Desperation on Rozi's Face
Desperation flickered across Rozi's face. True to a man who had already been inside the sealing orb, he read the situation fast.
"Rozi! What the hell are you doing? That human is our mortal enemy. Why are you making such a pathetic show of yourself?"
Colchi asked, his face twisted with incomprehension.
"Pathetic? Oh, for—go in there yourself, then talk! Don't run your mouth when you don't know a damn thing, you stupid orc bastard!"
"...Wh-what?"
The vicious tone, so unlike Rozi, left Colchi rattled. Shontie was no less stunned, mouth hanging open.
"What's that orb, that you're acting like this?"
"Curious? Go in and see for yourself."
Rozi pressed, none too subtly. Only one person could enter the sealing orb at a time. If Shontie would just step inside, he would never have to go back to that horrific place.
Shontie decided Rozi had lost his mind. The man was nothing like the charismatic figure from before. This was no longer the Rozi Shontie knew.
"Tsk. Completely broken."
"To think Rozi would collapse this far..."
"You'll both regret this."
Having said his piece to the people who had once been his comrades, Rozi turned to Yujun.
"Ask me anything! Even if it kills me, I'll tell you!"
The sudden eagerness only made it more uncomfortable.
That was when Shontie and Colchi kicked off the ground together. Their target was Yujun.
Whoosh!
Watching the two charge Yujun without a shred of fear, Rozi felt a pang, as if he were watching moths fling themselves into a flame.
The fight ended exactly as he had expected.
Thwack! Crack!
Shontie and Colchi took the flat of the blade across the head and dropped where they stood. In that instant, a message flared before Yujun.
Your Tier is too low to inflict damage.
So these ones are high-tier, too.
He ought to have faced a high-tier enemy once or twice by now. He was used to it.
Yujun poured Chaos into his sword and surged toward the fallen Colchi and Shontie. The two snapped back to their senses and hastily called on their abilities. The orc Colchi triggered Frenzy, driving his body to its limit, while Shontie summoned a darkness spirit and invoked Shape Transformation, forging flame into the shape of a gigantic wolf.
Shape Transformation... So the rabbit was the dangerous one after all.
A darkness spirit was formidable on its own. Demon God Worshippers contracted with them more than any other, and an astonishing number were bound to spirits of the highest grade.
Demon God's Grace. Has to be.
Shontie likewise commanded a supreme darkness spirit, and with it the powerful ability of Shape Transformation. Yujun judged that ability the one most likely to threaten him, because Shape Transformation ignored an opponent's defense. It was that difficult to obtain. In War of the Gods he had seen it used maybe twice, and both times he had been driven to the brink.
His greatest advantages were overwhelming attack and defense. Having his defense—the part tied directly to his life—nullified was nothing short of fatal.
Rabbit first.
Honestly, the orc wasn't even on his mind. Shontie, bearer of Shape Transformation, was the problem.
Colchi charged first. Shontie loosed the transformed darkness spirit at Yujun, and the spirit would reach him sooner. He used Flash to slip the collision. Shape Transformation did not drop defense all the way to zero, so a hit would not kill him outright, but he would not walk away unhurt.
Flashing in behind Shontie, Yujun extended his sword. Shontie sensed it with uncanny speed and bounded clear. Rabbit or not, the movement was absurdly quick.
Colchi, sped by Frenzy, closed the gap in an instant. This time Yujun did not dodge. He met fire with fire. As the cleaver came around, he swung with it.
Shhk!
The cleaver split, and Colchi's chest was nicked. He had flung himself back the moment they clashed, but he was already too late. A fountain of blood burst free.
He touched Chaos. Regeneration won't come easy.
Chaos was destructive, yes, but more than that it was a force that inflicted damage while ignoring the opponent's tier—and it kept wounds from regenerating or healing. Colchi, who had been counting on his own recovery, clutched at his chest in bewilderment. He yanked a potion from his inventory and dumped it over the wound. Nothing.
"What the hell...?"
"What's wrong, Colchi?"
"Something's off. The wound won't heal."
"You get cursed?"
"A curse this strong? No—there wasn't even a system message."
"...What?"
Red blood poured from Colchi's chest without pause.
"At least stop the bleeding."
With that, Shontie sent the shape-transformed darkness spirit at Yujun again.
Keeping to the spirit and nothing else... so you know exactly what I'm afraid of.
Yujun's mouth curved. This was fun. Reality or not, steamrolling enemies while invincible got boring. Victory with a measure of risk—that was what brought him real exhilaration. There were times he missed the tutorial, when he had truly fought with his life on the line. It might make him look like a deviant, but he did not think people like him were all that rare.
This works out. Another player with Shape Transformation might show up, and if that one is stronger than me, I really could die.
Shontie wielded a formidable weapon, but was still an enemy his current self could handle. If someone like Yimil, whom he had faced in the God Realm, ever used Shape Transformation, that would be a genuine crisis. To prepare for it, he needed experience now, and the right opponent was that rabbit.
Seeing him smile, Shontie shuddered, shoulders trembling. The smile was that unsettling. Now it was clear why Rozi feared the man so much.
