147. The Great Demon of Lust
147. The Great Demon of Lust
The sight of countless faces tangled together in the colony, all laughing in unison, was quite grotesque.
An ordinary person would have gone mad the moment they saw it.
[[[Love...!!! Love!!! Your love was passionate!!! Let me, Asmodeus, bless that blazing path ahead!!]]]
Amy and I, who had been tense, felt our tension deflate at how utterly absurd Asmodeus's first words were.
The Great Demon of Lust had appeared and was going on about love, of all things.
But this was a characteristic of the demon called Asmodeus.
[[[Oh my... I came out so hastily that I appeared in my true body...
No... humans are completely unfazed after facing my true body, not an avatar or a demon-touched...!! Is this the power of love??]]]
Asmodeus seemed fascinated by us staring straight at him.
The exaggerated movements and frivolous voice were the characteristics of Asmodeus I remembered from the original story.
As the Great Demon of Lust, he demanded promiscuity above all else from his worshippers, yet he also yearned for love.
"He's different from what I've heard... don't you think we can at least talk to him...?"
"Not at all, don't let your guard down."
Amy saw Asmodeus's first impression of yearning for love and seemed to harbor hope that he might be a better guy than expected.
But his dual nature — yearning for innocent love above all else while also loving depraved partner-swapping orgies — was his most defining trait.
He was completely different from what Amy was thinking.
'Why is this guy here?'
More than Asmodeus's curious gaze, I was so dumbfounded by the situation — Asmodeus's true body loitering right before my eyes — that I couldn't speak.
'Ah, so this is Hell! Then it makes sense for him to be here... my ass, what a load of crap!!'
What a truly mocking demon.
To prevent escape from that ridiculous room by any means, they created a small world that even a Great Demon couldn't use multiple times, then tore space apart to connect the outside to 'Tartarus' — even taking into account people who could break out.
So you do what you're forced to do and escape, only to land in Hell — and on top of that, a Great Demon personally comes out to greet you?
Wasn't this just a multi-layered trap designed to fuck with people?
Rage surged up inside me.
I drew my sword and shouted at Asmodeus.
"Hey, you fucking con artist! You said we could escape, and now you drag us into Hell?!"
[[[You did escape from the room as written, so isn't that fine?]]]
"This is why you demon bastards—!!"
If there was the dumbest person in the world, it would be someone who believed a demon.
It wasn't that I hadn't predicted this situation.
After all, he'd only said he'd let us escape, not that he'd send us back to where we originally were.
If the place we were trapped in had been a facility in that old mansion, it would be one thing, but we were trapped in a severed other dimension — a small world — so where the exit connected to was an unknown variable.
I'd even considered that in the worst case, opening it could drop us straight into Tartarus, so this was fortunate.
[[[Shouldn't you be thanking me? It's a blessing that you were able to confirm your love for each other thanks to me.
Ah, of course, you said you already had a woman, but... well, what does it matter? A hero indulges in lust. I like love that blooms after overcoming such adversity even more!]]]
"So you were watching everything."
[[[Yes... Hell is boring, so all I do every day is watch the outside.]]]
When Asmodeus said he had been watching everything, Amy's face flushed bright red.
Yes, as Asmodeus said, things had turned out well in the end, but it was still incredibly unpleasant.
What happened this time was something that would have blown up sooner or later anyway.
You could say that special environment had accelerated it.
After all, there was no way we'd have been biting and sucking each other nonstop for hours with zero mutual attraction.
[[[Well... that room was originally set to send people back to where they came from.]]]
"Then send us back!!"
[[[I was moved by your love!! So I wanted to have a conversation with you and deliberately called you here.
Why not be happy? Even my own demon-touched cannot face me directly.]]]
"That's not my problem."
[[[You're impatient, and passionate... so that's how you easily tripped up that shy girl.]]]
I was seething with anger and wanted to start slashing right away, but this place was his domain.
Rather than recklessly swinging my sword, it seemed better to probe what he was thinking first.
[[[To covet a friend's lover... that's a story I truly love. I am moved! So, I shall grant a wish you desire.]]
"Then send us back right now!"
