Let's Start Over
At Yujun's suggestion that they start over, only Rozi reacted with any real heat. The other two offered nothing warmer than a lukewarm stare.
"So what's the second question?"
"Before that..."
A darkness spirit came at him through Shape Transformation, and Yujun stopped it cold with Space Domination. The ability could have dealt him a serious blow, but if he simply locked it in place so it could not move, that was the end of the matter. Shontie's mouth fell open. The one attack that might actually have worked on Yujun had been shut down with pathetic ease.
In the next instant Colchi and Shontie were both subdued. High as their rank was, neither of them could so much as twitch beneath a Space Domination laced with Chaos.
Convenient, using it like this.
Space Domination alone would have struggled to bind them. Mix in Chaos, though, and it was another matter entirely. He gained an effect that ignored rank, and on top of that the pressure of the spell doubled.
So the lack of any real change last time really was my own proficiency.
He was glad he could finally use it properly. Three hostages—no, three Demon God Worshippers—now in hand, Yujun looked to Rozi first. A worshipper as cooperative as this one would be hard to come by.
"Rabbit. Orc. You two don't feel like talking?"
"Y-yes! But you know how it is. I may look like a rabbit, but I'm not a man."
It was a plea not to be killed.
"That rumor... who spread it? Hmm?"
Never in his life had he felt so wronged.
"Part of me wants to kill you on the spot, but I can't. Shontie, you're going in that orb."
He had decided to punish her for the way she kept forcing that twisted story onto him.
"...And what's some little orb supposed to do?"
She put on a show of bravado, though the fear was already written across her face. Rozi let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Shontie, I have never felt the saying that ignorance is a sin hit harder than it does right now."
"...What do you mean?"
"I mean you are pitiful, wretched, and pitiable. Poor thing. Tsk, tsk."
Watching Rozi wear the face of a man who had seen through all the world's affairs, Colchi flared with outrage.
"Rozi. I'll be reporting your condition to the higher-ups. Calling you mad doesn't even begin to cover it. You're talking like you stand on that human's side."
"I'm not on anyone's side. I'm looking after my own hide, that's all. Go in there once yourself and you'll get it."
Rozi's attitude did not budge an inch. Shontie was sighing when Yujun opened his mouth.
"Orc and rabbit. One of you is going in this orb. Who wants to go first?"
Neither of them spoke. Open your mouth and you might get picked. Silence was the cheaper loss.
Then Yujun's eyes went wide.
"Oh, right. We already decided the rabbit goes in. In you go."
"...W-wait! That orc's a man! How about you put him in first?"
Shontie sold Colchi out without a second thought, and her words only hardened Yujun's resolve. That rabbit was the worst of the lot. Slandering people was a passive she kept equipped at all times, and she betrayed her own comrades without blinking. The worst of the worst.
He did not hesitate. He shoved Shontie into the Absolute Sealing Orb.
"W-wai—!"
Someone already subdued could not resist being sealed. Shontie's figure vanished.
Rozi and Colchi, who had been watching, swallowed hard. Rozi's face was remarkably bright.
"Whichever of you two gets uncooperative gets the sealing-orb treatment."
"Just ask me! That Colchi's a stiff-necked bastard. He won't talk, I guarantee it!"
At that, Yujun looked at Colchi. Colchi turned his head away.
"So you want to go in there too."
"...No."
"Then why won't you meet my eyes?"
Colchi failed to impress. Rozi, for the moment, passed. Even his eyes and the way he held himself were already where they needed to be.
"Rozi. Who's the top dog among the Demon God Worshippers?"
"Top dog?"
"I'm asking who's playing leader."
"...I'm sorry. A prohibition binds me. I cannot speak of it."
"Say it and you die on the spot?"
"Speaking of it is impossible to begin with. Most of the prohibitions on me work that way. It isn't that I talk and then get punished. I'm simply made unable to let any of that information out."
He did not seem to be lying.
"Next question, then. I know the Demon God Worshippers were ordered to kill me. What I want to know is how high that order ranks."
"First priority."
"...Huh? I'm number one? You don't have other plans?"
"The things we plan are beyond counting, and the large-scale ones alone run into the dozens. Even so, the reward for killing you is greater than the reward for seeing any of those plans succeed."
Yujun scratched his head. Did the Demon God Worshippers really hate him this much?
"Why do you hate me so much?"
"Wrong. It isn't hate. They fear you."
"Me? Who does?"
Rozi stared at him as if he could not believe the question.
"Think about everything you've done. How many Demon God Worshippers have died by your hand? Every one of them was confident in their own skill, and our superiors judged them capable of handling you before they sent them. And every last one of them was found as an unnatural corpse."
"...So there's nobody there stronger than me?"
"Not among anyone I've seen with my own eyes. But what I know of the organization is only the tip of the iceberg. Someone stronger may well exist."
"If there's someone stronger than me, why not just send them?"
"It isn't as simple as you think. For the sake of the great work, we've stationed Demon God Worshippers all over—the Demon Realm, Heaven, the Illusion Realm, and elsewhere. The greater their strength, the more likely they are assigned to Heaven or the Illusion Realm."
"The Illusion Realm? And where is that?"
"...I don't know either. I only know that there are worshippers who go there."
"Yeah?"
The existence of a place he had never heard of left Yujun faintly excited. Take Rozi at his word, and the Illusion Realm held beings even stronger than those in Heaven or the Demon Realm.
There's the God Realm too, so that makes four places I know of.
