Tentacle Monster Reincarnation: I Will Protect the Heroines

Sweat mixed into the slimy tentacles.

I had to do something, yet no matter how I ran my head the only answer was the two characters for ”checkmate.”

Because I carelessly intervened.

I had been at ease because things were going reasonably well, but changing the original’s flow means this.

I saved Sacred Saber and grasped a victory that did not exist in the original. The result of driving back Alter and defeating the Black Knight was that I had drawn in the Diabolic strongest in martial force.

And I did not have the ability to overturn this.

Because it was a development not in the original I could not pull something like reading ahead, and I had zero personal power to do anything about Gain himself.

No matter how I struggled, we would be trampled.

”I will not allow it.”

But Saber.

The warrior of justice, a Sacred whose blue hair fluttered, began readying her sword in a natural stance with no strained look.

”Can you do it, Sacred Knight.”

”Whom are you speaking to?”

”A foolish question. Support, please, Onee-chan.”

”Yes, of course. And that way of speaking suits you better, Saber.”

”...Putting it back at this point is honestly embarrassing. Knuckle, Gahel, I leave Atel Octo to you.”

In front of me, rigid with confusion and fear, the two Sacred were boldly readying their weapons.

This level is nothing.

We can win.

”Stop, that guy is...”

Not an opponent you can beat at this timing.

I tried to shout that, but my voice hoarsened and would not become proper words.

I thoroughly thought I am not a warrior.

At a time like this I cannot think I will fight no matter what and protect them through. I do not think I can face a strong enemy with spirit and guts.

The reason I could rush in during the Alter fight was because it was the same flow as the original. Even then I was scared, and even thought it might be better to submit to Alter.

Therefore my legs trembled pathetically. Knight noticed that and directed a face this way that looked surprised, and as if she had understood something.

Was I a disappointment. In the end I am only this much.

”Please rest easy, Octo-sama.”

But.

Far from being disappointed, Knight narrowed her eyes as if looking at something dazzling.

She slightly changed her standing position so as to block Saber’s gaze and readied her greatsword, the holy sword Galatina.

”I misjudged you and nearly killed you, and yet you saved my younger brother. My sin and my debt to you cannot possibly be repaid with this little.”

The greatsword burned.

Bright red, as if showing her will to fight.

”For starters, I shall illuminate your fear and darkness with my sun, my light.”

She directed a smile this way that did not doubt victory, and the battle began.

◇

”I see. A simple story.”

Alter, who had been observing the entire course with far-seeing magic that imitated a display, nodded as if convinced.

Beside him Umbra laughed, swaying his too-long bangs. He had probably reached the same conclusion. He twisted the corners of his mouth nicha-ri.

”I see, I see. Rather than a defect, it might be more correct to say it broke from being used in an absurd way.”

”Yeah. By making the Seed of Desire suck a ’proper desire’ different from the first desire, two roots have occurred. Simply put, the Seed of Desire does not have enough output.”

Forcing a Seed of Desire that can originally process only one desire to process two desires of different quality in parallel. Of course a defect would appear.

A Seed of Desire by itself transforms a human into a Monster Villain. But no power is infinite. Transforming the flesh and maintaining that flesh naturally require the power of the desire that was sucked up.

But as a result of the types of roots becoming two, a Seed of Desire premised on moving with one desire was forced into parallel processing and had the desire that served as fuel split in two.

The result was that there was no remaining capacity to paint over reason with desire.

It was certain the Monster Villain transformation was affecting the mind. From the nature of the existence called Monster Villain, it could also be inferred that sexual desire had increased. But that was all. Since the brain was about ninety percent intact, reason could be kept and Diabolic orders could be disobeyed.

...It would not be understood even if we experimented with Lemora humans, Alter put on a smile.

(Precisely because he is an Earthling with aptitude for both light and darkness, he was the first to reach it.)

Enduring Monster Villain transformation alone had already been done by the human who became the Black Knight.

But after becoming a Monster Villain he was swallowed by that impulse all at once and became a Diabolic’s pawn. Whatever the process, the result was not greatly different from other Monster Villains.

Then where is the difference between Atel Octo and the Black Knight, between a Vigilante and a Monster Villain?

”Because there was soil that accepted darkness, and the aptitude to accept light. As a result he fell into being a Tentacle Monster Villain, yet by the desire to become an ally of the justice of the Sacred he transformed into a Vigilante.”

Accepting darkness and falling, and even so stretching a hand toward light. That was probably the condition for becoming a Vigilante. The result of the roots becoming two types and the desires conflicting, a load being placed on the Seed of Desire.

That was why Vigilantes had not been born in previous experiments and practice, Alter muttered small. In Calmate there were those who could resist darkness, but those who could ”accept their own darkness” were a minority, and in Lemora there was no idea of ”stretching a hand toward light” in the first place.

And even among Earthlings, not just anyone would do.

A pure person who cannot accept darkness, or an evil person who does not seek light, cannot become a Vigilante.

A middle-path existence that can accept both wicked desire and shining justice. No, an ”ordinary person who has not swung all the way to either side” held a strong feeling, and that was why Atel Octo reached that state.

And if that logic is understood, saving the boy just now is also easy.

After all, the essence of Calmate residents is all light. After turning consciousness toward something other than desire, if you can make them stretch a hand toward light, they can become Vigilantes far more efficiently than Atel Octo. The proper form of desire called ”Growth” also easily cleared the process of ”accepting one’s own darkness.”

”I understand the logic, but as disposable soldiers this is a failure.”

”Yeah.”

From the standpoint of a Diabolic, there is no merit in turning Monster Villains into Vigilantes.

The method of operating Monster Villains is established by teaching existences who have become beasts of desire, through a Diabolic’s magical power, which side is above and which is below. They are useful because they follow desire, have no reason, and absolutely obey Diabolics. The moment they regain reason and turn against Diabolics they are a failure as soldiers.

Of course there is also the means of adding combat ability by turning a truly trustworthy partner into a Vigilante. But in the first place, in this world of Lemora where the strong eat the weak, there should be no such person.

’Alter-sama!’

For an instant he recalled the little girl who clung like a dog, twisted his face, and shook his head.

A thought whose meaning I do not understand.

Mixed-in miscellaneous noise.

He abandoned thinking without understanding why Moldiana Calmate’s figure had passed through his head.

”I have learned what I needed to know. Then good. I will connect it to the next. Farewell, Umbra.”

”Yes, that is fine, but are you not going to watch?”

On the display, Gain Perim and the Sacred were still shown.

Combat was about to begin this instant, yet Alter began walking without stopping his feet, as if he had lost interest.

”I have no time to watch a conclusion I already understand.”

Sacred.

Warriors who fight using holy light.

Yes, they are the strongest.

”Gain is strong. At least if the current me fought him I would certainly lose.”

Alter did not like Gain. No, he did not like those who served the queen in the first place.

He recognized them as dust that should eventually be disposed of, but he did not look down on them as opponents he could easily destroy.

That guy is strong.

Overwhelming power, and charisma as a head who freely manipulates countless beasts.

Both individual power and army power are overwhelming. There are parts weak to tricks, but he has the ability to crush traps and disadvantageous situations as if to say so what and still win.

Beast King of Brute Strength is well said.

The king of beasts who crushes enemies with overwhelming power destroys small fry and strong enemies without distinction. In addition, the wicked schemes that were effective on the Sacred do not work on him at all.

For the man named Alter Native, a tougher opponent than the Sacred.

”But his compatibility with the Sacred is the worst.”

That Diabolic who believes in his own power and uses no tricks at all cannot defeat the Sacred.