Chapter 78 - Please Don't Do This (3)

「Madness Gauge 1%」

「❖ The Fangs Aiming at Zakrati

∎ Liberate Ayu Hin

」

To think that slicing down three members of the 72 Knights, their immediate subordinate commanders, and dozens of soldiers under them in a single strike only increased it by 1%.

It could be that the rate of increase is slow because it's early on, but even considering that, I think it's quite manageable. The gauge is filling up less than I expected.

"Phew..."

'Can I stop acting now? I think it's safe to say the Great Demon has gone home for now.'

I checked the gazes of the sentries standing on the castle walls and the guards standing behind me. Not to mention I had to be mindful of Lukkwan, who might still be alive...

'Damn it, I have to show the scene of the Great Demon going home so they won't say anything later. I also have to consider the possibility that this incident will be reported to the demon worshipers—since I might have to flex as a Great Demon again.'

"Kugh."

As soon as I finished calculating, my hand pressed down on my eyepatch-covered eye as I bent my waist. If I were to give this action a rough name, it would be 'Demon Knight and demon fighting for dominance'.

Of course, the embarrassment washing over me for no reason was entirely my burden to bear.

'Just acting like a crazy bastard was fine, but the transition scene is a bit, a bit hard to endure. Though I have to overcome this too if I want to live.'

"Phew."

Still, I'm a professional conceptualizer! I somehow endured it.

My staggering center of balance straightened up, and my posture became upright. When I was acting as the Great Demon, I purposely didn't straighten my back properly and stood at a slant, so anyone paying a little attention would clearly feel the difference.

CRASH!

Meanwhile, another explosion echoed from far away. Kuaaah. The roar of a dragon came as a bonus. Since it sounded even more sorrowful than its earlier cries, it seemed the guys were doing a good job.

'Then, since things have turned out like this, should I clean up the castle before I go?'

Judging by the sounds coming from over there, and since the Inquisitor class itself is specialized in enduring brawls, it should be fine if I delay joining them a bit.

On the other hand, the enemies remaining in the castle are different. There aren't just pirates in the castle; there are Demon Contractors who can perform curses or other acts through human sacrifice.

Along with the civilians they could use as sacrifices.

Leaving them alone might result in a massive headache coming back to bite me later. Eliminating them now will be convenient for the future.

Thus, I slightly turned my steps. Even after unleashing the slash, the scimitar, still clad in mana, let out a screech.

"How dare..."

'Huh? What's this, is there someone who isn't dead yet? It's too close to be the guys on the castle wall.'

I stopped my turning steps and looked back at the direction I was about to turn away from. Doing so, I realized that someone whose upper and lower body had been severed in two was clawing at the dirt floor in resentment.

Focalor. Or rather, Bipurit.

"You've really gone and done it."

'No, the quest literally just updated. Why is she still alive?'

"A mere human...!"

I swallowed my disbelief. At the same time, a slight sense of pity crept in.

'She was supposed to be a final boss in her own right... Even though it was a sneak attack, seeing her genuinely go down in a single strike makes me feel really weird.'

'It's like feeling empty because the boss fight was skipped, or wondering, 'Is this really it?' even though it's a good thing.'

But so what? If this were a normal game, it would be a situation where I'd curse it for being a trash game, but for me right now, this is actually better.

Because I have to move while keeping the Madness Gauge in mind, and I'm in a position where I have to hurry due to a lack of time.

"A lowly demon, to think you were still breathing."

Therefore, without a single shred of regret, I raised my blade.

SLICE!

It was the moment the slaughterer of the Yabad region and traitor to humanity died with her head severed. Compared to the deeds she had committed and carried out, it was a truly pathetic end.

However, I didn't want to pity it. I'd only curse it for being anticlimactic because it's a game; a slaughterer's end doesn't necessarily have to be tragic and heroic.

I intended to grab the severed head and shove it into my inventory.

Since the client requested evidence, I figured giving them the whole head would be the easiest way for them to verify it.

GRAB!

That is, if the headless body of Focalor hadn't reached out an arm and grabbed me.

"Heu, heuhahat!"

No, rather than that, the severed head laughing, or the tentacles extending from the severed stump seemed to be the real issue.

An octopus with a human face was born.

"...!"

'Wow, that's too gruesome!'

I kicked away the hand holding my foot and simultaneously threw the head before its tentacles could wrap around my arm.

SCREECH!

That wasn't all. I swung my sword swiftly enough that the word 'reflexive' suited the motion perfectly.

