The weight of the monster had lifted, and I was finally free. I turned to find him sprawled against the wall, the top of his head crushed in.

(Did Tenshi do th-?)

Before I could finish that thought, Tenshi sprang toward him, readied with what appeared to be elongated claws.

They were jet black and roughly four inches long. The way he sliced and tore into the monster suggested they were pretty damn sharp too.

He slashed and clawed at the creature's belly in a wild frenzy, then pulled his hands back to his waist, driving them deep into the monster's gut and tearing it wide open.

His blood spewed like a sprinkler head, catching all of the surrounding area. That's when I heard something that wade my heart dance.

“WAIT!!...PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!! STOP THIS PLEASE!!!...”

We stood there for a moment, drenched in his blood, as we listened to him beg for his life.

"I-I'll WAS ONLY FOLLOWING ORDERS, SO PLEASE SPARE ME!!"

(That sounds pretty harsh... But I don't care.)

As I lifted my right leg, Tenshi mirrored the movement with his left. In perfect synchronization, we thrust our legs into the monster’s head, obliterating the concrete wall behind it.

The monster howled in a way that might have evoked sympathy, as if he genuinely thought we would relent. Hasn't he realized by now? Hearing his squeals brings us nothing but absolute ecstasy.

Not even his bones remained, just a stain on the floor where his head should be and his blood pouring from his neck.

We collapsed to our knees, gasping for breath. I was utterly spent, and from the looks of it, Tenshi wasn’t much better off.

As the realization of our victory washed over me, I felt a wave of relief and satisfaction, quickly followed by a surge of intense pain. The adrenaline was fading, and the overwhelming agony was catching up to me. My pain tolerance was high, but this was far too much to keep a hold of my conscience.

I passed out and fell flat on my back.

***

Tenshi Tiryns

I found myself in a rather strange predicament.

How can I describe it... I could feel my body listening to my desires, but the actions I took were not ones I commanded. Like I was running on autopilot but with a clear head? Even now, I'm not sure I'm fully in control.

{He couldn't care less that Akuma fell to the ground}

I decided to do some small movements and gauge how I felt doing them. Like stretching out my fingers and pinching my cheeks. But as I was in the middle of all that, a cute voice came floating into my ears.

“Look at the mess you boys caused! If only you had listened to what grandpa said and waited, I could’ve been here to help!”

I turned to see where the voice was coming from, and that’s when I saw her.

She had stunning sky-blue hair and was dressed in a striking white and black habit, complete with a matching veil. At first glance, I thought she might be the timid, fragile type, but that impression quickly shifted when I noticed her outfit. The habit had a daring split down her left leg, and she wore sheer tights that left little to the imagination. I hadn’t believed those “badass nun” types existed until now.

Holy moly. I always wanted to meet one of those.

“WHO ARE YOU?!!” I shouted, unsure of how loud I needed to be.

Still on edge from the earlier confrontation, I was ready to defend myself.

“Calm down. My name Is Rin Ark. I’m Finral’s granddaughter! He sent me to come after you idiots before anything crazy happened, but it looks like I’m too late. You've already brought chaos to this poor little plaza...”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Who the hell is Finral?”

“The pope dummy.”

“Oh… that crackhead has a granddaughter?!”

“Yeah. Don't worry, I came to help you and your brother.”

I decided to trust her and relaxed my stance. “For a savior, you’re pretty late, huh?”

“Shut it!” she snapped without a second of hesitation.

She deftly climbed over some large pieces of debris and continued:

“Sooo... ummm…” she hesitated. “...what exactly are you anyway?”

“What do you think, cosplayer?”

“Well, I was thinking human, but now that I got a good look at you, you look pretty inhuman... AND I'M NOT A COSPLAYER... I'll have you know that I am a proud clergy of the Church of Michael.” she pouted while crossing her arms.

(Okay... Maybe she isn't the badass type?)

“...Anyways I’ll be taking you and your brother with m-”

As her glance wandered over body, she was left speechless and forgot to finish her sentence.

