Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Demon's Weapon
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Jade was deep in thought as he walked and nearly sank into the swamp once more. Fortunately, Merald wasn't far off this time and immediately reached out a hand to grab him.
'At this rate, even if Ruby teases me by asking if I'm doing it on purpose, I wouldn't have anything to say in my defense.'
At that moment, Saf's voice rang out across the marsh.
"Drop that sword right now!"
Saf stood rooted to the spot like a child throwing a tantrum, refusing to budge unless his demand was met.
"Why?"
Ruby paid no mind to Saf's attitude.
"I'm telling you, I nearly died to that exact sword. If you keep carrying it, I'll just keep reliving that moment!"
At Saf's words, Ruby made the sword on his back transparently invisible, as if to show off.
"Better now?"
"What do you mean, better? Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's gone."
"Strictly speaking, this isn't the sword that nearly killed you. I already broke that one. This is a different sword. The color's the same, but the design is completely different..."
"You don't need a weapon in the first place. You're strong enough with your bare hands."
"Didn't you just see? This sword can kill demons!"
Ruby said this and then hurriedly glanced around.
"Wait! This is 'after that fight with those fish bastards,' right?"
"What are you even talking about all of a sudden? Don't change the subject!"
"It's important to me to get the timeline straight."
Ruby pointed back the way they'd come, then at their current position, continuing in a confirming tone.
"We just had a big scrap with those fish Komoras in the swamp, and we couldn't camp where they rotted because of the stench, so we're on the move... right?"
Ruby looked back and forth between Jade, Saf, and Merald.
All three stared at her bizarre question in stunned silence for a long moment.
"Right, or not?"
Ruby pressed for an answer.
"Right. So?"
Jade asked.
"Good. Then, again."
Ruby cleared her throat in satisfaction and spoke to Saf.
"The fact that this sword can kill demons means your 'precious bride' doesn't have to rush into danger anymore!"
"That's a completely different situation!"
Saf shouted loudly.
Jade cut in.
"Saf's right. An angel using a demon's weapon isn't right in any number of ways."
"It's not about right or wrong."
"Then what is it?"
Ruby stopped short of answering immediately. Jade caught on right away.
'She's only just coming up with a response now.'
Soon, Ruby pointed at Merald and said,
"You look cooler with a weapon."
A bow the size of Jade hung from Merald's back, and his waist and shoulder belts were loaded with a big sword, a small sword, throwing knives, and hand axes.
The massive orc decked out in all that gear looked like a total pro, and yeah, undeniably cool. If Merald threatened someone in that state, elf, human, or demon—it wouldn't matter; they'd all cower.
By contrast, to a stranger's eyes, Ruby just looked like a rebellious kid. No matter how threateningly she talked, it probably wouldn't land.
In fact, recalling the scant experiences Jade had with her, Ruby was always getting dismissed. But right now, with a sword bigger and heavier than herself, she actually looked intimidating.
Ruby spun the finger she'd pointed at Merald back toward herself.
"Get it?"
Jade was convinced. But pretending otherwise, he cleared his throat and said,
"I'm not saying it's cool."
"You gotta be cool to be stronger."
Ruby said firmly.
"Huh? So, having a weapon makes you cool, and being cool makes you stronger?"
"You got it exactly. You have to be cool to be stronger."
Jade shook his head.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. Anyway, if that was Buffalord's weapon, then it's a demon's weapon. It could corrupt you."
Ruby scoffed.
"You think I'd get corrupted just from carrying around some demon trinket, after barehandedly crushing Beishuper? Don't judge me by human standards, you weakling."
Jade was at a loss for words, unsure how to argue back with logic.
But Saf didn't give up and kept persuading.
"That's not true, Ruby. I think you look cooler fighting barehanded. If you look strong because you're cool, then you're already strong."
"Anyone who knows nothing about fighting, stay out of this debate!"
Then Saf turned to Merald for help.
"Merald, tell Ruby to ditch that awful thing. You've fought her—you know how strong she is without a weapon, right?"
Merald showed a moment of contemplation.
