"Fuck."
Ji Gyutae spat the curse before he even realized it had left him. An apostle had fallen. The report his subordinate brought left him unable to contain his shock—not one Apostle of the Demon God, but two.
They fought side by side, and they still lost to Shin Yujun alone?
"That strong?"
He couldn't believe it. How did a man grow that powerful in the space of a few months? Ji Gyutae himself was a superhuman who had long since stepped outside the bounds of common sense, a powerhouse in his own right, but growth that fast was something he simply could not accept.
Even with a god throwing their full weight behind you, you wouldn't get that far.
Monstrous talent, and the backing of a high god. Those two things, joined together, had made the Ji Gyutae who stood here now. Even he would not have wagered on an easy victory against two apostles.
That was when his subordinate brought more.
"It seems, however, that he has not killed the apostles yet."
"What? Why not?"
"He has knocked them unconscious and keeps toying with a sealing orb. From the look of it, he may intend to seal them, as he did with Balrog."
"So he means to let Balrog out. The fool. He doesn't even realize that's the more dangerous idea."
"Ah—just as you expected, he has released Balrog's seal."
"Strong as he is, he doesn't seem particularly bright."
Ji Gyutae smiled, cold. The man could hardly be carrying two Absolute Sealing Orbs. Releasing Balrog merely to seal one of the apostles was a fool's act. Yujun had crushed the demon so easily before only because Balrog had been freshly summoned, and a good deal of time had passed since then. Balrog's strength would have multiplied several times over. If Yujun had broken the seal while still picturing the Balrog of before, he was as good as throwing himself into a sea of fire. Suicide. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Only then did Ji Gyutae relax.
He's saving me the trouble and destroying himself.
Before summoning Balrog, Yujun sent Manuela a message.
Giving Manuela equipment and upgrading Paranet's gear had been worth it. Fifteen Demon God Worshippers, handled by the two of them alone. He had left the fight to the party because the odds looked winnable, but hearing they had actually won still left him warm with pride.
Everyone's pulling more than their share.
They only seemed lacking because the measuring stick was Yujun. In truth, Manuela and Paranet had next to no equals on the Continent. If even Yujun, stingy as he was with his appraisals, thought so, they would not be embarrassed anywhere they were sent.
Smiling, satisfied, he reached into the Absolute Sealing Orb to draw Balrog out.
"Tapagol!"
"Hm? Why am I out?"
Tapagol appeared—all five foot three of him.
"Ah. My mistake."
He was supposed to undo the seal. Habit had made him summon Tapagol instead.
"Get back in."
"Yes, sir."
Tapagol, through and through. He had shown up where he wasn't wanted, and still he didn't offer a shred of resistance. He simply obeyed.
This time Yujun made no mistake, and summoned Balrog.
"Huuuurgh……."
Balrog emerged with a grotesque groan, his body slack and wavering. He tried to heave that enormous upper body upright, but it clearly wasn't obeying him. After flopping across the ground for a long while, his eyes suddenly flared.
"Humaaaan!"
He charged Yujun, the momentum fiercer than before.
What? Was he always this strong?
No. He'd been locked in a sealing orb. Getting stronger in there didn't make any sense. Just Yujun's imagination.
Yujun drove Painful Strike into Balrog's torso. In less than a second he brought the sword around some thirty times, and Balrog folded where he stood.
"Gyaaaaaah!"
"Hey. You'll wake them. Scream quietly."
Even with the pain owning his mind, Balrog caught Yujun's voice, and sheer disbelief cut through it. Scream quietly? Did this human have no common sense at all?
"Balrog. You don't even recognize your master, and you still come at me? Do it again and I won't go easy."
Arrogant talk, from a mere human—but Balrog had no way to punish him for it now. The pain gripping his entire body would not let him gather his wits.
"Did I hit him too hard?"
He had meant to give Balrog the right to choose a friend, but at this rate he was going to waste far too much time.
Now that I think about it, I don't even have a Healing skill of my own.
Ancient Magic did contain healing magic, but it couldn't compare with a high-grade Healing skill. Of course, cast by his hand, any healing magic would show power no lesser than another player's Healing skill—and even so. I really ought to pick up a Healing skill. Quality potions crammed his inventory, but taking one out, pulling the stopper, and drinking it cost a certain amount of time. A skill, by contrast, cast the instant you spent the mana. In a crisis, nothing beat a skill. Getting the skill you actually wanted, though, was grueling work, unless heaven itself saw fit to hand it over.
"Mmm……."
At Balrog's booming howl the apostles began to stir, and Yujun cracked their heads once more. Oben's skull caved halfway in. He was left half-dead; Yujun had failed to hold his strength in check. He upended a mid-grade potion over the man's head.
He didn't regret the potion. Mid-grade potions were heaped so deep in his inventory they were practically spilling over, and his Constitution had climbed so high that one barely registered on him anymore. No point in being stingy.
When the apostles didn't so much as twitch, Yujun turned back to Balrog. The demon had settled a fair amount. Sword in hand, Yujun approached slowly, and Balrog flinched.
"I'm not here to finish you. Stay still."
