Episode 13 - Behemoth Rises 5

"Ugh… Cough… Cough…!"


My chest felt hot.
No, the inside of my chest was burning.
Along with the sensation of my lungs scorching, blood mixed with my cough.


“Damn it…! Ugh…!”


Shattering pain coursed through his entire body. As he writhed, his lower body was completely crushed beneath the arena's debris, leaving his senses fuzzy.


“Cough...! S-survived...?”


Though calling it survival felt utterly miserable, he was alive nonetheless.
Perhaps it was because he'd been closest to the mage who deployed the shield.


He cautiously moved his eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, searching for other survivors around him.


“H-Hey...! Anyone out there!”
“Cough cough...! Brother...!”


A finger suddenly poked out from the gap in the debris right beside him, twitching and calling out.
The voice belonged to his subordinate, who had stood at his right in the arena, serving as his aide.


“Ha ha... You're one tough bastard, aren't you?”
“You're the one who's...! Cough cough!”
“Damn it! Are you coughing up blood too?”
“I, I think so... I'm trapped in this debris gap, so I can't see clearly...”


He was alive, but dying.
The cause was, of course, the red poison gas that had spread with the explosion.


When it fell, he had reflexively inhaled, drawing a mouthful into his lungs.


“Cough cough…! Damn it…! We need to get to the priest's place quickly…!”


Fortunately, there was a temple on this street too.
Though it belonged to one of the three ancient god sects, now a declining, non-mainstream faction, it was a proper religious order.


And naturally, quite a few priests resided there permanently.
Even the Four Gang Lords, who understood the priests' importance, refrained from interfering recklessly and showed leniency here. Gang members who were severely injured also relied on this place.


“Guhhh...”


He strained his arm, trying to pull himself free from the debris, but it was futile.
Just as he realized his left thigh was pinned under the rubble and despair began to overwhelm him, the debris ahead started to shift.


“Huh…?”
“B-Brother… What’s that?”
“I don’t know… Something seems to be moving up ahead….”


It was too dark to see clearly, but he could faintly sense it was a fairly large object.
There were quite a few pieces of debris rattling around.


And then came the sound... the one they never wanted to hear...


Bwoooooooooo-!


“F-fuck…! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…!”
“Bro…!?”
“Shut up and play dead. Don’t make a sound…! Got it?!”
“A-Aye…!”


Immediately, the two gang members shut their mouths, stifled even their breathing, and slumped over the debris, playing dead.


That sound.
It was a sound already etched into their ears.
The sound of that monster, that Kaftin guy, sucking in poison gas before firing poison gas shells from its fist…!


…Wuuuuh…!


The sound ceased.
It surely meant the charging was complete.


They held their breath even tighter, suppressing any urge to lift their heads out of curiosity with sheer willpower, feigning death with all their might.


The rattling debris soon erupted in a light explosion, scattering in all directions as the creature rose its massive form.


“Krrrrrrrr…!”
“……!”


Its position was precisely four meters in front of the gang members. A distance that monster could likely reach with a single swipe.
Soon, the sound of the monster shaking debris from its body could be heard.


If playing dead worked, once the creature moved on, he might find a chance to escape and search for the priest.


But reality was unforgiving.
He could feel the creature's footsteps crunching through the debris, deliberately approaching him.


He refused to swallow even the dry saliva pooling in his mouth, clenching his jaw shut and squeezing his eyes tight.


“...Damn. So the arena was built over a vertical shaft to the underground waterway.”


The creature looked up, seemingly assessing the structure of the underground waterway.
It seemed he hadn't detected the presence of the Gang member and was focused on escape.


The sound of him cracking his neck and stretching his body could be heard, and soon the monster appeared to be looking around, searching for a way to escape from here.


“...The entrance was up there, wasn't it? That way would definitely be faster, but... running into the rear guard guys would be problematic... Time is running out...”
“……!”


The gang member's eyes, which had been closed for a moment, snapped open.


Time?


Right, the thing probably wasn't some kind of dragon.
If that was the case, then that monstrous transformation must have a limited duration.
This was clearly a rather fatal weakness for the thing.


“…I really need to find another way. A vertical cavity means it’s where water drains away, and water draining away means it’s not just pooling—it’s flowing somewhere…”


Even in this situation, the member’s spine went cold at the cold, analytical intelligence that could dissect the situation so clearly.
Possessing such a physique and such intellect too? That’s cheating.


Sniffing the air to confirm the scent of water, he soon seemed to decide on a direction and began walking.
The problem was, that direction happened to be over the debris where the Gang member's subordinate was pinned.


The moment the monster's foot came down and crushed him, a crunching sound and a tearing, death-throes scream escaped from beneath the debris.


“...What? There was still someone alive...?”
“......!”


Fighting back tears welling in his eyes, the Gang member bit his lip and endured.
If he gave any sign here, it was obvious he'd be discovered and crushed to death himself.
And besides...


“Kukuku... What a shame. If I'd known, I would've taken it slower, stomped on the corners first...”


As if relishing the situation, a faint sound of regret and a smacking of lips could be heard.
What a horrible bastard.


“Let's see... suppose I take a look at what became of it.”
“......”


