Chapter 55: Sacred Knight (2)
Even I, if I didn’t have previous-life memories, would have suitably made excuses and kept distance from the Sacred, so I understand well.
“But since I ’know,’ I can’t make excuses either—!”
I found them.
In the rotary in front of the station, the figures of numerous onlookers looking at something from a distance.
Probably the Blade Monster Villain is there.
I extend tentacles downward and wrap them around the handrail of the station-front deck.
I don’t think of winning. Buy time until the Sacred arrive————
“————Ah, I have finally found you.”
——In that instant, my right leg was burned to annihilation.
The tentacle clothing and the thin long tentacles covering the body, and my own leg. In an instant they carbonized and crumbled like garbage.
“Eh, ah— gah, aaaaaah!?”
Confusion, and a scream.
Unexpected attack, unexpected power, unexpected intense pain.
Even though I shouldn’t have been careless, my thinking stopped at the one driven in from outside the range of thought. Unable to land I was slammed into the asphalt of the rotary.
But the thinking that had gone pure white from the pain of the fall recovers.
——What the hell is this. It’s not an attack from the Blade Monster Villain…!?
The Blade Monster Villain is a unit that fights by swinging two swords. There is a flying slash as a long-range attack, but that should have been lower in power, and in the first place a technique completely unrelated to flame.
I grit my teeth and grow tentacles from the carbonized scar. As an impromptu prosthetic leg, I slowly stand.
“——It is an unbearable loathsomeness to look at, Monster Villain.”
A voice rings from the front. A woman’s voice.
Gashan, a sound. The footsteps of someone clad in heavy armor.
——It can’t be.
I have heard that voice.
Not Shusawa Senjumaru.
Nor has Atel Octo heard it.
In this life — truly for the first time I have met the opponent.
However, the previous-life me — had seen the figure through the PC display and heard the voice ringing from the earphones.
In the 18+ game Magical Warrior Sacred Knights Monster Villain Uproar, the justice transformation heroine who appears in the latter half, or at earliest the middle.
A young lady with burning red vertical rolls, wearing a giant sword and armor. Ah, that name is—
“Sacred— Knight…!?”
“You heard from Saber… the likes of a detestable monster.”
Why, why is this one here now…?!
At the figure of her narrowing the large red eyes as if shooting to kill, I feel like screaming.
Because pure killing intent was poured into that gaze.
——There is no intention of dialogue; I will definitely kill.
Overwhelming superior-rank killing intent without question.
My legs tremble. Thanks to the tentacles covering the body constantly wriggling zururi, zururi, the fact that I’m scared probably isn’t exposed, but such a thing is no comfort at all.
At this rate I’m checkmated — no, already checkmated…!
No matter how much I look at or worry over the combat data of Sacred Knight that previous-life knowledge gives, I cannot think of a path to victory or even a means of escape.
No, no good. Don’t give up, think.
The opponent is a Sacred, a justice transformation heroine.
Even if the killing intent remains as is, if I bring it to a state of the enemy of my enemy is my ally.
“…Kh, rather than concerning yourself with the likes of me there is something you should do first, Sacred! I heard there is a Monster Villain cutting women’s clothes and I came here—”
“Oh my, about that Monster Villain?”
Karan.
Something was thrown at my feet.
It is a black crystal.
As a Monster Villain I can understand. That is the heart of a Monster Villain, the form of the Seed of Desire that has bloomed and become a power furnace that produces the magical power of darkness.
“Such a base existence has of course already been burned away long ago. It is regrettable that I could not divert the spearhead.”
“——Is that so. The trouble of me defeating it was saved.”
Mucus and sweat mix and drip.
It is natural if one says so. Isn’t it like the end-game boss going all-out to kill the early protagonist party. It is not hard to imagine that the Blade Monster Villain became charcoal without even being able to resist.
In the middle of that the reason I am alive is by no means because my own ability is high.
——Sacred Knight is moving in order to definitely kill me.
Sacred Knight is an existence of high standard in both ability and status — but only in speed she largely falls below the average value.
Therefore she first took my legs.
If she cannot kill on the first move and I choose escape — with Knight’s speed there is the possibility of letting me get away.
Thinking that far I extend tentacles to a building in front of the station and adhere them.
It is the worst situation, but at this stage I might still be able to escap—
“——I have not a fragment of interest in what you are scheming.”
——As if burning away even that sweet outlook of mine, scorching heat ran wild.