"You… do you even know who I am…"
"I know it's humiliating. Don't like it? Get stronger."
Arrogant words—but in the Tower of Infinity, where the strong stood above all, nothing cut closer to the bone.
"I want another match. No cowardly tricks. Fair and square."
"What? Fair and square?"
Yujun snorted before he could stop himself. Was that something that ought to be coming out of Balrog's mouth?
"What exactly did I do that was dirty?"
"That art that magnifies pain! It is unbecoming of a warrior!"
"I'm not a warrior."
"You would cast aside a warrior's pride with your own hands? Have you no shame?"
"The hell are you on about, you walking rug."
"……."
Never short on anger, Balrog drove his foot into the ground and launched himself. Super Concentration (EX++) triggered as it always did, and Yujun's sword moved like a streak of light.
Shhk!
"Kh—!"
Balrog's attack went wide, and his left arm came off. This time Yujun hadn't used Painful Strike.
"There. Fair and square. How's that?"
"……."
But Chaos had been woven into the cut, and Balrog's severed left arm did not grow back. The demon stared down at his own arm where it lay on the ground, looking hollowed out.
A sword strike he hadn't even seen. What was this human? He had never known a player who handled a blade like that. The speed was astonishing enough, but a single stroke seemed to hold dozens of feints meant to dazzle the eye, even though the path the sword truly traveled was only one.
That was what made it wrong. Stand before that sword, and it was as if your mind itself were being ruled. He had known exactly where the attack was coming from—and by the time he came back to himself, he had already been struck. Absurd.
"I told you I wouldn't go easy……. Back in you go."
The color drained from Balrog's face.
"W-what is it you want?"
"You going to listen?"
"I—I require respect, human. Even if I wished to hear you out, that insufferable way you speak makes it impossible to keep my composure."
"Insufferable? That's harsh. Just get back in."
"I will concede a great deal! Name what you want……."
Balrog forced the words out through clenched teeth. He was furious, and he had no way to spend that fury. He had been through this several times now, and he still could not believe it. No method of defeating the human before him would come to mind. He wanted to throw himself in and attack this very moment, but he did not want to feel that pain again.
And one thing more. Being shut inside the sealing orb had been horrific beyond words. He was supposed to endure that again?
Balrog shook his head before he knew he was doing it.
Then Yujun spoke.
"I, your instructor— no. That's not right. From here on, how I treat you depends on what you do. I can even lessen the pain while you're sealed. So if you listen, you won't have to hurt, will you?"
"And how am I to trust your word?"
"Then don't."
As Yujun toyed with the Absolute Sealing Orb, Balrog swallowed hard.
"It is not… as though I am entirely without the feeling that I may have been somewhat at fault."
"Then fix your stance first. You're standing awfully crooked, don't you think?"
"I-I understand."
Balrog, who had been hovering in an awkward half-crouch, drew himself up ramrod straight. Only then did Yujun smile, satisfied, and go on.
"See those two demons collapsed over there? Pick the one you like."
"Those are… Demon God Worshippers."
"Oh. Recognized them right away?"
"Apostles of the Demon God. I encountered them once before."
"Wait—Apostles of the Demon God? So that's what they were. You close with them?"
Balrog shook his head.
"Telling me to choose between them—don't tell me you have a second Absolute Sealing Orb. Or am I to be rotated out?"
"Rotated out? Please. I've got two orbs."
"……Then I have a good idea."
"No."
"You don't even know what I was going to—"
"You want me to stuff those two in instead of you. Right?"
"……Right."
"No time. Hurry up."
"Not Oben. Choose Sharnian."
"Oben's that one? The one with the mustache?"
"Correct."
Yujun didn't hesitate. He drove the sword into Oben's heart.
Thuk!
The moment the Chaos-laced blade bit into flesh, Oben died without so much as a cry.
What.
The apostle's level had been high, so a massive jump was only natural. That much he could let go. But a mythic achievement?
Not once—not in War of the Gods, and not since he had come to the Tower of Infinity—had he ever cleared an achievement of that kind.
They're even giving me a Transcendent Stone?
He hadn't expected it, and the joy was all the greater for that. A Divine Beast Growth Pill, too. Hadn't the very item he needed just fallen into his hands? It might even stop Harp from sleeping around the clock just to replenish his energy.
This…….
All of that, for killing an Oben who couldn't even defend himself. Yujun's gaze slid to Sharnian.
Sealing her might actually cost me.
She didn't seem like someone he could break the way he had Balrog, and nothing guaranteed that killing an apostle later, once he had grown stronger still, would pay out the same reward as this achievement.
If I kill her now, I can wring the most out of it.
He weighed it, then decided.
No reason to bother sealing her.
He was just about to take the life of the unconscious Sharnian when—
Whoosh!
A fist from Balrog, who had slipped in close, grazed the back of Yujun's head and went past. Fortunately he had swapped the Eagle Eye Scouter for a helmet, so the blow didn't land hard.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"……."
"You hit me in the back of the head?"
Not a figure of speech. Balrog had quite literally swung a fist at the back of his head. Caught in Yujun's stare, the demon fidgeted, his face twisted with the most profound regret.