by Hiro Ainana
I used Forge as a distraction to get a bit of distance so I could switch weapons.
This time, I chose the Holy Sword Gallatin. According to the detailed description, it was a sister sword to Excalibur.
In my other hand, I equipped the Holy Spear Longinus. It was difficult to use with one hand, but Gjallarhorn probably wouldn’t be a match for the Black Flame Bone Swords.
I strengthened the Holy Sword and Spear with magic, then wrapped them in Sacredblade.
This combination was three times stronger than the last.
This should whittle him down.
“Let’s go, demon lord!”
“I Challenge Thee, Nameless Hero!”
When I gave a shout to motivate myself, the demon lord responded with a line straight out of an epic fantasy.
After that, I defeated the demon lord five more times, but he had still more lives to spare.
As he was going through yet another revival sequence, I assessed the situation.
My Holy Sword Gallatin and Holy Spear Longinus were wearing down, so I should probably replace them soon.
Over the course of the past few fights, I’d learned a skill called “Triple Helix Spear Attack,” which made for an even more powerful finisher than “Light-Speed Attack.”
But even that wasn’t enough to destroy the demon lord completely. I was stuck in an endless loop.
Of course, it might be possible to defeat him if I took certain risks.
If this were some desert wasteland, I could probably beat him down easily with Meteor Shower, but we were underneath the old capital.
If I used Meteor Shower here, the city above us would be destroyed. Then I’d be the one flaunting a Great Demon Lord title.
On the other hand, if I didn’t mind risking losing the Holy Sword Excalibur forever and making the whole labyrinth cave in, I could probably do it with the overloaded Holy Sword Excalibur.
With the Divine Blade, I risked getting swallowed in that mysterious black aura, but at least then I’d be the only casualty.
If possible, I wanted to avoid using any of these three solutions.
If I had only an intermediate or advanced attack spell stronger than Forge, I could defeat this thing so easily…
And I should’ve mass-produced more overloaded Holy Arrows.
I had enough Blue to make more Holy Weapons, but there wasn’t enough time to do that in the short breaks while the demon lord was reviving.
While I was preoccupied, the golden light covering the demon lord started fading.
Round thirteen was about to start.
“PUUUGUEEEEE!”
The demon lord raised a strange war cry while a suspicious purple glimmer filled his eyes.
I’d noticed the past few times that his pronunciation was breaking down. It appeared he had finally lost the capacity for human speech.
Maybe he was getting close at last.
“BUUUGWOOOOOO!”
Transforming his lower half into that of a snake, the demon lord struck at me with the tail.
I slashed at him with the Holy Sword Gallatin, and his scales came flying at me as if I’d struck a land mine.
I avoided them with “Warp,” then fired three “Triple Helix Spear” attacks with the Holy Spear Longinus, but his arms transformed into ten whips and knocked them away.
The creature’s chest opened up like a maintenance hatch.
In between the folds of purple flesh, I could see his ribs.
From their shroud of black flame, the bones shot out toward me like living things while I was briefly stationary.
I quickly retreated into the sky, but the ribs were faster than I thought.
Somehow, I managed to stop them with my Holy Sword and Spear.
Below me, I could see the demon lord’s mouth opening wide.
The same dark flame was rising from inside…
Immediately, I used Forge at full blast to counter the black flame breath.
There came a roar as blasting heat filled the cave.
The attacks seemed to be amplifying one another as they battled for supremacy.
If that Breath attack rivaled Forge, which was strong enough to evaporate mithril, I definitely wanted to avoid that.
Evaporate?
Something about that word stuck out to me.
When I checked my body, I discovered several minor burns.
An image floated across my mind’s eye.
That was when I’d figured out mithril’s evaporation point in an experiment, right?
My skin turned red, but I didn’t get any burns.
When was that?
Right, that was when I’d first used Forge at full power against the demon lord.
What was the difference?
Why did I get burned one time but not the other?
Of course. The difference had been the presence of metal particles heated with enough energy to evaporate.
Specifically, a magical metal that conducted MP easily.
A flicker of hope crossed my mind.
But at the same time, I knew.
It wouldn’t be enough to destroy the demon lord.
This thirteenth round was for all the marbles.
I needed just one more move to defeat the demon lord.
What appeared in my mind was a glittering blue bell.
“You must treasure it always so it can bring you fortune, understand?”
Right, of course.
Beneath me, the demon lord leaped up through the Breath attack with his arms transformed into sabers. But now, he looked about as threatening to me as a bug flying into a zapper.
I put the Holy Sword and Holy Spear in Storage and pulled out something else.
Instead of a bell, it was a silver vial full of cerulean liquid.
I poured the rest of my magic into the Blue, the metal solution that formed the core of Holy Weapons.
“This is it…”
In less than a second, it was overloaded with magic, and bright light beamed through the cracks between my fingers.
