Big Boss, Part 9
Once he seized the upper hand, the battle was as good as won.
Crack!"Huh? Hey, asshole, you've been whining about Holy Knights this whole time, haven't you? Let me tell you a secret: Holy Knights are at their strongest when they fight with a shield!"
"Aaargh!"
Yohan mounted the demon's body, raising his shield with both hands and repeatedly slamming its edge into the creature's chest.
Crunch!"Head, chest, torso!"
"S-Spare me!"
Pushed to the brink of absolute destruction, the demon finally began to beg for its life. But this was a fatal error in judgment.
"Hehehe."
Where had all that bluster about eating him alive gone? To think it would beg for its life so miserably. Yohan looked down at the collapsed demon and let out a truly wicked grin. If anyone else were to witness this scene, they would probably scream in horror, thinking a lunatic Holy Knight was brutally beating a poor, defenseless demon to death.
—Yes! Go for the eye sockets this time! Smash its eyes in!
Far from stopping him, the Goddess—who supposedly championed justice and goodness—was cheering him on with absolute glee.
"Huff... huff..."
How long had he been bashing the demon's body with his shield? Yohan suddenly realized he could no longer hear the creature's screams or pleas. He glanced down at the limp form of the demon. The fierce, malevolent energy it had been radiating was completely gone. It seemed he had actually beaten it to death with a shield.
"Is it over?" Yohan muttered, inadvertently uttering the ultimate taboo phrase for such a situation.
—No, it is not over yet.
Of course it wasn't. The Goddess answered his self-muttering instantly.
Fshhh— "W-What the?!"
The bone dust, shattered into pieces by his shield, began to violently churn on its own. The anomaly didn't stop there. The bones of all sizes that made up the demon's body, along with the dust Yohan had personally pulverized, ground down into fine grains and swirled together into a vortex.
Whoosh! "Gah!"
The fine, razor-sharp bone dust spun furiously, scratching Yohan's exposed skin and drawing beads of blood. The blood that seeped out was swept into the fierce wind, as if the living vortex was greedily drinking his blood.
—Since it has come to this, I will drag you to the underworld with me!
The vortex of bone dust coalesced into the shape of a massive skull. The giant skull spewed a curse filled with pure, venomous malice at Yohan.
Screeech—! A sickening resonance vibrated from deep within the giant skull. Yohan realized this was the prelude to the creature's final, desperate attack.
—He is going to detonate himself!
"I—I know that!"
What should he do? Yohan felt a sense of crisis unlike anything he had ever experienced. Run away? That was out of the question. He couldn't possibly outrun the blast radius on foot, and if he used the Goddess's power to teleport away, the resulting explosion might collapse this entire underground space. There was only one answer. Yohan had to stop the demon's final, desperate struggle.
Fshhh— In an instant, the Shield of Light in Yohan's hand vanished, and the greatsword he had wielded earlier materialized once more.
"Whew..." Focus. I have to kill this demon bastard with this single strike before he detonates. Yohan closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his racing heart.
—Th-This is truly dangerous. My Apostle, should we not flee while we still can? The Goddess seemed to realize just how dire the situation was. Yohan didn't think her suggestion was entirely wrong either.
"No. I'm finishing this right here."
—He intends to squeeze out every last drop of his life force to blow this entire space to kingdom come!
"I know. That's why I just have to kill him before he blows. It's too late to run now anyway."
—But...
"Hey. What did I say before? If you're going to die helplessly anyway, isn't it better to go down swinging and land a solid punch?" These were the very words Yohan had once said to Charles when the boy had completely abandoned his will to live.
—Are you saying you intend to die here?
"Who knows? Honestly, I haven't really thought about whether I'll live or die." Yohan channeled the Goddess's Authority. In response, the Light Sword in his grip grew larger and more imposing.
"But, you know, I'm technically the Apostle of the Goddess of Justice. If I run away here, it'll totally ruin my style."
—... The Goddess fell silent. But after a brief pause, Yohan heard her snort in his mind.
"Well, obviously, surviving would be the ideal outcome."
—Indeed. You speak the truth. It seems I harbored foolish thoughts for a moment.
Flash! The moment she finished speaking, the Goddess manifested physically in her child-like form.
"W-What?"
"It is as you say. Even if we are to perish, is it not better to land a solid blow on this wretched demon?" The Goddess's expression was more resolute than ever. She offered Yohan a gentle smile and softly placed her hand on his forearm, which was gripping the sword.
"Whoa..." Instantly, an energy of an entirely different caliber than anything he had felt before surged through Yohan's body.
"Go forth, my Apostle Yohan."
"You got it!" Now that he had the Goddess's blessing, Yohan gathered every ounce of his Divine Power and concentrated it into the Light Sword.
"We die together!" the disembodied demon shrieked once more. Simultaneously, an ominous light flared within the center of the vortex. Of course, Yohan had absolutely no intention of letting the bastard blow himself up as he pleased.
"Take this!" A single beam of brilliant light pierced through the skull-shaped vortex.
———————!
A death rattle that belonged to no living creature on earth erupted. Along with it, the flash of light unleashed by Yohan's swing filled the entire underground chamber, completely blinding everything.
"Ugh!" The light was so blindingly bright that Yohan reflexively squeezed his eyes shut. Yet, even through his closed eyelids, the brilliant radiance pierced through.
"..." How much time had passed? Yohan slowly squinted his eyes open and surveyed his surroundings. The stone floor was shattered in places from the intense battle, and bloodstains splattered the area. And... a few meters away lay a neat pile of fine powder that looked like sand at a glance.
