97 – Each Their Own Battle

As the Envy zealots rushed towards her,

Kanya felt a strangely vibrating sensation in the floor.

In a brief moment, Kanya realised that it was a sound emanating from the emptiness below, and immediately found an entrance leading downwards and threw herself into it.

It wasn’t so much a rational decision as it was an act of entrusting herself to instinct.

But the war goddess’s intuition did not betray her.

There truly was an underground cavern where she stood a chance, however slim, against the Jealousy followers.

Kanya squeezed through the narrow opening, watching the tide of envious devotees surge forward, and slowly drew back the hammer of her revolver.

Those days, living as a possession of Sloth.

She often had the chance to overhear the Sloth followers’ conversations at close range, granting her insight into the characteristics of each Demon Lord’s cult, especially those close to Sloth.

The Jealousy Cult.

More than any other Demon Lord’s following, they were bestowed with potent physical prowess.

Their remarkably tough skin and monstrous strength were practically emblems of the Jealousy Cult.

But that was all.

As warriors, their judgment and aptitude paled in comparison to the followers of Satan.

“Find her!! Find her quickly! Spread out!”

The Jealousy followers, now inside the underground cavern, cast spells to pierce the darkness and began rushing around haphazardly.

But their search was more like the frantic behavior of impatient children than a systematic sweep.

Kanya didn’t fire her gun.

She slowly silenced her breathing, picked up a loose stone from the floor, and carefully tossed it toward a corner.

At the *tap* sound, the gazes of the immense number of followers searching the cavern snapped to the direction of the noise.

“There! Move!!”

Satan’s followers would have at least entertained the idea of a trap.

But the Jealousy followers, powerful in body but otherwise little more than commoners, charged ahead without a second thought.

Taking advantage of the opening, Kanya circled around them, heading back toward the entrance.

“Where is she! She’s got to be around here!!”

“You morons! Get out of the way!!”

The head zealot, unable to contain his frustration and impatience, charged forward himself to scour the area where the sound had originated, leaving the entrance virtually unguarded.

Kanya succeeded in scrambling back to the surface once more.

“That b*tch……..no!!”

The sound of her struggling, thin limbs hauling herself upwards echoed belatedly through the underground cavern, and the Jealousy followers realized they’d been tricked, rushing back toward the entrance.

But it was too late.

Kanya, having crawled out of the cavern, drew her pistol and aimed at the cramped opening.

“You whore! Get back down here!….. *Agh!* You b*tch!!”

The head zealot, lunging out in his haste, had to retreat back down, a bullet lodged in his left eyelid.

Other followers, equally desperate, thrust themselves into the opening, but they didn’t have the head zealot’s knack for instinctively closing their eyes at the right moment.

When the third follower fell backwards, brains pulped by a bullet-pierced eyeball, the head zealot’s fury exploded.

“I swear I’ll make you pay! You hear me? I’ll make you pay!”

Kanya, hurriedly reloading her revolver at the echo of his voice from below, scoffed back.

“Why don’t you come up here and say that?”

The narrow entrance.

And Kanya, positioned right in front of it.

As long as she kept putting bullets in their eyeballs as they came up, Kanya had the advantage, no matter how fierce the Jealousy followers were.

All she had to do was hold out and wait for Jericho to return.

It was the best tactic Kanya could conjure, squeezing her brain dry.

*Please.*

*Please, just keep this stalemate going until Jericho arrives.*

Kanya prayed, but…

A sudden tremor shook the ground beneath her feet, like a miniature earthquake, and Kanya knew something was terribly wrong.

The Zealots of Envy.

In terms of sheer physical prowess, they were among the most formidable of all the Demon Lords’ followers.

But, she’d heard, their strategic acumen and tactical sense were woefully lacking.

That’s how she’d managed to trap them in this underground cavern, but the Zealots of Envy were resolving this crisis in a manner so very *them.*

Without warning, a long, sharp claw burst through the stone beneath her boots, jutting upwards.

“This b*tch thinks she can play us?”

The Zealots below were thrashing their claws, a frenzy of destruction, tearing at the cavern ceiling.

Kanya scoffed at their brutish, simple approach.

“You idiots! If you keep that up, the whole cavern’s going to collapse!…”

The Zealots did not cease.

And so it was.

A section of the underground cavern ceiling, tenuously held together by stacked rocks, gave way, triggering a full-scale collapse of the entire rocky cave.

A monstrous tremor shook the earth as the rocks began to fall, a lethal rain of stone.

Kanya, seeing this, had to scramble to get out of the way.

Breathing heavily after her hasty retreat, she stared at the rubble where the stone mountain had just been.

“Idiots, truly.”

The Sloth Order’s assessment of their poor judgment was spot on.

The Zealots of Envy seemed incapable of thinking more than a step ahead.

With that much rock falling on them, they couldn’t possibly have survived.

“Kanya!”

…Or so she thought, as if on cue.

Claws burst through the fallen rocks, shooting skyward.

Unscathed, seemingly.

One by one.

The Zealots of Envy, slashing the rocks that had pinned them with their claws, began to rise.

Bones should have been broken, or at least some minor injuries sustained, but not a single one of them looked the worse for wear.

