Facing the Fruits of Choice (4)
“This is grave. We have yet to check the Adventurers’ Guild, but I doubt they will prove much different from the temple.”
The Inquisitor spoke as she quickened her pace.
“Most likely,” the Archmage agreed.
“For now, we ought to meet with the Demon Knight and discuss matters. He will probably insist on heading into the sewers as well, but… hm? You?”
She broke off. There stood the very man whose face she still could not stand to look upon.
“Why are you here alone—?”
“Best hurry after him, miss.”
“…What?”
“The knight lord went into the sewers by himself.”
Those words could not be ignored.
“Of all the…”
“You let him go alone?!”
“Well? Are we going after him? This whole business of ours was never about that, you know.”
“Hah! What else can one expect from a criminal!”
“You’ve never even seen me commit a crime, yet every time it’s ‘criminal this, criminal that’…!”
“Then if you’re not a criminal, what exactly—!”
“Enough!! That is not what matters right now!”
“……!”
Only the Archmage’s sharp rebuke snapped her back to herself. The priority at hand was not trading barbs with this thief, but catching up to the Demon Knight who had gone on ahead.
“Knowing his nature, he will have set out without so much as a proper rest or resupply. We must find him at once.”
He was right. She had hoped to make at least the barest preparations before descending into the underground passages, but now catching him first took precedence.
“…Once this is over, I will see that you answer for every crime you deserve.”
“Hah. And what crimes would those be?”
That, she could not deny.
She had met him in a place crawling with thieves and robbers, and his first appearance had looked for all the world like an ambush, so she called him a thief—yet she had no proof he had ever actually committed a crime. The only criminal act of Jochi’s she had witnessed was a private act of revenge. And even that lost much of its weight once the target turned out to be a demon contractor.
Still… still she could not bring herself to admit it. He was a different case from the Demon Knight.
The Demon Knight merely carried a “demon” within his body; the man himself was pure and upright beyond measure. He stood in the position where it would have been easiest of all to fall into sin, yet he had held out by sheer will alone.
And Jochi? The alley where Jochi had been?
Even without carrying a “demon,” even without contracting with them, humans could still choose sin. In a way that was far more despicable. They could have lived rightly, yet for their own convenience and pleasure they chose evil instead.
That was why she could not accept this man—and why, because nothing was certain, she remained confused.
She knew how to pass judgment on clearly proven sins. She had never learned how to deal with someone who might have committed them.
“…I will remember this.”
In the end, those were the only words she could manage.
The world outside the temple was still so very difficult.
“They’re weaker than I expected…”
Honestly, everyone had warned me it was dangerous, so I had been a little spooked. Not that I wasn’t nervous at all—when every single person tries to scare you, it gets under your skin.
Even so, I went in for the usual metagaming reason. Unless the balance patch is catastrophically bad, monster levels rarely jump that sharply. Even if they had leveled up a lot, almost everything so far had died in one hit—two at most. It wasn’t as though I would suddenly run into something I couldn’t kill.
Not that charging in headfirst made it a wise decision.
“Finding the way is harder than the fighting…”
Fortunately the hunting itself was no problem. Only the navigation was.
“Haa…”
How many hours had passed? Three? Four? Five?
My fatigue had already maxed out at 100 long ago, and there was nothing else—no object, no system—that let me guess the time. I simply felt it had been a while.
The map was the same. Last time I had only searched one district; now I was combing the entire city’s underground, so even marking the map as I went barely narrowed anything down.
On top of that, these damned demon bastards had dug brand-new tunnels…
Still, I couldn’t stop. Giving up here would make everything I had already walked far too wasteful. At this point I was starting to wonder whether I was playing a game or just making extra work for myself, but either way, it was wasteful.
For that reason I wiped the blood droplets from my cheek and pushed the stray thoughts aside.
Clothes cleaned themselves over time, so that was fine, but anything stuck to the skin was another story—far too sticky and unpleasant. Especially after hours of having my crotch soaked in blood and filth.
The moment the detection skill chimed, even that discomfort had to be thrown aside.
I swung my weapon on pure reflex.
Crack!
The black-stained blade half-severed a ghoul’s neck while my boot slammed into its gut. Distance opened; the sword lodged in its throat came free.
Slash!
Next came the natural follow-up: splitting its belly open. Only then did the ghoul die completely and crumble to ash.
With the nearest enemy spotted and dealt with, the next one registered.
