Taromati The Apostasy

“It should be around here, but…”

After burying the demon posing as the steward in darkness and teleporting, Jonah arrived at a point about two kilometers north of Gratz.

The demon had said that the “Apostasy” Taromati was in an underground cave around here.

Jonah looked around, but there were only small hills and grasslands. There was no sign of an underground cave.

“Maybe they’ve hidden the cave entrance so it can’t be found.”

A despicable coward who manipulates humans and targets and takes away someone’s precious person wouldn’t honestly expose the entrance.

Thinking that, Jonah exhaled with a “phew.”

“Doesn’t really matter. I never intended to go into the cave in the first place.”

If Jonah, who manipulates his body with ancient magic, were to enter the cave, dealing with him would be difficult.

Jonah, who understood that better than anyone, thought of how to defeat Taromati—no, how to expose it.

“O source of Thunder sleeping in the dark clouds, manifest before me, become wrathful light and bring down the iron hammer of judgment upon the foolish minions of darkness hidden in the earth.”

Jonah pointed his left index finger at the night sky and, with blinding speed, drew a magic circle.

“【Mjolnir】”

As a luminous magic circle rose into the sky, a gigantic iron mass crackling with lightning appeared.

That’s right… Jonah had intended from the start to destroy the underground cave where the “Apostasy” Taromati likely lurked, cave and all.

The slowly approaching massive iron mass took some time to finally touch the ground, then, still charged with lightning, it sank in.

The impact shook the ground violently where Jonah stood, producing a tremendous rumble. The residents of Gratz would surely be startled by the noise and tremor.

“Too bad, seems it wasn’t here.”

Jonah peered into the enormous hole he’d made and murmured.

While 【Mjolnir】 is an ancient magic with such tremendous power that it can bury a sea-serpent demon at the bottom of the sea without difficulty, its attack area only covers at most a radius of about one hundred meters. It doesn’t cover the whole of Gratz like 【Gravitation】.

If the cave entrance had been found, he would have combined the Fire attribute 【Flamme】 and Wind attribute 【Typhonia】 to burn the cave from corner to corner, but since that was unknown, crushing it like this was the most efficient.

However.

“Ah… ah, who on earth are you…!?”

Appearing was a single sultry dark-skinned woman clad in a black cloak.

From the aura of intimidation she exuded, she seemed to be the “Apostasy” Taromati, a commander of the Demon King’s army, but her face was terribly pale, and upon closer inspection her purple lips trembled.

“Ordering your subordinates to abduct me, and yet you can say that so calmly.”

“…!? Th-then you are…!?”

Finally realizing that the boy before her was the target, Taromati grew even more bewildered.

No matter how you looked at him, he was just a small boy; there was no way he could use magic of that caliber—magic that might even surpass the former Demon King.

But no matter how much she looked around, there was only Jonah here, and she had no choice but to accept that the earlier magic was his doing.

“You knew Duke Lanberg, the lord of Gratz, cherishes her younger brother Daniel greatly, and chose the method that would cause the most pain. And this time as well.”

“…!?”

Jet-black eyes were fixed on Taromati.

They were darker and deeper than someone who cavorted with darkness and lived by demonry.

This Taromati had served the Demon King who was once defeated by a hero, then rallied other demons and fought humans for five hundred years.

She prided herself that neither her skill nor her devotion to the Demon King was inferior to any other commander in the Demon King’s army.

All of that had been destroyed by the small boy before her.

Her strength was far from adequate, and her feelings and pride for the Demon King dissipated at the glare of those black eyes, leaving her only to tremble.

Pleading for life? That opportunity was already lost.

The only thing permitted for the “Apostasy” Taromati was judgment by Jonah.

“Ahaha.”

Jonah raised both hands toward Taromati and laughed.

Just like the time he buried Zarichu of Hunger and that steward in darkness.

――To torment the injustice that revels in making others suffer with an injustice even greater than it.

“O root of evil that broods with envy in its inmost being, manifest before me; become a blighted ground that nips future sprouts and return to the earth the sinful demonic minion that toys with hearts.”

Jonah pointed his right index finger at the ground and traced a chant at high speed, and a deep purple, ominous magic circle rose up, covering Taromati—no, the whole area.

“【Fortleben】”

From the magic circle emerged a sea of putrid-smelling mud.

Taromati fell into it and flailed desperately, trying to surface.

“W-wait! Please wait! If you dislike what I did, I’ll apologize! I’ll apologize! I’ll never do anything like this again, and I will never appear before humans! So… gasp!?”

Taromati desperately pleaded to the coldly looking-down Jonah, and soon noticed something amiss.

Her arms, her legs, her body… that beautiful face began to melt.

“N-no… no no no no!? My face… my face is aaaahhh…!”

Taromati desperately pressed her face to keep it from dripping away, but in vain: her skin, flesh, eyes, nose, lips—all plopped and plopped off.

As if a rotten fruit had fallen from a tree to the ground.

“Nooooo… noooooooo…!”

Taromati sobbed and begged for help.

But.

――The corrosive mud, having no soul, swallowed Taromati and left nothing behind.