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Last Embryo Volume 2 Chapter 4 Part 4

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Then, he simply glanced at Byakko’s face, which was clearly amused at the display he was putting, and sighed while staring at his own hands as if he was trying to reflect on what kind of person he truly was.

「I guess you’re kind of right, huh? No, that’s not it… it’s exactly as you say it is. Ughhh, what am I even saying? A Bull Monster like me should not care if any innocents get caught in the crossfire of my destructive actions or not, so those words I spoke right now were definitely not something a Minotaur like me should be saying, but rather… no, I…」

Asterios shut his mouth once more, confused by the indecisiveness of his own words.

If we were to go into the semantics, then the word 「Monster」 held many changing meanings across time, ranging from “a threatening force” and “an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure” to “an animal of strange or terrifying shape” or “one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character”, but for Asterios himself, the word 「Monster」 meant “the one who brings forth disaster without intending to”. The Perytons mentioned a while back were the perfect example of that. They existed not because their instincts and reasoning were telling them that they had to 「kill others so that they themselves could live」, but even so the made 「killing humans」 the cornerstone of their very existence. The problem with them was that they didn’t have to do it to enjoy living their lives to the fullest, but they still done it anyway. So if someone were to ask if murder species could go on living without killing those belonging to mankind, then the answer would have most likely been yes, but they are going to continue doing it anyway.

The very same thing could be told about the Minotaur. Ever since he became The Monster of the Labyrinth he became known as a Man-eating cannibal, but it was not that he wouldn’t have been able to go on living if he stopped killing humans. Moreover, if only the nutritional value necessary for the upkeep of all the vital functions was to be taken into account, then a case could be made that humans and their meat were exceptionally bad for it efficiency-wise.

In the first place, the reason why he was eating his fellow humans when he was in his monstrous form – why he was committing cannibalism, in other words ­– it was probably due to the curse placed on his monster self that constantly required him to keep strengthening the beast inside of him by committing the blasphemous act of devouring other life forms that also possessed a soul.

「……That’s right. I am not mistaken. Minotaur is not a cold-blooded murderer, but a cannibal. That is why I won’t commit any murder that is not related to my cannibalism, and I would appreciate if you stopped trying to lead me astray with your words, Byakko. I am not wrong in any way, and I will continue to do whatever I think is right!」

Asterios condemned Byakko’s actions by raising his angry voice at him.

「Is that so? It would appear as though I did something I shouldn’t have done. You’re most definitely right, you are not mistaken. It was rude of me to imply anything other than that, and so I apologize and assure you that I will try not to meddle in your personal affairs from now on.」

Despite being worried about his warped rationality and a rather twisted way of thinking for a monster, Byakko apologized to him, but it was obvious that he didn’t put any of the actual feelings into it, which implied that he didn’t really mean what he was saying and he just tried to be courteous for the courtesy’s sake.

「So? How would you like us to proceed from now on? As I mentioned before, breaking inside with brute force is certainly doable, but might be more difficult than its actually worth it, don’t you think?」

Returning to the problem at hand, they still had to decide how they were going to tackle the challenge of invading the giant moving fortress.

Even though it was being constantly bombarded with 『The Bull of Heaven’s』 wind gusts and lightning strikes, 『Sun Thousand』 didn’t show any signs of stopping or slowing down anytime soon. Of course, there was no way that something that was clearly made with mortal hands could ever hold a candle to the Celestial Beast’s speed, but they still didn’t know what kind of trump card the ones operating it were hiding up their sleeves, and that made their approach that much more difficult, and both Byakko and Asterios wanted to avoid the situation where they would end up defeated or being made for fools simply because they lacked information and decided to blindly charge in, hoping that the rest will somehow figure itself out as they went forward. Worst case scenario, such bravado could even end up in their target slipping away as they would get caught in the enemy counterattack.

However, Asterios still showed a smile of absolute confidence, being sure that even if he was not to use his one-hit kill technique that utilized the pseudo-lightning sealed within his battle axe, he would still be able to win with his eyes closed.

「About that… I think I might have an idea.」

「Hou? Well, let’s hear it then.」

「To put it really simply, it would be great if we could lure the fortress’ crew and bodyguards outside without getting inside ourselves. We could somehow do that, I would be able to fight all of them at once by myself as a Minotaur without holding anything back.」

A sadistic smile bloomed all over Asterios’s face. It was an incredibly simple-minded plan, but Byakko couldn’t deny that such an outcome would be the most desirable for them given their current circumstances. Intrigued by the Bull Monster’s proposition, he turned his head towards him and asked how they could achieve that with a questioning gaze. Instead of answering him Directly, all that Asterios did was retrieving a small double-edged battle axe used for ritual purposes from his pocket. Realizing that even though it looked like a miniature version of 『Proto Keraunos』, it was an entirely separate, immensely powerful Gift, Byakko’s eyes widened in surprise… but only for a short moment, because all of a sudden he stopped his sprint by using the wind which was propelling him forward as an emergency break and then leapt as far away from the Giant Spirit Train as he could.

Initially Asterios wandered what might have prompted him to take such a defensive action, but one glance at the 『Sun Thousand’s』 roof was all he needed to understand the situation, because the roof of one section of the train opened up, revealing a ballista that looked exactly the same as the ones that made him full of holes when he first arrived in the Underwood

「An attack is coming. Prepare yourself for it, Bull Monster!」

Taking Byakko’s advice to heart, Asterios immediately assumed a defensive position by covering himself with his battle axe, but he knew that if that ballista possessed the same properties as the ones he got owned by the other day, then the bolts fired out of it would chase after them even if the initial shot missed its mark, and they would continue to do so until their designated target wouldn’t have been taken down, so unless they would be ready to knock every single out of them down, then things would get pretty problematic for them very soon. Nevertheless, in preparation for the incoming attack, Asterios grabbed his battle axe with one hand and used the other one to hold onto Byakko’s fur as hard as he could.

Along with the loud gong sound that must have acted as a signal for them to fire, the ballista shot out its bolts, which pierced through the stormy winds and cold rain one after the other. The total number of shots was twelve, but out of those twelve only three of them managed to approach them directly. If all of the barrages were like that, then knocking them down to the ground might actually not be as difficult as they have initially anticipated. Even as the next salvo was released almost instantly after the previous one, the amount of the bolts that were able to fly in a straight line was roughly the same as the first time, which was admittedly quite painful to watch. Witnessing such a poor display of aiming abilities, Asterios was almost getting angry at how much the person aiming the ballista sucked at his job, taking it as a a personal insult against himself.