Chapter 759: No.99 Demon God Liberation (2)

The demonic sword’s penalty applied even if you were only holding it without using it.

The best way to avoid that was to keep it sealed until the decisive moment.

The wooden box the cultist leader had been carrying on his back was a good example.

It’s gone now, though.

Maybe his brain had turned into a goat’s along with the rest of him when he transformed into a goat-man, because he had smashed it without a single thought for what came afterward.

From the attacking side, that left us no choice but to choose the next-best method.

The simplest method is picking it up and putting it down.

Once the penalty built up, you threw it on the floor, then picked it up again after you recovered to a reasonable degree.

The problem was that it took forever and pinned your feet to one spot.

The strategy designed to solve that issue was—

Juggling the debt.

Several party members took turns holding the demonic sword.

Once the penalty grew severe, they passed it to the next person, then the next.

It was the most standard, common method, but it also came with a few drawbacks.

You need a lot of party members.

To juggle it safely, you needed at least four or five people.

Also, if the debuffs were spread evenly, that meant the party’s overall combat power fell by that much, so you had to bring one or two more people to compensate.

But what if you have Gyu shadow undead?

With only slight exaggeration, Dang Gyu-ri could clear this alone.

Excluding the Feathered Serpent, just the Research Director, Dark-Shadow Commander, Blood Sword Commander, and Ghost Demon made four units.

“And if we resummon them, the penalty resets too.”

“……Now that you mention it, that’s true.”

Dang Gyu-ri raised their eyebrows.

No matter how much damage a shadow undead took, it returned to perfect condition if resummoned.

Naturally, every debuff disappeared too.

We had come in with just the two of us because we had reliable angles like this.

After making the Gyu shadow undead juggle the demonic sword—or play hot potato with a demonic sword—we pushed through the midnight forest and soon reached a building giving off a faint glow.

It was a monastery, and also a small fortress where paladins stayed.

Walls surrounded it, along with various layers of holy magic.

Normally, paladins would have been standing guard too, but—

Right now, it’s basically half-empty.

They had sent out a large part of their forces to fight the cultists, and I had just finished freezing all of them.

It should be much sloppier than usual.

And this is where [Dusk] starts doing work.

We approached the shining barrier.

When Dang Gyu-ri flicked a hand toward the rear, Gyu Sword Commander walked forward with [Dusk] in hand and unleashed a slash.

SLICE!

The thick barrier split open like a sheet of paper, leaving a wide gap.

Wide enough for one or two people to enter.

Because it’s a natural counter to holy magic.

It was going to be useful throughout the dungeon, including for breaking through barriers.

In other words, it was absolutely worth carrying around despite the penalty.

Soon, we stepped inside the monastery.

Dang Gyu-ri cast a stealth skill and muttered as if talking to themself.

“Now we have to find ‘Him.’”

The “Demon God” the cultists were so desperately searching for—and trying to liberate.

Of course, there was no need to go through the trouble of searching every corner.

“Is there anywhere that feels extremely holy?”

To detain something on the level of a Demon God, they would have had to layer many powerful holy spells over it.

Dang Gyu-ri seemed to find that reasonable too. They slowly looked around, then fixed their gaze on one side.

“That spot is very holy-holy.”

“Let’s go right there.”

A chapel had been set up in one corner of the monastery.

When we entered, several priests and paladins were kneeling before a statue of a goddess, praying.

And beside them, a pitch-black human silhouette was wrapped round and round in shining chains.

There he is, Mr. Demon God.

A moment later, apparently sensing our presence, the priests and paladins sprang up and shouted.

“Filthy heretics! How dare you set foot in this place!”

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding. We’re not actually that bad.”

“What absurd nonsense. Your face alone is wicked beyond measure.”

When one of the paladins pointed at me and said that, Dang Gyu-ri flared up and shot back.

“No, what do you people know?! With a face like that, you should be calling him cute, handsome, warm, and basically every good thing you can think of.”

