Volume 8: Clearing the Trial of Zakkart

Something was breathing heavily through its nose as it moved through a forest with no signs of life in it.

“Fuuuh! Fuuuh! Pafuooh!”

As if desiring some kind of scent, it inhaled the surrounding air aggressively and then exhaled, its nose letting out a noise that sounded like a trumpet.

“Fugafugofubuguh!”

Even so, perhaps unable to find the scent that it was looking for, the creature extended its nose and began pressing its nose against all of the objects near it.

Trees, the dirt, stones, everything that it could reach.

Of course, a creature capable of this would not be a human.

“S-sceee…nt…”

To be more precise, this creature had once been a human, but had transformed into something that was not a human.

It had the face of a man with clearly unattractive looks, with scars across its forehead and cheeks. There were no abnormalities with the shapes or number of eyes and nose on this face. Other than the scars, it was the face of a normal human man.

But the location of this face was abnormal. The face was attached to the tip of an enormous human nose, so large that a grown Titan man would not be able to wrap his arms around it.

“SCEEEEENT!” the creature, which couldn’t be described as anything other than a nose monster, shrieked in a high-pitched voice as it began moving again in an angry manner.

There were several thick tentacles… no, noses, protruding from the root of the enormous nose. At a glance, these smaller noses looked like tentacles, but they were all noses like the trunks of elephants.

This nose monster, whose bizarre appearance would cause an ordinary person to lose their ability to speak out of fear for it, continued through the forest that had no signs of any creatures living in it. It seemed that the animals and monsters that would normally be present in the forest had fled out of fear for the ominous aura emitted by the monster.

At that moment, the wind blew – a cold, clear autumn wind with a touch of the winter to come.

At that moment, the nose monster’s entire body froze. It quietly inhaled the scent of the wind.

“Aaah…”

The nose monster’s man-shaped face twisted in joy. It had finally sniffed out the scent that it had been desiring.

The nose monster turned and began moving in a ferocious manner towards the north. It mowed down the trees and boulders in its way with its trunks, letting out a trumpeting noise in joy at being able to get even a little closer to the scent it desired.

But as the monster came out of the forest, someone stood in its way.

“Stop right there!”

“We came here because we thought there were some unnatural noises of destruction and cries coming from the forest, and it seems we were on the mark. It’s helpful that those who are absorbed by a fragment are stupid, but I don’t like them because there’s no point in having a scout against them.”

“Edgar, save the talk for later… Vega, the self-proclaimed treasure hunter, I assume? Can you understand my words?”

The Five-colored Blades, led by the S-class adventurer Heinz, were standing in front of the monster – what had become of the man called Vega.

Vega, a petty thief who fancied himself to be a treasure hunter, went alone into a ruin that was believed to have already been completely searched, believing that there was a treasure slumbering inside. Several hours later, his thief friends reported to the city’s guards that he had emerged from the ruin as a monster.

Upon receiving this news, the guards realized that this wasn’t a problem they could deal with on their own and tried to send out a request to the Adventurers’ Guild. Hearing this story, the Guild Master instinctively suspected that a fragment of the Demon King could be involved and sent out a request by name to Heinz and his companions, who had happened to be staying in the city at the time.

It seemed that the Guild Master had been right.

“Heinz, I’m certain he doesn’t understand us,” said Delizah, the female Dwarf shield-bearer.

“Unlike Ternecia, there’s no trace of his original human form,” said Jennifer, the female human martial-artist.

The Elf Diana who was a priestess of Mill, the goddess of slumber, was behind them and not saying anything. But that was because she was reciting an incantation.

Heinz knew that there was little hope as well, but he didn’t give up. “You might be right. But if his consciousness is still somewhere in there, there should be a chance to save him,” he said, then he turned to Vega again. “Vega, do you know your own name? Cliff was worried about you!” he said, mentioning the name of Vega’s thief friend.

Perhaps in response to hearing that name, Vega’s lips convulsed as he whispered something. “Guh… guh…”

A glimmer of hope appeared on Heinz’s face.

But that hope was shattered as Vega let out high-pitched, ear-piercing scream. “BASTAAAAARD! GET OUT OF MY WAAAAY!”

