This Wasn't Real Happiness!

"Damn."

Lin En's eyes widened, and he hurriedly shook the image out of his head.

"It's that badass? Uh... so what level is an ultra-ancient great demon?"

Hana Ye stared wide-eyed. "Is it... really that scary?"

After all, he had only just arrived and wasn't familiar with this place yet, but from what Jones said, this didn't sound like some minor threat.

Jones said gravely:

"Put it this way: a [great demon-class] entity could destroy our entire city-state."

"And an [ultra-ancient great demon] is a terrifying existence one level above a great demon. If one fully descended, it could unleash a catastrophe every bit as horrific as the Eternal Night! And above that..."

He shook his head and didn't go on.

There wasn't much point, because the next level up was [outer god].

If an entity of that level truly descended, probably only their Valkyrie, who had long since ascended, could deal with it.

Lin En said stiffly:

"Damn... please don't do this to me..."

He had only just arrived.

He had initially wondered whether he was the cause, but judging by this, that should have been impossible.

After all, he knew his own strength.

Minor trouble was one thing, but destroying the world should still have been beyond him.

Thank goodness he'd gotten lost~

If he'd gone to Gear Street, wouldn't he have been screwed?! Wouldn't they have taken him out too, pureblood human or not?!

(oﾟ▽ﾟ)o

Lin En scratched his head and asked, puzzled:

"But that doesn't make sense. I just came through this area too. Why didn't I sense anything?"

Because, logically speaking...

He had come from up above, after all. If there really was some terrifying entity here, he shouldn't have failed to notice it.

Jones shook his head with a bitter smile:

"Don't be ridiculous! How could we easily sense a great demon of that level?! If you ask me, if he really wanted to hide, he could be standing right in front of us now, and we probably wouldn't notice."

He took a deep breath.

"The gap in strength is just too enormous!"

Lin En nodded thoughtfully in agreement.

True.

If the gap in strength was too great, there really was nothing they could do.

Lin En asked hesitantly:

"So what does that great demon look like? Did you see him?"

Hana Ye asked wide-eyed, "Loads and loads of tentacles, countless eyes, eight arms and five legs?!"

Jones took a deep breath and shook his head:

"Of course, none of us were there. We connected to the [image crystal] our team member was wearing as soon as we could and recorded remotely, but we only barely captured part of that monster..."

He glanced at Hana Ye. He had intended to mention Glass Lamp, but thought better of it.

At a time like this, it was best not to bring up her older sister.

Lin En asked, puzzled, "What part?"

Jones thought for a moment.

Then he pulled a printed image out of his coat.

"This."

Lin En blinked, instinctively took it, and examined it closely.

The large, traced image depicted something that looked like the character "凸."

"This is..."

"Look at it upside down."

With an (O_O)? expression, Lin En turned the image around.

"..."

Lin En: "!!!"

Holy shit!

Standing so proud!

But... had they really photographed this?!

Wasn't capturing something like this a little too bizarre?!

A deathly silence hung over them.

Hana Ye looked blankly up at Lin En's face, which was hidden in the darkness. Her curiosity grew, and she started jumping up and down with an (〃＞皿＜) expression.

"What is it a picture of?! I want to see! I want to see too!"

Lin En studied it thoughtfully from different angles and fell silent for a moment. He had to admit, though, that the image was incredibly sharp.

He said hesitantly:

"That's a hell of a dick."

(Meaning it was awesome.)

Jones nodded and took a deep breath.

"This isn't about whether it's awesome. We can't find him with just this. It's like blind men feeling an elephant-there's nowhere to even start."

Hana Ye grew frantic and jumped hard, trying to see.

"What is it?! What on earth is it?!!"

"Little girls, move along. You can't look."

"I want to see! Let me see!"

Ignoring Hana Ye as she kept bouncing with an (〃＞皿＜) expression, Lin En teased her by moving the wanted poster up and down, then asked in confusion:

"So this really is all you captured? But however I look at it, it doesn't really seem like a monster's. It looks more like a human's..."

