Ignited_Doggo

Well, here is a chapter just in time for Halloween. Although it doesn't relate to Halloween at all. I don't have a lot of time to proofread multiple times so expect some mistakes.

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*Growl* *Grrrrr*

Howls of the dead echoed the dark underground facilities. Mage lights that were usually illuminating the place were all turned off. Fresh corpses packed the hallways like nobody’s business. At least, it didn’t have a rotten smell.

Standing in the middle of the first hall to the lab was Elena with her mask on. Her body lighted up the surroundings comfortably as a light source by converting some of her mana into light mana. She could see in the dark just fine with her body but vision with a light source felt way better. Stealth? No one would know if there was no one. It wasn't like this place would still exist afterward.

Currently, the undead revenants were scratching the transparent mana barrier that was protecting her. Letting these things touch her was out of the question. These mindless undead were not afraid of anything so it was very unpleasant. She couldn't move from her spot at all, physically impossible.

“What the hell kind of party is this? Am I interrupting something here?”

Elena was confused as hell when she entered after sealing the whole place. A wave of incorporeal wraiths flew away in panic while another wave of fresh corpses flooded every space possible in the hallways that were connected to the big entrance hall and poured out toward her. It was like an unobstructed floodgate.

She had come in just in time for the horde of undead to complete their occupation on the first layer. The wraiths who still had some bits of intelligence ran away at the first sight of the terrifying mana monster such as her. Needless to say, the last space on the first layer was no more.

Standing like an isolated statue amidst all of this Elena started to doubt whether or not she came to the right place. Looking at the volume of dead meat all around her, she knew there was no way for her to deal with this using a blade. And that annoyed the heck out of her. She had just decided not to use magic here and now this was slapped on her face!

What was she going to do? Running away? She may as well go back to the Abyss!

People may say holy magic was the best to deal with the undead but to Elena, unholy elements could do the same. And a specialized form of magic property that she had developed in her previous world, [Annihilation Magic] would be even more effective than those. Well, it was not very effective toward God-related things, like everything else, but that was not the point.

Why would she use her best magic here? It was just because she had to reserve elemental magic for her Noble Lady role, she didn't want to mix things up. And she was annoyed by this too so may as well blast the hell out of it. There was no rule that said her best magic couldn't be used in daily life. Just because she had just utilized elemental magic in favor of blending in with this world didn't mean the main power of her abyssal nature was abandoned.

A wave of red-tinted distorted air suddenly expanded like a bubble with her as the center. Everything disintegrated instantly as the magic passed through. Not even the air was safe. All that was left were her and the expanding vacuum. Few spells were made of this type of magic but all of them held strong erasing power, turning matter to mana and decaying mana to nothingness. Utterly terrifying to all her old enemies that knew about this. This spell was just at Elementary level if she had to fit it in this world's classification, the working of it was not complicated after all. Still, with an enormous amount of mana, any spells would be devastating.

But she dropped the spell when it had just consumed the entrance hall, floors and walls included, making the place a spherical pocket amidst the structure. 

“Ahh! Shit!”

Elena shouted out soundlessly in the vacuum in surprise as her clothes and mask disintegrated too! It had been far too long since she last cast this type of magic with her as the center so she forgot to take account of small details such as clothes and accessories. There was still a shirt that fell out after her small bag and all others had disintegrated but she wasn't concerned about it for the moment.

Her panic was because she was not alone! There were many rooms next to the entrance hall and there were a lot of knights and mages hiding in there. Now that the walls were down, air and everything from the side and below were pulled toward her. The confused screaming humans all looked at her brightly glowing form instinctively in the darkness as they tried to push away the undead and find out what had happened. The initial surprise had made her lose control of the spell so it ended prematurely and made a catastrophe. She recast the spell in panic to finish all the witnesses, undead or not.

