"Hrea!", Tiki smashed her axe to the ground, narrowly missing the girl.

"Hmph!", the girl slashed with her scythe towards Tiki.

Tiki, using her remarkable reflexes, grabbed the joint between the scythe and the blade, barely managing to stop it on time, its pointy end a mere inch from her eye...

"Tiki!", Terna stepped in. "Get away!"

Terna tried using her power to raise a massive earth spike on the girl's location.

"Get her!", Tiki tried to disengage.

The girl jolted as the spike was raised from the ground. She swiftly pulled her scythe off Tiki's grasp, taking her feet off the ground and pounding the flat surface of Tiki's axe with the flat end of her scythe, sending her a considerable distance to the side.

"Hah!", Tiki pushed herself up off the ground.

Tiki kicked the side of the spike, smashing it to bits and sending a huge chunk of rock towards the girl's face. Her scythe was able to barely block the oncoming projectile, she was briefly stunned by the rock's velocity. Not wasting any time, Tiki vaulted back on the ground and grabbed her axe, dashing to the girl's position. The sound of clashing steel echoed once again, as she was barely able to protect herself by using her scythe. Tiki, seizing the opportunity, locked her scythe between her axe's blades and smacked her axe to the ground, pinning both it and the girl's scythe in it. After completely exposing her, she then swiftly landed a powerful punch on the girl's chest, sending her several meters backwards as she briefly tumbled down before stopping at a kneeling position.

"I cannot stray away from the fact that you're good, for an asshole with murderous intent, that is.", Tiki lifts her axe, grabbing the scythe in her other hand. "Now I'd suggest you tell us exactly where Shorty is before I get really pissed off. As if I wasn't enough already, but I've gone worse.", she scoffed.

"Who is the shorty? Everyone here is dead.", the girl replied.

"The 'Goddess Of Life' Ikarisa. That shorty.", Tiki put the girl's scythe close to her throat.

The girl promptly repeated herself. "Everyone here...is dead."

Terna's eyes widened in surprise. "What...no. There's no way! She couldn't fall like that!"

"Show me the body then.", Tiki said with a straight face.

"What?", the girl replied in surprise.

"Like I said. Show me the corpse of the goddess. You killed her, did you not? Prove it.", Tiki kept leering at the girl.

"T-Tiki! What are you doing?!", Terna said.

"Pipe down, diva.", Tiki looked at Terna. "Hnn!"

In the split second that it took for Tiki, the girl took off the ground, grabbing back her scythe from Tiki's hand, and seemingly disappearing into the air.

"Dammit Terna! What the hell?!", Tiki yelled.

"I-I'm sorry...I just-", Terna whimpered.

"No just! Listen to me you tone-yelling moron! Not everything can be solved with the 'power of music' and a 'dream of a better future'! I was bluffing her into spilling actual information! Was it really that hard for your pea brain to understand this?!"

"I was caught off guard-I didn't know you'd-", Terna began to cry.

"Bull-shit! Now she probably ran away for good! Good luck tracing her down without Ikarisa being on her to leave tracks behind! [REDACTED] Beautiful!", Tiki went on a tantrum.

Terna yelled through her tears, "Look, I know I did a mistake! I never thought I'd hear those words, and despite the bluff, I still..."

Terna started running away towards the destroyed building's direction.

Tiki paused in an instant. "Damn, it... I may have gone too far this time..."

A frown seemed to be forming on her face as she realized her mistake. Not before long, however, she shook it off and resumed her task.

Tiki scoffed. "Hmph. Whatever! It's not like she's not going to perk up after it anyway.", she reassured herself.

Another sudden pause came after her, as she froze on the spot, looking at her surroundings.

"There's no way in hell that she would remotely think of pulling something like this off..."

Despite Terna’s spell fading away, it looked as if the wind had once again stopped blowing like Tiki's breath, as she held it in. And not before long it happened.

Tiki swiftly turned around her axe and placed it right behind her back. "You were actually stupid enough to do it."

The girl had appeared right behind her back with her huge scythe in both hands, aiming directly for her neck. However, again, thanks to Tiki's impeccable reflexes, she was now suspended in midair, as she was held by her scythe and Tiki’s axe clashing together.

