I'll Be the One to Go
I'll go.
Crack— crack—
My flames leapt to the research materials and scattered documents nearby. The once-dark laboratory brightened a little, the damp chill giving way to warmth. It was not a pleasant warmth.
"Kehehe…"
An unpleasant laugh drifted through the fire.
"So it wasn't an exaggeration after all — you really did kill Apostle Mordin."
Grasshopper emerged through the flames. Ash-gray cells clung to him in places, pulsing like veins. It was the kind of revulsion you feel looking at a bug infected with parasites.
As expected. That wasn't enough to kill him.
Grasshopper had injected himself with demonic energy and become a demon of his own making. In raw strength alone, he was stronger than Baron Scalen. Had I still been stuck at the stage of Joy, he would have been a genuine pain to deal with.
Unfortunately for him, looking at him brought me no joy at all. All that escaped my lips was a searing breath.
"But against me, now that I've become a demon…"
The moment he tried to finish the sentence, I was already in front of him, swinging the blade of Wrath.
He reacted quickly, crossing both arms — but it wasn't nearly enough to stop my Wrath.
KRAAAANG!
His body flew backward and smashed into the wall. An ordinary human would have died on impact, but as a demon he recovered in a flash.
"Tremendous power… If Apostle Mordin's plan had succeeded, we could have obtained an excellent specimen like you."
He grinned at me.
"Or rather — I can just take you now."
I couldn't help a short, dry laugh.
"With that body of yours?"
Having taken my last strike head-on, one of his hands was gone and the other hung in tatters.
"I am no longer human. I am a demon. A wound like this will regenerate in no ti—"
His pupils blew wide as he lifted what was left of his arms.
"Huh? Why isn't it regenerating…?"
Far from healing, the flames were eating into the wounds.
"Don't tell me — holy power?"
A man who had spent his entire life buried underground running experiments was late to realize I possessed holy power.
"How the hell did you…?"
I answered with a low laugh.
"This is the Goddess's grace. The Goddess's judgment. The Goddess's whim."
"That's impossible…"
"Why don't you try praying to the Demon God you worship? Ask him for the strength to kill the Holy Knight standing right in front of you."
I kept going.
"But the Demon God won't give you power. He won't even glance your way. Know why?"
"……"
"Because you're neither human nor demon — just a half-assed cripple."
"You…"
"You're trash that no one will welcome, destined to burn away to nothing. But don't worry."
Fire roared up the length of my blade.
"I'll burn your keepsakes along with you."
"I'll kill you!!"
Grasshopper ground his teeth and sprang. Reaching me, he swung his severed arm, meaning to drive a sharp bone through my skull.
Whoosh!
The trajectory was so honest I twisted aside and slipped it with ease. After that he used those long limbs to lace the air with attacks, and for a while I simply focused on dodging.
He can't use the power he has.
His distribution of force was clumsy, his attack lines crude. In a way it was only natural — he had never been a fighter. Just a lab rat who lived for experiments. Pure strength put him above Baron Scalen, sure.
In short: a strong idiot.
I caught the break in his breathing and swung for his gut. His physical ability was still excellent — he curled in on himself in an instant to cushion the blow.
KRAAAANG!
But the hit landed clean. His body flew and pinned itself against the wall. He didn't split in two, but the legs that had taken the sword strike head-on now lay strewn at my feet.
"…Ghk!"
He spat blood onto the floor. When he came to and tried to rise, he only flailed — no legs left to stand on.
I asked him,
"Want me to toss you the legs? Feel like sticking them back on?"
"U-urgh!"
"Tsk tsk. For a grasshopper, the legs are everything. Even if you live, you're not really living anymore."
"D-don't come near me!"
As I walked toward him at a leisurely pace, he dragged himself across the floor on his stumps. I nodded.
"I'm going."
Then, just like a grasshopper, I bent both knees and sprang. He stared in horror at the arc of my descent — and I drove my sword into his back.
Thunk!
"Guh!"
The blade pinned him to the floor. The fire riding the steel slowly spread into his body, and he began to scream under the searing pain.
I closed my eyes and made a prayer of that scream.
O Goddess, today another heretic ascends. This one is trash who turns humans into demons — an experimenter who makes normal people like me look like madmen.
"……"
Please grant darkness to the trash, and light to the madman…
Demonic energy seeped up from Grasshopper's body and began to bleach pure white. The pure white force flowed into me; I felt a strange calm settle over me as I gathered the holy power.
So I can take holy power from this one too.
He hadn't drunk a demon's blood — he had injected demonic energy into his own body to become one. I had half-worried I might get nothing from him. A relief.
I pulled the sword free and stepped past the blackened husk that had been Grasshopper.
Whoosh!
With every step I flung fire from the blade, setting more of the laboratory alight. That was the truth of it — I wasn't an Inquisitor so much as an arsonist.
I was just starting to wonder whether I might get a little too familiar with nighttime fire-setting when—
Found it.
