Don't Do This (3)
∎ Liberate Ayu Hin
∎ Bonus: Kill Bipurit
I had cut down three members of the 72 Demon Knights, the commanders ranked just below them, and dozens of soldiers beneath those with a single stroke—yet it was only 1%.
It might have been slow because this was still the early stage, but even accounting for that, it felt doable. The gauge filled less than I had expected.
“Huu…”
Maybe I could drop the act now. I could probably get away with saying the Great Demon had gone home.
I checked the gazes of the sentries standing on the walls and the guards posted behind them. I also had to keep an eye out for Lukwan, who might still be alive…
Damn it. I would have to show the scene of the Great Demon returning home or people would start talking later. I also had to consider the possibility that word of this would reach the demon worshipers—there might come a time when I needed to strut around in the Great Demon’s form again.
“Keuk.”
The moment the calculation clicked into place, my hand pressed hard against the eye covered by the patch and I bent at the waist. If I had to give this little performance a name, it would be “Demon Knight and demon fighting for control.”
Of course the baseless wave of embarrassment that washed over me was all mine.
Just playing the lunatic had been fine, but the transition scenes were a little… a little hard to endure. If I wanted to live, though, I had to power through this too.
“Huu.”
Still, I was a professional concept actor! I managed to hold it together somehow.
My reeling center of gravity righted itself at once, and my spine straightened. When I had been playing the Great Demon I had deliberately kept my back slightly hunched and stood at an angle; anyone paying even a little attention would notice the difference immediately.
Kwaaaang!
In the distance another explosion roared. Kyaaaaaah. A dragon’s cry followed as a bonus. The wail carried more grief than the one before—looked like the kids were handling things well.
In that case, while I was at it, maybe I should clean out the castle before I left.
Judging by the sounds and the fact that the Inquisitor class specialized in grinding attrition battles, it would be fine even if I was a little late joining them.
The enemies still inside the castle were a different story. It wasn’t just pirates in there; there were also demon contractors who could perform curses and other rites through human sacrifice. Plus the civilians they could use as offerings.
If I left them alone they might come back later as a nasty bundle of trouble. Clearing them out now would make things more convenient down the road.
So I angled my steps slightly. Even after unleashing a Chamgyeok, the scimitar still wrapped in mana keened with a low creak.
“How dare you…”
Huh? What was that—someone still not dead? The voice was far too close to be one of the men on the walls.
I stopped mid-turn and looked back at the direction I had been about to leave behind. There, the figure whose upper and lower halves had been cleanly separated was scraping at the dirt, seething with resentment.
Focalor. Or Bipurit.
“You really went and did a number on things.”
No, the quest just updated. Why are you still alive?
“A mere human…!”
I swallowed the absurdity rising in my throat. At the same time a faint pity stirred.
This guy had been a final boss in his own right… Granted I had ambushed him, but watching him go down in a single blow left a strange feeling.
Like the boss fight had been skipped and it felt hollow, or even though it was good I still wondered if that was really the end.
But so what? In a normal game this would have been the moment to scream “trash game,” yet for me right now it was better this way.
I had to move while watching the Madness Gauge, and I was already short on time and forced to hurry.
“A mere demon, still breathing, I see.”
Therefore I raised my sword without the slightest regret.
Seogeok!
That was the moment the butcher of the Yabad Region, the traitor to humanity, had his head severed and died. Compared to everything she had done and wrought, it was a pitifully shabby end.
But I had no desire to pity it. Feeling empty and cursing the game was one thing; a mass-murderer’s finale did not need to be grand.
I reached to grab the severed head and shove it into my inventory.
The client had demanded proof, so I planned to hand over the whole head for easy verification.
Kwag!
That would have been the case if the headless body of Focalor had not stretched out an arm and seized me.
“Heh, heh-hahat!”
No—more than that, the problem was that the severed head was laughing, and tentacles were spilling out of the cut surface.
An octopus with a human face had just been born.
“…!”
Whoa, that is disgusting!
I kicked the hand clutching my ankle free and hurled the head away before the tentacles could coil around my arm.
