Ch.233Hell’s Watchdog

After many twists and turns, we defeated Durahan and decided to catch our breath while hiding in a secluded corner of the castle.

“So if you fall for that hallucination, your head gets cut off?”

“Yeah. It’s a curse called ‘Death Bringer,’ Durahan’s special ability. Anyone whose mind completely breaks under that terrible hallucination gets their head severed by Durahan’s sword, and then Durahan carries the severed head in his left hand, using it as a new magical tool.”

So if I hadn’t sensed the fragment of omniscience and snapped out of it, my head would be in Durahan’s left hand right now…

No wonder it’s classified as an A-rank threat.

“I’m sorry. I tried to shout and warn you that it was an illusion spell before Death Bringer fully activated.”

“It’s not your fault, Jessica. That fog descended almost instantly.”

“Besides, it’s thanks to Jessica that we all made it out safely.”

“…Actually, Death Bringer’s success rate isn’t that high. The hallucinations often lack plausibility and get seen through. But the fact that three of you almost fell for it suggests the content was quite traumatic.”

“Ah… I was too shocked to even think of doubting it.”

In a situation where fog surrounded us from all directions, seeing the heads of the women I love rolling toward me one by one…

For reference, Seti’s hallucination involved being abandoned by me and sold into a slave market, while Phyllis saw Iris killing me and then going to massacre the elves in her homeland.

Jessica knew about Durahan’s Death Bringer technique, so she didn’t fall for the hallucination. Just before the fog completely settled, she grabbed Mina’s hand and quickly woke her up.

After that, she activated the fragment of omniscience to locate our companions, then stimulated us by transferring magical power from Mina’s body to wake everyone up—all in about 10 seconds.

The reason Durahan appeared to be standing quietly in his original position, even though we seemed to have been struggling in the hallucination for quite some time, was because only about 10 seconds had actually passed.

“Anyway, now that we’ve taken down the dangerous one and have a general grasp of the situation, shall we start exploring the castle in earnest?”

“Right. If we had all encountered Durahan together, we might have lost a few people, so we should collect our reward for handling it first.”

“It would be nice if we could find a treasure vault while we’re at it~”

Strongly agreeing with Mina’s opinion, we resumed our exploration of the castle interior.

The first place we visited was the main gate of the inner castle that stood tall.

It had an overwhelming presence among the few buildings inside the castle, and we thought that if there were any treasure vaults or secret passages in this castle, they would likely be designed to be accessible from the inner castle.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t enter the inner castle.

A sturdy iron door with four magic circles drawn on it blocked our way.

“We need to open this door to get inside…”

“Jessica, what about Disintegration?”

“It won’t even activate. Seems like the only way through is by activating the magic circles.”

Four magic circles arranged in an X pattern, two on each side of the door.

Looking at their arrangement, a natural thought comes to mind.

“The most suspicious places would be the four watchtowers on the castle walls.”

“They haven’t shown any movement, let alone attacked us, since we entered the castle.”

“So each watchtower must have something that activates these magic circles… It’s a convincing theory, but can we conquer them all before other adventurers arrive?”

“Hmm…”

I’m not sure how long it would take to conquer one watchtower, but to have time to search the inner castle after conquering all four, we can’t spend more than 30 minutes on each tower.

If we’re not careful, we might end up doing all the hard work only to open the inner castle door for our 30-some rivals who arrive late.

In that case, it might be better to leave the dungeon now, rest, and then re-enter with the other adventurers when we’re all in peak condition.

“Any other places worth checking besides the watchtowers?”

“There’s that antique multi-story building to the east, and that square building near the western wall.”

“Let’s check the western one first. It looks smaller and simpler.”

In modern terms, the eastern building gives off the impression of a cathedral or a love hotel, while the western building feels like a small warehouse.

It would be more efficient to search the western building first, which we could finish more quickly, and then move east.

Having decided that, we headed to the western building, where a group of monsters was ready to welcome us.

‘Grrrr…’

One humanoid monster taller than a Lesser Demon and wielding a whip, along with five fierce large dogs with flames in their mouths.

