Ch.220[Chapter 220] Variable Appears

Sir Dominic smelled an odor that seemed to emanate from damp sulfur.

It was coming from the demon before him, and Sir Dominic was well acquainted with demons that gave off such a smell.

“Are you Legion’s minion?”

Sir Dominic growled, forgetting his usual dignified knightly etiquette.

While Sir Dominic harbored intense hatred toward demons, to be more precise, this hatred manifested when demons were identified under specific conditions.

In fact, Sir Dominic hadn’t shown much hatred when he met Princess Teu Le Vante, Demon Lord of Evil Eyes, who could be considered the king of demons in Gacharland.

That specific condition was the revolting body odor of the demons who had attacked Feralant.

A nauseating smell like damp, moldy sulfur that numbed the nose—a terrible stench.

This was one of the triggers that provoked Sir Dominic’s anger.

“How do you know of Him?”

“Are you associated with Him?”

“Wang-cheng City? Little San-Franco? Or perhaps… Vandrich?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Our forces traverse dimensions. I’ve never seen such an insignificant mortal.”

The horrible red masses of flesh each spat out their own words.

But Sir Dominic clearly heard one word from the mouth of the demon he so despised.

Vandrich.

Vandrich Fortress.

The site of the greatest battle when Sir Dominic was still a conscript, not yet a knight.

The name of the place remembered as the most desperate and painful battle in Sir Dominic’s mind, except for the final battle, had just spilled from the demon’s mouth.

“Were you at Vandrich Fortress?”

Sir Dominic raised his sword and shield, glaring at the demon.

His one remaining eye burned more fiercely than if he were glaring with two.

“Ah, was that where?”

“Vandrich Fortress. The shame of demons! The disgrace of Makellan!”

“Of course. I can’t forget the taste of the meat I ate there.”

“Though we were banished, it was worth it.”

Every mouth of the demon spewed various emotions.

“It seems you’re a survivor of that fortress, aren’t you?”

“One of the victors, I see. Should I applaud?”

“Do you recognize this face? This face?”

The mass of flesh began to provoke Sir Dominic wildly as soon as it learned of his origin.

Various faces appeared and disappeared on the flesh mass’s skin.

And Sir Dominic could recognize some of them.

They were some of his comrades who had fought alongside him at Vandrich Fortress.

“…”

Sir Dominic silently glared at the flesh mass despite the demon’s provocations.

Though he wanted to charge at it immediately, Sir Dominic knew well that to fight a demon, one must be thoroughly prepared.

Currently, Sir Dominic was imprisoned in the dungeon with only basic equipment, and even then, only some of it was usable.

He was woefully underprepared to fight a demon.

Well aware of this fact, Sir Dominic was just looking at the demon while quickly thinking.

Whether to evade it first, equip himself properly and then challenge it, or to charge right now and stab the 13 spots that appeared to be weaknesses.

“If you were hoping to rely on the System’s loopholes, give up. I was summoned through normal summoning procedures, so even the System cannot stop me.”

“As with all demons, demonic law takes precedence over the laws of this land. So your System cannot harm me.”

Two crow heads sprouting from the flesh mass sneered at Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic understood the meaning of those words well.

Demons were extremely selfish beings who naturally disregarded and trampled on the rules and customs of the dimensions they invaded.

It was one of the powers of their leader, Legion.

It was coincidentally revealed that Legion couldn’t even raise its head in its original dimension, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t project its power into other dimensions.

That’s how powerful the abilities of Legion, the king of demons, were.

Sir Dominic let out a short sigh.

He had momentarily forgotten to breathe due to the tension, and he couldn’t think of a way to overcome the current situation.

But after his sigh, Sir Dominic grinned again.

While his eyes still glared at the demon, a bright smile that seemed about to tear spread across his shadowed face.

It wasn’t as if he had fought demons only once or twice.

Since all demons had different characteristics, they were always tricky opponents.

The demon before him didn’t seem much different from the others.

Above all, demons had a weakness that completely offset all their advantages—they often had unexpectedly fatal vulnerabilities.

Of course, demons tried to hide these weaknesses, but Sir Dominic had learned things through his battles with them.

Sir Dominic immediately shouted several incomprehensible words.

“Ba’roksha! Alt’ryeni! Kan’shachar! Miniwoni!”

“…What are you doing?”

The flesh mass looked at Sir Dominic, who was spouting nonsense words.

