I raised my staff, retracing the familiar trajectory of the spell in my mind.
A stream of water began to surge up from around my waist, and the blue current soon gathered into one mass and shot toward the monster.
Shwaaaaaak— Boom!
It was [Water Bomb], the most threatening spell I could use.
The mercenaries who had been backing away seemed startled by the magic I had cast, but that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“It’s completely fine…”
The Water Bomb had done nothing.
Spray scattered in every direction, but the monster had not taken even a single step back.
The thing was, quite literally, a massive boulder.
The rough, solid hide layered over its enormous frame was reminiscent of a crustacean’s shell.
Its skin was twisted like rock, and red fragments jutted out here and there like boils.
Those fragments were connected to black veins running beneath the skin, writhing like a living neural network.
It was difficult to call it human anymore.
It would be more fitting to call it a golem.
‘Four, no… five of them?’
It was somehow different from the infected I had seen before.
Was it because of the number of fragments, or was this an entirely different stage?
What was certain was that the monster before us was anything but ordinary.
The monster flinched for a moment after taking the water projectile, but soon turned its head and looked this way.
After staring fixedly at me, the monster suddenly looked down at its own body.
And then… it slowly opened its mouth.
“…Body… is… wrong…”
A heavy, sluggish bass, as if echoing up from an underground cavern.
The monster was clearly speaking.
“It’s… talking…?”
At the familiar voice, I turned my head and saw Sailleon standing there with his bowstring drawn, his face pale with fear.
His expression was plainly bewildered, and it was obvious he was hesitating over whether to shoot or not.
Sailleon wasn’t the only one shaken.
Baldik and Aileen, standing beside him, also gripped their weapons with visibly stiff faces, trying to gauge the situation before them.
Behind them, even the mercenaries who had been backing away stopped in place and watched the monster with uncertain expressions.
“Mon… ta…?”
One man among the mercenaries cautiously stepped forward.
He was a man who had often been seen together with Monta.
“…”
As if reacting to that voice, the monster slowly turned its head.
For a moment, their gazes met.
“A… ron…”
The monster—no, Monta—recognized the man’s name and muttered it.
The mercenary Aron’s tense face showed a faint hint of relief as he continued speaking.
“Yeah, damn it… what the hell happened to you?”
“…My… body…?”
The monster slowly looked down at its own body again.
Its expression was hard to make out, pressed beneath its grotesquely swollen frame, but the agony was unmistakable.
“What… is… this…”
The monster’s lips trembled as its words trailed off.
It was as though it was only now accepting the fact that it had become a monster.
I wondered if this was the point where I should step in, and had just begun to lean forward slightly.
“…Monta, it’s all right. You’re still you.”
Aron spoke to him gently.
His tone was careful, as if soothing him.
“Listen, did you maybe pick up some relic without telling us?”
“Re… lic…?”
“Yeah. If this happened because of some strange relic… there might be a way to fix it, right? So for now, just stay still.”
Aron wanted to believe.
He wanted to believe that Monta had become a monster because of some simple magical influence, and that he could therefore be turned back.
But I knew.
This wasn’t a matter of some “relic.”
The omens I had seen several times already, that flow—it was far too familiar.
This was undoubtedly the influence of the Demon Stone.
If there was one fortunate thing, it was that he could still be spoken to.
He wasn’t completely broken, so perhaps there was still some way.
…Just as I was thinking that.
The monster suddenly lowered its gaze.
At its feet lay the corpse of one of the mercenaries it had struck down.
His eyes were unfocused, his fixed stare cast into empty air.
Around his chest, a red stain had spread where something enormous had crushed him.
And the monster looked at its own hand.
Chunks of flesh clung crushed to its fingertips, and red liquid dripped from the ends of its fingers.
“…I… did…?”
That voice was a single utterance from someone collapsing, a mixture of shock and despair.
The monster’s shoulders began to tremble.
For a moment, extreme confusion overtook it, and that confusion soon turned into rage.
“Ggh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
A scream rang out.
The monster’s eyes rolled completely back, and the Demon Stones embedded all over its body began to glow as if burning with red light.
Black veins spread beneath its skin, and mana surged like a beating heart.
“Back!! Everyone, fall back again!!”
Someone’s shout rang out.
Everyone knew.
Now, that thing was no longer something that could be reasoned with.
