It Will Never Flow Your Way
An explosion inside the mouth usually means death. But the opponent was a Great Demon—there was no way it would settle for such an obvious end.
For that reason, even with the thick smoke billowing all around, I prepared for what came next. And that “preparation” took the form of gathering every scrap of mana into my sword so I could counter whatever came my way.
Bwoooooom!
[You damned human!!]
Stubborn bastard.
See? I knew it would be like this. If things kept going this way, the Great Demon’s name would be ruined—would it just die for me that easily?
Of course I wanted Moby Dick to simply curl up and vanish. But when had a Great Demon ever granted a wish of mine so readily?
Moby Dick finally surged up through the smoke. The range was so vast that by the time I registered it, there was no dodging.
“Kehek!”
From behind me came the sound of Kimchi Dumpling coughing up blood. The whale’s ascent must have shattered dozens of layers of her barrier.
But I had bigger problems. I was in no position to worry about Kimchi Dumpling.
With the barrier gone, all that remained beneath me was thin air—and farther still, the inside of Moby Dick’s maw.
“Demon Knight!”
[I’ll swallow you whole and digest you!]
My body plummeted downward.
“Tch.”
Still, I wasn’t about to take it lying down. That was why I’d gathered the mana in the first place.
Cut it down.
I unleashed the mana I had prepared as an impossibly narrow, razor-precise slash.
Seok! A black crescent of sword energy swept straight through the whale that had hung the deep sea across the sky. Whether it had truly cut deep or only nicked the surface remained to be seen.
Flap!
Anyway, after slicing the whale, I was swallowed by that enormous mouth.
Ah—well, I hadn’t gone past the throat, and the entrance was still open, so maybe “swallowed” was a stretch?
Even so, my situation was far from good. Despite my certainty that I’d cut it, the slash seemed to have had little effect; there was no severing, and I was still falling.
I couldn’t just let it happen. As a final thrash of resistance, I drove my sword into the whale’s tongue—smooth, slick, without a single bump.
But whether from my own weight or because the flesh was simply too soft, the blade failed to lodge and instead sliced downward in a long, continuous tear.
Worse, the whale was so enormous that wedging myself between palate and tongue was impossible. The distance was too great for my feet to reach.
So was I simply doomed to plummet helplessly into that abyssal throat?
Once inside I could still carve away at the flesh and torment Moby Dick… but I’d rather harass it from the outside if I could. The subsequent four-thousand-meter dive also worried me a little.
Yet the die had already been cast.
Rather than despair, I resolved to thrash the flesh so thoroughly that the Great Demon would die in agony, and I tumbled past the throat.
Bubble-bubble.
Suddenly—right at that moment—the slash I had fired earlier took effect and created an opening.
Bright gray lines scored the flesh on either side, then split with a wet crack, widening the gap further.
[You… you bastard…]
At the same time everything began to seethe and froth like boiling water, as though the whole world were turning to liquid.
Organs, bones, flesh—everything.
[You actually…]
And in the instant all of it dissolved into airborne droplets, light seeped into the pitch-black surroundings and the sky became visible.
“Demon Knight!”
“Hwahaha! Comrade, I got you!”
The next thing I knew, something seized my body in a crushing hug.
I nearly cut it in surprise, but the first thing I saw was platinum-blond, so I stopped just in time.
Berserk’s massive arm locked around me; then the Inquisitor, who had been clinging to Berserk’s back, unleashed a burst of light.
Tong!
Our bodies tumbled across a newly formed barrier of Holy Power.
Berserk released me at the perfect moment, so I avoided being crushed under both Berserk (who looked well over a hundred kilos) and the Inquisitor (whose armor alone easily pushed past a hundred).
I was alive.
“W-we did it, Berserk!”
“See? I told you we could, priest!”
I pushed myself up right beside Berserk and the Inquisitor.
After freefalling dozens of meters only to slam into a perfectly flat Holy Power platform, every joint in my body screamed. Lucky I didn’t get a concussion.