I reached toward the demon lord in the midst of his unswerving charge.
Then, as the shining blue beacon left my hand, I aimed at it and activated Forge at full throttle.
“…for yooooou!”
The metallic liquid evaporated under the inferno and turned into a conical shower of luminescent blue over the demon lord.
Within moments, the boar was completely engulfed in the holy aura. He burned away, without leaving so much as the shadow of a trace.
A rumble echoed through the underground cavern.
The cone of light bored deep into the hard floor of the labyrinth before vanishing completely.
Using “Skyrunning” to reach the bottom of the newly formed pit, I found a broken purple orb that must have been the demon lord’s core.
So this didn’t burn, huh?
I was concerned for a moment that he’d somehow resurrect from this, but it seemed like it was finally over.
As proof, I now had some visitors…
“Hee-hee, looks like he lost.”
“Just like he lost to Yamato…”
“Now he lost to the nameless hero.”
From the shards of the core rose three small violet lights like the ones I’d seen after the Undead King Zen passed on during the Cradle incident.
No, their color was a bit darker. It would have been better described as dark purple, bordering on black.
They felt quite similar to the ones I’d seen before, but maybe they were different individuals.
“So much for orcs.”
“What should we use next?”
“Those weasels seem rather clever…”
Their words suggested that they thought I couldn’t touch them, so they weren’t expecting me to attack.
My dark blade slashed three times.
The deep-purple lights vanished, leaving only faint traces behind.
I quickly put the Divine Blade and its black aura away in Storage and
changed my title from Godkiller back to Hero.
At first, I thought I saw the black sword absorb the purple remnants, but the sword’s status hadn’t changed, so I must have imagined it.
My Holy Sword went straight through them last time, so I’d taken a gamble by using the Divine Blade.
After I crushed the three dark-violet lights, the rewards log filled at an absurdly high speed, but I scrolled back up just to be sure.
The words You defeated the fragments of a god! had appeared, so I must have really destroyed them.
In retrospect, I guess you could call that making an enemy of a god, but I had acted without really thinking. Still, if this “god” was the type to lend its power to a demon lord, it would be hostile toward me anyway, in all likelihood.
If it was going to retaliate, hopefully it would do it in a time frame befitting a god, like maybe a hundred years from now.
> Title Acquired: Demon Lord Slayer
> Title Acquired: Demon Lord Slayer: Golden Boar Lord
> Title Acquired: True Hero
> Title Acquired: Savior with No Name
The Price of a Miracle
Satou here. When the era of home video-game consoles first dawned, there was a time when there were no real save files. Instead, they say you had to write down a long code called a “Spell of Restoration” to pick up where you left off.
Whew, that was exhausting.
Thanks to my heavy use of Forge during the battle, the underground cavern was as hot as a sauna.
I used Freeze Water from the magic menu to cool things down a bit, then chugged a pinch of salt and some sweet fruit juice to rehydrate and replenish my salt and sugar.
Once I’d taken a little break, I drank a stamina recovery potion and a nutritional supplement to fully restore myself physically. As I did so, I checked the clock.
It hadn’t been as long as I thought. Only about an hour had passed since I arrived underground.
I opened Storage and checked to make sure that the items I’d lost during battle, like the Holy Shield and the Magic Sword Balmung, had been recovered via the automatic loot collection.
Since my clothes had once again been burned away in the last battle with the demon lord, I put on some cheap ones from Storage.
Before I went to collect the two kidnapped maidens, I ventured into the dust cloud to take care of that teleportation device. The last thing I needed was for a new group of creeps to find it and start some more trouble under the old capital.
“So the base is about six feet around…”
With the help of a Spellbladed fairy sword from Storage and the “Light-Speed Attack” skill, I sliced through the base of the teleportation device.
Of course, once it was cut off, I put the teleportation device in Storage.
Between this and the Magic Cannon I’d picked up in the castle in Muno Barony, I was beginning to build up a serious collection of junk.
But with the unlimited space of Storage, that shouldn’t be a problem.
On the base that had housed the teleporter, I found a cross section of what looked like red wire.
It had probably been started up by external magic powers.
Well, I could worry about all that later.
Now I was covered in dust, so I hopped into the air with “Skyrunning” and washed off with water from the great river. Then, after quickly toweling off, I changed into more proper clothes.
This time I chose some chic, high-class robes that resembled a clergyman’s outfit.
I also donned a white mask and a spare purple wig. My silver mask had been incinerated in battle, and I didn’t want to wear my dust-covered blond wig.
Once I put on a cloak over everything, I was ready to return aboveground.
I went back to where I’d left the oracle priestesses and removed the walls I’d put up around them.
It turned out they were already awake, huddling against the far side of the shelter and trembling.
“Wh-what are you planning to do with us?”
“Please, just let us go back to the temple.”
