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Ch 48 - The Demon and the Inquisitor
🕑 Added 2025-06-16 19:18:15 +0000 UTCA/N -
This one turned out longer than usual, but I did not want to cut the scene abruptly.
Like I promised, I'll post one more chapter today.
Enjoy <3
**
As the light finally dimmed enough for me to see without straining or wincing, I froze where I stood.
The glorious Inquisitor, the figure I had unconsciously pictured in my head ever since Elisabeth first spoke of the Goddess' chosen warrior, was nowhere to be seen. No towering elf clad in shining armor. No divine greatsword or majestic shield worthy of some celestial champion. The image I had crafted in my mind shattered like glass striking stone.
The figure standing before us was not rising, like I had assumed, he had already been standing the entire time. Short. Bloated. Heavy.
His upper body was wrapped in a loose, gray cloth filled with holes, revealing patches of hairy soft green skin beneath. A narrow, balding scalp sat awkwardly beneath long, unkempt strands of dark hair that fell to his shoulders, giving him an almost comical appearance. Thick brows shadowed his eyes, which squinted as if the dim light was somehow still too much. Two dark gray horns curved forward from his forehead, blunt at the edges, giving him a bestial, unnatural look.
Then his gaze landed on Elisabeth, and the first word he spoke carried no hesitation.
“Abomination.” The contempt in his voice was unveiled, making me think this was not the first time the two had met.
Elisabeth didn’t react immediately. She stood there, perfectly still, as though processing what she was seeing - or perhaps, however her strange sight functioned, she hadn’t fully registered the warped dwarf-like creature in front of us until now.
“Gundir?!” She finally spoke, but instead of anger or fear, she laughed, though the laughter never reached her eyes. Her face stayed tense, the atmosphere around her charged like a coiled spring. It was clear she was ready to cast the spell the moment Gundir made any sudden movement. “So that’s where you disappeared.”
“Don’t you dare speak me name, you filth.” Gundir sneered, snapping his eyes toward me next. His lips curled in disgust. “Huh… and you. The kind of company I’d expect from eer. A human who slaughtered an entire village for a blessing, standing next to a demon born by mistake.”
My breath caught.
She massacred her village for a blessing? And a demon created by mistake? Me?
I knew I was not a demon, but… created by mistake? That, perhaps, I was. My thoughts spiralled instantly for several reasons - did he know I was a vessel? How would Elisabeth react now that Gundir had revealed I was not a human? I took a step away from both, increasing the distance ever so slightly.
But Elisabeth didn’t react at all. She showed no surprise at his accusations or the mention of my nature, as if his words didn’t matter, or worse, as if she already suspected. Her malicious smile only widened, lips curling like a predator toying with prey.
“Where is she?” she asked, tilting her head with that same unsettling amusement. “Do you know where Fr…”
But she never finished. Gundir’s face flushed crimson with rage, eyes bulging, spittle flying from his mouth as he suddenly exploded with fury, cutting her off before she could say more.
“DON’T YOU DARE SPEAK EER NAME, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” he roared, voice tearing through the chamber as though his vocal cords could barely contain the raw hatred inside him.
In one motion, he ripped open the collar of his gray cloth, exposing a small golden medallion that hung around his neck, the fine chain tangled slightly in his dense, matted chest hair. The medallion gleamed faintly under the remaining light, partially obscured but unmistakably significant both in sentiment and value.
“I will finish what I started then...” he hissed, yanking the medallion free and biting into his thumb so hard that blood spilled instantly. The crimson dripped onto his palm, thick and heavy, as he smeared it across the medallion’s surface in one fast, practiced motion while muttering words too quick and guttural for me to catch.
I had no idea what Gundir was doing, but instinct took over as I stepped back, careful to distance myself not only from him, but from Elisabeth as well. Whatever this bloated, dwarflike hobgoblin was preparing, I wasn’t eager to be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with either of them when it went off.
But my cautious retreat didn’t go unnoticed.
“Stand behind me!” Elisabeth ordered sharply, not even turning her head.
She was already forming a spell, and judging by the sudden pressure in the air, this time she wasn’t playing around. Her dark mana swirled around her like black smoke drawn inward, dense and compact, wrapping around her like a coiled serpent ready to strike.
This guy must be very powerful.
My grip on the blade tightened instinctively, my body tensing as the weight of what I was watching settled in.