Jones thought for a moment and said:

"We did have our suspicions about that, but with only this to go on, there really isn't much we can do."

Lin En lifted it for another look and rubbed his chin, unable to resist admiring it:

"But seriously, it really does look a bit like mine! Absolutely perfect, magnificent. Do you think that great demon could be me? That's a very nice shape!"

Jones froze.

Then he burst out laughing and said with a (ノ￣▽￣) expression:

"Stop joking, young man! How old are you? That has to belong to an adult, at least. Don't flatter yourself. If you were that great demon, I'd have to be out of my mind to spend this long chatting with you two, hahaha!"

Kids these days really did love saying weird things.

And they loved comparing sizes.

What was there to compare?

Still...

Jones instantly grew serious, took a bottle of potion out of his coat, and held it out to Lin En.

"Still, just to be safe, you could try drinking this."

Lin En paused and reached out to take it, puzzled.

He shook it and could just make out the golden liquid flowing inside, giving off a faint glow.

"What's this?"

Jones watched him and said:

"Holy Water from the Church. It's an excellent potion."

"It's safe to drink?"

"Perfectly safe!"

At those words, Hana Ye's heart lurched, and her hair stood on end.

She suddenly remembered that although Lin En didn't seem to be a monster, he didn't seem to be a normal human either.

Would drinking that really be okay?

"Um... Lin..."

But before she could get the words out...

Gulp-

Lin En downed it in one go.

Hana Ye: "(ΩДΩ)?!!"

Why did he just drink it like that?!!

The instant it entered his mouth, Lin En felt a warm, searing sensation burning inside him.

And at that very same moment...

Whoosh-

Golden flames suddenly erupted all over his body, blazing fiercely and making him look like a Super Saiyan.

Warm...

Searing...

With an indescribable sense of...

"Ah~"

[Ding! Your happiness +5]

[Ding! Your happiness +10]

[Ding! Your anger +50]

Lin En's face instantly darkened.

"Don't tell me this is..."

Hana Ye went pale with fright and instinctively started pulling her little hand away, but soon realized the flames didn't burn at all.

She paused and stared in confusion at the fire on her hand.

Jones froze too and instinctively grabbed his blade, but quickly stopped and asked:

"Doesn't... doesn't it hurt?"

Lin En said darkly, "No... it feels kind of good."

At those words, the exorcists around them, who had gone on alert, were stunned.

Jones scrutinized his expression. Seeing that it really hadn't changed, he finally wiped the sweat from his forehead and said:

"You scared me half to death. To tell you the truth, this Holy Water was blessed by the Valkyrie herself. If an aberration or evil entity touches it, its true form is immediately exposed, and it burns to death! But if an ordinary person drinks it, not only is it harmless, it strengthens the body and purifies the body and mind! And you actually find it pleasurable..."

He immediately reached out and clasped Lin En's hand.

(ノ￣▽￣)

"I'm sorry! I really misjudged you. Young man, if you can burn this brightly and still feel so happy, that's proof your body and mind are truly pure!!"

Yes, he had spoken with people from the Church. Generally, anyone who caught fire was either a terrifying monster whose entire body would melt away, or someone pure in body and mind, shining like starlight.

And he was burning so brightly.

One look was enough to tell he was a loving person who kept himself exceptionally pure!

He had misjudged him!

[Ding! Jones's favorability toward you +10]

Lin En: "..."

No.

This had absolutely nothing to do with purity.

It was because he'd been burned for ten years. His fire resistance had long since been burned up to max, and even the "ax" had burned away.

Only M remained.

So whenever the fire wasn't strong enough, he would inexplicably feel happy.

But he didn't like that happiness, because he knew it wasn't real happiness!

Crack-

With a dark expression, Lin En crushed the bottle in his hand.