Vega’s face twisted in fury at having the path to his desired scent blocked, and he swung the elephant trunks that he had been using as legs in the direction of Heinz and his companions like whips.

“It’s no good!”

“Yeah, let’s put him to rest quickly!”

Around two years ago, when Heinz and his companions fought the Pure-breed Vampire Ternecia, she had turned the tables on them in an instant by activating the Demon King’s horns and forced them onto the defense.

Just like back then, they were facing a fragment of the Demon King. But Heinz and his party members were not wearing grim expressions.

Because things were different from back then.

“My goddess Mill, grant us your protection! Great Invigoration!” cried Diana, casting a life-attribute spell that improved the physical abilities of her allies.

“True Steel Wall, True Steel Form!” shouted Delizah, stopping the elephant-trunk whips.

“Guillotine Slash!” Edgar severed the elephant trunks with his knife.

“BABOOOOOH!” Vega roared, continuing his attacks with more elephant trunks.

“Thousand Tip Thrusts!” Jennifer’s rapid, sharp, bare-handed strikes repelled Vega and dealt some damage to him in return as well.

And Heinz seized the small opening given to him, wrenching it open. “Familiar Spirit Descent! Forgive me… Instant Shining Slash!”

The attack he unleashed cut Vega’s face open in a straight line.

Heinz and his companions had improved their skills even further beyond what they had been two years ago, and as Heinz possessed the Holy Guider Job, a Guider-type Job, his companions had developed remarkably. Now, all of them had become capable enough to be worthy of being called S-class.

And two years ago, their equipment had been made of Mythril and Adamantite; now, each of them was equipped with Orichalcum Artifacts that could stand up to the Demon King’s fragments.

“GEEEEH!” Vega screeched.

Vega, the enemy, was different to the one Heinz and his companions had fought two years ago. He was not like the Pure-breed Vampire Ternecia, who had manipulated the Demon King’s horns skillfully with martial skills and high-level Skills such as Throwing.

He was a petty thief whose Demon King Encroachment Degree had reached its limit, completely taken over by the Demon King’s nose. At this point, the quality of the host might have no relevance at all, but since Vega couldn’t use martial skills or spells, he was no different from a beast that relied entirely on its physical strength.

“Alright, let’s push him back!” Heinz shouted to increase the morale of his companions, certain in his victory.

“Wait, something’s wrong!” said Edgar, stopping him.

Edgar had noticed that Vega’s split face was letting out only a scream, but a disgusting noise that sounded like mucus being inhaled through a blocked nose as well.

Heinz and his companions heeded Edgar’s warning and made some distance between them and Vega. In front of them, the enormous Demon King’s nose fell over backwards. For a moment, it seemed like Edgar had been worried over nothing. But the nostrils, which were big enough to fit a human head inside, pointed at them, and at that moment, they understood the enemy’s intention.

“Everyone, get behind me!” shouted Delizah, stepping forward just as a red fluid sprayed from the enormous nostrils. She grimaced as she used her shield to stop the forcefully-sprayed liquid that gave off an iron-like stench. “This guy, using nose-blood as a projectile weapon, what is he thinking?!”

The Demon King’s nose had slurped up its own blood like an elephant’s trunk did with water, then sprayed it out at a high pressure. It was like a water cutter, or rather, a nose-blood cutter.

If it were anyone but Delizah stopping this attack, or if she were equipped with an ordinary iron or copper shield, she would likely have been cut in half.

“Get out of my way, get out of my way! I have to go! I have to go to where I am!” Vega’s face shouted, elated with his apparent victory.

Delizah looked at him, not with anger, but with pity. “But this is as far as you go,” she said.

Indeed, the struggle of the Demon King’s nose ended here. The nose-blood cutter attack that sprayed nose-blood was astounding. But as the ammunition for this attack was the user’s own blood, it was using up its own body.

The nose-blood’s force gradually decreased, and the Demon King’s nose fell easily to the counterattack from Heinz and his companions.

“Oh, oooh, another…”

The Demon King’s nose let out an ominous burbling noise as it began transforming to try and infest a new host.

Heinz unsheathed the sword that he had been given by the Church of Alda. “You can’t go anywhere. This is where it ends.”

