Mindy's eyes opened and her vision was flooded with light. It's morning.

After stretching with a yawn and sitting up, she noticed Nate, still peacefully snoring away. With a subtle smile, she carefully climbed out of the bed, making sure to not wake him up. After that, she headed to the blockaded door and checked up on it, finding out that, thankfully, nobody tried to break in during the night.

By that time, her stomach started grumbling. She wasted no time heading straight to the fridge to get some food... that is, if there was a fridge in this place. No matter how much she searched, she was not able to find anything that contained food. Luckily, there were still some leftover wafers in the bag that lied beside their bed. So she silently unzipped the pocket and pulled one out.

But since the crunching sounds could wake up Nate, she decided to go outside... through one of the windows.

The mechanism to unlock and open them was a little unusual, but she eventually figured it out and slipped outside.

The sun was shining brightly over her and there was a distinct fragrance of some flowers in the air. The only thing that was missing were singing birds.

"This really is like a vacation..."

Mindy took her time walking around the cabin as she chewed her chocolate wafer. For the city dweller that she was, the scenery was foreign, but not quite at the level of a 'fantasy world'. Where are the slimes, fairies and magical ponds? She couldn't help but to think back to her old world. Will they ever be able to return there? What if this world has no tomat-... ingredients for 'angel blood'? They can't perform the ritual without it...

Part of her wanted to see some classic fantasy things, like traveling around as an adventurer and killing all sorts of monsters with magic. But the other part felt a little unnerved...

...

After finishing her breakfast, she crumpled up the plastic wrapping and put it into her pocket before taking a deep breath.

She then slowly extended her hand forward and shouted.

"Fireball!"

And in response to that, the all-familiar tentacles materialized. This time however, there was no specific target. Mindy merely wanted to practice her 'powers' behind the scenes. And that's why, the tentacles just flailed around without doing anything destructive.

Mindy couldn't calm down when these horrifying things were attached to her hand, but nevertheless, she tried to bring her palm closer to her eyes to study it.

The tentacles were pure black, emitting a tiny amount of black smoke around them. Truly something straight out of a horror film. The appearance wasn't an issue for Mindy though. She has more or less already gotten used to it. Now, all she cared about was how they worked. She then meekly closed in on them with her other hand while a drop of sweat rolled down her cheek.

...

And touched them.

To her surprise, they were soft and squishy and not something hard enough to wreck a wooden door. But most importantly...

"This is... so weird..."

She felt her own touch. Apparently, the tentacles were an extension of her own body. She realized that probably due to her mental state at the time, she failed to notice this back when the tentacles tore through the wolf or the door.

After 'touching herself' for a little while, it was time to test her control. She tried to make small movements instead of simply ramming the tentacles into whatever was in front of her. But it was a lot harder than she anticipated. The tentacles repeatedly slammed into the ground and swung high into the air. It was as if her mouse sensitivity was set to 1000%. In other words, absolutely impossible to control.

"Ugh... this is ridiculous!"

It didn't take long until she 'finished her training session' and retracted the tentacles. While gazing at her hand, she formed a fist before stretching her fingers again. The thought that there were tentacles inside of it seemed surreal. How can they even fit in there?

While she was staring at her hand, she heard some rustling leaves to her right. She immediately turned her head toward the source... but saw nothing.

"H-hello?"

She slowly walked forward with her right hand ready to shoot out tentacles. As she approached one of one bush, another one rustled. Sweat drops started forming on her forehead. She didn't want to meet another one of those big wolves. And that's why she breathed in... and shouted.

"I-IS ANYONE THERE?!"

At that instant, something shot out of the bushes... and headed away from her.

"Wha-...wait!"

It was too quick for Mindy and disappeared before she could even react. She hardly saw what it was, but she knew it was a human... or at least something humanoid. The one thing she noticed was... it had a tail.

Mindy stood there for a moment, expecting something else to appear. Her eyes were nervously jumping from one bush to another, but the silence persisted. After it became apparent that nothing else was going to pop out, she decided to head back to the cabin... through the window of course.

When she got back inside, Nate was in the middle of removing the furniture from the entrance. But the moment he heard someone climb in through the window, he immediately stopped and looked at the source.

"Mindy! Where were you!"

Nate wasted no time running up to her and hugging her.

"Wh- Nate?!"

His overreaction took Mindy by surprise.

"Oh my god, I thought I lost you..."

His embrace tightened with these words.

"C-calm down! I was just taking a stroll!"

In response to that, Nate released her from the hug and looked straight into her eyes.