[[[Send you back... sending you back right away wouldn't be any fun. Ahem... first, let's pretend I never said that last part, and how about you make a wager with me one last time?
If you win, on top of sending you back, I'll grant you one more wish.]]]
It was a demon's proposal.
It wasn't even worth listening to, coming from a guy who naturally ignored the demand to send us back, but I decided to play along for now.
Even as I said that, I placed my hand on my sword so I could swing it at any moment.
"What's the wager?"
[[[Simple... you overcome the trial I've prepared with the power of love!
I am always contemplating the subject: what is true love?
So, you see... isn't it only natural that I'm curious about the extent of that love's power?
It's no great trial. You just have to do something similar to the rite of passage of my followers.]]]
"!!"
I knew what the rite of passage of the heretics who followed Asmodeus entailed.
The heretic hordes who followed Asmodeus, who presided over lust, were all mad with physical pleasure.
They erected the goat's symbol at the center, engaged in daily orgies without discriminating among partners, and spent their days simply filling their carnal desires as their bodies dictated.
The rite of passage of such a group of lunatics was... the act of brainwashing people who had come from normal society.
The expression 'brainwashing' wasn't just a figure of speech; it was literal.
They ingested bodily fluids mixed with excitant components — commonly called aphrodisiacs — secreted by magical beasts, and then were raped to the point of losing consciousness by the waiting followers.
The excitant secreted by magical beasts had the property of breaking the brain's sensory safety mechanisms. If you were raped with the upper limit of pleasure shattered, the endless waves of surging ecstasy destroyed the brain.
The morals and sexual norms of established society were shattered, creating a faithful follower who pursued only pleasure and obeyed commands.
Not a shred of human dignity could be found in that act.
Amy's hand trembled.
Having fought the demon church countless times, she knew what Asmodeus meant.
She knew she had to resist, but with the Great Demon's true body before her eyes, she felt the difference in power and was terrified.
She seemed afraid she couldn't even resist Asmodeus in Hell.
From here on, it was a battle of willpower.
"It's okay."
"But... this is Hell... and that's a Great Demon...?"
"Don't worry. We'll manage somehow."
I took Amy's trembling hand.
She still felt fear, but the warmth of my hand seemed to reassure her; she calmed down a little.
[[[Yes, that's it. You humans often express that love is an emotion that transcends the flesh. I'm curious whether that love will endure even when your bodies and minds are wrecked.]]]
I swung Squete before Asmodeus even finished speaking.
-Seogeok!!
A pure white flash blazed, and the colony of creatures entangled on Asmodeus's left side fell off in a cascade.
The heads of an alligator, a chicken, and a snake were severed, and each decapitated head let out its own distinct cry.
"You piece of shit demon, the way you think... it's so disgusting I can't stand to deal with you."
Negotiation, my ass. I had no intention of conversing with this side from the start.
That demon simply wanted to satisfy his own twisted perversion.
Asmodeus looked at his colonies that had fallen off and were bleeding, and laughed loudly.
[[[Haha, in the Hell I rule... you're going to fight me... how about you value your life a little?]]]
Three of his necks had been cut, but Asmodeus cackled as if it was nothing.
Every single word echoed in multiple layers, making it unpleasant.
[[[No matter how strong you are, this is my territory.
I could force this on you, but I am choosing to offer it to you—even giving you a reward, too.
Do you not realize how generous a measure this is?]]]
Asmodeus muttered as if truly regretful,
but I didn't know where the generosity was in declaring, "We will now rape you."
It was an idea only brainless morons with nothing but genitals plugged in where a brain should be could come up with.
"You want to see it turn into pure love at the end, no matter how much you defile the body... your perversion is as filthy as a demon's."
The very fact that we were included in that disgusting fantasy made rage surge so fiercely I could barely stand it.
Feeling a fury burning hotter than ever before, I cooled my head with cold rationality.
It was like a hot iced americano of a saying, but it was already a familiar practice for me.
I aimed the Aura Blade, which was showing a rougher momentum than usual, at Asmodeus.
"Amy, we're going back after killing this bastard today."
"Yes!"