The Demons' Nightmare

Clatter.

Thud.

"Damn it."

Crunch!

Screeeech.

"Well?!"

"…Well what."

Do-ha shook his head at Canteas, who stood there holding the shattered door handle.

He had boasted so confidently that he could open a locked door without magic—and then simply ripped the whole thing off by force.

"Where the hell did you get the confidence to make such a scene about picking a lock?"

"I… I did open it, didn't I?"

"Most people wouldn't call that 'opening' a door."

"When I watched it on YouTube, this is how they opened it…"

"Don't tell me you just copied some video you saw online."

"Yep!"

Smack!

Canteas nodded with a bright, sunny smile—and got hit for it.

"Guh!"

"And here I thought you actually had some kind of technique. Ugh…"

Do-ha sighed, pushed the door open, and stepped inside the building.

They were currently at Chi Wei's residence in Shanghai, China.

After hearing the demon's location from Baal, they had come straight here.

Why is the security this sloppy?

Do-ha frowned as he looked around after stepping through the door.

This was the home of a baron-class demon, yet the security was absurdly weak.

No—more precisely, there was security, but it was just a commercial system installed by some company.

A noble demon using a commercial security system…?

Relying on his own power would have been far safer.

Just look at them now. A few spells from Do-ha, and they had walked right in without a single alarm going off.

"Canteas, you check the basement. I'll take the second and third floors."

"Got it."

Rubbing the back of his head, Canteas came inside and headed straight downstairs.

An hour later.

"Find anything?"

"Nope. Nothing."

Canteas shook his head at Do-ha's question.

The house was fairly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠spacious, yet nothing stood out as unusual.

Not every place a demon lived had to hide something, but even so, this one was far too clean.

"If a stranger walked in, they'd just think it was an ordinary house."

"Which makes it even more suspicious."

Publicly, Chi Wei was a Divine 200 hunter.

That meant the house should have at least a few pieces of hunter gear on display—yet there was not a single item related to Awakened anywhere.

"Well, nothing for it."

"You're just going to leave?"

"Would I just leave?"

Whoosh.

Huuuum.

"Wh… what? What are you doing?!"

Canteas panicked as Do-ha raised a hand and gathered power.

Surely he wasn't about to blow the entire building sky-high…?

"You're not allowed to destroy the building, you know?"

"Relax."

Fwoooooosh!

A spherical mass of compressed air formed at the center of the house and, in an instant, unleashed a tremendous gale.

Unlike Air Bomb, which detonated at a single point, Air Brake radiated outward in every direction.

Clatter-clatter-crash.

"Ahh, that feels better."

"…I'd rather you just destroyed it."

Canteas stared blankly at the wrecked interior.

Furniture and belongings had been blasted every which way by the Air Brake, scattered across the room.

Even an earthquake wouldn't have done this much damage.

"Why the sudden Air Brake?"

"Look over there."

Do-ha raised a hand in answer to Canteas's question.

His finger pointed at the fireplace.

No fire was burning, but unburned logs still sat inside.

"Huh? What the—"

Canteas's eyes went wide as he looked at the firewood.

Everything from the TV to the sofa had been flung across the room—yet the logs still held their shape perfectly.

Tap. Tap.

"Just as I thought."

Do-ha approached the fireplace, rapped around it, and nodded.

Everything else in the house was real. This fireplace, however, was a carefully mixed construct of model and magic—crafted so finely that even detection spells couldn't pick it up.

"Work of this quality… a craftsman from Hell must have made it."

Whoosh.

Huum!

Boom!

Do-ha kicked the pile of logs clean away with Mu-je-gak.

As he'd said, the model was laced with demon magic—ordinary force couldn't shift it.

"Well, well. There's a Larvate Door under here."

With the fake firewood cleared, something like black liquid rippled across the floor.

This was a Larvate Door—an ancient magic that blended portal and subspace techniques.

Pass through that liquid-looking surface, and a hidden space opened beyond.

"Haven't seen this spell in a long time."

"Yeah."

It was a magic that had all but vanished.

And for good reason: the Larvate Door was awkward to use.

As storage, it was outclassed by ordinary subspace magic, which had simpler formulas and was far easier to cast.

As a place for people to hide, it was worse—after about two hours, negative emotions amplified and auditory hallucinations set in.

So the Larvate Door had gradually been forgotten, until now only aging mages even knew it existed.

"Being a demon, he can sit inside a Larvate Door without any side effects, I guess."

"Seems so."

"Let's go in."

Whoosh.

Do-ha dove into the rippling entrance.

It looked like plunging into liquid, but the sensation was more like passing through a thin membrane.

Gloop.

Shhhk.

Thud.

"Ugh… what is that stench."

The moment they came through the Larvate Door, a crushing reek stabbed at their noses.

It was so foul it made their heads throb on contact.

"Do-ha, that's the smell of rotting corpses."

Canteas, long familiar with such odors, recognized it at once.

But the concentration was extreme.

"This… isn't just one or two bodies."

Even he had never smelled anything this intense.

Long ago, he had once stacked five hundred corpses to use as ghouls—and the stench here was dozens of times worse.

"Let's go."

Footsteps echoed as Do-ha, brow furrowed, descended the spiral staircase.

Then the sight that met them at the bottom.

