Chapter 307 – Vol. 5 –

Ash

As the beams of light in the distance grew closer and closer, Ash was just a couple of annoying quips away from outright sprinting toward the objectives in the distance. However, as much as Niven continued trying to bait her into letting her guard down to shoot a couple of arrows at her, the half-demon noticed something that was concerning. 

Throughout her walk, she hadn’t encountered many demons, at all. Of course, assuming the demons weren’t all in the city, this meant something was wrong. However, she couldn’t figure out what exactly that could be. 

And, unfortunately, Niven’s quips made it a lot harder to think straight too. 

“I find it rather curious that your skill has yet to grow, actually,” Niven told her, as Ash tried her hardest to keep her mouth shut so as to avoid entertaining the god, but as she had no way of pushing him out of her skull, she had no choice but to listen. “In fact, I can think of many Saviors far more impressive-looking than you. Several hundreds of years ago, for example, there was one Savior named Read Lentear who reached level 60 before the crystal ever chose him. That man came into the job a hardened fighter already, and as such, he killed off many of my Nightmares before I finally took him down. You’re already level 80 and you’ve killed far fewer Nightmares than he has. How strange.” 

Ash was close to groaning in pain at this point. 

However, soon, she finally arrived at a ruined building where she found the three beams. All three sat in front of her, surging into the sky with radiant demonic energy, completely unguarded. 

… Okay,  Ash finally spoke up in her mind.  What the hell is going on? 

“Is something on your mind?”  Niven asked. “You can ask me if you’d like. I won’t answer, of course, but you can ask.” 

Ignoring him, Ash kept an arrow ready just in case something popped out from behind a wall, but no matter where she looked, she couldn’t find any enemies who would prevent her from breaking the pyramids ahead. 

“Ah, by the way, did you enjoy that little tryst you shared with my Nightmare before?” 

Where the hell is everything?  Ash asked, continuing to ignore him. 

“I suppose I should not have been surprised at the compatibility you displayed with my demons. Though, that might have more to do with Magia than anything else. So, you can thank her for that.” 

…

That comment made Ash pause. 

What are you talking about? 

She could almost feel Niven smiling somewhere. 

“Oh, did she not tell you? You’d think her own champion would be a confidant of hers.”

Whatever. 

“Fine, fine,”  he chuckled. “I’ll tell you. You understand, right, that there are three kinds of demons? Wrath, Gluttony, and Lust. Well, it just so happens that, although I can exert control over all of these types, I only made one of them. The Wrath demons. The creation of the others, however, had nothing to do with me. I’d say that’s probably why you had such a grand time with that one Nightmare. Because, just as Magia had a hand in creating you, so to did she have a hand in creating Lust demons.” 

Ash paused, stopping to think about that for a moment. 

“…  Honestly,” Niven chuckled. “If I were you, I’d let Kaori turn into a demon on purpose. It’s clear you have a strong connection to them. You would gain a lifelong, unconditional partner, far more powerful than they ever-” 

Ash quickly walked up to each of the three pyramids and broke them, one by one, as she tried her hardest to tune Niven’s voice out. 

As she did, she heard Niven laughing in the background, until she finished and she was suddenly thrust back out into the Pearl region, where it had recently started raining. Taking deep breaths, Ash had to continue pushing Niven’s words out. 

Mostly, because he had managed to touch onto something that Ash had certainly felt. 

She couldn’t deny that it was true that Ash did feel some pull towards the Lust demons, to the point that being reminded of the last time she was able to tongue wrestle with one of them made her heart speed up. 

And, that was something she didn’t need to be thinking about in the middle of a battlefield. 

So, setting that aside, she thought back to what she’d been concerned about earlier. 

“… Where the hell is everything?” She asked herself, as she looked toward the city. “Why are there no…?” 

Then, as she focused, various noises began to enter her ears. Cutting through the sound of the rain, she heard animalistic roars and screeches, in addition to battle cries coming from humans. 

This let her know what was actually happening. Because of that, Ash sprinted back to the camp as fast as she could. 

—

Keiko

Earlier

The lanky Nightmare in front of her was seemingly waiting for Keiko to make a move, but the fearsome skill it had put on display against Yumi made the Zayama hesitant to do so. 

It might be faster than me,  Keiko thought,  but, the Spirit Eye should still help me make the difference. Even then, I don’t need to beat this thing, I just need to buy time for someone like Sinneah to come in and fight it with me. 

Taking a defensive stance, holding her sword in a horizontal blocking position, she took a deep breath. 

Just drag this out. Make it-

The Nightmare disappeared. 

No, that wasn’t accurate. Keiko’s Spirit Eye let her know what was actually happening. The Nightmare charged toward her, faster than Keiko could register, and she saw herself getting cut in half by one smooth swing. With her eyes bulging out of their sockets with surprise, she barely managed to put her sword in front of her before she could be bisected, but as soon as she was blocking, she was being attacked again from the left, and her Spirit Eye let her know she was going to get her head cut off. The demon’s blade went over her head by a few centimeters, cutting off a few strands of Keiko’s hair, as she tried to back off and put some space between them. However, before she could even take a step back, both of the Nightmare’s swords were swinging away at her, and even with the guidance that her Spirit Eye gave her, all Keiko could do was keep herself out of their range. 

Eventually, the Nightmare paused, and stood up straight again, laying its weapons by its side, as Keiko’s hands trembled while they held her sword out. 

I’m outmatched.

It was so easy to see that Keiko’s plan changed instantly. She was no longer even considering trying to stall. Now, all she wanted was for Sinneah, who was busy fighting off a few Wrath demons in the distance, to notice her fight so she could get away from this enemy. 

Regardless of whether that happened or not, however, one thing was certain. Keiko was feeling a type of fear she hadn’t encountered since Onyx. It was something she hadn’t anticipated as she’d dreamed of resuming her time as a warrior. That being, the fear of losing. 

However, it wasn’t the first time she’d encountered that fear. So, she tried to calm herself down, and even though her hands wouldn’t stop shaking, she kept her feet where they were and stopped herself from running away. 

Just hold out,  Keiko thought.  Just… 

The Nightmare sprinted toward her, and Keiko saw a golden glow encapsulate its body. Keiko’s Spirit Eye told her what was going to happen, so she quickly moved to prevent it. She saw herself getting decapitated again, so she raised her sword to stop that. 

However, something different occurred. 

Her Spirit Eye was incorrect. 

What? 

Keiko’s eyes widened. Instead of aiming for her head, the Nightmare went for a pair of stabs at her gut. Keiko was too slow to react. 

Because of this, both of the Nightmare’s swords impaled Keiko, with one at her stomach, and the other at her chest. 

It all happened so quickly, that Keiko froze, and she nearly didn’t even feel the swords inside of her body right now. Right up until the Nightmare pulled them out, Keiko fell back, and the Nightmare turned away, as though deciding it was done with her. 

Almost as soon as Keiko’s back hit the grass, it started raining. It was so hard to breathe all of a sudden, that a strained noise came out of Keiko’s mouth whenever she tried to inhale. 

Even as she lay there, though, bleeding out, Keiko couldn’t keep her mind from moving to one specific thing.

… It cheated my Spirit Eye. How? 

At that moment, that same girl from before rushed over to her and said an incantation that Keiko couldn’t hear as she felt herself about to pass out. 

“Don’t worry, siya, I’ve got you!” The girl yelled out as some small amount of relief quickly began seeping into Keiko’s body. 

However, even as her body was repaired, her mind remained on that moment. 

Right up until she was being dragged away and she saw Sinneah, who had finally seen what was happening, approach the Nightmare.