That Which Must Not Be Known

‘That fucking demon bastard.’

Solomon silently counted his remaining spell slots.

───
: Level 1 spell slots 4 uses (⚀⚀⚀⚀■■)
: Level 2 spell slots 3 uses (⚁⚁⚁■)
: Level 3 spell slots 1 use (⚂■)
───

His remaining spell slots were not low enough to be alarming, but neither did he have much room to spare. And the opponent Solomon had to face here was the warden of this forest of hell. Barbatos, the Demon of the Hunt.

‘Is this even an opponent I can beat in the first place?’

There was no way to know. Fortunately, no message about an unbeatable foe appeared, perhaps it was not an utterly impossible opponent.

“I’ll give you one minute to run and take up position.”

One minute. Solomon let out a hollow laugh and thought. In this situation, and against a hunter wielding a great bow at that, to widen the distance? It was laughable.

“59 seconds.”

‘Even so, this isn’t an opponent I can beat in a straight fight.’

He couldn’t help but know it. That was not an opponent he could beat in close combat. So why was no ‘powerful foe message’ appearing before his eyes? There was probably some solution.

‘A solution.’

“58 seconds.”
Solomon thought coldly, though he did not say it aloud, as the demon calmly counted down before him.

‘<Darkblood Sword> still hasn’t run out.’

A combination spell of <Black Sword> and <Blood Sword>. In any case, Solomon currently possessed not only the abilities of a Level 6 「Spell Assassin」, but also those of a Level 3 「Blood Mage」.
Apart from having used the Spell Assassin class trait 「Blade in the Dark」 in the fight just now, the Blood Mage line class ability 「Blood Explosion」 was also still available.

‘The cards themselves are more than sufficient.’

The key was how he used those cards. Above all, when <Bloodflow Acceleration> was combined with the built-in acceleration effect of the <Hide> spell imbued in the 「Shy」 stealth coat, that speed was by no means something to take lightly.

“57 seconds.”

‘I won’t drag this out.’

“56 seconds.”

Calculations were being made in his head more coldly than ever before. His movement was even faster than that. Not his thoughts, but his body.

‘<Hide>, <Bloodflow Acceleration>!’

The enchantment imbued in the 「Shy」 stealth coat overlapped with <Bloodflow Acceleration>, forcibly dragging at the world’s clock hands. As the distance rapidly closed, Solomon kicked off the ground.
Not at Barbatos, but past him, toward the innocent ‘foot’ loitering behind him.

“─.”

A rush that far surpassed human speed.

Barbatos’s promise itself was still valid. That Solomon could return if he successfully hunted and harvested prey. To do that, there was no need to defeat him.

Faster than a shadow bolt after it was fired, Solomon’s body closed the distance and rushed toward the ‘prey.’ The prey he had first seen in the forest, the bait-like foot, was there. He was in no position to be choosy about rewards.
The Ghost Whale Bone Blade in his hand swung.

“55 seconds.”

Fifty-five seconds. More than enough time to catch a single prey.

Taat!
At that very moment, furry goat legs twisted grotesquely and contracted, then sprang up on reverse-jointed limbs. A beast’s movement that could not be imitated by a primate’s skeletal structure.
With a bursting sound like a hydraulic press exploding, Barbatos’s body launched backward. It wasn’t even walking or jumping. It was a reverse leap that shot away from a standstill as if ignoring the laws of physics.

By the time Solomon realized it, the distance between them had already widened enough for Barbatos to aim his great bow and draw the string.

Taang!
The bowstring was drawn. A shot loosed with a tearing sound through the air, powered by the absurd tension of the great bow. Even calling it an arrow was not enough.

Something reminiscent of a siege cannon or a ballista.

Kwaaang!
It was beyond merely tearing the air. It was an explosive roar that crushed and burst the atmosphere. Not something one could see and dodge. And the target the arrow was aiming at was not Solomon. It was his prey.

“!”

The prey in the forest was pierced by an arrow once more and shattered without leaving even a shape behind. Seeing that, Solomon cursed aloud.