Kigigigik!
That was not all. I swung my sword with the speed of pure reflex.
A rain of Chamgyeok sliced the floating head apart. Yet thin tentacles sprouted from the cut surfaces, grabbed one another, and pulled it back together.
Thank goodness I had a strong stomach; it was truly nauseating.
“Utterly repulsive.”
What the hell did you do to your own body, human? What kind of work lets a head that has been split vertically reattach, then rejoin a completely separate torso?
“Heh-hahahaha!!”
On top of everything the thing was bursting into mad laughter like a complete lunatic, which made it even more terrifying.
I fired continuous Chamgyeok with the single-minded determination to kill it before the fusion finished.
“Useless. The very work I began the moment I consumed this land was the separation of this body from death.”
Just as Focalor said while stopping her laughter, her body repaired its wounds through the tentacles and recombined with the detached head. It was meaningless.
So what was I supposed to do about that? I lowered the scimitar. Only then did Focalor’s regeneration speed increase.
“I do not know how you managed to suppress a Great Demon once more and seize control of the flesh… but there is no need to know.”
…Correction. It was not only regenerating; transformation was beginning as well.
“A demon driven back by a mere human—even if it is a Great Demon—no longer deserves respect!”
The flesh of Focalor’s legs burst open and spat out tentacles like octopus arms. Those tentacles twisted and coiled among themselves until they formed something that resembled a lion’s hind legs.
The front remained pure tentacles, while only the rear took on the shape of legs—a grotesque silhouette.
That was not the end. Focalor’s upper body twisted with wet, crunching sounds and steadily swelled. It was no longer a human skeleton.
Protruding exoskeleton covered her head like a helmet and finally shaped horns and fangs.
The transformed vocal cords hurled the roar outward in the form of a shockwave.
∎ Liberate Ayu Hin
∎ Eliminate Focalor 0 / 1
I dismissed the useless status window and quest window and adjusted my grip on the sword.
Having already seen that Chamgyeok did nothing, I had no idea how to counter this.
Switch to a blunt weapon and crush it? Find a weak point and exploit it? Burn it with fire?
Kwaang!
I had only thought for a second and an attack already came. Focalor’s arm uncoiled a spiraled tentacle into a straight spear and fired it at me.
Yet a thrusting attack, while capable of piercing damage, had the drawback of being easy to read. I slipped out of the line of fire at once.
Shuuuk!
One of the spiraled tentacles unraveled and shot after me.
Kwag!
Another backstep somehow let me dodge it. But Focalor’s tentacles were not limited to one, so I had to keep moving without even a moment to breathe.
The tentacles slammed into the ground one after another right in front of me, each time I retreated.
Whenever I stepped back, a tentacle punched into the spot I had just left. Whether the tentacles were hard or the ground was soft, the long stalks drove deep with ease.
"Still, killing that bothersome 24th was a useful deed. I shall praise you for it."
Dodging them was not entirely impossible, though. The maximum number of tentacles Focalor could move at once was seven.
"Not that I intend to let you live either way."
Additionally the tentacles were not infinite in length.
I measured their maximum reach while Focalor monologued alone. Roughly fifteen meters. Not great news, but the existence of a length limit itself was not bad.
"I offer impure blood, impure bone, and impure flesh."
But this was a bit much.
Having driven me back a good distance—partly because I had retreated while checking the tentacle length—Focalor wrapped the surrounding corpses with tentacles and clasped her hands together.
The tentacles that had been attacking me hung limp like sleeves and did not so much as twitch.
"Grant me greater power."
Now that the transformation was complete, maybe attacks would work. Or if I used a two-hander instead of the scimitar, it might land a little better.
Holding a sliver of hope I fired another Chamgyeok.
Unfortunately—or rather, as expected—the happy circuit I had been running failed completely.
I could mutilate the corpses, but I could not deal meaningful damage to Focalor. Even the tentacle bundles I managed to sever simply sprouted new tentacles from the cut ends.
I deliberately attacked from every angle and every body part, yet nothing reacted.
