Chapter 118: The Chase

“I-in Erundel……. Th-there are four more m-material collection bases, th-that’s what I, I-I know.”

The sharp-featured man, his mask removed, spewed out the information he knew with a dazed look in his eyes.

This happened less than 30 minutes after Rauel had poured an unknown powdered medicine into the mouth of the unconscious masked man.

“The locations of those four places?!”

“Th-that is……. Guhhh…….”

Tsk.

The moment the guy who was about to confess something began to contort his face, I extended my iron chains.

Chwareureuk.

And then.

‘As I thought.’

I felt a small fragment of demonic energy writhing inside the guy’s head.

– Just in case, four people separately…….

Following Rauel’s advice, I had already interrogated three masked men, and their heads had exploded midway through answering questions similar to this one.

However.

‘This time…….’

Grit.

I clenched my teeth and focused on using the Demon Devourer’s ability to crush that demonic energy.

Despite that.

Udeudeuk.

“K-keuh……!”

Even the last remaining masked man, just like the others, had his face begin to swell up.

In that situation.

“I had a feeling, but of course……”

Victon’s subsequent mumble stimulated my defiance.

‘Damn it.’

The total amount of demonic energy writhing in the guy’s head was so small, yet I couldn’t understand how it was ignoring the power of the Demon Devourer, which had already undergone its third evolution.

It was a Demon Devourer that had absorbed even the powerful demonic energy of a 6-Circle magician without issue.

‘No matter if it’s demonic energy planted by a Seven-Star, does it make sense for there to be this much of a difference? It’s just one stage.’

Seven-Star.

That term, which collectively referred to the superhumans among superhumans, the monsters of the seventh stage, felt heavy anew.

But I couldn’t give up like this.

‘Alright, I’ll admit it.’

That magic, which blew up the target’s head the moment a specific trigger was activated—I couldn’t get rid of it right now.

So now.

‘If I can’t get rid of it, then at least I can slow it down…….’

Not by swallowing that tiny bit of demonic energy.

But by suppressing its activation as much as possible.

Fortunately, that seemed to be effective.

Udeuk.

“Guuuh…….”

Soon, the swelling head stopped expanding, and the expression of the man who had been groaning blankly began to ease a little.

But as soon as a faint light of reason returned to his dazed eyes, which had been dosed with the truth serum, the man contorted his face again.

“I-it hurts, my h-head, it hurts…….”

At that, Rauel, who had been listening quietly, stepped forward in my place as I was concentrating.

“If you want to feel better, speak! The locations of the remaining organization!?”

That shout made his pain-contorted face dazed again.

And soon.

“One general headquarters where the elder is……. Th-the bases are in the east, west, south, and north of Erundel, we are in the south…….”

“So, where is that!! Especially the general headquarters!”

“O-only the captains of each branch know the general headquarters……. The captain takes the materials alone…….”

Damn it.

“Then what about those bases!”

“The organizations in the east, west, and north are…….”

The moment the masked man with dazed eyes stammered out the locations.

His head began to swell up again.

“That’s enough, Sir Muno!”

As soon as Rauel finished writing down all of the masked man’s words.

I, who had been concentrating on the Demon Devourer’s power with a contorted face, released the chains.

Then, immediately.

Poooow!

The guy’s head exploded, scattering gruesome fragments in all directions.

“Damn it!”

To think this was all I could do even at full power.

Chwareureuk.

Pabababak.

As I sighed while reflexively moving my chains to block all the fragments.

Unlike Rauel, who had retreated back like lightning, Victon, who had stood still in place and let all the fragments ‘pass through’ him, scanned me and my chains with an interested expression.

“How strange. A chain artifact that can not only control demonic energy or mana but can also be used as a weapon……”

From my perspective, it was just absurd.

Who was calling whom strange?

“Are you even human? Not some kind of ghost?”

Victon’s ghost-like ability only gave off a faint pulse of mana when he turned to smoke, so I still couldn’t figure out its mechanism.

But Victon just shrugged his shoulders.

“Why treat a perfectly fine person like a ghost? From what I see, you’re the stranger one.”

“What?”

“What in the world is that armor? Functionality aside, it doesn’t seem to be a weight that a person can wear and walk around in, but you don’t seem to feel any burden. Don’t tell me it also has a strength-amplifying function?”

At his gaze that seemed to be sizing me up, I once again focused my senses of metal detection and Spirit Arts to scan his entire body.

But I couldn’t feel any movement of spirits from him at all.

Which meant that turning into smoke was definitely not an artifact’s ability.

