"Oh, we're starting already? I guess it is about time."
"G-Geras? Reina? What... what are you saying?"
"Wait, is it infighting...?"
The leader couldn't hide his shock. Geras, who had been so loyal until now, had suddenly turned to violence, and Reina was responding with equally cryptic words to his ominous statement.
While Marcos watched the scene unfold, juggling his defense against the Sahagins, Geras pulled something from his pocket.
"Alright then...! Blue Ever, the islanders, the Sahagins—I'm going to slaughter every last one of you!"
He spoke with a joyful expression—truly joyful—while holding a square plate in his hand.
The object was a simple square with characters etched onto its surface. Geras flicked it toward his own left shoulder like a shuriken, and to everyone's horror, the plate was sucked into his body.
"What? What did he just do...?"
Marcos sensed a foul premonition. He had seen the plate emit a sinister aura for the brief moment it was visible. He fixed his focus on Geras.
Suddenly, Geras’s body glowed where the plate had pierced him. In an instant, his physical form underwent a massive transformation.
"Phew...! Man, I've really gained the ultimate power. This strength is seriously the best!"
"Wh-wh-wh...!? G-Geras turned into a monster...!?"
The change was total. Once scrawny, Geras now boasted massive limbs like logs and a fleshy, giant body supported by them. His frame swayed, encased in dull-colored heavy armor.
A long head extended forward from a thick, sturdy neck, and a sharp, massive horn shone on his forehead.
He was, in a word, a humanoid rhino. As the leader fell into a panic at the sight of a man who had clearly ceased to be human, Geras spun around and charged toward the Blue Ever members and the swarm of Sahagins pursuing them.
"Out of the way! Here I gooooo!"
"Eh!? Ah!? Eh!?"
"Gyooo!?"
Thud, thud... Geras stomped the ground before dropping into a tackling stance. He sprinted forward, his armored body illuminated by the surrounding flames as he barreled toward his targets.
It wasn't to help his comrades.
Geras slammed his massive, heavily armored body into them, indifferent to whether they were human or monster. He mowed them all down together.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
"Gyogyogaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!?"
Humans and monsters were sent flying like scattered bowling pins. People who couldn't break their fall were slammed into the ground and went still. Sahagins died mid-air, their bodies caving in under the power of the impact. Geras let out a satisfied shout.
"Seriously, this is the best! This is way too much fun!! It feels great knowing nobody can defy me!"
"Geez, look at you getting all worked up... Fine. I'm going to go hunting in a different area, so I'll leave the prey here to you."
"Thanks! For now, I'm just going to slaughter every single person I see!"
"W-Why...? Why are you doing this!? They're your comrades! We shared the same ideals! We worked together to protect the freedom of nature and the monsters! Why would you do such a thing to your own allies!?"
"Huh? ...Oh! Are you one of those guys who actually thought we believed in those idiotic ideas?"
"Idiotic...?"
When the leader asked why he had attacked his own people, Geras answered with a cold, mocking sneer. He continued to ridicule the stunned man.
"Listen, there's no way young people like us would do something so stupid while actually believing such cringeworthy things. We just wanted an excuse to run wild."
"You just wanted... to run wild?"
"Exactly! If we're with you, we can beat up whoever we want while shouting about justice, right? We even burned down an entire island without worrying about the monsters or the residents. We were just playing along because it's fun. If we were seriously trying to protect nature, there’s no way we’d be doing things that destroy it!"
"What? But... wait...!"
"And besides, we're not the only ones. The Blue Ever representatives definitely don't have any of that cringeworthy sense of mission. Those people only do this because playing at being heroes gets them sponsors and money. They just manipulate idiots like you. You should face reality, old man!"
"No... how can this be...?"
Neither his superiors nor his subordinates had ever cared about nature. The leader was devastated, crushed by the realization that he and Blue Ever had been used by others to satisfy their own selfish desires.
Seeing him broken, Geras smirked. He unleashed the same powerful charge as before, intending to crush the man to death, but—?
"Tch! You fool!!"
"Huh...?"
Just before the impact, a golden shield blocked the assault. Geras tried to flip the shield away by scooping it up with his horn. The shield—along with Marcos, who had grabbed the leader behind him—flew through the air, and the two crashed onto the ground behind Geras.
"Y-You? Why did you save me...?"
"Saving the powerless is the natural duty of a noble. Besides, my friend would have done the same without hesitation. Even if the person was someone he detested."
When the leader questioned the man who had jumped in to save him, Marcos replied that he had simply followed his own convictions. However, as the shock of the strike rippled through him, Marcos gritted his teeth and clutched his numbing left arm.
(That charge... it had terrifying destructive power. And the raw strength to hurl two grown men through the air... He is undoubtedly stronger than any Magic Armor Beast I've fought until now!)
This Rhino Magic Armor Beast was stronger than the crab Rush had become, and stronger than the bat Isaac had transformed into.
As Marcos broke into a cold sweat at the appearance of a foe who could transform with a mysterious plate, Geras shifted his gaze toward his next target.