A Witch of Belphegor

"Who the fuck howls like a maniac?!" Nadin yelled as if deriding the person who just threw the corpse of a poor familiar at him. However, he was a little on the edge. He was charging for another major explosion, and if he was attacked by then, the explosion would backfire at him and crush his entire right arm.

Carmina then disengaged her stance and turned into a human shape again. However, she was—by then—armed with a high-caliber gun. Instead of pure black and silver, the anti-material rifle was made of glass and had a silver glow. It was clearly a witch tech gun.

She aimed in a direction and fired, the boom of her shot echoing into the night. However, she quickly shifted her rifle into submachine guns to arm herself for a close encounter.

Nadin couldn't imagine that he would see Carmina in a Rambo mode. She had not fought in a while since Nadin could handle everything perfectly, but right now… someone was proving to be a difficult target.

"Just so you wait for my charge…" Nadin murmured before sending Slick Back to where Carmina fired her rifle. "Get whoever that lunatic was!"

The witch went with his familiar, but he quickly retreated and placed his familiar in front of him. In the darkness of the night, a blue light flashed towards him. Before anyone could react, a person had already pierced his hand at the shade, punching holes through the poor thing.

A loud scream from the familiar rang out, and its master conjured a ball of magic to fire at the person, sacrificing his already-dead familiar's body. The ball grew huge like a black hole the moment it left his hand. It would trap anything it could touch.

However, the figure was too fast as he lunged to the side and avoided the black hole. Behind him was a huge black dog that spat out three balls of blue flame, dissipating the black hole with the first two. The witch didn't know what even hit him when he discovered he felt the remnant of his very soul burn from the third one.

"Ahhh!" Another blood-curdling scream came from the witch who burned into ashes the moment he was covered in blue.

"Hellhound!" Nadin yelled, not believing his eyes. His handler had already warned him that hellhounds might appear in Boston, but he didn't think he was telling the truth.

Hellhounds were nothing any demon could own. The low-class ones were the ultimate familiars for some top-class witches who were all under Asmodeus' contracts. However, he had never given a royal hound to anyone. Unless the person was Asmodeus himself, this hellhound shouldn't exist in this plane!

That was why he was scared. The appearance of this hellhound racked him more than anything. He was newly promoted to have a contract directly under Satan. He still had a lot to learn before he could earn a more powerful upgrade for his Carmina.

Seeing a royal hound, he knew that he would never be the match of this witch… whoever he was.

"Bomberman! If you don't die today, you will only suffer!" Laughter came from the man who came out unscathed from the black hole.

Noah then eyed at the hunter and the other witch who paused due to the appearance of the royal hound. He hurled a bag towards Luca, and the hunter quickly sprinted to catch it.

"Oh, you know me? Then, I'm supposed to know who you are, right?" Nadin sniggered as he continued to charge. He was itching to get over this and flee. He had to survive and report about this.

"For now, call me Sleepydog." Noah chuckled as he aimed his blue clawed hand at the terrorist. "If you managed to survive, you may get to learn my real name."

Nadin frowned at the silhouette of black with blue glows. He couldn't recognize the man, but the man seemed to have a beef with him.

However, he just dropped it and ordered Carmina to engage the madman. In a whisper, he spoke to his familiar, "We have to escape."

"Master, escape once you release the explosion. Leave with or without me. His Highness will reward you with a stronger familiar." Carmina huffed as she changed forms again, having more guns poking out of her body. "Sleepydog, I will not let you or your dog terrorize me!"

With that suicidal act, she dashed towards Noah.

Square Hair had left Luca and chose to attack Noah. A hunter was nothing comparable to a witch with a royal hound. They could squeeze Luca like a bug, but this Sleepydog seemed to be a formidable opponent.

"Neutralize her! I'll handle Bomberman!"

Noah ordered out loud and ran towards Carmina. The woman then aimed all of her artillery at Noah, but Caliga was faster than her turrets and distracted her. Moreover, seven more hellhounds came jumping at her. Since they needed to fight off a familiar, they came out of the shadows and lunged at Carmina from such a close distance.

