Hamel laughed.
He was amused.
The human before him was finally making a proper expression.
He expected it as he pleased.
And then despaired as he pleased.
Good.
Those who met him ought to be filled with despair.
The more their lives rested wholly in his hands, the greater his stature became.
Cruel deaths, too.
And mercy, too.
All were his.
Someday everything in this world would lie beneath his shadow.
Even the gods.
Ancient demons, too.
Those arrogant pretenders who claim to be the masters of this world would one day bow before him.
Hamel slowly reached out his hand toward the creature.
Kang!
Something flew and weakly struck Hamel’s armor.
“……?”
An old mace fell with a plop to the ground.
In that moment a blood-boiling voice rang out from behind.
“Get the hell off Hamel’s body.”
Hamel turned his head and looked at the one who had thrown it.
There was the creature that had earlier driven a sword into his belly, now opening its mouth with an annoyed expression.
“You fishy-scaled bastard.”
“…….”
For a moment Hamel doubted his ears.
What had that dying creature just called him?
Fishy?
Scaled?
Grit
It couldn’t be.
How dare it liken the master who traversed the heavens to a mere fish.
At an insult he had never heard in thousands of years, Hamel trembled with fury.
Stumble.
…Thousands of years?
Hamel abruptly halted, struck by an inexplicable sense of estrangement.
Something was strange.
But his doubts lasted only a moment; Hamel shook his head and moved on.
He had to make the creature regret that it had been born before him.
He would tear it, grill it, burn it, strip its skin, and then resurrect it with his fire.
Inflicting pain was his specialty.
Then the creature opened its mouth again.
“Stop showing off and come closer. I thought you were a useless reptile, but you’re perfect as a stove.”
Hwa-reuk
Blue Azure Flame flared around Hamel’s body.
Would this be what it felt like when blood rose in reverse?
Ono’s provocation and banter truly had to be acknowledged.
‘…Ono?’
A sense of alienness, on a different level from before, enveloped his body.
Why did he know the creature’s name?
This is… déjà vu.
He knew the author of that name.
‘…I.’
Ono spoke to Hamel, who had flinched briefly.
“Something feels strange, doesn’t it? Then come over and take the sword. You’ll understand.”
“What are you doing? Are you scared?”
Ono snickered, mocking Hamel.
He had an ease that was unbelievable for someone skewered through the belly with a sword in the ground.
Hamel felt something off.
He must not hear those words.
If he gripped the sword, this hard-won exhilaration and freedom would vanish.
He would lose this power to insult gods and stand above all living things.
Hamel recoiled with intense aversion.
No, he tried to.
“……?”
What was happening?
His feet felt strange.
One leg wanted to step back, while the other tried to move forward at the same time.
Hamel dragged his leg and slowly moved forward.
Then he stood before Ono.
Thud
One of Hamel’s hands grabbed the other.
That hand forced the other toward the sword’s hilt.
Seeing that, Ono grinned and murmured softly.
“You were still there, Hamel.”
“…….”
“Take hold of the sword. I’ve prepared it.”
Ono’s right hand gleamed with golden light.
From his faintly radiant fingertips the runes etched on the sword began to react.
Splendid patterns formed from piled-up demons emitted light.
Creak
Hamel resisted as hard as he could to avoid ever grasping the sword.
But the body’s other will ultimately made his hand seize the sword’s hilt.
At that moment.
Hooouk
The runes that glowed on the sword were sucked into Hamel’s body.
Like that day at the mansion, when death had been prepared and the same reaction had occurred.
‘Ah.’
Hamel let out a short exclamation.
It felt as if the thick fog in his head was lifting.
As the fog of madness and violence cleared, everything became sharp.
Hamel slowly reached up to his helmet.
And then.
Kwatjik
He forced off the front visor.
Half of the mask that had hidden his face tore away, revealing the face within.
“Feeling more lucid now, you idiot.”
“……Mr. Ono.”
It was the moment Hamel uttered that name.
The armor coating his body began to scatter like dust.
He could feel it instinctively.
Madness is a wall.
Once when he faced it at the mansion.
And now again.
Hamel had crossed that wall.
Unless he overused his strength or a long time passed, the madness would stay quiet for a while.
“Mr. Ono, I am…“
Hamel opened his mouth, trembling.
What should he apologize for?
He couldn’t bring himself to speak.
Then Ono, looking irritated, cut him off.
“Enough. Just pull out this damned sword. The dormancy will activate soon, so Azure Flame… for… treatment…”
As he spoke, Ono began nodding off.
It’s Ono’s survival skill that automatically activates when he’s injured to the extreme.
Ono’s head dropped with a thud.
Hamel knew he was merely asleep, but his heart still sank.
Hamel clenched his teeth in apology.
Then, just as he tried with force to pull the sword from Ono’s body.
“Aah! Pull it out gently, you bastard!”
“…Weren’t you asleep?”
“If you pull it like that, even the dead will get up!”
Startled by Ono’s roar, Hamel sheepishly used Azure Flame.
With Ono’s survival ability and Hamel’s Azure Flame combined, Ono’s wounds began to heal rapidly.
This time sleepiness truly overtook him, as Ono nodded and said.
“This should… be enough… Go… finish… it… huh.”
“Yes.”
Hamel slowly straightened his knees and stood.
As Ono had said.
The place where David had been crouched.
David, who had been there, had already vanished.
Only the footprints left while fleeing were messy, perhaps from an injured leg.
He had already let someone slip away once.
He wouldn’t miss twice.
Hamel stomped the ground with a thud.
‘Run… I must run.’
