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“It hurts,” Kasumi thinks, but can’t say. Her lungs scream for air, but the tentacle wrapped around her throat makes it impossible. The headless demon carries her by the neck, ignoring her flailing legs but keeping its grip just loose enough to keep from suffocating her. He’s much less careful with the gecko-like demon in its grasp. The creature’s large eyes bulge to the point of popping from its skull as the headless demon uses its tentacles to coil around the gecko’s arms and neck.

“What’s the hold up?” the headless demon demands. “Your incompetence at killing the first Maiden has already led to me carting this parasite long enough, and for every second longer I shall extract punishment a thousandfold.” It tightens its tentacles to emphasize the point on both the gecko and Kasumi.

“My liege,” the gecko squeaks, its voice barely audible. “She’s set up a perimeter with the foam she used to exorcise the arch-devil. There’s nothing we can do. Our best option is to withdraw for now and—”

*SNAP*

The gecko’s head pops clean from its shoulders like an action figure. The gecko’s body flails while its face locks in a silent scream.

“There will be no withdrawal,” the headless demon declares, fangs glistening from its abdomen. “We press the attack to the last, or would any of you like to suffer the fruits of her ‘improments’ as I have?” It eyes each of the remaining demons, instilling fear as its tentacles wriggle. They begin their ambush with two dozen; just over half remain to assault Marshal’s entrenched position as the headless demon concocts a ruthless plan.

Meanwhile, Marshal stands fast behind her line of foam. She’s swapped her fire extinguisher back to spraying spiritual foam, invisible and untraceable to physical beings. She keeps the nozzle in her left hand and her ax in her right, eyes hunting for the slightest movement in the trees that signals their approach. Her grip tightens as nearly a dozen demons stroll out of the forest. Their grunts and hisses echoing in the night. The headless demon walks out in front, Kasumi still dangling from its tentacles. Her kicks and gurgles send a shiver down Marshal’s spine that the demonic show could never match. Emboldened by Marshal’s flinch, the headless demon walks to the edge of the foam arc.

“We’ve come to retrieve the pearl. Hand it over, and we shall leave you in peace,” it says, Kasumi still squirming in its grasp. The pearl suddenly feels like an anchor in Marshal’s pocket. In an instant, she knows there are no lows these demons won’t stoop to in their quest, but that only strengthens her resolve.

“I do not negotiate with the enemy,” Marshal declares, fingers tightening around her ax. “If you want it, then be prepared to suffer the same flames that Sodom, Gomorrah, and your arch-devil faced.” She drops her nozzle and pulls out her lighter. The headless demon’s lips pucker, rising into a snarl. With a flick of its tentacle, it tosses Kasumi, sending her sliding down the foam path, covering her head to toe.

“Then do so at the cost of one of your own,” the headless demon threatens.

“She who consorts with demons is no Maiden.”

“And so you would condemn her to burn with your own flames?”

*Click*

Marshal merely flicks the lighter open, thumb resting on the flint wheel in response. The pair remains in an unsteady standoff, neither side moving. Marshal is content; allowing more time for backup to arrive is to her advantage, but she finds the headless demon’s willingness to do the same unnerving. Kasumi seems to be the only one who takes advantage of the pause, rising from the foam and running off. Despite her stumbling steps, she finds her way around the corner of the inn, where she can hide. She desperately wipes the foam off her body, condensing the fog into droplets to wash it further, but the sticky residue still lingers. All the while, she feels the potion’s effect begin to wear off. As her senses within the fog dim, she feels a greater awareness in her own body, faint tremors in the ground that unnerve her as much as the demons’ stillness.

Finally, three demons break the tension, erupting from the tree line on wings and diving upon Marshal like birds of prey. Marshal wastes no time; she flings her lighter in the air, grabbing her nozzle.

*KSHHHHHH*

She sprays foam into the air, making a zigzag pattern that encircles the flying demons. Simultaneously, the demons on the ground charge. Holding fast to her nozzle, Marshal drops her ax, letting the head fall behind her as she catches the lighter. With demons mere meters away, there is no time for prayers or incantations, only the flick of flint on steel.

*WHOOOMPH*

The burst of blue light is like a flashbang followed by heat. In a flash, the entire clearing is engulfed in flames. Demons roar and cry, as flesh turns to charcoal in seconds. Marshal never relents, even as the foam spewing from her extinguisher ignites at the base, turning it into a flamethrower. She places the lighter in her pocket and catches her ax before it even touches the ground.

Even around the corner, Kasumi feels her hair singe and her skin burn from the foamy residue left on her skin. It doesn’t ignite, but her skin turns red like a sunburn. The sounds of battle echo through her ears. She’s seen Momo in intense fights, but this is something different. Kasumi can’t even sense what’s going on, the heat dropping the humidity like a stone and leaving her blind. She musters her courage and peers around the corner, seeing a scene that can only be described as hellish.

