The Answer Is Up to You (6)

“I've never seen or even heard of a monster like that.”

The royal library held a book documenting every monster humanity had discovered. The largest one recorded in it was the Black Dragon 【Dark Dragon】, said to exist somewhere in this world, and supposedly eighteen meters long.

Even that monster was a legendary creature whose whereabouts were unknown, yet the monster approaching them now was even larger.

“...What is that? I don't know. I've never seen a monster like that either. No... Is that even a monster?”

Even Menou, who should have known better, stared at the towering giant with an astonished expression. Menou was trembling so visibly that the giant's presence seemed to fill her with fear. But Menou wasn't the only one.

Just looking at it made their legs go weak. Until now, they had managed to fight by suppressing their desire to flee, but this time was simply too much.

As Menou had said, they couldn't even tell if it was a monster. The bipedal creature wore black steel armor and had sharp, golden eyes. A black aura shrouded its entire body as it walked toward them at a leisurely pace, each step making the earth rumble.

“...We have to retreat. There's no way we can handle this.”

Despite her astonishment at the enormous enemy, Takako remained calm and murmured those words.

“Damn... You're running away after coming this far?! Don't be ridiculous... I, I won't give up!”

With that, Rex pulled the sword from the ground despite his unsteady legs and raised it before him. Given the situation, Takako had made the right call. But Rex couldn't bring himself to give up so easily on the goal he had finally seemed close to reaching after overcoming one impossible obstacle after another.

“Face reality... What can you do in that condition? I don't know what that giant monster is, but this... isn't something we can resolve so easily in a place like this. This is a genuine, unprecedented crisis.”

Everyone understood that even without Takako telling them. Even if they retreated now, they would have to fight that thing eventually. It was obvious that the people gathered in Salmaria alone couldn't handle it. This was an enemy that threatened the survival of humanity, one that would require the whole country—or perhaps the entire world—to confront.

Humanity was vastly outmatched by the demons. And the 【nation】 had probably known it. Perhaps humanity had never openly challenged the demons because they were so powerful, and had instead sent Heroes to the Demon King's castle as assassins. The demons had never attacked them, after all.

“Kagami-chan... We have to retreat for now! It's frustrating, but you understand that, don't you?!”

Takako shouted to Kagami, who stood boldly in the middle of the wasteland with hands on hips, staring at the black-armored giant despite its approach.

“Big.”

That was all Kagami said.

A moment later, after seeming to ponder for a brief instant, Kagami cracked his neck and charged toward the black-armored giant, ignoring Takako's warning.

“Wait... Kagami-chan?!”

Everyone there except Takako was left speechless. They'd lost count of how many times Kagami had astonished them in this battle. They knew Kagami wasn't afraid of death. Even so, how could Kagami charge without a moment's hesitation at an overwhelming enemy there was no chance of defeating?

By now, they felt almost compelled to see it through—to keep their eyes fixed on Kagami's fate and witness the outcome of his actions.

“Everyone, retreat! Run! This isn't an enemy we can do anything about!”

“Hey! But... that bastard's still out there!”

“What can we do?! Run! The most important thing right now is to stay alive!”

The Salmaria adventurers who had been fighting all this time began retreating one after another before the horde, which now numbered no more than a few hundred monsters. It was the obvious choice, the only sensible choice. Yet as the adventurers fled toward Salmaria, Kagami raced in the opposite direction across the dry wasteland, picking up speed until he was like a gale.

“Raaaaaah!”

Then, just before that gale leaped from the dry wasteland and collided with the black-armored giant, many people heard Kagami's roar. The very next instant—

“K-Kagami-san?”

Kagami had been slammed into a massive boulder near where Takako and the others stood, far from the black-armored giant.

The boulder, which must have been three meters tall, shattered from the force of Kagami's impact, sending rubble rolling at Takako and the others' feet.

It all happened in an instant. Just as Kagami was about to punch the giant, the black-armored giant's fist struck Kagami's entire body instead.

“R-run... We can't... We can't win! Salmaria is finished!”

“Waaah! Aaaaaah!”

The Salmaria adventurers who had stayed behind, hoping Kagami might still turn things around, began retreating one after another when they saw Kagami fall. Before long, only the monster army, still a few hundred strong, the black-armored giant, and Rex's group remained.

“It's over... Even Kagami-chan couldn't do anything about it. No matter what we do, the adventurers here can't win.”

“Forget that—Kagami-san!”

Kururu started toward Kagami, but Alice had already reached him. Alice brushed the dust from Kagami's body and brought a potion she'd carried with her to Kagami's lips.

“Kagami-san... Kagami-san! Stay with me!”

“...Alice. I told you... to stay back... because it was dangerous...”

“This much danger is nothing compared to the danger you're in, Kagami-san. Everyone else ran away... but I'm not going anywhere, so don't worry. I'll stay with you to the very end.”

Kagami was so badly weakened that he could barely open his eyes. Alice smiled at Kagami as if to reassure him, but Kagami could feel the hand supporting him trembling.

“Don't push yourself. You're shaking.”

Just as Kagami placed a hand on Alice's head to reassure her, Kururu, who had arrived a moment later, forcefully shoved a potion bottle into Kagami's mouth.

“Don't say, ‘You're shaking.’ Alice-chan is shaking because she's worried and scared when you act so recklessly... Why don't you understand that?”

Kururu murmured this with an equally worried expression. At her unexpected words, Kagami's eyes darted about, but a moment later his expression suddenly hardened, and he looked in a certain direction.

'...Remarkable regenerative abilities. To think you're already able to move after taking that much damage. And your durability, speed, and strength are all extraordinary. I finally understand why our plans went awry, and how Salmaria's adventurers managed to hold out so well. At first... I thought the Hero over there was the one putting up such a fight... but it was your power, wasn't it?'

A tall man floated in the air, looking down at Kagami. Like Menou, he wore clothes resembling formal noble attire, with a cape like a surcoat draped over his shoulders.

His asymmetrical yellow-green hair covered his right eye. He looked young, perhaps in his twenties by human standards, and horns—the mark of a demon—grew clearly from his head.

“Estellera-sama?”

Menou trembled as she murmured those words, her face stricken with shock as she looked at the demon man floating in the air.