Both of the human's froze at the sudden intervention by the mysterious sound.

It had came out of nowhere and it was too close to them... they could hear it almost as if the source was standing just besides them.

Ishiki gritted his teeth in frustration... the forest had suddenly calmed down a bit too much. There was no sound, not even of the wind rustling the leaves.

Yuki slowly stood up and looked around, Ishiki strained and stood up too... flexing his healed leg. The pain had subdued and the skin had been knitted back. It was a marvelous healing ability.

But now was not the time to be marveled by that. He closed his eyes for a second to feel the forest around... but he found nothing. Even [Ghost Blade]'s enhanced perception didn't found anything.

'Then where did the sound came from?' A creep ran down his spine and when he opened his eyes... his blood ran cold.

Suddenly, instinctual terror seized his whole being. He took an involuntary step back.

'H... how? what the...'

Standing at the edge of the shadows, where the silver light failed to reach, was a figure.

It was humanoid, at least from how it looked. But fundamentally wrong.

It stood around seven feet tall, with a frame of lean, corded muscle that looked carved from gray stone.

The figure moved forward into the darkness. It was hard to see it... but Ishiki could feel it and his body couldn't stop trembling.

It wore nothing but tattered, stained pants that clung to its legs like old bandages. Its upper body was bare and a tapestry of scars ran there along with burns and puncture wounds that told a history of endless violence.

But what made Ishiki freeze were the eyes.

They were glowing yellow, or maybe they were burning like sulfur in the dark.

Ishiki's eyes widened to how much they could. He actually remembered those eyes. From his first day here... that day after he had reached the clearing safely... these same eyes were looking at him from inside the Crimson Canopy.

"Is... Ishiki?" Yuki whispered, her voice was trembling too. "What is that?"

"I... I have no Idea."

Suddenly... the figure was standing just in front of Ishiki. It had even lowered to his level and now was face to face with the human.

Up close, the yellow eyes were terrifyingly detailed. The pupils were not round or slit. instead they were marked with a strange pattern—three distinct, black slashes ran vertically from the top of the cornea to the bottom.

Ishiki's heart skipped a beat as he realized something. The eyes of the Tainted Demons from his trial... they too had strange markings inside of them.

Yuki was already moving... but it was no use.

The realization paralyzed him. Ishiki's body knew, even before his mind did, that it was in the presence of a being so far up the food chain, that he didn't even register as prey.

It was as if an invisible weight had slammed onto Ishiki's body. he couldn't twitch his finger even when the danger was this close to him.

The demon caught Yuki's hand mid strike and lifted her up as he stood up to its full terrifying height.

A slow, predatory grin stretched from ear to ear across its ugly face that had some patters carved on it. It was too wide and ugly.

"You two seem more capable than the last humans I fought," it rumbled, the voice sounded horse and painful. "They were... pathetic."

Ishiki's heart stopped.

Despair and gloom hit Ishiki harder than the fear had... the last humans? Was he... was he talking about Filch and Nina. There were no other humans besides them in the Crimson Canopy.

Or no... there might be more, there should be.

Ishiki couldn't stop the rage building in his chest. If he had actually met them, then... then there was no way they could have survived.

He gritted his teeth and looked up... "You... you basta—"

A shockwave of compressed air slammed into Ishiki's chest, launching him backward like a ragdoll. He crashed through a bush, tumbling over roots and rocks until he slammed spine-first into the trunk of a massive tree.

"Gah!"

He coughed, tasting copper in his mouth. His vision swam in red vignettes.

"Ishiki!" Yuki screamed.

He looked up just in time to see the demon throw her like a toy into the darkness. But she managed to land on her legs by pure chance.

And as soon as she landed... she conjured a wall of thick ice.

The Demon suddenly materialized in front of it and punched.

BOOM.

The ice wall shattered into a million glittering shards, the shockwave sent Yuki skidding back towards Ishiki.

The Demon simply walked through the explosion of frost as if it were a gentle mist, the ice crunching under its bare feet.

"You should have just accepted your fate and helped master to wake up." It spoke with a smile.

Ishiki pushed himself up. "Damn you..."

Yuki moved into action... she was fast, faster than Ishiki had ever seen her. She turned into a blur of white light, ice lances formed around her and fired in rapid succession, aiming for the eyes, the throat and the heart.

But the demon moved like wind itself.

It swayed, ducked, and weaved with impossible grace. The ice spears passed harmlessly through the space it had occupied a microsecond before.

"Too Slow," the Demon taunted.