The whole section around the entrance was erased cleanly as a blushing Demon King disappeared quickly through one of the hallways. Except for things outside the barrier which she had put up, the place had become a cavern that connected both the first and the second layers. The barrier had held back the rest and kept the place whole but rocks and dirt on the high ceiling on the inside started to crumble without any support.

Standing in a dark corner and checking herself one last time Elena returned to the hunt with her newly formed clothes and mask. She shuddered to imagine the humiliation if she had done that outside on the surface. She didn't know where this sense of shame came from but she couldn’t bear it at the moment. In the past, she had fought naked many times with the Heroes since a few of them had firepower that was too strong for equipment to resist. There was no feeling of embarrassment back then. Perhaps it was due to her pure demonic vessel at the time but she wasn’t sure about that.

I will not do this stunt again. It used to be such a good move back then, dammit!

Die you little shit! [Death Ball]!

She poured her anger on an innocent necromancer that just happened to come into her view. Another ball of emptiness formed inside the facilities. Her plan to hide her magic and push the blame to the invaders had failed miserably in her fit of shame. No organization could pull off the feat she had done here with an infiltration mission.

After the first and second layers' existences had been reduced to just a suggestion, Elena finally looked at the clean cavern that would collapse immediately once her barrier was gone. Demonic miasma flooded the place like a nest of evils. The ambiance mana had reached the level of deadly toxicity for humans. And there was a familiar shirt laying at the bottom of this pit. She put it back into her bag with a knowing frown. She would deconstruct it later back when she got back to her room.

“I think I overdid it a little bit with the magic.”

She could clean up the mess but what was the point of doing that anymore? If an Apostle couldn’t sniff this out then this world was doomed. Elena wasn’t worried about this much trouble. She had failed all the time and nothing had worked right for her when she was an active Demon King so why would it work now?

“Hmm, I just have a good idea.”

A smirk crept up on her face as the thought appeared in her mind. First, she would need a few native demons. And she just happened to know one.

But going back there right at the moment was a pain so Elena sent a magic messenger bird to her marionette. The small improvised red sparrow pierced through the ceiling and passed through her barrier without problem since it was composed of just mana. Stealthy was not in her mind when she made it so the flashy red color would definitely draw some attention. It was her first time doing this so it couldn't be helped, there had never been a need for her to send messages.

Then she felt something appear and react to her demonic power. Her eyes turned down and looked in the direction with a death stare. She didn’t know what it was since it felt so natural to her that she wouldn’t notice its existence at all. Only when its presence was suddenly amplified that her attention was poked. Then it disappeared just a moment later.

“... What was that?”

It was unfortunate that she wasn’t great at sensing far-away things. The only thing she could do was creeping up onto whatever that was. She dropped herself through the ceiling of the third layer. The loud noise of collapsing stone and dirt was trivial with all the mess here, but it definitely alerted her targets.

Elena went to where she had felt the thing immediately but the maze-like complex took her a while to navigate. She could flood the place with mana to overload everyone and kill them easily. But then the little Princess would die too, she was on this floor after all. Creating minions to help was a good idea, but she avoided it. The Marionette had started to act weird recently and the old version was just too stupid so she didn't want to make more for the moment. Making Demon souls would definitely be like waving a hand at the Gods and saying hello, so that too, was not a wise decision.

Elena passed by many research rooms. These rooms held valuable discoveries for the Kingdom but they were mostly elemental spells of the Intermediate level and a few Advanced ones. These researches were hidden down here so they could be used as a trump card in war. The research included chant-shortening, group rituals, enchanting spells into a weapon, and some mischievous things. She could do all that already and the first two were even unnecessary to her.

She didn't go through all of these lab rooms since half of them were practically useless to her. There was the transformation test she had to pay attention to, so there was really not enough time to look for funny novelties in the other rooms.

"Hmm?"

Elena found a blackened room with a busted wall. That was a normal sight since she had come late to the fight. There was nothing wrong with the room. What made her stop to look was the still-living thing in the corner.

