“……You soaked a greater demon’s beam of destruction and did not die?!”
A man in a filthy robe stood by the kind of altar an evil god’s temple should have.
He had a hood pulled low over his eyes, hiding his face, but the snout alone poked out—proving he was beastfolk. Clearly the one I’d returned the curse to.
“Who are you people?”
He pointed his staff at us. There was a grotesque skull on the end of it. Behind him loomed the greater bark demon responsible for that surprise attack.
No signs of other demons. He must have sent them all after us already.
“We are the hero Nanashi and his followers.”
As I spoke, I realized I wasn’t talking like Nanashi, but it was a bit late for that, so I just rolled with it.
“““The Golden Knights!””” “Sir!”
The girls all posed around me.
Too smooth. Like they’d practiced this.
Had they?
“Ah, so you’re the hero’s party! Here to foil the plans of the great demon summoner Zomamurgormi!”
If you hadn’t cursed the Great Sorceress, we never would have found the place.
“Demon Summoner Zomamurgormi! Your ambitions end here! Repent and surrender!” Arisa cried, pointing dramatically at the villain.
He did not call himself that for nothing; he had the “Summoning Magic: Demon” skill.
“Surrender? Nay! My plan is in its final phase! None can stop me now!”
With that, he flung his cloak aside.
This revealed a weaselfolk covered in tasteless doodads. I wasn’t gonna argue with attempting to look the part, but necklaces made of shrunken heads were going a bit too far.
“……Weasel,” Liza growled, making a face at our foe’s race.
Right, she had some bad history there.
“The hero Nanashi and his Golden Knights are fated to thwart all evil schemes!”
Arisa was really getting into this argument.
“Then prove it with deeds, not words!” Zomamurgormi cried, swinging the arm that wasn’t holding the staff, and scattering several purple stones.
These transformed into demons in the air.
Ah, a summoning item.
“Inferno!”
Arisa summoned a vortex of flames without any incantation, burning them to a crisp before they hit the ground.
There were no furnishings or rafters to catch fire, but this was still not a great idea indoors.
“Inconceivable!”
“Demons are sitting ducks before they cast their barriers!”
Arisa brandished a staff made from the World Tree.
“Hngggg—what are you doing? Get them!”
Zomamurgormi turned to the greater demon behind him.
The charge on that cannon wasn’t ready yet, but there were crystalline jewels exposed on every part of its body, gathering light.
“Deploying Fortress, I announce.”
Nana activated the standard defensive function built into her golden armor.
Several layers of barriers appeared before the rain of light from the greater demon.
There was a flash and a pattering like a sudden squall against the barriers’ surfaces.
“You blocked a greater demon’s attack? So you were not simply fortunate enough to be out of range before!”
Zomamurgormi was astonished.
“At this rate, I may fail in my sacred duty to bring His Majesty, the emperor’s brother, back to the position he was meant to hold!”
Then was this connected to an inheritance dispute in the Weaselman Empire?
“You cursed the Great Sorceress so that you might give the fortress city’s artifact to His Highness, the emperor’s brother?”
“Nay!”
No?
“You misspeak! You will call him ‘His Majesty’!”
Oh, this was about titles. If he was the emperor’s brother, then “Highness” was likely correct, but clearly the man was particular about that.
“You cursed the Great Sorceress for your master?” I tried again. He seemed worked up enough to blab all kinds of things.
“The curse on that witch was merely obfuscation! Our true goal is Arcatia’s Purple Moon Core, with which—!”
Realizing he’d said too much, he trailed off.
This was clearly the treasure Tia had mentioned.
Wait, the Purple Moon Core?
“And you plan to sell that for funding?” I asked, pretending I believed that.
“I am no common thief!” Zomamurgormi shrieked. This man was very susceptible to being wound up.
Or maybe “Interrogation” was lending a hand?
“Little do you know, with the power of the Purple Moon Core, we can locate the legendary flying fortress, hidden somewhere in these lands!”
So it was that Purple Moon Core.
I’m afraid I already had that flying fortress in my Storage.
Sounded like it wasn’t just a core part of the fortress itself but also key to locating it.
“Once, Lalakie, floating island of the foolish gods, ruled half the continent—but the flying fortress proved its match! With that power, we could return the empire to its rightful ruler, not this false emperor who’s warped its very nature!”
Drunk on his own rantings, he shook a fist at the sky.
Hadn’t expected to learn his entire motive.
