The Strength to Save Them (Melty MG)

Dire situations can lead to people's strongest moments. Sometimes excessively so.

—

The mountain path broke apart beneath their feet as the Shield Hero’s party ran.

Loose stones clattered down the slope. Wind screamed between the cliffs. Behind them, shouts echoed from higher up the ridge, bouncing from wall to wall until it sounded like an entire army was chasing them.

“Keep moving!” Naofumi barked.

His shield was raised behind him, catching arrows and stray bursts of magic that flashed against the metal. Raphtalia ran at his side, sword drawn, her eyes scanning every ledge and bend in the narrow path. Filo, forced into her smaller human form by the cramped trail, was half-running and half-dragging Melty by the hand.

“Mel-chan, faster!” Filo cried.

“I am running!” Melty snapped, though her burning lungs made the words come out weaker than she wanted.

She hated this. She hated being pulled along. She hated the way Naofumi had to stay behind everyone else to protect them. She hated the way Raphtalia kept glancing back to make sure she had not fallen. She hated that Filo, who could have been much faster without her, had to slow down just to keep hold of her hand.

They were so close. Ahead, the mountain path curved toward an old wooden bridge stretched across a ravine. Beyond that bridge, the trail dipped into a forested valley. If they crossed it and cut the ropes behind them, the pursuit would be over.

“Almost there!” Raphtalia said.

Then the cliff above them groaned.

Melty looked up.

For one frozen second, she saw only shadow.

A massive boulder dropped from the ledge overhead.

“Move!” Naofumi shouted.

There was no time.

The stone came down like the mountain itself had decided to crush them. Naofumi lunged forward and threw his shield above his head. Raphtalia braced beside him, both hands gripping her sword as she forced the flat of the blade against the underside of the falling rock. Filo shoved Melty down and planted her feet, arms raised.

The boulder hit.

The impact drove all three of them to their knees.

The path cracked beneath them. Dust burst outward. Melty screamed as the world became noise and pressure and darkness.

But they were alive.

Barely.

The boulder had not flattened them. Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo were holding it up together, trapped beneath its terrible weight. The space under it was barely enough for them to crouch. Melty sat in the middle of them, untouched except for scrapes and dust, protected again by everyone else’s bodies.

Naofumi’s teeth were clenched so hard she could hear them grind.

Raphtalia’s arms trembled, having even dropped her sword under the pressure.

Filo’s knees shook as she tried to push upward with both hands.

“Naofumi-sama…” Raphtalia gasped. “I do not think we can move it.”

“I know,” Naofumi growled.

The boulder sank another inch.

Filo whimpered. “Master, it’s heavy.”

“I know that too!”

Melty pushed herself up on shaking hands. “I can help!”

She pressed both palms against the stone.

Nothing happened.

She pushed harder. Her arms shook. Her shoulders burned. Her boots slipped against the cracked path.

The boulder did not even notice her.

Melty’s throat tightened.

Again.

Again, she was the one being saved.

She knew she was just the princess. She knew she wasn't the best fighter. She was supposed to protect people by standing tall, making decisions and carry responsibility. But here, under a mountain’s weight, titles meant nothing. Her magic was too slow and not useful. Her body was too small and her hands were too weak.

Naofumi gave a harsh grunt as his shield dipped lower.

Raphtalia inhaled sharply.

Filo cried out, “Mel-chan, stay down!”

Stay down.

Be protected.

Don't be a bigger burden.

Melty pressed her forehead against the cold stone and squeezed her eyes shut.

No.

Not this time.

A voice spoke inside the darkness.

“Do you desire strength?”

Melty froze.

The words did not come from Naofumi, or Raphtalia, or Filo. They came from everywhere and nowhere, deep and calm, as if something buried beneath the mountain had opened one ancient eye.

“Strength so vast no one can oppose you?”

Melty’s breath caught.

“Strength so massive that you can protect everyone, including yourself?”

The boulder sank again.

Naofumi snarled, forcing his shield higher by a fraction. Raphtalia buckled. Filo’s eyes were wet with strain.

Melty did not know who was speaking.

She did not care.

“Yes,” she whispered.

The voice waited.

Melty lifted her head, eyes burning.

“Yes. Give it to me. I want strength. I want enough strength to save them!”

The darkness seemed to smile.

“Then the contract has been made.”

A pulse of heat struck her heart.

“Run rampant with power no one will ever be able to oppose.”

Melty’s vision blurred.

For a moment, she thought the boulder had finally come down and crushed the air from her lungs. Heat flooded through her body so fiercely that she could not breathe. It poured through her chest, down her spine, into her arms, her legs, her fingers, her toes. Every inch of her felt as if it had been filled with molten metal.

She gasped.

“Melty?” Raphtalia called.

Melty could not answer.

Her hands were still pressed against the boulder, but they no longer felt the same. Her fingers stretched wider. Her palms broadened. The delicate gloves of her royal outfit tightened, then split across the knuckles with a series of sharp little pops.

Her arms lengthened.

