In the first moment she could not react. It happened too sudden and hit her without any delay.

After the first few seconds she could not understand. What was happening? Why was Sha buried under a pile of rumble? Why had the two koi suddenly appeared and defended her against that large hand that attempted to grab her? Who was the burly and large man who attacked them?

Questions exploded in her mind and the rising panic slowed her thought process even more.

After the first minute she had a rough grasp on the situation.

The large giant man wanted to hurt her. Sha was fighting him. Those explosions and terrifying energies that rampaged through the streets were the result of the fight. The countless dead bodies and screaming beings that tried to save themselves from the on slaughter were another result of the fight.

At that moment Saji finally moved from her location.

She already confirmed that the countless flames that seemed to come from Sha could not harm her due to the two-floating koi that protected her. Aside from that she also knew that those two koi would follow any order she have to them.

They were the protective talisman Ji had given her almost a week ago.

A whole week had already passed. The thought scared her. Unfortunately, there is no time to feel scared when two mystical beings engage into a fight right next to one.

She looked around and noticed a small child that was running out from a burning building. It was a small girl. Her beautiful blond hair had at some point caught fire and a part of it had completely burned off. The remaining part was disheveled and tainted by dust and black ashes.

She was about to escape when another clash between Sha and the giant produced a shockwave that hurled a wall of flames towards the small girl. Despair glistered in the girl’s eyes as she tried to escape her predicament. Yet, despite her attempts to flee, it was obvious that she couldn’t escape her gruesome fate.

Saji reacted before it was to late and with a thought one of the two koi shot towards the small girl. It reached her before the flames and transformed a black shield that protected her. The flames receded back to their original location.

Saji ran over to the girl and wanted to confirm that she wasn’t hurt.

The girls face was smeared with dirt and covered small scratches, but she was mostly unhurt and seemed more or less healthy. She had a expression of gratitude as she saw her savior walking towards her.

“Thank you for saving me!”, the girl made a polite curtsy.

“It’s nothing.”, Saji replied, somewhat surprised by the girl’s unusually calm bearing. How could this small girl remain this calm when she had just faced death?

The small girl smiled strangely.

“I know this is somewhat inappropriate as you have saved me… but you look so dark delicious! So… thank you for the meal!”, she suddenly opened her mouth to an extent that shouldn’t be possible for a human. Her mouth had easy become larger then her entire head. It was a surreal sight.

Saji’s expression fell as she realized the ‘girl’s’ intention.

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She backed away as fast as she could, but the ‘girl’ was faster and pounced onto her. The remaining koi protecting her could not react fast enough and she had already reached Saji. She was about to devour her when a black lightning cleanly severed her head.

The black koi who had protected her from the flames now beheaded her and ended the ‘girl’s’ existence.

Saji’s expression was ugly. She once again realized that inside this city, those who looked nice and friendly could be those who wanted to devour you the most. Of course, those who looked horrifying more often then not also wanted to do so.

Unfortunately looks were not only deceiving, but straight out irrelevant to a being’s true character.

Saji swore that she would be more careful from now on.

She pushed the ‘girl’s’ dead corpse away from her and recalled the black koi. It came back and resumed its floating course together with the white counterpart. Saji noted that she would have to thank Ji once again, without the talisman she would have ended up dead due to her own ignorance.

After having done this she kicked the corpse once, just to get rid of the lingering anger she still felt and quickly walked away. She threw a glance over to Sha and the giant who were still intensely fighting. There was an impulse to help Sha in his fight, but she quickly realized that she couldn’t help in a fight of this magnitude.

The two koi were powerful and could defend against attacks of that magnitude, but their offensive abilities were much weaker. They obviously were something mend for defense. The offensive power they did have was enough to kill a weaker demon like the ‘girl’, but in front of Sha and the giant it was mostly insignificant.

Still, Saji had no intention of just standing around, waiting for the fight to end. She quickly scanned the area and saw a few other lucky survivors. Amongst them were a few members of the fox race that hid behind a half-destroyed wall, some beings that Saji could not recognize and a strange young man who was calmly observing the fight between Sha and the giant.

She took a short look at the unusual youth but decided to ignore him for now. Then she headed towards the three foxes. The wall was a few dozen meters away and the extremely hot flames that roared almost everywhere would have made it impossible to go there if it wasn’t for the two koi opening up a path for her.

Saji knew that the fox race was one of the largest races in the city and more importantly she knew that they did not enjoy the taste of human flesh. Ji had told her that unlike the weak demons and spirits that preyed upon mortals and consumed their flesh for enjoyment, stronger races such as the foxes did not do so.

Considering that she had almost died because of one of these ‘weak’ demons, Saji thought that it was the best idea to first help those of whom she knew that they wouldn’t try to kill her.

She quickly crossed a street and had almost reached the low wall that was the shelter of the foxes, when an ugly ball of flesh rolled out from behind a smaller stone.

Saji immediately tensed up and the two koi’s eyes fell onto the pitiable creature on the ground. It was charred, had multiple burn marks and was heavily wounded. The terrifying presence of the two koi made it tremble in fear.

“Please don’t kill me! I don’t want anything bad from lady!”, it’s tiny voice rung out.

“I just beg lady to take me with you. Please, I will not survive any longer if I stay here!”

Saji lifted her left eyebrow and took a good look at the miserable creature. It was ugly and by the gods it did not look trustworthy, but she couldn’t feel any malicious intent from the creature and there was little harm in just taking it along.

“Fine.”, she said and walked away without saying another word.

The meat balls ‘expression’ brightened and it hurriedly rolled over her, careful to stay close the two koi who kept the sea of flames away.

Finally, Saji reached the low wall and took cover behind it. Three white foxes in their beast form also hid behind it. Two looked fine, but one of them had received heavy wounds from a stray boulder that had been flung away by the nearby fight.

The three foxes did not attack Saji, but they were vigilant against the unknown arriver. Flames appeared around the two uninjured. Their bodies were tensed up and ready to attack at any time.

But before Saji could even say anything she felt a hand touching tipping on her shoulder. Her mind shook. Someone had been able to touch her without the Koi noticing it!

At the same time she could not help but think back to that time in the pub when Tian had done the same.

She instantly turned around and ordered the two koi to attack whatever it was that had touched her. Two lights flashed and darted behind her.

“Easy, easy!”, a voice rung out from behind her.

Finally, Saji took a look at the attacker.

It was the youth from before. He smiled, the two koi caught inside his hands.