## Chapter 1050 – The One With Many Questions

I interrogated the heretic, pushing my torture techniques to their limit. It was exceedingly simple. In my current state, I could crush a person’s bones to dust with just my index finger and thumb.

Just grab their finger and squeeze with all my might. The fragile muscles would compress, and the bone inside would shatter. Pliers or nippers were now completely unnecessary tools for me. My bare hands were transcendently stronger than using such things.

“So… you guys placed the monolith. And you intended to summon the Great Demon all along.”
“Kieeeeeeek… Y-yes, that’s right…”

I managed to glean their approximate identities and goals.

These half-brainwashed heretics were worshippers of the Lich itself. What these bastards did this time was place the monolith they received from the Lich in this area, weakening the barrier and inducing the descent of the Great Demon.

These various behind-the-scenes operations had apparently been going on for quite some time.

Of course, I asked about other things too, but he didn’t know everything, so I decided to skip a few.

“Hmm.”

But this was merely a process of reconfirming facts we had already guessed at. Just confirming what we had already predicted. I hadn’t discovered anything new.

I couldn’t find out anything about the Lich himself, as if some kind of restriction was in place.

The location of the gate’s connection, that is, the location of these bastards’ headquarters, was the same. Come to think of it, the heretics in the Misty Plains felt like this back in the day.

The heretic couldn’t withstand the torture and blurted out what he knew, but he couldn’t speak about a few key words.

They must have been subjected to such processing and procedures. Their brains were manipulated, or they were clearly under some kind of hypnotic magic.

Still, the questions I had been carrying until now were roughly resolved.

“The Great Demon’s soul is needed, huh…”

Why would they need that?

This bastard said he didn’t know why the Lich wanted it.

I acknowledge that it contains immense power.

Could it be that he’s trying to absorb it to further strengthen his own power?

Connecting Pandemonium directly to this world for such a trivial reason? This is more than just a nuisance; it’s an act of murder. A complete and utter bastard move. An enormous number of victims were created because he wanted to take the Great Demon’s soul. All the people harmed by the demons that have appeared in recent years should blame this Lich.

If I ever meet him, I’ll tear apart every single one of his bones and turn them into bone dust.

“Kkeueueueuk…!”

The completely wrecked heretic groaned.
Fortunately, his life wasn’t in danger.

“You useless bastard. Hey, you see, that’s why you’re just being used by that damn Lich and then abandoned like this, you moron. If you knew more, would you have ended up here? Wouldn’t you be assisting him by his side?”
“Keuheueueuk…!”

I kicked him a few times and mocked him, and he shed black tears. Since the Lich, his master, has emotions, this bastard has them too.

Anyway, should I stop around here?

Since I don’t have to interrogate him completely, I can just take him back… Haa. Damn. But moving all these bastards is also a problem. How long will it take to take them all to the church and transport them to the capital?

This is really hard work.

I was about to wrap things up.

“Keu… Keuheuheuheuh!”
“Laughing?”

The bastard who was lying down suddenly started laughing as if his head had gone crazy.

“This bastard’s laughing?”
“Keueu… T-the time has come. You foolish ones… Do you think that person would have sent us without any measures…?”
“Could this bastard be…?”

ㅡKkeueoeoeok!

At that moment, this bastard, including the other heretics lying next to him, all started spewing black blood from their mouths.

ㅡPuh-wung!

Their hearts exploded simultaneously, and their eyes rolled back. It wasn’t a very big explosion, but it made all their ribs burst out, and black heart fragments fluttered around.

“E-exploded!”
“These bastards brought self-destruction methods with them. There’s nothing we can do about this.”

Liztina was horrified, and Karin shook her head.

“They’re fucking kidding me, these bastards.”

Heart explosion, huh.

It’s a shocking sight, but I had roughly expected it. If you’re a master of undead creation, you can do this much. Maybe they put a time limit on their lives for security purposes.

In fact, if it weren’t for me, they would have completely stolen Andromalius’s soul and retreated.

“Hmm… They all exploded. Every single one of them. Instant death without a doubt.”

Whatever the case, it can be said that they were very meticulous and thorough.

“Katt. What about that machine then?”
“Oh.”

Oh shit, did they put a self-destruct device on the machine too? No. They must have. These assholes would definitely put one on. But even if they did, there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s not like I know the structure of the machine, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Still, I ran straight towards it.

ㅡShweeek.

The machine, about the size of a Damas, was already spewing black smoke. The jewel was melting, and the pipes were all cut.

ㅡPuh-wung!!!

Soon, an explosion inside delivered the final blow. The flames that followed turned the machine red-hot, trying to burn everything.

“They set it up to self-destruct.”
“Looks like it. But we still have to take it, right? Let’s put out the fire.”

Karin, who had run over with me, stroked her chin and said.

“Yep. Ah. Sis. My sword broke.”
“What? Why? Because of these bastards?”

Karin tilted her head.

Of course, these bastards couldn’t break Vygale no matter how hard they tried. It broke because a superhuman like me punched it.

“No… I’ll tell you about it later. But to put it simply, I broke it.”
“This bastard, he’s being a pain in the ass again and broke it because he couldn’t control his anger. Are you going to keep doing that??”
“Ah. Sis. Don’t scold me. There was a good reason.”
“If you broke it over something weird, you’re really going to get scolded by your sister.”
“I’m a sword-wielding warrior, would I do that? And it regenerates.”

ㅡHwaaak!!!

