Cockroach
Cockroach
I would have liked to say the demon bastard I normally hard-counter was just putting on airs, but this time I couldn't. I might not be able to sense aura or Mana, but I could feel Magic Power. Hell, I could even see it, so there was no way I could miss it.
[You fucking bastard!!]
"You sure talk well for looking like that."
I figured if it was possible to rip its head off, maybe I could cram it back in too, so I gave it a shot. The body of the demon brat, which had suddenly lost its neck after catching my technique, overflowed with Magic Power incomparable to some Inguladius shithead. My original aim had been to ram its whole damn head down to its belly, but seeing how the head ended up only half-caved in, maybe the degree to which the technique worked varied depending on the target's Magic Power.
[What in the world did you...!]
Meaning, the demon in front of me right now, acting like a fucking moron trying to shove its head back into place, was of a fairly high rank. Meaning it possessed something substantial enough to make up at least part of the gap between me and a demon I'd normally hard-counter. Which also meant it had enough standing to blather about being an archduke or whatever, and that it was a piece of waste more harmful to humanity than the average demon.
"What, you gonna do something about it? You're gonna die anyway."
[Know your place, human!]
The moment the bastard yanked its own head out, it began recovering at a disgustingly rapid pace. Naturally, I had no intention of kindly standing there watching, so I took that opening, wrapped my sword in Magic Power, and lunged.
Reacting to me, Magic Power whipped up a frenzy around the bastard. Despite its sorry state, it could still cast magic—a piece of waste with a uselessly diverse skill set. But perhaps because it was concurrently regenerating its wounds, it wasn't very fast, and while I was digging inward, I could leisurely sever its Magic Power and disrupt its spell.
BOOM! Perhaps because it was a considerably large spell, sizable explosions erupted over the demon's left and right shoulders, and its face colored with shock.
[You, it was you!!]
"Where does a cockroach bastard like you get off talking down to me whenever you feel like it?"
Fortunately, just because it was a slightly stronger piece of waste didn't mean the blade wouldn't go in. The resistance felt through the sword while slicing off the staggered bastard's two legs and left arm was minimal.
[Kaaaak!]
Just as I was about to finish cutting off its remaining arm, the demon's body suddenly dispersed like mist. I was a bit surprised the demon pulled that bullshit usually reserved for vampires, but even if it turned to mist, its Magic Power wasn't going anywhere, so I aimed for where the Magic Power was most densely clustered and stabbed.
[Kiiyaaaak!]
"Fucking noisy. Take a page from Inguladius. That bastard was quiet even with half his head smashed in."
Of course, he'd been quiet only because half his head was smashed in, but I decided not to get bogged down nitpicking such trivial details. The demon, which had begun recovering its original form centered around the spot my blade had stabbed, glared at me with both eyes wide.
[Inguladius?! You! You're Eldmia Ega!]
"Call me 'Sir Ega,' cockroach."
[Aaagh! A mere scrap of a human dares!!]
You had to call its willpower tenacious, maybe. Releasing its mist form and instantly restoring its severed limbs, the demon swung both arms aiming for my head. I maximized the Magic Power coating my sword, ripped it free with a swing that severed its new arms, nullified its attack, and kicked its gut with all my strength—with an 'oof,' the demon went flying in a wretched display.
[Urgh, th-this is absurd! No matter how incomplete I am...!]
Unlike its mud-caked body, disgustingly, at least its eyeballs were realistic, and a tremor ran through the demon's pupils, but it evoked no particular sentiment. The only thought that crossed my mind was that maybe all demon brats shared the exact same repertoire of excuses. If I'd had my way, I would've aimed for its heart, but for some reason, unlike Inguladius, its heart wasn't visible, which was a shame.
As I approached to neutralize it quickly and ask just where the hell its heart was, the demon lurched to its feet and shouted.
[I! Am the connoisseur of knowledge! Krumelia!]
The retort 'What do you want me to do about it?' rose to my throat, but there was no time to let it out of my mouth.
The moment I moved closer to separate the insolent bastard's head from its body one more time for stealing someone else's signature line, its body began swelling up again. At the same time, as if refusing to allow anyone near, disgusting thorns burst out in every direction, and I became frantically busy dodging and destroying them.
"Eldmia!"
Seizing that gap, the party members who had been waiting behind me as I'd instructed rushed out. I might not have appreciated it at another time, but right now I was genuinely grateful. Unlike me, who had to cut everything down one by one, Siegfried had convenient area attacks in the form of magic and spirit arts.
The moment he reached my side, Siegfried, who had unfurled blades of wind as wide as possible, shouted without taking his eyes off the demon.
"I have a shitton of things I really wanna ask, but I'll hold back for now!"
