Chapter 11:
LOVE X DEVIL
"AAAAAAGGGHHHH!"
Startled, the well-dressed man hesitates before stepping onto the train.
At the exact moment the doors to the train slide open, one of Bernadette's flying dolls hovers directly above it.
The ooze comprising the doll pulls and contorts, stretching itself to cover the entryway.
Other dolls surround the remaining entrances to the train, blocking anyone from entering.
A woman on the platform sticks her arm into the thick black ooze, but is unable to reach any further.
"Eugh!"
Behind the wall of sludge, the doors slide shut.
"Thank you for riding the Shinkansen again today. This is the Kodama express bound for Osaka. This train stops at Shin-Osaka station."
The train picks up speed.
"Phew!"
In a nearby tunnel, Bernadette wipes her brow, breathing heavily.
"The dolls are in place. Nobody got on the train."
"One less thing to worry about," murmurs Uriel, still fighting off the onslaught of devil attacks with his hair-based abilities.
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Inside one of the cars, Gabriel winces, using his arms to shield his face.
...
However, the fate he's waiting for never arrives.
DING!
"Next stop is: Kakegawa. Kakegawa."
He peeks open his eyes.
Looking upwards, he spots the large and bulky frame of a devil, with unmistakable axe-shaped horns adorning its head.
"HAHAHA YOU SCREAM LIKE A GIRL."
Just moments ago, Gabriel felt powerless, unable to protect the incoming flood of passengers from entering the train. To make a bad situation worse, a colossal devil had just collapsed through the ceiling, no doubt planning to finish him off and ensure he couldn't protect the hundreds of innocent civilians from their incoming demise.
However, no passengers came aboard, and the devil didn't seem interested in attacking. Instead, it swung an axe made from what seemed to be its own head, slicing off one of the arms of Gabriel's true opponent.
The two seemed to share a common goal-- preventing any further destruction caused by the unimaginable threat that stood before them. Mammon, the Greed Prince of Hell.
"You... I recognize you..."
Gabriel can barely speak as blood drips from his mouth.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
"You're-"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
"You can stop laughing now."
Gabriel has a passive aggressive smile, clearly ticked off.
"So you're a Nameless?" asks Mammon, his calm demeanor still intact.
He picks up his severed arm.
KACHING!
The arm transforms into a two-sided blade.
"NO IM NOT MY NAME IS DES. DESMOND DARKNESS PHANTAS-"
Mammon spins the blade like a propeller, and in a brutal explosion of blood and guts, Des's body is shredded into pieces.
"Protecting a devil exterminator. Hah! Not that the fool would've survived either way."
Mammon smiles.
"Well, if we've no further interruptions-"
"HOW'D YOU KNOW."
Mammon looks surprised.
He looks towards the ground, spotting Des's severed head. From the stump of his neck, his body is in the process of reforming.
"...THAT I'M A NAMELESS."
...
Mammon lifts up his blade, narrowing his eyes.
"...Because you're weak," he spits.
The blade is stabbed through Des's skull, finally killing the devil for good.
He sighs, turning around back towards Gabriel.
...
The boy was gone.
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Des huffs and puffs, using his tiny wings to carry himself away as fast as he can.
He holds a wounded Gabriel in his arms.
"How the hell did you..."
"I'VE GOT A GOOD HEAD ON MY SHOULDERS."
...
"GET IT."
Gabriel's eyes widen.
Des's main body was left behind, impaled by Mammon after successfully serving role as a distraction.
In the meantime, a completely separate body formed from the head Des was using as a weapon, allowing him to somehow survive the encounter.
...
"DO YOU GET IT."
"...Yeah, yeah, I get it," Gabriel rolls his eyes.
"Now if you'll excuse me..."
He forcefully grabs onto Des's arm, twisting it around into an unnatural position.
With Des's grip now a bit looser, he kicks both of his legs into the stomach of the devil.
"AGH!"
Des recoils, and his grip on Gabriel is released.
Gabriel quickly regains his footing, striking a combat ready pose.
"HOLD ON. SAY IT."
"...What?"
"ADMIT IT SAY THAT I SAVED YOU."
Gabriel can't hide his annoyance.
"You think you're real funny, huh?"
"AND ALSO THAT I BEAT YOUR ASS. I BET YOU'RE STILL FEELING THAT PUNCH HAHAHA. AND ALSO-"
Suddenly, the two are interrupted by a monstrous wail.
