Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer? - Chapter 81: Don’t Do This (6)

Immediately after hearing Lukkwan’s straightforward explanation, the Inquisitor rushed to the central garden in a single moment.

As she did, all the civilians she came across were left to the thieves. They could find safe places for the people so no one would fall victim to the Demons outside the castle.

Then, she reached the entrance to the central garden.

She stepped over piles of corpses and shattered doors to enter the blood-filled garden. The first thing she saw was a hole where a large tree had once been. Blood from a huge number of people formed a lake inside it.

“Demon Knight?”

She barely managed to tear her eyes from it and looked around more. Within this darkness that even the oil lamp they’d prepared couldn’t illuminate, she could make out a faint figure moving about.

That stature and silhouette of a sword on his back clearly belonged to the Demon Knight.

“Are you okay?”

However, her intuition was ringing alarm bells. Why had the Demonic Energy previously confined to his right arm extended across his entire body?

The Inquisitor carefully took half a step forward with her shield raised; a wise move.

“Urgh.”

Bang!

“…!”

In but an instant, a blade struck her. It was a fast attack that would have been difficult to react to had she lowered her shield.

“Demon Knight…!”

At that moment, its owner became visible in the lamp’s flames light.

The Demon Knight’s entire body was covered in red and black energy as he held his Zweihänder in one hand.

It was hard to tell whether his eyes, tinted in a reddish color similar to a flame’s, were currently gray or red.

The blood on his pale cheeks ran like tears down to his chin.

“Annoying…”

“Demon Knight, come to your senses!”

“I feel like I’m going to die of frustration…”

He went at her again. She raised her shield. Baaam! A heavy blow rained down on it. Even after she’d strengthened herself with Divine Power, her hands and wrists still tingled.

“Demon Knight!”

The Inquisitor called out to the Demon Knight once more. This time, she received some reaction: the Demon Knight touched his forehead with his left hand and bent down. He acted like someone suffering from a severe headache.

However, the crucial difference between him and a sick patient was that he raised his sword against the Inquisitor and showed no signs of withdrawing.

“Huh, ugh.”

Letting out a noise that sounded like a cry, the Demon Knight stumbled forward. The smoky Demonic Energy covering his body thickened and thinned over and over.

“I’ve to come to my senses… but I’m so annoyed. So irritating.”

The Zweihänder’s blade began turning blood red.

“Can’t I just kill her…?”

Upon hearing that one sentence, the Inquisitor abandoned the hope she’d been holding on to.

The Demon Knight was completely out of his mind right now. It was more than clear that that vicious Demon was trying to possess his body at this very moment!

“Don’t worry, Demon Knight! I can endure it!”

What she had to do was simple.

She had to place her trust in the Demon Knight and buy time.

“So don’t lose yourself!”

Until he suppressed the Demon again and fully came to.

Swish!

As soon as she finished shouting, the Demon Knight raised his head again.

The pulsing Demonic Energy eventually stretched out explosively and climbed through his hair, taking the form of a crown or horns.

“I told you, you’re annoying.”

The corners of his red eyes, elongated by the dripping blood, were bent like a person crying.

“Why… why am I so annoyed by you?”

The man, whose complexion was more gray than white in the sunlight and yet so very pale in the dark, seemed somewhat awkward to her with that hue completely absent.

However, when his pale cheeks adopted a crimson color under her lamp’s light and his lips, normally drawn in a straight line, curved up like a broken glass window…

That slight awkwardness turned into unfamiliarity.

“Because of you… it’s because of you.”

The Inquisitor gathered her Divine Power. She’d already pushed herself to the limit not too long ago, but she didn’t care.

The pain caused by said Divine Power compounded her mental fatigue but didn’t actually affect her physically. She could still fight.

No, she had to fight.

“So, just die already.”

Who else could return the Demon Knight to his senses?

Bam!

She raised her shield to block the incoming sword. She then attacked him with her mace, to which the Demon Knight fell back to stab at her right away. Of course, an eerie energy was forming around the blood-stained blade.

“Oh, almighty God!”

Would she be beaten by him like that? No, she couldn’t let that happen.

“Grace me with your presence!”

The Inquisitor used the power God had blessed her with alongside excruciating pain. She forcibly changed the direction of her mace and shield to block that attack before going even further, sending forward waves of Divine Power.

The Demon Knight narrowed his eyes slightly before retrieving his sword and plunging it into the ground. The Arcane Power pouring out of him from all over collided with the Divine Power.

