[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
Chapter 54: The Missing Children (4)
With the clanking of the door, footsteps approached.
Slow, dragging footsteps.
It was the old woman.
Slowly approaching Hal, the old woman peered into the cell and frowned.
"Who is it? Who's saying they can't eat because it's cold?"
"It's ."
"This voice... isn't it our esteed priest-nim?"
"Yes."
At Hal's reply, the old woman let out a scoff.
"I don't know what you're scheming, but it's useless. There's nothing you can do now."
"..."
Hal remained silent at the old woman's words.
He didn't know if it was the poisonous smoke from the firewood or so other poison she had given him after he collapsed.
But as the witch had said, Hal was in no condition to even move his body properly.
The old woman, well aware of this, continued speaking with a confident sneer.
"I hear you're cold?"
"...I can't even sleep, let alone eat, because it's so cold."
Perhaps due to his weakened state, it was true that he was shivering from the chills.
"Still full, are we? You must have grown up pampered."
Scoffing, the old woman turned her head and spoke to the girl.
"Light the fire on the stove. Our priest-nim is cold, we can't have that."
"Yes, I understand."
The girl scurried over to the fireplace at the end of the basent and poured oil on it.
Then she struck the flint against the steel.
Red sparks flew as the steel clashed.
But the sparks didn't land on the oil, instead scattering in random directions.
That was because the girl was striking the flint outside the fireplace.
"What are you doing! Light the fire quickly!"
The old woman, who had been waiting for a while, shouted impatiently.
The girl trembled and replied,
"I-I'm sorry. But the fire won't light..."
"You idiot. You can't even light a fire at your age? I should just turn you into a tree too."
The old woman, seemingly angry, quickly approached the stove.
Then, she roughly shoved the girl standing in front of the fireplace and said,
"Get out of the way. I'll do it myself."
Snatching the flint, the witch struck it directly inside the fireplace.
With a ticking sound, the firewood caught fire, and the old woman frowned.
"Such a simple task..."
Hal quietly prayed.
"Ehurshica."
Whoosh
Azure flas erupted from the fireplace like an explosion.
The flas, rising as if to devour everything, engulfed the old woman.
"Gah!"
Just as the old woman was startled and tried to step back,
"Heave-ho!"
The girl standing behind her pushed the old woman towards the fireplace with all her might.
"Aaaaagh!"
The old woman wasn't just caught in the Azure Fla; she was completely engulfed in the fire, struggling within it.
'It worked.'
Things were going even better than expected.
Just as Hal was about to clench his fist in triumph,
"...Eeeeeek!"
The old woman sprang up from the fireplace like a coiled spring.
The Azure flas on her body quickly died down.
Like charcoal doused with water, the Azure Fla disappeared without a trace, emitting smoke.
Watching this, Hal unconsciously gripped the bars tightly and shouted,
"That's impossible...!"
The Azure Fla was supposed to burn ravenously until the demon's breath ceased.
Of course, the higher the demon's rank, the more likely it was to extinguish the flas, but Vinea was fundantally a parasitic demon.
Its own combat power and stamina were not known to be particularly outstanding.
But no matter how much Hal denied it, it couldn't be helped.
"You... dare... you brats...!"
The unbelievable had already happened right before his eyes.
The old woman, her whole body burned and blackened, gritted her teeth.
Just then, the pendant on the old woman's neck snapped and fell to the floor with a clinking sound.
"Aaah...!"
Watching this, the old woman trembled with even greater fury.
"You... I'll tear open your jaws and stuff you all with the fruit!"
The old woman clutched at her lting facial skin.
Sizzle
And with the sound of tearing flesh, she ripped off her skin.
"...!"
The old woman's form ripped apart, revealing a face covered in bark, no, a face made entirely of wood.
'It wasn't Vinea...!'
She was rely a Trent, one of the humans infected by Vinea.
However, he had never heard of a Trent possessing this level of ego and power.
