Arga’s head rose from the ground where Rei placed her. Her eyes flickered open to her party member standing a few feet from her.

“R…Rei?”

Her words didn’t seem to reach him, it didn’t seem like the same man she knew.

Rei looked unresponsive, almost as if none of his senses were working. He must have taken on more damage than Arga, which made it all the more strange as to what he was doing.

Rei walked towards Ilinore, the very demon that put them in that state. Unlike before when Rei was calmer and more calculated; he looked like a beast driven by a single goal.

“What’s this, have you given up entirely?”

Rei lifted his head and released a cold stare at the ivory woman.

“You know Ellios, right? What do you know then?”

She cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow at the young man. “Oh? What would a human know of that old fool?”

Rei grit his teeth and charged ahead like a wild boar. His hands rose off to the sides and both Chakram were drawn out.

She took a step forward and rushed in to disarm him, in a flash of speed she had both of his arms gripped firmly. It was no surprise, even with Rei’s buff in speed she was still frighteningly fast herself.

He didn’t struggle at all, it wasn’t like him. That wild charge he gave before, then suddenly he was calm? Ilinore couldn't make sense of it, she didn’t see the angle. Rei released his grip on the blades and let them drop.

Ilinore’s eyes widened at the flying green blades that rushed to her neck. She ducked and weaved out of the way but was met by a bright red blur.

“Dragon’s Roar!!!”

A burst of flames ran past her face and singed a lock of her hair.

“You insolent little...”

Rei responded with a cold stare from his crimson eyes. He wasn’t focused on those words of hers and didn’t plan to stop until he got what he wanted.

{Rush activated}

He stepped back and avoided the sharp slice from her nails, they came at him with blinding speed but he did well to dodge them all.

After avoiding all of her advances he turned to the wall and leapt off of it like a springboard. After clearing through the sky and landing in front of her, a large claw appeared over his hand and was driven straight into her chest.

“Pathetic.”

The claws of Rei’s shadowy paws shook against her clavicle, unable to break through the skin.

A smirk grew in the corner of his mouth.

“You’re too easy to fool.”

Ilinore grew flustered and her pearly face shifted to a slight red. “What?”

The black and red aura that hovered over his arm disappeared as a green glow replaced it.

Rei held out his hand, keeping his open palm pointed to her body. Her eyes flinched as she caught a glimpse of the glowing crimson stare he let off. For a moment, it looked as though Rei’s eyes were glowing.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Ilinore’s hair rose and each strand jolted up in response to the oncoming attack from behind. Her eyes raced back and witnessed the oncoming attack over her shoulder.

Both chakrams came rushing back to Rei’s hand, dealing a large slash across her arm as she dodged away.

As it landed in his grasp, Rei spun around and used the momentum of his body to throw it out again.

Her eyes widened as far as they could and her mouth was left gaping. She watched the blade head to her face, with nothing but her bare arms to defend against it. She quickly raised them to her defence but—

Miss.

The blades passed through her like a ghost, they shot out her back and crashed into the wall on the other end of the room. The regular pearly complexion of her skin shifted back and forth to a bright pink glow. Slight shifts and glitches raced across her skin as her body phased between her regular colour and the bright pink glow.

She examined her arm, stunned at the sudden change. It was clear that it wasn’t her doing, at least, not something she planned.

“Out of time…how belittling of a demon.”

“Wait, where the hell do you think you’re going? What do you know about Ellios, tell me?!”

Ilinore’s body shifted at a faster pace, flashing between her regular form and the holographic one. She didn’t look real at that point, if someone poked her they would most probably pass right through her.

“This temporary form of mine seems to be out of energy, I’m being forced to retreat for now. Know this humans, I will find you again. Expect nothing short of a cruel death when I do.”

With her last words stated, her body vanished into a flare of light and Ilinore was gone.

Rei grabbed at the empty air and clenched his hand into a fist. His hand shook as it seared with rage unable to contain it any longer.

Arga mustered the strength to stand and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“She’s gone now, we should—!”

She turned his shoulder and revealed the glowing red glare Rei mustered, after seeing the look of fear in her eyes he quickly returned to normal again.

The glow vanished and along with it, his rage.

-

“Sorry about that, I was just mad.”

Arga nodded slightly and responded, she still looked a little shaken from it though.

“No worries, you just didn’t look like yourself there. Was it something she said?”

“Something like that.”

It had been the first time I had heard of anything regarding Ellios before. The fact that it came from her, just made it so much worse. What if she had been the one to leave Ellios like that?

She said that she sent the Rhaskan, so it wouldn't have been impossible for her to have sent that Brancher too. It wouldn’t have been a crazy idea but why would she have done it? How did she know him?

I grabbed the sides of my head and scratched it aggressively, a large headache rushed over me just thinking about it.

“I’m left with even more questions than before!”

“Uh, Rei?”

I spoke out loud again…

“Sorry about that, I was just—!”

I had been so absorbed in everything with Ilinore that I almost forgot.

I ran over to Alice who had still been unconscious on the ground. She lay there with her arms to her sides, completely out of it. She seemed alright for the most part, just a little pale but still breathing fine.

“She must have used everything she had before, with all those flames.”

“So it was her…she saved our asses back there.”

Arga’s warm smile fell over Alice.

“Yeah, she did.”

That skill she used before was no joke, it nearly wiped out Ilinore in a single blast and healed both of us to boot. Uriel called it the Queens Roar earlier, I even managed to snag it as a skill after I devoured Alice’s hair.

{Queens Roar – A powerful roar bestowed to you by the Queen of Dragons herself. Delivers a powerful wave of fire, unlike any other.} – {Skill cooldown – 1 Day}

Wait, I can only use this once a day?! Damn, that would have gone bad if I used it in the fight earlier. If I had missed that attack with this skill, I would have had to wait a whole day to use it again.

My eyes remained glued to her, watching as her eyelashes lifted slowly. Her amber gaze met with mine, a harmonious reflection of gold and red.

“…Rei? Is Arga safe, did you beat her?”

It hurt to tell her the truth, that after everything she gave us to finish it…we let her get away.

I didn’t have the heart to say it. My head slowly moved side to side and Alice’s smile dimmed.

I expected tears, maybe she would have even gotten mad at me but never in a million years did I expect what she said next.

Her cute smile was forced as far as it could stretch, it nearly reached her ears.

“A-Alice?”

“I’m glad she ran. I wanted to beat her myself anyways!”

I was left empty for words and just sat there like an idiot with my mouth hanging open.

“Rei, what’s wrong?”

“Mmm~ It looks like yer speech really got his eyes working overtime there little Alice!” Arga piled on and slapped my back.

“Shut up—I just had something in my eye!”

I wiped my hand over my face and a grin peeked out.

We’ll be okay, I’m sure of it. I’ve got so much to be happy about that it doesn’t seem real.

Demon or not, I don’t plan to lose.