“Oh, Hokra, not again,” Harorin mumbled, tripping over his own feet.

Not again?

The chances that I’d run into a demon in the streets of Bolstaor right after being murdered by one should’ve been nearly non-existent. Same for someone sheltered like Harorin to encounter two in a lifetime. How many demons had crossed over already to make this anything but a coincidence?

Because I didn’t believe in coincidences.

Now no longer human, the fully transformed demon towered as tall as the steepled rooftops of the predominantly sunken-featured homes of the slums, all looking like they could blow over in a blizzard. Legs of a hoofed animal, a skull with a long snout for a face. Black flesh rotted away in huge swaths to reveal tortured muscles and tendons.

This demon had once been a man—I’d watched him, an average drunk man in the slums returning from a tavern or a brothel, stumble out of the alleyway before he’d transformed. Where had he gotten the information to summon a demon? Why had he summoned one, and why had the demon decided to possess him?

Why here? Why now?

I ran toward Harorin while [Forgotten Son] prevented the demon from noticing me. But the demon got to him first.

Heat rolled off him, the ground beneath his hooves turning from ice to wet to steam with every step as he approached Harorin, whose voice trembled and broke as he screamed a manifesting spell that created a shield.

A shield that the demon’s touch shattered as he reached down to put his clawed hands on Harorin’s shoulders.

“Human!” the demon said, like he was making some grand announcement and like he was tasting the word for the first time.

I froze, the pulse of the demon’s dark yellow core rooted me in place. The color of an Epic core, the equivalent of a C-Rank soul. The drunken man this demon had once been probably had a D-Rank soul but couldn’t have been more than Level 20. People that busy drinking weren’t focused on earning experience points and leveling up.

In comparison, Harorin had a B-rank soul—a much higher quality than mine, which he never let me forget. I still had the same E-Rank soul and Level 20 stats as when Father had killed me, but I had fighting experience thanks to Helas. On top of that, I had skills and items that I could use. [Forgotten Son] had already proven useful, and the [Daggers of Nowhere] had been made for these moments.

But what good was any of that when I didn’t know anything about fighting demons? If this demon was more like a beast than a human, then I didn’t stand a chance with most of my points tied up until I completed [A Mother’s Last Request].

We had to run, or we were as good as dead. It was our only option. Escape and find Helas as soon as possible.

“Let’s make a deal.” The demon spoke with a rough tenor, trailing a clawed finger from Harorin’s stomach to throat. “Or I’ll kill you. One quick slice just like this and your tortured scream will end in a rather pleasant gurgle.”

Harorin quivered under the demon’s attention. Terror kept his jaw slack, his eyes wet and wide, and his breath erratic.

I needed to separate him from the demon, then I could deactivate [Forgotten Son] long enough to grab hold of him and reactivate it while touching him so I could blanket us both in the skill.

Then we’d run. Because while this demon didn’t give off the same pressure as Father did—as Ezrenad did—I knew he was still strong enough to kill us with one hit. I could feel this knowledge deep within me, and I knew that when he saw me, he’d know I was weak.

My senses screamed at me to run for it now, leave Harorin to defend himself so that I didn’t paint myself as a target. But it was Harorin. I couldn’t leave him.

“I know these aren’t great terms for you,” the demon continued his obvious manipulation like an experienced slaver, “but do you have any other choice but to accept in the face of your own impending death?”

“—A…a deal?” Harorin stuttered.

“You should really consider yourself lucky since I’m offering you a deal at all.” The demon gave Harorin’s shoulders a squeeze, and dread tingled at the back of my neck. “Look, I’m not offering them one. I’m just going to kill them.”

He gestured down the street to a young couple making their way out of the slums, possibly on their way to a cleaning job in a nicer part of the city. That meant other people would be leaving the safety of their homes soon, and the demon would have more options.

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But he had already crossed over. He’d already possessed someone, made a deal and taken over their identity. Why did he want to make a new deal? Why did he want to offer it to Harorin and not the couple? How many people would he kill before he found someone willing to make a deal with him?

Running away would leave so many others vulnerable to his influence.

“I’ll give you a few moments to decide,” the demon said. “Then I’ll kill them. I’d like to see what it’s like to break every bone in one of your fragile human bodies. Or!”

His tongue swiped across his sharp teeth. “Or rip off every limb! That sounds fun, don’t you think? Then after that, I’ll have to try to find another way to convince you. Maybe that little girl over there?”

Sure enough, a young girl edged out of the shadows of an alleyway near the couple on their way to work. She wasn’t wearing more than scraps for clothes, hands red and her bare feet blackened. She looked too young to have graduated from the Tutorial Stage, which meant the System was protecting her from the elements, from starvation, from running into demons like this.

