Interlude: The Second One, or So It Was Told

“Master, mission complete! I repeat, mission complete!”

A voice, decidedly unflattering in its portrayal of the speaker and her intelligence, assaulted my ears. I took my mind off of my work and directed my attention toward my surroundings. Beside me, I discovered a flat-chested girl with black pigtails bouncing up and down with a bamboo sword in her hands. Something about the way her pigtails waggled along to every hop annoyed me.

“Who’re you supposed to be?”

“Master?! It’s me! Giriel!” protested the girl.

“Hmm?”

I opened my eyes wide and peered at her as I sifted through the threads of my memory. Now that she mentioned it, I did vaguely remember that I might have created an angel with a name like that at some point.

“I’m the one you assigned to be Renya’s guardian angel! And would you please stop forgetting things? No one likes to be around a prepubescent girl with the memory of a senile goldfish!”

“Who’re you calling a senile goldfish?!”

Infusing just a touch of power into my voice, I yelled at the girl. By the time the sound of her short shriek reached my ears, her form had already been sent flying into the distance. I found myself impressed. That was an angel with quite a bit of power. I hit her with the vocal sledgehammer intending to vaporize her, but she remained very much existent.

Wait, I totally don’t have time for this right now.

I had just received word that some idiot Admin somewhere reincarnated a human as a shapeless slime-like organism and sent it to another world. It baffled me to no end trying to imagine just what would have driven the damn Admin to attempt something so delightf— er, cruelly unethical. Honestly, I’d love to take the fool’s head apart and examine every last quark to see how it all worked.

Humans came in all sorts of flavors, but in order for them to function properly, they needed to be humanoid. That was how they retained a sense of self. For example I could understand, albeit barely, if a human was reincarnated as some sort of goblin or troll. After all, those were arguably humanoid. Even something like a dragon was still borderline safe. While dragons looked nothing like humans, they still had a head, a neck, a body, and legs. Stretch the definition a bit and you could say they had hands, too. At a glance, it was possible to claim that they roughly had all the major parts that constituted a human.

A slime, though. A slime was not going to work.

First of all, the way it felt things was completely different. Humans used sensory organs such as their skin, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth to experience stimuli from their surroundings as sensations. A slime was just one big sensory organ. Imagine, if you will, humans sensing smells with their eyes and tasting things with their nose. In addition, a slime had no hands or feet to speak of.

Allow me to digress for a moment.

Every once in a while, a world with a knack for scientific advancement would conduct research into plucking brains out of people and sticking them into mechanical bodies in an attempt to extend their lifespan. These experiments basically all ended in failure. People came up with all sorts of theories in attempts to explain why, but the real reason was a breakdown of the human psyche brought about by its inability to accept a machine as its body. You could simulate the bodily organs with replacement signals all day, and it still wouldn’t work. The problem was simply on another level.

Now, try applying this concept to a slime, which didn’t even have organs. Well, technically, it had one — its whole body; it hunted with its body, chewed with its body, and digested with its body. A human psyche implanted into something like that would, sooner or later, experience a breakdown. It was only a matter of when.

With that said, though, this particular psyche sure was taking an awfully long time to break down…

Was it a personality thing? Maybe the guy never had a very strong sense of self. Or perhaps he had embraced the good old “eat, sleep, rinse and repeat” way of life when he was human, and being a slime turned out to be not very different from being a degenerate. In fact, this guy looked like he was gradually adapting to life as a slime… Oh, wait, never mind.

A quick fast-forward along the time axis revealed that while its sense of self was intact, fractures in its psyche were becoming evident. Despite its ex-human status, it was gobbling up its former brethren without batting an eye. At this point, it might as well just be another super dangerous man-eating menace. Rather, woman-eating, because for some reason, it seemed to be consuming nothing but females… Which was weird, because both genders would taste identical; male or female, they were both made out of the same clumps of protein.

The fact that they were called slimes, however, meant that most Administrators had a tendency to brush off these gelatinous creatures as simple, low-level organisms unworthy of their attention. They were wrong, of course. Slimes were messed up, and their lack of intelligence was the only thing keeping them from endangering the very worlds they set goopy membranes upon.

Think about it.

They possessed little to no instincts nor sense of self, and they behaved almost like machines, eating whatever was edible nearby. When their body volume expanded, they would divide and increase in number. They could survive in harsh environments, and it’s not even clear if the concept of lifespan applied to them.

…Wait, did it? I can’t remember the setting I used. It was so long ago, even I might have forgotten… Ugh, whatever. Too lazy to go check. Gonna ignore that part.

Anyway, so there we had an organism kept in check only by its lack of intelligence. What, then, might the consequences be if someone went and stuck a human psyche — half-broken, sure, but still functional — in it? In the worst case, its instincts of survival and procreation would lead it to an endless munch-and-multiply cycle that buried the world in slimes. In fact, something to that effect had happened once, and the world in question went kaput. In order to prevent a repeat, I had sent out a strict warning telling everyone to refrain from such practices, but I guess there’ll always be the odd Administrator who forgets a notice from a few millennia ago…

For the time being, I took our big goopy friend, who had grown large enough to swallow an entire kingdom whole now, and threw it into the incinerator. Then, I kicked the offending Administrator into another world. Which world? Well, remember that world with the slime apocalypse? Yeah, I never actually got rid of it, figuring it might come in handy someday. Surprisingly, the place didn’t actually require much upkeep. It was covered in slimes, but they just kept eating each other and dividing, so left alone, their numbers stabilized into some sort of dynamic equilibrium.

Also, stupid or not, Admins were Admins. A bit of thorough bodily violation by slime wasn’t going to kill them. I’ll pull the idiot back out after a few centuries. If I remember to, anyway.

“Master, are you trying to kill me?!”

Pigtails finally returned. I had no idea how far she flew, but her clothes were nearly in tatters. With the satisfaction of a job well done, I greeted her with a radiant smile.

“Welcome back!”

“Welcome back?!” yelled Pigtails in disbelief. “You don’t welcome someone back after you send them flying into the galactic beyond! I almost flew over the dimensional wall! Who knows where I would have ended up if I fell off!”

“If you fell off?” I shrugged. “Well, it’s just the void out there. Like, literal nothing. You fall and you’re gone. That’s it.”

“That’s terrifying! Don’t shrug and tell me I was this close to complete and total annihilation!”

“Okay, okay, calm down. So, who are you again?”

“Giriel, damn it! Didn’t I just tell you?!”

The name “Giriel” sounded vaguely like something I’d heard recently. Now, what was it again…?

“I’m the guardian angel you assigned! To Renya Kunugi! You know, the one you loaded up with Resources and reincarnated into a world that was experiencing a deficiency thanks to the stupid Administrators that you appointed? Ring any bells?”

“Ah, right. The explanation is appreciated.”

