Chapter 11 - The Devil of Regression (4)
Chapter 11 - The Devil of Regression (4)
It was about 10 minutes later that Pobler followed.
"Sorry for being late."
"Forget it. Just get moving."
Deltain said that and gestured with his chin for Pobler to take the lead.
It wasn't for any other reason.
"How is it? Can you smell anything?"
Pobler's sense of smell was capable of identifying the scent of demons.
Not just where the demon was, but even its type and number.
I'd heard that every demon gave off a different body odor.
"...Yes, there's exactly one. It's definitely a Demon of Regression."
Pobler exhaled the breath he had been holding in with a 's-seup' sound and asked.
"May I handle it?"
"Is it that level?"
"It's definitely above Intermediate. Judging by the unique scent, it seems it just recently got its name."
Deltain looked into the cave.
'If it has a name, it must have an ego.'
Such a demon had left a trail leading to the campsite where he had intended to stay.
And it happened at this exact timing, while he was bringing Agnes out, and it fled to a rocky mountain with absolutely no human presence.
Deltain smirked.
'Bullshit.'
He was a man who absolutely did not believe in coincidences of this kind.
"These bastards must be plotting something."
Demons are cunning and wicked.
All their actions are focused on the corruption of sentient beings.
Being such things, Deltain never considered the possibility of 'coincidence' when encountering a demon.
"I'll go test the waters first. There's something I need to ask."
Deltain walked into the cave.
He was carrying Agnes with one arm, and with the other hand, he snapped his fingers with a 'tak'.
<Accessing Cartridge.>
<Summoning No. 6 Weapon: Surgery Supporter.>
A crescent-shaped disc floated up behind Deltain's back.
Above it, brutal surgical tools twitched and stretched.
It was repeating the work the Surgery Supporter had done most often over the past four years.
As always, there was no tension on his face.
That was because, while the temptation of a demon is dangerous, the main body itself is not a dangerous creature to face.
Of course, from Deltain's perspective.
"Kkii-ik-."
Once he had entered deep enough into the cave that he couldn't see an inch ahead, Deltain found the 'monkey' emitting a faint glow from its body.
No, calling it a monkey might be a misnomer.
There was no fur on its skin, which was as white as human flesh. The eye sockets on its wrinkled face were empty, and where the nose and mouth should have been, an anus was twitching.
Below the neck, it was also grotesque. Legs were attached to the shoulders where arms should have been.
A male organ was attached to the center of its solar plexus, and below its waist were two pairs of arms, and a tail as thick as a leg hung from its buttocks.
That tail was the source of the temptation. The eye embedded at the start of the tail stared at Deltain.
<Facing High-Ranking Demon: Kiriauguru.>
Deltain said.
"What are you looking down at?"
"Kkii...."
The Demon of Regression cowered and laughed.
Deltain laughed back and waved his hand.
"Let's finish this quickly so the girl doesn't wake up."
At the same time, the six arms attached to the 'Surgery Supporter' shot out like rays of light.
The arm where a drill was 'wii-ing' and rotating pierced the demon's solar plexus.
The place where the organ was attached.
Pujijijik.
The solar plexus was ground away.
"Kkigigigigik!!!"
"I hate bastards with dicks dangling around the most. Cover up your monstrosities."
The demon didn't resist.
It was natural. The other arms that had shot out simultaneously were gripping its limbs and neck tightly.
Bloody water began to gush out from the anus on its face.
Deltain frowned and said.
"I'm going to ask you a few questions. If it's true, spin your tail. If it's false, hold it straight up."
Even if it was a high-ranking demon with intelligence, it was impossible to converse because it lacked human vocal organs.
If one were to invade its mental world, they could converse, but that was the exclusive property of the highest-ranking demons capable of challenging for the throne of the King.
Therefore, the only way Deltain could communicate with a demon was through non-verbal methods like this.
"Was it your will to leave a trail at that campsite?"
"Kkii...."
Kiriauguru spun its tail.
An expression meaning affirmation.
Deltain deepened his smile and shot out two more arms.
Attached to the ends were soldering irons that were heated to the max.
Chijijik!
The soldering iron scorched the eye of Kiriauguru, which was attached to the base of its tail.
The demon's body began to twist as if having a seizure.
"Kkiiiiiiik!!!"
"Yeah, you know it hurts, so why lie? Huh? Let's make this easy."
<4th-Tier Magic: Shackles of Truth is active.>
Five rings made of mana were woven into the arms binding the demon's limbs and neck.
They were rings that would vibrate if the demon lied.
'So, someone else ordered it to do this.'
"Did that guy give you your name?"
This time, too, the demon's tail spun.
The rings vibrated once again.
The arm that had shot out thrust a scalpel into the anus on the demon's face and stirred it around.
"Kkiiiiiiik-!!!"
Deltain's expression darkened further.
'It's a Highest-Ranking Demon.'
It was a Highest-Ranking Demon, just like Chambler or Gaias, whom he had encountered before.
They were the only ones who could bestow names upon other demons.
That demon was targeting him and Agnes.
Deltain spat out his deep displeasure at the fact he had realized and turned on the interface.
<Collect the materials for the contract.>
Chambler's Dream (Complete)
Gaias's Heart (Complete)
Token of Endless Winter (Incomplete)
Deep Sea Jewel (Complete)
Breath of the Scorching Sand (Incomplete)
Ropalgar's Gluttony (Incomplete)
Giant's Blessing (Incomplete)
Ergoragia's Purity (Incomplete)
Seed of Demon Flower Extrias (Incomplete)
Deltain's eyes were busy scanning the list.
