Volume 6 Chapter 76 Descent
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
”Damn it…”
The first thing Klock saw when his vision cleared was Mina. She was sprawled across the rubble of a collapsed house, motionless. He couldn’t tell if she was conscious, but she definitely wasn’t moving.
Then, just at the edge of his sight—black fabric, long black hair. Kuzuha hung limply against what remained of a wall, the roof above her blown away. The shreds of her protective cloth spell were already scattering into nothing.
Right, her techniques had two forms—hand seals and chanting. She must’ve managed to throw up a quick defense. Because of that, because she’d blocked the worst of the enemy’s strike, Klock was even alive to think about it.
Pain burned across his whole body, but he forced himself upright. Heavy. His own body felt like lead, but it wasn’t his first time being wrecked like this. His mind flashed back to when that girl-knight had beaten him into the floor. Yeah—waking up in chains afterward had felt a lot like this.
He heard water. Flowing water. Which made no sense—no rivers nearby, not in this flat seaside town. Unless some reservoir had burst?
No. He already knew. The second the sound reached his ears, dread coiled in his gut.
”…Crap. It’s already here.”
He turned, and there it was. A black flood creeping closer, swallowing the streets. If it had reached the central district, then most of the town was already under. Time was up.
He staggered into the shadows of fallen walls, trying to stay out of direct contact. Step by step, he made his way to Mina.
”De…ar… custo…mer?”
A voice. Weak, but there.
Klock let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Still awake, huh? Thought you might’ve been gone for good.”
She managed a faint smile. “That time… I said all those cruel things. Sorry… Mina’s not… that mad, okay…?”
”Idiot. Don’t talk like you’re on your deathbed.”
He slipped an arm under her and lifted. Her limbs dangled, all strength gone.
”Mina?”
No answer. She’d passed out, dead weight on his shoulder.
”Hey, don’t you dare zone out on me. A knockout beauty like you shouldn’t be collapsing in front of some guy—he’ll take advantage.”
Her only reply was silence. For a moment panic flared in his chest, but when he shifted her, warm breath brushed his neck. She was alive. That was enough.
Alive meant saveable. That was all he needed. As “payment” for carrying her, he gave her backside a quick squeeze. Then shook his head. No time for games—he had to move.
Even a slender girl was crushingly heavy without her own balance. He heaved her onto a low rooftop, propped her down as gently as he could. No way he could haul her further, not in this mess, not with his body wrecked.
Then came Kuzuha. She wasn’t conscious either. Blood trailed from the corner of her mouth as he pulled her down from the wall. The sight twisted his gut—he’d never wanted to see her like this. He carried her too, every step a battle, her weight pressing against his battered frame. He laid her beside Mina.
And the others? Meina, Larana, the hostess—all crumpled nearby. Even Irina was down, though she’d been placed carefully against a wall, the gold and white catgirls curled beside her. Probably the landlady’s doing. From this distance it looked like Irina was staring right at him.
Only the hostess still had her eyes open. Barely. Her body was ruined.
So that was it. A total wipe.
One counterattack, and they’d all been crushed. No one left standing. The enemy still undefeated. The only thing left was the flood, crawling closer.
”Is anyone there? Please… help me! I’m trapped inside the monster!”
The words cut through the silence.
Klock ducked behind rubble, peeking toward the voice.
The wolf-headed demon grinned back at him.
”Someone, please, save me! Free me! Make me beautiful! Step on them all, crush them beneath me, heeheehee—HIHIHAHAHAHA!”
Yeah, no. Not fooling anyone.
The monster’s stolen voice was sickly sweet, but its face dripped with malice. A predator that destroyed for fun. That thing wasn’t human—it was pure devil.
And the black water? Still harmless. At least, to him.
The oily current slid past his feet, rippling, but nothing happened. Kuzuha’s warnings, his experience in the Hundred Pits—it all lined up. Maybe he really was immune.
If it was all over anyway, might as well test it. He reached into the water. Cold. Bone-deep cold. But nothing else.
So he had a choice: crawl to the hostess, or… try something else.
Yeah. He couldn’t save her in that state. But there was one thing left he could do.
The monster wanted him. Maybe because of his resistance. Fine. If he could drag it away, maybe the black water would follow.
He stepped in deeper. Ankle-deep now, the muck sucking at his boots. Still no reaction. He could move, slowly. Barely.
How had it come to this? Lazy days back in Rizan felt like another life. Since leaving the village it had been nothing but disasters stacked on disasters. Who said life was hills and valleys? This was all cliff drops.
