Chapter 22
Chapter 22
Episode 22.
The cackling, deranged imps suddenly clamped their mouths shut. The grotesque demons writhing in twisted inverted crosses froze mid-motion. The old women chanting praises to the demon lord screamed in unison.
It was the radiance touching the crimson sky that caused it.
Aiden drew a deep breath.
The stench of corruption permeating the wasteland seeped into his lungs, stimulating the Pilgrim of Annihilation.
This was a welcome environment.
He had been waiting for this trial—a stepping stone for explosive growth. The demons flooding the plains were, in a way, Aiden's flesh and blood.
Had it not been for Sein, he would have had to endure five more years just to stand in this place.
To the current Aiden, the fact that the siblings were half-demons didn't strike him as particularly significant. He was simply grateful.
Enemies far stronger than in the original story. A plot unfolding at breakneck speed. He couldn't shake the feeling that he alone was being left behind—but now, he had gained five years.
It completely erased the future where he would have been manipulated by the Pope just to obtain Elohimderk.
He had a debt to repay.
Aiden looked at Sein. She was crying—he had to stop her tears. That was the least he could do.
He drew his holy sword. A surge of divine light split the crimson sky, illuminating the surroundings like the first light of dawn as he plunged into the darkness.
The demons began to waver. Some, frenzied, charged forward while others hesitated.
They trampled over each other, tangled in chaos. With no concept of formation, they collapsed like a disorganized mob.
Aiden didn't let the opportunity slip.
He surged forward across the wasteland, dragging his sword along the ground.
The distance closed. The grotesque faces became vividly clear. Aiden poured strength into his arms and swung the holy sword in a wide arc.
He crushed a dwarf's skull, split open the belly of a one-eyed giant, and cleaved through the rotting body of a corrupted hound.
Crunch! The satisfying resistance traveled up the blade and into his arms.
Black blood gushed skyward like a fountain. Chunks of flesh clung to Aiden's body.
The Pilgrim of Annihilation couldn't contain his excitement.
Drenched in brain matter, Aiden laughed.
He was sinking deeper into bloodlust—far more intoxicating than lust.
This was a feast laid out for him, the ultimate predator of demons.
With every swing of his sword, demons were carved apart in droves.
His stats skyrocketed. Aiden distributed them haphazardly. He had a plan, but there was no time to scrutinize his status window.
The number of corpses directly correlated to his growth.
Dead demons piled up on the ground. The mounds grew into hills, then towers.
Where the light passed, no life remained.
Aiden cherished every single demon too much to waste even one.
He swung his sword without a shred of restraint, his reason long gone.
The demons felt fear.
To them, Aiden looked like a being who had chosen demon-slaying as his life's purpose.
On one side, a massive serpent swept through the battlefield. On the other, radiant madness devoured malice.
***
From the sky, Arhan watched in disbelief.
It was obvious at a glance that the boy's achievements far surpassed his age. He could understand why Elohimderk had chosen him.
But.
What was happening now was so absurd that he couldn't believe it.
The young paladin was growing stronger with every passing second.
His sword swings grew faster. His strikes became more devastating. Even when he seemed exhausted, he recovered instantly and kept moving.
Normally, sealing the altar at the base of the inverted cross—the source spewing demons—should have been the priority.
If the rift wasn't closed, the demons would multiply endlessly.
The growing numbers of lesser demons weren't the real problem.
It was Gluttony's Britney—the demon made entirely of mouths, endlessly regenerating as it devoured its own kind. The supply had to be cut off.
Two hundred years ago, Arhan had failed.
Trapped in an endless tide of demons, he had carved into Britney thousands of times but could never bring it down.
In the end, he couldn't break its will to protect the altar and collapsed in defeat.
But the young paladin didn't even seem interested in Britney or the altar. He was like a slaughter machine, moving solely to kill every demon in sight.
And most disturbingly—he was enjoying it.
Arhan looked up at the higher skies.
"What in the world is that?"
***
"O-Oppa!"
At Sein's cry, Aiden—intoxicated by black blood—barely managed to regain his senses.
A massive serpent coiled around the inverted cross. Demons clinging to its body relentlessly tore at its scales.
They ripped off Deril's skin, clawed at his flesh, and cackled madly.
Aiden scanned his surroundings.
'This should be enough.'
Several mountains of corpses had piled up around him.
When the paladin took a step forward, the demons flinched and retreated.
Though they still surrounded him, none dared approach.
In the distance, Britney was closing in on Deril.
"Deril!"
Aiden hurled a lance wreathed in divine power. It tore through the air and impaled the mass of flesh.
"Target the altar first! Rescue comes after!"
Right now, being bound to the inverted cross was ironically the safest place for Deril.
But Deril, beyond reason, wouldn't listen.
