Chapter 40. That F***ing Cat Bastard (5)
SLAASH!
The cat’s stomach split open, starting from its primordial pouch.
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
Dry fluff poured down onto Michael.
“…Are these basically its organs?”
Because the cat was a stuffed doll, the falling fluff almost felt like internal organs.
Michael kicked off the ground, jumped upward, grabbed the opening, and slowly tore it wider.
“KYAAAAAK!”
Feeling Michael’s aura against its abdomen, the demon tried lifting the cat’s body away from the ground.
“Not happening!”
Gin threw another pipe.
This time, he aimed not at the cat, but directly at the demon’s main body.
The pipe, stuffed with alcohol-soaked fluff, flew toward the demon’s chest.
Perhaps Gin had been talented at throwing spears in his previous life.
His pipe flew with the accuracy of a trained warrior.
Grab!
Even while drooling from repeated gagging, the demon instinctively caught the pipe.
“Cheap. Tricks. Stop!”
The demon roared and scattered demonic energy in every direction again.
Apparently that was not enough.
The cat inflated its chest while facing Gin and Absinthe.
It was preparing to use Roar.
However, too much fluff had already fallen out through the hole Michael had cut in its stomach.
The cat could not maintain its balance.
BOOM!
The left side of its body had become lighter, making the entire body tilt.
The cat crashed into the alley wall and rolled onto its back.
“Whoa. That was close. Thanks, I guess? Now I can stand comfortably.”
The demon stuck its head out to examine the situation.
Its eyes met Michael’s.
“Think glaring at me is going to change anything?”
“HISSSSS!”
Trying to remove Michael from its stomach, the demon controlled the cat’s right paw and swung it toward him.
“Who the hell is going to be scared when you’re showing that much weakness?”
Michael pulled the pipe far behind him and bent his rear leg.
Ever since the demon appeared, the cat’s body had become more and more damaged.
On top of that, the demon was becoming dizzy from Gin and Absinthe’s alcohol-soaked projectiles.
Its attacks were noticeably weaker and slower than when it first appeared.
BANG!
Michael timed his pipe perfectly against the swinging paw.
The counterattack broke one of the claws.
That was way too light.
Even considering how weakened the cat was, knocking the paw away had been too easy.
The demon must have intentionally reduced its strength.
Behind me!
Michael suddenly sensed demonic energy.
He twisted his waist and swung the pipe backward.
CLANG!
Sharp claw-like fingers struck Michael’s pipe.
“So you can come out of any hole?”
The demon had emerged from the stomach wound Michael had created.
“KYAAAAK!”
When its surprise attack failed, demonic energy gathered around the demon’s fingers.
“Uh, hey, wait!”
CLANG!
The demonic energy surpassed Michael’s currently weakened aura.
The pipe snapped like a tree branch.
The demon immediately attacked Michael with its other hand.
Fuck, I can’t dodge this.
BANG!
The demon’s fist struck Michael’s stomach and knocked him away from the cat.
Fortunately, the demon pulled the punch midway because something else came flying toward it.
Otherwise, Michael’s organs might have ruptured.
“Grrrrrr.”
Another fluff-filled pipe was now in the demon’s hand.
It growled viciously, threw the pipe aside, and looked toward Gin and Absinthe.
“You. Annoying. Food!”
Fluff continued pouring from the cat’s torn stomach.
The demon ignored it.
It forced the cat upright again and leaped toward Gin and Absinthe.
The enraged demon no longer cared about Michael.
“Absinthe, dodge!”
Gin and Absinthe ran in opposite directions.
But they were nowhere near fast enough to escape the cat.
BOOM!
“Guh! G, Gin!”
The cat’s paw crushed Absinthe beneath it.
Still hungry, the demon smacked its lips and opened the cat’s mouth.
GAAAAAPE.
“W, why are you opening your mouth?! You never ate us before! Just kill me! P, please!”
Tears formed in Absinthe’s eyes as she desperately looked around.
There was no immediate way out.
“Absinthe!!”
Gin was running toward her from a distance.
But he was too late.
“N, no. I don’t want to get eaten! Don’t do this!”
Suddenly, Absinthe noticed the alcohol bottle she had dropped when she fell.
She grabbed it and immediately pulled off the cap.
Glug, glug, glug.
With one final hope, Absinthe poured the alcohol over her head.
She did not understand why, but they knew the cat disliked the alcohol.
She desperately hoped it would refuse to eat her.
But the cat’s mouth did not move away.
“Haa, haa. You hate alcohol, right? See? I’m completely soaked in it….”
