Episode-1019
Chapter : 2037
Inside the cockpit, Ren looked at the screen. He saw the desperate, sweating demon trying to buy his life. He listened to the offers.
Ren looked down at his own legs. His real legs, the ones that hadn't worked in years. Then he felt the cold, powerful steel of the Aegis suit around him. He felt the connection to the earth through the metal feet.
"He thinks we're mercenaries," Vala’s voice crackled over the squad comms. She sounded disgusted. "He thinks we're doing this for money."
"He doesn't get it," Kaito replied. "He thinks everything has a price tag."
Ren opened his external speaker.
"Hey," Ren said. His voice boomed out, deep and mechanical.
Bael looked up, hopeful. "Yes? You accept? We have a deal?"
Ren raised his right arm. The hand retracted, and a massive steel spike extended from the wrist. It was the hydraulic Pile-Bunker. The ultimate close-range weapon.
"I don't want your money," Ren said. "And I don't want your legs. I like these ones. They stomp harder."
Bael’s smile faltered. "But... everyone has a price! Name it! Anything!"
"You killed people," Ren said simply. "You came to our home. You brought monsters to eat our families. You tried to buy our loyalty. That was your mistake."
Ren took another step. He was right on top of Bael now. The shadow of the mech covered the demon completely.
"My price," Ren said, "is you."
Bael shrieked. He realized the negotiation had failed. He tried to summon his magic, tried to call upon the decay and rust that was his signature. Green fog began to gather around his hands.
"Rot!" Bael screamed. "Rot and die!"
He threw the spell at Ren’s leg.
The green fog hit the Null-Field generator on the Aegis’s shin. It fizzled and vanished like steam on a hot pan.
"Currency not accepted," Ren said.
Ren punched.
He drove the Pile-Bunker forward. It wasn't a wild swing. It was a precise, calculated strike aimed directly at Bael’s chest.
Bael tried to dodge, but he was too slow.
KA-CHUNK.
The steel spike hit Bael. It didn't just pierce him. The explosive charge behind the spike detonated, driving the metal rod through Bael’s body with enough force to shatter a boulder.
Bael didn't even have time to scream. The impact lifted him off the ground and pinned him into the dirt.
But Ren wasn't aiming for the flesh. He was aiming for the tech.
The spike smashed through Bael’s chest and hit the black, pulsing node embedded near his heart.
The Reality Anchor.
CRACK.
The device shattered. Sparks of purple electricity flew out. The connection to the Fire Fly network was severed. The artificial field that allowed a High-Rank Devil to exist in the Human Realm collapsed.
Bael gasped. His eyes went wide. He looked down at the hole in his chest, then up at the metal giant.
"No..." Bael whispered. "My... assets..."
His body began to flicker. Without the Reality Anchor, the laws of the universe rushed back in. The atmosphere of Riverio rejected him. He began to dissolve. His skin turned to black smoke. His bones turned to ash.
"You... cannot... bankrupt... me..."
Bael’s voice faded into the wind. His body crumbled, breaking apart into nothingness. Within seconds, there was nothing left of the Merchant Prince but a pile of empty robes and a scattering of useless jewels in the dust.
Ren retracted the spike. He shook the dust off his arm.
"Target neutralized," Ren reported.
"Confirmed," Kaito said from the ridge. "Energy signature is gone. He's deleted."
"Good riddance," Vala muttered. "I hate salesmen."
Miles away, in the command center of the Aegis Mark III, Lloyd Ferrum watched the life sign of Bael wink out on his map.
Suddenly, a chime rang out in Lloyd’s mind. It was loud, clear, and beautiful.
[System Notification]
[Quest Complete: The Merchant's Fall.]
[Objective: Eliminate High-Value Target - Bael.]
[Status: Success.]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[Bonus: First Extermination Quota reached for 'Devil Prince' class enemy.]
[Payout: 10,000 System Coins.]
Lloyd leaned back in his pilot’s seat. He let out a long breath. 50,000 Coins. It was a fortune. It was enough to upgrade the Soul Farm, buy new blueprints, and maybe even fix the heating in his house.
But more than that, it was proof.
"We got one," Lloyd whispered. "One down. Six to go."
He looked at the map. The red dots of the enemy army were scattering. Without their leader, without their money, the mercenary devils were breaking. The invasion of the Erza Plains was over.
Lloyd opened the comms channel to the entire army.
