On July 31st, I revised the previous chapter, 216. There was some back-and-forth with characters dying or surviving in it, so if you have time, please feel free to read it from there.
A scream drew my attention to an undead attacking someone. I instantly rushed towards it and, approaching from behind, slashed halfway through its neck.
「Ghk――――ッ」
The Adventurers Guild receptionist, her throat slit, shed tears of blood from clouded eyes. As if to shake off her outstretched hand, I slashed it away with my knife, then thrust my dagger into the Magic Stone in her heart, finishing her off.
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Turning towards the voice, I saw a blood-soaked corpse that looked like a civilian attacking a child.
Pushing my Physical Enhancement to its limits, I dashed at three times the speed of a normal person. I lopped off the heads from the corpses of the adventurers who drew their weapons and came at me, then plunged my dagger into the heart of the corpse assaulting the child, striking from behind.
“P-please… don’t go…”
Beyond the corpse that had collapsed with those last words, a girl of about ten appeared, staring aghast at the scene.
…Her mother, I presume.
Realizing I was the one who had killed her mother, her eyes, as if glaring, reflected my own impassive face.
“Go back to your house.”
“…”
The girl didn’t even nod at my words. But, perhaps she understood, for she gritted her teeth and dashed into a nearby house.
Even if it’s hatred… for now, just live. Looking at those eyes, I remembered my own reflection in the water, right after I’d lost my parents.
But… even so, what I must do remains unchanged.
I swing the Slashing Type Pendulum, its Thread extended to the maximum, whirling it around. The Slashing Type is a weapon that ‘cuts’ using centrifugal force, but if you maximize that force, its slash transforms into an ‘axe’.
“――Hraaaaagh!”
ZASH!!
The head of the adventurer who’d been watching Jean and the others with cold eyes was sent flying by that single blow.
Likewise, a Rope Weight Type Pendulum, its Thread extended to amplify its centrifugal force, swung down, pulverizing the head of a middle-aged man who was about to attack someone, sending fragments scattering.
Wielding my two Pendulums, I mowed down the surrounding undead, and intercepted those closing in with my knife and dagger. Just then—
FWOOSH!
“So you’d forsake me… ah…”
“…………”
Slay, a hunter and Collette’s companion, loosed an arrow. What dwelled within those wavering, clouded eyes—was it regret, or hatred…? And yet, it was out of his “jealousy” towards Collette that he had sold his soul to a demon.
“—Gah!”
“You’re the ones who fled from the truth.”
My silver arrow, which I instantly shot back, pierced Slay’s right eye, and Slay, purged of Miasma, collapsed as a silent corpse.
“……Aria-san.”
The one who called out to me, after I had annihilated the surrounding undead, was Collette, slumped on the ground and cradling Cara’s bloodstained head.
“Why…? Why can you kill with so little hesitation!”
As Collette’s gaze swept around, as if to point something out, there, staring at me from the windows of the surrounding houses, were numerous eyes filled with a mixture of fear and hatred. Among them was that girl. Collette, looking at me with those same eyes, pressed on, “How can you be so unfazed?! You didn’t have to kill them! You could have just run away, couldn’t you?!”
“…”
I see. So this is the devil’s ploy.
Ordinary people, even if they were to attack someone, cannot bring themselves to kill what was once human. Demons, however, make them conscious of the eyes of others, inflame their guilt, and nip any budding resistance. They corrupt humans, beguiling them. It must be because they are demons, who understand humans so well, that they are capable of such methods.
But—
“And that is why… I am here.”
I am here in place of those who cannot fight. When I quietly turned my gaze upon them—a gaze that held not even Intimidation—the people who had been looking at me averted their eyes of their own accord.
“If you wish to die, I won’t stop you. I am here to defeat the enemy. If you interfere with that, then no matter who you are, you are my enemy.”
They too must understand that their true enemy lies elsewhere. The entity that had turned their loved ones into monsters…
When I quietly declared that, the stares fixed upon me seemed to simply vanish.