"Did you think that would work?!"
Damn it. How the hell am I supposed to kill this thing then?
I seriously considered whether I needed to get possessed by Heracles fighting the Hydra and bring fire. The next sight made my eyes go wide.
“You really do all kinds of shit…”
Not content with splitting her belly open horizontally, she was stuffing corpses into it and swallowing them.
After human sacrifice now cannibalism? Absolutely sickening.
I did not bother hiding the scowl that crumpled my brow as I gripped the two-hander firmly. Separate from how hard it was to stop, I could not simply let the creature absorb the corpses in peace.
At the very least I would chop them into pieces and smash them flat. Without a shovel it would be hard to even bring them to her mouth.
"Pathetic tricks!"
That spitefulness had some effect. The slick tentacles could not easily lift the mutilated bodies.
Moreover the spilled guts and blood could not be gathered back up at all.
…Of course it did not sit well with me. I knew every one of them was a monstrous villain, but that single fact did not give me the right to desecrate the dead.
Anyway, I could not keep desecrating corpses forever. If I continued failing to deal proper damage like this, the fight would eventually end in my defeat.
Mana recovery had sped up—I did not know why—so that was fine, but the Madness Gauge was another matter.
It had even jumped 3% in the brief moment I looked away.
Fire it was, then.
I advanced on the enraged Focalor. Believing I was coming for her, she fired a bundle of tentacles at me.
But I had roughly figured out her attack patterns by now.
I had already used the skill earlier so the cooldown was not ready. Recalling the days I had danced spectacularly with every flying creature under the sun, I moved my body under my own power.
The first tentacle slammed into the ground beneath the foot I had lifted to step forward; when I cleverly avoided it and planted my foot, the second came.
My sword whirled in a circle and severed it, only for the third to curve slightly and aim for my back.
I twisted my waist at the exact moment the third tentacle launched. It punched through the flapping hem of my coat, passed through the empty air in front of my chest, and drove into the ground.
My right arm seized it and swung it upward. The tentacle, flipped like a jump-rope, knocked the fourth aside.
Five. My body kicked off the earth and soared. Six. Even in midair my body twisted with fluid grace and easily avoided the tentacle.
The final seventh. My sword cut through both the tentacle and Focalor’s face at once.
My body completed a full spin and slid to a landing behind her.
"You clown…!"
A clown is still better than a monster that is neither human nor demon, isn’t it? With that petty retort I turned my back on Focalor and ran. Kwag! My legs began climbing the castle wall.
Peolleok!
My coat ballooned upward and I caught the battlement.
In front of me stood a single jailer who had watched both my performance and Focalor’s transformation and chosen only to tremble.
“Th-the, inva—invader!”
The jailer could not even form proper words; his lips merely flapped. Was there any benefit to leaving something like that alive?
I vaulted over the battlement while considering it. The answer was singular.
Puk!
None. The only people in this city who deserved to keep their lives were the pitiful civilians swept up in this mess.
Right after I crushed the jailer’s head with my fist—I had already sheathed the sword—I turned my head. On the wall stood the brazier and torch I had been hoping for.
Hwareuk.
I transferred the fire from the brazier to the torch.
"The sight of you fleeing is utterly base!"
Below the wall someone who had no idea what I was doing kept shouting. Truly hurtful words.
Holding the torch firmly, I confirmed Focalor’s position. That distance was reachable.
My hand seized the leg of the brazier and lifted the whole thing. Kwang! The moment I reached the edge of the wall I flung the brazier into the air and kicked it.
The glowing logs inside went flying and poured downward.
"A mere human…!"
Focalor hurriedly retreated from the fireballs raining from above. Yet she could not avoid every ember and log, and that was enough for me.
Focalor could not regenerate burns instantly. The tentacles that writhed as if shuddering the moment they touched flame, and the flesh that shriveled like roasted meat and refused to restore itself, proved it.
“I’ll grill you nice and crispy, vermin.”
My body, torch in hand, dropped to the ground.
The surging crimson light dyed even my ash-gray irises a reddish hue.