Those More Wicked Than Demons (6)

The figures blocking our path looked as if their skin were melting and rotting away.

And, crowding my vision, the status window.

First things first — get a handle on the situation.

Those swarming in overwhelming numbers before us were ghouls.

Beings resurrected through necromancy.

Unlike zombies, they were fast, and their reflexes were nearly on par with a living human's — that was the difference. And should one bite you, a special venom called corpse poison would race through your entire body in moments, and you would die. Painfully.

Then the person who died that way would be reborn as another ghoul, wearing the same rotting face as the rest, shambling about in search of the living for the rest of eternity.

And only one person in this territory could possibly have orchestrated something like this — the lord himself.

The status window had flagged a "corpse offering" as well, so it seemed these corpses had been sent out as obstacles to block our path.

But there were far too many. Far more than I'd imagined.

The lord's castle was, at a glance, colossal. If that entire vast space were packed to the brim with ghouls, the three of us alone would have our limits. Still, if we wanted to solve this problem quickly, breaking through this corridor was priority number one.

I focused my senses into my hearing — sharp enough to catch even the faintest sounds — and listened. From the upper floors came the deafening drag and scrape of something being hauled across stone. An enormous number of ghouls up there as well. And riding on top of it all, a stench that hooked into our nostrils and refused to let go.

Once I'd taken stock of the situation, Ellie gave me a signal, and in response I released the concealment authority hiding her new sword.

This was a number of ghouls I couldn't carve through on my own. Naturally, I desperately needed the two of them.

They lifted the swords I had forged for them and hurled themselves at the ghoul horde.

Catching the scent of living humans, the ghouls charged immediately, jaws gaping to tear them apart. And of course, the two women were hardly the type to stand by and watch. The ghouls lunged at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whichever strike reached them first —

"Not today."

Yeon suddenly shifted her new sword backward, baiting a ghoul's neck into lurching forward, and in a single stroke took its head clean off.

Ellie, for her part, displayed swordwork so fluid and precise that she was in no way outdone by Yeon.

For now, it was my turn to hold the rear. And my opponent wasn't going to be ghouls.

It was going to be those knights.

The sudden appearance of ghouls, and the two women cutting them down, had kicked up quite a racket — enough that the knights threw open the doors of the manor and drew their blades on us.

Confronted with a staggering sea of ghouls, they showed no shock whatsoever. Instead, calm and measured, they simply readied themselves to subdue us.

"The lord's gone mad, and apparently so have his knights."

"Are you finished talking?"

The knight flared at my words, swept his blade from its sheath in a flash, and charged at me — but his sword was stopped dead against mine in an instant.

Our blades locked on a diagonal. Through the grinding strength contest, I could feel him probing, trying to bind my sword in place. Just as I'd predicted, his companions behind him drew their weapons and rushed in together.

I released the tension in my arm and shoulder, and pivoted my body sideways. But the knight hadn't thought to slacken his own arm, locked as it was against my blade — and he toppled gracelessly over the spot I'd just vacated, crashing to the floor.

I drove my sword into the ground and spoke.

"Stop. That's far enough. Take one more step, and he dies."

"Just who the hell are you people? Why are you interfering with us?"

Interfering? Interfering, he says?

How does one even become a knight, only to spew filth like that — while women are slaughtering ghouls right behind my back? Perhaps the eyes in his head were purely ornamental.

"Interfering?"

"Yes. His Lordship uses necromancy to summon ghouls so this territory remains peaceful and safe."

"Then how do you explain the abduction of adventurers?"

"The adventurer abductions were concluded as suicides on their own part."

"Suicides, huh? Then that makes it even less of a problem, doesn't it? Plenty of adventurers have visited this territory. All those adventurers killed themselves for no reason at all, the moment they set foot here?"

"....."

He couldn't answer even my simplest of questions.

"You sat on your hands until things came to this, and you never once tried to dig into a truth this simple."

