Ch.125Accept it

The Wind Shear dissolved into the wind.

Serena, who had sheathed Wind Shear in the air, stared blankly at the completely transformed landscape around her, as if trying to undo the destruction she had wrought.

Even if the Giant Death Worm those thieves had boastfully babbled about was a real monster, it would certainly have been swept away and killed in the aftermath of that destruction.

A brutish hand picked up the cleanly severed head of the demon. Red vine-like tendrils twitched faintly at the clean cut surface where the head had been separated from the body.

Matching Serena’s stride, blood dripped steadily, creating a distorted circle on the devastated wasteland.

Serena approached right in front of me, knelt on one knee, bowed her head, and placed the demon’s head she had been clutching onto the ground.

Her golden hair, without a speck of dust, shone brilliantly in the sunlight.

“I have successfully completed what my lord commanded.”

Despite having everything below the neck completely obliterated, the demon was still perfectly alive. Its goat-like, vertically slit pupils moved restlessly.

Well, it would be strange in its own way if a being calling itself a greater demon were to die just from having its head cut off.

“Good work, Serena.”

“I merely did what needed to be done. There is no need to praise me, my lord.”

“Still, credit where credit’s due. How’s Wind Shear? Is it useful?”

Nothing hung at Serena’s waist now. She could have kept Wind Shear manifested and worn it at her waist if she wanted, but there was no particular reason to do so.

Her thoughts and will would become the sword itself.

“Yes, my lord. It is an excellent sword.”

Though not adorned with flowery expressions, considering Serena’s personality, this was essentially high praise for Wind Shear.

After all, she had evaluated even World Eater—a magic sword that could cut through most objects without even being infused with mana—as merely “adequate.”

Unlike World Eater, which constantly trembled with bloodlust at every opportunity, Wind Shear was completely obedient to its master and offered all kinds of assistance in return, so this was a natural outcome.

“I’m glad it’s a good sword. If there’s anything else you want, just say so. We still have plenty of weapons.”

“Your words alone are gratifying.”

What I just said wasn’t an exaggeration but the truth. If I were to take out all the weapons sealed in the magic tower, there would be enough to arm the entire royal knights and royal mages with plenty to spare.

I decided not to think about whether those humans could make the weapons truly their own without being consumed by them.

I lifted the severed neck with my right palm, bringing it level with the severed head. The dark, vertically slit pupils turned toward me.

I felt the sensation of vine tendrils digging into my palm, trying to absorb my blood, but I didn’t mind. This creature couldn’t penetrate my hyper-regeneration ability anyway. Naturally, it couldn’t absorb me either.

I thought it would attempt some final desperate act while I was seemingly defenseless, but the demon was surprisingly docile.

“Why did you resort to such pointless wordplay?”

“What do you mean?”

The demon’s voice remained perfectly flat.

“About the definition of my death.”

“I was attempting to fulfill the contract.”

“I’m sick of hearing that, so can we stop now? If all you’re going to do is spout nonsense about how trying to hijack my body was fulfilling the contract, I’ll just have Serena blow your head apart and be done with it. It might take me a while to find another demon to talk to since I’ve never spoken with any besides you, but I have nothing but time to spare. I can easily kill you and find another.”

Even if it takes years, decades, or centuries, I don’t mind as long as I can eventually find one. The time given to me is infinite.

“The content of the contract was the act itself of me granting you death by any means necessary, and I clearly stated the best method I could think of. You accepted without hearing the details. You left the choice of means and methods entirely to me, and you did not place any restrictions on using any particular method. What went wrong?”

“How many times do I have to tell you that’s nonsense? I’ve learned a thing or two about how demons steal human bodies. That thief who drew World Eater and had his body stolen by you is still alive and well. Feeling all the pain of having his neck severed. Did you think I wouldn’t know that? I don’t want to have my body’s control stolen while being unable to either die or live properly—I want a complete death, literally.”

Not only the continuous pain from the severed neck, but all the pain transmitted when the body was cut, slashed, and blown apart belonged not to the demon but to the thief whose body had been stolen.

His consciousness was merely submerged deep in his mind, unable to express itself.

“That was the contract. If you need an explanation, I will provide more.”

“You keep saying ‘explanation,’ but can’t you understand that the premise was wrong from the beginning?”

I squeezed the severed neck in my hand. Dark red blood flowed between my fingers and gathered on the back of my hand.

