Vanargand The Devourer

We defeated monsters along the way and safely reached the innermost chamber.

Florence, who was accompanying me, kept gripping the hem of my long coat so tightly I couldn’t fight comfortably, but I made up for it with a difference in stats.

Within the shadows Ekarraat snapped, “You brat, do not step on the shadow, insolent girl!”, but her voice didn’t reach Florence.

“Alright, we’re here.”

“A big door… Beyond this, the Crimson Vampire Princess is…”

‘I’m here, though.’

Inside it was unchanged from my previous visit, decorated like an old temple.

“Lord Weidenreich!!”

Florence suddenly let go of the hem of my long coat.

She ran over to the white-haired old man leaning against the wall, dead and fluttering.

“Well then, let’s retrieve that Vanargand while we can. Where is it?”

I looked around, but there was nothing that resembled it.

I hadn’t even asked Ekarraat what Vanargand actually was.

Then—the side wall of the inner chamber darkened into a shadowy color.

“…!?”

――A chill.

A spine-chilling sense of intimidation enveloped the chamber.

“What—what’s that…?”

The shadow-colored space in the wall looked as if it were warping.

From a tear in space-time emerged—a furry beast’s foreleg.

‘Kukaka—it’s been a while, Vanargand.’

Then the other foreleg followed.

And then—

“Waoooooooon!!!!”

A huge wolf’s face appeared, baring sharp fangs.

A gigantic body capable of swallowing a human whole fully revealed itself.

‘That right there is my pet—《Vanargand the Devourer》.“’

“Vanargand is a monster!?”

Tell me that earlier!

“What on earth is that monster… The Boss of【Crimson Night Moon】should be the Crimson Vampire Princess…!?”

Florence also showed astonishment in front of the giant wolf.

“Flo, run now!”

“Ah, ah…”

I called to Flo, but she seemed to be paralyzed with fear under Vanargand’s pressure.

Nevertheless, she was covering the dead old man—Oswald Weidenreich—overlaying his corpse to protect him.

‘Prepare yourself, Sid—the creature has strength equal to mine.’

“Equal to Ekarraat? There’s no way we can win!!”

“Garrl!!”

Vanargand lunged at me, its fangs the size of boulders.

I had allowed Florence to accompany me because the deepest part was supposedly uninhabited and safe.

If I had known such a ferocious monster remained, I wouldn’t have brought her here.

“Tch! My blade’s not getting through at all!”

While evading Vanargand’s attack, I checked its stats with my eye that sees through logic.

My Overall Combat Power is 3,100.

There’s a gap of over tenfold.

“It’s your pet, isn’t it? Can’t it behave itself!?”

‘Vanargand was my pet, but with my death the binding of subservience was broken, so it no longer obeys me.’

“That wasn’t a pet relationship from the start, was it!?”

A relationship that requires forcibly subduing with that binding to control it can’t be called a pet.

‘It’ll be an all-out war using the Shadows we’ve gathered so far! I’ll join in too!’

“Wait! It’s bad if Flo sees you. We can’t let the Holy Church find out I’m accompanied by the Crimson Vampire Princess. And the Shadows too—they hate the Shikai Tribe—the Necromancer type.”

What would happen if the existence of a Shikai Tribe member with special abilities were discovered in that situation?

It’s obvious it would cause trouble.

“Grrrrrrrrr!!”

While dodging Vanargand’s ferocious attacks and devising countermeasures—an unexpected line came from Ekarraat.

‘Therefore—kill that brat.’

“…Huh?”

‘In this chamber there are only us and the sister girl. If we do it now there will be no witnesses.’

“There’s no way I can do that!”

Admittedly, the Holy Church is my parents’ enemy.

But that doesn’t mean I can silence a child who merely belongs to the Holy Church by killing her.

“Waoooooooon!!!!”

The battle was entirely defensive.

Vanargand howled, kicked the ground with its powerful legs, and charged at me.

I barely avoided it.

Vanargand’s nose slammed into the wall—no, it didn’t; it disappeared into the wall.

The wall it vanished into was tinged dark, and as even the tip of its tail sank into the hole of darkness, that dark hole vanished as well.

“It disappeared!?”

‘Sid—below!’

“…!?”

“Waon!!”

The floor beneath my feet darkened.

I leaped high into the air.

――Gakin!!

Just a few centimeters below my toes, the sound of a massive jaw snapping shut echoed.

Vanargand’s neck shot out from the shadow-colored floor.

‘It possesses the ability to move through space. It’s like teleportation.’

“Th-that was close…! Thanks, Ekarraat. How did you know it would come from below?”

‘In these patterns it usually comes from below.’

After that Vanargand kept repeating spatial movements—disappearing into one wall and reappearing from the opposite—and its fang caught my arm.

――Buchi!!

“Guh! Both arms were taken along with my swords!”

‘As its epithet《Vanargand the Devourer》implies, it’s an incredible glutton. They say it even swallowed the moon of the world it came from.’

The eaten arms regrew immediately, but the sleeves that were taken didn’t regenerate, leaving me in short sleeves.

Summer is still far off and I’ve already gone business-casual!

“Enough trivia! Tell me its weak point!”

‘None—there’s no choice but to close in faster than it can move through space and land an attack strong enough to pierce its tough fur and thick hide.’

“That’s too unreasonable!”

‘That’s why I’m saying you should summon other Shadows and me! At this rate you’ll actually die! Even if you’re Undead, if you’re swallowed it’s over.’

“Mr. Sid!!!!”

While I was completely occupied parrying Vanargand’s attacks—Flo called out to me.

“Flo! Stay still!”

I’m positioning myself so that its hate is always aimed at me, but Flo alone wouldn’t be able to withstand Vanargand’s attacks.

But Flo ignored my orders and shouted with a determined look on her face.

“I will――stop the monster’s movement!!”