"Who in this world could look at you and honestly call you a knight? All I see are wretches who received the title of 'knight' for nothing more than swinging a sword better than the next man."

"Mind your insults!"

At last their tempers gave out, and the honorable knights charged me with blades bared. I read the timing of his swing and struck directly into the flat of his blade. The steel could not withstand the tremendous shock that erupted from the contact — and shattered to pieces.

The knight's eyes went wide as he watched his own blade break apart.

I had no intention of killing them. These men, at least, unlike the others, still had a debt to pay — so my plan was simply to neutralize them until Leon arrived with reinforcements.

The knight with the shattered sword may well have been the strongest of them, but the others who had charged alongside him were too gripped by terror even to swing, frozen mid-stance with their weapons still raised. I promptly summoned the wolves of the wind, setting one upon each knight, and bound their every movement. It took hardly any time at all for ten knights to be pinned fast by just three wind wolves.

They thrashed and writhed to break free, but the harder they struggled, the fiercer the binding winds would grow — so I turned my back on them ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠without worry and checked on Ellie and Yeon.

The two of them were pressing forward one step at a time, leaning on nothing but their blades against an unending rain of ghoul attacks. I moved to join them, closing in on the ghouls — and that was when a vast shadow swept over them both.

The target of its attack was none other than Ellie.

The instant the skills were cast, I intercepted the strike aimed at Ellie's opening — a blow from figures clad in black armor.

CLANG!

I swung with her shielded against me, and the effect of Thunderbolt from the Clear Sky paralyzed the surrounding ghouls as well. All things considered, a rather successful defense.

What had attacked Ellie was, in fact, an armor and a sword.

The armor and the sword floated suspended in midair, attacking of their own volition.

Their name: Living Armor.

Like the ghouls, they were life born of alchemical summoning — beings said to form when the souls of the dead slip inside an empty shell of armor, venting their rage upon the living.

Judged by the demonic hierarchy, they carried strength comparable to a supreme-class demon, and their power shifted depending on what object had been possessed.

Though honestly, this one looks like just an ordinary sword and suit of armor.

Living Armor possessed a regeneration ability, so putting one down easily required either a single strike of truly overwhelming force, or an attack that nullified regeneration outright. And I happened to have a skill that satisfied both conditions, so this was no problem at all.

Wind coiled into my blade as currents of raw electricity surged through it, and one swing cleaved the armor guarding itself in two.

The Living Armor scrambled to regenerate — but Wound Aggravation forbade it, and it went limp where it stood.

Unsurprisingly, the sword-type Living Armor fared no better: I aimed for its flat, and in the same breath poured an explosive torrent of current forward. It couldn't hold; it split down the middle and stopped moving.

Meanwhile, Yeon had been carving her way through sheer swordsmanship alone, cleaving down an uncountable tide of ghouls and paving a path ahead of us.

I charged straight down the path she had opened. The countless ghouls blocking our way burned away together in the wake of a devastating electrical strike.

Yeon — who, moments ago, had been fighting those same ghouls blade by blade — turned to look at me with an expression of pure deflation.

".....This is so disheartening. Do you have any idea how many times I swung my sword to cut a path this far? And you just clear the whole road with a single stroke?"

Well, what could I say? If you want to move fast and easy, this was simply the best way.

And so, following the road I had carved, Ellie and Yeon pressed through the crushing waves of ghouls toward wherever the lord might be.

I couldn't tell how many ghouls we had felled, or how much time had passed. All we could do was keep moving forward.

But our stamina was steadily reaching its limit. Ellie was still parrying the ghouls' offensive with composed precision even as she advanced, yet I could hear her breathing growing ragged — and Yeon's breathing had grown so labored we could all hear it. Both of them were wearing down, step by step.

I was preparing to cast another skill and cut through the road once more when a white-haired man in his middle years strode out from between the ghouls, closed the distance to Yeon, and swung a vicious blow at her head.

She spotted him instantly, whipped her grip back up the hilt of her sword, and took a defensive stance.

BOOM!

