Chapter 107:When The Fear Dies
Beyond the last row of abandoned houses...
Beyond the withered trees...
Beyond a field where even birds refused to land...
An ancient stone well stood alone.
Its bricks were cracked.
Its rope had long since rotted away.
Dark moss covered every inch of it.
No grass grew within several meters.
The air itself felt... wrong.
The old man stopped walking.
His cloudy eyes fixed upon the well.
"...This is where they disappeared."
His voice barely rose above a whisper.
"Most of the children..."
"...were taken here."
He lowered his head.
"Even adults fear coming close."
"The villagers say if you look into the well long enough..."
"...something looks back."
Silence settled between the three of them.
The wind carried no sound.
Not even insects dared to sing.
The old man slowly turned toward Lucifer.
"I already gave up..."
"...on avenging my grandson."
"My king abandoned us."
"My god abandoned us."
His wrinkled hands clenched into fists.
"But..."
His tired eyes met Lucifer's crimson ones.
"I'll place my faith..."
"...in the Devil."
Lucifer smiled faintly.
As the old man prepared to leave...
Lucifer stepped beside him and whispered into his ear.
No one else heard it.
Not even Amaira.
The old man's eyes widened.
"W-What...?"
His lips trembled.
"You... want me to do that?"
Lucifer simply nodded.
The old man looked toward the cursed well...
Then back at Lucifer.
"...Will it help?"
"It will."
The answer came without hesitation.
For a long moment...
The old man searched Lucifer's face.
Then...
He slowly nodded.
"...Very well."
Without another word...
He walked back toward the village.
Amaira frowned.
"What did you tell him?"
Lucifer only smiled.
"A secret."
"...I hate your secrets."
"I know."
Lucifer stepped toward the well.
Amaira instinctively grabbed his sleeve.
"I'm coming."
"No."
Her expression hardened.
"I'm not letting you fight an Urban Legend alone."
Lucifer looked toward the silent village.
"And if she attacks while we're both down here?"
Amaira fell silent.
"They've lived in fear long enough."
"If Hachishakusama realizes she's losing..."
"...she'll target the villagers."
"I need someone I can trust."
He looked directly into her eyes.
"And that's you."
Amaira clenched her fists.
She hated it.
She hated leaving him alone.
But...
She knew he was right.
After a long silence...
She sighed.
"...Don't die."
Lucifer laughed softly.
"I can't die..."
"...even if I wanted to."
Their eyes met for one final second.
Then Amaira turned...
...and sprinted back toward the village.
Lucifer watched her disappear.
"...She's starting to worry about me."
Chirin floated beside him.
"Anyone with common sense would."
Lucifer climbed over the edge.
Then dropped.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
The descent felt endless.
Cold slime coated the ancient stone walls.
The smell...
Rot.
Decay.
Old blood.
The further he descended...
The heavier the air became.
Finally—
His boots touched solid ground.
Crunch.
He looked down.
Bones.
Tiny ones.
Children.
Hundreds of them.
Spider webs stretched across the enormous cavern like funeral veils.
Small skeletons hung inside them.
Some still clutched broken toys.
Others tiny wooden sandals.
The silence was unbearable.
Even Lucifer...
Stopped smiling.
Chirin quietly whispered,
"...Why is it..."
"...that wherever we go..."
"...I only ever see hell?"
Lucifer looked around the cavern.
"...Because."
His crimson eyes glowed.
"I'm the Devil."
His Demonic Eyes awakened.
Crimson light pierced the endless darkness.
He searched for life.
Nothing.
No heartbeat.
No breathing.
No soul.
Only...
Death.
He walked deeper.
One step.
Another.
Another.
Until...
At the very end of the cavern...
Someone sat quietly.
She was impossibly tall.
Her black hair flowed across the ground like an ocean of darkness.
It stretched for dozens of meters.
In her hands...
She gently rocked the corpse of a little child.
As though it were sleeping.
As though she were a loving mother.
She hummed a lullaby.
Soft.
Broken.
Wrong.
Then...
Without turning...
She spoke.
"...You came."
Lucifer rested Chirin across his shoulder.
"I did."
Slowly...
Hachishakusama stood.
Her towering figure nearly touched the cavern ceiling.
Her long smile split impossibly wide.
"You..."
"...are not afraid."
"No."
"...Then..."
Her countless strands of hair rose like living serpents.
"I'll make you afraid."
The cave exploded.
Thousands of black strands shot toward Lucifer.
CLANG!
Chirin transformed into a massive scythe.
Lucifer met the attack head-on.
Cleave!
A crimson arc severed hundreds of strands.
Yet before they touched the ground...
New ones grew.
Faster.
Sharper.
The hair wrapped around pillars...
Walls...
Bones...
Everything became a weapon.
