56
I killed the Demon King. It was a mistake.
Chapter 56
The skinless demon Andromalius.
The number of holy knights killed by him exceeds 20, and the number of civilians is uncountable.
Even more terrifying was the fact that he was a demon with an immortal body that couldn't be killed even if you tried.
Andromalius slowly unwrapped his bandages.
His slimy and hideous flesh slowly began to reveal itself.
"Holy knight, your existence is like cancer to humanity. If they become the new humanity, they could avoid death and have bodies that are not bound by hunger and thirst. Why on earth are you stopping that?"
"Hunger, thirst, and death are also blessings bestowed by the Goddess and a part of life."
"I wonder if you can say those words in front of beggars dying of hunger and patients wasting away from illness. Isn't that too selfish?"
"Don't tempt me, demon. If everyone becomes a demon who swallows the flesh and blood of others to survive, in the end, no one will be able to survive on this continent. You alone are enough to turn this land into hell."
Hot steam rose from Joseph's mouth, and a holy blue aura flowed from his armor and greatsword.
"I am Joseph, blessed by the holy flame. I will shatter your nightmare that licks up tragedy right here and now."
Andromalius took off his hood and unwrapped all the bandages covering his head.
That appearance was so horrific that it could not be considered human in the past.
"About 25 holy knights have died after cursing me. Today will be the 26th."
"Uwaaaaah!"
Joseph charged at Andromalius like a bull.
***
Caesar held an axe in each hand and scanned his surroundings.
Without light, nothing could be seen.
But judging from the squishy flesh-like ground he was stepping on and the walls he could touch, it seems Caesar had entered the body of this giant slime.
Caesar used Wind Reading.
'Looks like there's air.'
A faint flow of wind was felt, and the surroundings became slightly recognizable.
However, because the surroundings were too narrow, not much could be recognized.
It seems to be a narrow passage.
Caesar grew Thunder and swung it.
Kwaaang!
Flesh pieces flew and a hole was made.
But soon the flesh filled up again.
However, as the wind flowing from the axe created a 'path', Wind Reading became easier.
This place is not a narrow passage, but a maze.
A maze made of flesh pieces.
'Without holy flame oil, it won't be easy to inflict proper damage.'
Now that he had roughly grasped the situation, Caesar used psychometry.
-You'll despair too.
-You can't get out.
-You'll wander forever.
-Like us.
That can't be.
There's a solution to every problem.
There's always a solution, just with differences in difficulty.
Of course, he might have to embark on a long journey to find that method itself, but Caesar didn't need to set out to find that method.
Caesar used psychometry again.
Then, as if Caesar's body had an out-of-body experience, the overall shape of the maze came into view at once.
It's a maze with no exit, completely sealed on all sides.
However, the way to escape this maze soon became apparent.
The way to escape this maze is to find and destroy the cores that make up this maze.
Those cores are the seven demons that make up this slime, and they must be killed to escape this maze.
Caesar immediately realized where those demons were.
Kwaaang!
Caesar struck down with Thunder and Lefty simultaneously towards the ground beneath his feet.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
A demon with three horns on its head fell to the lower floor, screaming.
Caesar threw himself towards the lower floor.
And once again, he swung down his axe.
Puk!
Caesar's Thunder pierced its neck and the axe was stuck in its heart.
It coughed up blood and looked at Caesar with fearful eyes.
"H-how?! How?!"
Caesar left the axe stuck in its heart and pulled out Thunder.
Caesar used Path of the Wind Second Form: Single Wind.
Slish!
A sharp stream of wind sliced its neck.
Caesar stepped on the severed head and crushed it.
"One down."
It was a pathetic end for a demon with three horns.
Since it had the ability to create such an absurd maze, it seems its durability was extremely weak.
"Well, that's easy then."
As soon as he said that, humans covered in red flesh from head to toe emerged from the flesh walls.
"My mouth is always the problem."
As soon as he said it was easy, the difficulty level skyrocketed.
Caesar's pupils turned red as madness seeped in.
"Well, I didn't really think it would be this easy either."
Caesar charged at the red humans like a mad dog.
The sensation of cutting through the red humans was unpleasantly squishy like pudding.
Every time he struck down with his axe, they were easily cut, but their sticky flesh and blood coated the axe, gradually dulling its edge.
"Wooooriyaaaah!"
Caesar used Single Wind.
Two sharp streams of wind cut through the red humans.
