"What the."
A dark-skinned fairy, one of the Dark Fairies, opened its mouth. It was speaking while looking at the distant scene.
Its tone wasn't particularly surprised. It had seen divinity countless times before.
Still, spreading it out so wide to block things was a somewhat unusual method.
Naturally, the lord wasn't the only one living in Thornwood Fortress. Besides him, there were several others.
Apart from the monsters the lord commanded, there were those who would assist with research and two magicians skilled in alchemy, as well as many monsters without intelligence but who fought as well as knights.
Among them, three Dark Fairies guarded the fortress walls. Their role was to report if anything happened and to harass intruders.
More precisely, they would beat intruders thoroughly to drain their strength, then offer the exhausted materials to the lord.
That was their job.
They were fairies who expressed emotions freely. It was because they belonged to the Demonic Realm and had forgotten their fairy nature.
They looked at the distant white wall of light and exchanged words.
"They're struggling."
"The squirming of mortals is worth watching."
"They seem to think it's over just because they stopped the Plague Ghouls."
"As if divinity matters."
All three Dark Fairies had filled their bodies with the energy of the Demonic Realm, commonly called demonic energy, instead of fairy essence. Because of this, one of the three possessed the talent to control monsters' minds, while the other two were decent archers.
Naturally, they knew how to shoot arrows imbued with demonic energy.
Of course, they were nowhere near as skilled as the archers who had initially targeted Enkrid's party.
That's why they'd been assigned as sentries here.
Also, being corrupted didn't mean their fairy talents had disappeared. They still possessed agile bodies.
"I absolutely must skin that bitch with divinity to examine her. I wonder if a half-giant's hide is tough? If so, it would be useful for making chimeras."
A giant's skin is like rock. If it was similar, it could be put to various uses.
They possessed a cruelty unseen in fairies. Whether it was the Demonic Realm's influence, the time spent here, or both, no one knew.
They also believed that having moved from being children of forests and flowers to becoming adoptive children of the Demonic Realm made them superior in strength and talent to regular fairies. From the perspective of someone observing these three with human eyes, there was certainly a clear difference from normal fairies.
'Dull.'
The difference was even more striking when compared to the fairies of the fairy city that had relocated to Shinar or Border Guard.
True fairies are beings who cherish even a single blade of grass and nurture it without harming it. They are beings who restrain and control their emotions, believing their sensitive nature could harm themselves.
But the fairies before him were not like that.
They expressed their emotions and didn't hesitate to conduct disgusting biological experiments. They were no longer as sensitive as fairies.
Jaxen didn't know all of this. He simply knew that what his senses caught was duller than expected.
And that was sufficient.
The moment Jaxen cut down a couple of Plague Ghouls, he moved against the current, toward the direction the monster horde was rushing from.
It would be impossible even for Enkrid to quietly pass through monsters whose mouths were sewn shut yet who wanted to die by bursting their own bodies.
But Jaxen could do it.
'The air of the Demonic Realm is different.'
If you understand that difference, you simply adapt to it.
Assimilation. A technique exclusive to knights, and one that Geor's Dagger called "Blur." It was named that because it made one's body faint.
But what did the name really matter?
'Distinction has no meaning.'
He'd realized that long ago.
He could hide his presence and move against the current among the ghouls, and he did exactly that. Lowering his stance and moving his feet quickly, he ran along the outer edge of the ghoul pack.
Then, seeing the shrieking wraiths glowing from the thornwood walls, he stepped on them and leaped up.
Several evil spirits reached out to block him, but it was futile. Jaxen used even those hands as footholds as he scaled the wall. A few specters extended halfway from the wall with keeeee sounds and reached out their hands, but Jaxen pulled out a dagger imbued with divinity from his bosom and swung it swish swish to repel them.
Kyaak.
The evil spirit screamed and died, but its voice was buried in the song of wraiths echoing from the thornwood walls.
Only a few sensitive ones reacted.
Jaxen had even deceived the wraiths' gaze. For him, this was natural. He'd trained in these techniques his entire life.
Well, if they'd been as sensitive as fairies, even he would have been caught. This was the result of several things overlapping.
They were dull, and Thornwood Fortress, the Demonic Realm outpost that had been called Thornwood Castle, had never received a proper invasion like this.
Over time, several who were called knights had seen and known of this fortress's existence, but judged that they couldn't do anything about it right away.
Charging in alone would be suicide, and charging in together meant they lacked hands.
Most importantly, they hadn't caused any major problems right away. From the outside, they seemed to be staying quietly within the Demonic Realm.
All of that had created the current situation.
Jaxen had instinctively exploited every one of their weaknesses, scaling the wall until reaching this moment.
After confirming the three watching from the wall, he seized them from behind, and with stilettos gripped in both hands, he pierced holes in the backs of two of their necks.
From their perspective, it was horrifying.
"...!"
The remaining one couldn't even make a sound and turned around with bulging eyes.
From its perspective, a shadow had suddenly risen and stabbed its two companions.
It swung the longbow in its hands like a club. Jaxen moved like flowing water. As he retreated, the two who should have fallen stopped with a thud.
Jaxen's gaze turned to those two. This wasn't the normal reaction of someone who'd been stabbed. But there was no need for surprise.
This was the Demonic Realm. Things beyond his expectations could happen anytime.
The two stabbed ones stopped with their waists bent halfway, then raised their heads. Crack— A sound of bones grinding in their necks rang out. With movements like broken dolls, the focus vanished from their eyes. Only the whites remained. Their pupils had disappeared.
Then, from their necks—precisely, from the holes Jaxen had pierced—instead of black blood, there was a gurgle and flesh swelled as a new bodily organ formed.
Long lumps of flesh swayed like giant serpents and drooped to the ground.
Since you couldn't call something growing from their necks a tail or arm, what should you call it?