From the doorways on both sides of the train car, crazed and mindless devils approach.
Gabriel instinctually reaches to the floor for a weapon, but nothing is within his grasp. It seems Mammon's killing spree hadn't yet extended to this train car.
As the devils crawl towards him, he slowly backs away, bumping into Des from behind.
The two stand back to back.
...
He swallows his pride.
"I'll deal with you later. Get the ones coming from behind. I'll carve a path forward."
...
"ONLY IF YOU ADMIT IT."
"I'm gonna fucking kill you, you know that-"
While the two continue bickering, one of the devils lunges straight towards them, readying its eagle talons for an attack.
Caught off guard, Gabriel quickly turns around, but is unable to comprehend the situation before a massive fist pummels the frail body of the devil and sends it flying.
Des shakes the blood of the devil off his hand.
Gabriel narrows his eyes.
"Changed your mind?"
"I CAN'T LET YOU DIE."
"And why's that?"
"BLOODSPLATTER MOON- I MEAN..."
He looks off to the side.
"SOMEONE... WOULD GET MAD AT ME."
Another devil attempts an assault on the two, but Gabriel quickly grabs its head, slamming it down onto his knee and cracking its skull.
"Well I don't need you protecting me. Just make sure you can keep up."
Des rams his fist straight through the torso of another devil.
"BOOM. ONE POINT."
He flashes Gabriel a confident smile.
"...You're keeping score?"
Deciding to waste no more time scoping out their prey, the surrounding devils all simultaneously rush towards the center of the car.
Gabriel and Des lift their fists, preparing to fight. A slight smile cracks across Gabriel's lips.
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Meanwhile, Uriel and Sandalphon continue to fight off an endless barrage of manic devils. Invisible blows from the fast-paced melody of Sandalphon's Spanish guitar hold back the horde, providing the two just enough time to survive.
TAP TAP TI-TAP TAP!
Her attention divided, Bernadette closes her eyes in an attempt to focus.
Drowning out the music, her brain is instead filled with a cacophonous chorus of voices and screams.
"Koizumi! Watch the left tunnel!"
"My leg! It's stuck!"
"RAAAAAGGGHHHH!"
"Don't hold back! Keep up the assault!"
Using her dolls, she simultaneously keeps watch over the other locations where fellow exterminators are stationed.
She desperately attempts to sift through the chaos and keep track of the location of each voice.
Hamamatsu station.
Shizuoka station. 3 kilometers north.
Nagoya station.
Kakegawa station.
1.7 kilometers behind Gifu-Hashima station.
Toyohashi station?
Or wait... was it-
"Bernadette..."
She latches onto a single voice, piercing ever so slightly through the rest of the noise.
"Bernadette! A little backup!"
"On it!"
She follows the voice.
Shizuoka area. Officer Otsuka in command. A small squad of rookie exterminators.
Further down the tunnels, a group of exterminators covered head to toe in bloody gashes face off against a slender devil with thousands of small knives covering its skin. Among the group is the new recruit, Naoto Osakabe.
"Hold the line!" shouts his commanding officer, presumably Otsuka.
The devil lifts one of its arms, launching the knives from its skin and sending them flying towards the wall of exterminators.
Osakabe braces himself, bearing the pain of the thousands of small cuts appearing across his skin.
Peeking behind the devil, he spots one of Bernadette's dolls. More emerge from deeper within the tunnels, each arriving at the same location.
At once, the dolls collide with each other, merging into a contorting black mass and eventually taking shape into a large beast.
The beast of ooze swings its arm, smashing the devil into the wall and leaving nothing but a splatter of its remains behind.
The exterminators cheer, masking the slightest hint of terror hidden on their faces.
"Go, Bernadette!"
"Agh, I want a Blessing too!" shouts one of the rookies.
"You're gonna have to beat me to Ascended, then," teases another.
Osakabe smiles.
Each rookie shared the same dream. Rising through the ranks through their heroic deeds and feats of strength, an exterminator is eventually able to reach the coveted status of Ascended, and is granted a new holy name by the organization. Men are named after angels, and women after saints.
Above all, however, each Ascended is also gifted a Blessing.
Though their origin and method of transfer remains unknown, these personalized abilities are guaranteed to live up to their title, granting immense power and a unique function on the battlefield.
