Existence (6)
“I… I…!”
The primitive arena that had formed around Muwang began to tremble.
He still had no idea how the thing worked, but it was clearly no good sign for Muwang. And anything bad for the enemy was an opportunity for him.
“I am no loser!”
Muwang hurled Kankan aside and spun toward them. Whether Kankan still lived or not was impossible to tell—and right now it did not matter.
What truly mattered was that they could not waste the opening Kankan had bought them by stalling for time.
“A loser who isn’t even a warrior anymore has an awful lot to say!”
So Deathbringer moved, silent beneath the cover of Berserk—or so he assumed. Every eye, demon and Muwang alike, was fixed on her; no one noticed him at all.
“I am not—!”
“Hah. Berserk does not fight the weak!”
Berserk snorted and dismissed Muwang outright. For a heartbeat the risk that his attention might swing back toward Deathbringer hung in the air—but it never came to pass.
Whether she meant every word or was simply pulling aggro, her answer worked perfectly.
“Where do you think you’re going?! Get back here right now!”
The moment she strode toward the Sand Tiger as though Muwang did not even exist, he completely lost it.
“Fight me! Fight me, damn you!”
“Out of the way! That demon is mine!”
A textbook case of unrequited love, Deathbringer thought. He steadied his breathing, loosened every muscle, and studied Muwang.
The man’s skin flushed an ugly red, yet his mouth stayed clamped shut like a shell. His limbs only trembled; they refused to move.
Proof that beneath the rage and jealousy lay bone-deep terror and the old, festering conviction of defeat.
“Berserk!!!”
What had started it all? Did it even matter? The world was full of people who refused to be the tail of a cow and settled for being the beak of a chicken instead.
Muwang had not even managed that much; he had needed a shortcut just to become a fighting dog. Unlike someone who stood, without any trickery, as the true head of the herd.
BOOM!
In that same instant Berserk collided with the Sand Tiger. The way she ripped through its forelegs with her halberd and shattered its jaw would have looked natural even among superhumans.
“……!!”
And precisely because of that, someone else was driven even further over the edge.
When a sparrow tries to follow a stork, its legs split—that is simply the way of things. Yet some people cannot accept their own measure and are swallowed whole by their emotions.
Ssshhk.
The moment those emotions blinded him, Muwang ceased to be any kind of threat.
Of course. The feast had been laid out perfectly; if Deathbringer failed to seize it now, the very name Deathbringer would weep.
Ssss.
Behind the curtain of everyone else’s attention, he finally took his place at Muwang’s back.
His body was lowered so low the demon in the sky could never sense him—more shadow than man. Every twitch of finger and toe was throttled so the gut-worms would not notice. His breathing had become so shallow and long it no longer carried even a trace of heat.
“You—how could you—!”
At last Muwang could no longer contain himself and moved. It was exactly the moment Deathbringer had been waiting for.
His footsteps vanished beneath Muwang’s roaring. It was not difficult. He had done this more times than he could count; he had even done it when he subdued the Demon Knight.
Next to that, Muwang was a joke.
“Berserk!”
CRASH!
The Sand Tiger finally toppled and lay sprawled across the earth. Even then the man who still could not bring himself to challenge Berserk only stood a few paces away, screaming his throat raw.
“I… I…!”
A blade without a single gleam of light settled against that throat.
“A cowardly loser.”
“……!”
The instant Deathbringer stepped on the back of the man’s knee and rose, Muwang twisted. Too late. The assassin who had already wasted his first chance by failing to account for regeneration now staked his own life on the second.
He had closed every path of escape and chosen instead the single road that would kill without fail—no poison, no flourishes, only the pure belief that the blade would sever the enemy’s neck.
“Ghk!”
That belief was repaid. The arm holding the sword was seized and he was flung away, but Muwang’s throat already fountained blood.
No matter what tricks he tried after that, he would never rise again.
“Forever.”
Deathbringer had won.
Shhhrring— Every false illusion that had blanketed the area shattered at once.
“Fuck, that hurts like hell…”
He squirmed where he had been impaled on a chunk of broken building. Having been thrown into a heap of shattered rock, every inch of his back screamed. It was a miracle the back of his skull had not cracked open.
“Urgh.”
Well, the arm that had been grabbed seemed broken.
Deathbringer reached with his remaining good hand for the sword the broken arm had dropped.
CRUNCH!
Blinding pain shot up from his leg.
“Son of a—!”
Right. Of course it would not end without the demons getting their turn. Never having been bitten until now had just been pure luck.
Crunch, crunch.
Still, becoming demon food right after clearing the biggest hurdle felt bitterly unfair.