"You're first. You dared to conspire and deceive ?"
The Trent took a step towards the terrified girl, who was trembling.
"...Sob."
The girl, her legs seemingly giving way, crawled away, but she was still trapped within the basent.
The best she could do was press herself against the wall opposite the fireplace.
"No!!"
The boy's desperate scream echoed from beyond the wall.
The boy shouted urgently,
"Get up! Get up and run, you idiot!"
"B-brother."
The girl whimpered, trembling.
"...I-I can't get up. Sob."
Watching this, Hal gritted his teeth, rattling his handcuffs against the bars.
But the handcuffs wouldn't break.
Instead, Hal's skin was torn to shreds, revealing the white bone of his wrist.
"..."
He had to do sothing.
Hal gritted his teeth and glared at the demon approaching the girl.
'The Azure Fla definitely worked. The fire was extinguished... probably because of that pendant.'
There was no way to know the true nature of the pendant right now.
But just one more ti.
If he could just unleash the Azure Fla on it one more ti, he could finish it off.
But how?
If it ca closer, he could try splashing blood on it, but Trent was already wary of him.
Hal's eyes naturally fell on the fireplace.
He could still see the Azure Fla burning with his blood as the dium.
'If only I could move that...'
An unconscious murmur born of desperation.
At that mont, a possibility flashed through Hal's mind.
His unique ability, the Azure Fla, was activated through prayer.
'That ans...'
Perhaps the Azure Fla was also a type of incantation.
[TL/N: Words of Power→Incantation (Incantation is different from magic chants used while casting magic.)]
There was no ti to weigh the possibilities.
"Move."
Hal extended his mangled hand out of the bars and muttered.
"Move. Move. Move..."
As Hal muttered like a madman, Trent glanced at him and chuckled.
"Have you lost your mind? Get a grip and watch from there. See what happens to that girl because of your tricks."
The Trent strode towards the girl and reached out to her.
There was no ti.
But the Azure Fla still didn't budge.
Was his thinking wrong?
Would he have to watch soone die again because of his mistake?
Crack
'No.'
He couldn't bear to watch that happen, even if it killed him.
Hal gritted his teeth so hard that they bled.
He would do it.
He would make it move.
Then, the conversation he had with Rena ca to mind.
'Priest-nim, do you know the difference between signifier and signified?'
'For you, Priest-nim, the sun might be sothing dazzlingly bright and warm, hard to look at directly, but for soone else, the word "sun" might bring to mind the rising and setting of the sun.'
The basics of incantations.
It was about aligning the signifier and the signified.
In other words, unifying the trigger word he uttered with the aning that word held.
'I commanded it to move... but was that really what I was thinking?'
No.
That wasn't it.
The trigger word was wrong.
Hal was picturing a different image in his mind than the words he was uttering.
'It wasn't "move".'
What Hal had been desperately wishing for and imagining all along.
It was—
"Burn."
The image of the demon burning miserably, that was all.
Hal's low murmur echoed through the basent.
And then, in the next mont.
Whoosh
The Azure Fla in the fireplace surged and struck the demon like lightning.
"Aaaaaaaaagh!"
The demon, which had grabbed the girl's collar, twisted its body, trying to shake it off.
The Azure Fla blazed relentlessly, burning the tree-like demon fiercely.
The fire blazed as if to engulf the entire basent, but the girl standing nearby felt no heat at all.
It was a ravenous fla that hunted only demons.
A divine punishnt.
"Heeo. Heehoooo!"
The demon let out an incomprehensible scream and fled up the basent stairs.
As if believing it could survive if it just reached the top.
But Hal didn't care.
There was no way it could escape.
This ti, the flas would burn every last bit of it, even its bones.
The demon's screams gradually grew fainter and then abruptly stopped.
A calm silence fell over the basent.
The girl, frozen in fear, finally spoke in a trembling voice,
"I-is it over?"
