20 – The Greatest Leader (15)
Karlo, with a cold smile on his face, looked this way with a chilling expression.
Although his appearance still retained that of a human.
However,
Niko, who had been observing, began to feel a sense of strangeness that had not been there moments before wrapping around his body.
“What in the world is this…”
It was something he had never experienced in his lifetime.
A sensation as if the presences of humans and demons were horribly entangled.
This eerie and instinctually repulsive feeling started to grip Niko with fear in an instant.
And then…
“Step behind me, Niko.”
Gabriel moved to the front of Niko, sensing the ominous mood.
At the same time, she prepared for a potential battle that might arise by loading her gun and closely monitoring the situation ahead.
“Not bad… But how did you find out? I thought I was perfectly hidden, even though I’m not fully complete yet…”
Karlo asked with a cold smile on his lips.
However.
To this, Gelard responded with a voice tinged with troubled emotions.
“There are many things I’d like to say on that matter… But whatever else there is, you shouldn’t have brought up my wife, who is now gone.”
“…What…what is that sound? Why would Aileen…”
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Carlo wore a fleeting expression of confusion for a moment.
As Gellard gazed at his face,
A flicker of pity crossed his features momentarily.
“The child said that her mother was killed by a demon’s attack.”
“!…”
“I heard she went out looking for her father who hadn’t come back by the promised time, and then she met her fate… Why can’t you remember any of this?”
“…What…what are you trying to say?”
Carlo’s face twisted momentarily at Gellard’s words.
“People who are under the influence of Diptu and becoming demons suffer from damaged memories, and those memories… are of the moments that are the most horrific to the person involved…”
“!….”
For a moment,
Carlo seemed to recall something belatedly, showing a glimpse of agony on his face.
Towards such a Carlo,
“You killed her… With your own hands. Your wife who went out looking for you.”
“…”
Gellard delivered the final dagger with those words.
Afterwards, an ominous silence began to pervade the place.
Though brief in actual time, the silence seemed eternal.
“…Guh…hahahahaha…”
With the sound of laughter coming out of Carlo’s mouth, everything began to shatter.
Something that was inside his heart
Seemed to crumble completely…
“I will explain it well to that child. So that they may meet death obediently.”
“hehehehe… hahahaha…”
Carlo unleashed a sound that seemed to be a mixture of crying and laughter at Geralt’s words.
Cruel mockery,
And laughter filled with despair and madness.
As if Geralt had no intention of watching this any longer, he swung his sword, attempting to cut Carlo’s throat in one swift motion.
At that moment,
“!… Huh?”
“…Tsk.”
Gabriel expressed his confusion,
And Geralt clicked his tongue softly.
At the same time, Gabriel and Nico turned their gaze backwards and prepared for battle.
In that instant…
– “Duck!”
“…”
“hahahahah… hahahahaha…”
Carlo swiftly swung the axe that he had been holding.
Despite the abrupt and sharp assault, Gellard deflected it with seeming ease.
However,
Exploiting the fleeting gap thus created,
Carlo’s body nimbly kicked off the building’s wall and landed atop the roof in a single motion.
And,
-“Grrr…”
A resounding growl filled the air
As behind Carlo, a vast shadow began to materialize.
“eeeK!!!”
The sudden emergence of ‘it’—whom they had started sensing just moments before.
Niko’s voice broke out in a scream drenched with fear.
A being even larger than Carlo, who was on top of the building.
Easily 6 meters tall.
Its head resembled that of a deep-sea fish,
Covered all over with black scales and fins, it was a gargantuan demon with the appearance of an ichthyoid.
Clearly a different order of magnitude from the creatures they had encountered so far,
Its terrifying presence made even Gabriel feel his heart shrink, dwarfing the crocodile demon they had just dispatched to a mere trifle.
“Kekeke…now…it doesn’t matter how…
His hair grew long, and fins appeared here and there on his body. Carlo’s form mutated into the shape of a devil with a head reminiscent of a seahorse.
“Grrr…”
Having completed his transformation in an instant, Carlo fixed his blood-red eyes upon the Devil Hunters. Right after, he effortlessly soared through the air and landed right in front of them, and soon thereafter, the ground shook as a massive demon approached with a rumbling sound.
“Yikes!”
