Chapter 52 : Chapter 52

Chapter 52 - Bait to Catch a Bat

‘What kind of monster is this guy.’

A shop with its ceiling blown away, despite having been built not long ago.

The gaping hole in the ceiling clearly showed the second floor, which had been made for lodging and dining.

I hid behind the counter and reloaded the cylinder.

Even though the blast was strong enough to shatter all the windowpanes, and My Ex-Girlfriend had hit its mark.

“I'll ask again. Shopkeeper.”

A far too composed voice followed.

“Why does your shop smell of bats, of vampires?”

“What bullshit is this! Why would a vampire be here!”

“It's better to answer while I'm still being a gentleman. I'm in a good mood from eating a lot of peanut butter. I'll give you one more chance, specially.”

Clack─!

I pulled out a shotgun over the counter.

Without showing my face, I aimed based on the voice. -Fire.

Toooong─!!

A solid lead slug flew out.

In a process where aiming and firing occurred in a matter of seconds, there was no room to dodge.

And he didn't dodge.

“Oh dear. The spoon broke.”

A voice coming from the same spot.

For some reason, a hint of anger could be detected in that voice announcing the demise of a spoon.

He seemed more angered by the spoon breaking than by a bullet flying at him.

No, more than that.

‘He deflected a lead slug with a spoon…?’

A chill ran down my spine.

‘I have to get out first. If I fight any more in here, the goods will be damaged.’

Reggie picked up a hand cannon and slung a shotgun over his back.

In the meantime, the vampire hunter's patience was also running out.

“The time for going easy is over. A human who hides a vampire is not a human in my eyes.”

“Do as you please.”

Ting-grr─

Something that rolled on the floor touched my foot.

A bomb? I thought so, but.

Fshhhhhhh─

White smoke spread out thickly.

As if a dawn fog had suddenly arrived, my skin grew cool, and I couldn't see a thing in front of me.

But there was no way the shop owner didn't know the layout of his shop.

He jumped over the counter and took a position near the entrance.

“You can't get out.”

Halsin had taken a position by the entrance even faster than him.

“…!!”

“Your scent is too strong to be hidden by sight alone. The smell of gunpowder seems to have become your body odor.”

Grab─

He seized Reggie's neck.

At the same time, he also pulled the trigger.

Taaaaang─!!

It was a bullet filled with lead pellets, not a slug.

At this close a range, a human body should have been torn to pieces.

But the expected didn't happen.

“You…. Are you even human?”

“Of course. I am human.”

The body that had been pierced by the shotgun was pitch black.

It felt like I had shot into an abyss-like swamp, not a human body.

The bullet didn't even come out the back, and there was no feedback in my hand at all.

It was just sucked in as I shot, and then, patter.

It fell to the floor.

Reggie's neck, which was being held, rose up along with his body.

How could such strength come from such a skinny body?

The teal eyes under the brim shone gloomily.

“I'm just a slightly unusual human.”

Hwoook─!!

A 0.1-ton giant flew.

The body, drawing a heavy curve, was lifted to the second floor where the ceiling had been blown away.

It was the place where the scent of vampire came from.

Thud─

The hunter's leather boots also stepped onto the relatively intact second-floor floor.

“It's around here somewhere.”

With his hands behind his back, he looked at the rooms divided on the second floor, then spread his hands.

“It would be easier to just see it all at once.”

Shwaaaaaaaah─

The eyes of the fallen Reggie were slightly blurred from the shock.

But even with those blurry eyes, he could see it clearly.

Darkness was being layered over that dark green coat, assimilating with the shadows.

As if it were a magnet that drew in darkness, the shadows became that man's limbs.

The darkness of the second floor was his, and it was his body.

Thus, he could know what was in the rooms and what the layout was without opening a single door.

“Is it this?”

Someone's room door opened by itself, and a piece of clothing came out.

I didn't know the owner, but it was a rather thick and large robe.

“As I thought….”

He buried his nose in the robe and sniffed it.

There was definitely a vampire here.

But the owner of this robe was not a vampire.

Because besides that bat smell, there were a host of other scents.

But it was certain that there was a close connection.

“And for that scent to be so thick despite not being large. A direct descendant of the Queen. It might even be the same person as that bastard.”

A normal noble of blood wouldn't come into this throng of humans.

“Hey. Where is the owner of this robe?”

He asked the fallen man.

He barely stood up on his trembling legs.

“Go check your own pants later. It'll probably be fine somewhere in your back hole.”

“What a dim-witted fool.”

Taaaaang─!!

Another bullet flew.

However, it couldn't reach him.

For an attack in the dark was meaningless to a hunter who had completed the darkness assimilation.

Like a blinking light, he was in front of me in an instant.

The gun barrel that was caught was snapped by grip strength alone, and that grip strength aimed for the skull.

“Hey—!!”

A sharp scream. After that.

Kwaaaaaaaah─!!

A huge radiance erupted from the first floor and shot up through the hole in the second floor.

With the appearance of the powerful light source, the darkness gradually receded.

“Tsk….”

The one who gained strength from the darkness also retreated like a shadow.

Soon, the light faded away.

In the place where the light had been, someone wearing a thick robe was standing.

It was the same robe as the one he was holding, which meant it was necessary to catch the Queen's direct descendant.

Moreover, a woman. And a virgin.

“The bait for the trap is ready.”

But the bait's resistance seemed like it would be a bit rough.

The glaring eyes on the first floor seemed visible even though she was wearing a hood.

Moreover, this method of mana operation.

Wisdom. She was a pure mage from the south.

“Interesting…. A Wisdom and a Millesdusk. And a direct descendant of the Queen.”

All sorts of big shots were gathered in a shop like this.