A scream came from the familiar as she felt like she was being torn down by seven hellhounds that came out of nowhere. She noticed Noah pass her by and directly aim at Nadin who couldn't move because of his charging state. "Master!"

"Shit!" Nadin cursed as he was staring straight at Noah who already pulled back his arm for a powerful blow.

"Die!" Noah yelled as he swiped towards Nadin.

Boom!

An explosion happened, and the hellhounds disengaged from Carmina who was like a shredded cabbage after they dealt with her. Caliga appeared somewhere far and jumped into the sky like catching a flying disc. However, the flying disc was actually Noah who was critically injured. He then dragged his master away from the source of the explosion.

Carmina then forced her broken body to turn into a small bloodied white drone and flew as fast as she could to where Nadin was. She then produced a metal hand that dragged Nadin who was not in a better condition than Noah.

"What happened?!" Luca didn't know why both men ended up in such a critical condition. He then lifted his hand cannon and aimed at the escaping Nadin and Carmina. When he fired, the marionette of Square Hair jumped to keep him from killing Nadin. The remaining witch then ran to catch up with Carmina and drew a black circle to take them back to their exclusive space, the Pandemonium.

In a few minutes, a catastrophe was averted—with such a devastating price.

Luca only cussed out before running towards Noah who was being tended to by all his hellhounds. At a pace visible to the human eye, Noah's skin began to regenerate to its optimum state. The eight hellhounds were radiating with blue light as if they were transferring magic from their body to their master.

The hunter didn't know what to do as he watched Noah get healed by his dogs. It was so perverted that a witch had that kind of power.

Soon, the mercenaries, Theresa, Howard, and Allan managed to join him in watching.

"Is he dead?" Howard didn't know what to expect. No one could survive Bomberman's charges… not even himself actually. The kind of firepower it had was just not even for witches to tank.

Besides, judging from the state of the two witches, it was probable that Nadin chanced to ruin his own body just to keep Noah from killing him.

The backfire of an improper charge was just so strong.

"Does he look dead to you?" Allan huffed as he walked out of the crowd and just stayed a few steps from the onlookers. He was afraid that these hellhounds would attack him as well. "It would be better if you take him somewhere safer than the grounds."

Caliga then eyed at Luca who returned his gaze with curiosity. He then realized that these hellhounds knew him as Noah's friend at least. The hunter slung his hand cannon on his back and went to carry Noah as soon as the hellhounds stopped producing blue light. Noah's body was most likely repaired, but the jolt and pain couldn't be reversed.

The hunter could only take Noah back to the office.

…

Carmina ended up shoving herself on the ground. Nadin had been critically injured when he used his charge point-blank. He actually finished charging his detonation, but firing it at a target as close as Noah got him caught up in the blast. His right arm might not be blasted from the elbow, but he was still a bloody mess.

"Master…" the woman tried to crawl to her master as soon as she returned to her human state. However, a figure appeared next to her and kicked her out of the way, causing her to cry out.

"Useless thing! Look at your incompetence!" It was a woman with long dark hair. Her buns resembled horns on the side of her head, and her damaged eye was prominent on her beautiful face. She then spat at Nadin. "How could you be so useless? All you have to do is kill an old man…"

"…hound…" Nadin was actually awakened when he heard Carmina scream after getting kicked like a bag of trash. He then used his battered body to shield her from additional hits from the lady. "There was a hellhound…"

The woman only hummed in disbelief. "There's no witch of Asmodeus in the area—what more a top-notch witch. Are you trying to cover up your failure and blaming it on an impossible twist of events?"

Another man walked in and looked at the mess Carmina and Nadin had made. He also saw the other witch whose head was wrecked open by that bloody heeled shoe of the other woman. "Mariz, why did you kill our witness?"

"Eh, they're all useless. His Highness had high expectations for them, and yet—"

"It's understandable." The man shook his head and squatted down next to Nadin. "Nadin, tell me… how much do you remember about the witch of Belphegor? How many royal hellhounds did he have?"