The Devil of the 50th Floor (3)
The golden armor spilled baffled telepathy.
– No way!
The spirit of the devil that was stored in it was floundering as if he were losing his mind.
He tried to avoid the bombardments of different attacks somehow, but it didn’t seem to be working.
Pa-pa-pa-pat!
A blizzard-like energy flare stormed through and struck every part of the armor.
Shockwaves and vibrations surged from the shield surrounding it thousands of times.
The devil’s body, a weapon of destruction said to be produced by the devil called the ‘King of Gold,’ began to creak.
The Mana stored in it was being consumed at a rapid rate.
– Ugh!
The devil’s sword whispered to me.
‘Okay, Keep going at that pace… Just a little more!’
It had quite a great glee that couldn’t be compared to the expectations leaked by that devil.
Apart from that, various emotions flowed from the devil’s sword.
It sounded joyful, almost as if it had the most delicious food in the world in front of its eyes.
The devil’s sword was that desperate to have its own body.
Even I thought that it was certainly the perfect item to replace its old body.
The armor was about the same size as the human body.
Not only was it similar in shape, but it was really no different from living creatures since the Mana inside of it was boiling fluidly.
The overall energy circulatory system, apart from the Core, was similar to that of an Awakened being.
‘How the hell do they make things like that? The principle seems like it gives the user the ability to control and extract Mana whenever needed freely. If one stays still without engaging in a battle, it even provides natural healing. There’s no blood and flesh, but it’s technically the body of an Awakened.’
Through the unique skill in my eyes, I witnessed the devil concentrating his Mana.
Blue light gathered around its feet. He was preparing to leap into the sky.
– Damn it!
He jumped high into the sky while spitting telepathic waves filled with mental profanity.
It had no choice but to run away from the seemingly endless storm of bullets fired by the machinery of Nate’s guard spirit.
Swoosh!
But I was already lying in wait in the very place where he quickly flung himself up. I had read his movements and positioned myself accordingly in advance.
Shhhhhhhh!
I manipulated the shape of my sword energy without any limitations.
To avoid accidentally piercing or breaking the armor, I expanded the purple energy blazing on the blade.
Unlike its usual long, pointed form, a thin and wide plane was created.
Putting my hands together in that manner, I held the handle of the devil’s sword tightly.
In an instant, I swung my weapon down with all my might, like striking a fruit fly with a fly swatter!
Thwack!
-K-aaargh!
The blow I delivered accurately struck the demonic armor.
The devil fell to the ground as if he had just been deflected.
Below him, Hibiki was already preparing a spell.
[Gravitokinesis!]
Doooooom!
Hibiki created and launched the gravity-based assault.
She manipulated an invisible weight and burdened the devil to force him to stick in the ground and prevent him from ever rising again.
Crack! C-crack!
The ground where he was pinned down cracked and split.
I set foot in front of the struggling devil.
In the meantime, I had already changed the shape of the sword energy once again.
-That is… It can’t be!
The devil, who was floundering his hands and feet as he lied down in a futile attempt to escape from his fate, seemed to sense an ominous feeling.
The shape of the devil’s sword had turned into a purple lightsaber, its girth and length having been fully increased.
No, to be exact, it would be more like a light ray club.
It didn’t matter what it was called anyway. Without hesitation, I wielded the energy-infused object and beat the devil with it.
Wack! Wack!
Smash!
-Argh! S…stop!
I smacked the devil as if to turn him to a pulp and murmured quietly.
“Oh, this… It’s a little annoying.”
I was about to sweat, which I rarely did.
I was tiringly beating the armor when the devil would’ve died right away if I just went straight to piercing Core.
At that moment, the devil’s sword freaked out and soothed me.
‘Please! Hang in there! Can’t you see that his Mana is almost drained by now?’
Bash!
Smash!
Wack!
-Eek! Ugh! This… Demonic… Mortal!
I hit every part of the shield protecting its life from certain death evenly.
The changes happening on the blue wall became more and more evident with every swing I landed.
‘B-be careful! If you break the ankle…’
I knew that he was worried that I might break the armor because I couldn’t control my strength, but…
“You’re worrying about nothing. Just wait quietly. You’re distracting me.”
Regardless, the devil’s shield became fainter and weaker as if draining my strength just to bash his armor in was effective.
Nate and Hibiki, who confirmed that the battle was reaching its final stages, looked in my direction and watched in silence, stopping their attacks from different sides to prevent any unnecessary damages on the body or accidents from happening.
Behind them, Euclid stood with a perplexed look.
