EP.107 Beast, King of Beasts, Human - 3
Before Lieutenant Colonel Callis Kritz's eyes, a decisive battle that shook heaven and earth was now unfolding.
The King of Dogs, the King of Cats, and the Progenitor.
It was truly a confrontation that would decide the fate of the world. Even if that wasn't actually the case, for Callis, it made no difference.
Her fate hung on the outcome of this fight.
A clanking collar yanked her back. Callis threw her body forward on instinct. Even so, she couldn't match the speed at which the chain was pulled, and Callis had to roll miserably across the ground.
Enduring the pain of the chain choking her neck, Callis repeated only one thing to herself.
'I can't give up on life. I will live. I will survive somehow. Survive... climb to the top... my father's legacy...'
But could she?
Just moments ago, the Progenitor's straight punch had buried itself into Nabi's chest.
It was too fatal to dismiss as merely a punch.
The moment the clenched fist touched Nabi's chest, a crunching sound of something breaking was heard. From the point of impact, red blood energy exploded like the sun.
After that, Nabi flew back like a bullet. Without even flailing her arms and legs, she streaked across the corridor.
If Nabi had been an ordinary creature, her chest would have caved in and her breath would have been cut off the moment she was struck.
But the opponent was the King of Cats.
Nabi, who had been flying through the air, opened her red eyes and let out a ferocious roar. Even while flying backward, she flipped her body like a cat's acrobatics, landed on the wall, then glared this way with sharp eyes while licking her front paw.
And hid herself in the darkness.
A cat that had concealed its presence had essentially vanished from the world. No one could see her, no one could hear her. Nabi's existence in the world was only revealed when she directly showed herself.
Because of this, the Progenitor and Aji were forced into an extremely defensive position. This was because they each had a shackle.
The Progenitor had to protect the laborer...? or whatever he was.
And the King of Dogs had to protect Callis. To be precise, to prevent Callis from dying from the aftermath of the fight.
'The King of Dogs... is trying to save me. Perhaps even more than I myself.'
If that was the case, she was just holding back the King of Dogs. Bound by a collar, with her own life as a hostage.
It was such a ridiculous sight that she wanted to laugh, but Callis couldn't help it.
'Even if I resist here... what would change?'
What if she resisted here? What if the King of Cats was defeated?
The people in Tantalus were criminals thrown here after being caught by the Military Nation. Taking their side would only bring a bleak future.
Instead, if the King of Cats won, and the Lord of All Beasts achieved his goal. What Callis would gain is...
The only thing she would gain is...
What could it be?
As Callis pondered, Rash's right thumb suddenly caught her eye. Callis reflexively reached out to grab it.
Clank.
The heavy iron chain around her neck pulled her back.
'...The chain.'
The chain that had been pulling her, choking her, and trying to kill her all this time.
That was the only thing she had gained by following the Lord of All Beasts.
A medal she once proudly displayed, but ultimately proved completely useless.
A suicide packet wearing the mask of hope.
A chain wrapped around her neck under the guise of orders.
Even the King of Cats.
They had all only tried to kill her.
In contrast, Rash and Aji, who had tried to save her, were now in miserable condition, rolling on the ground. They were bleeding to save her life instead of Callis.
Callis quietly repeated the words Rash had said.
'...My father's legacy is, me.'
She may have been a precious daughter to her father, but Callis was precious to no one.
She was a Lieutenant Colonel, yet she knew nothing.
About what the Lord of All Beasts was planning, about who he used as disposable pawns.
Even as a Lieutenant Colonel of the Military Nation, she was no different from a Level 1 citizen. No, she was a more worthless existence than even a Level 0 laborer. At the very least, that laborer...? was prepared to strangle a Major General to death.
...Though she wasn't sure if he was really a Level 0 laborer.
Just like that, for Callis to survive right now, she had to follow only one proposition.
"I have to... break the chain."
There's no need to think about later. Callis was such a worthless human that even a Lieutenant Colonel was too good for her, so contemplating futures and prospects was a futile effort like trying to read waves while watching a storm rage on the night sea.
Such things were the exclusive privilege of those with the ability.
For Callis right now, even the future one second ahead wasn't guaranteed.
She had to give her all to survive each and every moment.
"Starting now."
Callis grabbed her belt.
There were no packets now. The secret packet the Lord of All Beasts had bestowed upon her had long since been used up. Instead, only the trivial memories remaining deep inside were all she had left.
The legacy her father had left behind.
A house, an auto-carriage, a gold-leafed sword, and a military armament.
Among them, the only legacy she could carry around... the military armament. It was hidden deep within her belt pouch.
The reason Callis had a belt with pouches was to always keep it with that military armament.
It wasn't anything impressive, it was an old model, and it was merely a small part for the left arm, so the Military Nation didn't even recognize it as military armament and discarded it.
But thanks to that, it became a legacy and the only weapon in Callis's hands.
"Call to Arms."
Muttering softly, Callis inserted the armament packet into the bio-terminal on her left arm. Immediately after, alchemy light flashed as compressed steel unfurled.
