「…You mean like, in a philosophical sense, Lily? There are demons everywhere!… Within, too!」

With his brows gently raised, Straf asks as he looks at the rest of the girls with a mildly amused smirk on his face.

Stripe's and Cycelia's faces grow concerned. Nona blinks her amber eyes at Lily before turning her gaze down the street in the search of something elusive.

「No. I counted six when they jumped across the rooftops over there. Probably more.」

Lily replies with a light shake of her golden head, then nods her head up towards the long street filled with carefree citizenry.

With her brows furrowed in worry, Stripe covertly reaches behind her back and pulls out the curving dagger from between the sash wrapping her waist and her kimono.

「…That's none of my problem. If I see a single demon on the snack lane, I'm calling health inspection-」

Straf shrugs his shoulders with his mouth aslant. Stripe reaches for his collar and grabs onto it.

「What do you mean it's not your problem!? Innocent people will get slaughtered!」

She exclaims with her slit pupils staring at Straf's bored eyes.

「'Cause it's not. It's supposed to be our vacation.」

Straf replies, casually resisting Stripe's attempt to pull him closer to her glaring face with ease.

「You can prevent it with ease!」

She shouts, clenching her fist on his coat.

「So? I don't remember others rushing to our help with the vampires. Or the battle fortress.」

Straf nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders in response. Stripe's face twitches in anger.

The crowd around Straf and the group freezes when screams of panic come from a few streets away. People rush through the streets, fleeing the direction of the shouting.

「Straf!…」

Cycelia calls out, blinking her emerald puppy eyes at his annoyed grimace. He rolls his eyes with a sigh.

「Fiiine… I'll play a fuckin' superhero…」

Straf relents, throwing his arms up. Stripe lets go. The crowd beside them starts running, growing increasingly nervous as the shouting and screaming becomes louder.

Cycelia lets out a relieved sigh and reaches into her coat, unsheathing her sword with nervous gaze looking all around.

「…Craft. Tape.」

Straf utters out while staring at the thin air in front of himself with his fists on his hips, and a frustrated grimace on his face.

「What are you doing?」

Cycelia asks while blinking at Straf. He clicks his tongue.

「Fucking of course I don't have what I need… I'm just crafting myself the essentials, Lia. Nona, you can pull it out now.」

He swipes his fingers through the air, then replies to Cycelia. Straf then turns his eyes to Nona, and nods up at her while looking at her hip.

「I can!?」

She echoes back with a large grin on her face and undoes some of her toggle clasps. Sticking her tongue out of her mouth as she reaches into her robes, she produces her pistol in an awkward grasp and a large smile on her face. Cycelia blinks at the odd, blocky shape of metal pointing at the gray sky.

「Yeah… Dye.」

Straf nods, then utters out a word towards nobody in particular. He taps his finger on the thin air, and a small glowing object materializes in front of him. He reaches into his [Portable Storage] and pulls out a red cloak, which he quickly secures onto his back while waiting for the glow to disappear. A small ink pot drops into his waiting hand when the glow subsides. He reaches into the purple vortex again and pulls out a small painting brush, then dips it in the ink pot.

The crowd continues fleeing. Some of the screaming people turn the corner into the snack lane and flee for their lives with their eyes wide open, ignoring Straf as he paints something on a large sheet of paper. He holds it out in front of himself, then nods with an approving grimace on his face.

「Can you do something already!?」

Stripe shouts at Straf while he's wiggling his finger through the air.

「Yeah, yeah, yeah… Give me a moment… Glue.」

Straf looks at the search bar and utters out a word. He picks the first random option available, then presses [Craft] with his finger.

「S- Straf? What are you?…」

Cycelia asks as Straf waits for the glob of glue to drop onto the backside of the paper sheet in his hands. When the glow subsides and the glue drops onto the paper, he slaps it straight onto his chest, patting it a few times to ensure that it sticks. He takes a few steps ahead onto the now mostly empty street, and turns to face the girls.

「Right. Lily, can you make sure Lia and Nona are safe?」

He asks with his fists on his hips and a red cloak draping his shoulders fluttering in the gentle wind.

「Of course. You can count on me, Straf.」

With her arms crossed, Lily nods her golden head.

「…What's with that paper?」

Cycelia asks while looking at the paper glued to the center of Straf's chest. It bears a large S in its center, with a smaller K just beside it, and even smaller V beside that.

「That's my initials, just to clarify. Red capes aren't copyrighted, so the lawyers can eat a fuckin' dick…」

Clak…

The paper rustles as Straf gives it a slap, then turns to the direction of the shouts.

「…Nona, you can shoot any demon you see… Just try to not hit the bystanders. Please.」

「O-key!」

Straf says over his shoulder to Nona, who flashes a quick salute in response with a broad smile on her face.

「Straf, what about me!?」

Cycelia shouts as Straf heads towards the direction of the screams. Armed guards with spears rush down the adjacent street.

「…Sit back and watch, I guess?」

Straf replies with a nonchalant shrug of his arms. Nona follows with a springy, casual step and a large smile on her face. Stripe rushes after him.