Jade figured he'd either persuade Ruby or turn around and persuade Saf instead.
From a warrior's perspective, a weapon that could kill demons had to be valuable.
But his response was offbeat.
"Ruby's right."
"Huh? Right about what...?"
Saf trailed off, and Merald replied in a definitive tone.
"Having cool gear and clothes definitely boosts your combat power. It's an undeniable fact."
Jade was baffled, but with two seasoned fighters agreeing, he couldn't muster a rebuttal.
Ruby grinned triumphantly.
"Hear that? Only people who know how to fight will agree with me. You weaklings stay out of the conversation."
Merald already had a demon weapon too, after all. It was a dagger whose form had warped from contact with Buffalord's soul form, the spirit of Antebas.
Jade had wanted to suggest ditching or destroying that dagger several times, but Merald's fierce face made it hard to bring up.
And when they reached the Whispering Marsh, that weapon's power had revealed itself.
Demons that needed total incineration, or lucky hits to specific points only Saf could see, or death by ray of annihilation—they'd all died.
"We should make more weapons like this! You said you made that dagger with Buffalord's soul form, right? Then let's yank out soul forms from those fish Komoras en masse and coat Merald's arrows one by one! What do you say, Merald? Getting excited already? Jade, that whole 'shooting light magic' idea you were pondering—this could be it."
Ruby said excitedly.
"It's a wonder how you come up with ideas like that."
Jade continued slowly, partly to calm her excitement.
"For starters, your idea has a few problems. Capturing verses only work on demons with names—nameless lesser demons can't be turned into soul forms. Meaning we can't mass-capture those fish Komoras we just fought and make demon weapons out of them."
"Then we can only make ones like Buffalord. Fine! Next one we catch, definitely turn into a soul form and..."
"No, seeing you like this, Ruby, I wouldn't want to even if we had the chance."
"What about me?"
"In your terms, I can see the spirit of pleasure rampaging in your head right now."
Ruby glared at Jade and crossed her arms.
Her pale face was still smeared with mud and muck. In the darkness lit only by moonlight, it looked almost like she was covered in blood.
"You claimed that as an angel, you won't be corrupted by demon power? But in the stories I know, even the holiest and greatest angels fell. And that angel became the most powerful demon."
Saf asked cautiously.
"Are you talking about Luci... fer?"
Ruby whipped around to glare at Saf.
"Lucifer? Never heard of that angel. The one who claims to be the strongest and holiest among angels is Gatriel. Of course, I'll be the strongest soon enough."
Ruby grumbled and started walking ahead alone.
"Tch, I try to say something nice for their sake, and they nitpick and bitch."
Ruby's grumbling oddly echoed through the swamp.
In truth, Jade couldn't imagine Ruby falling to corruption.
To her, a demon sword was probably just a slightly special tool, like a lumberjack's saw or a blacksmith's hammer.
'She's already handled weapons far better than that puny Buffalord sword 500 years ago. Holding something like that won't make her obsessed with power or exposed to demonic poison. But for some reason, I just don't want to let her have it.'
Jade brought up the topic he'd been putting off.
"Merald, I can't approve of you using that sword either."
Merald resumed walking.
Jade stuck close to his side.
"I still haven't figured out the principle behind how it's channeling demon power. The sword itself could be Buffalord reincarnated."
"We can confirm Buffalord's death from the Komoras in the Great Oak Forest all dying at once... You were the one who told me that."
"That was just a guess too. I still don't know the exact mechanics of how demons die or get annihilated! So what threat that weapon poses to you, what side effects it might have—I don't know yet..."
"Jade, a weapon is just a weapon. And you don't know how much I've wanted something like this all this time."
Merald's voice was firm. But Jade didn't back down easily.
"I'll admit it makes fighting easier. But I can't agree to using demon power to fight demons, Merald."
"I don't think it's up to you to agree or not."
"I've seen plenty of people kill each other over a few lumps of gold. Do you think the killer sees himself as evil for murdering over that gold? No—he thinks the gold rightfully belonged to him, that it ended up in the victim's hands. It couldn't be helped!"