He trudged forward, water splashing. If he wanted to lure the thing, he had to get noticed. Which probably meant dying. Eaten alive, all for nothing.
He didn’t want to die. Not at all. But watching Mina, Meina, the hostess dissolve in that sludge—that was worse. He couldn’t accept that. Not passively.
He wasn’t noble. He wasn’t righteous. He just couldn’t stomach standing still. And the landlady was watching. No way he’d let her see him run.
Men put their lives on the line to look cool. If not now, when?
So he left the collapsed street where Kuzuha and Mina lay, and planted himself dead-center on the road. He bent down, grabbed a pebble, and wound up like a pitcher.
”And here comes Klock’s miracle fastball—smacking the monster’s ugly mug right on target!”
The stone hit. A spark of flame burst across the demon’s face.
Of course, it wasn’t just a rock. It was a fire-element magic stone, primed to detonate.
The blast was tiny. Barely a scratch. But that wasn’t the point.
”Right. Forgot this thing could use a Cursed Eye. What a pain in the ass.”
The moment its gaze locked onto him, golden light flared in the wolf’s pupils. Klock ducked behind a half-collapsed wall, heart pounding. Even from that brief glimpse, he picked up on a crucial detail—the Cursed Eye took a moment to activate. If he moved fast enough, he could slip away before it hit.
”If I gotta die, better under some gorgeous woman than in a monster’s gut. Should’ve just let the hostess roast me in that hot spring, huh…”
He splashed through the black flood, the monster’s bulk crashing after him like a tidal wave. Every beat of it drew closer, every crash of water made his chest clench tighter. Death breathing down your neck was a whole different kind of pressure.
Maybe real warriors could call that pressure “honor.” Not him. He figured you had to break your brain with nonstop battles before you could ever think that way.
He slid beneath another sagging roof. The monster’s shadow drifted overhead, searching, blocking out the sky. At this point, dodging it felt almost routine—like brushing off a persistent admirer who just wouldn’t take no for an answer.
And of course, sometimes you slipped.
Their eyes met.
”Oh, crap.”
The demon froze him in its stare. No hesitation this time—its jaws split wide, a cavern of teeth rushing down to swallow him whole.
Klock’s vision went black—
”Kuroooooo!”
”Eh—?!”
Something white cut across his sight. A violent shove hurled him upward, out of that gaping maw.
In his arms—soft white ears flicking, twin tails whipping behind her. Red streaks marked her silver hair, blood trailing from her brow, but her elegance was unbroken. The most graceful catgirl in the world.
She clung to him, pressing close. Her perfume was faint, noble, distinctly her. Even injured, her dignity didn’t waver. Raising her face, tails arched, she whispered—
”Thunder God’s Strike.”
The words left her lips like a prayer, calm, ladylike. To anyone else, it would have sounded like a love confession. To Klock, it was just strange syllables—he had no idea what she’d said.
And no one else alive did either. That incantation was proof: she’d walked the lightning’s path to its end, taught directly by the Great Mage himself. A spell only two people in the entire Empire could wield: Elna, and the Third Princess.
The crimson sky clouded over. Thunderheads massed together, swallowing the red haze. Lightning gathered, monstrous and alive.
”Elna… you made it out?”
”I’m not okay,” she breathed, smiling faintly. “It hurts, Kuro. Hurts so much. I called and called for you… you never came. So I came myself.”
So she’d been waiting for him. Too bad he’d been the one hoping for rescue. He wasn’t the knight she needed—he couldn’t be.
The air dried, heavy. Water and mana ripped upward into the storm. Bolts of lightning swirled, condensed into one impossible strike. This wasn’t natural. This was her—Elna, the jester-princess of their group, the world’s strongest mage’s disciple.
The lightning cat’s counterattack had begun.
”Hold me tight, Kuro.”
Her vacant eyes met his. He wrapped his arms around her—and the world detonated.
A shockwave swallowed them, thunder deafening, lightning blanking out the sky.
Klock couldn’t tell how far they were blasted, only that the ground never hit. Elna’s face stayed buried in his chest, her magic buoying them until, gently, they touched down. A street near the harbor, far from the black water.
”…Kuro,” she panted, drained, sagging against him. The fiercest cat punch in the world had emptied her. No strength left even to fly.
Above them, the skies cleared. Bright, almost cheerful blue—except for the blood-red stain still clinging to the horizon.
”Elna… you…!”
He pulled back, and his hand came away wet. Blood. Too much blood. His gaze dropped, and his stomach lurched.
Her leg. Gone below the knee.
