Chapter 141 : Companions - 1
Chapter 141: Companions - 1
“What's this now. What the hell did you do!”
“Odline.”
“You figured out my name? How?”
“I guessed by instinct.”
“I see……. You fell asleep earlier, didn’t you? You met Kaid in your dream. You heard it from that bastard!”
“…….”
“Kaid, you damn bastard!”
Oh dear. Kaid was going to get scolded badly later.
At that moment, Sienne’s fists, which had been striking without rest, stopped.
I thought she was exhausted, but no.
She drew in a light breath.
Then she turned around and briskly walked toward us.
“Sienne?”
She passed us and moved far into the distance.
I immediately realized her intention.
She was going to deliver one final decisive blow.
After retreating nearly 100 meters, she turned her body again and faced the cocoon.
And then.
“This is the last one!!”
She charged toward the cocoon at a speed too fast for the eye to follow.
Odline’s horrified scream rang out.
“Uaaah. No. No!”
Kuuuuang.
Instead of punching like before, Sienne slammed into the cocoon with her shoulder—no, with her entire body.
The wide but faint cracks etched across it became vividly clear to the eye.
The cracks gradually spread across every part of the cocoon.
And when I closed and opened my eyes.
Chaaang.
With a sound like shattering glass, the shell of the cocoon exploded apart.
The moment I saw the inside of the cocoon, nausea surged up and I covered my mouth.
“Uwek.”
“W-what in the world is that.”
“So this really is Hell.”
Countless insects whose metamorphosis from maggots to flies had not yet finished.
They were clumped together, tangled with one another’s bodies.
It was as if I were looking at one enormous maggot giant.
Some fluttered their half-dried wings, while others oozed unidentified fluids.
But they all shared one thing in common.
Kkeeeeee.
They let out horrifying screams from somewhere I couldn’t even identify.
And then they vanished like snow melting under sunlight.
The nearly infinite half-maggots all annihilated within mere seconds.
All that remained were fragments of the shattered cocoon shell.
Step.
Sienne rose from within the debris.
She dusted the dirt off her body and said elegantly,
“Phew. I showed a rather unsightly side of myself.”
“…….”
“Aren’t you going to react at le—.”
Sienne collapsed before finishing her sentence.
Startled, I rushed over and saw that she was fast asleep, breathing softly.
It was the aftereffect of using the Awakening Pill.
Karin said,
“She even sleeps prettily. Not at all like someone who just displayed such monstrous strength.”
That was when it happened.
Squirm.
Something wriggled in the debris.
Looking closely, I saw that one maggot remained.
‘That one didn’t melt under the sunlight?’
Feeling strangely intrigued, I walked toward the maggot.
As if it had reason, it squirmed and tried to flee.
…….
Huh?
“N-no way.”
“What is it, Mason.”
“There’s one maggot left over there.”
“Indeed there is. Is it some kind of special entity?”
“It must be. That one is probably the very first maggot Odline fed to Louis.”
It was undoubtedly the first maggot that hatched inside Louis’s physical body.
But that wasn’t the only reason I was surprised.
If the intuition I just felt was correct…….
“That is Odline’s true body.”
“……What?”
“It’s trying to run away from me. As if it has reason.”
“No way.”
“Magireta said Odline’s true body was endlessly weak. Weak to the point that it was impossible for him to Descend to the surface world directly.”
Well, it would indeed be difficult for a single maggot to descend into the world on its own.
In that case, he would have to borrow someone else’s body.
He would have to use a specific Monster as a sacrificial vessel.
This time, the chosen vessel must have been Louis.
I approached the maggot.
And I lifted my foot above it.
At that moment, astonishingly, I heard Odline’s voice.
W-wait. Just a moment!
Crunch.
I ignored it and crushed the maggot.
Not just crushed—I ground it thoroughly.
The sticky unknown fluid smeared on my shoes felt unpleasant.
After a moment, Armelia cautiously approached and asked,
“Is it dead?”
“As you can see.”
“Really? Truly? We dealt with an MVP this easily?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
Confusion filled everyone’s faces.
Aina asked,
“What do you mean? You just said Odline’s true body was the maggot.”
“That’s right. But I don’t think this maggot ‘alone’ is Odline.”
“……?”
“He can command and control countless Monsters. To do that, he must have fed numerous maggots into their bodies.”
“So you’re saying…….”
“Yes, this is only my guess.”
I lowered my voice.
“The Third MVP of Hell is likely a colony.”
Odline Ragna.
As Mason had suspected, he was not a Monster that existed as a single entity.
Underground where Odline resided, there was a chamber inhabited by countless maggots.
That place was Odline’s true dwelling.
The handsome man Kaid constantly faced and recognized as his Master was merely one of the vessels Odline controlled.
Of course, that vessel was Odline’s favorite.
The reason was simple—he had the most handsome face.
That way, he could look good in front of Magireta.
“Uuuu.”
A groan echoed simultaneously throughout the room of maggots.
The maggots communicated with one another in disorder.
“That bastard. He crushed one of us.”
“I told you we should’ve prepared better. We could’ve sent the massive army of Monsters we control.”
“Then we’ll really be hated by Lady Magireta, you know?”
“I think we’re already hated enough…….”
“Which bastard just said that. Kick him out.”
“Well, since it’s come to this, there’s no helping it. Someone go to Kaid. Let’s hear Mason’s information from that guy.”
With those final words, the room of maggots fell silent.
Soon, they controlled an entity to which they had fed a part of themselves hundreds of thousands of years ago.
