Chapter 75: Chapter 75
Shan, who had briefly lost consciousness, panicked upon realizing that his vision had split into multiple views.
One view checked the muddy marshland, another checked the severed leg, another checked the knights lurking nearby…
The number of divided views totaled seven, with two heads having been severed.
One leg was severed, leaving three, and behind was a long tail.
Dull pain from being slashed, stabbed, and burned resonated throughout its entire body.
Through the transmitted sensations, Shan realized that he was perceiving the world from the Hydra’s point of view.
‘Did I somehow enter the guy’s body?’
However, despite that, he could not control the body at will.
He could only watch the world from inside by borrowing its senses.
Furthermore, he was not simply sharing the five senses; even the anger and fear felt by the Hydra were as vivid as if they were his own.
“Stab!”
“Bring fire! Cauterize the wounds!”
The human knights swarming from all directions were as persistent and mean-spirited as a swarm of ants.
They thoroughly exploited hard-to-defend openings to attack, and despite being tiny, they wore beetle-like iron armor that could not be easily crushed.
Even the venom, which should have caused fainting just by smelling it, did not work well.
While the creature swung its tail irritably, Shan used one of the seven lines of sight to check where his own body was.
As a result, he could see himself glaring at the Hydra, at himself, from a short distance away, rather than from atop its rump.
Anyone could see that his physical state was far from unconscious.
In other words, what he was seeing now was not the present, but the recent past.
Presumably, at most tens of seconds to a minute or so ago…
Simultaneously with recognizing that fact, the world flipped upside down in an instant.
Now, the Hydra was roaming the marshlands alone with nine intact heads.
The monsters lurking in the surroundings fled hastily upon hearing its footsteps.
The emotion felt from within was joy.
The pleasure of having gorged on a vast quantity of human meat a short while ago.
The joy of freely roaming across the vast land to its heart’s content.
The joy of melting down and smashing a large fortress…
Even after that, the creature’s perspective that Shan was viewing shifted further and further into the past.
To the time when it smashed the western fortress of the Treba domain, the time when it roamed the marshlands again, and up to the moment it emerged from the entrance of the cave.
Unexpectedly, when it first left the cave and looked up at the pitch-black night sky, the creature had been moved.
To think that a monster, which he had thought only found pleasure in slaughter and destruction, had the capacity to appreciate scenery and feel joy.
On the other hand, for some unknown reason, it harbored a sliver of fear toward something.
Several of its heads continuously checked to the left, right, and rear, remaining vigilant lest something appear.
Empathizing with the monster’s emotions, Shan was able to understand why the Hydra had not returned to the cave.
All this time, the creature had been terribly stifled by being trapped inside that cramped cave.
Though he did not know why it had not come out sooner…
Perhaps it was related to the fear the creature was feeling.
‘If so, was there no need to come hunt it down?’
The thought crossed his mind, but that was only something to say after finding out the inside story; considering that no one knew when it might return, hunting it was indeed the right choice.
They also had to take responsibility for its rampant rampage in the marshlands, and obtain its Mana Stone while they were at it.
Along with that thought, the perspective pulled back even further into the past.
The Hydra had moved through the cave that was suffocatingly narrow for itself, searching for alchemy waste that had flowed from far away, and had quietly stayed in its nest, enjoying the feast that washed down the river.
And before that… it had simply waited.
Devouring monsters crawling up from downstream, and occasionally devouring humans coming from the opposite side.
For an endlessly long time.
Even though time was passing relatively fast in swift blurs, spending such a long time without any change was terribly boring.
It made him wonder how even a simple monster could have endured all those years.
As if the creature itself had not been comfortable either, it occasionally writhed in boredom, but it did not dare to venture out of the cave.
Though he did not know precisely what, it was because the creature feared whatever was outside.
In terms of subjective feeling, it was almost several hours, or perhaps several days.
Around the time when what was likely several centuries, or perhaps a thousand years in actual time, had passed inside the cave…
Finally, the point in time before the Hydra entered the cave came into view.
The creature was fleeing, having lost five of its heads.
All sorts of monsters lay strewn about the surroundings, and among them were several fairly well-known species.
Cockatrices, basilisks, wyverns, gargoyles…
Because one surviving head was looking backward, he could clearly see who had committed such slaughter.
