As it appeared to both Dauma and Blake, there were two possible options that they could take as they were stared down by the wolf beast pack.

One option was that they could cut their losses and run before the situation became worse, and since they already had what they wanted, there was a good chance that they could escape the beasts’ reach if they were pursued. Overall, it was the safest option.

"Fucking hell!"

However, Blake was not in the mood to take that option. The shame he felt after realizing that he had failed to fully scope the cave grounds out before he killed the wolf beast had only added to the radiating pain from his arm that refused to go away, creating a rage that blinded his judgement.

And so, he went for the other option immediately without a second thought.

OUTPUT: 30%

The wolf beasts could innately sense the change in the atmosphere around him as soon as he had increased his output, and a few of them had even begun to back away in slight worry, but the Alpha did not budge, choosing instead to continue growling at him.

“Devil,” he muttered in a low tone as he shook his uninjured arm to warm it up.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t stop me now.”

“GRAOW!”

The Alpha beast pounced, primarily targeting Dauma who was holding its mate’s carcass on his shoulders, while the others still ran around to both of their rears in order to surround them despite their best intuitions.

“…”

In response, Blake bared his teeth in a vicious smile and casually tossed the knife from his injured to his uninjured hand before he jumped towards the Alpha without any fear.

“!!!”

The Alpha turned its head around to react to its sudden attacker, but within a split second, the blade had already sunk deep into its flank, and the momentum pushed them out of Dauma’s path and to his side.

“GRAHHHHHOOOOOWWW!”

As it howled in pain and surprise, the other wolf beasts stopped advancing, watching the attack unfold in front of their eyes and unsure of what to do as Blake removed his knife from its body before bringing it down again.

“Grahhhhhh…”

There was no escaping his attack. The Alpha’s cries became softer as he continued stabbing its head over and over again, and very soon, its six legs twitched slower and slower until they stopped moving altogether.

“…”

Even Dauma, who had felt that he could not be affected much by violence any further after what he had seen in the past few weeks, had turned his head away to avoid looking at the brutality of the whole scene as it kept going.

“Hahhhhh…”

Blake let out a long, tired exhale as he stood up and glared at the other wolf beasts, all while drenched with the Alpha’s blood. He did not say anything, nor make any other threatening noise, but they were already terrified out of their animal minds.

“Awoo…” they cried out weakly, all their prior confidence completely vanished in an instant as they began to back away once again.

There was no question about it. They were intelligent enough to know when their opponent was too strong for them to attack, even when they were together as a pack. Now they were the hunted, getting stared down by their former prey.

“Boo.”

With one single tease from Blake, the four of them ran away, not inside the cave but into the wasteland, as far away from him as they could.

“Yip! Yip!”

Paralyzed with fear as well and continuing to yelp shrilly as though they believed it would help save them, the two smaller wolf beasts also followed behind the others soon after, occasionally glancing back at him with terrified expressions before turning back forward and running faster.

“…”

Dauma could find no words to say about the whole situation.

“Well, that was awful. But hey, at least we got two of them now!” Blake remarked in a much calmer and happier tone than before as he wiped his dirty blade off before sheathing it back into his thigh holster.

“…”

“You can carry the Alpha, then I can carry the other one! How’s that sound?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“… mm.”

**********************

Without thinking too much about it, Dauma had willingly followed Blake’s instructions and carried the dead Alpha beast as the both of them began to head back to the convenience store, all while still having a blank expression on his face and saying nothing.

The sun had set at last, and as the two of them walked in the dim moonlight, he activated his sword to provide a little more light for them and allow them to spot any possible danger in their immediate surroundings.

At the same time, Blake was still excitedly talking to him, though with his silence, it seemed more like he was talking to himself.

“Look at the scars on its face. You can tell it doesn’t take no for an answer. Thankfully, I stopped it before it got too sketchy.”

“…”

“With all this extra meat, I wonder what I can make. Maybe a barbecue, or I can dry it for snacks. Either way, I can probably keep most of it for later.”

“…”

“Oi, devil! Are you listening?”

“… yes,” Dauma slowly responded as he continued to keep his eyes away from the young man still covered in beast blood beside him.

“Are you upset?”

“No.”

“For the record, the Alpha tried to attack us first. I was plenty satisfied with just killing one, you know, so that was on it.”

“I said I’m not upset,” Dauma repeated, abruptly stopping Blake in the middle of his justification.

“Ok… how do you feel about this killing then? Seeing as how you’re a devil and all that.”

“…”

“I mean, I’m sure you don’t feel anything about these beasts. It’s kill or be killed, you know? Survival of the fittest, and only the strongest will survive. Isn’t that right?”

“… you’re right, I don’t feel anything about them,” Dauma indifferently replied after some time had passed, “they’re beasts, after all. I can’t care for all of them. It is what it is, and I won’t stop you from wanting to defend yourself.”