At a glance, it’s clear that the whip-wielding monster is leading the large dogs.

“Those are Hell Hounds, C-rank monsters with Fire Breath ability. I’ve never seen the humanoid one before, but it looks like it’s from the Demon tribe.”

“OK, let’s quickly take care of the Hell Hounds first while being careful of the whip guy.”

‘Woof! Woof woof!!!’

As soon as I finished speaking, the five Hell Hounds opened their flame-filled mouths wide and began charging toward us.

They don’t seem to be the type to breathe fire from a distance like Fire Drakes.

‘Bang!’

‘Bang! Bang!’

“Diamond Dust!”

As the Hell Hounds approached rapidly, Phyllis and I launched preemptive attacks, while Jessica tried to restrict their mobility using ice magic.

But surprisingly, the Hell Hounds crushed the magic bullets flying toward them with their flame-filled mouths, and even the ones that seemed trapped in ice easily escaped by slightly shaking their bodies and continued their attack!

Before we could prepare countermeasures against such movements, the Hell Hounds, now within 10 meters, all opened their mouths at once.

“Breath! Dodge sideways!”

‘Whoooosh~!!’

The breath that spewed from the Hell Hounds’ mouths extended like flamethrower fire in an instant.

If we hadn’t prepared to dodge based on Jessica’s warning, we might have been too slow to react to the unexpectedly fast flames.

“Now’s our chance while they’re breathing fire! Stone Bullet!”

‘Thwack!’

“Yelp!”

The rock bullet that left Jessica’s fingertips cut through the spewing flames and rushed into a Hell Hound’s mouth, instantly bursting the head of the creature that had been crushing even bullets with its teeth.

It seems they can’t respond nimbly to our attacks while breathing fire.

‘Ta-ta-bang!’

‘Baang!’

“Shockwave Splasher!”

The revolver’s three consecutive shots all hit one Hell Hound that was breathing fire.

Mina’s large pistol shot was unfortunately dodged, but Phyllis’s Shockwave Splasher struck the remaining three Hell Hounds and flew toward the demon tribe handler (presumably) who was observing the situation from behind.

‘Swish!’

But the demon handler lightly swung the whip in his hand to intercept the incoming Shockwave Splasher. Though his posture was momentarily disrupted by the shockwave from the explosion in mid-air, he didn’t take any significant damage.

“Hah!”

‘Thunk!’

A Hell Hound that was staggering after being hit in the body by the Shockwave Splasher dies as Seti’s spear pierces its heart.

Now only three Hell Hounds remain, and one of them has essentially lost its combat ability after being seriously wounded by the three revolver shots.

Seti breaks through between the weakened Hell Hounds with lightning speed.

‘Whip!’

“Hmm.”

‘Clang!’

Only then did the demon handler seem to realize the situation was unfavorable, as he began swinging his whip to check Seti.

Each time the thin whip was swung, a sharp wind sound cut through the air, and sparks flew where the whip and spear collided, accompanied by a metallic sound.

‘Clang! Clang! Clang!’

“Seti!”

‘Whoooosh-!’

“Ugh!?”

The handler’s fierce attack pressures Seti with its long reach.

Phyllis tries to help Seti by firing suppressive shots at the handler, but she couldn’t find the right timing for an aimed shot due to the Hell Hound’s breath, which had noticed her intention.

“This one…!”

‘Bang!’

“Woof!”

Another Hell Hound jumps in to block the bullet fired at the one that had just breathed fire.

An impressive tactic of covering each other’s vulnerabilities.

It showed teamwork that was hard to believe from four-legged beasts, but…

‘Slash!’

“Yelp!?”

Wind blades flying silently from the opposite direction mercilessly cut through the bodies of those Hell Hounds.

From the beginning, Seti had jumped into the midst of the enemies not to engage in a one-on-one battle with the demon handler, but as part of positioning to find the Hell Hounds’ blind spots.

Now all that remains are three dying Hell Hounds and the demon handler who has essentially lost all his animals.

‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’

It didn’t take long for several gunshots to settle the situation.