Chapter 431: The Lion King (4)  

...Rumbling!

Poking its head through the crumbling floor was the head of a giant horse, and its body was made up of dark tree bark.

The presence of horses was not surprising for a knight, but this one's appearance was very familiar.

A bust that those who graduated from the Colosseo Academy cannot help but remember.

<'The 5th Corpse' Amdusias>

Danger Rating : S+

Size: ?

Found in: The Serpent's Womb, deep within the Gates of Destruction.

-Also known as '5th Corpse'.

One of the Ten Plagues, the natural enemy of mankind, incomprehensible and unkillable.

"Take away the life of the first born that year."

– 『The Ten Commandments』 10:Top –

'Amdusias', the unicorn of the abyss. 5th of the Ten Corpses.

This demon, in the form of a giant horse, roared with its mouth open at the Night Walkers.

"H-how!?"

"Didn't Vikir exterminate that thing!"

Hearing Tudor and Bianca exclaim in horror, Passamonte chuckled and replied.

"It's not real. It's a remnant of Amdusias wandering the Imperial Capital. Of course, it cannot exert the same power as the main body, but it can replicate some of its powers."

The spirit of Amdusias shattered and scattered into countless fragments.

Passamonte seemed to have picked up one of the larger pieces.

"Amdusias was a great horse that I always wanted to tame. Is there anything more honorable than taming a beast-type demon that is treated as an equal? and I owe it all to you."

Passamonte climbed onto Amdusias's back.

"Die, demon!"

Tudor raised his Gungnir and swung it.

"Now that I have a good horse, I must have a good body and a good weapon, right? Alas, Tudor, recklessness is the privilege of the young; You don't know how long I've waited for my courage to mature before your body."

The words only tore at Passamonte's torn mouth even more.

At the same time.

Chararararak-!

The rough tree bark that covered Amdusias' body began to snap like tentacles in unison.

Everyone could tell that these were no ordinary trees.

"...Tentacles!?"

Dolores exclaimed in horror.

It seemed that Passamonte had even gained Amdusias's ability to manipulate plant power.

Though all that was here was a few roots of the Hell Tree, it was enough to create the imaginary world once again.

"The Hell Tree is perfect for destroying the minds of its prey. It is perfect for taking away the body without a scratch. Ah, you've experienced it, so you know it well."

Passamonte's voice flows smoothly.

The roots of the Hell Tree caught the current and stretched out with incredible speed, enveloping the Night Walkers.

Kiriririririririk-

Everything was as they remembered it.

The roots of the Hell Tree wrapped around Dolores and everyone else, dragging their minds down to the bottom of a deep, dark abyss.

"I can see why Amdusias was so fascinated by the souls that matured in the Hell Tree."

Passamonte muttered in a low voice.

"I'll let them ripen slowly, and take them out when they're at their most tattered. Souls are like fruit, they're sweetest and softest just before they rot."

Only the sound of laughter, tinged with a slimy appetite, hovered in the abyss.

* * * "...Keugh."

Tudor held his pounding head and lifted his head.

Parched soil, barren land with nothing, dark red sky.

He had awakened in the Hell Tree for the first time in nearly four years.

The good news was that he woke up in the same place, not separated from Dolores, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, Sinclair, and the others.

"Where am we?"

Everyone was stunned by the scene that greeted them upon awakening.

Parched black soil, gnarled dead trees, burning earth, and smoke billowing from everywhere blocked their vision.

They had all been trapped in the Hell Tree before, but this was the first time they had been thrown into such a harsh environment from the beginning.

A vague shadow loomed through the thick atmosphere.

It was a large stone statue, weathered by the winds of time and no longer in perfect shape.

There were many chipped pieces here and there, but it was still possible to make out the face of the statue.

The sharp-eyed Bianca was the first to speak.

"These are the characters of the Iron Blooded Swordsman Baskerville. I believe it's the patriarch, Marquis Hugo Le Baskerville, and the young master, Count Osiris Le Baskerville?"

It's not hard to guess, then, who this space, this imaginary world, might be connected to.

"Could this be a visual representation of Vikir's inner world?"

Everyone nodded slowly at Tudor's words.

Once upon a time, Vikir had gone alone to capture Amdusias on the Flowing River.

Later, they were told that Vikir fought his final battle with Amdusias in a space that visualized his inner self.

This is exactly how Vikir described the scene in his inner world.

A barren mountain where the leaves of every tree were burnt and crumbled, the soil dried up, the insects died, and the animals were reduced to skeletons.

There were five such mountains spread out before them.

Everyone who entered the mental world instinctively recognized them.