Halsin smiled darkly and gripped a piece of debris in his hand.

***

I entered the altar.

Just like from the outside, the inside was also extremely vast.

Rather than marveling at the sight, the Gatekeeper was preoccupied with listening to the Youngest Son's nonsense.

“Look carefully. A master bedroom will go there, and a reception room will be built down there. Ah, and since many guests will be coming, those rooms will go over there—”

“……”

Madman.

This lunatic was trying to use an altar, where tens of millions of people had been fed to demons, as his house.

He even looked full of such thoughts.

He had called it a home site from the beginning, so it might be possible, but wouldn't one normally just demolish it?

I wonder if he could even sleep with all the nightmares he'd have.

“The Millesdusk General Construction Department is renowned for its skills, but I doubt such skills will emerge here.”

The interior of the foundation was for rituals, not for living.

It was a place made for killing people, not for people to live in.

But a bed, a toilet, a bathtub could come here? Could water even be drawn up?

Listening to the nonsense, all sorts of questions arose.

But now, the fight came before the nonsense.

The lowest floor of the altar.

There was a space large enough to place the central building of Pandemonium Hall.

“There was only one path. It seems that entering the altar leads here.”

“That's not it. The demon living in the altar has changed the internal structure of the altar as it pleases.”

“…Is that possible?”

“Whether it's possible or not, I'll know once I try. To do that, you have to go.”

“Am I first?”

“Looks like the tenant has a heavy butt. He's trying to send out the proxy first.”

He gestured to the opposite side with his chin.

The opponent had already arrived.

But it was not a demon from this altar.

A knight with a ribcage-shaped breastplate and a cloak that was clearly made of human skin draped behind him.

The demon's horns were a given, but what was peculiar was the sword.

A single-edged greatsword, a head taller than its owner, dragged on the floor.

Ggggggggggk─

Sparks like scraping a steel plate flew in all directions.

The greatsword's blade was caked with human bones, and rotten flesh constantly writhed.

That, too, was a Magic Sword.

‘Should I be grateful to Enad for not being that ugly? Or should I be grateful to Josephine?’

I became curious, but I was not the one who had to face that thing.

“…Youngest Son.”

“What is it.”

The opponent himself was stroking a Bone Sword of crude quality, which was even broken at the tip.

“I'm also very curious as to what the other way to obtain this land is.”

“It's already too late. And going through the Battle for Dominance is the best way. If that demon doesn't have a heart, things will get very troublesome later on.”

“……”

“You can curse me all you want after you win. Though you probably won't be able to come back if you lose.”

“Haaa….”

The Gatekeeper, who wasn't even wearing decent armor, came out holding only a Bone Sword.

Kaaaaaaaaaaaaah─!!

A noise that scraped the ears erupted from its wide-open maw.

Along with the cracking and shattering monstrous sound, the red glint in its eyes grew fiercer.

A purple flame flickered above its skull.

That flame lit the eyes of the skulls attached to its armor and even moved the great bone sword.

“Yes. You're a spirited fellow.”

He raised the chipped Bone Sword, which had been worn down from cutting the rough skin of demons.

It was a moment when I dearly missed the Cursed Sword.

Having now truly entered observation mode, the Youngest Son, who had unfolded a camping chair and sat behind me, offered his support.

“You are a genius. You may not think so yourself, but you are indeed a genius. So believe in yourself.”

“Those are not encouraging words at all.”

“If you don't like that, then try believing in the interpretation of the passage I told you on the way here.”

“…You mean that pie-in-the-sky talk?”

“It's an interpretation. How you interpret that interpretation and accept it is up to you.”

“Damn it.”

“It seems that's not the right interpretation either.”

“Shit.”

“That's not it either.”

The Gatekeeper gripped the Bone Sword.

Just in case, he tied the sword hilt and his hand together with the hand bones of a Skeleton Soldier so it wouldn't fall.

The moment he dropped it, he would die.

If he clashed with that great bone sword, he would also die.

If he was cut by the Magic Sword, he would die a little later.

The possibilities of death arose in droves, but that was a habit.

Standing in the vanguard on the battlefield under the Millesdusk flag.

A habit formed whenever I faced the enemies' bare faces at the very front of the vanguard.

When I was a soldier, I had to cut down the grunts and get to the vanguard commander, so I had to save my strength.

But in the Gatekeeper's position, there was no need for that.

Kuuuuuuuuuuung─

Mana spread heavily throughout the arena.

If there had been grunts nearby, their internal mana would have been disrupted, and they would have been busy coughing up blood.

The pressure rose, not knowing the sky was the limit, and eventually acted like gravity.

The Youngest Son leaned back comfortably and witnessed the scene firsthand.

‘Monarch's Aura. Is he planning to go all out from the start?’

Only mana that wasn't biased toward any of the four sorcery branches could learn that technique.

The mana of a dunce who couldn't learn any sorcery since his squire days.

That was the direction it had evolved in its bid to survive the war.

Kuuuuuuuuuuung─

The pressure intensified once more.

‘Will it be about four layers?’

The more one used Monarch's Aura, the more it distorted the opponent's internal mana and broke their posture.

The pressure, as if pressing down from above, created the illusion that gravity itself had multiplied.

With four layers, the perceived gravity must have risen close to four times.

Only the user of Monarch's Aura was free from that pressure; even a demon could not escape its grasp.

Kugugugugugung─

The sound of a building's steel frame bending came from the other side.

It was the sound of its knees resisting the pressure.

I heard it somewhere.

An excellent general wins from the very beginning.

Monarch's Aura was such a technique.

A technique that created a winning fight.

“Hmm…. That's also desirable.”

The Youngest Son's eyes gleamed from behind.

The Bone Sword and the great bone sword moved without either being first.

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