They’d seemingly managed to seal the demon’s power without a hitch. And yet, Barbatos wore a faintly grim look on his face.
“It was a success, but there hasn’t been any change,” he said.
Apparently, if that alone had satisfied the condition, then there would’ve been some change in the seal—but he hadn’t detected any such change.
“Could the condition be something else…?” Mira said.
They’d removed what had been behind his transformation into a dark demon. With the transformation ability sealed, the production of corrupted demonic power ought to cease, meaning he’d no longer transform into a dark demon. There shouldn’t be any more problems.
“Hmm, it looks like he hasn’t really changed at all,” Meilin piped in again, while Mira and her companions were racking their brains as to what on earth was going on.
Wallenstein and Barbatos’s seal had worked without a hitch, and the cause of the transformation had been dealt with. It was a seal that, no matter whether there was any physical change, worked by interacting with the power inside of one’s body. For that reason, the change wasn’t one that someone could perceive with the naked eye.
However, when they heard Meilin’s observation, they picked up on something incredibly obvious.
“Aaah, yeah, that’s it. Come to think of it, that must be why.”
“Indeed. That seems more likely.”
That was what Mira and Wallenstein said, both nodding as if it all made sense when they saw it.
“Perhaps because we know so much about such things, we missed it. In such a state, there wouldn’t be any time to come up with such specific conditions for undoing the seal.” Barbatos said. He seemed to have figured it out after thinking back to the distant past.
So, what had they seen that’d led to this realization? It was none other than the black skin, characteristic of dark demons, which remained on his body.
The change into a dark demon had begun suddenly. According to Barbatos, he wouldn’t have had much time to think or plan in great detail. In which case, when sealing himself to prevent this transformation, he would most likely target the black skin, which was most emblematic of the transformation, when setting the condition for undoing the seal.
And so, Mira and her companions suspected that Marchosias had set this as the condition for lifting it. They had an idea, but what were they to do next?
“But now what should we do?”
“Hmm, normally, it just peels off naturally.”
Wallenstein and Mira murmured those words while standing before Marchosias.
According to Barbatos, once a dark demon reverted to a light one, another of the demons’ key abilities, [Evil Expulsion], caused it to reject and then shed the black skin of dark demons.
However, Marchosias was in a state of suspended animation with only very faint vital signs. That meant his other powers were likely also suppressed, and so the skin probably wouldn’t shed naturally.
“Then we’ll have to do it by hand… Or I’m guessing that won’t really work, huh?” Mira asked.
“No, it won’t,” Barbatos answered, saying that they’d better not.
They’d taken care of what caused the transformation into a dark demon. It should have been fine just to peel it off…but sure enough, it wasn’t that simple. Until this layer of skin naturally shed itself off the demon’s body, it remained connected to his flesh. And so if they peeled it off by force, it’d be no different than skinning someone.
Waking up to find yourself being skinned alive would surely make for a good scene in a slasher movie, but not so much in this situation.
So, what should they do? Everyone stood around contemplating the question until Barbatos suddenly came up with an idea.
“Why don’t we try that medicine I created? Either way, it’s not like it could hurt,” he said, immediately glancing at Wallenstein.
After thinking it over a moment, Wallenstein answered, “That medicine…? Ah, that one, huh? Sure, I suppose it’s worth a shot.” He agreed that it wasn’t a bad idea.
“Hrmm, what medicine are you talking about? Is it the kind of thing that might help in a situation like this?” Mira asked excitedly, wondering what exactly it could be.
This medicine apparently had the potential to help them break through their current impasse. What’s more, it’d been developed by Wallenstein and his comrades’ organization, to which even demons themselves belonged.
“Um, well, about that…” he prefaced.
Perhaps it wasn’t that big of a secret, or perhaps it was because he was speaking to Mira. Regardless, Wallenstein began telling them about the medicine.
As a result of everything that’d happened previously, Wallenstein’s organization became partners with Kagura and her people, namely the Isuzu Alliance. When they did, they met Kagura as well as the angel, Tyriel, with whom she was affiliated, and received quite a bit of knowledge and assistance. With angels and demons working together, they collaborated to develop a spirit medicine that would completely turn dark demons back into light demons.
However, spirit medicine was still very much in the research stage, and they hadn’t had many big breakthroughs. It was still unclear what exactly caused light demons to turn into dark ones. In fact, they’d encountered Barbatos here precisely because he was working on perfecting this very medicine.
“Once we perfect the medicine, we’ll have a much easier way of turning dark demons back into light ones. Additionally, we’ll be able to dispel the seals we put on Barbatos and his comrades. And once we do that, we’ll be one step closer to accomplishing our goal,” Wallenstein said.
Indeed, transforming all dark demons into light ones was the aim of Wallenstein as well as the organization to which he belonged.
And it was for this reason that they were moving forward with researching the spirit medicine. Apparently, it was the medicine that they’d refined during this process that they were now talking about using.
“Believe it or not, angels and demons actually have a lot in common when it comes to their powers. It’s just that the similarities they share decrease substantially when they turn into dark demons. And so, the medicine we’re planning on using now is actually filled with the concentrated power of angels. Basically, we came up with it after thinking that we might revert dark demons to light ones by stimulating these areas that they ought to have in common,” Wallenstein explained.
After requesting that she not ask him how the medicine had performed, he took a small bottle out of his item box.
The bottle apparently contained the very medicine that he’d mentioned, the one which contained concentrated angel power. It gave off a faint, warm light, which made it look like it might very well contain some kind of special power.
“Earlier, Barbatos mentioned the [Evil Expulsion] ability, which happens to be the very power that angels and demons both share. And so, with him in a state of suspended animation, I’m hoping that this medicine will work in place of that power,” he concluded.
“I see… In that case, it probably is worth a shot, huh?” Mira said, agreeing that it certainly seemed worth trying.
By having Marchosias ingest the medicine, they could get him to shed his black skin through exposure to the [Evil Expulsion] power contained within.
Meanwhile, Meilin, who didn’t seem as if she’d quite wrapped her head around all of this, nevertheless seemed to have a good feeling about it. When Mira asked her what she thought about giving him the medicine, she promptly answered, “I’ve got a feeling it’ll work!”
“All right, then it’s decided,” Mira declared.
At the very least, it didn’t contain anything that might cause any negative side effects. And so, with everyone agreeing to give it a try, Wallenstein quickly squatted down at Marchosias’s side.
With Mira and the rest of her companions watching, Wallenstein took the cap off of the small bottle and poured its contents into Marchosias’s mouth.
So, what would happen? They observed him for about ten seconds, and then a definite change began taking place before their very eyes. The black skin at the end of the demon’s feet began to shed off with a loud crackling sound.
It was working.
Confirming as much, Wallenstein then poured a few more drops into Marchosias’s mouth.
The effect of the medicine was, in a word, dramatic. Sure enough, every last fleck of the black skin peeled off and crumbled away. One could very well say this was proof that the [Evil Expulsion] power was working properly.
What’s more, there was yet another change as well.
“Great, we were right. We satisfied the condition, and now all that’s left to do is lift the seal,” Barbatos announced.
Indeed, their hypothesis had been correct. So now, it was finally possible to safely undo Marchosias’s seal. Undoing the seal required some rather ancient magic, but this was no issue for Barbatos.
As soon as he was given the green light, Barbatos undid the seal that Marchosias had placed on himself.