Chapter 151: Zagoras and Echis (1)
After Zetto’s confession nothing much had changed.
He smiled at me with his usual kindness, and I still hadn’t expressed my feelings for him.
‘Expressing’ my feelings was much harder than I thought.
I felt insanely happy and good after confirming Zetto’s feelings, but…so what?
Just standing in front of him makes my head go white and I feel like an idiot.
Today, I couldn’t even answer him properly. I might as well have been acting wildly, driven by desire.
Blanc suggests that we go on dates in a relationship, but confession seems difficult in this state.
I wonder if things would have been different if I had said no instead of running away.
It was a meaningless story, but at the same time, I couldn’t erase my regret.
Oh, another change is that Kaen from class C has been doing monthly classes in class A. It’s unusual, but it’s not a big deal.
It was unusual, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.
She seemed to be close to Zetto, so I guess you could say she was another competitor… but… He said he liked me.
If anything, it was starting to bother me that he was being friendly to other women.
In any case, in order to break Zetto’s curse, I needed to get ahead of them and reach the destination of ‘kissing’.
Now that I had taken a meaningful step in that situation my desire to live became even stronger.
Now that I have known such joy and happiness there could be no more regression, no more return of everything to nothing.
The demon from Edward’s vision was a face that was terribly familiar to me, if not to others.
It was Murka, the leader of the demons who had slaughtered my clan, and the one who had turned me into a guinea pig.
This unexpected encounter led me to recall the horrors of that day at length.
I had to figure out the best way to survive, not to mention Zetto’s curse and most importantly, Zetto’s safety.
For once, I didn’t want to see him sacrificed.
With Krektar dead, there were only four of them left.
Aside from Murka, who would be in the Demon Lands, and Zagoras, who was an elusive figure, Echis and Albed remained.
Albed is so cunning that it’s very difficult to find him.
Echis, however, is different. She has a signature that’s easier to track.
However, her wanderings and activities covered a large area, so it was a hassle to ask Blanc for a favor every time.
Well, not everyone is good at finding them.
I once sought out Echis in revenge, only to have her slaughter me in an instant.
Aside from Krektar, who has a unique diet, the other four are all black horned. At the beginning of the regression, it was difficult to deal with even one of them.
‘…Not now, though.’
I hopped from roof to roof, my eyes taking in the darkened city.
According to my sources, a body had recently been found in the city, bizarrely ‘displayed’.
‘They should still be in this city…’
The reason I’ll find Echis wandering around is simple.
She has unusual tastes and has a disgusting habit of sucking the life out of humans and then displaying it as art.
All demonic corpses are kept under strict information control by the Templars but I had Blanc so I was able to reach the place in time.
Where did you get this information?
It came from Echis herself, who was torturing me.
She said he was making an artwork and that she wanted to add me into her artwork someday.
Echis would tell me these horrific stories as I sat there as her test subject.
I’ve long since gotten over the horrors of torture, and now I only see her as a madwoman.
I wonder if any of the demons chasing me were sane in the first place. It was just a bunch of lunatics with nothing to do, all of them missing a screw somewhere.
As I strolled across the rooftops, my mind wandered, and I felt a cord touch my body.
It was a well-crafted bond made of demonic power, magical energy, and not a single bit of it was leaking out.
This is where I could feel the iron will of the demons who had created it.
It enveloped this small building beneath my feet.
“…”
The silence inside the circle was deafening, drowning out the sounds of the outside world but the silence was short-lived.
-Aaaaahhhh!!!!
A scream echoes from inside the building.
Magically constructed, flawlessly soundproofed, with no loose ends, and screams that sounded human from within.
There was only one answer: Echis.
The disgusting meal of Echis, who tortures her victims to death before sucking the life out of them, is being prepared below.
I quickly pulled the spear from my bosom and unfurled it.
Ironically, if I have Echis to thank for anything, it’s that her torture has made me numb to most pain, and has taught me how to be a better torturer.
Her knowledge of torture, in particular, came in handy this time around.
Unfortunately, Echis will not be able to exhibit her work this time around.
Maybe she should be the last one on display.
It wasn’t a bad idea and as a bonus, it raised a question.
How long could a competent torturer last?
***
And so it was that Aizel met Echis and fought her way through the battle.
In another city, a nameless demon was dying.
The demon fell, unable to put up much of a fight against the beast that was upon him.
“Mmph… Ugh…”
The demon, still breathing, groaned in pain and struggled to drag itself across the floor.
