NOVPUBStanding atop a swaying steel beam, he looked as though he were suspended in midair.
The Beast of Jévaudan looked up at him.
The once-furious red gleam in the monster’s eyes had now settled into something calm.
Unlike how it had treated every other human as mere prey, this time it seemed to recognize him—if not as an equal, then perhaps as something even greater.
FWOOM!
But the flickering flame that had nearly died down suddenly roared back to life, flooding the creature’s body with renewed vitality.
Awooooooo───!!!
Three heads howled in unison.
And not just those—countless beast heads growing from its body joined in the chorus of roars.
The thunderous howling spread across the entire city of Rederbelk.
Civilians watching from a distance clutched their ears and bowed their heads. The more faint-hearted among them foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
A deafening noise that could only have come from the very depths of hell.
Hearing it head-on, Ludger’s eyes curved slightly beneath the crow-shaped mask.
To others, it was a horrifying roar from a nightmare—but to him, it only stirred a faint sense of nostalgia.
‘Yeah. It was like this back then, too.’
Back when he had acted under the name Abraham van Helsing—the hunter.
The moment that solidified his reputation as the greatest hunter had been when he took down the Beast of Jévaudan.
If there was one difference from that time, it was that the monstrous king now glaring at him looked different.
It was Hans, after all, transformed by his unique constitution into this mutated form—a form that still retained oddly human features.
Standing before it, it seemed less beastly, less savage, than the one from back then.
But that didn’t mean the monster before him was any weaker than the last one.
If anything, its calculated wariness and hesitation to move rashly made it seem even more cunning than before.
‘I had hoped it would recognize me and calm down a little, but... wishful thinking, huh.’
He could understand.
Hans could now retain his human consciousness even when transforming into other beasts—but that hadn’t always been the case.
Even now, every time he transformed, Hans would occasionally struggle to suppress the beast’s instincts.
The Beast of Jévaudan, on the other hand, was a monster that far surpassed any ordinary animal.
Just looking at the countless beast heads making up its body gave a rough idea of the predatory madness imprinted in its genetic code.
Any normal person would’ve gone completely insane the moment they faced it—or had their sense of self wiped out entirely.
‘But Hans is still in there.’
The monster may have been roaring now in a fit of rage, but for the briefest moment—it had recognized Ludger.
That was proof that Hans’s consciousness was still alive inside.
For all their bickering, they’d known each other for a long time.
And for whatever reason, Hans had finally used those teeth he always swore he’d never rely on.
He wasn’t running away like a coward this time—he had made up his mind about something.
“Watching your subordinate grow is part of being a leader.”
And if that subordinate was in danger—
Then offering a helping hand was also something a leader had to do.
“Let’s see what you’ve got.”
At the same moment, Ludger stepped off the precarious steel beam and fell downward.
* * *
‘James Moriarty!’
Casey stared intently, refusing to lose sight of James Moriarty as he suddenly dropped from midair.
A shadow darker than the night itself writhed beneath the moonlight, protecting his body.
Even the Beast of Jévaudan, sensing danger greater than its own, bared its teeth and bristled its fur.
Though Casey was deeply offended by being ignored despite her rare color title—
She had no choice but to acknowledge it.
‘Before he was James Moriarty, he was called Abraham van Helsing.’
Casey had once visited the Kingdom of Durmang.
At the heart of the royal castle, in the Royal Museum—
She had seen the taxidermied corpse of the Beast of Jévaudan.
The beast’s grotesque form, enough to terrify any human, had been the stuff of widespread rumors—and even those seemed insufficient in capturing the horror.
But to her astonishment, nearly seventy percent of the monster’s body was missing.
All that remained were half a head, one arm, and a barely discernible skeletal frame.
The rest had been utterly destroyed—so completely, in fact, that regeneration wasn’t even an option.
‘He’s the one who did all that.’
The King of Beasts who ruled over the Night of Blood.
The nightmare made flesh that had seared itself into history.
That hunter had killed it singlehandedly.
Its body, impervious to ordinary magic and capable of instantly regenerating wounds—he had still obliterated over seventy percent of it.
Which was why it made sense.
That the Beast of Jévaudan would be wary of him.
That it would ignore her entirely, and focus solely on him.
Casey Selmore bit her lip.
She wanted nothing more than to capture James Moriarty right then and there.
But with the Beast’s attention finally diverted, evacuating civilians had to come first.