"This is Commander Ferrum," Lloyd said. "Bael is dead. The bank is closed. Mop them up."
The cheers from the human lines were loud enough to be heard over the roar of the engines. The Titan Squad stood over the spot where a Prince of Hell had tried to buy his life, proving once and for all that there were some things in this world that weren't for sale.
Physics, Lloyd thought with a grim smile, doesn't take bribes.
Chapter : 2038
The victory against Bael was a loud affair. It was filled with the roar of railguns, the screams of elephants, and the crashing of metal against bone. It was a battle of hard physics against ancient magic. But the mission Lloyd Ferrum was on now was the opposite of loud. It was quiet. It was wet. And it was rotting.
Lloyd was alone. He had left the Titan Squad behind to secure the Erza Plains and mop up the remnants of Bael’s broken army. Ren, Vala, and Kaito were more than capable of handling stragglers. They had their orders, and they had their machines. Lloyd, however, had a different appointment. He had to kill the next Prince.
He was flying low over the Southern Wetlands in the Aegis Mark III. The suit’s thrusters were dialed down to a low hum to minimize noise, but even through the sealed cockpit, Lloyd could feel that something was deeply wrong with this place.
The Southern Wetlands used to be a lush, green delta where the great rivers of the continent met the sea. Now, it looked like a wound that wouldn't heal.
From the sky, the landscape was a tapestry of sickly greens and bruised purples. The water wasn't blue or brown; it was a bright, neon yellow that bubbled and hissed as if the earth itself was sick. The trees were the worst part. They weren't just dead; they were weeping. Thick, red sap oozed from cracks in their bark, dripping into the yellow water like blood from a fresh cut.
"System," Lloyd said, his voice echoing slightly in the helmet. "Run an atmospheric analysis. Why does the air look like it’s vibrating?"
[Analyzing...] the Administrator’s voice replied. It sounded crisp, a stark contrast to the decaying world outside. [Warning. Atmospheric toxicity is at 400% of normal levels. The air contains high concentrations of aerosolized digestive enzymes.]
Lloyd frowned behind his visor. "Digestive enzymes? You mean stomach acid?"
[Correct. The air is slowly dissolving organic matter. Metal corrosion is also detected. Recommended course of action: Maintain altitude. Do not land.]
"I can't kill him from up here," Lloyd muttered. "He’s hiding in the muck."
Lloyd scanned the horizon. His target was Beelzebub, the Prince of Gluttony. According to the intelligence provided by Leviathan and Amina, Beelzebub had turned this swamp into his personal feeding ground. He wasn't building an army like Bael. He wasn't trying to conquer cities like Lucifer. Beelzebub was doing something simpler and more terrifying. He was eating the world.
The Aegis suit’s sensors pinged. A massive heat signature—or rather, a void of heat—was detected five miles due south, right in the center of the deepest bog.
"Got you," Lloyd whispered.
He pushed the control stick forward. The black mech banked smoothly, descending toward the yellow water. As he got closer, the smell hit him. even through the suit’s advanced filtration system, a faint odor of rot and sour milk seeped in. It was the smell of a garbage dump left in the hot sun for a week.
Lloyd landed the Aegis on a patch of semi-solid ground. The massive metal boots sank a few inches into the mud, sending ripples through the yellow slime. The moment the metal touched the water, a hissing sound filled the air.
[Warning: External armor integrity dropping. The water is highly acidic. Hull plating is being compromised at a rate of 1% per minute.]
"Just hold together a little longer," Lloyd told the machine.
He walked forward. The movement was sluggish. The mud here was thick and sticky, sucking at the mech’s legs with every step. It felt like the swamp was trying to grab him, trying to pull him down into the deep.
The trees around him were horrifying close up. The "blood" dripping from them hissed when it hit the water. There were no birds here. No insects. No frogs. It was a dead zone. The only sound was the mechanical whirring of the Aegis and the wet plop of bursting bubbles in the swamp.
Then, the fog rolled in.
It wasn't normal fog. It was a greenish-grey mist that smelled like old meat. It swirled around the legs of the Aegis, obscuring Lloyd’s vision. His radar started to fuzz with static.
"Show yourself," Lloyd said, amplifying his voice through the external speakers. "I don't have all day. I have a war to win."
A sound answered him. It wasn't a roar or a shout. It was a gurgle. A wet, deep sound like a drain unclogging.