Chapter 29

“The ultimate monster squad?”

“Indeed. You can never defeat the monsters of my creation. For instance…”

The monster Hades pointed to a nearby monster.

“The monster over there, Sculldet, was created to be twice as strong as the monster Orochi, all for the sake of killing you!! And the monster next to it, Chimera, is twice as strong as Sculldet!! The one next to that, Ghoulgigas, is twice as strong again!!! And… my greatest masterpiece, the monster Diabolos, possesses power far greater than all the monsters I just mentioned combined!!”

Bathed in the moonlight, Hades floated in the night’s darkness and let out a triumphant laugh.

“Now you understand, don’t you!! You have no chance!! Don’t get cocky just because you managed to defeat Orochi!! You will most certainly die here!!”

“You’re the one who’s going to die, monster. Enough with the boasting. Just bring it.”

“…Hmph!”

The monster Hades’s single eye shot wide open.

An overwhelming killing intent emanated from its body.

“Kill him!!”

Hades pointed at me, ordering the surrounding monsters.

“Kill that man… Kill Reiya Toujou!! Tear him to shreds!! Don’t leave a single scrap of flesh behind!! Show him the full extent of your strength and terror!!”

“GROOOOAAAAAR!!”

As if in response to Hades’s command, the countless monsters he had created roared and charged toward me.

A myriad of beams shot in my direction.

“…Tch.”

I used magic to defend myself.

The monsters’ attacks were exceptionally powerful, and I could feel my magical energy rapidly depleting.

If I took all their attacks head-on, I’d run out of magical energy and be unable to use magic.

Realizing this, I switched tactics, flying into the air to evade their attacks rather than block them.

“Stop scurrying around!! Kill him!! Tear him apart!!!”

As I moved through the dark of night, evading the monsters’ attacks, an impatient Hades commanded his minions to kill me at once.

The monsters ceased their long-range attacks and began to assault me directly.

I fired a barrage of magic at the approaching monsters.

KRA-KOOM!

My spells continuously struck the monsters as they closed in.

Sculldet, the monster Hades claimed was twice as strong as Orochi, was hit by my magic and exploded, dead.

“You bastard, Reiya Toujou!! This monster, Chimera, will be the one to kill you!!”

The monster Chimera, which Hades had boasted was twice as strong as Sculldet, lunged at me.

I struck Chimera with everything I had, my fist enhanced with magic.

THWUMP!!!

A dull sound echoed as a hole was punched clean through the monster Chimera’s torso.

“What… impossible…”

With a hole in its body, the monster Chimera’s eyes widened in shock before it collapsed.

It then evaporated, melting away into the night’s darkness.

“What are you doing!! Kill him!! Kill Reiya Toujou!!”

The monster Hades’s voice trembled with rage.

“I will be your opponent, Reiya Toujou!!”

A monster with a particularly powerful presence rushed me.

It was the monster Diabolos, said to be stronger than Sculldet and Chimera combined.

This one was probably the strongest of the lot.

“Die, Reiya Toujou!! Destruction Beam!!!”

The monster Diabolos fired its Destruction Beam.

“Tch!”

I managed to block the beam with my magic, repelling it.

“GROOOOAAAAAR!!!”

“HRAAAAAAAGH!!!”

My defense and Diabolos’s Destruction Beam were locked in a stalemate for a moment.

SHRAAAAACK!!!

But in the end, the power of Diabolos’s beam won out, and my defense was shattered to pieces.

“Guh!?”

With my defense broken, I took the full force of the Destruction Beam and was sent flying.

“Hahahahaha!! Excellent, monster Diabolos!! Well done!! That’s my masterpiece for you!!”

I could hear Hades laughing.

Slamming into the ground after falling from the sky, I somehow managed to get back on my feet and try to assume a fighting stance.

But I had almost no magical energy left.

I had used nearly all of it defending against Diabolos’s Destruction Beam.

“Reiya Toujou is on the brink of death!! Now, Diabolos, kill him.”

“As you wish, Hades-sama.”

The monster Diabolos approached.

“Toujou!! Run!!”

“Toujou-kun, get away!!”

“You have to run, Toujou-kun!! Get up!! Please, run!!”

I could hear the voices of Saionji, Takanashi, and Usami.

