“Are you alone?” I asked Katsuki.
She nodded, “I felt a disturbance in Mistress’s safety and came rushing as fast as I could.”
That must have been her Unique Skill.
I’m not sure if it was by chance or design but the demon had also chosen to ambush us along a deserted stretch of road. My money is on the latter considering the fact that this city is seldom empty even in the dead of the night.
The demon doesn’t seem too bothered by his current situation, probably believing that he was superior to us so I decided to capitalise on that.
“Can I ask… Why are you even attacking us?”
“Kukuku… So after trying to surprise me with an attack, you want to converse again?”
“Err…You ambushed us first and even killed our coachman so please don’t try to act like you’re the victim here.”
“Ahahaha! That is true~ Kukuku, very well then… It is no big secret, I’m just here to harvest souls~”
“Harvest souls? Why?”
“Kukuku~ What kind of question is that? It would be the same if I were to ask you why you have sex?”
“That’s… Erm… I mean it can be either for pleasure or for procreation so… Which one is it for you?”
“Kuku~ I did not stutter did I? I said that it’s the same~”
Ok, so harvesting souls is both pleasurable to them and also something they need to do to increase the population of demons I guess?
“Is this enough to sate your curiosity before I harvest your soul? I do have places to be, you know?” He grinned.
“Is it too much to ask that you just let us leave?”
“Oh my, taking whatever you want from me and just leaving without paying the price? How bold of you.”
“Umm… I mean… If you don’t let me go, you’ll die, you know?”
“Ahahaha! Do you really think that you and your little maid over there is enough to kill me? If I really wanted to kill you, both of you would not be standing right now~”
I pointed to my summons behind him, “What about those? We outnumber you, you know?”
“Kukuku~ Do you take me for a demon that was born yesterday? I already know the limits of your summoning magic~ Only one of them is real while the others are merely illusions, am I right?”
“They’re all real though~ And I can summon more. So if you don’t want to be flooded by an entire army of summons, it would be in your best interest to let us leave.”
He turned to narrow his eyes at my summons, “Kukuku… I see… It seems I was mistaken about you… You really are interesting~ But this just means that I have even more reasons not to let you go~ With a power like this, I wonder just how different your soul tastes?”
So he really isn’t letting us go? Alright then…
“Hey… What if I give you that person’s soul instead?” I asked, pointing behind him.
He turned again, “Oh? Is there someone you would like to sacrif–”
Oh wow he actually fell for that.
I used [Blink] again and teleported myself in front of him, my hand punching towards his abdomen while it was enhanced with [Body Current] and [Lightning Clad].
Unlike the other demon that I fought before, we’re not exactly in a favourable position so I have to do whatever I can to end this fight as fast as possible. Not just to avoid collateral damage to the rest of the city but also to avoid anyone else from coming here and figuring out about my abilities.
Call me devious but don’t expect me to prioritise something like honour in this kind of situation. I’m not going to put my loved ones at risk just for something like that.
My fist crashed into the demon’s abdomen, sending him flying up into the air even as he turned back to shoot me a look of pure rage.
While he was propelled up from the blow, the crimson balls of fire he had summoned earlier shot towards me with blinding speed.
“Heat and flames burn my enemies, render them all to ashes and witness my burning passion! [Fire Blast]!”
A gout of flames shot out from Katsuki’s palms, intercepting the fireballs mid-flight to send them flying off course and explode against the street a distance away from me.
I quickly directed my Shadow Summons to chase after the demon while summoning even more from my shadow to join the fight.
“To dare make a fool out of me like this… I will make sure yours is not a simple death!” He roared, crimson wings exploding out from his back.
He raised his hands and summoned a fireball the size of a truck and prepared to throw it down towards us.
Ok… That’s not good at all… What the heck am I supposed to do against that? I don’t think I have a spell on me that can counter that except for [Laser] which I don’t have time to charge anyway.
Oh wait!
I quickly pulled up my Pack of Folding and tossed out the first few things at the top before I found the object I needed. Just in time too as the demon chose that moment to throw the giant fireball at us.
With a shake of my wrist, the plate turned into the Demonic Core I received from killing the Brute Fiend demon from before.
Focusing my senses to the mana inside the core, I allowed it to flow through my arm to shoot out from my other hand, casting the [Infernal Lightning] magic at the ball.
The Infernal magic blasted out from my fingers and struck the giant fireball right in the centre, causing the ball of fire to disappear like the lightning had consumed it.
Instead of stopping there, the lightning continued its path and struck the demon in the chest, the black lightning piercing a hole through his body.
He gasped and fell back down to the ground, crashing just a short distance away from us. From the roars of pain he was giving out, he was still not dead yet.
Not one to miss the opportunity presented, all of my summons and Katsuki immediately rushed towards the crash site and started their own attacks on the downed demon.
They managed to get in a few hits before a column of fire blasted them back, forcing them to retreat lest they get burned from the flames.
Within the fire, the demon got up, the hole in his chest slowly closing up as the fire seemed to heal him.
“You!! How are you using Infernalmancy?! Wait… That orb… That’s a Demonic Core! So you’ve already killed one of us before I see… I’ll make sure not to kill you then… I’ll harvest your soul and keep you in a jar to torment for eternity!”
Huh… Is having a Demonic Core some kind of a big deal to them? Maybe it has something to do with their souls or maybe they just see it as an insult?
I’m also interested in the fact that he’s shocked about the Infernalmancy magic thing. That means that either people normally can’t learn that magic or no one else managed to get a Demonic Core of their own to learn it.
Doesn’t matter to me because I’ve found a way to cheese this guy so I just absorbed the mana from the Demonic Core in my hand to shoot out another blast of [Infernal Lightning] at the demon once again.
He either didn’t expect me to use it again or he was not able to move while healing himself, but my lightning hit him square in the chest without him being able to react, blasting him back several feet and blowing open another hole in his chest.
The column of flame dissipated away but his body was still surrounded by fire, the flames reaching towards his wounds and healing the holes in his chest.
Seems like the fire really was the one that was healing him.
“Filthy mortal!!” He roared, getting back up to his feet again. “I will rip out your head and feast on your innards!!”
Damn… This guy really talks a lot… 𝒐𝗏𝓵𝐞xt.𝐜𝑂𝗆
He tried to rush towards me but Katsuki and my summons got in his way, forcing him to stop in his tracks lest he gets skewered by them.
They were, unfortunately, not really able to do much damage on him as the fire he was surrounding himself with kept healing him from all the damage he was receiving. I did notice that the more wounds he had, the slower the rate of healing it was, meaning he wasn’t exactly immortal either.
Well, having them block the demon from coming after me was all to buy time for me to charge up my spell anyway so it was all within expectations.
“I’m ready!” I warned, prompting Katsuki to immediately jump away and return to my side.
The demon turned to me, obviously expecting another attack from me but what he did not expect was for me to [Blink] under him and unleash my charged [Laser] right in his face.
The beam of light vaporised the entirety of his face, leaving a decapitated body behind which dropped onto the ground even before my spell ended.
I watched as the fire slowly dissipated from the corpse, proving that the demon was well and truly dead.
Now for the big question… Why the heck is there a demon here?!