East Road Quest

Chapter 44: The Devil’s Name

“Father Daniel has passed away,” Poe said.

Reminded of something she had forgotten, Jade felt her heart sink.

“Let’s talk about that later. I’m still overwhelmed that we’ve met safely,” she replied.

Jade stroked Poe’s head, noticing a faint light emanating from her white horns.

“Is this a common occurrence?” Jade asked.

“It’s the first time. I don’t know why,” Poe answered.

“Stay here for a moment. I need to deal with something over there first.”

Jade stood up and turned to Ruby. Kap, still bound by Ruby’s chains, couldn’t move.

“Don’t come too close. He’ll try to take your body,” Ruby warned Jade.

Jade nodded slightly and, standing firm, called out loudly.

“Who are you? Name yourself.”

“No demon will ever reveal its own name!” Kap shouted back, struggling against the chains but unable to break free.

‘No matter how powerful a demon is, it can’t break chains made of the angelic metal Umparuton,’ Jade reassured herself.

Ruby tightened the chains and threatened, “Will you speak, or shall I punish you?”

“Is that supposed to be a threat, kid?” Kap mocked, bleeding from his nose but laughing at Ruby.

“You might overpower me, but you can’t kill me. You claim to be an angel? Then try to annihilate me, a demon! You can’t. That means you’re not an angel.”

Kap continued to Jade, “Your annihilation magic is terrifying to us demons, but without knowing the name, you can do nothing. You can inflict pain on this body, even tear it to shreds. But that’s all; I’ll just hide in the darkness and find another victim. You can’t…”

Before he could finish, Ruby punched Kap’s face, shattering his head and splattering blood everywhere.

“Ruby!” Jade exclaimed in shock.

“It’s a lie,” Ruby said, shaking the blood off her hands.

“If I could discard the body, why cling to it? It’s because there are problems without it, so I stay like this.”

Jade, worried about Poe witnessing such a horrific scene, turned to look at her.

Poe appeared indifferent. Being naturally expressionless, it was hard to tell what she really felt.

“Still, there was no need for this,” Jade said.

“So what? He’s a demon. The original owner of the body is already dead.”

“Even so, I don’t want you to become accustomed to the sensation of killing people.”

Jade gestured towards the black smoke rising from Kap’s corpse.

“And it seems he wasn’t exactly lying.”

The black smoke, instead of dispersing in the wind, began to take shape and spoke.

“Yes. I can move in this form without a body.”

“But you said you couldn’t move under the sunlight?”

“That’s true. But there’s no sunlight now, is there?”

Kap’s body, now devoid of the evil spirit, quickly withered into a dried-up corpse.

Ruby released the chains and said, “So you knew I was tracking the scent of Pendale and yet you clung to Pendale’s body?”

“Yes. I wanted to hurry to a place with plenty of prey… a place with many bodies to switch to. It was never because I feared you.”

The evil spirit chuckled.

“You must have felt triumphant, defeating me while I was trapped in a human body. What will you do now?”

“I can’t kill you, but…”

Ruby approached the evil spirit and grabbed the black smoke with his bare hands.

“I never said I couldn’t catch you.”

The black smoke emitted a strange, screeching noise as Ruby tore it apart, though it quickly reformed.

The black smoke simply laughed softly.

“Try doing that forever. See if I die.”

Ruby growled at Jade, “He’s right. I can beat him and hold him like this, but I can’t kill him. That’s your job!”

Jade recited a verse to annihilate evil spirits and brought his glowing hand close, but only a cold chill stimulated his palm, unable to annihilate it.

“It’s no use. I can’t kill it without knowing its name.”

“What now? Just keep holding it?”

“Can’t we lock it up somewhere? Like the genie bottles in old stories?”

“It’s not like those bottles are made of clay. We can’t find such magical tools in this desert. And I don’t want to hold it any longer! It feels like holding poop.”

The black smoke became angry.

“What did you say? How dare you…”

Ruby tore the black smoke apart again, preventing it from speaking. He couldn’t annihilate it, but at least he silenced it.

Jade shook his head.

“I came here thinking we’d figure something out, but without knowing its name, there’s nothing I can do…”

Then Poe, who had been watching from behind, spoke up.

“Beishufer.”

Ruby and Jade turned around, surprised.

“That’s the name of the evil spirit,” Poe said calmly.

The black smoke, which had been writhing in Ruby’s grasp, suddenly stiffened.

“Hold it tight, Ruby!”

Jade warned Ruby, then asked Poe, “What was that, Poe? Can you see the demon’s name?”

Poe spoke as if making an excuse, “Yes.”

Jade was speechless, so Ruby urged him.

“Is there such a demon name in the annihilation book? Beis, what?”

“Beishufer.”

Jade muttered the name Poe had given. He already remembered where in the book that name was written.

“How is it possible to see a demon’s name?” Jade wondered.

“I don’t know how, but I could see it. When he first appeared as a man named Pendale, his name wasn’t visible, nor was it when he took the form of Karp. However, whenever the black smoke moved, his name became clear. Now, it’s just visible,” Sapph said.