Still, a life saved was a life saved. Without complaint I scanned the surroundings.
First priority: find that damned Moby Dick and see what had become of it.
“The demon is…”
But where the hell had it gone?
I searched for Moby Dick while sensing the clouds rapidly gathering and the static electricity crackling so hard that every hair on my body stood on end.
Unfortunately, the massive whale form was nowhere to be seen.
“The wind… it’s getting stronger.”
“A storm?”
Just as Berserk said, a storm seemed to be brewing—here, on a barrier with nowhere to drive a weapon or anything solid to grab onto.
Hair and clothing flailed wildly even while frozen stiff. I thought I heard a faint crackling.
[Indeed. My greatest mistake was trying to hold something back while facing the Hero and you.]
Just then a gloomy voice rolled out from the gathering storm clouds.
Raindrops struck our cheeks and bodies with soft taps. Given the altitude they were closer to ice pellets, but we could overlook that for now.
[So from this moment on, I will show no mercy.]
But the black storm clouds finally covering our heads was something we could not ignore.
From within the ink-dark clouds a mermaid’s head emerged. The mass of clouds around it looked exactly like an inverted sea.
[I will not die alone.]
While its fins and ornamental cloths fluttered, the mermaid declared. Pupils twice the size of my head fixed on us with absolute clarity.
Silver irises within black sclera gleamed with serpentine malice.
A low growl escaped my throat unbidden.
[Let us see how long you can endure.]
Whoa. So that was Moby Dick after changing form? And a form change meant phase two or three, right?
But wasn’t it a bit much to praise with “Nice work, caddy”? Acting like it was about to hurl a spear bigger than its own body was just excessive.
[Die.]
And that spear was already wrapped in lightning the instant it was thrown.
The spear slowly descending toward our position looked, at a glance, like nothing less than divine judgment.
“You demon bastard…”
“I’ll open a path!”
Either way we had to dodge it. And the only way was to run outside its range.
So the Inquisitor hurriedly expanded the barrier in one direction. Practical experience really was the best training; her control over Holy Power barriers was improving by leaps and bounds.
But as always, the Inquisitor was not a speed fighter. Even if the spear’s descent was slow, her pace made things razor-tight.
“Hah! Run!”
“I-I can run too!”
“The priest is too slow!”
“…!”
So Berserk hoisted her up and ran, while I took the lead.
Krrruk.
To make matters worse, deep-sea monsters began raining down. Even in the corners where the Inquisitor hadn’t laid barrier.
They used the clouds of mist right beneath us as footing—or rather, they swam through them.
Then they either aimed for the barrier path or climbed onto it to attack us.
Utterly annoying.
“These pests are getting out of hand!”
“Insects…”
I left the monsters behind us to Berserk—how she managed the strength to hold a full-plate knight with a massive shield in one arm while swinging a halberd with the other, I had no idea—and I sprayed mana lances.
They did nothing to high-HP bosses, but against trash mobs like these the mana lances were perfect; dozens dropped in an instant.
And just when I thought we had finally escaped the spear’s range, it plunged straight into the mist below.
The clouds parted like soft cream, then instantly filled with lightning and flashed brilliantly. Thunder rolled with a deep ku-rung-ku-rung.
“Keuk.”
But it was more than a visual effect.
When the thunder exploded in every direction, it also slammed the barrier that sat right above the mist.
Thanks to the Inquisitor’s desperate effort it barely held, but she herself could not avoid the impact.
Kimchi Dumpling coughed blood again. A thick stream. I don’t think I’d ever seen her get a nosebleed before.
Kwagagagak!
Even so, we still had no time to rest. Moby Dick was truly determined to overwhelm us.
Not content with throwing another spear, it added guided water snakes and ice pillars to hinder our retreat.
The real problem was that we had no way to hit it back.