The unleashed slash cleaved the head floating in midair. I cleaved it, but thin tentacles emerged from the cross-section, grabbing onto each other and reattaching themselves.

It's a good thing I have a strong stomach, because it was truly repulsive.

"Utterly hideous."

'Just what did you do to your own body, human? What did you do to make your head reattach even after being vertically sliced, and merge back with your separated torso?'

"Hahahaha!!"

It's even more terrifying because she's bursting into maniacal laughter like a madwoman.

I consecutively fired off slashes with the single-minded goal of killing her before the fusion was complete.

"It's useless. The very first task I undertook as soon as I devoured this land was to separate death from this body."

However, just as Focalor said while stopping her laughter, her body repaired its wounds through the tentacles and fused with the detached head again. It was meaningless.

「Madness Gauge 2%」

'Then what do I do about that?' I lowered my scimitar. Only then did Focalor's body restoration speed increase.

"I do not know how you managed to suppress the Great Demon once more and seize control of your physical body... but I suppose there's no need to know."

... Let me correct that. Not only bodily restoration but also transformation began taking place.

"Because a demon pushed aside by a mere human, even if it is a Great Demon, no longer requires my respect!"

The skin of Focalor's legs burst open, extending tentacles resembling an octopus's legs. They twisted and tangled among themselves, creating something that looked exactly like a lion's hind legs.

It was a bizarre sight: the front half remained as tentacles, while only the hind legs took on the shape of actual legs.

That wasn't all. Focalor's upper body twisted with a crunching sound and gradually became massive. That was no longer the skeletal structure of a human.

A protruding exoskeleton covered her head like a helmet, ultimately forming horns and teeth.

[Those who seek to ruin my kingdom shall find only death!]

The shout from her altered vocal cords rippled out in the form of a shockwave.

「???│???」

「❖ The Fangs Aiming at Zakrati

∎ Liberate Ayu Hin

∎ Eliminate Focalor 0 / 1」

I swiped away the useless description and quest windows and readjusted my grip on my sword.

Having seen that slashes didn't work, I had no idea how I was supposed to fight back.

'Should I swap to a blunt weapon and crush her? Or find a weak spot and target it? Scorch her with fire?'

CRASH!

Just because I took a moment to think, an attack came flying right at me. Focalor fired a spiraled tentacle from her arm, extending it in a straight line toward me.

However, thrusting attacks have the disadvantage of being easy to read, even though they can inflict piercing damage. I quickly stepped out of the attack path.

SWOOSH!

One of the spiraled tentacles uncoiled and aimed for me as I did.

THUD!

I barely managed to dodge it by taking another backstep. But Focalor's tentacles didn't stop at just one, so I had to move my feet again without a moment to catch my breath.

[Even a being harboring a Great Demon is nothing but utterly pathetic. To think you'd be hopping around like a beast, so busy just dodging!]

The sight of tentacles repeatedly slamming into the ground occurred perilously close right in front of me.

It painted a picture where the tentacles struck exactly where I was the moment I stepped back. I couldn't tell if the tentacles were hard or the ground was soft, but the long stalks burrowed right into the earth with ease.

[Still, killing that insufferable 24th was a rather useful act. I'll praise you for that.]

Even so, dodging it wasn't entirely difficult. The maximum number of tentacles Focalor could control at once was seven.

[Not that I plan to let you live anyway.]

Furthermore, the length of the tentacles wasn't infinite either.

Leaving Focalor to ramble on by herself, I estimated the maximum length of her tentacles. Roughly 15 meters. It wasn't exactly good news, but the fact that there was a length limit at all wasn't a bad thing.

[I offer this impure blood, impure bone, and impure flesh.]

'But this is a bit much.'

Focalor, having forced me back to a distance—partly because I backed off to check the tentacle length—wrapped her tentacles around nearby corpses and brought her hands together.

The tentacles that had just attacked me were hanging down limply like loose sleeves, completely motionless.

[Grant me even greater power.]

'Since she's finished transforming now, won't attacks work? Or if I use a two-hander instead of a scimitar, might it have some effect?'

Harboring a bit of hope, I fired off another slash.

Sadly, or perhaps naturally, my desperate wishful thinking failed.

I could mutilate the corpses, but I couldn't inflict any meaningful damage on Focalor. Even when I managed to cut off a bundle of tentacles, it merely sprouted new tentacles from the cross-section.

I purposely launched attacks from various angles and at different body parts, but nowhere showed a reaction.

