Medea was a blur, darting in and out of the corkscrew demon’s melee range at a lightning pace.

The demon had elongated, wrapping loops of its body across the ground as though to trip Medea up. Tiny thorns kept sprouting from its skin as Medea came close, but they were too slow to hit her.

The demon itself still clutched the skull between its hands, and it seems to be chanting in a strange language. Spikes of bright white light kept appearing around its head like a crown, then pointing toward Medea and shooting toward her.

Each time, Medea dodged or blocked the spike with her crescent blade. Between the thorns and the spikes, it was as though she were fighting off two quick enemies at once, all the time keeping her footing and not being tripped by the demon’s elongated body.

But Achilles saw in an instant that she wasn’t landing any attacks.

said Virgil.

Achilles’s foe, the bulky demon, was running right for the corkscrew demon.

“Watch out!” Achilles shouted, and sprinted after the enemy.

But the muscular demon did not attack Medea. Instead, it ran for the corkscrew demon, whining pitifully. “Retreat! I have no idea what these people are, but they’re not ordinary! Retreat will we can, Little Brother!”

In response, the corkscrew demon summoned another crown of spikes—

And slammed them through the other demon’s chest.

Achilles stopped short, and Medea sprinted backward by his side. “That can be good,” she said. Her voice sounded slightly distorted.

In a few moments, the glowing spikes had dragged the muscular demon close to the other. The corkscrew demon unhinged its jaw completely and swallowed its injured companion whole.

The muscular demon screamed as it disappeared down the other’s throat, its voice falling silent.

It feebly struggled to pull itself out, but long and bony hands sprouted from the corkscrew demon’s face and shoveled the meal down its throat.

A crunching and pulping sound emanated from the scene, but then it seemed the muscular demon liquefied in the other demon’s body, for there was not even a lump visible in the corkscrew demon’s unwound torso.

said Virgil, sounding disgusted.

The corkscrew demon turned toward them, its grin inhumanly wide. “Oh, big brother, how long have I wanted to do that! Every time you opened your stupid mouth and show just how little goes on in your head, I wanted to rip that head off!”

It all happened in only a few seconds. Achilles and Medea didn’t even bother exchanging words, but leaped back into the fight.

Their weapons were already hissing through the air when the demon transformed.

Its long torso, already serpent-like, grew thick scales. Spikes like the ones which had previously appeared to stab at Medea now grew permanently along its length.

Its muscles doubled in size, and it grew another pair of arms which ended in bone scythes.

Just as Virgil’s edge came down upon a portion of its torso, the monster’s system information changed.

>

Despite himself, a tiny trickle of fear touched Achilles’s heart.

“We can’t do it,” he whispered. “This thing just got twice as powerful!”

Medea streaked along the creature’s body, leaping for its throat, but had to dodge away and parry one of its new scythe arms. A glowing spike came extremely close to her head.

screeched Virgil. He had sounded a little calmer while the demon was running from them, but seemed to have given in to Achilles’s corruption now that they were actively fighting again.

“Virgil!” Achilles snapped. White spikes flew toward him, but he blocked them with his shield, then kept hacking at the spiky flesh before him.

Despite Virgil’s claim that he dealt double damage to demons, each of Achilles’s attacks only did 1 damage per hit.

After leveling up, the enemy still had over 50 HP remaining. It seemed impossible.

Up above, in the branches of the colossal tree, the monkeys screamed and leaped up and down. They seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the fight.

The demon cackled. “It’s no use!” it said. “I have more power than you could imagine! Forget the pods. I’ll just eat you both alive!”

It swung its arm contemptuously to block one of Medea’s attacks—

She pivoted in midair and cut off one of its scythe arms at the joint!

The demon screamed in pain as black blood gushed from the wound and tried to counterattack, but Medea was already gone.

Then something strange happened.

The severed limb spun through the air toward the tree.

Before it could bury itself in the wood, a bulky portion of the demon’s torso hurled itself between the tree and the limb.

The demon’s own arm buried itself in its flesh, eliciting another scream.

Yet, there was also a quick look of relief in the demon’s glowing eyes.

Achilles paused in mid-swing. “You see that?” he called to Medea.

“Yes,” she growled.

The demon suddenly withdrew its body like a coiling spring, rising to a towering height and pulling itself away from Achilles. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but it’ll be the last thing you ever see! Demonic Art: Hard-Boiled Wonderland!”

The ground shook beneath them, and then the moonlight expanded, illuminating everything in view with flat, white light.

It was as though the world had been covered with snow.

The monkeys above screamed in voices that sounded suddenly human, then hurled themselves to the ground fifty meters below.

Achilles threw up his shield as a reflex, but none of the creatures hit him.

Their fur shone bright red, the only color in this strange new world, and then splattered sickeningly upon the ground all around him and Medea.

From their corpses rose lanky, human-shaped figures with no arms, seemingly made of animated blood. Their eyes burned white, and they opened toothed maws which were likewise bright white.

A sound like screeching metal filled the air, and hundreds of nearly invisible white spikes hurtled through the air to skewer Achilles and Medea.