Ba-ba-ba-bang.

For a moment, like iron clashing with iron, the Demonic Arcane Power and Divine Power engaged in a fierce power struggle. The amounts were similar, after all.

The two energies ended up hurtling in different directions.

However, she couldn’t be complacent. The Demon Knight wasn’t the least bit fazed by that and had already launched his next offensive.

The crimson blade cleaved through the air, and the powerful energy imbued within stretched forth, separating the world above and below.

Baang!

She couldn’t afford to avoid it, so the Inquisitor blocked the attack with her shield.

That energy before her was even more focused and sharper than earlier, leaving a few scratches on the shield.

He didn’t stop there. The Knight’s sword, which he’d raised, fell on her diagonally.

The Inquisitor rolled over the floor to avoid getting cut through.

She would have blocked again if she had her usual equipment, but guarding with this cloth armor and cheap, medium-sized shield would be useless.

She shook the dust from her red hair.

Taking advantage of that gap, the Demon Knight rushed at her. Instead of regaining her balance after her roll, she simply raised her shield. She had one hand placed on the floor and the other holding the shield to cover her body.

Not too long after, a heavy blow struck the shield. His face, barely visible from behind the shield, wore a disgraceful expression.

The Demon Knight would never make that kind of expression.

“Did you truly think I would lose!!”

She shouted and prayed again. White light burst out around her, repelling the Demon Knight.

At that moment, the mace in the Inquisitor’s right hand struck the ground in front of him.

Boom.

The ground before her, about three meters wide and fifteen long, trembled as pure white light rose from the earth.

It was a technique the Inquisitor herself had thought up while watching the Demon Knight fight.

“Urgh!”

She hadn’t yet completed nor mastered it, so its energy consumption was considerable, but she could at least land a hit with this.

By just looking at the range that surge of light had covered, she could tell it had even affected the Demon Knight, who had been pushed back.

Even the pit made from steel sheets embedded in the ground tilted to one side.

“So irritating…!”

However, the Demon Knight wasn’t such an easy opponent that he would be defeated in a single attack.

The man who’d resisted the Divine Power with his own energy leaped to his feet immediately and rushed forward. Bang! Shield and sword clashed once more.

The Inquisitor’s shield subtly changed its angle during that power struggle, enabling her to move forward.

Bam!

She threw the Demon Knight to the floor while his sword was still clashing with her shield. While he landed quite gently, her mace had already struck him directly.

Craaaaash!

Like a fountain rising from the ground, light emerged from where the Inquisitor had hit the Demon Knight.

Fsssssh.

The negative energy that met with her Divine Power burned, giving off smoke.

“Urgh.”

Then, the Demon Knight touched his forehead once more.

“No… If I do that…”

The way he stumbled and muttered to himself seemed exactly like someone trying desperately to return to his senses.

Now. The Inquisitor rushed ahead to subdue the Demon Knight. Her defense had been lowered significantly without that heavy armor, but her body was now light and moved forward easily.

Bang!

“Kurgh!”

She tried to break one of his ribs or arms, but the man was too accustomed to fighting to allow for something like that.

The sword he’d seemingly raised on reflex clashed with her mace.

However, there was an inevitable difference between someone fully prepared to attack and someone only belatedly reacting to it. Even more so in a battle between a blunt weapon and a sword.

The Demon Knight flew backward. However, he seemed to have enough strength still as he spun around, regained his balance, and landed like a nimble animal.

“Uuurgh.”

Then, he stumbled again. A voice filled with endless pain scratched at his vocal cords, and his large hand grasped his forehead as if trying to break his very skull.

The black haze coming from his body became darker.

“Haaah!”

The Inquisitor continued her offense as the Demon Knight tried to come to his senses. It was only natural for her to do so, as breaking his arms and legs would make it much easier to subdue him even if he went on a rampage.

However, that was a mistake.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

The Demon Knight roared, Demonic Energy bursting from him to form a sphere. It stretched out in every direction, tearing through the ground as well as the air.

Scratches also appeared on the Inquisitor’s cheeks. She got injured despite hastily raising Divine Power to resist the attack.

She slid on her back, dragging along some dirt.

“Die, die, die, die?”

Meanwhile, the man who’d covered most of his face with his left hand bent his fingers.

Crack.

