Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~

Chapter 29: Possessed

Zilmoza walked.

He walked quickly, using the sheath of his curved sword like a cane to support his swaying body.

Even though his disciples desperately tried to stop him, Zilmoza paid them no attention.

The unreliable D-rank adventurers had no choice but to follow, trembling at the sight of Zilmoza, who was clearly not in his right mind.

The ground shook many times.

A Goblin King must be rampaging on the surface.

Still, Zilmoza walked on without care through the old mining tunnel where sand fell from the ceiling with every tremor.

And the place they finally reached was—

Not a vein of magical metal, but a small shrine.

“What the—hey, old man, what’s going on?”

“Master, didn’t we come to this tunnel to look for magical metal…?”

The old dwarf said nothing to his disciples’ words. He simply stared at the shrine.

It was an ancient stone shrine. It looked like it might collapse at any moment, but some noticed a strong magical barrier reinforced around it.

“I… must dig it out.”

The old dwarf spoke as if something had taken hold of him.

—The reason Zilmoza had become like this started with an incident a few months ago.

It began with his hobby of collecting swords.

It was a curved sword that carried the charm of a far-off foreign land.

The sword, made of black steel, had bothered Zilmoza for some reason, and he bought it from a traveling merchant for a high price.

And from the moment he touched that curved sword—

A fog seemed to settle over Zilmoza’s mind.

His memories became hazy.

For some reason, Zilmoza began carrying that curved sword with him everywhere.

It was like sleepwalking.

He would suddenly notice that chunks of memory were missing, with no idea what he had been doing. Yet he no longer even questioned it.

He felt dizzy. His steps were unsteady.

His disciples worried about him, but that didn’t matter. He had a mission.

Following the command of this curved sword that carried the faint remnants of a Demon King—

I must release the sealed Demon King—myself.

—It had once been called the “Demon King of Swords.”

An evil sword king whose soul had been split by a hero and sealed in shrines across the land.

No one in this era knew that one of its powers was an irresistible “possession.”

Zilmoza, possessed by the Demon King, raised high the curved sword he had been using as a cane—

And swung it down toward the shrine.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing, old man—!?”

The shrine collapsed. The delicately stacked stone tower crumbled, and the magically woven barrier broke apart.

The vast magical power that had been sealed inside instantly swelled—

Immediately after, the released shockwave blew the disciples and adventurers away.

A violent tremor echoed, and a gust of wind blew from deep inside the cave where Zilmoza had headed.

But the ones with looks of greater shock than me were Zaria, Noiche, and Egiy.

All three froze, staring toward the back of the cave—

“What… is this magical power…!?”

—Zaria muttered, her face pale.

It was probably the color of extremely dense magical power.

I say “probably” because I have absolutely no sensitivity to magical power.

I couldn’t see or sense anything. But from the looks on their faces, I could tell it was something far beyond normal.

And right after that, familiar faces came rushing out from deep inside the cave.

The blacksmith group’s disciples and the adventurers.

But something was clearly wrong. Aljan, the dog-headed one, was carrying another disciple on his back, and the adventurers were dragging along a blood-soaked, unconscious person between them.

The moment they burst out of the cave, they dove left and right onto the ground—

And shouted toward us, “Get out of the way!”

“——!”

There was no time to react to the words.

Zaria and Noiche responded first, jumping aside to avoid whatever was coming.

The one who couldn’t react in time was Egiy.

At her senior brother’s yell, her body stiffened with a jerk, and she was one step too slow.

What rushed toward her were countless sword blades sprouting from the ground.

Hundreds, thousands of swords raced along the earth from deep in the cave, appearing in chains.

That magic, something I had never seen or heard of, closed in on Egiy in an instant—

“Eek!?”

“Egiy…!”

—I shoved her out of the way at the very last second.

The world slowed down like a flashback.

In that slow-motion view, I pushed Egiy off the path of the swords racing across the ground—

And took her place.

