37. The Demon of Sloth
37. The Demon of Sloth
After the two who had charged in blindly were put down, no other demon dared defy Hellcry further.
That was only natural.
Belligerent as demons were by nature — and for all the fight-crazed lunatics among them — they still knew they had to stay alive to fulfill their desires.
If they lacked even that basic sense to rein themselves in before overwhelming power, they would never have been bound under a mighty existence like the Demon King in the first place.
So I was certain no one else would dare to cross him now.
"Um. Commander, there's something I'd like to say...."
—Bang!!
A mace swung reflexively at the sound of the voice.
The attack struck the skull, just like it had for the demons who had died before him. But instead of shattering, the point of impact didn't even upset his balance.
"...What is it, Sloth."
He endured it.
A single blow from a Demon King's Army executive — one that had overwhelmed two demons and cowed an entire force — and he had endured it without any visible guard.
"I was dozing off until just now, so I'm not quite sure how things have progressed, but...."
A languid voice leaked out while the mace was still planted against his head.
Yet his face showed not the slightest trace of pain.
"Looking at the situation, it seems like it might take a while. Would it be all right if I went and took a nap?"
The impact could gouge away his thick, tough hide.
And yet, he couldn't bring himself to care about even that.
"Sloth........"
Soon, Hellcry called his name and spoke.
"Ever since I took command of your unit, I have said this repeatedly: rest comes only after a mission is complete. No matter how tedious it becomes, stepping away in the middle is something I will never tolerate."
"Mm, so if we finish this quickly, I can go rest?"
"...You are offering to step forward?"
"To be honest, this whole honor thing you keep talking about means nothing to me...."
—Crumbled.
Fragments showered down the moment the mace left his head.
As he brushed a hand over the exposed flesh beneath, he turned his gaze toward me and continued.
"If I can get some shut-eye faster, I'll do whatever it takes."
Skin regenerating with a slick, wet sound. A gaze fixed squarely on me.
The instant I met those eyes, I knew.
This boulder of a creature — tough enough to tank a blow from a monster that even a Hero couldn't handle — was the enemy I'd have to stake my life against.
"Human, Woo Hyosung. Your opponent has been decided."
—Thud.
Hellcry turned to look at me and slammed his mace vertically into the ground.
When he stood quietly beside it, using the weapon as a marker, and gave me a look, I understood the meaning. I began to step forward to the appropriate spot.
Below the open ground stretching out under the cliff, toward the area where my fellow adventurers were positioned.
"Listen, all of you! From this moment on, this place is under my control!!"
By the time the demon called Sloth had also silently taken his place before the Demon King's Army, Hellcry roared out his command.
"Until an external incursion occurs, neither escape nor interference will be allowed. Anyone who breaks this rule — anyone who flees during the duel or violates discipline and tries to fight among themselves — shall be executed by my hand."
No one defied those words.
Demons and humans alike. All of them had come to realize how overwhelming the warrior before them truly was, just by watching what became of anyone ground to pulp by his mace.
That overwhelming power, when backed by a will, could serve as the axis for rules and order — it was a bone-chilling truth that his very presence drove home.
"Sloth, and human, Woo Hyosung. Go ahead and fight all you want. Whatever the reason, you will fight with everything you have for what you seek in this place. The more fervent that yearning grows, the more your struggle will naturally give rise to something worthy of being called honor."
In the midst of that rigid atmosphere, Hellcry soon lowered himself before his mace, crossed his arms, and fixed his gaze upon the arena.
With starkly cold, discerning eyes.
As if displaying a steely resolve not to take his eyes off the battle about to unfold for a single moment.
"H-hey. Are you really sure about this?"
Seeing that look, and realizing there was no more room for retreat, the adventurers began to voice their unease toward me.
Because if I died here, that was the end for them too.
But even this was a painfully grasped opportunity. How could I possibly back down now?
"...I'll just have to hope this weapon can make up the difference."
I glanced back at them for a moment, then let out a dry chuckle. I did my best to shake off the anxiety in my heart and faced the demon standing off against me.
Clutching the only hope I had in this situation: the mithril ego weapon I'd stumbled upon by chance.
"......Human."
Of course, this one weapon wouldn't grant me absolute strength. But at the very least, it should prevent this fight from being like smashing an egg against a boulder.
Just as I was gripping my spear and steeling my resolve, the demon named Sloth, standing statue-still in his spot, began looking down at me.
"I'm sorry it's come to this, you and I facing each other. But I have my own circumstances too."
He was only a head taller than me, but his frame alone was swollen to proportions incomparable to my own.