[Did you think that would work!]

'Bullshit. How am I supposed to kill her like this?'

I seriously considered whether I should channel Hercules fighting the Hydra and bring some fire. What made my eyes widen was what happened next.

"You're really pulling out all the stops..."

As if her belly skin splitting horizontally wasn't enough, she was shoving corpses in there and devouring them.

'Cannibalism on top of human sacrifice? This is really a headache.'

Without stopping my brow from furrowing, I gripped my two-hander tightly. Regardless of how hard she was to block, I couldn't just let her absorb the corpses unopposed.

At the very least, I'd chop and pulverize them. Making it so she'd have a hard time even putting them in her mouth unless she brought a shovel.

[Such a pitiful trick!]

That petty sabotage actually had an effect. Her slippery tentacles struggled to easily lift the butchered remains.

Let alone the spilled guts and blood, which couldn't even be scooped up.

「Madness Gauge 3%」

「Madness Gauge 4%」

... Of course, that didn't put my mind at ease. I knew they were all heinous villains, but that single fact didn't give me the right to desecrate the dead.

「Madness Gauge 5%」

'Forget it, I can't just keep desecrating corpses. If I continue failing to deal proper damage like now, this fight will inevitably end in my defeat.'

My mana recovery speed had increased—for some unknown reason—so that was fine, but the Madness Gauge was a different story.

It even jumped by 3% in the short time I wasn't looking at it.

'I really should bring fire.'

I advanced toward the enraged Focalor. Thinking I was aiming for her, Focalor shot a bundle of tentacles at me.

But I had already roughly figured out her attack pattern.

I couldn't rely on skill assistance because of the cooldown from earlier. Recalling the time I spent spectacularly playing around with all sorts of flying monsters, I moved my body under my own power.

The first tentacle struck the ground right beneath where I had lifted my foot to step; as I cleverly dodged it and stepped forward, the second tentacle approached.

As my sword rotated in a circle and severed it, the third tentacle curved slightly to aim at my back.

I twisted my waist exactly as the third tentacle fired. Piercing through the fluttering hem of my coat, the tentacle passed through the empty space in front of my chest and dug into the floor.

My right arm grabbed it and immediately swung it upward. Thrown up like a jump rope, it swatted away the fourth tentacle.

Five. My body kicked off the ground and soared up. Six. Twisting fluidly even in midair, my body effortlessly dodged the tentacle.

The final seventh. My sword cleaved through a tentacle along with Focalor's face.

Completing a full rotation, my body landed in a sliding motion right behind Focalor.

[You clown...!]

'Isn't a clown better than a grotesque creature that's neither human nor demon?' With a petty internal quip, I turned my back to Focalor and ran. THUD! My legs began scaling the castle wall.

FLAP!

My coat tails billowed upwards, and I placed my hands on the battlement.

In front of me was a single guard who had chosen to just cower in fear after watching both my performance and Focalor's transformation.

"H-Hi, hik!"

The guard's lips flapped without being able to form a proper sentence. Was there any benefit to keeping that thing alive?

I pondered this while leaping over the battlement. The conclusion was singular.

SMASH!

None. The only people in this city who deserved to keep their lives were the poor civilians caught up in this mess.

「Madness Gauge 6%」

Immediately after crushing the guard's head with my fist—since I had already sheathed my sword—I turned my head. Atop the castle wall were the brazier and torch I had been hoping for.

FWOOSH.

I lit the torch with the fire from the brazier.

[The sight of you fleeing is truly as wretched as it gets!]

Below the wall, the very person who didn't even know what I was doing was shouting at me. It was a rather hurtful remark.

Clutching the torch tightly, I checked Focalor's position. That distance was reachable.

My hand grabbed the bottom of the brazier by its legs and hefted it right up. BANG! Then, right as I reached the edge of the wall, I tossed the brazier into the air and kicked it.

The glowing red firewood inside the brazier flew out and rained downward.

[A mere human...!]

Focalor hurriedly stepped back from the shower of fireballs cascading from above. However, she couldn't dodge every single ember and log, and that was enough for me.

Focalor wasn't capable of instantly recovering from burns. The tentacles that writhed as if shuddering the moment they touched the fire, and the flesh that shriveled up like roasted meat without regenerating, proved as much.

"I'll roast you to a crisp, you bug."

Torch in hand, my body dropped to the ground.

「Madness Gauge 7%」

The dancing crimson light dyed even my ashen eyes with a reddish hue.