This time Yujun moved first.
Tap!
"W-wait!"
Shontie cried out. Yujun showed no mercy. He condensed a very small knot of Chaos and fired it so the burst bloomed close by.
Boom! Crack!
The rabbit was flung away, limp. He had no intention of killing outright, so he held back. Shontie pushed upright, relatively intact, and Yujun closed in again. A hand shot out.
"S-stop. I mean it!"
"What."
"I heard you slaughter children and men without mercy, and show infinite mercy only to women! I may look like this, but I'm actually a woman! An elf! The kind humans lose their minds over! And if you're the sort who's known for being weak to women, that goes double!"
Yujun said nothing.
"So just hear me out."
"For fuck's sake! Who the hell is pinning this on me? Last time it was that I lured a kid and killed them, and now it's women?"
They even had him ruthlessly murdering children and men. He was genuinely aggrieved. Who was spreading rumors like that? The Demon God Worshippers, most likely. He turned a sharp glare on Rozi, who had slandered him once already. Rozi flinched and shook his head.
"It wasn't me! I had it wrong! That was absolutely not true! Shontie, you bastard—where do you get off spinning lies? Apologize to Shin Yujun this instant!"
"...Rozi? Are you in your right mind?"
"You're the one who isn't, blurting out your gender because you're scared to die."
Colchi, clutching his chest, looked at the two of them as if they were pathetic.
"Do you both realize how stupid you are?"
Of the two, Rozi was the more desperate.
"Why aren't you asking?! You said you had questions! Ask me, quickly!"
"The Prohibition?"
"Last time I said there wasn't one, but there is. Even so, it isn't enough to clamp my mouth completely shut. I can let some information out."
"Oh, yeah?"
Interest showed on Yujun's face, and Rozi brightened.
"Talk."
"Rozi! Have you actually lost it? You're going to leak the organization's information?"
Colchi closed in a single stride and swung another cleaver produced from somewhere, the blade aimed at Rozi's head. He meant to stop the leak before it happened. Yujun cut in and drove a fist hard into Colchi's solar plexus.
Thud!
The blow was so heavy that the chest he had only just managed to stanch erupted in another fountain of blood.
"Guhk!"
"Rozi said he's talking. Stay still."
Yujun looked at Rozi.
"Talk well here, and I won't put you back in that orb."
"R-right! I'll tell you everything, so long as it doesn't trip the Prohibition!"
"Good. First—how many Demon God Worshippers are there?"
"Even I don't know. But there are more than you can imagine."
"Rough number."
"Hundreds of thousands, I'd guess. It isn't exact. I've never seen them all myself."
Perhaps because the punch had not carried Chaos, Colchi came around quickly.
"You've turned into a complete lackey, Rozi."
Rozi paid the scorn no mind. His eyes stayed on Yujun, and the sight stirred something like pity. How grueling must the Absolute Sealing Orb have been, for a man who had been nothing but iron will before he went in to go this far?
"Your comrade's mocking you. That doesn't bother you?"
Rozi gave a bitter smile.
"Someone about to be sealed without knowing a thing is more pitiful. I don't want to suffer anymore. I just want rest."
"Well, well. Discharge at the end of your term, and suddenly you're wise?"
"Discharge? What's that?"
"It's a thing. Anyway, I respect your iron resolve to avoid reenlistment at all costs, so I won't put you in the orb. In exchange, you answer a few more questions."
"Of course. Just say the word."
As he spoke, Yujun glanced back at the other two. The light had not left Shontie's eyes, nor Colchi's. It was like looking at Rozi before the Absolute Sealing Orb.
I can see your futures clear as day.
No matter how nasty and tenacious someone was, a single trip into the sealing orb made them noticeably docile. Only two precedents, but the effect was certain. It stood to reason. Two people of outstanding mental fortitude had changed in exactly the same way.
And this is an opportunity.
Until now he had known next to nothing about the Demon God Worshippers. Rozi, less bound by the Prohibition, had offered to talk of his own accord. Yujun meant to squeeze every drop of information out of him.
"All right. Second question."
He had just opened his mouth when the bedroom door flew open. The one who came through was none other than King Calton.
"...What is this situation?"
No one answered.
King Calton, Shontie—his spitting image—three Demon God Worshippers, and Yujun. Witnessing this unexpected gathering in the very bedroom where he stayed, the king stared, mouth open, clearly not following. Yujun smacked his own forehead. The timing was vicious. Somehow everyone tied up in this mess had ended up in one place.
Finishing before the king arrived was impossible from the start. This was coming.
Simply killing the Worshippers would not have been hard, but he needed to draw as much information as he could from the three of them, and that meant spending time.
"Were you not the human who brought Sirius?"
The king had barely spoken when Yujun sighed and used Flash. Calton collapsed. The edge of Yujun's hand had come down on his head and knocked him out. He had moved faster than the brain could register, so the king never perceived the blow, not even in the moment he lost consciousness.
I do feel a little bad.
If the situation was not to grow any more troublesome, better that the king stay unconscious. Yujun had already laid a meticulous barrier so the Worshippers could not run. He looked at the three of them.
"Shall we start again?"