The earlier gunshot marks the start of another battle behind the duel of man and demon. It already claimed the life of one, but on the other hand, also alerted the remaining six. The six soldiers turn their back around with weapons in hand, preparing themselves for a battle of life and death.

“Charge! Kill all of them for the glory of the Demon Realm!”

The human soldiers hear a battle cry. Of course, the content is unbeknownst to them, but when a demon yells out loud something before a human, it usually involves killing humans or the Demon Realm, sometimes both. From the darkness behind them come four demon soldiers, their swords ready in hand. Behind them is a young Melas cadet with human-like features, wearing their signature combat cloak. But that is irrelevant, if he’s with the demons then he is a demon, and there’s only one thing a human would do to a demon who opposes them.

-The general told us to be on guard. And fail him, we shall not! Men, show them the might of us human!

The human soldiers shout out loud their battle cry. The death of their unlucky comrade doesn’t weight them down, because his death isn’t the only casualty they have up until now. Their comrades outside are dying by seconds, on their shoulders are the weight of hundreds, if not thousands of those who had fallen and passed their will onto them. So, they will not fall, not today, not until their mission is done, not until their duty is fulfilled, not until their faith is repaid.

-Kill them all!

The human soldiers rush at their enemy, closing the distance between both parties. The two sides start clashing swords. The sparks made by clashing metal lighten the battleground bit by bit like a small swarm of fireflies. It shows that the human are overwhelming their demon opponents. Each sword exchanges draw the humans closer to victory. The goat-head demon soldiers, despite having the initiative from their surprise attack, find their sword skills being out-matched by those used by the human soldiers.

“Impossi...!”

A demon soldier gets killed mid-sentence. His body falls to the ground as his throat was cut, lying there to bleed till his death. Another have a sword ran through his torso. The wound makes him too weak to do anything, and gets himself a quick mercy with a stab through the heart. The remaining ones get pushed back to the darkness whence they came from. Their surprise attack fail, for reasons they do not understand.

There’re only two demon soldiers left, if not counting the human familiar staying behind from the start of the fight, whose reason not to join the fray is due to his fear of friendly fire, and probably something else as well. His ranged weapon is a merciless one, once fired, it can’t be directed to another direction, unlike a sword slash. Each shot is aimed to kill, and certainly not something to be used liberally in a chaotic swords exchange.

But now that his own side’s rank have become a bit thinner, there is no longer any restraint to stop him from using his trump card.

BANG!

He opens fire. A bullet goes out of his gun’s barrel and pierces through the nearest human soldier’s body armor.

-Urgah!

The human soldier who gets shot falls to his knee, but he does not submit. It wounds him, but it fails to kill him, not yet. He stands up with the help of his comrades and sets his sight on the one who shot him, as do his comrades.

A normal bullet could have seal the deed, and a normal bullet is indeed something the young familiar with a gun used earlier. But it is not enough. ‘Probably because of his armor’, thought Akuma. It’s not hard enough to be bulletproof, but the iron armor wore by the human soldier is indeed a fine piece of craft made by the Kingdom of Metal. It reduces the piercing force and the damage the bullet causes. Either he needs to waste more ammo at the torso, or aims through the head for a quick kill, which is a bit hard to perform. These choices are not difficult to choose for a trained killer, but they are to Akuma. For someone who just has his first kill, killing does not get easier, not yet. But he has already accepted there are things that simply must be done. If he does not kill, he will get himself and those around him killed.

“You stand there and laid waste to the enemy. We’ll try to protect you.”

Says a goat-head demon soldier. Akuma remembers this voice, he’s the bearded guy that harassed him and Iola yesterday. But that is irrelevant. Right now, both of them are fighting for their life. He is Akuma’s ally, and Akuma is the same to him. If Akuma fails, both will die. A good reason to shove mercy aside and rain bullets on their enemy.

“Understood.”