A single knight wearing a winged helmet and silver-gray plate armor, holding a long two-handed sword.
Although his facial features could not be distinguished due to the visor, Shan immediately realized the opponent’s identity.
It was because an intense halo flowed from behind the armor, brightly illuminating the surroundings.
‘Could it be… Great Emperor Baren?’
The founder of the Arman Empire, the savior of humanity, and the companion of the Goddess.
Only when depicting that man was it permitted to paint such a halo.
Now Shan had learned the reason for it.
To think that it was not merely to emphasize that he was a great figure, but that they had simply painted him exactly as he looked!
While briefly thinking that Roden and Cheryn would be delighted if he told them this fact, Shan widened his eyes as he watched Great Emperor Baren swing his sword to bisect a troll in a single strike.
‘Wow…’
From stepping forward to the moment the sword carved through flesh and exited, the flow of force was fully embodied without being wasted even once.
Just like when he himself swung a weapon.
Moreover, this was not achieved by untiringly practicing a few specific techniques like other knights did.
His subsequent movements, light evasive actions, and further attacks… everything was executed ideally without defying reason.
Great Emperor Baren was undoubtedly someone who had reached the same realm as Shan, or perhaps someone born with the same kind of talent.
Moreover, perhaps due to the armor, even his physical capabilities far exceeded the realm of ordinary humans.
Every running movement and leap was explosive as if imbued with Fighting Spirit, and whatever monster caught on his sword was severed in a single strike.
It would have been utterly impossible unless Fighting Spirit and stamina surged forth endlessly.
Shan felt he understood what the Hydra had feared.
No matter how ferocious a large monster was, if it had barely escaped with its life from such a monster, it had no choice but to be terrified.
‘Come to think of it, the monsters the Emperor is killing also have magic patterns drawn on their bodies just like this guy, don’t they?’
Of course, ones without drawings were occasionally mixed in, but most of the strong ones had magic patterns engraved on their bodies.
Before he even had time to ponder the reason, the Hydra’s perspective shifted further into the past.
Now the creature was wandering the wasteland.
Together with the monsters that had been slaughtered by Great Emperor Baren just moments ago, which, like itself, had all kinds of magic patterns engraved on their bodies.
Without the territorial awareness that large monsters originally possessed, they resonated with one another and cooperated as if they were companions.
They devoured passing small monsters or humans, played pranks on each other, and spent idyllic days.
The humans they occasionally met were all dressed in crude leather clothes, appearing utterly primitive.
They seemed to be people forming a primitive tribal society before the founding of the Empire.
As time rewound to what felt like a few minutes subjectively, but was probably tens to hundreds of days ago in reality, the creature was escaping some underground facility.
Together with those companions he had seen a moment ago.
Those presumed to be residents of the facility tried to stop them by thrusting some sort of rods forward, only to be helplessly slaughtered.
Oddly enough, however, the guards all wore far more refined attire than those from earlier and possessed the distinct appearance of Altoans.
Shan instinctively realized what era and what place he was currently witnessing.
Since what he had seen earlier was a thousand years ago, the era when Great Emperor Baren founded the Arman Empire, an advanced civilization prior to that would mean…
‘It’s the Altoan Empire.’
What he was seeing now was the fall of the Altoan Empire, which everyone had wondered about.
A nation that had reached the apex of magic civilization only to be destroyed by the wrath of the Goddess, an object of envy and love-hate for all Altoans.
Before he even had time to shudder at that fact, at a point pulled further into the past, the Hydra was imprisoned in a giant cell.
A cell against which neither venom that melted anything nor mass attacks using its giant body worked.
Beyond the bars, two people were conversing.
A researcher-like man who looked to be in his forties and an old man with a neatly trimmed white beard.
The researcher had inverted eyes, but the old man showed no distinct physical traits of an Altoan.
“Fortunately, it seems to have been transplanted successfully. I heard that infusing magic into a hydra isn’t easy due to its regenerative power.”
“Yes. For smooth cohabitation, we lowered its instinctive hostility toward other specimens, as well as embedding bio-analysis and the newly developed information memory magic.”
“Information memory?”