It raised a hand. The air around it warped and distorted the light like heat haze, then it flicked his hand. Something moved through the air like bullet.

Slash.

An invisible dagger of wind cut through the air. Yuki threw herself to the side, but she wasn't fast enough. A deep gash opened on her cheek, red blood flowed down against her pale skin.

She gritted her teeth, not crying out, and slammed her palms into the ground.

Spikes of ice erupted from the earth, aiming to skewer the monster from below.

The Demon jumped, actually It didn't just jump; it rode the updraft and hovered in the air for a defying second, looking down at her like a god looking at an insect and then it kicked downward. A blade of compressed air shot from its foot, slicing through the ice spikes and slamming into Yuki.

She gasped as the impact threw her backward into the darkness, crashing through the underbrush.

Ishiki who was moving through the darkness to find a blind spot froze. He looked at the mess and ran back.

"Yuki! Are you okay."

But before he could... the demon appeared in front of him. Ishiki halted and jumped back, gasping.

He looked at the demon for a second with narrowed eyes and pushed [Ghost Blade] to its absolute limit.

At that moment the demon slightly flinched and Ishiki charged.

He moved like a ghost in the darkness and swiftly approached the demon, swinging [Curved Bone] in a desperate strike aimed at the Demon's exposed back.

'Just one hit. Just one.'

Ishiki hoped to land a hit while it couldn't exactly find where Ishiki was. The demon too had turned towards Yuki who was on her feet again and ready to attack.

Ishiki's sword swung, singing through the air.

Yuki swung her ice ice blade too from the front... the demon was forced in between them and at least one of the attack should hit.

At the least possible moment... the demon's eyes slightly shook and It raised a hand backward, catching the blade between two fingers.

And simple deflected Yuki's blade with a fist breaking it apart.

Ishiki's eyes widened as the demon slowly turned towards him and grinned. "Nice Trick... but it that It?"

'How... how am I supposed to fight something like this. We... we are dead.'

It twisted its fingers.

CRACK.

The sound was sickeningly loud and suddenly the [Curved Bone], the weapon that had saved him a dozen times, shattered into a thousand fragments of pale light.

[Your Vestige [Curved Bone] has been destroyed]

Ishiki stared at the broken hilt in his hand that was dissolving into motes of light, his mind unable to process the loss.

"Pathetic."

A fist hit Ishiki straight into the chest. The armor groaned as the fist broke the spike and bent it inwards but it held.

It felt like being hit by a train. Ishiki was lifted off his feet and thrown. He flew through the air, crashing through branches, bouncing off the hard ground, tumbling and tumbling, until he finally skidded to a halt in a pile of dead leaves.

He couldn't breathe. His ribs were definitely broken this time. His vision was tunneling into blackness.

'Get up... get up...'

A crash resounded to his left.

Yuki came flying out of the darkness, slamming into a tree trunk with a bone-jarring impact. She slid down to the roots. Her armor was cracked in a dozen places and blood soaked her left side.

A second later, the Demon landed softly between them. But it wasn't grinning anymore.

Ishiki blinked, trying to clear the blood from his eyes.

There was a wound on the Demon's chest. A jagged, deep cut that was bleeding golden, viscous blood.

Yuki had hit him. She had actually hurt him.

The Demon touched the wound, looking at the golden blood on its fingers. Its expression twisted into pure, unadulterated rage.

"You... little... pest."

It walked toward Yuki.

She tried to move, but it was too hard... he whole body trembled with each breath. She managed to lift her head, her face was paler than usual and her teeth were gritted in agony. She tried to raise a hand, but it fell back uselessly.

The Demon stopped right above her and looked down with contempt.

Then, it kicked her, right in the stomach.

Yuki gagged, curling into a ball, coughing up blood onto the grass.

"HEY!" Ishiki screamed. "YOU! UGLY FUCKER! OVER HERE!"

He tried to stand, but his legs refused. He crawled, dragging himself forward by his elbows.

"Look at me, bastard! You coward!"

He was trying to draw its attention, but failed miserably. The Demon ignored him, and didn't even glance his way.

It raised its hand toward the broken girl.

The air in the clearing began converge around the Demon's hand, spinning faster and faster until it formed a visible, vibrating blade of pure kinetic energy.

Yuki looked up. Her pink eyes were dim, filled with pain and agony, but she didn't look away

The demon brought its hand down.

Ishiki reached out, screaming curses.

'SPLASH.'

The sound of metal shearing and wet flesh tearing echoed through the silent forest.

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