Let's Start by Getting Hit
Hmm. As expected, this guy barely had any presence at all.
"I'm not particularly interested in a little shit like you. But if I catch you, I figure I can grab Clanis's tail."
"You dare ignore me, the Pope?"
Your value was lower than trash on the roadside. If you hadn't been connected to Clanis—and if the Pope herself hadn't asked me to handle this—I would have ignored you completely.
"You, the Pope? Bullshit. Hey. We already secured the real Pope. The one who asked us to catch you is the Pope herself."
"Is that so? Hmph. In any case, it seems your reputation is genuine. But can you truly overcome this as well? The power Clanis granted me?"
"Granted? More like she handed you a disposable tool."
Crackle-crack-crack—
Why did every single one of them bulk up the moment they turned into a main? It was thoroughly disgusting. A gray body packed with bulging muscles. Ugh. Hideous. Horns had even sprouted—ugly, random goat-like horns jutting out every which way. It made me seriously question Clanis's aesthetic sense.
"Graaaaaah! I'll kill you!"
The idiot charged.
He truly had no idea of his own place.
"Seriously, every last one of you has zero sense of your own level. Hey. So what I mean is—"
KRA-BOOM!
In an instant I seized the bastard by the skull and slammed him into the floor.
With a sickening crunch the gleaming marble of the office shattered.
I'd held back that much force. If that old hag of a Pope saw her grandson dead, she'd throw an absolute fit.
"!!!!"
"You cannot beat me."
"W-what kind of sorcery is this? How can a mere Saint—"
Judging by the shock, he hadn't calculated this far. Why couldn't this idiot grasp the simple truth that he was just weak?
"Are you retarded? I already beat Berna into the ground. Some nobody who just freeloads power off a Four Heavenly King thinks he can kill me? Hey, you fucker."
"!!"
KRA-BOOOOM!
"I've killed people stronger than your sorry ass, and I've killed even more demons. Where does a bastard like you get off acting up without knowing your place?"
KRA-BOOOOM!
"Grandma Pope told me to keep you alive, but I'll only thrash you to the brink of death, okay?"
"Gyaaaaaaaah!"
Crunch! Crack!
Beyond the marble, the entire Papal Palace itself started coming apart.
If he didn't start talking soon he was screwed, yet he was still holding out to the bitter end.
"Hey. Where's Clanis? Spit it out honestly. Then I'll let you off with just two broken horns."
If he held out any longer I fully intended to wreck him for real.
"Kh... You think I'd know that?"
"You moronic piece of garbage. You're keeping quiet out of pride. You realize that just means you're admitting you're a subordinate of a Four Heavenly King, right?"
If he talked, at least he wouldn't have to worry about his skull getting cracked open. But he refused to acknowledge he was weaker than me—refused to look like he'd submitted.
If he'd just quietly admitted it, his head would get smashed a little less. One horn was already shattered.
And this was me going easy. Just how weak was this guy?
"I am no subordinate of any Four Heavenly King!"
"If you won't talk, you get beaten. You dog of a bastard. You should be grateful I'm not killing you the way I killed your underlings."
KRA-KRA-BOOOOM!
I slammed him into the floor dozens of times.
"I-I'll talk—"
"Don't need it, you fucker."
Crunch! Crack-crack-crack!
After that I beat him hundreds more times, hard enough to pulp a skull.
Only after roughly a hundred smashes, when his cranium finally turned soft and mushy, did I decide to ease up.
"A weak little shit running his mouth like that! Seriously. I go easy and he still shatters? Are you even supposed to be strong?"
"Kh..."
"What was it you said just a second ago? That you'd kill me?"
Even if you can't kill me, you should at least be able to put up a fight. Right? Useless bastard. I was starting to understand why the old lady kept him at arm's length. Still, blood was blood—she couldn't quite abandon him. Pitiful, really.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
"Say it again. Come on, please?"
"I-I'll talk, just stop!"
Fine. My own temper had flared.
I hated nothing more than trash who didn't know their place running their mouths.
A bastard without the strength to challenge me still dared to act up.
"Enough. Talk like you promised. Where is Clanis?"
"She won't be in this Holy Kingdom. I heard her main base is inside the Empire."
Main base inside the Empire?
That much I'd expected. If she meant to strike the Empire she would be inside it.
I'd already torn through several of her bases within Imperial borders, for that matter.
"Is that everything?"
"Y-yes. So please, my head—"
"Inside the Empire, huh. Figures. You're just a toy."
Completely worthless information. I'd have to approach this from another angle. But first, this bastard who'd put me through so much trouble needed to be half-killed.
"What?"
"Are you stupid? If you'd actually been a useful partner she would have told you the main base's location. But you were just a disposable piece of trash."
Clanis had clearly meant to use him as a throwaway pawn. A power-hungry idiot who would even stab his own grandmother in the back—perfect prey for her.
"Kh..."
"A bastard who doesn't know his place. That's exactly why you never made it to the papal throne."
