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There was no doubt that I had held even a slight expectation, thinking it might work if he was based on Type Goliath.

But reality was not a forced shutdown caused by the same code. It was the activation of the Nemesis Code.

With this, one strategy had been crushed, but I had honestly thought it was probably impossible anyway, so I switched my thoughts to the next step.

“The Nemesis Code was set up to make subjects lose their reason and eventually become monsters. In that case, who would fight a subject that had turned into a monster?”

I intended to say what needed to be said before the major lost his reason, but I also wanted to buy time, so I spoke with a bit of needless suspense.

It seemed he understood from those words alone, and the major nodded while glaring at me.

“I don’t know what meaning there is in making them devour each other like that. But I think Dr. Zeta was trying to prevent the military use of genetic modification technology even if he had to do something like that.”

“…I see. So that is what is happening to my own body now.”

The major smiled at me as I nodded.

“However. Did you think that would be enough to do something about me?”

If that alone were enough to do something, I would not have taken this method.

If he lost his reason and attacked like a beast, I could gain the advantage in terms of technique—of course, I knew he was not an opponent that such thinking would work on.

My aim was only one thing.

The sleep that came after the Nemesis Code activated.

He would be struck by irresistible drowsiness, and after he fell asleep, I would take the major’s life.

If there was a problem, it was that I did not know whether that drowsiness would come only after he finished eating me, or whether it would begin after enough time had passed.

If it was the latter, then I still had a chance.

Even if it was the former, the plan was for the elves monitoring this battle to kill the major.

It was a certain-kill plan using the Nemesis Code, one that staked my life on dragging him down with me, built on the premise that I would be eaten to death.

“Major, I know full well that the difference in strength between us will not be overturned by something of that level. That is exactly why I proposed a deal to the elves.”

The moment I said, “In order to defeat you,” the major closed in.

I avoided the fist he unleashed by stepping back, then focused on buying time by creating distance.

“You understand nothing!”

However, if the difference in ability was clear, then if I ran, I would be caught, and if I devoted myself to defense, I would be broken through. That was only natural.

Even if I tried to handle his attacks, there was nothing I could do when there was a difference in technique, and damage steadily accumulated, destroying my body.

“Do you think those long-ears will do nothing!? If we are gone, they will use this as an excuse to make the Council-State, which carries the Empire’s blood, an enemy of the world! Just like they did back then!”

His offensive did not let up, and the shattered pieces of my outer shell fell to the ground, only to be crushed underfoot with a sound.

“Your choice is a repeat of the Great War!”

I was punched away and rolled across the ground, trying to create distance, but he caught up to me and kicked me upward.

The arms I had supposedly used to defend myself were in tatters, and though I somehow managed to stand, I could not avoid the approaching fist and rolled across the ground again.

The follow-up attacks showed no sign of stopping. His tactical movements, backed by experience and technique, were still intact, clearly showing that the major’s reason had not yet been lost.

(Ah… this man is enduring it through sheer willpower right now.)

It was only natural I could not win.

Unlike me, who had been swallowed all too easily, he was able to endure it.

A person with that much resolve and will was not so easy that he would simply become what an ordinary man like me had imagined.

But I had a reason I could not retreat as well.

Even with the hopeless difference in strength, I at least knew the small differences between his body and mine.

I caught the jet-black arm he thrust out with both hands and fell backward.

It was the so-called sacrifice throw—clumsy though it was, if his weight was not that different from mine despite the difference in body size, then it was the perfect technique to reset the situation.

“What happened here will be treated as nothing more than an ordinary struggle between monsters, the sort that could happen anywhere.”

I stood up and spoke while gasping for breath.

“You made a deal saying that? Where is the guarantee it will be carried out? Everything will be exposed, and the Empire’s honor will fall to the ground! Do you understand where that influence will reach!?”

The elves had no time for that now.

They would have to devote personnel to identifying the world’s crisis that the Spirit’s Chosen had to face.

They probably had no time to bother with the Council-State, but even if I explained that and he believed me, it was too late now.

“The Empire’s disgrace can sink with me.”

Even as I spoke, the major was approaching me.

I did not answer the major’s question. I merely spoke the facts in a flat voice.

“A single cunning monster discovered an Imperial underground facility, used it, and failed. I have already accounted for ending the story with that plot.”

The Council-State knew.

But they should not release information that would put them at a disadvantage.

In that case, if I brought the elves who knew everything into it and buried everything in darkness, that would settle the matter.

The groundwork for that had already been laid.

