Sloan's Turn (1)
"I knew it!"
The Hero smiled brightly as she drew her blade. For all the lives it had claimed, the holy sword only shone all the brighter.
"Uh... so you really are the Hero. But why are you drawing that?"
"To eliminate the enemies of the Goddess—and the vermin that gnaw away at humanity!"
"Is that so? Then I suppose there's nothing for it. Go ahead and kill me. But even if I die, the righteous Black Knight will defeat you."
The villager muttered as if he'd already given up. Wait a second—was she actually planning to kill him?
"Sloan? Uh... these people look like ordinary civilians. You're not actually going to swing that sword, are you?"
"Yep!"
She answered so cheerfully that for a brief moment I thought I'd misheard her.
"Why...? I know this is stating the obvious, but Heroes aren't supposed to kill innocent civilians."
"Innocent? Who!? You're not telling me that the Demon King's minion standing right in front of me is innocent, are you?"
What Demon King's minion? No matter how you looked at him, he was just a serf one step from the grave.
Honestly, I don't have much reason to stop her...
Why did it bother me—a Demon King—that some stranger of a villager might die by Sloan's hand? It definitely wasn't that traveling with them had dulled my sense for murder. And it certainly wasn't pity over losing potential kin.
This village... something's off.
The unnatural feeling made me look around. Despite everything unfolding, the villagers showed no reaction at all. Why? Outsiders were about to start a sword fight right in the middle of the village. Something was seriously wrong here.
This villager is weird too. He's acting like dying is just inevitable.
If it were me, I'd be slamming my head into the dirt begging for my life. Wait—what was Arkes's innate ability again?
"Sloan!"
Camilla was the first to catch on. Was it because she was a mage? She might have keenly sensed the unstable flow of mana. She swung her staff, conjuring two or three blazing fireballs. Each one had enough power to obliterate a village like this in a single shot. Or so you'd think—but I had my doubts.
Arkes, you deranged bastard... All that human flesh you've been gorging on, and now you're pulling stunts like this. Has your brain completely rotted?
Chivalry? What a joke. This entire village was nothing more than his reeking plaything. That villager was no different.
"If I burn this whole area to ash, he won't be able to pull any more of his crap!"
Despite her bold declaration, every fireball that soared skyward snuffed out midair. Watching black smoke rise, Camilla's mouth fell open in shock.
"It seems the village itself is the Demon King's ability."
His innate ability allowed him to make a defined space part of himself. The range was about the size of two or three villages stuck together. He'd used this power to seize an entire village and turn it into a fresh human-meat supply system.
"Part of him?"
"Yes. He's been assimilating it for quite some time. Enough to manipulate even the oxygen."
Setting foot in this territory had been a mistake. Even Sloan would lose consciousness if she breathed in a high enough concentration of carbon dioxide.
"Halt, you ruffians. I will not permit any disturbance in this village."
The moment the voice rang out, I cloaked myself in stealth. Thinking about it, that might have been a mistake. Had he already noticed me?
"I am the Black Knight, Arkes. A knight who guards the village of Gars in the name of God. For what purpose do you cause a disturbance here?!"
"If fire doesn't work, I'll just blast him with something else—!"
Crackle—! Blue sparks leapt from Camilla's hands. The current gathered at the tip of her staff and shot toward Arkes.
⟨ Thunderbolt ⟩
"Oh-ho, so you're no mere band of common thieves. A mage among you? Interesting. But that won't be enough!"
Camilla's power was certainly enough to steamroll someone like Arkes. She'd grown stronger taking down multiple Demon Kings, after all. But this place was part of Arkes. He swept his hand, raising a stretch of ground dozens of meters long into a wall.
"Did you take me for some fool obsessed only with swordsmanship? How unfortunate for you. Behold! My magnificent earth magic—! And witness! A ten-shekel spell!"
⟨ Earth Spire ⟩
Bullshit! How the hell was he casting magic?!
