Monster and Holy Relic
SPLAT!
“Urgh...!”
BOOM.
THUD.
The two knights who charged first didn't even get out a proper scream before they were smashed into bloody pulps and hurled against the wall. In the blink of an eye, the disaster had unfolded, causing the knights following behind to hesitate mid-stride. Seizing that gap, a small figure darted in and swung his warhammer in rapid succession.
BOOM!SMACK!KABOOM!
In an instant, all eleven knights lay scattered across the underground cavern like so much bloody wreckage.
“Hmph...”
The perpetrator, spattered with blood here and there, dumbly gaped at the two survivors before casually beckoning them over.
“Sir Truman? Your Highness the First Prince? Aren't you coming in?”
“Th-this...”
“Damn it all!”
Truman belatedly cloaked himself in wind attribute mana and drew his sword, but that minor speed boost was nowhere near enough to evade Tiny's warhammer.
KABOOOM!
“I... I just wanted... a fair kingdom...”
In a single blow, Truman's lower body was pulverized. Watching him gasp out his pathetic final words as he died miserably, First Prince Lueri von Karon collapsed to the floor.
“Ah... ahh...”
Tiny frowned involuntarily at the sight. He'd promised the king he'd spare the prince's life, but seeing the man piss himself in terror made him lose any desire to touch the wretch again.
“Why'd you have to side with those scumbags, Your Highness?”
Tiny clicked his tongue briefly. Then—
“Sir Tiny!”
“There!”
“It's right in front of the passage to the holy relic!”
A squad of knights burst in. Their eyes widened in shock at the scene.
“Oh no!”
“Even Sir Truman!”
“Sir Tiny, even if it's self-defense, this is...”
The royal knights, softened by years of peace, recoiled in horror at the carnage. The man responsible merely shrugged nonchalantly.
“They attacked me first, so I responded in kind. Fortunately, His Highness is unharmed.”
...If they'd taken the bait and charged, I'd have just killed them all.
His promise to the king suddenly weighed on him.
Having to spare trash who collaborated with demon worshippers.
Of course, he kept that bitter truth to himself.
The knights quickly regained their composure and approached the prince.
“Your Highness, we'll escort you.”
Their demeanor was polite, but the prince's face twisted in anguish.
“Wh-who gave you permission?!”
“It's His Majesty's command. We have clear evidence of your budget embezzlement. You'll explain this mess too.”
“D-don't make me laugh!”
Gritting his teeth at the knight's words, the trembling prince pulled a black orb from his robes. It looked like nothing more than a dull, ashen sphere, leaving the knights merely tilting their heads in confusion.
But then.
“You think I'll go down like this!?”
SMASH.
The moment the prince slammed the black orb into the blood-soaked floor—
CRACKLE.
The fractured orb sucked in the surrounding blood in an instant, then began spewing explosive demonic energy.
“...What!?”
“Demonic energy!”
“Block it!”
The knights, visibly panicked, swung their weapons at the squad leader's order. But—
WHOOOOM.
KABOOOM!
The thick demonic mist that billowed out repelled their attacks entirely and dominated the space. Then—
CRUNCH. GRIND.
As the eerie sounds faded and the black smoke rapidly dissipated, a massive monster stood tall where the blood and corpses had vanished.
It vaguely resembled a human form, but its black skin, red eyes, bat wings, and the twin pairs of horns curving from its forehead to the back of its skull marked it unmistakably as a monster.
“KIIEEEEEEK!”
The beast spewed foul black smoke in all directions, then lowered into a crouch with a guttural screech, as if poised to lunge forward. Everyone tensed—
“Kill them all! Protect me!”
The prince's shout from right behind the monster drew its gaze. And then—
CRUNCH.
“Aaaagh!”
The monster's massive hand snatched up the prince and yanked him toward its maw. As its jaws slowly parted, revealing rows of densely packed black teeth like thorns, the prince's face drained of color.
“A demon!”
“It's a devilkin!”
“Stop it!”
The knights finally snapped to action and charged. But a boy had already leaped onto the monster's head, hammer raised high.
KABOOOOOM!
The monster's left shoulder—the one gripping the prince—exploded clean off.
“Your Highness!”
“Grab him!”
As the knights veered toward the prince—
“KYAAAACK!”
Tiny grinned savagely at the monster's scream.
“No intelligence? All it does is screech?”
The beast backed away unsteadily at his approach, then abruptly switched direction and charged again—toward the empty space Tiny had vacated. Toward the holy relic.
But—
“Not a chance!”
Tiny, already closing in, smashed the monster's flank.
KABOOM!
SPLORCH.
“KIIEEEEK!”
RUMBLE.
CRACKLE.
The wall it slammed into cracked, sending violent tremors through the cavern. Blood spraying everywhere, the monster—with its pelvis now shattered—tumbled across the floor.
- Grrr...
'No need for you to come out.'
Tiny soothed his soul-bound companion as he sauntered toward it. His extended Stamp scraped the floor, producing a grating metallic screech.
The startled monster dragged its unresponsive legs, desperately trying to crawl toward the relic chamber again.
Tiny's expression hardened.
“Looks like they've got a clear target ingrained.”
BOOM!!!
“Ki... kieek!”
“Put some more effort in. Is this really all you've got?”
“Ki... kiruk.”
