O Month X Day

The soul of a hero visited me. Or at least, he was meant to be a hero. Unfortunately, fate was not so generous to him. Cause of death: slain by the Demon King.

According to Aqua-senpai, his first life in Japan was pitiable: unable to find a talent to call his own, he struggled with self-doubt. When his life was cut short by misfortune and she offered to make him a hero, he hesitated, unsure of whether he was worthy. She eventually won him over with a very unique and powerful cheat item: the Philosopher's Bloodstone. In contrast to the typical philosopher's stone, this item had only one effect: to enhance and amplify the qualities of its target. A tree would become healthier and bear more fruit, a potion would grow more potent, and a suit of armor's hardness and sturdiness would improve. And if used on a person, their stats would all rise dramatically, though the process would probably be extremely painful. The prospect of being able to improve every part of himself was too enticing for him to pass up, however.

And yet, even this was not enough to save him. Despite the overwhelming power he obtained, he continued to hesitate and second-guess every move he made, which, in a battle against the Demon King, was a fatal mistake.

After sobbing his heart out for a while, he decided to go to heaven. I tried my best to console him, but in the end, there was nothing I could do to ease his anguish. As I sent him on his way, I tried to put myself in his shoes. What must it be like to try so hard, yet fail because of an inner demon you couldn't conquer?

Maxwell walked into the room, saying something rather incriminating.

"I thought you were waiting outside."

"I was, until my meal was so rudely cut short. Seriously, I was really looking forward to the second course, where they'd be crushed by hopelessness as they were prosecuted in court."

In response to my challenge, Maxwell casually responded with more damning lines. This guy had been making me feel uneasy since we first met, but I had put it aside since I didn't want to judge someone I didn't know anything about based on a feeling.

Turns out I should've trusted my gut more.

"So you're the one behind this whole mess?"

He sighed.

"Do you really need me to spell it out? Though, I suppose if I don't then you can't really convict me. Well, since the neroid's out of the bag now I might as well."

He suddenly struck a flamboyant pose.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself! I am the manipulator of facts, the twister of truth! A general of the Demon King's army and duke of hell, the arch devil Max– ooh, temper, temper."

As soon as that word left his mouth, I was already lunging at him with my daggers, but he managed to block my attack by slipping past the blades and grabbing my arms, then flinging me back, sending me crashing against the opposite wall. Damn, how strong is this bastard? I shook off the pain and got back into a ready stance, but so far there wasn't any counterattack incoming. My party mates were also now taking battle stances, while Filman was doing his best to remain composed and the farmers were simply staring with slack-jawed expressions.

This damn devil. So all of this was just a means to produce negative emotions for his own enjoyment. The mere thought of that was sickening me.

Wait, does that mean…

"Detect Treasure."

Ping

As I suspected, a powerful reaction came from right in front of me.

"Oh, so you know about this little bauble, then?"

After hearing me use that skill, Maxwell pulled out a round crimson gemstone, about half the size of an egg. To think that it was right under my nose this entire time… I silently cursed myself.

"Wait, if you had it, then the farmers…"

"Oh, those three men currently frozen in shock were simply trying out a new fertilizer. I had one of my kin tell me the exact time the cabbages would take off, then right before they did I snuck in and used the stone on them, yee hee hee!"

He let out a chilling laugh as he recounted his plan, but his face remained emotionless as always. When not used by the intended owner, the bloodstone's effects lose their permanency, only lasting a few days at most. More than enough time for the near supersonic cabbages to reach Accelia from here.

Wait, by now it must've worn off, so all that delicious cabbage will have returned to normal. Dammit, I was hoping to have some more when I returned.

"I must say, however, I really am impressed that you managed to break my spell, silver-haired thief. And for you to also know about this gem… who exactly are you, I wonder?"

He questioned my identity as he placed the bloodstone back in his pocket.

"I'm the one who's going to send you back to hell, you damned devil!"

Damn that sounded cool.