“You have been thoroughly bewitched. You are beyond communication.”

“I have fallen for him completely, yes. Anyway—”

A shadow bat was aimed at the paladins.

Dang Gyu-ri issued a warning.

“—move aside. Otherwise, you may end up with a very large bump on the top of your head.”

“It is useless. Test our faith all you like.”

The paladins took combat stances.

They lowered their swords and raised their shields forward.

Dang Gyu-ri seemed to have expected nothing else from the start.

They took one casual step forward, then kicked off the ground and shot out at terrifying speed.

Then they swung the shadow bat at full force and smashed it into a shield.

KWAAANG—!

The paladins were knocked flying in a heap.

“Gah!”

“What kind of strength is that—”

At best, they were B-rank, while Dang Gyu-ri had already surpassed A-rank. The result was obvious.

After only a few exchanges, they collapsed with enormous bumps on their heads.

Only one priest remained.

Since the priest had never participated in the fight in the first place, Dang Gyu-ri did not seem inclined to go out of their way to beat him down.

Instead, they threateningly twitched the bat and asked,

“You’re not going to interfere, right?”

“My brothers have already fallen. What could I possibly do with my meager strength? Courage and recklessness are different things.”

“You understand well. Don’t try anything funny. Just watch. Then I won’t hit you.”

Just as Dang Gyu-ri was about to turn away, the priest clasped both hands with an intensely reverent air.

“Only, sister, allow me to pray for you.”

“Why would you pray?”

“Your mind appears to be full of lewd thoughts. So that one day you may repent—”

THWACK!

The priest was struck by the shadow bat and collapsed.

Watching that, I said one thing.

“You said you wouldn’t hit him.”

“On second thought, he talked too much.”

“Not that he knew too much?”

“Let us hurry and liberate the Demon God. We have wasted far too much time.”

Dang Gyu-ri slid past it as smoothly as a snake over a wall.

At the same time, they manipulated the Gyu shadow undead and stationed them around the sealed Demon God.

Then they pointed alternately at the shining chains and [Dusk], confirming,

“We hit these with this, right?”

“That’s right.”

Just as it had easily cut through the barrier around the monastery, it was the same with the seal.

That was why the demonic sword was the core item of this dungeon.

Soon, Dark-Shadow Commander gripped [Dusk] firmly.

Then, after taking a stance, it thrust toward the shining chains at frightening speed.

CLAAAANG—!

With a blinding ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ flash, Dark-Shadow Commander was sent flying backward.

However, several chains had snapped and were disappearing as well.

Next, the Research Director received [Dusk] and brought it down like an axe.

CLANG! CLAAAANG—!

Next, Blood Sword Commander took [Dusk], then Ghost Demon, then Dark-Shadow Commander again.

After the rotation went around a couple of times—

CLANG!

The final chain snapped and turned into particles of light.

The detained silhouette slowly, very slowly raised itself.

A low sigh of admiration slipped out.

“Ahh……”

The voice sounded like a chorus of many people—men and women, young and old.

It also echoed as if from deep inside a cave.

Soon, the Demon God’s gaze turned straight toward us.

“Child, at last you have proven your faith and fulfilled your duty.”

His attitude made it sound as if rescuing him had been the most natural thing in the world.

This was why you could not just indulge and worship someone without limits.

It spoiled their manners.

But the bastard’s shamelessness had only just begun.

“However, child, your duty is not yet finished.”

“What should I do?”

At my question, the Demon God ostentatiously spread both arms.

“My power is not yet whole. Those wretches tore me into pieces and imprisoned me in many places.”

“Oh no. What a terrible thing.”

I made a face as though I had just heard a heartbreaking story.

Though I already knew the detailed circumstances.

Sealing it all in one place isn’t exactly a great choice.

Because a powerful being required an enormous amount of holy power to restrain, and the risk of release when enemies attacked was also high.

So they managed the risk in their own way.