His fingernails dug into the skin on his forehead. Rip! The eyepatch covering his right eye was torn off in the process.

“Ah.”

However, where she expected to find an empty eye socket or an artificial eye, there was a perfectly fine one.

It was neither red nor gray like his left eye, but the color of flower petals crushed and scattered by raindrops.

“I want to go home.”

Like a whirlwind, Demonic Energy violently coiled around the man’s body. It could no longer be described as a haze. It now resembled fog.

Bam.

“…!”

It took just a single moment. The sword in his hand instantly released energy and eviscerated everything in a twenty-meter radius. Even the shield the Inquisitor somehow managed to raise couldn’t withstand that devastation and was completely cut apart.

“Urgh!”

Although the shield had been shredded, it at least did its job. The Inquisitor placed her hand over the cut on her stomach.

The wound would’ve been much deeper had she not blocked with her shield.

“Has he gotten stronger…?!”

Instead of attempting to heal her wound, she urgently rolled across the floor.

Swish. She could no longer hear things being torn. Only black traces were left in the air as if engraved into it.

It seemed like a simple line from the front, but when viewed from above or below, one could see that the slash was shaped like a crescent moon.

The Inquisitor barely managed to remove the shield’s remains from her lower forearm. There was no use for a shield destroyed to such an extent.

Swish.

Another sword attack was launched without a single gap. She managed to dodge it, eyes wide open. Her reaction was slightly delayed, so several strands of her hair were cut off.

However, there was no time to catch her breath; sword strikes were flying toward her without pause.

She couldn’t avoid them. Coming to a quick decision, the Inquisitor hurriedly struck down to unleash a curtain of Divine Power. Bang! The shield shook after being hit by just a single attack.

Slash!

And when the Demon Knight, rushing forward just behind his [Slash], swung his sword, the strong shield she was so proud of was cut apart like a piece of paper.

It was fortunate she’d used Divine Power to create layers of shield. Otherwise, her head would have been split along with it.

“Haaaah!”

The disappearance of her shield as a reliable cover had many drawbacks, but it was wrong to think of it as purely disadvantageous.

In exchange for losing her shield, the Inquisitor could easily swing her mace and counterattack.

Kang!

The blades of her flanged mace clashed with the blade of that bloody sword, becoming a power struggle similar to the one before.

However, the difference between then and now was the additional launched attacks. The Demon Knight’s left hand, empty while he swung his sword with just his right, tore through the air from bottom to top.

Swoosh!

Drops of blood splattered from the Inquisitor’s shoulder. Kang! She pushed the Demon Knight away with her strength and kicked the man in his solar plexus with her foot.

“Tsk.”

Did he attack her by wrapping his hand in Demonic Energy? She should have anticipated encountering such an attack, considering the state of the bodies she’d come across in the hallway. She’d made a blunder.

However, she wasn’t given enough time to reflect on her mistakes or to correct them.

The Demon Knight swung his sword upward, sending out tidal waves of Demonic Energy. If her reactions were even a little late, her body would be mercilessly cut apart.

The Inquisitor gritted her teeth and slammed her mace against the ground. The Divine Power bursting from it collided with the Demonic Energy.

A massive explosion erupted along with rising clouds of dust rising.

Whoosh!

One second. Two seconds. The dust blocking her view pulled away suddenly like curtains.

“…!”

How many times had the Demon Knight swung his sword in that split second?

Despite her raised defense, her left ear and hair got cut off. Her right shoulder was also sliced all the way to her chest. The cut that passed over her thigh exposed bone.

“I—! I promised you! I swore to hold on until you return!!”

However, her injuries couldn’t stop her. The burning pain from the Divine Power she took in caused a sudden nosebleed.

As if to reward her for this sacrifice, however, the wounds beneath her torn clothes healed as she moved forward. A brief realization flashed through the Inquisitor’s mind.

“Oh almighty God, have pity on your lamb!”

If she couldn’t block his sword attacks filled with Demonic Energy no matter how much Divine Power she gathered and concentrated within her, what if she just got cut and healed herself afterward?

“I beg of you, please save this poor man!”

Golden waves poured down on her. The sharp, compressed sword strikes filled with Demonic Energy sliced through everything as if to oppose the world.

It didn’t matter. She allowed her body to be cut, protecting only her vital organs.

In any case, the Demon Knight’s sword severed her limbs so cleanly that they would be remarkably easy to reattach or heal.

“Hyaaap!!!”

