The Sword Demon Tears People Apart

The chairman’s office of David Company.
David frowned at his subordinate’s report.
“The Scavengers again?”
“Yes. However, we haven’t found who’s behind them yet.”
“Tch, these damn bastards. I bet it’s not just one or two involved.”
David checked the holster at his waist as he stood up.
The Scavengers are nothing special.
At best, they’re neighborhood thugs, and even the better ones are only at the level of Silver-rank adventurers. They couldn’t cause any significant damage to the company.
But that’s only once or twice; when they keep attacking every other day, it becomes a nuisance in many ways.
As if the company business wasn’t giving him enough of a headache already.
Haah… David sighed as he put on his coat.
Two subordinates followed, vigilantly guarding the surroundings.
Outside, the air was filled with shouts, gunshots, and screams.
David frowned as he put a cigar in his mouth.
One of his subordinates quickly lit it, and the cigar glowed red as it emitted smoke.
“Whew… let’s go.”
“Yes!”
The quickly assembled organization members followed David, each carrying their weapons.
When they arrived at their hurried destination, blood was already splattered everywhere.
David walked slowly, without rushing.
“There he is! If we kill him, we’ll be set for life, boys!”
“The Sword Demon isn’t here this time! Let’s get him!”
The Scavengers charged.
David frowned as he pulled out two pistols from his waist.
Tudududu-!
Bullets rained down.
David blocked the bullets by swirling his mana-infused coat, and ran forward while ducking.
Bang-! Kwabang-!
The two pistols spewed fire.
The mana-infused bullets blew off the heads of two Scavengers, making red flowers bloom.
One guy charged with a dagger.
He knocked away the dagger with his left hand and pressed the gun muzzle under the man’s chin.
Bang-!
The head exploded right in front of him, and then blades rained down from all directions.
David swirled his coat.
The coat swept away blades and bullets alike.
Then,
Kwagwagwagwabang-!
Both pistols spewed fire.
With each shot, blood flowers bloomed on the gray concrete walls.
His eyes briefly turned to that flower bed.
The muzzle flash may fade in an instant, but the blood flowers on the wall won’t wither for a day or two.
Like the smell of blood clinging to his body.
“What are you doing, you fools! Are you going to show such incompetence in front of the boss!?”
“Charge!”
Waaah-! The organization members charged.
The nearby guards blocked those rushing at David, while David chewed his cigar and blew off the heads of any Scavengers he saw.
The smell of blood. The smell of gunpowder. Shouts. Screams.
Bang-! Bang-! With each explosion of gunpowder, flowers of various shapes bloomed brilliantly.
It’s like fireworks.
David thought.
His finger twitched, setting off two more gunpowder explosions.
Two more flowers bloomed on the gray concrete wall already full of red flowers.
Cleaning up these guys didn’t take long.
David’s mere presence sent the morale of the organization members through the roof.
“Boss!”
“Right, clean up or bury them as you see fit.”
David put his pistols back in their holsters and wiped the blood off his face.
Red stains on his handsome face.
Just a slight furrowing of his brow revealed the beast within him.
The chairman of David Company.
And the boss of the Beast organization.
David exhaled smoke and pulled out an old photograph from his pocket.
“Elena…”
After being lost in thought for a moment, he kissed the photo once and carefully put it back in his pocket.
“I wonder what our princess is up to…”
“Haha, boss! Don’t worry too much. Big bro went with her, didn’t he?”
A nearby subordinate joked.
David smiled faintly and dusted off his coat.
The smell of gunpowder ingrained in his clothes wafted up.
“I’m more worried about that bastard than our daughter. I wonder if he’s taking care of himself.”
“Come on, who would dare mess with big bro? That’d be asking for trouble.”
“With that bastard, it’s not about others messing with him, but whether he takes care of himself… Haah… Never mind. Let’s go.”
“Yes, boss!”
Wherever David walked, the organization members parted to make way.
Behind him, as he walked the blood-stained path, loud greetings followed.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll manage somehow.”
David dropped his blood-soaked cigar on the ground and continued walking.
*
Zeron set out after resting from noon until the next morning.
After running for about half a day more, he started to find traces of the Void.
An empty village. The fear-filled eyes of the occasional people he met. A strange aura tickling his skin.
Zeron stopped in place to check his weapons and physical condition, then took out a cigarette pack from his pocket.
Unlike his usual brand, it was a fancy pack.
“Whew…”
As he lit and smoked it, a languid sense of calm spread throughout his body.
It was a special tobacco mixed with drugs and painkillers.
He rarely smoked it, but it was essential before an intense battle.
“Shall we go?”
Zeron hung his luggage on a nearby tree branch and kicked off the ground.
Thump-, with a light sound, his body floated up.
At the end of his dash through the trees, what he saw was a massive mountain.
No, it was an ash-gray turtle as big as a mountain.

Kieeeeee─────!
A sharp roar shook his eardrums.
Zeron frowned as he drew his sword.
Shring-, one sword was drawn with a chilling sound.
Then a second.
Zeron, holding the left sword in reverse grip and the right in normal grip, leaped high into the sky.
“Khu…”
Perhaps due to the anticipation of seeing blood, a fierce smile appeared on Zeron’s previously expressionless face.
A red sword aura enveloped his blades.
Not the sticky red of blood, but a vivid red reminiscent of Elena’s hair.
Then Zeron spun his body as he fell.
The Void, unlike a turtle, swung its massive front legs.
The movement of that huge body was violence itself.
A fierce storm engulfed Zeron’s body.
“Amateur!”
The sharp edges of the spinning swords tore through the storm.
Not stopping there, Zeron landed while,
Kwagagagak-!
Grinding up the Void’s front legs.
“Tch.”
Thududuk-, what fell was not red blood but ash.
The smile disappeared from Zeron’s lips as his excitement faded.