While some exterminators are said to have been Ascended since the moment they joined the organization, Osakabe didn't have that luxury.
But having personally seen an Ascended in action for the first time, his spirits were higher than ever.
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"Bernadette!"
"W-What?"
She opens her eyes.
Having almost completely lost her sense of time and place, she slowly adjusts to reality.
Both of her allies are paralyzed in fear, unsure of how to handle the situation unfolding before them.
Approaching the group is a gargantuan devil, nearly the size of a house, with the body shape of a Tyrannosaurus and giant feathered legs holding up its weight. The swing of its tail brushing against the walls sends chunks of concrete flying as it opens its jaws and releases a mighty roar.
The entire tunnel rumbles at the sound.
"...Any ideas?" Uriel murmurs sarcastically.
One of Bernadette's dolls stretches to create a wall of ooze in front of the beast.
Using nothing but its sheer brute strength, it stomps its way through regardless.
Bernadette looks nervous.
"...Shit. If I gather enough of them, I can-"
Suddenly, the beat of a flamenco drum.
TAP TAP TI-TAP TAP!
In a brazen act of courage, Sandalphon stands confidently and approaches the beast.
The giant devil is unfazed by the blows, continuing its unrelenting march.
"Are you crazy, old man?!" Bernadette shouts.
He smiles.
"This music is part of me, you know. Down to my very soul. It's quite rude of you to ignore it."
He violently rips open his shirt.
"What, need me to turn up the volume?"
Bernadette blushes.
Uriel sighs into his palm.
In bright pink, the shape of a heart is painted onto Sandalphon's chest.
THA-THUMP!
The devil staggers to the side, having just taken the full brunt of a massive impact.
THA-THUMP! THA-THUMP!
With his very own heartbeat forming the foundation of the song, the sound of violins echoes in the background.
"Now... how about we get to know each other?"
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Takaya Watanabe dreamed of being a musician.
He longed to put on a dazzling performance in front of a roaring crowd, passionately flaunting his heart and expressing the feelings he was never quite capable of putting into words.
But now, only a single thought crossed his mind.
How did it end up like this?
He stands in the middle of an office room, bowing his head with a nervous expression. Seated at a long desk across from him is an unkempt and sleazy looking man dressed in an expensive suit and tie.
"I feel for ya, but that's just the way things turned out. Our budget's getting cut, and you're position's gotta go along with it."
Takaya dedicated his life to toiling away within that tiny cubicle, sacrificing all the time and energy he could've spent earnestly pursuing his passion, and this was all it amounted to? Is this how he was meant to be repaid?
"...I understand. Thank you for the opportunity."
Takaya's gaze remains glued to the floor, refusing to show the man the tears welling up in his eyes.
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"Thank you! Really, I can't thank you enough!"
Takaya bows his head once again, overflowing with joy after receiving a gracious gift of 100 yen from a random passerby.
He looks down into his guitar case, entranced by the silver coin glimmering like a lone star amidst a sea of darkness. Unfortunately, nobody else seemed to be feeling as generous.
"And now! For my next song!"
He passionately strums at his guitar, receiving nothing but strange looks and sympathetic stares from anyone who happened to pass by.
Eventually, hours pass, the sun sinks below the horizon, and two more coins are dropped into the case.
Takaya's stomach grumbles.
Despite his decision to take one last chance at pursuing his dream, his pockets had only shrunk, and his passion seemed to dwindle along with them.
What was it all for? What was he trying to say? What did he want people to hear?
Unable to answer these questions, he picks up his case, deciding to call it a day.
He lifts the headphones resting around his neck and puts them up to his ears. Though he'd already sold off most of his extraneous belongings, there were few exceptions he could never bear to part with.
The song he selected from his music player was a classical piece, and one that only seemed more magnificent with every listen. Supposedly, it was composed as a religious piece meant to honor the Christian God.
If Takaya was a God, he would've felt like the song succeeded in its purpose and then some. It had an almost perfect, divine quality; from the way the instruments slowly swelled, to the beautiful melody of the strings, to the choir singing with emphatic vigor.
What was he missing? What otherworldly quality did this song possess that his own music always seemed to lack?
Suddenly, he hears a man's scream, just faintly audible from outside his headphones.
He turns his head and looks further down the street, spotting a monstrous tentacled devil and a crowd of civilians desperately scrambling to flee.
