Before the Fruits of Choice (8)
"We've confirmed their purpose. They intended to lay a plague curse upon this place."
Having redrawn the line and shifted fully into a businesslike manner, the mage explained it to me.
"The ritual itself is rarely used. The effort required is considerable, the odds of discovery before completion are high, and disease makes no distinction between friend and foe — they could die as easily as anyone else. Releasing plague-ridden rats is faster than preparing a ceremony."
That was the better version of the story, at least. I wasn't underestimating plague, but what I'd been imagining was something on the order of mass instant death.
If they could catch it themselves, they wouldn't be using anything like the Black Death or smallpox, either.
"Even so, plague rituals are still performed — because those afflicted by the plague curse satisfy the conditions for sacrifice."
Ah… that was a more chilling thought. It meant this entire uproar could simply be one intermediate step.
When do I get to rest?
"The ritual they truly intended is likely outside the city. Either way, the underground passages were probably meant as a diversion."
I wasn't so sure about that. Those restraints — they'd said they were prepared for the Hero. Time-buying, sure, but they'd been targeting the Hero herself as well.
"The problem is… once a plague ritual begins, destroying a single axis of the magic circle will not end it. All five central axes must be eliminated before the effect fully vanishes."
So if the plague curse had already been completed by the time those axes were broken, we were screwed…?
My head was too foggy to judge with any certainty. I gave it a light shake, then found myself wondering whether this was really an appropriate difficulty for the start of a main quest.
It wasn't the monster levels that were the problem — the scale was far too much for the early game. What were they planning to do later?
"Even if the plague ritual hasn't started yet, there's still a problem. Given their malice, they may well use the unused sacrifices for a summoning ritual instead."
In any case, I understood the point: find all five, no exceptions. Right. The player is the errand boy.
∎ Stop the demon worshipers' plan
∎ Find the ritual axes 1 / 5
The quest updated, and a sudden thought flashed across my mind. My steps stopped.
"We go the opposite way."
"…?"
"If there's an axis on the western street, the group heading that direction will handle it."
This only held if the five axes formed a regular pentagon… but given every magic circle I'd seen so far used a circular formation with axes, it seemed a safe bet.
"…You're right. But can you manage it?"
"As long as you don't do anything stupid."
Ah, so I have to go back? Aaaaargh. Someone delete this injury penalty already.
"Right again."
The Inquisitor, as ever, forced the civilians revealed as demon worshipers to their knees and drove her mace into the ground.
Scorching heat flooded beneath the skin, and a brilliant radiance melted away the Demon Energy lingering on the earth. Even the corpses steeped in corruption were purified and restored to rest.
"Not recognizing them would make someone an idiot."
His swaggering attitude was genuinely insufferable, but this time she had no choice but to concede the point.
While she had been wandering the underground passages, falling for the enemy's scheme, he had disrupted the ritual being conducted above ground.
He had even confirmed the presence of those who came to check on the situation, captured them, and then tracked down additional ritual sites.
Considering the only hint he'd been given was that this was a plague ritual — five axes arranged in a regular pentagon — it was a remarkable achievement.
"Or maybe you're just incompetent."
"…!"
That, however, she could not let pass.
She hadn't even known it was a plague ritual until the heretic inquisitor of that diocese had joined them. While he had uncovered the hidden truth through observation alone, she had accomplished nothing…! Still!
"Enough. Let's find another one quickly? Though I expect they've already cleared out of there."
Even the site they'd just found had held only traces of a ritual — no one still performing it.
Fortunately, searching the area had turned up about three captives… but they couldn't count on that at the next location.
"…Fine."
Not that she could simply refuse to look.
She swallowed her frustration and roughly estimated the direction. With the axes arranged in a regular pentagon, and three positions already known, calculating the remaining ones wasn't difficult.
It was an approximate location rather than a precise calculation, so they'd still have to run around on foot — but still.
"Let's go."
She urged the others along, quickening her pace. To keep up with a thief as agile as — no, more agile than — the Demon Knight himself, she had to move her feet briskly.
KWAANG!
"…?!"
But the moment they reached the area she'd estimated, the Inquisitor sensed a familiar aura. The explosion was a bonus.
"This is…"
The Demon Knight? It seemed denser than usual, though… no — he should still be in the underground passages.
