Once more Eichi had a dream. A dream of his wife smiling warmly, as she coddled their newborn child. She called to him, her existence a warm hearth.

But the space around him was torn asunder, and he fell into a hole. The two men responsible snickered at him from their heaven. He cursed their names until his voice grew hoarse, until blood dripped from his mouth.

Below him he would notice the bodies of his fallen comrades, and the innocents that the Demon King had slain in front of him to break him. He covered his eyes to hide his tears.

The Demon King would pay.

It was how his dream usually ended. Transforming into a nightmare. But tonight’s dream was different. A voice that he recognized rung like a bell.

“-ichi. Eichi.”

Eichi sucked in a breath. He uncovered his eyes. “Boulder-chan?”

“-ave me.”

He woke up with a shudder, unaware of where he was and what he was doing. Chains impeded him from standing up fully, and it took a moment for him to remember where he was.

For the past few months, he had been in an isolated cell. The Demon King had proded him for information. He had no information, only vengeance in his heart. Of course, the Demon King believed no words of his, and elected to bring in a memory manipulating demon. Each time the demon used his magic, it felt like a worm burrowing in his brain.

Over and over again. Eichi took a hold of his head, nails digging into his skull. And then he had….stopped. He stopped reacting, he stopped eating, he stopped feeling. There were moments where he could remember, but he wasn’t sure how long of a time had passed.

Then as he was trying to put together information, the door to his prison cell opened up. Eichi panicked and sat down in a wet cold puddle of his own urine. He kept his face down as a demon entered in with a tray of food. His nose crinkled.

“He soiled himself again. Fucking human.” The demon spat.

The demon stretched his wings and flew over the puddle of waste. He took a spoonful of grey gunk and pushed it in Eichi’s mouth. The flavor and texture reminiscent of…to his best interpretation spicy ashes.

“Should just kill you.” The demon murmured, filled up another spoon full of the horrific matter. “Waste of a good meal.”

The demon thankfully saved him from another bite by taking a bite of his own.

“Too good for you.” The demon shoveled it down. “Too good for a human like you.” After finishing his meal, the demon snickered. “Poor bastard. Your friends and all dead by the very god that sent you.”

Rage climbed up his throat. Eichi would crush this demon much like he crushed the Four Heavenly Kings. Because he knew the answer to all. He needed to crush them like a boulder. He pretended to be catatonic, lulling the demon to a false sense of security.

And then, like a sniper with one bullet, he made the shot count.

The demon turned his back, and Eichi rose like a curtain of death. He roped the chain around the demon’s neck and pulled. The demon gasped for air. His wings flapped hard. Eichi hooked his legs around the wings for balance, and then pulled even harder. With his awesome strength, the demon’s neck bent like paper.

Blood gushed forth like a geyser. Some hit Eichi in the face. It made him lose his grip, and he fell into the now warm ground. When he wiped off the blood from his eyes, the room was painted in the demon’s blood.

Another surprise. How would he have known that so much blood could come out of something so weak. Eichi crouched and picked through the demon’s corpse.

From the guard’s belt, he plucked the prize he sought. A key to his freedom.

The only regret: that he did not have Boulder-chan to invoke justice and crush the demon’s corpse into paste.

#

Escaping the prison was easy enough. The demons were guarding it were but fodder to his awesome punches. He measured the strength in boulders. His punch was the strength of ten boulders or a quarter of Boulder-chan’s power.

The demons tried to use tactics, but tactics meant nothing in the face of his overwhelming strength. From up top of the stairs, they threw a round explosive that reminded him of a pineapple, but bombs were only expanded heat. He smashed the explosive like a grape before it could expand, and then leapt up the stairs where the cowardly demons had put up a barrier.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

They were easy pickings after that. Barriers meant nothing to his boulder punch. It cracked like an eggshell.

“What in the-” One of the demons managed to say, before he plucked his head off.

“Squish I will!” He demonstrated with the head, using only his grip to squish the head like a rotten apple.

The rest ran away, but he would not let them do so easily. He would destroy all of it. Eichi caught up to them, and with one swipe of his leg, all five of them exploded like blood bags.

“Demon King!” He screamed. “Turn you into a pulp!”

#

The Demon King had spent months wondered how the Hero had obtained such power. He had tried to break him, but found each time he tried, his mind would be melded back by an unseen force. That force was tracked and found by his most loyal spy.

“You’re saying it’s this boulder?” The Demon King frowned. “Really?”

“Yes,” the spy said. “We are sure of it. The Hero has killed every single of the Four Heavenly Kings with this boulder. Though you can see, there is an incredible amount of mana emanating from within.”

