Under the Blood Thunder

"Yes! Exactly! Look at my abs that were just bisected at the waist! They've gone from the original eight-pack to a twenty-four-pack now! Hahahaha!"

"Fuck, twenty-four abs? Damn it, it really is! You look disgusting like that!"

"Tch, what right do you have to be disgusted by him? Take a look at your own face, blasted apart by a shell—half of it is still covered in densely packed tumors! That's even more nauseating!"

"What did you say? How about I turn your whole body into tumors right now?"

"Oh? Come try it if you've got the guts. I'll eat you whole—maybe the Power of the Abyss inside me will grow even stronger!"

"Enough, you two, quit yapping! If you want to fight among yourselves, wait until we've wiped out the hunters!"

"Now that we've gained the Abyss as an invincible backer, as long as we survive this battle, doesn't that mean we'll be immortal and never grow old afterward?"

"When we first joined the Delight Theater, it was just for fun. Who would've thought the Headmaster would end up bringing us such unparalleled, supreme benefits? Our years of hard work running errands for him and Butcher weren't wasted after all!"

"Yeah! The Headmaster really treats us well! He's practically my reborn parent, ten thousand times better than my biological ones! Though I've never actually met them!"

"In that case, why don't you acknowledge the Headmaster as your dad afterward? Just don't know whether he'd be willing."

"Hahahaha—!"

The clowns continued healing, bickering, and laughing among the mountaintops, utterly devoid of the tension of a battlefield where life and death hung in the balance. The Abyss's might had already driven every worry and fear from their minds.

Hanerdov did not join in their noisy discussion. He merely concentrated on surveying the