Soon, the area was filled with a suffocating energy.
Like stepping into a sauna heavy with the damp air of midsummer monsoon season, a dense and unpleasant aura seeped through my skin.
I thought it was just me, but when I looked around, everyone was watching the monster warily with frowning faces.
That alone was already a disaster.
Pshhhhh—
White steam surged from the nape of the monster’s neck.
Like a steam engine that had finished pumping, the monster began to move, venting heat.
Its movements were slow.
Heavy steps suited to its massive bulk.
‘At this rate, we could just run—’
Toong!
Suddenly, without any warning, the monster sprang upward.
It was too fast and too elastic to call it a mere jump.
“Wha—”
Boom! Crunch!
Its enormous weight came down right in the middle of the mercenaries.
The ground shook from the impact, and dust billowed up.
The mercenary crushed beneath it could not even speak before being smashed beyond recognition.
“Jack!! Damn it, run!!”
As Uncle Nas’s shout spread, only then did everyone scatter reflexively.
Screams and the sound of clashing metal erupted from every direction.
Only then had everyone finally acknowledged that the monster was no longer the “Monta” they knew.
We also pulled back reflexively.
Sailleon already looked ready to bolt on his own, but he seemed to understand instinctively that he would die if he ran alone.
He kept urging us on from beside us as he stuck close.
Kwaang! Kwaaaang!!
Like a wildcat released into a chicken coop, the monster thrashed about at random, tearing everything apart.
It was, in the truest sense, a slaughter.
…I absolutely cannot beat that thing.
That thought had already occurred to me the moment I saw it remain unfazed after taking the water projectile.
I knew the glowing Demon Stones embedded all over its body were its weak points, but the problem was that I wasn’t even sure I could break them.
On top of that, it had shown signs of intelligence.
At that moment, there was no point in hesitating anymore.
…First, we had to survive.
“Run!”
We sprinted at full speed through the undergrowth in the opposite direction from the village.
Since I had the weakest stamina in the group, I gradually fell behind, but there was no room to look back.
“Aaaaaagh!!”
“No!”
From behind us, amid the fading sounds, came continuous roars and screams.
It meant things were still a complete mess.
For a brief moment I felt relieved that, at least, it wasn’t chasing us—but that relief soon turned into a thin layer of guilt.
‘Then the others…’
No. In the end, the other mercenaries would have made the same choice we did.
Even that guilt was soon shoved out of my mind by the breath rising to my throat.
When we emerged from the small forest, a vast plain spread out before us, and only then were we able to stop and catch our breath.
“Haa… haa…”
“It’s not chasing us, right?”
“Haa… seems… like it…”
My heart was still pounding, and each breath scraped roughly against my vocal cords.
“That monster… what on earth was that?”
After catching my breath, I retraced in my mind the things I had heard from Malay.
Then I summarized them as simply as I could and told the others.
Demon Stones. And the existence called an “evil seed” dwelling within them.
How it chose a person, burrowed into their body, and gradually mutated them.
And how, in the end, they became a monster.
The faces of my companions, after hearing my words, were instantly shadowed with despair.
“…Demon Stone.”
“So what we saw back at the castle… was that too, in the end.”
“…Yeah.”
As silence fell for a moment, Sailleon cautiously opened his mouth.
“But… it talked. Just now, it definitely…”
He trailed off as if hesitating, then lifted his head again and spoke.
“Doesn’t that mean his mind was still there?”
At those words, Aileen pressed her lips together and lowered her head.
“That’s… too horrible.”
What would it feel like to turn into a monster while your mind remained intact?
Just imagining it made it hard to breathe.
To be alive, and feel yourself breaking.
“Is there no way to save him…?”
Aileen asked in a trembling voice.
But Baldik was firm.
“Whatever it is, it wasn’t a problem we could solve. Don’t dwell on it for no reason.”
Maybe that was the most rational judgment.
Once Baldik finished speaking, we stopped talking about the monster and began considering how to get through the immediate crisis.
“…Then what do we do about the village?”
Sailleon spoke cautiously.
“We pray it didn’t go to the village.”
Baldik said, his voice mixed with a sigh.
If the monster had gone as far as the village, there would be no one capable of stopping it.
One person did come to mind, but… he didn’t seem like the kind of person who would involve himself in something like this.
“…Then shouldn’t we report it to the Mercenary Guild?”