“Fine, let’s say you did take over my body and manifest. You would have planned to cause all sorts of havoc after stealing my body. If my hyper-regeneration worked and you inherited my immortality, it would be perfect because it would be impossible to kill you. And if the hyper-regeneration wasn’t as strong as what I currently have and you were killed by humans, I would certainly die when you died, so the contract would be fulfilled. Am I wrong?”

“Precisely. Then why not follow my method?”

“Because it’s nonsense.”

I dismissed the demon’s question with a single phrase.

“As if that idiotic plan would ever work. Did you forget everything while trapped inside World Eater? Did you forget how all your attempts to take over my body failed? When it’s impossible to steal my body in the first place, how do you plan to fulfill the contract?”

In the end, the problem was this damned body. It interpreted even the demon’s attempt to manifest in my body as damage and restored it to its original state.

Unlike the ridiculous judgment that defined even muscle or mana circuit growth as damage, the demon’s manifestation had enough elements to be considered as such.

After all, the entire body would be wrapped in red vines, and all the blood would be sacrificed as nutrients for the growth of those vines.

Of course, that’s that, and this is this.

Seeing my grim expression, a faint form of Wind Shear appeared in Serena’s right hand, but it quickly dissipated when I shook my head.

“So, is there nothing else?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said this is the most efficient method you can think of, right? That means there are less efficient methods too. Spill them all. Right now. Depending on your answer, I might overlook the fact that you were trying to play tricks on me.”

“That is not included in the contract.”

“Stop talking bullshit.”

People often say demons are beings that bring destruction and chaos to the world, but that’s half right and half wrong.

It all happens because humans who make contracts with demons leave room for different interpretations at the time of the contract.

Simply put, you shouldn’t give them room to play word games with the conditions, just like this demon is quibbling over the method of killing me.

If you follow that precaution well, demons aren’t such frightening beings. The problem is that it’s really damn difficult to do so.

This one too, wasn’t he trying to interpret the definition of death I had previously mentioned in a way that was favorable to him?

“The contract—”

“Serena.”

No sooner had my words fallen than Serena’s body moved momentarily, leaving a faint afterimage. Wind Shear was already in her hand.

A small horizontal line appeared right above the demon’s eyes, in the area where eyebrows would be on a human.

Following that line, the upper part of the head tilted, and then a small hemispherical mass of vines fell to the ground.

The fallen piece of the demon’s head soon began to wither and twist, exuding a sticky red liquid.

“I clearly told you to cut the crap if all you’re going to do is talk nonsense, you contract-fetishizing bastard. How is ‘the contract’ your only repertoire?”

By this point, I was beginning to suspect he was doing this on purpose.

I couldn’t even count how many times the two-syllable word “contract” had been mentioned in less than ten minutes.

Repeating the same words and adding the same explanations over and over made me want to destroy World Eater as well.

I was about to give a final warning, thinking that if he mentioned the contract again, I’d just hand him over to Serena to launch him back to where he came from.

The demon’s pupils dilated wildly.

The goat-like pupils expanded until they almost covered the whites of the eyes, and the mouth with its jagged teeth opened as wide as possible, revealing the revolting interior.

Serena struck down the demon’s head faster than I could even form a question. In the blink of an eye, Serena approached my side and hit the demon’s head with her blade.

With that tremendous force, I lost my grip on the head, and it flew in the direction Serena had struck.

Only then did questions about what had just happened arise in my mind. Of course, by then the head had already begun to fly.

“What is this—”

Suddenly, the head that had been flying through the air stopped abruptly, as if someone had snatched it.

Serena, with Wind Shear formed in her right hand, positioned herself between the demon’s head and me. Blue mana swirled around her entire body.

The demon’s pupils now completely obscured the whites of its eyes, and its mouth was opened to half the size of its face. A strange sound, “Keueeeeerk,” flowed from its throat.

Its gaze was fixed on me.

“My lord, something feels ominous. Please stay behind me.”

“Don’t worry. I feel it too.”

Something felt strange. I twisted my body slightly at the sensation of a cold hand squeezing my heart.

When the creature showed signs of going berserk like this, I should have been excited at the thought that I might be able to die from it, but instead, I felt uneasy first.

This had never happened before.

Serena was the same. Rather than being cautious about an unknown situation as usual, she seemed to be instinctively sensing something unpleasant and guarding against it.

While we were both confused by this strange sensation, the creature’s head floating in the air slowly opened its mouth.

“Accept it.”