Rebirth-Transcending All Beings-Chapter 49: Return [2]

Vergil’s footsteps echoed with a heavy thud as he strode towards Elvira’s cottage — his feet pressing into the ground as if a dozen boulders rested on his back.

Eleanor followed close behind him, a tense silence hung between them.

The prosperous village that was once filled with the shouts of merchants had been reduced to nothing but scorched wood and ashes — the smell of blood taking over the air like a cursed fog. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Turning the final corner.

The old house was there — barely.

Roof collapsed inwards, blackened beams caved in like the ribs of a dying beast. The door hung on one hinge, swaying with the wind. The garden that Elvira tended to was nothing but a pile of ash.

"...Elvira?" Vergil shouted.

No answer.

Stepping inside, the floor creaked under their weight — Eleanor remained at the threshold — watching.

Memories flashed in quick bursts. Her herbal tea, her chair by the window. Her soft scolding echoing from a time that felt as if he wouldn’t experience it again.

He checked each corner, each fallen beam.

Nothing.

’Thank God.’ The words felt like an echo in his mind. But worry still panged at him like a knocking door.

Primal Awareness had stayed active — nothing in the area. No demons. Just absence.

"She wouldn’t leave without helping," Eleanor spoke. "Good chance she tried to protect others."

Vergil’s lips refused to utter another word, his eyes staring at the remains of the earth. He had promised to get firewood just yesterday.

Vergil punched the wall with all his might.

"We’re too late," the words finally leaving his lips. "Too fucking late!" His fists punching the wall one last time before becoming a part of the rubble.

He averted his gaze, fists clenched. Gods Demonic Left Eye shimmered quietly beneath his transformation, reflecting a quiet yet dangerous rage that steadily built itself.

"Let’s check the rest of the village," he muttered.

"Right," Eleanor replied. "But Vergil... if she’s out there, we’ll find her."

He only nodded once, his eyes never softened. If the demons had done anything...

Vergil walked, finding himself amidst the ruins of the guildhall. The scent of both iron and ash thickening. Primal Awareness pulsed again.

A hearbeat beneath the rubble. It was faint but alive.

He bolted forward, his voice turning sharp. "Eleanor, someone’s under here."

He didn’t wait. He used the Authority of Transformation, demonic energy pulsed once more, form twisting.

His body surged in size once more, taking on Morvax’s physique once more — beginning to push aside massive chunks of rocks and wood. The cracked stone creaked under his strength before seeing who was under.

"Elena."

The young receptionist was curled in a shallow cavity beneath all the wreckage, dirt coated her clothes, breath shallow.

But she wasn’t crushed — surviving with a few scrapes, bruises and a nasty bump on her forehead.

"At least... we’ve found someone." Vergil spoke out, more relieved than he had expected.

Eleanor exhaled beside him. "She’s okay."

Vergil extended his clawed hands carefully, gently pulling Elena into his monstrous hands, cradling her like glass. "I’ll carry her, let’s continue the search."

"I understand," Eleanor replied, scanning the destroyed village.

Vergil turned toward the edge of the village.

’Where could they be?’

Without waiting, his four legs drove into the dirt, as he bent low. "Eleanor."

Eleanor hoisted herself onto his back, holding on tightly.

With a burst of speed, he dashed across the ruined village with Elina in his arms and Eleanor on his back. Dust and blood whipped past his monsterous figure as he tore through the area.

The air remained unnaturally still as he stood before a half-buried shelter. The remains of bodies and ash were scattered around the area. He felt something beneath the land he stood.

Something faint and final.

He knelt, before digging with his clawed hands. Rubble scattered effortlessly as his blackened arms moving in grim silence.

Finally a trapdoor revealed itself, as both black blood and dried red smears stained the wooden craftwork.

The door opened with a creak, the smell hit him like a blade — blood, rot and smoke all mingling and mixing to a smell most foul.

He descended down, his knees trembled with every measured inch — each step was a battle as he fought the urge to bolt back up.

Inside the underground shelter was chaos. The walls torn by claws and burned by spells. Demons lay mangled, burnt alive.

Their corpses twisted in agony — but so were the villagers.

Men. Women. Children. All strewn acrosd the floor, some clutching each other.

Some alone.

And then he saw her.

Elvira.

Slumped against the end wall, a jagged piexe of bone piercing her abdomen, her hands burned till only a rotten decay remained.

Her eyes that were once filled with harsh wisdom and biting sarcasm were now blank — frozen in a silent end.

Het staff, now snapped in two, lay beside her in a mix of demon and human blood.

Vergil didn’t speak.

His demonic form slowly dissolved. Morvax’s monstrous limbs retracted, leaving only the trembling frame of a young man.

He walked to her without a word.

His knees buckled as he knelt.

He reached out with one hand, hesitant... then gently closed her eyelids.

The world around him faded into silence.

No remarks from the system.

No heartbeat.

No breathing.

Only a storm of agonizing emotions, brewing into a mixture.

Pain.

Grief.

Rage.

Regret.

Confusion.

Guilt.

Hatred.

Emptiness.

All of it twisted through his chest and brain, clawing at the hollowness that had formed.

His fists clenched.

He wanted to scream. But nothing came out. He wanted to kill every demon in the world.

It was his own greed and fault, that this happened.

His lips curved into a smile — shaky, broken, hollow.

And then the tears followed out relentlessly but quiet.

He cried and cried — shoulders trembling within the dim light that flickered into the shelter surrounded by corpses.

A smile on his face. Tears welling from his eyes.

The silence still remained — but something inside stirred.

[User has met the conditions]

[The Authority of predation is reacting]

[Another seal has been unlocked, another function has been activated.]

[Burden Carrier has been activated]