“... Ahh-Ahh."

"What is it?"

"W-Why do you have a pole sticking out your chest?!?”

I looked down see what she was talking about and was met with a sturdy iron pole lodged through my chest.

Though for the life of me, I couldn't remember where it came from.

“Not gonna lie... I didn't even realize."

“Right... Anyways! As I was saying earlier, I’m here to deliver you and your broth-”

She paused, her gaze wondering around as she tried to avoid looking at my chest, only to spot Akuma’s nearly lifeless body sprawled on the ground.

“IS HE DEAD?!?”

"Huh... I didn’t even realize.”

“Crap, we need to get him to a medic right away. Doctor, Doctor! We need a Doctor...! Oh wait, I'm the doctor.”

She sighed as she raised her hand towards Akuma.

In the back of my mind, I was expecting some phony exorcism that you see clergy guys do all the time. The ones where they go "Haza!" and other weird sounds while tossing salt around your body, swearing up and down that they could kill a demon.

But this. This was no trick.

It was like witnessing a meteor shower, with blue shooting stars swirling around her as if in a race. Gradually, they began to slow and change direction, condensing into her open palm and transforming into something resembling a one-handed shotgun. My eyes were drawn to the striking red line that traced its edge as it took shape.

I’ve always been the type to just go with the flow, rarely bothered by things like this. Yet, for some reason, my heart was pounding. I felt like a child, unable to distinguish between the supernatural and reality, captivated by my first magic show.

It made a *Clock sound as she prepared to fire. Then she spoke the words:

"Tamashi Empower: Vitality"

*POWW!

A sudden shockwave rippled through the air, making my thick hair flutter. But instead of a bullet, a burst of blue energy was released, leaving a trail of sparkling stars in its wake. I half-expected it to blow up too.

Upon impact, the stars enveloped Akuma completely, transforming into a translucent cocoon. With each injury, the cocoon seemed to revitalize him, and in no time, he appeared as fresh as a ripe piece of fruit.

The cosplayer gasped for breath, collapsing to one knee, beads of sweat glistening on her forehead. "Crap. I panicked and accidentally overdid it. I hope my soul didn't take any damage..." she murmured to herself.

“You okay down there?”

“Y-Yeah. Just a slight headache...”

She brushed herself off and stood up, continuing:

"…As I was saying, I need to take you and your brother back to grandpa.”

“Ok."

“*Sigh. Just as I thought, I’ll have to use force- wait what?”

“I said OK.”

“Yeah, that's the problem. Aren't you gonna refuse? And like... fight me?”

“There's zero point in doing any of that goofy shit you just said. I was trying to eat some food until the whole restaurant exploded, then when I woke up, I saw some demon monster that we had to jump -ruthlessly I might add... Not to mention that some cosplayer just summoned a magical gun and shot stars. I think I’m willing to believe anything that the pope says at this point.”

“W-Well before we head off, I’m gonna have to pull that pole out of you. My O.C.D is raging out just by looking at it.”

“But won’t that hur- Aggghahh!”

She yanked the pole from my chest without a hint of mercy, twisting it as she did.

“Don't worry. To prevent the pain, I'll knock you out.”

“IT'S TOO LATE FOR THAT!”

There was a gaping hole in my chest so naturally I was screaming out, and to make matters worse the pole tore out chunks of meat when it exited my body. I’m no doctor but I’m pretty sure those are from organs. I clenched my chest with my right hand to try and ease the pain of my throbbing chest, but as I did, the hole seemed to magically begin closing.

(She didn't even use that blue shot or whatever on me… Weird.)

That’s when she approached me, carefully stepping over the shards of glass scattered on the floor and leaned in close.

“A kiss isn’t gonna fix it... Actually, you might be onto somet-”

“Shut it.”

Just inches from my lips, she exhaled a blue mist straight into my face.

As I inhaled the powder, I felt my awareness fading, and then before I knew, it I out like a lamp.