And then he thrust his blade into the Demon King’s nose.

That action alone was enough to stop the movement and the transformation of the Demon King’s nose. A clear expression of fear appearance on Vega’s face.

“No, I have to go to where I am! Where I am! I must fuse with the main body! The main bodyyyyy!” the Demon King’s nose screamed desperately, floundering around and trying to escape.

But it turned black and melted into a liquid, then was absorbed by the sword that had been thrust into it.

The only thing remaining was the remains of what had been Vega.

“Main… body…” whispered what was left of Vega, then it stopped moving as well.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t save you. I hope that you can at least rest in peace,” Heinz said, sheathing his sword and closing Vega’s eyelids.

“How is the seal?” asked Diana, looking at the sword with an expression of worry.

The sword was an Artifact for sealing the Demon King’s fragments that had been left in the care of the Church of Alda. It had no effect on fragments that had already infested their hosts, but when thrust into fragments that were trying to separate themselves from their soon-to-die hosts or fragments that were already separated from a host, the blade would seal the fragments away.

It was a weapon that originated from Bellwood.

“Can such a small sword really seal away a monster like that? Isn’t it possible for something to cause it to escape from the sheath and come out again?” Jennifer asked, looking doubtful.

Heinz examined the sword for a while. “I don’t think there will be any problems,” he said finally. “It seems that the sword and sheath fuse together when the sword seals a fragment, so it doesn’t seem like it’s possible for me to unsheathe it accidentally.”

“And although it looks plain, it’s made of Orichalcum, so it won’t break so easily. Once we have it enshrined in the holy grounds managed by the Church, we can rest easy,” said Delizah.

“Only while the Orbaume Kingdom still stands,” said Diana.

In this world, nations had been destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly, lasting only around a thousand years at most. On the surface, the Church was an organization with no connections with those of the outside world, but it wasn’t as unconnected as it seemed.

It wasn’t unusual for the anger of the poor, oppressed citizens to reach the Church, and there had been some who utilized the chaos caused by wars and revolutions to steal Artifacts and sealed fragments of the Demon King held by the Church.

This was what Diana, an Elf with a long lifespan, was worried about.

“But can the Elves manage this seal in this age?” Jennifer asked.

Diana gave a bitter smile. “It is certainly difficult. Peria-sama has gone into hiding and Shizarion-sama is dead, so we Elves do not have power like we possessed in the age of the gods. Perhaps if it were a large settlement in the Amid Empire, or…”

“But it’s safer to leave the seal with a Church here than carrying it all the way to the Amid Empire, right? There’s probably been nothing but chaos in the Sauron duchy recently, too. Let’s go with the realistic option here,” said Edgar.

“You are right,” said Diana.

Even seals created by gods or the legendary champions could not last forever, so they had no choice but to be satisfied with the options that they could actually take.

“But it’s strange. Just what kind of form did the Demon King have? I can’t imagine that that nose could have been attached to a face just like that,” Delizah muttered as the party headed back to the city.

Diana and Edgar tried to imagine what the Demon King might have looked like as well, but they couldn’t.

“Even if he looked just like a human, what about that size?” said Edgar.

“And what about those elephant trunks?” said Diana.

The countless elephant trunks that the Demon King’s nose had been using instead of legs. These were unnecessary parts for a nose that was in its proper position on the body – attached to the face.

The Demon King should have had more effective organs to use for attacking or using as limbs, such as his horns. Or did those elephant trunks have some other purpose?

“This is information from an old record, but the Demon King’s fragments apparently don’t correspond to the Demon King Guduranis’s body parts,” said Heinz, remembering a description in an ancient manuscript that he had once seen at a Church of Alda.

“What does that mean?” Edgar asked.

“According to the description in an ancient manuscript written by an ancient hero who sealed away multiple fragments of the Demon King –”

The legendary champion Bellwood, along with his companions, fought the Demon King Guduranis and tore his body to pieces, and the gods sealed away his evil soul.

But the repulsive Vitality residing in the Demon King’s body, which had been divided into countless fragments, didn’t fade even after the Demon King’s soul was sealed.