Her reminder effectively jogged my memory. The world in question was actually functioning pretty well, so it’d be a shame for it to implode. In addition, leaving all the hard work to a human gnawed at my conscience a little, so I’ve been relentlessly spamming the Administrators there with messages at a rate that would put most online stalkers to shame. Being the Admin of Admins — a Superadmin, if you will — my messages were mute-proof; mere Admins could not disable notifications from me. Of course they never replied, but we’ll see how long they last under the physical and mental duress of an endless stream of hate mail.

“So, what was this about? A mission or something?”

“I’ve successfully retrieved the bamboo sword from Renya.”

“Ah, good work. Did you hand him a replacement?”

“Yes, I made sure to give a Japanese sword!”

“A tachi? Or an uchigatana?”

“Huh?”

Seeing the clueless look that replaced her triumphant grin, I sighed.

“Tachi and uchigatana are used in completely different ways. Which one did you give him?”

“Um…” she mumbled, a drop of cold sweat rolling down her forehead as her eyes began to dart nervously from side to side.

“You can go look up the difference yourself,” I said, figuring I’d tormented her enough for now. “…Where’d you find the sword?”

“It was one of the articles he was buried with in his original world. I appropriated it from his grave.”

I was about to comment on how she’d just caused a grave robbing incident, but then decided against it; nothing wrong with a grave robbing incident now and then.

“Stuff he was buried with, huh… Not a bad idea, if I do say so myself.”

“Yes, it must be something that carried personal significance for him.”

When there was a connection between owner and item, the item was not only easier to use, it might also bless the owner with various benefits. In that sense, disregarding the ethical issue of defiling somebody’s grave, Giriel made a good choice.

“This solves the appearance issue, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, sure, but more importantly, it’s probably a good thing that you handed him a proper weapon…”

I had a nagging sense that I was the one who brought up the whole appearance issue in the first place, but other problems of greater import had popped up, drawing a deep sigh from me. Somewhere off in the corner of my mind, a chain of help requests from a certain Admin who was doomed to slime hell were flashing. I ignored them. I didn’t get much of a kick out of busty blond angels being subject to slime torture. Just wasn’t my thing, really…

Wasn’t my thing, but I had a feeling a recording of this would sell. Immediately, I set about figuring out how to preserve it in video form. What methods… Which angles…

“Master?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, I was jus— Nevermind. So, there’s been some suspicious activities in the world where I sent Renya.”

“Suspicious activities?”

“Hm… Well, the Admins, you see…”

The fact that they were ignoring my messages was par for the course. Aside from that though, I had noticed some fishy behavior.

“Out of the five Admins, four of them seem to have begun interfering with their own races more heavily.”

“Who’s the fifth one?”

“The human Admin. But that one’s always getting the short end of the stick.”

“How come? Was that Admin given a bad luck attribute by you, Master?”

Who the hell would go through all the effort of making something like that and sticking it on the Administrator of a world?

I kept my rebuttal private because I had a feeling an attempt to say it out loud would be countered by some sort of comment about how I behaved badly on a regular basis and it was a reasonable presumption based on my past tendencies. No point stepping on a landmine when I knew it was there.

“Humans are in heat all year round, after all,” I said instead. “Every time you blink, there’s more of ’em.”

For the other four factions, a decrease in their numbers carried with it a very real threat of extinction. In comparison, humans were quite hardy and survivors would reproduce at dizzying speeds, so they were often chosen to be the initial casualties in turf wars. And right now, a turf war was brewing. I could smell it.

“That’s cold comfort for the actual victims, though, when they’re used as cannon fodder.”

“Which means Renya might be in danger. As his guardian angel, I can’t be sitting around here, then,” she said as she pressed the bamboo sword into my hands and turned around. “Duty calls!”

“Okay~ See you~ Try your best~”

I rattled off a number of perfunctory sendoffs as I watched the back of her form disappear into the distance. After loading Renya up with Resources, I certainly needed him to live a long life. With that girl as his guardian angel, though, there was probably little reason to be overly concerned. She had only been recently named, but I granted her a fair amount of power, along with the same privileges as the Administrators of that world. I didn’t mention any of this to her, though.

I looked at the bamboo sword. The Indestructible property was gone. It seemed that she did indeed transfer it to the sword she gave him. Renya now possessed an Artifact-class sword, a weapon of such immense power that it defied all conventional worldly logic. But would that one item be enough to see him safely through a world in which the gears of many behind-the-scenes machinations were beginning to turn?

“Ah, geez! How come the only things that ever grow are stress and work?!”

As a means of blowing off steam, the young girl firmly swore that she would drop a bunch of slime food into the world where she sent the aforementioned Admin and bolster their numbers. Never did it occur to her that this very process was only creating more work for herself.

Chapter 4: Something Seemed Off About the Inaugural Dungeon Campaign, or So It Was Told

Not all dungeons were made equal. At least, not in people’s imaginations. In Renya’s opinion, the word “dungeon” evoked very different images depending on who was talking about it. However, there was probably a rough consensus that consisted of rocky surfaces and earthen walls. In the case that they were made by men, passages were likely formed by stony blocks.

This opinion was upended by the term “naturally-occurring dungeons.” Renya had no idea what to make of dungeons that matured on their own. They were not living creatures, yet they grew in size and scale over time. This seemed a phenomenon wholly incompatible with rigid walls of stone. It was for this reason that, until he actually went in, he suspected the interiors to resemble the insides of a living creature, all fleshy and organ-like. Were it so, the creepiness meter would have gone right off the screen, but it would have allowed him to understand how the thing could grow.

Upon entering the actual dungeon, though, Renya found his expectations to be completely inaccurate. After descending the “why are these even here” stairs and scanning surroundings, he uttered in an almost-disappointed tone.

“This is just, like, a cave. A regular old cave.”

The walls were made of bare earth, but when he touched them, he found them to be surprisingly stiff. It was as if there were a coating on them, and hitting it with his fist failed to produce any damage. At a glance the cave, roughly three meters in diameter, seemed perfectly normal. It went on and on, farther than the light of the torch could reach.

“What were you expecting?” asked Shion.

She stood beside him, and the two of them formed the vanguard of their joint eight-person party with Azu’s members. When he announced that he would of course take the front, Shion volunteered to do so as well, and the motion passed with no objections. Rona was in charge of healing and Azu, firepower. The two of them, along with one guardsman, formed the three-person middle, and three more guardsmen brought up the rear. It was a 2-3-3 formation.

As Renya made his way down the cavernous tunnel, he took a moment to compose his thoughts before answering.

“Well, since you said it was a dungeon that grew, I figured it’d be more, you know… organic?”

“Who would even want to go into a dungeon like that?” said Shion with a grimace.

Her sentiment was understandable. Even if it was for money, he doubted there would be many people who would willingly walk through corridors that resembled the insides of a living creature.