Aileen asked, and Baldik nodded.
“Yeah. If it gets reported to the guild, it’ll probably be posted as an emergency request. A response team should come quickly.”
“Let’s at least go near the village first. If there doesn’t seem to be any problem, then we’ll report—”
Toong!
A familiar sound of leaping rang out nearby.
The moment he heard it, Baldik’s face hardened.
“Scatter!!!”
At the shout, everyone kicked off the ground and threw themselves aside reflexively.
Thukwabang!
A massive shape slammed down where we had been standing.
The ground shook, and dust rose.
“Ugh…!”
It was that monster.
Somehow, it had caught up to us.
It was even more drenched in blood than before.
The blood covering its entire body had clotted and turned black, and far more scraps of flesh than before clung to its hands.
That meant the other mercenaries had already… failed to survive.
“Damn it… how did it follow us here?”
“Does it have some kind of detection ability?”
The intelligence that had remained, however briefly, was now completely gone, and only emptiness remained in its eyes.
Now it was nothing but a “monster.”
“Sssssss—”
Pshhhhh—
Instead of speaking, the monster exhaled a hissing breath from its mouth.
Black smoke rose simultaneously from the nape of its neck and the corners of its mouth.
That movement had been bothering me since earlier.
It was like… the breathing of a steam engine, pumping away.
“…”
Without a word, we slowly edged backward.
I wanted to turn my back and run at once, but the monster was standing still and watching us, so I couldn’t move carelessly.
If we provoked it for no reason, it looked as though it would immediately charge.
Little by little, truly little by little, we widened the distance between ourselves and the monster.
“Sssss…”
The smoke rising from the monster’s neck and mouth died down.
At that moment, the monster that had been standing still began to move again.
Thud. Thud.
Unlike when it had been jumping before, this time its steps were heavy and slow.
The sight of it approaching slowly, as if emphasizing its massive bulk, was even more threatening.
Just as I wondered why it had suddenly started walking like that—
“Uwoooooooo!!”
The monster suddenly let out a roar and increased its speed.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of its enormous body trampling the ground made the earth shake.
The monster charging in a straight line was a reckless rush that took no account of its surroundings.
And at the end of its gaze was—
“…Sailleon?”
Sailleon, who had been fleeing.
The monster had chosen him, the one farthest away, as its target.
“Aaagh!”
“Run, Sailleon!”
Startled, Sailleon instinctively raised his bow and fired an arrow, but there was no way a crude arrow would work against skin that had even deflected a water projectile.
He threw aside his bow and started running for his life.
"Uwaaaargh!!"
"Uwooooor—!!"
But the monster closed the distance in an instant with its wide strides.
Sailon was nowhere near capable of withstanding that charge.
In the end, just before being caught.
Sailon desperately threw himself to the side.
In that instant.
Uwoooar!!
The monster failed to control its speed and passed straight by Sailon.
Kwa-bang!!
The charge continued unabated, stopping only after gouging a deep crater in the ground far behind.
Dust swirled around the monster's body as it skidded to a halt.
"Haa, haa... haaa...!"
Gasping for breath with his entire body, Sailon lay sprawled on the ground.
'It couldn't stop...?'
He caught his breath as he looked at the spot where the monster had passed.
It was clear. Once that thing built up speed, it was difficult to control.
Its weight and momentum were simply too great; emergency stops or changing direction were nearly impossible.
'If that's the case, I can avoid it as long as I bait it well.'
It was a dangerous idea, but under the current circumstances, it was a necessary judgment.
A head-on fight was out of the question. But a 'lure' to buy time to escape might be possible.
"Baldik, Aillin. Let's break left."
"Are we running away right now?"
"No. We bait it. When it charges again, we change direction and get away then."
Even if we couldn't get completely away in one go, this was the best method for now.
We had to put as much distance between us as possible before it could turn.
More importantly, the monster was still standing perfectly still, belching black smoke from its nape and mouth.
'Could that be... some kind of heat dissipation process?'
I couldn't be certain, but it always emitted smoke after powerful movements.
In other words, it had a structure where it had to 'empty' something each time it moved.
Great power always came with a price.
If I could exploit both that explosive power and its weakness... perhaps?
'No, catching it is still impossible. I need to at least escape properly.'
Anyway, it was a glimmer of hope.
