Episode 402

About an hour before confronting Demon King Tantata, Luan, in his Luzard form, had gathered the guards in the guard room. No matter how exemplary he had been, he was still a prisoner. The sudden summons from an inmate took the guards aback, yet surprisingly, none of them showed any dissatisfaction. Jisal, who had reluctantly become head of the punishment unit, felt the same way. Maybe everyone secretly felt that this black-scaled lizardman was extraordinary.

"Gustav is a demon king."

The first words out of his mouth after gathering everyone were even more shocking.

The guards stood in silence with their mouths agape as Luzard continued, "It is an imperfect descent with many restrictions. First of all, he is weak. It must be because of his power that we are trapped here. Judging by the fact that most of us have retained our sanity, his influence must be—"

"Wait, wait a minute!" Jisal hurriedly interrupted. "What are you talking about? A demon king? Has a demon king been summoned to the Rahild Labor Camp?"

Luzard nodded. "That's right."

"That is really... It is just..." Jisal struggled to find the right words before finally letting out a deep sigh. When he spoke again, his voice was much lower. "I don't know much about demon kings or the Dark Church, but how do you stumble upon a demon king as easily as rain on a spring day, to begin with?"

"You can't. That is why I told you this is an incomplete descent."

"Complete or incomplete, this is still a demon king! O-one of the six dark gods worshiped by the Dark Church!"

The speaker wasn't Jisal, but one of the guards. He was a particularly timid young man who had been cowering in fear from the start.

"I-if that type of thing has been summoned... then we are all dead!"

People said that fear was contagious, and in this case, it was true. At the guard's panicked outburst, fear started to spread on the faces of those who had remained relatively composed.

"So are we dead already?"

"Or has miasma corrupted our minds?"

"The ones who walked directly into the demon king's mouth..."

Luzard interjected in a calm voice, dispersing the fear that had been about to form. "Only part of that is true. If a demon king had truly descended, anyone without a divine blessing would have lost their sanity in an instant. It wouldn't have been limited to a few people acting strangely. There would have been mass hysteria, a collective madness that went beyond reason."

At his words, the fearful atmosphere gradually changed. The guards finally started to voice questions that they should have raised from the very start.

So who was this lizardman?

"Who exactly are you?"

"You don't seem like an ordinary lizardman."

Luzard shook his head. "My identity is irrelevant. What matters is that our chances of survival will increase, even if only slightly, if we work together."

"Why should we trust you?" Jisal demanded.

Jisal was still suspicious of the lizardman. He suspected that perhaps he was the mastermind behind the whole situation. Although the Dark Church didn't accept lesser races as believers, temporary cooperation was another matter entirely.

A clear voice suddenly broke through the tense atmosphere. "I can vouch for his identity."

It belonged to the nun who had been silent so far. Everyone turned toward her, and she lowered her head with a gentle smile that felt strangely out of place under the current circumstances.

"Please forgive my late introduction. My name is Razbet, and I am a member of the Seventy-Two Churches' Inquisition Office."

The guards were so fascinated by her devout appearance that their reactions came a moment late.

"I-Inquisition? You're an inquisitor?"

"Y-you mean a heretic inquisitor?"

"Oh gods... The nun sent to the infirmary as reinforcements is actually an inquisitor."

As the place erupted in turmoil once again, Jisal quietly gathered his thoughts.

An inquisitor of the Seventy-Two Churches... An expert of the Dark Church who specializes in demon hunting... They're known as an extremely closed-off group with complete operational autonomy, to the point that they can even disregard direct orders from the Pope. Is this lizardman also an inquisitor? Impossible.

Jisal finished sorting through his thoughts and spoke. "If he's cooperating with an inquisitor, is he from the Hero Society? I heard they even recognize even lesser races as heroes. No. If that were the case, he would have revealed his identity from the beginning and requested our cooperation openly. There was nothing unusual in the documents either... If he's someone who must conceal his identity, this completely..."

Ah. Jisal nodded. "The Imperial Special Forces."

It was a big mistake to draw the wrong conclusion, but this was a reasonable one.

