CH 58

Monster

“Kuhahaha….Finally! I’ve finally incarnated!!” Shuten-doji cried out in delight. “Now I can move about in the human world; I don’t have to obey that human organization anymore!”

His current magic power and physical strength were on the same level as they were in the demon world.

Shuten-doji was a ‘Demon God’, a title given to the ten strongest demons in the demon world. Even a single Demon God had enough strength that they could drown the human world in a sea of flames.

“I thought I was a goner for a second, but I managed to obtain an amazing vessel. It was worth all the trouble.”

In the past, Shuten-doji had been summoned by that guy, who had requested that they be comrades.

Humans were nothing more than food to Shuten-doji, who was appalled by that guy’s offer.

Naturally, he tried to kill his foolish summoner and return to the demon world, but that guy proposed a certain offer, that he would provide Shuten-doji a body to freely move about in the human world.

It was impossible to transport their real bodies to the human world, so the demons could only move about in soul form. Though they could still produce a temporary body with magic power and thus weren’t that inconvenienced.

However, the created body was just magic power supplementing the soul. The magic power would dry up after a few days and the bodies would perish, forcefully returning them to the demon world.

So, if that guy could really follow through with his plan, then Shuten-doji would be able to do what every demon had been longing for.

But it was never that easy. A body that could safely incarnate a demon’s soul needed to be strong.

Low grade demons might have been able to possess ordinary humans, but high-grade demons needed a suitable human, and Demon Gods were no different.

That, too, was solved when that guy gave Shuten-doji an abnormal ability called Rashomon.

Shuten-doji had demonified the daughter of an unlucky man who had seen his summoning and possessed her. But no matter how demonified, she was such a weak vessel that just a touch would destroy her. In Rashomon’s domain, however, things were different, and he would be able to remain in the human world for an extended period of time.

Afterwards, that guy gave Shuten-doji Blue-Beard, who was the older brother of the possessed woman, and bid him to create a body for Shuten-doji.

Shuten-doji had never heard of anyone transferring an ability to another. He couldn’t have been more cautious, but pulling it off meant that he could incarnate in the human world. The offer was very appealing, in fact, he spent his days in the demon world bored out of his mind.

So, Shuten-doji accepted that guy’s offer, and began searching for suitable candidates in Alteria for his future body.

At first, Blue-Beard was just a useless crybaby.

Shuten-doji continued to explain that Blue-Beard’s sister would be freed and that the humans of this world were not the same as the ones he knew.

The magic power that oozed out of Shuten-doji was like poison to the human mind. And after demonifying and killing a human, Blue-Beard fell right into his lap.

Under the guise of a suggestion, he would order Blue-Beard to demonify human after human. Still, he never found a single human suitable for his incarnation.

Then, he discovered someone in the northern part of the Amrzs Kingdom, where the Hero’s Paradise mainly operated.

He had such enormous magic power and powerful skills that he erased Blue-Beard’s puppet body in a mere second. The brat fit every condition.

So, he incited Blue-Beard to drag the brat into Rashomon.

Fortunately, the brat was already in a weakened state, so there was no chance of failure, or so he had naively thought.

Contrary to his expectations, Shuten-doji was unable to demonify the brat, who eventually slipped unconscious and Shuten-doji couldn’t mess with his mind.

If he wasn’t alive, then Shuten-doji wouldn’t be able to create the ultimate vessel. He found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place, unable to kill the brat, when a mysterious phenomenon occurred.

That black-haired girl, Kanna suddenly became a suitable vessel.

Shuten-doji had no clue why it had happened, but he had successfully incarnated, so who cared about the small details. He would do as he pleased from now on.

And perhaps because he had perfectly incarnated, his magic power had begun erasing Rashomon.

He still had use for this ability, so he would have Blue-Beard recover it later. He had Blue-Beard’s sister, so there was no way Blue-Beard wouldn’t listen.

“Should I kill everyone from Hero’s Paradise? Wait, eliminating that filthy rat that snuck in comes first.”

While thinking that it would be a good warmup before slaughtering the guys from Hero’s Paradise, he walked towards the invader.

The invader was so much more delicious than he had imagined.

Among them, three were clearly not human. And the blue-haired woman in particular was giving off the most tantalizing smell.

He fired off his Boomerang Bow at the blue-haired woman’s left arm. The Boomerang Bow was an amazing ability that fired off a light arrow which teleported anything it shined on back to the user.

He teleported the woman’s left arm and dug in.

“Deeeeelicious!!” he exclaimed. She was amazing–the best! The meat, filled to the brim with magic power, was more delicious than anything he had eaten.