He clenched his teeth as gut-worms crawled up all around him. He wanted to cut them down, but one was already latched onto his arm.
Paralytic venom made the limb useless.
“Shiiit…”
At least his tongue still worked? No—even that was starting to stiffen.
He squeezed his eyes shut against the demons gathering to tear him apart.
“What, already dead?”
SPLAT!
He felt hot fluid spray from the demon still clamped on his leg—and from the ones swarming his arm, and from every other creature closing in.
“Ah… live…”
He forced his eyeballs to move. Someone soaked head to toe in Sand Tiger ichor was looking down at him. Behind that figure the Sand Tiger’s corpse stood like a mountain, unmoving.
In those few heartbeats she had torn the mighty demon apart and returned.
“Still… alive…”
An untimely laugh almost escaped him. The amber eyes curved into crescents.
“Ha! That’s more like it! The one who forced a loser to his knees cannot die so pitifully! Come—if you still live, stand!”
This woman is insane, he thought. How many humans bitten by gut-worms can still move?
But Berserk had never heard of common sense. She simply grabbed him and hauled him upright.
His rigid body dangled like a puppet with cut strings, yet her strength easily lifted him by the scruff of the neck.
“Paralysis venom that mild can be overcome with sheer will, can it not?”
“…….”
She really was the type to spout nonsense about transcending humanity. The Demon Knight might lack consideration, but at least he was never this reckless.
“Kan… Kankan…”
Still, she was the one who had saved his life. Deathbringer let gratitude paper over her denseness. The fact that another person needed urgent help also helped.
“…Alive.”
Fortunately Kankan’s voice floated over from the other side. He looked half-dead and was being supported by someone, but as long as the breath of life remained, that was enough.
Victory could only be enjoyed by the living.
“…Back… rear… lines…”
And to keep those barely clinging lives from slipping away, they needed to reach the healers.
They gathered the survivors and withdrew in haste toward the agreed position.
Apparently the Inquisitor’s side had been attacked as well—twice, no less.
The first time Dev had noticed and come running; the second time Kimchi Mandu had somehow handled it alone.
No one had been hurt, but they had had no strength left to spare for me. They had not even known I was fighting up above in the first place.
“I should have paid more attention—”
“Please be careful. You have overused your Holy Power. You must rest now.”
More than anything, blanketing the entire wall with blessings had left her looking half-starved. Only a bastard would scold someone in that state.
I simply confirmed the Inquisitor was safe, then headed down. I had something to tell the Archmage.
“Perfect timing. Anything of note? Do you still have strength? And why are you alone? Did you take an injury—”
“A Great Demon came.”
“……!”
Judging by what I had seen on the way, mercifully nothing major had happened on this side. A few had tried to force their way in, only to be bounced off the barrier.
The charred corpses in the corridor outside the mages’ quarters were proof enough.
“What are you saying?!”
Even so, they had been just as ignorant of the Great Demon’s descent on the wall as I had been of their own troubles.
“What do you mean… Very well, I understand. If a Great Demon simply walked away intact, another attack may come. You should remain here—no, go to the temple folk and—”
“I have delivered the message. I am leaving.”
“Wait—where do you think you are going? If you intend to reinforce anyone, stop. We have no idea where that Great Demon is hiding. A creature that slipped in once can slip in again. Staying here is far less dang—”
“Danger?”
I thought of the frontline soldiers and commanders who kept insisting the damage had been lighter than expected, and of the city center that had looked like pure hell from above.
I thought of the demon that had prattled about how nice the status quo was and how we should just keep things exactly as they were.
“That is nothing but a handful of dust bound together by deception and lies. Its touch cannot reach me.”
“…Is that judgment born of pride?”
“…I struck it with magic again and again, yet it took no damage either—as if it were an illusion.”
Whether the status quo was truly desirable… well, I was neither stakeholder nor principal party, so I would pass no judgment. But this battle had produced casualties; that much I knew.
Fewer than usual or not, people had still been hurt and killed.
Was that not reason enough for me to lend a hand? The fight was not even finished; a few demons still wheeled through the sky.
“It called the thing a dream-within-a-dream, and claimed the sacrifices could no longer sustain that dream. A demon’s words are worthless, yet it was probably not pure falsehood either.”
“…If, as you say, it is a demon that mainly works in illusions, and if your attacks cannot harm it while it likewise cannot harm you, then it would have no reason to waste further sacrifices on you.”
Moreover the Great Demon could do nothing to me. As the Archmage said, if both sides only burned energy without landing a blow, why would it pick another fight?
It almost certainly lacked the means for anything more. I was not trusting the demon’s mouth; I simply believed that if it had possessed such a method, it would have used it the first time we met rather than waiting for a second chance.