Thankfully, she caught the attack — it seemed she'd escaped a fatal wound. But she could not withstand the recoil. Driven backward by the force of it, she was flung clean away, tumbling back across the floor.

"Yeon!"

Ellie and I rushed to her side. Yeon was gasping for breath, but beyond that, she appeared to be without serious injury. She planted her sword into the ground and pushed herself back up.

"My, my. Quite impressive, truly. To block that."

From behind the white-haired man emerged a gaunt, stick-thin figure, clapping his hands as he spoke.

"Who are you?"

At my words, the unidentified man answered.

"You dare storm into this place without even knowing who I am?"

Mocking us, he spoke again.

"Alice Cumul — High Lord of the East, and matriarch of the house that governs the Divine Beast Azure Dragon."

Then his gaze slid from me to Ellie.

"....."

Just how much did this man know? Even while she was still maintaining the magic tool that altered her hair color, he'd seen through her instantly.

"The final disciple raised by the Sword — the one said to have stood alone against the demons invading the Empire, blade in hand, and seized victory."

And he even identified Yeon, still collapsed on the floor catching her breath. His gaze swung back to me.

"And the Guardian — one of only four on this continent — and the successor of the Seventh Azure Dragon, Lord of the East."

The man had seen through every one of us.

"Naturally, I expected that people such as yourselves would be more than capable of punching through this hell."

"You... don't tell me."

Ellie looked at the man in disbelief.

"Lord Moss...?"

At her words, the man she'd called lord threw back his head.

"HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

He favored us with a full display of mad laughter.

"What good does it do you to finally realize that now?"

"Then there's no reason to hold back, is there."

Yeon steadied herself, straightened out of the arm that had been supporting her, raised her sword, and leveled it at the lord. But he simply spread both arms wide toward me as if to say, go ahead and try.

The instant I tried to flash a sword strike at him — the floor filled to the brim with magic circles of unknown design. And my instincts were screaming that this place had become extremely dangerous.

"Devour him! Hound of Hell!"

At his single cry, hellhounds wreathed in conjured flame manifested before us.

The three-headed hound appeared wreathed in furious fire, and the moment it took form, it lunged at me, aiming for my throat with its vicious fangs and claws. I swiftly imbued my blade with Wound Aggravation and cut the beast down.

Cerberus — the Watchdog of Hell.

It was not, in truth, a demonic beast or demon at all — unexpectedly, it belonged to the order of divine beasts.

For a Cerberus to attack a successor of the Divine Beasts was, by that measure, an extraordinary anomaly. And had Ellie and Yeon learned why this Cerberus was attacking me, they would have been unable to hide their horror.

Cerberus does not form a contract merely because someone succeeds in summoning it. It chooses as its contractor only the utterly single-minded — those who press their own convictions to the very end without bending. The problem is that wicked people, too, will drive their own twisted sense of justice to the bitter end. Which means they, too, more than qualify as contractors.

Naturally, that lord must have succeeded in forging a contract with Cerberus in exactly that way.

And then, in that moment, the lord lunged at me and drove his fist toward my chest.

"Where do you think you're looking?!"

Having wrenched every fiber of my body to its maximum through the forbidden arts, I was occupied blocking Cerberus's attack — and I failed to keep up with the lord's speed.

Yeon, seeing my opening, threw herself into it and raised her blade to block in my stead.

BOOM!

The tremendous impact warped the wind sword I had manifested beyond recognition; its materialization shattered and it dissipated into nothing. And we were both hurled backward at blistering speed by the recoil of the blow we'd absorbed.

BOOM!

Still unable to dissipate the force, we were slammed straight into the wall. Thankfully, I took the full brunt of the impact myself — but Yeon's condition, by contrast, was grave.

Hurk—!

Yeon coughed up blood, unable to rise.

"Yeon!"

"Kgh...!"

What on earth was that strength...?

She blocked it, and it still did this much...? Wasn't that the level of a ranked demon?

