Hell’s Gate had been opened, and demons were pouring out in large quantities.
“Piyo-chan!!”
Philiana immediately ran over and shoved her sword into the mouth of the dog biting Piyo’s tail feathers, splitting its jaw.
The two-headed dog then quickly retreated, using a nearby house to scale the wall and leap towards Piyo, who had already fled into the sky.
The other head attempted to bitePhiliana.
“Shi—!!”
At the last moment, Piyo exploded, repelling the attack. The two-headed dog, with both heads destroyed, landed on the ground. Despite its heads being destroyed, it landed as if it were perfectly fine.
“Piyo-chan, are you okay?”
“Y-yes. But this monster is acting strange.”
The dog stared intently at Philiana, its broken jaw hanging loosely. The other dogs seemed to be keeping their distance, perhaps unnerved by its sudden, bizarre movements.
The dog’s partially blown-off head seemed to grin. *What is this thing? Is it enjoying our reaction?*
“Hey, this guy’s acting weird.”
“It has to be him…”
Lauren muttered, rubbing her iron claws.
“Are you talking about Gothmol? But this dog was alive just a moment ago.”
“I-I’m sensing it, it’s disgusting.”
Lauren said, covering her mouth. *He can sense Gothmol’s presence. I don’t know how, but it means Gothmol didn’t go to Hell and remained here. If so, we know where he is.*
“Let’s go beat him up directly. This way.”
We took another path while the hell hounds were bewildered. Fortunately, this path wasn’t blocked yet. Suddenly, a lone escort staggered out from a side path. *Was there still someone wandering around alone?*
“Hey, be careful, take cover in a house or something!”
I shouted towards the escort as I ran. But as I clearly recognized his figure, I realized my words were in vain. The escort slowly turned towards us, a saber impaled in his chest.
His face was pale and drained of blood, his eyes unfocused. Flies buzzed annoyingly around his ears. *This is a joke, I want to say “give me a break.”*
As the escort saw us, he grinned and pulled the sword from his chest.
With a guttural cry, he swung the sword and attacked. Cecilia immediately slashed at his leg. Despite this, the escort stood up and staggered forward.
“How tasteless, Argh?!”
Suddenly, the escort, who should have been falling, got up and grabbed Cecilia’s neck from behind. I immediately tried to pry his arm away.
“What is this guy, he’s so strong!”
His grip wouldn’t budge. It was as if he had an iron core inside him. Nina thrust her dagger into his shoulder, trying to sever his arm.
“Let go!!”
I also joined in, acting on pure instinct. Together, we managed to cut his arm free and finally liberate Cecilia. The escort’s corpse, with its dangling arm, still tried to fight on.
“Cecilia, are you okay?”
“Gulp, Haa, I thought my throat was going to be crushed.”
“You guys don’t have time to stand around gawking,” Nina said.
As I looked around at her words, we were already surrounded by demons. However, each of them was somehow injured—a large wound in their chest, a severed neck, or other missing parts.
“Are all of these corpses?”
Only Auroa could have defeated the demons pouring from that gigantic hole with a single blow. I had killed Auroa because he was in the way when I entered. Gothmol was now controlling him.
A demon, now like a puppet, appeared dragging something with it. In its hand, it held a dying dog. One of the two heads was already dead. Picking it up, the demon slammed it hard onto the ground right in front of us.
Scales flaked off its hide and scattered. A pained yelp was heard along with a *bakin* sound.
As if to show off to our stunned faces, it slammed it down repeatedly. When had its life ended? By the time it stopped, the dog was no longer moving. It then carelessly tossed the corpse onto the ground.
Black smoke began to creep from somewhere towards the lifeless dog’s body. It crawled over the corpse like maggots, entering its insides.
Then it began to twitch, its neck bent as it stood up. Its face was sewn to appear as a smile.
“Ugh, what? That’s disgusting.”
Nina covered her mouth. This visceral revulsion must be from the unnatural, forced smile on the dog’s face.
*I see. This is how they become Gothmol’s subordinates as soon as they die here. He wanted to show us this, didn’t he? Controlling the dead one by one.*
But they were just corpses. Even if they were unfalling soldiers, they were already dead. Therefore, we would cremate them.
“Elnara, can you still use magic?”
“Y-yes, but only a few more times.”
First Claudio, now Gothmol. Auroa really must consider us a threat.