Demon blood ran thick in Shuten-doji’s veins. The race he belonged to possessed a special characteristic where the limits of their magic power would grow as they consumed others, and humans were one of the best foods to eat. You could say he had gotten used to his stomach. Any humans he ate had their cells and magic power efficiently stored in his soul, and his body and mind would become stronger.

That blue-haired woman was a super rare type; she had a human body, but her soul was something else. Just a small bite sent currents of power surging through his veins. He didn’t know how much more powerful he’d become once he was done eating her.

“How lucky, I really am so lucky.”

Suddenly, a pillar of blue flame shot from the ground and the woman shrank in size. However, the magic power enveloped around her body was incomparably stronger than before.

Her arm, too, had already fully regenerated. She must have some astounding regenerative abilities.

“Yes, now let’s see. It looks like you can regenerate, so I’ll let you live as my bento.”

It was an all-you-can eat buffet of delicious meat. And now that he had fully incarnated, there wasn’t any reason to let that brat live, so he’d devour him whole. Shuten-doji was resolute in his decision.

After repeatedly punching the annoying woman, Shuten-doji grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up.

“Hm?”

Suddenly, an enormous amount of magic power began swelling up from the ground.

He focused on the ground where he saw a black-haired man with a hideous look on his face. When he saw the man’s eyes completely devoid of any and all emotion, a shudder ran down his spine.

“Who is that? There wasn’t a guy like that among the intruders.”

Then, without any warning, the black-haired man appeared before Shuten-doji.

“Wha!?” he exclaimed as the man grabbed his wrist.

“You can have this back.”

The next moment, Shuten-doji shot down and pierced through the ground as if he had been struck by a giant fist.

“Ugh……” Fresh blood poured out of his right wrist. Just as he tried to stand back up while reeling from pain which he hadn’t felt in ages, that man was standing before him.

There was an overwhelming difference in physical abilities between a demon and a human. But even as the weaker one, that human had enough agility to surpass Shuten-doji, someone lauded as a Demon God. It was impossible.

Shuten-doji was covered in wounds. Was it his ability? He hadn’t heard of any kind of ability that could wound even a Demon God.

“What did you do, food?” he managed to wring out from his confused thoughts.

“Give it up, you can’t run anymore.”

The moment Shuten-doji processed his words, an unbelievable rage began to well up inside him.

“Run!? Me..Run?!!”

A delicious fragrance wafted about, and a human stood in front of him. To demons, humans were the best food as it gave them strength. They were nothing more and nothing less, something like livestock. And that livestock had spat out the greatest insult—Shuten-doji would never forgive him.

So, he decided to show his true form, the form of a Demon God.

His arms were strong enough to smash giant boulders the size of mountains in a single swing, and his legs let him move as swiftly as the wind. And yet he would run away with his tail between his legs from a mere human? And once he brandished his demonic sword, Demon Kirimaru, even demon generals would cower before him and beg for forgiveness.

He swung down with Demon Kirimaru and cut down the entire building beside the human with a single slash.

“So?”

If this strength sent chills down even his own spine, then what about a puny human?

“What do you mean ‘So?’……” Not unexpectedly, the black-haired man showed no emotion and just stared back with his dark pupils.

It wasn’t like the response was unusual. Usually, when one meets an existence which they couldn’t possibly hope to understand, they become emotionless. It had happened many times in the demon world before.

“It’s a terrifying slash with enough power to cleanly slice a building in two! Didn’t you see? I get it, I get it you know. You’re afraid!! Despairing!!”

Shuten-doji believed that the human was gripped by fear, desperately looking for a chance to escape.

“Alright, alright. I’ll face you so hurry up and come at me,” said the black-haired man, beckoning in exasperation. An angry fire surged within Shuten-doji for a second, but he quickly calmed himself down.

There were some demons who sorely lacked a sense of danger. And based on his experience, the larger the gap in power the more likely they were to lack that sense. This man was no different. He couldn’t compare his power to Shuten-doji’s, and thus wasn’t afraid. That must have been it.

Thus, he decided to make their power difference known. He kicked off the ground, quickly closing the distance and bringing Demon Kirimaru down on the man’s right shoulder.

“What!?”

Just as he thought he had severed the man’s shoulder, Demon Kirimaru ended up slicing through air accompanied by the sound of breaking metal.

He pulled his chin back to see a bladeless dagger thrust at his stomach. He took an attack? No, he couldn’t see it so it must have been an ability.

