The Repeating Nightmare of Elion Forest (3)

(Spicy Version) If you're uncomfortable with disturbing content, please read the Mild Version instead!

This chapter is told from Asmodeus and Bathin's points of view at the very beginning and end! A clear marker indicates when we return to the protagonist's POV, so don't worry—just enjoy the read!

Three days before Hyun arrived at the Elion Forest.

In the heart of that forest, a handsome man rested his hand upon a shabbily dressed man and was draining something out of him.

"Ugh... ugh... UAAAGH...!!!"

Alongside the suffering man, the handsome one's very form shifted and swelled, as though something were being rapidly pumped into him.

Reduced to the same wretched state as the man who had died in the village, the shabbily dressed man finally perished at the hands of the beautiful man standing before him.

The moment the man collapsed to the ground, the black-haired figure beckoned to the woman standing naked beside him and ordered her to dispose of the corpse.

"You there. Clean it up."

"...Yes."

"Was that man your fiancé?"

At the black-haired demon's words, the woman nodded, affirming it.

"How insolent! Where do you get off nodding at me?!"

"Hnnngh...!!!"

He seized her by the jaw, dragged his face close to hers, and growled.

"Do you find even Asmodeus beneath your notice, you little wretch? Fine—so you dared to disrespect me. If your heart's desire is to die, then I shall grant it gladly."

"P-please... spare me...!"

And just as the massive palm engulfing her face closed in toward her skull—

"Might I suggest you stop there...?"

At the voice of a sky-blue-haired man who had appeared behind him, the hand reaching for her froze in an instant.

Asmodeus, the black-haired demon, turned his gaze upon the one who had dared interrupt him.

"The reason I spared your life was hardly so that you could police my behavior, Bathin."

"...And yet you—you of all people—have taken the humans' side? Or have you and that woman formed some attachment?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"It is not that. You have devoured far too many people already. Continue like this, and the Successor will notice you!"

Across from Asmodeus lay a mountain of corpses—people drained of their vitality just as the man before him had been, gaunt skin stretched over bone.

He had done this for one reason and one reason only.

Of the villagers he had dragged here for the sole purpose of provoking the Successor of the Azure Dragon, he had slaughtered a full three hundred and piled them up.

"I built it precisely to show him. It doesn't matter."

"B-but—!"

"Enough. One more word and I will kill you where you stand and take your authority for myself. Think carefully about who I am holding captive."

The man called Bathin knew instinctively.

If he voiced even one more complaint, the man standing before him would take his head on the spot.

And for the sake of protecting the woman he treasured more than his own life, he would do anything.

The Asmodeus of this moment was a tyrant of terrifying power—one who could kill everything with a flick of his finger.

"Clean that up. My mood is ruined."

At Asmodeus's words, the woman—who had been able to do nothing as her fiancé died before her eyes—held back the tears flooding up within her and dragged the body of the man who should have been her husband away with all her strength.

Asmodeus strode off deeper into the forest and soon vanished from sight.

With Asmodeus gone, Bathin, though visibly struggling, refused to give up, and drew near the woman laboring to move her fiancé's corpse.

She flinched at the sight of him, but the fear quickly began to ebb.

What she witnessed left her stunned.

He had lifted her fiancé's body and was walking toward the mist-shrouded outer edge of the forest.

"I'll help you."

Bathin raised the man's body with one hand and carried the corpse to wherever the woman wished.

"This spot should do for burying your husband. The soil is softer here—even with your own two hands, you can lay him to rest."

"Th... thank you..."

Leaving the woman's gratitude behind him, Bathin turned away, and before long, he heard the woman who had thanked him weeping in sorrow.

"Hector...! Hector...! I'm sorry... I love you...! I'll follow you soon, all right? So wait for me, my love."

Listening to those tear-choked words, Bathin clenched his fist.

Before he knew it, blood had seeped from the skin of his palm, overwhelmed at last by his strength, and pain lanced through him—

but compared to what she had suffered, or the servants who had died before her, that pain was nothing.

For he knew there was nothing more he could do.

No matter how he struggled, until the Rank 10 demon was cast down, he would be forced to obey the commands of the one who had built this slaughterhouse.

— If only the Azure Dragon's Successor would grant me and him the gift of our final end.

It was only natural.

Bathin, Ranked 18th, was a demon of exceptional mercy and gentleness, unlike his peers.

He governed the soldiers and servants under his command with a structure much like human society, and for that, he had earned the respect of other demons.

Had he been weak, he would have been scorned and destroyed—but his position was Rank 18.

With his overwhelming power, he had naturally slaughtered and cast out all who coveted his domain.

