Chapter 111
Chapter 111
The Majin who introduced herself as Isabel smacked her lips while staring at me, as if she had a delicious meal right in front of her. Then she pressed her slender finger to her lips and spoke with narrowed eyes.
“Those bluish flames that burned the demon soldiers earlier were lit by our pretty one, weren’t they? Because of that, one of big sister’s friends is very angry. Says you ruined his masterpiece. He was talking about tearing off your limbs and throwing them to ogres as feed, then fusing your body with a troll or something.”
She began to release her full pressure and bear down on me.
Along with the presence of someone who had reached Sword Master, pitch-black demonic energy surged over her entire body, causing cracks to form in the surroundings.
It felt like facing a storm, but without resisting it, I slowly lowered my body and surveyed the area.
This place wasn’t far from the city wall. Since it was a passage leading from outside into the city, only a well-paved main road stretched out.
The only things around were a few trees and rocks.
‘Then that means I can fight without holding back.’
“Really, where did a man like you crawl out from? The more I look at you, the more I like you. Instead of being torn apart and killed by Descartes, why not become big sister Isabel’s toy?”
An ominous current shimmered in her eyes as she whispered that she would make it feel good.
In response, I gripped my sword and slowly moved my body, stepping forward.
The Majin, Isabel, spoke with a slightly surprised expression.
“So it’s true you have talent. To withstand my pressure with a magician’s body. No, is it your heart that’s so solid?”
She fell completely into ecstasy and began to approach me slowly. And when she came within arm’s reach, I kicked off the ground and swung my sword at her.
Swaaaaaaash—!
The blade, wrapped in surging aura, cut through the air with a fierce tearing sound. But Isabel, smiling, extended a hand covered in demonic energy and caught it with absurd ease.
“Our pretty one, how adorable. But something like this can’t do anything to big sister.”
Her attitude was one of complete condescension, as if dealing with a child. But I let out a faint chuckle and opened my mouth.
“Of course. I swung it so you’d block it.”
“…What?”
Phaaaaaat—!
A heavy sensation filled my left hand that I’d kept behind my back. When I swung it with force, a blinding light burst forth and swept across the area.
Only then did Isabel seem to grasp the situation, letting out a sharp gasp as she hurriedly distanced herself from me, but it was nothing more than futile flailing.
Slice—!
A clear tearing sound rang by my ear.
Isabel desperately twisted her body and succeeded in avoiding the tip of Excalibur, but the mass of light pouring out from its edge sliced across her chest.
“Kyahaaaaaak—!”
A scream that tore at the ears echoed in all directions.
A Majin possessed a body far superior to that of an ordinary human, so if it had been a simple sword wound, she wouldn’t have screamed like that. But the light dwelling within Excalibur was holy, so the damage could only be severe.
“Y-you!”
Veins bulged visibly in the pitch-black eyes of Isabel as if the pain was unbearable.
No blood flowed from the gash in her chest. Instead, starting from the wound, it was burning away as if set on fire.
“…So you really came alone.”
Thud.
I stabbed the sword in my right hand into the ground and grasped Excalibur with both hands.
I deliberately chose this cumbersome method in case another Majin might be hiding nearby.
That was why I hadn’t even used an Aura Blade. I made it look as though I was relying solely on Excalibur’s power.
But even as the holy sword’s light burned away at her body, the only sounds around us were those of fighting near the distant city wall.
“You’re not crying just because your chest got lightly cut, are you?”
I unleashed the pressure I had been holding back. It charged out in all directions like a ferocious beast and soon pressed down on Isabel’s entire body.
“…Huh.”
Isabel’s eyes widened as she clutched her chest, which was still burning away.
The relaxed demeanor she had shown until just moments ago vanished without a trace, and she looked at me with a stiffened face.
“I thought you were a chirping chick, but were you a ferocious beast hiding its claws?”
“Even after ending up like that because your eyes were too dim to recognize your opponent, you still haven’t come to your senses.”
I was dumbfounded by her attitude of still looking down on me.
Majin were all the same.
They believed they had transcended humanity, that they hid in the darkness to become the puppet masters ruling the world.
They thought of themselves as something great. But in the end, they were nothing more than losers who had given up on life after being crushed by reality.
“I liked almost all the characters that appeared in this story. Even the villains. Because they each lived by their own convictions. But you lot don’t have even a fragment of conviction, not even the scraps of a heart that a person should naturally possess. You’re just vermin that need to be wiped out of this world.”
I stared at Isabel with cold eyes. I had thought this for a long time, but there wasn’t a single Majin I intended to let live. As I had just said, they were nothing but vermin.
Woom.
As if responding to my resolve, a blazing light flared atop Excalibur.
She too released surging demonic energy to oppose me, but the scales of victory had already tipped heavily.
“Fine, you damn pretty one. I’ll admit you live up to your face.”
Isabel clicked her tongue with a bitter smile. It looked like she was accepting the situation, but there was no sign of surrender in her eyes.
‘…She doesn’t have an escape route.’
The difference in our power was obvious. I didn’t sense any other Majin nearby, so it was impossible for her to escape me on her own.
“Ha, Azazel said he didn’t know what kind of side effects there might be. But I guess there’s no choice.”
She pulled out something pitch-black from her bosom, about the size of her fist. I raised my sword, heightening my guard.
The magic, techniques, and artifacts used by Majin were all lethal without exception. Since even I didn’t have full knowledge of them, I needed to remain fully vigilant.
Thud.
“……?”
Isabel pushed it straight into her own chest. More precisely, into the area where her heart was.
“Keuk.”
