With the clouds covering the cold moon, a glittering sword immediately slashed the neck of a grotesque demon. The injuries on the demon's body prior to demonification were many, and without any source to supply the energy, the demon could barely register the strike until his head was already rolling on the ground.

"That's the last one..."

Saeko muttered with cold indifference. Brandishing her blade to flick off the filthy blood, she looked at Nik, whose expression was somewhat similar to hers. Emotionless eyes as he gazed at the slowly rotting and decomposing body.

Once again, Nik's mission was completed and he was already on the verge of completing his next one.

[Side Mission— 3

Status: Complete

Climbing the Rank

Description: All you have to do is slay some demons and increase your ranks. 

Objective: Slay 8/8 Demons

Rewards: Rank 7, 900 SO]

[Side Mission— 4

Climbing the Rank

Description: All you have to do is slay some demons and increase your ranks. 

Objective: Slay 8/15 Demons

Rewards: Rank 6, 1100 SO]

'I never noticed until now... but did killing felt so normal to me?'

Nik thought internally while gazing at his stainless nichirin blade with a dazed expression. He has killed before, that he only understood now. Not the time when he killed those pesky Earthbenders but way before...

'Not to mention that my own mind is screwed with something greater...'

Slowly suppressing his thoughts, Nik took a deep breath to calm himself and spun around while smiling.

"Let's go. The quicker we deal with the situation, the quicker we leave. 

So, the duo continued their path and did confront a few demons, but the groups weren't as big as the one encountered at the entrance of the village. 

It was only near the center of the village when he felt two outstanding sources of Negative Hamon... close to his last assigned hunt. Just a step below the pillars. Seeing this, Nik immediately came to the conclusion that the two demons might be able to utilise their Blood Arts.

And soon, Nik and Saeko came face-to-face with another wave of assaulters— Two Demons. One male and One Female.

And just from the very first sight, both the demon slayers easily found the difference between them and the previously fallen demons.

One of the demons was a burly man, shirt black hair, dark eyes and a long scar across his neck, still pulsating as if healing continuously. Meanwhile, the other was a beautiful lady in tattered dress with a massive hole showing through the dress, exposing a grotesque wound on her abdomen.

The greatest difference was that, the lady was clearly despairing while the male was filled with vigorous energy and a healthy amount of malice.

"Is it just me..."

Saeko whispered with a frown while Nik nodded.

"Yeah, that woman is still looking beautiful even after that wound."

Saeko immediately glared sternly and hissed softly.

"It is no time to joke."

"I am not joking." Nik whispered in equal seriousness and formed his words slowly. His mind was clear of the discriminative thoughts against the demons. Not to mention, he still wasn't blindly believing that the female demon did not harbor any ill will. Maybe she was just hiding her thoughts with expert acting skills.

It was at this moment, Saeko realised something and her eyes widened.

"You— You are the Takagi Nobles...?"

Her whispers immediately induced a violent reaction from the stoic hulk, making him roar in a bestial manner as his head snapped towards Saeko's direction.

'Oh, well, I get the lady all to myself, then.'

Nik shrugged and pointed his blade towards the woman, who visibly shivered before casting a worried look towards the male demon.

"Dear... let's not—"

The lady opened up only for the hulking demon to snap his head towards her direction and growling softly, making her flinch in fear and worry before she immediately looked towards Saeko, who identified them.

"Please, help us! A demon revived us. She keeps on killing and reviving others to control them!"

'Zombies?'

Nik had read something of the sorts in his homeworld while looking over the bookstore. Zombies, better classified as Undeads, matched the lady demons description of the said process of the revival perfectly.

"I-"

Saeko opened up with a troubled expression when the demon shot towards her while his right arm morphed into a scaled monstrosity. Mind-numbing, bone-crunching sound rang from the monstrous arm as the air pressure itself seemed to be affected by the swipe.

"Fourth form..."

Saeko whispered as her long hair whipped around wildly before she sheathed her sword.

"Split."

Instantly, the monstrous hand split apart from the main body, creating a wide gap in the area where Saeko stood with a calm expression while the body part and the body of the demon itself moved past her.

"Dear!"

The woman screamed shrilly, for a moment, insanity overtook her expression as a pair of fleshy wings emerged from her back—

Slash 

"Calm down, lady."

The pink-haired lady did not know when Nik appeared behind her, but he had slashed her wings, this was a fact— which also made her conscious once again— that made the demon realise that at the moment, instead of worrying about her already 'dead' husband, she had other things to worry about.

Like defeating the numerically-marked pupil demon that brought her and her husband to life.

"Please! That demon only has one weakness! You need to kill all her pawns before you can take her down! 

Kill me and my husband!

Now!!"

'She... isn't acting?'

Nik frowned and looked towards Saeko only to witness the neck rolling down from the huge body. Apparently, she wasn't keen to keep on hearing the demon's grumbles.

"You must be... Yuriko Takagi... right?"

Saeko spun and faced the pinned Yuriko, who was distracted by the rapidly disappearing body of her husband. Her expression immediately turned extremely sad but Nik did hear a squeaky whisper...

"... don't cry... isn't my husband..."

"You are right, Miss Slayer. You should put me down, too.

Before I end up succumbing to my need for blood."

She looked at Saeko with her purplish pupils with despair oozing through her words while Nik's frown only deepened as he closely examined her body.

"You said that the demon who revived you won't die until you all are dead. What did you mean?"

"I don't know much. It was at the moment I regained my consciousness, this particular piece of information was already present. And—"

As Yuriko kept talking, Nik closed his eyes and activated his [Mind Control] in a subtle fashion, but the most obvious feature of the technique— his pheromones— were released once again, making the already sensitive Saeko and the physically enhanced Yuriko to feel tingle at the places that should not feel any sort of emotion in such a somber atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Nik didn't use the [Mind Control] to read her memories. He just observed her entire consciousness and immediately tried to dive into her subconscious and succeeded in his first try.

'As expected...'

"Breath of War God—"

Hearing Nik's words, Saeko immediately spoke out in denial.

"Wait, I need to tell her some—"

"Fourth Form: Mercy."

Nik's Hamon immediately covered Yuriko's body akin to a thickly woven net as her skin visibly burnt due to coming in contact with Hamon, making Yuriko smile and grimace simultaneously.

Happiness for finally becoming free from her urges to eat a human. Sadness for she didn't even get a chance to know about her daughter's situation.

But, observing Saeko's expression of pure terror, Yuriko couldn't also help herself blink in disbelief when the searing pain transformed into a stream of warm energy that immediately reinvigorated her, removing the urges to drink blood and also healing her body at the same time.

Once again, she was brought out of her trance due to the magnetic voice.

"Now... explain the situation in detail."

***

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