“I see you're in good shape, warrior.” - Skull said. On the outside, this pepper really did look like an iron skeleton sitting on an armored horse. Someone might have thought it was such armor, but it was obvious to me that this creature really did have a body of steel. Meanwhile, the skeleton continued his speech. – “Elf? And... what kind of creature is that?”

At that, the aura of omniscience and superiority surrounding the visitor cracked and dissipated.

“I am the highest elf, you iron skull! You should know what your master looks like.” - I immediately introduced myself.

“You are not an elf.” - The knight answered me grimly.

“And you are not a human. Of course, I'm not an elf. I am the highest elf. The highest! The supreme and all-powerful elf god, that's what I am!”

“Not important.” - The skeleton snapped at me.

“No, important! What, you think you're the coolest guy here? No! I'm the coolest. If you don't admit it right now, I will beat you until you call me your grandfather.”

“It's been a long time, old man. What brings you here?” - Guts asked, completely ruining my game and completely ignoring my speech.

The skeleton decided to do the same.

“I'm fighting otherworldly monsters, and you'll soon find out what lies ahead.”

“Is it an apostle?” - Guts guessed.

“Or the one who made them appear.” - Skull made a blur sentence.

“No way! Is the Hand of God near?”

“You, too, saw a shining hawk in your dream. It was a revelation that the one whose appearance represented the hawk would appear in the world of mortals. Flocks of sheep will come to the holy land, drenched with blood. And these sheep are eager for the hawk of light! Every thousand years, when some place overflows with power, then whatever lay in the World of the Gods will appear in the world of mortals. Eclipse! Something like that Eclipse might happen!”

“All of this... all of this will happen again?” - Suddenly Guts went into a rage, and I could see how in his soul there was a stirring... demon.

Gee, this pepper really is possessed. That's why he can absorb the power of demons. During the Eclipse, a weak demon infiltrated into Guts' body. All this time it's been feeding on the blood and death of its kin, and by now it's almost grown to the point where it can influence its host's thoughts. And the image of the Eclipse, where the material and spiritual worlds converged, compelled Guts to submit to the emotions he felt, opening a back door into his mind for the demon.

This 'discovery' came as an unpleasant surprise to me. After all, I was the only one who had the 'right' to influence Guts' mind, to make him do what I wanted him to do. The wandering demon in his soul could stop me. However, there was still time, and in the very near future I was going to use this demon to gain even more power over the thoughts and feelings of the Sacrifice, who was supposed to get to Azathoth alive.

“Unfortunately, no man can stop it from coming.” - The knight continued to exacerbate the situation. – “A shadow will be born. That shadow will be thrown away by the dying sun, which gives light to a distant earth.”

Honestly, Skull's last words sounded more like some kind of nonsense. Shadow? The sun? It was much simpler than that. Femto was going to make a huge sacrifice to get a material body. And all these prophecies and visions were just a result of proper processing of dark and ignorant sacrificial masses. So, judging from the last words, Skull himself works for the Hand of God or whoever is already behind that 'hand'. Generally, the slightest vestige of respect for this 'fighter against evil' has just evaporated in me, and I decided to knock him down a little.

“That's it, time's up.” - I shouted. – “Now, I'll teach you a lesson, you cheeky little skull!”

With that shout, I darted forward and kicked the Skull Knight in the forehead with my ‘elf’ body. He hadn't expected that I, so small on the face of it, would hit him with an attack as powerful as an angry elephant. A very heavy steel elephant, weighing millions of tons.

With a loud clang, Skull flew out of the saddle. But before he could land, I landed a dozen more blows on him. Finally, he collapsed to the ground with the sound of an empty bucket. The demon-wrestler's 'armor' was bent in many places, and his arms and legs looked in different directions, at angles clearly unintended by human anatomy.

“Call me grandpa and bow down. Or I'll beat you so that you'll be easier to melt down than straighten up.”

“Kha! What is your power? Who are you?”

“Do you have dementia? I am his majesty, the almighty high elf named Fuck! Bow down before me or die, Skull.”

As proof of my words, I thumped the brat a few more times, and this time the blows were accompanied by the distinct crunch of cracking bones and metal.

“Yes, of course. The naughty grandson greets his grandfather. Fuck, my Grandpa Fuck!” - The knight muttered in panic, trying to get to his knees, but unable even to get off the ground.

“That's right.” - I nodded graciously. – “Now get lost, my audience is over.”

