Crucible of Ideas

"No. Stop." A thin, hoarse cry escaped from deep inside my throat.

What floated into my mind as I stood there, my eyes shut with despair, was big brother's image.

Even while a part of me understood that there would be no salvation, I held on to a faint hope and looked to the person I loved most for rescue.

But at the same time, my reason gave me the cruel answer that it was impossible.

Even so, I couldn't resist calling out to him.

"Save me..., big brother....."

But my cry provoked an unexpected response.

"Ah...." Hearing my words, the sharp-eared Lilim gave a little gasp, as if of comprehension.

"So that is it." As she spoke, I got a feeling that the presence in front of me had suddenly increased in kindness.

—She had seen through me.

I opened my eyes in spite of myself, just as the warmly smiling Lilim brought a gentle hand to my cheek.

Her hand, wrapped in a long, black glove, caressed my cheek as if she were afraid it would break.

There was an un-monsterlike kindness in her touch, almost like a mother pacifying her child.

"It's alright. If you become a monster, even that wish can be granted."

My fear faded slightly at her words.

When I instinctively turned my face toward her, the Lilim gave a little nod.

I was still confused, but her words of a moment before were repeating themselves inside my mind.

The monster before my eyes had definitely just said that "my wish would be granted."

The wish I'd harbored as long as I could remember.

I tucked it away in the bottom of my heart so that no one would know about it — but I always kept thinking about it in a corner of my mind.

And it was a wish that I was sure could never bear fruit.

She'd said that wish would come true.

By all rights, I should never have trusted the words of someone I'd only just met, and a monster at that.

Being told such a thing so suddenly should, on the contrary, have caused me only confusion.

And yet, for some reason, I believed what she said.

Her words seeped quietly into my heart like water and kindled a little hope inside it.

"Really?" The faint hope pushed aside confusion and fear.

The mysterious power in the Lilim's words was that strong.

Strong enough to make me forget the shock of being seen through by someone I'd just met, the embarrassment of having my secret feelings known, and the fear I'd felt for monsters before today, if only for a moment.

"Yes." The Lilim's hand traced the contour of my cheek as she nodded.

I felt the texture of the smooth cloth and the tickling movements of her fingers.

I couldn't help narrowing my eyes in response to that pleasant sensation.

I wanted to surrender myself to her.

Perhaps those thoughts showed in my expression.

The Lilim, peering at my face, flashed a satisfied smile.

Her soft whisper seemed to slip through the cracks of my heart.

"Well, shall we begin? This is to make the big brother you love so much yours, you know?"

As she spoke, the shadow at her feet increased unnaturally in thickness.

It had grown strangely dark, considering that we were indoors, and increased its area, stretching out towards me.

"Wh, what...?"

The shadow was growing even darker and denser, heedless of my confusion.

Ripples rose on its surface, which was now darker than a pitch black night, and it stirred, almost liquid-like.

I let out a long sigh, quivering with fear.

As if that had been a signal, strange shapes leapt out of the shadow in front of me.

Things like long, thin cords, five in all.

They were pitch black as shadow given form and yet gleamed with a bewitching light.

But they were unlike ordinary ropes, wriggling sinuously as if they possessed wills of their own.

There was something about their shape and movements that made me think of snakes or creeping plants, or else the tentacles of some creature.

"Tee hee hee."

At the same time the Lilim's cheerful voice reached my ears, the tentacles rose up, their heads bent in goosenecks, and turned simultaneously in my direction.

The tentacles slowly but steadily approached me, wriggling ominously as if they were all a single organism.

"No. Stay away... Don't come any closer..."

An unspeakable terror welled up within me at the bizarre sight before my eyes.

I didn't know much about monsters and magic, but I understood clearly and instinctively that the black tentacles in front of me were sinister.

"It's alright, these little ones are mine — a monster's magical power given form. I'm just going to have them help me turn you into a lovely monster. I already told you earlier, but I'm really not going to snatch you up and eat you or anything."

The Lilim was saying something, but I hadn't the composure to grasp its substance.

Fear blotted out my mind and crushed my breast.

"Stop..."

I tried desperately to flee, but my body had stiffened as if it were no longer my own.

I couldn't move so much as a finger.

All I could do was plead feebly as I stared at the slowly approaching tentacles.

At last, one of the black tentacles seized me.

It twined smoothly and soundlessly around my foot, and then crept up my leg, gliding over my skin.

Another tentacle caught hold of my other leg at almost the same time and had already slithered up as far as my thigh.

I felt the tentacles on my skin, as smooth as they looked and warm like living things.

I couldn't help crying out at the queer sensation, which was unlike anything I had felt before.

Even as I did so, another tentacle twined around my hands, and an especially thick one that had sprouted from at my feet wrapped around my waist as if to hug me tight.