It had a humanoid appearance but the body was huge, probably three times her height. It was burnt so badly that she could not differentiate it from charred meat. The smell made her hungry a little.

… Don't… want…

… So dark… hurt… scary…

A few strayed thoughts went through her mind as she stepped closer to it.

"What is this? Mind magic? It doesn't feel like magic though."

Her interest was tickled by the strange animal. She deemed it an animal and not a monster since it was mostly made of flesh with little to no mana. This room was one of the rooms she ignored previously since it had been emitting unremarkable mana fluctuation.

… No… no!

Don't… don't come! … Scary!

"Hehe, scary huh? And how do you know that?"

Her steps didn't stop until she was right next to its head.

"Grr…raa…aa…"

It tried to crawl away with no success. A pitiful mess.

Me see… I see… terrible things

You… kill, many,… you eat… many

"Look at this! You saw? Now, this is refreshing! I like you already. But you are a little dumb."

She didn't know how it managed to reach her memory without any kind of spell but she was pleased with this. She felt excited due to part of it being a weak animal combined with the mysterious ability. If it was someone like a member of the faith or some powerful people, she would kill them on the spot for looking through her mind. Leaking memories was a dangerous thing with Gods as your enemies. Who knew what the Gods could do?

Anyway, she was in the middle of finding that weird thing so she had to put this creature aside somewhere. She grabbed its leg and ran past this section. There was a room full of healing stuff next to the little Princess's room and it was in the same direction so this crispy animal would go there.

The tiles started to turn bloody as more and more corpses of black hooded people lying around when she reached the destination. The research rooms near the Princess's place were all intact. The defense was exceedingly strong. The best knights and mages were all there.

No wonder the whole place was left to be trashed so easily. I was wrong in assessing the Princess's value to the King.

On any other day, Elena would slip by them quietly to do her own business, but with this big ass unidentified animal in her hand and her still illuminated body she was already greeting them from beyond the corridor before she had even seen them.

"Light? There is another one! Mages!"

There was no hesitation in the command. They didn't want to confirm whether or not it was their ally at the corner. Three big fire balls flew at the junction and exploded with a powerful shockwave. The charred beast in her hand got charred a little more.

Looking through the fiery fire wall, she saw no knight rushing over. They were all busy with battle on the other side of the hallway. With her [Vision] spell, the situation was clear to Elena.

Her unintended flanking had made the defenders go frenzy a bit due to anxiety. The people they were fighting were all in black cloaks, and strong too.

She didn't interfere in their business, instead focusing on getting the charred meat in her hand into the room with healing stuff first, the animal seemed to be nearing its end. The mages were confused at the power of their [Fireball]. Their spell had never incinerated any enemy instantly before but the one sneaking at their back was completely erased. They stopped worrying about that and directed their attention to the dire battle at hand.

In the room next to the Princess's, Elena had dumped the charred animal in a container that looked like a big fishtank. She pulled the plugs here and there randomly without any concern. Some tubes started to pump liquid so she made all of them pour into her fishtank.

The green and blue liquids merged with each other harmoniously but the remaining ones started to bubble real bad. Elena of course had no idea what she was doing. She felt the animal recover so her concoction ought to work very well. Since this room was researching elixir or something, those liquids were all special on their own. The effect of all of them mixed together was a different matter though. No mage had ever dared to mix this much liquid in one container.

As if it was the will of the world, the animal received a special something from this mess of an accident in a mad laboratory.

Elena would never sense such a change and so it was left behind. She had things to look for after all. Still, she injected the red skill gem in its body. That enhancing transformation art needed a few varied test-runs and the healing bath was perfect for what she wanted.

The survivors count increased to two with this animal.

Peeking out from the door, she saw a flashy fight occurring next door. There were many black cloak people lying dead on the floor but the last four were super tough.

