Chapter 33 - Before the Fruits of Choice (8)

"I have clearly figured out their objective. They intended to cast a curse of plague upon this place."

The Mage, who had shifted completely to a businesslike attitude by drawing the line again, explained to me.

"The ritual itself is not used very often. Compared to the effort it takes, there's a high chance of being discovered before it's completed, and diseases don't distinguish between friend and foe, meaning the casters themselves could die from it. It's much faster to release diseased rats than to prepare the ritual."

That was somewhat of a relief. Not that I was underestimating plagues, but what I had imagined was some kind of large-scale instant death.

If they could fall victim to it themselves, they probably wouldn't use something like the Black Death or smallpox either.

"Even so, the reason a plague ritual is being performed is because those afflicted by the curse of the plague fulfill the conditions to become sacrifices."

Oh... that was a bit of a chilling thought. Because I just learned that this whole commotion might just be one of the intermediate steps.

'When do I get to rest?'

"The ritual they truly intend to complete is highly likely to be outside the city. Either way, the underground passage must have been meant for deception."

Well. It doesn't seem like it was just a deception. That binding. They said they prepared it for the Hero. Buying time was part of it, but they must have been targeting the Hero herself too.

"The problem is... once the plague ritual begins, destroying one axis of the magic circle doesn't end it. You must destroy all five core axes for the effect to completely disappear."

Uh, so. If the curse of the plague was only broken like that after it had already been completed, does that mean we're screwed...?

My head was so hazy that I couldn't tell if this was a certainty. I lightly shook my head, suddenly wondering if this was really a reasonable starting difficulty for a main quest.

It wasn't a matter of monster levels; the scale was way too massive for an early-game event. What were they going to do later on?

"Even if the plague ritual hasn't even begun, it's a problem. With their malice, they might use the unused sacrifices to perform a summoning ritual."

Anyway, I understood that I had to find all five no matter what. Yeah, a player is just an errand boy, what else.

「❖ What Hides Behind」

∎ Thwart the demon worshipers' plans

∎ Find the axes of the ritual 1 / 5」

The quest updated, and suddenly a thought flashed through my mind. My footsteps came to a halt.

"We go the opposite way."

"...?"

"If there is an axis on the western street, the group that headed there will take care of it."

This was only assuming the five axes formed a regular pentagon, though...? Judging by how they used magic so far, setting up axes in circular formations every time, it was probably right.

"... You are right. However, can you do it?"

"As long as you don't do anything stupid."

'Ah, so I have to go back again? Aaaagh. Please just delete the injury penalty already.'

* * *

"You were right again."

The Inquisitor drove her mace into the ground while keeping the civilians, who had inevitably been revealed as demon worshipers, kneeling on their knees.

When the scorching heat tightly filled the space beneath the skin, a brilliant radiance soon melted away the demonic energy remaining on the surface. The corpses steeped in corruption were also purified and found peace.

"Only an idiot wouldn't be able to tell."

His swaggering was truly an eyesore, but this time, she had no choice but to acknowledge him.

While she fell for the enemies' tricks and wandered the underground passage, this guy had disrupted the rituals taking place on the surface.

Not only had he confirmed the presence of those who came to check on the situation, but after catching them, he even found the locations of the additional rituals.

Considering the only hint he was given was the information that this was a plague ritual—with five axes positioned in a regular pentagon—it was an incredible achievement.

"Or maybe you're just incompetent."

"...!"

Still, she absolutely could not let that remark slide.

Even though she only learned that this was a plague ritual after the Heresy Inquisitor of the corresponding parish joined them. Even though she couldn't do anything while that guy uncovered the hidden truth with just his sharp eyes...! Still!

"Whatever, let's just hurry up and find another one, yeah? Though I bet they've already all bolted from there too."

Even at the location they had just found, only the traces of the ritual remained; those performing it were nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately, they managed to capture about three of them after searching the surroundings... but they couldn't expect the same for the next location.

"... Right."

Even so, they couldn't just not look for it.

Swallowing her frustration, she estimated the direction. With the axes existing in a regular pentagon, and having already figured out the locations of three, calculating the positions of the rest was not difficult.

She was only finding the approximate locations, not calculating them precisely, so the legwork would still continue.

"Let's go."

She rallied her people and hurriedly quickened her pace. To keep up with the Thief, who was agile enough to remind her of the Demon Knight—no, even more agile than him—she had to move her feet busily.

CRASH!

"...?!"

However, the moment they reached the deduced area, the Inquisitor recognized a familiar aura. The sound of an explosion was a bonus.

"This is..."

