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After the battle had ceased, all was quiet. There, sitting on the rubble of the wall he was tossed at, was Sebastian. He took a deep inhale of the lit cigarette he was holding and exhaled, followed by a cloud of black smoke. In his left hand, he held the bloodied cigarette carton that he took from Rei.

'She didn’t turn out to be as good as I had hoped.' He thought, scoffing at the rhetoric.

Sure, Rei was talented, being able to instantly copy the techniques that she sees, as well as decipher a whole language just from hearing a few words from it, she was anything but lacking in talent.

‘But …’ That was the issue.

‘She’s too talented.’ That was all she was.

Her lack of a concrete fighting style in favour of flexibility aside, she had too much of both pride and confidence that her own skills would make her able to squeeze out of any situation, thus disregarding the depth of the enemy’s own plans.

‘In the end she succumbed, well it’s not really my problem anymore.’

Taking another huff, he exhaled as he looked around. Bodies, bodies, and more bodies; bodies as far as the eye can see. All of them lifeless, laying down in various positions as they were killed in that manner. Not even a single living being left, excluding Sebastian.

Of course, there was the unbelievable stench that this cluster of corpses made too, but Sebastian was used to this. If he couldn't even withstand smell, what was even the point?

Then it set in, the silence. It could penetrate the thickest of armors, parry the toughest of blades, and deflect the most powerful of spells. The empty nothingness that was broken by an occasional noise. The chirping of crickets, the small sway of wind, and the rustling of something.

*Wooosh*

At that moment, several figures emerged from the shadows. The hall was dark, a perfect setting for an assassination. But these figures were different, they were difficult to spot … No, they were seemingly one with the shadows, being intertwined with the darkness as their presence was easily concealed. Their physical proportions or features? It was quite dark, so not even observing them was possible.

Despite that, Sebastian already knew what it was, and thus didn’t really make that big of a fuss about it.

“You guys are late.” Sebastian said, pulling his cigarette out of his mouth, then flicking it out of his hand and into the ground, stepping on it to snuff out the light for good.

The figures bowed, before one of them stepped forward to respond.

“Apologies, Sir Beckett.” A man with about the same stature and clothes as Sebastian had, his habits mimicking very much of what Sebastian himself had been very much used to over his past couple of years working in Maltha as a butler.

“Christ, Hewlett stop it, we’re already past that, the act has been unveiled.” Sebastian rubbed his head, a bit annoyed.

Hewlett, the man who spoke first, giggled a bit at first, before responding.

“My apologies Sir Beckett, it’s just that the behaviour had been so ingrained in me, that I couldn’t help but act as if I were still working under the King’s salary.” He explained, wherein almost all of the figures, who were wearing maid and butler clothes, nodded in understanding.

True enough, certainly years of charading would be enough to alter the habits of any experienced spy.

“Well, as expected, I’ve suppressed the vessel, she should be good for extraction.” He said, waving her hands to show Rei’s corpse only lying out on the ground, still bleeding out, unmoving.

Nodding in understanding, as if he had expected the outcome, Hewlett ordered a few maids and butlers who had what seemed to be surgical masks and tools on them to approach Rei’s corpse in order to closely appraise it, before speaking once again himself.

“Then, we shall be transferring the vessel to the location that had been chosen–” He was saying, before his words were cut off by Sebastian.

“No, you will be extracting it here.” Sebastian said, a clear and commanding tone overwhelming all other noise present.

The other ‘servants’ in the room looked at Sebastian, a look of confusion present in their faces as they looked at him as if he had gone mad.

“It’s better to extract it as soon as possible.” Sebastian said, his tone even firmer.

Sebastian didn’t really know why, but he had a hunch that it would be better to extract it as soon as possible, and avoid any mishaps as it would be more awkward to carry a full corpse rather than just one organ.

To further reinforce his point, Sebastian put his hand on the pommel of his sheathed sword, making everyone in the room shiver in instinct.

Hewlett, who had been implying his opposition, simply sighed in surrender.

It was clear who the stronger one was in the scene, both in terms of authority and actual strength.

“Very well, the extraction will take place here.” He said, raising his arms as a sign of concession, and shortly after signalling the ones holding Rei’s body to lower it down onto a readily-prepared operating table.

“We can’t really disobey the hierarchy now can we?” He said, smiling sarcastically for a bit, making Sebastian scowl in a bit of annoyance.

“That aside, how is the situation?” Sebastian asked

“Well, most of the palace’s military units have been wiped out, and we are well on our way to clearing the path for extraction, albeit now that we have lost the element of surprise as the battle went on, resistance became steeper.” Hewlett reported, to which Sebastian nodded as he heard.

Certainly, nobody expected the meek and humble palace servants to actually be able to pack a punch, and all just be assassins undercover right?

However, there was still another issue he was curious about.

“What of the Second Hero?”

“Well, due to the heavier than expected resistance, the Second Hero has managed to leave the premises successfully, managing to escape our grasp.” Hewlett said, a tiny ounce of bitterness felt through his words.

‘Hmm … that’s a shame’ Sebastian thought, somewhat quite disappointed.

“Should we send a party to hunt for her?” Hewlett asked, making Sebastian shake his head in refusal.

The Second Hero aside, it was a bit unfortunate that they couldn’t grab her and use her themselves, however …

‘The Mistress be damned, I won’t be doing anything outside of what I’ve been ordered to.’ He thought.

“Unneeded, we can’t spare the manpower and we’ve yet a job to do.” Sebastian said.