But the effect wasn't as good as Caesar had thought.
It was because of the narrow, long maze-like structure and the fact that most of the winds were constrained.
Moreover...
"I'm getting tired quickly."
The ground was uneven, the air was thin, and it was cramped.
Above all, red humans were coming out from all directions, forcing him to maintain vigilance on all sides.
It felt like he was being gnawed at both mentally and physically.
A red human's hand sprouted from beneath Caesar's feet and grabbed his ankle.
Caesar rolled on the ground forcefully, crushing the red hand, and moved forward.
Then he broke the right wall.
Bang!
"Uwaaaaah!"
A demon with three horns on its head popped out.
It struggled, trying to pull out the axe stuck in its side.
But Caesar mercilessly brought down the hand holding Thunder.
Kwalung!
Its head was severed in one go and the body collapsed.
Caesar chased after its severed head and crushed it under his foot.
"Two down."
Caesar stopped following the path altogether and moved straight towards where they were.
The flesh walls were hard and tough, but not too difficult to break, and since the red humans only appeared in the passageways, breaking through the walls actually allowed him to escape their encirclement.
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
Caesar cut off the head of the third demon with his axe.
His breath was coming up to his chin.
But Caesar kept moving.
The fourth demon was nearby.
Caesar broke through the flesh wall and found the fourth demon.
"Kuaaaaaaaah!"
Caesar grabbed the fourth demon's neck and slammed it to the ground.
And without even using his axe, he stepped on it and crushed its head.
"Four down."
He wanted to catch his breath even for a moment, but the red humans were closing in from all directions.
"Not so easy, huh?"
But there was hope in sight.
Three more to go.
He was past the halfway point, so if he could just push a little more, he could escape this damned maze and crack Viscount Duken's skull.
At that moment, Caesar's surroundings began to close in.
The ceiling and walls moved, looking as if they would crush Caesar.
"I don't want to die!!!"
"I don't want to die!!!"
"I don't want to die!!!"
The voices of the three remaining demons filled the surroundings.
Caesar swung his axe to break the wall.
But another wall and ceiling came rushing towards Caesar.
As the overall pressure increased, his ears and nose felt blocked as if they were stuffed.
Caesar spat out saliva.
"They were talking about becoming one before, and now they're trying to kill me."
Since they couldn't stop Caesar with the red humans, they were trying to crush him to death.
Caesar smashed all the approaching walls and moved forward.
Flesh stuck to his axe making it heavy, and his grip was full of slippery blood, making him feel like he might lose hold of the axe at any moment.
A red human hand shot out from under Cesar's feet and grabbed his ankle.
He tried to break free somehow, but more hands reached out and tightly bound Caesar's feet.
Caesar realized he could no longer move forward.
Caesar stopped in place and swung his axe.
The increased pressure made the wind heavy, and as his surroundings closed in, he couldn't use Path of the Wind.
The only things he could rely on were his sturdy arms and aura.
"Wooriyaaaaaaah!"
Berserk 2nd stack.
All of Caesar's capillaries widened, his eyes turned red, and steam erupted from his body.
But it wasn't as painful as before.
Since eating the black two-headed snake's drug, Caesar could control the pain.
Caesar minimized his sensitivity to all pain coming from outside and inside, and swung his axe like mad.
His aura was rapidly depleting, and his body was becoming slower than the signals Caesar was sending to his hands.
His stamina was starting to drop.
But Caesar doesn't stop.
Would he die from just this much?
If he had died from this level of challenge, he would have already died in the demon realm war.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Caesar's axe swings became slower.
The walls approached faster and faster.
If he rested even for a moment, he would be crushed to death.
Just as the thought that he might really die here began to surface...
"Uhahahahahahaha!"
He laughed.
The closer death approached, the more he laughed.
There was nothing better than laughter to push away fear and eliminate distracting thoughts.
Madness, adrenaline, and laughter lent strength to Caesar's hands.
His grip was rapidly weakening, and his stamina was bottoming out, making it hard to see.
At first, he couldn't hear, and now he couldn't see.
He wasn't even sure if he was still swinging his axe.
Though his senses were failing and everything was uncertain, Caesar kept swinging his axe.
It was the only way to survive, and the only thing he could do.
Then, Caesar's axe broke through a wall with a different texture than before.
Pshwooooooo-!
