90 – The One Who Seeks Salvation and the One Who Seeks Death

Had he been running for quite a while, heedless, in the direction Kon had indicated?

Far in the distance.

The figures of a demon acolyte in black robes inside a black magic circle, and a hunchbacked woman collapsed with a dagger plunged into her heart, came into view.

Damn it all.

Am I too late?

I poured even more strength into my legs, accelerating faster, and leaping into the magic circle at that same speed, simultaneously unwinding my belt, gripping it in my hand and swinging it.

With a resounding crash, a shock that seemed to certify the impact had landed properly surged through my hand.

The acolyte’s mask shattered into pieces as it exploded outward, and the man was ruthlessly crushed into the ground.

But, proving that he was no ordinary person, the acolyte was still not dead.

Beyond just not being dead, a black aura frosted over the tragically crushed area of his jaw, and it even began to recover at an incredible speed.

From my perspective, that was all the better.

“Y-You…who…”

I used Absolute Hypnosis on the acolyte, who was slowly raising himself up.

His eyes, filled with surprise and bewilderment, clouded over momentarily before returning, confirming that the skill had worked. I immediately fired off a question.

“From now on, answer everything I say with only the truth. This woman. Why is she like this now?”

“A dagger containing the Commandment of Subordination of Lord Belphegor is embedded in her.”

I didn’t know what that was, but it didn’t sound like a good thing.

“How does one… extract it?”

“This is magic imbued with the very power of Lord Belphegor. Unless you are of a similar Demon Lord rank, you cannot remove it.”

“Is that so?”

Then there’s no problem.

I immediately rushed to the hunchbacked woman and gripped the dagger lodged in her heart.

As I began to pull with force, the black energy that had been spreading through the woman’s body like a serpent let out a chilling scream, slowly being drawn back into the dagger.

Even with my physique enhanced to superhuman levels through body modification, pulling it out was incredibly difficult.

“You!! Lend a hand with this!”

Alone, it was too much. So I barked an order at the follower, the truth spilling from my lips despite his obvious bewilderment.

“M-Me, help with that?…..Ehh?”

Wearing a look of simultaneous reluctance and terror, the follower approached, placed his hands on the dagger, and began to help me pull.

“W-What is this…? Who… who are you? What have you done to me! Why am I!!…”

“Shut up and just put your back into it!!”

With two of us working together, the extraction sped up considerably.

The black energy, like a living creature, screamed and thrashed, but it couldn’t hold out for long.

The moment everything that had spread throughout her body was completely drawn back into the dagger, it came free from the hunchbacked woman’s body.

I immediately placed the dagger on the ground and laid my hands on the woman’s body, activating Body Modification.

Her broken wrists and crushed face were instantly restored.

But that was all I could do.

[The subject’s body is currently ＜Locked＞ in its current state.]

[Restoration is possible, but transformation is not possible at the current skill level.]

[Please attempt again after increasing your skill level.]

An unfamiliar notification window appeared, indicating that further body modification was impossible.

“What is this…”

I tried several more times, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fix the withered limbs or the abnormally protruding back of the hunchbacked woman with Body Modification.

An explanation was in order.

And fortunately, I had someone nearby who could provide one.

“You.”

I turned my head toward the follower.

“Explain what’s going on. Who is this woman and why does she look like this? And what is the connection between this woman and the Demon Lord, Belphegor or whatever he’s called? Explain everything.”

It would likely be no short tale, this.

But time must be taken, to truly grasp the why, to understand the circumstance.

And just as I spoke the command,

[Confirmation: Time estimated for executing issued command exceeds acceptable parameters.]

[Skill level-up grants access to expanded abilities.]

[Selective extraction and simultaneous cerebral injection of desired memories from target’s mind is now possible.]

[Execute?]

A window I’d never seen before bloomed before my eyes.

The explanation given sent a shiver crawling up my spine and into my brain.

My skills had grown stronger, unbeknownst to me.

Was this not undeniable proof that Asmodeus, that fiend, was still, in real time, greedily consuming faith and growing in power?

Indeed.

For the sake of this world, my soul must be shattered, and swiftly.

And to achieve that, however unnerving, the upgraded power of Absolute Hypnosis was the only answer.

“Execute.”

The light vanished from my follower’s eyes at my permission.

[Command confirmed. Selecting specified memories from subject…]

[Selection complete. Commencing injection.]

And then, abruptly,

I felt a vast torrent of memories rushing into my mind.

[Injection complete.]

After that brief moment, which felt like an eternity,

I slowly raised my head and looked upon my follower.

For a long while I stared, blankly, at the follower before a hollow laugh escaped me.

“Are you even human?”

Searching the entire continent for a suitable vessel to contain a goddess of war.

Then, torturing that vessel, gruesomely, relentlessly, until both mind and body were utterly broken. Then, using every sort of dark magic and incantation to fix the vessel in that broken state, to maintain it.

Then, after implanting the goddess of war, further binding the vessel with a spell of servitude.

And when the goddess proved disobedient, employing that spell of servitude to inflict horrific mental and physical torments on the vessel, forcing the goddess to submit, to be used.

And the girl nestled in my arms.

The man before me was the very architect of Kanya’s torment.

He had abducted her pregnant parents, allowed them a brief, deceptive happiness with Kanya after her birth, only to then force the four-year-old girl to witness their brutal demise, etching a deep, indelible trauma onto her young mind.

He had twisted her limbs with magic, inflicting unbearable pain just short of death, turning them into grotesque, skeletal parodies of themselves.

He had deliberately cursed her, warping her spine into a sickening curve.

All, every single depravity, was the work of the man before me.