The pair of men and women slowly following the demon was a strange sight to behold.
A blind man with white bandages over his eyes and a girl with snow-white hair.
Neither of them seemed to fit in well with the demon, whose ankle tendons had been severed and were oozing black blood.
Then the blind man asked the girl a question.
What came through the demon’s ears was a terrifying question that sent chills down his spine.
“Should I keep him alive?”
It was spoken in a casual tone, as if the current situation was nothing.
He couldn’t even think about why he was asking such a question and why he hadn’t killed him.
But when it realized that its life depended on the answer, it stopped crawling and turned over to look them in the eye.
“Please… Please don’t kill me…”
The demon begged.
He pressed his hands together and begged until they were on fire.
Then the girl’s icy gaze met his and her red eyes were devoid of any emotion that any human should feel.
The demon wondered if the girl in front of him was human.
“…Let’s keep him alive for now.”
“As you wish.”
The two talked like that, ignoring the demon’s pleading voice, until the girl squatted down to look at it.
“So this is the energy storage organ. Why is it shaped like a horn? It would be more efficient if it was inside the body.”
The demon was being ‘observed’.
The girl’s eyes were focused on the horns that had sprouted on his forehead.
The demon quickly rolled his eyes as the girl now in front of him didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons.
The blind man over there was clearly unusually skilled.
Since he could only cut the tendons in his ankle, he’d have no chance at all, but this girl was different.
Unlike the blind man, she didn’t seem to have any overwhelming aura, so he seemed to have a chance.
‘I don’t know what kind of relationship you two have, but it’s clear that you’re friends.’
Having come to the conclusion that it wanted to take the girl in front of it as a hostage, the demon immediately stood up from its waist and wrapped its arms around the girl’s neck, which were still intact, unlike its legs.
“Don’t come near me…!”
He warned, pointing a finger at the girl’s head.
“If you make the slightest move, she’ll be dead…!”
“……”
But despite the demon’s desperate warning, the blind man made no move.
He can’t even see what’s going on since he is blind.
Suspicious of the blind man’s lack of response, the demon explains the situation in more detail.
“I’m holding her hostage…! I’m going to blow a hole in her head!”
“…”
Despite the explanation, the blind man merely scratches his head and doesn’t even reach for the sword at his waist.
The girl was equally unmoved.
The girl naturally turned her head to meet his finger that was pointing at her head.
“So this is Magick. It’s definitely a different form of energy than mana. It’s quite similar to the energy I saw in Lord Zetto’s heart the other day, called Tears of the Dead.”
The girl’s close analysis continued despite the tense situation of being held hostage.
“Tears of the dead…? Heart…?”
The demon was not following their conversation at all.
The blind man, however, quickly dismissed the demon’s words and continued his conversation with the girl.
“Hmm… I suppose it’s similar in that it converts life force into energy, and that jewelry was probably made by some crazy demon in the first place.”
“I see. Is that the extent of the magick you have?”
The girl stopped talking to the blind man and looked at the demon and asked.
It wasn’t the best question to ask of a demon that was holding her hostage, but when the demon realized it was being ignored, he scraped up all of his magick and concentrated it on his fingers.
“Don’t ignore me…”
The girl’s eyes widen and the demon who wonders if she senses fear continues his warning. He must take control of this insane situation.
“Are you getting the picture? If I die, you die, too. You’ve picked the wrong guy. I’m not dying in this place! I’m Kundral, a demon who will one day become a Black Horn!”
Kundral’s threats and majestic declarations echo through the deserted alleyways.
The blind man, who nods faintly in response, speaks up.
“Ah, I am Jorgal. Though I have no horns.”
“Jorgal?”
Before the question can sink in, the girl’s lips part as she stares intently at Kundral’s fingers.
“…Is this the limit of his magick?”
“……It is.”
“That’s strange. That’s too little for the amount of energy the Tears of the Dead contain.”
“Even if it wasn’t enough for the Tears of the Dead, it was enough for hundreds or thousands of lives…!”
After another round of the girl’s analysis, Kundral’s voice rose in anger.
“…So how many humans did you kill to accumulate that power?”
“How many…? I never counted that… Somewhere around twenty…?”
“Roughly twenty, that’s how much magick you have, I understand.”
“Ah, yes.”
“…”
Kundral, who had obediently answered the question for some reason, replayed the absurdity of the previous conversation.
“…Enough questions.”