"I must say, I prefer to avoid killing mortals when possible, since you provide such delicious emotions. I don't, however, have any qualms about crippling and mutilating you, yee hee hee!"

"Ah, um, sorry to interrupt, but maybe it'd be best if you take this outside, no? This living room isn't really suited for fighting."

Filman had a good point, but he completely ruined the mood. An awkward silence descended on the room. Sirius coughed lightly. Even Maxwell seemed a bit at a loss, as his plan hadn't involved any fighting in the first place.

"… if it's all right with you, I certainly wouldn't mind taking this outside."

In the end, the devil broke the silence, and we all sort of mumbled agreement.

… my cool line was totally wasted.

Leaving Filman and the flabbergasted farmers in the farmhouse, we relocated to the yard, and then took up fighting positions again. Sirius was in the middle, with Pax on the right and me on the left. Maxwell stood across from us about 10 meters away, not even bothering to put up his guard despite it being 3 vs 1. And I'm painfully aware that it's not just overconfidence, either. I made this body to have resistance to mental corruption, yet he was able to overcome it, albeit not completely. And when he threw me just now, I could tell he wasn't using his full strength.

He really is an archduke of hell.

I took stock of our own forces.

Sirius is unparalleled in close quarters; I'm not certain, but I'm guessing that even Maxwell would have a hard time fending it off.

Pax uses magic to enhance her own swordplay and debuff her targets, and then tops off her assault with powerful close range attack magic. Her attacks would leave Maxwell vulnerable, though she'd have to stay clear of Sirius. The false memory she had of getting hit by him will actually be beneficial here, as it'll make her more cautious.

I'm the lowest level out of all of us, and the Thief class isn't fully geared toward direct combat. And on top of that, I don't have particularly strong equipment. Of course, if I'm stealthy and slip in a couple Assassinate attacks, I'll be able to whittle his health down quite a bit. I just need to avoid Sirius while also not getting in the way of Pax…

Isn't this party too unbalanced!? All of us are melee fighters! It wasn't a big deal when we were just supposed to protect against mob monsters, but this is a boss battle now. Not to mention that damn devil has already seen us in action before, so he already knows our basic moves. And he has the Philosopher's Bloodstone on top of that.

As a last resort, I could try doing a full divine descent and smiting him, but that would effectively end my time here in the mortal world, since my identity would be exposed to humans, and I'd return to heaven with a grand total of one (1) divine relic for all my hardships. Not to mention all the trouble I'd be in. It would win me the battle, but result in a catastrophic loss of the war, so I need to avoid that at all costs.

"So what's our play, Chris?"

Sirius had his gaze locked on our opponent, watching for any sudden movements. Pax didn't say a word, but glanced in my direction with a questioning look.

Hey, I don't recall being appointed as the tactician. I do actually have a plan, but still, you can't just drop that responsibility on someone without warnig.

"Sirius, you run up and do your thing. Pax, circle around behind him and hit him with some spells and hit and run attacks. Move around to keep him right between you two, so that he's forced to defend two sides at once. Once he's pinned down and debuffed, I'll jump in and cut him until he falls."

I relayed my plan in a barely audible whisper, while also covering my mouth in case that fiend can read lips. He seemed quite bemused at our strategizing, as if he were thinking "Yee hee hee, these silly humans actually think they have a chance!"

Sure, his arrogance is probably justified. Dukes of hell are no laughing matter. But confidence is a precarious thing. Having too little, or too much, will always prove fatal. The very bloodstone now sitting in his pocket was a grim reminder of that. If I can exploit his arrogance, then…

"Go!"

Sirius kicked up a cloud of dust as he rushed in, his greatsword trailing behind him, and as he got within range– he instantly spun around and delivered a crushing downstroke. Not just Maxwell, even I was caught off guard by that. With the way Sirius acts, I often forget that, despite his age, he's a trained warrior with years of experience, and not an idiot that would use an attack the enemy had already seen before.