Kieeeeek────!
If there was any consolation, it was that it at least reacted.
But it wasn’t a sweet scream of pain.
That was anger towards the enemy that had carved up its own flesh.
Does it not feel pain?
Zeron etched this information in his mind as he charged at the beast again.
At that moment, shwook-!
Its limbs and head suddenly burrowed into its shell.
Zeron frowned as he kicked off the beast’s shell and leaped high.
Just then, the center of its shell split open and the turtle’s head popped out.
“What…?”
Guuuung-! An ashen energy swirled in the beast’s mouth.
That looks a bit dangerous.
Zeron infused power into his swords.
Hwaaak-! The sword aura on the blades became vivid and took form.
A vicious shape like a saw-toothed blade.
This was Zeron’s personal symbol and proof of his mastery, the sword aura.
Kwaaaaaaa──────!
At that moment, the energy in the turtle’s mouth exploded.
An ash-colored breath attack rushed towards him at high speed.
Zeron spread his arms wide.
Kiiiing-! An eerie ringing sound echoed from the two swords,

Biting slash. Kwahak-! He brought his spread arms together, cutting widely in front of him.
───────────!
The two colliding energies exploded, causing a massive blast.
Thick smoke rose, and Zeron’s body, blown back by the shock, soared high into the sky.
From that height, Zeron regained his posture.
He brought the two swords together in front of him and concentrated mana at his feet.
Then,
Kwaang-!
The mana at his feet exploded, and Zeron’s body fell like a meteor.

It was only an instant until impact.
A red line extended from his swords through the air, and
Kwadududuk-! As the Void’s shell shattered, Zeron smiled fiercely amidst the fragments.
“Got you.”
Zeron plunged the sword in his reverse grip into the flesh inside the shell.
Shwook-, the sword imbued with sword aura smoothly penetrated the flesh, and kwaang-! mana exploded.

Kiaaaa───!
The Void roared in anger.
Zeron smiled even more intensely and swung his swords wildly.
He dug, cut, tore, blasted, sliced, and bit.
The Void, seemingly unwilling to take this lying down, transformed its body.
The main body inside the shell undulated, and hundreds of tentacle bundles poured out.
At this, Zeron’s eyes glowed red.
The sword aura on his blades was now flickering with an ominous blood color.
Tentacles attacked from all directions.
He blocked them using the reverse-grip sword like a shield, then slammed it down into a nearby flesh mass and detonated it.
Kwang-! Meanwhile, his other hand didn’t rest.
He deflected six bundles of tentacles, took a step to dodge fourteen bundles, and swung his sword widely to cut down hundreds of bundles.
Amidst this, Zeron’s eyes scanned in all directions.
A short distance away, the turtle’s head glared at him.
A small breath attack gathered in its mouth.
Zeron threw his left sword.
Kwak-! The sword handle sprouted from the beast’s head,
Kwaang-!
Then it exploded.
Zeron drew a spare sword from his waist and charged.
The tentacles’ assault had stopped, probably due to the strong impact.
As the smoke cleared, revealing the half-crushed head of the beast,
“Hello.”
Shwaek-! The two swords swung.

When its neck fell, the Void scattered into ash.
Zeron stretched his stiff body and picked up a bead that had fallen to the ground.
‘So it is this.’
Killing the beast didn’t improve his body by itself.
Probably crushing this would release the energy inside, healing his body.
Zeron did so without hesitation.
Kwajik-!
As the fist-sized bead cracked, the energy within flowed into him.
“Huu…”
As expected, the power itself was different from the previous wolf, and the amount of energy was vastly different too.
Zeron shuddered at the energy coursing through his body and the pleasure accompanying the healing.
“Almost came.”
Looking down, he saw his pants bulging.
From now on, he’d have to be careful when crushing the beads, or life orbs as he might call them.
Come to think of it, he seemed to have heard about researching these life orbs to create various things…
Well, it wasn’t his concern.
Of course, his own body was more important than such things.
‘Now that I think about it, it’s been quite a while since I last released. Should I relieve myself before going back?’
He didn’t like brothels, but it might be nice to seduce a pretty woman and spend a night before leaving.
It wasn’t particularly troublesome either.
Zeron started walking while stretching his aching body in various ways.
He took out his communication device and contacted David, who quickly answered.
“Hey, it’s me. I caught one for now.”

Oh, really? So how was it? Do you feel your body getting better for sure?
“Quite a bit. If I keep catching Voids, I think I might heal faster than expected.”

That’s… good news. Haah… You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?
Zeron chuckled at those words.
“I’m not hurt, but… Hey, you bastard. Is it right to make me fight such a tough opponent suddenly?”

Tough? For you?
“Well, no. It wasn’t tough for me, but even a top-tier Expert couldn’t have handled it.”

That strong…? Damn, the kingdom’s in a sorry state.
David grumbled.
Zeron chuckled and replied.
“It’s not just the kingdom. It’s the end times, end times. Just look at the attitude of young people these days…”
Zeron continued the conversation while walking leisurely.
The smile he wore after several days felt more natural than expected.
It was probably because it came out unconsciously.
‘Zeron, why don’t you smile more? You look handsome when you smile. Hee-, like this.’
The voice that used to laugh cheerfully brushed past his ear.
Feeling sticky emotions welling up inside, he deliberately changed his thoughts.
This time, a blonde woman with a voluptuous body would be nice.
He forced a chuckle and put a cigarette in his mouth.
…Was this smile a bit awkward?