I discovered a cylinder holding the upper body of something with ash-gray skin. A fragment of a demon's body — this was where they had been extracting demonic energy.
Not strange that the Evil Book Society, which serves the Demon God, would make use of demons.
The Demon God's scripture itself preached using everyone but himself to grow stronger. That was why demons sometimes ate their own kind.
Well. Humans turn on humans too. Nothing new under the sun.
I swung the blade of Wrath and set the room ablaze. Afterward I offered the demon body fragment to the Goddess and received a modest flow of holy power in return. I had assumed the energy would be spent after they drained it — unexpected profit.
Time to keep my promise to Grasshopper.
I had sworn to burn him and all his keepsakes. To keep that promise I set fire to every corner of the laboratory.
Fwoooosh!
I burned, and burned again. Even if this lab went up, the Evil Book Society would keep trying to turn humans into demons — but at least I could slow them down compared to my past life.
Then I stopped in front of a vast pit of flame.
"This is a problem," I muttered. "There's nothing left to cut. Nothing left to burn."
But my Wrath had not yet died down. The proof was the hot fire still roaring in my chest.
"Maybe I should cut you instead."
I set my stance against the approaching wall of flame. The heat on my skin was considerable.
"…Inquisitor!"
A voice came from behind me.
"Inquisitor!!"
I turned. Beyond flames rising about shin-high stood a young woman with short brown hair.
"What are you doing over there?! If you're finished, come back already!"
I answered Bella,
"There's still something left to cut."
"Where?"
Fair question. I had already killed the heretics remaining in this place. What else was there?
I looked at the Witch of Jealousy.
"You?"
Bella flinched hard and shouted,
"Don't say terrifying things and get over here right now! Or should I come to you?!"
She started striding toward me. Before her legs could clear the fire, I raised a hand and stopped her.
"No. I'll go."
I added,
"Unless you want to become turtle soup, stay put."
"……"
Bella froze mid-step and stared at me, speechless.
I sheathed the sword — flames withdrawn — and walked toward her.
Step, step—
Having reached the stage of Wrath, I could handle rage freely now. Just now I simply hadn't felt like holding it down.
I jumped the flames, landed, looked at Bella, and asked,
"Where'd you leave the shell?"
"Up above. I was worried it might catch fire."
I clicked my tongue.
"So I can't even grill it in its shell."
"Hey! What is wrong with you?!"
And so the two villains of a previous life turned their backs on the great pit of fire and walked out.
"Inquisitor, eat this. You must have taken in a fair amount of smoke — it should help."
Bella pulled a strange-looking herb from her pack and held it out. My body was fine, but I took it and chewed.
"Tastes terrible."
"Eat it anyway. If something goes wrong with you, you won't be able to cut down the other villains."
She had a point. If I went down, the wicked would run even wilder — so I chewed the herb like it was a combat ration.
"As expected, the turtle always keeps herbs on hand. No wonder people make restorative soup out of them."
"Honestly! Can't you just eat it quietly?"
I laughed at Bella's puffed-up reaction.
Murmur, murmur—
A commotion rose outside the cathedral. I swallowed the herb and stepped out to find people gathered in front of the building. Smoke must have escaped and drawn a crowd.
"What on earth is going on?"
I answered the townsfolk.
"Father Edgar, the man you trusted, was in fact a member of the Evil Book Society that serves the Demon God. A mad experimenter who kidnapped people and turned them into demons."
Sensing something they could not name, the people listened closely.
"He handed out those brooches to throw off suspicion after the abductions. In other words, the brooches you are wearing are ordinary ornaments with no effect whatsoever."
"……"
"So I burned Father Edgar and the laboratory beneath this cathedral to ash. Discard those brooches and return to peaceful lives."
"Ah…"
I went on.
"Do not accept every sermon without question. Obedience without doubt is only blind faith. True belief begins with questions."
"……"
"Remember what I say. Demons and humans alike are always ready to deceive others for their own gain."
The people took my words in — and still looked at me with suspicion. It was only natural to trust Father Edgar, whom they had known for years, over a stranger they had just met.
"And who might you be?"
At that question I nodded, satisfied.
"I am the eldest son of House Luminara — Cael Luminara."
"……"
"An Inquisitor who cuts down heretics and cleanses the world."
Only then did trust enter their eyes. It would have been even better if Sub-deacon Bella had sung a hymn for them, but with her currently brimming with mana, a hymn would only get us branded as demons ourselves.
I was just wondering whether I ought to belt one out myself when, thankfully, they began setting their brooches on the ground.
Pope Ventus Tellarion gazed upon the Original Bible.
Light welled from its pages as new lines of text began to write themselves.
"Heh heh…"
Even now the sight filled the Pope with wonder, and he smiled.
Cael Luminara. Just what kind of man are you?
Perhaps a new saint was being born — one who would be remembered by the people for a very long time.