As she staggered and let out a groan, an anomaly began.
From the pitch-black something embedded in her chest, turquoise veins started to bulge and surge outward.
They were soon stained black and then began spreading toward her entire body.
It looked as if her whole body were covered in shattered glass. Of course, I didn’t just stand there watching.
Tadadadadat—!
I kicked off the ground with all my strength, leapt forward, and delivered an unhesitating downward slash. Excalibur split her body cleanly into upper and lower halves far too easily.
Perhaps because I put too much force into it, the aftershock reached the ground behind her, spreading wide cracks in a fan shape.
Srrrk, thud.
Her severed body parts fell separately to the ground.
Compared to the presence she had shown, the result was almost anticlimactic, but considering who the opponent was, it was close to inevitable.
Isabel’s body no longer moved.
She simply lay there, eyes wide open, staring blankly up at the sky.
I picked up the sword I had planted in the ground, slid it back into its scabbard, and turned around.
“Descartes and Azazel.”
I rolled the names Isabel had spoken during our conversation around in my mouth.
They must have been the names of the other two Majin the count had encountered.
“…Which way should I go?”
I fell briefly into thought.
I hadn’t even moved much after coming down from the wall before I encountered a Majin.
That meant there was a high chance the others were nearby as well.
But the group of ogres that had appeared at the western gate also bothered me.
“…Ah, damn it. I’ll just deal with them quickly and come back.”
After lingering there for a moment, I made my decision.
I would quickly clean up the ogres that appeared at the western gate, then return to the front lines.
If something had gone wrong on the wall by now, the flow of energy would surely have changed, but the vibrations resonating through the ground were no different from before.
That was why I turned west, but the strange sense of déjà vu creeping up my back made me stop in my tracks.
“……?”
When I turned around, Isabel’s corpse was still there.
Thinking it might just be my imagination, I stepped forward again, but then something icy swept down my spine.
The ground cracked by the aftermath of the battle, uprooted trees and rocks.
And lying atop it all, the corpse of a Majin.
“…A corpse?”
A Majin killed by the holy sword should have been annihilated without leaving even a corpse behind. But for some reason, her body remained exactly where it had fallen.
Tsuzzzzzzzzz—.
Soon, pitch-black tentacles began to rise from it. I exhaled and thought for a moment, but this was something I had no memory of seeing in the original work.
Isabel’s body, split in two, began to fuse back together. But her appearance was very different from before.
Her once pale-white skin had turned a faint black, like that of a dead person. Her neck, which had been bent back at an unnatural angle, returned to its proper position, and a vivid yellow gleam once more settled into her lifeless eyes.
“…Haa.”
A gentle ecstasy spread across Isabel’s face, which had been twisted in pain. She soon looked at me and spoke with a hazy expression, like someone intoxicated by drugs.
“Really, this is the best feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
“…How are you alive?”
The slash imbued with Excalibur’s power had clearly cleaved her body apart.
Even for a high-ranking demon, it would have been a fatal blow.
For a mere Majin, it should have had more than enough power to annihilate her outright.
Yet Isabel clenched both her hands tightly and flashed me a deep smile.
“Pretty one, it feels like the fight is only just starting now.”
“…What?”
Phaaang—!
The air at the spot where she had been standing exploded. It was so fast that even I couldn’t follow it.
“……!”
I hurriedly turned my head, searching for her form, but my body froze at the cold sensation brushing my cheek and the laughter-laced voice ringing by my ear.
“Before that, shall we first learn a little about how to obey your master’s words?”
“Ha!”
Petra was fighting without rest, meeting the monsters climbing up the city wall.
She possessed talent far superior to Dorrae’s and had put in relentless effort to match it, and she had long since reached the realm of Sword Expert.
Because of that, she displayed performance surpassing that of most knights, swinging her sword without hesitation.
“…….”
After cutting down a number well into the double digits, she stood in place for a moment to catch her breath.
Within a few breaths, she was fighting the monsters charging at her again, but Petra’s attention was completely drawn to the west.
“Hoo.”
Her swordplay was undeniably refreshing and bold.
Each time her blade flashed, a monster collapsed, spraying blood. But separate from that, her heart felt unbearably stifled.
She had been happy when Ostia didn’t refuse her offer to follow him from the watchtower. But when it came to the truly dangerous places, he hadn’t taken her along.
The reason was clear. She wasn’t strong enough to stand at his side.
‘At the very least, I’d need to be as capable as that girl…….’
Alice’s face flickered through Petra’s mind.
The relationship between the two of them clearly seemed unusual.
They shared more than Petra knew, and at times they appeared so close it even stirred jealousy.
“Hoo…….”
She soon let out a sigh and shook her head.
Now was the time to faithfully carry out the mission given to her as a member of the Leipzig family.
Steeling her resolve, she raised her sword again, but frowned at a loud noise coming from nearby.
Kugugugugung!
“E-evade!”
A portion of the city wall exploded as if it had been hit directly by a massive artillery shell. Petra’s eyes widened at the sight.
“…It looked like it flew in from the inside.”
Something had flown out from within the city, smashed into the wall, and fallen among the monster horde. She hurried to the edge, grabbed the railing, and leaned out to look down.
At not too great a distance, she could see thick dust rising from a spot amid the monster ranks. When it was soon swept away by the wind, a horrific scene was revealed.
Crushed monster corpses and pools of blood. It was such an alien sight that it stood out immediately, even among the countless moving monsters.
And in the middle of it all, someone drenched head to toe in blood staggered as they rose to their feet. When Petra recognized the face, her eyes widened once more.
“…Ostia?”