The silver lining was that he seemed intent on finishing the fight with the monster.
If he could keep it distracted—that alone would be a huge help.
Just as she came to that decision, Moriarty and the Beast of Jévaudan collided.
The monster opened its jaws wide to swallow the shadows whole.
But in that instant, the shadow compressed into a pinpoint in midair.
What appeared next—
Was Ludger, standing atop the center head of the Beast of Jévaudan.
High-speed movement? No.
There had been no time gap between his disappearance and reappearance.
It was as if he had skipped through space itself.
Casey’s eyes widened in shock.
‘He... leapt through space?!’
Shrrrk.
The handle of Ludger’s cane slid out in his right hand, revealing a gleaming white blade.
Without hesitation, he drove the sword into the monster’s eye.
Roaring in pain, the beast thrashed its head wildly. Ludger smoothly slid down its back, slicing through every snarling beast head that lunged at him.
Every movement was precise, clean.
This wasn’t just a matter of enhanced physical ability—it was refined swordsmanship, honed over years.
But the Beast of Jévaudan wasn’t the kind of creature that would fall to a few slashes.
Even when cut by swords imbued with knights’ aura, its heads would usually regenerate...
Or not?
The severed heads weren’t regenerating.
Instead, thick black smoke hissed from the cut surfaces.
Was that blade made of some special material? Or enchanted with magic?
There was no time to analyze.
The monster lashed its tail.
‘This isn’t the time to just watch.’
Casey wrapped a barrier of water around herself and scanned the surroundings.
“Everyone, move back! You’ll be caught in the crossfire!”
All she could do now was hope James Moriarty could hold the monster back.
* * *
CRASH!
Tail strikes—powerful enough that even seasoned knights had to focus to dodge—rained down in quick succession.
They exploded steel pillars like bombs. No human body could survive even a graze.
Just a touch meant instant death.
And yet, facing that tail, Ludger vanished from sight again—like he had expected it.
The same spatial displacement he had shown earlier.
The Beast of Jévaudan frantically searched for the missing Ludger.
Beyond the three central heads that made up its main body, countless other beast eyes rolled around grotesquely, scanning for a trace.
Finally, they all locked onto a single point in unison.
Above. In the sky.
As soon as the beast caught sight of him, a shower of tiny vials rained down from the air.
The monster whipped its tail like a lash, smashing them all.
As the glass shattered, fine white powder burst out and scattered in every direction.
When the powder, light as morning dew, settled on the beast—
A reaction occurred.
Yip! Yelp! Grrrrk!
The multitude of heads sprouting from the beast’s body all let out pained whimpers, sneezing and coughing violently.
All except the three massive central heads—every other head displayed the same reaction.
‘What the hell is that...?’
Casey, watching the drifting white powder, instantly recognized what it was.
“Gasp!”
Tear powder.
Casey hurriedly cast a thin veil of water around herself.
It wasn’t just ordinary tear powder, either—as if to prove that, the stench alone, even from a mere whiff, was enough to make it hard to breathe.
‘He actually used something like that?’
Judging by how much pain it caused the beast heads, it must’ve been specially made.
The stench was revolting enough for a human like her to shudder—so how much worse must it have been for a beast, whose sense of smell was far more sensitive?
Thanks to the overwhelming stench and intense tear-inducing effect, the Beast of Jévaudan’s sense of smell had all but shut down.
Even more, the various beast eyes were tearing up nonstop, creating countless blind spots across a creature that previously had none.
Grrrrrrr.
The Beast of Jévaudan, realizing things couldn’t continue like this, crouched low.
The beast heads attached to its body writhed violently.
Then—they tore away from its body and rolled across the ground.
“H-Hiiik! W-What the hell is that?!”
Erendir’s face turned deathly pale.
The beasts that had detached from the monster’s body weren’t just severed heads.
They had torsos—arms and legs as well.
Staggering, the four-legged creatures began to rise.
Some even stood upright like humanoids.
And in cases where the severed heads lacked full bodies, they devoured the nearby rats crawling over the battlefield.
Once consumed, their writhing flesh swelled and completed the missing body parts.
“Th-They're cryptids!”
“They multiplied?!”
Watching from a safe distance, the Clockwork Knights began sweating cold bullets.
The day of the Night of Blood, five years ago—
This moment explained the long-standing question of how so many cryptids had suddenly appeared in the city of Jévaudan.