Or had he somehow dragged that body of his outside? Or was there a powerhouse on the enemy side comparable to him?
Neither possibility was welcome news. A faint unease settled in her chest as she put strength into her legs.
The lawless thief had sensed the commotion as well; his body, which had been bouncing lightly across rooftops, changed course.
"Sir Knight!"
"Demon Knight!"
And the conclusion that revealed itself confirmed that both of her premonitions had been correct.
The source of the blast was indeed the Demon Knight. That hair of ash-gray and black locked in opposition belonged to him alone — so it could only be the Demon Knight.
"Inquisitor…?"
"Perfect timing."
KREEEAAAH!!
And yes — there was a powerhouse on the enemy side that could not be ignored.
"Purify it."
KUUUOOOOH!!!
A demon whose identity even she — who had memorized every demon in the world — could not guess was halfway through devouring the Demon Knight.
Rewinding time, to before the Inquisitor arrived.
I squinted at the series of events and their final product.
"Heh… heh heh heh! The plan may have failed, but I'll take you with me at least!"
A plague ritual that had been initiated only to be discovered immediately after, rendering success meaningless. A caster who, as if wanting to thrash about one last time, had shouted those words before dying. And something enacted upon the foundation of those casters' lives.
"Traitor… you, at the very least…"
Perhaps there had been a reason he stood at the center of the magic circle — the demon contractor who had survived until the end left those words and collapsed. Blood poured from every orifice, turning to filth that swallowed his body whole.
It looked exactly like the sludge god from a certain famous animated film. Now we just needed to add some cosmic horror on top.
??? │ ???
But was this monster info for real? If you're going to do this, don't even bother displaying it.
"Too late…!"
In any case, the Archmage seemed deeply aggrieved that he had failed to stop it by a hair's breadth.
Me? I was more or less fine with it. It wasn't that I felt no regret — it was just that the sense of I figured as much outweighed it.
Every preceding quest had, directly or indirectly, foreshadowed this incident. That meant a quest of considerable scale. The fate of an entire city hung on it, after all.
And a quest drawn out this long with no boss? In an RPG, that simply doesn't happen. There was nothing surprising about this situation.
Moreover, given how they kept summoning the boss by the narrowest of margins, it seemed designed from the start so that it couldn't be prevented. There was no need to feel more regret than necessary.
"Evacuate the people."
Separately, I was glad I'd forced myself to join despite the exhaustion.
I hadn't particularly wanted a boss fight, but some games will throw a GAME OVER at you simply for failing to protect civilian NPCs.
They warn you to stop it… but these streets are absurdly wide. You'll be mid-sprint trying to block it when the fight ends.
And this location, unlike the others, had buildings that were unusually narrow and flimsy in construction.
It was a slum, so it couldn't be helped — but that made civilian casualties all too likely. On top of that, this thing, true to its cosmic-horror sludge-god nature, was bubbling and expanding its body.
No matter how you looked at it, this was a boss with area-of-effect attacks.
"You mean to face that alone?!"
Normally I'd answer, Are you insane? — but in this game, it might actually be possible?
Considering the difficulty of the trash mobs here, the boss fight might end surprisingly anticlimactically. Then again, with the injury penalty still active, maybe not.
"Do I need to say it twice?"
I adjusted my grip on the longsword I'd been using almost like a cane.
My throat was raw and I wanted water, but there was no time. I needed to put in as much damage as possible while the sludge god was still incomplete.
Breaker. The most familiar form of attack went first. A portion of the filth mass filling half a wooden house split deep.
"Damn it, you—!"
I thought the Archmage just swore — or was that my imagination? I'd never heard that man curse before.
Wuuuuu.
In the meantime, the filth that had been split in half stretched an arm toward me. Whether you could even call it an arm was debatable, but anyway.
And liquid was still liquid, viscous or not. What had been split refilled and merged back together.
This thing… didn't seem to match up well with me at all.
As if it weren't bad enough that there was no HP display and I had to judge by appearance alone — this way I couldn't even gauge how injured it was.
Puhk!
Still, I had to fight.
I struck away the approaching arms with my sword. Chunks of filth flew off like flung mud, hit the wall, and slid down in rivulets.
It wasn't particularly effective. In a very different sense, this was a thoroughly boss-like creature.
"Cough!"