Unable to dodge the blade coming down from above in time, Maxwell quickly caught it between his hands. Though he was able to keep it from cleaving him in half, the sheer force of the blow was transmitted through his body, and the ground under his feet cracked apart from the impact.

"Hoho, so your attacks really were as strong as they looked, unwanted warrior?"

His jab fell on deaf ears, of course, since Sirius's mind had already become empty of everything except fighting and breathing. Yanking his sword free from the devil's grasp, he immediately followed up with a flurry of attacks that seemed way too fast given the size of the weapon. Maxwell managed to dodge or deflect all of them, but he couldn't get a single moment's rest.

"Slow! Weaken!"

Pax hit him with debuff spells from behind, then started moving in for her own attack. I followed a few meters behind her, watching for an opening.

Pax raised her sword as she prepared to unleash an attack skill. With Maxwell bogged down by her debuffs and pinned by Sirius's assault, it should be a guaranteed hit… but as she closed in, his eyes started glowing red. Alarm bells went off in my head. Acting on instinct, I took one end of my Bind rope in my hand and whipped the other towards Pax.

"Bind!"

The other end of the rope wrapped around her waist, and I yanked her back. She let out a yelp of surprise as she was jerked off balance and fell backwards. As I caught her, Maxwell suddenly vanished, reappearing about 3 meters to the side, and Sirius continued charging forward, his sword cutting through the space Pax had been in just a heartbeat before. His movements seemed a bit more sluggish, though.

"That was a close one. You okay there?"

"U-Um… yes, t-thank you."

The near death experience seemed to have shaken her a bit, as her face was flushed red.

"Crap, I'm so sorry, I did it again even after promising not to…"

"Oh, uh, no worries. Not your fault. I also hit you with spells. Also last time was fake. Maxwell's lie."

Having been shocked out of his berserk state by almost bisecting Pax, Sirius hurried to apologize. Pax practically jumped out of my arms as she reassured him.

"Yee hee hee! All I did was defend, and yet you lot nearly killed yourselves! Yee hee hee!"

I had to take a couple deep breaths to keep myself from lunging at that jerk's throat. He wasn't going on the offensive yet, so we took a moment to regroup.

As I cut off the rope wrapped around Pax, my mind was racing. I managed to save her, but what the heck was that just now? Teleportation?

No, it was too instantaneous, with no startup. Plus, Pax's spells definitely hit him before, but then somehow they were affecting Sirius? It almost felt like he didn't move, and that he had always been in that spot he's in now.

The twister of truth, he called himself.

"What's the matter? I think I felt a glimmer of despair just now. Are you already giving up?"

And now he's becoming even more arrogant. Assuming I'm reading him correctly… the plan I came up with earlier was actually looking more solid than ever. We just need to win this next engagement.

"Pax, this time you're taking point with me. Sirius, stay on standby and wait for the opening. You'll know it when you see it. Ready Pax?"

"Roger that."

"Eh? A-Alright."

"You okay there Pax? You seem a little distracted."

"N-No, not distracted, I'm fine."

"If you say so. Break!"

After relaying the new tactics, we jumped into action again.

"Ho? You're approaching me again–"

"Skill Seal!"

"Weaken! Slow! Mindbog!"

We attacked from both sides again, this time leading with my Skill Seal to hopefully stop those shenanigans of his from happening again.

"Spark Lunge! Rapid Jab! Skewer! Burst Slash!"

Pax's attacks weren't quite as fast as Sirius's, but by using her Spellsword skills she enhanced her offensive pressure while also weaving attack spells in between the strikes. Though he could protect himself against her sword, the magic part of her attacks were starting to score hits on him.

"… tch. You're an irritating one as well."

He made a show of being frustrated by the damage he's taking. It was really good acting, to be honest. If not for the countless memories of devils I've looked through over the years, I'd have bought it too. It's fortunate for me that they're so predictable.

I rushed towards him, raising my daggers up. He saw me coming and shifted his stance slightly, preparing to dodge my blades while his arms were still occupied with fending off Pax.