The lord turned his back on us — and this time, his gaze swung toward Ellie.

When I charged forward, infusing my legs with power, the lord was grinning at me. But the snow-white-haired man who had stood at his side was gone.

The white-haired man was already streaking toward Yeon. And in the same breath, the lord was preparing to drive an alchemy-laced fist at Ellie — who was locked in combat with Cerberus.

Even blocking that fist had sent Yeon flying back into a wall. If Ellie took such a blow to an opening in her guard...

No.

But we were too far apart. Even if I summoned Jeongryeong this instant and begged for its help, the fist would reach her long before it could arrive.

And still, time would not wait for me.

I have to choose — now...!

If someone is saved, then someone, without fail, must die.

As I stared at Yeon, she caught my eye — and with the shape of her mouth alone, she smiled at me, bright and guileless.

"Go... and save... her...?"

Then what about you? What in the world am I supposed to do about you?

She was always smiling. This situation was no different.

Even though she never had to step forward — even when there was no obligation on her at all — she had lifted her sword for my sake on nothing more than the feeling of repaying a debt.

And this was the result?

That unsettled power swallowed my body whole, once again.

The strength I had wielded against the Giant in the slave market. That power flooded me from head to toe — but this time, rather than controlling me, it felt as if it were attuning itself to me, quietly mending everything I lacked.

I slowly closed my eyes and let the currents scatter around me.

With the status window's notifications, my vision transformed.

Rolling thunder echoed through the air, and an amber-yellow domain filled my sight to its edges.

The Thunder God.

On Earth, it appeared everywhere — in folklore and rumor, in the histories, in legend after legend.

The Thunder God was depicted with such vast influence that no two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠portrayals of it were ever alike. At times, a god of abundance like the Azure Dragon, commanding clouds and lightning and deciding the year's harvest. At times, a god of justice, praised by the people for striking down wicked spirits and malicious demons that preyed upon them. And elsewhere — when malevolent gods inflicted ruinous suffering upon humanity — a god of war who, without a moment's hesitation, severed the wicked god's head.

And what I was about to attempt was not so very different.

After all — I, too, was a vessel of a god.

I can endure this.

The status window had warned me, but whether I could hold on or not didn't matter anymore. I never wanted to feel that chest-splitting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠agony again.

One line, spoken by the being that had once adapted my body to a power I couldn't name:

'This time, may you finally be able to protect the people dear to you.'

I didn't know who had spoken those words. I steeled my heart to press my will through, swiftly and without hesitation. I accepted the thoughts and the resolve that followed, offering no resistance.

'Now, to deal with the wicked, I will take up the sword.'

'Even if I fall here, in this very place, coughing up blood — I will take up the sword.'

'By this, I will protect them this time. For there exists no mortal who can bar what a god deigns to do.'

With the status window's proclamation, something began to grow from my head. But there was no time to spare it a thought.

I drew my hand through the air toward the white-haired man who had ambushed Yeon — and with a murderous crackle, swords of lightning tore through the space between us.

Crack-crack! CRACKLE-CRACK!

As if obeying my will, three blades — nothing left of them but the edge, hiltless — plunged into the white-haired man all at once. He couldn't so much as raise a guard; he crumpled to the ground under the overwhelming current and did not rise again.

The lord looked at me — then attacked together with Cerberus. He had layered alchemy upon alchemy into his fist, and that fist had swelled to a monstrous size.

Minutes ago, I would have dodged rather than blocked. But now was different. A sense of omnipotence flowed through me, whispering that I could stop it.

Five blades materialized around me and crossed into an intersecting guard.

And when the lord's fist met my lightning blades — astonishingly, the blades held that mountainous fist with room to spare.

As the lord gaped at me as if I'd violated the laws of reality itself, I flashed my eyes at him and spoke.

"I'd give up on dying comfortably, if I were you. Lord of Haizi — Moss."

The way I appeared through the lord's eyes was this:

Translucent amber horns, and vertically slit pupils —

I had become a dragon.