Anyway, Karin swung her sword as if cutting through space, creating a gust of wind that extinguished the fire on the machine. Still, looking at what these kids did, I think some key parts were destroyed.

But if we take it, there might be some results.

“The immediate danger is gone… What should we do? Isn’t it going to explode more inside? Should we disassemble it?”
“Sis, can you disassemble something like this?”
“I think I could tear it apart with force.”
“Wouldn’t that make it explode more?”
“Right?”
“There’s nothing we can do. Let’s just leave it alone. Dragging it along in this state is the best thing to do.”
“Should we? But if it explodes again…”
“It explodes. We can’t touch this, can we? If it explodes, let’s just put out the fire again.”
“Shibal.”

I immediately pushed the device and moved it to a suitable place.

Currently, Claudie and Liztina were sitting down and resting.

“So, what do we do now?”
“Hoo.”

Spread out are the corpses of the heretics and the shattered fragments of the undead warriors. How the hell are we going to deal with all this? It’s going to be a pain in the ass and tiring to do it just among ourselves.

Should we go and ask for the cooperation of the paladins and knights?

“Wouldn’t it be better to get help from the paladins and knights? Just showing them this scene would make them admire it and try to help with something.”
“That would be good. Let’s do that.”

Then should I go and call them?

“Wait, to the forward base…”
“Katt. It’s okay. You can rest here.”

As I was about to go, Claudie grabbed my wrist.

“Hmm?”
“Maybe the knights also felt the commotion that happened when you fought Andromalius. Then they’ll come to investigate soon, right?”
“Ah. That’s right.”

Let’s dump the work on those knight bastards when they come.
A very excellent plan.

“Then let’s rest for a bit.”

I was very tired, probably because I used a lot of strength. I overdid it by grinding down Andromalius and then all the death knights. Once I finish this work, I need to rest well.

So we settled down on a suitable hill and lay down.

“Hey. Then tell me what happened now.”
“So, those guys, that Great Demon’s soul…”
“Not the story you told while interrogating. What happened as soon as you got here.”
“Yep.”

I immediately told them what had happened. As I spoke, I retraced my memories. I had to properly organize everything that happened today and what I found out and write it in a report.

How much time had passed?

“T-this is…!”
“Oh my god! How could this happen!!”
“Ah! There! The paladin and his companions are…!”

Soon the knights rushed in.

* * *

Since there was already evidence scattered all over the scene, it was very simple to convey the situation to the knights.

I just calmly explained what had happened. The heretics opened the gate and came over because I killed the Great Demon bastard. So I killed them all and took the spoils.

Whether they were greatly impressed by the overwhelming force, the knights listened to everything I said and discussed how to handle this incident while nodding their heads.

“There! I’ll go to the forward base and extract supplies and personnel!”
“Go quickly! Ah! And tell those people to spread the word to everyone around! Call all the religious people you meet!”
“Understood!!!”

It was quick to dump the work on the knights.

Yeah, why should the paladin, who was directly active on the scene, have to do the cleanup?

This is not originally my job.

So I was very satisfied with this situation.

If I just explain, the knights will take care of everything on their own. I was just looking around the scene and organizing the situation. After all, I have an intellectual leader tendency. I am more suited to be a ruler who reigns at the top and commands than to be active in the field.

As I spent time like that, the knights who had run out here and there soon extracted soldiers and wagons from the forward base. As if they were familiar with this situation, the knights began to collect the corpses and wreckage and load them onto the wagons.

I was just talking to the commander.

“In fact, I had already confirmed the commotion from afar. Feeling that it was unusual, I decided that I should focus on conveying the situation first, so I can say that I came a little late.”
“It’s not that late.”

That Great Demon Andromalius was a Great Demon who wielded truly overwhelming wide-area skills. Such a guy was blasting dark lightning and pillars of fire, so they couldn’t come for reconnaissance or anything. It’s only because it’s us that we fought while dodging, but these knights would have become roasted chicken as soon as they came.

“But a Great Demon… Certainly. The place where that unrealistic magic was raging has become a wasteland. There were holes drilled here and there… It’s such an unbelievable sight that I still seem to doubt this reality.”
“That’s understandable enough. Did you see the black swamp there?”
“Ah…”

That swamp is the corpse of that guy.

“That’s the corpse of the Great Demon Andromalius. Me and my companions joined forces and killed him. This is the victory of us humans.”
“Really… It’s so amazing. Paladin.”

The commander of the Royal Knights looked at me with trembling eyes and greatly admired me. He was almost in a state of being impressed. In fact, looking at this, it’s understandable enough.

“Anyway, let’s talk about the rest next time. I think I should go now. Those carts… First, please move them to the Brass Heaven Society Church in Isvant.”
“Understood.”
“Ah, and I hope you can also recover that swamp made from the corpse of the Great Demon from earlier.”
“Can I move that to the church too?”
“Hehehe, please do.”

After all, everyone listens well because I have power.

So we moved to go back home. Behind us, the knights and wagons followed. As expected of knights, they’re really good at labor. The scene was almost completely cleaned up.

Still, I decided to take the machine with me, because it was in danger of exploding. It’s not that heavy anyway.

“Owoeoeoeoeoeoeoeok!!!”
“Aniieeiiiiiiit!!!!”
“T-this is!!! This is!!!!!”
“Kkyaaaaaaaak!!!”

As we were going through the forward base, paladins were observed from afar running like madmen, as if they had heard the rumors.

What the hell.

“You!!!!!!”

At the forefront of them was none other than Bakarel.