But with that man's arrival, everything had ended.

Even though he had given his all, the demons who followed him were all butchered and violated in the same breath.

He had even surrendered his entire standing, swearing loyalty to Asmodeus, for the sole sake of protecting the woman he was preparing to marry.

The one mercy was that Asmodeus had not yet laid eyes upon his woman.

"Vepar..."

Praying that she would remain safe until this battle ended, he moved to leave the forest.

Or rather—he tried to.

Until Asmodeus came to find him once more with new orders, and until word arrived of the one he treasured more than life itself.

The limit we had been dreading finally arrived, even as we cut through the demons surrounding us with steady momentum.

"There are too many of them...!"

The high-tier and supreme demons put up a considerable fight against the four of us, and in the end, the two vassals whose stamina ran out first were the ones to falter.

"Butterfly Flower Sword, First Form — Lingering Dream!"

Shff—!

"A mere woman...!"

She parried the supreme demon's incoming assault with a splendid counter and flowed around its attacks, handling it with ease.

So that her strikes would go unimpeded, I gathered the current into my blade and scattered it.

The power of wind and lightning converged into a single strike.

Pouring everything into the edge, I punched straight through the enemy line.

When the thunder's cry and the wind's laughter settled over the battlefield, the demons could not so much as resist—they simply returned to the earth, as nature's law demanded.

"Hyun! Behind you!"

What is she talking ab—

I spun around, glanced at Yeon for only a moment, and immediately bent my back to give her a platform.

Tak!

"Butterfly Flower Sword, Second Form — Butterflies Dancing Among the Flowers!"

Shhh-sh-sh-sh!

Like a butterfly flitting through a field of blossoms, Yeon toyed with the swarm of demons at its very center even as she carved through them at blistering speed.

"Come out, woman!"

"You really shouldn't keep your eyes only on me...?"

They turned their heads at Yeon's words, but it was already too late.

When my blade sheared through the neck of High Orc, a supreme demon, it crumpled futilely into the grassy forest floor, never to rise again.

That was how Yeon and I fought as a pair, while we handed every wind wolf allocated to us over to the vassals to keep them protected.

We were more than capable of holding our own without them.

Then, something began walking toward us.

A man with sky-blue hair.

The moment the man drew his sword from his hip—

every ounce of power he had been Suppressing erupted, filling the battlefield to its brim.

"So you... are the Azure Dragon's Successor?"

Taking my stance at his question, I answered.

"Why should I tell you that?"

"Yes... please, I beg you—kill this body. Successor."

"What are you..."

Just as the battle was all but over, a being carrying no ordinary aura had appeared... and he was asking to be killed?

And this power I could feel from him... this bastard was a demon.

"In exchange for killing me, you shall learn everything there is to know about Asmodeus. I will hand over the information myself."

Out of nowhere...?

Reading the expression on my face, the man spoke as though consumed by something darker than malice.

"I... lost her. She is no longer there. I have lost my reason to live. So, Successor—kill me. If you will not, then I will disregard my own convictions if I must."

Raising his sword and leveling its point at the vassals, he continued.

"I will kill them."

Questions swirled in my mind.

If he was a demon, why go about it this way?

He could simply have waited for an opening and cut them down.

Then, before my eyes, the status window appeared.

Wait—the quest clear reward is...?!

What secret could Asmodeus possibly be hiding, that the status window would dangle a quest like this before me?

If killing Asmodeus would reveal what lay behind him, then barely six months after falling into this world, I had to know why that truth mattered so much.

And besides—if I slew the demon leveling his sword at the vassals, I would take another step closer to Asmodeus himself.

To do that, first, I had a duty to bring down the demon standing before me—Bathin, Ranked 18th.

"Yes. That's the look. The look of a man who could cut down everyone here. I have nothing left to live for."

"Let me ask you one thing."

"Speak."

"Before we noticed you, you could have attacked those vassals whenever you pleased. And yet you deliberately revealed yourself and stood before us. Why?"

Bathin looked up at the sky and answered me with words laced in self-mockery.

"There is nothing more to say. Draw your sword. Let the slaughter begin."

With that, he closed the distance at blinding speed, blade sweeping toward me.

From above... down!

KAANG!

Shifting the Azure Sky's Sword from one hand to two, I braced for the impact and, matching the timing, raised both his sword-bearing arms all the way up to my eye level.

I had successfully caught his blade's force at the perfect moment—and it was then that I realized.

I was being steadily overpowered by Bathin's strength.

Grkk-kk-kk...!

