Chapter 113 – The Reforging of the Seal
The gathered demon hunters stood frozen in awe. None of them had ever witnessed a spectacle like this.
Even Damian's eyes widened — such a grand, divine phenomenon was something he had only heard about in the ancient legends of his clan.
Meanwhile—
Realizing it could not escape, the serpent-shaped demon made a desperate choice.
Its body exploded.
A surge of black miasma erupted into the sky, shrouding the entire fortress and dimming the light around it.
Almost instantly, the castle's foundation began to collapse.
The ground trembled violently as a massive fissure split open before everyone's eyes.
Enric Walker lay flat on his stomach near the edge, peering into the abyss.
A loose stone slipped from his elbow and fell into the darkness below.
Clack… clack…
It tumbled for nearly ten seconds before the faint echo of its impact returned.
"This thing… does it lead straight to hell?" Enric muttered, wiping the cold sweat from his brow.
Down below, a dull crimson glow flickered.
Peering through his monocular, Enric realized what it was — molten magma, churning like the breath of the underworld.
Then his expression froze.
Something moved within the lava.
A silhouette — a "Sacrificer."
The creature slowly lifted its head, meeting his gaze with soulless eyes.
The next instant, dozens more emerged from the molten pit, clawing their way upward toward the opening.
The hunters' faces paled.
With so many of them, they didn't stand a chance.
But Gideon's eyes lit up.
"This actually makes things easier," he said calmly.
He began reciting the exorcism scripture once more, and the Holy Water Serpent dove straight into the pit.
Hissss!
Wherever it passed, the Sacrificers disintegrated instantly, reduced to blackened dust before they could even scream.
Gideon directed the flow downward, driving it into the magma itself.
There — beneath the earth — he sensed a faint, otherworldly presence.
It was eerily similar to what he'd felt before, back at the Exhibition Incident.
If left unchecked, something monstrous would eventually crawl its way out of this fissure.
Holy water and magma collided, consuming each other. Steam burst upward in thick, boiling clouds.
Then—
"CURSE YOU! I WILL REMEMBER THIS!"
A deafening roar erupted from below, as if echoing from an impossibly distant realm.
Every hunter clutched their heads in pain, yet the voice still drilled straight into their minds.
Gideon let out a cold laugh and shouted back,
"Then remember this well! I'm Zod Cooper! I'll be waiting for you in Saint Fréyan!"
Zod — who was actually crouching nearby — blinked in disbelief.
What!?
Hey— don't pin that on me!
His face turned ashen as he scrambled up, desperately trying to protest.
That damned priest — he'd been behind everything!
But before he could say a word, another disturbance erupted.
The black vapors in the pit began to seep into the soil, spreading outward.
Moments later, they burst through the ground at a distant location, carrying clouds of thick poison — safely outside the radius of Gideon's purification ritual.
At the same time, the magma below erupted even more violently, pushing back against the holy waters.
For the first time, Gideon's brows tightened slightly.
Not because he felt threatened — but because the sheer spread of the miasma would take considerable effort to contain.
And the creature beneath was struggling with everything it had, leaving him little room to maneuver.
"I just hope Sadie makes it in time," he murmured.
Meanwhile, deep within the forest, new waves of poisonous fog were rising, plunging the remaining hunters into peril once again.
Then, by chance, Enric noticed something — the air around Gideon was perfectly clear.
Without a second thought, he rushed over to the priest's side, wisely keeping a respectful distance.
He didn't crowd him, only occupied a small spot near the edge — even tossing out his own supplies as a "protection offering."
Seeing that, the other hunters followed suit one by one.
A moment ago, these same people had been at each other's throats.
Now, they huddled together around Gideon like obedient children, trying their best to look innocent and quiet.
Even Damian approached, bowed deeply to the priest, and took a seat nearby.
Seeing their newfound humility, Gideon decided not to drive them away.
Under the priest's protection, the surviving demon hunters stood their ground against the creeping tide of evil.
