Two pairs of eyes stared to the distance from the highest tower of that city. It was a starless and moonless night, and the city began to darken as its inhabitant ceased their activities.

The night was silent. Far too silent. Even the snow stopped falling that night.

Aldwin and Rose were scouting around the designated target area for tomorrow raid. While they knew it was a trap and they did plan to bait the trap, they don’t want any unforeseen circumstances to happen and screw with their plan.

Rose turned her eyes to Aldwin. Careful so that Aldwin didn’t notice it.

She always thought Aldwin’s words and sarcasm were annoying, it never occurred to her that his silence would be so unsettling. He hadn’t talked more than necessary since her encounter with Lucifer. He hadn’t in fact, talk with her at all after that. Was he mad at her, or was he just trolling her like always?

The situation was awkward for her.

She wanted the silence to end, but starting a conversation was embarrassing since she hadn’t apologized to him yet. And just thinking about apologizing was enough to make her face flushed red.

She rarely apologizes, almost never in fact. She also never feels bothered when she didn’t apologize when she was at fault. So the feeling was a first time for her.

“Aldwin.” She said with an almost unhearable voice. Aldwin didn’t react, though she was sure he could hear it. “Aldwin.” She called again. This time with a louder voice. Still, he didn’t react. “Aldwin.” With an even louder voice. “Aldwin!” Now she shouted.

Yet he still didn’t react. His stare was focused on the distance and his mind seemingly wanders somewhere else.

Rose clenched her fist. Her face burned with embarrassment. “I-I’m sorry okay. It’s my fault for not listening to what you say. You’re right and I'm wrong! I’m sorry!”

Silence.

Rose raised her face to look at him. He was still in the same position with the same distant stare in his eyes.

His eyes suddenly moved and looked at her. His face turned to her. “Did you say something Rose? I was daydreaming just now.” He grabbed his own head. “But can it be called daydreaming when it’s night? Hmm.”

T-this bastard. He pretends that he didn’t hear my apology.

“Nothing! Forget everything!” She looked away.

“Why the red face Rose?” A mischievous grin appeared on his face. He looked toward the distance again. “I miss something embarrassing don’t I?” He asked.

Rose, of course, didn’t answer him. Whether he truly didn’t hear her apologise or he just pretending to not hear it, it didn’t matter to her. She already told her heart’s content and a great burden was lifted off her shoulder.

Her eyes wandered. From the sky, the city, the street down below, then it slowly moved to a church in the distance. She couldn’t actually see the church, she just knew the general location.

She sighed remembering Friede condition. After what had happened to her the day before, there was no way for her to hide the fact any longer. Rather than her not knowing anything, she thought it was better to let her know about

everything so that she could take care of herself. The game, faction, god source.

She was sure it was the best course of action, but there was a doubt in her heart. Was it right to drag an innocent person into the game? A person who doesn’t have a spirit to protect her. Rein and his spirits could and will protect her of course, but something just doesn’t feel right about it. Especially about the part that Friede didn’t seems to be too shocked about it.

Did Friede already knew about the game, about the faction, she wondered.

She shook her head to dismiss those thoughts. Even if she did know about the game, it was not a problem as long as she didn’t participate in it.

“Forget it. Do you see anything strange Aldwin?” She asked, returning to her serious demeanor.

“No, nothing so fa-r” Aldwin squinted his eyes.

This was the first time he did it during their scouting. His eyesight was superhuman, extraordinary even for a spirit. He could see the edges of the city with high detail from the tallest building, he had no need to squint his eyes no matter the condition, even in an almost pitch black condition.

“Did something happened Aldwin?” She asked noticing his strange behavior.

“Back down Rose.” He said.

“What?” She was confused about his sudden change of Tone.

“Back down!”

Rose jumped back after he shouted. There was only one reason for him to do that, enemy. Where and what she didn’t know.

Aldwin also jumped back a few step and raised his right arm toward the heaven.

Rose yelped and shut her eyes when a blinding flash struck them.

There was no thundering sound, no heat, no pain, just a blinding flash. She slowly opened her eyes and was greeted with an unbelievable sight.

Aldwin was preparing to throw a spear. His left arm was straight forward toward his target and his left was bent with the spear above his head.

It was not a normal spear. Even calling it a spear might not be correct.

It was a crackling thunderbolt. Thunder raged around his hand, but the immense power was contained in the form of a spear. The sight was not so dissimilar to the legend of sky gods or thunder gods throwing their thunderbolt at their enemies.

And just like those gods in the legend, Aldwin let loose of the thunder.

It disappeared from his hand in an instant. One would not expect to see a more than a moment of lightning during a thunder, and one couldn’t.

Did it hit? What kind of enemy needed such a drastic measure against them. Those question resounded inside Rose’s mind, but Aldwin’s face answered her question before she let them out.

His eyes wide open. It was the look of shock, but there seemed to be some more hidden meaning behind those look.

“I’m sorry Rose.” He said with a soft apologetic voice.