Carlo was formidable, but this was a demon that instilled even greater dread, one that seemed impossible to confront.
However.
“Huh… So it has come to this?”
“Le… Leader?”
In such a dire situation where retreat seemed the only option, Gellard murmured with a heavy voice.
“You guys head back to the church for now. With that one having emerged, by now, other demons must be swarming in and wreaking havoc.”
“To retreat, is that what you’re saying? I agree to that but… What about you, leader?”
“Of course, I need to hunt these creatures down.”
Resolution could be felt in Gellard’s words.
Gabriel and Nico’s faces turned rigid upon hearing this.
“! No… Are you really going to fight? Against such a creature?”
“That… That’s not it, Geralt. No matter what, that’s not it…!”
Gabriel knew that Geralt was an incredible skillful person.
However, even so, a battle needed to be somewhat balanced to be valid.
The giant demon, with a size that could rival Geralt’s just by the palm of his hand.
In fact, he was facing someone who was practically the size of a massive building,
and even fighting against him with a 2:1 ratio would be considered suicidal.
Despite knowing this fact, Geralt was insisting on engaging in the battle.
It was a decision that could hardly be called bravery, but rather reckless.
However,
A natural realization began to occur in Gabriel’s mind about the reason.
“No… Could it be? Is he doing this now?…”
If Geralt were to retreat from here, it was obvious what would happen next.
Regardless of whether the church was under attack or not, if those monsters were to reach the church, the residents gathered there would be doomed.
In order to buy time to prevent that, sacrifices were needed.
And now,
Geralt was offering to take on that role without any hesitation.
“No… This can’t be… It can’t end like this, so futilely, losing this man!”
Of course, the many lives in the church were important.
But the fact that they had to sacrifice Geralt to protect them,
was something that Gabriel couldn’t accept under any circumstances.
Rationally…
And emotionally.
“Stop it, leader! There is no need to risk your life with reckless actions. Your life is more important than anyone else’s, even our Devil Hunters!”
“That’s right! This isn’t about bravery or anything like that!”
…
The two people trying to stop Gerald from engaging in reckless battles.
In response to their pleas, Gerald fell into silence, appearing to contemplate for a moment.
And then.
…
Ah…
Gerald lightly stroked the heads of the two people.
With his actions resembling that of a father soothing his children,
The two women began to feel a sense of calm and reassurance, as if their inner turmoil and anxiety were being eased.
And then,
Addressing them.
Gerald spoke in a calm voice.
“There’s no need to worry. I never intended to start a fight that I would lose in the first place.”
“But… but…”
His words were calm yet filled with certainty.
Continuing, he looked at Gabrielle, who still displayed unease.
He spoke in a clear voice.
“Promise me. Promise that you will come back after winning.”
“!…”
With those words, Geralt turned back and stood behind them.
Then, the man,
without showing any fear, started moving forward.
“Hurry. We don’t have time.”
“Uh…”
Nico still hesitated, despite Geralt’s words.
But.
“! Gabriel?”
Gabriel firmly held her hand and immediately started to leave.
“Let’s go. For now, we have no choice but to trust the leader and follow their orders.”
“Uh…”
After hesitating and looking back several times, Nico finally left that place.
However, just moments ago, Gabriel, who was trapped in even greater anxiety than Nico,
had a strong belief in her heart at that moment..
Belief in victory…
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The belief that the man would definitely keep his promise and come back.
Just after I sent off the two who had sincerely worried for me, an unexpected surge of emotion began to unfurl, bringing a smile to my face without my realizing it.
“It was a bit disconcerting, but not a bad feeling at all.”
With that thought in mind, I postponed dwelling on these emotions and fixed my gaze on the two demons before me.
Demons that could crush the will to resist with their mere appearance alone.
However.
Even with such beings before me, I felt an even greater sense of composure than when I was facing the crocodile just moments before.
“They don’t bat an eyelid despite all the fuss… as expected, like in the game, they won’t launch a pre-emptive attack unless you enter their territory.”
Carlo, who has maintained silence ever since his complete transformation, and the six-meter-tall gargantuan fish demon before me.
Dagon.
Sensing a strangely familiar feeling from their appearance, I slowly began to approach the creatures before me at a leisurely pace.
“Perfect, with two opponents, there’s no need to beat around the bush; I can go ahead with that strategy.”