Double Play
"Y-you bastard!"
"I was in the middle of talking!"
...And what of it?
With a sharp click, Jun fired another round at the black-clad figures spouting such absurd nonsense, as if to snap them back to their senses.
The bullet had not been fully charged with Aura and electricity, so it lacked the same devastating force as before—yet that did not mean it was weak.
"Sh-shit!"
Bang!
Even so, the attack still outpaced the distinctive crack of the Railgun itself. The black-clad man failed to dodge completely. He managed to twist his body just enough to keep the shot from striking a vital point, but a chunk of his side was torn clean away. For a human it would have been a fatal wound; astonishingly, the man remained on his feet, spitting thick curses.
"Grrrr."
Clutching the wound, he began to snarl like a beast. As if answering the sound, his entire body swelled with wet, grinding cracks of bone and flesh. The demonic energy drifting through the air was sucked into him at a terrifying rate, fueling the transformation.
"Jun!"
Fortuna's urgent cry cut through the haze. The call steadied his startled heart; Jun hastily leveled the musket at the transforming figure, fully intending to blow the creature's head off the same way he had the first one.
"Dieee!"
The second black-clad man threw himself in front of his transforming comrade and charged, one hand already blackened and grotesquely swollen into a monstrous claw.
Click.
Trusting the Railgun's penetrating power, Jun pulled the trigger. A bullet forged entirely of special metal streaked forward at the speed of light, determined to punch through anything in its path.
Dong!
Instead of a clean perforation, only a dull, bell-like impact rang out. The bullet failed to pierce. Some sort of shock-dispersing ability, apparently.
"K-krrr!"
Still, the damage was far from trivial. The man staggered to a halt, blood bubbling from his mouth as if his insides had been thoroughly scrambled. That kind of trauma should have dropped him, yet he stayed upright—and, like his companion, began absorbing demonic energy and reshaping his body.
"What the hell are these things?"
"Demonic Humans! The bastards who abandoned this world and sold themselves to the one beyond the Labyrinth!"
Fortuna answered, wings flaring rigid. Through the soul-thread that bound them, a tidal wave of raw hatred flooded into Jun.
Demonic Humans, huh?
He already knew the term. Word of them filtered through the guild often enough, and Carol had warned him more than once to be careful. It made sense: the Labyrinth—and the Demon King's castle beyond it—were saturated with demonic energy that preyed on humanity's darker impulses, making the place a hotbed for their birth and activity. In the mere half-year Jun had been an adventurer, three new Demonic Humans had been officially recorded, and crimes led by them already numbered more than ten.
The guild did everything it could to exterminate them, but the work was never easy. The creatures simply burrowed deep into the Labyrinth and refused to come out. Having forsaken this world for the one beyond, they could freely draw on the alien mana and demonic energy that filled the Labyrinth, granting them several times the power and stamina of an equal-ranked fighter. Worse, the Labyrinth's monsters recognized them as allies and joined the fight whenever combat began or danger loomed. Already outmatched in quality, the extermination teams were crushed by sheer numbers as well.
Jun knew their usual traits well enough. What he had never heard of was this kind of physical transformation.
"They're the ones who received the mark! I'll explain the rest later—stop them before the change finishes!"
"Got it. Rebecca, take the one in the back."
"Understood."
Jun folded space; Rebecca slipped through shadow. In an instant both were within striking distance of the black-clad men, blades already rising toward their throats—
"Not so fast."
"How dare you ignore me."
The hunter party and the noble second-daughter's party, who had been standing dazed until now, suddenly intervened. Melee fighters threw themselves forward to shield the Demonic Humans while ranged casters unleashed a barrage meant to pin Jun and Rebecca in place.
"Tch!"
"Couldn't just sit quietly and watch, could you."
Forced to give ground, Jun and Rebecca fell back. Under ordinary circumstances they would have accepted a little damage to finish the two black-clad men who were rapidly shedding human form. The killing intent rolling off the two parties, however, made it clear that "a little damage" would not be the end of it.
"...What the hell did you do for two months?"
Jun could not help asking. In his memory both parties had hovered at the tail end of Blue rank or lower. Now, after only two months, every single member stood at Green. One or two breakthroughs might be possible; an entire party rising together was impossible by any normal means.
"Nothing special. We just joined a new religion and did whatever they told us. This is what happened."
The hunter grinned and, as if showing off, turned over his left hand. A grotesque sigil was branded into the back of it—the mark Fortuna had mentioned.
"...You took that mark and really fell for the religion, huh."
"Yeah. The one we serve doesn't play favorites like a certain someone. Show zeal and the grace comes back fair and square, no matter who you are. Work hard, and the blessing matches the effort."
"Hard work, is it... Is that the fruit of your labor?"
Jun pointed to the corpses strewn across one corner of the chamber. The adventurers had died so recently that the Labyrinth had not yet absorbed them. In a few more minutes, once the hot blood cooled, the bodies would break down into fine particles and become nourishment for the Labyrinth itself. And were these the only ones? Jun could already picture exactly what the two parties had been doing while they camped here for five days. He ground his teeth and fixed the hunter with a murderous glare. Electricity began to crackle across his skin; both eyes flooded with electric blue.
"Ugh."
The hunter had weathered countless stares of hatred and resentment, yet something about those blue eyes made him unable to meet them head-on. For a fleeting instant the pupils seemed to slit vertically like a reptile's—surely a trick of the light. Swallowing a low hum of unease, he took an involuntary step back.
Betty, the noble second daughter, stepped forward in his place. Her eyes burned with greed, jealousy, and rage.
"Commoner. All of this is your fault."
"...What?"
"If you had come to me obediently, none of them would have died like that, and I would never have had to commit this transgression."
"You crazy bitch, don't pin this on someone else."
He would not claim total innocence. He had been the spark, after all. Is being handsome a crime? All I did was show my face once—the thought flickered, but he could not deny that he had planted the seeds of greed and fury in her heart. He was prepared to own that much. What he refused to own was the way those seeds had germinated into a full-grown tree of depravity. The only fertilizer had been her own greed, jealousy, rage, and a little outside encouragement. The responsibility for everything that followed rested solely on her and on those who had goaded her.
"No. It is your fault. So kneel right now and beg. If you do, I might show mercy and—"
"Shut up."
He could not listen any longer. The sight of a sinner holding her head high as if she had done nothing wrong was more than he could bear.
As if in agreement, his three cores began to spin with ferocious speed. Mana that had been crushed beneath the weight of demonic energy shoved the foul power aside and poured eagerly into the cores. The demonic energy tried to sneak in and taint the precious vessels—
KRAAAA!
Crack! Crackle!
A radiant dragon of lightning swallowed every last scrap without spilling a drop. Inside the dragon's belly the demonic energy was digested, purified, and absorbed straight into the cores.
"You're the ones who should bow those stiff necks and get on your knees."
"...You don't seem to grasp the situation. Just the two of you against all of us? Then I'll kindly help you understand."
That was his line to say. Psychic power answered Jun's will and seized the free-floating mana. The mana grumbled but obeyed, opening a dialogue with space itself. Aura braced the mana's back and poured strength into it. Everything was ready.
Jun activated the magic and stamped his foot.
"Kneel."
Boom!
Magic Compression — Jun-style Modification
Heavenly Demon Descent Step
Space itself crushed Betty and both parties. Stiff necks were forced down; knees buckled halfway to the floor. At last the sinners wore expressions somewhat more fitting for their crimes.