With iron resolve, Akuma opens fire again. This time, he finishes the job with the wounded soldier earlier. A bullet through the chest, right at his heart. The torso has always been an easier target to shoot at rather than the head, and Akuma prefers not to waste his precious bullets. To Akuma, this isn’t a game, it’s a battle to survive and to prevail.

When their number has been reduced to only five, Akuma begins to turn his target to the remaining human soldiers. But by the time he gets his second kill count, the soldiers have already figured out Akuma’s gimmick. The element of surprise is no longer in his favor. The soldiers start to take a more swift approach. They randomize their rushing pattern, rather than running in a straight path, they divide their ranks and attack from two sides, which is guarded by the two demon soldiers as per planned.

One side is taken by three human, the other two go for the remaining one. The two demons soldier have their limit. They can’t handle more than two at once, which is why Akuma goes for the side with the most numerous attackers. It seems his left side, guarded by the bearded demon, is currently in a pinch with three humans charging at him at once, so the following gun shots are dedicated to those enemies. The first barrage fail to find their way to hit anything, but Akuma manages to get a lucky shot at a soldier’s leg. He stumbles to the ground, and can’t keep up the pace with his other comrades. This gives the bearded demon an easier time to fend for himself. But in that short span of time, the right side defended by the other soldier has already fallen. The demon soldier defending the place gets out-skilled by his opponents. He fails to get a clean hit, and meets his end with a blade through his stomach.

Even though the surprise attack took away a few of their enemies, Akuma and the other demon probably don’t expect things to turn out this way. By logic, a common devilman can match two ordinary humans, but in this battle, they can barely match one, let alone two at the same time.

“Get out of here! The plan failed! Run away, now!”

From the other side of the hall way, Lapidoth shouts. This opens a small chance for an attack from Origen, and he exploits it. A mace attack from sideway. Lapidoth is not foolish enough to take an attack that can crush boulders to the face. He uses his twin swords to block the attack, and gets pushed to the back from pure force alone. He doesn’t get away from blocking unscathed, his arms are trembling and numbed by the sheer physical power Origen possesses. If what people said about a devilman has the strength twice a common man is true, then Origen himself must have the strength of one hundred devilman combined.

Without giving him a chance to breath, Origen continues his assault at Lapidoth, not with his mace, but his shield instead. The mace gives him too many openings, yet his shield can do the same job and protect him at the same time. It’s like Origen’s mace isn’t his weapon in the first place, the black man is terrifying enough with his shield alone.

CLANG

Origen’s shield and Lapidoth’s swords clash. As Lapidoth tries not to get himself killed, his opponent suddenly starts talking.

-Surprise your sneak attack failed? That is to be expected!

At this point, Origen no longer cares whether or not his opponent knows the human’s language. Both sides are already having a conversation with swords and shield as their mouthpieces. Origen learns his opponent’s aniexty through his shivering blades, and Lapidoth learns his enemy’s iron will through the unmovable shield he carries.

-They are men handpicked by me solely for this mission. They may not be able to best you in combat, but my trust in their skills is as strong as their faith in my righteous cause! They will not be defeated by the common demons you brought with you!

Origen bashes his shield at Lapidoth’s swords. This time, Lapidoth can no longer withstand the black paladin’s unparalleled strength. The sword on his right gets blown out of Lapidoth’s hand, and probably breaks a few of his finger bones in the process. But the demon soldier does not yield, he quickly improvise by drawing the knife attached on his belt as a back-up weapon. Origen of course doesn’t allow him a chance to attack, he swings his mace in hope of a quick end to this fight. But, like a ghost, as the mace makes contact with his body, Lapidoth dodges it, not by rolling, but by walking. It looks like he just put a few steps in a nonchalantly way. It’s not something Origen can describe with words, like how he hit him with mace, yet doesn’t, the attack looks like it just phrase through the demon soldier’s body, but Origen doesn’t feel that way. He swings his mace down, hit Lapidoth’s body, yet it turns out to be a mere after-image. In a span of an eye-blink, Lapidoth is already standing on Origen’s right side.