“If I had been confident that you could take your own life before losing your reason, Major, perhaps I might not have tried to stop you.”

I was punched away, and when my back hit a tree and stopped me, I realized the vision in one of my eyes was blurred.

Apparently, after being punched too much, my face had become deformed.

“…But I couldn’t do it. Even while feeling the approaching time limit in this body, I could not let go of the choice to ‘live’ to an unnatural degree. Since there was a possibility that this, too, was a shackle of the Nemesis Code, I have no choice but to stop you here.”

The major’s fist knocked down the tree behind me, and I dragged my battered body away to create distance.

There was no pursuit.

Only the sight of the major lowering his face and holding himself back appeared in my field of vision.

“So this is the result? You cannot defeat me, you will rot away here, and your choice is to end as nothing more than a monster!?”

I finally realized that even in this state, the major had not seriously come to kill me.

Even with this much difference in combat power, I was still not dead.

Did the major still think he could bring me back?

No, perhaps he refused to become the last one, refused to lose a comrade.

He was a fierce yet soft person—a man who tried to be strong, yet refused to abandon emotion, and continued pursuing his ideal. I even felt something like admiration for that figure.

But our paths had already diverged.

“A mediocre man who could do nothing and become nothing has finally accomplished one thing. Even if it is not the form I wished for, if I can protect what was connected, then I do not care what happens to me! If the alternative is remaining a powerless fool who could not even become a soldier and could only lament, then I will become a monster!”

I showed the path I had parted from once more through words.

I shouted, with a body that now found even raising its arms troublesome, that I would stop him even if I died.

But no matter how I shouted, there was no response from the major before me.

Both arms hung loosely. His mouth was slackly open.

The eyes looking at me were clearly different from what they had been until now.

“Ah, so it has finally come,” I thought, rousing myself for the final battle.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

A roar echoed through the forest, which was still slightly dim.

From here on, it would be a battle where technique would work.

All that remained was to keep holding out for as long as my stamina allowed.

Immediately after I confirmed that, I failed to dodge the black arm closing in on me. It seized my throat, then lifted my huge body into the air.

“You’re too careless!”

I struck his jaw upward with my knee toward his open mouth.

However, even though the blow should have landed cleanly, the arm gripping my neck did not come loose, and the major, who had lost his reason, opened his mouth as though nothing had happened. Our eyes met.

Those were the eyes of something looking at prey.

Now, I was forced to realize that Major Glast, who had been an Imperial soldier, had become a monster.

And I felt fear at the sight of him, as if no matter how many times I struck him, he did not feel even the slightest pain.

He opened his mouth and pulled me, whom he had lifted with one hand, closer in order to bite into his prey.

Immediately after that, I shoved my right hand, which had lost its fingers, into that open mouth—and unleashed fire magic with all my strength.

“―――!”

It was a scream that sounded like a voiceless shriek.

The major let me go, clutched his mouth, and writhed, and I kicked his face with all my strength.

It went through, I thought, feeling a definite response, and I checked the result.

The major was lying on his back on the ground.

However, his eyes were firmly looking at me, and the moment he sprang up, he charged at me while raising a scream.

The full-power blow that had seemed perfect had only made one beast become serious.

I could not dodge the tackle that was far too fast, nor could I throw him aside. At the same time that I was pushed down onto the ground, I tried to kick him up, but no matter how many times I kicked his stomach, I could not knock him away. I kept hammering my fists into his approaching face, but before I could stop him, my arm was grabbed—and bitten off.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

I screamed with all my voice, swung my fist with all my strength, and continued kicking the massive body pinning me down.

However, I could not stop the major from continuing to eat my arm, and the blood that gushed out wet my face.

Pain and fear that I still felt even through the suppression.

Perhaps he found my continued resistance annoying, because the moment I thought the hand pinning down my shoulder had been removed, that fist stabbed into my face.

Even a single blow made me understand the original difference in arm strength.

Despite it being a blow that nearly knocked my consciousness away, he slammed it down a second and third time, and my outstretched arm trembled violently as it grasped at empty air.

(Major, just how much were you holding back?)

Realizing that resistance was now meaningless, I relaxed and accepted my fading consciousness.

But before that, I had to say at least this, so I squeezed out the last of my willpower.

“Major. If you devour me, there will be two left.”

As expected, I did not dislike this man.

I truly regretted that things had turned out this way, but this could not be helped.

I should have spoken my final words, “Good fortune in battle.”

In my fading consciousness, what appeared in my vision was the major’s face as he opened his mouth to devour me—and the color of the arm gripping it was black.