Chapter 90 – The Monster Appears
"Hey, can you still move?" Gideon Black asked, glancing at Dolbora.
She froze for a moment at the question, then gave a small nod.
"Feed him this." Gideon tossed her a vial of holy water.
Dolbora caught it blankly, then instinctively looked toward her side.
Outside the barrier, several fleshy tendrils slithered restlessly, slamming again and again into the invisible wall as if searching for a weakness.
Her throat bobbed nervously. Fear flickered in her eyes.
But with the hunting hounds she brought nearly wiped out, and no other way to escape, she had no choice but to follow the priest's instructions.
She knelt, lifting Dean carefully into her arms.
In the next instant, the dizziness from before returned—this time even stronger.
So that's it, Gideon thought. He had noticed the faint aura of corruption around Dean earlier, though it hadn't felt like possession. That strangeness had made him suspicious.
Now, as the demon hunter was lifted, faint rows of jagged teeth appeared across Dean's skin.
The moment Dolbora touched him, those teeth pierced into her flesh.
Her soul shuddered under an invasive force, but almost immediately, it was repelled by a calm, radiant energy—the antler charm clutched in her other hand.
A ward against mental corruption… though judging by those cracks, it won't last much longer, Gideon mused. That was why he had dared let her take the risk.
Meanwhile, Dolbora pressed Dean's head against her chest, biting the cork off the vial with trembling lips.
"Glug… glug…"
The holy water slid down his throat.
Moments later, Dean convulsed.
"Cough—! Gahh!"
A mass of writhing leeches spewed from his mouth, scattering across the floor. His pupils cleared, returning to normal.
Dolbora stared in horror as the vile things slithered over her body, slipping beneath her clothes. She shrieked, thrashing wildly.
"AAAAHHHHHH!!"
She clawed and slapped at herself in a frenzy—until the torment ended as suddenly as it had begun.
Once expelled from Dean, the parasites quickly withered into dust.
"I… I'm alive?"
Dean blinked in disbelief, consciousness returning. His gaze soon found his wife in the crowd, her eyes brimming with tears. He tried to rise, but his body refused him.
At that moment, he noticed the priest approach.
"Stay still. I'll get you out," Gideon said calmly.
"O… okay…" Dean managed, looking him over. So it was him who saved me.
He opened his mouth to thank him—only to watch, dumbfounded, as Gideon pulled a coil of rope from his pack and dropped it over his head like a lasso.
"Wait—!"
In full view of the stunned crowd, the priest dragged him out of the warehouse like cattle.
Gideon wasn't taking chances. He couldn't be certain Dean was completely cleansed yet, so he kept distance.
As for Dolbora, she wanted to follow, but Gideon firmly pushed her back, reminding her that the exorcism wasn't finished.
He tightened the rope with a practiced grip—careful not to worsen Dean's injuries, yet firm enough to restrain him. The pain was inevitable, but far better than letting the corruption fester.
Then he began.
Before the helpless man's wide eyes, Gideon laid out his exorcism tools and commenced a deeper cleansing.
Dean lay sprawled, humiliated, feeling more exposed than if he were a maiden stripped bare. Never had his mind felt so forcibly purified—so scoured clean—that even the fleeting, half-formed thought of "rolling in bed with my wife" vanished entirely.
Clothes torn, tied up, holy water forced down his throat, a cross pressed to his head…
If not for the certainty that this priest had indeed saved his life, Dean would have sworn he'd fallen into the hands of some fanatical cult.
The onlookers stood in stunned silence.
"…Sa-Sadie, this helper you brought from the Church…?" Ralph muttered, realizing only now that his hand had drifted to his pistol.
"Yes," Sadie admitted, covering her face in embarrassment.
"…This is just how he works."
Ralph nodded slowly—but then froze. Wait. Don't tell me… Sadie also had to go through this kind of "treatment"? His mind instantly filled with disturbing images.