Those fours neutralized spells with speed borderline instantaneous. Fire snakes disintegrated while stone spikes turned into sand. Tiny metal pellets would randomly disable mages and knights. The defenders' side also utilized magic negation tactics but the knights' aura blade still made the whole corridor look like a tornado that was somehow packed inside. That was incredible considering they were all weak humans.

Their power is low but their skill is very good. Not that far from a beginner Hero to be honest.

The reason Elena didn't come out was because she felt like the thing she was looking for was nearby. Feel, not sense. So she was inspecting everyone carefully. She would probably jump out soon lest the thing she was searching got destroyed by accident.

It was then that the black cloaks decided to risk it all and dived into the room of the Princess. Elena was not expecting this turn of event, it was not good as she just saw the wooden box on one of them.

“...”

Just as Elena was still surprised, the room exploded. The flame consumed the corridor and expanded the clearing of the center of the explosion. Some knights were injured while protecting the mages behind them from the heat splash. The four black figures inside were incinerated instantly. Their charred corpses fell to the ground in front of a small silhouette shrouded in fire.

“The Princess has awakened! Back off, back off!”

Just as Elena had guessed, those four tried to touch the Princess as soon as they entered the room. Although she was sleeping, the draconic nature in her was still at a volatile state of agitation. The bright flaming aura of the small girl turned dark red as she opened her eyes. Her physical body had some changes that would be hard to reveal in public without a good explanation. There were two long bone-like white horns growing from the side of her head and curving upward. She looked more like a demon than a dragon. Thanks to Elena.

By the look of things, Elena didn’t seem to be needed for the clean-up. The little Princess was currently not in control and was doing things by instinct. And the instinct of a fire dragon was as pleasant as a feral dog.

"Well. Not my fault."

At this time, the half-expose red feather in the broken box was already flown to her hand, along with a half-melted revolver. She reinforced the room she was in to keep the rare animal from being crispy again. All that was left to do was letting the Demonic Dragon Princess run wild to her heart's content out there.

"When will the corpse I ordered arrive? It's getting late."

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Despite the mayhem beneath the capital, the surface was as peaceful as ever.

"Instructor, please pardon me for inquiring about the foundation of your knowledge but I am in the belief that air, or the wind element is the most powerful in this world."

In a classroom full of high nobles and royalties from many countries, a mage with a full head of white hair stood still with an angry face on the podium. Sitting in the middle of the third row was a black hair girl with blood red eyes. She was looking down on him with each of her words. Her stone cold face made him feel even worse. However, he could not offend her no matter how angry he became.

“Lady Elena De Heuser, your opinion is much appreciated. But the fact remains proven with thousands of years of history. Wind magic can be powerful but requires much finesse and mana to accomplish the same amount of destruction a fire spell could.”

He was trying to use history as a backing to talk down the arrogant young girl. Just because she was a bit stronger than her peers with magic, she started to spew nonsense in front of her seniors… was what everyone in the classroom was thinking.

Elena in her seat narrowed her eyes on the instructor and covered her mouth with a red fan with black roses pattern. There was a small smirk on her face that only the girl sitting next to her could see. That girl happened to be the redhead Charlotte De Calahan, daughter of Marchioness Ophelia. Her drill hair shook a bit nervously as the back and forth of her deskmate and the instructor intensified. They were just learning history so how could things turn out like this? Everyone was silently listening to this debate as they didn’t have the confidence in their own experience to interfere.

“Hmm, instructor. Are you basing their power on mere environmental destruction alone? Fine then. What do you think if I change the weather in the capital region to an eternal winter? I am sure you have the necessary knowledge to see the damage it will cause.”

Elena didn’t back down one bit and argued to the end. The instructor didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of so many nobles and royalties so he tried his best to pacify the situation. He didn’t think this little girl was such an agony in his life. Whatever should he say back? Why was she so hellbent on going against him?

“My Lady. You should stop. No matter how we talk about it, changing the weather is not for any individual mage to say. And the amount of mana to operate such a spell will exceed even the strongest Advanced spell in this world. With that much mana, the fire element can do much more than just freezing the land.”