In any case, it was obvious that the man had no real way to attack. This erased all his doubts about what could happen even in unlikely scenarios.

“Then cry all you want!” Shuten-doji readjusted his grip on Demon Kirimaru and began a hot pursuit towards the man.

“Why!?”

—Whenever he tried to sever the man’s wrist, or whenever he swung diagonally to sever those pesky legs, the man would always dodge it by a hair’s breadth.

“Dammit!”

Shuten-doji swung down with all his might, but that too was dodged. The brat then took some distance and took out another sword.

Upon seeing such a boorish sword, Shuten-doji let slip a snicker.

“The result will be the same, no matter how many blunt swords you pull out!!”

It was a sword made by a human, after all. It was impossibly difficult for them to make a strong sword. Shuten-doji decided to cut him down, sword and all, with Demon Kirimaru.

“Diee!!” He swung diagonally, trying to cut the man in two. His sword beautifully slashed through him and the ground beneath him—or at least it should have.

“Wha?”

He thought he had cut everything in two, but his swing was completely stopped by that dull blade.

The next moment, he felt a force on his stomach as he was blown backwards.

“Urgh……” When he came to his senses, he found himself on both knees.

He was hit by a human, by mere food. It was the first time he had been humiliated like this, and the sharp pain made him vomit.

“!?” He stiffened up when he suddenly realized there was someone right beside him.

“Reflexes, muscles, endurance, skill. You’re lacking in everything. Sorry, but there’s plenty of people on your level here.”

He felt a powerful strike on his chin that sent his vision reeling. Then, he felt his body, which had begun floating, suddenly drop to the ground. Punch after punch, he felt a dull pain run through his body.

Food was making sport of him? This kind of humiliation was unbearable; he’d never admit it.

“Damn youuu!!!” he shouted, drawing Demon Kirimaru back like a bow and jumping towards the man.

“This’ll end it!”

Once he entered his range, he fired off a swing to cut the man’s neck off. He summoned all his strength and swung down, but it once again cut through the air as he received a counter punch to the face this time.

“You’re ill-prepared, in more ways than one. You don’t think when you act, and you’re not strong enough to kill me,” the man said, emotion appearing on his dull face for the first time. It seemed like he was feeling pity for a flailing idiot.

“Kill……Kill! Kill! I’ll kill you!!”

A piece of food pitying Shuten-doji, someone hailed as a Demon God? He would never forgive such an act. Screaming, he began to stand up, but……

“That’s not something you should say before you can actually do it.”

The man pointed the tip of his boorish sword at Shuten-doji, who reeled back at his reflection as if cold water had been poured all over him.

He had seen his bloodied body and his face boiling with humiliation after all.

“I’m done playing now!”

Either way, using Boomerang Bow would easily end the life of a human.

Once he killed this foolish human, he would take his anger and shame out on the rest of this world’s humans. This man’s friends, especially, wouldn’t be getting off easily.

He could burn them at the stake, no, he could even throw them in a cauldron of acid. And he’d have lowly and vulgar monsters rape his women until they died.

“It is a tad regrettable that I can’t show him their ends,” Shuten-doji thought as he fired off Boomerang Bow at the man’s head.

His soon-to-be-realized future would—

“Ahhhhhhh!!”

An intense pain in his right arm sent him reeling as it was crushed to bits.

His vision was clouded by pain as he looked to see what he had teleported in his left hand. It was—

“Eeeek!”

It was his right arm with a giant hole gouged out of it.

“This……is Boomerang Bow’s effect……?”

There was no other possibility.

“Y-y-you. What did you do?” he managed to wring out in his confusion.

“Ah, my ability?”

“Gugiiiiii!”

In an instant, pain shot through his left arm as fresh blood began spurting out of its stump.

“I-i-impossible!!”

What did he do? He couldn’t tell at all.

Yes. Before he knew it, his arm was in that man’s hand.

Finally, he realized that the thing before him was no ordinary human.

— Even those that had gone down as heroes didn’t have a body as ridiculous as him.

— There was no way he had a sword strong enough to block Demon Kirimaru, one of the few famous swords of its kind.

— Most of all, there was no way a human had an ability that Shuten-doji couldn’t understand, let alone not being able to even see it.

“Ugh……” He tried to jump back and gain some distance, but the distance disappeared and he found himself in front of the man once more.

“Hey.”

“Eeeek!” He fell to his knees after squealing like a pig on the verge of death.

The man shrugged and took out a crimson sword. Then, in the blink of an eye, the world changed.

“What……was that?”

A thick evil aura continuously seeped out of the crimson sword, and the runes on the blade wriggled about as if they were alive.

