After the battle was over, the old man looked at the corpses of the demons hungrily. He then held up the corpses, brought it to his mouth and started chewing.
“Wha… What?” Hoculus shouted, bewildered but the old man didn’t seem to care. He was ripping apart the corpses like a cutter and absorbing them.
The pile of corpses was bigger than the old man’s himself, but he continued to eat, and Hoculus looked on as if it were magic. After he was done eating, the crazy old man burped loudly and smiled, satisfied.
Then, he spoke.
“let me say this again. I have a wish to make.”
* *
Hoculus stood quietly in the temple.
He looked concerned and relieved at the same time.
He then murmured to himself.
“….. I suppose this is for the better.”
The old man hadn’t gone up to Act 3 as he had worried.
He had simply spoken his wish and left quietly.
No – his wish itself was being teleported to another place, so it was inaccurate to say he had left quietly on his own accord.
Anyways, the situation had ended better than he thought.
The place he had been transported to was a place Hoculus didn’t have to care whether the old man wrecked havoc.
‘In a way… it’s the best place that suits him.’
Even so, he couldn’t understand why the old man would go to such a dangerous place on his own accord.
He didn’t even want to understand why.
Hoculues violently shook his head, as if deliberately wanting to forget the past memories.
‘I want to take a break….’
He hadn’t used much of his powers, but he was very tired.
He stretched out his forefinger and drew a line in the air.
A blue light exploded out of thin air following the line he drew midair, and the magic portal was complete.
He let out a deep sigh and was about to step in, grasping his forehead with his left hand, when he felt someone coming in to the temple once more.
Hoculus slightly frowned, not wanting to deal with anything when he needed rest right now.
As soon as he saw who had entered, however, he felt instantly better.
Hoculus grinned welcomingly, for it had been a while since he had seen the newcomer last.
“Vulcan! Welcome!”
* * *
Unlike his trips to Act 1, which was once every few years in Earth’s time, Vulcan rarely made visits to Act 2.
It was mostly because there wasn’t anyone he was that close with.
He knew Hoculus and Honus though well of him, but their hospitality was a little overbearing for Vulcan.
That was why the two were seeing each other in such a long time.
They didn’t have much to fill each other in, though.
Vulcan had been quietly enjoying his days after the battle with the Devil King, and Hoculus had his everyday duties as well, so there wasn’t anything special to talk about.
Of course, there was that slight conflict with the old man just now, but Hoculus didn’t want to talk about that right now.
Instead, he started talking about the acquaintances they knew in common.
“I see. I was expecting the Blue Winds to come along, and the same with Clutus…”
“Ah, well.. I did think he would be a god one day. Who knows? He may be stronger than you. Haha”