From afar, I could still hear people’s screams. I cannot stop all of it, but I know of one way to bring it to an end.
As I made to leave that place to find that way, just as I passed by Collette, who kept her head bowed, she let out a quiet mutter.
“…I met someone from House Ostall, only once. …Looking back on it now, I wonder why that person was living in the chapel near the cemetery, instead of the mansion…”
“I see…”
I gave a short reply to her words and headed for the chapel she’d mentioned feeling uneasy about.
“This is…”
As I advanced along the path to the chapel, the number of undead swarming the road steadily increased.
Was Collette right, or was this a trap meant to ensnare me…? But it didn’t matter either way. If a ‘demon’ is there, the outcome will be the same.
An onrushing horde of undead, who were once residents.
Crying faces, angry faces, voices crying out in suffering, begging for salvation.
“It’s useless.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, I swung the Slashing Type ‘axe’ in a horizontal sweep, sending several of their heads flying.
If you’re going to appeal to human sentiment, then do it to a proper human.
If it’s an 〝enemy,〟 I won’t hesitate, even if they’re a living human.
〝You〟 underestimate humans far too much.
Besides――I’m not alone.
『GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!』
As if to devour the moon floating in the night sky, a black beast soared through the air, mowing down the thronging undead like withered stalks.
――Late――
(local llm)
“You’re not late, Nero.”
I gently ran my fingers through the slightly soiled fur of Nero, who stood beside me.
He had probably buried several times the number of undead I had defeated before coming here. Even so, I silently climbed onto his back, watching the undying battle spirit in his eyes as he faced the never-ending undead.
“Let’s go.”
――Response――
“GAaaaaaaaaaah!!”
(end local llm)
Around the roaring Nero, electricity, even more potent than before, surged. While this electricity is most devastating against living beings, anything that was once a living organism would still be affected.
Their nerves disrupted by Nero’s electricity, the undead froze for an instant. My Pendulum shattered them, and Nero’s claws, indifferent to Magic Stones or heads, tore their entire bodies apart.
“Charge!”
At my voice, Nero plunged into the undead without a shred of hesitation, and our attacks pulverized only the enemies in a straight line.
It was a brute-force steamroll, but that was fine.
――After all, once ‘you’ are defeated, they’ll all vanish anyway.
The chapel I could see in the distance… Right before it, a middle-aged man, who appeared to be a noble, stood with a serene smile, as if he were lying in wait.
Even to my eyes, he looked like just an ordinary human. But still, he’s underestimating humans far too much.
As if a human like “you” could actually exist.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I loosed the silver arrow. Taking the arrow between his eyebrows, the old gentleman’s gentle smile remained unchanged as he seemed to split open from that very spot, revealing the true form that had been lurking within.
“So it was you after all.”
The ‘Bone Devil’ I had seen in that forest, manifesting as if a pomegranate had split open, silently sneered at me.
[Bone Devil] [Race: Greater Demon] [Difficulty Rank 6]
【Mana Value: 4380/4715】
【Total Combat Power: 4851/5186】
The strength of demons, being spiritual life forms, is determined by the amount of their mana. However, the Bone Devil’s mana value was already reduced from the start.
“Hk!”
The next moment, humanoid skeletons appeared, as if clawing their way out of the surrounding earth.
The bones of those who rested in the cemetery… They should have been purified and cremated along with their Magic Stones, but is the demon forcibly animating them with its mana?
“Nero!”
“Guooooo!” Nero roared.
He weaved sharply as if braking hard, and his claws and my kicks shattered the skeletons that kept appearing in droves. But there were so many of them. Each individual skeleton only had a combat power of about 100, but there were probably over a hundred in total.
“Haaaah!!”
I twisted my body hard on Nero’s back and, with the Rope Weight Type Pendulum swung with all my might, shattered more than ten skeletons. All the while, Nero maneuvered to avoid being surrounded by the skeletons, using his massive frame to crush bones with brute force.