Hours passed.
Just when despair began to take hold — when they thought they might die trapped in this accursed land — the Plague Zone itself began to change.
A roaring wind swept across the ground, and in the sky above, silver runes of divine light appeared, sparking with lightning.
"It's the sealing ritual," Damian exclaimed, standing to his feet, eyes alight. "The lady succeeded!"
Gideon also looked up, his expression calm but focused.
From his perspective, he could feel it — a great power stirring, reawakening.
The tainted miasma began to recede, flowing backward into the earth from which it came.
Then, from deep beneath the ground, a furious voice erupted—
"Humans! You cannot imprison me forever!"
"Time erodes all bindings! We will rise again and walk your world!"
"And you—Zod Cooper—I will remem—"
The voice was abruptly cut off.
A cyclone of wind swept across the ruins, dragging every trace of the black fog back underground until only silence remained.
"Hey! He's not Zod! I'M Zod!" the real Zod shouted from the edge of the fissure, nearly in tears.
Being remembered by such a monstrous entity was practically a death sentence — a curse upon his bloodline.
The other hunters glanced at each other, their expressions a strange mix of sympathy and amusement.
They all knew now: the feud between the Allard and Cooper families that began with the warehouse incident… and the traps laid across the Plague Zone…
All of it had been orchestrated by that priest.
But none of them dared voice a complaint.
If anything, they silently thanked the heavens they hadn't made an enemy of him.
Gideon, however, had no time for Zod's misery.
Something else had caught his attention — a piece of old, yellowed parchment that had been blown toward him by the wind.
Strange markings covered its surface, written in a script he didn't recognize.
But the faint pulse of holy energy emanating from it told him everything he needed to know.
"This paper… it's connected to the Church," he murmured, carefully tucking it away. "I'll have to research it later."
---
At the Entrance to the Plague Zone
By now, nearly all of Saint Fréyan's residents had gathered at the boundary of the cursed land.
Among them stood Sadie Allard.
Earlier, she had used the talisman Damian gave her to find the exit — and, under the guidance of the tribal high priest, used the Trait to complete the reforging of the ancient seal.
At long last, the southern hunters had survived the plague of the decade.
When the ritual ended, the young Allard hunters were the first to emerge from the fog.
Thanks to the sacred relics Gideon had left behind, they survived the poisonous upheaval and even returned with crates of rare materials.
It was, without question, the Allard family's greatest triumph in years.
Skoll, one of the Allard elders, could barely hide his excitement.
After today, the name Allard would echo throughout the South.
But Sadie could not share their joy.
Because Gideon, Ralph, and the others had not returned.
"Miss Allard, your efforts have saved us all," said the High Priest, bowing deeply to her.
Sadie only nodded faintly in return.
"I'm sorry," the old man continued gently. "The Plague Zone suffered a great upheaval. I fear… they will not return."
He had seen such calamities before — and knew what the odds were.
Around them, others shared the same quiet belief:
anyone still inside the Plague Zone was as good as dead.
But Sadie refused to accept that.
"With him there… they'll be fine."
She pressed her hands together and prayed silently.
Day turned to night.
The crowd thinned, but the families of the hunters remained, waiting stubbornly at the edge of the cursed land.
Then—
From deep within the forest came the sound of loud, familiar bickering.
"Hey! If you hadn't made all that noise, we'd have caught that hive queen already!"
"You let a Sacrificer escape too, genius!"
"Would you two shut up? With your clumsy hands, you should be fishing, not hunting!"
"Oh, shut up yourself!"
Everyone waiting at the gate froze in disbelief.
From the shadows of the forest, several figures emerged.
At their head walked a tall man in priestly robes.
Behind him — a ragged but very much alive band of demon hunters, each one lugging pieces of monster carcasses and sacks of alchemical material.
The crowd gasped.
Even through the soot and dirt, Gideon's calm stride was unmistakable —
the same unflappable priest who had walked straight into the heart of the plague…
and come back out smiling.