And yet, as the scene unfolded, a new thought crept into my mind.
After seeing Elisabeth stash my blood earlier, my original plan of leaving the dungeon quietly after all this was over had already fallen apart. There was no chance she’d simply let me go. With my blood secured, she probably had what she needed to track me down or worse. That forced me to start considering alternatives.
If Elisabeth was right and this Inquisitor decided to attack her, I could turn this to my advantage. I had briefly entertained the idea of backstabbing her the moment she was distracted, using her complete faith in her god’s lie-detection spell against her. But that plan shattered the instant I saw what was standing inside the capsule.
I couldn’t shake my doubts about Gundir entirely, not after he’d thrown those accusations at me. But now, seeing the power he was wielding, I hesitated for a different reason.
The medallion shattered in his hand with a sharp, cracking sound, releasing a surge of energy that blasted outward like a shockwave. The air itself vibrated, and immediately I recognized the divine signature radiating from the broken artifact.
It was Goddess’ power.
I didn’t know how he could wield it, but that wasn’t important. What mattered was that this man wasn’t some random unstable remnant - he was holding a piece of the same divinity that marked my body.
The more I thought about it, the more my instincts leaned toward him. Loud people who burst into rage and accusations were often easier to handle than the ones who wore polite smiles while stabbing you in the back.
And Elisabeth… she was the latter.
I slipped behind her as she commanded, keeping my expression steady as my mind raced.
“I’ll wait until there’s an opening and strike him from behind.”
I made sure to say it loud enough for her to hear, keeping my tone as genuine as I could. If she truly believed I couldn’t lie, my words would only reassure her. She would let her guard down further, and that was exactly what I needed.
Layer upon layer of her dark, shadowy barriers manifested in front of us, growing thicker and more oppressive as the swirling mass formed a solid wall of energy between us and Gundir.
Then, the silver light came.
A beam like liquid moonlight shot toward us with impossible speed, crashing into Elisabeth’s barrier and sending ripples through the swirling shadows. The ground trembled beneath my feet. My gaze remained locked on her, studying every movement.
I waited. Watching for the moment when her focus would slip, even slightly. That would be my window.
The last layer of her barrier started to waver. The silver beam was stronger than Elisabeth had anticipated… or at least, that was what I thought at first. But then one of the rings she’d equipped before we entered the dragon chamber began to glow.
Dark energy, impossibly dense and oppressive, surged from it like a tidal wave. It didn’t just stop the silver beam - it swallowed it, forcing it back, inch by inch, until her darkness started creeping forward toward Gundir.
Shit. She’s winning.
My jaw clenched as my gaze darted between them. Gundir was sweating, his breath labored, struggling to keep his ground. It was clear now, this was everything he had. There was no hidden trump card waiting. This beam was his strongest attack. And it was failing.
Elisabeth, in contrast, looked almost calm. Almost. But I caught it - her fingers trembling slightly, the faintest twitch of strain in her arm. The spell was taxing her more than she let on.
It’s now or never.
I didn’t risk lifting my greatsword high. That would have been too obvious. Instead, I stepped forward smoothly, driving the tip toward her back like a spear.
She didn’t even register the movement. The point was already inches from piercing her when everything went to hell.
The ring on her index finger cracked.
A pulse of force blasted outward. I was thrown off my feet, sent ragdolling across the chamber like a broken puppet. My body smashed into the stone wall with a dull, sickening thud that made my vision swim.
The air burst from my lungs on impact. My chest seized. It wasn’t just the pain - it was as if something inside locked up entirely. My lungs refused to expand, my diaphragm frozen like it had seized completely, making it impossible to draw breath.
I slumped forward, wheezing, clawing at my own chest as I tried to force my body to work. But every desperate gasp felt like I was pulling against a sealed valve that wouldn’t open.
Then magic wrapped around me again.
A violent tug yanked my entire body like a rag, slamming me face-first into the opposite wall with a brutal smack. The pain exploded across my face, even without checking, I knew that a few of my ribs were broken. But the impact must have jolted something loose. I gasped. Air finally rushed back into my lungs like I was surfacing from deep underwater, though it smelled and tasted like iron. My vision, still blurry, finally sharpened.
And I saw her.
“How… how… how…” Elisabeth kept repeating, her voice trembling, almost hysterical. The stitches across her sealed eyes shimmered with an oily black sheen as her mana crackled wildly.
