Honestly, not a single monster who took part in this operation could have foreseen such an outcome.
The Great Blue Dragon Cetus—chieftain of the blue dragon species that had ruled Northground since antiquity. To the monsters, he was the living embodiment of terror and overwhelming might. Cross him, and you perish. That was an absolute truth among monsterkind. Or so it should have been. Yet that very titan had fallen, and with staggering ease. In a single stroke, the common sense long ingrained in them had been shattered to pieces by the hands of a lone, unassuming human.
"Hey, Kiji, what the hell was that?!"
Cyclone seized Kiji's collar with his right hand and pointed a trembling left index finger at Gil, who still lay flat on his back in the dirt, practically spitting with rage.
"A human... probably."
Lately, that claim had grown exceedingly dubious, but going by the young man's own words, he belonged to the human race.
"Don't give me that bullshit! His opponent was Cetus! What's more, that bastard had evolved using their sinister arts! There's no way in hell a human could slaughter something like that so effortlessly!"
He had a point. Cetus had achieved an evolution into a King by sacrificing his own kin. That was the conclusion Kiji and the others had drawn from the intel extracted during interrogations led by Mr. Lou. If so, Cetus was the King of the dragon species—a Dragon King. He should have possessed power far outstripping anything he had wielded before. Yet Gil had dispatched him without breaking a sweat. Much like Lord Lou, Gil was an irregular who defied the very laws of this world.
"Cyclone, I understand your frustration all too well. But this is reality."
With that kind of absurd strength, no one short of Lord Lou could ever hope to keep Gil in check. At this point, worrying about what might happen if he ran amok was an exercise in futility. Every monster present would simply have to come to terms with the same conclusion Kiji and the sheep cats had reached.
"A monster of a kobold, and now that lunatic of a human! What in the blazes are you people?!"
Overwhelmed by growing dread, Crocodus forced the words from his throat.
"Who can say? Someone like me can hardly fathom Lord Lou, let alone Gil. But there's one thing I know for certain: without the strength of those two, we won't survive this war."
It was only Kiji's intuition, but while their nominal enemy was Demon King Aldebaran of the Four Great Demon Kings, he had a lingering feeling that some far greater entity was pulling the strings, scripting this nightmare from the shadows.
Whoever it was, they were treating Northground as the stage for some twisted game, and Kiji and the others had been chosen as unwilling playthings. Furthermore, he was now convinced that Gil was the linchpin required to win it.
Perhaps the gears of fate had already begun turning the moment Gil first set foot in Ket Nya.
"You're saying he isn't our enemy?"
At Cyclone's painfully obvious question, Kiji gave a deliberate, measured reply.
"Yeah. With power like that, if he wanted to turn on us, he would've taken what he wanted by force a long time ago. Besides, whenever Gil taps into that strength, the recoil leaves him completely incapacitated for days."
"So it's a double-edged sword?"
"Exactly. He used it once before, so there's no mistaking it. He probably won't even be able to walk properly for the next few days. Which means Gil used that power because he trusted us to protect him afterward."
Hearing Kiji's explanation, Cyclone stared at Gil, his expression a tangled knot of conflicting emotions.
"Fine, I'll concede he isn't hostile right now," Cyclone barked gruffly. "But that doesn't mean I trust him!"
"Fair enough. It'd be madness to expect total strangers to trust one another right off the bat. We have time to watch and judge for ourselves."
Grinding his teeth at Kiji's even-tempered response, Cyclone turned on his heel and walked away.
"Hey, by the way... was what Gil just pulled off that 'Mimicry' ability of his, too?"
Kiji gave a firm nod to Bū's question.
"Most likely. I imagine he used Mimicry to transform into what he considers the strongest existence."
"The strongest existence, huh? Wonder who'd win between that guy and Mr. Lou."
"Beats me. Both of them operate on a level so far beyond my comprehension that I can't even begin to guess. Either way, I can only pray that 'strongest existence' never turns his blade on us."
"Ain't that the truth."
Bū let out a dry chuckle as he watched Chato and Tama rush over to support Gil and help him sit up. Kiji clapped his hands together with a sharp, crisp crack.
"All right, time to declare our victory."
Turning his back to the quagmire and sweeping his gaze across the assembled horde of monsters, Kiji thrust his right fist into the sky.
"Victory is ours!"
His triumphant roar shattered the air. After a heartbeat of stunned silence, a deafening cheer erupted from the ranks of the monsters.