“Parts of the passage crumble bit by bit,” mentioned Azu from behind, “and that’s how new passageways are born. Nobody’s digging tunnels or anything. They just lengthen on their own, gradually forming branching paths that eventually mature into a massive dungeon. As passages grow they turn into rooms, and those sometimes contain treasure.”

“Who’s putting the treasure there?”

“There are various theories. Some say the monsters put them there. Others claim they’re placed there somehow by the core. It’s also been said that maybe both are true.”

According to Azu, from the dungeon’s perspective, while it didn’t want people to just keep ransacking it for treasure willy-nilly, it would also be a problem if no one ever bothered to go in. In that regard, he believed the placement of treasure might reflect the will of the core.

“Mr. Azu and his encyclopedic knowledge,” joked Renya as he looked over his shoulder. “You should be a teacher.”

Azu glared at him.

“I don’t mind small talk, but keep your eyes open. We don’t have a thief in this party.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Renya said as he faced forward again. Behind him, Azu let out an exasperated sigh.

In truth, however, neither of them were expecting to encounter a situation that would require the presence of a thief. The first reason was that the dungeon was freshly born. The second was that two other parties had already gone in before them. The point of having a thief walk in front was to check the passageway for traps as they advanced. If there really were traps, though, it was likely that they had either been disabled by the parties ahead of them, or those parties had already tripped them without noticing.

“The dungeon grows, right? Isn’t it weird for there to be traps in its passages, then?”

“Do I look like a dungeon to you? Go ask the core if you’re so curious,” answered Azu in a deal-with-it tone.

Renya supposed he would have to put aside the logical absurdity of the issue and simply accept that they existed.

“Save it for later, you two. I can see a room up ahead.”

At Rona’s announcement, the party’s atmosphere shifted immediately. A sober tension permeated the air. Renya found himself impressed by the speed at which it happened. They weren’t professional adventurers for nothing. As he appraised his teammates, his manner appeared nonchalant, but his left hand remained firmly on the hilt of his katana.

“A room?”

“If a passage widens, it becomes a room, right? There’s no door, though,” said Shion.

“…And no presence of anything living either,” Renya added.

“You can tell?”

“Somewhat, yeah.”

The passage suddenly expanded into an open space. The two of them entered first and cautiously looked around. Shion had already drawn her weapon, but Renya kept his sheathed. Part of the reason was that the motion of drawing his blade was part of the attack, but there also seemed to be some lingering residues in his mind of an idea that a katana should be drawn to cut, not be held while walking.

“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here,” said Shion.

As Renya nodded in response, he discovered a spot on the ground that seemed to be stained. At the moment, the wavering light of the torch was insufficient for close examination, but the heat of the fire could change its appearance if he held the torch close. In a moment of realization, it dawned on him that this was the time for Illuminate to shine. He cast the spell, placing it near the stain.

“What is it?” asked Azu, noticing the stain on the ground below where the orb of light had suddenly appeared. On the barren soil of the ground, that spot alone was different in color.

“It’s pretty faint now, but maybe blood?”

“Probably. Either someone took down a monster here… or was wounded.”

While the stain was faint, it covered a sizable area — about two hands fully outstretched. For a wound to have bled enough to create such a large stain…

“This is a lot of bleeding if it came from a wound.”

“It’s been mostly absorbed by the dungeon. I can’t tell if it’s man or monster.”

Upon hearing something so decidedly unsettling, Renya stared at Azu, whose face was a mask of indifference.

“First time seeing it, I assume?”

“Yeah. So they absorb it like this and grow, huh…”

“That’s right. Blood, bodies, they’ll all disappear given enough time.”

Despite hearing about it before, seeing it with his own eyes still came as a shock. It was a firm reminder that he was, without a doubt, no longer in his original world. The other members, however, seemed to have misinterpreted his expression.

“Renya, do you want to head back for a while?” asked a concerned Shion. Seeing him frozen in place, his eyes fixed on the stain, she placed her hand on his shoulder. “Now that I think about it, this is your first time, isn’t it? I can understand if the experience shook you. We can head back and maybe try again tomorrow…”

“Hm? Oh, I’m fine. It took me by surprise, but I’m not shaken or anything.”

Renya patted Shion’s shoulder and smiled at the other members who were observing his response to show that everything was fine. Meanwhile, in his mind, he was contemplating the tiresome nature of being a leader and how his every look and gesture affected the party’s atmosphere.

“Are… you sure? I guess it’s okay if you’re fine, but let us know if anything bothers you.”

“Thanks for your concern, Shion, but really, I’m fine,” he said, making sure to use his most sincere tone. He finally wrestled an okay out of Shion, who removed her hand from his shoulder with a hint of regret and returned to keeping watch on their surroundings, weapon at the ready.

The fact that there was blood on the ground, whether it was from man or monster, implied that something had happened where they stood. Furthermore, it was likely that the happening was some kind of battle.

“Looks like there’s definitely something here, huh.”

“Of course there is. It’s a dungeon,” replied Azu, whose wry smile suggested he felt he was stating the obvious.

“Well, let’s keep moving forward for now. This stain by itself isn’t quite enough reason to make a mad dash for the exit.”

“Most unfortunate. If only there had been a dead body. That would have been a perfect excuse.”

At this point, neither Renya nor Azu had any intention of clearing the dungeon. All they were looking for was something to use as proof for when they reported back and claimed it was impossible to complete the mission.

“This is the first time I’ve seen such an unmotivated dungeon party…” said Shion. She sounded tired. The rest of the party could only smile, their expressions wry. Everyone was fully aware of how strong the parties ahead of them were. If those people had not returned, whatever lay ahead was nothing they could handle.

“Hey, Renya.” The voice belonged to Azu, who was holding a torch and examining the room’s exit by himself. “Up ahead… there’s a door.”

“What?”

“Right outside this room, there’s a door.”

Renya was waved over by Azu and looked toward the indicated direction. A short tunnel led out of their room, and at its end, the torch’s light was just bright enough to reveal a dark gray door. It had two door panels and took up almost all of the passage’s three-meter diameter. It was also in the most unlikely of places.

“Hey, is it normal for a young dungeon to have such an elaborate door?”

“In older dungeons, monsters might craft them in places… but definitely not in a dungeon as young as this one. First of all, the path has been a straight line so far and we’ve only been through one room. The second room in a dungeon like that shouldn’t have a door like this. Something is clearly wrong.”

“Would the other parties have considered that?”

“Harz’s party definitely would have… but I don’t know about the brown-hair’s.”

Renya was tempted to ask Azu if there was some kind of traumatic past between him and harem parties, but he withheld the quip. It was not the time for glibness. Instead, he gathered everyone at the entrance of the room.

“Let’s turn back.”

“What?”

His terse proposal was met with a unanimous expression of disbelief. Unperturbed, he continued.

“This is dangerous. Something is here. There’s a door right outside this room, and no matter how you look at it, it’s dangerous to open that door. My gut says so.”

He wished he had asked for an ability that would allow him to sense danger, but that ship had long sailed. There was also no one in their party who possessed a skill of similar effect.