“Since when was that possible?”

Jade asked again, but the black smoke interrupted with a curse.

“Since when did I know? I’ll tell you! I’ve known from the beginning. From the dawn of time, the author knew the names of all the demons in the world! This traitor! Why side with humans? Insane. Completely insane…!”

“Quiet!”

Ruby squeezed the black smoke with both hands and shouted.

“It’s unbearably noisy. Jade, get rid of it quickly. Do you know what it feels like to hold a wriggling long turd?”

Jade opened the book. The pages turned on their own, stopping at the section containing the Beishupher Extermination Spell, which was longer than those for other lesser demons.

Jade calmly read to himself and then reached out towards the black smoke held by Ruby.

A white light emanated from Jade’s hand. The terrified black smoke let out a scream so dreadful it was unbearable to hear.

Regardless of whether he screamed or not, Jade asked in a soft voice.

“Why were you in the cave where Ruby was trapped?”

“Are you threatening me with the light of annihilation? No chance. Only humans spill the truth when they can’t endure the pain!”

Exposed to the light of annihilation, the black smoke began to melt away as if it had turned into liquid within Ruby’s grasp.

Jade shouted.

“Speak! Why did Baifel lock you up with Ruby?”

“Do you think I’ll answer? I, Beishupher, will wait in hell, dreaming of the day I’ll have my revenge on you. Your soul will surely burn in the flames of hell for an eternity.”

Ruby, full of disgust, urged him on.

“Don’t waste time, just get rid of it!” Jade hesitated until the last moment before bringing the light of annihilation to the black demon. Beishupher burned white, screaming in a pitch that seemed to tear Jade’s eardrums.

“See you in hell, Jade!”

Jade, without even blinking, glared at the burning demon and said.

“Even if I go to hell, you won’t meet me. You’re not dying; you’re being annihilated.”

After a moment, Beishupher’s screams stopped as if it were all a lie.

The black liquid, holding white flames, dripped onto the marble floor. Even after falling, the flames continued to burn the demon.

Ruby, feeling as though there was nothing left in his hand, shook it vigorously.

“Eugh, at the end, it felt like I was holding diarrhea. Huh? Why are you like that?”

Jade sat down, gasping for breath.

“Are you alright, Father?”

Sapph, too, had risen and approached Jade to ask.

“It’s the moment of confirmation for the unease I’ve felt every time I’ve banished demons. Even when annihilating nameless lesser demons, the shock was great. But it’s much more painful to extinguish one with a name.”

“Specifically, where does it hurt, and how?”

Sapph asked.

“Well, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where… Huh?”

Jade noticed the last remnants of Beishupher burning in the white flames turning black.

Ruby also saw it and stood in front of Sapph and Jade.

“This isn’t coming back to life, is it?”

Suddenly, a black pillar of fire erupted from the spot. It sounded like a thousand people whistling at once.

The swirling black flames gradually shrank, transforming into an oblong plank about five spans long and three spans short. It floated in the air, its edges still burning.

“It looks like a mirror.”

Jade observed their reflections on the black surface.

“It is a mirror. A space mirror.”

Ruby approached the mirror and said.

“A space mirror?”

“A magical tool that allows people far apart to see each other’s faces and converse. It’s a rare item, only a few magicians possess.”

The mirror’s surface, reflecting Ruby standing in front, Jade sitting behind, and Sapph standing stoically with his hand on Jade’s shoulder, blurred. Then, after a moment, another figure began to form on the mirror’s surface.

“Isn’t this dangerous?”

Jade asked, tense.

“It’s just a mirror. An illusion. No matter who’s on the other side, they can’t attack us.”

Ruby focused on the mirror, hand on his hip.

Finally, a figure formed in the mirror. But it was blurry, visible only as a shadowy form. It looked both human and not.

The shadow in the mirror spoke.

“The opening of the space mirror means Beishupher is dead.”

Despite being prepared, Jade tensed up when he heard the voice.

“Who killed him?”

The voice sounded clear, as if spoken directly into his ear.

Ruby moved closer to the mirror and said.

“I did. Who are you?”

With Ruby blocking the view, Jade couldn’t see the being in the mirror.

‘Ruby has hidden me.’

The being in the mirror said.

“The little one trapped in the temple. Yes, if Beishupher died, I suspected it would be your doing.”

“Do you know me?”

“Indeed. The little villain who toyed with the army of angels.”

“Who are you to know that?”

Ruby asked.

The shadow in the mirror answered.

“I am Baifel.”

♦

As the black figure spoke its name, Jade, Sapph, and Ruby all fell silent.

“If you killed Beishupher, then you’ve tampered with my temple.”

The black figure spoke first.

“That’s laughable. That place was originally my home.”

Ruby retorted strongly.

“Home? Do you want to call the space you were trapped in ‘home’? And that place is called Baifel’s Temple from the start. It’s a building made for me, so if we must differentiate, it’s my home.” Unlike other demons Jade had encountered, Baifel’s voice didn’t sound feverish or evil. Instead, it was polite, like a nobleman keeping proper decorum, with a voice pleasant to hear.