"Keuheuk, don't leave me behind!"
"Ao, get up quickly!"
Sailon barely rose to his feet, and at the same time, the monster began to move again.
Its gaze was locked firmly onto me.
This time, it was me.
The monster advanced with heavy strides, its massive bulk leading the way.
Its steps grew faster, and without even a moment to catch my breath, I shouted.
"I'll break for the forest, so run the other way!"
"Then you'll be the only one in danger!"
"It can't be helped. That thing is targeting me anyway!"
"Liv!!"
Damn it, I'm not the type to sacrifice myself for anyone either.
I've died before, so I especially don't want to die again.
But suggesting we go together while it was targeting me was no different than suggesting we die together.
The moment I finished speaking, I turned and plunged into the forest.
The party hesitated behind me, but seeming to read the intent in my gaze, they eventually turned their steps.
The forest was full of obstacles.
Bushes, fallen leaves, and uneven roots—all of them hindered my speed.
But I couldn't stop.
Without a moment to catch my breath, I ran desperately.
And as expected, it caught up in an instant.
Rough breathing and footsteps shaking the earth drew closer and closer, right behind my back.
'Damn it... right behind me!'
Just before being caught, I squeezed out my last strength and threw my body to the side.
Ta-tak, thud!
The monster passed straight by me and, unable to stop, crashed into a massive boulder looming ahead.
Kwakwakwakwang!
Rock fragments flew in every direction, and the ground shook.
From amidst the shattered boulder, the monster's form twisted through the hazy smoke and raised its head.
And it saw me.
A chill ran down my spine at the sight of it tilting its head slightly.
This time, without hesitation, it stepped toward me again.
It seemed to have no intention of changing targets anymore.
I didn't know what criteria it used to choose its target, but the fact that it was me now was unmistakable.
I ran again, cutting through the forest.
In the midst of that frantic running, a steep slope came into view ahead.
It was quite steep and high; if I could just knock it down there, I would be able to buy some time.
I adjusted my speed, calculating the distance to the monster.
The moment my foot touched the very edge of the cliff.
A thunderous sound of footsteps bursting from behind me.
The monster was charging like a madman.
'Now!'
I threw my body to the side just like before.
An evasion pattern I had already used twice.
I thought it would work the same way this time too.
'Got it. This way the monster will go straight down—'
But there was something I had overlooked.
The monster wasn't a simple beast.
More than anything, the fact that it was learning.
This time, it was different.
The moment I launched my body aside, the monster thrust its massive arm downward.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwa—!!
Its fingertips pierced the bare earth and rooted themselves like tree roots.
It grabbed the ground and forcibly halted its own body.
The earth twisted, and dirt scattered into the air.
It was pushed right to the edge of the cliff, but in the end, it didn't fall.
Then, it raised its head and looked my way.
No words were spoken.
But even on that expressionless face, I thought I saw something like a mocking smile.
'F-fuck... I'm done for.'
The moment it stopped before my eyes, the distance had already closed to the absolute minimum.
Pshhhhhh-
White steam erupted from here and there across the monster's body.
The one small mercy was that it, too, had to stop moving like that.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
But this time was different.
It didn't stop. It ceased emitting smoke and immediately moved toward me.
"Why isn't it stopping—"
I muttered without thinking.
In that instant, the monster raised its massive arm without hesitation.
A fist the size of a boulder flew toward my eyes.
The oppressive pressure was like seeing a rock launched from a catapult up close.
Reflexively, I leaned back and tried to roll.
Kudangtang! Peogeok.
Something hard struck the back of my head mid-roll.
Along with a dizzying impact, a hot, sticky sensation began to flow down from my head soon after.
'...It's blood.'
There was no time to wipe it away.
The monster spewed smoke and literally rained down indiscriminate attacks.
It raised both arms high and brought them straight down in the direction I had rolled.
"Uwoooaar!!"
Kwaang!!
I forced my body to roll again.
It was a hair's breadth.
Stone fragments flew past my face along with the collapsing pile of dirt behind me.
My mouth was full of dirt and dead leaves, and my breath caught in my throat, causing me to cough.
"Kehk! Kehk— Heok... Heok..."
It was clear the monster was overexerting itself too.
Its movements were slower than before, off-beat, as if out of rhythm.
Unnerving motions, like forcing a broken machine to turn.
But its size and destructive power were still lethal.