“My gut is with you…” said Azu as he collected his thoughts, “but my head says no. I agree that something strange is going on, but ‘because there was a door’ isn’t going to fly when we explain ourselves to the guild.”

“Isn’t it possible that opening this will lead to the ultimate deathtrap?”

“The door is strange, but it would be even stranger for it to be powerful enough to spring such a deadly trap.”

“Renya, we can’t just head back empty-handed just because things felt weird. We haven’t even investigated. It’d defeat the point of accepting the mission, and the guild would have no choice but to penalize us heavily.”

Renya considered the arguments presented by Azu and Shion. In this case, whether or not they saw themselves as adventurers probably contributed to their difference in opinion. He, of course, did not give two hoots about how adventurers were supposed to behave. As a result, he cared little about what the guild would think, and now that they faced an unforeseen danger, he was immediately in favor of retreating. This proposal, however, was a tough one to stomach for Azu and Shion, who held themselves to certain standards of adventuring.

“I still think opening this door might be the last thing we do…”

“In that case, how about this?” Seeing his resistance, Azu stepped forward with a proposition. “We’ll go in first. Your party can back us up.”

“But that doesn’t really—”

“Whatever you say, Renya, the five of us are opening that door. Otherwise we can’t go back, no matter how much we want to. That’s what it means to be an adventurer. If you decline to back us up, then we’ll simply investigate on our own.”

“Hmm…”

“Renya, you’re the leader. We’ll do whatever you decide, but I really don’t think we should leave Azu’s party behind and go back by ourselves.”

“Hnnngh…”

Renya grasped for words, but failed. It was true that one’s work was only recognized when said work produced respectable results. What he was proposing was the equivalent of abandoning the entire endeavor. It was also true, however, that his instincts were screaming at him to avoid the door up ahead. It was bad news and he knew it. Letting Azu’s party go first, then, would be knowingly sending his allies to their deaths. He couldn’t let himself do that.

“Okay, fine. We’ll push forward,” he conceded, ultimately unable to find the words that would convince his fellow members. Realizing that he had no choice but to proceed, he gave a discouraged sigh. “But, I’m going to open that door. And I’m doing it alone. Shion and Rona, the two of you guard Azu. The remaining four, you’re in charge of staying behind and watching our backs.”

“Renya?!” shrieked Shion.

In a calming gesture, he made a calming gesture with his hand and smiled weakly.

“I still think we shouldn’t keep going. But if I can’t convince the rest of you, then I have to open that door and check if there’s any danger. It’s the only way we can do this.”

“Renya, I’ve already said we’ll go in first—”

“That’s not an option,” he refused flatly. “I think that whatever lies ahead is a risk to our lives. So long as I think so, I can’t tell you guys to go in. Therefore, I’m the one who has to open that door. If you can’t consent to that, then you’ll have to agree to turn back.” Making it clear that this was the one condition he was not going to back off on, he awaited their response.

A full-on argument broke out. Renya demanded that he go first, while Shion and Azu were adamant that they were not retreating, but they refused to let him go by himself as well. Neither side was willing to compromise, and the talks hit an impasse.

Technically, as a last resort, Azu could back out of the agreement to fight alongside Renya’s party and push ahead with his own party. He had difficulty forcing the issue, however, because he did not decline the offer of support from Rona and Shion, and Renya did not declare that he was turning back.

Azu had, of course, no intention of fighting with Renya. If anything, he would rather maintain an amicable relationship. Whether it was the allure of Renya’s voidbox and the convenience it offered or the influence of Renya’s near-religious devotion to food, Azu found that he very much preferred to remain on the young man’s good side. Renya had him by the stomach, so to speak. In any case, he wished to avoid any deterioration in their relationship, but he also could not agree to a simple retreat. That meant he had to put forth an alternate solution.

“All right, let’s say I’m okay with having you go first for now.”

“What’re you talking about, you shady asshole?! What? Just ’cause he’s not in your party, you’re gonna let him go?!” yelled Shion furiously, her vocabulary decidedly less genteel than usual. In fact, it more resembled how girls her age usually talked.

“Shion, words. Watch your words…” whispered Renya.

Azu glanced at Shion, who promptly covered her mouth with her hands, and tilted his head, wondering what it was about him that earned him the descriptors “shady” and, he supposed, “asshole.” He conceded that the natural shape of his eyes often appeared hostile. He also had a gaunt face, was bad at smiling, and rarely showed any emotion. He nodded, deciding that “shady asshole” was indeed an objectively accurate description of him.

“Still,” he continued, “I can’t let you go alone. How about this? You and I, along with the two girls, will form the vanguard, but you can take the lead. The remaining four in my party will bring up the rear.”

“Y-Yeah, Renya. That way, you’re still going in first, and the rest of us can back you up right away. We’ll also have our backs covered,” added Shion frantically.

Renya wasn’t fond of splitting the party in two, but he doubted that any further arguing would prove fruitful. There was also another concern that just arose, and it was making him anxious to conclude the debate. His new concern was shared by Rona, who seemed to have come to the same realization.

“Before we charge in, I’ll use as many protective graces on us as I can. With that said… we’ve made quite the scene in front of this door and nobody is coming out. Perhaps there’s nothing on the other side?”

There were two possibilities, and she knew it. Seeing that she purposefully chose to mention the more optimistic one made him laugh out loud.

“If it turns out that there really is nothing on the other side, then you can all have a good laugh about your wimpy leader who had the living daylights scared out of him by the door of an empty room.”

It would be no laughing matter, however, if the other possibility turned out to be true, because it implied that whatever lay beyond was so strong that it couldn’t even be bothered to pay any attention to the antics of some silly adventurers raising a ruckus outside its door. It was perfectly fine giving them all the time they needed to prepare, and it also didn’t mind if they ran away; it was so powerful that it simply didn’t care. Rona, for her part, chose to not show the fact that she was aware of the other possibility. Instead, she was going from party member to party member, using her graces on each in turn.

“There’s not much I can offer. Only Protection and Accelerated Recovery…”

“It’s good enough. I’ll open the door once you’re done with the last person. Rear guard, watch our backs.”

After seeing his whole party nod back, Renya placed his hands on the door. He began to push. For the briefest of moments, he wished it would prove to be locked. That way they would be able to call it off and head back. The door, however, slowly gave way. Immediately, someone groaned loudly.

“Ugh!”

A putrid odor, unnaturally intense, rushed out of the gap. The sheer stench was enough to turn stomachs. With his hands on the doors, he had no way of covering his face and took the brunt of the draft head-on. Behind him, Shion’s hand shot up to her mouth. Disgusted groans were even heard from the rear guard. Nevertheless, he continued to push the door open. This surprised even him. He knew perfectly well how bad the smell was, and the revulsion on the faces of fellow members was a testament to that fact. However, unlike them, who were forced to stop and cover their faces, Renya did not seem to mind.

