Wow! So This Is Exorcism! (3)
"Wow! So this is an exorcism!"
While Chloe was happily watching the exorcism for a good long while, the demon—who had been throwing its head back and mocking Elia's frail holy light—suddenly locked eyes with a pair of empty purple pupils peeking out from between the door crack.
"...!"
The moment the demon's spiritual vision carelessly pierced through Chloe's back, the sticky air in the chapel sank like a lump of hardened lead. Far away, bizarre blue texts flickering in front of the silver-haired girl began to etch themselves clearly onto the demon's retinas.
The demon of Argentia couldn't comprehend the scene unfolding before it. In a world governed by steam engines, swords, and the laws of mana, concepts like "streaming" or "chat windows" had never existed to begin with.
The demon's arrogant lips twisted in confusion at the bizarre, unfamiliar sight.
What kind of weird magic is that...?
It took only an instant for that shallow arrogance to plummet into utter despair.
What... what is that? Those things...!
The demon instinctively knew. Those grotesque symbols floating in the air were absolute anomalies, utterly divorced from the universal laws and concepts of this cosmos.
And in the next moment, what it saw was this:
Over the small shoulder of a human child stretched an endless hell. In a vast void beyond this dimension, countless indescribable tentacles and grotesque eyes writhed ominously.
An overwhelming abyss where dreadful vacuum stars drifted collided head-on with the demon's bloodshot eyes.
"H-Hiiik...! Hiiiik!"
Right after, the blue letters in the air rippled in a spine-chilling way.
The demon's inverted whites turned deathly pale with extreme terror.
What the heeell is thaaat!
'Those things' were looking at it.
The demon, who had mocked frail mortals with impunity, was now itself stripped bare and observed by something vast and unknowable. For the first time in its existence, it bone-deep understood the horrific plight of livestock dangling from a butcher's hook.
The quality of the demon's screams flipped completely. The haughty, viscous leisure it had shown while mocking humans just moments ago was gone without a trace. A primal terror that shredded its soul from the bottom up turned its beastly brain matter bone-white.
I'm gonna get eaten! I have to run now! Back to the abyss, my home base, right now!
Drained of color, the demon thrashed wildly, twisting the chains as if to crush its own bones.
"Y-You stupid slow bitch!!!"
The priests and Elia flinched at the blood-spewing curse. Then, something utterly absurd no one could have predicted happened.
"M-My name is Belmos!"
"...What?"
"Uwaaaah! Belmos! My true name is Belmos, you moronic fuckers!!! Baron Belmos of the Abyss! Did you hear that? Now hurry up and banish me already!!"
The demon Belmos desperately spat out its true name from its own mouth, babbling hysterically. Just moments ago, they had been desperately chanting prayers and performing the exorcism ritual with their lives on the line.
The priests and Elia felt utter bewilderment at the demon's sudden attitude shift.
"A demon... confesses its name this easily?"
Everyone stared blankly at each other's faces, clueless.
"This quickly?"
Only Chloe, hiding behind the door crack, giggled muffledly with delight.
Hehe, what's this? That uncle can see my chat window too!
Still trembling and unable to grasp the situation, the demon Belmos screamed desperately at the young saintess like a dog dragged to the slaughterhouse.
"H-Hurry up and do it! You dense bitch! Do iiiit!"
"Y-Yes?"
"Don't just stand there like an idiot! Y-You said it earlier!!! That thing!"
"Th-That thing?"
"Aaaargh! In the name of whatever Celestial Radiance bullshit! That! Hurry and purify me! Get me out of this body right nooow! Uwaaaah!!"
Dazed, Elia clasped her trembling hands and raised them hesitantly.
"I-In the name of the Celestial Radiance! Bel-Belmos! Get... out!"
A soft, dazzling holy light spread out, beginning to cleanse the rotting flesh of Spencer Count. Sadly, the ten-year-old girl's exorcism—lacking any real knack for handling divine power—was far slower and clumsier than Belmos hoped.
The demon's insides burned pitch-black with impatience.
"Aaaagh! No! Too slow! Faster, faaster!"