“But that may be nothing more than an optimistic view. If the demon—”
“Do not think mere possibilities will hold me.”
I cut the Archmage off. I appreciated the concern, but it felt excessive. If I had wanted to play probability games I should never have set foot on this continent.
“…It claimed it wants the status quo preserved. That cannot be the truth. Stay vigilant on that front as well.”
“…I see. Very well. We will guard against further intrusion.”
Once I made my position clear the Archmage finally accepted it. Not that he let me go easily.
Especially when I mentioned the sealing sphere had been destroyed—he almost started objecting all over again. Only by feeding him a few more scraps of information about the Great Demon and stubbornly digging in my heels, carrot and stick in turn, did I keep him from chaining me down for good.
Even then I could not escape the earnest plea to put a new sealing sphere on before I left. Still.
I had needed to replace the sphere anyway. Thinking of it as the price of permission made the trade ratio decent enough.
No one could complain now.
“H-how are you already here…?”
So I came—to the rear.
Straight across the city center.
“Get to the infirmary.”
I shooed the people I had scooped up while cutting vertically through the city toward the medical wards as fast as possible.
“Have you seen a dark-green-haired Cueoty or a red mane?”
After that I hunted for news of the two of them. I had heard Dev had gone outside the wall looking for traitors—Kankan as well.
They had probably gone after the turncoats on the defense line; now that the inner city defenses had collapsed, unless they were hiding inside buildings they should be around here.
I needed to know at least whether they still lived.
“Ah—those two? I saw them heading for the infirmary a little while ago.”
The infirmary? Well, after charging into a city crawling with demons it made sense they would be hurt…
“How bad are the wounds?”
“Th-they were… pretty bad…”
If the civilian volunteers helping with treatment remembered them that clearly, just how badly had they been injured?
I hurried toward the casualty tents. The sheer number of wounded made searching difficult, but Dev spotted me first, so I did not wander long.
“Ah… my lord, you are unharmed after all.”
More importantly, what the hell happened to Dev’s arm? Why the splint? Why the blood-soaked bandage on his leg? I had assumed any injuries would be nothing worse than a few scrapes…!
Wait—what is that on his face? Demon Energy corruption?! You got bitten by a demon?!
“When I saw that black fog I was a bit worried, but it looks like you weren’t badly hurt. That’s a relief.”
I left the grinning Dev and checked the cot beside him. Right next to him lay Kankan, so thoroughly wrapped in bandages that one entire arm was simply… gone.
I clenched and unclenched my fists.
There was no way Dev had stayed safe while Kankan ended up like that. That was why his arm was wrecked.
So while I had been dancing with Duke up on the wall, Meat Dumpling had nearly died?
Really?
“M-my lord.”
Of course I knew the story would never let a companion die for real. And my own inability to move in that situation was not my fault either.
Who walks away from a boss fight just because their attacks are not landing? You never know when the phase might change, and the moment you try to leave is exactly when the next attack lands.
And yet.
“Are you… angry…?”
It still twisted something inside me.
These two—especially Dev, who occupied the relative-glass-cannon slot—had never been hurt or bled in front of me before, so it hit harder. Kankan and I were not exactly close, but he had still lost an arm and gained a permanent disability.
“My lord?”
Even the Inquisitor, for all the strain of overusing Holy Power, had never broken a bone that I could remember.
And some random trash mob had dared lay hands on a kid I had grown fond of over the past few months…!
“O-oh! If you’re worried about the Demon Energy corruption, there’s no need. We have plenty of medicine; things were just so hectic that distribution got delayed a little…”
You little brat, you think that’s what I’m worried about? I’m just pissed that you went and got the crap beaten out of you.
Flap.
“W-where are you going?”
But my character was not allowed to show that kind of feeling, so I turned away coldly.
I even considered putting more distance between us from now on. Right—my setting was that I kept people away because I refused to get attached. If I lost my temper just because he got hurt, what kind of character was that?
“My lord?”
I left the ward where Dev was recuperating and walked back into the city.
“Oh! So you survived as well!”
For the record, this was not for any special reason. Duke had simply rekindled my hatred for demons, and leaving them alone would break character. That was all.
“Where are you headed?”
“Get lost.”
Ah, whatever. If I say so, then it is so.
“Berserk asked. Where are you going?”
Yeah, not my problem.
I crossed the defense line with the Berserk who had randomly attached herself like a tail. A few people tried to bar my way, but for some reason they only made a token effort and stopped.
“Aha—you’re going demon hunting! Good. A Norda warrior cannot sit out something like this. Berserk comes too!”
It was time to clean out the rats that still infested the city.