The Azure Sky's Sword held fast against Bathin's blade, holding the line—

but he seemed intent on exploiting that very point of contact to shove me back.

Yet contrary to my expectations, Bathin spoke.

"Listen carefully. Right now, I am being controlled by Asmodeus..."

"What?"

Those words struck me like a thunderbolt.

"...Asmodeus intends to devour this entire territory. The residents of the five villages have all become his playthings—little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more than reservoirs of vitality, reduced to tools for sating his greed."

"And how am I supposed to believe that? What if your real goal is to sow confusion?"

That was what I said—but my instincts had been telling me since the beginning that every word of his was true.

Even back when he first begged for death.

"You don't have to believe me. It doesn't matter. But if this is left unchecked, every calamity that follows will become impossible to contain. It is because of that that I lost my beloved fiancée!"

"Do you not have a woman you hold dear? And even if you don't—if there is even a single person you cherish in this place, then draw your sword and stop him."

"You lost your fiancée?"

"Enough of personal matters. Cross blades with me and take in what I tell you. I am being controlled, yes—but they cannot yet control what I hear, nor what I see."

"Then talk."

"Asmodeus has, to this day, killed four ranked demons and absorbed their authorities."

Absorbed?

Impossible. There was no way something like that could...!

"You may think it impossible, but this is the truth. And when I die, my authority passes to Asmodeus."

"Before I die, I will tell you the true nature of my authority. Mine is space. I bend space freely to my will, and depending on the wielder, it allows offense and defense to become one."

KAANG!

I swept back and evaded the blade surging up from below.

Then, to stop the kick driving in toward my flank, I slammed my sword into the ground along its incoming arc, arresting its momentum.

"Beyond that, he wields many more offensive authorities—alchemy, rending, and the like. To break through them, you will need an overwhelming attack that surpasses those authorities outright."

Even in the very instants his body was hijacked, Bathin was swiftly and precisely feeding me the counters to his own authority, its weaknesses, everything.

I wondered why he would hand over information this precious—but the fury that had once burned in his eyes had already guttered out, leaving nothing behind, as though no regret remained.

Even so, he kept straining to give me more, and I kept our blades locked in a pretense of combat while drinking in every word—

and that was when Bathin clutched his head in both hands, screaming a certain demon's name.

"Ughhhhhk...!! Asmodeus...! You bastard..!"

I moved to close in on the suffering Bathin—but his next action stopped me cold.

Soon, a voice utterly unlike Bathin's came pouring out of his mouth.

"Ah. So you were alive. Successor of the Azure Dragon. Is my Alice still intact?"

There was only one bastard alive who would dare call Ellie in that tone.

A voice I could never forget, no matter how hard I tried.

"Asmodeus."

"That's right. That is my name. Just you wait. That woman included—Alice Cumul as well—I will reduce them both to dolls that exist to receive my lust."

The person Asmodeus pointed at was none other than Hwa Yeon, who was demonstrating staggering skill against a supreme demon.

"Shut your mouth."

"Quite the filthy tongue. Do you truly wish for me to slaughter everyone here and now?"

"Oh? Then go ahead and try."

CRACKLE-CRACK!!

The power of lightning erupted in an instant.

The bursting current slammed directly into Bathin's body.

"So even possessing a body, your mind still takes the damage."

"So this is what they mean by an 「Otherworlder」. There is truly nothing you don't know."

"Still, it doesn't hurt. How weak you are, Successor of the Azure Dragon."

"At least not weak enough for the likes of you to mock."

CRACK!

I brought the lightning-wreathed blade down squarely onto Bathin's head.

And yet, though nothing stood in the blade's path... it would not advance.

"Is this the first time you have faced such power?"

Asmodeus sneered—but Bathin had told me his weakness long ago.

A wind-swept domain of staggering scale unfurled across the earth, swallowing Asmodeus, our whole party, and the land for hundreds of meters around.

And before I knew it, blades of wind stood planted across the ground.

I snatched up one of the swords jutting from the earth beside me and went for Bathin's flank.

KAANG!

As expected, neither the Azure Sky's Sword nor the wind-forged blade could pierce the space around him—my attacks never touched him.

But then—

Shff!

Yeon's razor-sharp strike, raking in from behind Bathin, struck home against Asmodeus.

"Guhk...! That bitch dares...!"

Having landed her blow in an instant and thrown back the distance, Yeon taunted him.

"You shouldn't have let your guard down. Who told you to get distracted?"

"Whatever. It's not even my body. Bathin was slated to die today regardless."

"And before I go... one piece of advice. Once I leave, this body will go berserk. Go on, then—see if you can withstand the full, unbridled power of a Rank 18 demon."