He was just pretending to cast while activating his ability—moving the rock he'd assimilated, clumping it together, then hurling it into the sky to come crashing down. To drop a mass exceeding dozens of tons from that high, that fast—he'd been assimilating this place for well over several decades.
Under that wide-ranging attack, the villagers were crushed into meat pulp, blood gushing everywhere—but he didn't care in the slightest. So much for chivalry... He was just playing house!
"Camilla!"
"Shit... I know! But to stop that—!"
"I don't care! Pour everything you've got into it!"
Calling urgently to her friend—whom she'd been glaring at like a sworn enemy just moments ago—Elisa nocked an arrow and loosed it. That dreadful arrow punched clean through the rock wall Arkes had raised. He twisted his body, barely dodging the attack.
Meanwhile, the mass of rock hurtled fiercely toward the ground.
"Ah, screw it—! Armageddon!"
⟨ Armageddon ⟩
In that instant, Camilla's body was dyed violet. With a shout, she swung her staff. The sparks erupting from its tip truly lived up to the name of the end times. Scorching heat that felt ready to cook your face mixed with a dazzling current. Two elements that should never mix embraced each other, racing forward in a straight line to swallow the falling bedrock.
This all unfolded dozens of meters overhead, yet the aftermath was massive enough to reach the ground.
"Good heavens! Astonishing. My magic...!"
The bedrock melted in an instant. Evaporating that much mass sent energy surging in every direction, scorching everything around it.
"You idiot!"
In an instant, a flash filled my vision. At the same time, something invisible slammed into me and sent me flying. Countless vibrations... My whole body felt like it was being massaged. As my stomach churned, my vision returned.
"You... crazy bitch! What the hell were you thinking, blasting it that hard?!"
"You're the one who told me to shoot like that!"
"I didn't say shoot hard enough to put Vali in danger! Vali? Vali! Don't tell me he got blown away because of you—"
"I'm right here!"
Fortunately I wasn't badly hurt. Scraped up and bruised from the blast, but overall fine. Even those wounds healed before long.
I've definitely gotten stronger.
In the past, getting caught in this kind of aftermath would have pulverized every bone in my body. Unlucky enough, I might have died. But now, with my soul's rank soaring dramatically, I'd gained physical abilities on an entirely different level!
"Yeah? That's a relief. What about that bastard?"
"Probably..."
"Your courage was admirable, but it wasn't enough to kill this righteous Black Knight! You fools!"
Amazingly, he wasn't dead. Then again, his rank was higher than mine—he wouldn't die just from getting caught in the blast. So what now? Sloan figured out the answer faster than I did.
"We're rewriting the rules."
"What?"
"If you try to attack and fail to kill the enemy, it's my turn! How about it? I'll kill him."
"So that means you're going after Vali too, right?"
"Huh? What'd you say?! Can't hear you!"
Through the thick dust, Sloan muttered with that signature smile of hers, brimming with murderous intent. She had already finished preparing to kill the enemy before her. Only one thing remained. Arkes's destruction.
But I didn't think he'd go down easily. His end was certain destruction, of course—but the process would be rough.
Either way, Sloan kicked off the ground. BOOM—in an instant, the dust blanketing the area was swept clean away. She became a streak of light, shooting forward. At a speed the eye couldn't follow, she reached her target in a blink.
"First, take one hit for me. Please. If you die from a single punch, I'll be... really disappointed."
She drove her fist forward. A simple punch. The kind even a child could mimic—with no technique whatsoever. But it connected. Sloan's fist punched through five rock walls raised in an instant and caved in Arkes's face in one blow.
THUD—! As she shifted from a streak of light back into human form, a shockwave rippled out. As the thick dust was swept away again, spreading in all directions, Arkes—astonishingly—became a streak of light just as Sloan had, and went flying backward.
"Gah! Ghk! Khhk!"
"Wow... you actually tanked it? Impressive. Real impressive."
"Huh...?"
"You know what? I've been holding back a long time. Camilla, Elisa. You two don't have the right to kill. So! I'll be the one to kill that guy."
None of us could bring ourselves to say no to that.