The Beginning of the End

Thunk………. Thunk……….

I awoke to a strange distant tapping, a bizarrely nervous twinge of worry bubbling in my belly from the sound… yet I couldn’t see the source from the blinding sight of another perfect morning.

Kazuma lay sleeping in his throne of women. Yunyun on his chest, Megumin on his shoulder, a hand touching Wiz with Sena in her arms, Aqua splayed out on his legs, Chris lazily rolling over to take the space I had slept in. All framed by the huge bodies of Divane, Musume, Xara, and Sylvia. The latter of which I’d just peeled myself away from after she’d railed me all last night. This was the largest bed in the house taking up two whole rooms of our magical third floor, yet even it struggled to contain the love life of Satou Kazuma. The warm beams of light that danced in so gracefully capturing them all so wonderf-

Thunk………. Thunk……….

Okay, what the hell is that?

It’s something I can easily normalise away to stop ruining my day, is what it is.

I gently left the bed, leaving behind the people I could spend eternity with to their peaceful lie in. Soon it would be blowjobs and breakfast, lewdness and lunch, drilling and dinner, sex before sleep, and we’d do it all again. After dealing with Succubus Queens, Mad Lovesick Chimeras, and Power Hungry Goddess, I was positive nothing could break our family apart.

So why do I have such a pit of worry in my stomach as I approach the sound?

I almost didn’t want to open the front door, but one can’t let unfounded fears stop them from at least looking at the unknown.

It was a lone figure.

Smacking itself against, well, nothing…

I quickly realised it was stopped by Aqua’s barrier. I’d normalised it so any demon or monster that had tasted Kazuma’s cum was free to ignore the magic, which meant only Vanir still suffered its effects.

And whoever this was.

“Is that… a zombie?” I asked, trying to get a good look at the creature, but it was just so damn dark to see.

W…

Why was the morning so dark…?

My eyes finally adjusted enough to see what…

…what…?

…oh no.

Oh god, is… is that…?

The sole zombie wasn’t what was making the thunking sounds at all. No, something far further away and much much larger was the real culprit.

As hard as it was for my eyes to believe it, my heart knew what I was staring at.

The Demon King’s Castle.

Right outside of Axel’s gates, looming over the town’s rooftops like a horrible omen.

And it seemed to be walking.

The castle had recently gone missing–ripped from its foundations in the night without a trace of where it had gone–I’d heard a lot of people talking about what had happened to it, but not a single theory I heard assumed it had gotten up and moved by itself.

It had always looked like a mountain had dragged itself out of hell, but the way it moved could shake anyone to their core. Nightmarish spires, chains connecting to crumbling walls, even though it was hundreds of meters high it was shaking and creaking with each horrible thunderous step like a wounded animal. Whatever magic was making it move was slapdash, it looked like it was barely holding itself together to be travelling like this.

I couldn’t do anything but stare. Horrified and terrified as the huge mountain of demonic bricks and glass continued its warpath just beyond the town’s walls.

The zombie slapping my barrier wasn’t the only monster in the town. Adventurers were fighting a sea of enemies that had probably come with the castle.

My voice didn’t even find the words to scream out to the others. Somewhere my mind may have twigged that the castle was walking towards the capital… but I was more trying to comprehend the strange red light that was glowing from the highest spire.

Kazuma grabbed my hair and dragged me back inside right when the red light began getting closer.

“HIT THE DECK!”

KRAKAKOOOM!!!!!

It is often said that a home is a reflection of its owner.

The scars of life that scatter the walls and floors, the care taken to maintain the space you live your life in, there is truth to these words.

King Jeronim knew this, yet often pondered about his own home because of it. Was an inherited castle a true reflection of his own soul? Was the care that his servants put into polishing the stained glass and silverware a worthy metaphor? He wasn’t sure. Perhaps this was why he often felt more alive on the battlefield, away from the bureaucracy and politics of nobles.