Marshal stands firm against the horde, dousing them in flames and severing limbs with her ax. The demons try to surround her, only to have their charred remains reflected in the tinted oxygen mask that covers her face. Despite her ferocity, the demons still have numbers, and their suicidal charge allows a few to get close. They slash with claw and fang, ripping her clothes but never drawing blood.

“I have to run,” Kasumi thinks, pounding on her legs that refuse to move. “I can’t fight her, not like this. I’ll die if I try, so why even bother—” Her thoughts stop as Momo’s face flashes across her mind. “If I don’t get the pearl, then I’ll never get Momo, and if I couldn’t have Momo, then what was the point of living?” She gathers her resolve. Rising to her feet despite her trembling knees, she watches for her opportunity.

She observes the battle, processing every movement like analyzing a boss battle. The sides are nearly even, but the demons use Marshal’s divided attention to their advantage. In a surprise move, three demons erupt from the ground around her, slashing and then diving back in. They rupture the earth and leave trails when near the surface. It takes all of Marshal’s focus to predict their movements, slashing wildly at the air until she resorts to sending flames down their holes to burn them.

Taking the lead in a swift motion, the headless demon uses this opening to pounce from behind. It coils its tentacles down both of Marshal’s arms from shoulders to wrists. Then it thrusts its two remaining tentacles into her sides, driving in the spiked ends over and over again. Marshal’s thick firefighter’s coat reduces the lethal strikes to dull contusions, but at the cost of its integrity. The spikes rip fabric, revealing a faint violet glow around her pocket. With her arms restrained, Marshal is forced to gamble. With a flick of her wrist, she locks her nozzle, then drops it. The nozzle, still acting as a flamethrower, flails like a high-pressure hose. Flames spew everywhere, engulfing the headless demon and Marshal both, but only one is wearing flame-resistant clothes.

“Agh!” the demon cries, releasing Marshal on reflex. Marshal lands on her feet, grabs her nozzle, and pumps the output to maximum. The flames brighten from blue to white as the heat increases, reducing the demon to nothing.

Once the headless demon is dealt with, Marshal looks around, ready to endgame the next target, only to see that all the demons on the ground and in the air are dealt with. She calms herself, controls her breathing, and stops the flames from her extinguisher, but an unnatural humidity snaps her back to reality.

*CONK*

Her ax strikes dirt, nearly severing Kasumi’s hand as she reaches for the arch-devil pearl. From her vantage point, Kasumi saw the pearl fly out of Marshal’s pocket when the headless demon restrained her and rushed to retrieve it. Kasumi tries using fog to hide herself, but the heat and fading potion make it too thin.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten you, witch,” Marshal cries, stomping toward her final target. Kasumi panics, reaching for the pearl despite her trembling hands. She grasps it twice, three times before finding a steady grip, only to look up at a nozzle pointing centimeters from her face. Marshal stands tall over Kasumi, lighter in hand, ready to disintegrate her just like the headless demon.

Kasumi tries to speak, but her brain can’t form words, fear engulfing her mind like the flames around them. In desperation, she turns to her final move. “Please don’t kill me,” she begs, planting her face into the scorched earth, covering it with soot.

“Do not think this brings me joy,” Marshal says, unswayed by Kasumi’s display. “To preserve what’s good, sometimes, you must first burn away what’s evil.” Her words are cold enough to freeze the flames around them. The pair remains motionless for a moment, Marshal giving Kasumi time to repent and Kasumi begging to be let go, neither prepared for what gives way first.

*rrrumble*

Kasumi feels it first: a slight giving of the dirt her face lies in. She feels the dirt begin to sink, and vibrations race across her whole body as the ground shakes.

*KRRRAAK*

Marshal turns her head. Moments later, cracks open in the side of the inn as beams bend and windows crack. Lights flicker on as the sound wakes guests and family staff alike.

*GRAK—KRAK*

The collapse happens all at once. Half the inn falls into a sinkhole dug by the burrowing demons during the fight. Kasumi is held in a captive gaze, watching as people rush to the edge or dangle from it. Despite the carnage, she’s frozen in fear, unable to move until she feels the breeze from Marshal dashing forward.

“Mom! Dad! Onee-chan!” Marshal cries, drops her lighter, and leaps into the hole. She ignores all warnings from her guardian, reminding her that her powers must be kept secret, that she has a duty as a Maiden. “I have a duty to my family!” she retorts, rushing to clear rubble and pull people from debris. The work is exhausting, and she doesn’t stop until first responders arrive and her family begins to wonder where she is.

By the time everyone’s accounted for and ambulances have been loaded, hours have passed. Marshal finally returns to where she left Kasumi and the arch-devil pearl. The only trace that either was ever there is a face print pressed into the soot, along with footprints leading away from the inn.