Yuki quickly pulled Yumi up from the dirt. He didn’t know how badly she was injured or the others. ‘I never imagined that they would all be defeated. Will things end here? Do Yumi’s personalities win their bet?’ Regardless of their fate, Yuki could only focus on one thing. Missing a hand and lower half of her leg, Yumi was in the worst shape.

He picked up Yumi and carried her over to Saki and Seiji. ‘How are they doing? I need to heal them…’ Unfortunately, the demons already began to recover from his initial intrusion. And worse of all the demon commander led the charge. She wanted their blood.

Casting out this mist once more, he weakened the earth below the demons. Turning it into almost the consistency of quicksand, the first rank collapsed. It wasn’t enough to trick the commander though. The demon had a large enough stance and height that it provided only an inconvenience to her. Even slowed down, that was enough for him to redirect the remainder of his mist at the demon to topple it.

“That’ll buy enough time.” His Field went down and quickly, his mind ordered together a new Law necessary for their survival. As the demon commander recovered, flames burst from it in anger for being denied the kill. Hurriedly, Yuki finished his new Field. A barrier quickly locked into place around them in a small dome.

Flames washed over in waves on the barrier unable to make it budge. Frustrated, the demon smashed the giant sword into his barrier with no better results. Alongside their leader, more of the demons arrived to try to crack through. Nothing they did could break it though.

Pausing in her attack, the demon stared down at Yuki. She stared at him as though trying to remember him. “There’s no human alive with this sort of power. Who are you?”

Yuki finished confirming all he needed from the demons and turned his eyes towards his friends. The healing effects of the array already began re-growing Yumi’s lost limbs. Small wounds were already disappearing to their audience’s surprise.

Enough of the wounds that kept them unable to move disappeared. Saki and Seiji rose first looking with surprise to see Yuki kneeling next to them. “What happened?” she asked with the last minute hazy.

“I found you all collapsed with the demons closing in. I’m holding them off for now, but we’re completely surrounded.”

“…dammit…” Seiji muttered to himself, keeping oddly silent.

Yumi pulled herself up and to her feet quickly once she could move her body. Even with her body weakened, she ignored the imbalance that fought her to remain upright. The dull pounding of the demons barely a few meters away reminded her that the situation remained unchanged. ‘It wasn’t enough… I need to be stronger… I’m still too weak…’

Caught up in her thoughts, it was a while before she noticed Yuki grabbing her hand. “You’re still mending. Please don’t think about going back out to fight, Yumi.”

She hesitated seeing the look in his eyes, the worry and concern for her life. However, if she did nothing, how would they get out of the situation? Yumi glanced around the barrier seeing all of the hungry demons wanting a piece of her. “If you keep healing my wounds, I can fight.”

“That’s not a healthy way to fight, you’re going to still lose blood!”

“But what choice do we have?!”

“It may be our only option, Yuki,” Saki agreed with some reluctance, “It’s not like it’s the only time you’ve done it.”

“The lethality is different!”

Suddenly a loud roar ripped through the battle. A roar that came from no demon or beast. It even startled the demons that started to turn towards the sound. Another roar came out worse than the last. An unearthly sound came from the north that couldn’t be produced from any mouth or throat. It had no likeness to compare for any familiarity. They were left with the unsatisfactory simplification of a roar. It crawled through the ranks with a deep penetrating echo that twisted and shifted pitch the more it went.

Arriving closer with fewer obstructions, a flash of light and cries went with each. Demons were dying in mass to the unknown sound and it came closer. Then it struck the barrier Yuki constructed. Within an instant a tear ripped through his barrier fully exposing them to the dangers. An act that shocked Yuki more than rest, as he knew the strength necessary to do such a thing with ease.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Through the raining blood of demons, a figure appeared. Pained whispers from the demons that witnessed the carnage first hand passed along eerie echoes. “The woman. Demonslayer.”

As the figure came more clearly in view Saki recalled their name. “Masa…”

Chapter 422 – A True Blade

Not looking as keenly at the battle as Saki, Seiji looked over at her to confirm it. “That scary ass woman from before?!”

“I’d never forget a face like that.”

“That explains the power…”

Yumi remained out of the loop and stared out at the figure barely getting any sort of sense of them. There was too much demon blood covering them up. They carved an even more bloody path of destruction than her.

While she wanted answers, the demons completely gave up on them. The commander redirected the army to the woman. They lost interest in their group. And the way the leader reacted, treated the single woman as a far greater threat. All of the bloodlust for her death faded away.