Fshhh— Soon, a thin wisp of smoke rose from the pile, and the accumulated powder evaporated into nothingness, leaving absolutely nothing behind.
Yohan briefly locked eyes with the Goddess standing beside him. They blinked at each other for a long moment, then simultaneously reached out and locked their fingers together in a tight double-handed grip.
"We got him!" the Goddess cried out in sheer excitement, swinging their locked hands back and forth.
"Pfft, haha!" They had actually done it. A mere grave robber who used to raid other people's tombs had just vanquished the absolute ruler of the Undercity and the demon possessing him.
"Bwahahaha!" "Well done! Truly magnificent!" They had both prepared for death, but in the end, they had both survived. More than his own safety, Yohan felt a deeper sense of relief and joy that the pint-sized Goddess before him was unharmed.
"Damn, hey. Was I cool back there?" "Yes. You were incredibly cool!" Yohan asked, looking at her. The Goddess nodded vigorously in response. But Yohan wasn't quite satisfied with that answer.
"Was I fucking awesome?" Yohan asked in a louder voice.
"Yes! You were fucking awesome, you bastard!" the Goddess bellowed back even louder. Only then did Yohan nod a couple of times, finally satisfied.
"Alright. Let's head back—"
Rumble—! Just as they were about to make a grand exit from the underground chamber, an ominous sound echoed from the ceiling above.
"W-What now?" Yohan froze and looked up toward the ceiling. The ceiling, which should have been supported by numerous pillars and walls, now had a massive hole gaping in it.
"Ah." And Yohan immediately realized why that hole had formed. Wait a minute... come to think of it, the deepest parts of the Undercity run directly beneath the river that flows through Balifield...
Ruuuumble—! From the massive, gaping hole, something that should never have breached this place came cascading down with terrifying force. It was river water.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuck!" Yohan gritted his teeth and sprinted. It felt like he had been doing an awful lot of running lately, but he didn't have the luxury to complain about that right now.
Ruuuush! Behind him, the sound of a massive torrent of river water—infinitely more terrifying than any demon—chased him at a breakneck speed. Meanwhile, the cowardly Goddess had immediately reverted to her spiritual form and vanished. It seemed she had learned a thing or two from the time they were chased by that horde of undead monsters.
"Teleport! Hey, teleport us!"
—I cannot! I expended almost all of my Divine Power lending you strength just now! Yohan screamed at the top of his lungs, but her reply shattered his desperate hopes.
"You useless, brainless idiot!"
—Aaaah, I don't know! We're doomed! They were, quite literally, doomed. He had coolly prepared for death and unleashed his ultimate finishing blow, only for it to be so powerful that it punched a hole straight into the riverbed above. He couldn't even complain to anyone about this unfair turn of events.
Rumble—! The only saving grace was that as soon as Yohan escaped the chamber and entered the corridor, the heavy stone entrance doors began to close on their own. Thanks to that, the momentum of the rushing river water seemed to slow down slightly.
Thud! The doors finally shut completely. Now, only a small trickle of water managed to seep through the narrow gaps. With the corridor sealed off by the doors, the chamber behind him would fill with water, but the corridor itself wouldn't flood enough to drown him. Yohan let out a sigh of relief as he looked down at the shallow water splashing around his ankles. It was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. Perhaps this stone door mechanism had been designed precisely to prepare for a ceiling collapse and subsequent flooding.
"Huff... huff... damn it. I almost ended up as fish food."
—Even if you were to die fighting evil, I could not bear to watch you drown so miserably.
"Tell me about it." Well, they survived, and that was all that mattered. Yohan exchanged a brief banter with the Goddess and took a step toward the exit.
Crack! But as if mocking his relief, a sound that should never have occurred echoed from the tightly shut stone doors.
"Oh, come on. Hey, tell me it's not what I think it is." There's no way, right? Praying his instincts were wrong, Yohan slowly turned his head to look back at the stone doors.
Sure enough, cracks were spiderwebbing across the surface of the stone. Water was spraying out from the fissures with increasing intensity.
Ruuuush! In a matter of seconds, the stone doors shattered completely, and a massive wall of river water burst into the corridor. The water that had been temporarily held back by the doors now surged forward all at once, creating a current even more violent than before.
"Hieeeek!" Yohan let out a pathetic shriek and bolted toward the exit like a madman.
—Stop screaming and run faster, you idiot!
"I am running, you don't need to tell me!"
"Did you hear that just now?"
"Yes. It was faint, but I heard it."
"It wasn't just a sound. The ground shook a little too."
While running deep into the Undercity, Falco suddenly stopped and exchanged words with Charles. A dull impact had echoed, sending a faint vibration through the floor. Falco instinctively knew that the tremor was from the battle between Yohan and Big Boss. She immediately resumed running toward the source of the sound.
After running toward the epicenter for a while, they reached an area where not a single passerby could be seen. It seemed they had entered the territory directly controlled by the Undercity Family.
"Whoa, hold it right there. No civilians past this point."
Sure enough, a man who appeared to be a member of the Family approached them, blocking their path. Several other rough-looking thugs stood nearby. Falco eyed the Family members. They didn't look like the type to listen to reason. In fact, their expressions suggested they were hoping to shake down the newcomers for whatever money they had.
Thwack!"Guh!"
Falco suddenly leaped into the air and kicked the man square in the face. She had no time to waste on useless brawling. Caught completely off guard, the man collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth. The other thugs froze in unison as they watched their comrade spin through the air and crash spectacularly onto the floor.
"Don't get in my way," Falco spat coldly, continuing her advance.