"…"

"Good god…"

Do-ha and Canteas's pupils trembled.

In the basement lay a pit of unknowable depth, packed full of corpses.

At a rough count, well over a thousand.

"This bastard…"

Grind.

Do-ha clenched his teeth.

How many people had this thing killed?

Whoosh.

Zaaaaang.

"How many?"

"…Exactly three thousand five hundred."

Canteas exhaled after surveying the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bodies.

From above it had looked like about a thousand, but far more corpses filled the depths below.

"Hmm, no—exactly three thousand five hundred and three. Counting the one I'm carrying, plus the two of you who still need to go in."

At the voice from above, Do-ha and Canteas turned.

There, descending the stairs at a leisurely pace, was the noble demon—

Baron Kimeries.

"This is quite the surprise. Surprising that I have intruders in my home, and surprising that you found this space."

Step by step.

Thud.

Kimeries reached the bottom and set down the corpse he had been carrying.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?"

The firewood model covering the entrance was enchanted.

So how had they broken through it?

Glance.

"Ah, this? Don't worry. You'll end up the same way."

When Do-ha looked at the corpse, Kimeries waved a hand as if to put him at ease.

Had the pile of bodies actually frightened them?

"I needed one more for the final count anyway. Perfect timing."

"…You've got a lot of humans locked up somewhere, then."

"Locked up? Hahahaha. Hardly. Do that and the missing-persons spike would lead them straight to me."

Kimeries burst out laughing.

Every corpse here was one he had carried in himself.

The back-and-forth was a bit of a hassle, but in the long run it was far more convenient.

Kidnap people and hold them, and the government would launch a search the moment disappearances piled up.

"Ah. So you don't have anyone locked up?"

Do-ha's eyes widened slightly at Kimeries's words.

"Why? Did you think I'd keep you two as well? Don't worry. I don't have that kind of hobby. I'll just kill you cleanly right here."

"Ahh, good. I was holding back in case there were people still imprisoned somewhere."

"…What?"

Huuuum!

Crack.

Crackle-snap!

Flash!

KRAAAAAA-BOOM!

KWAANG!

"GYAAAAAAH!"

Struck clean by Extreme Demon Thunder Fist, Kimeries slammed into the wall with a scream.

Tiny sparks had flickered across a human body—and before he could even process them, the attack had landed.

"You should've locked the humans up instead of killing them. You might've lived a few more minutes."

"You bastard!"

Whoooosh!

Grab!

"Wh…?"

Kimeries burst from the wall at tremendous speed—only for his wrist to be seized, leaving him momentarily blank-faced.

How had he been noticed…?

He had come out of the wall itself.

No—before that—

A human just grabbed my wrist…?

Glance.

"What are you doing?"

Huum!

Do-ha's body flooded with golden light.

CRACK!

Geum-gang Gyeong-shin-jang was originally a palm strike delivered downward—but Do-ha clenched his fist and drove the heel of it straight into Kimeries's skull.

Splurt!

"Ugh…"

As the head was crushed and Kimeries's eyeballs popped free, Canteas turned away.

The pressure had forced the eyes out, but he wasn't dead.

"GYAAAH! You son of a bitch!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Blind, Kimeries screamed and flailed both arms wildly.

Do-ha snorted at the display.

"Drop the awkward act and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠go back to your real form. For a demon, your acting is pathetic…"

"…"

Kimeries, thrashing his arms, went still at Do-ha's words.

Crrrk-crack!

Shwaaaaah.

"This… is another surprise. You already knew I was a demon?"

Restored to his true form, Kimeries rolled his neck and looked at Do-ha.

Horns had sprouted from his forehead; wings had grown from his back.

And at the same time, his eyes had recovered.

More accurately, the eyeballs that had popped out had belonged to the human body he had been wearing.

"Ah… I liked that body, too…"

Kimeries sighed as he looked at the torn, leather-like remnants of his outer form.

The eyes, and the rest of it—unusable now.

"What the hell are you? You knew I was a demon… knew this body wasn't my true form. And that arrogant look in your eyes is getting on my nerves…"

Kimeries narrowed his eyes.

What exactly was this man?

Was he even human?

As Kimeries shifted to his true form, demonic energy flooded the area.

Yet the man showed no strain—not even a change of expression.

"I thought I'd seen you somewhere. Now I remember."

"What?"

"You… you're the one who ran when Ipos died, aren't you?"

Do-ha wore a thin, cold smile.

He had known the name from somewhere—and now it clicked.

When he had gone to Hell and killed Duke Ipos, the one hiding nearby had been Kimeries.

He had been lying in wait for an ambush—then watched the twenty-second-ranked noble die in a single blow, panicked, and fled.

"A bootlicking little bastard who spent his time flattering Ipos, and now you're massacring people?"

"…Wh… what…"

Kimeries took an involuntary step backward.

"Ipos died easy. You, though—I'll make sure you die as painfully as possible."

Ssssss.

As thick killing intent poured from Do-ha, Kimeries's eyes grew wider and wider.

This killing intent.

This gaze.

He had felt them in Hell.

Only from a distance—but he had never forgotten that terror.

"Th… the… Absolute Being… Baek Do-ha…"

Standing right before him was Baek Do-ha—the nightmare of every demon.