The Regressed Sword Demon Is a Catastrophe-Class Inquisitor - Chapter 39

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 39. Such Devotion.

Bloom studied me intently before speaking.

“I see. So you’ve already grasped everything. Quite impressive—you even managed to turn one of my employees.”
“Livestock is easiest to train when young.”
“I suppose so.”

Bloom let out a brief chuckle and continued.

“But there’s something I don’t understand.”
“What’s that?”
“How do you plan to solve the plague spreading across your territory without our help? Even if you kill me, your Family Clan will slowly perish from the pestilence.”

Bloom’s gaze fixed upon the flames wreathing my blade.

“This is not the time for you to raise your sword against my children. You should be bowing before me and begging for medicine. Is a moment of vengeance truly worth more than your own nest?”

He spoke truth. I sought revenge against him precisely because his actions had threatened my nest.
Yet now that I had extracted all the information I needed, there was no reason to hesitate.

Whoooosh!

I swung the blade lightly, and flames erupted along its arc. The plants touched by fire released an eerie, agonized shriek.
Unsatisfied with merely that, I raised the blade again—

“Stop, stop!”

Bloom, whose expression had been so composed moments before, cried out in desperation.
Yet his plea alone was not enough to stay my hand—the flames dancing upon my blade burned far too fiercely.

Whoooosh!

This time, I incinerated the plants beyond. I muttered as I watched them burn.

“My, did some slash-and-burn farmer pass through here?”
“You wretch…!”

Bloom ground his teeth, and I let out a soft chuckle.

“All the materials needed for the medicine should be in this Research Institute. Why worry about that?”
“…I’m certain I told you. Specialized knowledge is required to compound those materials.”
“Do you really think that knowledge belongs only to you?”

I could entrust the material compounding to Arturo without issue. Even if it took him longer than these fools, it would be finished before summer planting season.

“While we’re at it, I should burn this place down and take up farming instead.”

I pressed the tip of my blade against a small flower. The blossom trembled faintly from the heat radiating through it.
Bloom clenched his teeth and bellowed loudly.

“You bastard!!!”

In that instant, the docile plants—both large and small—transformed dramatically.
Some enormous flower sprouted teeth, while a tower-like tree wielded its branches like whips.

Screeeech!

A thick vine suddenly swept across the floor and rushed toward me.
The moment I leaped lightly to evade it, a massive tree swung its branches down with tremendous force.

Slash!

I severed it, but the assault didn’t end there—a gigantic flower bared its teeth and swallowed me whole.
Darkness engulfed my surroundings as I found myself trapped within the flower’s maw.
Before the acidic liquid dripping from the roof of its mouth could touch my body, I swung my blade and cleaved the entire jaw clean off.

Screeeeeech!

The moment my feet touched the ground, grotesque plants of every variety rushed at me from all directions, stabbing and biting.

“How tediously diverse….”

I clicked my tongue, bent my knees, and launched myself upward with tremendous force.
Rising until I nearly touched the glass ceiling, I looked down to see them all with their mouths agape—a veritable hell of vegetation.

“How bothersome.”

Before I fell, I gathered holy power into my blade.
Wind and flame intertwined, swirling across the sword’s edge like a sun casting its gaze upon the vegetation below.
I swung the blade downward, unleashing the torrent.

‘Infernal Gale.’

Whoooooosh!

Flames cascaded downward alongside a tempestuous wind that seemed to tear the very air asunder.
The Infernal Gale spread outward the moment it touched the ground, consuming the surrounding vegetation like a tidal wave.

‘It was as though the sun itself had released a fiery belch…’

I cast aside such frivolous thoughts and focused on my landing.
Where my feet touched down, only ash and earth remained, while the flames around me spread in circular bands.

Crash!

Something burst through the inferno toward me.
A demon with ashen skin—Bloom, the Apostle of the Evil Book Society, in demonic form.

Whoosh!

He swung a massive fist, and I dodged to the side.
But as he passed, I faintly noticed water droplets falling where he had been.
Bewildered, I asked.

“…Hey, are you crying?”

Bloom didn’t answer and charged again. This time, I blocked his fist with the flat of my blade.
Then I saw it—moisture glistening at the corners of his eyes.

“This bastard really is crying.”

It seemed he was grieving over his burned plants. Given that he’d referred to them as his children, it was understandable.

“Shut up!”

He hurled his fist forward with a voice choked by tears, and I retreated swiftly backward.
He wiped his eyes roughly with his arm and whimpered with grim determination.

“I didn’t know you could wield holy power. By now, I should have regenerated several of them….”

Since I had modified the plants with demonic magic, that would have been the case under normal circumstances.
If I had wielded mana as I did in my past life, I wouldn’t have even considered coming to a place like this.

Screeeech!