"Don't compare gold to the justice of the forest."
"I also saw someone in the Red Desert who pursued power so hard he accepted a demon into himself. To him, it was the right thing too. Think back to those hymns the Komoras sing, worshiping Cowking as a god."
Jade narrowed his eyes in warning.
"Once you use demon power to drive out Cowking, Merald, Elf Forest might end up with a new demon named Merald."
"You're talking like Seiji. I have no intention of bending my will. You're just a guest in Elf Forest—don't act like you know everything."
"That's exactly why it's scary—not knowing. The biggest mistakes always come when you think you know."
"Don't judge me by the standards of a human who hasn't even lived fifty years."
Merald paused for a moment. Then he called out to Ruby, already a dozen steps ahead.
"Ruby, you see it? Looks like you'll handle it faster."
"Was about to."
They exchanged words Jade couldn't follow.
Ruby hurled a chain toward a puddle beside Jade. The chain shot like an arrow into the swamp and came back out. A clump of marsh reeds about a handspan long was tangled on it.
At a glance, it looked like a failed fishing attempt that snagged the wrong thing. But the reeds resisted Ruby's chain to the end, refusing to be pulled from the puddle.
If it were just ordinary reeds, Jade could've yanked them out by hand, but these were rooted in the soft mud and resisted even Ruby's strength.
At the end of the reeds dangled something like an animal's eyeball. Not some round bead mimicking an eye, but a real one, complete with blood vessels on the surface and structures like a pupil or iris.
That grotesque eye reflected Merald's face.
"Who are you?"
"You're quick on the uptake. My name is Water Contrada."
A sharp voice rang out from within the eye.
Jade hid behind Merald's back, not wanting to show surprise at the enemy. Saf cautiously pressed close to his side too.
"Contrada? What's with the suffix? By my reckoning, you're just Watercon."
Merald asked.
"Great wizards have long names."
The eye on the reeds quivered with each word. Even the trembling made it look like a real eyeball.
Ruby shortened the chain bit by bit, keeping it taut as she stepped two paces toward the reeds.
"The boss has graced us with his presence. What's with this petty, childish trick? If you're nearby, just show up and throw down."
"I'm not nearby. I'm just showing an 'eye' here."
"You coward."
"You got it. I'm a huge coward. I never show my face to enemies. That's why they always die without ever seeing me. You'll be the same."
Ruby drew the sword she'd kept invisibly on her back and held it before the eye.
"Didn't your minions see what this sword does? You're gonna die too."
"I didn't see you kill the marsh boss with my own eyes, but I saw the corpse left behind. Impressive! So that's how—using Buffalord's sword? Killing us with our own weapons—great idea. Just imagining you coming to behead me with it already terrifies me. Guess I better run."
The eye on the reeds giggled to itself, then popped with a burst. A milky fluid dangled stickily from the reed tip.
"What a cocky bastard."
Ruby grabbed the dangling reeds barehanded and yanked. The reeds that wouldn't budge on the chain came right out. The mud and water on the roots showed they were just ordinary reeds.
Then, a splash sounded from behind.
Merald and Ruby whipped around, but nothing was visible in the puddle where the noise came from.
Merald focused his hearing more, but heard nothing unusual.
"There was another one?"
Merald asked Ruby.
"Seemed like it. Didn't see it, though."
"Watercon used eye magic on both sides to mess with us?"
"Why bother with that? One reed would've been enough to spy on us. Plus, neither of us noticed the one behind. The second was someone else's magic."
Merald just wore a subtly displeased expression without explaining why. Ruby was the same.
The two stood there for a bit, hands on hips, perfectly still.
Listening to them, Jade started feeling like someone was watching too. But he had no idea who or from where.
'I get why they're acting like that.'
Jade realized as he watched Ruby and Merald eye each other awkwardly before resuming the march.
'Their pride's hurt. Especially Merald—he's always been the one secretly watching from hiding, but now he's on the receiving end for the first time, huh?'