"If you survive, you may yet get to watch from beneath my heel as your lover becomes mine. So do pray you make it out alive. Hahahaha!!"

"Where do you think you're running!"

The instant I raised my sword to strike him down, I saw that Bathin's face no longer wore Asmodeus's leering, wicked grin.

An expressionless face, staring at me.

And an instinct howling at me, chilling me to the marrow.

"Kill me."

As his words fell, a terrifying power began to gather, slowly, into Bathin's blade.

Instinct told me plainly.

I can't dodge this!

"Gather!"

I frantically pulled all ten wolves—including Jeongryeong—into a single mass.

Pouring the power of the Divine Wind Sword Domain in as well, I hurried to ready a barrier against his strength.

Will a furious gale be enough to stop it...? Even if it isn't... I have to try!

Then, in the blink of an eye, his blade swept across—and all ten wolves channeled the wind toward that arc, concentrating the domain's power around him.

We threw everything into pushing back his attack.

But my wind was useless before his distorted space.

"Irreversible emptiness."

The slash we failed to stop swallowed everything whole.

The Domain Proclamation we had poured our strength into split apart, and the wind itself was devoured by space.

"Ugh...!"

"AAAGH...!"

"Haah... haah...!"

By the time I came to, everyone—Bathin included—lay on the edge of death.

The attack that had been devoured by space had dealt every one of us wounds grave enough to be called fatal.

I had only survived because the wind wolves shielded me, knowing full well it would cost them a forced reverse-summoning.

In the end, not one of the wind wolves—Jeongryeong included—escaped that reversal.

Bathin, the perpetrator of all this devastation in the space of a breath, was hardly unscathed either.

"Successor. Where do I go now?"

His sword planted in the ground, he knelt on both knees, propping himself upright against it.

In a word, he was clinging to life by a thread.

That attack of his had surely wounded him as well—it was that kind of technique.

"I don't know. But I doubt it's anywhere good."

"Is that so...? Then Vepar must be there too... Haha... Please—I hope you can kill Asmodeus. Successor."

With those final words, Bathin's body crumbled into powder and scattered, until his entire form collapsed, lost its shape, and vanished.

As though the battle were truly over, warm sunlight fell upon us all.

Leaning on that sunlight, I watched Rosie and Yeon struggle to their feet—

but one alone, Leon, could not rise, and could only lie there gasping for breath.

Pouring out the authorities of Life and Purification over him without delay, we spurred our horses toward Cumul Territory.

"Hey, Bathin."

"Yes."

"You will be the one to deal with the Successors who come here."

Asmodeus issued the command as though he had known all along that a Successor would come to this place—

but Bathin did not obey.

"Did you know? Your fiancée. She's dead."

!!!!!

Clenching his fists until they trembled, he spoke.

"You said if I surrendered, you would spare her! You promised she would be treated well..! Didn't you promise!!!"

To Bathin's anguished cry, Asmodeus replied.

"I did spare her. My subordinates, it seems, did not. They arrived here just now and informed me."

Into his ears, one single word had rung out, crystal clear.

Strangulation—a word no sane being could ever utter.

"ASMODEUS!!!!! I will never forgive you!"

He drew his sword at once and swept it toward Asmodeus to strike him down—

but the blade crumbled pathetically into powder in his own hand.

Even so, with rage boiling to the crown of his head, Bathin pressed him to the limit, spending his very authority to do it—

yet against an ability that could combine and multiply authorities, it was never enough.

"If you want even a corpse of your fiancée, drenched in every manner of fluid, then shut your mouth and obey. Three days from now, you will kill the Successor party that arrives here on my orders."

And so Bathin made his resolution—even if it cost him his life, he would leak every scrap of information on these authorities, and even the weaknesses of his own power that would pass to Asmodeus at his death. And with that, he obeyed.

— I'm sorry... I'm sorry...! Vepar..! —

In the end, Bathin went and retrieved his fiancée's body.

Her condition was beyond horrific.

His mind broke apart.

Vepar's cause of death was never strangulation.

The skin around her neck was red, as though strangulation had indeed been the killing blow—

but every inch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of her body... was simply covered in wounds.

Had anyone other than him seen her corpse, they could have said it with certainty.

That she had not died by strangulation.

Even as his fiancée's body turned to dust before his eyes, he insisted on sealing it away in his own subspace—

and so that he could relay, when the Successor came, the authority Asmodeus had used upon him and the weakness hidden within it—

for her sake, the woman who had trusted him to the very end and died for it, and for his own revenge—Bathin held his crumbling mind together, and waited, and waited.