Setting the Continent aside: the God Realm, the Illusion Realm, the Demon Realm, and Heaven. No. That was not right. There was the Spirit Realm as well, and the Abyss was ambiguous, but it was another world all the same. Count them himself, and there were quite a few.
"Something else I'm curious about. When are you summoning the Demon God?"
"...I cannot say."
"A prohibition?"
"Yes."
"Figures."
Of course there would be one. He had only asked on the chance that knowing the timing would be useful.
"This Demon God's Grace. Explain it."
The instant Rozi opened his mouth, Colchi convulsed. More precisely, he was straining to tear free of Space Domination. A brutal crack split the air, then another.
"Stay still."
The more he tried to move, the tighter Space Domination cinched around his body. Unable to endure the pain, Colchi screamed.
"G-graaaagh!"
"Rozi. Talk."
"R-right. The Demon God's Grace means the Demon God himself bestows a special ability upon us. It is, quite literally, a grace he grants."
"What changes when you receive it?"
"A rise in level is the baseline. Depending on the recipient's talent and luck, they may gain a special ability as well. Those abilities vary, but most of them allow a contract with a darkness spirit."
"No restrictions? No drawbacks?"
"None, so far as I can tell. Not yet."
"Not yet?"
"It's been two years since I received the grace. Nothing like a side effect has happened to me."
"And you, orc?"
"Hngh."
Colchi turned his head away, as if speaking were the last thing he wanted.
Time to rotate them.
Yujun released Shontie from the Absolute Sealing Orb.
"Aaaagh! Agh! Please! Please, let me out!"
"You're already out."
"...What?"
Fresh from the orb, Shontie cocked her head.
"I-it really is. Thank you!"
"Thank me for what. It's been a while since I did a good deed. Feels nice."
"W-wait a minute! What good deed? You're the one who locked me in!"
"And you're the one who said thank you."
Put that way, she had nothing left to say. Shontie dropped to her knees.
"...I was wrong. I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?"
"For... talking back to you. And saying strange things."
"Strange things? What kind? What exactly did you say?"
When he pressed her, Shontie's face crumpled.
"Oh? That expression?"
He held the orb up in front of her eyes.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm really sorry!"
"It's not your turn right now anyway."
He put Colchi into the Absolute Sealing Orb. Unable to resist at all, the orc was sealed away.
"C-cruel human."
"Rozi. What was that?"
"Nothing."
With some of his curiosity satisfied, Yujun considered what ought to be done with the worshippers.
"Rabbit. You don't know anything?"
"H-huh?"
"Between you and Rozi, who knows more?"
"Me! I know more!"
Shontie pitched herself with everything she had. Sure enough, one trip through the sealing orb and a person came to their senses in a hurry. He found himself wondering whether even Colchi, who looked the strongest-willed of the three, would come out changed.
"What do you know? Something Rozi doesn't, that only you do?"
"Th-there ought to be?"
"If there isn't, you're going back in the sealing orb. You all right with that?"
"Uh-huh!"
"Then talk."
"Do you know... why we're trying to kill you?"
"Yeah."
"Oh. I see."
"That's all."
This rabbit's awfully sure of herself.
Yujun took her head from her shoulders.
In that moment Shontie reverted to her original form, her neck already severed. Only in death had she recovered her true appearance, and so she met her end without ever getting to live again in that shape.
It might have looked excessively cold, but the Demon God Worshippers were enemies. A few words exchanged were no reason to show mercy. There was no telling when or how they might come back as a threat, and if the end of the world was to be prevented, one fact remained unchanged. They had to die.
His level had climbed by three whole levels.
Yujun had killed Shontie without warning, and Rozi came apart at the seams.
"I'm not going to kill you. Don't worry."
"Th-then couldn't you just kill me instead? I don't want to be locked in that sealing orb again."
"Sign one slave contract, and you don't die, and you don't have to go in the orb either. How's that?"
Yujun rather liked him. A Demon God Worshipper, yes, but turned into a slave he looked as if he would be considerably useful.
"...A slave contract?"
"You know what that is?"
"I do, but..."
A slave contract was exactly what it sounded like: a contract that could turn the other party into a slave, advantageous to one side alone. In exchange it required the other party's consent, and it was cast as magic of extreme difficulty. Not just anyone could form one.
Yujun could. Ancient Magic (EX++) was no ornament, and he had the Magic Comprehension trait besides. He had never tried it, but he was confident it would be more than possible.
Rozi's face twisted with reluctance.
"I'm not forcing you. Just choose whether you go in the sealing orb or sign the slave contract."
"...Isn't that forcing me?"
"Pick. Quickly."
Becoming a human's slave was far better than going into the sealing orb. His pride might take a bruise, but he had no desire to feel that horrific pain again. No—more precisely, the mental agony had been worse than the physical, and that was what he could not endure.
"But there's a prohibition on me. Will a slave contract even work? I'm not just going to drop dead, am I?"
"I don't know either."
"Hm."
If he dies, then he dies. Nothing to be done about it.
"Shall we try it?"
Yujun attempted the slave contract at once—not ordinary magic, but a slave contract cast through Ancient Magic. The theory of it was already complete in his head. He was hardly weak when it came to practical application, so the chance of failure converged on zero.
"Just agree to it in your heart."
"Understood."
Mana streamed out of Yujun's body and into Rozi, then shuddered with violent force.
Boom.
And then Rozi's head exploded.
So a slave contract doesn't work if there's a prohibition. A fine lesson.