The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Proofreader: Xemul

“I’ve always thought you’re bad, but to think you actually have the nerve to do it right in front of me!”

While Loren was looking for an opportunity to attack Rage, the conversation between the two Evil Gods continued. It seemed that it was not only going nowhere, but was also starting to spark Gula’s anger. Her eyes bulged and her shoulders trembled, while Wraith eyes glared at her with a vicious, evil stare that was hard to imagine from her appearance.

“What part of ‘Don’t mess with me’ don’t you understand? Sure, that country used to piss me off, but it’s gone now. I’m more concerned about how much fun I can have now.”

“What if that black bastard starts up another country like that one?”

“That’s none of my business.”

“Rage! What the hell is that answer?”

Gula, with a hoarse voice, waved her hand. 

Rage, perhaps not expecting to be attacked by someone who was still inside a protective barrier, was slow to react. Taking advantage of this delay, the invisible mouth of Gula’s power bit into the small slender body of Rage, and for a moment the surrounding crimson color faded.

“It hurts!”

But immediately, Rage put her hand on the mouth that was biting her, and wielding what was probably the power of Wrath, she burned the mouth out.

The effect of the burning was felt by Gula, who clutched her chest with her hand and exhaled a puff of slightly-black smoke from her mouth.

Loren did not miss this moment.

As soon as he saw that the fire around them was lessening in intensity, he jerked up on the spot and ran out through the wards that Lapidus and Gula had put up into the forest that was still ablaze.

“Human, are you stupid? Do you want to be burned to ashes by my authority?!”

There was not even a scratch at the spot where Rage seemed to have been bitten by Gula’s power. She pointed her authority-burned hand at Loren and snickered at his action, but soon her face was colored with astonishment.

Loren, who had leapt into a space where any living creature would have been immediately incinerated and rendered immobile, was coming at Rage with the same momentum.

“What the heck is this guy?!”

“That’s not how I’d call myself.”

Thanks to Shayna’s Energy Drain and the protective magic, the amount of heat Loren felt was greatly suppressed. Even so, there was still a burning sensation on the surface of his skin, and he knew he would not be able to keep it up much longer. If this was how it was, there was no other way but to move rather than thinking and go for a quick attack, and Loren swung his greatsword, which he held in both hands, as hard as he could at Rage.

But Rage, who although looked like a young girl, was in fact an Evil God, would not be caught so easily. With a fluttering of her skirt, she quickly moved to dodge Loren’s attack.

“A human?! Are you human?!”

“Lately, I’m not so sure.”

Just a few days ago, the Great Demon King, leader of the demon race, had told Loren himself that he had begun to gradually blend with the King of Death inside him.

Feeling that his thoughts would get lost in the maze if he started to think about it, Loren shook his head lightly to chase the thought away and immediately launched a follow-up shot at Rage.

The blade of the greatsword swung with considerable force through the weakened-but-still-burning air. Rage ran away from the sword, trying her best to dodge it, but Loren, who was chasing her, did not have the luxury of time to spare.

Even though the heat had been suppressed somewhat, he still felt as if his skin was being burned little by little. If the situation were to return to how it was before Gula’s attack, the time available for him to act would be even shorter. To prevent this from happening, he had no choice but to keep attacking and pushing Rage into a situation where she could not afford to use her authority, but there was no sign that his attacks would hit the Evil God, who was small and quick.

“How agile.”

“Shut up! I’m not going to get hit by that big thing!”

Rage, the one who responded, did not seem to have a lot of time to spare either. 

It was unbelievable for Rage to have a human moving around in a space where her authority was in effect. In addition, the greatsword wielded by the man in front of her easily sliced through the defensive magic that she tried to use to repel it. If she were to be directly hit by such a thing, there would be nothing she could do. On top of that, the big man’s attacks were relentless, and he kept trying to catch her precisely.

“What are you? Gula’s lover?”

“I don’t owe you any answer!”

“How can you swing such a rude thing at such a cute girl like me?!”

“A cute girl wouldn’t burn more than a hundred people to ash without warning.”

If it were only by appearances, Rage would certainly be a cute young girl. However, she was also the one who had burned to death more than a hundred people in a single instance, and Loren would never let up his attacks.

However, even he was beginning to feel a little impatient with the fact that his attacks were being dodged without even a hint of countermeasure despite his opponent being an Evil God. 

Loren thought that another move would be necessary to hit Rage, but when he glanced toward Lapis and Gula in between blows, he noticed that having her authority burned had inflicted more damage on Gula than he had expected. With a hand pressed to her mouth, she seemed unable to move, and Lapis was trying to care for her. He realized that Gula was not in a condition to provide support.