Three steps ahead, around the corner. About to burst out. From the running footsteps it was probably a three-eyed ghoul.
In that case—
I drew my shoulder back as though nocking a bow and held the sword level. In an instant black energy streamed along the blood-slicked blade.
Stinger
Wraps the weapon in mana and unleashes a demonic thrusting attack forward.
Effect: Consumes 6 mana. Deals 270% damage to all enemies in the forward area.
Ever since I realized I could use unlearned skills, this was the one I had picked up even before Chamgyeok. The motion simply felt the most natural.
Kerrang—!
Crack!
The three-eyed ghoul that lunged out never even finished its howl; its skull exploded. No need for a finishing blow.
“Ptoo.”
Well, having bits of flesh constantly flying into my mouth was just something I had to live with. Ugh, disgusting.
I flicked the sword free of oily meat and sticky fluid, tongue still working. Then a faint splash landed right in the center of my ear.
It’s coming.
Sometimes the detection skill fired late. Or rather, there were moments when instinct and gut feeling outran the skill entirely.
I hurriedly followed my body’s command and set the sword in front of me—tilted diagonally, ready to parry.
Klang!
Claws far too smooth to belong to a demon—metal gauntlets—caught on the blade.
“Ha!”
“Tch.”
A person? Was it a person?
I watched the figure retreat in a swirl of black smoke. Humanoid overall, yet far from normal. The veins turned black, the whites of the eyes threaded with blood vessels, the pupils clouded with cataracts—honestly it looked more like a corpse than a living man. Or perhaps like someone whose demonic energy corruption had reached the absolute limit.
Those who willingly accepted demonic energy corruption and transformed from humans into demons. They plunder the lives of others in order to maintain their reason.
As if answering my curiosity, the window supplied the information. People who had abandoned being human. Exactly the sort of concept I hated.
“A worm that sold itself to demons…!”
So I gladly obliged with fury. Splash. The enemy that had withdrawn came charging back through the filth. Black mist poured from its body; the sight was somehow familiar and simultaneously infuriating.
“Die, traitor!”
Traitor? Please. I never received a single thing from their side, so accusing me of betrayal was just ridiculous.
If you’re going to say that, at least drop a decent item first! This is an RPG and I still haven’t gotten a single piece of equipment drop in this place!
Of course even if they gave me one I wouldn’t equip it—character image to maintain—but still!
Clang! Clash-clang! Clang!
The enemy, claws like blades on its hands, stabbed sharply and persistently at my vitals. Its movements were quicker than any foe I had faced so far.
But no matter how fast, it was never so fast that I couldn’t see and react.
That was enough.
I moved my sword with exquisite subtlety, parrying every claw, while my free hand slipped into my coat. In one smooth motion I drew a dagger from its sheath and flung it forward.
“……!”
The enemy’s eyes flew wide; the hand that had been reaching for me jerked desperately up to guard its vitals. Ting! The knife bounced off the iron plate covering its hand.
But the motion was broken. I shot out my empty right hand. Thud! My fingers slipped cleverly between its raised guard and locked around its throat.
“Ghk!”
The wet sound of swallowed breath rang out for an instant. Holding the enemy fixed, I drove the sword down.
Shunk!
Flesh parted as the longsword punched through the region of its heart. Even if I had missed the heart itself, every major organ would have been ruined at that angle. Survival was impossible.
“Trai…tor—!”
Even so the enemy, already resigned to death, thrashed to the last. Claws dug for the flesh beneath my arm, determined to leave at least one wound behind.
Crrrk-krrk!
“Gyaaaargh!”
Why would I simply watch that happen?
I forced power into the blade and dragged it sideways. The crunch of bone and the wet tear of muscle blended together until the sword finally burst free through the flank.
Thud.
I flung the instantly dead body aside and checked my right arm. Thankfully only scratches marred the gauntlet; no injury. I hadn’t planned the armor with this exact situation in mind, but I was grateful all the same.
I had already used one bandage on my leg—using another would have been a waste.
“All right, now the path…”
I recovered the useful dagger and considered.
I had followed only the densest pockets of presence on the theory that where there were enemies there would be a path. The result was this situation.
And for the first time an elite-grade monster had appeared. Higher mobs did not spawn in useless zones, so my sense had been right up to this point.
“It has to be here.”
Moreover the vampire had burst out from the right-hand corner. High chance the next path lay that way.
Screeech.