”Kuro… it hurts…”
”Stay with me. You’re fine. You’ll be fine.”
She wasn’t. She needed treatment now. She’d bleed out before long. First aid—that was all he could manage. Whatever was going on with her tails, or her missing leg—that could wait.
”Elna. You like dragon meat? I can’t stomach it, but I’ll cook you some. Tastes like garbage, but I swear, it’ll grow a new leg for you.”
”…Even now, you joke so well,” she whispered weakly. She clearly didn’t believe him. That was fine. Once she recovered, he’d force-feed her the stuff. Then she’d believe.
He stripped off his jacket, bound it tight around her stump, stroked her hair over and over to soothe her.
”Hehe… I heard men turn so gentle when a girl collapses. Some even break their own bones, just to test their lovers’ love. If you’re this kind to me, Kuro… maybe losing a leg was worth it?”
”Don’t be stupid. I’ll do this for you every damn day.”
Well. Maybe not every day. But often enough. He imagined Meina helping with the nursing. It wasn’t hard to see it.
”Kuro… we failed.”
Her ears twitched, voice barely audible.
He frowned, then understood. He turned toward the town. Couldn’t see the thing, but he could hear it—the dragging. The wet slither.
”…You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
It was still alive. After all that.
The Three Cats’ combined strike, Elna’s thunder—it should’ve been dust. And yet.
”Elna. Stay here a sec.”
”No.”
As he shifted, she grabbed him, trembling.
”Hey. I’ll just check it out—”
”No! If you leave, you won’t come back. Don’t leave me, Kuro. Don’t leave me behind.”
The night air gusted, foul stench riding the wind. Between two broken buildings, the monster slithered into view.
A wolf’s skull, stripped of fur, eyes burned away. A snake’s tongue lashed from its mouth, tasting the air. Its limbs were gone, body segments charred, but still it crawled.
Cursed Eye destroyed—but the thing kept coming.
”Elna, let go. Stay here and we both die.”
”You’re planning to die alone. If you go, take me too! I won’t let you go by yourself!”
She clung harder, like a child terrified of being abandoned. And she wasn’t wrong—if he went, he probably wouldn’t come back.
The monster’s tongue flicked, and its ruined head turned toward them. Smelling them out. Tracking them.
No eyes, no tricks left—but plenty of fight.
And Klock was out of options.
How could they have beaten that thing? The thought surfaced unbidden. If they’d gone all out from the start—Elna unleashing her true strength, the landlady following up, Kuzuha holding the defense—they might’ve managed it. Maybe it hadn’t been impossible after all.
But somewhere inside, he’d assumed it would all work out. With allies like Elna and the hostess, how could it not? That faith had bled into hesitation, into half-measures and staggered effort. And now here they were.
The monster loomed closer, grinning like it already knew. Maybe it had switched to scent instead of sight—honed in on him, victory assured.
”…Sorry, Elna. Might as well say this now. Back at the Cat Tower—thanks for covering me. If you hadn’t wasted your time on me, maybe none of this would’ve happened.”
On a battlefield, last words had to be squeezed in quick.
Elna’s voice answered, soft but steady. “You should’ve said that earlier. But fine. You’re forgiven. I’m a princess, after all. I can shoulder a man’s selfishness.”
That stubborn generosity. From the art museum to now, she’d always carried more than she should.
”Kuro… do you think the goddess will save us?” she whispered. “No… of course She will. She has to. We fought so hard, tried so desperately to protect everyone. The goddess will understand. She’ll grant us salvation.”
”Sounds like afterlife talk. Maybe you’ve got a shot. Me? Not so much.”
”Don’t worry. I’ll put in a word for you. You did your best too, in your own way. So let’s be reborn together. Next time… let’s have a simple little house in some quiet village.”
”Huh. Anywhere’s fine by me—as long as I’m not born into debt or chains again.”
”Yes… anywhere is fine. But this time, you’ll be the one to invite me out. Girls shouldn’t have to be the ones doing the chasing. It’s embarrassing, you know.”
So, she was planning on staying tangled with him even in the next life. The dreamy musings of a teenage girl facing death—it almost made him smile. Though honestly, was there even a next life? All he saw ahead was the end.
”Ah… you were my first, you know. I even defied Lona just to be with you. And now this? And you already had other women waiting… honestly, Kuro, you make life way too hard on us girls.”
”…So that’s what it was about, huh.”
Despite her words, she was clinging to him, trembling as the monster drew near. She was scared. Terrified. And there was nothing he could do.
Above him, the wolf’s head loomed, grin widening.