Was he used to this?

With the question lingering in his mind, he stepped through the doorway. A moment later Shion followed, along with Azu and Rona who held torches in their hands. It was a wide space, significantly larger than the previous room. And it was bright, which allowed them to appreciate its size; torches alone would probably have been insufficient to illuminate its full expanse. The ceiling itself glowed faintly, filling the whole room with light. The surrounding walls, unlike those of the earthen corridor, shone white as if they bore a layer of plaster. In the center was a single ebony desk, and a seated form was hunched over it, busily scribbling something. The effect was almost comical.

A quick scan revealed no apparent sources of the putrid stench that assaulted them when the door opened. Regardless, Renya’s internal danger meter had already breached its maximum value. A powerful aura emanated from the pen-toting form in the middle of the room. Carefully, his left hand tightened its grip around the sheath. He could feel the sweat in his palms.

“Who… or what… is that?” asked Azu from behind, his voice strained. He probably felt the danger, as well.

At that moment, the figure stopped writing and slowly looked in the direction of the room’s entrance where they all stood, unmoving. It was a man, and to Renya, his appearance seemed remarkably strange. His light purple hair was neatly combed back, and his ears were long and slightly pointy. His skin was deep brown, and the eyes with which he gazed at Renya were decidedly unhuman, their pupils long and almond-shaped. The white garb that he wore, which resembled a lab coat, only made his strange appearance even more peculiar.

“Oh? Why, it appears that I have some rather rowdy guests. How odd. I don’t seem to remember inviting you,” said the man with a puzzled tilt of the head. His voice was high-pitched and grated on the ears.

“That’s… a demon…” gasped Rona after getting a good look at him from the front.

“A demon?”

Needless to say, this was the first time Renya had laid eyes on a demon. Before he came to this world, he had heard from the young girl that they lived in the central part of the continent. That, then, begged the question of why one of them was on the human side of the continent, and sitting in a dungeon to boot.

“Renya, you were right. This guy is bad news. We need to run,” urged Azu. The usual composure in his voice was gone, replaced by deep panic.

Shion alone seemed out of the loop, and she stared at their fear-marred faces, evidently confused. Then, she glanced back and forth between the demon and Renya, her sword brandished in front of her.

There was a chuckle.

“Now, now. I see no reason for you to make such a hasty exit.”

Both the man’s tone and his expression were soft and welcoming, but Renya could tell his emotions ran counter to his words. Those were emotions that should never be directed toward a human.

“Personally, I’d prefer to ask what I came here to ask and leave.”

“Oh? What have you come here to ask? Allow me to lend you an ear.”

“Two parties of adventurers came here before us, right?”

“Adventurers, you say? Have they? I’m not sure.” The demon crossed his arms before his chest as if contemplating something, then shook his head. “No, if memory serves, no such thing came here.”

“It was a straight path,” interrupted Azu as he took on a combative posture. “There’s no way they didn’t.”

The demon gave Azu a troubled look.

“So you say, but what didn’t come, didn’t come. How else would you have me answer?”

“Let’s change the question, then,” said Renya. After hearing the exchange between the demon and Azu, he realized that even if he had three more internal danger meters, it would still not be enough to correctly assess the risk they faced. The man before them was more dangerous than anything he ever imagined. “Did eleven toys or specimens find their way here?”

His whole party turned to look at him, their expressions baffled. Renya paid them no mind. Rather, he had no mind left to pay. All of his attention was focused on the demon, who stared back at him with the same unchanging look. After a short span, the demon grinned, uncrossed his arms, and rubbed his palms together. Something about the gesture reminded Renya of a fly, and he grimaced.

“You’re an interesting one, aren’t you?” said the demon, who lowered his hands and pushed himself out of his chair.

Standing up, he was not particularly tall and his build was slender. His unimposing stature, however, did not in any way make him feel less dangerous to Renya.

“Toys, you say? Toys. In that case, allow me to answer like this.”

The demon spread his hands and strolled leisurely from his desk to a wall, making not even the slightest attempt to keep his eyes on Renya’s party. With all the panache of a stage actor, he finished his walk with a twirling flourish before placing his hand on the white wall. A shallow depression appeared on what should have been a solid surface, and his hand began to sink in.

“By ‘toys’, were you referring to this?”

His hand was now completely immersed in the wall. Renya and his friends watched as the man rummaged about, clueless as to what he intended. Eventually, he seemed to find what he was looking for and pulled his hand out.

Something else came out with it.

“What is… Is that Harz?!”

His voice thick with terror, Azu took a step back. Shion’s sword began trembling in her hands, and Rona had her hands over her mouth, barely managing to suppress a scream. Renya almost drew his blade, but he held back.

“Nnnggh… Uuuooo… H-Hel… Help…”

Pulled along by his crop of short blond hair, Harz’s head appeared out of the wall. His eyes were glassy. His mouth hung half-open, barely managing to verbalize his cries for help. The right half of his head still bore a vague likeness of a human face, but the left half was grossly decayed, its very flesh melting off the frame and revealing sinews of muscle and white bone. The freakish sight caused Renya and his friends to freeze.

“For some reason, they just kept popping up here since morning, each one peppier than the last.”

Letting go of Harz’s hair, the demon plunged his hand into a different part of the wall. When it reappeared, it held what used to be a human head. A few strands of brown hair yet lingered on the bare white skull. It was probably Zest, but his visage was all but gone.

“These are truly excellent specimens. They’re great fun to play with, they’re reasonably sturdy, and every time you look away, there are more of them.”

One after another, human heads began to surface along the white wall. Like Harz and Zest, ulcerated flesh and crumbling tissue clung limply to their bony frames. While faint traces of human features could yet be seen on each of the eleven heads, no one allowed their gaze to linger for long on the macabre sight.

“We have our circumstances, too, you see,” continued the demon. “Research, specimen-gathering, and perhaps a dash of fancy… To that end, we tried creating a dungeon near where humans lived, and I must say, for a little fishing hole, it has been quite the haul.”

As the heads peeled away from the wall, their arms and hands slowly followed, strips of disintegrating skin dangling down in front of their skeletal legs that emerged next. It was the stuff of nightmares. Weaker-willed individuals might have seen their consciousness take leave of them right then and there. While each member of Renya’s party was shaken to different degrees by the ghastly sight, they all remained standing. At the same time, however, it was all they could manage to do.

“No need to be so scared. I’m very thorough. I’ll make sure to extract every last bit of use out of each of your bodies, too,” said the demon, still smiling. Behind him, things no longer human began to crawl out of the wall, their arms outstretched as if pleading for help. “Before that, though, I’ll need you all to look like them. Shall we, then?”

He spoke with the lighthearted tone of someone who was pleasantly amused. There was no hint of malice to his voice. At the same time, the cadaverous bodies along the wall charged at Renya’s party.

“Run!”

