Side Story Chapter 76

Side Story Chapter 76

‘I might have to abandon this body to solve this.’ Joshua smiled bitterly. Although he didn’t show it, he was in bad shape because he was using another person’s body rather than his own.

-I won’t let you have your way.

Joshua’s eyebrow rose. Beelzebub raised his sword and then tried to cut off the arm piercing Cain’s shoulder. Joshua, however, wouldn’t let that happen because Beelzebub was not using his own body either.

“Cain!” Joshua shouted.

Cain grabbed Beelzebub’s arms and bared his teeth in a bloody grin that let blood drip out of his mouth.

-Are you trying to die or something?!

“I won’t.”

-What?!

Cain chuckled. “My master won’t let that happen.”

Cain’s fanatical faith made Beelzebub recoil in surprise. Since Beelzebub was directly infusing his demonic power into Cain, he knew precisely what was happening to Cain. By now, Cain must be in so much pain that it felt like all his organs were being gnawed by bugs.

-Arggh!

Beelzebub trembled. A white spear pierced straight into his heart—worse, the spear was constantly releasing thick divine power.

-You’re... craz... y...! Are you going to... kill your... own son...?

“He won’t die. Do I look that stupid?” Joshua asked with an annoyed frown.

-What...?

“This spear is made purely of divine power, so it won’t inflict any physical damage to humans,” Joshua explained.

-Urgh...!

It was a jaw-dropping feat. Even black mages couldn’t use demonic power without making a contract with demons, nor could priests wield divine power without communing with a god. Those narrow-minded angels never lended their powers to someone without deep faith.

Nevertheless, here was someone who was capable of using both powers without meeting those requirements. In the entire history of the continent—no, all the realms—there had not been a single man who had both divine and demonic powers. Despite the fact that this man was a lowly human, he had become the first god-slayer.

-Joshua Sanders...!

Beelzebub growled in a spiteful, strangled voice.

“How long are you going to hide in my son’s body?” Joshua calmly retorted.

-Arghhhh....!

“Come out now.”

-Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

With a creepy scream, a bizarre, demonic head emerged.

“There you are.”

-Fu... ck...!

Joshua caught Kireua’s unconscious body in his arms. Beelzebub, in his black, shadowy demon form, leaped far backward. Although he released a suffocatingly thick cloud of demonic power, he had a glaring white hole in the left side of his chest.

“Torso, legs, arms, head... take your pick. I’ll cut off at least one of them right now,” Joshua said.

Beelzebub gritted his teeth. He was one of the Seven Demon Kings, the strongest demons in the Demon Realm, and hadn’t lost his Evil Sin power, unlike the other Demon Kings, yet he could feel fear emerging from deep within his heart.

-You monster...!

‘I hope he retreats,’ Joshua thought.

“That Demon Spirit? Ah, I feel so much better.”

“Cain.”

“Yes, master.”

“Focus on the battle. Trust me and forget about everything else. You see the mark I made, right? Aim for his heart.”

Cain’s eyes shone. Sparks were still flying from the wound Joshua had created. “Yes, master.”

-Nicaraguaaaaa!

The black mouths surrounded Cain and Joshua in all directions.

“Now!” Joshua shouted.

Cain sprang forward like a lightning bolt, ignoring the threats behind him. Whether or not those mouths rotted everything that they touched, Cain’s back was guarded by none other than Joshua, the great Martial God.

“Duck!”

-Kieeeeeeeeeh!

One of the mouths clipped the top of Cain’s hair. Was all his hair going to corrode when only a part came into contact with the mouth?

Instantly, a tunnel through the air was created above Cain’s slicked-back hair. Cain didn’t see it, but he could tell from the sound that Joshua’s spear was dancing, shooting down all the mouths.

Cain was ten meters away from his target, close enough that he could try leaping to it. He made a snap call and leaped high in the air, cratering the ground underneath his feet. He could see the demon’s shadow swaying from side to side right in front of him.

“This is it,” Cain murmured. Cain’s sword thrust forward like a bolt of lightning.

But suddenly, another gigantic mouth appeared superimposed over Beelzebub’s mouth, baring a forest of fangs ready to bite off Cain’s head. It seemed Cain was in a crisis.

-Kieeeeh!

No, it didn’t even qualify as a threat. Right on time, a white spear streaked out of the sky and struck the mouth like the fury of a god. The demon writhed around the spear impaling it dead-center.

And right after that, Cain split the demon’s heart.

-Arggghhhhh!

The demon’s scream split the air, just like a human’s would.

-You... human... bastards...!

“Mmm... Master, are you sure that this demon can be annihilated?” Cain stopped when he was halfway through Beelzebub’s heart.

Joshua looked down at Beelzebub, visibly tired, but every one of the mouths that had surrounded them was gone like smoke.

“Put in more power,” Joshua said.

“I want to, but I can’t...”

Just like Cain said, his sword was firmly stuck halfway into the white hold. Cain pushed harder and poured his aura into it, but it didn’t work.

“That’s because you’re new to this,” Joshua explained.

“New...?”

“When annihilating demons, especially high-ranking demons like Demon Kings, you have to use your mana a little differently. Divine power, the polar opposite of demonic power, could have saved you the trouble, though.”

“What do you mean by ‘differently’?”

“It’s...” Joshua landed in front of the unsteady demon and held out his hand toward the spear skewering him through the mouth. Cracks spread through the entire length of the weapon. “...like this.”

When the spear was infused with aura, the spear exploded.