Chapter 216: Reinvasion (13)
Chapter 216: Reinvasion (13)
‘Dammit… I messed up.’
Mallos cursed himself inwardly, realizing he had done something incredibly foolish.
The other two demons felt the same.
All of Asmodeus's demons shared a common realization of their blunder. They had all led their own forces at one point or another, so they knew well that if a leader wavered or showed hesitation, the morale of their subordinates would plummet.
The three demons had been so flustered by how much the knight felt like Sitri that they had momentarily lost their composure. Now, their faces burned with shame at the thought that they had even entertained such an absurd idea.
‘A demon using Holy Power? That’s impossible!’
‘What a moron I am!’
‘I was being far too dull-witted.’
The fact that they had even considered something so contrary to common sense made them feel pathetic, and that shame quickly curdled into rage. Naturally, that rage wasn't directed at themselves, but at the person who had provoked it.
While Han Shin was currently breaking through the center, Grace and Sitri were keeping pace on the right and left flanks, respectively.
With the Demonic Humans being unilaterally slaughtered, the demons knew they had to act. The eyes of the remaining Demonic Humans were already turning toward them in expectation.
In the past, Mallos, Catric, and Ereon had often fought together under Sitri’s command. Coordination was the greatest strength of Asmodeus's demons. Though they had recently been bickering over who would take Sitri’s vacant spot, they were still intimately familiar with fighting as a unit.
Thus, the three of them instantly reached a silent consensus: they would take down the one wielding the whip sword on the left first.
“Let’s kill that bitch first.”
“Agreed.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve been on the same page.”
The figure was encased in silver full body armor, making it impossible to confirm her identity, but her silhouette was clearly female. It was the same type of armor the Knights wore, yet it felt distinctly different.
Catric was the first to strike.
He lunged toward the silver knight, who was currently swinging her whip sword like a lash through the ranks of Demonic Humans. Catric himself was inhabiting the body of a Demonic Human with grotesquely overdeveloped muscles, and he brandished a massive greatsword with one hand—a weapon an ordinary human Awakener would have struggled to lift with two.
The silver-armored female knight stood amidst a spray of blood erupted from the Demonic Humans. Catric flew toward her like a predatory beast, bringing his greatsword down in a crushing overhead strike.
Propelled by explosive acceleration, Catric moved so fast that even the other Demonic Humans could barely track his movement.
‘Wait, what is this…?’
But as he launched his attack, Catric felt a strange sense of unease.
The being before him possessed intense Holy Power, yet she felt familiar. He felt as if he were voluntarily placing his own neck on a guillotine. Every instinct told him to stop the attack, but it was already too late.
His greatsword descended with a ferocious momentum that seemed capable of splitting anything in its path. Since this body was disposable anyway, Catric was pushing its muscular limits to the absolute brink. Veins burst and muscles tore under the strain, creating a visible pressure wave in the air.
An ordinary Awakener would have died without even being able to react; even a high-level one would likely have been overwhelmed by the sheer pressure of the strike.
However, in an instant, Catric realized the silver knight he was targeting had vanished from his sight.
‘Huh?’
He thought he was seeing things.
A memory flashed through Catric’s mind—a scene from a sparring match with Sitri. Back then, Catric had challenged Sitri on a whim, lost, and decided to become her subordinate. Afterward, he had sparred with her frequently to improve his own skills.
Just like now, Catric had used a linear, simple attack, utilizing his powerful physique to decide the match in a single blow. And just like now, Sitri had evaded his brutish assault with the fluid, graceful movements of a matador before wrapping her whip sword around his neck.
Suddenly, Catric felt a sharp sting at his throat.
The pain intensified instantly, and he realized the whip sword was already coiled around his neck. The razor-sharp blades of Sitri’s whip sword were already biting deep into the flesh of the Demonic Human he was possessing.
‘It is Sitri!!’
His eyes widened in shock. He realized the Follower of the Benevolent God he had targeted—the silver-armored knight wielding the whip sword—was indeed Sitri.
His initial instinct had been correct, but he had dismissed it as an impossibility, thinking no demon could ever wield Holy Power. He had convinced himself she was just a follower who happened to use a similar weapon.
Catric realized the truth far too late.
With a sharp tug of her whip sword, Sitri decapitated him. Catric’s head was severed from his body, resulting in instant death.
To be precise, the Demonic Human body Catric was inhabiting died instantly.
Catric’s true self resided in an Ego Artifact shaped like a necklace. As his head was severed, the chain naturally snapped. With nowhere left to hang, the artifact tumbled toward the ground.
Thud!
The massive, muscular body of the Demonic Human hit the black stone ground with a heavy thud. It collapsed right at Sitri’s feet, blood geysering from the stump of its neck and forming an immediate pool.
Catric was now completely defenseless.
‘Dammit! Please!!’
Catric was paralyzed with terror. If the artifact housing his soul was damaged, he would have nowhere to anchor his existence. His soul would scatter, and he would cease to exist.
While it was an Ego Artifact that wouldn't break under ordinary attacks… it was obvious that Sitri, standing right over him, could destroy it with ease.
Catric prayed to Asmodeus that she wouldn't notice.
But there was no way Sitri would miss it. She brought her whip sword down, smashing the pendant submerged in the pool of blood.
Just as Catric had recognized Sitri, Sitri had recognized Catric.
While she had been slaughtering Demonic Humans to lighten Han Shin’s burden, she had sensed a threatening aura. Sitri was a veteran of countless battles with razor-sharp instincts, and she had noticed Catric’s approach immediately.
When she saw the attack—identical to the ones she had seen Catric use many times before—she concluded that the Demonic Human was somehow Catric.
Sitri already knew about the Ego Artifacts and that they were currently limited to transforming Mammon’s demons. However, she left open the possibility that other demons could use them too, or that the artifacts could use some trick to possess Demonic Human bodies.
She knew better than anyone that nothing was impossible, given her own current circumstances.
She, a demon, was now a follower of Tiamat, wielding powerful Holy Power without restriction. Her own situation was more improbable than anything else she could imagine. Thus, she had learned that very few things in the world were truly impossible and tried to avoid making assumptions based on prejudice.
Regardless, she knew the attack well. She responded exactly as she always had, stepping into his blind spot and coiling her whip sword around his neck to claim his head.
Then, without a moment’s hesitation, she destroyed the necklace she was certain was an Ego Artifact. If she had the luxury, she might have saved it for interrogation, but…
‘Right now, I must eliminate all variables for Han Shin.’
Knowing how a small oversight on the battlefield could snowball into disaster, she killed Catric instantly.
As soon as she shattered the necklace, a blood-curdling shriek echoed through the air.
‘A soul’s death cry.’
It was the scream released when a powerful being in soul form loses its anchor and scatters into nothingness.
Naturally, Sitri had no idea what Asmodeus's demons currently thought of her. She didn't know that Catric had started a power struggle to take her place the moment she went missing.
In her memory, Catric was simply a dim-witted but strong demon under Asmodeus. He had been loyal enough and followed orders well, so she held no particular ill will toward him.
More accurately, she hadn't cared about him at all. Even if he had rebelled, she could have easily suppressed him. He was a simpleton who wasn't worth talking to, so they had rarely interacted.
Still, it was a striking fact: Sitri had just personally killed her former direct subordinate. Yet, she felt no guilt, regret, or lingering attachment.
To her, Han Shin was now the absolute priority.
Sitri immediately scanned the area for her next target.
‘Where is the next one?’
She sensed there was more than one. She recalled the three Demonic Humans that had felt strange earlier and surmised that the other two were also being controlled by Ego Artifacts.