The Tale of Gerald Vader, the Heretic Knight’s Rampage Through Another World
The White Teeth’s body twisted grotesquely, swallowed by a whirlpool of swirling miasma.
Through the gap, its abdomen swelled to the point of bursting.
It was already dead.
But its expression was filled with ecstasy.
The stitches began cracking and splitting apart.
As if shedding the man’s body, a head emerged—resembling a crow’s chick, yet distorted and enormous.
“‘Raum of Blasphemy’…?”
It was Lion who murmured this, staring in stunned silence.
Her face was deathly pale.
—Raum the Blasphemer.
One of the eight original demonic beings spawned by the Evil God.
It possessed a monstrous crow-like head atop the emaciated body of an old man, with countless limbs sprouting from its back and abdomen.
Its nature was true to its name: ‘Blasphemy’.
It was said to wield the power to govern plagues and curses, to warp the very essence of humans and demons, and to trample upon dignity.
A fragment of that power was likely the summoning magic circle embedded within the demonic being ‘White Fang’.
It modified human bodies into magical tools, using them solely as means of transportation until they were worn out.
Within ‘Blaze of Glory’, it stands as a narrative ‘wall’ for the protagonists, a boss encountered mid-game onwards.
It’s a brutal boss that will wipe out your party in an instant unless you endure its vicious status ailment attacks and the relentless onslaught of its minion demons, while consistently dealing damage exceeding its HP recovery each turn.
Naturally, there’s no chance of victory if we confront it head-on now.
…Why is such a creature here?
No, I have my suspicions.
By the time ‘Raum the Blasphemer’ stands before the story’s protagonists, the kingdom’s territory has already been conquered by demonic forces over a vast area.
Naturally, this includes the Horace Marquisate here.
It wouldn’t have been surprising if this dungeon had been chosen as the bridgehead for the Horace Domain invasion operation.
…Still, we weren’t about to just sit here and wait for the ‘Blasphemous Raum’ to be fully summoned.
The situation was so shocking it delayed our judgment, but everyone here understood that we had to crush it before the summoning was complete.
“Not a chance!”
The first to act was Lion.
She dismissed her shield of light, gripped her swords in both hands, and charged fiercely into the swirling crimson miasma—
“Guh!?”
The crimson miasma surrounding the ‘Blasphemous Raum’ suddenly formed a shield, repelling Lion’s attack.
“Damn it, I can’t get close like this!”
“Then I’ll go!”
“Step back, please! That miasma is far too dense for young lady without divine protection!”
Nora, her face twisted in desperation, tried to attack, but Lion grabbed her from behind and pinned her back.
“Nora, Lion, stay back!”
With them behind me, I stood before the ‘Blasphemy Raum’ that was beginning to manifest.
If the miasma surrounding that thing was so intense that even Lion-san, who possesses divine protection, couldn’t land an attack, then I was the only one who could handle it here.
No holding back this time.
I thrust both hands forward, generating the ‘Tenth Sword’ with its maximum current power.
“—Project!”
—THUD!!
A mass comparable to an anti-ship shell, accompanied by dense crimson-black mist, blew away most of the corpse of ‘White Teeth’ and the nearly manifested ‘Blasphemous Raum’.
It was then.
“Guh…!?”
A pained voice sounded behind me.
Turning frantically, I saw Nora kneeling, grimacing in agony.
Her complexion was dreadfully pale.
Moreover, purple bruises were visible on her exposed skin.
It was clearly the result of miasma corrosion.
“Young Lady!”
Lion-san rushed to support her body.
Then, glaring hatefully around, he shouted.
“Damn it… We defeated Raum, so why is demonization progressing!?”
Before they knew it, various parts of the hall had turned a dark red, like rotting skin.
The pedestal by the wall was melting like decaying flesh, and the pillars were beginning to pulse, strange patterns like veins emerging on their surfaces.
A full-scale dungeon ‘demonic transformation’ was occurring, incomparable to anything they’d seen before.
‘Nigi, gini ni, gigi ieee…’
From behind came a strange cry, like a baby bird being strangled.
“…Hey, no way.”
I spun around in panic. There, writhing and oozing, was a mass of melted rotten flesh.
The flesh mumbled and shifted, repeatedly deforming and coalescing, attempting to reconstruct the body of the ‘Raum of Blasphemy’ once more.
“Dammit! You’re persistent!”
I slammed the ‘Tenth Sword’ into it once more.
The rotten flesh vanished without a trace… or so I thought. But the scattered fragments began writhing and coalescing again, reshaping the damn demon’s body.
“Don’t mess with me! What kind of regeneration ability is this?!”
Cursing under my breath, I now relentlessly hammers the regenerating rotten flesh with the ‘First Sword’, ‘Second Sword’, and others.
The dungeon’s stone walls are chipped away, holes appearing in the surface. While some rotten flesh vanishes without a trace, even the tiniest fragment left behind will multiply repeatedly, attempting to resurrect Raum’s body once more.
“Haah, haah, haah… Dammit, what the hell is this thing?!”
This was utterly endless.
True, it was a gimmick boss that couldn’t be defeated unless you kept dealing damage exceeding its HP recovery.
But this was just too much.
What the hell was he supposed to do now…?!
Just then.
