The leader was a bipedal monster.
Its outward form was covered in bumpy protrusions, as if rotten skin had been forcibly inflated.
Arms and legs eerily long.
And a mouth split open to the ears, with hollow, empty pupils.
Hair sharp as rake tines hung down in long strands, and it stared at me while spewing the Void's revolting energy out of its mouth.
And I knew what it was.
"A Demon Realm native."
The Demon Realm native, presumed to be one of "them" who were probably still hiding in the ruins even now, had likely been torn apart by demonic beasts and then eroded by the Void.
And now it led the very beasts that had once killed it, and had come here to glare at me.
"No wonder the beasts seemed to be moving strategically…… You have no intention of stepping up right now, do you?"
Kehehehe…….
The bastard's a joke.
The monster didn't budge a single step from where it stood, as though that were the obvious thing to do.
A sigh slipped out of me on its own.
It probably wouldn't move until I'd beaten every demonic beast here to death.
That was what the numbers were for.
And the beasts within my field of view alone came to roughly several dozen.
"Hm……."
I gauged the numbers.
After grasping the gap between my current self and the ones I'd been fighting.
"Well, this much is nothing. I've fought with tens of thousands of enemy troops in front of me before."
The verdict came down that it was plenty doable.
So I loosened up my body with a CRACK and walked forward.
***
Enoch was looking down at the ground from atop a lofty cliff.
But his eyes held, unmistakably, a single boy.
Yujin.
A strange human child who had at some point simply dropped into his dungeon, carrying magic power identical to his own.
Enoch had spent all this time observing the human child called Yujin.
That continued even during the ten years he was away. No matter how far apart they were, as long as the child was in his dungeon, he could watch whenever he pleased.
If someone were to ask Enoch why he watched to that extent.
Enoch would probably answer like this.
Just because.
There was no reason.
It was merely one of the changes that had come to his dungeon, a place that had known no change and simply flowed on like a stream, so he watched.
Then wasn't it dull, doing nothing but watching for all that time?
It wasn't.
Because for him, the thing called emotion did not exist.
But recently, a single anomaly had appeared in his monotonous days.
It was interest.
"Ten years."
To him it was no more than an instant.
To a being who had lived five hundred years, are ten years truly short?
No, not at all.
But time is a relative concept.
For the Demon King Enoch, time was meaningless.
Because there was no change in his days.
Time spent doing nothing but guarding the dungeon.
Even when vagrants from other dungeons came to this one, he did not think of it as change.
They simply lived as they pleased, died as they pleased, grieved as they pleased, and repeated it.
But that human child was different.
He changed.
A mere ten years.
The child who had walked on short little legs had grown that much in a span he would have called an instant.
That change became water of life to the dead seed of emotion and grew into curiosity.
Just how would that child grow within a span that was no more than an instant?
That curiosity was growing even at this very moment.
BOOM—!
Yujin erupted magic power beneath his feet, then erupted it again into the empty air.
Changing direction midair as if performing a stunt, Yujin's fist burst a demonic beast's skull.
Attacks coming from every side he evaded with movements bordering on divine skill.
The ones he couldn't dodge he took with his whole body, then watched for the moment to counter.
He rolled across the ground again and again in the process, but each time he rose and stood against the Void parasites.
"Growth."
Over the sixteen years that had meant nothing to him.
That human child had always lived desperately.
A frail being that had looked likely to die on its own if simply left alone had grown that much.
Watching him ceaselessly crave a way of his own and develop himself in order to move forward.
It felt as though time, which had been standing still, was flowing.
That was a fairly new experience.
For one who had lived a repeated life for centuries had come to perceive time.
But.
That feeling did not bring any great change to Enoch.
He merely felt interest in the fact that it had happened.
If the child were to vanish as things stood, his interest would naturally die out as well.
"……."
But if…….
If that human child were to keep remaining at his side.
Would that small interest truly end as interest?
The Enoch of now could not reach that far in thought.
Because he was incapable of the very act of imagining such a future.
Only when the time came would he realize it, just as he did now.
The shape of himself, changed by that human child.
So for now, he merely.
"Get in here, get in here, you bastards!"
Watched the human child's change with indifference.
***
Half a day.
That was how long it took to dispose of several dozen Void parasites, the leader excluded.
Perhaps thanks to that.
[Monstrous Strength (Grade D)]
[Regeneration (Grade C)]
[Beast's Heart (Grade D)]
[Efficient Body (Grade D)]
[Night Vision (Grade E)]
[Pathfinder (Grade F)]
[Steel Hide (Grade C)]
The traits I'd acquired so far had achieved explosive growth.
They weren't traits I'd use forever, but at least in this moment they were an enormous help.
Thanks to them I had enough left in me to stand against the demon before me.
Kehehehe…….
[Sudden Quest: Dispose of the Void parasites!]
[Target: 78/79]
[Quest Reward: KP.500]
The quest that had appeared the instant it showed up in front of me.
As you can see, quests sometimes appear according to my actions.