Who could say?
Neck-hand? Neck-tail? Anyway, the new organ of the deformed Dark Fairies drooped to the ground, then moved by tightening and releasing what seemed to be muscle, and in an instant, the tips of the flesh became pointed and flew toward Jaxen.
It was as fast as an arrow. Jaxen's gaze observed the newly formed organ.
Between the dark blue flesh, distinctly black veins protruded. In a way, they looked like thick earthworms.
Jaxen dodged and slashed with his stiletto.
Pshht.
Even the transformed aberrant organ had gaps that looked like joints, so he cut that part. It was the technique of the Sword of Chance, using the force of the enemy's charge.
Should it be called the pinnacle of the Sword of Chance?
It was composed swordplay as if he'd predicted all of this.
If Enkrid had been there, he would have clapped at the remarkable insight, and he couldn't have helped but admire how Jaxen used the enemy's charging force.
Black blood splattered from Jaxen's slash, but the aberrant organ disregarded the wound and coiled like a snake changing direction to aim for the back of Jaxen's head.
"You bastard."
Meanwhile, the third, relatively intact Dark Fairy nocked an arrow to its longbow, but the moment it took that stance, it took a blade to the forehead.
Thwack!
The sound of the blade splitting the skull was crisp. It was a Silence Dagger Jaxen had thrown while dodging.
As Jaxen dodged the two flesh worms targeting his back, the one with a blade in its forehead also had its pupils roll back, lost the light in its eyes, and trembled. Observation again.
'A curse? Or is dying the trigger?'
It seemed something had been implanted in their bodies to work that way.
Darkness descended and limited vision, but Jaxen was someone who found darkness more comfortable.
He had no difficulty perceiving objects even in darkness. Insufficient sight could be replaced with his other four senses.
As he looked, listened, and felt what was ahead, the Silence Dagger embedded in the forehead was pulled out on its own.
Drdrdr, thud.
The extracted Silence Dagger fell to the ground. Then flesh grew from the forehead hole, creating one more aberrant organ identical to those still targeting him.
Jaxen didn't stop watching, listening, and feeling, and as he did, he discovered a peculiarity.
What he'd thought were veins protruding from the flesh serpent organ's surface weren't actually veins.
Those thick lines pierced through the skin's epidermis and grew above it, then bloomed black flowers.
'They've implanted cursed seeds or something.'
Then what was moving them now? Will was moving. Jaxen's Will went in a different direction than other knight company members. Will that stimulated his five senses went beyond observing his opponent to dissecting and contemplating their interior.
'To move even after life is severed.'
They would need to become undead or evil spirits.
Having faced the Plague Ghouls below, he seemed to understand part of the enemy's preferences.
'They implanted plague evil spirits inside ghouls.'
For these ones, they'd implanted special plants that grew in the Demonic Realm.
Heightened senses accomplish things like magic. Natural for Jaxen, but astounding to others.
His eyes saw oval objects pulsing blackly inside the three aberrant life forms.
The aberrant organs sprouting from the three Dark Fairies' necks scattered black powder from the black flowers they'd bloomed.
It was poison that would intoxicate even a knight if inhaled, and extreme poison that would kill an ordinary person just from skin contact. But Jaxen had been ingesting dozens, hundreds of types of poison into his body since childhood.
That didn't mean he'd willingly ingest an unknown poison.
He pulled out a small hood and covered his mouth. It was a Spell Object that purified air entering through mouth or nose, made in a fairy city.
He had a history of establishing deals here and there even during his Madman Company days. He'd obtained what he needed well even from the fairy city.
Not even Enkrid or anyone else knew about this.
Having thus protected his respiratory system with the Spell Object, poison entering through his skin caused no harm.
The writhing, twisting, scattering powder in all directions, striking the ground and slicing the air—the flesh serpents' struggles weren't more threatening than an axe wielded by a crazed barbarian. During his time brawling with those madmen, his skill in frontal combat had noticeably improved.
Though he didn't want to admit it and would never say it aloud, yes, those crazy bastards had been helpful.
Jaxen penetrated the gaps in their attacks and stabbed the seeds inside the three bodies.
Information control is the foundation of combat. He agreed with Luagarne's words wholeheartedly.
Jaxen had stepped forward for that purpose, so now what was happening in front of the fortress would be reported to the inside at least a bit more slowly. Jaxen was satisfied with that. Though it wasn't the first time he'd used his strength for something other than killing people for crowns, it would be a lie to say he wasn't enjoying this now.
He was being helpful to someone, and that someone was advancing toward a great ideal.
He heard his master's words coming as a phantom.
"Yeah, son, that looks good on you. Use your innate talent. But use it for what you believe is right. I've said it hundreds of times—aren't your ears bleeding?"
His master's tone was always endlessly light. He now knew it was because he himself was so gloomy.
'I know.'
Words he'd heard enough to make his ears bleed had finally been engraved on his heart.
When did it start?
Jaxen learned what was right by watching Enkrid. Therefore, everything blocking the path he walked was the enemy.
Just then, that righteousness and various others approached the front of the fortress.
[ * * * ]
The Plague Ghouls burst and made the surrounding air murky, so approaching this far should normally have been difficult, but Teresa's song purified the path they would walk.
Enkrid's gaze turned upward. He saw several lingering shadows drop with thud thud.
In a way, it looked like they'd suddenly collapsed as if having a seizure, but even without anyone saying so, everyone knew the name of that seizure was Jaxen.
'What the hell is that now?'
The forms of the fallen ones changed and battle began. Only then did Jaxen's shadow become visible.
Should he help? The contemplation was brief and there was no action. There was no need. Soon after, those three aberrations also collapsed to the ground as if crumbling.
He didn't know why things that looked like human bodies had serpents sprouting from them.