[‘I’ll cover you!’]

Shayna’s voice echoed in Loren’s mind. 

He wondered if it was possible for Shayna, who was protecting Loren’s body while draining energy from the flames around him, to provide further support. But then, he felt something swelling up from inside him, and saw Rage’s face twisted in surprise at the same time. 

“What the hell?! What the hell are you?!”

Thinking that Shayna had probably exerted the King of Death’s power she possessed to further interfere with Rage, Loren threw another blow. The Evil God’s dodging manoeuvre was late, and the blow lightly grazed her shoulder.

Loren saw a faint red line running across the torn clothing and the skin beneath it, but the blow was too shallow and far from enough to kill Rage.

“You hurt me, you son of a bitch!”

The pain from the shallow wound seemed to have ignited Rage’s anger. Loren felt the temperature around her jump up dramatically. Thinking that his body would be burned despite Shayna’s protection at this rate, he did not stop swinging his greatsword.

Rage was looking at Loren with the intent to burn him to the ground when she suddenly looked down at her own feet, her gaze again tinged with surprise. Down there were her slender legs, of course, but there was also a huge, rugged hand protruding from the ground and grasping her ankle.

“You’ve done so much to me, not to mention my cute children.”

With a clatter, Luxuria emerged from beneath the ground, covered in dirt and slightly burned in various places. This Evil God, who had not been seen since the Rage’s authority had burned down her surroundings, had managed to escape the heat of the fire by burrowing underground. 

Of course, the people whom Luxuria had tamed could not have done such a thing, and had probably been reduced to ashes by Rage’s power, which apparently angered him.

“Hey, you. Where the hell did you come from?!”

“Oh, your panties are cute.”

Luxuria smiled at Rage with a dirty, rugged face, and she hurriedly held down the hem of her skirt. Their position meant that Luxuria should be able to see all that was under Rage’s skirt, but the fact that his eyes were on it while his skin was being burned bit by bit was as expected of the Evil God of Lust.

“Stop screwing around! This time burn as the whole dirt around you…”

“Oh, no. I don’t think that child is interested in your underwear.”

Hearing so, Rage turned her gaze towards Loren. But by then, Loren’s body was already in front of her, and the greatsword in his hand was about to be brought down. She hurriedly put together a spell to defend herself, but Loren’s sword easily cut through it and plunged into her body.

If someone as small as Rage had been struck by Loren’s blow, they would have been cut in half. But as expected of an Evil God, Rage pulled her leg out of Luxuria’s hand with force. Without a moment’s pause, she took his blow on the left shoulder, then leapt backward despite the rather deep wound. 

“Oh, what a pushover, aren’t you?”

“Are you an idiot?! Damn, I should have killed you earlier.”

Loren knew that he had cut her quite deep. A human opponent would not immediately die from such a wound, but would sooner or later if left alone. But with an Evil God as his opponent, it could hardly be considered a significant wound. 

“Damn it! What the hell is that sword?! There is no way a normal sword will work against us!”

Rage cursed, but Loren did not respond. He silently went after her and swung his greatsword at her, but she evaded him by flying backward even though she was wounded and was losing a considerable amount of blood.

Loren tried to chase after her, but he was caught by the intense heat that erupted from Rage as she landed on the ground.

“You’ve done it. Don’t think you can get away with this for free!”

“This is not good…”

The aura emanated from Rage, who was holding her bleeding left shoulder with her right hand, gave Loren a sense of mortal danger, making him immediately jump back. 

“If this kills you then that’s it, but if not then I’ll make you pay for this wound the next time!”

The world turned a deep, dark crimson around Rage as she shouted. 

The color was incomparable to anything Loren had ever seen before, and he fully understood that he would not get away if he got caught in the middle of it, but he also fully understood that the speed at which it was spreading, he would never be able to escape it.

“Fuck you! How dare you do this to me!”

Then it suddenly occurred to Loren that the greatsword he was holding was the weapon of a Demon King, and that it could manipulate flames. It was not at all clear how well this would work against Rage’s authority, but Loren, thinking that he would not be able to escape anyway, thrust the tip of his sword into the ground and put all the strength he had into his grip on its handle.

“Loren! That’s too reckless…”.

[‘Onii-san! You can’t!’]

As Loren squeezed his eyes shut, he was suddenly struck by a white light that he could see through his eyelids, followed by a shock that shook his entire body and a roar that threatened to deafen him, causing him to rapidly lose consciousness. Amidst all that were Lapis’ and Shaya’s voices, but he was not sure if they were real for just a hallucination; Loren let go of his consciousness as he leaned on his greatsword.