“How did you avoid Father’s spell… who are you?”
Her tone was breaking, somewhere between fury, fear, and disbelief.
It was clear now. My attack hadn’t pierced her body, but it had done something far worse - it had shaken her trust in her god’s spell and in result loosened the only screw holding her mental health in check. She had become uncontrollable, to the point that her own magic had become chaotic.
Off to the side, Gundir watched me with wide eyes, still catching his breath, clearly as stunned as I was that I had attacked Elisabeth at all. To him, I was supposed to be her ally. He hadn't expected this.
“I’ll kill both of you!” Elisabeth screamed.
I noticed it immediately - the stronger her emotions grew, the more her mana swelled with them. Now it finally made sense why magic and emotions were so intertwined. Her losing control wasn’t making her weaker. If anything, it made her more dangerous.
Her mana surged again, erupting outward like a living thing. Even from across the chamber, it slammed into me like a tidal wave, making my legs wobble as the air thickened with oppressive weight.
I didn’t need much analysis to see where this was going. Whatever spell she was about to unleash, I had no chance of surviving it. None.
But Gundir clearly thought otherwise.
“Entrust me your blade, quickly!” he shouted, pointing at my greatsword. I hadn’t even realized I was still gripping it like my life depended on it. My knuckles were pale and bloody, fingers wrapped tight around the hilt as if sheer instinct had locked them in place.
I hesitated for a moment. I didn’t want to hand it over. It was my only real weapon, my only leverage. But what use was it now? The barrier she’d conjured was already complete - thick, layered, and designed to keep us out while she cast her spell. My sword wouldn’t even scratch it.
And here I thought she had lost control…
My grip loosened. “Here,” I muttered, extending the sword toward Gundir.
“Entrust me,” he barked again, glaring at me. “Say you entrust it to me!”
What? I blinked.
“I… I entrust my blade to you,” I repeated, not knowing why he needed the words but too desperate to argue.
Even before I finished the sentence, he tore the weapon from my grip with terrifying strength. The greatsword, I thought was too heavy to wield in one hand, was handled by him like it weighed nothing.
Without pause, Gundir smeared his thumb across the blade, blood dripping freely from the wound he'd made earlier. He began to chant again, but this time, I caught the final words:
“…order yer, grant me yer strength.”
The blade cracked and shattered.
My greatsword splintered apart like glass, fragments bursting out with a deafening crack that shook the entire chamber. Crimson energy, my divine energy, the power I had used to forge that blade, spilled from the broken metal and swirled around Gundir like a storm.
His face twisted, lips curling into something neither a smile nor a grimace as the crimson beam stretched outward, targeting Elisabeth directly.
She froze. The confidence, the arrogance, the overwhelming presence she had carried this whole time, all of it vanished. Only raw panic remained on her face as the beam raced toward her.
Her protective barrier barely held for even a second. The crimson sliced through it like it wasn’t even there. Ring after ring on her fingers shattered, each triggering new desperate layers of defense, but the beam tore through them all. The final one to break was her ornate silver bracelet, the one with the gothic design. A faint dark aura burst from it, unmistakably her God’s power, but it was too weak to stop what was coming.
The crimson beam devoured it.
The entire chamber turned blood-red as the light consumed her, forcing me to shield my eyes with my hand. When the light finally dimmed, I lowered my arm and stared.
She was still standing.
Or rather, what was left of her.
Her entire right side was gone, torn away as if erased. But even then, she remained upright, swaying, somehow alive. No blood spilled, at least, not anything human. A thick, black liquid oozed from the open wound, viscous like oil.
I didn’t wait.
Phantom Step.
In an instant, I was beside her. The very knife she had once offered me was already in my hand. Without hesitation, I buried the blade into the side of her neck, twisting it sharply as it bit through flesh and bone.
Her lips moved, trying to form words, but nothing came out.
The knife cut clean through, severing her head. It hit the floor with a heavy, wet thud, rolling once before settling in the pool of dark liquid, her dead eyes still open and staring blankly.
I exhaled and groaned, still in pain from broken ribs, my heart hammering inside my chest.
Then my eyes shifted.
Gundir was still there, down on both knees, supporting himself with both hands as he panted heavily, his breath shallow and erratic. The effort had drained him completely.
Should I kill him too?