The brutish face aside, the black, thick hide that sheathed his body could practically be considered armor in its own right.
"And by 'circumstances,' you mean knocking me out so you can go get some rest faster?"
"This is an important matter for me. Just as you persuaded our commander because you want to survive this place, I merely wish to be liberated from this tiresome affair as quickly as possible."
While I was dwelling on his specs and feeling the tension mount, Sloth casually raised his fist.
Clenching that fist in a manner you could only call brutally straightforward, he began taking a step toward me.
"So don't move."
It was a sluggish stride.
Not a leap. Not even what you'd call a step. Just a walk, pure and simple.
"If you stand still, I'll finish it in one hit. No pain."
But his body, having closed the distance with me like that, began to blur into an afterimage in a single instant.
A surprise attack exploiting a sudden shift in stance.
Still, if I kept my focus, it wasn't something I couldn't dodge.
—Thud!
The moment a fist, using the momentum of a full stop, swung toward my head.
I had already slipped out of that spot and was aiming my spear at his flank, putting my weight behind it.
Crunch. A horizontal slash carved through flesh.
The instant his tough hide was shaved away like fruit peel, Sloth's eyes caught it and began to glint faintly.
"......Hm?"
Yeah, you're proud of that durability, aren't you.
But the weapon I'm wielding is strictly mithril-grade.
Made from the hardest metal in this world — if this defense's only merit is durability, I can break through it.
—Crunch! Craaack!!
My repeated spear strikes, borrowing the blade's power, chewed through the hide savagely.
The moment I realized that fragments were scattering everywhere and the bare flesh underneath was starting to show, a smile slowly crept across my stiff lips.
Good. With this weapon, I can deal damage.
Even if it's only a single point of damage, as long as I can deal any, my odds of winning aren't zero.
"I see. That weapon can pierce my carapace."
Sloth seemed to grasp this fact too — though only after a considerable chunk of his body had been shaved away. But by then, the spear in my hand was already aimed at his chest.
Now that the surrounding hide was broken and his durability had weakened, I could very well aim to pierce through that chest and kill him.
No, better yet: I'll end this as quickly as possible, since who knows what he might pull out next.
With a steady stance. Precisely. Exactly where I wanted it to go.
—Crack!!!
The moment the spear tip stabbed through the skin of his chest, and the sensation of piercing the flesh and muscle inside traveled up my hand.
Riding that feeling, I poured more strength into it, pushing forward with enough force to skewer his heart.
And then— Thunk!
At some point, the spear stopped advancing. As if it had hit a solid nail.
"Wh, what...."
What the hell? Why won't it go in any further?
Could his heart really be tougher than his skin...? No, this doesn't feel like the spear tip is being blocked by something solid.
This sensation... it's as if the spear is being squeezed from all sides, like someone grabbed it mid-thrust. No way?
"Impressive."
I realized it. The blade's edge hadn't reached his heart.
Before the spear tip buried in his chest could reach his heart, the surrounding muscles had reflexively tightened and stopped it cold. That was all.
"Until now, this carapace has blocked out all the tiresome nuisances that have come my way. But you... you made a mockery of all that effort. You pierced through it and went and made me annoyed."
But what was even more absurd was that resorting to such a brute-force defense wasn't some attempt to deceive me.
Because demons, from the moment they're born, are a race that grows and evolves in line with their desires.
His sluggish movements stemmed from a desire so deep-rooted he could barely be bothered to act. And that hardened hide? It was likely the result of an instinct to passively protect himself — a body ruled by such lethargy.
"...Fucking hell. I don't care how lazy you are — if someone stabs you in the gut, at least flinch."
Yeah. This bastard was the Demon of Sloth.
Driven by nothing more than a desire to be liberated from annoyance, he was an absurd monster naturally born with the ability to protect his own body, regardless of his will.
"That's an unreasonable demand. Even being in pain is a bother."
—Crunch.
Still impaled on the spear, the monster took a step forward.
The spear sank in a bit deeper because of it, but the bastard didn't stop.
Even though the spear tip that had pierced his hide could easily skewer his heart at any moment.
"Even blinking is a bother. Moving around in a swarm like this is a bother. Having to beat humans to death is a bother."
He seemed to regard even the fear of death as a chore. Using overwhelming strength and endurance to fend off a lethal wound, the bastard kept closing the distance on me.
The two eyes locked onto me became bloodshot, then began to blaze with a crimson light.
"So don't move."
Right after that— Boom!
The power loaded in his legs cracked the earth, and the shock sent me staggering, my stance crumbling.