"Assassinate!"

I shouted as I drop kicked him. Caught by my unexpected attack, he stumbled back from the impact. And right into range of Sirius's blade.

Thump

Maxwell jumped back to gain distance, leaving his left arm on the ground where it had fallen. His body was covered in various wounds from the different kinds of magic Pax had been slinging, and black blood was dripping from his left shoulder. He looked up at us, his eyes somehow intense despite the lack of emotion.

"You… you… you damn bastards…"

Yep, here it comes. Right on cue.

"I'm Maxwell, a duke of hell! And you dare to stand in my way!?"

"Sorry pal, but it looks like you underestimated us! You devils don't seem to understand the power of the human spirit!"

Sirius responded to the cliché line with another, even more cliché line. He really loves this sort of stuff, huh.

Okay, that devil should do the thing right about–

"… as if! You actually thought you had a chance? Yee hee hee!"

He reached into his pocket–

"STEAAAAAL!"

And before he pulled his hand out, a small, round object appeared in my hand.

"Yee hee, silly thief! The moment we were introduced I knew I had to prepare countermeasures, so I filled my pockets with pebbles the first night we stopped! There's no amount of luck in the world that'll let you grab the… treasure… eh?"

I tossed the Philosopher's Bloodstone I was holding into the air and caught it. Bitch, I am luck.

Maxwell stared in stunned silence for a few seconds. I knew that devils would take any chance they could get to taste their favorite emotions. Maxwell didn't try to crush us immediately, yet he clearly wasn't opposed to fighting us, so it wasn't hard to guess that he wanted to toy with us. And what better way to make us feel despair than by letting us feel victory within our grasp, only to wrench it away by using the bloodstone on himself?

Of course, if I had tried stealing the bloodstone right from the start, he might've come at us at full force immediately. By waiting until the last moment, I got him to allow himself to get nearly destroyed, and now that he's heavily injured, we actually have a chance to defeat him. Outsmarting a piece of trash like him is child's play.

"… yee… yee… yee hee hee hee hee!"

He started laughing, the hardest he'd laughed all day. As he laughed, his expression changed: his mouth broke into a twisted smile.

"You got me! You actually got me! Yee hee hee!"

"Any last words before you get sent back to hell, devil?"

I readied my daggers as I prepared to give the command to rush him down and finish him off. Well, he might have brought extra lives here, but if that's the case, once he revives I'll descend when no one's looking and purify him until all those lives are gone.

"… I'll remember you, Chris. I'll definitely remember you. And I look forward to tasting your delicious despair one day, yee hee hee. Unleash the power hidden within, go full 200%!"

"Huh? Chris, you have any idea what language those last few words were just now?"

"…!"

Sirius was perplexed by those foreign words, while Pax, for some reason, seemed rather shocked when she heard them.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Meanwhile, I was screaming in pain. The moment he said the Japanese keywords, the relic in my hand started to glow, and energy started rushing into my arm. At first it was like a trickle, but the flow of energy kept accelerating. After a few seconds, it felt like my body was burning from the inside out. And it just kept coming, getting more and more intense. I tried to drop the bloodstone, but I couldn't open my hand. My mind was starting to black out from the pain…

"Mindbog!"

… oh, the pain feels a bit duller now… actually, everything feels a bit duller now… it's better than the pain, though, so I'm glad…

As the carriage rumbled down the road, I thought back on yesterday's battle, and cursed at myself for the umpteenth time. I'm such an idiot. And a hypocrite. I looked down on Maxwell for his overconfidence, yet I wasn't following what I preached and lost to my own arrogance. Next time I see that piece of crap, I promise I'll treat him as the formidable foe he is as I grind him into dust.

Apparently he made his escape while I was incapacitated and Sirius and Pax were tending to me. And he took his arm with him too. Now he's out there somewhere, and I have no idea where. I couldn't help but berate myself for letting him get away.