Each of those massive, sedimentary mountains was the embodiment of the burden and responsibility that Vikir carried in his heart.

There were many other things that struck Dolores, Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, and Sinclair.

Mountain of Corpses and Sea of ??Blood.

A swamp of blood and flesh. A mountain of bones. Rivers, lakes, and oceans of blood.

Demon and human corpses tangled together to form hills and valleys, ravines and canyons, and everywhere boiling lava and sulfur erupted in soft explosions.

Hungry monsters compete to eat the corpse, and sorrowful screams, cries, and deathly words come from all over without end.

The Outer Demon World. Desperation and horror beyond measure.

Where on earth do the great chains of chaos, the whirlpool of hatred, and all these terrible phenomena come from?

" ...What kind of world has Vikir been living in?"

Dolores took it all in, first in amazement, then in sadness and pity.

Tudor, Bianca, Sancho, and Piggy were speechless.

"What kind of a sight does a man ever see in his life?"

"I didn't think he was a normal guy, but... what the hell was he doing?"

"He's been living in this kind of environment, no wonder his personality is so dull."

"...I feel so bad for Vikir."

"...."

Sinclair simply held it all in her eyes with a wistful gaze.

And then.

Footsteps pounded the ground.

Over the burning horizon, a ragged horse trotted toward them.

"...!"

Dolores's eyes widened.

Amdusias. Fifth of the Tenth.

A demon in the form of a huge, bulky horse.

But somehow, it was now walking on the ground in the form of an old, dirty donkey.

It looked precariously close to collapse, as if its strength would soon fail and it would perish.

Tudor held his spear out to stop Amdusias. "Hey. Stop!"

Then.

... Kung!

As soon as Tudor blocked his path, Amdusias fell to the ground and bit out his tongue.

" ...Uh? What, I didn't do anything!"

Tudor hurriedly waved his hand as Bianca narrowed her eyes next to him.

Dolores, meanwhile, looked at Amdusias' body on the ground.

It appeared to be a tiny fraction of the many fragments of consciousness left behind by the real Amdusias.

It spoke in a weary, almost fading voice.

[...Run away. A monster is coming.].

At the words, everyone shook their heads in disbelief.

Amdusias continued, tears in his eyes.

[This is the realm of the monster who destroyed the Hell Tree and imprisoned me in his mind. I don't know how you got here, but you'd better run away quickly, for the monster's inner world is so desolate and devastated that even demons have mental breakdowns after being trapped inside for so long... hi-hi... hihehehehe-]

Those were the last words of Amdusias' thought fragment.

Tsutsutsutsuts...

Amdusias's soul fragment turns to black powder and crumbles.

It seemed that Pasamonte had gotten hold of the Amdusias inside Vikir and was manipulating him.

"I don't really understand what's going on, but... what you're saying is that when we were trapped in the Hell Tree, we were trapped in a fragment of the Hell Tree that was a copy of Vikir's mind, and now this is the landscape of Vikir's inner world, right?"

Everyone nodded at Tudor's summary.

Not sure if it makes sense, but it's the way things are, so they'll have to accept it.

"I think it's the result of the combined powers of 5th and 4th Corpse, and we need to get out of this world first."

No one disagreed with Dolores' words.

Passamonte's intention is to trap everyone here and gradually break their minds.

It was clear that humans would not last long in this harsh environment, where even demons would lose their sense of self and crumble.

"Damn it, this is the imaginary world, and I can't even decide for myself. If I don't get my shit together, Passamonte, will he take my body?"

Tudor broke out in a cold sweat and looked around.

But the landscape of this world, so full of enemies and nothing but blackness, was enough to drive him mad.

'What kind of life has Vikir lived?'

This is the only thought that commonly appears in everyone's mind.

Right then.

[...demon].

Behind their backs. A voice that made everyone's bodies stiffen.

But the body didn't react in a negative way.

It was the voice they had longed for, the voice they had wanted to hear.

[...demon].

It was the voice of an old comrade, a close friend, who had gone to a place where they would never meet again.

"Vikir!?"

Piggy was the first to turn his head.

Dolores, Sinclair, Tudor, Sancho, and Bianca also hurriedly turned their heads to look at the place where the voice was coming from.

And there stood a figure that matched everyone's thoughts.

Vikir.

Vikir Van Baskerville.

First year at Colosseo Academy.

A model student who had never missed a class.

And the Night Hound, the worst villain the entire Empire had ever seen.

[...Demons kill]

He remained the same, unchanged from four years ago.

In this desolate, lonely place. All this time. Alone.