I went way overboard.
I was supposed to find Baronette Saint-Germain’s traces, but the second floor of the house had been completely blown apart.
I had tried to control my power as best as I could, but thinking about the Demon King must have made me use far more strength than necessary.
I clicked my tongue as I looked at the scattered remains of the Magic Sword, reduced to ashes nearby.
‘What kind of weak sword is this?’
A Magic Sword that can’t even properly counter the power of a Holy Sword—what a waste of the name.
For now, I just hoped no important clues were left on the second floor.
‘At least the spatial distortion is gone.’
Thanks to dealing with the rampaging Magic Sword, the corridor that had seemed endless returned to its original shape.
I focused on the sounds around me for a moment, trying to guess how much time had passed, then checked outside the house.
‘The two of them… already left.’
The presence of Murfin and Beatrice was completely gone.
I had no idea how many Dance of Swords they’d performed inside the spatial distortion, but it seemed like they’d been at it for longer than I’d expected.
Still, it didn’t seem like they’d simply left after twenty minutes—there was a familiar groaning sound continuously coming from nearby.
To confirm properly, I flicked a broken shard of mirror scattered on the ground up into the air, and saw living chunks of flesh gathering in front of the haunted house.
‘Both of them managed to escape.’
If they were ordinary chunks of flesh, I wouldn’t have cared, but these monsters gathered here were on a whole different level than the usual Ghouls.
‘Human Devourers.’
Elite monsters of the Demon Army, born to hunt and devour living humans.
They acted collectively, and once given specific orders, they would follow them without question.
Their weakness was that they refused to obey any command beyond that.
‘No high-ranking demons or commanders nearby, then.’
These monsters were typically deployed as guards at places one wanted to hide at all costs, preventing intruders.
Of course, their presence meant that seeing those involved with this place was unlikely.
‘But it’s clear there’s definitely something hidden here.’
Human Devourers were so difficult to deal with that even Heroes recommended cooperative operations with the Resistance Army to handle them safely.
There was no way such creatures were placed here for no reason.
Shaking myself free of distraction, I began to inspect the entire first floor.
Until just now, I hadn’t realized it because of the spatial distortion caused by the Magic Sword, but even the first floor had quite a few rooms.
I deliberately made a loud noise as I grabbed a door and ripped it off its hinges.
I waited briefly to observe the Human Devourers’ reaction, but they showed no interest here at all.
‘Well, if they were going to react, they should have done so when I blew the roof off.’
After roughly throwing the door aside, I stepped inside.
The room contained only a small bed and a wardrobe.
But from the interior, it was clearly a room meant for a child.
‘Disgusting.’
A room for a child in a place connected to the Demon Race.
The mismatched atmosphere only made it feel more nauseating.
Bang!
I grew tired of opening every door to search the next room, so I just broke through the wall.
Since the Human Devourers outside the mansion weren’t reacting, there was no reason to hold back.
The next room was similar—just a simple bed and some toys.
But those toys were grim; they were stained with red blood that looked like it belonged to a human.
‘Hoo.’
Ignoring the faint metallic scent of blood that tickled my nose, I smashed through the next wall.
This time, I found the kitchen.
Boxes storing various cooking utensils and ingredients caught my eye.
‘Demonic Artifact.’
The boxes were no longer powered by magic and had stopped working.
I opened one, only to find rotting meat that had become completely inedible.
‘…Huh.’
At least on the surface.
Knowing what that rotten meat actually was, my thoughts were completely different.
‘Thank goodness I ordered Murfin and Beatrice to return.’
If I hadn’t told them to head back to the Kingdom on their own, they’d have fallen prey to whatever tricks these monsters had planned.
‘Shadow Spider, huh.’
This place was right in the middle of the monster’s lair.
Sssslip.
A certain presence passed through the empty air by my ear.
It hadn’t approached me yet, so I ignored it.
As I reached to grab some of the rotten meat inside the box, something that had been approaching suddenly appeared behind me and stabbed a sharp thorn into my shoulder.
Phuak!
I was pierced straight through the shoulder.
“Ghrk?!”
I turned my head, gripping the thorn piercing my shoulder with empty hands.
I locked eyes with a huge spider-shaped shadow floating through the air.
Snap!
I twisted the spider’s leg that had pierced me, making it impossible to remove from my body.
“Kyahhhh!”
The Shadow Spider writhed and thrashed in pain.
Just one broken leg and it was throwing such a tantrum—what a spoiled little creature.
I raised the Holy Sword and sliced the spider’s neck.
Normally, the monster would have turned to ash under the sword’s power, but since one leg was still embedded in me, the remaining part of the spider remained, refusing to disappear.
This Shadow Spider was a parasite that basically burrowed inside a human host’s body.
Since it hadn’t detached from my body yet, it was resisting instead of dissolving.
But that didn’t matter.
I had deliberately exposed my shoulder for this very reason.
“O God of the Sun.”
I raised my head toward the destroyed second floor.
My eyes met those of the Shadow Spiders appearing as the space split open.
“Please lend me your fire.”
A small light flickered at the tip of the Holy Sword.
In that state, I prepared once again to perform the Dance of Swords.