‘What strange technique, I never fought someone with this kind of abilities before’, thinks Origen as Lapidoth starts his payback. He swiftly dances the volley of death with his blade and dagger combo, which Origen barely manages to block using his mace. Origen once again successfully defends himself, but for the first time, Lapidoth actually lands a hit on him. A wound through his vambrace, made possible by Lapidoth’s dagger. Origen has familiarized himself with Lapidoth’s twin swords style, but a shift to a sword and dagger combo catches him by surprise. Most armored soldiers don’t use knife as a primary weapon. To a well-made metal armor, knives and daggers are as good as toothpicks if they can’t penetrate the places an armor can’t cover. But not in his case, Lapidoth’s dagger actually cut through the iron vambrace protecting the black man’s arm. The wound is not serious and doesn’t hinder Origen’s ability to crush people to a pulp with his mace, but it does serve as a warning bell for him to quickly end this charade. If he lets this go out for too long, Origen may find himself dead before fulfilling his duty. Not to mention the fighting behind his back. His men need him more than he need himself.

-Gruahh! You will pay for this!

Origen shouts. He furiously swings his mace, acting as if such wrath came from being wounded by his adversary. The angry face of a prejudiced Lutumian man like him probably makes such an atrocious acting successful, and it looks like Lapidoth took the bait. He performs his mysterious ability to phrase through attacks once again, and again, and again. The air is the only thing getting attacked by Origen, he’s wasting his strength, but not in vain. Slowly, Origen analyzes the sound made by both side, detaching the noise of his mace swinging in the air, the cries of pain from his followers behind him, the chaotic battlefield outside where only tiny cries of despair can be heard. Without all those, all he can hear are footsteps, made by the demon soldier in front of him.

His eyes can deceive him, but his ears will not.

-This charade ends here!

After he deciphers the pattern of Lapidoth’s dodging technique, Origen pushes his shield at the space he predicts Lapidoth will dodge to. And his deduction doesn’t fail him, a shield charged with soul energy, rams right at Lapidoth’s side. No amount of blocking from the demon soldier can protect him from the force channeled by the Black Paladin. Similar to being rammed by a truck, Lapidoth gets blown at a nearby wall, making a rather big hole in the process. His sword shatters to pieces of metal, it takes most of the blow for him, but that doesn’t make Lapidoth’s condition any better. There is blood flowing through the mouth of his helmet. The demon soldier is rendered immobile, it’s ambiguous whether he still lives or not.

But that is not Origen’s concern, and neither is Akuma’s, even if the young man is scared for life when his hope gets crushed from the sight of Lapidoth’s defeat.

The bearded demon soldier dies. He fiercely halts the humans’ track with Akuma’s support, and such valor gets him a sword through his chest. The humans’ numbers have been reduced to three, with two of them wounded by Akuma’s gunfire, but their iron armors render his bullets ineffective. Even when wounded, they are still capable of fighting to the bitter end, and even an unwounded devilman soldier cannot stop their track. Is it their skills in battle that helps them prevail, or is it something else? Akuma certainly doesn’t want to stay and find out. He has already emptied his gun and is in need to reload, but the moment he stand till to reload his gun will be the start of his end. If he shows an opening, the human soldiers will rush at him to put a sword through his chest, like how the bearded demon met his end earlier.

Before he plans out his next move, Akuma needs to get out of this situation first.

‘There’s only one way left’

Akuma puts his hand into his cloak and takes out a pipe bomb, the timer type. He activates it, throws it toward the approaching humans and runs away. In the span of three seconds, it will explode and destroy the pursuing humans. That is his plan, but…

-Don’t follow him!