The Demon Knight? For that to be the case, it felt denser than usual... no, he should still be in the underground passage in the first place.

Or, could he have dragged that body of his outside? Was there perhaps an opponent on the enemy's side who could rival him?

Either way, it wasn't a welcome prospect. Harboring a slight sense of foreboding in her chest, she put strength into her legs.

The insolent Thief must have sensed the commotion as well, as he changed the course of his body that had been bouncing across the rooftops.

"Sir Knight!"

"Demon Knight!"

And the conclusion revealed was that neither of her premonitions had been wrong.

The source of the explosion was indeed the Demon Knight. The owner of the hair where gray and black stood in contrast could only be him, so it had to be the Demon Knight.

"Inquisitor...?"

"Good timing."

ROAAAR!!

And it was also true that the enemy side had an opponent who could not be ignored.

"Purify it."

ROAAAAAR!!!

A demon whose identity could not be fathomed, even by her who had memorized every demon in the world, was half-swallowing the Demon Knight.

* * *

Turning back time to before the Inquisitor arrived.

I narrowed my eyes at the series of events and their final result.

"H-Hahaha! Even if the plan failed, I will at least take you down with me!"

The plague ritual that was executed, but discovered immediately after, rendering its success meaningless. The caster who died shouting like that, perhaps wanting to make a last-ditch effort. And something else that was executed using the lives of those casters as a foundation.

"Traitor, you will never..."

There must have been a reason he was at the center of the magic circle, as the Demon Contractor who had survived until the very end collapsed after leaving those words. The bloody water vomited from every hole in his body soon turned into sewage and swallowed his corpse.

It looked exactly like the stink spirit from a certain famous animated movie. Though now I had to add some cosmic horror to it.

「??? │???」

But is this mob info for real? If it's going to be like this, just don't pop it up at all.

"Am I too late...!"

Anyway, the Archmage seemed quite distressed over having failed to stop it by a hair's breadth.

Me? I was actually just fine with it. It wasn't that I felt no regret, but my feeling of 'I knew this would happen' was much bigger.

It made sense, since all the preceding quests had directly or indirectly hinted at this event. That meant the quest was just that large in scale. In fact, the fate of an entire city was riding on it.

But for a boss not to appear in a quest dragged out this long? Due to the nature of RPGs, that never happens. Ultimately, this meant there was no reason to be surprised by this situation.

On top of that, seeing how the boss was summoned just in the nick of time over and over, it seemed designed to be unpreventable from the start. All things considered, there was no reason to feel more frustrated than necessary.

"Evacuate the people."

On a separate note, it was a good thing I forced myself to join them while suppressing my fatigue.

It wasn't that I wanted to do a boss fight, but certain games would throw a GAME OVER just because you failed to protect civilian NPCs.

They give you a warning to stop it... but the distance here is incredibly wide. It would end while I was still running over to stop it.

Furthermore, unlike other places, the buildings here were exceptionally cramped, and their durability was completely lacking.

I knew it couldn't be helped since it was the slums, but this made it perfect for civilian casualties to occur. In addition, this guy, true to being a cosmic horror stink spirit, was even expanding its body while bubbling and boiling.

No matter how I looked at it, it was a boss with AoE attacks.

"Are you planning to face that alone?!"

Normally, I would answer, "Are you crazy?" but in this game, it might just be possible?

Considering the difficulty of the trash mobs here, the boss fight might end up being surprisingly anticlimactic. Though considering I still have the injury penalty, maybe not.

"Do I have to say it twice?"

I adjusted my grip on the longsword that I had been using almost like a walking stick.

My throat was so dry I wanted to drink some water, but there was no time for that. I had to output even a little bit more damage while the stink spirit was still in an incomplete state.

*Breaker. * The most familiar form of attack shot out as the opener. A portion of the mass of sewage, which filled half of the wooden-plank house, split deeply.

"Damn it, you...!"

It felt like the Archmage just swore, or was it my imagination? That was the first time I've ever heard that old man curse.

OOOOOH.

In the meantime, the sewage that had been split in half reached out an arm toward me. I wasn't sure if I could even call it an arm, but anyway.

On top of that, even if it had viscosity, a liquid was a liquid. The parts that had been split in half filled back in and merged together again.

This guy. It seemed we just weren't a good match for each other.

Its HP wasn't even displayed, so I had to gauge it purely by its outer appearance. This way, I couldn't tell the extent of its injuries.

SMASH!

Still, I had to fight.

I deflected the arms approaching me with my sword. The mass of sewage flew off like flying mud, hitting the wall and sliding down in a glob.

It wasn't a very effective move. It was truly a boss-like enemy in a different sense.