Skull didn't argue, but summoned his horse, climbed on it somehow, and immediately rushed away.

“What are you all looking at?” - I turned to Guts and Puck, who stood there with their mouths hanging open. – “Now do you see how tough I am?”

“Yeah, yeah, boss, you're cool!” - The elf agreed with me. – “How you do him. One and done!”

“That's right.”

Guts was silent, but there was a look of respect in his eyes as he looked at me. Only now he realized how great my strength was, and why I kept calling him a wimp.

A couple of hours later, Isidro caught up with us. The kid was a rare persistent, or even stubborn. But Guts, despite all his haste, kept going at a pace more suited to a man than to Vritras. However, I already had a plan to make him exceed his limits.

As soon as he arrived at the Citadel of Condemnation, Guts encountered a squad of Holy Iron Chain Knights. They were leading another 'witch' who was about to be interrogated and tortured to death. The swordsman stopped the procession, grabbed the leader's face, and began questioning if the girl with the brand on her chest was among the people he'd captured. As soon as he found out the officer didn't know anything, Guts immediately wasted him, tossing him up into the air and chopping him to pieces with his sword. The other soldiers tried to attack Guts, but he chopped them to pieces along with their horses, and then the rest of the squad chose to flee.

The people who witnessed the showdown were immediately impressed by Gutts' strength, bravery, and 'fairness'. One of the women heard the words about the brand on her chest and told the Black Swordsman that she knew such a girl. He immediately followed this woman, only to discover the empty tent in which Casca was supposed to be. After all, this business couldn't have done without some dumb blond girl who would have created a lot of trouble out of nothing.

In the camp Casca lived in the company of prostitutes who made a living by their bodies. The girl captured by the knights was one of them. Moreover, the soldiers acted on a denunciation. One of the whores, the closest to Casca, realized that soon they would all be captured, so she decided to escape, and the same time to take her half-wit girlfriend.

Only, as soon as they stepped outside the camp, the two girls fell into clutches of the local sect of demon worshippers, who regarded Casca as a 'black witch'. And there was a reason for that. Just a couple of days ago, when they had tried to rape the girl, she had 'summoned' a mob of spirits that had possessed the cultists and forced them to kill each other. But that incident didn't teach those sheep anything, so they decided to try again with a slight change of scenery.

Guts, of course, could not see the kidnapping scene, but Isidro, who had decided to run through the camp in the company of Puck, saw the girls, similar in description to the one wanted, being carried away by some men. He followed them to the sect's lair in the caves, where another sabantoon and convention of maniacal perverts was taking place. When the fuck-up going on there reached its climax, Isidro finally realized that he can send Puck to Guts for help.

When he heard from the 'useless fly' that he had found Casca, who was about to be raped by a mob of maniacs, Guts became furious and ran toward the scene, running at a 100% rate. But I wasn't satisfied with a measly 100%, so I grabbed Puck's arm and doubled his pace. Guts immediately began to lag behind, but I encouraged him with a phrase:

- “Hurry up, or they'll eat all delicious parts!”

The last word triggered the swordsman's mind, and he remembered the Eclipse scene, in which demons had devoured all his friends in front of him. When he thought the same fate might befall Casca, Guts went into a wild rage, roared, howled, and... accelerated. Twice as fast, three times as fast, five times as fast... But before he could reach his true limit, we found ourselves already on the spot to see that the situation had worsened.

Under stress, Casca's consciousness opened to the spirit world, attracting crowds of hungry demons. They took possession of the bodies of the most vulnerable sect members and attacked the rest of the people, devouring them alive. To mere observers, it looked as if some of the cultists had gone insane and attacked their own comrades. But that was not all. At that very moment, a squad of Holy Iron Chain Knights arrived into the den of fanatics to capture them all. But instead of exhausted humans, they met a crowd of hungry demons eager for human meat.

As a finishing touch, the apostle in the Citadel of Condemnation injected one of the cultists with demon blood, turning him into a mini-apostle - a strong and fast creature with a goat's head and goat's legs.

Isidro, Casca, and the blond whore tried to escape, taking advantage of the disturbance, but Casca stumbled, fell, and a second later was surrounded by demons, with the Goat Demon standing beside her, gazing approvingly at the victim before him. His cock looked like a snake and even had its own glowing eyes. Apparently, the demon planned to rape the girl first, and only then to devour her.