Something struck the back of her neck. Hard.

----

A drunk middle-aged man came out from a bar in the middle of the night. The bar was run down and was hidden in some shady back alley. It was not a place you want to go unless you don’t have anywhere to go and don’t have any money to go somewhere better.

That was exactly what happened to that man. His suit was in tatters and his skin covered with dirt and dust. On his arm was a bottle of questionable alcohol. Simply put, he was a mess.

He had drowned himself all night to forget all of his problems. The problem with his short-tempered boss, with his cheating wife, with his rebellious daughter. He took a sip from the bottle in his hand once he started to remember it again, but the bottle was empty.

“Fuck!” He cursed himself and threw the bottle randomly.

The man walked, limped toward the general direction of where his home was. At least in his mind, he walked down the right path. Just one step and he almost fell. Another step and he almost fell again.

He crouched and threw up whatever he ate and drank that night. And he threw up and threw up again. Then threw up some more.

“Hello there.” A soft and charming woman’s voice caused his ears to perk up.

He looked up and saw an otherworldly beautiful woman. Her skin was fair white, her hair was long and lustrous black with a tint of blue near the end. Her womanly feature was, amazing, to say the least. It was further enhanced by her skimpy clothes that covered only part of her breast and her crotch. Strange choices in winter, but the man didn’t care.

He stood up, mesmerized by the woman beauty.

“Come here.” She said with a smile.

The woman extended her arms out, inviting the man to her embrace. It was, of course, a strange and suspicious offer, considering how stunning the woman was. It was without a doubt some kind of tricks or traps, and any sane, rational, men would have noticed that, but he wasn’t sane or rational at the moment.

He was so drunk and was so enamored by her beauty that he couldn’t see, or maybe his mind could not process it, that woman had horns on her head, tails, and hooves instead of legs.

The man walked toward the women, hoping to get into her warm embrace, not noticing that his feet gradually became heavier and heavier and that he sank further and further into the ground the more he walked.

Then, the man realized what was happening, but everything came too late. His whole body was drowning in a strange black mud on the ground, save for his neck and his head.

He screamed and thrashed inside the black mud.

The woman didn’t stop him from screaming, she was delighted to see that the man was causing a ruckus.

Her face flushed red and she rubbed his cheek. “Yes, yes, scream more. Call more of your friend here. So we can all have fun together.”

After screaming for minutes, nobody came. It was to be expected, criminal activities was a normal occurrence in such places. No one cared if someone screamed for help there and no one would come to help.

A look of disappointment was evident on the woman’s face. She pouted poked her own cheek in a rather cute manner. “What a bummer.”

She then smiled wide, so wide that her cheek cut open and the edge of her lips could literally touch her ears. Her jaw split in two then her neck and her chest, revealing a gaping hole with hundreds of teeth lining inside.

“Thank you for the food.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” The men screamed his last.

-------

Shub's stomach rumbled. It was only an effect, she didn’t have any actual stomach. Then she looked back toward the dark alley where she had just consumed numerous men and women. She hasn't had enough, not even near enough. Her master forbid her to feast when she was looking after her fake master, so that night was a special and delightful night for her.

The form she took became more and more monstrous the more she feasted on men. Her head was that of a goat along with her legs and arms, yet her torso was still that of a human. Black tentacles came out from her back and wriggled like an eel.

She opened her mouth and black ooze came out from her mouth like a drool. She giggled. She had located her newest prey. Her prey walked to another alley.

Even though she wanted to attack her prey in the open, her master had ordered her to stick to alleys. She mustn’t be seen or detected, and she has to kill any witnesses.

She waited in the shadow until the time was right until her prey was right before her.

In an instant, tentacle enveloped her prey and pulled him to the shadow. Her prey didn’t even have a chance to scream or to even realize what was happening before she consumed him whole.

She munched her prey carefully. Taking time to savor their taste from their blood, their innards, their bone, everything. This was why she loved young men and women in their early twenties, their body was healthy and full of energy. Their blood fresh and their meat delicious.

“More. More. More.”

She couldn’t have enough of their taste. There was no way she could, they were so tasty. She thought about Rein back home and fantasized about him. He was special, how tasty would his body be. She knew that he was her master’s, but she couldn’t help her own desir-

Her head exploded. A thunderbolt arrived in a flash and hit her head, blowing it and painting the street and wall with black mud.

Her headless body fell to the ground unmoving.

Like a blood, the black mud flowed out from the wound on her body and the stump that was her head.

Her hand twitched.

Her body raised itself and began hovering. The black mud that flowed out from her body flew toward where her head originally was and formed a new head for her.

Her goat eyes opened and fixated on the one who threw the thunderbolt.

She gritted her teeth after realizing who it was. It was Rose’s spirit, standing on top of a tall building in the distance. It the human who dare interfered with their plan. They were able to control Rein’s curse and thus able to control him indirectly. That was until that man took the curse out from Rein’s body.

She screamed and sprinted toward the building in the distance.