◈ Episode 362. Welcome (2)

Between my lips.

Beyond being calm.

An arrogant voice comes out.

“You are no better than a bug in a flower garden.”

Always harsh, even for a demon.

But don’t you think he’s gotten harsher lately……?

Why, if it were like before, I would have ended up at the level of a ‘bug’.

‘You’re not just a bug.’

It’s not just that I’m disappointed in the demon’s behavior that I can’t think of anything nice to say. Grandfell’s treatment of the demon has never moved up from the bottom.

So there’s only one possibility.

‘……In his prime, his temper was truly amazing.’

[Curse, Dark Understanding].

My understanding of Grandfell only rose through it.

My snout have become even more fierce.

It’s made my snout even more old-fashioned.

‘Even if I don’t activate it, 10% of my understanding won’t go anywhere.’

Suddenly, it occurred to me.

[Dark Understanding].

And then I thought, What would happen if I reached 100% mastery of [Celestial Infant Solitude], which is linked to it? I’m not just worried about my hair becoming shiny

I quickly shook the thought away.

‘……No, that’s enough for now.’

I don’t have the luxury of thinking about it.

The smell of demon in the air was too unpleasant.

By the way, it didn’t disappoint.

Great Evil, Seven Deadly Sins.

“How, how are you here……?”

He looks surprised.

You must have thought I had traveled with the players to the Arcana Continent. It was a huge event. The media must have been buzzing about it.

[The Holy War Alliance finally sets off for the Arcana Continent!]

[Lee Hoyeol, “Where I go is the way.”]

[Experts, “It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of humanity depends on Lee Hoyeol…….”]

Holy War Alliance.

I don’t know if the pride in their hearts hasn’t changed.

Even I don’t know.

In any case, the vast majority of players belong to the Holy War Alliance.

As their Commander-in-chief.

I must watch the Alliance enter the continent.

The Arcana Continent is a more dangerous place than any rift.

‘Even if it’s just the Evil Eye in the sky.’

Players entering Arcana for the first time?

It wouldn’t be surprising if they panicked.

The current situation on the continent is completely different from what they knew. But unlike in the pre-Arcana days, there’s no such thing as a friendly tutorial.

‘Surely you must think they’ll need my help.’

But wrong.

Advance commitments.

There are priorities in everything.

“I didn’t forget a single moment.”

“……what are you talking about?”

“The fact that you are alive and breathing on this world.”

The back end of Grandfell.

And a demonic one at that, too, because it’s so much more than you’d expect. Ever since I faced the half-breed demon Gremory. I have not for a moment overlooked the presence of Lust that gave Gremory his blood.

So I lifted my palm lightly.

“Bugs that are drawn to a flower garden by its scent desperately try to escape from your palm, but you don’t even try to escape from mine. Unless, you know.”

The selling continues.

“You don’t even realize you’re in my palm.”

“……!”

“Because you’re a bug.”

Lust’s eyes blaze, and he turns to the magic circle carved into the floor. A ritual circle.

At least he’s quick to assess the situation.

‘I don’t think there’s a chance of winning.’

The half-demon Gremory, of course. I’m the one who hunted down the Seven Deadly Sins, Envy, even though it lost an arm. I was the one who cut it off in the first place.

‘I had Marcelo and Vangrit to help me cut off the arm.’

Anyway, after that, I went on to defeat the evil dragon Eunaxus.

Lust has judged me by my actions. I cannot be dealt with by conventional means. Like Gremory, you can only enter the realm of the [『Anomaly』] by mixing blood.

The demon you choose to mix your blood with is.

The Demon King of the Ten Seats.

The Ten Thrones.

The High Ranking Demon Kings, they must be them.

Of course.

The highest ranking demons I faced in the curse.

I was the one who hadn’t bent my head in the face of Bael.

My words were simple.

“I wonder what kind of struggle you will show me.”

“A struggle?”

“In the end, there will be no change in the ending that turns the ship upside down.”

“……!!!”

Regardless of me, Lee Hoyeol’s worries.

Is Grandfell someone to fear the summoning of a High Ranking Demon King?

He might even rejoice in it.

Two birds with one stone.

A chance to root out both the Great Evil and the High Ranking Demon King together.

But I knew better.

I had faced these two demons before.

By Gamigin and Bael, I knew how much resources it would take for them to manifest themselves. That’s how I’d gotten to know them so well.

‘There is no better place for a massive sacrificial ritual than China.’

The collapse began with the Heavenly Unity.

Though Elsidor has managed to close the rift, the churning negative emotions can’t completely disappear. Moreover, the number of sacrifices in China was vast.

Ssshhhh!

I held up the Gwicheol.

“But it’s a pity.”

If demons were sacrificed like when summoning Gamigin

I might have quietly observed the ritual.

What’s two birds with one stone?

If you take into account the demon being sacrificed and use a calculator…….

Grandfell may have been the first to show generosity to demons.

But.

“The labor of Elsidor cannot be wasted.”

In this ritual, the sacrifice was a Chinese citizen.

Driving demons at the expense of others?

Efficiency aside, how could Grandfell’s noble pride allow it?

Lust frowned.

