The Devil's Awakening

“GUOOOOOOOOOH!!!”

The Golden Bear roars.

Wrapped around its body is lightning, running with a bachi, bachi sound.

<This...... has turned bad.>

Omake-sama's voice echoes in my head, tinged with panic.

<It's probably converting its own magic power to make lightning. To think it had a trump card like this hidden away......!>

“............”

I silently launch 【Infinite Pebbles】.

But then: no use.

The pebbles I fire burst apart on the Golden Bear's hide with a crisp Papapapan!

No damage.

The Golden Bear takes my pebbles to the forehead, shakes its head as if annoyed, and then...... opens its mouth wide toward me.

With a bachi, bachi sound, lightning gathers inside its mouth, and a white ball of lightning takes shape......!

<!! Jump!!!>

“Ooh! GUOOOOOOOOOH!!!”

“!!”

And from the Golden Bear's mouth...... lightning shot at me!

Omake-sama's warning, a split second ahead of it!

Thanks to it, I dodged by a hair with a sideways jump!

Bachiin!!

The lightning the Golden Bear fires is no mere show.

In an instant, it bored into the ground where I had been standing and burned it black.

Its power is nothing like the current wrapped around its body, the one that knocked me out earlier...... I think.

Take a direct hit and I won't walk away from it!

“Guoh! Guoh! Guooh!!”

“......Ya! Ha! To!”

The Golden Bear fires such high-power lightning in rapid succession!

If I stop moving, it'll hit me.

I dodge by diving forward headfirst.

Then I plant both hands and flip over on the strength of my arms.

There's no time to rest!

But don't you look down on me!

I run in zigzags around the Golden Bear to evade the lightning, then change direction!

Using 【Grasshopper】, I slip into the Golden Bear's guard in an instant!

Since punching it would shock me, this time I use 【Great Mantis】 instead of 【Magic Strike】!

I form a blade of magic power in my right hand, and with that, I slash!

......But, it's shallow!!

It still takes a long time to stretch the 【Great Mantis】 blade long.

The magic blade I can form mid-fight isn't that long.

My 【Great Mantis】 did slice into its body, but all it managed was to nick its thick fur and a tiny bit of skin.

“Guooh!”

The irritated Golden Bear lets out a short bark and punches me without mercy!

“Ugu!!?”

<Emi!!>

This punch is a cut above its earlier attacks.

Lightning has been added to a blow that was already powerful!

I again lose consciousness for an instant and am blown away.

“Gaha......”

And when I came to again, I had been slammed into the base's defensive wall and buried in it, unable to move.

Cracks like a spiderweb have formed in the wall, centered on me.

This time I couldn't kill the momentum with magic power conversion.

Because I was unconscious.

“Gu...... a......”

Somehow I manage to move just my neck, and glare at the Golden Bear.

The Golden Bear opened its mouth wide at me, helpless as I was.

A white ball of lightning, far bigger than any before, takes shape.

And it.

The next instant.

With no mercy whatsoever.

Without pity.

Was fired at me.

◇ ◇ ◇

“GUOOOOOOOOOH!!!”

The Golden Bear looked up at the clear autumn sky and roared.

It was a victory cry.

Tears overflowed from his eyes and would not stop.

At last, he had struck it down.

The black devil.

His mother's killer!

Dosa.

The devil, which had been buried in the wall of the humans' nest, fell limply to the ground.

Even so, it made only a small sound.

The devil's body was so very small, so very light.

To defeat this devil, the Golden Bear had devised his killing move, 【White Lightning】.

The thing that had taken it head-on was now charred black.

“U......”

“Guo!?”

But...... the devil was alive.

Groaning, it slowly raised its body and stood up.

Besides the reek of scorched smoke, a black haze began to pour from its body.

“Guoo......!”

The Golden Bear realized once again that this devil was an abnormal creature.

His 【White Lightning】, mastered by standing planted on the mountain's peak through storms and being struck by lightning, was no ordinary power.

Devil or not, anything that took it was sure to die, or so he had thought.

But still, that was not the case.

The devil was, even so, alive.

Truly a terrifying creature.

But.

But!

But!!

It was alive, and that was all!

Look at that devil's tattered state!

It must have reached its limit long ago...... its body was trembling, and it looked as if it could barely stand.

To crush the devil's small body and deliver the finishing blow, the Golden Bear approached her slowly, shaking the ground with a zushin, zushin.

Up close, face to face, how small the devil's body was!

To him, it was as small as a bug.

And though it was wounded all over, how feeble it looked, still raising its fists......

And yet, how comical the murderous intent burning in its eyes......!

The Golden Bear, at such a devil.

Raised his right arm.

Made to slam it down hard......

And stopped.

Quietly, he lowered his arm.

Why?

Had pity welled up?

Had friendship budded through their fight to the death?

Of course not.

This devil was his mother's killer.

The killer of the revered lord of the mountain, whom he still worshipped with all his heart.

There was no forgiving it.

This devil had to die.

He had decided.

That this devil must be made to suffer as much as it possibly could before he killed it.

That it must be shown the things dear to it smashed to a pulp, given a despair to kill its heart, and then killed!

That it must be made to feel what he had felt, and then killed!!

The Golden Bear looked away from the dying devil and turned his gaze toward the humans' nest that she had been desperately protecting.

And toward it...... he broke into a run!

◇ ◇ ◇

The Golden Bear approaches me, making the ground rumble.

It probably intends to deliver the finishing blow.

Wrapped in lightning crackling bachi bachi, it raises its thick front leg high into the sky.

In contrast, I am wounded all over.

I want to smash that head in right now.

I want to snap that neck right now.

But my body won't move.

I can barely stand.

But still, with me this weak in front of it, the Golden Bear lowered its raised front leg...... quietly, to the ground.