Renya was the first to react, his shrill command sending the four members of his rear guard into motion. He did not look back, but he heard the clangs of their plate armor as they rushed to make their escape. Soon after, he heard their screams as well.

This time he looked over his shoulder, only to find that the very walls of the previous room, stirring as if alive, had shifted over the room’s entrance and closed it off. A strange red glow glimmered across the walls before pieces of rotten meat, foul and sludge-like, oozed out of its surface and plopped down. They gathered in fleshy piles on the ground. Then, slowly, they began to worm their way toward the four rear guards, who hastily propped up their shields and assumed a defensive formation.

The second round of screams came shortly after.

“My shield! It’s… It’s rotting?!”

Some of the rotten meat snaked toward the four men like tentacles. When they tried to defend themselves with their shields, the parts of the shield that made contact with the approaching carrion turned brown and began to crumble.

“What the hell are these things?! I’ve never heard of a monster like this!”

One could not fight what one did not know. Renya hurriedly activated the Appraisal skill, and a message appeared.

《Notification: Appraisal - Target Name: Rust Monster (Subspecies)》

《Notification: Help Activated - Rust Monsters are rodent-like creatures that feed primarily on rust. They have the ability to cause rusting of any metal for which rusting is possible. In comparison, their ability has no effect on objects made of leather or wood. Defeating these monsters is fairly easy once they are correctly identified. They display no interest in flesh or blood and have small manastones. No useful elements can be harvested from their bodies. As a result, adventurers frequently go to great lengths to avoid them, treating them as nothing more than sources of significant annoyance.》

As Renya read over the explanation, which the Help Function was so considerate as to provide in such detail, he felt the rising urge to yell.

What part of that looks like a rodent to you, you stupid Help Function?!

Presumably, it assumed that “(Subspecies)” was sufficient to address any discrepancies. That must have been it. He convinced himself that it was.

“Aren’t they adorable? These monsters used to look like tiny rodents, but after I gave them a few tweaks, they’ve become the splendid creatures you see now. While they prefer consuming iron rust, the taste of blood is similar enough that they seem to have no qualms about using it as a replacement diet.”

“They’re practically another monster entirely now!” Renya snapped at the demon, who was gleefully providing background commentary.

Things did not look good. In fact, they were getting worse. The eleven things that came out of the wall matched the headcount of the first two parties exactly. Though their movements were slow, they had managed to surround Renya’s party. Now, little by little, they were closing in.

The stench of rot about their bodies was unbearable, but it was the grisly sight of them that kept his allies frozen where they stood. The best example might be one of those anatomical models so often found in science classrooms, but with dissolving remnants of tissue sloughing off as they dragged their guts behind them, leaving a trail of innards in their wake. Behind the sinew in their bodies, one could catch glimpses of something hard and white. The way it peeked out along with their shambling movements was chilling to behold, stirring up terror and disgust in equal proportions.

As Renya’s gaze passed over them, he was shocked by the message that popped up.

《Notification: Appraisal - Target Name: Human》

Are you freaking serious? They’re still alive?

He bit his lip. Everything about them screamed “zombie,” but the appraisal report showed they were still human. Alien hues of red, white, and yellow oozed out of their broken bodies. They, walking horrors of rot and decay, were still living humans. He didn’t believe it. Didn’t want to. But after a glance at the mouth of those human-shaped things, he had no choice; the bony remains of their fleshless lips were mouthing but a single word: “Help.”

“These ones here are in the process of being turned into specimens… but, as you have probably so astutely perceived, they are still alive.”

The demon’s words elicited a gulp from Shion.

“With that said, though,” he continued, “their breath already contains neurotoxins that cause paralysis, and so do their bodily fluids. If they get their hands on you, you’ll likely find yourselves unable to move.”

“Don’t listen to his crap! Fall back and group up with the others!”

Seeing that his friends were frozen in place, Renya yelled at them and urged them to retreat. The figures approaching them, while alive, were definitely not normal humans. He decided that it would be better to group up as eight and deal with the chunks of meat behind them first. Just as Shion and the others moved to comply, however, the door to the room slammed shut with a loud thud.

“Did you really think I’d let you escape? Why not let the ones out there have their fun, and we’ll have ours, hm?”

“Apply Simulcast eight times, by my power, I command thee! Bolts of fire, fly!”

The instant he realized they were separated, Renya changed his plan. He swung his arm in a wide arc. Eight fist-sized fireballs materialized and shot toward the demon.

“By my power, I summon thee! Shield of mana, repel!”

The incantation created a barrier of mana in the form of an energy field. As the fireballs flew into it, they bounced off and dissipated. After repelling all eight bolts of fire, the barrier disappeared, revealing the grinning demon behind it.

“You’re quick to act, aren’t you? Also, an eight-fold simultaneous activation, was it? I had taken you for a swordsman with that getup, but are you actually a mage?”

Renya made no attempt to answer.

“Listen up! We’re going to take this guy down and then rendezvous with the rear guard! Those four are a terrible match for the monsters out there!”

The four men bringing up the rear relied on the defensive capabilities of their plate armor to overwhelm their opponent. Against monsters that chewed through metals by causing rust, they were effectively naked. Even worse, their short swords were probably equally useless; they were also metal, and therefore would also rust. With their weapons and armor gone, they were nothing more than prey awaiting a slow death at the jaws of their meaty predators. Were they able to group up with the rest of the party, Azu and Renya would make short work of the monsters with their magecraft. If only they could do something about the blocked passage; escape might be possible then.

“Yes, yes, do make sure to give me your best effort. The harder you try, the easier it is for me to learn about your capabilities,” said the demon. After blocking Renya’s spell, he did not make any attempt to move.

Renya, for his part, was confident that he could cut down the demon, but he needed to be within striking distance. Closing the gap, however, required him to go through eleven nasty obstacles between them.

“Renya, what should we…” asked Shion in a pleading tone.

Slowly but steadily, the humanoid forms advanced toward them. A few more steps, and their outstretched hands would touch Renya’s nose. One of them let out a breath. His skin tingled. The stinging sensation kicked his brain into high gear.

Breath. Neurotoxins. He was out of time.

Realizing that he was already within range of their paralyzing poison, he hollered at the others.

“Cut them down! We can’t save them! Rona, can you cure poison?!”

“Y-Yes, I can use a basic level Antidote…”

“Azu, give me cover fire with your magecraft! Rona, focus on using Antidote and healing! Shion, keep the enemy away from those two!”

His command wiped the fear from Shion’s expression, soon replaced by a look of determination. She steadied her trembling hands and fixed her grip on the handle of her longsword. Taking a half step back to adjust her spacing, she raised her sword high, its blade almost resting on her right shoulder, and brought it down in a heavy swing that ripped through the shoulder of the humanoid form before her.