Another devil attack. Though many had already become numb to the constant devastation that accompanied the opening of the rifts a few years ago, finding oneself in the middle of an attack was its own sort of terrifying.
Thankfully, in recent years, a new organization sprung from the wreckage with the goal of preventing further destruction-- the Devil Extermination Department.
And just on time, they had arrived.
Exterminators brazenly jump from the tops of nearby rooftops and onto the attacking devil below. One unsheathes a katana, slicing through a tentacle in an instant.
Though the devil quickly approaches closer with every passing moment, Takaya can do nothing but stand in place and watch in astonishment.
Within his headphones, violins sing with a powerful wave of emotion.
Using its tentacles, it springs into the air, jumping high above the rooftops and until it flies directly above Takaya. A girl with long red hair leaps off the top of a car to meet the devil, wielding a blazing bone and swinging it with all her might. She slices through the entire length of the devil, and its blood pour down onto Takaya below.
The melody reaches its crescendo as the choir belts out a powerful operatic note.
Carefully outlined by the blinding rays of the sunset, Takaya catches glimpse of a single sight within the blood and carnage--
The cross, the symbol of the Devil Extermination Department, shining in stark white on the woman's unform.
In that instant, as if by divine intervention, Takaya is struck with a sudden flash of inspiration.
God.
He found what he was missing. The otherworldly quality his music always seemed to lack.
Up until this point, his compositions were crafted purely for his own sake, a selfish and single-minded pursuit of what he proudly declared to be his dream.
But reborn through a baptism of blood, he was beginning to see the truth.
If he wanted his music to be truly beautiful, truly meaningful, it must be created in service of a greater purpose.
As the remains of the devil rain from the sky above him, he proudly lifts his arms.
He could feel it. A new magnum opus beginning to take shape.
The woman swiftly lands on her feet, wiping the blood from her brow.
"Please..."
"Huh?"
She turns towards the direction of the voice.
For the final time, Takaya would bow his head.
"Please! Allow me to become a devil exterminator!"
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THA-THUMP!
In a climactic burst of energy, the sound of an orchestra erupts into the surrounding space. A choir sings a stirring harmony, filling Sandalphon with heavenly power.
He lifts his chin a smile, slowly stepping towards the devil.
"No... You and me, we won't ever be able to understand each other. You've got no thoughts of your own, just following orders. This music... maybe, to you, it's all just a big jumble of sounds. I'll say it again, music's all about communication. And frankly..."
He pushes up his "2020" shaped glasses, flashing a grin.
"I don't like the way you talk."
He violently shoots both of his arms up into the air.
"Heaven's.."
He takes a deep breath.
"SYMPHOOONI-"
Before he can finish, the music abruptly cuts.
With immense force, the devil's tail crashes into Sandalphon's abdomen, swinging him across the width of the tunnel before slamming him into the concrete wall.
Blood erupts from the impact, splattering onto Bernadette's dress. The devil roars.
"Old man!" Bernadette shouts.
Sandalphon's head slumps over, but his heart still beats, amplified by his ability.
THUMP THA-THUMP THA-THA-THUMP THUMP THUMP!
Bernadette comes to a realization.
"Morse code... he's telling us to run."
"Happy to oblige," mocks Uriel.
As he nonchalantly turns and starts walking away, a wall of sludge blocks him from going any further.
Bernadette hides her eyes under bangs, but a small tear escapes from underneath.
"That thing ruined my skirt."
She tightly grasps the hem of her dress. Her dolls begin to gather behind her, forming into a larger mass.
"We're taking it down."
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"BOOM. SEVENTEEN POINTS."
Des's fist splatters a devil's face into pieces.
Gabriel stands at his back, and the two swivel around so he can deflect an attack and throw a punch of his own.
"Twenty-one."
A devil swings a scythe above their heads, and Des crouches forward. Gabriel is pushed up towards the blade, and it just nearly grazes the tip of his nose.
"Hey! Watch it!"
Des throws an uppercut, punching a devil's head straight through the roof of the train.
DING!
"Next stop is: Kakegawa. Kakegawa."
The train starts losing speed.
"TWENTY-ONE."
"Stop cheating."
While they're distracted, a scorpion tail lunges towards the two. Gabriel swiftly spins around, dodging the blow and using Des as a shield.