“I mean, I feel a little weirded out by this… Have devils really been that easy to subdue and contain?”
After the flicking and hitting noises that I had produced continued for a while…
The moment we were aiming for finally arrived.
– K-argh! N… No!
I could vividly see the interior of his armor.
His Mana had gradually decreased while we fought, and from then on, it didn’t take that long for him to be left with barely enough Mana to soak the bottom of his Core.
“Now, is that enough?”
The answer came right back almost instantaneously.
‘That’s enough! That’s perfect! That’s great!’
It reworded the same phrase three times, showing how excited he was.
‘Now, then!’
The golden devil was faintly convulsing on the floor.
As the devil’s sword guided, I moved its blade near the armor and used it to touch the opponent’s body.
The cognitive body of the devil’s sword seemed to be sending telepathic waves that I couldn’t hear directly to the presence inside the armor.
It didn’t take long for all of us to hear the opponent’s fierce reaction.
The mental wave he sent was filled with horror and fear.
– N-no. What is this…?
And a desperate cry followed.
– Oh, are you… Could it be? Why are you in a place like this… No! No! Please don’t do that. Please stop. Noooooo!
In front of us right in that instant, the work to separate the soul of the demon from the armor forcibly was underway.
Euclid murmured lowly.
“I keep seeing all kinds of things the longer I live…”
After a little while…
The mental scream finally stopped.
A brief silence lingered.
I asked the devil’s sword a question.
“What do you think?”
Still, the spirit of the devil was in the sword I was holding.
The only thing that was different was that it could control that armor remotely from that point on.
Hibiki’s spell, which was preventing the armor from escaping or retaliating, had disappeared.
Clink!
Instead of answering, the lying golden armor slowly lifted itself.
It touched the ground, bent its knees, and moved its heavy body around.
– …
I could tell that the soul that was in it while I was beating it up was no longer anywhere to be seen.
Nate clapped his hands when he heard the explanation about the phenomenon from Hibiki.
“Oh, so the one possessing that armor from a while ago had been forced to reach Nirvana!”
Shhhh!
It moved its body a little more. Inside the armor, the dark red flame that was blazing throughout the battle had disappeared, and only empty darkness was in it.
It opened its two hands and examined it. It turned its shoulders, stretched its knees, and delivered a short kick into the air. It then jumped in place and bent its limbs as flexibly as the armor allowed it to.
What I heard after all the trial runs were done was…
– Ha… haha… Hahaha….
At first, its reply started out so thin that I couldn’t distinguish if its reaction was based on laughter or based on joyful tears.
– Hahahahaha!
However, it didn’t take long for it to turn into a mental wave that echoed as large as a wall.
The devil’s sword was genuinely delighted.
*
While the devil’s sword was controlling and experimenting with the golden armor, I also swung the sword in the air a few times.
As expected, its performance remained the same.
It was natural since the spirit did not contribute to the unique functions of the devil’s sword in the first place.
“Did you completely kick Kirke out?”
Only then did the devil’s sword barely answered my query as if its excitement had just calmed down.
– Yes! This is now my body!
Although there was no soul in it, there was no real difference since it shared and fully controlled the senses of the armor anyway.
Should I say that its body had increased to two because it still possessed the senses from the sword that I was holding? Although one was a still object, and the other was a moving body.
– I mean, why did the King of Gold send him forth with this trashy sword?
It grabbed the sword that Kirke used initially, threw it against the floor, wielded and swung it a few times, then stuck it back into the ground.
The weapon was about twice as tall as the owner’s height. It was visually overwhelming, but it was essentially impractical in combat.
It looked around with rough gestures, but there was no way that there would be anything for it to grab on.
– …
Then it speaks as if it had made up its mind.
-Ah… by any chance… Is there…
Suddenly, the tone of its mental wave changed.
The words it uttered had hesitation accompanying them, which was unlike how it used to act in front of me thus far.
I asked it unenthusiastically.
“What?”
Then it uttered the following words:
– … Uhm, if you have a sword laying around… Could you give it to me?
It was not until I heard those words that I thought about it, but there were rarely swords among the items that I kept in the snake inventory.
That was only natural since I, the only swordsman in the party, was not interested in anything else other than the devil’s sword.
“I’ve got one in reserve just in case of emergency…”
The moment I said that…
It was not even ordered to, but the bracelet– that had the shape of five snakes intertwined– naturally changed its appearance.
Shhhh!
Hiss! Hissss!
It was snake two and snake four that revealed themselves. The smartest, snake 2, whispered and instructed the other about something. However, snake 4 tilted its head for a moment as if to show that it didn’t understand what snake 2 meant.