He also didn’t want to lose an argument with a kid so he kept his opinion firmly. Many students also agree with him on this point as they were all taught the same text.

“It couldn’t be helped that your knowledge on Wind magic is lacking, instructor. After all, you are a fire mage. But everyone should know this. Controlling the wind also means controlling the weather. And that is the same as controlling the sky with your will. Out of the four elements, only Earth and Wind encompass everything in this world. With sufficient competence, making an eternal winter is an easy matter. The wind element also can not be destroyed by any other elements, especially fire. Anyone can challenge me to a duel if you want to prove otherwise. I will let you see for yourself how Wind Magic should be.”

Elena fanned herself lightly as her sharp eyes looked down on the whole class. Everyone was speechless. They felt that they were being wronged but couldn’t do anything to fight back. All they could do was look at Elena with a hateful glare.

This was of course not the real Elena. The Mithril Marionette was just following the order to act like a high noble befitting her master’s power. But she was just a bit too enthusiastic about it. She wanted everyone to know their places as the dirt beneath her master’s feet so she had been demolishing their pride left and right in the past few days. Everyone was too prideful and shameful to talk about their defeat so the Academy was still quite quiet about her streaks.

At this time, even the instructor was not able to talk back. Because he was really not that excellent in Wind Magic and he had heard that Elena was a monster with wind spells. Elena herself was not really thinking that wind was the best but she could argue nonetheless.

Then a girl with silver hair and purple eyes in the front row, in other words - a bigshot, stood up and slammed the desk emotionally.

“Please stop it! You are being mean to everyone!”

The beautiful amethyst-like eyes were looking at Elena with tears. That action had definitely created a side in the class and that side was not at all hiding their intention of going against the unanimous tyrant in the room.

Elena stood up and folded her fan. Her face bore an expression of contempt. Her goal was simply opposing whatever the instructor said to suppress his annoying ass. The objective had been completed and she was okay with stopping the mission. It was just that the silver-haired girl was someone she didn’t like. After reviewing her profile for a second, Elena decided to target this girl as well.

“Princess Aizakti of the Kane Empire, daughter of Shaman Aizu of the Spirit Tribe. Do you wish to prove me wrong with your royal magic or your Tribe's heritage? A duel, is it?”

“Wha- no… how unreasonable!”

A startled look adorned the silver-haired Princess, she didn't know how her mother's origin was known by Elena. But the Spirit Tribe was just a normal tribe that worship Nature Spirits in the Northern mountains of the Empire, they didn't have anything incredible about them except a bunch of gold veins. She knew it better than anyone since she received magic training from her mother after all. She tried not to show her state of mind with a determined look.

There were many things that the Marionette would ignore but the fake expression of this Princess was incredibly irritable somehow. Perhaps it was because of the feeling of her great master that was transferred to her along with the knowledge of the Academy. Anyway, she saw how the whole class started to take the Princess’s side and chipped in their opinions to oppose Elena.

“How could you abuse your power like this? This is wrong.”

In front of the Marionette, the creature named Aizakti was making a righteous speech and pulling on the hearts of the students. Honestly, the Marionette was just recording the whole speech to analyze the thought process of her enemy later. Her master didn’t allow the killing of these flimsy twigs so she had to stomp them down another way.

“... You should protect and support people instead of looking down on everyone. Please reconsider it, as a noble you should act right.”

*Boom*

A loud sound exploded from Elena’s clapping and silenced the whole room immediately. Her dark red dress and deep dark hair along with her ethereal face made their hearts stop for a moment. It wasn’t from fascination. It was a strange uneasiness that had creeped up out of nowhere. They had known her incredible power in the entrance exam but that hadn’t been very real to them as outstanding nobles themselves.