“You speak well, but I am the one who should be sorry. The ritual has already begun. No one can stop a ritual for the High Ranking Demon King once it has begun!”

Well, that’s something for someone else to say.

I replied nonchalantly.

“For the first time in your pesty life, you were right.”

“You still don’t understand the situation…….”

“That’s right. The ritual has already begun.”

“……?”

[Exorcism Ritual].

A battle of wills between demon hunters and demons.

Whoever gains the upper hand in that tug of war.

Shall dominate the ritual.

I said to Lust.

“This must be what you see now.”

“……what?”

Lust’s expression was one of bewilderment.

Leaving him behind, I shifted my gaze and looked around. It was as calm as if a typhoon had swept through. The magic circle for the High Ranking Demon King Manifestation Ritual hadn’t manifested either.

Beyond that, the prying gazes are stinging.

A roar.

“Lee, it’s Lee Hoyeol!”

“Lee Hoyeol? Who is that?”

“Censorship is really scary. How do you not know Lee Hoyeol? The pinnacle of players, not even comparable to that cowardly fake Liu Zunqun. Starting with the infinitely deep darkness, there are more than a dozen of names……!”

……At least a few dozen is an exaggeration, right?

‘Anyway.’

It was me and Lust, facing each other in mid-air, and that was enough to attract attention. First a simple smartphone camera, then a drone camera. Everyone was eager to capture my image.

“What are you talking about?”

Of course, the important thing is Lust.

He was still looking at the wrong thing.

What it meant was simple.

I had grown up.

“Let’s get this over with.”

So much so, that even the Great Evil Seven Deadly Sins would consider it ‘just’.

“……!!!”

He seemed to realize what was happening.

He was trying to play it safe.

Now he’s not willing to wait.

“It’s not proper to keep guests waiting.”

Time is four times faster on the Arcana Continent than it is in reality. Let’s see, as spacious as the Claudi family mansion is, it hasn’t been completely restored.

‘Before anyone thinks the mansion has a dark history…….’

I, the owner.

That means I need to get back to the mansion and keep an eye on the players.

So I made my move.

The most efficient move when hunting demons.

Akshan.

Like them.

Fancy magic is a luxury for a mere demon.

A sword and a crossbow loaded with silver bolts are all they need.

As if to prove it.

Poof!

The crossbow bolt pierces the shoulder of Lust.

It looks like he twisted to avoid it.

It must have hit a bone or something.

“Kugh.”

chug─

The slumped shoulder was enough to elicit a small amount of sympathy from me, Lee Hoyeol, but who cares about the feelings of a demon that’s nothing more than a bug?

tug─

A rush.

He lightly stomped on the ground and ran away.

Of course, the speed is affected by the [Agility] stat. Even with [Natural Enemy] activated, my purely physical abilities are much lower than those of players of the fighting class who are lower in level than me.

“!”

Nevertheless, it was only because of my struggle that I was able to move at such a speed that would make Lust panic. More precisely, it was the momentum of the magic radiating with each step and the mimicking of Elsidor’s movements.

It’s also a trick of the mind.

It’s nothing but evil.

You cannot match my speed.

[A ‘critical hit’ is dealt to the Great Evil, Seven Deadly Sins Lust].

[Inflicts ‘Bleed’ damage to a Great Evil, Seven Deadly Sins Lust].

[Inflicts ‘Helpless’ on Great Evil, Seven Deadly Sins] …….

It’s not a battle.

A literal hunt.

And a very one-sided one at that.

The natural enemy of the hunted.

Kwakakakang!

I looked down at Lust, who had fallen miserably from the roof of the building.

His blood soaked the floor of the rooftop.

“Damn…….”

He said, biting his lip.

“I thought I had grasped the topic, because I didn’t look down on you for a single moment after I hit this goddamned ground, and you were the last survivor, weren’t you?”

The corner of his mouth turned up crookedly.

“Survivor of Akshan and Claudi, I can’t believe it. How are you carrying two fates that one cannot handle? I’m interested, truly interested, purely interested…….”

A demon worthy of the name.

‘Pure as fuck.’

The way he runs his tongue over his lips reminds me that I can’t trust a word he says. But Lust dropped his raised torso back to the ground.

It was bizarre to say the least.

His neck, arms, and legs bent at odd angles.

Out of that lust came a desperate voice.

“Perhaps I have not grasped the topic. Because I have decided to dominate the high-ranking demon kings and surpass you, but your coldness made me realize that I could not. I could not surpass you.”

And then the final words.

“Therefore, I will be your sacrifice. Buer!!!”

At the same time.

I remembered.

Demons.

To summon them.

A foundation was needed.

Recapturing Frost.

In the past, Decarabia had built an altar of corpses arranged in the shape of a star, and Karimzeva, seeking to summon Gamigin, had manifested a rift in the dimensional fabric in the form of a horse.

So the grotesquely twisted Lust is literally.

It is its own foundation.

A sacrifice to summon a higher power.

So I.

No, Grandfell’s reaction could not have been clearer.

My cold gaze turns to the cracking sky.

[The Tenth Throne Demon King, Buer, appears].

“Two birds with one stone.”

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tl/n: Grandfell uses uno reverse card