Volume 6 Chapter 10 Burnt Hands and the Invisible Hand of God
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Ugh, g-graaaahhh!”
The desperate silence shattered beneath a roar that was barely more than a pained shriek, dragged from the depths of Sylvia’s throat. She forced her legs to move, driving herself forward through sheer will even as terror threatened to lock her body in place. Pouring the last of her Spirit Power1 into a single scorching mass, she hurled herself at Gauz like a falling star.
CRASH! HISS!
Her white-hot blade bit deep into Gauz’s log-like thigh. The fluids inside his body boiled instantly, and a cloud of white steam burst outward, swallowing her vision.
Gauz’s massive frame was already a ruin after their brutal exchange. His flesh had been charred black and was peeling away in ragged chunks. A normal man would have died long ago, yet he still moved. His body looked ready to fall apart at any moment, his heart should have stopped, and still his muscles continued to twitch and grind forward.
It had become an exhausting war of attrition, and this was Sylvia’s desperate gamble—her final, all-or-nothing strike.
But the blade stopped.
Even with heat capable of burning through a soul, she could not cut completely through muscles compressed as densely as bedrock. The trapped thermal energy surged backward instead, lashing out at her hand.
Slurp. Bubble-bubble….
An ominous boiling sound rose from the sword’s hilt. The heat-resistant leather grip disintegrated, melting into a thick black tar that bonded to Sylvia’s glove. The stench of scorched leather and boiling glue filled her nose as the molten adhesive seeped through the seams, burning into her fingertips and baking the skin beneath. It was a continuous torment with no escape.
”Agh—gkh—gah…!” Sylvia gasped, her voice trembling.
Foamy blood spilled from the corner of her mouth as the strain finally pushed her past her limits. Her Spirit Circuit2 was burning itself out.
Snap.
A faint sound echoed behind her eyes as a blood vessel burst. Her vision clouded with murky red, and Gauz’s silhouette split into three, then four. Starved of oxygen, the edges of her sight darkened while the aura she could no longer maintain flickered irregularly like a dying fluorescent lamp before sinking into a sickly black.
Squelch! Scrape, scrape, scrape!
Gauz wrapped his bare hand around the blade still buried in his thigh. It was not a simple grasp. Moisture exploded from his palm, and charred skin scraped against metal with the harsh grind of sandpaper. Ignoring the smell of his own burning flesh and the agony of cooking muscle, he locked the blade in place with a grip like a steel vise.
The metal groaned in protest, and Sylvia could neither drive it deeper nor pull it free.
”…Is this the end?” Gauz rumbled, his voice cold and empty.
The golden eyes staring down at her held no trace of fighting spirit. Only ravenous hunger remained.
His log-like knee slammed into Sylvia’s defenseless stomach.
CRUNCH—hiss!!
The impact drove her ribs inward and pierced her organs. Her diaphragm spasmed violently, forcing every last bit of air from her lungs. A desperate, soundless hiccup escaped her throat as she struggled to breathe, and the warm, sickening sensation of stomach contents rising into her throat washed over her. Moments later, her consciousness began to fade into a white haze.
Thump.
The sword slipped from Sylvia’s grasp, and she collapsed into the mud. Bile mixed with fresh blood beneath her as her trembling fingers clawed weakly at the empty air, still trying to reach her scorched weapon. Then, like a severed thread, the strength left her completely, and her arm fell limp.
”A bit tough to eat raw, but fine,” Gauz sneered with predatory satisfaction. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had meat this delicious.”
He tossed the white-hot sword aside like a piece of burning trash.
Sizzle.
The damp earth dried instantly where it landed, cracking white from the lingering heat.
Lowering his center of gravity, Gauz shifted his stance, and the change that followed was so dramatic it bordered on grotesque.
Pop—squelch…!
A wet, destructive sound erupted as the muscles across his back writhed beneath his skin like living creatures. Hard clicks followed while joints dislocated and then snapped back into place by force.
Dropping to all fours, he let his spine crack and reshape itself with violent force while the muscles in his rear legs swelled to twice their previous size. His skin could not withstand the sudden expansion and split apart, exposing fresh pink muscle fibers beneath in long, ugly tears.
Hssssssssss….
High-pressure steam vented from every pore of his body. It was more than sweat. The surrounding air filled with a suffocating stench as the ammonia scent of burning muscle mixed with the rapidly oxidizing smell of animal fat.