“Thank you.”

“But…” he added, “that doesn’t mean what you did was right either.”

“Eh? What? What’s happening?”

As Blake looked at him in confusion, Dauma pointed his finger up to the sky before continuing, while he still kept his eyes straight ahead.

“You attacked them first. They fought back. You killed the Alpha. Do you get what I mean?”

“…”

“The smaller ones as well, they saw you killing someone they knew. What do you suppose will happen next?”

“Revenge,” Blake immediately answered, “they would want revenge. They will make sure the death is avenged. They would want nothing more than to kill the person responsible, which would be me in this case.”

“Perhaps. But I don’t think it’s that simple either.”

“What do you mean?”

“Anten told me what happened.”

Blake stopped walking for a moment before resuming, with the carcass on his back bobbing up and down in sync with his movements.

“… oh, I see.”

“Do you understand what I mean now?”

“Yeah, the angel told me already. Blah blah blah, something something, they might not want revenge or whatever, I heard it before,” Blake drawled as he jumped up to reposition his load to a much more comfortable spot on his shoulders before continuing again.

“Yes, but I still think there’s more to it than that.”

“Seriously? Come on man.”

As Blake groaned, Dauma patiently explained, “much like you, I also fight back when my friends are in trouble. That’s why I did what I had to do at the church last week. But, because I promised Anten, I never intended to kill you. I wanted to pay you back, but I tried to do it in such a way that you would only get knocked out at most.”

“Mmm… so what?”

“Well, I guess what I’m trying to say is that… sometimes killing isn’t the best solution. You have to hurt bad people, I’m fine with that, and you have to make the right decision, I’m good with that too, but there are more ways you can win a fight than just finishing it in such a messy way.”

“Are you saying… what I think you’re saying?”

“I don’t know,” Dauma shrugged, “I might be saying nonsense, but again, I won’t stop you from doing what you want to do. That’s not what I’m here to do.”

“I see.”

Following that discussion, the both of them stopped for a moment. In the distance in front of them, they could spot several Lost aimlessly standing around, so they quickly diverted their path to walk safely around them. After they had successfully passed them, Blake changed the topic of conversation.

“Devil, devil, devil…”

“Yes?”

“Gack!” he suddenly coughed violently and faltered in his movements, interrupting himself.

“You alright?”

“Yeah. Ahem, just some more side effects of my power. But what I was trying to say was… I thought the angel was preachy, but here you are, spouting words of wisdom at me and hoping that I would listen to you.”

“Hmm,” Dauma raised one of his eyebrows before replying, “I suppose stuff just comes out of me sometimes. That’s what I think. Maybe it has something to do with who I was before, but I’m not really concerned about that.”

“Are you sure you aren’t?”

“… of course.”

“You don’t sound so sure.”

“I mean, I think I deserve to know, that’s all. Knowing who I am might help me understand myself as a devil better. It’s not selfish for me to think that way!”

“If I lost my memories…” Blake mused to himself as Dauma finished his reasoning, “I don’t know what I would do. I don’t want to forget them.”

“Them again, huh?”

The two of them walked silently once again, with only the strong howling of the wind being the only source of noise they could hear for the next few minutes.

“… can I ask you something, devil?”

“What now?”

“I noticed it during your fight with me, but I want to ask you anyway…”

Using one of his hands to hold onto the wolf beast carcass tightly, Blake extended his other hand outwards, appearing to Dauma as though he wanted to make himself bigger.

“Why do you never use all four of your arms?”

“Oh. Uh…”

“I think you would be much more effective if you were able to use all of them. I don’t believe I would have been able to stop you if that happened.”

“… I honestly never noticed.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I don’t really feel them actually,” Dauma confessed, “I did see them once before, but they were only in shadow. The only other times I realize are when other people like you point them out. Other than that, I just feel two of them.”

“Damn. Maybe you just don’t want to see it. What a fucking shame though.”

“…”

Now that the subject had been brought up to his attention, it stirred a bunch of thoughts up in Dauma’s mind, and he began to ponder them carefully during the last stretch of their route.

He’s right. Maybe I just don’t want to see them? Is it because I don’t want to see myself as a devil? Am I still in denial?

As he carefully recalled, the god Michael had told him something about perception and how he and Anten viewed his appearance.

Am I holding myself back? I thought I had already accepted that I was a devil. Should I go further down?

“Dauma! Mister Blake! What took you guys so long? We were worried sick, you know!”

Before he realized it, he heard Anten’s loud voice cutting through his thoughts as they finally reached the store. However, he still kept them fresh in his mind since he knew they were important to him.

He knew he could not answer those questions by himself, but he knew that neither could Anten, or Yuu, or Blake. This was something he needed to find out when the time and the place was right for him to do so.

Do I really wish to continue being a devil?