'Fascinating…'

Mias drifted around the man, Jaune, in front of him…

'Those who possess the ability to attack Aether are rare.'

Mias materialized his arm and sickle once again, sending a crescent downward slash at the rugged man.

Jaune, battered and bruised, knocked the sickle away with his dirk, then thrust the tip toward the plume.

Of course, under normal circumstances, Mias would never allow anyone to parry and launch a counterattack against him. But, this 'Jaune' was… fascinating!

'And those who possess the ability to attack the soul are near non-existent.'

Yet the man before him possessed the ability to do both.

With that strike, Jaune had managed to cut a bit of Mias' Aether and sent it scattering into the air.

Mias tried to draw it back in, but, as he expected, the miasmic particles refused to listen.

Jaune swiveled back and swiped up into Mias' smoke.

This time, the attack scraped his soul. No apparent disruption happened to Mias' smoke, but he could tell the horrible agony his soul was going through, especially after being already weakened by transmigration.

Mias drifted away, then looked over toward the Queen of Ruin and saw a sight he thought he'd never see in his life.

'She's… struggling?'

Mias had only encountered Salome twice back on Kaldora because she was protecting Carver, whom he was hunting for his soul. Each time, though, the succubus was able to fend him off and protect the boy.

In those two meetings, that woman had thoroughly impressed Mias in every regard.

He didn't doubt her strength.

In fact, she'd impressed him to the point that the scene in front of him was more of a praise for the humans than a humiliation of the succubus. But, if someone of her stature were struggling to this degree…

'I'll stop playing around.'

Not that he wasn't trying at all — Jaune wasn't a trifling opponent — but he was done holding back for the sake of satiating his curiosity.

Still, even at full power, Jaune would take a few precious minutes or more to defeat.

Mias had taken quite a few minor blows, which had actually amounted to quite the harrowing feeling gnawing at his soul and making self-control much harder. He may not have looked hurt, but he was ailing terribly.

But, while Jaune may have been too difficult for Mias to kill swiftly, there were at least three other prime targets for assassination.

Mias reformed again and sent another crescent sweep at Jaune, who jumped back before dashing right back toward Mias…

But during that swipe, Mias let half of his body float off and activated Nevermore…

While half of Mias stayed in contention with Jaune, the other half slithered around in the air unnoticed, approaching the group of four.

Mias was going to deal with the most troublesome one…

Having already calculated their detection range, Mias waited until the perfect distance before sending his body forward at its maximum speed.

The scout shivered and began to turn, but it was too late.

He was there.

Mias stood behind her in all his ashen glory, his body half-human and half-smoke, making him appear like a phantom of death. The curved edge of his sickle cradled the scout's neck.

"Die."

With the single word, Mias pulled back his blade and decapitated the scout.

The four remaining watched in horror as their comrade's head fell to the ground. The expressionless man of smoke's half-faded visage stood over her falling corpse.

Yet, the small ashen man was simultaneously fighting Jaune — there were two of him.

Mias's second form, with his whole upper body manifested, looked right and gave a cold glare to the archer, who held a terrified look on her face.

Then, he let his body turn into smoke and drifted behind her before reappearing.

***

'That bastard…'

Salome smiled.

'That bastard… he never used his full power against me.'

Salome, upon witnessing the sight, fought the pain and flapped her wings. After all, she'd been presented with the opening she was waiting for.

The stalwart knight had finally broken his stance and turned to face Mias just in time to save the archer by disrupting the Aether in the air.

While his action saved the archer and disrupted Mias's forming, a certain demoness had taken the time during his distraction to approach and was now right behind him.

"Gotcha."

Salome placed a hand on the knight's pauldron and squeezed, crushing the metal in her grip. The plates creaked and cracked before giving way and allowing Salome to dig into his flesh.

The knight let out a pain shriek as he looked over his shoulder into Salome's eyes.

"ARRgh!"

Salome began siphoning his Aether to her content as she dug her claws deeper and deeper into his skin.

"Much better."

The mage panicked and began firing off rapid beams of light toward her, but Salome just accepted the blows with a smile on her face as they were nearly instantly healed.

It didn't take long for Awilix and Toy to both pounce on the mage and begin clawing at his flesh. The mage shrieked in pain as he tried his best to survive the onslaught.

The knight dropped his shield and spun around toward Salome.

"Bastard!"

Then, he gripped Salome's arm.

But with that shield lowered, Mias was finally able to form, and the archer stood no chance in the face of the Reaper.

In a matter of moments, the only two left alive were Jaune and the knight. Not that the knight would live much longer.

"There's one more!"

A sudden scream appeared from behind Salome…

'Vale…'

Salome clenched her hand on the struggling knight's shoulder and forced him to his knees. The man continued to groan in pain while trying to snap Salome's wrist, but he'd grown much too weak even to lift his arms encased in the heavy metal.

Salome looked up from her foe while still draining him, until she finally spotted the sixth intruder.

A woman with flawless ebony skin stood at the end of the hall, watching the melee, tears streaking down her face. She wore tattered clothes held together by rose-stemmed sutures. Her form was almost broken… but radiant.

In her arms was a boy's rotting corpse.

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