As it did that…
Hisssss! Snake 2 made a long noise as if to scold it. Only then did snake 4’s throat starts to wriggle and throw up something long. It must have understood what it said a little late.
After giving my approval to snake 2, who looked at me with sparkling eyes, I held the sword that snake 4 threw up.
[Stormbreaker (Rank: SS)]
“Why don’t you try this?”
The golden armor enthusiastically received my weapon.
As it was about to swing the sword in its golden hand, it stopped as if it realized yet another problem.
– Ah… H-hey…
He was hesitating again.
I called in a party member without listening to the following words.
“Lunchbox, charge him up.”
“Hey! I told you not to call me that!”
Euclid, who was preparing the [Mana Legacy] spell to refill the Core of the empty golden armor, also seemed to have foreseen the fate that awaited her in the extremely near future.
“No, wait a minute. Starting now, the number of kids that need to be charged has increased to four from three, right?”
“You’re quite slow to understand.”
“…”
The armor, which was charged with Mana from the dragon, finally grabbed the sword and conjured sword energy.
Tzzzz! Zaaaap!
In response to that, the lightning-like currents flashed and flowed onto the Stormbreaker’s blade like electricity being channeled through metal.
The devil’s sword spoke as if it was not impressed.
– It’s got all kinds of miscellaneous options.
“Is it not good enough? Should I take it back?”
– No, no. Don’t mind what I said.
Then, the devil’s sword stood still for a while. Throughout the duration of that moment, it looked like a human concentrating on one’s breathing.
Soon, it began to move again, its steps and actions seemingly performing a fancy sword dance.
“…!”
Countless movements danced at the end of each sword stance that fired sword energies, which sliced through the air smoothly.
“Woah…!”
Nate dropped his jaw and exclaimed.
Swish! Sh-swish!
The sword path made an apparition and soon crushed the air heavily.
Initially, the sound of the wind being torn apart rang along with its movements, but soon enough, even that could no longer be heard. Silence permeated throughout our entire vicinity as it elegantly moved around, delivering swing after swing.
It freely embroidered space as it received no resistance.
And the moment the Mana started to flow on the sword…
Someone let out a small voice.
“Oh, my days!”
A brilliant dance of light followed.
It was fast but slow, dizzying, then tidied up. It wavered freely and dynamically.
Everything around the armor was swept away by the lines it made. Every time it swung its weapon, shock waves built up, and the strands of its sword energy blended together in perfect harmony.
The dance continued, each step remaining connected even though there were times when it looked as if the rhythm would be broken.
I was observing its movements.
‘Those are the unique movements that the former owners of the devil’s sword practiced. It’s experimenting with them one by one.’
Among them, there were many sword techniques that I had never witnessed in my previous life.
And all that movement and Mana’s flow… were stuck in my eyes, forming memories that would never be forgotten.
Only after nearly an hour in that state did it managed to get itself out of its trance.
– … What? Has it already been that long?
The reason why it came to its senses was also no other reason than that it used up all the Mana in its body.
The dragon complained yet again since she had to charge its Core to the brim once more.
“Alright, shall we get back on track, then?”
We prepared to move on to the next floor right away.
As the dragon said, the number of people in our party had increased by one. The four-member party had technically become a five-member party.
… Well, technically, it was three people, one dragon, and one sword.
Nate spoke, folding the chair that he had taken out while watching the sword techniques of the armor.
“Oh, come to think of it… what should we call that armor?”
He was referring to the title.
I thought for a moment before speaking up.
“It’s weird to keep calling it the devil’s sword, so wouldn’t it work if we used its real name?”
In fact, the devil’s actual name had a significant meaning, but it probably didn’t matter to the devil’s sword because it couldn’t be considered as a proper devil.
Even if it finally had a remotely controlled body, the fact that the root of it was a mental body didn’t change.
I looked at him as I continued voicing out my thoughts.
“What do you think?”
The armor answered calmly with a mental wave.
– Well, it doesn’t matter now what the name you bestow upon me may be.
I nodded.
“Alright, you can call him Genograche from now on.”
Vividly marked in the contract that I made with him was the real name of the devil sealed in the sword.
The spirit sealed in the devil’s sword took the most lives of the devils in the history of the magic species when he was still alive.
It was said that the aftermath was so great that the magic kingdom, where the killing and dying had initially been a typical occurrence, had stopped functioning temporarily.
And when he was alive, he was given a title that best suited him:
The lord of a massacre.
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