The Demon King put his hand on the boulder. He still couldn’t feel anything. It felt like a normal boulder, but his spy wouldn’t bring back something so dumb. So, he trusted that.

“Alright. Do you know why this mana is coming from-”

The throne room door blew open, hanging from its hinges. The Hero, covered in the blood of demons, stood at the doorway with crazed eyes. His eyes widened as he saw the Demon King.

“Ho-how dare you do that to Boulder-chan! You sexual predator!” He pointed at him. “Take your hands off her boobs!”

“I-I’m sorry? What’s going on here?” The Demon King looked at his spy, who shook and shrugged. “How did you get out of your prison cell?”

“Nothing can keep me-”

Before he finished, the Demon King unleashed a five-tier leveled spell, Firebolt, at the Hero. It danced like lightning, striking the Hero through the chest, and exploded on contact.

“Ah shit,” the Demon King said. “Did I kill him?”

The smoke cleared, and the Hero leaned against the wall, a hole where his heart should be. The Demon King cursed his powers. He had not meant to kill him just yet. He turned to his spy to say something, but the spy was quacking, pointing for the Demon King to turn around.

The Hero’s chest began to stitch back together.

“What is happening?” He turned to the spy. “Tell me now!”

“It must be the boulder. He made a contract with it, and it is regenerating his open wound.” The spy’s expression turned dire. “Sire, you must destroy the boulder. You must use the strongest spell in your arsenal to-”

A door collided with the spy, killing him instantly. The Hero still had a hole in his chest, but his heart had regenerated. A mad expression tickled the hero’s face, lighting up with glee as he saw the spy dead.

“You will be a pulp.”

“Enough of this.” The Demon King touched the boulder.

“How dare you!” The hero’s face turned red.

The Demon King activated his most powerful spell, a ten tier one called Hell Fire.

#

A flash of light blinded Eichi. A figure of a woman outlined in the light.

“Eichi….”

He knew that voice. He reached out to her, but her form disappeared.

“Boulder-chan!” He cried out.

Then, within his heart of hearts, he knew that she was gone.

When he came to, Boulder-chan was broke in two. The Demon King was heaving, and sweating. He saw Eichi.

“You got to be kidding me.”

His chest was healed, and Eichi was full of power.

“For her.” He put his fist close to his chest. “I shall squish you like into a paste.”

The Demon King had no strength to fight back. He was still tough. His skin like as strong as twenty boulders. But his punches were stronger now. They were stronger than twenty-one boulders!

He kept his punching the Demon King. His face uglier than a boulder! His chest cracking in two like Boulder-chan! His leg bent like a straw!

“Paste! Paste! Paste!” He screamed like a maniac, repeating it like a curse.

Then finally, finally, after all that. Eichi heaved a heavy breath, his fists felt numb and warm. The body that was once the Demon King was now paste.

“So pretty.” Eichi felt a grin crawl up his face.

He turned back to Boulder-chan’s body. He put his hand on her broken body as if it were a sacred grave in a form of respect to her.

His attention was broken though, by a familiar beep. In the top corner of his vision, he saw the points climb up.

He finally had enough to buy the God Slaying Sword.

“This is why I told you to kill him.”

Eichi took in a breath. He turned around to see the Mask God looking upon the Demon King. His scary book was open, and the Demon King’s body was put back together.

The Demon King gasped, he looked around, and saw Eichi and then the Mask God.

“I thought I told you to kill him,” he said in a disappointed tone. “But you have broken your contract. For that, punishment shall commence.”

A purple arm came out of the scary book, piercing through the Demon King like a spear. It pulled out a glowing orb and the book ate it. After that was done, the Mask God turned his attention to Eichi.

“I can’t believe I’m using another favor for you.” He sighed.

“Finally. Finally! FINALLY!” Eichi opened the point store and picked the God Slaying Sword. Just like that, the sword appeared in his hand, and he rose it in triumph. “Prepare to die!”

Upon contact with the Mask God, the God Slaying Sword broke into pieces.

“What?”

The Mask God slammed his fist in his gut, and he flew across the room in an arc. When Eichi landed, he gasped for air, and saw the Mask God pick up one of the pieces.

“You wasted all those points.” The Mask God shook his head. “Unfortunately for you, the Director cut Research and Development Team’s budget by ninety percent a few years ago. He made toys like this, so heroes like you would save up and not spend points on the stuff we still make like potions.”

“It…was…a…lie?” He had never considered it possible.

“Well, it was nice knowing you.” His book gave an ominous purple glow. “I have summoned a favor, you will be dead….now.”

His vision snapped.