That entity walked down the corridor with steady steps and moved to the upper level.
Before long, it stopped in front of a lavishly decorated door.
I had summoned Kaid here for the time being.
‘Did I send Edgar here as well, as a bonus?’
Come to think of it, I told him to step on Kaid a little.
Shall I check whether he kept that promise?
Click.
As he opened the door, Odline expected to see Kaid clinging to his leg and begging.
But the scene he expected was nowhere to be seen.
What lay before him was a blood-soaked room.
And a single decapitated corpse.
“What is this.”
For a while, Odline couldn’t comprehend the situation.
That was when it happened.
The severed head began to revive.
The skull, brain, and eyeballs regenerated.
Only then did Odline realize the corpse’s identity.
“So it was you, Edgar.”
“Uaaah. Just how many times have I died?”
Edgar raised his body and cracked his neck.
Then he noticed Odline and asked,
“You’ve arrived? Did your business go well?”
“We’ll talk about me later. What happened in this room?”
“My wife stole Kaid’s Invisibility Cloak.”
“What?”
“And while in an Invincible state, she…… let’s see. I think she killed me about 100 times.”
“…….”
“No matter how many times she killed me, I kept reviving, so it seems she gave up. She cut off my head and disappeared with it.”
Swish.
Odline pulled out a chair and sat down.
Then he crossed his legs and asked,
“Disappeared? That woman doesn’t have a Teleportation bead. Kaid stole it and offered it to Mason.”
“She probably asked Noona Magireta. My wife can offer her height as a trade condition anytime. She’s rather tall.”
“You just called her ‘Noona’?”
“For some reason, my wife seems very angry at me. I’d like to reconcile, so could you send me to the surface world?”
Odline thought seriously.
‘A marital fight. If I live long enough with Lady Magireta, will we end up fighting too?’
Well, perhaps that was how affection deepened.
He nodded and said,
“Fine, Louis aside, what about Kaid? Where did that damn bastard go?”
“Didn’t he follow Louis? If I were him, I wouldn’t want to stay under a Master like you either.”
“Watch your mouth.”
“More importantly, send me quickly. I may not look it, but I’m feeling anxious.”
Odline stared at Edgar.
When Edgar tilted his head, Odline asked,
“Have you ever thought about becoming my subordinate?”
We safely returned to Berseum’s house.
And the moment we sat down at the table, we analyzed the results of this incident.
“Let’s see. First of all, we saved the world.”
“And Sienne has grown stronger as well.”
“Please don’t say that.”
“We also secured the First-place reward as spoils. One Teleportation bead that Edgar possessed has returned to our hands.”
“And we made sure he’ll never be able to use the Shoes again. Though that was close to self-destruction.”
That about covered it.
I nodded in satisfaction.
But soon I shot up from my seat.
“W-what is it, Mason.”
“We missed the most important thing.”
“The most important thing…….”
“Think about what started this incident.”
Sudden Quest Assassination.
The First-place reward, the Invisibility Cloak, would fall into Edgar’s hands, leading to the assassination of our Companions.
This was a Quest that could only be resolved by either killing Edgar permanently so he could never revive again, or by obtaining the Invisibility Cloak.
We achieved neither.
The Diary Book did not report completion of the Sudden Quest either.
I clasped my hands together and spoke gravely.
“In the end, nothing has truly been resolved.”
“Damn. You’re right.”
“Kaid was dragged to Hell along with the Invisibility Cloak. Edgar is probably with Kaid.”
“…….”
“Odline might hand Kaid’s cloak over to Edgar. It seems that was the original agreement.”
That meant he might come for our throats at any moment.
I swallowed hard.
That was when it happened.
“If it’s the Invisibility Cloak, it’s here.”
“……!”
An utterly unexpected voice.
We quickly looked around.
Louis was leaning against one corner wall of the house.
Beside her, Kaid waved with a servile smile.
“Odline!”
“I’m not!”
Louis shouted as if genuinely offended.
Aina spoke.
“You’re really Louis?”
“Yeah. Damn it. That MVP used someone else’s physical body…….”
“What are you doing here? Where did you leave your soulmate?”
At that, Louis answered in a chilling voice.
“Don’t mention that bastard Arcane in front of me.”
“We don’t exactly have to listen to you, though?”
“……Hmph.”
She suddenly threw something.
Thud.
It was a head.
Edgar Tyler’s head!
We stared at it blankly.
Berseum said,
“Isn’t this the moment when at least one of us should scream?”
“Why don’t you do it, old man.”
“No, I’ll pass.”
“It’s a bit unexpected of Your Highness. To remain so calm even after seeing something like this.”
At that, Armelia calmly lifted the teacup in front of her.
Bringing it to her lips, she replied,
“This much no longer surprises me. I have grown as well.”
It was an exceedingly noble gesture.
If not for the teacup trembling and soaking her sleeve.
Karin snickered at that and then spoke to Louis.
“We haven’t properly introduced ourselves, have we? My name is Karin…….”
“I want to ask that woman named Aina something.”
“Wow. I already don’t like this bitch.”
Aina asked,
“Me?”
“Yes. You can see souls, right? Is his soul still in Arcane’s head?”
“No.”
“I thought so.”
She smiled bitterly.
Was there something between those two?
Wait.
Come to think of it, Kaid had said this in the dream.
-The MVP told Edgar to step on you. You must be having a blast getting beaten up in Hell.
-I didn’t have the time for that. We were in the middle of a marital fight.
-A marital fight?
-Yes. Louis was in Hell. She slapped Edgar, asking how he could feed her a maggot.