Well on the bright side, divine relic Philosopher's Bloodstone get! Mission success! And I (unwillingly) confirmed its powers firsthand. Once I came to after fainting from the activation, I found that my stats had all increase by severalfold.

Too bad it'll only last a couple days. And I am definitely not using it ever again, no matter what. I'm just gonna take it back to heaven. And maybe make some adjustments to this body while I'm there, come to think of it.

After I had recovered, we all sat down with Filman and the farmers to sort out everything that'd happened so far. We formerly apologized to the farmers for falsely accusing and threatening them when they had just wanted to give the budding city of adventurers the high quality crops they deserved. According to Filman, there were several reasons why the Agricultural Guild hadn't actually suspected the farmers of terrorism, the most "notable" reason being that, if they were truly malicious, they wouldn't have made the cabbages taste so good. Personally I found that logic a bit dubious, but I'll take it. The farmers themselves were still shaken up, what with the appearance of a duke of hell in their living room and all, so they didn't raise much of a fuss. Sirius must've felt guilty, since he offered them a handful of gold coins as compensation. They accepted it, of course.

Rather than stay the night at the farmhouse, we decided to give the poor farmers some space and set off towards Accelia that afternoon. We were too exhausted to talk much for the rest of that day, but by the next morning we were feeling a bit more lively.

"And then I said, 'Sorry pal, but it looks like you underestimated us! You devils don't seem to understand the power of the human spirit!'"

"You actually said that? To a duke of hell? You really are one of a kind, Sirius."

Sirius was busy recounting the tale of our epic battle to Filman, who had been forced to watch from the farmhouse window. Pax was sitting in the far corner of the carriage, not really paying attention to the conversation. It seemed like she had something on her mind.

"Something wrong Pax?"
"Fuweh!?"

Fuweh? Haven't heard that sound from her before.

"Oh, uh… I have request."

Once she recovered from being startled, she responded with something unexpected.

"Oh? What's up?"

"Could… I join your party?"

"Sure."

"I know my talking is bad. I'm still… eh? You said yes?"

"Yep. Oh, I assume you're okay with that, Sirius?"

"Of course. Well, we'll have to work out formations and strategies to avoid incidents like that one that didn't happen from happening."

"… other parties all rejected me. Thought I was rude and snotty because I talk little."

… I decided not to mention that I also thought that.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that. This isn't your first language, is it? I've met foreign diplomats before so I'm familiar with people that aren't comfortable with our language."

"You're right. This is the second language I know."

"So where're you from?"

"Belzerg."

"… eh?"

"I'll explain. Father was foreigner. Mother died in childbirth, so he doted on me. Raised me in small cabin in mountains, taught me many things so I could be successful. When I was 16, traveled with father to town. Discovered he only taught me in his home tongue, forgot to teach me language of this land. Father berated himself much over that."

… isn't that a complete failure of a father? Well, at least his heart seemed to be in the right place.

"Also, was wondering, is really okay another melee fighter joining your party?"

"… probably not, but we're not exactly a regular adventuring party anyway. And I think we worked pretty well together yesterday, so it's not like it can't work."

I reached out to take Pax's hand and shake it. I had to be careful not to accidentally crush her hand with my currently boosted strength.

"Welcome aboard, my friend. We're glad to have someone of your skill with us."

She must not be used to getting compliments, because her face was starting to turn red.

"Ah, always nice to see adventurers forming bonds. Speaking of which, after that ordeal, I'd say we've earned a small vacation, wouldn't you?"

"Hm? What do you have in mind, Filman?"

"Well you see, my noble friend, there's actually a secret little place along this route. A hot spring."

"Wait, really? I haven't heard anything about that?"

"I just said it's a secret, didn't I? Normally I only share it with fellow guild associates who travel this way, but I think after all we've been through, I can trust you folk on this one. It's about half a day's journey from here, so we'd reach it by nightfall. You all interested?"

"Yes please." x3

I gave silent thanks to my water-attributed senpai for this blessing.

Though, she's probably just reading manga right now.