Just a look at that sword had his realization come crashing down—the realization that the sword had enough strength to grind Shuten-doji’s body and soul into pieces.

“Nooo!”

“Sorry, but I can’t let a man-eating demon like you live.”

Struck by fear, he turned around and frantically began to run.

“Uwaaaaaahhh!!”

Tears and snot poured down as he miserably tried to escape, but a crimson light flashed and Shuten-doji lost consciousness.

◇◆◇◆◇◆

????—Shuten-doji

As Shuten-doji regained consciousness, he found himself in a corridor, surrounded by red tiles in all directions.

“Where am I?”

He scanned the surroundings, but there wasn’t a single soul. There were only the blood-red tiles and the feeling that he had fallen into the depths of hell.

“What was that monster!?”

There’s no way that ridiculous being was human. He went against divine providence.

If he was actually serious, he could even be as powerful as the strongest Demon God, The Heavenly Prince God.

“I want to go back to the demon world……”

The monster’s image had burned itself in his mind, and just thinking back of him would send him seething with rage and wanting to vomit. He wouldn’t be a part of any world with that kind of a monster. He needed to quickly get back to safety in the demon world.

“You can’t return.”

He turned back to see a familiar unshaven middle-aged man standing before him.

“Damn you Blue-Beard! Where are we! Answer!”

Blue Beard shook his head and looked back with pity. “This is where we, the ones who violated the major rules of the world, end up. We can’t return to our beloved and peaceful homelands anymore.”

“The major rules of the world? The hell are you talking about! Just shut up if you don’t want to talk!” He snapped his fingers as he prepared to eliminate Blue-Beard when—

“Hmm, we’ve got some high-spirited kids on our hands now, don’t we?”

“!?” Shuten-doji let out a shriek as a white figure in the shape of a human suddenly appeared before them.

It was as if he were seeing the culmination of all evils.

“But you’re foolish. Oh, so foolish. If you were going to quiver at the very sight of me, you never should have picked a fight with that monster. You could have enjoyed a brief period of pleasure and enjoyment.”

“Uwaaahh……”

He tried to rush back as an intense fear like falling into an infinitely long well assaulted him. However, a powerful force pushed back from behind him as he fell to his knees.

“Now then, you’ll be heading over there now,” said the white clump, his inner evil feelings leaking out.

“W-where!?”

“Oh? The man over there already said so, no? The place where conceited idiots who break the rules of the world end up,” the white clump said as he brought his hands together.

“Guhaaa!” Suddenly, he was assaulted by intense pain and felt like his spine had been pierced by a stake.

Shuten-doji looked down and saw a three-pronged hoe sticking out of his stomach.

“It’s almost time to say goodbye. Well, have fun,” the white clump said from behind. Shuten-doji turned around. There, he saw—

“Ah……Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!”

The white clump was in ecstasy, as if it was enjoying watching Shuten-doji’s screams, as it dragged him to the room further inside.

◇◆◇◆◇◆

???? Shian.

“Let me be with onii-chan.”

“Kanna!”

Kanna paid Shian’s irritation no heed and continued to bow towards the white clump.

“There’s nothing I can’t do. But are you sure? You didn’t infringe on the rules of this world, so I can just give you a new life, you know?”

“Right! Kanna, I’m begging you, please don’t do this!”

Kanna shook her head. “I’ll always be with you, onii-chan. It was always like that, and it always will be.”

“No! You can’t! Don’t do it!”

What had Shian been bearing up until now otherwise?

“Sorry, but I’m a maritime pilot. I haven’t the slightest intention of getting deeply involved in your fates. So, think hard before you decide,” the white clump said.

Kanna pulled Shian close and nuzzled up into his chest. “Onii-chan, let’s go together! We can do anything if we’re together.”

She was stubborn, and she wouldn’t bend her will no matter what.

“You’re such an idiot……” Shian said.

“Yup, you too, onii-chan.”

He was tired of thinking and bearing with all of it.

He hugged Kanna back. “Please send us off.”

“Yeah, will do.” The maritime pilot snapped his fingers.

And while feeling Kanna’s warmth, Shian’s consciousness dyed white.

◇◆◇◆◇◆

After the two disappeared, the white clump began stretching. “I’ll put those two on hold for now. I guess it’ll depend on what you do from now on. Now then, things are getting interesting. This black tale has been dyed with despair and madness. Sagami Shirabe, no, Grey. Show me what you’ve got.”

He spread his arms and began cackling, his creepy voice echoed throughout the red-tiled corridor.