It was much easier to maintain the seals, and even if one piece was released like now, the other seals would remain safe.

And what this meant was—

There are similar ones in several places.

The clear objective of this dungeon was to occupy all the monasteries in the area and undo the seals.

Since the cultists were fighting hard in multiple locations too, we did not need to do everything personally.

But the more seals we destroyed, the higher our completion rate and rewards would rise.

The Demon God pointed toward the far distance.

“Go. Go and liberate the rest of ‘me.’”

“But you know.”

“……?”

“If you were torn into pieces and weakened, couldn’t you be annihilated?”

Mr. Demon God burst into laughter at my innocent question.

“The Order’s dogs had similar thoughts. Pale white flames burned me countless times. Yet I am still here.”

Well, if pouring holy power on him had been enough to erase him, they would have done it long ago.

I asked innocently again.

“But maybe something else would work?”

“What a strange question. What do you mean, for example?”

“For example…… dark magic, or a shadow bat.”

“……!”

Only then did the Demon God seem to sense that something was wrong and turn his head.

But by then, Dang Gyu-ri was already dropping from above.

The bat was wrapped in an enormous amount of shadow.

KWAAAAANG—!

The tremendous impact caved in the floor.

Black smoke—or perhaps powder—scattered in every direction.

A moment later, a faint human silhouette, barely visible, slipped out of the place where the Demon God’s fragment had been.

Maybe because he was still something godlike, he had not been annihilated.

Though it seemed he had lost what little power remained.

“……”

The faint human silhouette stared at us with resentful eyes.

But when the shadow bat pointed toward him, he hurriedly fled before he could be beaten again.

SSSSSS……

Soon, the energy scattered throughout the room flowed into Dang Gyu-ri’s body.

They clenched and unclenched their fist in satisfaction.

Hidden piece.

The main rules of <Demon God Liberation> were [Demonic Sword] and [Rescue].

If you destroyed every seal spread throughout the area, you cleared the dungeon.

Since the cultists were fighting hard elsewhere too, you did not have to do all of them yourself.

The more seals you destroyed, the higher your completion rate and rewards rose.

On the other hand, if you destroyed the Demon God’s fragments like this, the reward disappeared, but you could absorb the energy he left behind.

For dark-magic-type classes, it functioned as a special hidden piece.

If you gather enough, it increases the slots.

In this dungeon, by up to two slots.

Unfortunately, repeated farming was impossible, but two slots was still nothing to sneeze at.

I asked Dang Gyu-ri,

“It’s still not enough, right?”

“Yeah. Feels like about 0.7 slots.”

Meaning we had to catch two or three more.

So we decided to move in search of the next Demon God fragment.

When Dang Gyu-ri came out of the chapel and gently waved a hand, the shadow underfoot spread wide and rippled violently.

Then the Feathered Serpent appeared.

Flying gets us there fast.

And we would not have to run into and fight anyone on the way.

Dang Gyu-ri climbed onto the Feathered Serpent first, and I took the seat behind them.

“Let’s depart.”

“……Kim Ho Kim Ho.”

“Yes, Sis.”

“If you don’t want to fall, shouldn’t you hold on better? I am concerned.”

“I think this much should be fine.”

“That kind of complacent attitude leads to accidents.”

They even emphasized safety again and again, saying this shook a lot more than it looked.

I started to say, “I have ★Blink★, and wind magic too—” but then noticed Dang Gyu-ri wanted something else.

At times like this, it was right to play along.

“How should I hold on better?”

“Look.”

Dang Gyu-ri reached a hand toward me.

They took my arms and wrapped them around their waist.

“See? Now you won’t fall.”

“This feels a bit excessive for safety.”

“If anything, it’s not enough. Get closer, and tighten your arms too! I said do it.”

“Sister, you are extremely lewd.”

Maybe that priest had possessed some foresight after all.

And so, satisfying both safety and Dang Gyu-ri’s ulterior motives at the same time, the Feathered Serpent soared high into the night sky.