And then, she finally stood right before the Demon Knight.

The Demon Knight raised his sword as if to block something.

However, he couldn’t raise it fully. His sword and hand, which seemed rather stiff, simply stopped midair.

Baam!

The Demon Knight’s waist bent where the mace hit him, and he was blown away.

* * *

* * *

Deathbringer was trying to comfort the people, who were extremely anxious because of the shaking ground reminiscent of an earthquake.

Of course, soothing people wasn’t exactly his specialty, so he often felt disillusioned in his attempts.

That was especially true when dealing with those possessing certain mannerisms and ways of speaking—those who’d appeared to have led a cushy life up until now, to be precise.

“Hey, lead me to a safer place! I deserve protection more than those lowly people do!”

If his second-most hated thing was the Demons and the third-most was religious orders, then the first-most was those upper-class people.

“I’ll pay you any amount!”

Deathbringer stared coldly at the person claiming to be of a very high position. ‘Deserved protection more? How disgusting.’ His thoughts were even colder than his expression.

“This is an emergency. If you don’t shut your damn mouth right now, I’ll throw you to the Demons outside, so you’d better do what I say.”

“Wh-What did you say?!”

“Don’t you get what’s happening? We’re holding your life in our hands right now.”

It had been a while since he’d wanted to kill someone so badly.

It was then that he once again realized he hadn’t done anything befitting a ‘Deathbringer’ since beginning this journey.

Well, that was only natural, though. Had he tried to fulfill any missions as a Deathbringer, the Inquisitor would’ve grabbed him by the collar before he could even start.

What a Deathbringer did was kill evil people whom the law couldn’t judge properly—especially the rich and powerful.

“If you don’t want me to toss you into a Demon’s maw, shut your damn mouth.”

He imitated the Demon Knight’s overbearing tone and stood before the man, hiding his anxiety. He was already irritated, and dealing with the type of person he hated the most kicking up a fuss made his stomach boil over.

“Are we done with the evacuation?”

“For now. We’re still looking for any more captured people, though.”

They’d wandered the castle in search of any safe places, and after capturing and convincing several guards, they returned to the place they’d found: an underground prison located within the castle.

It was the perfect place to hide, as it was difficult for the flying Demons to reach, there weren’t many guards around, and there weren’t any corpses inside.

“Are the kids okay?”

“They seem fine for now, though they seem scared and in shock.”

It was rather lucky these kids had been locked up in this prison.

While it might not be great for their mental well-being, if they’d had to lead those children to safety somewhere else, their heads would have burst.

“Hey, trash. You’re sure there aren’t any more people captured here?”

“There are no more in the castle, at least. I’m sure of that.”

The pirate who’d told him about Vipurit, who’d apparently turned into a monster, and the Demon Knight, who’d become a complete butcher, and suffered from the Demons, who’d started going berserk after all the Demon Contractors died, responded while grumbling.

Those remaining pirates had joined their group, hoping to save their lives after witnessing everything they’d believed in crumble apart.

Of course, while they hadn’t made any contracts with Demons, they’d still cooperated with the Demon Worshipers, so they couldn’t be let off lightly… However, they were now in a situation where they would accept even an enemy’s help.

Deathbringer, who’d been forced to accept them, narrowed his eyes.

“Rather, you were telling the truth, right? You’re going to spare us from the death penalty, right?”

“Yeah.”

How could they deserve such a privilege? He was in a rush, so he just told them a little lie. For such a promise to be considered valid, that iron wall Hero would have to agree to it first, at least.

He also pretty much expected that she would never tolerate people like that. The surviving high-ranking people would likely react similarly.

“Okay, then…”

Baaang!

The Deathbringer was cut off by the sound of a huge explosion.

“What happened?!”

“O-Out there!”

The pirates and thieves keeping watch outside burst into the hallway and shouted.

“The main forces have arrived!”

Deathbringer’s eyes opened wide.

* * *

When I cut off her hair, I briefly came to my senses.

「Madness Gauge: 95%」

That was why I didn’t try to avoid the approaching attack. If I couldn’t stop myself, I at least had to allow others to stop me.

「Madness Gauge: 96%」

But.

But.

「Madness Gauge: 97%」

It was so painful.

「Madness Gauge: 98%」

It hurt so much.

「Madness Gauge: 99%」

…Why did I have to go through so much pain?

‘This is unfair.’

「Madness Gauge: 100%」