Tossed aside almost made her feel annoyed that after everything, she was no longer even worth the time. Yet at the same time, considering what she saw the woman do it was clear that they were in a completely different league than Yumi or any of her friends. None of them could even compare. It was actually a bit awe inspiring that there was someone so vastly out classing them that she couldn’t even see where the mountain began to even start the climb. It felt similar to that Demon Lord she met, but very different.

It took her almost a minute to be pulled away from carnage that the woman wrought upon the demons. She looked back at her friends seeing different reactions from them. Yumi remembered that they seemed like they knew her. “Do you know them? Someone that you met?”

“That’s right, we didn’t get around to all the details yet.”

“Yeah, we shit ourselves finding her, while looking for you.”

“So she’s an ally?”

Saki looked over at the vast sea of death the woman left in her wake. The battle nearly came to an end already. “I’m not sure. All we know is that she’s not an enemy at least, for now.”

Yuki lowered his Field, having finished healing everyone. Staring down the field, he couldn’t see much of anything but flashes of lights. He knew nothing about what was happening with any clarity. He could only make guesses, but given what he witnessed so far, it was pretty to him. “Someone with that sort of power is not one we want as an enemy…” Ease of killing all of the demons and cracking his barrier left his body sweating.

The power difference felt nothing like what he had seen before. Even the seemingly impossible heights that he scraped to reach to beat Demosthenes, Eudokia and even Takako felt like hills in comparison to what he saw unfold. There was a gulf he wondered if any of them could even attempt to cross. “Maybe because it’s not real…”

“What the hell do you want to do?” Seiji asked, getting a real sense of everyone’s hesitancy. He already felt the woman’s power before and this was calm in comparison. He wasn’t interested in that again.

“If I had to guess, they were the ones the demons were after, not Yumi.”

Yuki nodded in agreement. “You might be right. They were just looking for a woman, we merely assumed it had to be Yumi because of her actions. But what did she do to get their wraith?”

“I heard something about a Demon Lord, but it’s only a guess that it could be related to what we saw.”

“And her name is Masa?” Yumi checked to confirm correctly. She found herself tilting her head to stare at the woman more. A small compulsion drew her sight back towards the woman.

“That’s the name Seiji got out of her before she left.”

“Masa…” Yumi turned to walk away from them with the mysterious swordswoman in her sights.

“Where are you going, Yumi?”

‘There’s something familiar about it. I feel like I know that name from somewhere. But where? Why does it seem like something I know? Something that I heard… But I don’t know it…’ Questions mounted for Yumi the longer she tried to solve the identity of the woman. She was a complete stranger to her. That much she could be certain. There was nothing about her that was familiar to her, physically. She never saw her before.

She was certain.

And yet was not.

She couldn’t be certain.

Something tugged on her. She felt compelled to keep walking. She had questions and even more that she wanted from the woman. Keeping her distance from the stranger wasn’t an option.

Suddenly, Saki grabbed her arm trying to stop her. “What are you doing, Yumi? We know nothing about her and possibly by luck or capriciousness were spared in our last encounter.”

The shaking in Saki’s hands made it clear, though it also surprised Yumi to discover. She looked back at Seiji, finding the same thing. ‘They’re afraid of the woman. I’ve never seen Saki scared before… But why? I don’t see any reason.’

Roars of the last demon to fall brought a finality to the silence. A violent peace was achieved for the town. Yumi turned away from Saki, not willing to accept the same sort of fear that they grew. She pulled her arm free and walked into a hurried pace. Even before the blade could return its sheath the woman started to walk away. Yumi would miss her chance if she delayed.

Disappearing from the spot, she used a burst of speed to get around to the woman before she disappeared. It was almost like a natural disaster. Completely merciless to all and fade away as if nothing even happened.

“Excuse me! You’re named Masa, right?”

The woman paused with a new interruption before her. Still holding her bloodied blade, she flicked the blood to the ground. “And who are you?”

“I saw you fighting. You were able to kill them all so effortlessly while I struggled.”

Saki and the others caught up to Yumi finally trying to pull her away before she made another mistake like Seiji. “I thought I told you that we needed to go check on the townspeople,” she made up trying to get Yumi away safely. However, Yumi immediately protested and broke free again. “What are you doing?!”

“You’re strong, very strong. I want to learn your technique!”