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 30: Praise the Foolish God

The battle against Zilmoza had reached extreme ferocity.

Every time the strange curved sword that radiated abnormal magical power was swung, the ground split and huge trees toppled.

“Zaria, don’t even think about blocking it!”

“I know already!”

Zaria answered her sister with a strained smile.

The sharpness was so ridiculous it made her want to laugh in disbelief—no sword or shield could stop it.

They dodged the swung blade and tried to attack when an opening appeared, but Zilmoza’s distance management was that of a true warrior.

They were always one step short of landing a blow and had to retreat to avoid the next flash of the sword.

The moment they barely evaded Zilmoza’s sword flash, countless blades sprouted from the ground and chased Zaria in a chain across the earth.

But they were prepared for this.

Right before the swords grew, a red pulse of light had run across the ground.

“Nice, I can see it perfectly!”

“Polar Star Celestial Globe!”

Zaria’s slashes and Noiche’s magic bullets—together they barely held back the sword magic.

It was close, but as long as they read the timing, they still had room to breathe.

The one who had revealed this “timing” was Zaria’s magic.

Zaria’s magic was dawn-sky magic that brought the invisible into clear relief.

Using that property, she had already set up a spell in the area that lit up the spot whenever a large movement of magical power occurred—a kind of “magic activation detection.”

“Tch, these brats are doing well.”

Zilmoza clicked his tongue.

Yet the battlefield was still overwhelmingly in Zilmoza’s favor. Even surrounded by so many people, every attack Zaria and the others unleashed was sliced apart by the curved sword in his hand; they couldn’t inflict a single wound.

“He said his soul was split into eight pieces, right? One-eighth is already this strong? For real?”

“…He’s not an ordinary monster.”

Just a little over one-tenth of his full power.

What kind of existence had he been at his peak?

As if answering their doubts, Zilmoza grinned.

“You do not know me? I am a king. Let me show you the true essence of a king.”

The instant Zilmoza raised his curved sword—

Every sword on the battlefield glowed red.

The swords held by adventurers and blacksmiths.

The swords still clutched by the dead goblins.

Without exception, they all emitted a rose-colored light.

It was the signal from Zaria’s “magical power detection” that reacted to movements of magical power.

“—! Everyone, drop those swords now!”

At Zaria’s shout, the adventurers and blacksmiths hurriedly threw away their weapons.

But the goblins were different.

They were already dead, so they couldn’t drop anything. The corpses that had fallen still gripping their swords suddenly staggered to their feet and readied their blades.

“…He can control any sword?”

“W-Whew, good thing my sword was already broken~!”

“Hey, this isn’t the time for that!”

At Aljan the dog-headed beastman’s sharp reprimand, Noiche and Zaria faced reality again.

It wasn’t necromancy—it was puppetry.

He could control anyone holding a sword. That was probably how Zilmoza himself had been taken over.

Now, on top of Zilmoza, dozens of goblin corpses all became enemies at once.

“D-ranks, you handle the small fry! We’ll keep the old geezer busy!”

“Can you even do that!? We were already on the defensive even when everyone attacked together…!”

“We have no choice!”

Normally, wide-area annihilation was Noiche’s specialty, but—

Without Noiche’s destructive power, they couldn’t block Zilmoza’s attacks. They had no option but to rely on the surrounding adventurers.

The battle situation slowly cornered them.

No matter how much magic Zaria and Noiche fired, Zilmoza cut it all down with a single stroke.

Moreover, his own physical strength was monstrously tough—

It was crude body reinforcement backed by an enormous amount of magical power.

The moment he strongly kicked the ground, the old dwarf was already right in front of them, and Zaria and the others could only dodge clumsily, rolling on the ground.

“Argh, that magical power is cheating! Is it infinite or what!?”

“…This is a little bad.”

In total magical power, they couldn’t possibly win.

In other words, there was no chance of victory in a drawn-out fight.

While Zaria and the others drew Zilmoza’s attacks, the beastman Aljan tried to close in from behind with raised claws—

“I can see you.”

—at that moment, countless swords sprouted from Zilmoza’s back.

Like a porcupine, the many blades growing from his flesh cut down Aljan in return.

“Guh…!”

“Hey, you’re a blacksmith! The person we’re supposed to protect shouldn’t push himself like that!”

“It’s fine… more importantly, please bring Master back to his senses…!”

Even as his body was sliced open, Aljan cried out in anguish.

At those words, the sisters’ faces stiffened.

Impossible. They already couldn’t lay a hand on him—there was no room to rescue him alive.

In short—they had to kill him.

Otherwise, they would all be wiped out.

The adventurers fighting the small fry were gradually losing ground too—when it happened.

“Alright, looks like it’ll move properly.”

A quiet mutter.

It was Haro’s voice.

Still hoarse and weak as ever… yet everyone turned toward the overwhelming presence.

He had only one arm. Black liquid clung to his right shoulder, stopping the bleeding.

His thin upper body was completely bare, and the magical crest covering his pale skin from top to bottom gave off an eerie aura.

Haro walked over unsteadily with his unbalanced body, passed right by Noiche—and when Noiche saw the design carved into his back, her eyes widened.

“An… octopus…?”

—On his back was carved a black octopus.

Looking closely, Noiche could tell it was actually an enormous mass of spell formulas shaped into an octopus using letters and symbols.

And Haro chanted.

“Praise the Foolish God Cthulhu.”

At that instant—the octopus crest writhed.

With a glug, black ink overflowed from the octopus design crawling on his back.

It formed three-dimensional eight arms that floated in the air. When Haro said “arm,” they twisted together and merged. The ink shaped itself into a human arm and filled the spot where Haro’s right shoulder had been.

“W-What… is that magic!?”

The ones panicking weren’t just Noiche and Zaria—it was Zilmoza.

“A monster… and the presence of a dragon… Are you truly human!?”

Despite the threatening roar, Haro paid it no mind.

The boy’s unfocused gaze was fixed on the goblins that had been turned into puppets.

Watching the goblins about to break through the D-rank adventurers’ defense, Haro flexed his new ink right arm and frowned, muttering, “Looks like they’re struggling.”

Then he chanted.

“Shadow-Picture Kingdom R’lyeh.”

A single drop of ink fell from the false right arm—plip.

The moment it hit the ground, the ink spread.

Glug, glug—it overflowed, dyeing the entire area around their feet black.

And right after—

Countless tentacles rose from the ink-soaked ground and seized the goblins’ bodies.

“Uwooh!?”

“W-What! Friendly magic!?”

The adventurers cried out in shock.

The goblins that had been about to slaughter the adventurers were bound by huge ink arms covered in suction cups—

—and then their bodies were twisted and torn apart with wet crunching sounds.