[300 PS = 1 Chapter Bonus]
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Rias and I walked deeper into that labyrinth of corroded iron and old concrete structures, where every step we took echoed like drumbeats in an empty room.
Suddenly, Rias stopped walking and whispered, "Something feels off."
I felt it too. It was like a buzzing sound. However, I wasn't as surprised as she was. After all, thanks to Hades' blessing, I had been able to sense the stray devil's presence ever since we arrived in this industrial area. That's why I was leading us straight to him.
"Did you hear that?" Rias asked, glancing at me from the corner of her eye.
It started as just a faint buzzing, but it was gradually getting louder and coming from several directions.
"There's no way you can't hear it," I replied. "It's close."
It was then that the sound we were hearing — that buzzing — became not one loud sound, but thousands of tiny, separate noises merging together.
From the darkness in front of us that the Stygian Flame did not illuminate, eyes appeared first — dozens of them, glowing red like coals in a dying fire.
Then the grotesque body of the stray devil came into view. It had a humanoid shape, but its skin was replaced by a black shell covered in hairs resembling mosquito legs.
Behind him, an army of insects — cockroaches, beetles, and others I didn't even want to identify — swarmed forward, crawling and flying in a chaotic cloud.
"Well, well... What an honor. The Princess of Ruin herself has come to hunt me?" The stray devil's voice buzzed like a hive of angry bees, but a few words could still be understood.
Rias showed no fear. "Devil, if you surrender now, you may have a chance to redeem yourself. But if you resist, I promise you eternal suffering."
The Rebel Devil laughed, and the sound was accompanied by the deafening chorus of hundreds of cicadas emerging from the darkness behind us.
"Surrender?" He spread his grotesque arms. "I've never been stronger than I am now! You two will be my offering to the world that rejected me!"
Then he pointed his right hand forward, and a swarm of wasps shot through the air like an arrow aimed straight at us.
"Watch out!' I shouted and threw myself on top of Rias to make her dodge.
We rolled across the rough concrete floor as the wasps buzzed overhead. When we came to a stop, I immediately stood up and extended a hand to help her rise.
She accepted my offer, but her eyes were fixed on the stray devil and the swarm surrounding him. "I'll take care of him. Rias-san, you deal with the swarm. It'll be more efficient that way."
"Are you underestimating me?" She raised her left hand, summoning a red magic circle that radiated destructive energy — The Power of Destruction.
I smiled slightly. "Not at all. I'm underestimating the swarm. Did you see how fast those wasps moved? The insects are the real problem here. I know you can handle them with ease, so leave the big guy to me."
"All right," she said, turning around and releasing a burst of the Power of Destruction that evaporated those annoying cicadas in our rear.
"But don't make me have to rescue you, Nishihara-kun."
"Not in your wildest dreams."
With that, Rias and I stood back to back, ready for battle.
Meanwhile, the stray devil was laughing. "KHEHE! So, you're her bodyguard, kid? How pathetic. They sent a human to fight me?"
"Human?" I repeated the word with a mocking tone.
"I'm anything but human."
"It doesn't matter! You're all food in the end!" He extended his arm to launch another attack.
Without letting him strike, I lunged at the stray devil. Even with eight glowing red eyes on his face, he barely had time to react before I became a blur, reappearing in front of him like a phantom.
"W-what?" He was startled.
I raised my arm high, hitting his chin with an uppercut so forceful it sent him flying into the second floor of the warehouse.
The stray devil crashed into the beams of the second floor with a loud bang, sending pieces of concrete and debris raining down around us.
He got up quickly, though his expression had changed — arrogance replaced by confusion and rage.
"You... how did you do that?!" the monster shouted.
I walked slowly, summoning the Twin Fists. "You talk about strength, but you don't even understand what real power is. Let me show you the difference between true power and the corrupted strength you've stolen."
"AHHH! You won't escape this, arrogant human!" he screamed.
Two more arms erupted from the sides of his back with a sickening sound of tearing flesh. As he rose with the help of his additional limbs, he lunged toward me, swinging with all four arms at once.
However, in a blink, I was behind him.
A spinning kick connected with his ribs, hurling him into another pillar supporting the warehouse ceiling.
This time, the structure gave way, and a cascade of debris fell, burying him beneath a cloud of dust.
"If you want to fight me, you'll need to do better than that," I taunted, crossing my arms.
The iron and concrete rubble shifted as the stray devil emerged, his body shielded by a thick shell that served as armor. This time, a long, pointed tail like a scorpion's wriggled from his back, joining his grotesque features.
"You won't beat me! I'm invincible now!"
"Invincible, huh? Then why are you so desperate?"
This time, he ran towards me and tried to hit me with his fists coming from four different directions.
I dodged easily, taking advantage of an opening to land a punch squarely on his head, the impact reverberating through the warehouse.
He was thrown back again, and this time he fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
"It's funny," I said, shaking my head. "You talk like you've reached the peak of your strength, but all I see is someone desperate to prove something—even to himself."
He raised his head, black blood dripping from his grotesque mouth. "Shut... up," he muttered weakly. "I... I'm strong..."
"No. But don't worry. I'll end your own Dante's Inferno."
Standing over him, I dismissed the Twin Fists and summoned the Stygius Sword. The blade, glowing an intense red, seemed alive, emanating a power that made the stray devil finally grasp the gap between us.
"W-wait! We can negotiate! I know things that—"
"Why is it that devils always beg to negotiate when they've already reached the point of no return?" Without hesitation, I swung the Stygius Sword and, without giving him time to be tempted by words, I swung my sword and cut off the stray devil's head.
The incessant buzzing vanished, replaced by a silence I welcomed as though it were a Mozart symphony.
[Ding! The Master chose option 2! Reward: 10 fusion points]
"What? It didn't count as the third one?! But I found the stray devil by myself and killed it by myself... right? Oh, shit. Rias took care of the swarm, which made it easier for me and must have counted as help."
I took a deep breath, disappointed by the fewer points I earned than expected.
However, there were still more rewards. "Okay... At least I can absorb this one's sins." I looked at the decapitated corpse of the stray devil.
Then I knelt down and used Stygian Flame on the corpse.
[Stygian Flame consumed 1 Stray Devil Corpse.]
[25 EXP were obtained.]
[Sins of High Pride and Greed were detected.]
[50 Bonus EXP were obtained.]
[Congratulations! You have reached the amount of EXP required to upgrade the "Stygian Flame" skill to level 2! Do you want to do that? YES/NO.]
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