“It saves what the monster experienced so it can be reviewed later. It allows us to directly experience the senses felt by the creatures during experiments, and if they happen to attempt an escape and get caught, we can verify how they escaped and take preventive measures, making it very useful. I heard there are plans to modify it so it can be used for security purposes as well in the near future.”
“Oho… Could I try using it once as well?”
“Of course. It requires access authorization. Do you happen to have an item you use often, Lord Executor?”
“Here it is. It’s my most treasured artifact.”
When the old man reached out his hand, surprisingly, the silver ring he wore on his finger transformed into a sword.
Shan was startled upon seeing this.
It was surprising that the old man was the owner of Thousand Shapes, but it was even more astonishing that he had shrunk it to the size of a ring.
Due to mass issues, that was something utterly impossible for Shan as he was now.
‘How on earth?’
After the researcher touched Thousand Shapes and muttered something, the old man nodded and opened the barred door to step inside.
The startled Hydra opened its mouth wide, roared, and threatened him, but the old man calmly approached as if it were nothing and jabbed the creature’s leg with the sword.
With that, Shan’s consciousness flashed white once again.
*
‘…Ah.’
Having returned to his original body, Shan temporarily felt an immense sense of deprivation from how dramatically narrowed his vision had become and how terribly small his body was.
Having lived in the body of the Hydra for what felt subjectively like dozens of days or more, adapting back to being a human was not easy.
As if targeting the opening that arose from that, one of the Hydra’s heads rushed in with its mouth wide open.
“Ugh!”
Having grown awkward at controlling his body and unable to react as quickly as before, Shan had his torso bitten straight into the creature’s jaws.
Because the mouth was so huge, he suffered intense pressure as if his armpits on top and his shins below were about to be crushed.
Seeing this, the knights shouted in horror.
“Sir Shan!”
“Save the Lord Protector!”
Crunch. Having finally caught the most troublesome enemy, the Hydra exerted its bite force to the maximum, biting Shan while secreting a mouthful of venom inside its mouth.
Burning agony surged through his entire body where the poison penetrated.
Fortunately, the armor containing the ogre’s Mana Stone withstood even the Hydra’s bite force and deadly venom to some extent.
Shan gritted his teeth and forced open the jaws with all his might using the two arms he had barely wedged in at the moment he was bitten.
The Herculean strength granted by the Mana Stone embedded in his chest helped him.
A tiny opening created in the process.
Without missing it, Shan leaped slightly and curled his body up.
With a sharp snap, the Hydra’s teeth clamped together.
“H-He got eaten?”
While everyone was panicking for a moment at a situation that looked like that to anyone, the Guardian of the East poured out dark blue light from inside and tore open the Hydra’s jaw.
Drenched in the creature’s blood all over his body, Shan escaped, kicked off its torso, leaped down, and rolled across the ground.
“Neutralizer! Spray the neutralizer on Sir Shan!”
Keeping his eyes closed as he recognized the footsteps echoing around him, Shan quickly folded his armor into the shape of a breastplate.
The neutralizer poured onto his exposed body bubbled against the blood and deadly venom that had been sizzlingly burning his skin.
“Haa…”
His entire burned body throbbed with scorching heat, but fortunately, he was not in a state where he could not fight.
As Shan sprang up from his spot, the surrounding knights and squires gasped in shock.
“S-Sir Shan! Please fall back and receive treatment! You are severely injured!”
“I’m fine. More importantly, I figured out the creature’s weak points. My voice isn’t coming out well, so pass the word loudly.”
Shan explained where the Hydra’s hearts were located in a growling voice.
One in the neck of the middle head, one at the connection between the third neck and head from the left, one at the exact center of the torso, one at the junction between the tail and rump, one on the right side of the chest…
Unless all of these were destroyed, the Hydra would continue to move even if all its heads were chopped off.
Perhaps because he had felt as if he had become the Hydra a moment ago, he was able to know that fact clearly.
No, perhaps it was thanks to the help of the ‘bio-analysis’ magic that the researcher had mentioned…
As the knights who heard Shan’s message changed their attack direction, the Hydra’s movements instantly turned passive.
Feeling threatened when those who had been openly aiming only for its heads began earnest thrusts into its weak points, the monster recoiled.