Even the briefest moments of peace can provide deep reflections. It was why he stared at the giant hole in his roof where Musume had once crashed into his gala. Was this a reflection of him too? A hole in his heart? In his nation?

He wondered if it didn’t reflect him at all. Iris had more claim to the castle than he at this point. Was this hole a metaphor for her destruction of the past to provide a safer future for both humans and monsters? He’d be proud of it if it was, though he hoped that with destruction could still come structure. If only to calm his own fears for Iris’ future.

The hole did provide him some strange comfort. If only because the empty space meant his footsteps no longer echoed through the halls so loudly.

And it gave him a direct line of sight to the final fight he knew in his heart was always coming.

The Demon King was coming this way.

With a thunderous boom he pushed open the large doors to his war council. A circular table, surrounded by stressed knights and advisors that all turned to look at his grand entrance.

“Tell me everything.”

To his left was Klein, a short bald man with surprisingly masculine cheekbones, and one he’d taken to the front lines and could always rely on for his intellect. “The Demon King’s Castle is… well sire, there’s no other way to say this, it’s walking towards us as we speak. Reports are coming in that it seems to be attached on top of the Destroyer.”

“You mean that giant spider golem? We were told that it was defeated outside the gates of Axel.” replied the King.

Klein nodded, placing the two magic camera photos down. One image of the destroyed destroyer and one of the current problem. Undeniably the same legs and mechanical design, even if the bulk of the spider was trapped underneath the castle’s crumbling bricks. “It was, sire. There were two of them or the one that Satou Kazuma’s party exploded was just a fake. Either way, we have bigger problems right now.”

On the King’s left was Claire, pointing down at the photo, “The legs of the Destroyer were designed to handle much less weight than a whole castle. Our scouts described it as being ‘dragged’ more than walking, unfortunately, it seems to have enough strength to get to our location.”

“Like a shambling corpse…” Jeronim frowned, “Any sign of the Demon King himself?”

“Not yet, but I’d bet he’s in there. Which means one of the worst case scenarios…” said Klein, bringing out more reports for the King to glance over. He pointed to a photo of magic being thrown at the walking castle… only to never even touch a single brick.

Rain gripped her staff tightly next to Claire, “We never got a chance to take down the Demon King’s unbreakable magic barrier around his castle. It hasn’t weakened slightly, all those years we couldn’t get through… it’s crawling towards us uncontested. No spell, arrows, or ballistic has been able to penetrate it. We’ll be sitting ducks if it manages to reach us.”

“My God…”

“That’s not all,” Claire continued, “Getting close won’t be easy either. An army of high level monsters have amassed around the base of the castle, walking in tandem with the Demon King.”

Klein dropped another photo down for the King, this time showing a blurry gaggle of dark wizards just inside the barrier’s bubble. “Summoners and necromancers working together, creating more zombies, orcs, and other beasts that can pass through the barrier freely while we can’t mount a defence.”

With a silent studious nod, the King studied his enemy hard. Looking over the council’s report with firm determination. “Is that all?”

The silence seemed to tell him more than he wished to know. None of the analysts or knights seemed to want to explain, or even look the King in the eye.

“This was not the worst of it? What could be so bad that you don’t even wish to report?”

“The spire.” said Claire, finally speaking up. “The spire of the tower has a magic weapon last used to defeat the general Sylvia in the Crimson Demon’s village. A railgun that can cast a focused and well timed Explosion spell, repeatedly, at any target it locks its sights on.”

“Explosion magic…?”

Klein nodded, stroking his cheekbones in solemn quiet, “I’ll be honest with you, Jeronim. Our best guess is that the Demon King has figured out how to make his castle sentient–either fusing with it or using a magic item–and in doing so given it so much mana that it can cast the highest level damaging spell like it was nothing. It could make this castle into a smudge on a hill.”

“As soon as we’re in range of that spire, we’re going to have to use most of our magic defence just to counter the spells.” said Claire, looking at Rain before hanging her head down, “Also… we have multiple confirmed hits… a guild master called in an attack on the Dustiness Ford Harem’s estate. We can only assume that Satou Kazuma and his harem are dead.”