The skeletons wielded blade-like weapons made of bone. For a human like me, that would be one thing, but such weapons wouldn’t work on Nero, who possesses [Slashing and Piercing Resistance]. Nevertheless, if the undead residents we’d left behind were to catch up, we’d instantly be at a disadvantage.
We have to defeat the demon before that. But the demon’s magic power had diminished—the forces it had prepared, however, weren’t limited to that alone.
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!
As a discordant sound, like hard objects scraping against each other, reverberated, a dozen or so new skeletons emerged from within the chapel, smashing through its walls and windows.
Wielding bone clubs, their colossal bodies nearly three meters tall, their figures inhuman… They were skeletons, fashioned from higher-ranking Orcs and Ogres.
Dozens of them. So that demon had gone so far as to expend its magical power, just to increase its forces for this?
The combat power of the skeletons made from higher-ranking Orcs exceeded 1000.
“…Nero.”
It was a tough number for even Nero and me to handle properly. Moreover, there were regular skeletons too, and we were short on time. But… I lightly tapped my trusted partner’s back.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
『GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!』
Instead of replying, Nero let out a roar and charged the ten High-Rank Orc Skeletons. I also leaped from his back. Pulverizing the human bones that blocked my path with my Rope Weight Type, I popped a pill into my mouth and unleashed the power I had been conserving.
“――Iron Rose (Ability)!――”
Her pinkish-gold hair transformed into an iron-grey, like scorched iron. She beat her wings, and particles of light, like silver wings, scattered from her entire body.
【Aria (Alicia)】【Race: Human♀】【Rank 5】
【MP: 324/380】10 Up
【HP: 256/290】
【Strength: 11 (24)】【Endurance: 10 (22)】【Agility: 18 (38)】【Dexterity: 9 (10)】
【Total Combat Power: 2325 (During Special Physical Enhancement: 4294)】61 Up
【Battle Art: Iron Rose /Limit 324 Second】
“――【Real Breaker】――!”
I’m not holding anything back. Besides, this isn’t an opponent I could beat if I did.
Emitting particles of white light from my entire body, the blade concealed in my heel—which I thrust out at the very instant we brushed past each other—slashed through the miasma enshrouding the Bone Devil.
――Gkiiii――
The Bone Devil let out a groan that sounded like bones scraping together. As it opened its jaw, it launched a jet-black mass of Miasma from within.
“Hk—!”
I dodged the Miasma Bullet using an illusion of Real Breaker. Even so, the magic I had clad myself in was eroded, and it rotted the earth behind me for tens of meters. If I had taken that hit without Real Breaker, it wouldn’t have been strange if I’d died instantly. But in that very moment, I closed the distance, and the Black Dagger I thrust out pierced its tattered, rag-like black body.
In this state, my magic power and its would cancel each other out, but I could also whittle away at the devil’s existence. However, the Bone Devil must have sensed that, as it began to put distance between us while unleashing fine Miasma Bullets.
If it managed to buy time here, I’d be in trouble. To defeat this devil, a swift, decisive battle was my only option.
But, this devil’s purpose in creating distance wasn’t to buy time, nor was it trying to escape.
――GHYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII――
At the Bone Devil’s cry, nearly a hundred skeletons from the surroundings gathered and began to cling to its body.
――Hah!
My skirt swirling, I flung a throwing knife wreathed in the light of 【Real Breaker】. But the knife was blocked by the clinging bones, failing to reach the devil.
In that fleeting moment, the devil’s black mist corroded and melded the clinging bones, and before my very eyes, it forged a giant body made of bone.
“This is…”
【Bone Giant Devil】【Race: Greater Demon】【Difficulty Rank――】
【Mana: 3432/4715】
【Total Combat Power: 6403/5186】
The skeletal giant, towering over ten meters, twisted its face—an assembly of countless bones—into a grotesque grin and swung down its colossal arm.
The Bone Devil, displaying its power.
Next time, the conclusion. Can the devil be defeated?
It got long again, and I didn’t manage to get to where I’d planned!
I believe I’ll be able to share various new updates in August, so please look forward to it!