Transcendent defense and strength.

And the result of claws that could cleave through anything.

Kanya started running like a madwoman at the sight.

Why did the Zealots of Envy struggle so much with their minds?

It wasn’t that they were simply stupid.

It was because they possessed the bodies to solve most problems without ever needing to use their brains.

“D-don’t come any closer! Stay away!!”

Even as she fled, Kanya squeezed the trigger of her weapon, firing at the Zealots of Envy.

A few, still partially trapped beneath the rocks, took bullets to the eyeballs and slumped back down.

But that was it.

The rest emerged from the rocks unscathed and began chasing Kania.

And at their head…

“Close your eyes at the right time, you imbeciles!!”

The leader, a mangled bullet fragment clinging to his left eyelid, roared like a monster as he charged forward.

*

A burning sword hissed past my head, a chilling sound.

Seizing the opening, I aimed a punch at Ketratu’s helmet this time.

A terrible pain shot through my hand as my fist collided with the armor.

The helmet, of course, exploded into a mangled wreck, but I, too, had to retract my hand in considerable agony.

Looking down at my fist, I saw it riddled with holes from the thorns that had grown on the armor.

Of course, the wounds vanished quickly, healed by Kon, but I had no desire to experience that spine and brain-piercing pain again.

[Hurts, does it?]

The Ketratus trooper, his helmet blown to bits just moments before, mocked me as he healed.

Beneath the shattered helmet, there was nothing.

The sight of those metal scraps, lifeless yet healing as if they were living creatures, was deeply unsettling.

[Amal, what are we going to do about this thing? Huh? It’s not a living being, so most of our skills don’t work!]

Kon shouted, trembling.

This guy.

He talks a big game about being a real man, but when faced with a creature like this, he’s terrified.

I slowly increased the distance between us, watching the rapidly regenerating Ketratus.

I felt a pang of urgency.

I worried about what had become of Kania.

I had no weapon, and punching that monster only resulted in agonizing pain each time I connected.

And even if I endured the pain and attacked, he would just heal himself, as if to taunt me.

“I don’t know either, Kon.”

[That’s why I told you not to get involved with the Demon Lords!! I knew something like this would happen! You don’t fight divine beings!!]

“Yeah, well. You were right.”

In a normal situation, that would be the case.

But my purpose is anything but normal.

Seeing them send something like this, I figured the Demon Lords must be pretty pissed off.

Just a little more, and…

I have the hope that the Demon Lords will come to kill me by showing up in person.

I’ll show them that they have to come down themselves to kill me.

“Kon. Can you make my skin resistant to high temperatures?”

[Wh-What are you going to do? You crazy b*stard!]

“That sword. I think I’m going to have to steal it and use it.”

[What?]

“That guy. He regenerates, right? But he can’t regenerate if he’s hit by that sword. So wouldn’t it be enough to just cut that knight down with the sword?”

[……..That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard… You son of a b*tch!!]

I was already bolting before I could even hear the rest of Kon’s reply.

He talks like that, but when push comes to shove, Kon always sees to the modifications I need.

“Absolutely erase the fear with some hypnosis!”

I screamed that as I charged Ketratu, and the terror from the pain of my fist being pierced moments before vanished.

That Kon.

He’s certainly competent.

If only he could lose that habit of cheap trash-talking, he’d be perfect.

[You think you have a chance?]

Ketratu spat out those words, aggressive, from behind his helm.

The burning sword once again flew towards my neck.

I saw the sword, but didn’t dodge.

I leapt straight into its path instead.

Three thousand times.

My reflexes were increased three thousand times.

No matter how fast Ketratu’s swordsmanship, there was no way I couldn’t see it.

Slowly.

My two hands moved to seize the flying blade in mid-air.

I could see Kon thickening the skin on my hands with perfect timing.

It would probably still hurt, but I could endure it for a moment.

To catch and stop the blade in the air, and then immediately steal it.

And that instant, when my hands moved to grab the blade…

[What!]

Seeing me charge headfirst towards the blade without dodging, Ketratu abruptly halted his blade mid-strike, visibly taken aback.

I couldn’t read Ketratu’s emotions, since he had no face exposed, but his tone and hesitant posture made it clear he didn’t want to kill me.

…He doesn’t want to kill me?

What bizarre situation is this?

Thanks to the halted blade, I changed my plan of grabbing the blade in an instant.

My hand moved towards the hilt.

And as soon as I grasped the hilt, I began to apply force.

“Kon!”

[Kill him!]

My arms received modifications that exceeded human limitations, and began to unleash impossible power.

[Warning!! Exceeded human limits with body modifications! Continued use may cause aftereffects to the original flesh!…]

I roughly ignored the red warning window.

This wasn’t the time to worry about that.

“Die… you heap of metal!”

Ketratu hadn’t expected my power either, it seemed.

The gauntlet holding the blade was ripped clean off the armor.

And like that, the burning sword was mine.

In that state, I swung the blade.

[SLAUGHTER!…]

With those words as his epitaph, Ketratuus plummeted, cleaved neatly from top to bottom.

Bisected vertically.

His armor melted away beneath the incandescent blade.

As was only natural.

There was no recovery.