He judged that if it was a Highest-Ranking Demon, it would be related to this list of materials.
'The ones I can suspect are No. 6 and No. 8.'
Those were the two whose identities had not yet been revealed among those written with proper nouns.
Deltain confirmed that and opened his mouth.
"Is it Ropalgar?"
No. 6 Ropalgar's Gluttony.
When asked if it was the original owner of that material, the demon held its tail straight up.
It was a sign of negation, and the rings vibrated.
The demon had lied again.
Deltain's eyes shone.
'Ropalgar was the demon's name.'
One more identity of the materials, which had been shrouded in mystery until now, was revealed.
The Highest-Ranking Demon, Ropalgar.
Given the name 'Gluttony', it would likely be a demon with gluttonous or appetitive tendencies.
He could finish the investigation here, but for some reason, Deltain felt an inexplicable anxiety.
'...It's too obedient.'
It kept giving the opposite answer, but it wasn't refusing to answer.
That ring was a spell that lost its utility the moment the opponent exercised their right to remain silent, and it was a spell whose information had already been spread among demons.
Yet, why was a demon that even had a name giving answers so obediently?
Doesn't something come to mind?
'It's like....'
It's like it's intentionally trying to pass on this answer.
No, the very fact that it was on a rocky mountain like this was too suspicious.
Deltain's expression became serious.
His mind was accelerating faster than ever to realize what he was missing right now.
'What can a demon gain by passing on information?'
Nothing.
There was nothing.
It meant that neither this demon called Kiriauguru nor Ropalgar, who was behind it, had anything to gain by passing on information to him.
'Then why....'
At that moment, Deltain shuddered.
With a sudden conjecture, Deltain's eyes widened as if they would tear, and he glared at the interface.
'...Those two have nothing to gain.'
However, excluding those two, there was one.
"...Ergoragia."
No. 8 Ergoragia's Purity.
What if the original owner of this material was also a demon?
What if this demon had used Ropalgar as a front to hide its own identity?
What if the plan was to plant such confused information to make him lower his guard?
With that thought, Deltain looked at Kiriauguru.
The demon stopped all movement.
It was exercising its right to remain silent.
A smile that looked like it would tear his mouth apart hung on Deltain's lips.
"You guys formed an alliance, didn't you?"
The smile was not one of ecstasy.
It was a reaction to the sense of crisis and anger that had risen to the top of his head.
"That's strange. Bastards with names never form alliances, right? Huh? You guys only ever form hierarchical relationships, don't you? Why form an alliance now? What's your goal?"
The arms of the Surgery Supporter all swarmed the demon.
He continued the torture by peeling back all the skin, digging into the insides, and scraping the nerves.
It was to hear an answer, no matter what.
Pudeuk, pujijik. Tududuk.
For a long time, the sound of flesh and bone splitting and crushing echoed throughout.
But the demon exercised its right to remain silent the whole time.
Pobler, who had stepped up late, said.
"Boss. It's dead."
Stiff.
Deltain's movements stopped.
Deltain, who had been glaring at the demon with bloodshot eyes full of heat, only then realized that the demon was limp and clicked his tongue, 'Tsk'.
"Gutless bastard."
Deltain wiped under his eyes with his hand and said.
"Get rid of it."
His mind was still running busily.
He was inferring another clue from the information revealed now.
'It's related to the DLC.'
The 'Eternal Contract', whose identity he still didn't know.
That would be the most likely reason for the demons forming an alliance.
The reason they threatened the place where Agnes was accompanied also made sense in that context.
The demons must have known what the Eternal Contract was.
This was a fact that could be known just by looking at Chambler or Gaias, whom he had dealt with earlier.
Adding this alliance to that, there was a conjecture that came out.
'It shouldn't be completed?'
It meant that the Eternal Contract might be an object that shouldn't be completed from the demons' perspective.
It might also be that the reason they targeted Agnes was to get rid of 'Demon Flower Extrias', one of the materials for the contract.
Deltain looked at the demon's corpse sprawled on the floor with sunken eyes.
Pobler was crouching and chewing on the demon, whose skin was all slashed and whose raw flesh was exposed in red.
Pobler's ability was carnivory.
It was an ability to gain additional mana depending on the type and grade of meat he shoved into his stomach.
The mana conversion rate was terribly low, so it wasn't cost-effective, but if the investment was certain, it was an ability that could grow him to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Kaltara, and at the same time, it was an ability to which Deltain had added one function.
"Pobler. Do you feel anything?"
"I don't feel any contract. It's not obedience through a contract."
"A demon obeyed without a contract? This is driving me absolutely insane."
It was the function to discern the contract on a demon's body.
Since it was a function added using the highest-grade hidden piece Deltain had found, the performance was certain.
That was the problem.
If it couldn't discern a contract even with that performance, it meant that the demon really had obeyed without a contract.
'Eternal Contract.'
What on earth is this that the demons are having such a fit over it?
He continued to ponder, but there was nothing more he could find out right now.
"...In the end, it means I have to go."
Deltain's gaze turned outside the cave.
'The Spirit of the Snowy Mountain.'
And the Spirit King he would be able to meet there.
That was the only place he could cling to right now.