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Overwhelming – Kai Lodos
“Is she really human?”
Kai had asked himself this same question several times already.
The monsters were relentless, but Sylphy dispatched them all with her sword.
Kai couldn’t even comprehend the horned monsters which were being minced to pieces, let alone Sylphy’s sword, which had a long, transparent blade. It was the first time he had seen such a beautiful sword.
The finisher was dealt by someone cheering next to Nils’s head.
“Hurray, hurray. Get em Mama, get em!” it said with a lovely voice.
It was a small lizard with round eyes and tiny wings sprouting out of its back. Sylphy just said, “It’s one of my underlings, so don’t worry. Since you are weak, it will protect you.” It looked just like a pet.
At first, Kai hadn’t believed that such a small animal could fight, even if it was a dragon.
But once he saw the lizard reduce the nearby monsters into ash, Kai realized that it really was truly a dragon.
“Hey Little Dora, I appreciate the support, but could you stop with that cheering?” Sylphy said. “Also, stop calling me Mama!”
“Eeeh, why? A part of Papa and Mama’s souls were used to create me~, so of course I’d be your child, right?”
“That’s completely wrong! Technically, you’re just an underling. Besides, think what would happen if Master had heard your ramblings. Just thinking about what he would say makes me shiver……Don’t tell Master about this.”
“Hmm, you’re weird.”
“I can’t bear it anymore!” Roze [1] wailed from the side as she grabbed Little Dora and squeezed the latter into her plentiful chest.
Roze blushed and her breathing became ragged. So she swung ‘that’ way. Worn out from the way one of his colleagues was turning out, he straightened his thoughts.
Currently, they were proceeding deeper into the castle while slaying horned monsters left and right.
Senior Officer Riemann had completely changed, and now they were in this mysterious space. The expeditionary force had probably been in the palms of that monster for quite a while now.
Once he figured that out, the reason behind the strange actions of the other senior officers as of late soon became clearer. And these monsters used to be—
“You’re underestimating me!” Kai shouted with a lot more anger than he had intended. Everyone turned to look at him.
“In a sense, your predictions are correct,”  Sylphy said.
“Then what are these monsters?”
“They’re your fellow kingdom soldiers.”
As he thought……she was quite informed about this irregular situation. Then, he had to ask. Depending on her answer, his future course could flip on his head. “Is the kingdom currently being controlled by monsters like those?”
It was an insane question, but that small lord’s words weighed heavily on Kai’s shoulders and led him to a single conclusion.
“If you look at the state of affairs, isn’t that obvious?”
“Right.”
Then, since when!? This Radol expedition doesn’t seem that strange given the imperialistic trend which the kingdom had been following for the past few years. So ever since the kingdom began to expand its territory?
No, that’s just way too long—
“There’s still plenty of time. You can think about your motherland and what you’ll do in the future later. By the way, we’re almost there.” Sylphy pulled the door open, revealing a giant spacious room inside.
“So you are the invaders Blue-Beard was talking about?” a handsome man with black hair and slitted eyes deep inside the room asked.
“That would be us,” Sylphy replied with a wry smile.
“I am Rashomon’s first boss, Kidoumaru. We’ll only know each other for a short while, but pleased to meet you.” He gave a reverent bow before standing up and drawing a foreign blade.
“Good, let’s get this over with.” Sylphy pointed her transparent sword towards Kidoumaru.
“Hm!? You’re not a human?” He opened one eye and leered over her body.
“What an unpleasant gaze, Stop” Sylphy twisted her face into a frown.
“That body is built like a human woman, but the strength is on a whole different level. So you’re one of the paranormals of this world, eh?”
“And what if I am?” She had gotten ticked off at some point, but Kidoumaru just responded with a grin.
“Oh, just that you might be useful in that creepy experiment Blue-Beard’s currently carrying out. That’s all.”
“Creepy experiment!?” Sylphy asked, her irritation having disappeared.
“He’s creating the ultimate vessel. Geez, if only we didn’t need you lesser life forms as ingredients for our possession, we wouldn’t have had to go and create a human farm.”
“……”
Sylphy’s expression changed and she closed her mouth but Kidoumaru paid her no heed and continued with his monologue.
“Possession requires the blood from you lesser life forms, moreover, we can’t create a suitable vessel without inducing certain emotions like fear and hatred. So annoying.”
From Kidoumaru’s ramblings, Kai began to get a faint understanding of this experiment.
