of an element of losing. Knight concluded that.
“————!”
The Growth Monster Villain ran.
Kicking the floor, straight toward Knight.
Knight released flame from her palm as a check—direct hit. Scorching heat burst and burned the Growth Monster Villain—yet it did not stop.
While repairing the burns at tremendous speed, the Monster Villain increased its speed.
(The sensation of burning is duller than earlier. As the name Growth Monster Villain indicates, when it receives an attack it grows and obtains resistance.)
It entered range.
A right fist approached.
A blow an ordinary human could not even react to, and even Calmate’s knights would be at full capacity just defending against that roaring strike. Even many Sacred should take great damage if they took a direct hit.
“You are frail.”
“————!”
But Sacred Knight was alive.
She caught the Monster Villain’s boulder-like fist with her palm and crushed it just like that. Bones cracked and shattered, and the giant fist was compressed compactly while making abnormal sounds.
Together with a high-pitched roar a left fist was swung.
But before it reached Knight—she stepped in and smashed the Monster Villain’s face with a burning fist.
Skin burned, the moisture of the eyeballs evaporated, the nose was crushed, and together with the sensation of the skull shattering, the Growth Monster Villain was blown away and slammed into the ground.
But it probably still felt no pain; it immediately stood.
However, having lost vision and perhaps unable to move well, its movements were dull. Not knowing Knight’s location, it swung both arms blindly.
“This is the end.”
She readied her sword and stepped in.
—If receiving damage grants resistance, then pierce the core in one blow before it obtains resistance.
That was why she had not used the sword until now.
Though from this state she might have been able to beat it to death with fists alone.
This Monster Villain seemed to obtain resistance to attacks it had received once, but it did not seem able to obtain resistance enough to completely neutralize them. If the same attack was slammed in many times it might obtain stronger resistance, but Knight giving a lethal amount of damage would be faster.
Precisely because of that, it did not make sense.
Why had the Black Knight sent a Monster Villain of this level against her—?
“E ma”
A voice rang.
A cute voice that did not suit the form.
The original of this Monster Villain might have been a child.
Guilt overflowed from her chest, but she did not stop; she could not stop.
Even if she let it go here, it would only be used as the Black Knight’s piece. Then she would end it here————
“Gu re s ne e sa ma”
That Monster Villain’s face was—her most beloved younger brother’s.
————Thinking stopped.
The body as well.
And the Monster Villain before her eyes did not miss that fatal opening.
A fist was swung. The boulder-like thing struck chest and face at the same time. Blown away by the impact, Knight rolled across the ground while smashing remnants of the production line, and collapsed face-down like a broken doll.
It was not that she could not move.
It was not that she had taken a serious wound.
The power she had trained as a Sacred, the vast power of light, was not so fragile as to become unable to fight from an attack of that level.
She could stand up right now, swing her sword, and purify that Monster Villain—originally.
“…Eh? Ah, …eh?”
And yet, now.
Far from standing, she could not even move a single finger.
“—Not enough, not enough, still, still, still”
The Monster Villain’s skin swelled.
Muscles expanded, the body becoming larger.
That was not enough, more, more power was needed.
“—Stron—ger—more—more—”
The body swelled.
The skin hardened.
Not yet, not yet, more more, to become even stronger—the Growth Monster Villain grew.
“Then—Onee—sama—will—be—at ease—”
“…Eh?”
“Because—you force yourself—so I can—be relied on—”
The Growth Monster Villain—no, her most beloved younger brother Gahel—showed nothing like reason.
He was only voicing his own desire, his wish.
Precisely because of that she could understand.
This was Gahel’s desire.
“Like Onee-sama—strong—strong—strong—”
The crushed right fist deformed.
Bones thrust out and deformed with meki-meki sounds.
It was thick and sharp—exactly like a greatsword.
Sacred Knight’s holy sword Galatina—a crude copy of it grew from the wrist in place of a fist.
The Growth Monster Villain slashed the air with it messily. The messily grown golden hair was cut away, and the hidden face was exposed.
“Not enough—with this—still—”
What was there was her younger brother’s face twisted in agony.
Not yet, not yet, this level is not enough, this level is not enough at all, he bit his lip.
“Help—”
“…Yes, yes, rest easy! I will, no matter what—!”
Thinking those words, Gahel’s voice, were a voice seeking help from her, Knight stood.
“I will help—’I’—’Onee-sama’—”
But those words were completely different from what Knight had imagined.
“You’re suffering—yet I can’t help—I hate that—I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!”
It was a voice lamenting powerlessness.
It was despair at being able to do nothing for family.
—Gahel had noticed long, long ago that his older sister was forcing herself.
Precisely because of that he had become unable to move.
He had sensed that his sister was using him as a mental support, and if he left the mansion on his own—he could easily imagine what would happen to his most beloved sister as a result, so Gahel had chosen to continue being protected by his sister.
Because then his sister would feel at ease.
“I hate—only being helped!”
But even though the family he loved kept forcing herself, he himself could only continue being protected by that family.
That had quietly worn away Gahel’s heart.
Therefore he had desired.
Strength. An existence that was not only protected, that would not make his sister worry.
The Seed of Desire had taken in that wish.
The abnormal Monster Villain slashed toward Knight with its right hand—an arm modeled after the sword of “Sacred Knight,” the strongest existence he knew.
That blade scored a direct hit on Knight’s side—yet it could not pierce her defense.
“Ah—u, a”
But as if no strength at all entered her legs, Knight was blown outside the abandoned factory while smashing junk from the impact.
In the evening darkness she collapsed onto the ground covered in rusted junk.
(—I was going to protect. The only remaining family, precious, this time so I would not lose them—)
Looking up at the sky, Knight did not move. No, she could not move.
The damage was minor.
She should be able to stand and counterattack right now, yet her limbs convulsed gaku-gaku and would not move.
(But—ah, but—that was only a burden)
“Ha—haha—strong—strong—! I—became strong, strong—!”
Her younger brother’s—the shout of the one who had fallen into being a Monster Villain—pierced her chest.
I want to protect, Knight had thought that and lived desperately this past year. So as not to make anyone else worry, so as not to let anyone slip through this time.
But the result was the scene before her eyes.
I hate only being protected, I want to become strong—I hate this kind of myself.
That was proof that she had been cornering her younger brother.
“Grace, you know that Monster Villains have a core desire.”
A kind voice rang.
Kashan, kashan, footsteps sounding as he slowly approached from the abandoned factory.
“Then you have already guessed what kind of thing Gahel’s desire is, right? I hate my weak self, I want to change—because you treasured him like protecting glasswork, it became like this. Did you notice?”
“A… a, u”
She could not say it was wrong.
’Lean on your comrades and family a little more. In a situation like this, the other side suffers more if they can’t be relied on—you’ve managed properly until now, right? Have a little more confidence.’
She recalled the words Senjumaru had said.
Ah, because she had been convinced by those words she had resolved to talk with her younger brother.
Why did she always err at the critical moment.
Why, on the day she thought to properly face her family, did it become like this.
“My desire is the same.”
“Onii—sama?”
“Gahel envied your power and wanted it. I envied your position and wanted it. Either way, the core of us brothers’ desire is—Sacred Knight, you.”