The only unwounded human soldier suddenly shouts, which stops his other two comrades from pursuing. They are standing out of the estimated blast radius, and will be unharmed when it goes off. A pity for Akuma indeed, but nevertheless, it gives him some more space and time for a retreat.

BOOM!

The pipe bomb explodes, taking a chunk of the wall leading to the sky outside along with it. The soldiers are unharmed, but a part of the floor is not. When the dust is settled, all the human soldiers can see is a black trail of smoke blocking their vision. Akuma is no longer in their sight, but they are still alive, for now.

-That was…dangerous. Thanks, Ettore, for your warning.

Says a soldier. He seems tired, a gunshot wound above his stomach probably doesn’t help.

-How did you know what the enemy was planning?

Another soldier asks. For a guy with a bullet in his shoulder, he still looks fine and is up for another brawl to the death.

-Well, he ran after throwing that strange pipe toward us. So I thought it may be a trap. Seems like my intuition came true. We just barely escaped death.

The final soldier answers. He’s the only unwounded soldier in this small group, and is a bit shorter than the other two.

-Don’t get cocky just yet, kid!

-I’m not a kid!

For a moment, it’s like a war isn’t happening around the soldiers, thanks to their small banter, but it matters naught to Akuma, who is hiding in a distance not far from them, underneath the black smoke he created using his smoke bomb. Something he made with Kardia’s help, in case he needs to escape from his adversary. He never thought the time to utilize it would come so soon. But nonetheless, it saves his skin for the time being.

If he run as fast as he can, Akuma may escape from this place and find protection under the main army. He would like to, and would have done it if he’s still the same Akuma before the war. But the current Akuma, someone who have killed someone, and watched the people fighting beside him killed, can no longer afford such choice. They didn’t pay their lives for him to escape with his, and Akuma knows it. He already made his resolve before Deborah that day. Even if he can’t directly fight the human soldiers, at least he can wait for them to leave, check up on whether Lapidoth still live or not, and plan on the next move.

Just like how they stopped before Akuma’s pipe bomb earlier, maybe the human are cautious of his black smoke. That’s what Akuma thought since he doesn’t hear their banter anymore. No signs of people approaching. If he waits longer, maybe by the time the smoke fades away, the humans will be gone. But what if they’re still there? He certainly can’t face them with an emptied gun.

Akuma wants to be ready by the time they arrive. Slowly, he detaches the empty magazine from his gun, puts it as silently as possible on the ground, takes out another loaded one, and puts it inside the gun once again. But he hasn’t let the magazine fully in the gun, not yet.

When he finishes reloading, there will be a sound coming from the gun. A crack sound, similar to the sound of a cricket, but nonetheless will alert the enemy should they decide to venture into his smoke. A risky move, should he goes all the way. The magazine only needs a push from his hand, the question is: Should he do it?

He shouldn’t, Akuma thinks about himself. But something makes him do it. A footstep that isn’t his, inside the smoke. It shocks him into pushing the magazine into the gun, giving out a small crack sound.

But that is enough to reveal his position.

-Urgoahhh!

A mace suddenly comes from under the black smoke. The full might of the man behind that weapon blows away all the smoke surrounding both of them. Akuma instinctively blocks with both of his hand, which gets him blown out of his position to the hallway behind him. His arms are numbs from the impact, but at least no bones are broken, despite the physical force his arms took. Kardia’s enchanted cloak saves him yet again, it absorbed most of the blunt force. A lucky item to have in this situation, a situation Akuma certainly doesn’t want to get into.

Before him stands Origen, the Black Paladin, with his mace and shield by his side, his followers standing far away behind him. The man doesn’t smile nor express any emotion, but Akuma can feel the fury underneath his mace. Of course, Akuma killed his followers, Origen’s fury is justified, he just hides it very well.

There’s no running for him now. Akuma can’t outrun him, not this man. The only choice is to fight. A risky fight for him, but should he win, there will be glory await.

After all, what’s a bigger glory than taking the life of the enemy’s commanding general?