…Boom!
The triple-layered steel door has been smashed to pieces.
All that remained was a grid-like wire mesh made of BDISSEM.
On the other side of the grid, on the bed, Brigadier General BDISSEM sat up with a shocked expression on her face.
"What is it? What is the commotion?"
She had the appearance of a young girl, her body fully recovered from the earlier incident.
BDISSEM frowned at Vikir as he strode in through the shattered doorway.
Her gaze lingered on the rank patch on Vikir's uniform chest patch.
"What the hell, where does a Major get the nerve to come into my room like this, are you insane?"
But when Vikir took off his hat, revealing his bare face, BDISSEM's expression turned white.
…peong!
The mattress of the bed exploded.
She flailed as if in a fit and soon jumped up on the bed.
"You, you bastard! Didn't you escape?"
But that's just wishful thinking on her part.
It was just an excuse made up without properly checking to avoid being reprimanded.
Her mind flashed back to her conversation with D'Ordume.
'Where did the prisoner go?'
'He's dead!'
'...Dead? Then where's the body?'
'...He went out to sea in an gulper eel.'
'Then he's not dead.'
'He didn't seem to have a clue about the circulation currents that lead to the surface, so he was bound to get caught in a trap current, and he'd be stuck in the deep for the rest of his life.'
'...Did it happen? It definitely sounds like you didn't see it.'
'Yes, yes, yes, yes, I saw him ride an gulper eel out of the hole in the wall before I passed out!'
'...You're sure you saw the last of him, aren't you?'
'No, that's right, who do you think I am, and don't you dare look at me like that when it's none of my business...!'
Of course, BDISSEM never saw what happened to Vikir in the end, because she passed out.
...This was the result.
The cold sweat that had gathered under her chin was dripping down like small raindrops.
Her eyes and eyebrows drooped downward, her focus dazedly unfocused and unsteady.
BDISSEM shuddered and shook as if she were an Aspen-type Ent.
"Well, well, well, whatever it is, you're finished, and I'm calling for D'Ordume and Souare right now!"
It seemed like she was trying to buy time by hiding behind the BDISSEM wire fence she had made.
But.
udeudeug!
With a simple touch of his hand, Vikir snapped the BDISSEM wire with a snap.
Psssssss...
The stem of the dead and dying plant crumbled like a burnt matchstick.
The stem of BDISSEM dried up where Vikir touched it, a hole in the wire mesh just big enough for one person to fit through.
jeobeog- jeobeog- jeobeog-
Vikir stumbled through the gaping hole.
"Uh... uuuuhhhhhh...."
BDISSEM clung to the back of the bed as the horrors of the past returned.
The hound stalked toward her, red eyes glowing in the darkness.
"Stretch your neck."
It was time for the death sentence to be carried out.
But BDISSEM does not accept her fate as an innocent bystander easily.
"Hey! Even if it's like this, I'm also the 5 Warden! As long as I don't let my guard down, I won't get caught!"
Giant kelp leaves grew up around her.
Each one was a seaweed whip with a powerful binding force.
chalalalag!
In a few short moments, the kelp leaves formed a dense forest of seaweed and began to wrap around Vikir.
"No use."
Vikir swung Beelzebub and cut off all the kelp leaves.
But BDISSEM didn't attack Vikir.
It simply glided across the floor, using the seaweed leaves as a surfboard.
"Hohohoho – no one can catch me if I run away with it!"
BDISSEM shouted confidently.
But Vikir didn't react much to her words.
He just quietly asked a question.
"...No one?"
And as soon as the words were finished, something wrapped around BDISSEM's body as it slipped through the torn door.
syulolololog-
It was a vine of plants.
"...?"
BDISSEM looked dazed as she hung upside down in the air.
kkudeudeug- kkudeodeog- basasag-
The slippery kelp leaves she was riding on dried up in an instant.
seumeolseumeolseumeolseumeolseumeolseumeolseumeol...
The roots of a plant she'd never seen before began to grow out of the tiny kelp flakes and onto the board.
Danger Rating: S
Size: ?
Found in: Deep in the polar hell, 'Inaccessible Zone (Blood Swamp, Flesh-splattered Zone of Area 4)'
-Also known as 'Blood Swamp Daylily' or 'Blood Swamp Nightmare'
A mysterious plant that floats on the churning waters of the Bloodswamp, at the mouth of the 'Lake of Blood' in the depths of Hell.
Even in the blood swamp, where everything sinks because there is no buoyancy, you can somehow see them floating.
It is the strongest and most fearsome of all the flora and fauna that inhabit the Blood Lake, and its insatiable appetite and gluttony are feared even by its own kind.
It is said that a single Daylily sprouting from a single seed of this plant once grew so large that it brought humanity to the brink of destruction.
This plant, so bizarre that it has no place in the human world, is called the Daylily of Blood Tree.
The seeds that Vikir had scattered at the entrance had sucked in the dampness of the Nouvelle Vague and germinated!
"Huh?"
BDISSEM gasped in astonishment, gulping down the air.
The plants of the Human World and the Demon World were in a perfect food chain.
For the demonic beasts that have adapted to the harsh and barren environment of the Demon World, the plants of the Human World are merely fragile and defenseless prey.
Therefore, all plants in the Human world have an instinctive fear of demonic plants.
BDISSEM was no different.
"Aaah... aaah...."
BDISSEM realized with certainty the source of the unexplained fear she had felt when Vikir had first demonstrated the power of Starvation Drought.