An explosive flame that covered not only the rotary but the station building and nearby buildings. It swallowed the onlookers and burned fiercely. Screams rose from the onlookers — but soon they changed to suspicious voices.
“What is this… it’s not hot at all.”
This is precisely the ability that makes Sacred Knight a strong enemy in the original.
——An area attack possessing friend-or-foe identification ability.
What the Flame Spirit manipulates is the flame of the sun.
The power that pours from the heavens, nurtures crops, and warms living things.
Therefore her flame — does not give damage to anyone other than the opponent she has decided to burn.
Not only that; if she recognizes the opponent as an “ally,” as a “existence that must be protected,” a powerful strengthening buff is applied to all statuses.
It can truly be called an ability that embodies the blessings of the sun — if she were an ally.
Yes — the light of the sun is by no means something that brings only blessings.
“Agi, gaaaaaaah!?”
Hot, hot, hot!
Burning. The tentacles, the body, everything everything.
For me who has been defined as “evil that must be destroyed,” this flame is not a blessing but only an attack that burns the entire body.
And — the sacred power of the Sacred has the worst compatibility for those who possess the magical power of darkness, for existences like me.
The tentacles crumble boro-boro. The tentacles I was using as a prosthetic leg cannot support the weight and crush with a guchari sound, and I am slammed face-first into the asphalt.
My original body has thin long tentacles constantly wrapped around so the fire has not reached — but this is only a difference of early or late. The tentacles covering the body are also carbonizing while emitting an abnormal sound of the mucus evaporating.
In a desperate attempt I extend one tentacle outward — but it is useless. Before escaping outside the flame, the tentacle carbonizes and is purified.
——This is the reason I never wanted to fight Sacred Knight no matter how I struggled.
The “area attack & ally buff that activates every turn and has friend-or-foe identification” that I also used in the original — with that, if defensive means are not prepared Monster Villain units vanish on the opening first turn.
And I also — without betraying that prediction, was about to vanish.
“Ka— a, a…”
My throat is hot, painful; even though I want to scream only a hoarse breath leaks out.
Painful, suffering, I don’t want to die, someone, help me — while gasping in agony I stretch out my right hand.
That state Knight looks down on with a contemptuous gaze.
“No one who will save you will appear. Quickly expire, you lowly cur.”
A gaze and words of disgust as if looking at a cockroach that is still twitching piku-piku despite most of its body being crushed.
But toward those words I held not indignation but acceptance.
What floated in my mind was right after becoming a Monster Villain, the figure of myself who leaped from the window saying that I myself would be the one to violate Sacred Saber.
——Ah, yeah…
Such garbage putting on a face of “I am a champion of justice” and standing next to the Sacred.
That itself was abnormal, a mistake, a hopeless bug.
Then, wouldn’t burning to death here be far far better? For reasons I don’t know Sacred Knight has joined, and Saber and Knuckle are also in perfect condition.
My role or whatever already has nothing left.
Yes, and.
As she says, someone who will save me, no one—
“Nay! If it is one who will save, I am here…!”
A voice sounded.
A man’s voice.
The one who broke through the flame and ran this way embraces my body and runs through to escape from the effective range of Knight’s flame.
Fast — this guy also probably has Knight’s buff applied, but even considering that it is not a speed that can be produced while carrying me alone.
Originally he is the type good at moving the body.
If only he had effective attack means against Monster Villains or Diabolics, he could become combat power.
“I made— it!”
Having broken through the flame and escaped the influence the buff also cut off, while mixing a little pained thing into the voice he lowers me to the ground.
“You, are—”
I look up.
With a tight body, a serious-looking face wearing sports glasses. A man who seems to embody the words literary and martial arts — a figure I recognize very, very well.
“Niekawa— wh-why”
Niekawa Kazuki.
Originally a mob character who dies in the early game — my friend looked back this way and broke into a smile.
“I promised, did I not. ’If when I am in trouble it looks like I can help with your power — help me,’ you said.”
Saying that, Niekawa laughed heartily.
Finally it seems I can fulfill that promise.
“I will take this place. Survive, my benefactor — Vigilante Atel Octo.”
Turning his back this way, he faces Knight.
I stare at that back for a while — and become convinced that even if I stay here I will only be a burden.
I squeeze out power and extend tentacles.
Confirming that the tip has caught on a utility pole, I mutter “My bad” —
“Sorry, I leave it to you…!”
“Ou, left to me!”
——After hearing Niekawa’s dignified voice, I leaped up into the sky.