Unexpectedly, the demon offered no reply.
A thick cloud of black smoke seeped from the severed neck of the headless body, coiling upward like a living thing, before dissipating into the air.
Deprived of whatever force had animated it, the soulless corpse collapsed onto the stone floor with a dull, lifeless thud.
"You do know this is going to backfire, right?" Ryuk said, watching the smoke drift toward the far end of the basement. "I'd be surprised if that demon doesn't gather every bit of manpower it has and start a war within a few days."
That's the plan… You didn't think I came to this planet to save it, did you? I replied silently.
"Oh ho ho," Ryuk chuckled, a sharp, delighted grin spreading across his face. "This is going to be fun."
We turned and walked out of the base, leaving the aftermath behind us.
------------
3 Days Later
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Following the successful expedition, the heretics' base was swiftly seized by the mortals in a single, overwhelming surge. What had once been a den of corruption was repurposed almost overnight, its vast corridors and chambers easing the crushing congestion the mortals had endured for so long.
Living conditions improved dramatically with the sudden increase in usable space.
Though many complained at first, frustrated that relocation wasn't immediate or comprehensive, their grievances were short-lived. Victory had a way of dulling discontent, and soon the base echoed with open celebration, laughter, exhausted cheers, and the rare sound of hope spoken aloud.
In the aftermath, T-3 was formally granted the rank of General as the former commander stepped down from his post. The decision did not come easily, it required no small amount of persuasion. Yet once the soldiers bore witness to T-3's composure, decisiveness, and proven capability in the field, resistance quietly faded and T-3 assumed command without a single complaint.
However, the demon's silence was never an admission of defeat... it was merely a pause before retaliation.
I sat beneath a ceiling of roiling dark clouds, perched atop the massive skull of the fallen dragon, its hollow eye sockets staring eternally toward the battlefield below. From that grim vantage point, I watched the heretic army advance toward the barriers of the main base.
At their forefront rode two headless figures mounted upon corpse-like horses. Each step the beasts took caused the ground beneath them to blacken and rot, while the very air around their riders hissed and corroded, turning sharp and acidic with every breath drawn near them.
Below me, within the meeting chamber, I could hear the muffled tension simmering among the high-ranking mortals as they debated how to respond to the approaching force.
"That's… a little more than I was expecting," Moriarty muttered, his gaze fixed on the advancing heretics.
"Scared?" Tom asked as he walked up beside us. "The mortals downstairs are already discussing an extermination protocol if this goes south."
"Could you at least pretend to be worried?" I said, eyes never leaving the battlefield. "Those two might look like separate threats, but both vessels are being controlled by the same demon."
"A knight, then?" Tom shrugged. "Still, they're only B-rank. How hard can it be? We've banished an A-rank before."
"That A-rank wasn't specialized in combat," I replied, exhaling slowly. "And we haven't eaten anything in almost a week. There's a very high chance we lose this time."
Tom chuckled softly and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Relax. None of us are dying on this lifeless rock."
CRACKLE
A harsh electrical shriek tore through the wasteland as the two headless figures advanced toward the barrier.
The instant they touched it, the semi-transparent wall of energy began to decay.
Orange light festered into sickly green, the barrier darkening as though rot itself were spreading across its surface. Each passing second felt heavier than the last.
"All of this could have been avoided if you had simply accepted the deal, Allen," the demon's voice echoed through the air, calm… almost disappointed, as it continued to corrode the barrier.
"The hell is he talking about?" Tom asked, turning toward me.
"I refused his offer," I replied flatly. "Now he's throwing a tantrum."
"Sounds about right for a demon," Tom laughed.
Without waiting another second, he leapt from the dragon's skull, plummeting toward the battlefield below. "I'll go ahead. Catch up if you can."
SPLASH
A thunderous crash split the air as a tidal wave of blood surged forward, rushing toward the army of heretics like a living flood.
Before it could reach them, the barrier fractured.
A jagged crack tore open along its surface, and from it erupted a ravine of rot.
The chasm swallowed the blood mid-charge, halting it in an instant… and trapping Tom within its decaying walls.
"…I warned him," I sighed.
I leapt down, boots striking the ground just as Wally flowed over me, transforming into my armor and sealing around my body like a second skin.
BOOM
The earth trembled as my power surged to life.
The world slowed.
Dust hung motionless in the air.
Shockwaves crawled instead of crashing. And yet, with every heartbeat, I moved faster, tearing ahead of time itself.
We had to end this quickly.
The only way was to separate the demon's vessels.
BOOM
With a deafening burst that ripped through the silence, Moriarty launched forward.
In a blink, he seized one of the headless demons by its rotting neck and drove it straight through the ranks behind it. Bodies exploded on impact, blood, bone, and viscera painting the battlefield in streaks of red and black.
Everything the demon passed through decayed instantly.
Flesh withered, and armor corroded, even the ground beneath them rotted away, leaving nothing but ruin in its wake.
The same corruption had begun creeping into Wally.
It was gradual, the gauntlet around my arm darkened as veins of rot spread across its surface, flakes of decayed metal crumbling away with every passing second.
Deep within the heretics' encirclement, Moriarty finally broke contact.
He drove his heel into the demon's chest and sent it skidding backward. Both of them landed hard, sliding across the ruined ground before coming to a stop at opposite ends of the battlefield.
"What happened?" the demon sneered, brushing dust from its shoulder plate as though the last exchange had been nothing more than a warm-up. "Ran out of energy already? Battles like this aren't meant for children. Leave them to the adults."
Moriarty straightened, unfazed.
"Well," he replied calmly, "considering a knight had to come deal with a 'kid' like me… I'd say an adult from our side would be far more than you could handle."