"Then what were those violent sounds I heard? And those yells of yours?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

At that moment, Mindy realized that when the tentacles smashed the ground, it must have made quite the ruckus. That and her yells at the unknown visitor must have woken Nate up. She avoided his eyes and pouted.

"I was just... practicing my powers...?"

But he just kept staring at her.

...

"Gah! Nothing happened, so stop being such a worrywart!"

Mindy then shoved him aside and crossed her arms while still avoiding his gaze. Nate was take aback but this for a second. He then scratched his head and looked away.

A moment of awkward silence followed...

...

"Just... wake me up next time, alright? What if something happened to you?"

"It's fine! I have the powers to bust down a door without a problem and-"

"Please."

Nate's eyes showed his concern. Mindy could tell when he was being serious.

...

"... alright, I get it. I'll wait for you next time."

After finally getting her to say it, Nate smiled.

After that whole ordeal, they decided to search the cabin again. But even though they were as thorough as they could possibly be, they didn't find anything that resembled food. Whose cabin is this? How does he or she not starve to death? Does he or she go hunting animals every day? That's absurd...

But other than running out of food, there was another problem on the table. It was the fact that there was no way to get their hands on 'angel blood' and thus, the ritual is impossible.

...

While Mindy sat down and read from the occult book, Nate enjoyed his breakfast.

"Can't we use something else? Something similar to ketchup?"

With a wafer in his hand, Nate wondered about possible alternatives.

"It's angel blood. And no, there isn't really anything else...

Well, other than demon blood."

Nate's eyebrows rose in reaction to that last part.

"So what's demon blood? Distilled wine?"

Mindy looked up from her book and frowned at Nate before dropping her eyes back to the text.

Nate simply shrugged his shoulders and resumed eating.

In a different place but approximately the same time...

It was morning in the peaceful and silent forest. Right through there ran a man with wolf ears and tail.

Even though his feet hurt so much he could die, he refused to take a break. His entire being was covered in sweat. He almost died back there. If he hesitated for just a second back there and didn't run... that would spell certain doom. Just what was he thinking? Take on a demon all by himself? How utterly foolish! Those black eyes could kill with mere glance! There is absolutely no chance!

While on the run, his nose picked up a familiar smell. To his dismay, it was Hannah! Why was she all the way here? What if the demon gets her? The man wasted no time and ran straight to where her scent was. But shortly after that, he realized that there were other scents mixed in. Perhaps she brought reinforcements?

In a few moments, he finally caught a glimpse of the backup party. Other than Hannah and the region chief, there was also Maraqua, the skeleton knight, and two other wolf guys he wasn't too familiar with.

"Goran!"

Hannah called out to the man as soon as he approached. Unfortunately, due to his exhaustion and the relief of seeing familiar faces again, his muscles gave away and he collapsed mid-sprint.

Naturally, the party quickly ran to his aid. He didn't lose consciousness, but he was dead tired due to overexerting himself. But even then, he managed to squeeze out a few words.

"I saw... the demon..."

And just those few words made everyone freeze. While some of them were admiring the fact that Goran was still alive, the others now fully realized that this was not a joke. The demon really is somewhere around here.

After letting him rest for a few minutes, the questioning began.

"It was a young female... but it was still much more terrifying than I imagined."

Goran couldn't help but shake as he thought back on the experience.

"I thought I was gonna die...

That thing with its creepy black eyes...

It was getting closer and closer...

So I just ran away."

"So what kind of demon was it?"

Maraqua, the skeleton, was unable to produce sweat and thus seemed a lot calmer than the others. But even he was scared as he asked that question.

"I... I don't know demon types too well... I thought it was a death devil, but..."

The words 'death devil' made Hannah and the other two wolves shudder. Even if one wasn't too familiar with demon types, everyone knew about the death devil. A being able to kill with a mere glance.

"No, I don't think it was a death devil."

The chief denied that possibility as he rubbed his lower mane. That prompted all of the eyes to center their attention on his figure and await his explanation.

"You said that it sprouted some tentacles out of its body, right?"

The question was directed to the still shaken Goran.

"Y-yeah... I think..."

"Then it must be a fiend. Probably an abyssal fiend."

A fiend. Type of demon able to shapeshift and distort its own body. Out of all of the demon types, this one was the most destructive.

"T-then, we still can't do anything against it with this small group..."

Hannah's ears dropped down as more sweat dripped from her face.

"That is not the case..."

"Eh?"

To her surprise, the chief gained more confidence, contrary to what she expected.

"If it's a fiend... then we might have a good chance just by ourselves.

It's thanks to the fact that fiends have one glaring weakness..."

The chief then looked at his skeletal follower. Seeing that the attention was drawn to him, Maraqua nodded and started the explanation...