'That thing' was watching it. The cosmic void. Those horrific eyeballs staring right at it! Stay even one more second like this, and its soul might get torn to shreds and devoured!
The price for glimpsing the forbidden beyond the abyss it must never face was steep. The demon shrieked in blood-freezing anxiety.
"This is driving me insane! Fuck!! Gimme that!!"
Belmos roared like a beast and lunged forward, chains snapping flesh from its arms without a care.
Clank!
It snatched the premium holy water flask dangling from the old priest's chest—who stood frozen in shock nearby—for the exorcism rite.
"Wh-Wha?"
"Outta my way, I'll do it! I'll do iiiit!"
Shouting that, the demon bit off the flask's stopper with its teeth, spat it out, and chugged the holy water like a madman straight down its throat.
"Grraaaaaah! That's the stuff! Yesssss!!"
Whoosh!
Sacred, blinding blue flames erupted from Belmos's inverted eyes and torn lips.
"Uwaaaaaah! Banish meeeee!!"
The demon's ferocious spirit fled Spencer Count's crumbling body without a backward glance.
Clang.
The chained count collapsed unconscious onto the marble floor. The black ooze and swarming rat illusions that had horrifically blanketed the chapel vanished like a lie.
* * *
Belmos's spirit body burst out of the basement into the corridor, racing toward the cathedral exit while scattering tears of joy.
I'm alive!
Sure, it had confessed its true name from its own mouth and self-destructed by guzzling holy water like plain tapwater. Sure, it had shown the most humiliating, unprecedented disgrace in demon history.
Didn't matter. Survival was king.
Belmos sighed in bone-deep relief.
Those... those horrific eyeballs! A hundred times better than getting chewed up alive by them!
Dragging its quivering body, Belmos vowed resolutely.
First back to the abyss, then report every detail of these off-spec horrors to the lords...!
But it hadn't even cleared the grand cathedral yet.
From the thick shadows, a grotesquely massive black maw suddenly surged up.
"Mung!"
"Wha—uwaaaaaah!"
Crunch!
Kkamang leaped lightly like snatching a flying fly and chomped Belmos's spirit body in one gulp.
Gulp!
Then, as if it had never bared those terrifying fangs, it trotted back and rubbed its round head against Chloe's shoe.
"Kkiing! Nng!"
"Huh, Kkamang. Did you just eat something yummy?"
Oblivious, Chloe affectionately scratched under the chin of Kkamang, now clinging to her leg.
"Wow! So this is an exorcism!"
At that moment, the horrific basement chapel looked pristine, as if the rite had gone off without a hitch.
The priests prostrated flat on the marble floor, sobbing in rapture.
"Ooooh, Radiance!"
"Did you see? The demon spat out its own true name under the saintess's overwhelming pressure!"
"Who knew a terrified demon would douse itself with holy water? Has the church ever seen such a flawless exorcism?!"
"Truly the great saintess of our era!!"
Blind adulation echoed through the basement chapel. Meanwhile, Elia stared blankly at her own pale hands, dumbfounded.
Did... did I really do that...?
Even through the eyes of a precociously mature ten-year-old, what had just happened was utterly bizarre. That high demon had mocked her feeble holy power even as its flesh burned away. Then suddenly, it freaked out like something was chasing it, guzzled holy water itself, and fled. And that fleeing figure? Less a sinister demon, more a prisoner joyfully escaping jail.
Elia subtly turned her head. Through the open iron door crack, she saw Chloe's innocent face—lips smacking, cookie crumbs all over her mouth.
A strange glint flickered in Elia's clear green eyes.
Right before the demon lost it, it was definitely looking that way.
Chloe was a magical genius with infinite mana, they said. And above all, she was the kind, reliable friend who had willingly chased after her trembling, terrified self all the way to this hellish gate.
Maybe... Chloe secretly helped me?
Elia's young mind reached a pretty plausible conclusion.
She chased away the demon with some amazing spell only she knows, just to keep me safe...!
In a small corner of Elia's heart, a sprout of faith in Chloe began to bud.