Feeling like he was being played, Kundral fought back the anger that was rising to the top of his head and slowly drew a magic circle with the magick he had gathered on his fingertips.
It was a sign of his sincerity.
How could these guys be so out of touch with the situation, how could they be so relaxed when the girl’s head was about to be blown off?
The question was answered when the girl’s voice continued.
“It’s okay, I’ve run out of questions, so I’m going to ask you this next one…”
The girl’s words trailed off, and an iron clang was heard coming from her arm.
The strange sound, which could have been made by a machine, was definitely coming from the girl’s arm as the girl’s arm that split open, revealing a sharp blade.
“It wasn’t human after all…!”
With his eyes popping out of his head, Kundral quickly tried to cast a spell.
-Slash!
The girl’s blade sliced through his wrist.
“Aaaahhhh!!!”
Kundral’s scream followed.
“…I’d better dismantle it myself and find out.”
There was a loud crackling sound, and the girl’s body began to disintegrate, her red eyes still devoid of emotion.
Then the dismantling began.
Zetto had his back turned to the unspeakably horrific sight, a sight so gruesome that it made Sierra’s eyes widen at his side but Geppeti was unperturbed, continuing to gather information from Kundral.
As Zetto listened to Kundral’s incessant screams, he was glad he had soundproofed the room beforehand.
They were currently collecting data in order to turn the Otherworldlers into Anti-demon Weapons.
There was a hint of embarrassment on Zetto’s face, though, as he hadn’t expected the data collection to be a deconstruction and analysis show.
Just as the thought crossed his mind that he was forcing Geppeti, who was technically his sister, to dissect demons.
-Beep.
A beeper beeps in Zetto’s arms.
It’s a small sound that could have been drowned out by Kundral’s screams, but Zetto’s superior hearing doesn’t miss it.
‘The crystal ball…’
Zetto reached into his bosom and pulled out the portable crystal ball he had been given by Saint Bernice.
He then turned to Geppeti, who was on the other side of the room.
“Geppeti, I need to take a call for a moment.”
“…”
He didn’t know if the word “call” is even used in this world, but Geppeti, whose face and clothes were spattered with the demon’s black blood, nodded in understanding.
Then, stepping out of the circle, Zetto channels mana into the crystal ball.
He hadn’t heard from her in a while, since she’d given him the information on Zagoras, so he wondered if something had happened.
“Zetto.”
As Zetto speaks into the crystal ball, it crackles and Bernice’s voice comes through.
[Zetto, you’re awake?]
“I…”
[I thought I told you to…get some rest…]
“…I didn’t do much. I didn’t even catch that many demons.”
[You mean you caught some?]
“…About three or four……”
Zetto’s voice, which was vividly picturing Bernice’s face with a cold smile in his head even though he was listening through the crystal ball, gradually faded as he continued.
“…I’m sorry.”
[Phew…For breaking the orders of your superiors, you’ll have to make it up to them]
Bernice, who found Zetto’s demeanor cute, smiled faintly.
“So what’s going on, is it…”
[ …Yes, according to the information, Delion, the deputy leader of the Golden Lion Knights, was definitely a demon.]
Delion was the human form of the demon Zagoras and Zagoras was one of the demons chasing Aizel.
His identity made him untouchable, so Zetto’s work with Bernice was finally paying off.
“If only we had a solid witness or proof…”
He could go for the kill.
Zetto was about to say something like that but Bernice’s voice from the crystal ball interrupted him.
[…The proof is in my hands now.]
“What is it?”
Zetto asks, purely curious about the situation as Bernice’s calm, relaxed voice answers him.
[If it’s Delion’s neck with the black horns on his forehead, then it’s evidence, and I don’t know what could be more conclusive than that.]
“What…?”
A question mark appears on Zetto’s face at Bernice’s answer but Bernice’s voice confirms it.
***
[ What…?]
Zetto’s shaky reply comes through the crystal ball.
Did he really think that after all this time she would not have figured out that Delion was a demon?
Bernice, unnecessarily annoyed with Zetto for underestimating her, raises the horn in her hand and locks eyes with the thing that was Delion.
“We’ve just finished the slaughter, now all that’s left is to take this to the Golden Lion Knights.”
If nothing else, this lightened Zetto’s burden a bit.
Delion, Zagoras was a tricky demon, even for Saint Bernice.
It wasn’t so much that he was difficult to defeat, but that his status made it difficult to do a simple investigation.
To learn more about Zagoras slaying, we must go back a few days to when Aizel came to Bernice.