Though a little confused, Cycelia exchanges a glance with Lily and joins the rest of the group, following after Straf with a sword in her hand.

Straf turns a corner, where the city guard is locked in combat with fiends. They are losing badly, with most of them already dead, bleeding profusely on the smooth, chiseled stone beneath their corpses. One of the fiends knocks the spear of one of the guards away with ease and slashes its sharp claws across his throat, sending a spray of blood forth. Nona takes aim, aligning the iron sights with the fiend's horned head.

BANG!…

She pulls the trigger. The knee joint kicks upward, ejecting a spent shell into the air with a sharp smell of gunpowder. The fiend falls onto its back and burns to a combusts to a pile of ashes in the sunlight while Straf casually approaches the melee. Some of the guards get distracted briefly by the gunfire, while Cycelia winces from the loud noise.

「Riiiiight… A little too late for these few…」

Straf remarks as he pulls out an iron sword out of the purple vortex following at his side. Cycelia covers her mouth when she realizes the piles of gore strewn across the street are the remains of the unfortunate citizenry who didn't manage to get away. One of the fiends leaps towards the city guard with his spear knocked aside, splaying its clawed hand out in the air for a vicious slash.

Fffshhhhh!…

Straf pokes it in its horned head before its arms come anywhere near the panicked, wide-eyed man. He crawls away a few steps on his back while staring at Straf. A pile of ashes streams down from Straf's sword onto the stone slabs before he flicks his sword aside. Straf looks at the man with a rather bored grimace on his face.

「…Do you have a deathwish? The protagonist syndrome, or something? Get out of here, dude.」

Straf says to the guard with a nonchalant shrug of his arms.

…BANG!

Another gunshot rings out. A fiend drops limp from a nearby building's rooftop, fizzling away into ashes in the sunlight before it hits the ground.

「…This is kind of fun when you know how it works!」

Nona declares with a grin, and takes aim at another fiend. It looks into her amber eyes with a confused gaze.

BANG!

She nonchalantly pulls the trigger with a smile on her face. Another spent round shoots up into the air.

…Clink!… Clinkclink…

The casing lands on the ground, bouncing a few times. The fiend's corpse fizzes into ashes with a gunshot wound in its head.

「Not bad… Then again, I think they're a little confused about the friendly fire.」

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Straf remarks, peeking over his shoulder towards Nona as he approaches one of the fiends. It dashes towards him with a blinding, inhuman speed. He casually swipes his iron sword at its neck, instantly setting it on fire that spreads across its entire body before it has a chance to drop to the ground. He sidesteps the ashes which scatter on the ground.

「Help! Please help me!…」

A woman runs in from an adjacent street while dragging a boy by his hand, and holding a little girl in her arm.

「…Please protect us! Please protect my children at least!」

The woman pleads while hiding from the fiends rushing after her behind Straf.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!…

The ground rumbles as a massive horned demon dashes towards Straf and the woman behind his back. The city guards rush out to block the street, bracing the spears against their feet with shaking hands and visibly terrified grimaces as the demon as tall as the rooftops charges at them. Nona points her pistol at the massive fiend's head.

BANG!… BANG! BANG! BANG!…

She pulls the trigger, causing it to recoil on the bullet's impact. It slams into a nearby building while covering its face with its clawed hands, shattering roof tiles on the ground like a waterfall. Nona tilts her head, and pulls the trigger a few more times. Her amber eyes blink in confusion at the lack of effect.

「Nona, no… It's just a pistol. Come on. You need a double barrel shotgun for that, at least.」

Straf turns around and forces Nona's pistol to point at the ground. She raises her brows and blinks at him.

「Shotgun?…」

「Yeah… I might show you later.」

She asks, and Straf replies with a nod and a shrug of his arms. Lily continues watching the vicinity with her arms crossed, and a wary gaze.

「…What is that thing!?」

One of the guards asks while looking at Nona's pistol.

「…By the way, reload. You remember how to, right? You should have a round in the chamber, so just slip a new mag in.」

「O-key!」

Straf peeks over his shoulder and points at Nona, gesturing reloading with his hands. She nods her hooded head and reaches her free hand into her robes again with a face of heavy focus.

The greater fiend recovers, lowering its enormous claws from its noseless face. It huffs out in pure hatred as its amber eyes focus on the guards and Straf, who casually walks out from ahead of their pointed spears. They glance at each other with confused eyes, then look at Straf's back.

「Are you out of your mind!? Get behind us! You're going to die!」

One of the guards shouts at Straf, who casually ignores them.

「Hey, you too… Eventually.」

Straf replies with a smirk and a shrug of his arms as the fiend rears its hand back for a crushing slam of its hand. He casually steps out of the way.

THUDDDDD!…

Straf dismembers the fiend's arm at the wrist without a visible motion. The demon's hand simply separates away from the rest in a spray of blood as it bursts into flames.

「AAAAAAaaaaghhh! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhgh!」

The greater fiend roars through the city, waving its arms and feebly trying to put out the flames consuming it. Nona slips in a fresh magazine and aims at the lesser fiends rushing in.

…BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG!

Bullets whiz past Straf as Nona pulls the trigger. Spent casings eject, and limp fiend corpses tumble to the ground, evaporating into piles of ashes. The greater fiend screams in agony before likewise burning away to ash. More panicked screams come from the down the ash-filled street while the shocked and awed guards exchange terrified glances. Cycelia gingerly follows after Straf and his fluttering cape. Lily scoffs as she passes the spearmen.

Straf crosses a corner and sees masses of civilians being slaughtered. Some of the unfortunate men are being pulled apart limb by limb to an audience of sharp fangs, starting with their arms and legs. Amused cackling and screams of agony fill the iron-drenched air. When Cycelia catches a glimpse of the scene, she winces and retreats behind the corner. Nona casually takes aim at the confused demons perched up on the rooftops.

…BANG!

She pulls the trigger with a smile, bringing the attention of roughly sixty demons to her and Straf. The dead demon tumbles down to the ground, spewing blood and ash everywhere.

Straf notices a young, terrified girl cowering with her back against a building amidst a pile of mangled corpses. A lesser fiend rushes her with a gleeful grin spread on its face.

「…Let's see if it works!」

Straf says, then throws his iron sword at the demon.

Fwapfwapfwapfwapfwapfwapfwap!… CLANK!…

「Aaaah!… Huuhuhuuuuuu!」

The girl screams and bursts into sobs when the dead fiend's ashes splatter her after the viciously whirling sword decapitates it. The sword bounces off, and its blade beheads at least eight more demons before deflecting upwards towards the rooftops. The distracted demons watch it bounce along the roofs with their amber eyes.

…Clink!… Clink-clink-clink!… Fwup!

Straf raises his hand up into the air, and the blessed sword just so happens to fall right into his waiting hand right by its grip.

「…Okay, I'm not gonna lie… That was pretty fuckin' satisfying.」

He says with a grin as he looks at the sword. With one hand casually in his coat's pocket, he approaches the rest of the fiends.

…BANG! BANG!

Nona continues firing away while Straf cleaves through the masses of fiends with ease.

Stripe suddenly materializes in the air from a thrown dagger, and plunges the one in her hand right into a demon's head as she drops down onto it…

…

Roughly fifteen minutes later…

With one hand in his pocket and the other leisurely holding an iron sword at his side, Straf patrols the gore-filled streets. Cycelia avoids looking at the mangled corpses, while Stripe spares the dead brief guilty looks. Winds blowing through the now-empty streets scatter the demons' ashes everywhere. Some of the buildings have holes punched through them, after an unfortunate guard or two were sent flying through their walls from the force of impact.

Straf glances around, and finds no more fiends. He casually throws his iron sword into his [Portable Storage] as frightened guards rush into the general area in search of danger. He looks up at the gray sky. After a brief moment, something in the air bursts as if a soap bubble, leaving behind flakes of mana that evaporate into dust, then nothing at all.

「Ahh… Haah… Thank you, master… I didn't think I'd live through this…」

One of the guards says to Straf with a nod of his head, greatly furrowing his brows with eyes that seem to look somewhere far, far beyond Straf's face.

「…For fuck's sake. There's no safe place left, huh?」

Another spearman remarks as he looks at the scattered limbs and organs with a bitter expression on his face.

「…Everyone! Check the streets! See if there's anyone wounded! There might be some survivors!」

A guard steps forth of all others, and points his hand down an adjacent street as he exclaims towards the group. They nod their helmeted heads, bow low towards Straf, then rush away.

「…Seems like things have taken a turn for the worse.」

Stripe says as she conceals her dagger behind her sash.

「Guess we're not getting any more snacks today, huh?… Where's that meeting place? We might as well wait for them, then get out of here.」

Straf shrugs his shoulders as he turns towards the group, then looks at Stripe's angered and anguished face.

「Come. I'll take you there…」

She nods her woolly hat towards a once busy street, now empty and littered with mangled corpses.

「….Shit. This really soured my mood.」

Stripe clicks her tongue and grumbles to herself, avoiding looking at the dead men and women scattered along the streets…

…

Around the same time, in the north of the Eastern Kingdoms, in a desolate castle…

「Hm?…」

From above, a pair of violet eyes watch a tall, handsome man cleave through hordes of demons with ease. Ashes scatter everywhere along the bloodstained streets.

「…That man…」

A female voice utters out as the eyes narrow at a rip in space above a city.

「…Heh… Heheheh… Hahahaha…」

Her quiet chuckling quickly grows into amused laughter while watching the city. A glimpse of sharp fangs glimmers in the overwhelming dark of the throne room.

「…Ahhh… That's just unlucky. Oh well, it can't be helped. Interesting… Interesting indeed. It seems like I was right to invite you…」

The violet eyes narrow at the tall man's handsome face as it looks up directly at her. She waves her hand over the rip, dispelling it with a wiggle of her fingers.

「…Straf Katastrof Vindict. I can hardly wait. Will you join?… Or will you choose to die?」

The voice enunciates in an amused tone before the violet eyes tilt, resting her head on her hand…