It wondered if he had gone insane from too much pain.

But Sir Dominic continued to list unknown words.

“Vandred! Beengdriu! Gaston Hile! Maxtes!”

Sir Dominic’s shouts showed no effect, but when he uttered one word, the demon flinched.

“Slaton Bex!”

“Ugh!”

“What? How do you know that?”

The flesh mass raised its sharp claws and began to scratch its skin vigorously as if about to peel off all the skin on its body.

The demon was feeling an itching and stinging sensation as if termites were gnawing at its skin.

“How do you know my true name?”

“What are you, mortal!”

The demon, which had been provoking Sir Dominic with composure until just now, glared at him while expressing anger in irritation.

Forty-five eyes on its front focused their gaze on Sir Dominic.

“Demons are selfish. I simply extracted a few true names in exchange for sparing them.”

Well, none of the demons survived in the end, Sir Dominic thought.

There was no need to say that out loud.

“Indeed! So that’s how you knew my true name!”

“Who told you? Akitens? Karamba de Ak’sol? Chibabar of Otriten?”

“Thank you. Those were true names I didn’t know.”

Now Sir Dominic was sneering back at the demon.

But Sir Dominic didn’t let his guard down.

Still raising his shield and observing the demon’s movements, Sir Dominic slowly approached and began to call out the demon’s true name again.

“Slaton Bex! Slaton Bex! Slaton Bex!”

“Kuk!”

The flesh mass demon could no longer think normally due to the increasingly intense itching.

In a situation where it couldn’t even think about stopping Sir Dominic from saying its true name, the demon began to swing its thick arms with sagging flesh.

It was instinctively displaying its violent nature without even thinking of a clear purpose.

This was one of the weaknesses of demons.

They instinctively reacted when their true names were called.

This stemmed from the characteristic of demons that traversed dimensions.

To put it simply, they were illegal residents who deceived the dimensional barriers with forged passports.

With forged passports, they entered by concealing their original names, avoiding dimensional tracking while engaging in illegal activities.

However, the moment their true name was revealed, the dimension could identify, track, and expel that demon.

This adverse reaction arose from the situation where the dimension was trying to identify, track, and subdue the demon.

However, the demon called Slaton Bex was apparently quite strong, as despite having its true name called multiple times, it only lost its reason while maintaining almost all of its strength.

Sir Dominic blocked the flesh mass’s attacks, approached, and stabbed one of its eyes with his sword.

Sir Dominic was a veteran who had often faced demons with overwhelming power.

He could easily dodge attacks that relied solely on strength and were swung wildly.

But Sir Dominic’s attacks didn’t reach the flesh mass again.

“Argh! Stop! Stop!”

The skin of the flesh mass began to undulate.

Its thick arms grew even thicker, veins bulging, and it began pounding the ground.

Sir Dominic tried to regain his balance despite staggering on the shaking ground.

But before he could fully regain his balance, the dungeon floor, which had suffered continuous damage from tremendous force, began to crack.

“…Damn it.”

Sir Dominic uttered a short curse as he looked at the cracking ground beneath his feet.

The flesh mass continued to pound the ground and walls.

The cracks grew larger, and finally, instead of just splitting, the floor began to collapse.

With a rumbling sound of colliding stones, the floor crumbled.

“Uh, ah! Sir Dominiiiiic!”

The heaviest flesh mass scratched at the collapsing floor, trying not to fall, but as even the floor it was holding onto crumbled, the flesh mass fell into the darkness below.

“Take my hand!”

Merry, who had been hiding on the ceiling, reached out her hand toward Sir Dominic.

Sir Dominic kicked off the collapsing floor, jumped up, and grabbed Merry’s hand.

No, he almost grabbed it.

“Ah.”

Actually, he didn’t even touch it.

Sir Dominic had kicked off the collapsing floor incorrectly and jumped in the wrong direction.

Even then, he only rose about 10cm.

“Sir Dominic!”

Having failed to grab Merry’s hand, Sir Dominic fell down like the flesh mass.

Sir Dominic looked at Merry, who was growing more distant.

Merry still reached out her hand, trying to grab Sir Dominic.

But the distance had already grown too far for reaching a little further to make any difference.

One of the fragments from the shattered floor passed between Sir Dominic and Merry, obscuring their view of each other.

Sir Dominic squeezed his eyes shut.

To prepare for the impact that would soon come.