“Just wait… I’ll definitely… save you…”

“Futile. You die here. And your precious magical girls will follow the same fate.”

The monster Diabolos stood before me and spoke without a shred of mercy.

Its gray, lifeless eyes looked down on me.

“Guh, guoooohh…”

I mustered every last ounce of strength I had to try and stand.

I tried to fight, to force my body, which had long since passed its limit, to move.

“Just die crushed.”

The monster Diabolos raised its foot.

It intended to stomp my head in.

“Ah…”

In that instant, the memory of that day resurfaced.

Help me… Onii-chan…

I can hear my little sister’s voice, pleading for help.

Is this happening again?

Did I fail to save someone again?

Am I going to repeat the same mistake?

Am I going to lose someone precious again?

Because I’m weak.

Because I’m too weak…

That’s not it, is it?

“…!?”

I heard a voice.

From somewhere, I heard a low, eerie voice.

Someone was speaking to me, from inside me.

That isn’t your true power, is it?

“Who… are you…”

Your real power is far greater than that. Remember. Remember the real past. The memories you sealed away.

“No… stop… I don’t want to remember…”

A sharp pain shot through my head.

The true memory, the one I had sealed away for so long and avoided confronting, came flooding back into my mind.

Don’t come… Onii-chan…

It was my sister’s voice.

I realized for the first time that her voice, which I had always remembered as pleading for help, was now laced with terror.

“SHIORI… WAIT… I’M COMIN’ TO SAVE YOU.”

Don’t come… Onii-chan. Please, don’t come…

“IT’S OKAY. I’M HERE NOW, SO EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT… I’LL PROTECT YOU…”

No! Nooo, don’t come! Onii-chan, stay away! A monster!! Somebody, help…

“SHIORI… WHY ARE YOU RUNNING…”

The look of terror on Shiori’s face flashed in my mind.

Shiori, who should have been asking for my help, was instead running from me, her face twisted in fear.

I stood there, bewildered, and then I looked down to see the form that had terrified her so.

“AHH… SO THAT’S IT…”

Seeing myself, I understood.

Why Shiori ran.

Why she was terrified of me.

Now, I remembered it all perfectly.

“THAT’S RIGHT… I’M A MONSTER… THAT’S WHY SHIORI RAN…”

I noticed my own voice had become a rasping growl.

My hands and feet were shrouded in jet-black darkness.

I realized an inhuman, immeasurable power now resided within me.

“DID… I DO THIS…? DID I… DESTROY… THE CITY?”

I looked behind me.

There lay the ruins of a city, trampled and utterly destroyed.

◆

“This is the end!! Die, Reiya Toujou!!”

“ANNOYING. YOU’RE THE ONE WHO’S GOING TO DIE.”

“Wha!?”

Diabolos, who was about to stomp my head in, stared, its eyes wide with shock.

Thud…

I stood up and tossed the leg I had ripped off Diabolos to the ground.

“GUOOOOOOOOH!?!?”

With one of its legs torn off, Diabolos shrieked and fell to its knees.

“W-What are you? WHAT IS THAT FORM?!!!”

“You’re loud. Just die already.”

“GOK!?”

SQUELCH…

I grabbed the head of the kneeling Diabolos and crushed it.

Diabolos died without so much as a death rattle.

“Weak…”

Clenching and unclenching my right hand, as if to test the sensation of Diabolos’s skull, which had been as soft as tofu, I approached Hades.

“Kuhahahaha!! I see, so that’s how it was!!”

Hades laughed upon seeing my form.

“That appearance of yours… now I understand!! Why you were so strong, why you could use magic despite being a man…! That was the reason for all of it!!”

“ANY LAST WORDS?”

“Reiya Toujou. You are not human. Nor are you a magical girl. You are one of us, a monst—”

Hades never finished his words.

He was obliterated by my magic, vanishing without a trace.

“IS IT OVER…”

After killing Hades, I walked toward the hostages.

There were still other monsters alive, but perhaps because Hades had been killed, they only stared at me in a daze, making no move to attack.

“ARE YOU… ALRIGHT…?”

Reaching Saionji and the others, I held out a hand to them.

“Eek!?”

“IT’S ALRIGHT NOW…”

I smiled at them.