“Ugh…”
Suddenly, my vision blurred crimson and black, my body growing heavy as lead.
Then came a searing headache and overwhelming nausea.
Breathing became difficult, and chills racked my body.
Unable to hold on, I collapsed to my knees.
“Damn it… my mana…”
I instantly recognized these symptoms as miasma corruption.
I’d been so consumed with killing Raum that I hadn’t even considered the magic power within my own body.
“Gerald… sir…!”
“Lord Gerald… keep your wits about you!”
I could hear Nora and Lion’s voices.
But they sounded distant, like echoes through water.
‘Giiii, niigii, iiiaaaaaaaah――’
Through the crimson-black haze, I watched ‘Raum the Blasphemer’ regenerate, piece by piece.
Dammit… I can’t hold on.
My consciousness was fading.
My thoughts were jumbled.
And just as I felt myself being dragged down to the water’s depths, a dim, dark emotion spread through my chest, gnawing at me.
Could it be… that even the most powerful ‘God-Slaying Sword’ can’t reach this thing…?
Is it because I’m just an ordinary person?
Is it because I’m not the protagonist?
Damn it, I guess that makes sense.
A mere demon’s ‘White Fang’ might be one thing, but ‘Raum the Blasphemer’ is demonic. He’s the story’s final boss.
He’s the kind of foe the protagonist—blessed with special divine favor—must train himself to death, strengthen that favor, and join forces with the heroine and allies to finally reach victory.
As I am now… no, as just some story’s fucking mob character, no matter how much I train, no matter how powerful a blessing I receive… I never had a chance against this guy from the start.
‘Gih, gihihi, hihihiiiiii!!’
My eyes were already blind.
Only the blasphemous Raum’s bizarre, maniacal laughter pierced my eardrums and echoed inside my head.
Dammit… I’m going to die here—
“What’s that? You look unlike yourself.”
A soft voice echoed.
That’s when I realized my eyes were opening.
Right nearby, Twina’s face was upside down.
She wore a tender, gentle smile.
I felt a soft sensation at the back of my head.
Apparently, I’d been laid on the floor, my head resting on her lap.
Twina continued quietly.
“Surely not. My partner… the one I chose… would you yield to a demon of that caliber? I won’t allow it.”
“But—”
I murmured in a raspy voice.
I had no cards left to play.
“—You can do it.”
Smiling, Twina raised her index finger—and pressed it to my lips.
No more weakness.
That was her way of saying it.
Her face came right up close to mine.
I felt warmth on both cheeks.
Her hands cradled my head.
“Come to think of it, you once asked me if I had any special powers, didn’t you? Actually, there’s one thing I’ve been hiding from you.”
As she spoke, her beautiful face drew nearer.
At a distance where our noses could almost touch, she whispered.
“—This is it.”
Something soft touched my lips.
The next instant.
A torrent of overwhelming magical power surged into my body.
“Aaaaaaaa!!!”
I thought I heard a tremendous scream from somewhere nearby, but now wasn’t the time to care.
I greedily absorbed the immense magical power flowing from Twina into my body.
And then.
“Hehe… That was delicious.”
With a blissfully flushed expression, Twina pulled away.
“How was it? The taste of my magic?”
“Ah, it’s the best.”
I murmured the words.
My previous timidity had vanished as if it had never existed.
And an overwhelming sense of exhilaration filled my entire body.
“Thanks, Twina. I’m fine now.”
Saying that, I stood up.
My body felt light as if everything before had been a lie.
“Right now, you surely possess the power to kill any god. Let alone a demon. …Now, show me your full power.”
“…Yeah.”
Saying that, I stood alongside Twina and turned my body toward the ‘Blasphemous Raum’.
Raum had already revealed most of its form.
A distorted head resembling a crow’s chick, a hideous form covered in emaciated, rotting flesh.
Countless limbs protruding from its belly and back.
Raum’s abnormally huge eyes bulged, glaring at us.
‘Gii, ee, ni-gii”
However, it appears his vocal cords are incomplete, and he can only make strange screams.
This means he is still unable to cast curses or use status-altering magic.
And from the tone of its voice, I could tell it was trembling in fear of our power.
Of course, a mere ‘God-Slaying Sword’ wouldn’t be enough to finish it off.
So we’d need far greater power than before to grind it into nothingness.
If one doesn’t work, try ten. If ten doesn’t work, try a hundred.
If that still doesn’t work, then go even higher.
“It’s okay, you can do it.”
Twina smiled beside me and murmured that.
“Yeah.”
I returned her smile, brimming with confidence.
“――‘Piercing Sword’”
At the tip of my raised right hand, a gigantic――a gigantic, glowing sword materialized.
Its full length was such that while the tip was thrust against the snout of ‘Blasphemy Raum’, the hilt nearly reached the entrance of the hall.
“Heh heh… Now this is a truly splendid ‘God-Slaying Sword’. It’s quite exciting, isn’t it?”
“…This isn’t the time for dirty jokes.”
We exchanged this ridiculous, battle-unworthy banter.
we ‘projected’ that giant sword toward ‘Raum the Blasphemer’.
‘Gii’
He didn’t even have time to scream.
With a blinding flash of light, the giant sword completely obliterated his body.
A large hole, as if made by a giant, was left in the wall behind him..