Were her opponent a regular human, the wound would surely have been fatal, but it proved insufficient to end the life of the shambling figure. The strike did cause it to flinch back a little, possibly from what remained of its ability to feel pain. Normally, a wound like that should be spewing out copious amounts of blood. Instead black sludge dripped nauseatingly out of its severed flesh. Disgusted, Shion pulled her blade from its body and kicked it in the stomach. The strike sent it reeling back a few steps. Then Azu’s fireball hit it square in the head. The humanoid form clutched its burning face and writhed in agony.

No matter its shape or form, so long as something lived, it needed to breathe. Having its head lit on fire robbed it of the ability to take in air, leaving it to suffer as the heat scorched its windpipe and lungs.

Shion swung again. Her blade sank into its head and parted it in two. The humanoid form stopped writhing and fell to the ground, flames licking at its unmoving corpse. Revulsion contorted her expression; the sensation of cutting and kicking decaying flesh was nothing pleasant. Nevertheless, she let out a shout.

“One down!”

Renya glanced at the others. Rona was prudently preparing a grace for use while Azu was already chanting an incantation for a spell as he searched for his next target. They looked like they could take care of themselves for a while. That left him with only one thing to do: cut that nameless demon down as quickly as possible.

The act of taking a step forward was equivalent to shifting one’s attack range a step forward, and shifting one’s attack range a step forward meant, in turn, having the target within striking distance. What, then, would having the target within striking distance imply? The answer was simple: cut it down.

With his left hand Renya pushed against the handle, unsheathing the blade slightly. Then, he rested his right hand on the hilt and let his body do the rest. There was no need to think. The blade burst from the sheath like a flash of white lightning, cutting a clean rift through the thick, festering air. It flashed again. And again. Three times in one breath. It met no resistance. It made no noise. It parted meat, and bone, and the very sound of its own motion. Renya took another step forward. Three heads hit the ground at the same time.

“I must say, you’ve impressed me again,” said the demon, marveling at the scene before him.

No matter how deformed they were, so long as they were fundamentally human, they could not live without their heads. A decapitated body crumpled to its knees before falling to the ground. Renya did not even spare it a glance. His eyes, showing no emotion, were fixed on the demon in front of him.

Another step forward.

The drawn blade remained unsheathed. It flipped in his hand and reversed its cutting edge before leaping upward. Then, it flipped again and dove back down. Two red lines appeared on two separate bodies, one rising, one falling. From groin to head, then head to groin, two wholes became four halves. Bodies toppled over and spilled their innards onto the ground amidst a widening pool of fluid too dark to be blood. Renya walked past them, his pace steady.

“Well, well. This is certainly unexpected. I might have happened upon a great find.” Seemingly unfazed by the fact that five of his humanoid forms were dismantled in the blink of an eye, the demon was jubilant, his expression filled with the wonder of an exotic discovery. “I can make some splendid works by using you as a base.”

“Too bad you won’t get to.”

The blade in Renya’s hand remained unsheathed. A drawn katana existed to cut. The blade flashed again, a living embodiment of those words, and sliced through two more bodies from side to side. Two tops parted ways with two bottoms. One of the tops kept squirming after it landed on the ground. He rested his foot on its head, then stomped. It stopped squirming.

“That makes seven. Assuming the others take care of the remaining four… I believe there are exactly zero left to protect you?”

Despite his own statement, doubt lingered in Renya’s mind. The humanoid forms, aside from their freakish appearance, possessed no abilities of note. They were mere mannequins. Their outstretched arms and grasping hands were a simple plea for help. The paralyzing toxin in their breath, too, seemed to be of little threat until they were extremely close. Renya himself was a testament to that fact; he felt nothing wrong with his body. In addition, their half-decomposed state left them naked. Meanwhile, the katana’s purpose was to rend and slice. Before its honed edge, their exposed bodies and sluggish speed made them little more than slightly mobile scarecrows. Their value to the demon was doubtful to begin with.

Doubtful or not, though, he had no choice but to defeat the man standing in front of him. The path to his opponent was now clear. Without warning, he rushed forward to close the gap.

“By my power, I summon thee…”

In reaction, the demon began his incantation. Renya had no way of knowing what spell the demon would cast, but he braced himself and continued his dash. He was resolved to either dodge or take it head-on, no matter what the attack, or possibly even two or three attacks, turned out to be.

“Blades of wind, cleave!” commanded the demon, his hand raised.

Gusts of wind, razor-sharp, surged forth from his palm in rapid succession. The number shattered Renya’s expectations, and he was shocked to be staring down a total of twenty ethereal blades speeding toward him. It was too late to dodge. He knew almost nothing about magecraft and, therefore, had no way of gauging how powerful the spell was. Regardless, if he couldn’t dodge, there was only one thing left to do.

“Simulcast twenty times! Firebolt!”

Maintaining the speed of his dash, he quickcast Firebolt against the blades of wind bearing down on him. Fire clashed with wind, each blade meeting a ball of flame. Though their numbers seemed equal at first glance, wind proved slightly superior, winning through raw power and bursting through. He held up his sword to intercept the incoming windblades.

“Fool! You think you can block a wind spell with a kata—”

Normally, this would be an impossible feat. A thick shield, perhaps, could have defended against a direct hit, but magecraft was almost never repelled by swinging a weapon at it. What the demon didn’t know about, however, was the Indestructible property attached to Renya’s katana. This property, which was never supposed to exist in this world, meant that it would unilaterally destroy anything destructible it came into contact with. This fact was not restricted to physical objects; magecraft met with the same fate.

The blades of wind not cancelled out by his firebolts had their spell composition systematically dismantled when they touched his blade. The demon’s words died in his throat as he witnessed something impossible. For the first time, he was no longer grinning.

“Wha—”

Even if he didn’t know why, Renya could tell the spell was gone. The shock of seeing an impossible sight delayed the demon’s reaction by just a second. Renya did not pass that second up. After dispelling the blades of wind, his own blade reversed direction and lashed out again. It traced an arc straight through the demon’s body. An outstretched right arm — the same one that unleashed the spell — soared through the air. One end was perfectly smooth, its cross section cut with surgical precision.

“G-Gyaa… Hnngh…”

It was commendable that the demon did not scream. The cut was so clean that the arm whirled through the air and landed on the ground before a fountain of blood erupted from its severed face. Clutching his wounded stump, the demon glared at Renya with hatred in his eyes.

Renya barely noticed. His mind was occupied with concern about what was happening to their separated rear guard. Seeing that his opponent shrank back a little from the attack, he was more than glad to take advantage of the opening. A swing at the demon’s neck was barely evaded by a twist of his body, and a diagonal slash caught his chest, but the cut was shallow. Before Renya could follow up with another strike, the demon roared at him. The voice, not only loud but empowered by mana, hit Renya point-blank and caused him to stagger. In that moment, the demon quickly put some distance between them, backing away to the wall.