Lucifer vanished.
Sin of Sloth.
His presence disappeared.
He reappeared behind her.
Dismantle!
Dozens of invisible slashes crossed her back.
But—
Nothing.
The wounds regenerated instantly.
Her leg lashed out.
BOOM!!
Lucifer crossed Chirin before him.
Even so—
The impact launched him through three stone pillars.
Blood filled his mouth.
"...She's fast."
Before he recovered—
Hair pierced the dust.
Lucifer activated Greed.
Time around the attacks slowed.
Barely enough.
He twisted through impossible gaps.
Still—
One strand sliced across his shoulder.
Another pierced his thigh.
Pain surged.
Lucifer smiled.
"Good."
Sin of Lust.
The pain became power.
His muscles swelled with crimson energy.
He rushed forward.
Severance!
The cave split apart.
The attack carved a canyon through solid stone.
Hachishakusama blocked it...
...with her hair.
She laughed.
The sound echoed like countless children crying.
Then...
Her legs moved.
One step.
The cavern shook.
Another.
The ground shattered.
She kicked.
Lucifer barely raised Chirin.
CRASH!!
He flew across the cavern...
His ribs cracked.
Blood splashed the floor.
"Hahaha..."
He stood again.
"Worth every broken bone."
He unleashed everything.
Wrath.
Greed.
Sloth.
Lust.
Dismantle.
Severance.
Blood Prison.
Blood Chains.
Raging Tempest.
The cavern became a battlefield of crimson storms.
Yet...
He was losing.
Little by little.
Until—
Hachishakusama suddenly staggered.
Her movements slowed.
Her endless hair became thinner.
She looked at her own hands.
"...Why...?"
"...Why am I..."
"...getting weaker...?"
Lucifer laughed.
A genuine laugh.
"...Looks like."
"The old man is doing his job properly."
The old man returned to the village.
Everyone ignored him.
Without saying a word...
He picked up an old broken drum.
Its leather was torn.
Its frame cracked.
He struck it anyway.
DON.
DON.
DON.
Then...
He sang.
"We buried our laughter beneath empty skies..."
"We counted the children the darkness stole..."
"Mothers cried until their voices broke..."
"Fathers searched until hope itself died..."
"The fields remembered their footsteps..."
"Only silence answered..."
One by one...
Doors opened.
Villagers stepped outside.
They stared at the old man.
"...Has he gone mad?"
Someone whispered.
"He lost his grandson..."
"...Perhaps grief finally broke him."
Yet...
He continued.
"The king promised justice..."
"But never came..."
"The heavens promised mercy..."
"But never answered..."
"We prayed..."
"We begged..."
"Only echoes remained..."
Tears appeared.
A mother covered her mouth.
An old farmer knelt.
Another man began crying openly.
Because every word...
Was true.
The song ended.
Silence followed.
Then...
The old man raised his head.
His voice grew stronger.
Louder.
Like thunder.
"But when evil laughs upon the weak..."
"Another evil answers its call..."
"Not a shining hero..."
"Not a holy king..."
"But the Devil walks..."
"With judgment in crimson hands..."
"He fears no darkness..."
"For darkness is his kingdom..."
"He judges the wicked..."
"He breaks the cruel..."
"He burns the lies..."
"He ends the nightmare..."
"Raise your heads..."
"Children of despair..."
"Tonight..."
"The Devil hunts..."
"And monsters learn..."
"That even evil..."
"Can be afraid."
Silence.
Then—
Cheers.
Someone laughed.
Another cried.
Children smiled for the first time in months.
The fear...
Was disappearing.
And with every heart freed...
Hachishakusama grew weaker.
Inside the cavern—
She screamed.
"No..."
"No..."
"My stories..."
"My fear..."
She stretched her arms toward the village.
A deafening shriek escaped her mouth.
Thousands of ghosts erupted from the darkness.
They rushed toward the surface.
Toward the villagers.
Toward their renewed hope.
But...
Outside the well...
Amaira stood waiting.
Her spear pointed toward the charging tide.
"I knew..."
"...you'd try this."
Blue soul energy exploded around her.
The ground trembled.
Ghost after ghost crashed against her spear.
None passed.
Not one.
She became an unbreakable wall between despair...
...and the people.
Back in the cavern...
Hachishakusama fell to one knee.
Lucifer slowly walked toward her.
Scythe resting on his shoulder.
"You were good."
He raised Chirin.
A crimson glow illuminated the darkness.
"But..."
His eyes shone like burning stars.
"I'm better."
CLEAVE.
One silent slash.
Her body split cleanly in two.
For the first time in centuries...
The Tall Woman smiled.
Not in malice.
Not in madness.
But...
In relief.
Then...
She vanished into countless particles of light.
The cave...
Finally...
Became quiet.