Moreover, aside from a single longsword, the buckle of his belt, and the thin iron plates connecting his leather armor, I couldn’t even sense any other metal on him.

What in the world was this guy?

“What’s with that look? It’s quite unpleasant.”

“Ha, look who’s talking……”

Pajik.

The black eyes and red eyes clashed again.

“You two, I don’t think this is the time for this?”

At Rauel’s words, we simultaneously withdrew our gazes.

‘Anyway, I don’t like that guy.’

I inwardly clicked my tongue as I looked at Victon.

Victon, who was frowning at me in the same way, shifted his gaze to the headless corpse and spoke first.

“Anyway, thanks to you, we saved some time. These bastards, once they reach mid-level executive status, they all have that ‘restriction’ on them, so we always lost the trail.”

“Now. In any case, we’ve shared all the information we dug up, so now it’s your turn. You’re not thinking of backing out now, are you? It won’t be fun if you try any stupid tricks.”

“Hmm……. Well, you can trust me. The more hands we have to catch these criminals, the better.”

Criminals?

The moment I tilted my head at that peculiar wording.

“The place where I first received the request was the small city of Rompel on the northern border of the Deus Empire.”

A statement that made my brow furrow on its own popped out.

“The Empire?”

“You were an Imperial?”

Without realizing it, my hand naturally went to the ‘Blade’ on my back, and Rauel also reflexively drew her bow.

For those who grew up in the Iron Kingdom, the name ‘Empire’ was bound to elicit such a reaction.

But Victon just smirked.

“Is my nationality important right now? Wouldn’t it be more important to root out these ‘Demon Cult’ bastards?”

Demon Cult.

“……So you knew.”

“Of course. Moreover, the simultaneous large-scale disappearances… no, abductions happening from the northern part of the Deus Empire to the southern part of the Iron Kingdom are similar to what the Demon Cult Leader Kraymal did in the Empire 13 years ago and in the Kingdom 10 years ago. I found some evidence too.”

Victon’s words were enough to make my and Rauel’s eyes widen.

“In the Empire too, no, you mean abduction cases are happening in places other than Erundel?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t even know that? You thought this was only happening in Erundel……. Ha, for heaven’s sake……”

My expression crumpled again at the sight of Victon clicking his tongue, but I had nothing to say.

Besides, that wasn’t what was important right now.

“What’s the rough estimate of the number of victims?”

“And you?”

“About 10 people a day in Erundel alone. It’s been three months, so I estimate it must be over a thousand.”

“Hmm. At least you seem to have gotten that part roughly right.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“I suspect that if you include the Empire, the number of missing people will be more than ten times that.”

“Ten times!?”

He was saying at least ten thousand people, so I couldn’t help but be surprised.

But then.

“It seems a consistently similar number of people have been going missing in Erundel, but on the Empire’s border, the scale suddenly increased recently, which is why the request came to me. In one border town, the entire population disappeared.”

“An entire town……?”

Victon’s words became more and more absurd.

‘The situation is more serious than I thought.’

As my expression crumpled.

Rauel focused on one word in Victon’s story.

“……I heard that in the Empire, there are people like private detectives who take on requests from the state. Are you one of them?”

“Well, something similar. Lady.”

To her question, Victon just smiled and dodged it.

No, rather.

“Then what about you two? The lady looks to be in her early 20s at best, and that person named Muno seems even younger. You seem strangely strong, even considering the number of evolutions.”

His red eyes glinting sharply, he even threw out a line to probe the other’s identity.

Just from that, I could figure out one thing.

‘Oh, really?’

I looked down at my own body.

The armor, which had been dyed silver, had already returned to its original color and was shining with a black luster after taking a certain level of impact.

On top of that, I had shown Victon not only my chains but also me swinging a greatsword with letter-like lights engraved on its blade.

‘And I caused such a ruckus in the royal castle.’

Thinking about it objectively, it seemed unlikely that any knight in the kingdom right now hadn’t heard the rumors about me.

‘This guy is definitely an Imperial.’

As I glanced at Rauel nonchalantly, I saw her gray eyes shining from within her mesh mask as she gave a slight nod.

“Hmm. It seems I’ve given you some kind of hint? Well, this isn’t a situation to waste time sounding each other out, is it? Innocent victims are probably being created even as we speak.”

“……Right.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to deal with the east, west, and north branches we just talked about before word of this place gets out? We especially need to capture at least one of their captains. If we want to catch that elder or whatever.”

There was nothing wrong with Victon’s words.

The only thing that bothered me was.