At last, after the harsh process, Gideon confirmed Dean was fully cleansed.
He waved someone over—Nava immediately rushed forward.
"Dean!"
Seeing the reunion, Gideon quietly stepped aside, heading back toward the warehouse.
"Father!" Nava called suddenly, bowing deeply.
"Thank you… for saving our family."
Gideon simply inclined his head.
Outside the warehouse, Dolbora hugged her collar tight, panic on her face.
"I… I'm not going through that, am I?" she asked nervously.
"Of course," Gideon said with a firm nod.
"That wasn't a question, that was a plea! Damn it!" she snapped.
But before her protest could go further, the ground trembled violently.
The warehouse roof exploded upward, debris raining down as a monstrous form finally revealed itself.
Dozens of blood-red tendrils lashed in the open air, each one as thick as a small tree.
They sprouted from a grotesque mass of fused flesh.
Calling it a "mass" was generous—it was nothing more than clumps of meat grotesquely stitched together, a body with no true structure, as if built by a madman's hands.
And yet, fragments of its origins could still be seen.
The head was unmistakably that of a Cooper hound.
But along its sides, half-formed human faces jutted grotesquely—men who had entered the warehouse earlier.
Its legs were a nightmare blend of hound, human limbs, and even chunks of wood.
It was an abomination—unnatural, incoherent, horrifying.
The fusion monster roared, tendrils snapping through the air as it struck directly for Gideon.
The crowd gasped in terror, clutching each other as their last hope stood calm and unmoving.
Gideon, unfazed, casually tossed three vials of holy water toward the beast.
Enraged, the monster snatched them out of the air and swallowed them whole.
Gideon's brow arched.
"So… nothing but animal instinct. No higher thought." He smirked. That makes things easier.
He opened his exorcist's tome and began to chant.
Sacred light surged from the demon-binding circle etched on the ground.
Within moments, the swallowed holy water reacted violently.
The monster's tendrils froze mid-lash, its body convulsing uncontrollably—until it vomited out two human figures.
Sadie's eyes widened in recognition.
"Ophelia… and Mr. Belen!"
But her relief turned to horror when she saw the truth—Ophelia's legs had been sheared off cleanly, her fate uncertain.
The abomination staggered, its writhing tendrils burning away in the holy light until only its core body remained.
The demon hunters stood frozen in disbelief.
"This is… ritual exorcism?"
One among them finally recognized the method.
The revelation sent a wave of shock through the group.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Wait—could this priest be… a high-ranking archbishop?"
"Someone like that, here in our little town?"
Back at the warehouse, Gideon suddenly paused mid-ritual.
Before him, one of the grotesque heads on the fusion beast abruptly "awoke."
"W-Where am I? Wasn't I already dead?"
It was Gavin. He blinked rapidly, then spotted Ophelia lying broken on the ground.
"Ophelia! What happened to you!" he cried, panic etched across his face. He tried to rush forward, but then realized—he no longer had a body.
"What… how…?"
"Hey."
A calm voice cut through his confusion.
Gavin turned, finding himself staring at a priest.
"You have one minute," Gideon said evenly, raising a single finger. "Prove to me that your mind is intact."
The reason he had halted the exorcism was because he had sensed this presence.
Though Gavin was reduced to nothing but a head fused into the abomination, his heart was still connected to the creature, clinging to its life force. That connection gave him a fleeting window of existence—no more.
And Gideon had questions that needed answers.
Gavin still felt dazed, but his instincts screamed that if he failed to comply, he would be erased in the next instant.
So he racked his brain, blurting out details of his recent pursuit of Ophelia—even recalling the embarrassing lines of affection he had whispered.
But mid-sentence, his memory jolted back.
"The Cooper hounds!" Gavin's eyes went wide.
He craned his neck toward the gathered hunters, frantically scanning the crowd.
And then he saw him.
"Barton! You bastard—why did you lie to me?!"
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