As Tiny pulverized its remaining arm, propping itself up and crawling desperately, the monster actually cowered in fear, grinning cruelly. A sight that could make anyone question who the real monster was.
The knights, frowning at the reversal, bellowed.
“Sir Tiny! Finish it already!”
“No need to toy with something so pathetic...!”
But—
“Enough! Grab the prince! I'll handle this one!”
Without looking back, Tiny roared. The royal knights silently stared at the prince, still clutched in the severed monster hand.
“Th-this can't... How could this...”
Having nearly been devoured, the prince muttered the same words in a daze, the stench of urine wafting from his soaked crotch. He was clearly broken.
“...We'd better get him to the priests quick.”
Even the squad leader hesitated to urge his men on, merely glaring resentfully at Tiny's back.
Utterly indifferent to the prince's state, Tiny narrowed his eyes and stood before the monster.
“Ki... kiruk.”
It tried to crawl away the moment it saw him—toward the inner passage, the holy relic.
“Commands override survival instinct, huh...?”
KABOOM!
Tiny stomped its head, crushing it into the stone steps.
“Ku... kieee!”
The writhing body thrashed feebly. Tiny gazed down coldly.
Focused more on durability than raw power. Purely in terms of toughness, it's Superior-grade.
Humanoid form, bat wings, horns—the classic image of a devil in popular lore. But this wasn't a true high demon, an adversary of the gods.
Just a combat beast spawned from human sacrifices.
And moreover—
“Kii...”
It wasn't solely Tiny's power pinning it down. From the moment of summoning, the devilkin's skin had been steadily burning away.
WHOOOM.
Since it first spewed demonic energy, the holy relic's barrier had been suppressing and repelling it.
It'll melt away in hours, but that's plenty of time to destroy or haul off that giant crystal.
A durable, flying combat beast stronger than it was powerful... Their scheme was obvious.
One problem, though.
“...No high-ranking warlock, and it forms a Blader-grade beast in seconds? Inside a holy barrier?”
The method of perfectly concealing demonic energy was impressive enough, but this magic was unheard of.
Of course, it couldn't be that simple.
If it were, they wouldn't need the prince as a pawn.
Even so—
The demon worshippers' magic is far beyond expectations...
These guys built up power for 17, 18 years, launched a rebellion, and still failed? Was Argon really that exceptional? Or...
“Some variable I don't know about...”
Tiny frowned at the broken prince slumped nearby and pressed his foot harder.
CRUNCH.
“Kiiiii...”
With a final death rattle, the beast crumbled to black ash. The surgery to excise Karon's royal rot was complete.
* * *
BOOM.
“Failure? Failure!?”
A roar of fury echoed through the dark chamber.
“That was one of His carefully crafted masterpieces! One of the few left! And it failed!? What the hell happened!?”
Silence hung amid the vibrating killing intent. Then, as the figure at the head table fixed its gaze somewhere, a shadow stepped forward.
“...That guy interfered again.”
“That guy?”
“From the Morse family.”
“How the hell did he know!?”
“...We don't know.”
“Goddamn it!!!”
BOOM! CRASH!
In the pitch blackness, only the sounds of shattering objects rang out repeatedly.
Finally, after a long while—
“Huff, huff. Too many variables now. Even if the rest goes as planned, the royals might survive. We need another way.”
The head shadow spoke calmly now, prompting a careful suggestion from one in the corner.
“...If the Kraken just smashes up to Ortus's outer walls, won't the royals come rushing out? Then we assassinate...”
That ignited the head shadow again.
“You brain-dead idiot!!”
BOOM.
“If a Kraken's rampaging, would you charge out or hole up in the inner keep? Only a brainless moron would spout that crap!”
As the head shadow raged, another spoke quietly.
“...Karon's fall is our organization's declaration to the world. Even if we can't announce it openly.”
“What are you getting at, No. 8?”
“That's why He stepped in personally, isn't it?”
“True. Which means we should've been more thorough! But we failed...”
“He said He'd go Himself. Won't He find a way? The Karon forces won't stay put with a Kraken rampaging.”
“...You mean?”
“If Karon's army crumbles, a mere holy relic barrier won't stop Him.”
The barrier repels demonic energy, but it wasn't invincible. The organization knew its weakness in advance—though exploiting it was tricky.
“...You're right.”
“So we can handle this variable, no? Better to report honestly to Him and await judgment.”
Silence fell again at No. 8's words. But the head shadow bristled.
“...Too many variables already. Deploying the legendary beast... If something happens to Him because of this, our organization's dream gets set back twenty years at least.”
“The Kraken targeting Him directly? Unless it's that big a variable...”
Khuk.
Low chuckles rippled through the chamber at No. 8's retort. As killing intent poured from the head shadow, they died down, and even it grudgingly nodded.
“Report to Him and await orders... No. 3, stand by until His command.”
“...Yes.”
“No. 8, tell Husel to eliminate Gail the moment His order comes.”
“Yes.”
“Deliver the resources we got from the prince to the eastern operatives as planned. Mobilize everyone. Make the Ortus incident as horrific and inexplicable as possible.”
“Yes. What about the Morse brat?”
“Inform Him and leave it to Him. Since he's sabotaging the grand plan, Him handling it personally is fine. And restart our internal purge. Root out any traitors feeding him info.”
“...Understood.”
“It's almost time. Almost...”
With that low murmur, the chamber's shadows vanished one by one.