Luzard made no effort to correct this misconception. The moment the words Special Forces left Jisal's mouth, the atmosphere around him changed. The guards looked at him differently. Their suspicion faded, replaced by a fragile sense of trust.

"I already told you that my identity is irrelevant." Luzard's tone was a bit evasive. Then, he added, "Our current priority is to work together to increase our chances of survival."

"What if we move hastily and it backfires? The demon king is calm as long as he is given food..."

"Will you say that if you become his next meal?"

The guard shut his mouth.

Then, someone else spoke up. "Still, wouldn't it be better to wait for outside reinforcements? We already reported the situation through the communication room."

Jisal's expression hardened like stone. "A whole day has passed since. Headquarters isn't that far from the punishment building. If they intended to deal with this from the outside, they would've acted already."

"Did headquarters abandon us?"

"It is possible. However, I don't believe that's the case. The last time I spoke with headquarters, they sounded just as confused. They probably can't spare the attention to deal with the punishment building right now," Jisal answered.

Everyone was silent.

"When it comes down to it, we are the only ones who can solve this crisis," Luzard said.

"So... what are you planning to do?"

At Jisal's question, Luzard explained, "I will follow the path to the demon king on the top floor. Whether I fight or speak with him, I will find a way to get us out of here. But let me make one thing clear first. This is a desperate struggle. There's no guarantee that I'll win or that the negotiations will succeed. I may only provoke the demon king, causing the fallout to spread throughout the entire punishment building."

Luzard's gaze shifted to the guards. "That means you could die as well."

"That..."

One of the guards asked, "Are you saying we could get dragged into your fight?"

Luzard chuckled. "That's funny. You talk about being dragged in, when that already happened a long time ago. Ever since Gustav arrived here. You don't want to risk your lives? I can understand that, but I have to fight. If things stay the way they are now, we are all going to die here anyway."

"That... That's a cruel thing to say..."

"What's truly cruel is something else."

The guards flinched.

Luzard's low voice spread like a rumbling earthquake. "It is trembling in fear and dying without doing anything. Just like a dog. I'm not a good person, but I don't think I'm a bad one either. I could've gone straight to have a conversation with the demon king without saying anything to you. The reason I didn't do so and summoned you here to tell you this instead is simple. It is to keep my conscience clear."

A breathy sound escaped from Luzard's mouth. Maybe because of his different mouth structure, the guards realized a moment later that he was suppressing a laugh.

"If you prefer, call it hypocrisy instead of a conscience. Either way, I'm going to fight. Honestly, I don't care about any backlash, complaints, or resentment this choice may bring."

The absurd declaration elicited enthusiastic applause from Sister Razbet, who was standing next to him.

Once the applause subsided, Jisal asked, "Then... what can we do?"

"Prepare yourselves," Luzard answered.

"For what?"

"Prepare your mind for anything," Luzard replied.

"Until when?" Jisal pressed.

"You have an hour," Luzard noted.

"That is too tight," Jisal grumbled.

"Yes. This is urgent," Luzard said. "A fight against a demon always is."

***

Shit. I shouldn't have listened to him. Even so, a stiff smile soon tugged at Jisal's lips.

So what if he had ignored those words? Was there a better option? No. There wasn't.

This was why he would go along with it, just as usual. In the end, this was no different from his days working in the punishment building.

The higher-ups had assigned them to work in miserable posts and buried them under mountains of work, to the point that even 100 hours a week hadn't been enough to handle all the work.

To survive in that environment, one needed some tricks: do things just well enough, avoid standing out, and skillfully skirt the edges.

That situation should have been no different.

A cough escaped his lips. His lungs stung as though stone fragments had entered his airways.

Jisal stood up without even brushing off the thick layer of dust coating his head. He ached in several places, as if stones had slammed onto him, but at least nothing seemed broken.

What the hell did he do to make the tower look like this?

Jisal gritted his teeth as he looked around. "Hey! Hello! Is anyone safe?"

Groans rose from all around him.

"H-here... Vice Principal..."

"Please help me... My leg is crushed..."

