Side Story Chapter 76
‘I might have to abandon this body to solve this.’ Joshua smiled bitterly. Although he didn’t show it, he was in bad shape because he was using another person’s body rather than his own.
-I won’t let you have your way.
Joshua’s eyebrow rose. Beelzebub raised his sword and then tried to cut off the arm piercing Cain’s shoulder. Joshua, however, wouldn’t let that happen because Beelzebub was not using his own body either.
“Cain!” Joshua shouted.
Cain grabbed Beelzebub’s arms and bared his teeth in a bloody grin that let blood drip out of his mouth.
-Are you trying to die or something?!
“I won’t.”
-What?!
Cain chuckled. “My master won’t let that happen.”
Cain’s fanatical faith made Beelzebub recoil in surprise. Since Beelzebub was directly infusing his demonic power into Cain, he knew precisely what was happening to Cain. By now, Cain must be in so much pain that it felt like all his organs were being gnawed by bugs.
-Arggh!
Beelzebub trembled. A white spear pierced straight into his heart—worse, the spear was constantly releasing thick divine power.
-You’re… craz… y…! Are you going to… kill your… own son…?
“He won’t die. Do I look that stupid?” Joshua asked with an annoyed frown.
-What…?
“This spear is made purely of divine power, so it won’t inflict any physical damage to humans,” Joshua explained.
-Urgh…!
It was a jaw-dropping feat. Even black mages couldn’t use demonic power without making a contract with demons, nor could priests wield divine power without communing with a god. Those narrow-minded angels never lended their powers to someone without deep faith.
Nevertheless, here was someone who was capable of using both powers without meeting those requirements. In the entire history of the continent—no, all the realms—there had not been a single man who had both divine and demonic powers. Despite the fact that this man was a lowly human, he had become the first god-slayer.
-Joshua Sanders…!
Beelzebub growled in a spiteful, strangled voice.
“How long are you going to hide in my son’s body?” Joshua calmly retorted.
-Arghhhh….!
“Come out now.”
-Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
With a creepy scream, a bizarre, demonic head emerged.
“There you are.”
-Fu… ck…!
Joshua caught Kireua’s unconscious body in his arms. Beelzebub, in his black, shadowy demon form, leaped far backward. Although he released a suffocatingly thick cloud of demonic power, he had a glaring white hole in the left side of his chest.
“Torso, legs, arms, head… take your pick. I’ll cut off at least one of them right now,” Joshua said.
Beelzebub gritted his teeth. He was one of the Seven Demon Kings, the strongest demons in the Demon Realm, and hadn’t lost his Evil Sin power, unlike the other Demon Kings, yet he could feel fear emerging from deep within his heart.
-You monster…!
‘I hope he retreats,’ Joshua thought.
Joshua was also secretly feeling anxious. Maybe because he had recently been overworking himself, his power was already turning violent, so his whole body ached as if that was going to break down any minute.
Cain stood in front of Joshua. “I’ll take care of the rest.”
-I’ll kill you all!
Beelzebub’s demonic power erupted, stinging Joshua’s skin. Beelzebub was clearly furious and wanted Joshua, the person who had killed demons’ god and had annihilated their realm, dead.
A horde of fanged mouths—hundreds of them, at least—appeared in the air and moved in accordance with Beelzebub’s guidance. Those mouths devoured everything in their path. Walls, decorations, stone pillars… everything was reduced to dust the moment those mouths got to it. They literally turned into ashes.
Joshua’s eyes turned cold; he already knew what that power was: the Demon King of Gluttony’s Third Authority, Nicaragua, the Rotting Demon’s Mouth.
“It looks like he has no intention of standing down,” Joshua observed.
“I’ll protect you with my life,” Cain said. Despite the situation, he wore a deep smile. In fact, he was downright beaming.
Joshua tilted his head in confusion. “Cain, am I mistaken? I thought I saw you smiling.”
“You’re spot on.”
“Why are you smiling?”
“After decades, I finally get to be your guard, master,” Cain proudly answered.
“…You’re ridiculous.” Joshua chuckled quietly.
Judging from the fact that Cain called Joshua “master”, not ”Your Majesty” as usual, Cain must have been having the time of his life.
“I always asked you to have my back, but please guard my front this time,” Joshua requested.
“As my emperor wills.”