Tiki scoffed. "If I had a single Merit for every time somebody tried to do a backstab attack at me, I wouldn't be able to do shit, considering you're one of the only three people in my 500-year-long life that attempted this.", she shook her axe and launched the girl backwards. " The only thing differentiating you from the other two is that you're still alive. Emphasis on the 'still'.”

The girl stared at Tiki for a long while before gazing back at her scythe.

"Don't even think about it. Up until now, I've only been going easy because I wanted to squeeze out what little I could that resembled information to seek out shorty. But I'm warning you...get back up again and I will give you more pain than what you've ever experienced and are capable of handling." Tiki looked down at the girl.

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The girl, ignoring Tikis threat, got back up with her scythe at hand and menacingly glared back at her.

The girl opened her lips. "I can't die yet."

She then proceeded to flex the arm that was holding her scythe forward before bringing it back to its original position. In doing so it looked like she had changed in an instant, both her eyes lightening up and a sort of dark, menacing aura engulfing her body and her weapon.

Tiki's eyes widened. "You can't be serious...there's no way. I had my suspicion about this before, but now you've really pissed me off. I don't know how the hell you've got the abilities and aura of a demon... but this ends here."

Tiki grinded her axe against the ground for bringing it back in front of her chest, holding it with both her hands. Now the both of them had engulfed themselves with a menacing-looking dark aura and were taking layers at each other...

"You're clearly not a demon, judging off appearance alone...so what really are you? Tell me now, before I'm forced to kill you."

The girl glared back. "I'm only what you think of me to be. And death is nothing I'm phased by...bring it."

Tiki lifts her axe up with both arms. "You asked for it, bitch!"

Slamming her axe down with maximum force, she raised all hell as cracks lifted the land itself upwards, knocking the girl away and with her, the pedals of the blooming flowers.

The girl found her footing, "Heep! Hya!", she tossed her scythe at Tiki.

Tiki blocked the flying scythe, "Tsk!"

As the scythe flew upwards, so did the girl, grabbing it back and landing with her full might, crushing the ground even further down and, this time, knocking Tiki back.

Tiki regained her balance, "Ha...you should be honored. Not even against Izuko himself, did I have to use this...", she got up. "Granted, I did have more help than what I needed. Now...let's go!", Tiki dashed at the girl. "Haah!", she slashed at her.

"Heh!", the girl deflected Tiki's slash.

Using the backside of her scythe to deflect the slash, the girl used the full force of the momentum gained to launch herself forward, landing a massive and severe slash on Tiki's chest.

Tiki started to bleed from her wound, "I-Impossible...strength..."

As she started to fade away, Tiki looked back to see the backside of the girl as she walked away, shaking the blood off her weapon. At that moment, something snapped inside Tiki. A familiar scenario appearing amidst the endless white of her eyesight, she tightened her loose grip on her weapon. She wasn't about to give in yet, forcing herself back into full consciousness...

"You think it'd be over this easily?!", Tiki jumped up, "Hrea!"

Tiki slashed the entire backside of the girl, landing lethal damage on her before getting herself back up, as the girl kneeled. The dark aura seemed to have dispelled itself from Tiki, as her wounds did the same, remaining however on the girl, despite her fatal wound.

"You're no demon, are you? You'd have ended your Ascended state already in favor of healing. Hmph.", Tiki scoffed. "I didn't know what you were, or how you got what you've had. But oh well...couldn't even get the info offa ya.", she started walking away. "Better not shit yourself when you gaze the gates of hell for the first time. You'll be there shortly."

The girl, now painting an expression on her face, angrily raised herself off the ground, completely ignoring her wound in the process.

"I'll send you there first. You ain't hurting anyone, filthy demon!", the girl lodged at Tiki.

Tiki turned around in surprise, "What the [REDACTED]?!"

Barely and loosely catching up in her movement, Tiki managed to put her axe between herself and a mighty strike from the girl's scythe.

"Die!", the girl slashed at Tiki.

Tiki stepped back, "Gyah!"

With the end of her slash, Tiki was sent flying and crashing down to the ground, barely hanging on.

Tiki struggled. "How the hell did you...ahah!"