Hal nodded and reassured her in a calm voice.
"Yes. It's all over, thanks to you."
"Ah..."
As if her strength had left her, the girl's body slumped.
But after a mont, she began to sob softly.
Soon, her crying beca uncontrollable.
"...Why are you crying... when it's over... sob."
The boy beyond the wall seed to scold the girl, but then he started crying too.
Hal quietly waited for their crying to subside.
He hoped that by doing so, they could release their pent-up emotions from this place.
***
Click
Hal gently touched his wrist, freed from the handcuffs.
It felt itchy as the torn flesh regenerated.
The girl had used the basent key dropped by the demon to release everyone.
"Ugh..."
As ti passed, the others, freed from their restraints, also began to open their eyes one by one.
To think they had slept through the entire fight with the demon and only woke up after it was all over.
Should he call this good luck?
'No, I'm the lucky one.'
He didn't know if it was because he hadn't eaten the fruit or because of the Azure Fla, but if Hal hadn't woken up early, they would have t a terrible end by now.
As Hal gazed at them, Daniel, who had regained consciousness, sat up and said,
"Where... what happened?"
"A demon."
Hal waited for everyone to co to their senses before explaining the situation.
Ono, who had been listening quietly, frowned and asked,
"What? So you're saying there's a weed growing on my head right now... It's real."
Ono patted his head with a strange expression.
The weed, which had grown a bit more in the anti, was now about two spans long.
"That's amazing. What's growing on my head?"
Rena, who had been staring blankly at it, tilted her head.
"You're curious about that now?"
"Yes."
When Ono asked in disbelief, Rena calmly nodded.
Ono sighed, deflated.
Hal carefully examined their heads for a mont and then nodded.
"Miss Lena, it's an olive tree. Mr. Daniel, an apple tree. And Mr. Ono... a maple tree."
"Amazing."
Lena's eyes sparkled, which was rare for her.
On the other hand, Ono touched the plant on his head with a disgusted expression.
"So this is, a high-ranking demon, Carnosa Vinea's spore, you say. I've only heard of it... How do we get rid of this?"
"...Hal. We can get rid of this, right?"
At Ono's muttering, Daniel looked at Hal anxiously.
Hal calmly nodded.
"Yes."
There were two ways.
One was to diligently drink salt water.
That alone would cause the spores rooted in a person's body to wither and die.
And the other way was...
"To kill the main body of Vinea."
"...Didn't you say you killed the old woman?"
When Daniel asked with a puzzled look, Hal hesitated for a mont before continuing.
"That's right. But the old woman wasn't the main body of Vinea, just its subordinate, a Trent."
"That ans..."
"Yes. The territory is in danger."
A high-ranking demon.
It was a being with enough power to wipe out a small territory.
Vinea, among the high-ranking demons, was one that could be dealt with relatively easily if suppressed early on.
However, as ti passed, the damage and difficulty it posed would increase dramatically.
The problem was the Trent they had just defeated.
Since its subordinate was already roaming the outskirts of the territory, it was highly likely that the infection had already progressed considerably.
'Above all...'
Hal picked up the fallen pendant.
The strange object that had extinguished his Azure Fla.
It was engraved with a familiar mark.
"That's..."
Daniel, recognizing the mark, frowned.
"Yes. The sa mark as the one David used."
The shape of a beast with a mane.
It was the sa symbol he had seen on the Spider Woman who had recently murdered the Tower Master.
'This again.'
Hal instinctively felt that David, or the faction he belonged to, was deeply involved in this incident once more.
Perhaps the reason he had stayed in Lonely Ridge was also related to this.
'I need to report this to the Order urgently... But right now, the Lonely Ridge territory is in danger.'
Hal carefully wrapped the pendant in cloth and put it in his bag.
Sothing was happening.
He had a feeling that he needed to hurry.
[Translator - Peptobismal]
[Proofreader - Max]
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