But the System wasn’t perfect. If it was, demons wouldn’t be able to cross into the Plane of Formation at all. If it was, this little girl wouldn’t be here right now, staring longingly at the couple. For what little money they had in their pockets. For the warmth of their embrace as she imagined what they’d be like if they were her parents. The longing was written all over her face.

Imperfect as the System was, though, why hadn’t she or the couple coming toward us noticed the demon considering which of them to kill next? Why hadn’t the system sent an encounter notice that warned them of danger? Something was very wrong.

“Hokra,” Harorin said, voice guttural and determined now, “save us all. Manio isati!”

Another manifesting spell, but this one created fire that burst around the demon’s head and set him ablaze. The demon singling out the little girl must’ve snapped him back to reality.

But I could tell almost instinctively that he hadn’t channeled enough magic into it. He was no battle mage. He shouldn’t be the one facing down this demon. It should be me.

“I offer you a deal, and you set me on fire?” the demon screamed, releasing Harorin to swat the flames away.

It was now or never.

I rushed to Harorin's side and grabbed him, then deactivated and reactivated [Forgotten Son] with a flicker of thought.

【NOTICE】

You have activated Forgotten Son [Uncommon].

You have 4 minutes and 51 seconds of use remaining today.

That was plenty of time to get out of here with Harorin. Possibly also to help the couple and the little girl, too, before the demon got to them. Somehow. Since I wanted to save them, I’d have to figure it out as I went.

"I've got us both hidden again. Let's go. We can find Helas and—”

“You go! I’ll hold off the demon.” He threw me off hard enough that I stumbled back as he yelled, “Manio kalix!”

The air shivered with magic as his shield materialized again, but this time the shield slammed into me, knocked me off my feet. He’d made another smaller shield around himself, and I’d been too close. That’d never happened to me before.

Magic wasn’t supposed to be effective against Souled Beings.

But I wasn’t only a Souled Being anymore, was I?

I hit the stone foundation of one of the nearby homes, and pain raged down my spine. Why’d he have to be so hard to save? My first true friend—one I hadn’t even wanted, but he’d pushed his way into my life and taught me that not everyone was terrible like my family.

Why now of all times did he have to push me away?

The demon’s hulking form loomed over Harorin and heaved with each of his shallow, rasping breaths. Even though magic deals more damage to Cored Beings, the fire hadn’t stopped him. If anything, it’d sealed Harorin’s fate.

“Fire fucking hurts,” the demon said. If the fire had done any damage, any signs of it were long gone. His eyes flashed, suddenly staring me down. “I see you, Slayer, and I will deal with you next. But first, I’m going to kill the human you just tried to save. Harorin, you said?”

Kill Harorin?

No.

“Manio kalix!” I yelled out of desperation, but the demon smashed through my magic shield and then through Harorin’s magic shield. In what seemed like slow motion.

Magic shattered into glass-like fragments, sparkling as the demon wrapped a palm around Harorin’s middle. One finger at a time. As if relishing in the feeling of it.

My chest tightened, and I lunged forward without any plan in mind. [Cold-Blooded Nature] buzzed in the back of my mind. My feet dragged as though moving through water, my limbs weighed down by fear. That I wouldn’t get there in time. That I wouldn’t be able to save him. That I’d be putting myself in the demon’s range. That the demon knew I was a Slayer.

Harorin croaked, struggling to free himself from the demon’s grip. His eyes watered, sweat dripped down the side of his face. Finally, his gaze met with mine. I saw something flicker in them, and then it was gone.

I skidded to a stop, my stomach rushing up my throat. My heart clenched so hard it felt like it’d burst, and beside it, a feeling of emptiness opened like a void in my chest.

The demon crushed Harorin’s spine with a snap and a laugh that echoed in my head like a taunt until the buzzing of [Cold-Blooded Nature] grew loud enough to drown it out.

“Keep watching, Slayer,” the demon purred with a smile. “Because you’re next.”

Tethering to the demon core must’ve made it visible like any other core, and according to [Demeot Eyes], demons could perceive the quality of other cores. Father had left too early to see it. This demon, though, could see it, which meant he could destroy it like Father had destroyed Mother’s.

He unhinged his jaw and put Harorin’s head in his mouth. Closed it with a crack. My shoulders bunched to my ears as his teeth crunched his skull into smaller pieces. He went for a second bite. Blood dripped from his mouth.

My entire being throbbed in dull, diluted pain. [Cold-Blooded Nature] buzzed so loud that the sound of it sent me to my knees. I gritted my teeth as my mind warred against the chaos of my own emotions.

Fear crawled along my skin. Loss put a rock in my chest. Anger filled me, coursing like fire through my veins.

So much anger.