Sorry. I couldn’t keep my promise. Couldn’t find you.
The thought surfaced—words meant for another girl, a runaway slave who’d left only a letter behind. He’d wanted to search, to see her again, but never got the chance. Now the words just drifted away, swallowed by the dark.
The monster swayed. End of the line. He thought he’d done well, all things considered. He pulled Elna close, holding her tight. At least she wouldn’t have to die alone.
”Elna. This it?”
”Yes. Kuro… thank you. I’ll see you on the other side.”
No one could resist power like this. To point, to accuse, to shout—all of it meant being crushed or devoured. The town’s screams had already faded. The guards were gone. The people huddled on rooftops lay prone, black water rising around them.
This town had drawn the short straw. It would end here, devoured by a beast of calamity. Even the goddess seemed to have turned Her back.
It was over. The black ocean rose, and the monster laughed. A whole town, countless lives, about to sink.
Then—thud.
Something heavy hit the ground.
Klock flinched. The attack never came. He risked a glance.
The wolf’s head was on the ground. Severed.
”…Huh?”
He froze. Couldn’t process it. The monster’s neck was gone. Its body—still thrashing, headless—loomed behind.
Had it… glitched?
Even the demon seemed shocked. Its eyes and body gone, the lone head panicked, still alive somehow. But Klock wasn’t interested in that. He was trying, and failing, to grasp the impossible.
That monster—untouchable, invincible—its head had been cut off. Just like that.
Not what happened.
Who had done it?
”Klock. Sorry I’m late—”
He looked up.
Not the red, apocalyptic sky. No. The heavens split to reveal violet, studded with stars. The true sky.
And through it descended blades that could sever fate itself.
—Judgment.
Blue fire rained down. Flames struck the black ocean, and the tide began to boil, to dry, to vanish.
It was the hour of Judgment.
Holy fire that burned away all evil, all souls, the ordained deathlight of heaven itself. Equal to the sun—inescapable, absolute.
The monster raised its gaze, trembling as starlight seared it. Its hoarded malice, its abyssal might—laid bare under a rainbow flame-star.
And from above, those eyes. Crystalline blue. That hair, silver-gray in the wind. Twin black blades, dripping with annihilation.
The ruined town fell silent, all who still drew breath staring skyward. Even Irina, fading in the darkness, found her eyes caught by the brilliance.
She had descended.
An angel of death. A chosen one, wielding the sun’s own brilliance as her sword.
Calamity itself bowed before the stars. Against the sun, even the end of the world was just dust.
”Pulsar—spin.”
From beyond reason, judgment fell.
Her gaze locked onto the beast that had trampled fate itself. The monster, so sure of its dominion, was about to learn how small it truly was.
Here stood the pivot of destiny. The axis of the stars. The one around whom the world revolved.
This was the strike of the legendary hero.
”God’s Punishment—enacted.”
The heavens split.
The blow fell like a meteor, shattering the Abyss-texture that had overwritten reality itself. A pillar of light speared heaven to earth.
Auroras cascaded. The flow of power too swift for any mortal eye to follow.
And then—
The monster’s body burst. Flattened like an insect underfoot.
Notes:
• Mina – The red-haired cat girl is a hostess who leans in closely, her blushing cheeks indicating her interest, but she plays hard to get.
• Larana – Her white hair contrasts with an aggressive seductress attitude, as she entices with her body and a calculated air, once the gold coins appear.
• Irina – She introduced herself as the innkeeper’s name, a 32-year-old with a youthful appearance, who enjoys being sexually satisfied by Klock. A beastkin cat.
• Meina – She is a golden-haired catgirl employee of the beastman (Larana the cat woman) Inn, appeared performing fellatio, desperate and tear-streaked, with an inexperienced yet earnest approach to her work.
• Rizan – Village on a hilly plateau.
• Elna – Female. A young apprentice mage. Her appearance is that of a child with white hair reaching her shoulders. She wears a black hooded mantle with strange patterns. Her relationship is as an apprentice to Hermine, the Great Mage. Her power involves advanced magic, including spatial teleportation. Her combat style is magical, and she is described as childish and easily provoked.
• Lona – Female. A young apprentice mage. Her appearance is that of a child with black hair reaching her shoulders. She wears a black hooded mantle with strange patterns. Her relationship is as an apprentice to Hermine, the Great Mage. Her power involves advanced magic, including spatial teleportation. Her combat style is magical, and she is described as childish and easily provoked. Elna’s sister; a black cat Beastkin who’s relatively normally developed physically compared to Elna.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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