episode_0051

*

Time was running out, and the situation was desperate.

The devils would soon swarm this monastery.

If there was no medium to possess, they might retreat during the day, but at least until the Priest woke up, they would have to struggle to survive the devils every night.

Lucia, although she had experience fighting numerous monsters, the Ebony Wolf was one of the lowest-ranking devils, so she was no match for other devils.

If even Lucia was like that, there was no need to mention Sola, who had no abilities.

Kunt traveled around the island, calling Lucia and Sola together, and briefly explained the situation.

They were concerned about whether the Priest and Anna were okay, but Kunt told them that now was not the time to worry about such things.

Kunt, who was emphasizing how important it was to pray with a faithful heart to resist the devils, suddenly felt this situation was very funny.

Kunt, a devil, had to protect humans from the devils, and he was preaching the importance of prayer.

He himself thought it was absurd, but he couldn’t help it.

If, by any chance, the Priest regained consciousness and saw them being brutally toyed with by the devils…

He didn’t even dare to imagine the aftermath.

The Priest was already famous in many ways among the devils, and Kunt already knew well that his fame was not unfounded.

After busily preparing to welcome the devils, finally, the evening of the promised day arrived.

Kunt stood in the room where the Priest was lying, silently looking out the window.

From the horizon far away in the sea, storm clouds were gathering, as if to cover the whole world.

They were so dense and thick that they were dark clouds that wouldn’t let even a single ray of sunlight pass through.

Kunt burst into laughter.

“I thought we just had to endure the night, but it seems they’re going to attack day and night.”

Kunt could clearly feel that the firmly prepared army of devils was approaching.

Lilith spoke to such Kunt.

“It’s not too late now. Just bow your head and get some punishment.”

“I can’t do that.”

“No, what’s so special about this Priest that you’re doing this much? Aren’t there other priests or Exorcist Priests?”

“There probably are.”

“Ah, then why don’t you go there and do it again?”

Lilith said, stepping on the Priest’s head with her bluish bare feet.

“From the start, there’s no way this bastard would move according to your words! Even if he moved according to your plan, you have to be alive first to execute the plan!”

Kunt shook his head.

“Time is an opportunity cost, Lilith.”

“What?”

“I’ve invested all my time in this since the moment the world was destroyed.”

“…”

“If I go to the trouble of finding another suitable person now, I’ll fall behind too much. The most important thing in the newly opened land of opportunity is preemption.”

“Ha, well, that’s a failed investment. It’s already ruined.”

“Is that so?”

Kunt quietly shone his eyes.

“If, by any chance, I or Billy survive this crisis.”

“…”

“Are you confident you can handle it?”

At Kunt’s words, Lilith closed her mouth.

The most vicious female devil in Hell and a man who was a nightmare to devils.

If the two beings somehow survived here and joined hands….

Lilith felt a fear that made her tremble just by imagining it.

Gently caressing the areas that had been beaten by him, Lilith sighed quietly and said in a low voice.

“I shouldn’t have gotten involved with someone like you from the beginning.”

“That’s fortunate, it’s already too late.”

“… Damn it.”

“Don’t worry, Lilith, I won’t tell you to fight, just stay here and protect the Priest.”

“Ex, me? That bastard?”

“Who knows? The Priest might like you later.”

“…”

Kunt smiled and slowly opened the door.

Today, the monastery corridor seemed even darker.

Lilith called out to Kunt, who was about to leave the room, in a low voice.

“Kunt,”

“Why?”

“Let me ask you just one thing.”

Kunt waited for Lilith’s words.

Lilith opened her mouth with a reluctant tone.

“You, by any chance… are you in love?”

“…”

“Really?”

“Hehehehehe,”

Kunt chuckled for a moment, then slowly turned around and said.

His neck was turned almost 180 degrees.

“Are you crazy?”

“…”

“Well, it’s not boring when we’re together. If you like getting beaten.”

Kunt left those words behind and walked into the dark corridor.

Watching the door slowly closing with a creak, Lilith muttered.

“Oh, shit, that liar, I think it’s real.”

*

Lucia felt a stinging sensation all over her skin.

Slowly stroking her arm with her hand, she could tell that goosebumps had risen like needles.

Her instinct must have recognized it before she saw it.