The new people from the Empire were even more so. They just saw Elena as a haughty girl with a bit of power in her hand. Rumor had it that the girl could cast an Intermediate level spell with a wave. But since when did nobles not exaggerate? They wouldn't believe such a fairy tale. That was why only the Empire Princess and her two female followers that were sitting behind Elena still expressed a challenging face.

"Is this a debate about the noble obligation? Or does the Princess of the Empire lack the confidence to talk about magic with me?"

Elena raised her fan again and covered her mouth slightly.

"Oh, that's right. Please pardon my rudeness. I have forgotten that Princess Aizakti did not follow the path of magic. How careless of me to let her Highness challenge me to a duel."

Now her red eyes seemed to smile brightly as she locked on to the foreign Princess. Charlotte who sat next to her however, was absolutely nervous by the tongue lashing of a Count's daughter to a Princess of an Empire.

This woman is crazy! I sat next to a crazy woman!

"By the way, her Highness wouldn't go back on her decision and forfeit now, would she?"

"What- I… "Elena, stop!" will not-"

A dashing young man near the Princess stood up and shouted commandingly at Elena. Only to get a death glare back.

"BE QUIET."

He was shaken by an even more commanding voice from her and sat down obediently. That young man was Finn. His confidence was gone instantly in front of his fiancée. Prince Melvin next to him comforted his cousin with a few pats on the back quietly. He wouldn't interfere though, this was not his responsibility. Well, it was but he wasn't the Crown Prince so there was that.

"Princess, please continue."

Even with the best in the Empire would be an uncertainty to be compared with members of the army of darkness. But coercion could only go so far.

"Sit down, Aizakti."

A tanned boy with silver hair stood up with slight difficulty. Prince Kordan swallowed his anxiety to stop another international incident. He didn't know the reason why but he could clearly see that the Kingdom wanted a conflict between children.

What is going on? Why does the Kingdom want to provoke us? What are they scheming?

He was wrecking his brain to think up something quick. He felt dangers lurking all around him. If he wasn't killed by an assassin, paranoia would eventually do the job.

Elena, the Marionette, was not doing any of the things he was thinking about. She was just doing things according to her master's wish. And she knew for sure that her master hated this girl so she didn't give any mercy. The Prince's intervention had blocked her way to slap that face in official business though.

"Lady Elena should let it go. My sister was just being emotional. If you still can't forgive her, I can stand in her stead and challenge you. Since I am the challenger, I will decide on how we duel, right?"

Elena frowned at his direct use of her name regardless of the Kingdom's customs. It was intentional.

Anyway, she didn't remember whether the challenger could decide the match but slapping the brother was as good as the sister. She nodded convincingly to herself.

As she was about to accept the death match (she wanted it to be), a bright red light crashed into the room and landed on her shoulder.

"Wha- What was that red bird? A monster?"

"No way! It was so beautiful! It has to be a fire spirit!"

"... Understood."

The magic of this world was heavily relying on spirits. So seeing one was as incredible as seeing God. The thing was, there was no record of any sighting of spirits whatsoever except in stories. In short, they were just delusional and dramatic.

Elena received her command steadily through mana injection from the messenger while the whole crowd was getting overly excited for something they weren't even sure about. She would gladly take their suggestion, though. Now, she needed an excuse to go out fast.

She requested the messenger's cooperation immediately. The red bird of fire flew several times around Elena before exiting the classroom through the window. Everyone was stunned at the sudden come and go of the spirit so the room was silent for a while. This was a good opportunity for Elena to go. But she had to do something about the death match. Her great master's honor was on the line.

"Hmm, Prince Kordan, you can send the details of our duel to my room later. Although the killing of both my county's people and your soldiers is still happening, I won't kill you two brothers here so don't worry too much. I want that spirit bird now, excuse me then."

She didn't even talk to the instructor before she stepped over the window and went out. No one said a thing as the scenes of her leisurely walking on air following the fire spirit crashed their common perception yet again. It was clearly her way of slapping them with her mastery of the wind element and was still loved by fire spirit. Didn't that mean what she had said was right? The matter of her mentioning killing royalties casually was also temporarily forgotten.