"And don't you dare clench your teeth."
Seizing that opening, he yanked the spear out of his own chest.
Holding it just like that, he smiled as he clenched his fist.
"Dragging this fight out will only annoy me more, and hurt you a lot worse."
—Boom!
A thunderous roar echoed, and in that instant, the world flipped upside-down.
Soon enough, everything I could see blurred into afterimages.
* * *
And so, by the time the merchant caravan had escaped the collapsed canyon and come to a halt for a moment.
The caravan master who was leading the remaining group turned to look at the survivors and what little supplies remained, and began to spill his bone-deep despair.
"...Dammit. Is this really all who made it?"
"Those damn Demon King's Army bastards. I never imagined they'd even resort to throwing boulders."
"...Going back now is impossible."
"I'm sorry. Please forgive me for having no choice but to abandon you all."
Had they made the call to abandon the safer path and head toward the garrison zone together?
The adventurers, who carried a decent sense of camaraderie and resolve, were each voicing their guilt toward the ones left behind, one by one.
Everyone except for a single person. The bard, who was staring at the scene with emotionless eyes.
"You. Are you all right?"
The caravan master wondered if she might be thinking of comrades who had stayed behind. But.
"...Yes, I'm fine."
The bard uttered in a flat tone, gripping the lute in her hand tightly and simply averting her gaze.
"They were people I met as if drifting along a current. I suppose this outcome was fate as well."
Hearing that utterly dry voice, the caravan master tried to say something, then ultimately sealed his lips shut.
Yes. The living have to keep living.
Whether she truly felt nothing at all, or was simply refusing to show it, there would be time enough to mourn them and voice regret once they'd reached safety.
Just as he was about to lead the halted convoy onward toward the garrison zone for that very purpose—
"Huh? A light over there!"
"Is it demons?"
"No, it's a lantern!"
A lantern light, approaching by cutting through the growing darkness of the forest.
As they drew closer to the source, their wariness gradually eased. Then, the group carrying the lantern spotted the caravan and stopped in their tracks as well.
"Wh-what is your group supposed to be?"
The ones approaching outnumbered them by twofold, even compared to their own numbers at the start — and they were down to a quarter of their original force now.
While the caravan master, standing as their representative, looked at them with bewilderment, one of the figures among the new arrivals — someone who seemed to be their leader — stepped forward and explained.
"We are an escort detail dispatched by Imperial order to serve a Hero. Acting on the instructions of the Hero we are currently protecting, we have left the garrison and are preparing to return to the Empire."
"Returning to the Empire...? Before we arrived here, we ran into the Demon King's Army. I heard the garrison zone is currently locked in combat with the demons, isn't that right?"
"Yes. A full-scale battle has yet to break out, but they have begun encircling the area, and a few skirmishes have already occurred."
The soldier calmly explained in response to the caravan master's words. But anyone hearing this would have no choice but to find it absurd.
The fact that the Demon King's Army was unleashing demonic beasts and constructing a siege net meant that a large-scale battle at the garrison zone was imminent.
And in the middle of all that, for a Hero, of all people, to secretly slip away from the garrison zone — how could such a thing be allowed?
"Yeaaah~ I absolutely can't stand the idea of coming all the way here just to fight in tedious battles~"
But as if she'd never even considered such hesitation, a woman who had been receiving their hospitality stepped forward, wearing nothing but a playful smile, and planted herself before the caravan.
"I came here in the first place feeling like it'd be a vacation. But when I volunteered to wrap up those pests swarming around quickly, the officer in charge of the garrison kept nagging me, telling me not to act on my own and all that~"
"I realize it's rude to ask this, but... is it truly all right for you to just leave on your own like this?"
"Haha, what's there to not be all right about? His Imperial Majesty himself said I could do anything I wanted~"
With a giggle, the Hero laughed and brushed past the caravan master's shoulder, casually scanning the remaining survivors.
The adventurers tensed up, worried that she might try to harm them somehow. But the eyes that surveyed them were quickly filling with a bored hue.
"Sheesh, no cute girls at all.... No point in having gone out of my way to join up here.... Huh?"
Nothing here worth messing with. It seemed she was about to end her inspection with indifference.
But then, she caught sight of the bard standing in the middle of the group, her gaze fixed back toward the scene they had left behind. The Hero's eyes began to glint with interest.
"Waah~ Just the kind of older sister that's exactly my type is right here~♥"
Yes. Those eyes were simmering with desire.
Something the Clown should have welcomed, by all rights.
But for some reason, it was the kind of look that didn't feel the least bit pleasant right now....