The fact that the monastery’s huge darkness was approaching.

As she had already been warned by Kunt, Lucia slowly took a deep breath and calmed her mind.

As she familiarly dyed her arms and legs black, and even dyed her eyes the color resembling blood, the view in the deep darkness was familiarly revealed.

“Sola can’t… confront devils, the Priest is also collapsed… Anna… I don’t know what happened to her… Kunt… didn’t tell me…”

Lucia slowly muttered as she approached the door.

“I… I have to protect them… There’s only me.”

Of course, the Ebony Wolf was just a beast of Hell.

It was a very low-ranking devil, but Lucia thought that the only person who could fight right now was herself.

Having made up her mind, Lucia grabbed the doorknob with trembling hands and threw it open in one breath.

“… Ah,”

The corridor outside the door was somehow unfamiliar.

The walls, ceiling, and even the floor were not made of the familiar wooden boards she usually saw, but of grotesquely writhing flesh.

“W, what is this…”

Lucia carefully stepped out of the room.

Instead of the clicking of footsteps, a squishy, disgusting texture traveled up her ankles and up her spine.

“Aagh,”

A shallow scream was heard from under her feet.

Lucia slowly pulled her head down and lifted her foot to remove it.

“It hurts, stop it… Lucia… please.”

A person’s face was there.

It was a face that was gradually fading from her memory, but it was a familiar face that she could recognize at once the moment she faced it.

“Mom…?”

Lucia looked around in shock.

Mom, Dad, neighbors. The boy next door she used to be close with.

The corpses of the countless people Lucia killed with her own hands ten years ago were intertwined to form a huge corridor.

Lucia screamed and tried to return to the room.

But the door had disappeared somewhere.

“It hurts, it hurts…”

“Lucia… stop,”

“Please don’t eat me… please.”

“Uwaaaaah!”

Terrible screams and pleas flew towards Lucia from all directions.

Of course, this was the work of devils.

But despite knowing that fact, Lucia couldn’t do anything.

No matter how strong she was and how sharp her fingernails were, where should she attack?

Even the faces densely packed on the walls screamed in horror as soon as they made eye contact with Lucia, and they were wriggling, wildly waving their tangled arms and legs.

Lucia closed her eyes and blocked her ears, running down the corridor.

Painful screams constantly leaked through the gaps in the fingers blocking her ears, and a terrible texture that crushed the flesh flowed endlessly from under her boots, but Lucia pretended not to know.

After running for a long time, Lucia finally crashed into the wall at the end of the corridor.

Lucia, who had fallen to the floor, finally opened her eyes and looked up.

“… Ah, no.”

There, the Priest’s corpse was hanging, his stomach pierced.

Lucia slowly crawled towards the Priest.

The face of her mother, crushed under her knees, constantly poured out resentful curses.

Hell.

She had never been there yet, but it was the future she would eventually face.

She had vaguely thought she could endure it, but if Hell looked like this, could she really endure it?

With that question, Lucia slowly raised her body towards the Priest.

Even if it was just a corpse, she wanted to get even closer to him, the only being she could rely on.

However, at that moment, a thin, long arm suddenly popped out from the middle of the Priest’s gaping abdomen.

“Kyaaak!”

That arm, which was long enough to surpass a person’s height with just one arm, bent in a grotesque shape and slowly grabbed and opened the Priest’s abdomen.

The Priest’s body was slowly torn apart on both sides.

Lucia screamed and stumbled away, avoiding the pouring blood.

Finally, the Priest’s body was torn in two, and something huge popped out from inside.

It was the form of a huge person.

Both arms, longer than a human’s arms, and legs, even longer than that, were all emaciated, and the facial features on the head, which was greatly bent to one side as if crushed by something heavy, were grotesquely bent, giving Lucia a chilling smile.

It slowly opened its mouth.

“Hello, Lucia.”

A grotesque voice, as if the voices of various people, regardless of gender or age, were combined, flowed out of its twisted snout.

Lucia stared at the sight with trembling eyes.

The twisted facial features constantly dripped a sticky, mud-like substance whenever it spoke, and its emaciated, twig-like arms and fingers were slowly extending towards Lucia.

“Oh, you’re so cute.”

“Ugh… Aaa.”

“Why are you scared? We’re going to be neighbors.”

