章 447: The Fall of Ushers (9)
…kwakwang!
Andrealphus felt an intense impact from the back of her head, and then her vision on the left side went blank.
[What the hell!?]
Andrealphus turned her head in surprise.
She saw the half-crumbling mansion of the Usher family, and a man standing atop the spiked roof.
A tall, lanky man, pale as a corpse, with large, sullen eyes, bloodlessly thin lips, and hair as long and thin as a spider's web.
Usher Poe Roderick. A man who is called a Bow Demon (弓鬼).
He raised his dying body that crushed by the Red Death, and picked up his bow and arrows.
And now he is staring at the sky with his usual gaze.
[Roderick? How can you come to your senses...? Argh!]
Andrealphus's face crumpled into a grimace.
The raging waters of the Lakedog had temporarily washed away the red death aura from the swampy grounds of the House of Usher's mansion.
kwakwakwakwakwa...
The Red Death spirits are swept away by the blue foam and dissolve.
The aura of death and sickness that enveloped the mansion has temporarily dissipated, and clear air flows in.
kkililig-
Roderick draws his bowstring once more.
His gaze, cold and dry, is focused on one thing and one thing only: Andrealphus in the sky.
"Madeline."
The voice came from a shattered gut and a crumbling body.
At the same time, Roderick's arrow once again struck Andrealphus in the chest.
…peopeong!
It pierced through and tore a huge hole in Andrealphus' body.
Andrealphus let out a horrified scream as flesh and blood scattered in all directions.
[Kyaaah! Brother! What is this! How could you do this to me!]
It was a demon's habit to take on the voice of its host when cornered.
But it only made the blood in Roderick's eyes grow redder and sharper.
"Madeline!"
Roderick pulled the bowstring once more.
ppeo-eong!
Once again, Andrealphus's head exploded.
Her right side of her face was completely blown off, and now only her lower jaw and tongue remained.
[Brother! It's me! It's Madeline, the one you buried alive when you were a child! Are you going to kill me again?]
The monster, with only its lower jaw and tongue left, continues to spew Madeline's voice down its throat.
The sister who was blinded by a childhood fever.
She was buried by Roderick in an unknown grave.
But one rainy night, she dug up her grave and climbed out.
She was thought to be dead, but she was alive.
She overcame the horror of being buried alive and escaped the grave on her own.
She regained her health and grew up strong.
... But in fact, she died of a fever at that time.
It was that horrible, ugly, ugly demon that had taken over her empty shell.
Roderick's eyes burned with gray fire as he recognized it.
"Andrealphus!"
The name Madeline was no longer on Roderick's lips.
Now that he has finally let go of his sister, a sister he should have let go long ago, he will repay the debt of deception with interest.
kkudeudeudeudeug-
Roderick. He squeezed the body that had been consumed by the Red Death to its limit.
Blood pulses through his dried, corpse-like body.
Bones crackled everywhere.
Bianca looks at Roderick and cries out.
"Dad, don't overexert yourself, you're not in good shape...!?"
For a moment, she saw her father's gaze upon her.
It's the eyes of a man who is ready to die. The eyes of a man who is ready to die, but at the same time, willing to give his all.
Bianca and Roderick. An unspoken message passed between them.
"...Dad."
Bianca staggered as if her legs had given out.
Tudor, who was beside her, helped her up.
"Roderick, why?"
"...Dad."
Bianca responded to Tudor's question with a despairing stare.
"He plans to end his life here."
"...!"
The words startled everyone, and they turned their heads once more.
There stood Roderick the Bow Demon, preparing for the final blow.
Patsutsutsutsu-
The aura gathers around the tip of Roderick's arrow.
A fatal blow.
Roderick's entire body's mana surges.
And then.
…kwakwang!
An unbelievably loud explosion erupted from the arrow.
A huge vortex formed, and countless lightning bolts filled it.
The wind swept away all the clouds in the sky, and the arrows flying through the center of it created a pillar of light that looked like a comet falling.
A strike from the heavens.
It was even more powerful than when Hugo had slain Andromalius.
Roderick's arrow flew toward Andrealphus with a terrifying aftermath.
And then.
kwa-jig! kkwaleuleung!
The arrow blew out not only the heart of the giant monster bird, but also its entire chest.
[Keuaaaaghhhh!]