The sword dance to burn the monster’s nest began weaving across and between the falling Shadow Spiders above my head.
The Shadow Spiders lunged for my blind spots, but only impaled their own comrades’ flesh by mistake.
The monsters’ screams echoed mournfully.
“This isn’t working. Let’s turn back.”
“What?”
After more than twenty minutes passed with no sign of Captain Owen, Murfin and Beatrice were already heading back toward the Kingdom of Lumin when Beatrice muttered the words that made Murfin frown.
“I have a bad feeling. Like we’re missing something.”
Murfin asked in disbelief.
“You want to turn back just because of a hunch? Didn’t you see the Human Devourers gathering in droves? If we hadn’t escaped right after hearing what Captain Owen said, we’d be dead on the spot.”
“I know.”
“No, we can’t.”
Beatrice looked at Murfin with emotionless eyes.
“Then I’m going alone.”
“…What?”
“You don’t need to come.”
“No, what are you—!”
Before Murfin could say anything, Beatrice abruptly turned and quickly disappeared from his sight.
“…Damn it, really.”
What kind of precious, spoiled behavior was that?
But Murfin had no choice.
Having been chosen as a member of the Special Task Force and owing his life to Owen, fulfilling his leader’s wishes was the bare minimum Murfin could do.
“Come with me. Please!”
Murfin hurriedly chased after Beatrice and soon caught up to her.
The Shadow Spider was one of the monsters native to the Realm of Demons, infamous for using human flesh as bait and devouring its own kind.
Because of that, they were often raised as pets among the Demon Race.
Since they were monsters who hunted other monsters, they had little use on the battlefield.
However, with a change in thinking, these creatures developed a unique war tactic used by the Demon Race—once their nest was infiltrated, they would never forgive the intruder, which caused serious trouble for the Resistance Army.
The Shadow Spider I was currently cutting down was still in a stage before evolving into that form.
Compared to the power needed to pierce a Hero’s body in one strike, its size was clearly smaller than those I’d often seen in the Realm of Demons.
‘This is troublesome.’
That meant the Demon who had released the Shadow Spiders here was likely the biggest future obstacle for the Humanity Resistance Army.
It was necessary to kill them now, no matter what.
But before that…
“Jair Saint-Germain. I know you’re already hearing my voice.”
The backstory of Beatrice’s birth.
The fake family situation she was entangled in.
The contract with the Demon Race linked to the Shadow Spider.
All of it fit together like pieces of a puzzle in my mind.
“The Shadow Spider was the first monster to imitate humanity in order to devour its own kind.”
I removed the corpse of the Shadow Spider parasitizing my body.
The black corpse, having lost its host, turned to ashen gray dust and scattered away.
“This monster ultimately enters the host’s body and gradually takes over the host’s entire body as its own.”
This was Jair Saint-Germain’s house.
That this place had turned into a Shadow Spider’s nest meant one thing:
Jair Saint-Germain, the owner of this house, had begun losing control of his body to the Shadow Spider.
There was no way Saint-Germain had gone mad and done this himself, so the cause was obvious.
“He was deceived by the Demon Race. What a fool.”
Jair Saint-Germain had been subjected to biological experimentation by demons seeking to use the Shadow Spider.
Their contract was merely bait.
Without it, this situation would be impossible.
“Nonsense.”
Perhaps hearing my words, a strange voice echoed through the air.
It was a mixture of a beast’s howl and the voice of an unfamiliar man.
Looking toward the source, I saw a man in a researcher’s outfit slowly descending through the air.
But calling him a man was a stretch—he was already more demon than human.
Eight spider legs stretched out behind him, seemingly walking through the air as if treading on invisible webs.
His eyes had multiplied like a spider’s, splitting in several directions, reflecting my figure.
“I’m staking everything on my research. The Shadow Spider is just a part of it.”
Ah, this is bad.
When the Shadow Spider uses a human as a host, it minimizes the discomfort of the prey being eaten alive.
That meant his brain was already corrupted.
Clutching the Holy Sword tightly, I asked,
“What research?”
“The infinite birth of humans.”
“Why such research?”
“That’s obvious. To create an infinite food supply.”
“…I see.”
His own beliefs and will had already vanished.
Whoever he was, he was a demon fitting of those who created the Shadow Spider—utterly ruthless.
Deceiving humans into contracts and plunging them into an abyss where even despair can’t be felt was cruelty worse than a demon’s.
Even the host would never realize they were once human.
“Then you’ll die here.”
“Ha, such great research, yet you fail to understand. That’s why you shouldn’t waste time talking to ignorant fools.”
“Right. Talking to beasts isn’t worthwhile.”
Just as Jair Saint-Germain and I prepared to fight in earnest,
Kyahhh!
Suddenly, the chilling screams of Human Devourers echoed.
Someone was approaching outside this haunted house.
I quickly identified them and frowned.
“What the hell…”
I struck down Jair Saint-Germain as I spoke.
This was no time to waste on this weakling.
Rolling away, I left the Baronette’s head behind and dashed straight toward the Human Devourers.
Ah, Murfin, you bastard.
How do you manage your juniors this badly?