The Beast of Jévaudan possessed the ability to create countless offshoots.
It was a single entity—but one that commanded an entire swarm.
That was what made the Beast of Jévaudan so terrifying.
And the truly horrifying part was that from the vacant spots where heads had detached, new ones were already starting to grow.
Left alone, the monster would continue spawning cryptids endlessly.
Ludger recognized that, too.
“Throwing away the heads soaked in tear gas and growing fresh ones, huh. So now you know how to use that head of yours—unlike last time.”
Shedding its old parts like a snake molting its skin—that was a decent survival tactic.
But it came with an obvious downside.
FOOOOM!
White flames erupted in midair and engulfed the body of the Beast of Jévaudan.
The newly growing heads couldn’t withstand the intense heat and burst into flames.
“During molting, your defense drops to its lowest point. That’s why you’re burning up even under a mere 3rd-Circle flame.”
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
The beast’s three massive heads glared at Ludger with seething hatred.
By now, he was already standing on the ground, casually watching, as if toying with it.
It wanted to crush that human with a single swipe—but its instincts warned that it wouldn’t work.
No. That hesitation wasn’t just instinct—it carried a fragment of reason.
“Not coming at me?”
Ludger was deliberately showing an opening, luring it into attacking.
Sensing the trap, the Beast of Jévaudan instead raised its guard even further.
“You catch on fast.”
But no matter how alert it was now—it was already too late.
His spell had already been cast.
FWAAAAM!
Light burst from the rubble beneath the monster’s feet.
Then, like spears erupting from the earth, the ground surged upward and pierced through the monster’s hind legs and both palms.
Thick clouds of dust billowed into the air, blanketing the surroundings in a gray haze.
The spectators were thrown into confusion by the sudden smoke.
RAAAAAARGH!
The Beast of Jévaudan writhed in agony within the smoke, but its pierced limbs wouldn’t budge an inch.
The monster gave a command to its multiplied cryptids.
A black tide surged toward Ludger.
Ludger raised his swordstick to strike—but then paused and lowered it again.
“That’s... a bit much.”
Instead, he drew two black revolvers from his belt.
RATATATATAT!
Mana-forged bullets fired in rapid succession, piercing through the foreheads of the swarming cryptids.
Since they were fired using mana, there was no need to reload.
Within moments, dozens of cryptids had collapsed, their heads perforated.
Ludger re-holstered his revolvers and fixed his gaze on the Beast of Jévaudan, silently asking if it had anything left.
The moment their eyes met, the beast instinctively recoiled.
If its limbs hadn’t been pinned, it might’ve backed away without realizing it.
Ludger saw the reaction and concluded that it was over.
‘Knocking him out would’ve been ideal, but this saves me the trouble.’
He tilted his head upward slightly.
There—something glinting in the moonlight came flying toward them.
BOOOOM!
A massive harpoon pierced the beast right at the base of the neck.
The impact was so powerful that the upper half of the massive creature slammed down into the ground.
SCREEEEEEEEECH!
The harpoon, having torn through flesh and struck bone, released a liquid from the ampoule attached to its tip.
It was the same antidote Ludger had frequently given Hans—to reverse his beastification.
────!!!
The red gleam in the beast’s eyes widened dramatically.
Then the enormous body began to shrink rapidly.
THUD.
Finally, Hans, now fully human again, collapsed face-first onto the ground.
At the same time, black shadows began dropping from the air.
A tall, white-haired man in a mask landed beside Hans, covered him with a tattered cloak, and hoisted him over his shoulder.
With his free hand, he retrieved the harpoon he had thrown.
Still wearing his mask, Alex, who had arrived with Phantos, called out to Ludger.
“Leader. Is [N O V E L I G H T] that guy gonna be okay?”
“He’s fine. While in monster form, his recovery rate’s insanely high. He’ll heal up quick. More importantly, you got here just in time.”
Crunch.
Ludger replied while biting down on a pre-prepared mana pill.
Using Ater Nocturnus consumed an enormous amount of mana—he had to replenish it like this to keep going.
“Now that we’ve secured <Kafka>, let’s get out of here. We’ve wasted too much time.”
With the smoke cloud still obscuring visibility, even the knights hadn’t approached yet—it was the perfect chance to escape.
“Stop right there!”
At that moment, Casey Selmore appeared.
Ludger turned to silently face her as she called out to stop him.