Like releasing a tightly sealed, fully inflated balloon, Caesar was propelled outside along with a rush of air.
Thud Thud Thud Thud!
Caesar rolled several times across an empty space.
His entire body was a mess, covered in red blood and dust.
Beeeeeep.
His ears and nose felt stuffy, like a diver who had just surfaced from the sea.
He couldn't hear anything.
He couldn't see anything.
But the battle wasn't over yet.
Caesar took a deep breath and scanned his surroundings.
He could faintly see the slime creature.
The horns on the slime's body had decreased from 24 to 9.
It seemed to be in a dying state too, panting like a failing heart.
If he had to kill it, it had to be now.
Caesar staggered to his feet.
At that moment, with a chill running down his spine, he leapt to the side.
But it was too late.
Sweeeeeeek!
A intense beam of light grazed Caesar's side.
Most firearms couldn't even scratch Caesar's skin, but that light beam had taken a bite out of his side.
Was it because of the unfamiliar pain?
His stuffy ears suddenly cleared.
Caesar looked in the direction the light beam had come from.
There stood Viscount Duken.
"You m-monster!"
Viscount Duken was holding a golden gun from who knows where.
He pulled the trigger again, aiming at Caesar.
Another beam of light shot from the muzzle.
Caesar dodged it using Riding the Wind.
Sweeeeek!
Sweeeeek!
As if the gun had some auto-aim magic cast on it, the light beams accurately followed Caesar's evasive path, despite the Viscount's trembling hands.
Caesar threw Thunder towards Viscount Duken.
It would be best to keep Viscount Duken alive and put him on trial, but Caesar was physically and mentally exhausted.
He had no choice but to abandon the option of keeping him alive.
Clang!
But the slime had somehow approached and blocked Thunder flying towards Viscount Duken with its horns.
Thunder was deflected high into the sky.
Caesar clicked his tongue.
"Damn bastards."
On the battlefield, they always pressured Caesar in the worst situations, at the worst moments, with the worst methods.
A collaboration between an artifact powerful enough to pierce Caesar's tough body and a demon that could block Caesar's axe.
He couldn't think of any way to break through that combo.
Three eyeballs and a mouth protruding from the slime's body looked at Viscount Duken and spoke.
"You, strong."
"G-good! Protect me. Then I'll... Guuuurk!"
Caesar's eyes widened.
The slime's horn had pierced Viscount Duken's heart.
The slime began to push its body into Viscount Duken's punctured heart.
"Let's become one."
Come to think of it, wasn't this slime the one that had been trying to possess Viscount Duken's body until just now?
Thunder was stuck in the ground after being deflected, and throwing the remaining axe in Caesar's hand would be too risky.
Then there was only one way.
Caesar used Riding the Wind with all his might and charged.
Whoooong!
A bundle of wind wrapped around Caesar's axe.
Caesar used a blast of wind towards the slime and Viscount Duken.
Kwaaang!
The slime didn't dodge Caesar's attack.
It probably didn't have the strength to dodge in the first place.
Instead, it inflated its body as much as possible to take Caesar's attack, trying to prevent damage to Viscount Duken.
The slime's body was cleanly exposed inside, as if it had become a rag.
Inside, there were three brains and three hearts beating.
But as if it had always been that way, it began to regenerate quickly.
Caesar swung his axe horizontally again.
"Wooriyaaaah!"
With a shout, a heavy blast of wind bit into the slime's side again.
His posture was sloppy, and the wind didn't gather properly.
But it was enough to slice through the slime's flesh.
Caesar's sharp wind burst out, smashing its hearts and brains.
"Uwaaaaaaaah!"
"Uwaaaaaaaah!"
"Uwaaaaaaaah!"
The slime's mouths screamed.
Nevertheless, the slimes kept pushing their flesh into Viscount Duken's body, and finally, three horns, a brain, and a heart entered Viscount Duken's body.
Viscount Duken's eyes turned completely purple, and horns grew on his head.
"Damn it."
Viscount Duken's hand became one with the golden gun, and the muzzle widened.
Caesar looked at Viscount Duken's head.
Three horns were growing rapidly on his head like sprouts.
And the eyes of the demon wearing Viscount Duken's skin turned towards Caesar.
At the same time, at a speed Caesar could hardly react to, the gun muzzle attached to his hand aimed at Caesar's forehead.
"I want to live..."
Thung!
A beam of light accurately flew towards Caesar's head.