"I'll answer as much as I can once things settle down. More importantly, Saintess? Do you happen to know anything about heartless demons?"
"A d-demon without a heart?"
At first, I wondered if the Magic Power density was just too high to see it, but now I was sure. That bastard's heart wasn't here.
The saintess stammered and looked flustered, but her eyes were clearly following the situation as she furrowed her brow in thought. Fortunately, there was no immediate urgency, so I waited patiently. No matter how many thorns that disgusting lump of flesh spat out, Siegfried's spirit art blocked them perfectly. I had no idea what it was doing, but producing those thorns had to consume its own strength, so in the long run it probably wasn't a loss for us.
"Among the recorded accounts, there is only one case where a demon lacks a heart. It is when they ignore or neglect the process they must undergo to exist in this place."
"Process? You mean like offering sacrifices, or something like that?"
"Yes. It is a method established over countless ages by demon worshippers and demons to deceive the world. Demons who have not undergone that process do not possess hearts."
The penalty for a creature whose weakness is its heart and yet breaks the rules... was to appear heartless? Something felt like it didn't add up, so I tilted my head, and further explanation immediately followed.
"Only their heart remains in Manmajeon, the world of demons. It is left utterly defenseless, without any protection whatsoever, becoming prey for other demons. Even if they had a way to protect their heart safely, it rapidly weakens the moment it is separated from the body, and because they incarnated here without a heart, they cannot fully exert their own power."
Indeed, a saintess was a saintess even if a Hero was kneading her ass in a public place. Information I'd had no clue about despite living fairly diligently reading books just popped out so casually.
But it wasn't all good news. It was essentially the same as saying we had no way to kill that bastard right now.
What kind of unreasonable cockroach was this?
"Ah, no! It's different! Precisely because it lacks a heart, if you sever its neck or destroy its head, it cannot maintain its physical body! It will be expelled to Manmajeon!"
But what was this? The saintess urgently waved her hands, denying my hasty conclusion.
"What? Really?"
"It is certain. Since it is a form only demons can take, a precise explanation is difficult... but that demon is in a situation where it must use related magic continuously to maintain its existence because its heart is not here. Even if the heart is the source of power, ultimately, the head is what uses it, and if it's destroyed, the spellcasting also stops. Demons in the past were expelled to Manmajeon in exactly that manner."
"That's a real relief."
Thanks to that, the shitty feeling of maybe not being able to kill the demon right in front of me subsided in an instant, and my insides settled comfortably. It felt like I'd eaten a million sweet potatoes at once, seriously.
Maybe, rather than the bastard resisting my technique because it was overwhelmingly stronger than Inguladius or other demons, it was more correct to think it protected its head desperately because if it came off, it would definitely disappear.
I was already starting to regret not trying one more time, but what could I do? Even though it had become far easier after constructing a Magic Organ, severing the neck by linking Magic Power was still a disgustingly taxing technique for me too. Honestly, my initial plan had been to end it by cleanly blowing its whole head off, but since the thing was especially tenacious and I'd had to use it two more times, now I couldn't use it recklessly if I wanted to keep moving properly.
What choice did I have? If Magic Power didn't work, I'd have to use physical force. The thought of lopping its neck off the moment that horseshit was over was barely formed when the demon's cry rang out.
[Kwarararara!]
"Now it can't even... What the hell is that."
When I finished talking and turned my head, the swollen mass, far from shrinking, had grown even larger. As it increasingly hypertrophied and began changing form into something other than human, the more the mass took concrete shape, the more everyone's expressions—mine included—began to contort.
"Th-th-that!"
On behalf of the saintess, who couldn't even speak properly, Siegfried asked me with a dumbfounded face.
"Younger brother? Is that thing a dragon, by any chance?"
How about you don't ask me when you're the one holding Dragon Slayer? I'd never seen one either.
"If it's not an overgrown lizard that got swollen from getting hit with the wrong spell, then it's probably a dragon, yeah."
It still looked like something molded from mud, but no matter how I looked at it, the demon bastard had transformed into exactly the shape that came to mind when you thought of a dragon. I didn't know whether it had adjusted its size or dragons in this world were simply that large, but its bloated body filled more than half of the spacious chamber as it bared its teeth and declared.
[I will crush and annihilate you all!]
Thoughts like 'Did I feel any pressure?', 'Why did it scream earlier if it could talk?', or 'Was its demon-demon ability the higher-tier version of Mongsun's?' flickered through my mind, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
"Looks like the Hero will have to take that thing's head off."
The problem was, whether I wrapped it in Magic Power or whatever, if the recovery ability the bastard had shown earlier persisted, cleanly severing that dragon's neck with my sword would be difficult.
Fortunately, Siegfried only re-gripped his greatsword with a rarely-seen serious expression, without letting out a single complaint.