"Cough!"

Then, blood suddenly poured out. It didn't hurt, but my body lost strength and I almost fell over as a bonus.

It was the damn injury penalty.

"Hold on just a little longer!"

The Archmage, who was doing something from behind, shouted. Any other time, I would have retorted that I didn't need it, but right now, I was actually glad to hear it.

"...convey the...!"

Soon, something rang in my ears. A demon had appeared, so step out of your homes and run away from where the sound is coming from. The phrasing was a bit different, but that was the gist of it.

"Breaker...!"

He got the people evacuated, so he should start dealing damage now, right? Ah. Please. Just one hot, fiery strike.

Carrying that wish, I painfully slammed my sword down.

ROAAAAAAAR!

As expected, the effect was so-so.

"You demonic bastard..."

Cough, cough. Coughing up blood, I took a step back for now. It was partly because the mass of sewage showed signs of attacking, but also because the house was mostly filled with its body, forcing me to retreat.

"Get out."

"Ugh."

I grabbed the Archmage, who was chanting a spell, by the scruff of his neck and threw him backward. Even if I called it throwing, it was just outside the front door.

CRASH!

Right on time, the mass of sewage's massive arm—it was thick enough to make me wonder if it was actually headbutting me—smashed into the spot where I had just been.

The wall near the front door narrowly avoided being swept away, but it wouldn't last. It was obvious it would burst out soon.

"Keheugh."

Still, it would give me a moment to catch my breath. After stepping a bit further out into the street, I let out the hematemesis I had been forcefully holding back.

The recoil forced me to my knees, and blood spilled heavily onto the dirt ground. It didn't hurt, but it really felt awful.

"Are you alright?"

*'Does this look alright to you?' * Vowing never to move for hours on end with my fatigue gauge maxed out at 100 again, I forced myself to stand.

Same with the injury penalty. It was so miserable that I decided I just wouldn't get hurt anymore.

CRASH!

The front wall shattered, and the sewage slime was finally unleashed into the street.

"Aaaagh!"

"What is that monster!"

"It's a demon!!"

The people who had come out of their homes in confusion after being swept up by the magic screamed and fled. The feeling of *'Why are you only leaving now?' * and *'Well, at least they're leaving now'* crossed my mind.

"Do... what you need to do."

No, wait, thinking about it makes me mad.

Even though I maxed out my fatigue gauge at 100. Even though I took a massive hit to the back, one to the shoulder, and one to the abdomen.

Isn't it too much to implement this to be so exhausting? If this were reality, even being able to fight while coughing like this would be a miracle, but still...!

SWOOSH!

Swallowing my complaints, I swung my sword. It didn't seem like I'd see a very good outcome if I touched that thing, so I planned to at least fire off some sword energy.

But no matter how much I slashed, everything just filled back in, leaving me drained of strength. Was its HP even decreasing at all?

"Flames, burn my enemy!"

At that moment, the Archmage finally dealt some damage. It was a fireball that brought back fresh memories of our first encounter.

CRASH!

ROAAAAAR!

The stink spirit withered after being struck by the fireball, and then began to burn in the soaring pillar of fire that followed up.

As was the case with all monsters of that type, I figured fire was its weakness. Even if it wasn't, it was still better than what I was doing.

Good. Then my role is to kite it around, park it in place, and manage its aggro. It felt a bit funny to play the tank role when I was a DPS, but so what, it's not like I couldn't do it. I already had plenty of experience with it anyway!

GUUUURGH!

However, if things went that smoothly, would it really be a boss? It'd just be a punching bag.

The burning mass of sewage extinguished the fire by turning itself inside out. In other words, it pulled its inner core from the back and washed over its own body like a wave.

"Aaaagh!"

Right after that, it even spread out widely as if melting. It moved at an incredible speed, like ice cream dropped on asphalt in the middle of summer.

The humans who had been slow to run away—though from their perspective, they probably just wanted to take some of their household belongings—were terrified.

"Dodge it...!"

"What—?"

It's standard for the tank to take a beating, but the DPS can't. I threw the Archmage, who had just started casting, backward once again.

Not just the Archmage, but several people were swept up because they weren't fast enough, but that was beyond my power. How could I save them when my body lost strength the moment I tried to run? In the first place, I was in a situation where I had already resigned myself to giving up my own ankles.

"Keuk."

Fortunately, my HP didn't drop just from touching the sewage slime's bodily fluids.

"Hwaaaaah!"

"Keheugh!"

Well, that was just me. It wasn't the same for the others.