“What did you do to Riemann!!?” Nils demanded. She looked like she was about to burst out in tears.
“Riemann? My deepest apologies, but I don’t remember the names of lab rats” he replied while knitting his eyebrows. Looks like he really didn’t know.
“The owner of the body that Blue-Beard’s in!” she yelled to suppress her nausea.
“Ah, that pitiful life form Blue-Beard set his eyes on. I heard that the host’s senses aren’t needed for the spell to reach max efficiency. He was wailing at first, but began to break down after killing some humans.”
“Wha……” Nils collapsed to the floor. Roze pulled her into an embrace and glared at Kidoumaru.
“You called him pitiful but don’t you seem quite happy?” Sylphy asked quietly.
“Well of course I’d enjoy watching you lesser life forms dance around with humiliation and betrayal. Taking a person’s lovers hostage and making them kill each other is just a riot to watch. Especially when the winning woman realizes that she’s already inside a demon’s stomach! Her face was so funny!”
This man was truly insane, but it reassured Kai. If this man were truly human, then Kai wouldn’t be able to trust humans anymore.
“Shut it.” Sylphy’s pupils were filled with killing intent, and after a moment, Kidoumaru was enveloped in blue flames.
“How rude of you to do that so suddenly—” he replied cheerfully. His eyes dyed red and the blue flames scattered. He patted his foreign clothes to get the soot off and stared at Sylphy. “What’s wrong? Are you angry? You’re weird. Neither of us are human, so why care about what happens to some bugs?”
“Don’t group us together,” Sylphy snarled back.
“Sure, I guess that’s fine too. An inhabitant of a lesser world wouldn’t understand our plans anyways.”
“Yeah, not even in the slightest.”
“Then talking any more is pointless. Now here’s the deal, we want a powerful human for a vessel. Blue-Beard tried to infuse humans with the spice of emotion through Demon Possession, but they’ve all been failures so far. I’ve been telling him that expecting anything from these lesser life forms is a waste of time, but he just never learns. So, I’d like you to cooperate with us.”
“……” Sylphy remained silent.
But as if he were going on a picnic, Kidoumaru jovially continued his explanation. “I’ll have you mate with a human male and birth a child. The baby will have human blood, but will also possess a tough body and soul like you. Then it’ll be done once we use Demon Possession on that individual. So, good idea, right?” Kidoumaru let out a cackle.
“Mama, that guy is creepy. Get him,” Little Dora said while peeking outside of Roze’s chest.
“I agree.” Sylphy raised her left hand.
“What’s wrong? It’s not like you have a choice, so after I’ve had my fun—huh? What’s that?”
Kidoumaru’s eyes widened as he saw a red object in her left hand and red liquid tracing the path of Sylphy’s transparent sword.
“Here, you can have it back,” Sylphy said, throwing the red object back at him.
“M-my eaar!!” Kidoumaru screamed as he cupped his hand over his gouged-out ear. Meanwhile, Sylphy stared at him emotionlessly if he were just a fly. “You lesser lifeform!!”
Two horns sprouted from Kidoumaru’s forehead and his canines began to enlarge.
That was probably his original form.
“I thought I’d breed you since you were a rare species, but now I’ve changed my mind! After the demons make sport of you, I’ll chop you into pieces and feed the demons!”
It sounded like the ramblings of a loser. Kidoumaru raised his sword in the air, but……
“Ah?”
His cheek twitched and his jaw dropped as he saw the still-pulsing piece of flesh in Sylphy’s hand.
A large hole had opened in his chest and blood was squirting out.
Kidoumaru let out a pained shriek. “That’s—”
“Want it back?” Sylphy carelessly threw his heart back at him.
“S-stop that!!” Kidoumaru tried to reach out, but his heart was sliced into pieces mid-air.
While blood rained down from above, Sylphy sheathed her transparent sword and Kidoumaru’s body turned to sand, crumbling to the ground.
“So cool! Superb, Onee-sama!” Roze exclaimed. Onee-sama!? Just from appearances, you’re definitely the older one here.
“Let’s keep going,” Sylphy said, not bothering to hide her displeasure.
“Are you angry, Onee-sama?”
“Hmm, she’s probably—” Little Dora began, but quickly dived back into Roze’s chest after a quick glare from Sylphy.
“Hurry it up, otherwise I’ll leave you behind.”
Kai Lodos and the rest followed after her.