Then blood surged up and spilled out. It didn't hurt, but the strength drained from my body and I nearly fell — that was a free bonus.
That damn injury penalty.
"Hold on just a little longer!"
The Archmage, doing something behind me, called out. At any other time I would have snapped that I didn't need it — but right now, those words were actually welcome.
"…deliver this message!"
Something soon hummed in my ears. A demon has appeared — leave your homes and get far from where you can hear this sound. The phrasing was a little different, but that was the gist.
"Breaker…!"
The people were being prepared, so now he'd start putting out damage, right? Ah. Please. Just one big hit.
Carrying that wish, I forced the sword down.
KUUUOOOOH!
As expected, the effect was underwhelming.
"You demon bastard…"
Cough, cough. Spitting up blood-flecked coughs, I stepped back for now. The filth mass was showing signs of attacking, and most of the house was already filled with its body — retreat was mandatory.
"Get out."
"Ugh."
I grabbed the Archmage by the scruff of the neck mid-incantation and threw him backward. "Threw" was generous — it was just outside the front door.
KWAANG!
Right on cue, a massive arm of filth — thick enough that it looked more like a headbutt than a punch — slammed into the spot where I'd been standing.
The wall by the front door just barely avoided being caught up in it. But that hardly mattered. It was going to burst out any second.
"Kehek."
Still, it bought a moment to catch my breath. I retreated a little farther into the street and finally released the blood I'd been holding back.
The recoil dropped me to my knees, and blood splashed across the dirt. It didn't hurt, but it felt genuinely awful.
"Are you all right?"
Do I look all right? Swearing to myself that I would never again fill my fatigue gauge to 100 and then stay still for hours, I forced myself upright.
And the injury penalty, too. I was so bitter about it that I resolved not to get hurt ever again.
KWAANG!
The front wall shattered, and the filth slime finally spilled out into the street.
"Aaaaah!"
"What is that monster?!"
"A demon!!"
People who had been bewilderedly driven outside by the magic screamed and fled. Feelings of why only now? and at least they're going crossed paths in my mind.
"You… do your job."
But thinking about it, I was getting pissed off.
Sure, I'd filled my fatigue to 100. Sure, I'd taken heavy hits to the back, the shoulder, the abdomen.
But implementing it this exhaustingly was just too much, wasn't it? If this were reality, being able to fight at all while this wrecked would be a miracle…!
Whoosh!
I stuffed down the complaint and swung my sword. Connecting with that thing didn't seem likely to end well, so I figured I'd at least fire off a blade of mana.
But no matter how much I cut, everything simply refilled — I was just wasting strength. Was this thing's HP even going down?
"O flame, burn my enemy!"
Then the Archmage finally put out some damage. It was a fireball that brought back vivid memories of our first meeting.
KWAANG!
Uooooh!
The sludge god hit by the fireball shrank in on itself, then began to burn as a pillar of flame surged up as a follow-up.
I figured this type of monster always had fire as a weakness. Even if it didn't, it was better than my approach.
Good. Then my role was to circle around like a parking attendant and manage aggro. Playing tank as a DPS was a bit ridiculous, but what couldn't I do? I already had plenty of precedent!
Kuuuuh!
If things went that smoothly, though, it wouldn't be a boss — it'd be a sandbag.
The burning mass of filth extinguished the fire by turning itself inside out from within. In other words, it pulled its innards out from behind and crashed them over its own body like a wave.
"Aaaaah!"
And right after that, the creature spread out as if melting. It moved at an absurd speed, like ice cream dropped on midsummer asphalt.
The humans who'd been fleeing sluggishly — wanting, from their perspective, to grab their belongings — recoiled in terror.
"Get clear…!"
"What—?"
Tanks are supposed to take hits, but DPS aren't. I threw the Archmage, who had begun casting, backward once more.
Not just the Archmage — several people were too slow and got caught up in it — but that was beyond my capacity. The moment I tried to run, strength drained from my body; how was I supposed to save them? I was already prepared to sacrifice my own ankles.
"Kh."
Fortunately, contact with the filth slime's fluid didn't reduce my HP.
"Hyaaaaah!"
"Kehek!"
Well — that was true for me. It wasn't true for the others.
Their bodies began to blacken from the points of contact with the filth. And if they fell in that state, the contact area widened and the corruption accelerated — that was the free bonus.