“I’m not going to take the blame if your health worsens later because of this.”
“I never thought about blaming you in the first place. As a matter of fact, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been since I became your knight because I feel like I can finally do my job, master,” Cain said, his smile undiminished.
“Don’t be dramatic.”
“I’m serious. I know it’s wrong, but I hope you stay weak.”
Joshua’s expression shifted subtly. “You might really die, then. You know that all my enemies are monsters like him.”
“I’d be glad to die if I break as your sword.”
“You’d be lucky to just break. Why if you’re bent so badly that you can never be a sword again?”
“Then it would have happened while trying to protect you, right?” Cain chuckled. “I think that is the most honorable injury for a knight.”
“What do you mean honorable? That means nothing if you die or become disabled…”
“Animals leave their skins behind after their death, but humans leave their names. The name ‘Cain de Harry’ will forever be remembered as the star that fell while trying to protect the Martial God.”
“My pride hurts a bit,” Joshua joked.
“Hehehe, then please do your best from now on. I don’t want to die in vain even before I get married.”
Joshua smiled once again and created a snow-white spear in each hand; they were the same as the spear of divine power that Joshua had driven into Beelzebub’s heart earlier.
In Joshua’s current state, it was difficult to create even one, but he made two. On top of that, he then merged the two spears into a single, two-meter-tall spear.
“It looks like your old favorite weapon,” Cain murmured.
“Are you talking about Lugia?”
“Yes—where is it by the way?”
Joshua shrugged. “I can’t use it now anyway. Lugia must be going crazy out of boredom in the depths of the north.”
“That Demon Spirit? Ah, I feel so much better.”
“Cain.”
“Yes, master.”
“Focus on the battle. Trust me and forget about everything else. You see the mark I made, right? Aim for his heart.”
Cain’s eyes shone. Sparks were still flying from the wound Joshua had created. “Yes, master.”
-Nicaraguaaaaa!
The black mouths surrounded Cain and Joshua in all directions.
“Now!” Joshua shouted.
Cain sprang forward like a lightning bolt, ignoring the threats behind him. Whether or not those mouths rotted everything that they touched, Cain’s back was guarded by none other than Joshua, the great Martial God.
“Duck!”
-Kieeeeeeeeeh!
One of the mouths clipped the top of Cain’s hair. Was all his hair going to corrode when only a part came into contact with the mouth?
Instantly, a tunnel through the air was created above Cain’s slicked-back hair. Cain didn’t see it, but he could tell from the sound that Joshua’s spear was dancing, shooting down all the mouths.
Cain was ten meters away from his target, close enough that he could try leaping to it. He made a snap call and leaped high in the air, cratering the ground underneath his feet. He could see the demon’s shadow swaying from side to side right in front of him.
“This is it,” Cain murmured. Cain’s sword thrust forward like a bolt of lightning.
But suddenly, another gigantic mouth appeared superimposed over Beelzebub’s mouth, baring a forest of fangs ready to bite off Cain’s head. It seemed Cain was in a crisis.
-Kieeeeh!
No, it didn’t even qualify as a threat. Right on time, a white spear streaked out of the sky and struck the mouth like the fury of a god. The demon writhed around the spear impaling it dead-center.
And right after that, Cain split the demon’s heart.
-Arggghhhhh!
The demon’s scream split the air, just like a human’s would.
-You… human… bastards…!
“Mmm… Master, are you sure that this demon can be annihilated?” Cain stopped when he was halfway through Beelzebub’s heart.
Joshua looked down at Beelzebub, visibly tired, but every one of the mouths that had surrounded them was gone like smoke.
“Put in more power,” Joshua said.
“I want to, but I can’t…”
Just like Cain said, his sword was firmly stuck halfway into the white hold. Cain pushed harder and poured his aura into it, but it didn’t work.
“That’s because you’re new to this,” Joshua explained.
“New…?”
“When annihilating demons, especially high-ranking demons like Demon Kings, you have to use your mana a little differently. Divine power, the polar opposite of demonic power, could have saved you the trouble, though.”
“What do you mean by ‘differently’?”
“It’s…” Joshua landed in front of the unsteady demon and held out his hand toward the spear skewering him through the mouth. Cracks spread through the entire length of the weapon. “...like this.”
When the spear was infused with aura, the spear exploded.
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