The Demon King’s fragments would always attempt to gather together and revive the Demon King. Realizing that they could not be destroyed, Bellwood and his companions separated the fragments one by one.

But even after being sealed, the fragments remained active; each of them transformed into a different organ and waited vigilantly for the chance to become whole again.

“That’s apparently the reason why most seals don’t have records of what kind of fragment has been sealed inside,” Heinz explained. “Nobody would be able to know if the fragments transformed while sealed. The gods, especially the evil gods that came from the Demon King’s world, can apparently tell what’s inside a seal, though.”

Delizah and the others grimaced.

“In other words, it can’t be told what’s inside without opening them… an unpleasant lottery. It seems that Vega put his hands on the fragment because he thought it was a treasure or something, but some people actually desire these things, and I can’t understand them,” said Delizah.

“You’re right. No matter how much you want power, you might get a fragment like the Demon King’s chest hair, right? I wouldn’t even think about it,” said Jennifer.

“Even the nose was that powerful, so even if you did get a fragment of the Demon King like that, I still believe that you would gain a significant amount of power,” said Diana.

“You’re right,” Heinz said with a nod, then he looked north. “The main body, huh. Is there someone who possesses other fragments of the Demon King in the north? Maybe –”

“You’re thinking that maybe the mysterious monster that appeared in the Sauron Duchy and destroyed the hero, the resistance and Duke Marme’s army might be it?” said Edgar.

“… Edgar, do you think I’m worrying too much?” Heinz asked.

The events in the Sauron region had reached the Orbaume Kingdom, and, though faintly, the ears of Heinz, an S-class adventurer who was an honorary nobleman of the kingdom and involved in national affairs.

The ‘Light-speed Sword’ Duke Rickert Amid, a hero of the Amid Empire, one of the Fifteen Evil-breaking Swords. This man had been dispatched on a mission to exterminate the resistance, but contact had been lost.

As the one who had requested that the emperor dispatch Rickert, Duke Marme felt responsible and sent a large force of his elite troops into the former Scylla territory that was occupied by the resistance, where they apparently encountered fearsome monsters.

According to the little information available, one of those monsters was apparently an Undead Titan, a fearsome swordsman with a half-skeleton face, wielding an enormous black sword.

A single swing of his blade apparently sent knights and trees flying away like leaves.

He was likely a monster that had appeared after crossing the Boundary Mountain Range, and both Rickert and the resistance organization called the Sauron Liberation Front had probably been killed by him.

“That black sword… When I heard what the Demon King’s nose made Vega say, I did think it possible that it’s some kind of Demon King fragment,” said Heinz.

“It’s a bit late for it, but do you still want to accept the request?” asked Edgar. “The army’s request for help to recover the Sauron Duchy.”

The loss of the resistance was painful, but the military operation to take advantage of the chaos within Duke Marme’s army and the Amid Empire would begin soon. Marquis Dramad, the current marshal of the Orbaume Kingdom, had contacted Heinz and his party through the Adventurers’ Guild to ask him to help with the operation.

But Heinz had already refused once.

“No, forget about it. The Amid Empire has other heroes, and according to rumors, Randolf ‘the True’ is involved behind the scenes. Let’s focus on the Trial of Zakkart and the problems within the kingdom,” said Heinz, still looking north with a distant, worried gaze. “I hope I’m just overthinking things, but…”

Vandalieu suddenly felt a sensation like his chest was tightening, and instinctively looked south.

Saria and Rita noticed that something was wrong with their master and called out to him.

“Bocchan, what’s wrong? Why are you suddenly holding your chest?”

But even Vandalieu didn’t know why he felt this sensation.

He used Out-of-body Experience and made more heads to think and search through his memories, but he concluded that there was nothing wrong with his body and couldn’t find a cause for this sensation.

“I don’t really know, but I suddenly felt an emotional pain,” he said.

He turned his gaze south once more, but he couldn’t see anything there other than a hill with trees growing thickly on its side. But something was happening far beyond that hill, in a distant place. He felt certain of that.

“Bocchan… I know how you feel,” said Rita, putting her hands on Vandalieu’s shoulders. “You’re in a blue mood, aren’t you?”

“