The maidens looked alarmed when I released the spell and approached them.
…Well, if a suspicious-looking man in a mask approaches you when you’ve been kidnapped, of course you’ll think he’s one of the kidnappers.
“If it’s money you want, our parents will—”
As the braver one tried to negotiate, I handed them some clothes and blankets to cover themselves up. I had no interest in middle schoolers and could hardly let them stay naked any longer when they were already in such distress.
“Here, put these on. Or did you want to return to the temple naked?”
I disguised my voice just in case they were friends of Sara.
When I had imitated a voice actor during the battle of Muno City, I acquired the “Change Voice” skill, so now I could easily make myself sound like a different person without even thinking about it.
“…Y-you’re letting us go home?”
“Of course. There’s a battalion fighting the kidnappers right now. Once you’ve changed clothes, I’ll bring you to the surface.”
I turned my back to the maidens as I spoke.
There was no battalion, of course, but it would probably be more alarming to tell them that a demon lord slaughtered all the kidnappers.
“We’re done changing.”
“Good. I’ll carry you out, so hang on to my neck, all right?”
“Wh-what…? Cling to some strange gentleman?”
“H-how improper!”
Their reaction was fitting for a pair of pure holy women, but if we tried to walk out of an underground labyrinth like this, it could be days before we made it aboveground.
“Just think of me as a carriage or a golem. If we wander around in a place like this, there’s no telling when the kidnappers might find us.”
With the help of my “Fabrication” and “Persuasion” skills, I talked the young women into letting me carry them.
“Please forgive me, Goddess Parion.”
“My purity has been sullied…”
When they said that, I noticed for the first time that these two were the oracle priestesses of Parion Temple and Garleon Temple.
Once I lifted them up, I ran through the course I’d plotted to escape, using “Skyrunning” and “Warp” to speed the process along.
Thanks to my “Transport” skill, I was able to carry them without too much jostling, but I was so fast that it probably felt a bit like a roller coaster.
Prim priestesses though they might be, they were still adolescent girls, so I had a chorus of high-pitched shrieks next to my ears.
By the time we reached the top floor, they were sleeping, possibly fainted. They had been kidnapped and nearly killed, so I was sure they were just exhausted.
Also, I carefully avoided looking at their status conditions.
“Hmm, the path forward is blocked here…”
As far as I could tell, there had once been a stairway here that led from the top floor to the underground of the old capital, but it had been completely filled with Earth Magic.
My best spells for excavation were Rock Smasher and Polish. Anything else would be highly inefficient, MP-wise.
It would have been ideal if I could use Pit, the spell I’d used to dig down to a mithril streak before, but the nature of the spell restricted its use to ground that was underfoot.
…Underfoot?
I looked down at my feet, then up at the ceiling.
I hopped up with “Skyrunning,” then took out my fairy sword to cut through the earth above.
After storing away the heavy stones that fell, I landed on the exposed earth of the ceiling.
Then, with the help of the Earth Magic spell Pit on the “ground” that was “underfoot,” I created a passage to the surface.
That was pretty difficult, let me tell you.
“Skyrunning” was based on jumping around on invisible footholds in midair, so while I could
stand in the air easily, it wasn’t meant for ignoring gravity.
To combat this, I made “footholds” for my hands and “landed” on the ceiling by doing a handstand.
Well, either way, I got us back up to the sewer system of the old capital.
I had eyeballed the distance, though, so I messed up and came out several feet away from the room with the transportation device to the old capital.
I covered the exit with some nearby stones, then threw some dirt over the pile to conceal it.
Thanks to certain skills like “Disguise” and “Destruction of Evidence,” the cover-up job was so effective that I suspected I might not recognize it later, so I put a marker over it on the map just in case.
Collecting the oracle priestesses, I headed to the teleportation room.
After a little reconnaissance via the map, I found that the room was unstaffed for some reason. The man who’d been on guard outside the door was gone, too, as was the Wings of Freedom member whose clothes I’d stolen earlier.
That concerned me a little, but my only business here was with the teleporter, which I disconnected and put in Storage like the one in the large cavern.
With that, it should be impossible for anyone to get up to no good in the underground labyrinth.
That was the last item on my to-do list, so I shouldered the unconscious maidens and headed for the exit.
Checking on the map, I found a path that let out right onto the premises of the Tenion Temple, so I used “Skyrunning” to follow that route.
As I mechanically stuck to the course, I checked on Sara’s body in Storage.
The item name read Corpse of Sara. Damage: Maximum. Blood Loss: Great.
First, I attempted to drag-and-drop the blood Sara had lost back to her body, which successfully combined the two.
The item name changed to Corpse of Sara. Damage: Maximum.
In that case… I tried using the same method to combine a healing potion with her, but no such luck.
Maybe there was a title that would allow that sort of thing, like the Hero title being necessary to wield a Holy Sword.