“You fucking bastard, there are still 55 seconds left!”
“That grace period was only a minute given ‘to prepare for the hunt.’ Not for the hunt itself.”

Barbatos replied with the forked tongue befitting a demon. Solomon started to swallow back the foul words rising to his throat… then realized there was no need for that.

“Fuck off, you dogshit con artist bastard!”
“Oh, what remarkably coarse language. In any case…….”

He spoke as he drew the string of the great bow once again. He didn’t even bother nocking an arrow. When he pulled the string with nothing there, an arrow of fitting size simply appeared on its own and was aimed.

“With this, I shall take it that your preparations for the hunt are finished as well.”

There would be no next time.

“!”

Taang!
The string was drawn the moment his goat legs kicked off the ground.
Barely, thanks to <Bloodflow Acceleration> along with the added acceleration effect of <Hide>, Solomon could at least make a show of dodging. Only that much.

Chwaaaak!
Even so, he could not avoid the blade of wind that shredded the air itself. Before that raging blade-wind, his clothes and flesh were torn to pieces as though fed into a blender.

“Guhk……!”

In agony, Solomon coughed up a mouthful of blood. He didn’t even have the leisure to properly feel the pain. The moment he had barely evaded that strike, the Demon of the Hunt was already drawing his bowstring again.

‘I have to catch some prey no matter what.’

Solomon kicked off the ground again. As he aimed and fired the Nightfall automatic crossbow, each time Barbatos’s arrows changed trajectory like living creatures with wills of their own and devoured the prey Solomon was targeting before he could reach it.
That was at least fortunate. As long as he was just interfering with Solomon’s hunt, and not directly harming Solomon himself.

Even so, this was the forest of hell, not a pond full of fish. It was not a place where one could catch prey at will just because one wanted to.

‘Goddamn it!’

Solomon couldn’t avoid the arrow fired yet again. He quickly used <Shadow Mimic> and <Shadow Swap> to escape the spot. His spell slots were steadily decreasing as well. Like it or not, he had to steel himself.

‘There’s no choice but to use <Shadow Lurker> here.’

The House Bale bloodline trait.
Even if it meant taking the risk of exposing that bloodline, he had no choice but to use it here. To use a lurking attack at the same time as Solomon’s strike and aim for two prey at once. There was no other way to escape Barbatos’s trap.
Thus Solomon steeled himself─.

Barbatos, too─had steeled himself.

To unleash an inescapable strike no mortal could ever avoid.

As the Demon of the Hunt, Barbatos’s eyes were special. Ordinary demons, even the highest-ranking archdemons of hell, could not compare to him in terms of ‘eyes.’

The hunter’s eyes stared at Solomon in order to land an inescapable strike.
To peer beyond what other beings could see, into the deepest part of the soul.

The string of the great bow was drawn to its very limit. Screaming, as if it might snap at any moment. Not yet. Barbatos’s arm maintained its focus, the countless blood vessels writhing like worms standing out across it.

The Demon of the Hunt, as if aiming at the target within the target, adjusted the sights and foresights of his vision with greater precision than ever and looked through.
A transcendent sight not permitted even to high-ranking demons, granted only to the Demon of the Hunt.

An inescapable strike no mortal could ever evade. At the same time, it was a cursed arrow under which any who were struck would never leave the forest of hell and would become his prey forever.
As a slave bearing the name prey.

‘Looks like I’m about to acquire fine prey.’

Unable to hide his satisfaction, Barbatos focused both eyes. To carry out the curse ritual, to engrave an inescapable mark into the depths of Solomon’s soul.
It was right then.

The very instant Barbatos looked into Solomon’s soul.

“Ah.”

─He saw it.
Like it or not, it had been engraved onto his retinas.

“Ah…….”

By the time he saw it, it was already too late.
A short sound slipped out from him like an involuntary recoil.
It was then.

Drip.

“……!”