An officer is completed with military armament.
The Military Nation, a country with a short history of only 25 years since the military government was established.
The reason the Military Nation, which seized power by overthrowing the monarchy through a coup d'état, could solidify its position among neighboring countries was its integration of various technologies to rapidly expand its military strength.
Click, click.
A smooth gauntlet made of metal scales appeared, covering from Callis's elbow to her fingertips. Having completed the equipping, Callis clenched her left fist. A rough metallic sound rang out as metal met metal.
The ability of this military armament was simple. Protection of the flesh.
It was a worthless military armament that was merely a high-performance gauntlet.
Callis wasn't disappointed. Tools were, after all, dependent on the user. Even if there was a better military armament, Callis wouldn't be able to properly draw out its power.
But if it was this military armament she had spent half her life with, it would surely fulfill her will.
Trusting in that, Callis grabbed the padlock that locked the chain.
The chain was Level 4 alchemy steel. With Callis's abilities, it was absolutely impossible to break.
But the padlock that fastened the chain was different.
Major General Ebon, who had thought Callis was dead, intended to hang this chain around the Colonel's neck, and therefore the padlock was merely a locking mechanism to prevent the chain from coming undone. There was no need to use a precious item.
Of course, that didn't mean she could simply destroy the steel padlock fastened to the chain.
Even if she couldn't break it, if she could disassemble it.
Callis grasped the padlock with her gauntleted hand and drew up magical power from her entire body.
Military Nation standard magic.
"Set, Ri, Ri, Ri, Ri..."
Lieutenant Colonel Callis Kritz, affiliated with the Magic Soldier Corps.
The one scouted by the Lord of All Beasts from the Magic Soldier Corps, which was composed entirely of officers due to its peculiar nature.
Like all magicians, she wasn't very useful in small-scale combat, but the essence of standard magic lay in its versatility.
The gauntlet wreathed in magical power grew burning hot.
Body-medium magic was originally an old method of manifesting miracles using one's own flesh as a medium.
It was a method often used by ancient magicians, but it became obsolete because there was the problem of having to bear the full recoil that arose from overlaying the world's rules. Leaving only the saying, "The stronger the magician, the faster they die."
However, after the Military Nation invented bio-terminals and clothing packets, and made it possible to shift part of the price the body had to bear to the packets through Akhi Avata. Standard magic proudly became a branch of magic.
"...Ri, Ri, Rialke, Decay, Mundle."
Magical power gathered, and the magic began.
Alchemy Release, Corrosion, Fracture.
Three magics, each reaching Level 2, were manifested simultaneously.
Combination magic, Alchemical Material Decomposition. Tentative evaluation: Level 3.
The Level 3 magic that crumbled alchemical substances it touched slowly ate away at the padlock.
When the padlock had sufficiently heated up, Callis gripped her gauntlet.
Crunch.
The padlock, which had cracked, rotted, and decomposed inside her fist, shattered to pieces. In return, the palm portion of the gauntlet she wore turned to powder and scattered. Because she had set it in haste, some of her skin was decomposed and blood flowed from her grasp.
Regardless, she was freed from the chain.
The chain grew lighter. Her neck, which had felt completely blocked, felt wide open.
Feeling a refreshing sense of liberation, Callis threw away the chain that had hung around her neck.
"King of Dogs!"
Callis, now fully liberated, shouted toward Aji.
"I am liberated! Now don't worry about me and fight!"
"Woof! Woof! Woof..."
Aji, who turned his head at the rattling sound of the chain, barked joyfully upon seeing Callis freed from the chain.
"Understood! Woof!"
Callis felt momentarily dizzy, but soon steadied her mind and shouted.
"Focus on the cat!"
"Got it, woof!"
Nabi sprang out from the darkness. Recognizing it by instinct, the King of Dogs tried to defend first while preparing a counterattack.
However, Aji's right arm didn't rise and instead dangled below his shoulder. Aji looked down at his own right arm in confusion.
"Woof? Yipe!"
Nabi pounced on Aji like a wild beast as he desperately twisted his body. Aji hastily ducked. The front paw that missed while aiming for his head shattered the concrete wall like tofu. Amidst the scattering dust, Aji rolled on the ground to evade Nabi.
She had removed the chain, but the ordeal wasn't over.
The ferocious nature that appears when one's life hangs by a thread.
When one can only survive by killing the enemy, a beast unleashes its complete killing intent. Stripping away everything else, it exerts all its existing abilities to the maximum to kill the "enemy."
At this moment, the King of Cats was a beast with the will of certain death, and tried to eliminate its enemy in the way it did best.
"Yipe, yipe!"
Aji, who had been wounded from protecting Callis all this time, was only being unilaterally beaten by Nabi's hit-and-run attacks from the darkness.
The Progenitor took a step forward to help Aji... but each time, Nabi hid herself in the darkness. It was clearly a movement to keep the Progenitor in check.
Unable to leave the laborer's side, the Progenitor bit his lip and stepped back again.