“It’s my choice! Besides, your voice is really strange. If holding Beishupher felt like holding feces, then your voice is like sewage flowing into my ears.”

Ruby’s thoughts differed from Jade’s.

“I’m sorry about that. But this is the only voice I can produce.”

“Anyway, you lied.”

“I did?”

“You. If you were really Baifel, you wouldn’t reveal your name so easily!”

“Are you talking about the Book of Annihilation?”

The figure in the mirror chuckled softly before speaking.

“Magic that only lower demons would fear.”

“So, you’re claiming to be a higher demon?”

“If I must say, quite high. Whether by power, intellect, magic, or rank, no matter how you look at it.”

“This flower here, ‘if I must say,’ seems to be quite full of itself, doesn’t it?”

Ruby crossed her arms and glared at the mirror.

Unable to hold back, Jade stepped forward and asked.

“Then why have you kept Baishper in your temple and pretended to be Byphel?”

Ruby replied with a sneer.

“Asking them will get you nowhere; such creatures never tell the truth.”

The dark figure chuckled softly again.

“It’s the angels who are adept at lying, not demons. It’s true that we lie often, but our lies are so obvious they’re easily caught. Even humans can spot them. But the lies of angels are so sophisticated that it’s often hard to tell they’re lies at all. Take, for example, the Word of God or the prophecies given to the prophets of the Catholic faith you believe in.”

“Father!”

Sapp suddenly shouted.

Jade turned around in surprise. Sapp’s face was still expressionless. However, her body, which expressed all her emotions, was trembling with clenched fists.

“I don’t know what that is, but I think we shouldn’t listen any further.”

Jade nodded in agreement.

‘Sapp doesn’t want to hear blasphemy, right? It’s not wrong. There’s nothing good about talking to a demon for too long.’

Jade spoke sternly to the dark figure.

“Then tell us, Byphel, whether it’s the truth or your clumsy lies. Why have you imprisoned Baishper in the temple?”

“To know when someone would release that child.”

The dark figure answered readily.

Jade immediately asked.

“Baishper wouldn’t have reported to anyone even if I had entered the temple. How would you find out?”

The dark figure shrugged as if lifting its shoulders and replied.

“I’ve cast a spell on the ‘mirror’ to appear automatically if Baishper dies. Whether the child kills Baishper or the one who releases the child does. But…”

The dark figure peered over Jade’s shoulder as if looking beyond.

“…this isn’t inside the temple. Outside the Red Desert?”

“That’s right. Why do you want to know when it’s released?”

Jade asked quickly, not wanting to lose the right to question.

The dark figure laughed heartily like an old man.

“Why do you think? I should be asking you instead. Why did you release that boy? What do you plan to use him for?”

“I asked first.”

“Your answer is my answer.”

Jade frowned.

‘That can’t be. He couldn’t possibly know that!’

As if reading Jade’s mind, the dark figure asked.

“Are you going to search for the Holy Grail?”

Jade was speechless.

“Do you understand now why I used Baishper as bait? The moment the child is released is when I begin my work.”

Ruby thrust her fist at the mirror and said.

“Hey, where are you? I’ll come right now and smash you to pieces.”

“You can’t come here.”

“There’s nowhere I can’t go! I’ve been to the land of angels, the land of dwarves, from one end of the world to the other!”

“Not hell, though.”

“I won’t go there!”

“See?”

“That damn flowery thing! Ugh!” Ruby kicked the floor in frustration.

“No need to hurry, kid. If you come searching for the Holy Grail with that human there, we’ll naturally meet. ‘When’ that will be, I’m not sure. It could be in 10 years, or it could be tomorrow. ‘Where’ it will be, I don’t know either. Whether it’s where you’ll be in 10 years or where you’ll be tomorrow.”

“Shut up! Whether it’s the Holy Grail or a seed of a flower, if you want to stop me from finding it, why don’t you come here now and kill me?”

“Me, personally go to kill someone like you? Even demons have standards.”

“Then send the army of hell! It would take about a thousand of them to scratch me. Of course, I’d beat them into petals, crush them, and then roll them up like meatballs and stuff them up your nostrils. If you don’t want to hurt, you better stretch your nostrils in the meantime.”

The dark figure laughed loudly as if hearing a funny joke.

“The army of hell is already in your world. You haven’t met a single demon in the Red Desert, have you?”

“I’ve met a damn lot of them!”

“Good. Keep rolling them up. I’ll be digging my nose as you said.”

“What, you’re the one who’s going to sprout this seed…”

As Ruby got excited, Jade intervened.

“I must ask. Why does a demon want the Holy Grail?”

“I should return the question. Why do humans want the Holy Grail?” Jade was at a loss for words again.

The dark figure and the black mirror gradually faded.

“I am an ancient being who has lived since the time when humans did not even know how to handle iron. The lord of hell you know is nothing but a brief occupant of the throne I once held. Would you humans even understand why such a being as I would want the Holy Grail?”

The black mirror disappeared, leaving only a faint echo.

“Let’s meet in the eastern lands. Whether you can make it there or not, we’ll see.”