But by the time she realized, it was too late.
Her body was already wrapped around the daylily's stalks, draining her of moisture at an alarming rate.
"Daylily of Blood Tree are notoriously vicious among demons, for in colonies where they grow, all other demons around them wither and die, even those in the Human World."
Vikir looked up at BDISSEM, who had been captured by a Daylily vine.
Even the mighty seaweed, adapted to the depths of the sea, was no match for the daylily.
Vikir stepped in front of the hanging creature.
…Thwack!
A vicious grip pressed down hard on both of her cheeks.
"Uuh! Uub!"
As the insides of the cheeks dug into his upper and lower teeth, BDISSEM was forced to open her mouth.
At that point, Vikir placed something in her mouth.
"Now, if you don't do as I say, I'm going to stick this in your mouth."
"Hm, hmph!"
BDISSEM was stunned.
A shadowy figure loomed before her eyes: a handful of seeds.
walgeulag-
Daylily of Blood Tree. Countless seeds that had yet to germinate.
If all of them made it into BDISSEM's mouth and traveled straight to her stomach, it was obvious what would happen next.
"Uu... Uuuuuuuu...."
Tears of terror welled up in BDISSEM's eyes as she imagined the horrifying scenario.
"Please, please let m...."
BDISSEM's face was covered in tears and she was smearing her lips.
When Vikir loosened his grip slightly, she could hear her words clearly.
"Please let me live... I'll do anything."
It was all she could do to say, knowing from previous battles that she had no chance of winning.
Vikir nodded.
"It would be quicker to just kill you, as usual."
"Hic!"
BDISSEM's face turned a deep blue.
But Vikir moved the sword of the awl and looked the other way.
"...But there's one more thing I want. If you do it right, I might have a way to save your life."
"What, what is it? What is it!"
BDISSEM who had gone from hell to heaven in an instant, asked breathlessly.
Vikir continued.
"I want two things. First, its original purpose. To remove the handcuffs, shackles, and cage."
"It's possible! It's possible, but... can't you do it yourself? I saw you break them earlier."
"Not mine, but those of every prisoner here in Nouvelle Vague."
At those words, BDISSEM's expression hardened.
Now she understand.
Why did this man not escape from prison even after being released from his restraints.
Or why he'd turned himself in in the first place and walked into this hellhole.
He wasn't trying to break his restraints, he was trying to break everyone's restraints, the very system that controls individuals.
Rattling...
BDISSEM was avoiding Vikir's gaze, desperately squinting her pupils, which were so shaky they couldn't even focus properly.
The giant dog. A monster with burning eyes is right in front of her.
Clutching tightly at her life and death.
It's so frightening, so terrifying, that it makes her mind go blank.
She has no idea what kind of chaos this creature is trying to unleash on Nouvelle Vague.
It has no purpose, no meaning, nothing but sheer terror.
"You don't want to do it? Want to make it a little easier?"
Vikir shoved a Daylily seed into BDISSEM's mouth, and she struggled, making a dying sound.
"I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it, let me do it!"
"Good. Then second."
Vikir whispered the next order into BDISSEM's ear.
"Wait outside the window of the kennel on the 5th floor, a person will come out. That person...."
Hearing that, BDISSEM nodded frantically.
Vikir nodded with satisfaction.
"You know what happens if these two promises are not fulfilled?"
"...uh, what happens?"
"You will definitely see me again, but after that, I leave it to your imagination. hehehe...."
Vikir laughed grimly.
He realized that this was probably the first time in his life that he had ever laughed out loud.
And the effect of Vikir's laughter was profound.
"Hiiiiicc...."
BidisM's crotch turned yellow and soaked through her pants and top.
The sight was horrifying.
Vikir jabbed the awl into BDISSEM's throat.
"Now, go ahead and fulfill your first promise."
"Ah, okay, wait."
BDISSEM squeezed her eyes shut.
…Pass!
After a few seconds, she opened them again.
"Done."
It was deceptively easy and quick.
Vikir frowned.
Was that all there was to it?
All of the systems that had kept the Nouvelle Vague alive for so long had been wiped out?
In such a ridiculously short amount of time?
Are you really telling me that all of the nullifying mana and physical force cuffs, shackles, and cages are gone?
"You're not trying to trick me...."
Vikir was just about to reveal a glimmer of doubt.
…Thud!
The floor rumbled once more.
A heavy shockwave that had never been experienced before. Short and thick.
The instincts of a seasoned hound screamed out.
'The BDISSEM restraints are gone.'
Vikir opened his senses and quickly scanned his surroundings.
Indeed, all of the BDISSEM materials in the vicinity were blackened and dead.
Even the fragments he'd slipped into his pockets just in case, and all of the BDISSEM that were a considerable distance away.
At this rate, the handcuffs, shackles, chains, and cages that held the prisoners downstairs would surely all be dead as well.
"It, it's true, I've unlocked them, from the 1st floor to the 9th floor, believe me, please!"
BDISSEM cries out in a pathetic voice.
The truth of her words was being conveyed both audibly and visually.
Vikir nodded.
"...Yes. I guess so."
Ordinarily, he would have preferred to cut off BDISSEM's breathing for good, but she still had some use.
Night Hound was done hunting, and he turned away without another word.
The escape plan had reached the halfway point.
A massive uprising unprecedented in history.
The collapse of the Nouvelle Vague has just begun.