Familiar Faces (1)

[Whoosh-grrrr-]

Suspended from the ceiling with an unpleasant breath, this must be Ephebo.

He is one of the four hounds who, along with Geronto, Pedo, and Hebe, serve as Guilty's minions.

Vikir quickly scanned Ephebo's entire body.

'He's fully recovered, a demon indeed.'

No broken bones, no torn flesh, no exploded organs, all seemingly intact.

But Vikir was a veteran hound, used to fighting demons, so he wasn't too fazed.

Vikir prepared himself for battle and calmly began to calculate his next move.

... But Dolores was not among them.

"Huh, Lord Ephebo, why are you here...?"

She looked dazed, her thinking paralyzed for a moment.

Why is the guardian knight of House Endulgentia in this place, at this time of night, looking like this?

And.

"You'll get yourself killed if you keep bruising like that."

Vikir advised mildly.

Quack!

With that, Ephebo, who had fallen from the ceiling, raised the large hammer he was carrying and smashed it into Vikir.

"You've got some serious muscle."

Vikir stumbled backward with Dolores around his waist.

The magic sword Beelzebub was trembling.

The Quovadis's blunt technique would be too much of a drain on his strength in a head-to-head encounter.

Vikir leaped to his feet and retreated across the hall.

There was no need for concern for terrain in this demonic labyrinth, a corridor that went on forever anyway.

Vikir set Dolores down on the floor.

"So much for wrapping. I can't take any more."

Dolores tried to say something, but Vikir really didn't have time.

…Thud!

Ephebo crawled down to the ground.

[Crunch! Crunch!]

Every joint in his body was grotesquely twisted, and he had an even more grotesque appearance than when they had met before.

His arms, thick as logs, were longer than his legs, dragging on the ground, and his legs, with two or three more joints than a normal human leg, were bent in grotesque ways.

It looked like a demon.

Dolores's eyes grew cold at the sight of him.

Although he was an Old Order figure, he had once been an ally, a member of the same Quovadis.

But the figure in front of her now was unmistakably a demon.

"...Why is a demon here?"

"It's not a demon, it's Lord Ephebo."

"I mean, why would Lord Ephebo be demonized...? Are you saying he was a demon in the first place?"

Dolores stared at the figure before her in bewilderment and disbelief.

A man who had been knighted in the Quovadis Family and appointed as the guardian knight of House Indulgentia.

She had never seen his bare face, as he always wore a mask, but she had a not-so-bad image of a man who could take on any task, no matter how arduous, with grace.

'What the hell is going on within the family?'

Dolores felt confused, but now was not the time to pry into it.

…Boom!

The Night Hound's sword and Ephebo's hammer clashed again.

Pfft!

Shockwaves ripped through the ceiling, walls, and floor.

Steel frames buried in the walls were bent like taffy sticks, and water was gushing out from burst water pipes.

Dolores gasped at the powerful aura Ephebo emitted.

Graduators. That's the highest level of the Graduators.

Was Lord Ephebo that powerful?

... But there was something even more astonishing than that.

It was the blood-colored aura of the Night Hound.

…Kurrrrr!

Vikir emitted a thick, liquid, almost solid aura from the tip of his magic sword Beelzebub.

Handling it was like wielding a giant greatsword.

Crackle! Crackle! Clang!

The black aura that Ephebo emitted was torn apart by Vikir's red aura.

It was like iron and lime colliding.

Baskerville's seventh form.

The upper incisors, central incisors, lateral incisors, and molars.

And the wisdom teeth, premolars, and molars of the lower jaw.

A total of seven teeth fell toward Efebo, the black sack monster.

…Thud, thud, thud, thud!

The hound's teeth punctured flesh, slicing, tearing, ripping, and crushing even the bones within.

This murderous sword technique is optimized for killing, and its sole purpose is to make the enemy suffer.

It is a legendary sword technique that only exists in the Baskerville 10th Form, and has not been reported in the literature.

Even a high-ranking member of the Baskervilles would not recognize Vikir's current swordplay as Baskervillian.

Is that why? Dolores looked at Vikir, growing increasingly confused.

"You... have grown stronger since I last saw you, haven't you?"

"I've been steadily raiding the branches of the Quovadis family."

"What, what! How can you say that so nonchalantly... No, more than that, why?"

"Why, do you even have that question after seeing that?"

Vikir jerked at the Ephebo in front of him.

[grunt... shrug...]

Ephebo's entire body was covered in teeth and he was staggering around, but he was still standing without falling.