It was absolute chaos.

Jisal gasped as he started to pull the guards free beneath the rubble.

After rescuing around five of them, the lights went out, as if in sync, and darkness swallowed the surroundings in an instant.

"What now...?"

The punishment building had almost collapsed, the guards were groaning, and now the entire place had gone dark.

Fear stabbed into Jisal's chest.

"You guard bastards! What kind of new torture method is this?"

"Don't criminals have rights?"

"I asked for food, so you threw some rocks at me?"

Disgruntled curses suddenly came from the newly formed hole.

The expressions of Jisal and the guards stiffened.

It is the prisoners.

How did the voices of the people in the confinement cells reach the first floor?

There was only one possibility they could think of. The security and confinement functions of the punishment building have collapsed.

Their minds went blank, and their legs went weak at the realization that the countless heinous criminals imprisoned in the tower had been released at once.

"M-mommy..."

Jisal snapped back to his senses the moment he heard one guard's trembling, sobbing voice. He immediately slapped the guard across the cheek. "Is this really the time to panic? Huh? Is this the time for that?"

"V-Vice Principal?"

"You've had it easy this whole time!" Jisal gritted his teeth. "There is nothing difficult about your job! You just put off your tasks or make the model prisoners handle them! And even then, you are paid on time! If you feel stressed, you take it out on the prisoners! Shit, you've been enjoying a sweet life, so get up already! There is still work to be done!"

He didn't know who he was yelling at. He had been the laziest and most comfortable one among the guards.

Jisal swallowed a sneer and pulled out his weapon. It was the electric baton issued to the guards of the punishment building.

Sparks crackled from the baton, momentarily illuminating the area.

"As the acting vice principal, I command you! From now on, all guards are to subdue the escaped prisoners!"

"H-how..."

"It is obvious!" Jisal shouted through gritted teeth. "Risk your lives! If you don't want to die, if you want to live long enough to see your mothers' faces, then fight! You idiots!"

***

I worried about the prisoners escaping, but somehow, the situation would work itself out. Rather than trusting the guards, I believed in Verita, who would be down there.

More importantly, I wasn't in a position to worry about anyone else right now.

In the suffocating darkness, only a thumping echoed through the air. There were no signs of Tantata. To make matters worse, I couldn't pinpoint the sound's direction. I didn't know why, but it sounded as though it was coming from all directions.

It truly felt ghostlike. Darkness alone couldn't deceive my vision in the first place, and it would be impossible for Tantata to completely hide his huge body.

Did he use some kind of power?

That was probably the case.

The thudding against the ground seemed to drift farther away yet also drift closer.

Thanks to Senior Sister Tian's advice last time, I now knew how to react when my vision was obstructed. However, the confusion differed from the simple disruption of my senses.

Should I coat myself in concentrated energy?

I had to do that for now. It would consume a huge amount of internal energy, but it was still better than taking a surprise attack and collapsing instantly.

As soon as I made a decision, I tried to circulate the internal energy within my dantian.

—Infuse mana into the Black Dragon Fang!

Suddenly, Vulcanus' voice rang out from the Black Dragon Fang hanging at my waist.

"It is possible, but is that the right move?"

—You are stating the obvious! We may not be able to destroy that foul being, but at the very least, we can drive away the surrounding darkness!

In that case... I nodded and poured my internal energy into the Black Dragon Fang.

Instead of channeling the energy through my hand, I released it directly from the part of the body touching the sword. The technique required a rather advanced level of energy control. Still, I could draw energy from even a strand of hair if I wished, so it wasn't a problem.

Flames burst out from the Black Dragon Fang and flooded the area with brilliant light. Finally, Tantata's form came into view.

The creature, standing a short distance away, flinched in visible surprise at the sudden blaze. Then, an even more shocking development followed.

"Oh my!" The angry, surprised Tantata fell to the ground with a thud.

Our eyes met, and Tantata said with an awkward expression, "I-I was so surprised that I fell! I-it is a pity..."

Looking at me, Tantata burst into laughter. "I-I lost...!"

What is he trying to do now?