Demon of Humiliation, Verbaria (1)

A burning pain flared up in her shoulder as if it were on fire.

Yona unconsciously hugged the wooden board Rubina was tied to and slumped backward.

“Ah, ugh, uuugh…!”

No matter how tightly she clenched her teeth, even grinding them to the point of making a crunching sound, the pain didn’t subside at all.

Rather, it hurt so much that her mind went blank, making her want to throw away everything in her hands and clutch at her wound.

Still, she didn’t let go of the wooden board.

Instead, she hugged the board Rubina was tied to even tighter.

“You bastard-!”

With a thud, Andrei rolled over.

Andrei, who was close to being a complete wreck with no intact facial features, crawled on the floor and begged.

“I, I’m sorry…! Pl-please, spa-spare me-“

“Shut up!”

Alec, who had grabbed Andrei by the back of his neck as he crawled on the floor unable to open his eyes properly, had already lost his reason in his gaze.

“Alec, Alec!”

Even at Yona’s cry, Alec didn’t look back.

The moment he saw Andrei assaulting Yona, Alec’s reason had already snapped.

“Alec…! You can’t, you can’t kill him… Ugh!”

Alec finally pulled out the hammer from his waist.

If he strikes Andrei with that, Alec will become a murderer.

There’s a world of difference between an adventurer and a murderer.

No matter how evil the deeds of a person, judgment belongs to the judge, not to ordinary people.

“Alec-!”

Yona called out to Alec at the top of her lungs.

And at that moment.

Thump thump.

A sound similar to a heartbeat echoed.

At that sound, not only Yona but even Alec stopped in their tracks.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump thump.

The vibration, getting stronger like a beating heart, reverberated.

The source of the sound was the altar.

The very altar where Rubina had been tied until just moments ago, and where Yona had caught Rubina.

The altar that had absorbed the blood that flowed from Yona’s shoulder, passing through her tattoo.

From that altar, the sound of a heartbeat was echoing.

“Ve-Verbaria nii-!!!”

Joy.

Excitement.

Ecstasy.

Andrei screamed in a voice that seemed to mix all these emotions.

Even though he was in a situation where his head could be crushed, held by the nape of his neck in Alec’s hand, Andrei cried out someone’s name in a voice that could be bound by the emotion of joy.

“Wh-what’s happening?”

Kairoc and James, who had been fighting in the hall.

And even the guards who had belatedly joined to subdue the believers, all stopped and looked towards the altar.

“What… is this…?”

While frowning from the persistent pain, Yona hid the wooden board behind her body.

She wanted to untie Rubina, but now her right arm wouldn’t move as she wanted, so there was nothing she could do.

Meanwhile, the heartbeat sound echoing from the altar didn’t stop.

Just as the heartbeat that started as thump-thump seemed to have grown into a boom-boom,

Bang!

A dark red flash erupted from the altar.

The flash, slightly more red than black, burst upwards from the altar, piercing through the entire upper structure of the building.

In an instant, the flash that had created a hole the size of a child’s torso expanded even more, soon growing to the thickness of about two adult torsos combined.

“Verbaria, Verbaria niiiii!”

Amidst Andrei’s screams, whose teeth were all shattered making his pronunciation unclear, the flash continued to surge upward.

And not long after, as the flash subsided-

Kaboooom!

With a thunderous roar, the upper floors of the building, except for the basement where they were, disappeared without a trace.

“What, what is that…?”

Ceres, who had just left the mansion and started walking, along with Ludvik and Bigrin, looked up at the sky in astonishment.

It’s not a common sight to see red clouds gathering in a sky covered in pitch-black darkness.

But that very scene was unfolding right here, right now.

Clouds as red as if soaked in blood were gathering somewhere.

These cloud-like things swept across the sky, overlapping in multiple layers to form a thick cloud layer, and eventually, that cloud layer slowly began to split.

“…Let’s hurry. This is strange.”

Ceres’s voice was laden with tension.

Although they hadn’t known her for long, it was an uncharacteristically hurried and impatient voice for her, who had always exuded composure during that time.

“We should hurry. This doesn’t look good.”

Ludvik agreed.

The atmosphere was unprecedentedly ominous and bizarre.

“…Saint?”

However, when he turned to look at Bigrin, who wasn’t responding, even Ludvik couldn’t help but be flustered.

“Saint, are you alright?”

Bigrin was looking up at the sky, pale and drained.

Her already fair face had lost all its color as she stared up at the sky.

“Ev-evil… Evil… In the sky… Evil…”

“Saint? Saint!”

Ludvik grabbed Bigrin’s shoulders and shook her.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, Bigrin just swayed as Ludvik shook her, her gaze fixed on the sky.