And after Belia was forced into her body, it was he who triggered the memories, the agonizing past, each time Belia resisted, torturing her spirit with the forced recollection of horrors.

He was the one who manipulated the arcane symbols etched into her flesh, turning her own body into a instrument of agony.

All of it, the entirety of her suffering, was his doing.

I shouldn’t have looked.

To experience years of human malevolence as vividly as if it were my own memory, went beyond mere disgust. It left me wanting to vomit.

I held the woman in my arms.

I embraced Kanya tightly.

“Pick up the dagger.”

At my command, the follower’s hand trembled violently as he retrieved the fallen blade from the ground.

There was no hatred.

No rage.

Only the firm conviction that this being before me needed to be eliminated.

“Use it to kill yourself.”

The follower’s eyes widened.

“No, please… No!!… Gguhhh!! Nathe, please!!… Save me!!…”

He was desperately trying to resist the hypnotic influence, struggling to push the dagger-wielding hand away with the other, but it was a futile gesture.

“Gerk!!… Gguhhh…”

I watched until the dagger pierced his throat, then turned away.

Among the memories I had gleaned from the follower’s mind was one concerning the rock mountains of Talhaim.

It held Belia’s hidden divinity, and the moment Kanya reached that place, Belia would supposedly recover her divine power and forever escape the clutches of Belphegor.

I tightened my grip on Kanya.

“I’ll save you. I swear it.”

No matter what, I would bring her to the rock mountains of Talhaim.

Even if it meant facing three Demon Lords who sought to stop me. In fact, I welcomed it.

I desired nothing more than to have my soul shattered by the three Demon Lords.

This child craves salvation.

Isn’t that a perfect alignment?

*

One of Belphegor’s followers, sharpened for the hunt, seeking the war goddess Bellia, encountering the saint, Amael. That very instant.

Belphegor summoned both Satan and Leviathan.

[That witless saint actually knew enough to come here to die! Hurry!]

[Your prized possession and a saint together? Haha! How convenient!]

Until then, the mood was… agreeable.

But.

The moment a colossal presence residing within Amael’s soul revealed itself in the spiritual realm, the three demon lords realized their misjudgment.

[It has been a while.]

Eight pairs of wings fluttered on its back.

Gazing upon Asmodeus, a presence so overwhelming it seemed to consume the entirety of the spiritual plane, Belphegor, Satan, and Leviathan trembled.

[Seeing you three together is a first. What brings you here?]

As always, Asmodeus looked at the three demon lords with a subtle and benevolent smile.

Witnessing Asmodeus, who dwarfed the lust demon they knew three centuries ago, the three demon lords inwardly cursed Lucifer.

This was a monster they weren’t even confident they could defeat with all three of them attacking simultaneously.

[Satan. Leviathan. Can you manage this?]

Belphegor cautiously inquired of the other two demon lords, but received no answer.

Seeing this, the sloth demon, in a rare moment of urgency, repeated her question.

[I asked if it’s possible!]

Satan answered first.

[Possible, yes. But it would come at a significant cost to us as well.]

[Sloth, you were right. Three are not enough. We need the war goddess you mentioned.]

The eyes of the three demon lords turned towards the divine essence of Bellia, the war goddess, beside Asmodeus.

Having just suffered from the subjugation spell, the divine essence of the war goddess, already fragile, now appeared on the verge of collapse at the slightest touch.

Belphegor grit her teeth.

If the saint had arrived after the subjugation spell had fully taken hold, they could have combined with Bellia for a four-on-one assault against Asmodeus.

But one must chew with their gums if they lack teeth.

[Let’s just finish this now. Even at a cost, it’s better to finish it. Lucifer is right. Look at that bulk. If we let it continue to feed on faith like this, the entire human realm will fall into its grasp. It will be easier to deal with now.]

Laziness’s words meet with rare, tacit agreement from Envy and Wrath.

[Acknowledged.]

[If we’re striking, it’s better now.]

The two Demon Lords violently amplify their divine forms.

You can feel the spirit realm stretching taut.

Belphegor clenches his fist, glaring at Asmodeus.

If only Satan and Leviathan would just restrain that wench.

He would immediately approach Amael’s soul, protected by Asmodeus, and corrupt it.

To corrupt a single human soul?

Easier for her than breathing.

But then, in the next instant.

[Hmm. So Amael is the objective, after all?]

The three Demon Lords were forced to halt their charge when they saw Asmodeus cautiously gathering up Vellia’s shattered divinity.

[Devouring Pantheon’s divinity is something Amael wouldn’t much care for, and neither do I. But if you three insist on attacking me, I’ll have no choice but to do what I dislike, just to protect Amael.]

[You blasted son of a…!!]

Satan explodes in frustration.

His chances of victory were already teetering precariously around 50%. The moment Asmodeus devoured Vellia’s divinity, growing even stronger, that percentage would plummet definitively to zero.

Even a victory marred with wounds was still a victory.

Lucifer couldn’t leave his post guarding the Pantheon, and Beelzebub was locked in a clash with that Evil God.

The shattered divinity of the defeated, fragmented three Demon Lords would be consumed whole by the surviving Asmodeus.

Then everything would be over.

[…Let’s withdraw.]

At Belphegor’s words, which seemed to be choked out of him with blood, the other two Demon Lords turned their backs without lingering.

Seeing this, Asmodeus, still wearing a cheerful smile, set down Vellia’s fragmented divinity.

Belphegor stared intently, piercingly, at Vellia’s divinity before reluctantly turning away.

The situation was now agonizingly clear.

They had to separate Vellia’s divinity from Asmodeus, by any means necessary.

Failing that, the three Demon Lords had no chance whatsoever.