The tip of the tail smashes into Des's chest, ripping through his flesh.
"THAT HURT."
He holds both his fists above his head, swinging down and crushing the tail into bits.
He angrily turns towards Gabriel.
"WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE COVERING EACH OTHER."
Gabriel smirks.
"What's the problem? You can heal, can't you?"
He ducks under the swing of a devil with a longsword for an arm, and the blade cuts directly through Des's arm instead.
"What, are you saying you can't handle it?"
"BWAHAHAHA!"
Des picks up his severed arm. He slowly rips out the bone from inside the flesh, wielding it like a weapon.
"YOU UNDERESTIMATE ME, CHILD."
"Don't call me that."
He tosses the bone to Gabriel.
"HERE, LET ME THROW YOU A BONE."
...
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"
"Fuck off."
"IT'S A WEAPON. YOU'RE GONNA NEED IT."
Gabriel shoots him an annoyed look.
"And you don't?"
"I CAN HEAL, CAN'T I?"
Des smirks, lifting his eyebrows. Gabriel clicks his tongue.
Finally having lost speed, the train comes to a stop.
The doors slide open, but the entryways are covered with a wall of ooze once again.
"Thank you for riding the Shinkansen again today. This is the Kodama express bound for Osaka. This train stops at Shin-Osaka station."
However, the door connecting to the next car opens, and a man steps through the entryway.
Prepared for battle, Gabriel raises his weapon, but quickly loosens his grip.
"...Officer Tomiyoshi? Is that you?"
A swordsman, and one of the collaborators responsible for summoning Mammon.
DING!
"Next stop is: Hamamatsu. Hamamatsu."
On closer inspection, the man's face looks to be completely lifeless. In his left arm, he wields a katana. His right arm, however, is missing, and a demonic red arm with two hands joined at the wrist is connected to his body in its place.
The two hands flap like a mouth, and a deep and familiar voice springs forth.
"A friend, is he?"
Gabriel has a furious glare.
"It's you."
"At least address me with some respect, boy. Mammon, the Greed Prince of Hell."
Gabriel lifts a hand to his chest, murmuring a prayer under his breath.
"Or wait, maybe that's not right. Maybe I'm..."
As if suddenly roused from a deep sleep, Officer Tomiyoshi opens his eyes, and immediately begins panicking.
"Wh-Wh-What's going on..."
As if being controlled by a greater force, he lifts the katana in his left hand.
"H-help me..."
"...but deliver us from evil. Amen."
A glowing ring materializes around Gabriel's weapon of bone.
Without a second thought, he lunges to strike.
Tomiyoshi panics, shielding himself with his arms.
...
The blow never arrives.
Instead, Gabriel quivers in place, hovering his weapon just above the man's head.
A pained expression crawls upon his face.
"Well, what's the verdict? Is he a devil? Or is he a man?" Mammon chides.
Gabriel's breath trembles.
Mammon sighs, taking on a more serious tone.
"I'll guarantee you one thing, boy. This man is responsible for more deaths on this train than any of my poor devils combined."
"Those devils..." Gabriel manages to spit out a few words.
"...What did you do to them?"
"Exactly what I did to your friend here. They're experiments. I'll exchange a part here, a part there... and eventually see what I end up with."
"Exchange... your ability..."
Gabriel is reminded of the signature KACHING! sound accompanying Mammon's attacks, and how it seemed capable of transforming objects in an instant.
Gabriel yells, swinging his weapon. Tomiyoshi effortlessly dodges.
"You piece of shit!"
"What, feeling guilty for killing them? You, a devil exterminator?!" Mammon laughs.
The ring of light extends up the length of Gabriel's weapon, enveloping it in light. Blinded by rage, he continues swinging blindly.
"Raaaaaghhhh!"
Out of nowhere, Tomiyoshi's head is knocked off his body by a sudden impact with a fist.
"...Huh?"
Des's fist drips with blood.
"THE OFFICER'S ALREADY DEAD. DON'T LET HIM GET TO YOU."
Tomiyoshi's body, however, still stands.
"Stop interfering, Nameless," Mammon spits.
The headless body controlled by Mammon thrusts its sword straight into Des. With a swift motion, he gets flung off the tip of the sword and crashes through a nearby window, falling outside the train.
Distracted, Gabriel fails to notice the body appear behind him.
The two red hands on its right arm touch Gabriel's back.
