Ch.177177. Home Ground

Thud.

The one-armed man who had fallen began to stand up, pressing his left hand against the floor. With just that simple action.

The air inside the banquet hall, a sealed room, began to change.

The sticky, settled arrogance and mockery of the demons froze cold.

A fierce wind blowing from somewhere sent chills down spines, freezing the movements of insects that had been crawling around searching for prey.

“……”

Magan, the Great Demon who was watching him from the closest position, felt a prickling sensation at the back of his neck.

‘Am I tense?’

He realized that he had unconsciously noticed the man before him had returned, and that his body had tensed because of it.

He reached into his mouth to check the soul he had been chewing on.

Though they looked identical, the fading soul in his hand was not the Spiritmaster he knew.

And he had been fooled by this worthless, insignificant soul.

That much he could be certain of.

“So you’re the real Deus Verdi.”

Glaring at the man slowly rising, Magan licked his dry lips with his thick tongue.

He had no idea how this structure worked, but Magan didn’t care at all.

After all, he just needed to kill and devour both of them.

“Magan.”

A voice so emotionless it felt cold echoed.

Just one simple word.

Just one word uttered.

Yet it confirmed that he was the real Spiritmaster, Deus Verdi.

It seemed ridiculous that he had been fooled by the crude impostor’s act until just now.

Because of this, Magan became more irritable and tried to completely devour the soul in his hand.

Crack!

A blue flame spear flew in, precisely piercing his wrist.

A surprise attack from Deus, who could barely stand properly.

Magan was dumbfounded, not expecting magic from someone in that condition, and was about to click his tongue at the insignificant attack.

But the hole in his wrist made his fingers lose strength, and he gritted his teeth as he watched Deus pull the soul he had been holding into his arms using mana.

True to his name as a Spiritmaster.

Even with his enemy right in front of him—

The monster who had cut off his right arm, the Great Demon who possessed the former Saintess’s left arm like a trophy.

He moved first to save a fading soul.

“How dare you……”

To Magan, it felt utterly humiliating. The fact that he had wasted his only chance for a decisive surprise attack just to save such a soul.

It felt like that soul was valued much higher than himself in the Spiritmaster’s eyes.

[“…Ah.”]

The soul of Deus, perforated by Magan’s teeth and fading away, took in the face of his counterpart.

The atmosphere was so different it was hard to believe they had the same face.

He had no choice but to accept that the man before him was a different being, merely sharing the same name.

Perhaps that’s why.

Deus could more easily accept his own demise.

[“It was as you said.”]

Slowly closing his eyes, Deus showed—for the first time in a very long time—not a smile corrupted by alcohol, drugs, and lust.

But a bright, childlike smile.

[“I was… a human capable of change.”]

For souls, there are two endings prepared: rest and oblivion.

Eternal rest, lying on this earth with closed eyes.

And oblivion, disappearing into nothingness without leaving anything behind.

The man who awoke from rest, fought for his family, and sacrificed himself.

Did not lose his smile even at the moment of oblivion.

“Simply,”

The only Deus Verdi remaining in this world honors the one who has departed.

“Thank you.”

* * *

Since the original Deus’s soul was occupying the body, I had no way to get out.

I could only sigh in frustration, knowing about the tragedies unfolding outside but unable to respond.

“Simply.”

Deus Verdi’s noble will and sacrifice allowed me to stand here once again.

Just as I had said when sending him off at the funeral without mourners.

“Thank you.”

He was the kind of person who could sacrifice himself for others. If given the opportunity, if given the catalyst, he could have changed.

I will never forget him, who left proudly after sacrificing himself for his family and me in his final moments, cradled in my arms.

“Huff.”

I slowly raise my head to face the Great Demon before me, whose face is flushed with anger.

Though my body feels completely drained, my breathing labored, and my shoulders slumped, my senses are sharper than ever.

The mana throughout my body awakens again, welcoming me back.

“You dare bid farewell to such a soul right in front of me.”

“He was far more valuable than you.”

“You compare a Great Demon who has lived for hundreds of years to trash that didn’t even live for a few years?”

“He may not have been good.”

I slowly concentrate mana in my left hand. Without my right hand, it’s difficult to maintain balance just standing.

“But unlike you, he hadn’t given up on change.”

“How amusing. I didn’t give up on change—I simply had no need for it.”

The conversation itself doesn’t flow.

I was human, and he was a demon.

In the end, the differences in positions and prejudices determined from birth could never be bridged.

Therefore, there was no future where both Magan and I would leave this sealed banquet hall alive.

One of us must die.

Magan felt this too, but he was filled with absolute confidence.

“How foolish.”

Clicking his tongue and shaking his head, Magan sighed.

“Souls that sacrifice themselves for others are rarely as sweet.”

My eyebrow twitched slightly, knowing he was talking about Deus.

“However, that man’s taste was so terrible it couldn’t be redeemed even by that.”

“……”

“But those who struggle in the face of mortal danger, like you now, are all too common.”

It was only natural to fight until the end rather than give up when faced with a life-threatening situation.

And Magan had already tasted such predictable struggles to the point of boredom.

“The choice is not yet over.”

He tightens his grip on Deia and Darius again.

“Choose, Spiritmaster.”