Even if I wanted to attack the main body, it was too high; if I forced out a mana cannon, the moment the attack was about to connect it simply hid inside the sea of clouds above.
And did it ever come down to give us a chance to attack? No. The damned boss was launching pure one-sided assaults and never giving us a turn.
“Sending only minions—how cowardly! Come down yourself and face us fairly!”
In the end it was Berserk whose patience ran out first.
After splitting countless minion skulls with her halberd and soaking herself in their blood, she roared.
The Inquisitor? The one who had somehow managed to fight with a mace in the early stages was now slumped in one spot. Just maintaining the platform against the constant attacks and shielding us from the occasional gales had become all she could handle.
As for me…
Just hold on.
I never once despaired.
Instead I was thinking that this—drying up and dying like this—could not possibly be our future.
It wasn’t baseless, either. Where in the world was there a boss this unfair and absurd?
Everything has a weakness. Therefore this boss had one too.
It just wasn’t the kind that required attacking to exploit.
If we just hold out.
Seok!
I shattered every increasingly ferocious assault and gripped my sword.
My body was somewhat tattered from the attacks I failed to block or destroy, but there were no major wounds. That was enough.
It will die on its own.
“You.”
Because the attack I had just blocked felt weaker than the one before it.
“Looks like you don’t even have the strength to lift that spear anymore.”
[…Die!]
As I thought—your mana pool has a limit, doesn’t it?
[A mere vessel like you!!]
Looking at Moby Dick as it peeked out, I forced the corners of my mouth into the widest possible grin.
Inside my head I was converting its strategy into pure text.
“Struggle all you like, insect. The world will never flow as you wish—not for all eternity.”
[…Wrath!!!]
I’d half-intuited it from the moment our attack turns stopped coming entirely: this wasn’t a boss you killed. It was a boss that self-destructed if you simply survived long enough.
Earlier my head had been filled with thoughts like “Should I smash the sealing orb or not?” and “This is seriously fucking impossible,” but now the judgment “We can do this” had formed—proof enough.
It was starting to run out of strength.
“Demon Knight, I…”
“Hold on.”
“…Yes!”
The only variable was the Inquisitor’s stamina.
I gritted my teeth as I watched the waves of Holy Power that purified even blood, and Kimchi Dumpling buried within them.
If I could take her place I would have. But only she could do this, so I had no choice but to push her.
I’m sorry. Truly sorry.
[You at least—I will take you with me!]
So at the very least I would bring back that thing’s head.
I watched Moby Dick emerge from the sea as a last resort and charge straight at me, spear and all. It looked exactly like a meteor rushing toward me.
“Ha, finally…!”
“Somehow…!”
Still, I didn’t dodge. I wasn’t the one who needed to dodge.
“Idiot.”
“Yes?”
“Were you calling me?”
“Jump.”
I gripped my two-hander straight and true.
“You’re in the way.”
At the same time I poured exactly half of the mana I had conserved until now into my legs. The overflowing black energy surged like flames, far beyond mere physical reinforcement.
“You really are a bastard.”
“Demon Knight, what do you mean…?”
“Hogging all the fun prey for yourself.”
“Yes?”
“Once we get down you’re dueling me again.”
It was a flame even the freezing four-thousand-meter air could not extinguish.
“Berserk, I can’t follow the conversation—”
“We’re going!”
“Waaah!”
And the instant Berserk snatched up the Inquisitor and leapt, every preparation was complete.
Just before the barrier vanished I kicked off that platform with everything I had.
“If you thought I would cross blades with you, you were mistaken, insect.”
[……!]
My body barely scraped past Moby Dick’s spear and stepped onto the flat of the blade.
Being enormous meant being this imprecise.
“I’ll cut you down.”
Of course being small came with its own penalties… but not right now.
Indomitable Spirit
Pouring out the last of my mana was not enough; I converted every remaining drop of HP as well, drawing the blade of concentrated mana that split the heavens.
A black moon rose into the sky.