KACHING! KACHING!
A strange sensation reverberates across his brain.
"Agh!"
In a sudden burst, his mind is flooded with visions of a strange and hellish dimension.
My treasure...
Recovering, he touches his body in astonishment.
"I'm... alive..."
"I see..." Mammon's voice echoes.
"Nice to meet you... Touma."
...
Gabriel lowers his gaze.
"How do you know that name?" he asks quietly.
"I exchanged our memories, if only for a second. I don't trust you were able to sift through hundreds of years of my experiences. Yours, however..."
He swings an attack towards Mammon, but is parried by his katana.
"Well, I pity you."
Gabriel unleashes a flurry of thrusts while Mammon deflects each one with ease. The two dance their way throughout the train car, continually trading blows.
"Just as you're starting to live the life you never had..."
A beam of light fires off from Gabriel's weapon.
It blasts a hole in the side of the train, though Mammon is nowhere to be found.
"...It all gets snatched away."
At the sound of the voice, Gabriel quickly spins around, parrying Mammon's katana.
"Why don't you just let yourself live? Leave all this exterminator stuff behind?"
Gabriel grits his teeth, resisting both the possessed body's unnatural strength and his powerful urge to respond to Mammon's taunts.
"Do it for your sake. For Mari-"
"You talk too much."
While the two were dueling, Gabriel successfully managed to spin Mammon around to the opposite side.
The beam of light released by Gabriel's weapon comes flying back from outside the train, returning to its original place and blasting through Tomiyoshi's body in the process. In the shape of a perfect circle, a giant gaping hole remains.
"I'll protect innocents. I'll protect my colleagues. Hell, today I even protected a devil."
He swings his sword faster than the eye can see, cleaving into Tomoyoshi's body at impossible speeds.
After a slight delay, the body sprays with blood and collapses onto the floor. Drenched in red, Gabriel slowly steps closer, his weapon of bone crumbling into pieces.
"But you can't threaten me with my own life. Anything you want from me, anything you tempt me with... until my last breath, I'll reject it."
He lowers his voice.
"Touma is dead. I'm just on borrowed time."
"I suppose you better get to protecting, then. "
Surprised, Gabriel looks down.
"After all..."
Despite the ravaged state of the body, the hands still continue to speak.
"Who knows where my main body might be?"
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Riru desperately dashes her way through the narrow halls, making her way closer and closer to the front of the train with each car she passes through.
The path seemed impossibly long, and she was starting to run out of stamina.
But she couldn't stop. Each lifeless corpse and bloodied chunk of flesh strewn across the floor urged her to keep going. She didn't have a second to lose. If she was even a minute, no... A second late, then...
I gotta find them.
Though she tried her best to ignore it, a persistent thought nagged at the back of her brain.
What if it was already too late?
She couldn't bear to think about it any longer. If she did, she felt that something inside her might break.
Everything was her fault.
She realized it back at the arcade, when the mind-controlled masses ignored Inuyama's distraction and continued their relentless pursuit towards Riru.
For reasons she still couldn't understand, the Sloth Prince of Hell had already made an attempt on her life. And a certain ability she noticed throughout the train reeked of another Prince.
The unnatural fusions of man, animal, devil, and object. A clear result of Mammon's Curse of exchange.
She didn't understand why the Princes were after her, or what they stood to gain from it. But somewhere, deep down, she felt like she deserved it.
A devil, living a school life as a human, having fun at karaoke and going out with friends.
Of course things would somehow turn out this way. Did she really expect anything different?
She foolishly thought she could move on from it all.
From Hell. From the Princes. From Des. And even from Mitsugi-
"Raaaaghhh! Stop it!"
She hits herself in the skull, shaking her head violently.
There was no time for any of that. She just had to keep running.
Feeling the sensation of her foot snagging on the floor, she trips and tumbles over.
"Agh!"
With no time to waste, she immediately pulls herself back up, until-
"Come on, what's the rush?"
She couldn't move.
Something was grabbing her ankle. Two red hands, emerging from a puddle of blood.
More arms emerge, each using their strength to heave the hulking body of the devil out from the depths of blood.
"Bloodsplatter Moon Lilith Ars Goetia..."
Having fully surfaced, Mammon's eyes meet Riru's, and his two faces flaunt a devious smile.
"Been a while, hasn't it?"
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