Just in case, I scraped the longsword against the wall, leaving a mark. Impossible on bare stone, but right now the surface was covered in black root-like strands of some plant, so carving a trail was easy.
Thwip.
“Got you.”
Something sank into the back of my neck. The sting covered only a tiny radius, so it hadn’t pierced or slashed clean through.
More importantly, what the hell was wrong with this game’s detection skill? Sometimes it rang the instant something entered twenty meters; other times it stayed silent until I already had a knife in my back.
Did enemies have counter-skills? Or was my skill level just too low? Either way, I wished it would get its act together.
“Gretchen… I don’t know why you betrayed us, but…”
I checked the rapidly climbing poison gauge and gently rolled an unused dagger between the plates of my gauntlet. Hidden by my torso, the motion would be invisible to whoever stood behind me.
“It’s time you returned to His embrace—”
The moment the poison gauge crossed ninety I spun and slashed with the dagger.
“Ghk!”
I had only roughly estimated the height from the voice, but bingo—perfect cut across the throat.
Ting!
With the hand holding the longsword I yanked free whatever was stuck in my neck. A poison needle bounced once on the floor then sank into the filthy water.
“Ghk… ghk-uh!”
Now only the one who had shot the needle remained.
I watched the figure clutch its throat, trying to stop the bleeding, and gripped my sword properly. In the lantern light its eyes flooded with terror; a hand stretched out as if begging me to stop. I didn’t care.
“Fall into Hell.”
I took its head. Too grotesque to keep as a trophy, so I simply discarded it, but still.
“…Fuck me. They sent us to fight that monster with just one vampire and an assassin?”
“There’s a limit to how long you can stall for time…!”
In the meantime new enemies had joined the fray. No gloomy robes, so not demon contractors—just close-combat types who looked like they hit hard. Annoying, yet also welcome.
“So you’ve come to offer your own necks.”
After all, when they poured out of a tunnel in a swarm like this, I could be certain I had found the correct path!
“Excellent. I’ll take every last head, you insects!”
Thanks for the welcome, you bastards!
“Priestess! You’re safe!”
“Hey, lower your weapons!”
“Make way at once!”
“Y-yes…”
The Inquisitor emerged from the sewer pipe amid the people’s relieved welcome. The Archmage, already supported by others, had been helped past the defensive line.
“Are you injured anywhere?”
“I am fine. But the Archmage…”
“It’s not a serious wound, Priestess. Please don’t worry.”
Is that so? Yet the mere fact he had been wounded already meant their situation was poor.
“Forgive me, Inquisitor. Had I reacted a little faster…”
“It is not your fault, Archmage. We forced an unreasonable entry from the start.”
The Archmage was not a man who fought with his body.
Moreover, what had their schedule been these past days? Not once in nearly a week had they rested properly. They had rarely slept on time and had bolted down hasty meals while moving without end.
An ordinary mage would have collapsed long ago from exhaustion. Only because the Archmage belonged to the Shagi race—born with superior stamina and lightning reflexes—had he endured this far.
“If anything I am the one who should apologize. Had I moved even a little sooner…”
And herself? Holy Power brought a measure of pain, yet in return it granted her nearly inexhaustible stamina and the strength never to yield to demons.
As long as her will held, she could keep fighting even when the entire world fell.
Yet she had failed to overcome a single bout of mental fatigue and allowed the attack that struck the Archmage. As a hero, as an Inquisitor—she was a failure.
“…And the knight who went to search for him…?”
Worse still, they had not even achieved the goal that had driven the reckless entry. The Inquisitor ground her teeth and shook her head.
“We could not find him.”
They had discovered the traces of his passage easily enough. There was no need for tracking magic; the butchered corpses of demons lay like signposts—anyone who failed to notice them would have been the strange one.
“He simply… went far too deep.”
That was all. His advance had simply been overwhelming.
Even after he cleared a path, enough demons remained to fill the gaps again; the enemy numbers alone had been that vast.
“This old man should have stayed outside. I only held the Inquisitor back.”
“No. Even had I entered alone… I would still have emerged alone.”
The purpose of this entry had been to catch the Demon Knight, persuade him, and bring him back outside. They were far too exhausted to begin a proper search of the underground passages right now.
They had intended to propose a period of rest and then a thorough search… yet they had not even managed the chance to persuade him. Now only one choice remained to them.
“Rest, Archmage. We will re-enter in five hours.”
Rather than force the pace and suffer further losses, they would rest among themselves, recover their strength, and then go in again.