Shan, having rested briefly, also unfolded his armor to enclose his body once more and charged at the Hydra.
His whole body throbbed as if burned, but fortunately, his eyes, which he had tightly shut the moment he was covered in blood, were unharmed.
[◇◇◇◇◆!]
At the sight of Shan charging in, the Hydra showed a reaction close to a spasm and whipped its body around.
He could vaguely guess the reason.
It was likely because the magical presence of Thousand Shapes, which it had failed to perceive keenly before due to the various magic patterns engraved on its body, was now clearly felt through their earlier contact.
Was it thanks to having shared a body with that monster for a fairly long time? Shan could grasp and understand the creature better than anyone else.
Amusingly, he even felt a sliver of familiarity toward that monster now.
Of course, the fact that they were in a relationship where one had to kill the other remained unchanged.
Even though his physical capacity had dropped significantly compared to before, Shan dodged the venom spat by the Hydra, the foreleg swung with staggering force, and the biting jaws with even greater ease.
It was because it was completely obvious to him how the creature would try to attack and what it would use as a weapon.
While Shan drew its attention at the front like that, Ravana and Roden finally succeeded in severing its second leg.
Following the right foreleg being severed earlier, now that its left hind leg was cut off as well, the creature was finally unable to stand any longer.
Another knight quickly ran over and cauterized the severed cross-section of the collapsed Hydra’s left hind leg with a torch.
Throwing away the torch that no longer had flammable liquid remaining, he shouted.
“We’ve used up all the torches for cauterizing wounds!”
It would have been better if they had brought a more generous supply, but it could not be helped since the fuel used was such an expensive material.
Still, preventing one front limb, one rear limb, and four heads from easily recovering made it a more than profitable bargain.
From then on, the knights continuously whittled down the monster by primarily targeting the Hydra’s vital spots they had heard from Shan.
Thanks to the magic inhibiting regeneration imbued into most of the knights’ magic weapons, its recovery grew slower and slower.
On top of that, just like a troll’s, the creature’s transcendental regenerative ability was based on physical resources… specifically, burning fat.
Every time it repeatedly suffered wounds and recovered, its thick belly fat could be seen melting away gradually.
Before long, the middle head had the heart in the center of its neck pierced by Shan’s attack and lost its strength, and the heart near the rump was pierced by some knight’s spear and lost its power.
Each time a heart was destroyed, the Hydra’s movements slowed noticeably, and its multiple heads also failed to move nimbly as before.
It was because the creature’s hearts also served as auxiliary brains commanding the heads.
Ten-odd minutes later, when Shan finally extended Heartbreaker as long as possible and drove it into the heart in the middle of its torso, the Hydra collapsed without even being able to let out a scream.
Its torso expanded dramatically and deflated as the creature exhaled its final breath.
“We did it!”
“Damn it, that was a truly nasty bastard…”
The knights who participated in the battle showed expressions closer to sheer fed-up exhaustion than joy.
Originally, it would have been evaluated as similar to or slightly stronger than a cockatrice or basilisk, and slightly weaker than an ogre.
Perhaps because it had aged over a long time and expanded its size to more than twice that of an ordinary hydra, its strength was absurd.
Contrary to expectations that their force was more than sufficient, if not somewhat excessive, the subjugation would have failed without the Lord Protector.
Many instinctively had such thoughts.
“First, let’s recover the corpse! Collect as much blood as we can!”
As Roden shouted loudly and issued instructions despite his exhaustion, the others immediately complied.
Some of the soldiers in the rear drank antidotes and brought over several containers they had prepared.
They were special containers that could hold the Hydra’s blood.
In addition, they had to skin the scales, which were naturally sturdy and possessed tremendous poison resistance, and cut off the heads to be used as ornaments.
At that moment, Shan, who was receiving treatment from a priest, chimed in.
“Before skinning the scales, tell them to draw those patterns separately.”
“Pardon?”
“The glowing things on the creature’s body, I mean.”
Knowing that those were not just meaningless decorations, he could not let them vanish.
Skinning the whole thing intact to restore it was too unrealistic, so at the very least, drawing a plausible sketch so Cheryn could analyze it later was the right move.
