章 54: Level Seven
Noah didn't know which one to react to first and which ones to ignore. However, he wasn't given enough time when he felt a strong surge of strange magic rushing towards him. It was akin to Luca's divine magic, it was way stronger that it even made Noah tremble.
Caliga, however, had always been more courageous than his master. If he felt scared, who would Noah hide behind instead?
The hellhound called forth his brothers and sisters, making sure they wouldn't be hit by whatever was coming. Caliga was so sure that it wasn't Luca… but something about it was still suspicious. Nonetheless, if she attacked Noah, Caliga would shield him with his body and teeth.
"Dammit! She's here!" The demon, who didn't even speak out a single word, dragged a few words that were hardly comprehensible to Noah's ears. It seemed that the demon handler knew that woman, whoever she might be. The demon growled and then eyed at Noah. "You… you're a bait?!"
"If that's to kill you, yes!��� Noah gripped on his hellhound tighter and decided to shake off his fear in front of the demon. The demon then hissed and wriggled its body, making Noah regret fighting this thing on his own.
In a few seconds, the already-formidable big-head demon began strengthening its body with a bone-like armor. The reason why its head was huge was that it wasn't in its full form; its full form would result in its body augmented by bones again and again. The layers enlarged the body and gave the proper proportions to it.
Moreover, its power also kept on rising.
Noah cursed under his breath. When Belphegor told him it was a little viable for him to shut down a coven, he didn't expect that he would be facing demons like these.
The Master's handler seemed to be very strong, and the Master didn't deserve to be next to it. Then again, the Master was just one of the many who served this particular demon.
Dark eyes flickered as his hands shook. The creeping dread started to make Noah want to curl up and cry, hoping to be spared. However, he already had some drops of pride in his bones; he didn't want to cry like a baby now.
"You die! She dies later!" The demon even changed its voice. Its huge hands then curled and swiped down towards Noah.
Caliga bit onto Noah's arm and hopped out of the way. Even if this black dog couldn't damage the demon, he was sure to be able to evade. His only problem was that his master was starting to freeze.
Why wouldn't he when the demon in front of them was stronger than the hellhounds' collective strength?
Before the demon could send another attack, a white light drilled through the floors above them. A person fell from the height, and the cold light of her blades glinted sinisterly at Noah. The woman in a white coat, dress, and wide-legged pants swiveled and bored a hole through the demon's defenses.
Noah had no idea how powerful one should be to pierce through such a thing, but he knew that it might even take ten Noah Roccos and Caligas for that!
"Argh! Go away!" The demon started tumbling around as if dealing with the white apparition that phased through his defenses. He would stop at some seconds, groaning in pain. "Death to the Magi!"
The demon planned to shrink, but he couldn't do so anymore. Blades spun from his throat and out his mouth. He couldn't even scream in pain anymore as the white-clad woman drilled through his body. The demon then choked out blood and fell to the ground with a very loud bang!
The impact on the ground shook the remainder of the castle. It grew weaker and collapsed under the weight of the building on top. Earth surged through like a flood, and Caliga chose to phase through the walls like how he ordered the other hellhounds to do.
However, the white-clad woman pulled on one of her blades and released it from her coat with a flowing cloth attached to its end. She then lassoed Noah's neck with it, pulling him off of Caliga when the hellhound jumped.
Bang! Noah's back hit against the ground, and the witch immediately rolled away to avoid the woman's stomp. He summoned forth his claw as Caliga jumped back to bite the cloth that wrapped against Noah's neck.
"Don't bother escaping death, witch." The white-clad woman huffed as she tugged on the cloth, dragging Caliga's legs. The two males didn't know how much strength this woman had, but she didn't seem to be bulky. Even Luca had corresponding muscles to his strength as a hunter.
"That line seemed to belong to a hunter. Are you from the Order of Michael?" Noah grabbed the cloth on his neck and panicked inwardly as he couldn't pry it off. The ground was pouring in, and he might end up getting buried alive if he and Caliga failed to save themselves.
