The Future of Man and Monster
I tightened my grip around the long handle and dug my feet into the ground. Silver and jade particles scattered and rose into the air as the wind carried me.
“I’ll deal with that hill. You go and call Manager and Matsumoto.”
“What about Lemon?”
“She knows how to lead. Have her go and unite with the Adventurers.”
I had been observing them during the fight, and well, they were Adventurers alright. While they had been given orders, as more time passed, the more farther they drifted apart. I felt that Lemon might be able to bring some order to the group.
“Understood. Be careful.”
“Yeah, got it.”
I separated from Daniela and rose into the air. The silver and jade and ice particles fluttered as I shot straight towards the giant soldier. However, controlling the magic I made with the ice crystal wasn’t as easy as I had expected. And concentrating on it made it difficult to gain any speed. Still, I was going about as fast as a car.
The giant soldier noticed me then. It’s horrifyingly long arms stretched out towards me and tried to hit me out of the air. And while the giant limbs were intimidating, they could not reach me.
There was a strong flash of light. A thin laser shot up from below and passed through it. The giant’s arm was severed without resistance. And like that, the momentum carried the thing into the distance.
“Mister Asagi!!”
Matsumoto raised his glowing greatsword into the air, and I gave him a thumbs up. He really was a reliable Hero. I sometimes wondered if he couldn’t just do everything himself. But then again, I now saw myself as a protagonist candidate. And I intended to be in the spotlight, at least a little.
And so pushed the giant soldier even further. However, it was not one to give up so easily, and its other arm came swinging.
“It’s from above this time…!”
However, this attack was also intercepted. The moment that it’s arm was raised, a great icicle appeared from the ground and pierced the giant’s arm.
“I’m the only one who can use ice like this!”
I grinned. Then I heard a powerful roar in the distance. They were a little late, but it looked like they finally arrived. Below me, I could see Snow Wolves and Forest Wolves dashing through the army of Automatas. Their fangs and claws tore into the dolls as they passed.
There was something very beautiful about the way they ran with the sunlight reflecting off their platinum and forest green fur.
The giant soldier had lost the use of its arms. Still, it moved its legs forward in a desperate attempt to attack. Soldiers scattered below him.
And so I raised my speed, wanting to end this as quickly as possible. At the same time, I saw two brave shadows running towards the giant.
“Yunagi and Mister Yamato…!”
Both of them were wielding clubs, as you might expect from ogres. Shockingly, they were charging at a speed that matched my own. While I wasn’t using all of my power now, it was still impressive. I suppose that was the power of ogres.
They split up as they ran, and each targeted a different leg. The giant could no longer move, thanks to Beowulf’s icicle. And without losing any momentum, the two ogres leapt into the air and swung their clubs at its knees as they landed.
The giant’s knees bent back in the opposite direction. Then the thing fell to the ground, just like a puppet whose strings have been cut. It would not be able to move quickly. It was never a nice feeling to hit an enemy that was down, but we had to be sure it would stay down for good.
“Here goes…!”
The two forms that were unleashed through ‘Shadow of the Deep Wolf’ shot out through the air and towards the giant. The shadows were clutching black great swords in their hands. They moved apart as they ran, and I passed between them.
With the ceremonial sword that freezes everything, I unleashed my third special move.
“‘Kamiyashiro-style…!?”
It was just as I was about to use ‘God Speed’ to close in. I sensed that something was wrong and rushed up into the air instead. In the same instant, a heat ray shot passed the spot that I had been in.
It wasn’t like Matsumoto’s light magic. It was likely fire. I moved past the scorched ground and rushed towards the giant once again. That’s when I sensed magic energy gathering around one of the giant’s eyes. I had to reach it before it unleashed that ray again…!!
“‘Final Frost Triple Threat’!!”
The distance between us vanished with ‘God Speed,’ and with Legs of the God Wolf boosting me to the limit, I thrust Nifleim into the giant’s eye. The mana and the air around it froze over. Even the mana that allowed the giant to move was frozen.
After that, the shadows caught up with me, and their swords cut into the giant’s body. Their movements were so similar to mine as they decapitated it. And like that, the frozen giant crumbled into pieces.
“Phew… Yeah, I feel like a protagonist…”
The temperature around me had dropped so low that I could see my breath as I scanned the battlefield. Thanks to the fall of the giant, morale seemed to be on the rise again. They had all known that we would be joined by wolves and ogres, so there wasn’t any chaos now that they had arrived. And it seemed like they were fighting side by side.
The wolves tore into the arms of the dolls, and then a human or ogre would break them while they couldn’t move. When I saw this, I immediately thought of Arthur.
“The day did come. Humans and monsters are fighting alongside each other…”
I hoped that as representatives of demi-humans, the ogres would be able to use this opportunity to cooperate with humans. It was the same with the monsters. It didn’t have to be all of them. But this could be a start to what Arthur had been dreaming about.
It was as I inspected the battlefield that I realized that the mist was starting to get thicker. I would have likely not noticed it if I was on the ground. It seemed to be coming from a part of the hill. In that area, there were numerous Automata standing together.
“So that’s the secret of the Hill of Mist…”
I saw it with Eyes of the God Wolf. They had a magic device that created the mist. It wasn’t just here. But there were similar devices scattered everywhere. They used them to hide the location of the facility.
“Huh. So that’s how they did it.”
Rachel muttered as she appeared right behind me. It nearly gave me a heart attack.
“Well, if we attack it, it will get rid of one disadvantage.”
“I’ll tell the others then.”
Rachel waved her staff and the air distorted and broke apart. On the other side, I could see the human officers who were commanding on the other side of the field. It was amazing…
“Launch attacks on the locations I am about to tell you. They have magic machines that create the mist.”
After that, she gave them swift and detailed instructions. Dimension magic sure was useful…
When she was finished, she closed the gate again and let out a sigh.
“Convenient, eh?”
“I wish I could do that.”
“Well, you might be able to one day.”
“Are you serious?”
I was only good with ice and water magic. And a little fire. I had never even touched dimension magic.
“If you passed into this world, that means you passed into this dimension. And the Wolf God is a monster that swallowed the world. In other words, it rules the dimensions.”
“I’m not sure I follow you…”
“The truth is that I was just an ordinary wolf. But I awakened to the dimension attribute when I became a Fenrir. I’ve been researching it ever since. And I don’t think that I’m wrong.”
So, maybe I would be able to use it like Rachel one day… But I would be even less human at the same time.
“Well, I’m not sure you will even have your own will by then.”
“…”
“Hmph. You scare so easily.”
“I wonder why.”
I could only hope that Daniela would not be around when that happened.