The next instant, my arm flew off.

One of the swords jutting from the ground sliced clean through my right shoulder, and the severed arm spun through the air, tracing a trail of blood.

Well, it was my useless right arm anyway, I thought with oddly detached calm.

…I forcibly dragged my fading consciousness back.

When I came to, I was lying on the ground, and Egiy was looking down at me.

There was a soft sensation against the back of my head.

Was I getting another lap pillow?

But Egiy’s expression was far from calm.

Her usually narrowed eyes were wide open, her breathing rough and panicked—

In other words, she looked on the verge of tears as she stared down at me.

“Haro-kun, why…! Because you protected someone like me, your arm…!”

“…”

She didn’t need to worry that much.

It had been a numb arm anyway, like it was under anesthesia.

There wasn’t much pain—just a useless thing removed.

I glanced sideways with just my eyes.

Zaria and Noiche were safe. But both were pale, staring at me with looks of disbelief.

“H-Haro…?”

Zaria’s mouth hung open, still unable to accept what had happened, while Noiche crouched down, hand over her mouth.

And finally, I looked toward the cave.

What exactly had attacked us?

“It sure doesn’t look like Zilmoza anymore.”

What appeared was a familiar old dwarf.

His appearance was definitely Zilmoza, but the atmosphere was completely different.

His bulging eyes darted left and right, pupils fully dilated.

Baring blackened teeth, the dwarf grinned widely.

“This old dwarf body is excellent. The magical power fits perfectly.”

He swung the curved sword in his hand with a whoosh, as if testing something.

“M-Master… what the hell are you doing!?”

“Hm? Oh, Egiy. Just a test cut.”

“A… test cut?”

“That’s right. I am the sword. I must kill and hone myself. I have finally reclaimed one of the eight pieces of my soul that were split apart!”

The dwarf laughed loudly, a filthy sound.

Eight pieces of soul?

A bad feeling crept over me.

Those were keywords I had just heard recently.

But before I could think further—

Zilmoza swung down the curved sword in his hand.

“Egiy, beautiful female elf! I’ve been watching you all this time! Die and become my wife!”

“…!?”

The sword magic raced across the ground.

Countless blades sprouted in chains from the earth, charging straight toward me and Egiy.

“Zaria, Noiche!”

“I know! Rising fire whale, Akatsuki—tear the starry heavens!”

“Polar Star Celestial Globe!”

Zaria created blades of magical power, Noiche produced dark bullets of the night—

And they clashed with the sword magic.

Wind and sand exploded upward.

The swarm of swords heading for Egiy was barely canceled out at the last moment.

Egiy, breathless and stunned, and I, lying on her lap, somehow survived.

“Oh? Daughters of House Levi. You two are splendid as well—truly beautiful! I shall take you as my wives too!”

“Gross!”

“Die, perverted old geezer.”

The sisters spat with open disgust.

Come on, I think he’s just possessed, so please be gentle with Zilmoza.

…Not that I have the leisure to say that out loud.

“Ink, stop the bleeding.”

I clicked my tongue near my left back tooth, and at that signal Ink wrapped around my shoulder.

It filled the wound and suppressed blood loss—those were the movement commands.

Meanwhile, Zaria, Noiche, and the adventurers who could still move surrounded Zilmoza with weapons drawn, and Zilmoza grinned fearlessly and said, “Very well.”

“You two, can I leave buying time to you?”

“Of course. But can you actually do something if we buy time?”

“Yeah. I have a plan.”

“…Then I feel better. We’ll do our best.”

They couldn’t possibly be calm inside.

Yet the two forced smiles so I wouldn’t see their fear and turned toward Zilmoza.

Then I looked up at Egiy.

“Haro-kun… I…”

“Reflection later. There’s something I need you to do, Egiy.”

“W-What is it…?”

“Carve a design on my back.”

Ignoring Egiy’s dumbfounded “Huh?” I took what I needed from my pouch.