Goblin Slayer - Volume 8 - Chapter 7.1

Interlude – Of How Cosmic Horror Is Not The Enemy Of Swords And Sorcery

“Hup! Ahhh!” 

The cute but powerful shout accompanied an explosion of light that sliced through the darkness surrounding the holy mount. 

The darkness was something grotesque, like a great swollen lump of flesh. It was full of pulsing viscera, like a living creature turned inside out. 

It had arrived along with the flaming stone from heaven, this thing, truly unknowable, even indescribable. 

It had come clinging to the meteorite, which was still warm in its crater on the mountaintop, and then the thing had become a shade, stretching its flesh out toward the four corners of the world. 

It was probably, from the perspective of one who could see only three dimensions, not from this plane of existence. 

“…I feel like just looking at it chips away at my sanity,” Sage said, her face uncharacteristically pale and sweaty. She was not yet a planeswalker. It would be such a shame to go to other worlds when she had yet to see and understand the whole of this one. 

Now she gritted her teeth, her fingers on her staff, her very fingernails, the way every part of her body and hands moved, carving out precise words of true power. Sage alone had the ability to seal away this shade, this horrifying thing, this pulsating collection of guts. Every minute, every second, she felt like her soul was being scraped away by a rasp, but… 

“That right?” Sword Saint slid her feet back and forth, exquisitely minute moves that maintained the distance to the enemy. She judged her opportunities, striking out at the stretching, probing feelers whenever she had a chance, forcing them back or slicing them off. Each time, a spray of blackish blood would burst outward, like a crimson flag flying from her sword, painting the sky. Even an observer with no martial ability would have understood that she was the keystone of the party’s defense. 

“If it bleeds, that means we can kill it,” she said. “Somehow.” 

Not every problem could be solved with a sword. But every problem that could be solved with a sword, she would solve. 

To Sword Saint, this monster was nothing more than a lump of flesh that had come to her world from the stars. It came cursing her land, and now that she was within sword’s reach, she would destroy it. It was as simple as that. 

Yes, simple… That’s her. 

Sage breathed out, heh, and smiled, resigned to her companion’s ways. Her shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly. 

When they thought you were crude, be technical. And when they thought you were going to be technical, be absolutely crude. 

That was best. So it was in everything, Sage thought, and then she said lightly, “Maybe I should just use Fusion to blow it away once and for all?” 

“Aw, if this mountain ends up shorter than it started, they’re gonna blame me!” Hero said, slicing away some tentacles that were making for Sword Saint. Despite her evident fatigue, though, she smiled. 

It was Sage who prevented the thing from spreading, Sword Saint who handled defense, and all the attacking fell to Hero. Her small body was already weighed down by a gigantic sword, and now she had the peace of the entire world riding on her shoulders, too. 

“At least its movement pattern is easy; that helps.” Hero sounded as mellow as if she didn’t even feel any of this burden; she readied her sacred sword in her two hands. “It just comes charging at you… Maybe this thing’s really dumb?” 

“It knows only expansion and attack. That’s why we have to stop it now.” 

“I think His Majesty would really enjoy this, though.” 

“…I would rather not envision what would happen if we failed here and got absorbed by this thing.” Sage gave up her former professed admiration for her bantering comrades. “However, you two are right about one thing. I don’t believe its intelligence is highly developed…” 

She strengthened her barriers as an attack came from a strange angle; Sage was thinking fast. It seemed likely that this thing, this shade—if it could be called that—learned by absorbing other living things. They were simply lucky that the creature it was trying to parasitize at the moment was so incredibly stupid. 

But… Sage gave voice to the obvious question. 

“How did the corpse of a goblin drop onto a mountaintop…?” 

“Some guy on a goblin hunt somewhere must have—done it!” Hero sliced at the monster with all the strength in her slim arms, unconcerned about proper swordsmanship, lopping off a piece of the creature. 

All just as usual. The black-haired girl smiled. It would be a big mistake to think she alone could take care of the whole world. 

“He’s doing his part—so we’d better do ours and not lose this fight!” 

She smiled again, looking like a girl who could have come from any village in the world. Then she swung her sacred sword like a club. 

“XEEEEEEEEENOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNN!!!!” 

“As if we ever lose!” 

An explosion of sun.