Ch.267267. The Devil’s Counterattack

Peter had discovered that the events in the baronial capital were the work of demon worshippers, yet what he needed to do hadn’t particularly changed.

Slash—! Slash—! Slash——!!

That is, cutting, slicing, and dismembering every demon worshipper in sight.

One might wonder if he was worried about his lover Laila, but Peter was actually convinced that she was among the safest people right now.

Laila had left to visit her priestess sisters after a long time and was likely at the Debona Temple, where there would be at least several formal priests along with Laila, who was an intermediate priestess herself.

Though her combat ability might be underestimated as a magic-type priestess specializing in healing and support from the Debona order, when one thought about it carefully, Laila was a legitimate intermediate priestess and a Level 3 magic user.

She could crush dozens of these mere rioters with just her mace without using magic, and if she decided to cast area-of-effect attack spells, she could easily handle hundreds.

Slash———!!

So Peter, sending his firm trust toward Laila, sliced through another rioter with his sword when he suddenly noticed a rioter across the way who stood out distinctly from the others.

The rioter wore a plate armor breastplate that, though worn, was clearly military-grade with an inverted pentagram engraved on the chest. His equipment and attire were remarkably eye-catching compared to the others.

Besides the plate breastplate, he wore several other plate armor parts, had metal plates nailed onto his thick clothing, and over that wore a coat made of what could only be seen as human skin.

On his head, he wore a helmet adorned with elaborate decorations and a skull mask (a real skull), with the crown area so ornately decorated that he didn’t appear to be of low rank.

Most impressively, he wielded quite a remarkable weapon.

What he held in his left hand looked like their military banner… and true to being a demon worshipper, the banner was made of human bones, skeletons, and human skin painted with an inverted pentagram in blood.

In his right hand, he wore something quite rare—a claw, specifically a gauntlet-type claw with blades attached to the fingers.

The claw’s blades, which appeared to be about 20-30cm long, were oozing with demonic magical power and were covered in blood and entrails as if he had just torn someone apart.

And decisively, this rioter was at least two heads taller than the other rioters—

“《Eldritch Horror》!!”

The moment their eyes met by chance, the rioter cast a wicked black magic spell toward Peter.

Something ice-cold seemed to transfer through their locked gaze, seeping into Peter’s eyes and mind, causing his flesh to crawl, but…

“……..??”

That was as far as it went. Concentrating his aura circulation in his mind to resist the magic, Peter quickly realized that this rioter captain’s level was higher than he had initially thought.

At least Level 3, not a full-time magician but a hybrid with non-negligible magical abilities.

Having made this quick assessment, Peter kicked a nearby rioter’s corpse toward the captain and then—

—BOOM!!!

Kicked off the ground with tremendous force, using the rebound to charge straight ahead. Peter used the rioter captain’s corpse he had kicked earlier as a meat shield.

“—?!!”

In that brief moment of surprise when the rioter captain had only intended to casually sweep away the corpse with his left-hand banner, Peter seized the opportunity to close in on him like a burrowing animal—and unleashed a merciless attack.

Clang!! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! —Sizzzzzzle!!!

The rioter captain desperately tried to fend off Peter’s attacks with his claw and banner-like flag, but the close combat abilities between an aura-awakened person and a non-awakened one were incomparable.

—Slash!

By the third exchange, the flag pole reinforced with wood along the spine was cleanly cut off, and by the sixth exchange, Peter completely severed the rioter captain’s right hand and twisted his sword path to deliver a shallow but definite cut across his chest.

And with no intention of stopping there, Peter’s continued slashes drove the blade into the rioter captain’s neck, separating his ugly head from his body—

“—KIRYAAAAAAAA!!!!”

“Wh-what?!!”

Immediately after, something like a lamprey’s mouth grew from the headless body, and no one could have expected it to swing a claw that had grown in place of its severed right hand.

After exchanging a few more blows with this transformed monster, Peter—

‘……..Is this a demon possession?’

He couldn’t help but wonder, given how drastically different the rioter captain’s combat ability had become.

While the captain had earlier fought with some semblance of combat experience despite his clumsiness, this monster now pressured Peter with its terrifying strength and regeneration-mutation abilities.

It was easy to inflict wounds as it charged recklessly, but each wound caused the rioter’s body to gradually transform into something more monstrous during regeneration.

Eyes sprouted from stab wounds, teeth grew between slash wounds to form mouths, and tentacles emerged where flesh had been carved away.

Realizing he needed to deal with this regeneration ability first, Peter unhesitatingly took out a small vial he had kept secured inside his surcoat and broke it with his sword—

—Crash!

Needless to say, the contents of this vial were holy water personally made by Laila from the Debona order.

Having skipped the procedure of properly applying the holy water to his sword, Peter swung it without hesitation, and the tide of battle completely turned in his favor.

The slashes from the holy water-coated sword inflicted wounds that even the monster couldn’t regenerate, and smoke rose from the affected areas as if acid had been sprayed.

After a few more exchanges—

—Slash!!!

Finally, when Peter put more strength into his strike and cut the rioter captain’s body in half, his upper body twitched a bit more before completely ceasing all movement and falling silent.

It was Peter’s undeniable and complete victory.

※ ※ ※

Afterward, in place of his master Beartello who had disappeared somewhere, Peter swept away all the rioters in the area.

“Th-thank you!”

“No time for that, evacuate first!”

“Yes, Silver-badge Adventurer!”

Hearing the violent sounds of clashing metal somewhere in the castle, Peter prioritized civilian evacuation, assuming Beartello was annihilating enemies.

“This way, this way!”

Fortunately, the Debona order’s temple was serving as a temporary shelter, preventing further civilian casualties, but… for some reason, the number of rioters who appeared to be demon followers seemed far greater than anyone had imagined.

“Die——”

—Slash!!!

Suspecting that the scale was too large for such a small domain, Peter continuously questioned this as he produced corpses while advancing forward.

Then suddenly…

“……..?!!”

Shocked by the extraordinary magical power he sensed from somewhere nearby, Peter quickly ran toward it, arriving at—one of the few bakeries and flour mills in this barony.

“……..Ugh!”

Amidst a mountain of dismembered corpses of people who appeared to have taken refuge in the mill, a warrior stood in front of the mill, seemingly the perpetrator of this tragedy.

The warrior’s physique could only be described as enormous.

He was at least 2-3 heads taller than Peter, who was about 180cm, and was covered in full-body armor of considerable quality—remarkably, this matte black armor appeared to be made of adamantium or at least plated with it.

On either side of his bucket helmet grew horns resembling those of a bull, while on his back he wore a grayish-white fur cloak from some unidentifiable beast.

Around his waist, he had tightly fastened some leather item, whether a strap or belt, and hanging from a hook fixed to that belt was a severed head.

He was armed with an exceptionally large sword and a square shield… and the shield’s condition looked particularly unusual.

Like his armor, this large rectangular shield was matte black, not only large in size but also looking quite vicious with spikes protruding from its surface.

The sword the warrior held had a single eerie glowing eye embedded in the middle of the guard, and the blade gradually turned red toward the tip.

The corpses touching the blade seemed to be slowly absorbed into the sword, and the sword’s eyeball rolled around, seemingly recognizing its surroundings on its own.

“……..!!”

Despite not having proper armor, Peter steeled himself and pointed his sword at the warrior.