David descended the mountain slope hastily, crawling on all fours.
He rolled, fell, his wounds split and bled, but he didn’t stop.
He had to get even a little farther from the mountain.
‘It’s only the beginning. Now…’
The Lord’s forces were still intact.
They could gather the scattered forces here and there and start again.
‘No, no.’
Or perhaps he could make a deal with those bastards.
It’s true that the tide has lately favored the crow bastards.
Wouldn’t it be good to switch to them now?
‘Yes, that’s it!’
Why hadn’t he thought of this sooner?
Just as David smirked and was about to take a step.
“Where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?”
“…….”
David was so shocked he couldn’t even breathe.
When he raised his head, a familiar face sat on the rock ahead.
“…Hamel.”
David paused after bringing the name to his lips.
He didn’t even wonder how he could return to a human body.
David called his name with delight.
“Hamel…! Yes, you’re Hamel!”
“Yes. As you see.”
Hamel said calmly, jumped down from the rock, and faced David.
Then he looked at him and asked.
“There is still something I haven’t asked.”
“Right, right. I’ll tell you. Anything. As long as you let me leave here…”
Squeak
“……?”
David blinked, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
His body tilted slightly and with a thud he collapsed to the ground.
What had happened?
David groped and reached toward where his feet should be.
But there was nothing there.
“Ugh… Aaaah!”
Late-arriving pain made David scream in agony.
“Burn him.”
Blue flames sprang up.
Hamel cauterized the bleeding severed area with Azure Flame and said.
“That’s unnecessary. In any case, from now on you will answer the questions I ask.”
“Are you insane? I know a lot! It doesn’t matter if you don’t get information from me!”
“You will listen. And in return you will beg me to kill you.”
“…You.”
David swallowed his words.
He couldn’t speak under Hamel’s emotionless gaze.
He had been mistaken.
He thought the only frightening being was the dragon that occupied Hamel’s body.
But it wasn’t so.
“You should fear me more than anything else in this world.”
Hamel slowly reached his hand toward David.
“Because a human understands human fear and pain best.”
“…Ah.”
David, mouth slightly open, finally realized.
That there had never been any room for negotiation from the start.
“Stop… stop… I’ll tell you everything.”
“……”
“Please… just kill me.”
Hamel nodded at David’s desperate plea.
It didn’t take long for his demeanor to change.
“Speak.”
He had actually already heard most of what he wanted to know.
Because David had blabbed a lot before the fight.
What remained were the true nature and purpose of the being David served.
And the identity of the mansion’s basement and the secrets hidden in the family.
“What is the name of the being you serve?”
“…He is called the Iron Massacre, the Tyrant of the Black Mane, the Unknown Inventor. His name is….”
David paused, tilted his head, and cleared his throat as he continued.
Then he slowly spoke.
“Marbas. That is his true name.”
“Mar… bas.”
Hamel slowly put that name into his mouth.
A disquieting aura was felt.
As if magic dwelt within the name itself.
Hamel frowned briefly, then asked a sudden question that came to mind.
“By the way, I was wondering, how are you fine even after taking dragon’s blood?”
“…The reason dragon’s blood is deadly is because of the magi contained within it.”
“Tell me in more detail.”
At Hamel’s words, David chewed over something and slowly began to speak.
“I served Marbas and handled his energy. And the dragon, in the end…”
Crack
It happened in an instant.
At the place where David’s brand was carved.
The beast of the brand opened its maw monstrously wide.
And in the next moment.
It tore a chunk out of David’s throat.
“Gurgle…”
David’s eyes rolled back as he tried to continue speaking.
Then he died on the spot.
“……”
In the end, that brand was also a kind of curse.
The moment one swore allegiance, the curse and bondage began.
He hadn’t even known that.
Hamel looked down coldly at David’s fallen corpse.
This was the fate of someone he had once considered family.
He had expected some special feeling to arise.
But there was no particular sentiment.
Perhaps only a regret that there was more to hear but he died like this.
Hamel slowly reached and searched David’s belongings.
As expected, there was the key he had taken and fled with.
‘I can open the basement myself.’
This would do.
Even without hearing from David, the hidden secrets would begin to reveal themselves.
Hamel turned away from David’s corpse without regret.
He had to hurry.
It might not yet be too late.
He had to go to the summit, tend to Ono, and then rescue Rupert, Daniel, and Lena.
Hamel ran toward the summit with all his might.
And just as he arrived at the summit in an instant.
“……”
Hamel found himself momentarily speechless.
Was this a dream?
Three people stood beside the fallen Ono.
They were covered in blood with not a single uninjured spot, yet they were alive.
“…Lord Hamel!”
“You’re alive.”
The two who had looked worried were surprised by Hamel’s sudden appearance and cried out.
“…Are you all unhurt?”
To Hamel’s question, Daniel and Rupert both snickered and answered.
“Didn’t I tell you not to underestimate me?”
“Yes, we did say we’d come to help… Well, it seems it’s over here too.”
Rena also nodded calmly.
“I had a good rest.”
The audacity to not bat an eye even though her robe was in tatters.
Nonetheless, Hamel willingly played along.
He nodded deeply and spoke softly.
“That’s a relief. And thank you.”
“…Heh. It was nothing.”
Daniel turned his head shyly, and Rupert deliberately changed the subject.
“By the way, is Mr. Ono okay?”
“Yes, he’s just asleep.”
It was at that moment as Hamel answered.
Sparkle
A dim light rose beyond the horizon, pushing back the darkness.
“Oh no…”
Daniel grimaced and muttered.
The fourth day’s sun began to rise.
It was the appointed time.
