Chapter 169
Chapter 169
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 169
Chapter Title: Behemoth - 3
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“Cough! Hack, hack!”
Behemoth spat out a torrent of blood-mixed coughs before teleporting away to create some distance. He staggered as he tried to flee, only to collapse flat on his face after a few steps. His entire body was riddled with wounds.
I walked slowly toward him. Thud, thud—my footsteps echoed as I stepped over the shredded red carpet. His mangled body twitched.
Behemoth looked up at me, his face a twisted mix of terror and desperation.
“You—what the hell are you! Some kind of inquisitor? What kind of bastard are you to do this to me…!”
“There’s a separate inquisitor for that. I’m not even from the Holy Kingdom to begin with. If you have to pin it down, I’d say I’m from the Empire.”
I took another step forward. Eek! Behemoth let out a shrill scream and scrambled clumsily to his feet. His right hand, gripping the whip, shook uncontrollably.
It made me feel like the bad guy. If you cut this scene out of context, anyone would see a black-clad thug tormenting a poor, innocent woman.
“That disgusting holy power stench is giving me a splitting headache, and you’re not from the Holy Kingdom? You mocking me?”
Disgusting holy power stench, huh. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it meant exactly, but it was probably referring to the blessings the popes had bestowed on me.
It hadn’t shown up in the game, so I had no idea what those blessings actually did. Still, they had to be something positive. No way the popes would’ve slapped a debuff on me.
Behemoth’s face was the picture of utter grievance. I could see why he’d feel that way. He’d barely revived, and bam—there I was. Talk about rotten luck.
Of course, if I’d left him be, he would’ve gone on a demonic rampage, so I wasn’t feeling any pity. Without me here, this city would’ve been toast right off the bat.
“Eeeeek! Die! Just die already!”
With a teeth-grinding snarl, the whip lashed out. I watched his motion closely, then rolled forward at the last second to close in.
The whip cracked down on the spot where I’d just been standing. I steadied my stance and waited for the next move. Combos could be parried, grabs dodged—and if it was neither, it was DPS time.
Behemoth simply retracted the whip. Just a basic ranged poke, then. Which meant plenty of room for a punish.
I surged forward in an instant, seizing the Wingless Nightmare with both hands and hoisting it overhead. The blade began to glow on its own.
It was the special ability of the Wingless Nightmare in its holy-attribute state.
Right after his ranged poke, if you nailed the timing, you’d have more than enough window to pull it off. Countless players had verified it.
On top of that, the guy’s build was only a bit bigger than human-sized, with no super armor patterns to speak of—so you could land the special, then slip out during the stun.
A brilliant radiance erupted from the Wingless Nightmare. Light rivaling a miniature sun illuminated every corner of the boss room.
Faint moonlight wove in amid the dazzling sunlight. White and silver lights twisted together in a frenzy. The entire sword turned pure white.
An intense glow hovered right above my head, reaching all the way back to my elbows—yet, strangely, my eyes weren’t dazzled in the slightest.
Behemoth, on the other hand, let out an agonized groan as he clutched at his face. In the game, he’d never reacted like that even when hit with the special.
I shoved the question aside and swung my arm.
—KABOOOOOM!
A colossal explosion roared out as holy light plunged down from the heavens.
Behemoth’s head slammed straight into the floor. A burst of white light bleached the surroundings. Even without being blinded, the sheer intensity had me reflexively shielding my eyes.
The glow faded in less than a second. There lay Behemoth, head buried in the ground without so much as a thud.
‘…Huh?’
Dumbfounded, I glanced back and forth between the Wingless Nightmare in my hands, Behemoth’s head-planted form, and the mansion ceiling—now sporting a hole bigger than I was tall.
The ceiling was all but demolished, leaving the blue sky in plain view. Even the clouds had taken an inexplicable hit, with one section cleanly vaporized.
Bright sunlight poured into the room, shining down on the two of us.
‘What the—this? Why’s it so damn strong?’
The power had me, the user, taken aback.
On my monitor, it’d just been a white light pillar crashing down from off-screen—pure effect. Never once had it shattered the ceiling when used indoors.
But not this time. The light had genuinely torn down from the sky, shredding clouds and pulverizing the ceiling in its wake.