The people that had been cheering the Princess started to get away from her a bit. It was clearly an international conflict so they didn't understand why they had wanted to get involved in the first place. The risk of committing treason toward their own Kingdom was far more serious than being insulted by Elena. After being reminded of the situation on their borders did they clear their heads a little. Although how much they understand about matters like that was questionable still.

"Ehem! Let's dismiss today's class early. Any objection?"

Prince Melvin stood up and got rid of the weird atmosphere. There would definitely be some talking between the two Princes about this duel that couldn't be left alone. The instructor took the cue and left quietly as well. He wasn't paid enough to mess with this.

Nobles naturally understood these subtle things too so they all followed the instructor out and left the three royalties inside the classroom. 

Although they looked to be only three people, there were actually many more with them. The special bodyguards of royalties were always hiding nearby to deal with mortal dangers like assassins and such. Leaving high profile people like Princes and Princesses with the enemy nation was beyond stupid after all. These bodyguards were usually their classmates or instructors all around.

This time the discussion may be too classified for the public to hear so the classroom was latched on by all of their guards outside.

Why didn't they go somewhere more secure then? Because Prince Melvin cared too little about this to do so. His father didn't tell him about his sister's condition, which also worsened his mood somewhat.

"So… how do you want this duel to be, Prince Kordan?"

"What are you scheming? This could easily turn into war."

"Would you believe me if I say I didn't do anything? Well, by the look on your face I guess not."

The two of them stared each other down with their kingly presence. Metaphor, of course. But the Princess in the middle still couldn't help but butting in.

"Please stop this. Enough already. Can't we all just be friends with each other?"

"..."

"..."

The tense atmosphere was really broken with her words. Both of them looked at the girl with weird expressions on their faces.

"Your sister is really something."

"... Let's get this over with."

Prince Melvin suddenly wanted to see Elena bashing this girl head down a peck. But he kept it careful to not speak out loud accidentally. The absence of his little sister really took a toll on him.

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He didn't know what was happening. He was just sitting on a bench and chilling at the back of the cafeteria while waiting for his afternoon magic class but suddenly a red bird slammed on his face and now he was running for his life through the small forest in the Academy.

*Dundundundun*

Heavy footsteps were chasing him right behind his back. The unknown assailant was shrouded in black shadow and was very vicious. Even a demon like him didn't dare to take a punch from that menace, his instinct told him so. He didn’t know when but he was trapped in these woods. Sunlight gradually dimmed out and the forest seemed to be endless. Which was nonsense to him since it was clearly daytime but it was real somehow.

“What are you!? Why do you want to kill me!?”

*Bang*

A long sword made of strange shiny metal flew through his chest was the answer he got. They were chasing at a speed at which the air started screeching loudly in his ears but he was still impaled with such a force that it almost blew him away.

“Fucking hell! Alright, I am not hiding anymore!”

He undid his illusion and revealed the true brown demonic body of his. Without the need to keep his miasma in check, he could exert his true power as a demon. Turning around and giving his strongest punch in his life to his assailant, he was sure to see meat paste on his burning fist but to his surprise there was no one behind him.

“Come out! Where are y-”

Before he could comprehend what was going on, his vision had turned black and he knew no more.

Standing behind him was a girl made of shadow. Her right hand stabbed into his head on the side with her knife-life fingers while her left hand chopped his neck and deformed the whole body like a clay figure. The sword on the Demon’s chest started melting and merged back to the girl’s hand before being covered in shadow just like her.

“Objective 1 accomplished. Begin transportation.”

The shadow girl talked to the trees above and a red bird flew out in a straight line of fire. Without any more words, the girl also ran after it with some heavy metallic footsteps every time she accidentally crushed the pavement while shouldering the fresh Demon she had just got.

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End of chapter 20

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Ignited_Doggo

It took me a while to write this because I had to write something else for work.