“...” A moment of silence washed over them before the King’s knuckles cracked against the wooden table, “We’ll have time to mourn later. What is our best strategy now?”

Claire collected herself and replied, “Deploy our army, summon as many adventurers that will answer, prepare all our strongest weaponry, and most of all: Evacuation.”

“To where? This is the safest town in all the lands!” argued Klein.

“We can’t risk our citizens getting trodden on by an unstoppable brick wall because we are too proud to run!” growled Claire back to him.

“Indeed not.” agreed Jeronim, “Get me Sir Mitsurugi. Find out where my son is. Ready any other available adventurer we can. I want our frontlines so fortified not even a cabbage could slip through! My daughter will lead our citizens as they escape to Elroad. And prepare my armour for battle.”

His council disbanded, ready to follow their King’s orders to the letter. Leaving Jeronim to his thoughts. He remained motionless, his knuckles still pressed white against the edge of the war table. Preparations for an impossibility felt ludicrous. The Demon King’s Castle would be upon them soon. He’d spent even a moment considering there could be peace in his time. Peace for Iris. Peace to grow humanity again with the Harem Knights. To fill the streets with happy children. Now it all seemed so foolish. No matter what, Hell would find them again.

In the quiet of his booming thoughts, he did not hear a single set of footsteps enter behind him.

“Sir?”

Jeronim finally turned, seeing one of his knights saluting in place, “More updates?”

“Well…” The knight pulled a strange face beneath his helmet, “A bunch of naked women just appeared in your courtyard.”

“...huh.”

The King wondered how that reflected on his house.

I flopped onto the floor, dazed and confused.

“Where the hell are we?” I heard Kazuma say.

“Are we in a cave? Or hell?” asked Megumin.

“Hell is nicer than this.” replied Musume.

“It reeks of demon enough to be hell…” hissed Aqua.

All this dialogue, but my ears were still ringing too loud to truly hear them.

The Demon King’s castle had just shone a bright red light at us… and I felt a few seconds of shearing heat and loud booms as magic erupted all around us… but then I only experienced silence and cold. **** did seem the most likely outcome, yet it also seemed too damp for that.

A stench of sulfur and mildew clung to my naked form as I finally began to regain my senses. The room we’d landed in was dark and rocky, the coarse gravel felt rather nice beneath my bare foot. It was rather an empty and small space, tall enough to let Musume but not wide enough to let her stretch out her arms. Above us pointed spiky rocks downwards, a thin exit leading upwards towards a light source, and a single opened treasure chest at the back of the room.

It was also then that I remembered what had happened seconds before we got here, “Did… did you all just use me as a meat shield?!” I asked, seeing nothing but guilty faces until my body could take no more, “Nn!”

“Alright, chill out. Your defence just makes you the safest place to be in an emergency.”

Megumin nodded, “We also agreed to hide under you in a tornado.”

I once more moaned my delight at being used so brazenly. My body was nothing more than a tool to them.

“Can we focus on where we are?” said Musume, running her hand along a stalactite, “I did not see what attacked us, and I’d rather retrieve my clothes before I get my ****.”

Oh right, Musume would probably want to know, “It was-”

Before I could finish, a familiar mask appeared in my vision.

“Come with Moi.”

“EEP!” I squeaked, not expecting his face to invade my personal space so close, “V-Vanir?! Were you the one that saved us?”

He nodded, turning on his heel to begin walking up the stairs he’d just come down.

“Moi has something to show you before you begin your final battle.”

So here we are. The finale. Been a long ass time coming.

For the record, I'm not finished with the character chapters, but it's starting to drain me more than I thought it would. So I'm going to start posting more of the actual finale, while sprinkling in the sexy character focus on the side. Also I've added a story recap to the previous chapter for those who need a refresh or just skipped here.

Thanks for reading thus far! Hopefully I can end this ridicuously long Konosuba smut story in a fun way!