Campione: Strongest# 472: “Pride”

“Finally, we can see it—the end of this Root contradiction.”

Araya Souren’s voice was low and steady, his face devoid of joy, stripped of the old sorrow, as if this outcome had always been inevitable.

“—!”

Hearing a declaration that might as well have been a victory announcement, Shiki Ryougi’s expression snapped cold, winter-deep and merciless.

Her right hand rose, lifting the katana to her chest. Her left hand clamped down, ripping the sheath free in one sharp motion.

Her eyes shut—then opened.

The [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] locked onto the pitch-black figure ahead.

Then her pupils contracted.

The icy mask on her face hardened into grave focus.

In her vision, the world was choked with countless lines and points of death—yet on the figure in front of her, there were only seven or eight faint black lines.

She’d seen this before on Haru.

That was what happened when immortality as a concept reached a certain threshold.

This monk, with just a human body, had actually climbed to that level?

Her pale, slender fingers tightened on the hilt.

Now standing face-to-face with Araya Souren, Shiki understood perfectly just how troublesome he was.

“Those eyes… Mystic Eyes? It’s been a long time since I’ve felt death that clearly. To give me this level of danger—are those the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception?”

Staring into those dazzling pupils that looked like death made manifest, Araya’s expression darkened with a weary grimness.

Having lived over two centuries, he knew most of the world’s buried secrets. Coupled with the chill radiating from those eyes, he identified Shiki’s trump card almost immediately.

“Tch.”

Shiki clicked her tongue.

Her secret was blown. Now that he was on guard, there was only one way forward—force him into close quarters.

She clenched the katana, and in the next heartbeat her body shot forward like a bolt of lightning, tearing through the air with a harsh whistle as she rushed Araya Souren.

———————————

On the other side—within the invisibly expanded first-floor hall.

As the Dark Six raised his voice in exaltation—

The earth shuddered.

A crushing pressure flooded the air, heavy enough to weigh on bone.

“Thud—! Thud—! —Thud—! Thud—!”

Colossal stone pillars slammed into the floor, shattering tiles and blasting shards skyward—no, not pillars.

They were legs...

A gargantuan beast’s four limbs, each like a tower.

Over fifty meters tall, its entire body formed from wood and stone, a massive crocodilian tortoise lumbered out from the rippling air above, dragging with it the feral breath of prehistory.

This was what the West called a “Graelm”—a war golem from the ancient age.

Like how modern people fantasized about towering mobile suits, back then, Graelms were seen as the incarnations of war gods.

“SKREEE——!!!!!!!”

A shrill cry ripped through the air.

A storm howled into being.

A gigantic vulture, all wood and stone, beat wings spanning over sixty meters as it emerged from the distortions overhead and soared straight into the sky.

Next came a massive leonine statue—yellow-brown stone, a human face atop a lion’s body—walking forth with elegant, soundless steps.

Then, with thunderous footfalls, an eighty-meter stone mammoth roared as it hauled itself out of the ripples.

“ROAR——!!!”

With a savage bellow, a black dragon—lizard-bodied, its hide bristling with backward-curving spikes—lashed its bat-like wings and took to the air.

Directly before Haru stood the apex of Phantasmal beasts—Dragonkind, hailed in Western myth as the king of monsters.

Its body might have been sculpted from ancient wood and stone, yet the oppressive majesty it radiated was real enough to punch like a physical blow.

Haru could even sense godly blood lingering in the dragon-type Graelm’s frame.

Paired with the rumors that Van-Fem’s strongest demon castle was the Dragon Castle, it wasn’t hard to guess—the dragon-shaped Graelm had likely been forged from a dragon god as raw material.

“Strongest Demon Castle” wasn’t just empty bragging.

Facing the five towering Graelms, Haru’s lips curved, half amused.

“Turtle, vulture, sphinx, mammoth, dragon—you’re only sending five Demon Castles after me? You’re seriously holding back?”

At that, the Dark Six’s expression shifted to one of unsurprised ease.

He inclined his head toward Haru in a small, courteous bow.

“Your Excellency, I must ask your forgiveness. The remaining Demon Castles are designed for naval warfare. Unfortunately, this Reality Marble doesn’t seem able to preload an ocean scene.”

“Forgiveness, huh?”

Haru looked up at the black dragon circling in the sky, his gaze cooling.

“I carry the blood of the Earth Mother. To see dragon-serpents under her blessing twisted into this—yeah, that pisses me off.”

The Dark Six regarded him with mild surprise, then let out a helpless little sigh.

“The one who crafted the Graelms was Van-Fem, you know. But, well—since I’ve borrowed his body, it’s only natural you pin the grudge on me instead.”

The gigantic stone crocodile-tortoise behind him suddenly opened its maw.

It snapped its neck forward in a blur and swallowed him whole.

When the motion stilled, a voice tinged with faint amusement drifted out from somewhere deep in the tortoise’s stone gut.

“Come to think of it—Araya Souren’s goal seems to be that little girl under your protection. If you don’t hurry, she might end up dead and buried.”

“The ‘tortoise’ is Van-Fem’s proudest defensive Graelm. Even if your lover, the Black Princess, went all-out, she wouldn’t break it quickly.”

“So tell me, as a god-king—can you really shake me off in time to save that adorable girl?”

“I’m dying to find out, you know～”

As that taunting sing-song faded, the dragon and the vulture in the sky loosed piercing roars and climbed in spirals.

“ROAR——!!!!”

“SKREE——!!!!”

A split-second later, the two aerial beasts dive-bombed Haru with explosive force.

The dragon’s fanged maw, each tooth as long as a man, and the vulture’s talons, gleaming cold and razor-sharp, both scythed straight for him.

On the ground, the mammoth thundered forward, every step like a localized earthquake as it drove its colossal bulk right at Haru.

Behind him, the sphinx—the ancient emblem of “wisdom”—ghosted into place without a sound, arms extending with fluid grace as its stone hands swept in to crush him.

Enclosed by four colossal beasts, Haru remained where he stood, utterly still.

A low laugh slipped out, edged with scorn.

“This is what you’re so proud of—your impregnable defense…?”

Azure radiance slowly bloomed in his hand.