The dog cannot unleash its ferocious nature. All ferocious natures are borne by the wolf.
The Progenitor cannot move. If he left his position, the laborer...? would be in danger.
Right now, the only one who could help Aji was Callis.
And Callis had to help Aji.
Even if it was just to survive.
"Set."
The gauntlet clicked. Callis drew up all her remaining magical power and clearly muttered.
"Ri, Ri, Ri, Ri. Fahrenheit, Celsius, Kelvin."
Install magical power, condense, condense, condense, condense. And heat it as is.
Callis wrapped the magical power condensed through 4 stages directly around her left arm.
What manifested was overheating. The gauntlet glowed red hot. The steel scales expanded from the heat rose up all at once, and deep red flames passed through the steel gaps as if breathing fire.
Callis gritted her teeth against the excruciating pain that felt like her arm was being cooked. At least the gauntlet was protecting her arm, but the heat that couldn't be blocked by her exposed palm penetrated through. Her blood boiled.
A fierce heat that destroyed not just the military armament, but even her own body.
But she couldn't stop.
Because Aji falling was a bigger problem than her arm burning.
Callis overlaid magical power onto the Arms already surging with magical power.
"Set, Aqua, Ri, Pascal...!"
Add water and compress wind. The heat gathered in her left hand greedily swallowed the water. Compressing and compressing the screaming water droplets to their limit until.
Just before Nabi attacked Aji.
She released the force.
"Steam Stream!"
Fierce steam was liberated.
Overheated steel, a single drop of water fallen within it. The boiling steam repelled each other and bounced up. Callis gathered that force to its limit and shot it out from a single point.
It was steam, water that had become wind.
Hssssss!
The steam surged out violently. Accompanied by a loud noise, the searing heat visualized in pure white spewed out noisily as if to overturn the world. A Level 2 magic with its own offensive power and usefulness.
A mere Level 2 combat magic. If it were a real cat, maybe, but against its King, it was a trifling trick that wouldn't harm a single hair.
However.
"Haak!"
Nabi, startled by the unexpected attack, leapt away.
When one surrenders their body to the ferocious nature, they lose reason and follow instinct. For the King of Cats, who dislikes both water and heat, the hot steam was something beyond words.
Though it was a trifling trick, magic was something that twisted and deceived the world. Callis scattered the hot steam and drove Nabi away.
"Don't, don't come near me!"
Spraying steam near Aji while screaming something closer to a plea than a command.
Aji himself didn't seem to welcome the pure white steam either, as he discontentedly slapped the ground with his tail, but Callis ignored it and stood by Aji.
"You're already wounded anyway! We just need to hold our ground like this! If we just drag it out, the ferocious nature will subside!"
Shouting as if convincing herself, Callis aimed in all directions while maintaining her magic.
A vicious silence ate away at the abyss. Not a single person made a sound in vain. If noise mixed in, they would miss the cat hidden in the darkness.
Callis shot steam whenever she heard something resembling a sound. She didn't know if it hit or missed. She only hoped it would help.
Like that, time slowly passed.
Sweat drops fell along her hair. The heat that had penetrated her body spread throughout her entire body, and her whole body was soaked in sweat. Callis barely held onto her magic while on the verge of exhaustion and dehydration.
Meanwhile, the Progenitor had raised dark knights to fill the darkness. If the King of Cats tried to exploit the darkness for a surprise attack, he would notice immediately.
Aji, who had been licking his wounds continuously, regained enough energy to move his body again. Aji planted both hands on the ground and crouched as if ready to dash forward at any moment.
'Good. If we just keep going like this.'
They would live. They would survive.
Since she had rebelled against the Major General, she could never return to the Military Nation. She would never see what she had left behind again.
If there was still a chance, still time left for her.
This time, she would build better memories.
As if hearing her wish, the thumb Callis had been holding twitched.
A premonition close to foresight came to Callis.
"I'm here!"
A voice she hadn't heard much but already missed. Callis's expression brightened instantly.
The Undying, Rash. How welcome a name it was.
His existence, which didn't die even when killed and always returned, was nothing but reassuring to Callis.
With this, they had gained one more ally. The possibility of surviving the King of Cats had increased.
And they had taken one step closer to the future Callis envisioned.
For Callis, who had briefly let her guard down as a hopeful future seemed to approach.
"Dodge!"
When the laborer shouted, her reaction was too late.
Thud.
Along with the sound of something tearing, excruciating pain was felt.
Callis tried to groan in pain but even that didn't work well. It felt like something was gripping her body tightly and wouldn't let go.
The heat that had been circulating inside her body escaped through her abdomen. Callis barely lowered her head and confirmed what had pierced into her belly.
Protruding from her abdomen were three blades.
They looked like something she had seen before. Three blades hanging at intervals the width of one finger joint.
Surely, they should have been the Major General's claws.
"For traitors... there is only death. You know this, Lieutenant Colonel."
Major General Ebon, whose right arm was gone, whispered coldly toward Callis.