He wanted me to make the same choice again. Not the predictable taste of struggling while sacrificing others’ lives.

He wanted to taste the delicacy called sacrifice, where one throws away even their own life.

“This banquet hall cannot be accessed from the outside.”

Magan gives me a puzzled look at my sudden statement. But it seems to have piqued his interest, as he raises the corner of his mouth as if telling me to continue.

“Are you saying you’ll resolve this situation with outside help? The moment moonlight shines in from outside, I will kill these two.”

He meant he would kill them the moment there was any movement from outside.

With a sneer, I shook my head.

“They’ve already arrived.”

“Lord Magan!”

At his secretary’s urgent cry, Magan hurriedly turns around. But it was already too late.

No matter what sealed room.

No matter how thick the walls.

They are all useless before her.

“I am a necromancer.”

[“Master! I was so worried!”]

The Dark Spiritmaster, who had been hiding from Magan’s eyes, noticed my return and immediately joined me.

A guillotine-like blade created through her mana slices through the wrist of the giant hand holding Darius and Deia.

The two fall to the floor, coughing and catching their breath. I wanted to help them, but there was no time.

Magan turns his head roughly to glare at me, thinking he’s been hit. His clenched teeth, bloodshot eyes, and the veins rising between his eyes and eye sockets revealed the magnitude of his fury.

“Deus Verdi. You truly wish to be eaten alive, it seems.”

The demon’s growling warning.

He paid no attention to Darius and Deia, who had regained consciousness and were desperately running toward me.

No, it meant he didn’t care.

Because as long as they were inside, no human could escape his grasp.

Because this place was his dining table.

“This is quite different from our first meeting, Deus Verdi.”

Thud!

His footsteps heavily stamp the floor as he approaches. Just one step sends a tsunami of fear that stimulates our human nerves.

The apex predator surpassing humanity.

“I am Magan, Great Demon of Gluttony!”

Thud!

The pressure that feels like it will crush my entire body grows heavier on my shoulders as he approaches.

“You dare oppose me at my banquet! You mere piece of meat, you wretched human!”

Deia and Darius had already succumbed and fallen to their knees, while the Dark Spiritmaster urgently pressed against my side.

[“D-do you have a way to escape?”]

“No.”

[“What?”]

“We can’t escape. And I have no intention to.”

I’m going to kill him.

As those words were added, the Dark Spiritmaster stared at me with wide, bewildered eyes.

It was random, but glancing at her like that made me smile slightly.

“It’s good to see you after so long.”

[“Uh…”]

I pushed the momentarily frozen Dark Spiritmaster away with my left hand and warned her.

“Keep your distance. This is not a battlefield for humans.”

[“W-what do you—!”]

Before the Dark Spiritmaster could finish her sentence, a terribly excited laugh echoed from my empty right hand.

[“Kihaaaaaaa!”]

Crack-crack-crack!

My right hand feels hot.

Though there’s nothing there, the skin begins to swell as if something is present, and I feel blood flowing.

Because souls contain mana.

The mana remaining in the Great Demon’s soul inside me rotates like spiral particles, forming the shape of a grotesque hand.

“Vellica.”

Magan called the name of a fellow demon he hadn’t seen in a long time. In response, Stella’s soul, with a horn on her forehead, projected behind me.

[“Magan! Still as fat and bloated as ever!”]

“A Great Demon who parasitized a Saintess dares to run its mouth?”

[“How foolish! I was just being true to my nature. Vellica, the Deformed Great Demon! My demonic tendencies are just twisted! Unlike you psychopaths!”]

“Yes, your mouth works well enough.”

Magan’s tongue flickers impatiently as he adds “but.”

“You think you can fight me on my dining table? Is your brain so deformed that you’ve become stupid? This is my stage! No Great Demon! Have you forgotten that none dare oppose me at the banquet table!”

The world vibrates with Magan’s explosively released mana, as if everything until now had been a joke.

The power that turns even humans who could be called each country’s greatest forces into mere courses on the dining table.

Facing such an enemy, Vellica, already a dead soul, could be considered no match for Magan.

[“Has all that eating put fat in your brain?”]

Yet Vellica laughs. Not empty provocation, but deep trust and confidence.

Sensing this, Magan’s eyes narrow slightly.

[“Have you forgotten what kind of Great Demon I am!”]

Behind me, Vellica’s energy surges as something begins to pour out.

Without resisting it, I accept it, and my mana mixes with Vellica’s, forming spider legs like wings behind my back.

[“I am Vellica, the Deformed Great Demon! And this guy with me now!”]

Tap-tap!

Vellica pats my shoulders cheerfully and smiles brightly.

[“His right hand flew away and disappeared! His emotions are worn down! His body isn’t even his own! And his soul came from another world!”]

I thought she was insulting me, but.

From Vellica’s perspective, it was the highest praise.

[“He’s a deformed human in every way! That’s what I’m saying, you pig!”]

I didn’t appreciate the rough introduction, but.

In this continent.

If asked who could best match Vellica, the Deformed Great Demon.

Someone twisted deformedly in every aspect.

It would probably be me.

[“Is this my reward for Stella’s faith? How did I find someone so perfectly matched to me!”]

Vellica raises her middle finger toward Magan with a confident smile.

[“Let’s fight on each other’s home ground!”]