As he extended his un-swollen right arm to brush away the debris he'd crushed, the horribly mangled corpse, crushed flat against the edge of the wreckage, was revealed even in the darkness.


“…Well now. He died like a cockroach…. An interesting form. I’d almost want to preserve it in a painting.”
“……!”
“Hmm… Since it’s rare, I could take this wreckage… Tsk. Time…. Can’t be helped. I’ll come back another time if the opportunity arises.”


He was strangely preoccupied with time, as usual.
The time for his transformation to wear off must surely be approaching.


Eventually, he strode purposefully toward the drainage ditch where the water was receding.
Soon, an explosion like the one before echoed from that direction, and the sound of some of the pooled water gushing out could be heard.


“Huh... Just as I thought.”
“......”


It was done.
He had survived.
Along with the precious information that the creature's transformation had a time limit.
Now, if he could just escape somehow and relay this information...


“Ah. There's still one left.”
“......!!”


It was the moment his newly found hope was crushed, a death sentence handed down.


*****


The underground waterway led him out to the base of a cliff by the sea, beyond the city limits.


As if time had already run out, Kaftin's massive, staggering form fell limply into the sea.


Within the water, the armor forming his colossal body began rapidly decomposing, melting and dispersing.


Slowly, amidst the scattered biomaterial, Kaftin's original naked form was revealed.


Struggling, he somehow reached the shoreline, kneeling and clutching his stomach.
A terrifying rumbling sound, of monstrous proportions, echoed from his abdomen,


“Damn it... I'm hungry...”


Gritting his teeth against the tearing emptiness, he slowly brushed himself off and began staggering forward.
If he didn't find food soon, he wouldn't die, but he'd be unable to move for a while.


The next morning.
He barely made it to a nearby village, begged for food using the convenient excuse of being a sailor attacked by pirates, and returned to Pink Rose Street.
He had barely made it back, but his strength was still severely depleted.


“I need to find that thing quickly...”


He burst into the inn room he'd stayed in and frantically reached under the bed, searching for something.


Under the bed lay several bamboo containers holding his special emergency drink.


Grabbing one of the barrels rolling around in the corner under the bed, he brushed himself off and stood up, rushing to drink it,


“...What's that? A bamboo... bottle?”
“......!”


Kaftin's expression immediately twisted.
Leaning against the corner by the entrance, hiding, was none other than Whispermere, the head of the Information Guild.


“...This isn't a place where sneaking in leads to anything good.”
“I know. But if I send an agent who doesn't know you and hasn't won your favor, they'll just end up dying by your hand.”
“...Wise.”


His expression relaxed, accepting her reasoning.
Whispermere pointed at the bamboo tube he held, as if she'd been waiting for this moment.


“Could you explain that?”
“It's just what it looks like—a bottle for holding drinks.”
“The contents.”
“…….”


He immediately shut his mouth.
It clearly wasn't an ordinary drink.


Before he arrived, I'd considered checking it myself, but it was the right call to hold back—if he'd noticed I'd touched it, it could have been dangerous.


“If I explain this to you, what can you give me in return?”
“...Of course, information you'd want.”
“To become the absolute powerhouse of the underworld... is that it?”
“Well, I'll discuss the details after hearing your explanation.”
“Tsk, just as I thought.”


Smiling as if to say “I knew it,” he promptly popped the cork and gulped it down.
It was a thick, unpleasant-tasting drink that went down rough, but to him right now, it was precious.


This single bottle contained energy and hydration equivalent to seven days' worth of meals for an ordinary person.


“Huh...”
“......”


After drinking, he tossed the bottle to her.
She caught it reflexively, cautiously brought her nose to the opening to check the scent, and grimaced.


“...It's awful.”
“Right? Hearing the explanation would make it even worse. Especially for a woman like you.”
“Why?”
“Because that one bottle contains the equivalent of seven days' worth of food and water for an ordinary person.”
“......!”
“Plus, the taste and the way it goes down are just awful.”


She shook her head in disgust and set the bottle down on the floor.


“Why on earth did you drink so much of this?”
“...Because I need it.”
“...Is it... because of that strange monster transformation?”


Kaftin's movements halted.
He stared at her with clearly wary eyes.


But, true to her long experience in the Information Guild, she knew she couldn't break under his pressure here. She forced herself to hold firm, feigning composure.


“Yes. It consumes the nutrients stored inside my body exactly as they are. That's why I fall into extreme hunger and exhaustion right after transforming.”
“...If that's a weakness, then it is a weakness.”
“No. It's actually a dangerous aspect.”
“......?”
“The components of my physical form are quite unstable, and they're closely linked to my mind, which is even more unstable.”
“......!”
“So, depending on my mental state, its form can shift at any moment.”


Slowly raising his right hand, he said, “Like this,” causing sharp bone spines about five centimeters long to protrude from his fingertips.


“……?!”
“Understand? To put it bluntly, just maintaining a proper human form like this is quite hard labor for me….”
“So that's the situation...”
“Yes. That's why properly maintaining my food intake to keep my body in shape is important too. If I get too hungry and maintaining my form becomes difficult... I'll have to consider the final option.”


Facing her, whose eyes now gleamed with curiosity, he flashed his characteristic, eerie smile.


-To be continued-