Despite being hit by this terrifying sniper attack, Andrealphus didn't die immediately.
However, the unexpectedly fatal wound was enough to destabilize its trajectory and lower its altitude.
And where Andrealphus was gradually falling, Marquis de Sade and Major General Orca were waiting.
"Pushishishi- that Usher boy has given us a good gift."
"This is repayment for the hail that fell earlier."
The two old men, who had just been mocked by the hailstorm, were furious.
The whips writhing like vipers, the clubs crashing like a tsunami.
The aura of the two of them, who were so young in their horrific lives, flew through the sky.
peo-eog! kwakwakwakwang!
The whip and club tore off one of Andrealphus's wings.
Then the rest of his wings began to receive a baptism of arrows from the God Killer Sniper Squad.
peopeopeopeopeopeog!
Andrealphus, whose body was riddled with arrows and turned into a hedgehog, shook her blown-off head and screamed.
[Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!]
It was a terrible final cry, so terrible that it was hard to tell whether it was human or bird.
kkililig-
The last bowstring is pulled.
"...."
Bianca took the final shot.
…peoeong!
The final arrow flies, surely breaking Andrealphus's last hold.
peopeong!
Bianca's arrow blew off Andrealphus's last tattered wing.
A falling demon has no wings.
Andrealphus didn't even seem to have the strength left to scream, let alone flee through the air.
The monstrous bird's body, falling toward the ground, pointed toward the Usher mansion.
And beneath it stood Roderick.
Roderick asked, looking at Andrealpus falling toward him.
"...Cervantes. What happened to him?"
It wasn't Bianca who answered his question, but Tudor next to her.
Tudor closed his eyes and shook his head.
Roderick nodded, noticing the spear Gungnir in his right hand and the empty left sleeve blowing in the wind.
" ...So that what happened."
Tudor's appearance and demeanor spoke for themselves.
Roderick closed his eyes as he realized everything that had happened.
Then he spoke in a dry voice.
"Please take care of the Usher family."
It was the last thing he said.
…kwakwakwakwakwang!
The half-destroyed body of Andrealphus crashed down on top of Usher's mansion.
The mansion and island, whose erosion had been halted for a moment, began to crumble once more as Andrealphus fell.
Rumbling.
With a thunderous crash, the Usher family mansion began to sink into the swamp along with its grounds.
[Ah… Aaaaaahh... The casuality... The casuality...]
A dying flame of a demon. The 3rd Corpse collapsing into the water.
The last days of Andrealphus the Ice Duke were miserable and lonely.
* * *
Then the hail, storm, and thunder subsided.
In the middle of the quiet swamp, only wide ripples and foam remained.
The Fall of Usher.
Bianca's eyes welled with tears as she watched the mansion disappear beneath the bottomless swamp.
Turning to the Tudor on her shoulder, Bianca said.
"...Demons. I'm going to kill them all."
"I agree."
Tudor replied, looking down at his father's relic, the Gungnir.
The two young heroes sharpened their hatred of demons.
Then.
jeobeog- jeobeog- jeobeog-
The sound of footsteps approaching their backs.
Vikir. The Night Hound.
A hunter who has been fighting demons in secret and alone since before the world changed.
Tudor and Bianca turn their heads to look at Vikir.
Gazes of unwavering faith and trust.
And then the old, seasoned hunter turned to the new, newly awakened hunters.
"There are only two left."
With most of the Ten Demons responsible for the Age of Destruction hunted down, there were only two left.
The 1st Corpses, And 2nd Corpses. If they catch just these two, they will be able to prevent the Age of Destruction.
It won't be easy-perhaps harder than everything they've done so far combined-but it must be done.
And Vikir was no longer alone.
The Night Hound is followed by the Night Walkers.
Camus, Dolores, Sinclair, Tudor, Bianca, Sancho, Piggy, and other colleagues from the Academy, as well as Marquis de Sade and Major General Orca from Nouvelle Vague.
In addition, a large force of personnel from Fort Tochka were supporting Vikir in every way possible.
"This is the final phase."
The demons who had lost this many of their comrades would not stand idly by.
There is a high possibility that they will mobilize all the time and strength they have accumulated so far.
The Night Hound turned his back on Usher.
So did his followers.
The end is near. The prelude to all-out war was upon them.
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