“You, the medical team and half of the current assault members here will be staying here to oversee the extraction process, I shall be taking half to clear the way.”

“Very well then, may good luck be in your favour.” Hewlett said, bowing as he saw Sebastian take half of his battle-ready men and women away for what would obviously be indiscriminate manslaughter outside the large doors, leaving him and the other members inside.

Moving step by step, he gradually went further and further away from the room where Rei was, and felt his mood elating slowly as more distance was gained with each and every step.

‘It’s almost done, and I’ll be able to finally use my talents elsewhere …’

Sebastian could finally go back to his actual routine, and away from the charade he spent years practising.

Or, at least, that was how it was supposed to be.

*CRAAAAAASHH!*

‘What now!?’

The sound … It was akin to thunder crashing, however, it only occurred once, yet it felt like the vibrations intensified multiple times over the span of a few moments, making it devastating to the human ears and body.

Whilst the people with him crouched and covered their ears, Sebastian looked back and saw the large doors being flayed open, seemingly with ease. The outline of a person could be barely seen from the massive smoke cloud that ensued from the destruction of the entire doorway.

That doorway may have been old, but it had stood the test of time. Yet here it was, falling due to some abrupt force.

*Spark…*

There it was, another instance of the sound. This time, it was actually ushered down to a faint noise. But Sebastian could see it, within the fog were red sparkles of light. And it, whatever "it" was, was getting closer.

The smoke around this mysterious figure finally retreated and Sebastian couldn't believe his eyes.

It was Rei.

'Wait … This feeling …?' He had a gut wrenching feeling welling up deep inside him.

His breathing became heavier as Rei took each and every step one at a time. All the while red sparks of lightning surrounded her, yet eventually faded.

Sebastian was stuck frozen not because of fear, but because of pure shock and awe.

‘She's dead. She's … meant to be dead.’ He began to unconsciously take a few steps back himself, his fight or flight response going haywire by screaming "Scram! Run! Get out of here!"

Even his instincts, the very essence of the human psyche, were telling him to flee.

‘Nonsense.’

But then again, he couldn't take his eyes off of her.

It was Rei, yet at the same time, not Rei.

He took a closer look and saw that her school uniform was torn apart, with stains of blood remaining as a firm reminder of the previous battle. However, there were no wounds present, not even a single bruise could be seen from the holes of her shredded clothes. Her hair was dirty and unkempt, coloured black with red tips. Her skin, as pale as the snow. A frightening belle.

Sebastian took another step back. Her eyes, oh her eyes. They were a perfect red, reminiscent of a bloody battlefield. She was staring right at Sebastian, and if stares could kill, he would've died three times over by now.

A bleak, yet unamused expression filled every corner of her face. For the first time, in a long while, Sebastian was hesitant.

No, it wasn’t like that during his last battle, the air felt … different.

‘It’s not her.’ He simply concluded.

With each step, the distance between the two were steadily shrinking. His breathing got heavier, but he felt something peculiar. In the last battle, he could feel his and the surrounding mana warping. It was a strange phenomena, but it was probably a reaction to the otherworldly presence.

Here, he felt the mana around his skin ... shaking?

‘This is … odd.’

It was as if it were reacting in fear. Certainly, it was slowly receding from the area, albeit in a quantity that only the most attentive would be able to notice.

‘The mana itself … is afraid?’

“You … you were aiming to get my heart right?” A chilling voice that sounded like Rei’s, yet wasn’t at the same time.

‘This is … absurd …’ Sebastian couldn’t help but think.

“I know from how you hit almost every vital spot except the heart …” Reina continued her words.

‘She’s correct …’ Sebastian gulped, slowly getting his senses back in order through sheer force of will, the same process going on with the underlings just beneath him.

“S-Sir … t-that’s …” One of them spoke up, his stuttering due to how he was still reeling in from the shock that Reina was emanating.

“I know!” He said, shutting him up.

‘A Demon Lord …’

“But did you really think that you can take a Demon Lord down with just that …?” She asked, a disappointed tone quite present in her voice, one that was so strong that even the densest of minds could see through.

“Listen, boy.” Reina said, forcefully grabbing the group’s attention with the mere eerieness of her voice.

“When surpressing a high-rank Demon, you aim for the whole head.” She said, raising one of her hands in order to point an index finger to her head.

“Decapitation, crushing of the head, slicing the head into pieces, blasting magic at it, deletion, anything works!” She exclaimed, saying out loud.

“It was something so easy to do and understand, yet in the long duration that I have been unmoving … you didn’t.”

Reina held her hand up, and held her neck, her pale and thin fingers growing short claws that went across her neck, lightly tearing into her flesh and drawing blood.

Trivial scratches that healed in under a second.

“... and that’s why you lost, because you couldn’t cut my head off …”

“... and because you had the gall to come at me without the intention to kill.” She said, the ends of her mouth extending upward, forming a horrendous and eerie, yet beautiful smile which only tingled Sebastian’s sense of pride.

“... I’ve lost you say?” Sebastian’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

He didn’t want to hear that from a person who was using the body of a girl he just wrecked in a fight.

‘No, that’s simply false.’

Losing? Him?

The girl in front of her, a Demon Lord, although powerful, was in the end but a starving and weakened one, suffering from severe malnutrition.

‘So what if you’re a demon lord?’ He asked to Rei inside his head, looking at her figure which omitted the scent of death and oblivion itself.

‘I killed you once …’ He thought, his mana flurrying in fury, his senses shifting and preparing for battle.

‘... so I’ll just kill you again.’

“The battle is only beginning.” Sebastian said, drawing his sword.

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