TYND 100

Finally reaching the demon, Theon kicked off the ground and leaped. The demon tried to dodge, but Theon was faster. When he grabbed the old man’s nape, the demon shuddered.

“You filthy human… get off!”

Hundreds of boils appeared on the demon’s body and burst simultaneously. Theon’s hand gripping the nape sizzled and burned, then quickly healed along with the black aura.

This repeated.

Theon seemed to feel no pain as he calmly assessed the age of the body he was holding. If it had been a living body, it would have been troublesome, but this was a body that had died long ago. In that case, there was nothing to worry about.

Behind Theon, his beloved sword floated up.

“……!”

The demon’s eyes widened.

Among transcendents, there were various levels, and for Tuong, it had been hundreds of years since he’d seen a transcendent who could move a sword with aura.

Thunk! The sword pierced the demon’s chest.

Crack, fissures began forming in the body. From the cracks, a pitch-black spiritual form began seeping out. Theon grabbed it with his bare hands and shoved it back inside. His hands burned in the process, but he paid no heed.

Without divine power, Theon couldn’t kill the demon. However, he could make it so the demon couldn’t come near Arashis for a good hundred years. If killed while inside a body, even a spiritual form would take damage.

“Damn…! Let go! I said let go!”

Ignoring Tuong’s struggles, Theon shoved all the spiritual matter back in. Then, while blocking it with his hand, he moved his sword.

Slice!

The sword cut diagonally downward while piercing through the chest. The upper body split in half as dark red blood spurted up. Normally he would use aura to prevent blood from splattering, but Theon was in no state of mind for that now.

The old man’s body that the demon had been inhabiting crashed down.

Theon landed beside the body.

Bones were shattered to pieces and internal organs were crushed and burst. Yet Tuong still let out laughter.

“Yes, go ahead and thoroughly destroy this body. Kukuku… You can’t kill me anyway. I’ve already informed the ‘Archduke’ that the lost item is here!”

“You already informed him?”

“Yes! The ‘Archduke’ will take revenge for me. And when I regenerate after a hundred years, I’ll become the fifth demon. Kahaha!”

The old man’s body crumbled away. From the mouth with shattered gum bones, a pitch-black mass emerged and scattered into the air. He wanted to gather those scattering pieces and send them to eternal darkness, but this was all Theon could do without divine power.

However.

The demonic energy that had been scattering in the air stopped and began returning to the body.

As if held by something.

“What, what is this, what, what are you doing…!”

An invisible force bound the demon’s spirit. Theon heard footsteps approaching and turned around.

The owner of those footsteps was Rothy.

Rothy glared at the demon.

“You ruined the event and keep calling some demon ‘Archduke.’ I’m really angry.”

He was truly… so angry that his usually round eyes had become triangular.

“You don’t have the right to use the cool title of Archduke. Archduke belongs to Theon. I’ve decided to call the demon Archduke ‘demon bastard.'”

With each step Rothy took forward, Tuong trembled.

The black mass bubbled and boiled. He tried desperately to escape the body, but his spirit was trapped by Rothy’s magic and couldn’t budge.

“Impossible. How could… a mere… mere magic… Save me! Ahhhhh!”

The black mass that had been bubbling suddenly burst with a pop! Dark red light spread out, then rapidly contracted and disappeared.

It was the first time Theon had seen such a sight.

He expanded his aura sensing, but felt no demonic energy.

Meaning the demon had vanished.

‘How did this happen?’

Could it be… dead?

That couldn’t be. Only divine magic could send demons to eternal darkness.

But then why did it scream for its life? The one who had been talking about regeneration after a hundred years, why…

Theon’s thoughts didn’t continue.

Rothy’s form swayed and he collapsed sideways.

“Rothy!”

Theon quickly pulled Rothy into his arms. Trembling eyelids and small lips letting out moans. Theon put the back of his hand to his cheek.

His body was hot as fire.

***

Theon rushed to find a doctor while carrying the small body burning with fever. However, the fever reducers that had always brought down Rothy’s temperature didn’t work this time, so they had no choice but to seek a priest’s help.

The priests on the moving island felt something strange and different from an ordinary human body while healing Rothy, but they thought it was due to the demon’s curse and never imagined it could be a biomantic stone.

Even after the fever finally subsided, Rothy didn’t wake up.