Tiki tried to tighten her grip around her weapon, immediately letting go of it from the sheer pain of her hand.

Tiki stuttered. "Shit! How did you even...", she grabbed her hand to the side.

"I'll end you!"

Tiki gazed at the girl as she dashed, aiming straight for her neck, paralyzed out of the fear of her situation...

"This can't...", Tiki froze.

"Watch it!", Anya screamed at the top of her lungs.

"What the-", the girl gazed at Anya.

"The furry?!", Tiki screamed.

Anya, being inside the car, collided with the girl during her dash, sending her flying and saving Tiki. She then quickly pulled the brakes.

Anya got out of the car, "O-Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god! I'm so sorry! Holy hell-I-I didn't, I wasn't drunk driving, I was just looking at the...", Anya looked around. "GPS...? What...happened? Tiki, why are you...injured?"

"Why do you think?!", Tiki yelled.

Anya looked at the girl on the ground. "Oh! Oh...I see what's going on here. Say, can I turn this into a flex where I saved you, or is it too late?"

"Dumbass furry, I'm glad you saved me, but you could've killed me instead! Are you drunk again?!"

"Uh, no. I was just woken up with everyone missing, a thrashed mall and so I decided to follow the "Find My Device" app to track you down. Big guy is currently handling the issues you guys left behind. Luckily, he's got my credit card and Niki with him, so he should be able to control the situation. Or buy the entire complex. Tomato, tomàto."

"You are as unnecessarily crazy as they come...gah.", Tiki squeezed her hand.

"Your hand...is it ok?", Anya approached Tiki.

"If I were to guess...it's broken.", Tiki muffled. "What about...that?", she looked at the girl.

Anya looked at the girl. "I uh...technically...yeah, technically speaking this was self-defence?"

"What kind of self-defence incites slamming the offending party with a car is eligible?", Tiki said.

"Hey, anything goes so long as the threat is neutralized.", Anya smugged.

"You weren't even the one being attacked!", Tiki angrily said.

"Look, would you rather that thing being railed by the car, or you meeting up with Makaro and Kikaro sooner than you should?"

"Whatever...at least we can go back to looking for Shorty. Hnn.", Tiki grunted.

"Hang on, I also grabbed essentials this time.", Anya took a pack from the trunk, "Hold still...", she took out a manual from the bandage box.

"Hell...", Tiki grit her teeth. "That bitch got me good..."

"How did she manage to get you in a rough spot like that?"

"I don't even know...we exchanged deadly blows with each other, but I was never expecting her to be that big a trouble. I was planning to squeeze some info out of her, but it was looking like killing her was the only way out."

"So you were planning to kill her before I slammed her with the car?"

"Yes.", Tiki nodded.

"And that's more justified than me 'accidentally' ramming her with a car?"

"In every conceivable way.", Tiki yelled as Anya grabbed her hand. "Gah! Watch it!"

"Your logic can be more or less described by your hand..."

"Powerful?", Tiki asked.

"Broken.", Anya said with a straight face.

"Go [REDACTED] yourself, dog-looking asshole.", Tiki tried to punch Anya. "Aaaah!"

"Don't look at me, I told you not to move.", Anya shrugged.

Tiki glared at Anya with a death stare, only to scoff and look away while extending her arm back at her.

"Fine. Get it over with!", Tiki angrily said.

"Alright, alright. Give me an extra second here...", Anya clipped the bandage together. "And done. Basic stuff, but it should last for now. So long as we can get Risa to fix it later, it shouldn't be much of an issue anyways.", she got up.

"That's if we find her. And plus, it's not like it matters. Whatever healing you try to pull off with Obsulyte, it's completely oblivious to demons of any class or subbranch."

"So the rumours weren't rumours after all, huh? We will go with the old faithful medical treatment once we get the chance then. And if you don't mind me asking...how did you break it in the first place? I recall that you have a bone structure more or less similar to a Diru?"

"Yes, we have 'similar' strengths to dragons, but that's not to mean we are invincible. Just honed from history.", Tiki turned around. "However, those strengths get cancelled out when facing a kin. This...thing right here...I swear to everything I've got left, I saw her do an Ascend."

"Ascend to what, exactly?", Anya asked.