The Monster Lady and the Holy Knight - Chapter 109

That day, the Bahamut obtained God. Humanity was abandoned. The amnesia served as proof of the aftereffects left by God’s departure.

Of course, there was no way God had been deceived by such a flimsy imitation of an eclipse. It was more accurate to say that He had willingly accepted the ritual offered to Him.

Veronica clenched her teeth.

Do You even pity this nameless existence? Then why did You send me?

Her deep contemplation shattered as ‘it’ suddenly stretched its lips into a grin. The smiling face beyond the water was identical to her own, yet something about its expression was disturbingly inhuman. A chill ran down her spine.

As if recognizing that she had regained her memories, the hands choking her throat withdrew. And then… it embraced her tightly.

Veronica’s eyes widened as she sank to the bottom of the lake.

Why?

Why? Why?

Her mind was flooded with questions. She wanted to ask, but she couldn’t open her mouth underwater. That was when she realized she had been holding her breath far longer than should have been possible. It was as if she had become a Bahamut herself. A new kind of terror gripped her.

Pale with fear, Veronica shoved its shoulders with all her strength. She twisted free, kicking her legs to break away, and frantically swam toward the shimmering surface. This time, ‘it’ did not grab her legs.

The light grew closer.

“Cough! Hah… hah.”

Gasping for air, she thrashed to the shore. She had never moved so quickly in the water before. Stumbling out, she collapsed onto the lakeside, panting. Her sword lay nearby. With trembling hands, she gripped it tightly and raised it, waiting.

I’ll kill it. I’ll kill it.

With a loud splash, ‘it’ finally emerged. The woman approaching her was dripping wet, her long hair clinging to her body like strands of seaweed. She was completely naked.

And her face—

Veronica felt her determination dissolve.

Seeing her own face reflected above water, she couldn’t even lift her sword, as if her arms had been paralyzed. ‘It’ walked forward fearlessly, unconcerned by the blade. If she stabbed, all life connected to it would be severed.

Terror became reality in an instant.

Even though she had come prepared for death, facing it directly was a different matter. Her body trembled. She wanted to run. She couldn’t fathom the void of nothingness that would consume her.

She wanted to see Leon.

The absurd thought, I want to live, took hold, and before she knew it, Veronica had already stepped backward. Then, she turned and ran.

It was a pathetic and shameful nightmare.

Pathetic. Pathetic. Pathetic!

Veronica fled from the face of her own death.

Her footsteps echoed ominously in the pitch-black cave. The sounds were like the cries of an unknown beast. She ran blindly through the darkness until the ground beneath her suddenly collapsed.

She tumbled down, rolling uncontrollably. Sharp stones scraped her skin as she fell. Finally, she came to a stop, gasping for breath. Above her, a larger opening bathed her in moonlight.

Everything was white.

She had made it outside.

Or so she thought—until something crunched beneath her hand.

Veronica looked down.

Teeth.

“A-ah… ah…”

Scooting backward on her hands, she tried to escape, but everywhere she moved, the same sensation remained. She was sitting atop an entire hill of human bones. Torn clothes and crawling black insects filled the spaces between them. Horror prickled her skin. She had seen this place before.

The Bahamut’s breeding grounds. A burial site for countless humans, neither cremated nor buried with dignity.

From the depths of the darkness, red eyes gleamed like stars in the night sky.

Consumption is a fascinating thing. A body salivates in anticipation of eating, yet recoils in disgust when faced with the prospect of being eaten.

Veronica retched over and over, though her stomach was empty. Yellow bile splattered onto the bones. Then, white feet approached.

Dazed, she lifted her gaze.

‘It’ was already standing before her.

Veronica, still on the ground, looked up at the creature wearing her face.

Then, ‘it’ opened its mouth.

“Where are you going?”

Veronica held her breath.

“You came to find me.”

“……”

“You came to embrace me.”

“……”

“Family.”

“What?”

“Because we are family, you saved me. You even gave me the sword.”

Veronica went blank.

She glanced down at the sword in her trembling hands. It was speaking of the past, just after God had been extracted from her.

It had spared her because she was its kin.

But… family? It was saying she had come here to embrace it?