While a mage drew the sketches and soldiers skinned the scaled hide near the heads, the knights slit the belly open and rummaged through the internal organs to search for the Mana Stone.
The Mana Stone discovered before long was no joke; it was truly larger than an ordinary adult human.
No matter how much lighter a Mana Stone was compared to ordinary gems, an object of this size would easily weigh several hundred kilograms.
A few knights joined forces to roll it and drop it onto the ground, then agonized over it.
“How on earth are we going to carry this?”
“I know, right…”
At least if it were flat ground, they could use horses and carts, but in the middle of a marshland, that was a difficult proposition.
After deliberating for a long while, they eventually rolled the Mana Stone onto a net made by weaving together plenty of tough vines growing in the area.
Additionally, when about eight people joined forces with long poles, it became fairly transportable.
While those who were relatively unhurt eagerly threw themselves into collecting spoils with great effort, Shan received intensive treatment from the priests.
A priest, who had been crying out the Goddess’s name while performing consecutive miracles of healing, gasped out and spoke.
“For now, I have done all I can, Sir Shan.”
“Thank you.”
“I am sorry. My capabilities are lacking…”
Looking at his reflection in a nearby puddle of water, he could understand why the priest was apologizing.
Various parts of his face, which had originally been reasonably neat, were hideously distorted by burns, transforming his appearance into that of a monster.
If this was the result of doing their best, his condition was unlikely to improve much further even with continuous treatment in the future.
Even though he had quite a few scars on his body, his face had been reasonably fine, but now it was clear he could cross off ever hearing that he was handsome anywhere.
Should he consider it fortunate that at least he would not look weak?
“Could we speak for a moment, Sir Shan?”
At that moment, Viscount of Treba, who had stepped far back into the rear, spoke to him cautiously.
A complex expression mixed with admiration and fear was etched upon his face.
“Speak, Viscount.”
“First… I express my heartfelt respect for your valor. I had never dared to imagine that a single human could be that strong.”
All the Palles knights armed with magic weapons exerted power beyond their normal skills, but Shan was exceptional even among them.
Although he had been bitten once by chance (and even then, he escaped by his own power) other than that, he did not allow a single attack and practically toyed with the Hydra one-sidedly.
Of course, to Shan, who had seen the overwhelming skill of Great Emperor Baren just moments ago, it did not feel like such a great deal.
That Knight King, who did not seem human at all, would have casually cut down a mere hydra like that.
At any rate, having received praise, Shan replied with a nod to express his thanks.
“Thank you for the flattering praise.”
“So, on that note, wouldn’t it be rather difficult to transport all of the Hydra’s byproducts with just this number of people?”
“Indeed, it seemed we would have to make several trips back and forth.”
More than anything else, the Hydra’s scaled hide was thicker and heavier than expected.
They were at the point of needing to set up a base near here and hire people, so they already needed the Viscount’s cooperation anyway.
Listening to the story, the Viscount meekly nodded.
“That happened to be what I was going to talk about as well. I can fully mobilize enough men to carry heavy items, so I shall cooperate as much as possible. It is only right to show at least this much consideration to the heroes who hunted the Hydra.”
“I gratefully accept your goodwill, Viscount.”
“And there are several heroes who suffered burns, including yourself, Sir, and a priest in our territory possesses truly immense divine power. He is to the extent that he would not be outdone even by the cardinals of the Holy See.”
That meant he would be able to heal even the severe burns they had sustained.
Cardinals were effectively not much different from the Pope, being the most skilled among the Old Faith priests.
To think there would be someone of that skill level in such a countryside.
At the unexpected goodwill, Shan stared blankly at the Viscount instead of thanking him.
Though he was still not used to dealings between people, he knew at least that this was a topic brought up in expectation of some reward.
In truth, it would have been better to conduct this sort of negotiation with Roden at his side, but Roden was busy tidying up the byproducts.
It would not matter since he could listen for now and hold off on giving an answer.
“What is it that you want?”
At the question, which was exceedingly blunt and far removed from an elegant negotiation between nobles, Viscount of Treba let out a choking gasp.
Flustered for a moment, he cleared his throat, regained his composure, and spoke.
“Ahem, it is not quite as far as a demand, but… as the price for this favor, I would like to pay an audience with Princess Cheryn once.”