The monster paid no heed to effective hits and swung its fists mercilessly.
I dodged and dodged again, but eventually, my stamina ran out first.
Whoosh, thwack!
"Keoheok!"
A direct hit to my left shoulder.
Reflexively, I spread out a water barrier, but it shattered helplessly.
The monster's fist pierced through the barrier like a blade and struck me dead-on.
For an instant, my body rose into the air.
I was thrown to the ground, spinning, and rolled several times over the rough dirt.
Kudangtangtang! Cheolpeodeok.
"Kuaaaaargh!!"
The impact of hitting the floor traveled to my shoulder, and a scream tore out of me.
Its power seemed reduced compared to before, but its mass was still that of a giant boulder.
My left shoulder blade seemed to break and dislocate; my arm hung limp, and suffocating pain flooded over me.
I thrashed on the ground.
No matter how hard I gritted my teeth, the groans wouldn't stop.
Even breathing was agony.
The monster looked down at me and slowly stopped.
Then, from its nape, it began to emit smoke again—pshiiik.
By now, it must have been certain that it had finished me.
Prey with no strength left to flee or fight.
"Keup, keueuuk...!"
My eyes grew wet with pain.
But there was no time to cry.
Hugging my broken arm, I dragged my body with all my strength, scrambling backward into the forest.
My body was already a wreck, and my consciousness was hazy.
I couldn't get far... but in that gap, the monster finished venting all its smoke and began to approach me again.
But I hadn't just been running either.
The entire time I fled, I had been fumbling with my fingertips, scraping together the moisture hidden in the ground and air.
Water pooled beneath tree roots, dew gathered on bushes, dampness seeping into the soil.
One drop, then another.
Oong, oong, oong.
And finally, a sphere of water vibrating with heavy pressure floated into the air.
My breath came up to my chin.
My body felt like it would shatter, and my fingertips trembled as I squeezed out every last drop of mana.
I raised my trembling right hand and launched the mass of moisture at the monster.
Shuwaaaaak!
This wasn't a simple water bomb.
If a water bomb could have finished things, I would have fired one long ago.
A water barrier was obviously unable to withstand it, and even if I obscured its vision with Sea Fog, the monster had already tracked us.
It must have detection abilities.
There was only one option left.
A gamble of a method that I, driven to the brink of death, was attempting for the first time in actual combat.
[Water Prison]
Chwaaaaak!
The massive clump of water spread instantly and engulfed the monster.
Inside the prison made of gathered water droplets, the monster thrashed like a beast trapped in a tank.
The monster let out a bizarre shriek in panic, but only air bubbles rose.
In that gap, I desperately raised my body and began to flee, staggering.
But while maintaining the Water Prison, my mana was sucked out like crazy.
I had saved as much mana as possible expecting this... but at this rate, I wouldn't last even a minute.
'...I have to get away somehow in this time—'
Thud.
But my legs gave out after only a few steps.
My body, paralyzed by pain, couldn't move a single step easily anymore.
While I thrashed on the ground, the water in the prison was gradually growing thinner.
As if noticing this fact, the monster stopped thrashing and turned its head toward me.
Our eyes met.
Sssik.
Beyond the blue Water Prison, something like a faint victor's expression surfaced.
'...Is this the end.'
My mana was already bottomed out, my heart beat painfully as if being squeezed, and my breathing grew rapid.
At this rate, I would faint before the monster tore its way out of the prison.
The moment I was about to give up on everything.
"Bephanir Style · Rupture Formula · Compression."
From behind me, a low, firm voice rang out.
[Tightening Noose]
In that instant, the air seemed to compress and distort, and the water pressure inside the Water Prison suddenly soared.
The monster's body shriveled up like food placed in a vacuum pack, and a horrific sound of something cracking rang out in succession.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Inside the water prison, formless pressure began to explode in a chain reaction.
Invisible hands snapped the monster's limbs and squeezed its innards as if wringing them out.
Truly, the thrashing of prey slowly suffocating to death in the water.
The monster seemed to be gasping out screams inside the water, but they didn't reach my ears at all.
I turned my swaying head and looked at the owner of the voice from behind.
A single silhouette slowly walking out from beyond the backlight.
"Tsk, tsk. Making such a racket and you can't even handle something like this."
It was an old woman draped in a black robe—Malere Bephanir.