Her numbed mind struggled to grasp its meaning. Trembling violently, she slowly shook her head.

Then, ‘it’ suddenly bent forward, pressing both hands and knees to the ground, crawling closer.

Veronica’s reflection gleamed in its red eyes.

“Then what?”

A chill ran down her spine as she looked into its wide-open eyes. It did not blink or move at all. Frozen in place, Veronica muttered quietly.

“What are you?”

It was a question that had surfaced impulsively, but it was also the fundamental mystery that all of humanity had been pondering for the past two years. It remained silent as if it did not understand.

“I’m asking where you came from. What are you? ‘Bahamut’ is just a name given by humans.”

“Where…?”

It stared blankly before tilting its head back toward the gaping hole in the ceiling. As its head bent at an angle impossible for a human, Veronica held her breath and waited for an answer.

“The sky.”

“…The sky?”

“Our world was up there. We were greater than you. We were many. We had advanced. But then…”

“……”

“We all died.”

Veronica was stunned, both by the revelation and by the voice itself. It was evolving, slowly adapting to mimic her own tone, growing thinner and more like hers.

“The superior ones all perished. Because we were the same, we all caught the same disease. We couldn’t all die, so to survive, we were sent away. It took seventeen years in your time to reach this land. We ate fish from the sea. We change into what we eat, but fish cannot leave the water. After a year, we finally ate a human who had fallen into the sea.”

The information it poured out began to align with the facts Veronica already knew. The Bahamut had discovered this land twenty years ago, had crashed into the ocean three years ago under the guise of a meteorite, and had emerged onto land two years ago after consuming a human.

If their original world had been destroyed due to homogeneity, then it made sense why they envied the diversity of life on this planet. However, a contradiction lingered. Staring blankly, Veronica whispered hoarsely as soon as it stopped speaking.

“I… I get the gist of what you’re saying. But even as you claim you wanted to change, you still mimic my face and voice. Why?”

Her voice trembled with involuntary fear. It had become nearly indistinguishable from her own now.

Then, its grotesquely bent head slowly straightened.

“That day, before God, there were children, young men, the elderly, those crying, those laughing, those shouting and running. But God chose you. He chose the sleeping baby in the womb.”

It was easy to deduce that it was speaking of the events from twenty years ago in the wilderness. It seemed to believe that Veronica, selected among the countless humans back then, was special. In other words, it wanted to imitate her in order to receive God’s love.

Veronica’s eyes wavered.

“…No.”

“No?”

“No. God didn’t choose me for my face or my voice. As you said, there must have been kind people, wealthy people, poor people, dreamers, and those with high status. But in the end, they were all tainted by the world.”

“Tainted by the world?”

“Yes. ‘Sin.’ The inescapable burden of being born human.”

Veronica’s eyes darkened. She had already pondered and reached a conclusion on this matter when she first theorized that God had resided within her.

“The only being pure and untainted enough to be a vessel was an unborn child.”

It tilted its head, seemingly not fully comprehending. The eerie atmosphere made her hairs stand on end.

Yes, humans were corrupted. Their sins had reached an intolerable threshold. Perhaps God had not chosen the Bahamut out of pity, but rather to cleanse the world of its wickedness.

Indeed, Kart had fallen. Countless civilized cities had collapsed. Then what came after? Once the hunting dog had served its purpose, what happened next?

Veronica understood what God had intended. And that realization saddened her.

Throughout her journey, she had imagined countless scenarios for this encounter, but never this kind of conversation.

‘It’ was welcoming her. It was safe to say that it was genuinely happy to see her. Despite its grotesque expression, it almost resembled a child excitedly making a new friend. Veronica knew this because it wore her own face.

“That’s why… I’m sorry.”

Veronica was human. Though her body had assimilated, her mind remained aligned with humanity. That was why God had chosen her to kill the Bahamut. That was why He had given her someone to love. Because for his sake, she would fight.

‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.'[1]

“The truth is, we are not family. I am not a Bahamut. I am human.”

Veronica thrust her sword into her chest. The sensation of flesh being pierced traveled up her hands as deep crimson blood spilled down the blade.

‘Its’ pupils dilated like a beating heart.

[1] Matthew 10:34