The Gamer's POV

The demon flinched and his eyes widened.

For a moment, his expression was one of stunned disbelief.

"W-what..." he frowned. "Wait..."

He tried to process it, then finally blurted, "You are one of us who fell to the plague."

He suddenly stiffened as the realization truly hit him. "House of Asha’vail? I thought everyone in that family was wiped out. I can still remember the children were stoned —"

"SHUT UP!"

An explosion sounded as Aika descended heavily, wrapped in the flames of decay.

Her blade clashed with the demon’s raised spear, and both of them gritted their teeth as they locked in the violent struggle for a split second.

They detached, but the demon, who was faster, swung the shaft of his spear in an unforgiving arc at Aika. The slash was accompanied by an invisible blade of aura that bisected Aika at the torso.

However, just before she was hit, she had burst into ravens, so the vicious strike only ended up killing dozens of ravens.

At that moment, the demon turned around while swinging his spear like a shielding vortex to block the black flames descending behind him.

Aika had appeared behind him in the air and pointed a hand, and in response, dozens of her feathers were shooting down like arrows of black flame.

A look of pain was etched on her face, revealing a cut that ran across her torso. It turned out that even though she had swapped with the ravens, she had not been able to completely avoid the blade.

...To give himself some breathing room from the unrelenting barrage, the demon leapt back. But Aika, refusing to give him space, slashed downward with her sword, sending a crescent of fire tearing through the air.

Seeing that, the demon swung his spear, sending out another slash of aura that cut through her flames, dispersing them.

Aika then dodged the invisible blade by a hair’s breadth before attacking again. For the next few seconds, both she and the demon continued to fight in this manner, tearing apart the surrounding space as they sought each other’s death.

’This is bad.’ The demon thought with a frown. ’I could already feel my power being actively suppressed, but ever since stepping into this world, it became worse. I cannot even use all my arts. The best I can do is up to the fifth art, which I did earlier, and even that took up more than half of my reservoir. I only used that much energy because I was wary of her and these annoying flames of hers. She should have died after that. But she survived.’

"Tsk." The demon clicked his tongue. He was now actively dodging the flames as they continued to descend. At the same time, he could also see dozens of magic circles appearing behind her.

’I can’t use that art again. And worse, these flames are taking up a great deal of aura to block. The corrosive energy is aggressively trying to get through my aura protection, and the flames are getting even more powerful as the seconds pass by. This is not mana she is using, but a completely different type of power. It’s unsettling.’

He leapt backward, and at that moment, dozens of flames descended like black spears from the magic circles behind the woman. They crashed into the earth below, obliterating the ground.

The demon then landed atop a pillar, crouched, and without wasting time he held his spear low, and channeled a good amount of aura into it.

"Spear art: Shooting Stars!"

He slashed the spear in an arc toward Aika, but rather than a crescent of aura shooting out, several beams of energy shot toward her, tearing through the darkness like a volley of shooting stars.

However, after the blinding light cleared, the demon couldn’t find Aika. He frowned as he took in hoarse, deep breaths.

It had been a while since he had been put into such a situation.

’I do not want to kill her, and I no longer wish to fight her. If she would just go away, that would be...’

He paused.

His heart was racing wildly, and it didn’t take long for him to discover that something was horribly wrong.

Why was he thinking about letting her go?

A few moments ago, he had made up his mind to kill her, but now, he didn’t feel like fighting anymore.

’What is this?’

The emotions he was feeling had suddenly shifted into something he did not understand, and the more his heart continued to race, the more he began to understand the new foreign emotion.

’This is wrong. Why am I afraid of her?!’

A line of sweat dripped down his temple, and he swallowed.

’What kind of sorcery is this?!’

He was still spiraling in confusion when he suddenly heard a scream of agony coming from inside the ruined estate.

He snapped his head toward the direction of the scream and not long after, Aika flew out of it with frightening speed.

The demon raised his spear to block the incoming strike. Of course, she was not fast enough that he had trouble reading her movements.

However, the moment their weapons clashed, his eyes widened.

Behind Aika, the demon could see many massive eyes staring down at him. It was as if an entire pantheon of dead gods was watching him from the abyss, and in the center of those eyes was one larger than the others.

It also felt like a suffocating darkness was slowly engulfing the space.

The demon panicked as the fear of death filled his heart.

"Aaahh," the demon screamed as he swung his spear wildly like a frightened animal cornered in the dark. "Get away from me!"

But Aika continued to fight, and worse, the demon began to hear voices screaming in his head.

He flinched because he could no longer see Aika.

He had been fighting her, but she had just vanished. This caused him to turn around wildly, slashing at the empty air, while holding his spear with both hands that were now trembling.

At the same time, an unkindness of ravens had appeared in the sky, cawing loudly.

And then, a female voice sounded:

"Death, become my blade."

***

It happened so fast.

A blade wreathed in flames slashed through the air.

The demon turned around, only this time, he saw the world spin.

He wondered briefly what was happening.

And then, he realized...

...he had been beheaded.

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