At first it was only enough to make her sleeves pull tight. The fabric strained from wrist to shoulder as her bones stretched and her muscles thickened beneath it. Her forearms swelled, soft skin drawing firm over new power. Her elbows shifted lower. Her shoulders pushed outward, forcing her posture wider.

Melty stared in shock as her sleeves began to tear.

“What… what is happening?” she breathed.

The heat answered by surging harder.

Her legs pressed into the ground.

Her boots creaked. Then cracked. Then burst at the seams as her feet grew larger, stronger, bracing against the broken mountain path. Her calves tightened, swelling with dense muscle until the fabric around them split. Her knees rose. Her thighs thickened, pushing against her skirt until the cloth tore with a loud rip.

She was growing.

Not just taller. Bigger.

Her whole body stretched upward beneath the stone.

The boulder did not move yet, but Melty did. Her back straightened. Her neck lengthened. Her shoulders rose until she was no longer crouched so low beneath the rock. The top of her head reached Raphtalia’s shoulder.

Then Raphtalia’s height.

Raphtalia turned her head, eyes wide despite the strain. “Princess Melty?”

Melty’s answer became a gasp as her body surged again.

Her arms inflated with strength.

The change rolled through them in visible waves. Thin arms became athletic. Athletic arms became powerful. Powerful arms became enormous. Her biceps rose under the ruined sleeves, round and hard, swelling larger with every heartbeat. Her forearms thickened until they looked made for bending iron bars. Her hands spread wider against the stone, fingers digging into cracks that had seemed unreachable moments before.

Her shoulders broadened violently.

The upper part of her dress split across the back. Seams snapped. Gold trim tore. The neat, royal shape of her outfit became ragged as her body outgrew it in every direction. Her chest and back expanded, not gracefully, not politely, but with the blunt certainty of a body being remade for strength and nothing else.

Melty clenched her teeth.

The boulder felt different.

Still impossible and so massively crushing.

But now she could feel it. Like she could feel the full weight of it.

Before, pushing against it had been like pushing against a mountain. Now, while there was resistance still resistance and weight, Now she felt like she was actually achieving something.

So she pushed.

And the stone trembled.

Naofumi’s eyes snapped toward her. “Melty?”

“I…” Melty’s voice shook. “I think I can…”

Her stomach tightened.

A sharp pressure rolled through her torso. Her waist thickened, her back widening further as muscle packed itself across her frame. Her abdomen clenched once, twice, then hardened into visible ridges. The torn front of her outfit pulled tight across her stomach until the fabric gave way, revealing firm, newly carved abs that flexed with every breath.

Melty stared downward for half a second, stunned.

Then another pulse hit.

She grew past Raphtalia.

Her head rose level with Naofumi’s.

Her legs became pillars. Her thighs swelled until they were thicker than tree trunks, packed with absurd strength. Her calves bulged above the remains of her ruined boots. The path cracked beneath her feet as her weight increased, but she did not sink. She planted herself harder, stronger, as if the mountain now existed to support her instead of crush her.

“Mel-chan is getting huge!” Filo squeaked.

Naofumi made a strangled sound. “Yeah. What the heck...?!”

Melty barely heard them.

Her whole world was the boulder above her and the fire inside her.

She slid both hands higher against the underside of the rock. Her arms were already massive, bigger than Naofumi’s, bigger than any normal warrior’s had any right to be. But the heat was not finished. Her biceps swelled again, rising into heavy, round mounds of muscle that strained against the last scraps of her sleeves. Her shoulders became huge, broad slopes of power. Her back expanded until she felt like she could brace the sky.

She pushed.

This time, the boulder lifted an inch.

Air rushed into the cramped space beneath it.

Raphtalia gasped.

Filo laughed through her panic. “Is the boulder... getting lighter?”

Melty’s eyes widened.

For the first time, the boulder had obeyed her.

A fierce, breathless feeling rose in her chest.

More.

She wanted more.

The heat answered once more.

Power flooded through her again, deeper than before. Her spine arched. Her shoulders rolled. Her body climbed higher, forcing the boulder up another inch, then another. She passed Naofumi’s height. Then kept growing.

Naofumi had to duck away from her widening frame.

“Everyone move!” he shouted.

Raphtalia and Filo scrambled out from beneath the stone as Melty took more and more of its weight. Naofumi hesitated only long enough to make sure she was not being crushed, then rolled aside as well.

For one impossible second, Melty stood alone beneath the boulder.

It should have flattened her.

Instead, she held it.

Her arms shook, but not from weakness. From growth. From power still forcing its way through her body. The boulder pressed down. Melty pressed back.

Her feet dug trenches into the path. Her legs swelled even larger, muscles shifting under her skin like coiled ropes. Her hips widened to support her towering frame. Her torso became a wall of strength. She was nearly one and a half times Naofumi’s height now, still wearing the stunned young face of Princess Melty, but below it stood the impossible body of a hulking amazoness.

And still the transformation was not finished.

A strange pressure built behind her shoulders.

Melty winced. “Ah—!”