At that moment, the sound of wind rushed from behind me.
I leaped to the side, and a sharp branch pierced through the spot where I had been standing.

‘It was still alive.’

It was the largest tree among all the plants in this place.
However, it had already suffered damage from the flame wind, so several of its branches bore a pitiful, charred appearance.

Whoosh!

Bloom’s successive strikes continued relentlessly.
Combined with the branches rushing at me from all directions, even I had no choice but to focus entirely on defense.
The branches had no significant length restrictions, so they didn’t hinder Bloom’s movements, and because of that, the attacks came in an unrelenting barrage.

‘It feels as though I’m surrounded by countless spears.’

I evaded Bloom’s attacks and calmly responded, cutting through the branches.
If I pressed the offensive recklessly, I risked being pierced somewhere, so for now I wove through the assault like a serpent, waiting for an opening.

‘Now.’

At that moment, a natural gap formed between Bloom’s and the tree’s successive strikes. The branches had grown shorter from my continuous cutting.

Whoosh!

I swung my blade and finally separated Bloom, who had been clinging relentlessly.
In the same motion, I turned and fixed my gaze upon the tree.

‘First, that one.’

The tree’s offense was formidable, but its defense was laughably inadequate. An immobile ancient colossus was nothing more than easy prey.

“No!”

As I lunged toward the tree, a desperate cry pierced the air behind me.
Regardless, I leaped high into the void, and with the resolve of a seasoned woodcutter, I raised my flame-wreathed blade skyward.

Slice!

I cleaved cleanly through.
Yet contrary to my expectation, what fell to the ground was not the tree’s trunk, but a demon’s severed arm.
The moment my blade descended, Bloom had thrust himself forward to shield the tree.

Screeeech!

Enraged branches then filled my vision, so I bounded backward to create distance.

“…This is absurd.”

I gazed at Bloom, who had lost an arm for the tree’s sake.

“He couldn’t have forgotten that his regeneration slows when he suffers at my hand…. Has he become like a child I’ve raised?”

Blood dripped steadily from Bloom’s severed arm. He stood upright before the tree, pleading.

“Could you not spare this one? I’ve raised him since he was a seed.”

Now I saw it clearly—he truly had nurtured this one from its seedling days.

“How long has it been?”

He answered with utmost seriousness.

“As of today, 1,375 days.”
“You’re being absolutely ridiculous.”

I let out a soft laugh and leveled my blade’s point at him.

“But I have no reason to let you live.”
“You don’t need to spare me—just save Malpira.”
“Who is Malpira?”
“The name of the tree behind me.”

I nodded in acknowledgment.

“Quite the devotion.”

Having wandered through the world in my previous life and encountered all manner of creatures, I was hardly surprised.

“Then where exactly are the materials for making the medicine?”
“They’re in a specially managed room at the end of Basement Level 1. Baron Scalen’s death derailed the original plan, but the preparations were already complete.”

He truly spilled everything without resistance.

“I see.”
“If you wish, I can even compound it for you. Truth be told, it wouldn’t even take a week.”
“Never mind that. Why did the Evil Book Society specifically target our Territory? If I hear a trivial answer, Malpira’s lifespan will be 1,375 days.”

Through interrogation, I had learned from Slow that the Evil Book Society had orchestrated this to seize leverage over our Family Clan.
But that was all—I hadn’t grasped the deeper details.

“Because your name was mentioned in the ‘Primordial Evil Scripture’—the Demon God’s own scripture.”
“My name is in the Primordial Evil Scripture?”

In my previous life, I was certain no such thing had occurred.
Was this happening because I was altering the natural flow of events?

“Yes. To summarize briefly: the teaching was that if you are not vigilant, you will one day be consumed by them.”

Now it made sense.
From the Evil Book Society’s perspective, I was certainly a presence worth monitoring now, but not yet a situation grave enough to warrant sending an Apostle.
After all, I hadn’t even been revealed as a Holy Knight.

‘But if my name appears in the Demon God’s scripture, everything changes.’

I asked.

“Are there others in the Evil Book Society targeting our Family Clan besides you?”
“Not at present. But when I’m gone, someone will fill the void. And they’ll be far more brazen about it than I was.”

I knew this better than anyone else.
Their greatest strength lay in a malice as demonic as the Demon God himself.
With Arturo now stationed permanently at the Mansion, I could rest easy for the time being….

“A curse that clings relentlessly.”

As I gripped my blade tighter, the flames burned with renewed ferocity.
From Baron Scalen, who started this all from selfish ambition, to the Demon God himself.
This enmity stretching back across lifetimes would not end until I eradicated the Evil Book Society and severed the Demon God’s head.

“Is there anything else you need from me?”

At that question, I turned my gaze toward Bloom.