“His Highness appears to have fallen into sleep. His body is taking rest from being overworked. For example, when our divine power explosively erupts all at once, we need this kind of sleep time to recover. I understand that mages also fall asleep for recovery when they experience sudden magical explosions or magical exhaustion.”

“How long will the recovery take?”

“He’ll sleep for a minimum of seven days, possibly up to two weeks.”

A mage who had fallen into sleep from a sudden magical explosion. He had seen it several times on the battlefield.

Reassured for now, Theon decided to return to the estate.

Since there were no warp portals on the moving island, Theon’s group disembarked from the island, took a ship back to land, then returned to the Archduke’s residence through the harbor’s warp portal.

High Priest Depaten and the castle’s priest were already waiting at the estate. Theon had called them because there were things to confirm regarding the demon.

“Tell them to come to the bedroom.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Theon, who didn’t want to be separated from Rothy even for a moment, decided to have the conversation in the bedroom.

While waiting for them, he looked down at sleeping Rothy.

Chii…

Chi-chi frantically licked sleeping Rothy’s cheek. Seeing his delicate skin turn red, Theon blocked Chi-chi’s snout.

“Rothy is sleeping to find stability. He’ll be asleep for a while longer, so will you keep making Rothy’s cheek red like this?”

Chii…

Chi-chi then started licking Theon’s palm instead. Theon’s hands still bore traces of wounds.

Theon laid Chi-chi down beside Rothy’s pillow. Chi-chi wriggled and settled into a round position. Theon touched Rothy’s straight nose once with his finger and stood up.

After drawing dark-colored canopy curtains so sleeping Rothy wouldn’t be visible, he welcomed his guests.

The High Priest had a considerably complex expression.

“I heard through the communication orb, but could you tell me about the situation again?”

“Dark red light spread out, then contracted to a single point and disappeared.”

The High Priest and the castle priest looked at each other and nodded. They had expressions as if witnessing a miracle.

“That’s the phenomenon that occurs when a demon returns to eternal darkness.”

Theon glanced briefly at the canopy before looking away.

“Is it possible to kill demons without divine magic?”

“Impossible. There are no exceptions. Demons cannot be killed by anything other than divine power.”

“……”

“You must think my words are impossible too. Divine power and magical power are conflicting forces that cannot coexist, and the Grand Duchess even harbors a magic stone. But the truth that only divine power can send demons back to Meiton’s breeding ground is absolutely without error.”

“……”

“There is only one answer that doesn’t contradict both great truths.”

First, only divine power can kill demons.

Second, Rothy, who harbors a magic stone, killed a demon with magic.

The only answer that doesn’t contradict these two facts and great truths.

“If the Grand Duchess…”

If Rothy.

“Is not human.”

The possibility of not being human.

Something that is alive yet not alive.

Neither living nor object.

A natural object that has harbored divine power from the moment of its creation.

It meant Rothy was a Trimule.

Ten days had passed since Rothy fell asleep. According to the priest who came to examine him several times a day, he would open his eyes in two more days.

Normally when sending one demon to eternal darkness, several priests and clerics gather their divine power to send it back, but since Rothy was alone, his divine power consumption was great, and the time needed for recovery was correspondingly longer.

Though the estate was safe with divine barriers, Theon didn’t want to be separated from Rothy’s side for even a second, so he conducted all his official business in the bedroom. Since this made things quite messy, he had it cleaned before Rothy woke up.

During that time, Rothy was moved to the Grand Duchess’s bedroom.

Theon and his subordinates gathered in the Grand Duchess’s bedroom, which was slightly smaller than the Archduke’s bedroom.

“I wonder if Lord Rothy is sleeping well.”

“Don’t draw the curtains.”

“Yes.”

Chungnip, who had been cheekily trying to draw back the canopy, immediately gave up and sat down.

“Plant has contacted us. He says he’ll cooperate as much as possible in killing the demon bastard. However, there is a condition that the saints of Solten must not interfere. Even in this situation, the honorable task of killing the notorious Collector must be carried out only by the people of the Empire. He is truly a patriot.”

“Tell him we accept.”

“Yes.”

“Jay, where is the demon bastard’s location?”

“He’s hiding in Paien Forest.”

Before dying, Tuong had said he’d already informed the ‘Archduke’ that the lost item was here. As if to prove those words, a deep and huge Demonic energy that overwhelmed the Demonic energy of Shirain and Tuong appeared near the mansion a couple of times.

The ‘Archduke’ had come to steal the watch.