Aiden gritted his teeth and charged forward. He crushed everything in his path and kicked off the ground.
He could feel his growth—his enhanced leg strength shattered his previous limits.
He practically flew into Britney's embrace.
The stench of rot from the mouths embedded in its flesh nearly overwhelmed his mind.
Suppressing the urge to tear his own mouth out, he stomped on the mass of flesh and leaped again—onto Deril's scales.
Aiden sprinted along the serpent's body. In an instant, he reached the nape and gripped it tightly.
Deril shrieked.
"Deril! If you want to save Sein, target the altar first!"
Britney was desperately protecting the altar. Ideally, one would distract it while the other sealed the rift.
Deril's vertically slit pupils flickered between Aiden and Sein, as if conflicted.
"We don't have time for this!"
Just then, a section of Britney's flesh stretched out like a whip, a new mouth forming at its tip.
It clamped onto Aiden's arm and yanked him toward its main body.
"Deril! Now!"
The serpent lunged, biting off the tendril of flesh.
Aiden fell—Deril caught him with his body, and Aiden leaped again.
"Target the altar!"
With those words, he plunged his sword into the mass of flesh.
The sensation of cutting through soft tissue was unsettling. Aiden carved out a circular chunk around one of its many mouths.
A mouth fell to the ground with a wet plop. The remaining ones screamed in unison.
As Britney frantically devoured its own kind, the severed flesh regenerated instantly.
This was the problem.
Aiden relentlessly gouged at the flesh. He drove his sword deep, detonated divine energy inside, and tore out a lashing tongue—only to shove it back into another mouth.
It was meaningless.
Britney was flattening itself over the altar, swallowing newly summoned demons in gulps. Its regeneration outpaced Aiden's destruction.
'This won't end.'
Even drenched in Deril's venom, the mass of flesh refused to budge from the altar.
Aiden leaped back to the ground.
He searched for Deril's equipment—a haphazardly discarded chest. He flung it open and pulled out ropes and chains.
Sprinting back toward Britney, he interwove the chains and ropes into a sturdy bind.
The moment he reached it, he tore open a mouth and forced himself down its throat.
The damp interior reeked of rot and acid, dizzying his mind.
Aiden ran through the cavernous insides. Divine light illuminated half-digested demons flailing in digestive fluids.
He drove hooks deep into the fleshy walls. The regenerating tissue swallowed them whole.
Holding his breath, he moved through the labyrinth, securing every hook he had brought.
Then he retraced his steps.
He couldn't exit the same way—if Britney bit through the chains, it would be over.
Instead, he tore through the roof of its mouth with his sword and forced his way out.
Riiip! Aiden burst through its skin. Britney regenerated instantly, locking the chains and ropes firmly in place.
"Deril! Push it from behind!"
Aiden sprinted to the opposite side of the altar and yanked the chains with all his might.
Creeeak! The taut chains pulled the mass of flesh off-balance. Deril rammed from behind, toppling it completely.
BOOM! The impact shook the earth.
Even then, Britney kept devouring the demons trapped beneath it.
Aiden's arm muscles bulged. Veins throbbed on his forehead.
With all his strength, he dragged Britney away from the altar.
Britney resisted desperately but couldn't overpower them both.
With one final pull, the chains and ropes snapped.
It didn't matter.
The lower half of its body had already been peeled away from the altar.
"Deril!"
The serpent slammed its massive head into the altar. CRASH! The ritual was disrupted, the structure collapsed, and the rift twisted before vanishing into black void.
Gluttony's Britney let out a horrific scream. Eating was its reason for existence—the despair of being unable to consume drove it into a frenzy. It rampaged, reducing everything to ruins.
It stretched its flesh to devour fleeing demons and toppled the mountains of corpses Aiden had built.
Not wanting to lose his hard-earned experience, Aiden butchered every remaining demon in sight.
As the madness raged on, the wasteland finally emptied. Britney let out the most sorrowful scream of its existence.
Aiden and Deril immediately rescued Sein and Sertia, retreating far away.
They only stopped at the edge of the space Arhan had separated with his power, watching Britney's final moments.
Realizing it couldn't chase Aiden, Britney turned on itself.
Its mouth-covered flesh swelled like a sea urchin, each maw biting and tearing at the others—as if fighting to take one last bite.
Its bloated mass gradually shrank. The mouths licked up even the fallen scraps before vanishing one by one.
Finally, only a single mouth remained, hopping pathetically across the plains.
This was why Aiden hadn't bothered finishing it off. Self-destruction—the end of Gluttony.
Aiden approached the chattering teeth.
And crushed them underfoot.
As long as he got the last hit, nothing else mattered.
The crimson sky slowly cleared. From the heavens, the spirit Arhan descended.
His eyes were red as he gazed at his long-lost lover.
"Retrieve the relic first. The reunion can wait."