CHOMP! CRUNCH!
“Liberator. Bad taste. Eat anyway.”
The cat’s mouth closed around Absinthe’s upper body.
The alcohol bottle fell from her hand.
The demon had completely lost control of itself.
It ignored the nausea and began chewing Absinthe.
Crunch, crunch!
“Keh! Keh!”
Swallowing her alcohol-filled body caused another wave of nausea.
Still, the demon smiled.
It had finally eliminated one of the annoying insects.
Seeing Absinthe’s upper body torn away left Gin empty.
The lower half of her body, remaining beneath where the cat had stepped, rapidly turned to dust and disappeared.
“Y, you bastard!!!”
Gin realized that Absinthe’s soul had truly been devoured.
Gripping a pipe like a spear, he charged at the demon.
Even though he knew he could never win, the rage from losing someone he considered family overwhelmed him.
“You bastard! I said you could eat me instead!”
The fear buried inside their minds had been correct.
If the cat ate them, their souls were consumed.
Gin had died many times before.
He knew that even after death, their bodies did not immediately disappear.
Normally, a corpse slowly faded away with time.
Absinthe’s remaining body had disappeared almost instantly after being eaten.
STAB! STAB! STAB! STAB!
Gin repeatedly stabbed the cat in blind rage.
But unlike Michael, Gin was incapable of causing any actual damage.
“Me. Cat. Next. You.”
Apparently correcting Gin for calling it a bastard like a dog, the demon swung the cat’s paw at him.
BOOOOM!
Gin’s body flew into the wall and became embedded inside it.
His head lowered.
Even after Absinthe had died, he could not avenge her.
That overwhelming helplessness broke Gin’s will.
GAAAAAPE.
“Interferer. End.”
Perhaps this was punishment for his pathetic state.
The cat’s face moved closer to Gin.
Its savage mouth opened to swallow him.
BANG!
Michael kicked Gin away and avoided the attack.
“You idiot bastard! Get your head together!”
Michael still lacked enough aura to instantly recover from the demon’s previous attack.
He had been unconscious until now.
The moment he opened his eyes and saw Gin giving up, his foot moved before his thoughts did.
“Interference. Problem.”
Angered by Michael’s interruption, the demon opened the cat’s mouth even wider.
It charged toward both Michael and Gin, trying to swallow them together.
The attack was obvious.
Michael avoided it by retreating.
CRUNCH!
Gin did not.
“Hey, you bastard! What the hell are you doing?!”
If Michael had not pulled him away, Gin would already have become the cat’s next meal.
“I couldn’t protect someone again….”
Perhaps Gin had once lost someone while trying to protect them, just as Michael had.
His voice was filled with regret.
Gulp.
Seeing Gin’s helplessness seemed to awaken the demon’s appetite.
It swallowed its saliva.
Then it began ignoring Michael and targeted only Gin.
BOOM! BOOM! CHOMP!
The cat alternated between slamming down its paws and trying to bite him whenever an opening appeared.
Michael still lacked aura.
He was forced to focus entirely on avoiding the attacks.
“Get your head together!”
Even now, Michael was dragging Gin along as he ran.
Dodging properly while pulling around the broken Gin was extremely difficult.
They kept getting driven farther and farther back.
“I couldn’t protect them….”
Even then, Gin continued repeating words of regret.
BANG!
Michael decided enough was enough and punched Gin across the cheek.
“Enough! If you’re going to throw everything away just because you failed once, then you should never have tried in the first place! If you couldn’t protect someone, then find a way to bring them back, or find a way to get revenge!!!”
Perhaps Michael’s sincerity reached him.
A faint light gradually returned to Gin’s empty eyes.
“Thanks, Micha…. Dodge!”
But they had no time.
As if refusing to allow them such an emotional moment, the cat charged with its mouth wide open, trying to chew Michael and Gin at the same time.
BANG! CRUNCH!
Gin hurriedly pulled Michael away.
In the end, Gin was bitten instead.
BANG!
The remaining part of Gin’s body could not endure the impact after being eaten.
His body shattered into fragments made of soul energy.
As those scattered fragments passed through Michael, uncontrollable emotions flooded into him.
WHOOOOOM!
“Ha. Ha. Glasya-Labolas, you fucking bastard.”
It was not anger.
It was something beyond anger.
Rage.
“How dare you turn them into toys like this?!”
Only now could Michael truly understand the regret Gin had unconsciously spoken about.
Through the fragments of Gin’s soul, Michael saw his previous life.
“We’ll hold them back! Please go, Lord Michael!”