’Wild Release’3: Maximum Output.
He had abandoned the human form entirely, forcing his skeleton to restructure itself for the sole purpose of predation. Blood sprayed from widening wounds, yet Gauz merely dragged his thick tongue across his fangs and used the blood as lubricant.
”Time to eat,” he growled in a distorted, bestial rasp.
He was no longer a warrior. He had become nothing more than a massive, starving mass of violence.
BOOM!!
The ground exploded beneath him.
His giant body launched forward like a cannonball. There was no escaping it. Sylvia’s pupils widened to their limit, and her entire body locked up with the rigidity of rigor mortis. Unable to move, she kept her eyes open and watched her final moment approach.
Just as the fangs closed in and a wave of hot, beastly stench washed over her face, a sharp click echoed beside her.
—THOOM!!
An instant later, a crushing vibration slammed through the air. It felt as though all sound had been ripped from the world and replaced by pressure pressing directly against her inner ears.
”Eh?” Sylvia managed, a vacant sound slipping from her lips.
Gauz had vanished from in front of her.
No—he had been driven straight down.
The instant Gauz touched an invisible boundary in the air, an overwhelming force slammed him vertically into the ground beneath him.
DOGOOOOOOON!!
A split second later, a destructive roar shook the battlefield as the earth caved inward before Sylvia’s eyes.
”Guh… Gi… Gaaah…!?” Gauz choked, the sound leaking from his throat like the cry of a crushed frog.
He lay face-down, unable to move even a finger. Every ounce of the monstrous strength he had boasted poured into his limbs as he struggled to rise, yet it was completely futile. An invisible pillar of weight was pressing down on him from above.
Creak, creak, crack….
Every bone in his body screamed beneath the crushing gravity. The bedrock below fractured along the outline of his form and sank deeper into the earth, leaving him pinned in place as though stitched into the mud and rubble.
Drip.
A bead of cold sweat rolled from Gauz’s forehead. It was not pain that produced it. His body was reacting to something far worse—an overwhelming violence so irrational and absolute that instinct alone recoiled from it. Terror tightened his gut, and for a moment he felt as though his heart might burst.
As the dust slowly settled, a lone man stood beside Sylvia’s collapsed form. The swirling haze bent around him as though repelled by static, and the air itself felt different in his presence—cold, dry, and sterile, completely separate from the mud-soaked battlefield around him.
He did not spare a glance for the beast at his feet.
Instead, he looked down at Sylvia.
”…Good work,” the man said calmly. “I’ll take it from here.”
After offering those few words, the man—I—turned my gaze toward the beast writhing helplessly within my domain.
Naturally, I had remembered to put my pants on.
”Hey,” I said, my voice cutting cleanly through the silence. “You’ve made quite a mess of my garden.”
—
Summary:
Sylvia launches a final, desperate attack against the monster Gauz, but her sword becomes fused to her hand as the monster’s flesh proves nearly impenetrable. Gauz effortlessly neutralizes her and initiates a horrific transformation into a predatory beast. Just before he can devour her, a mysterious man arrives, instantly pinning Gauz to the earth with unseen gravity.
—
Trivia:
The sword’s leather grip was heat-resistant, yet still failed.
Gauz’s blood acts as a lubricant during his transformation.
The man’s arrival creates a ‘sterile,’ static-filled air boundary.
The protagonist specifically checks that he is wearing pants, adding a grounded note to his overwhelming entry.
—
Translation Notes:
Notes:
• Sylvia – A voluptuous, white-blonde elf with porcelain skin, Crimson Lotus is a Silver-rank vanguard, lethal shield, and mentor. Encased in a dense, dark-red Spirit Shroud, she wields a bow and a white-hot longsword with immense strength and reflexes. Now heavily scarred, exhausted, and sporting a scorched hand from a desperate battle against Gauz, she remains a devoted confidante to Ryuichi and highly regards her leader, John, Nier, and her King.
• Gauz – A golden-eyed, steel-furred lion beast-man with a massive mane, dense muscle armor, and a bored, arrogant confidence. Now a charred, runaway-tank figure with log-like limbs, he undergoes a forced transformation. As leader of a 30,000-strong beastmen force, he wields the battle-axe Agito, crushing structures and treating elite foes as mere monster meat to consume with brutal strength.
• Ryu – A man with Interdimensional Magic who leads a growing household. He acts as a provider and protector for his slaves, while maintaining a pragmatic and blunt personality.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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