The gazes that had been focused on the suddenly attacked Monster Villain now turned toward me.
A figure wearing a black parka with the hood pulled deep over his eyes. Both exposed hands were covered in long, thin, constantly writhing tentacles. Someone let out a terrified scream.
"Ah... A new Monster Villain!?"
"Two of them at once...!"
"H-hey, Sacred! What are you doing!? You’re a champion of justice, protect us!"
Selfish voices reached my ears.
Thankfully, those shouts came from only a few people. Most remained silent, looking at Saber with pleading eyes. After what they had just done, they probably couldn’t bring themselves to ask for help.
Both groups were equally trash — the same as me.
And yet, why was I so irritated? If I tried to condemn them, the boomerang would come straight back and stab me in the head.
But still.
My body moved on its own.
This is what I have to do — no, this is what I want to do.
A violent emotion surging from the depths of my heart was forcing me to do something unfamiliar.
——It felt as if roots spread throughout my body were creaking and mutating.
Something inside me made a creak sound.
There was no pain, no discomfort. But I definitely felt something changing.
However, that didn’t matter right now.
There was only one thing I needed to think about.
"Hey, get up, Poison Monster Villain. No matter how weak you are, you’re not so fragile you’d die from something like that, right?"
Monster Villains were beings that absorbed magical power — an element from another world — through the medium of the Seed of Desire.
That was probably why, unless the core Seed of Desire was removed, crushing one or two vital human organs wouldn’t kill them.
Therefore, the Poison Monster Villain, whose skull should have been shattered and brain crushed, shakily stood back up.
"Igii... Ihii... Iiii? Why... whyyy... villain... suddenly... me..."
His brain was half-destroyed, so he lacked proper thinking ability. His unfocused eyes glared into empty space as he muttered incoherently.
Still, the area I had struck with my tentacle began regenerating with wet, squelching sounds. If left alone, he would probably recover in a few minutes.
"Ask your own chest while you rot in hell."
I thrust the tip of my tentacle at him and spat.
Of course, these tentacles were meant for violating women, not for combat.
They were tools for restraining girls, using lotion, adhesive mucus, or aphrodisiacs to defile their purity. They should be inferior even to combat-specialized Monster Villains, let alone the Sacred or the Diabolic.
But—— as a Monster Villain, I apparently had the minimum guaranteed physical strength and toughness.
So I slammed it into the regenerating skull of the Poison Monster Villain. A disgusting squish sensation traveled through the tentacle.
I grimaced in disgust but didn’t stop. I raised it and slammed it down. Raised it and slammed it down. Over and over.
A crude, brute-force attack with no technique or ingenuity. But it seemed effective enough against the weak Poison Monster Villain. His repeatedly battered head no longer retained its original shape.
"——!"
"Guh!? You bastard!"
Yet, like an insect that could still move without a brain, the Poison Monster Villain grabbed my tentacle with both hands.
He put strength into it, trying to twist and tear it off. He was the same as me. The Poison Monster Villain was weak, but tearing off the tentacles of someone like me — whose only purpose was violating women — was probably easy for him.
No good. One wasn’t enough.
Yes, one wasn’t enough.
Therefore—— I needed more. More. More. I needed more tentacles.
Crack, crack. My back bulged.
Schlorp, schlorp. Tentacles crawled out.
They pierced through the back of my parka and manifested in response to my desire.
Seven of them — eight including the one grabbed by the Poison Monster Villain.
If power wasn’t enough, if the number of attacks wasn’t enough, then I just had to make up for it with quantity.
Yes, I understood.
I could comprehend it.
My instinct as a tentacle Monster Villain told me — not as knowledge, but as raw sensation — that this was the limit of what I could produce and freely control for combat.
But right now, that was convenient.
Without hesitation over how to use my power, I could simply crush the Monster Villain before me.
"Die——!!"
I struck, struck, struck, struck, struck, struck, struck!
I slammed the black, slimy tentacles into the white-coated Monster Villain again and again and again.
The feeling of bones shattering. The feeling of flesh tearing. The feeling of gouging wounds. With every impact, the Monster Villain in front of me lost more of his original shape.
As the humanoid monster turned into a lump of meat, the sound of onlookers vomiting onto the asphalt echoed. Idiots. If they had just run away quickly, they wouldn’t have had to watch this gore.
The Monster Villain had become something resembling raw hamburger before cooking. Within that mess was something black that paradoxically gleamed.
Seeing it, I understood not through logic but through instinctive knowledge. That was the core of a Monster Villain. The settled Seed of Desire — the same thing I possessed.
I grabbed it with a tentacle and yanked it out with brute force. The resistance was like pulling up deeply rooted weeds, but it was soon accompanied by rip, snap sounds of things tearing. The core was torn free, and the writhing mass of flesh quietly ceased its life functions.
"——What is the meaning of this, Monster Villain?"
A voice came from behind me as I tossed the core aside.
It was the girl with pale azure hair — half-naked Saber. The poison probably hadn’t worn off yet. She staggered, her face twisted in agony, yet she still held her sword ready.
Behind her were the men who still hadn’t fled and were watching the fight.
What now? What’s going on? Is this tentacle Monster Villain going to violate Sacred next? Their eyes held anxiety and even greater anticipation.
Ah—— why?
Why was I so irritated?
I let out a long sigh to calm the anger I couldn’t even understand myself, then began taking off my parka.
Saber made a puzzled face — then immediately twisted it in disgust.
Squelch, squelch. The long, writhing tentacles. I was the grotesque being who had wrapped them around my entire body like a mummy. Only my eyes and mouth were exposed, but that did nothing to lessen the revulsion. No matter who looked at me, I was a disgusting monster.
So I thought she wouldn’t be happy about this and would only find it repulsive, but——
"...Don’t stand around in public dressed like that. No matter how strong you are, you’re still a woman."
——I walked over and gently placed the parka on Saber’s shoulders.
Schlick. It was clothing worn by a tentacle human like me — of course it was sticky with tentacle mucus. There were also several holes in the back. As clothing to drape over a half-naked woman, it was an absolute failure — it would definitely need a retake. If possible, I’d rather leave it to someone who could do it better than me.
But—— if no one else was going to do it, then even if it was a failing grade or needed a retake, I had no choice but to do it.
"It’s probably really gross, but just bear with it for now. It’s better than being in just your underwear, right? Put that on and go get a change of clothes quickly."
"Ah, um, thank——"
Saber started to thank me almost reflexively, but immediately sharpened her eyes and glared at me.
"——Don’t mess with me! What is this... What do you want!?"
Even though her body still couldn’t move properly, she declared she wouldn’t forgive me if I laid a hand on the people.
Facing her beautiful face burning with righteous anger, I retracted my combat tentacles and muttered,
"Nothing special—— I just wanted to save you. That’s all."
"————Eh?"