Rogue Villain-Chapter 323: Old

"...The gods?"

Ackster looked at Karandiel in surprise. He had not expected that.

Karandiel nodded.

"I don’t mean to be rude. But it’s not quite what the gods use. It’s similar. But it seems like it’s a weaker version, perhaps?"

Karandiel hesitated, a little uncertain.

Ackster nodded.

"...I see."

It was G-rank and rated inferior by the Nomi. There was no way it could compare to the energy of literal gods.

Ackster looked up from the ground and stopped thinking too deeply about it. He looked at Karandiel with an expression that was a lot calmer and more composed than before.

"Please tell me more when we’ve dealt with these mutts."

Ackster nodded in the direction of the mangy, four-legged, hound-like creatures crawling out of the doors toward Mastrax. They were like twisted and mutated dogs with nasty, malicious jaws and a long snake-like tail with several purple spikes they could send flying with a flick.

Mara and the others didn’t have too much of a problem disposing of the dogs, except for Makkel. But they poured out of the doors like ants. They were also surprisingly resilient.

Ackster narrowed his eyes.

Maybe calling them stupid would be a better description.

Unlike dogs that could be quite intelligent, there didn’t appear to be a single thought or sign of conscience in the poison-tailed dogs other than the overwhelming instinct to kill Mastrax.

’Understandable.’

When Mastrax got close enough or when he did something stupid to investigate, he must have triggered every single dog in the entrance to the Alchemaze. And once they locked on to Mastrax, they didn’t let go of that focus until their deaths.

The dogs didn’t feel pain. Even when cut in half, they didn’t stop.

Ackster summoned his Demon Sword.

Regardless of their inability to feel pain or their ability to continue until death consumed them, the dogs were still living beings. That meant Ackster’s sword was the bane of their existence.

’Hmm. ’Lifesbane’ would be a pretty cool name.’

Ackster glanced at his sword for a moment before dashing forward and cutting the dogs like vegetables with his sword, draining them of their life force and another source of energy.

Ackster looked at his sword when he suppressed enough of the dogs to stabilize the situation. He could let the others handle it. Now that Karandiel had joined the fight, they had the advantage.

Ackster’s sword accepted his mana, Will, and Ichor without too much trouble. It didn’t like Ichor, at least not too much of it one go. But as Ackster had just come to know, Ichor was a power of the gods. It was only natural that a Demon Sword wouldn’t like it and that even a small amount would be too much.

But it had never absorbed any of those sources from anything he killed or cut.

This strange source that the sword took from the dogs was the first time it had done something like that. But the problem was that Ackster had a hard time sensing the source, and, more importantly, he didn’t recognize it.

However, Ackster’s gut feeling told him that the source was bad news. It felt off and inherently malicious. It was nothing like the natural feeling of mana, the passive but strong vitality, or the neutral and almost unnoticeable Will.

’You better not be doing something foolish.’

Ackster glared at his sword, communicating his thoughts to it, before cutting down the rest of the dogs and absorbing the malicious source from the already dead dogs. He doubted the sword had anything good planned. But Ackster was curious about what it was doing.

However, the sword wasn’t his only way of finding out, so he saved a pile of dogs that he didn’t let the sword take.

"Gosh dagnabit! This is why I didn’t want to come!"

Mastrax rolled around in the dirt while screaming.

"I hate demons!"

Ackster raised an eyebrow.

"Demons?"

He put a foot on Mastrax to stop his rolling and looked him in the eyes.

"Are these mangy mutts demons?"

Mastrax glanced at the ominous, black sword in Ackster’s hand as he gulped before meeting Ackster’s eyes.

"Ah, well, technically, they’re demonic beasts. But they can only appear where a demon is or has been!"

Mastrax rolled out from under Ackster’s foot, got up, hid behind Ackster, and pointed at the closest doorway.

"And that’s where the demon is!"

"Hmm. Interesting."

"No! Not interesting! Let’s leave!"

Ackster grabbed Mastrax by his collar before proceeding to ignore him as he looked at Wilma.

"Did you know about demons hiding in the Alchemaze?" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Wilma shook her head.

"In the first place, demons aren’t supposed to exist in Millmeria anymore. They were driven out tens if not hundreds of cycles ago."

"Driven out?"

"More like chased back to the demon realm."

"I see. That must have happened after I died but before I became an angel. There were still demons roaming around during my time—my first time—here."

"And when was that, exactly...?"

Wilma looked at Karandiel with mixed suspicion and curiosity. She had only known that Karandiel was a fallen angel. But not even the Guild’s records of that time were intact. She couldn’t help but doubt Karandiel’s words while also being excited at the prospect of talking to someone from a time so long ago.

"I don’t know. Long ago."

Karandiel shrugged and gave a fuzzy answer before looking at Ackster.

"What I do know is that the Alchemaze was already old back then. It wouldn’t be impossible for a demon to take refuge in it while the races of Millmeria did their best to get rid of them."

Ackster nodded before looking at the doors into the ground, the darkened yellow stone, and the place where the knight should have been engraved. He then looked at his sword as he remembered the ruin he had explored with the Sword God.

That ruin had most likely been an outpost or a station to defend against something or safekeep his Demon Sword.

However, this entrance to the Alchemaze and the fact that his sword was both drawn to and seemed to dislike the previously-ochre-colored stone gave Ackster another idea.

"Could it have been sealed here?"

Ackster looked back at Karandiel.

She nodded.

"That’s possible. Demons are easier to seal than kill, after all."

Karandiel glanced at Ackster’s sword. She wondered if she should ask him to find a new weapon.