The instant the door was kicked open, Su Tang felt something and turned his head.
He immediately saw Aki Hayakawa's exhausted face.
"The devil has appeared—right across the corridor from us," Aki said gravely.
Su Tang frowned.
This devil was in such a hurry? Rushing to reincarnate?
They'd just met once; not even an hour later and it wanted to meet again?
"How was your rest?" Su Tang asked.
"Mm…" Perhaps influenced by Su Tang's unhurried attitude, Aki gradually calmed and nodded. "I lay down for a dozen minutes. I can fight."
"Good. You go wait for me outside first."
Su Tang told him, then turned back to the other four.
Denji-ko and Power were still arguing over their Nobel Prize scheme. Although Arai Hirokazu and Higashiyama Kobeni tensed up at the word "devil," at least they didn't collapse like before.
Clearly what he had said earlier worked—at the very least, it brought hope.
After a brief thought, Su Tang summoned the Shadow Corps, filling the entire room to the brim.
"Rest easy. As long as Aki and I haven't fallen, you are absolutely safe."
With that, Su Tang glanced back once more, opened the door, and walked out.
————————————
"Are their emotions still stable?"
Seeing Su Tang come out, Aki sent him an inquiring look.
Su Tang nodded, looked across the corridor, and narrowed his eyes.
Sure enough, it was that same disgusting shape—like a slime of rotting flesh, a multi-headed biological mass.
"Human, how have you considered it?"
The devil's voice came.
Aki, about to ready for battle, paused and glanced sideways at Su Tang.
"Don't rush. Let me discuss it with my companions," Su Tang tossed back casually and stopped looking at it. With his fire-qi lent out to the Holy Lord, he was disinclined to pollute his eyes.
He turned and spoke to Aki, concise and to the point:
"This guy just met me and said it wants to make a contract—let five of us go in exchange for handing over Denji-ko."
"Denji-ko?" Aki now had the same doubt Su Tang had.
"To be precise, Denji-ko's heart, human," the devil's voice came again. "You can take her corpse away. Give me the heart."
Aki looked to Su Tang.
"My suggestion is we might as well discuss it a bit more," Su Tang shrugged. "There's someone inside still sleeping. When they wake—"
"Human! My patience is limited!" The devil's voice grew more unhinged. "Quickly hand over Denji-ko's heart! Otherwise you will never escape!"
"I refuse."
Aki reached for the sword at his back, his expression unwavering. "A devil hunter's duty is only to hunt devils, not abandon comrades."
"Human! You want to kill me? What stands before you is only a split of the Eternity Devil! Killing me is useless, hahahaha!"
"You—"
Aki had just begun to draw his blade when a hand blocked him.
"No, Aki. Himeno told me specifically not to let you draw your sword," Su Tang shook his head, then looked to the devil. "How about this: we go back right now to wake the ones in the room and discuss it. You have that much patience, right?"
He was trying his best to drag things out.
The longer, the better.
The self-styled Eternity Devil said nothing—apparently agreed—but wouldn't give much time.
Sighing inwardly, Su Tang had already prepared to fight. He had just set his hand on the doorknob when his body suddenly halted.
"Human? Why aren't you moving? What trick are you trying now!"
The Eternity Devil roared.
"No trick. I just changed my mind."
Su Tang took his hand off the knob, gave the Eternity Devil a brilliant smile, and opened his beastlike bloody maw.
"—Fire, Dragon's Breath!!"
————————————
The sludge-like creature howled in pain in the flames.
Watching quietly, Su Tang said inwardly: "Holy Lord, you're saying we're actually in this devil's stomach?"
"Correct, boy."
"The entire eighth floor was swallowed in, so you couldn't find its body."
Su Tang nodded in sudden realization.
No wonder… Fortunately the Holy Lord was competent enough: though he'd said "a few hours," he had finished in one.
"Su Tang, what are you—"
Aki asked in confusion. "Why the sudden change of tactics? Did something happen?"
"It's a good thing." Su Tang bared a grim smile from his gaping jaws, blocked Aki behind him, then twisted his neck to look at the devil still cursing.
"Eternity Devil, right… You should know there's one thing that's annoyed me ever since I got my current powers."
Dangerous blood-red light flickered in his eyes. Around him, sheet after sheet of blazing flame erupted.
"Every time I set a fire, I have to worry about burning this or that… It's really… suffocating!"
"So today, let me—let loose for once."
"One big blaze—burn it all to ashes, hahahahaha!!"
A cyan figure bathed in flame.
Scorching, frenzied, surging, exultant!
Endless flames seemed to dance in midair, wantonly scattering heat and dreadful aura.
From floor to walls, from one end of the corridor to the other.
Whether wood, cloth, or appliances, everything was devoured in an instant by the raging blaze, then turned into fuel for the next wave!
Fire, fire, fire!
Fire everywhere!
"Wait, wait! Human! Aaagh it hurts! We can slowly—aaah, it hurts—!"
The Eternity Devil's body twisted in the flames, struggling—each time it regrew, it endured burning again; even its speech broke apart.
"What are you saying? So quiet—I can't hear you at all!"
Su Tang spread his arms wide amid the flames. Countless sparks leapt up and down around him, dancing as if welcoming their king.
"Hahahahaha! Burn! Burn! Reduce everything to dust!!"
"And then—be reborn in the fire—!!"
Boom—!!
The whole of the eighth floor began to shake.
Beams, walls—everything visible snapped and exploded.
The entire floor seemed to fall into a void; at the instant the weightlessness came, it collapsed at once!
All that had been became broken walls and shattered ruins. And the truth of the surroundings unfolded before their eyes.
Everywhere they looked was an endless expanse of meat-walls!
"There!"
Su Tang's gaze flashed across the surroundings and instantly found that golden shield.
A talisman!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you so much for reading until the end.
If you'd like to read more, you can Joining to my Patreon.
My Patreon:
patreon.com/Hydran_Tea
Chainsaw Man: The Covenant of Flame Demon [Ss2 137 Chapter ]
Uma Musume: Wait—you want me to pop my Christmas Hat Ultimate? [Ss2 129 Chapter ]
Honkai star rail:Invincible From the Moment I Started Playing as Jing Yuan [ 60 Chapter ]
The Problem Child Starts from Gensokyo [ 57 Chapter ]
FGO: Handcrafted Lostbelt, the Strongest is the Real History [ 29 Chapter ]