Chapter 46
Following his hand, Eden looked at the tree and her expression hardened. Looking closely, the fruits weren’t growing on the tree but were impaled on it. No wonder the size was unusual. What she was looking at wasn’t fruit at all but bloodied human heads.
“That demon bastard…!”
Eden ground her teeth and drew her sword. There were limits to toying with humans, and this crossed the line. Her mood, which had sunk at seeing the corpses strewn on the road, heated up with rage. Eden charged forward, leaving Johan and Bezel behind.
“Eden!”
Johan called out to her in a worried voice as he followed. Even after seven years, Eden hadn’t changed one bit from when they were dating.
Back then too, she had a hot temper and an impatient personality. She was also meddlesome, getting involved in others’ affairs as if they were her own, getting caught up in fights more than once or twice.
But back then, at least the opponents were human. This time it was a demon. And not just any demon, but a mid-ranking one.
He knew well enough that Eden was strong, but she was still human. She wasn’t strong enough to defeat a mid-ranking demon that required multiple Exorcist Priests working together to subdue.
“It’s dangerous, so calm down!”
If she charged in recklessly like this, she’d end up getting hurt instead. They had the advantage in numbers, so they needed to come up with a proper strategy to subdue it.
Eden was fast enough at running that she once received a scouting offer as a track athlete. Despite having a shorter stride than him, she bounded farther and farther ahead as if taking flight.
Johan gritted his teeth and barely managed to catch up to her. Just as he reached out to grab her collar, a sudden, chilling cold crept up the back of his neck.
Drip. A bead of sweat slid down his spine. Both Eden, who had been running, and Johan, who had been trying to catch her, stopped in their tracks.
How could he even describe this feeling? It was as if a bottomless, pitch-black abyss had suddenly appeared behind them.
A murderous intent that pierced his back sharply, with no intention of concealing itself. Only after feeling the fierce wind that followed a beat later, as if signaling someone had passed, did Johan realize that what was behind him was a demon.
Thump thump thump. His heart pounded as if it would burst from the sudden encounter.
Had it not been for the wind that followed the demon, he would have thought it had teleported. That’s how invisible the demon’s form had been. From the moment it ran from afar, passed them, and positioned itself behind them, neither Eden the Hunter nor Johan the Holy Knight had sensed its presence even slightly.
“Oh? Who might you be?”
A cheerful voice pierced the eardrums of the two frozen figures. Eden was the first to react. Barely managing to turn her stiff body to look behind her, Eden adjusted her grip on her sword.
Just as she had been told beforehand, standing behind her was a mid-ranking demon, half human and half beast.
The demon had tied its dark red hair into a single ponytail that hung down to its waist like a horse’s tail. From its hair to the fur on its horse-shaped lower body, the red hue covering its entire body made its presence feel even more fierce.
‘As expected, mid-ranking demons really are different. Is it because its lower body is like a horse? That speed is no joke.’
She was taken aback by the unexpected appearance, but not frightened. She had faced mid-ranking demons about once every six months. Judging from the energy it gave off, this one seemed to be among the stronger of the mid-ranks, but she was someone who had taken down a couple of high-ranking demons too. If she couldn’t handle this one, her reputation as the Empire’s top Hunter would be wasted.
“Since you asked, it’s only polite that I answer. You may have heard of me. I’m Eden, the Demon Hunter, you bastard.”
“Not a demon but a Demon Hunter? No, this energy is definitely…”
The demon rolled its horse-like legs on the ground. In time with the clop clop sounds, its bright red eyes rolled as if thinking about something.
He had been guarding the humans under orders from the great Lord Marbas until the worshippers who would take custody of them arrived. Then suddenly, he’d sensed the energy of someone high-ranking.
While the demon he directly served was Marbas, demons by nature were meant to serve all demons of higher rank than themselves.
‘Did Lord Marbas summon this one too?’
He had eagerly run out to greet them and ask what brought such an honored visit. However, standing before him wasn’t Lord Beelzebub, the owner of this energy, but two humans.
One was a man with short chestnut hair and gentle drooping eyes. The other was a white-haired woman who was strangely coated in the energy of some high-ranking demon. Upon closer inspection, that wasn’t the only peculiar thing. Her hand gripping the sword was darkened, as if cursed by Lord Marbas.
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.