A faint hope flashed in Renya’s mind. Maybe the demon, knowing that he lost in a clash of magecraft, was trying to escape. Renya was not sure how his katana had managed to dispel the wind spell, but this fact had shocked the demon enough to create an opening. In other words, it was not a calculated move on his part; he was simply fortunate enough to land a lucky hit. He tried to press his advantage, but his next two attacks were evaded.

Renya had, therefore, yet to land a single hit on his own merit. This spoke to the sheer strength of the demon and his physical capabilities. While the various surprises and doubts he had to contend with meant that he was not at peak performance either, for someone who had lost an arm, the demon was still proving to be a tough opponent. Renya honestly did not want to keep fighting him. The longer this battle took, the worse things would be for him. His gut told him so.

Fortunately, his one lucky hit took a whole appendage away from the demon. It would have been extra lucky if the demon was right-handed, but more importantly, his gaping wound was currently in the process of spewing out a steady stream of blood. Blood loss led directly to fatigue and a loss of concentration.

“D-Damn… you…” panted the demon in a pained voice. What followed, surprisingly, was not the routine cursing of a stereotypical villain. “S-Sure are holding… something interesting… Where did you find that?”

The question almost went straight over his head before he realized it was referring to his magic-dispelling katana.

“Seriously? That’s your concern? You don’t think there’s something else to worry about?” said Renya with mild amazement.

The demon weakly uttered a low, growling laugh. The “weakly” part was reassuring for Renya, because it implied the wound was definitely draining the demon of his stamina.

“You mean the arm? Forget about the arm. What matters right now is that weapon you’re holding. Did it just destroy a spell? That should have been impossible.”

“Don’t ask me. I got this from a trade with a traveling merchant. Go find the merchant if you want to know where it came from,” he said, though he doubted it was possible for a demon to wander through human lands looking for a traveling merchant.

Renya produced a piece of paper from his pants pocket and wiped off his katana. The bit of fat left on the blade by the humanoid forms had been bothering him. A good, fast swing often left the blade quite clean, but it was not guaranteed to prevent every drop blood and fat from sticking. Keeping his eyes on the demon, he cautiously cleaned his katana and casually threw the soiled paper onto the ground.

“So, you still want to go despite being wounded pretty badly?” he asked, hoping for the opposite answer, but the demon did not comply with his wishes.

“Of course. A cut like this doesn’t count as a wound.”

Renya frowned, considering whether the demon was bluffing. He soon stopped himself. Though he possessed almost no knowledge on demons, they were likely superior to humans in both intelligence and power. Even now, after suffering extensive blood loss, the demon did not look to be on the verge of collapse. His face was contorted with pain, but there was still a fire in his eyes, which were trained on Renya’s katana.

“What a pain…” muttered Renya.

Meanwhile, the demon tried to pick up his severed arm. Before he could reach it, Renya sent another round of twenty quickcast firebolts at the limb. Despite the low-level spell, it was enough for the arm to burst into flames and turn into a charred black mess.

“How rude. That was my arm, you know?” complained the demon. He did not look particularly miffed.

“I’d rather not have you stick it back onto yourself.”

He had meant it as a joke, but the demon seemed to take it at face value.

“Oh? Perceptive, aren’t you? Now that it’s been burned, though, I suppose I’ll have to grow another one.”

Before the thought, What the hell is this guy talking about? even flashed in his mind, the demon flexed the stump at his shoulder. It stopped bleeding. Then, a bump formed on the severed plane that quickly lengthened and grew before his very eyes. Soon, the demon’s arm was good as new. After testing the regenerated limb by swinging it around, the demon smiled.

“Looks good.”

The regrown arm, though a little fainter in hue, was a carbon copy of the scorched original in appearance. Function-wise, it was probably the same as well.

“Geez, what are you? A flatworm? Or some sort of lizard?” groaned Renya, unwilling to believe what he just witnessed. Was this some sort of cruel joke? An opponent who could regenerate lost limbs at a moment’s notice was undoubtedly a swordsman’s worst nightmare. The demon’s stamina probably took a hit from the blood loss, but the fight definitely would have been easier if he only had one arm. This meant that dismemberment was meaningless; only a lethal strike would finish the job.

Renya considered his next move as he sheathed his katana. A halfhearted strike was not going to do.

“Actually, no. That’d be an insult to lizards,” he said, hoping the taunt stung the demon. The less composed his opponent was, the more likely his next attack would work. Conversely, if too much blood got to the man’s head and he turned into a raging monster, that would lower the chance of success. He needed the demon just angry enough to tunnel-vision.

A flick of his hand undid the clutch on his belt and released the sheath. Turning so that his right side faced the demon, Renya lowered his stance a little. With the sheath in his left hand and the hilt in his right, he turned his body leftward as if winding up for a swing.

“This time, I’ll cut you down permanently… so stay where you are.”

At his last word, he kicked the ground with his left leg. Charging forward with his posture fixed, he was ready to draw at any second. The demon made no attempt to run. Presumably, he judged Renya’s attacks to be dodgeable based on their previous exchange.

Renya agreed. With his current speed, a normal slash was guaranteed to miss. What he needed, then, was a slash that wasn’t normal. He look a large step forward with his right foot and drew in his left. Usually, his left foot would then kick the ground again to close the gap.

This time, however, he took the momentum of drawing in his left foot and put it directly into a kick. Of course, he was not yet within range. The demon watched, perplexed, as he threw out an empty kick. Then, from the demon’s perspective, Renya’s form disappeared behind the piece of paper he’d used to wipe his blade which had been sitting on the ground moments before.

“A feint? You impertinent whelp!” roared the demon as he flicked the twirling paper aside with his right arm.

Even if he lost sight of Renya for a split second, he should still have been perfectly able to dodge an attack like the one before. What came from beyond the paper, however, was not an attack like the one before. As the paper cleared from his vision, he discovered Renya standing with his back to him. Baffled by Renya’s defenseless state, the demon was again a beat too late in his reaction.

After kicking up the paper with his left leg, Reyna had rotated 180 degrees around his right leg to put his back to the demon. The move simultaneously surprised his opponent and led into his next attack. Leaping off his right leg, he backed into the demon and jammed the sheath in his left hand into the demon’s gut. No matter the species, so long as the demon was a living creature who drew breath, he would be winded by a sudden blow to the gut. A winded target was an unmoving target. Renya had his opening.

The dull impact he felt with his left hand told him the sheath had hit home. He spun around and drew his blade. It ripped into the demon from his right shoulder and exited through his left hip. The momentum built up from the sheath strike and the spin was concentrated into a single slash that parted the demon in two, cutting through clothes, meat, muscle, and bone. Half a body — head and left arm still attached — plopped onto the ground. Ignoring the remainder of the demon’s body, which was violently discharging blood, he approached the half that had the head attached, and immediately made it headless. Finally, he drove his katana into the decapitated head between its raised brows. It still wore a bewildered expression. Only after confirming that every last body part had ceased moving did Renya allow the air in his lungs to escape through his lips.