Blood began to flow from both of Barbatos’s eyes. It was not tears. Bright red blood was pouring out, with no sign of stopping.
Before long, the bloody tears had gone far beyond merely flowing from his eyes, the blood-tears exceeding by far the volume of blood a living body could contain and forming a sea of blood.
As if he were paying the price for having seen something he absolutely should never have seen.

“Aah, ah, aaaahhh……!!”

By then, the Demon of the Hunt had fallen to his knees, streams of bloody tears pouring from both his eyes.
Right after that, the forest of hell began to scream. The trees that bled from their trunks thrashed about as if they had gone mad, and the forest’s branches and rotten leaves shrieked with wills of their own. The forest’s scream rang out.
And so, while about to command <Shadow Lurker> as his last card, Solomon stopped moving as well, taken aback by the unexpected situation.
There was no way for him to know.

“I, I saw nothing……!”
“……”

Not what the demon before him had seen, nor what he had seen that made him suddenly act like that. Not a single thing.

“What did you see?”
“N-nothing, nothing at all, I saw nothing……!”

It was submission so extreme that even calling it sudden was not enough. And so, amid his surprise, Solomon’s mind grew colder than ever.

“Even when I ask, you dare refuse to answer?”
“P-please do not put me to the test! I beg you like this! Please annihilate me instead! I beg you!”

‘Annihilate him instead?’

A demon talking about being tested. On top of that, begging to be annihilated instead. Solomon was beyond dumbfounded, yet he could dimly understand one thing. That this was something of a nature that could never be spoken of to anyone. The moment it was put into words, some sort of ‘punishment’ would probably activate.

“Can you swear that you would remain just as silent before me, and even before the one I serve?”

There was one thing he could know. Barbatos had seen something in Solomon. Something so grave it could not simply be passed over. Something that could not be spoken of lightly even before the very being concerned.

“I-I swear it! I saw nothing! P-please believe me!”
“Then show the greatest sincerity you can.”

“……!”

A short silence. Then once more, a sound rang out. The sound of dice rolling.

“I will prove it!”

Proof. Saying that, Barbatos moved his hand. It was not an attack. Throwing aside the great bow, the demon’s two hands were gouging out his own eyes.

“Please… swallow these!”

Kwachik!
In the demon’s hand rested the demon’s two eyeballs. That was his show of sincerity.

“I saw nothing! I no longer even have eyes with which to see anything! I saw nothing, and I cannot see!”

Solomon remained calmly silent.

“I will trust your oath.”

As he swallowed the demon’s two eyeballs, the sincerity that had been offered to him.

‘……The taste is nothing special.’

Though he thought that expecting them to taste good in the first place had been a mistake, Solomon calmly maintained his composure.

A short silence. No obvious effect or trait appeared at once. Demon eyes. Perhaps there was something else befitting them. He couldn’t know. For now, all that mattered was getting through this situation.

“Remain silent.”

Solomon said. Barbatos bowed his head once more.

“I will remain silent. I swear it on the name of the River Styx!”

The River Styx. Not a geas. As Solomon blinked at that name─.

[An oath sworn in the name of the River Styx is the strongest and most binding oath, one that not even the gods can break. And it is also the beginning of countless tragedies.]

‘So it’s different from a geas.’

At least from that explanation, in a sense it seemed like something even more powerful than a geas.

“There will be no next time.”

Solomon said in a cold voice. Barbatos, having lost his eyes, bowed his head before Solomon in that state and remained silent.

At the same time as that silence, the scenery around them blazed.

Before he knew it, Solomon was back in Chimera Division 3 of Prometheus Genetics, the place he had entered.

Fortunately, he had also obtained the data sample he needed to secure as part of the commission objective.
Without delay, Solomon left the division and climbed back toward the duct, crossing through the winding innards of the building like a maze.

In that state, he came down to the entrance of the third-floor restroom and changed into the cleaning uniform he had left there in advance. Then he came out of the restroom, retrieved the sign marked ‘Under Repair,’ and strode boldly across the building.
Until the moment he exited through the first floor, no one suspected the lone cleaner there.