"Don't taint the Order's name with your tongue." The white-clad woman hissed as she tugged on the cloth again.
However, this time, it was to pull herself towards them. She readied her scimitar-looking weapon along with some more of it attached to the cloth on her coat. She was like a spider striking with six limbs all at once!
The same power that broke through the demon's hide was deployed, but this time, Noah was at the other end of her blades.
…
The agents of SCC had barricaded the area where the castle was. However, they couldn't guard anyone against the seismic movements happening underground. The most they could do was create a media black-out and claim the rumblings as gas explosions deep into the earth and that created a sinkhole in the area.
However, they didn't know how to react when two women dressed in white coats, suits, and wide-legged pants walked towards them. The person they approached was the head agent of the New York City branch.
Luca saw them from afar and decided to get down to mediate. Caseus brought him down the building, and he ran to the scene where the head agent was arguing with the women in white.
"I know that, but this is our operation. One of my agents is still down there, too. I am not letting you take over all of a sudden and—"
"I understand your concerns, but this is now under the jurisdiction of the Order. A level-seven demon had appeared in the area. Unless your operative can handle something like that, expect him to be expired already."
The one with lush golden-blonde hair peeking from her hat spoke. Her purple eyes also stung the head agent. "If you don't have any other concerns, begin pulling out your agents."
"You—"
"Sister Tabitha! Sister Winona!" Luca yelled as he hurried to the scene and even stood in between two sides. "Sisters, why are you here?"
The two were stunned when they saw Luca. However, the other woman—who wasn't talking to the head agent earlier—suddenly blurted out, "Luca! Why are you in New York? Your area is Massachusetts!"
Luca shuddered before frowning and drawing the women's attention on him instead. "I know! It's just that we're helping out SCC, and their operations are where I go! What do you mean level seven? A level seven is here?!"
Winona glanced at the golden-haired Tabitha before sighing as she massaged her head. "Luca, listen. A level seven would be too much for you, but Alessa can handle one just fine. Actually, we came here to shut down a coven.
We figured the handler would be around since there will be a tribute tonight, and so we waited for him. Since he's only level seven and underground, Alessa went alone.
"No need to get worried about her—" Winona flashed a grin, but Luca gritted his teeth and interrupted her. "Sister, please, my friend is still down there. Can you contact Alessa?"
Winona frowned for a while and couldn't tell him that they lost contact with Alessa because of the depths of the castle. It's just that when she reached out and was about to pat Luca, Tabitha pulled her away sharply.
Gnash! A black dog appeared out of thin air and even tried to bite Winona's arm!
"What?! Hellhounds?!" Winona held onto her arm that she almost lost, and Tabitha formed her whip to dice the hellhounds that quickly surrounded the two women—wait, no…
They surrounded Luca, with their backs against him!
"Hellhounds? Are these… Sleepydog's?" The head agent retreated furiously like everyone in SCC. Hellhounds might only be categorized as level four demons, but they had great numbers and their royal blood wasn't factored in yet. SCC agents could not handle those if a fight broke out.
"You guys…" Luca then looked at the direction from where they came from. "Where's Noah?" He then flicked his gaze at Caseus that joined the encirclement. "Caseus, where are Noah and Caliga?!"
"Luca, you convene with hellhounds?!" Winona was bewildered. She didn't harbor much anger now that she understood why the hellhound attacked her. One of them must have encountered Alessa and thus had a consensus that the women in white were enemies.
However, Luca ignored Winona and sought for Caseus's answer. The hellhound in question gazed at his siblings, and most of them actually folded their ears.
Luca didn't talk hellhound, but he had a pet dog before; he was familiar with their apologetic action.
Without any warnings, Luca hopped over one hellhound and bolted to the sinkhole towards the castle. The hellhounds lost Noah? No, that can't be!
However, halfway, the ground from under him broke, and Caliga just rammed into him. He caught the huge hellhound and supported his roll. Luca then broke into distraught as he saw the hellhound's body riddled with deep wounds.
Luca then flung his gaze at where Caliga came from. "Noah!"
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