"…! A plague mass — it was a plague mass!"
The Archmage, who had traded the health of his lower back for his life, shouted immediately.
"You must not let that liquid touch your skin!"
"Aaaagh!"
No matter how much warning you give, there are always people whose bodies won't cooperate.
I gritted my teeth and fired a blade of mana. The Chamgyeok stretched in a straight line, scraping the ground and barring the filth's path. Spreading as shallow and fast as it was, it was easily driven back by the gale that accompanied the slash.
"Haah, haaah!"
Fortunately, the man who'd nearly been caught just now escaped without falling. But this wouldn't work. As a sword-primary fighter, I couldn't handle this kind of boss.
If I at least had oil, I could set it on fire — but I didn't have that either. And moving was hard enough as it was.
"Kehehk!"
Unluckily, I wasn't even given time to think. Those who had been caught earlier flipped their eyes back with death cries, and the mass of filth swallowed them whole.
Having almost fully emerged from the house, it had already stained a six-meter radius with its fluid — and the main body still stood well over two meters tall.
"O God, purify the unclean and destroy evil!"
The Archmage, who hadn't been idle, attempted another attack. Flames of white and yellow, broader than a fireball and somehow carrying a sacred quality, burned the filth.
As the main body began to burn, the fluid that had spread in all directions temporarily gathered back in.
"Die… already!"
I couldn't just sit around because my attacks weren't landing. For aggro maintenance alone, I needed to put out additional attacks. Knowing that contact meant doom, I stuck to firing blades of mana from a distance.
The main body split open with a crack, then filth erupted from within like a fountain. If it had spread in all directions we'd have been finished — but fortunately it only covered its own body.
Uoooohhh
No — it wasn't over. The surface of the mass bubbled and boiled a little. And of all directions, it was facing the Archmage, which made me uneasy.
Pong!
Anxiety always hits its mark. Something shot out like a water gun.
"Where do you think you're looking…!"
"Demon Knight!"
If the mage dies, the raid is over! With that mindset, I desperately lunged forward and took the shot of filth in his place. I'd wanted to bat it away with the flat of my blade if possible, but with the strength gone from my legs, that failed.
Some of the filth splattered across my coat, the clothes beneath, and my cheek. The stench pierced my nose first, then a tingling sensation spread across my skin.
A curse has taken hold.
My HP began dropping in a steady slide.
"You — just do the job you were given!"
You're talking about DPS right now? Put out more damage already! Putting out damage is how you keep me alive!
Barely keeping my balance, I fired another blade of mana. It was the best I could do to hold aggro.
Fortunately, my flailing in front of it seemed to get under its skin — the filth mass's next target was me. A portion of its bulging body surged toward me in a rush.
"Sir Knight!"
"Demon Knight!"
Ah — but the moment I tried to dodge, the strength left my legs. I'm screwed.
I can't dodge this, can I?
"Inquisitor…?"
"Perfect timing."
KREEEAAAH!!
Call it luck, or say the timing took my side. Half-submerged in the pouring filth, I shouted at the one running toward us.
"Purify it."
KUUUOOOOH!!!
Aaaagh please just save me already!!
"Wh-what—"
The Inquisitor's hesitation looked like her thought process had hit a loading screen. That wouldn't do.
"That thing is a plague mass!"
The Archmage called out its identity a step ahead of me, and the Inquisitor's expression shifted as if she had suddenly understood.
"But the Demon Knight—"
What about me? What about me? If you understood, then kill this thing already. I don't have friendly fire shields, but I can nullify death once, you know! My Indomitable Spirit cooldown is up!
Of course, after that the curse would probably kill me anyway!
"Your duty,"
I somehow forced my sword to move even as my HP plummeted toward the floor,
"is to kill demons."
Ground Crash. The skill I muttered inwardly forced itself half-reluctantly into activation and shook the earth. A sphere of force expanded outward and blasted away the filth that had been surrounding me.
"Right now!"
Fortunately, the Inquisitor didn't waste any more time. Those wavering green eyes hardened with resolve.
"O God, be with me."
A radiant brilliance descended upon Kimchi Dumpling.
"And burn every unclean thing upon this earth."
And then white light surged in like a tide and filled my entire field of vision. My barely clinging HP finally hit zero.