“We need to go quickly!”

“…Excuse me, Saint!”

Urged by Ceres, Ludvik had no choice but to pick up Bigrin in both arms.

With a brief impression that she didn’t feel very heavy due to her small build, Ludvik started running along with Ceres.

The sudden change in the believers who had formed a human wall, as if not allowing even a step towards the altar, happened at that moment.

“Oh, Lord Verbaria…!”

“Lord Verbaria is descending…!”

“Lord Verbaria…!”

Each of them prostrated themselves, burying their heads as if they dared not even lift them, while now only Kairoc and his companions were bewildered.

Anyway, with the obstacle to the altar now gone, they rushed to the altar and started to tend to Yona and Alec.

“Yona!”

Only then realizing Yona’s injury, Alec screamed and rushed to her.

Yona, who had half lost consciousness due to losing so much blood, regained her senses as Alec shook her, and glared at him with half-open eyes.

“It hurts… you bald bastard…! It hurts like hell…! Even though you couldn’t hear me… screaming like that… you bald bastard…”

“Potion, don’t we have a potion!?”

“I’m, I’m the healer, why would I have a potion…”

Swallowing the words “You can’t self-heal,” Alec looked around at Kairoc and James.

“Here, I have a healing potion. At least use this quickly.”

The man who had called himself the guard captain stepped forward and held out a bottle.

Alec quickly took the potion with clear liquid sloshing inside, untied the string fixing the paper seal on the mouth, peeled off the paper, and poured the potion onto Yona’s wound.

“Ugh, uwaah! It hurts, it hurts…!”

Yona screamed, grimacing at the stinging and burning pain.

“Stay still, it hurts because it’s medicine!”

“Aaaargh!”

Only after pouring the entire bottle of potion onto Yona’s wound did Alec breathe a sigh of relief.

And only then did he notice Kairoc, James, and the guards.

James had already untied Rubina from the wooden board and was holding her in his arms.

“Rubina… How’s Rubina?”

Yona, who seemed to be feeling a bit better now, asked, looking at Rubina in James’s arms.

Rubina, who they thought was asleep, had woken up and was looking at Yona.

With her big black eyes full of tears – she was looking at Yona.

“Rubina… Are you okay?”

James silently put down Rubina he was holding in response to her question.

“Sister, sisteeer!”

Rubina rushed into Yona’s arms.

Yona, who was barely sitting up against the wall, was hit by another wave of pain in her shoulder as Rubina hugged her, but she bit her lip to suppress a scream and stroked Rubina’s head with her left hand.

“Sister is sorry… Rubina, you must have been so scared.”

“Sister, sister… I’m sorry… I’ll go to the orphanage quietly, I’m sorry, I did wrong…!”

Ugh.

Yona gritted her teeth again.

“…Let’s think about that later. Once we get out of here…”

It was then.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a wind blew.

A sticky, damp wind carrying a strong smell of blood swept over them, now exposed to the open sky.

“Lord Verbaria-!”

“Descend to this world and punish that hypocritical Celestial God-!”

“Lord Verbaria, awaken-!”

“Lord Verbaria-!”

As the believers’ prayers grew louder, the wind became stronger.

And finally-

『I hear, there are those who cry out the name of this Verbaria.』

『I see, this world is still full of that false light.』

『I desire, to defile the glory of that Celestial God.』

『I, shall descend upon this place.』

A majestic voice echoed.

The red clouds that had filled the sky.

As the center of the layered clouds parted, a glowing purple circle began to form within.

『Behold, the calamity that will engulf this world.』

『Behold, the calamity that will engulf this world.』

『Behold, the calamity that will engulf this world.』

『Hear, the screams that will fill this world.』

『Hear, the screams that will fill this world.』

『Hear, the screams that will fill this world.』

『Feel, the death that will surround you.』

『Feel, the death that will surround you.』

『Feel, the death that will surround you.』

The moment the voice, which had been resonating as if multiple people were speaking simultaneously, suddenly stopped-

『This place, shall be your end.』

A snake descended from the sky.

Its nine heads were even larger than Rubina, and each face bore the visage of a woman.

The constantly flickering tongues were those of snakes, and the snake’s body with faces attached was as thick as a typical adult’s torso.

It was incredibly long, and even now as it coiled in the air looking down at the ground, its size was overwhelming-

『-In the end, they were useless. The blood of one who isn’t even a descendant of the Celestial God, it’s far from enough to summon me properly.』

One of the faces looked down and spoke.

At the end of that gaze were Yona and her companions.

“…If we die here, does the reward come from Evian or Capatia?”

Kairoc muttered.