......I didn't understand it.

It won't kill me here.

I don't understand what that means.

In spite of myself, I look up at the Golden Bear's face and peer into its eyes.

What I found there was mockery.

Until now, the Golden Bear's eyes had burned with anger and hatred toward me.

But now, it's different.

The Golden Bear stares down at me......

And sneers.

No doubt about it, just now, this thing!

Sneered at me in contempt!!

After that, the Golden Bear takes its eyes off me.

I'm no longer any kind of threat.

Yes, its manner says so, eloquently, and with a zushin, zushin.

It starts off somewhere.

Where it's headed is the hole in the base's defensive wall.

Inside...... the base......

Toward the inside of the base.

The Golden Bear...... broke into a run!!

......Huh?

I have no idea what's happening; my mouth falls open in spite of myself, and I gape.

The one who calmly grasped what was going on here was not me, but Omake-sama.

<Wha!? Don't tell me that bear, now of all times, means to attack the base!?>

Hearing Omake-sama's guess echo in my dazed head...... sweat bursts out all over me.

Huh!!?

Attack the base!?

No, no, no!!

Stop it!

Don't screw with me, stop it!

Stop! Stop! Stop!

Your target is me, isn't it!?

Why turn your aim over there!?

Stop it!

STOP IIIIIIIT!!!

I scream in my head.

But I'm so exhausted I can't even put those words in my mouth!

I can't even turn the thought into a voice!!

That is how weakened I am right now.

Staggering, I take one step, two steps, and while trembling, I stretch my arm out uselessly and grasp at the air.

That is all I can do.

I still have magic power.

But my body, won't move......!

Ah, ah, ah......!

Only my heart is racing.

The murky black magic power spraying from my body rapidly increases in volume and swirls!

Time, as I feel it, slows down.

The footsteps of the Golden Bear running toward the inside of the base look terribly slow.

But I can do nothing.

My body, won't move.

Time just stretches out, uselessly.

All I'm allowed is to grieve over my own helplessness.

I can't protect the things I want to protect.

The first thing that welled up in my heart was helplessness.

Helplessness is a knife.

It's born of my own heart, and yet it stabs into my heart again and again, and gouges it.

No.

No.

No, no, no, no, no!!

Fairly, Booze-Reek, Dirty, Muscle!

Perverted old geezer!!

Old man!!!

Everyone's in that base!!

Don't take them away from me!!

Don't hurt my comrades!!

......Don't screw with me!!

And after helplessness, what bubbled up was anger.

Don't screw with me......!

No, don't screw with me!!

Bear, stop!!

Stop, stop!!

......Stop!!!

I'LL KILL YOU!!!

And...... the last thing left was murderous intent.

While time slows, my thoughts, by contrast, speed up.

And what runs through them over and over isn't working out the enemy's weak points, or drawing up a plan.

It was churning out murderous intent, on and on, without end.

I'LL KILL IT!!

I'LL KILL IT!!

I'LL KILL IT!!

I'LL KILL IT!!

I'LL KILL IT!!

Why can't I kill that thing!?

Why won't my body move!!

Aah!

AAH!

AaaaAAAAAAH!!!

I WANT IT!!

Even if my body, won't move!!

I want arms, to catch that thing!!

I want fists, to punch that thing!!

I want power, to kill that thing!!

............I WANT IT!!!

◇ ◇ ◇

A murky black soul, where a rusty red surfaced and vanished now and then.

Emi's soul, which almost any decent being would find repulsive.

That soul was trembling.

Like an egg about to hatch.

Gan, gan.

What swirled inside the soul was thrashing to get out, beating against the soul's shell.

The maddening murderous intent, made and only ever stored away, was thrashing about, demanding release.

The pressure rose without end.

And then, at last.

With a barin.

A hole opened.

And from that hole, the murderous intent swirled and poured outward!

Murky black magic power!!

Overwhelmingly denser than what had leaked from the soul before!

It burst into the outside world with tremendous force!

The owner of that soul...... Emi!

Began to give it the shape she wanted most!!

◇ ◇ ◇

At that moment, what the Golden Bear felt was, simply put, a chill.

A presence too hideous for words.

It expanded rapidly behind him.

In spite of himself, he stopped in his tracks as he ran to trample the humans' nest.

And he tried to turn around.

But he couldn't.

Because something had suddenly seized him by both hind legs with tremendous force and lifted him into the air!!

And just like that, his gigantic body was swung in a half circle...... and slammed hard into the ground!!

“GUOOOOOOOOOH!!?”

From the sheer impact and pain, the Golden Bear screams!

And then, belatedly, the questions!

What just happened!?

What had just been done to him!!?

Scrambling over, he raised his face and glared at the enemy.

Standing there was, as expected, that devil.

A small, worn-out, dying devil.

But at the sight of the devil, the Golden Bear's eyes went wide with shock!

Wounded all over, barely standing.

That state remained unchanged.

But one thing was vastly different from before.

That difference was a pair of murky black, huge “arms”.

From both of the devil's shoulders, “arms” other than the ones she had always had were growing.

Those “arms” were about as thick as a normal human arm where they joined the shoulders, but grew thicker and bigger the farther out they went.

They even had something like an elbow and seemed built roughly on the human body, but their texture was rugged as rock, and spikes seemed to be growing from them here and there.

At the ends, just like a human's, were five fingers, but their tips were far too sharp, and looked hard.

And those palms were large enough to crush the Golden Bear's head with ease.

Those two new murky black arms, their shape steeped in murderous intent, apparently paid no mind to gravity; they floated lightly in front of the devil, a rusty red rising to their surface now and then.

Something that truly deserved to be called an “aberration” stood there.

The debut of the protagonist's new form.