"Ngh……."
But my own state wasn't intact either.
Because I'd used too much magic power, for too long, in a human body.
I was barely holding out thanks to Regeneration, Beast's Heart, and Efficient Body.
But precisely because of that.
"Whew……."
I had finished preparing to reach the "limit" Enoch had spoken of.
"If you won't come, then I will."
Once more I burst magic power beneath my feet.
CRACK—!
Matching the magic power I erupted, it too concentrated its energy in one place and answered.
It squarely blocked a blow no demonic beast had ever managed to block.
'Figures.'
Magic power eruption.
It was an attack strong enough to blow off Belios's arm before the regression, but in truth that was only possible because even I had thrown my life away for it.
As a technique to use while "protecting" my body, its efficiency was terrible.
Which was why I was trying to learn magic power control.
'It's about time I hit the wall.'
In that case the method was simple.
Faster.
Stronger.
From the moment I began clearing out the beasts I'd been spreading magic power through my whole body without pause.
At the same time I erased every hesitation from my movements.
A fight in which I poured everything I had into a complete release of magic power.
The sight that detected the enemy's movements.
The motion that would follow from it.
The magic power it would consume, and the prediction of the situation that would unfold afterward.
Every moment's judgment divided life from death, and the parasite adjusted in answer.
Make a mistake and I die.
With every exchange, that fact rode up through my mind and blared a loud warning.
Even in that moment, the two of us sought change in order to kill each other.
CRUNCH—!
……?!
But faster than its ability to learn.
DING!
[You have acquired a new trait.]
[Energy Concentration (Grade F)]
My growth was quicker.
SHRIIIIEK—!!!
In the end its defense was pierced.
Of course, a trait I'd only just learned wasn't enough to deal it a fatal wound.
All I'd managed was a small hole bored through its palm.
SKRAAA—!
It opened distance from me at once, and when it chewed and swallowed a demonic beast's corpse with that ear-split maw, the hole just bored into it regenerated immediately.
"Ugh."
Still, the thing seemed to feel plenty of danger.
CRUNCH, CRRRRUNCH—!!
One wasn't enough, so two, three. Beast corpses were chewed and swallowed into its maw without a pause.
Never mind whether that body, sharp as though nothing but bone remained, had that much room inside it.
"So it's decided to get serious."
Barely a few seconds after it began absorbing, it started to metamorphose.
Flesh clung to the body that had been nothing but bone.
And over it grew bone armor as hard as a carapace.
Its already sharp hair was honed strand by strand into blades.
'Its type is…… absorption.'
That was why a parasite that had infested a Demon Realm native was troublesome.
When a Demon Realm native, who holds the possibility of growth, is eroded by the Void, that kind of limit-breaking operation becomes possible.
"No wonder it dragged this many beasts along."
So I too began gathering the magic power, heated about as far as it would go, into one place.
What I was about to begin was what I called "road construction."
The work of deliberately sending magic power into a rampage and converting the wounds torn open in the process into magic power channels.
"Kuh……!"
GUSHHH—
Driving my body to its limit brought recoil.
Only after vomiting a cupful of blood was I ready to launch the ferociously growling magic power.
One round loaded.
I finished my preparations for the killing blow.
In time with it, the creature finished its metamorphosis and glared at me.
Each of us realized the other had a lethal move left.
Once again it was I who moved first.
I leapt into the empty air.
I drew the magic power up higher.
I could feel my body, which for over half a month had gone without rest, let alone proper meals, straining with everything it had to endure.
GROOOOAR—!!
Its roar, far deeper than before.
All that remained here was one who meant to kill and one who meant to beat the other to death. Just the two of us.
But only one of us would be standing at the end.
WHOOSH—!
Naturally, that would be me.
Tap.
The very small opening I had finally found.
Its blow landed on my chest, but only grazed it.
[Pathfinder Grade F > Grade E]
Thanks to the grown trait showing me the road between life and death.
By contrast, my fist, which touched its chest with a small sound, brought a result as vast as a tidal wave.
RUMBLLLLLE—!!
The magic power that had been piling in one place erupted like lava, carving its own roads through my whole body.
And at the end of those roads lay the creature's massive body.
And then.
FWOOSH—!
Magic power poured out in an amount that made me wonder whether this was right.
At the same time, its body, with its energy condensed hard as rock, was ground away in wretched fashion.
"Ah……."
Watching the trail of my magic power bore high into the sky, I felt it collapse.
The reason I say I "felt" it.
"Oh no."
Is that I collapsed along with it.
Belatedly, [Regeneration] was scrambling to heal the damage to my body.
But with a body that had neither rested nor eaten properly, it would take a good while.
But.
"Heh, heh heh……."
DING!
[You have acquired a new trait.]
[Magic Power Core (Grade F)]
[Sudden Quest: Dispose of the Void parasites!]
[Quest complete.]
[Reward: KP.500 granted.]
I'd achieved every objective, so nothing but a stupid laugh came out of me.