Their bodies started turning completely black starting from the points where they touched the sewage. If they fell over in that state, the area in contact with the fluid would widen, causing them to be encroached upon even faster as a bonus.

"...! A mass of plague, it was a mass of plague!"

The Archmage, who had saved his life at the cost of his spinal health, shouted immediately.

"You must not let your skin touch that liquid!"

"Aaaagh!"

No matter how much advice you give, there are always people whose bodies just won't obey.

I gritted my teeth and launched sword energy. The slash extended out in a straight line, scraping the ground and blocking the sewage. Because it was spreading shallowly and quickly, it was easily pushed back by the gust accompanying the slash.

"Heuaak, heuaaak!"

Fortunately, the man who was just about to be caught managed to escape without falling. But this couldn't go on. As someone whose main weapon was a sword, I couldn't handle a boss like this.

If I at least had some oil, I could light a fire over it, but I didn't even have that. And it was hard to even move.

"Keheuuugh!"

Unluckily, I wasn't even given the time to think. The people who were swept up earlier rolled their eyes back with their death throes, and the mass of sewage swallowed over them.

Having almost entirely emerged from the house, its main body still easily exceeded 2 meters in height, even though it had dyed a 6-meter radius of the street with its bodily fluids.

"Pray to God, purify the corruption and destroy the evil!"

Not just standing idly by, the Archmage attempted another attack. A white and yellow flame, wider than the fireball and somehow carrying a sense of divinity, scorched the sewage.

As the main body began to burn, the bodily fluids that had spread in all directions temporarily gathered back together.

"Die...!"

I couldn't just sit back doing nothing just because my attacks didn't work. Even if just to maintain aggro, I also threw in an additional attack. Knowing that touching it would ruin me, I just launched sword energy from a distance.

Its main body split wide open, and then sewage erupted from inside it like a fountain. If it had spread in all directions, it would have been a disaster, but fortunately, it only covered its own body and stopped.

ROAAAAAAAR.

No, that wasn't the end. The surface of the mass bubbled and boiled slightly. Since it was facing the direction where the Archmage was, I felt a bit of foreboding.

POP!

My anxieties were always spot on. Something shot out like a squirt gun.

"Where... are you looking...!"

"Demon Knight!"

If the mage dies, the raid fails! With that mindset, I stubbornly dashed forward and took the shot of sewage in his stead. I had wanted to deflect it with the flat of my blade if possible, but I failed to do so because my legs had lost their strength.

Some of the sewage splattered onto my coat, my inner clothes, and my cheek. A foul stench pierced my nose first, and a ticklish sensation spread across my skin.

「Curse!」

My HP started drastically depleting.

"Just do... the job you were given!"

'You have time to talk with that kind of damage output? Just deal more damage right now! Dealing damage is the only way to save me!'

I barely caught my balance and launched a wave of sword energy. It was my best effort to draw aggro.

Fortunately, whether it was annoyed by me annoying it from the front, the mass of sewage's next target became me. A lumpy portion of the mass's body abruptly poured toward me.

"Sir Knight!"

"Demon Knight!"

Ah, but my legs gave out just as I was about to dodge. I'm screwed.

'I don't think I can dodge this?'

"Inquisitor...?"

"Good timing."

ROAAAR!!

Call it good luck, or call it timing taking my side. Half-submerged in the pouring sewage, I shouted at the person running toward me.

"Purify it."

ROAAAAAR!!!

'Aaaagh, please save me!!'

"Th-that, what—"

The Inquisitor's hesitation made it seem like her thought process was temporarily buffering. She shouldn't do that.

"That is a mass of plague!"

Taking my place, the Archmage shouted its identity one step ahead, and the Inquisitor changed her expression as if she had suddenly realized it.

"But, the Demon Knight is—"

'What about me. What about me. If you understood, then hurry up and kill this thing. There's no friendly fire shield, but I can nullify death once! My Indomitable Spirit cooldown is back!'

'Of course, I'll probably die from the curse right after that, though!'

"Your job."

With my HP on the verge of hitting the bottom in an instant, I somehow managed to move my sword.

"Is to kill the demon."

*Ground Crash. * The skill I muttered inwardly was half-forced to activate, making the earth tremble. The force that spread out in a spherical shape shook off the sewage that had surrounded me.

"Right, now!"

Fortunately, the Inquisitor did not drag it out any longer. Her wavering green eyes hardened as if she had made up her mind.

"O God, be with me."

A brilliant radiance struck down upon Kimchi Dumpling.

"And, burn away all the wicked things of this land."

And then, a white light rushed in like a high tide and completely filled my vision. My dangerously low HP finally hit the bottom.