“Melty!” Raphtalia cried.

Her upper back flexed.

The torn remains of her outfit stretched over two new rising shapes. At first they looked like knots of muscle forming beneath her shoulder blades. Then they pushed outward, growing larger, stronger, taking shape with terrifying speed. New shoulders rolled into being beneath the first pair, broad and powerful. New upper arms followed, pressing free from her back and sides as if they had always belonged there and were only now waking up.

Melty gasped as sensation burst through limbs she had never had before.

Two new elbows unfolded.

Two new forearms stretched downward.

Two new hands opened for the first time, fingers flexing experimentally in the dusty air.

She could feel all of them.

Four arms.

Four enormous arms.

The new pair rose instinctively, palms slamming against the underside of the boulder beside the first. Muscles rushed into them at once, matching the rest of her impossible body. The fresh biceps ballooned, shoulders swelling, forearms hardening until the second pair was every bit as massive as the first.

Melty let out a low, disbelieving grunt.

Then she pushed with all four arms.

The boulder rose.

Not by mere millimeters.

But by a centimeter after centimeter.

Then higher.

Stone scraped against stone as Melty straightened her knees. Her colossal legs drove her upward. Her abs locked tight. Her four huge arms extended above her head, muscles bulging as they took the full weight of the fallen rock.

At last, Melty stood completely upright.

The boulder was above her.

Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo were free.

For a few heartbeats, nobody spoke.

Dust drifted across the mountain path. Far behind them, their pursuers’ shouts had gone silent. Even the wind seemed to pause.

Melty stood in the center of the shattered trail, towering over them all. Her blue hair was dusty and wild. Her royal clothes hung from her in torn strips, stretched across shoulders that were far too broad, a torso carved with shining muscle, and legs thick enough to look rooted into the earth. Two pairs of enormous arms held the boulder overhead, each arm so huge that Raphtalia could have hidden behind one.

The stone was heavy.

Melty could feel that clearly.

It pressed down on her palms. It strained her shoulders. It demanded effort.

But it was not impossible anymore.

It was manageable.

And she was holding it.... all alone.

Naofumi stared up at her.

His mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

Finally, he said, “What the heck just happened to you, Melty?”

Melty looked down at him.

Then at her body.

She lifted one lower arm slightly, watching the enormous hand flex. She glanced at the other three arms still supporting the boulder. Her expression went from shock, to confusion, to a kind of awkward acceptance.

“I have no idea either,” she said.

Filo’s eyes sparkled. “Mel-chan got super strong!”

Raphtalia looked torn between concern and amazement. “Princess Melty, might be the wrong time for that, but are you hurt?”

Melty considered that.

Her body felt hot, strange and huge. Powerful beyond anything she had ever imagined.

But hurt?

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

A shout rose from the far side of the path.

The pursuers had recovered.

Naofumi’s eyes narrowed. “We need to go. Now.”

Melty looked toward the wooden bridge behind. Then back up the mountain path. The boulder in her hands suddenly felt less like a burden and more like an answer.

“Everyone move behind me,” she said.

Naofumi blinked. “Melty—”

“Please.”

Something in her voice made him stop arguing.

Raphtalia grabbed Filo and pulled her back. Naofumi stepped aside, shield ready, though he kept staring at Melty as if expecting the transformation to reverse at any moment.

Melty adjusted her grip.

All four of her hands dug into the stone. Her arms bent. Her shoulders bunched. Her abs tightened like iron plates. She twisted at the waist, planting one massive foot forward and dragging the other back until the path cracked under her stance.

The boulder shifted behind her head.

Melty inhaled.

For one instant, she remembered herself a few moments earlier: small, helpless, pressing useless hands against the stone while everyone else suffered for her sake.

Not anymore.

She roared and threw the boulder.

The huge rock tore through the air, spinning end over end back up the mountain path. Their pursuers screamed and scattered as it smashed into the wooden bridge supports behind them. Ropes snapped. Planks exploded. The entire bridge buckled, twisted, and collapsed into the ravine in a roaring storm of wood, dust, and broken stone.

Silence followed.

Then Filo cheered.

“That was amazing!”

Naofumi lowered his shield very slowly.

Raphtalia stared at the ruined bridge, then at Melty.

Melty lowered all four arms. They felt strangely natural at her sides, though there were far more of them than there had been that morning. She looked at her huge hands again, then down at her enormous legs, then at the scraps of her royal outfit barely hanging together.

A faint blush crossed her face.

“Mother is going to have so many questions,” she muttered.

Naofumi stared for one more second.

Then he sighed.

“Oh yeah, definitely. But let's face that bridge when we get there. For now, let's run.”

Melty nodded.

For the first time that day, no one grabbed her hand to pull her along. No one had to carried her or protect her.

The Shield Hero’s party ran down the mountain toward the valley below, the broken bridge behind them and freedom ahead.

And if Melty’s new footsteps shook the path a little more than everyone else’s, none of them complained.

For once, she was not the burden being saved.

She was the reason they escaped.

And it felt so good.