For a normal person, or even a normal Graduator, a wound of this severity would have been fatal.

…Push! …Push!

Ephebo's tattered flesh spurted out blood as black as asphalt.

Dolores asked, not quite understanding.

"Why the hell is there a thing like that in our family?"

"What if you ask me to do your household chores."

"You knew about it! Isn't that why you've been raiding the branches all this time...!?"

But Dolores' questions were not answered. There was a more pressing matter at hand.

Shhhh.

Ephebo began to do something unpleasant.

The black energy that emanated from his entire body turned into a chain and wrapped around Vikir.

"What a bother..."

Vikir realized that Ephebo's purpose was to stall.

Pot!

Kicking the watery floor, Vikir stretched out the aura of Beelzebub as long as he could.

This would be the final blow.

But.

Boom.

Ephebo swung the huge hammer a few times, then picked it up and threw it.

The hammer bent like a thumb and flew toward Vikir.

With the black chains wrapped around his body, Vikir was forced to take the blow with his body.

But.

"Light of my life, flame of my life, my sin, my soul. I will break your filthy bonds!"

The holy incantation from Dolores' mouth shattered the chains around Vikir's entire body.

Pa'aat-.

Buff. And heal.

When the demonic debuff weighing down Vikir's body disappeared, Vikir regained the agile movements characteristic of a night hound.

Jaw! Pow!

Vikir stepped on the flying hammer and leaped once more.

Using his momentum as a springboard, he swung Beelzebub horizontally.

A red crescent moon floated sideways.

… Pow!

Ephebo lost his head by just a fraction of a second.

Bikir sunk his seventh tooth into the top of Ephebo's head, then used the remaining six teeth to tear off the flesh, tendons, and bones of Ephebo's neck.

Kung!

Ephebo's body crashed into the watery floor. The hammer also stopped, embedded in the wall.

Even if water wasn't gushing out of the water pipe, it would have seemed like time had stopped.

Thud.

Vikir dropped Ephebo's head to the floor, which was still stuck on the tip of Beelzebub.

"I've severed his neck completely, so I suppose not even a demon can do much about it."

Just in case it could regenerate in some bizarre way, Vikir pulled the head away from his body and stomped on it firmly with his foot.

This is because there was a case in the past where Set escaped with only its head remaining.

Then Dolores spoke, her voice trembling.

"I don't know, what the hell is going on. I thought the only trouble in the family was the conflict between the Old and New Order factions, but... what the hell was lurking behind that, do you know?"

At this, Vikir shook his head.

"I don't know. All I know is that the head of the Indulgentia family is actually a demon. That's also at the level of a demon king."

Dolores's eyes widened to tears at that.

She stammered out a question.

"Ar, are you sure about that, can you say for sure?"

"Can't you tell by looking at that?"

Vikir pointed at Ephebo's body and then at his head.

Even at this moment, Ephebo's body, pulsing with black blood, was still struggling to regenerate.

Dolores finally recognized the words of the Night Hound.

Paat-.

The divine white light that emanated from her body had completely destroyed Ephebo's immune system.

In the end, Ephebo sank completely, missing even the last opportunity to regenerate.

Vikir looked at it and thought.

"... is more useful than I thought?

Demons' uncommon ability to regenerate had always been a problem for Vikir.

But with Dolores by his side, it might be a different story.

Dolores, meanwhile, looked uneasy and asked Vikir again.

"If, if there were demons lurking in the back of the Old Order... then shouldn't there be a problem with the New Order?"

"Did any of the branches I've raided so far belong to the New Order?"

"... Not one, that I know of."

"Then we have our answer."

Vikir neatly organized Dolores's confusion.

Dolores could only stare at Vikir's back as he walked ahead.

Then Vikir looked down at Ephebo's head rolling on the floor.

A black leather sack, which, upon closer inspection, looked like a hood attached to the inside of a gas mask.

It, too, seemed to be an artifact of some sort, as it emitted a faint aura of magic.

I've thought about it before, but I had a feeling that it might be an artifact, an "OOPArt" of sorts, like Beelzebub.

I was also quite curious about the face behind the black sack mask.

Dolores was also very curious, as she had seen with her own eyes that Ephebo had used the blunt techniques of the Quovadis.

"Who the hell is... really a Quovadis?"

"You'll know when you see his face."

Vikir extended his hand.

With a snap, the black sack that had been wrapped around Ephebo's face was pulled away.

Both Vikir and Dolores stared in horror.

"...!?"

Ephebo's bare face was clearly that of someone they both knew.