“Nothing. Except perhaps your life.”
“I see. Then keep your promise—spare Malpira at least.”

He seemed ready to offer his neck at any moment.
Perhaps the battle’s outcome had already tilted, but Malpira clearly meant that much to him.
I gazed upon the ancient, towering tree and spoke.

“Plants are truly wondrous, aren’t they? A tiny seed given nourishment grows to such magnificent proportions.”
“Hmm, you know something of it then. That’s precisely why I devoted myself to studying plants.”

An empty Field stretching bare to the horizon transforms into something entirely different when harvest approaches.
Golden wheat swaying in the breeze, verdant leaves growing in neat rows….
Thus, depending on what seeds are sown and by whom, the Field’s future landscape is determined.

“And human emotion follows the same principle. At first, I thought them insignificant feelings destined to fade. Yet at some point, I realize they’ve grown to such magnitude.”
“What do you…?”

Deep within my chest, magma churns and roils, while my mind feels suffocated as if clamped shut by something unseen.
I had believed my anger had subsided somewhat since my return, but it had merely grown heavier, too weighty to be easily shaken.
Of course, having reached the realm of “Wrathful Mastery,” I could control it. But I was never one to suppress my fury.
So there was nothing left but to unleash the accumulated resentment.

“You sowed the seeds first.”

I lowered my stance and thrust my sword forward as if to pierce them, then poured even more holy power into the blade.

Whoooosh!

Fierce flames blazed from the sword’s edge.
I gathered them at the tip of my blade, condensing them into a small sphere of fire.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!!

Before long, the flame sphere trembled as if ready to burst, its color deepening to a rich crimson.

“…!”

Sensing the danger, Bloom twisted his body to escape the blast radius.
I spoke to him then.

“Will you abandon him?”

Bloom’s movement froze. My sword’s tip remained fixed on Malpira.

“Damn it…!”

He rushed desperately toward Malpira.
At that touching sight, a bitter laugh escaped me. Before I knew it, my sword was already thrusting toward them.

‘Point Detonation.’

Boom!

A thunderous roar shook the earth itself as a line of scorching explosion tore forward.
Bloom managed to take the initial impact with his bare body, but he could not withstand the relentless force that continued to bear down.

Crash!

The flames pierced through Bloom’s upper body, then carved a hole through the wooden corpse’s torso, and finally shattered the Research Institute’s wall.
As the flames gradually subsided, all that remained visible were the Demon’s two legs and a tree trunk pierced by something.

“Phew….”

A strange comfort settled over me, followed by a wave of exhaustion.
Even wearing Bertior’s sacred sandals, using two major techniques in succession naturally took its toll.
Yet I was still capable of movement, so I walked before the Demon’s two legs and offered a prayer.

‘Goddess, I pray for this Demon who loved only what was his own, yet could not love other humans or plants. What trouble I endured, trampling and burning them like weeds….’

Then not only the two legs, but the demonic energy of the plants scattered through the air gathered together, condensing into a black mass.
Afterward, the demonic energy was purified and transformed into holy power, which flowed into me.

‘An excellent amount.’

Bloom was an Apostle, after all, and I had absorbed the demonic energy of plants as well.
But reaching the realm of sorrow still lay far ahead. The higher one’s realm, the greater the disparity becomes.
Still, the growth rate was excellent enough to be satisfied with.

‘Thanks to this, my fatigue has recovered somewhat.’

Just as I was about to turn my steps away.

Plink—

Something fell from the sky.
I thought it might be droppings from a small animal, but it turned out to be a tiny seed that had fallen from Malpira’s branch.

“There was a child.”

Indeed, Bloom’s actions just before now made even more sense.

“They were a good couple.”

I offered a prayer for their peace, and picked up the seed.
A faint demonic energy emanated from the seed. When it grew, it would likely become as massive as Malpira.

‘Perhaps I’ll plant it in front of the Mansion.’

If I could turn it to my side, it would certainly prove useful.
But my concern was whether it might remember this incident and seek revenge later.
If it were an ordinary plant, such a thing would be impossible—but this was one that the Evil Book Society had modified.

‘Hmm.’

After a moment’s deliberation, I infused holy power into the seed, pushing out the demonic energy.
The holy power and demonic energy clashed within the seed, causing it to tremble slightly before gradually settling.
The holy power had successfully taken root within the seed.

‘This works.’

It seemed the seed had already been modified to accept infused energy in the first place.
I had simply replaced the demonic energy with holy power instead.

‘Information from the Evil Book Society, and now this extraordinary tree….’

Bloom was truly generous in what he offered.
I placed the seed within my robes and turned my steps toward the outside.
Now it was time to resolve the plague that had tormented Luminara Territory for the past six months.

(Continued in the next chapter)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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