‘No, seriously—what kind of weapon did that woman make?’
I couldn’t fathom how someone with zero ties to the Holy Kingdom could forge something like this. Even they probably didn’t have many weapons packing this punch.
Did she get a direct revelation from the gods or something?
“Gurk… glurk…”
A wretched gurgle leaked from Behemoth’s mouth. His hair had burned off below shoulder-length into a ragged bob, the remnants charred pitch-black and utterly discolored.
His whole body had taken on an ashen gray hue. The burns were so severe they smothered every gash I’d already carved into him. It was still absurd no matter how I looked at it.
I swung the Wingless Nightmare experimentally through empty air a few times. Couldn’t believe I’d done this. I’d only been aiming to smack him around a bit, make it hurt.
I sure as hell hadn’t expected to half-incinerate him alive, demolish the mansion ceiling, and summon a sky-piercing pillar of light.
“You… th-this…”
After twitching on the ground with his head buried for a while, Behemoth finally lifted it. His face began to melt, bit by bit.
‘Ah.’
The sight snapped me back to reality.
I could sort out what a clusterfuck this situation was after I’d finished him off completely. Right now, priority one was putting him down.
Behemoth spotted me approaching, Wingless Nightmare in hand, and tried to squirm away—but his wrecked body made it pointless.
“No! Stay back! I don’t want this!”
A frail scream burst from his lips. His voice cracked in real time. An unpleasant, nails-on-chalkboard rasp mingled with his seductive tones.
I ignored him and closed in. Melted skin crept over his mouth, garbling his words.
“How… in the human… world…”
His face collapsed faster. The soft peach-pink skin darkened to a muddy black.
“Time to show your true colors.”
“……”
I raised the Wingless Nightmare, aiming for his neck. The gold-and-silver blade gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight.
Behemoth made one last desperate thrash. Hideous fangs protruded from his gaping mouth. The blood oozing from his body slowly turned black.
I brought the Wingless Nightmare down. Slice—his neck parted with absurd ease. Now I was the dumbfounded one.
Severing a human neck in one go was no small feat, let alone a demon’s—which was dozens, hundreds of times tougher by default.
Yet I’d sliced through it like cake with a knife, barely breaking a sweat.
‘The holy power?’
Maybe it was the holy power infused in the Wingless Nightmare. Even I couldn’t say for sure.
The severed head rolled toward me. I kicked it back beside the body. His eyes bulged wide.
Suddenly, his form began to change.
The absurdly massive breasts, the cinched waist that looked ready to snap, the plump thighs—all vanished as his body swelled up in places.
His skin tore open in the most grotesque fashion. It evoked crocodile hide, but far uglier.
His physique was no exception. The impossibly voluptuous figure warped into one that was impossible for an entirely different reason.
It was the kind of bloated, waterlogged-pig look you’d buy from a shady back-alley dealer.
His head followed suit. The face beautiful enough to turn heads even in this world of upgraded beauties was gone, replaced by a goat’s head in some freakish hue.
“Ugh.”
I wrinkled my nose. Way worse than I’d imagined. In the game, it’d just been “ugly as sin.” Here, it was straight-up nauseating.
‘Helga’s charm should be broken now, right?’
I shifted my thoughts. With Behemoth dead, the charm on Helga should’ve lifted.
All that was left was dealing with the Holy Kingdom’s inquisitors and examiners—who’d show up here at 100% odds upon hearing of a demon manifestation—and getting our purity verified.
I’d be fine, but if Helga or the regular squad members were seriously unlucky, they could get labeled as souls ensnared by the demon and “saved.”
Even I couldn’t stop that.
—Creak…
Suddenly, the door eased open with utmost caution. I sensed a presence on the other side.
‘Helga?’
Guess the charm really had broken. Back to her senses, untying the knots would’ve been a breeze.
“Helga, you feeling okay…? Huh?”
I turned, calling for Helga—only to freeze at the unexpected figure. She’d opened the door expecting anything but me, freezing in place as well.
We stood there, locked eyes, rigid for a long moment. Finally, she managed to speak first.
“…G-Guest?”
The one who’d opened the door was Stella. Utterly slack-jawed in disbelief.