“Villains always confess their schemes when they’re cornered!” Arisa said, over Tactical Talk.
I politely ignored this, asking one last question.
“You said your plan was in its final phase. That no one could stop you now. But the Great Sorceress and her adventurers have already eliminated the demons you sent to the fortress city.”
“Oh? The demons I sent in?”
Zomamurgormi’s grin grew wider still.
So he’d done more than just send demons?
“Master—”
“Don’t worry. Fen’s on the final defensive line.”
“But Fenrir’s a puppy now!”
“He can go full wolf mode for a moment or two.”
And that would buy enough time for the Great Sorceress to step in.
I’d asked everything I wanted to, and Fortress was about to run out—time we slew this greater demon and placed Zomamurgormi under arrest.
“Poo, leave this to poo, you go on ahead, poo,” the greater demon said.
It talked? I thought it the silent type.
“Don’t tell me what to do! I’m your master!”
“Poo, I know, poo. But reviving the demon lord is the best way to make your wish come true, poo!”
Demon lord?
They were trying to revive another one of those?
“I, a demon summoner, cannot turn my back on a mere hero!”
“Poo! Poo’s cannon doesn’t work, poo. Only a demon lord can win, poo!”
The greater demon was really into that idea.
Zomamurgormi didn’t seem particularly taken with it.
“Hngg…I suppose I have no choice.”
The weasel turned on his heel and ran toward the hellscape tapestry on the back wall.
“Ah! He’s running away, sir!”
I pulled a kunai from storage and threw it.
It flew through the Fortress walls and pierced Zomamurgormi’s leg, like I’d hoped.
He toppled over, clutching his leg, but a grotesque hand reached out of his robes and threw him toward the tapestry. That was a demon’s hand.
He was swallowed up by the tapestry, vanishing from view.
That must be a Gate of some kind. Probably led outside this Otherworld.
“Master, leave this to us and go after Zomamurgormi.”
“But—”
“We’re fine. Let us show off the fruits of our retraining in the castle and Azure Land.”
“Master, I swear on this spear I will deliver you victory.”
I hesitated a fraction of a second, but they seemed so sure of themselves—it gave me the push I needed.
My party were a match for this thing without my help or Fenrir’s.
“And revitalized monsters are never as strong,” Arisa said, shooting me a goofy wink. Her way of reassuring me.
“Got it. Don’t get hurt!”
I ran toward the tapestry, after the weasel.
“You shall not pass, poo!”
“‘Cherry Blossom Flash’”!
A quick-activating “Thrust” special move sliced through the bark demon’s attempts to stop me. I dove into the tapestry without even slowing down.
“Where am I?”
The view on the other side was an altar—much like where I’d been.
This one had a ceiling, though. The map said I was on the lowest level of the actual Temple of the Evil God in the Jungle Labyrinth.
The Gate in the tapestry behind me had vanished. I bet the greater demon had closed the Gate even as I hacked his side.
I turned on Clairvoyance and Clairaudience to keep tabs on my party.
Sure would have been nice if “Cherry Blossom Flash” had taken that thing out, but it just sprouted new buds inside itself, regrowing the damage I’d done.
“Poo, you forced me to use my last resort, poo. Can’t mess with heroes, poo.”
“Not just heroes.”
I’d been disconnected from Tactical Talk, but my Space Magic spells still linked just fine. I could keep an eye on them.
I had no way of returning to the other side, but I could pull them to me with “Unit Deployment.”
With that plan set, I turned to follow Zomamurgormi.
Then my nose caught a stench.
“PU!”
I made a face.
My “Night Vision” skill told me the source of the odor—it was like being stabbed in the back with an icicle.
That shattered floor, with a crystal spike growing out of it, had corpses impaled on them. Mostly adventurers, but other kinds of corpses, too.
Any number of them bore wounds that proved there’d been no consideration for their dignity.
“Sorry, this is all I can do here.”
I spread out Magic Hand like a net, putting all the bodies in Storage. I’d have to bury them properly later.
I could feel myself growing angry. Even with my excess of MND, I couldn’t stifle it.
Fanned by the flames of rage, I ran up the stairs after Zomamurgormi.
He’d left demons in my way, and they came after me, but I slew them all on the run. Seeing that they couldn’t fight me, they tried collapsing walls and ceilings, but magic and skills got me through.
“Shit.”
Zomamurgormi was headed for a crowd of adventurers and priests.
They were just beyond a passage that had clearly collapsed once before.
I used “Warp” to reach the room.