“L, Lady Helena! N, no!!”
“Guh! I, I couldn’t protect her. Forgive me.”
In the past, Gin had followed Michael into battle against demons.
He had fought to protect Helena.
He had also been one of Michael’s knights, someone willing to burn away his own life for the sake of the world.
The fragments even showed something else.
“I’ll turn all of you into one of my artworks.”
Michael saw Glasya-Labolas imprison Gin’s soul inside the artwork.
At the same moment, all memories connected to Gin disappeared.
One of Michael’s followers had been reduced to nothing more than entertainment for a demon.
Endless rage boiled inside him.
Glasya-Labolas! No matter what it takes, I’ll tear you apart and kill you. And I’ll free every person you kidnapped from this fucking world!
Michael made that vow to the knight who had even lost his own name.
Then he took a deep breath.
WHOOOOOM!
Suddenly, beams of light burst from Michael’s back.
The tattoos hidden beneath his clothes revealed themselves through the light.
Three Crosses were carried upon Michael’s back.
Among them, the second Cross was forcibly activating its authority.
“Forget about dying peacefully.”
It was a power even Michael could not properly control.
That was why he avoided using it whenever possible.
“I wanted to save this for the Four Horsemen, or at least use it when Lady Helena was with me….”
The raging emotion inside him was forcing the power to awaken.
“Whether I split you in half or tear off every one of your limbs, I’ll destroy you so badly you’ll never stand on this ground again!”
Michael no longer needed to worry about his lack of aura.
The enormous aura coming from the Cross did not belong to Michael himself.
It was the original power contained within the Cross.
An authority existing on an entirely different level from ordinary energy.
Aura more pure than anything else.
Aura more destructive than anything else.
“You fucking cat bastard.”
Shiver, shiver.
The demon trembled violently at the sacred, almost holy aura coming from Michael.
According to the rules of the artwork, the alleys should have been impossible to destroy.
Yet every wall and building touched by Michael began shattering.
“You’ve only ever eaten other people’s souls, haven’t you, you insect?”
The authority of the Cross, which governed pure destruction against evil, revealed itself inside the world of the artwork.
“Scary thing. Go away!!”
Realizing that it could not remain afraid, the demon desperately threatened Michael and released demonic energy toward him.
However,
“This will probably be your first time experiencing your own soul being ground apart. exórtus ruína [Exortus Ruina].”
Before the demonic energy could reach Michael, waves of light erupted from the Cross on his back.
“If you understand, then shut your mouth and GET LOST!”
SHHHHHHHHH!
The waves of light, the authority of destruction, devoured everything in their path, including demonic energy.
In an instant, they engulfed the demon.
Facing death, the demon remembered its past.
Back when it had only been a demonic beast, it was always hungry.
Before gaining intelligence, the nameless beast had wandered through a meaningless existence, living only to satisfy its hunger.
That continued until Glasya-Labolas personally brought it from Hell into the artwork.
“This is your home. Torment and kill the children who come inside, then draw fear out of them. If you do well, someday I’ll make you my servant. Oh, and until I give you permission, you must never eat them, understand? If you’re hungry, only eat this.”
The demon ate the fluff Glasya-Labolas gave it and obediently protected the artwork like a loyal pet.
That had become its new dream.
Its hope.
But,
“HISSSSSSSSS!!!!”
Inside the authority of destruction, the demon released one final hiss like a scream.
Its soul shattered.
It collapsed.
Then it disappeared.
“Bullshit. A tragic backstory for a demon? Maybe watching you struggle in the flames of Hell would be entertaining.”
As the demon’s soul scattered, brief images of its past also entered Michael’s mind.
He only scoffed.
BOOOOOOM!
Michael scratched the back of his head while watching the authority continue destroying everything, even threatening to reach the distant clock tower.
“Still terrifying every time I see it.”
The uncontrollable authority of destruction would not stop until its power was completely exhausted.
Helena was the only person capable of helping Michael control it.
That was why he could not freely use it outside.
But this was merely a world inside an artwork.
There was no need to worry about collateral damage.
Even so, Michael did not feel relieved.
“…You worked hard.”
Back then.
And now.
Michael swallowed the rest of his words and silently mourned at the places where Gin and Absinthe had been eaten.
He had watched their souls collapse the moment those terrifying teeth bit into them.
Gin had been one of his followers.
A knight who had walked the path of sacrifice for Michael.
Michael gave proper respect to the souls of both of them.
RUMMMMMMBLE!
Michael was still mourning when the world itself, as though deliberately interrupting him, began turning upside down after confirming the cat’s death.