It continued, slowly approaching Lucia.

“Just like you murdered and devoured your neighbors, I’m going to kill and devour you too.”

“No… I don’t want to…”

“You even loved a clergyman who shouldn’t be loved, so how about loving me this time? I’ll poke that hole of yours a lot.”

“Ugh, don’t… come closer…”

“I was so bored waiting for you in Hell, so I came to find you.”

“Uwaaaaah!”

It lightly grabbed Lucia’s body with its thin fingers.

Its fingers were so long and emaciated that Lucia felt as if sharp thorn bushes were wrapped around her body.

It lifted Lucia up.

Lucia resisted by pulling out her fingernails, but unlike its emaciated appearance, its arms and fingers were not even scratched.

Fear filled Lucia’s head and began to overflow.

The faces densely packed on all sides slowly lifted Lucia into the air, shouting out their jeering congratulations.

The more Lucia struggled, the more she bled from being cut by its sharp fingers, but she couldn’t escape its grasp at all.

Finally, Lucia, terrified, burst into tears like a child.

It extended a long, black, hot tongue from its twisted maw, licked Lucia’s tear-stained cheek, and said.

“Well, we have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. Time in Hell flows disgustingly slowly.”

“I don’t want to! I don’t want to! No, Priest… save me. Please save me!”

“The Priest is dead, because you were too late.”

“Aaa… Aaaaa…”

Lucia’s tearful gaze turned towards the Priest’s corpse fragments hidden behind it.

The Priest’s body was torn exactly in half, spilling out its innards in a gruesome manner.

The light of hope began to fade in Lucia’s eyes.

It slowly opened its twisted mouth, as if to deliver the final sentence to such Lucia.

“Look closely, this entire corridor is made of people who were sacrificed to the death you brought,”

“Ugh… Ughh.”

“You are a girl who deserves Hell. Let’s go.”

It was then.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let that happen.”

A green flame that flew from somewhere burst and burned its arm.

Lucia, who had fallen to the floor, screamed and struggled to escape from the fingers tangled around her body.

In front of such Lucia, a devil with crimson skin was standing.

“If something happens to that child, I’ll get scolded by the Priest later.”

“The snake has crossed the wall and revealed itself.”

It distorted its twisted mouth and frowned.

Kunt elegantly bent his waist and replied.

“It’s been a while. Thorn Lord.”

“… Ah, you insolent thing. I thought you were staying still for a while, but you’ve been up to tricks again.”

“Is that why you came all this way? Aren’t you overreacting a bit?”

“How many times have I been tricked by your tricks?”

“Even so, it’s not a good look to come and punish such a young devil together.”

“Hmph, among the things you’ve devoured, there are devils older than me. Why would you want the consideration of a rookie?”

Kunt quietly picked up Lucia and held her in his arms.

Lucia was trembling all over like a young cat.

“Since you abandoned the child to Hell, why are you pretending to care now?”

“That’s not true.”

Kunt slowly lifted his knee, then slammed it down on the floor with a loud noise.

In an instant, the corridor turned back into the original wooden walls, and small devils fell from all directions, tumbling to the floor.

“I’m going to take her because I still need her. Lord, why are you trying to take the child you’re going to have anyway so quickly?”

Lucia shuddered at those words.

The being called the Thorn Lord slowly distorted its twisted face and said.

“Surrender. Otherwise, you won’t get another chance.”

“Isn’t it the same even if I surrender? I’ll only barely occupy the empty land that other devils have sucked all the sweetness out of.”

“If we can’t stop you, that’s what will happen to us.”

“No.”

Kunt stared straight ahead and said.

“I won’t give up even a single piece of empty land.”

“I almost forgot, how greedy you are.”

“Let’s end the argument here. Petty tricks don’t work between devils. I’ll have to run away now.”

“Where are you going to go? This island is already surrounded by devils.”

“Well, the question isn’t where I’m going to run away to, but how long I’m going to run away for.”

The Thorn Lord understood what Kunt was aiming for.

“Ha, it’ll be a long time before that crazy Priest wakes up.”

“That’s right.”

Kunt gave a twisted smile and disappeared with Lucia in an instant.

Lucia, who was held in Kunt’s arms, heard her whispering softly.

“So I need a miracle. Billy…”