“It would be a problem if the captains on the other side are also like that lizard giant guy……”

Although we dealt with him relatively easily with a combined attack with Victon, killing and capturing were two different stories.

‘Alone…….’

At least, I wasn’t confident, so I naturally turned my gaze.

To the person who had boasted that he could have captured him if only he had the time.

But.

“Word that this place has been devastated will get out soon. The guys that lady caught and killed probably weren’t all of them. Or a magical signal might have been sent.”

This time, too, Victon was not wrong.

“We need to reach a conclusion as quickly as possible. All of the guys in the east, west, and north branches if possible. Or at least capture one of them. Though I don’t know if that will be easy.”

At those words, I naturally thought of my other companions.

The two who were probably wandering around the castle right now, secretly using the method of inflicting minute scratches to find the hidden magicians.

But.

‘How do I call them?’

I looked at the sun, which had risen to its highest point and was slowly setting to the west.

The promised meeting time with my companions was midnight.

Even with a rough estimate, there were more than ten hours left.

‘Should I go find them in their assigned area?’

Looking like this?

Even if I covered myself with a robe, if the Black Knight’s appearance was revealed in the city and drew attention, the bastards might run away immediately.

And having Rauel do it also had many complications.

‘Finding the location is a problem from the start, and even if she finds them, will they believe her words…….’

They were people who were reluctant to involve Rauel in the king’s mission in the first place.

Rauel could suffer some unnecessary misfortune.

And maybe they might be able to catch another lead within the castle.

“……Ki. What are you thinking so hard about in this situation?”

“Ah……. It’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t seem like we have much time, does it?”

Damn it, I know.

So.

“……West.”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s go west. The three of us.”

“Because it’s the closest?”

“Right. Let’s capture that captain bastard and make him spit out the location of that elder guy.”

“I like the quick decision.”

“Shut up, and if there are no objections, let’s go!”

Feeling awkward at Victon’s sarcasm, I shouted, and he received it with a smirk.

“Heh. Well, fine. Then for now……. I’ll go first.”

“What?”

Swish.

As soon as he finished speaking, Victon headed northwest with a ghost-like movement.

– I’ll go ahead and stir things up, so follow me well.

The moment my mind snapped back to reality at the voice that echoed belatedly.

“Well then.”

Rauel chased after him like an arrow and disappeared.

“Damn it.”

A beat later, I had no choice but to dash forward with all my might as well.

Pabababak.

Kwakwang.

I ran as if exploding the ground I stepped on, creating a storm of dust.

Chwareureureuk.

Paaaang.

When an obstacle appeared, chains extending from my limbs wrapped around a thick tree and pulled, launching my body into the air.

For a moment, a smile appeared at the thrilling pleasure and sense of speed of floating in the air.

‘Ah……. F*ck…….’

But soon, the memory of the enormous cost(?) of pleasure in Ironheart came to mind.

Fortunately, this place was not a city center boasting enormous housing prices.

‘The Chainman of the forest is possible! Totally possible!’

With a natural smile, he extended his chains again from mid-air and grabbed another tree.

Chwareureuk.

Pulling on it, he shot up into the air again as if launched.

I could see a tree breaking with a cracking sound, but right now, I didn’t care about such things.

As the thrilling pleasure pierced my whole body, wind naturally filled my lungs.

“Woooah……”

Oops, I should shut up.

But then, I quickly remembered my purpose and forced my mouth shut.

And soon.

– Kwaaaaaang!

– Kyaaaaaak!

In the distance, I saw another lizard giant bursting out, destroying a house.

Seeing that, I felt hungry anew.

Grumble.

I hadn’t eaten anything since arriving in Erundel this morning, so in a way, it was natural.

But while that physical hunger was hunger.

– Grrr.

The thirst of the Demon Devourer came on even stronger.

‘Be patient.’

My own path.

The Demon Devourer was already aware that the path of evolution had opened up again since I set the goal of becoming a strong person who would not be interfered with by anyone.

That’s why the Demon Devourer, fired up before another battle with the Demon Cult, was expressing its desire.

However.

‘Not yet. That’s not enough.’

The faint demonic energy of a monster or a low-level magician is not of much help for the next evolution.

The demonic energy of that lizard man, who felt to be almost the strongest among the 4-stage beings, was also insufficient.

However.

‘If I take care of that, and find that elder guy…….’

There will surely be some edible magician bastards there.

Even if not.

‘If I eat guys like that one by one…….’

The path of evolution will open once again.

‘It’s not far off.’

Slurp.

Staring at the distant lizard giant, I licked my lips with a cool smile.

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