Seeing trash like this made me appreciate Prince Aslan of the Empire all the more. At least he knew his limits. More than that—he'd never been a power-mad lunatic to begin with.
He wanted the throne, sure, but he knew how to maintain imperial dignity and he'd actually learned something. Press him with force once so he understood reality, and he became perfectly obedient. This one, though—you had to thrash him like a dog before he'd listen.
No. His pride was so thick that I still had to go through all this trouble.
"Stop insulting me!"
"And what exactly is a nobody like you going to do about it if I keep insulting you?"
This time I crushed his head under my foot.
I humiliated him thoroughly. For an anger-management case who charged in without knowing his place, this much was necessary.
Crunch-crack—
First I snapped his arms and legs so he couldn't thrash around and annoy me further.
I considered shredding the nerves too, but the old lady might actually grieve if she saw her grandson turned into a complete cripple.
So I limited myself to injuries he could still recover from.
"Gyaaaaaaaah!"
"Hmm. No. I might even be able to use him."
"What are you talking about?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
After all, this bastard had been remodeled into a main by Clanis. And that woman was overflowing with pride in her own creations.
Even if she treated him as a one-use tool, she would still believe the main she crafted was perfect.
Not in raw strength—in stability.
Human-to-main conversion was unstable by nature.
Yet she could produce all sorts of variants. This William had to keep his reason intact so he could seize the papal throne; that was why she'd stabilized the conversion. But what if he went berserk anyway?
She would find it strange.
Or she would conclude that someone else had appeared.
Yes—someone like Noah, the one who killed the Demon King.
Forcing one of her mains into a rampage was something only I could do.
An amusing idea had taken shape.
Clanis. That woman would rage at Noah—the one who claimed to have slain the Demon King.
She was good at running, but one thing was certain: she was obsessed with the Demon King. And if that Demon King was dead?
Then she would absolutely show herself here.
"W-what... What are you thinking—"
I watched with interest as cold sweat poured down William's face.
This was more than enough to force a rampage. I could trigger it—violently enough for Clanis to feel it.
Ever since I'd ended up in this body, my playful streak seemed to have grown.
Or maybe the Demon King's fragment was infecting me too. Either way, by now the mage corps should have largely suppressed the Holy Knights.
So let's try it.
"Sorry, Grandma. Doesn't look like I can leave your grandson completely intact."
"What do you mean—"
Thump.
I forced the demonic energy inside the bewildered William into a full rampage. I injected a violent stimulus into the circuits still blanketed by that energy.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"Shackles."
Clank-clank-clank—
I bound the successfully rampaging bastard with manacles forged from pure mana.
Now then. Let's see how the woman so proud of her main-conversion techniques reacts.
Outskirts of the Holy City — Forest
—Push the Holy Knights back!
—Stop them! Hold the mages!
Through a crystal-orb magic tool, Clanis watched the situation in the Holy City and twisted her face, clicking her tongue.
Ashtar's mage corps was driving the Holy Knights into retreat.
Worse, mains were mixed among the Holy Knights; the moment they revealed themselves, the other knights fell into panic and the battle itself collapsed.
They weren't even managing to chip away at the mage corps' strength.
"I really chose the wrong moment."
Watching Ashtar's mages finally force the Holy Knights out, Clanis sighed.
That idiot William. Thirsty for the papal throne, he had lost all sense of timing and charged ahead.
He must have thought this was his chance. But he knew nothing of the Saint, and this was the result. She hadn't been able to plant surveillance spells inside the Papal Palace because of his resistance, yet the outcome there was obvious. The Saint had moved; that fool was finished.
If only he would take the Saint down with him in a mutual kill...
That was when it happened.
Suddenly, a violent surge of demonic energy erupted from the Papal Palace.
"W-what is this? He went berserk?"
Impossible. He couldn't go berserk. She had crafted him carefully enough to retain his sanity and regulate his own main state, precisely so she could use the Holy Kingdom afterward. If he had lost control, the only possibility was external interference.
Something had gone wrong.
"Then that bastard Noah— the one I'd love to tear apart—?"
It had to be him. The only one capable of forcing her perfect main-conversion technique into a rampage was that filthy genius of a mage. The bastard who pretended to be a Sword Saint or High Priest or Divine Archer—any other class—while stabbing the Four Heavenly Kings in the back with magic.
The contemptible wretch who killed the Demon King! Worse than the Empire itself!
Clanis lost her composure.
She knew perfectly well this was a trap—that the garbage was trying to summon her. Yet this was the only opportunity.
That trash. He had hidden well until now.
This time she would not let him go. She would kill that refuse and offer him as a sacrifice to the Demon King. Then she would destroy the Empire he had protected.
Clanis tore open a rift in space-time and transferred to the Papal Palace.
And what she beheld after crossing space-time was—
"Welcome."
It was the Demon King she had so desperately yearned for, longed for, and gazed upon with such devotion.
And that Demon King swung a fist wreathed in mana at me.
BAAAAAM!!