I investigate the direction fast in worry as a yell like that couldn't mean anything good. But before I manage to find my two comrades in the distance, I first notice something rolling towards my feet.

Trembling in fear, I look down.

I already know what I'm about to see, yet hope my assumption is incorrect.

But it Isn't.

The roundness of the object. The colour and amount of hair it has. The bloody trail it left behind.

The painful expression on it.

My vision blurs.

"No... Kenjiro..."

A shaky voice escapes my lips while covering my mouth with a single hand as tiny tears start coming out.

"Damn it. What is this monster? It's on a completely different level. As we are right now, we don't stand a chance... There is only one thing I can now do."

Cliff mumbles to himself, I can just barely understand him. Then he yells.

"Rose! Take the mayor and run! I will stay here and give you some time!"

I look at my captain.

"What? Are you out of your mind!? I'm not leaving you here and I'm definitely not saving this swine!"

The upset me yells back at him.

"This is our only option, Rose. This demon is something far beyond us. We aren't prepared. Go and alert the rest of the district. Let them know how dangerous this thing really is! Save the Mayor, be better than him, or would you rather stoop down to his tier of degeneracy!? Now go, and don't let Kenjiro's death be in vain!"

"Tsch."

I let out a sound of visible annoyance as I help the mayor to stand up and get to the carriage. I barely get into the driver's seat and shout with the last of my strength.

"You better come back, you hear me!?"

I then hit the horse in order to make it advance and head to alert the rest of the knights. "Heh. Giving me impossible tasks, that's so like you... Now, shall we?" The captain prepares for hand-to-hand combat.

Together with the Mayor we arrive at the emergency area built at one of the many areas around the town and give out the order to evacuate, not just the district but the whole town, into shelters protected by barriers created by knights, as well as send out some of the knights to rescue captain Cliff.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the academy's training grounds, the emergency bells can be heard. The instructor immediately halts the tests and sends everyone to hide inside the school until he has a better understanding of the situation.

[Yuuna's perspective]

As we get inside, the teachers start taking us apart by ranks and count us to make sure we are all present.

There is a lot of panic caused by some of the younger students... And some older scaredy cats. "What do you think is going on out there?" Himari curiously asks while standing next to Lena. They both have a rather serious face - we all do.

Until we get information about what's going on outside, we can't be sure that nothing will come crashing down onto our academy in the next few moments.

"It's probably just another B-Class demon. Hopefully it'll be dealt with soon, I would like to go home."

Himari smiles.

"That's just like you. Most people would panic or at least have visible fear."

Lena starts thinking.

"I guess."

Once the counting is done, we are all sent to the classrooms on the first floor, filling up their capacity.

Charlotte and I get separated from the others; thus, we were the only ones from our group in the classroom.

As we are sitting down, legs stretched, leaning on the cold stone wall beneath one of the windows, Charlotte descends her head directly onto my lap.

"So sleepy.... I wanna go... Home..."

She immediately falls asleep.

I start patting her and mumble to myself.

"It must have been hard for you to stay awake after all the work you have done despite being so lazy."

As soon as I finish my sentence, an explosion can be heard from afar and the building starts shaking.

Charlotte wakes up.

"Who dares to interrupt my slumber..."

I look out of the window that is placed behind us. There is smoke coming out of another building at the end of the district, on a hill.

It is the mayor's mansion.

"Is that... the demon?"

Charlotte gets up and joins me.

"Hey, our house is in that direction."

My expression changes. My nervousness is now clearly visible to Charlotte. She gently hugs me, shoulder to shoulder, by extending one of her arms over mine out of sympathy.

"It will be alright. Mom and Dad can handle themselves just fine. You know what they are like first-hand, so there's no need to worry about them. Okay?"

It helped.

We sat back down and started chatting to ease up the mood.

* * *

As the students are hiding in the academy, the instructor is trying to find out what is going on.

[Instructor's Perspective]

The demon is walking down the district, dropping the buildings around it merely by sliding its finger on their walls....This leaves only chaos and destruction where many families lived their happy lives only just a few hours ago.

Anyone that tries to get into its way gets torn to pieces, has their body twisted to an inhumane state or suffers a different kind of horrible death.

Nobody can stop it...That goes for me too.

I'm unable to find anyone with the ability to shed some light on the situation, so I decide to find the problem myself.

I now stand just a few meters away from the new horrifying threat.

"Where the hell are the upper ranks?! They should have been here a long time ago!"

I turn and start running back towards the academy, hoping to send everyone to the shelters and ensure their safety. But right before I turn my back to the demon, I notice something bizarre. One of its feet are human, it only infuriates me.

As I get back to the academy, I begin to assemble the teachers and fill them in on the situation.

[Yuuna's Perspective]

The evacuation starts.

Some of the students that were previously calm now start panicking and the few students that already were panicking start breaking down in fear.

Even I am starting to get close to panicking as I have never seen or heard about a situation where the whole town must evacuate before. It's almost like our soldiers are unable to stop the single demon.

I start shaking as I think about it. Then Charlotte grabs my hand.

"Come, we need to find the others."

She smiles faintly and drags me out into the hallway full of students.

The adults start leading everyone to the nearest shelter, out through only the back exit, to ensure nobody stays behind, as the front entrance was in the same direction the demon was coming from.

As we are going through the packed hallway to get out of the building, we find the others.

Student after student leaves the building and head to the shelter as fast as they can.

We were almost at the exit when the ceiling comes crashing down behind us.

Turning around, fearing that the worst outcome possible just became reality, I become a witness of the scene.

A pile of rubble, burying multiple students and a large ash-black figure on top of it, leaning down, facing us with its back.

It has the scent of death.

The figure slowly straightens up its body, followed by its head being twisted towards us as a grin appears on its face.

No lips, its teeth are visible all the time. No hair or ears, just holes in its skull. The nose has no meat or skin on it and its eyes are gone, leaving the eye sockets completely empty.

Soundless and motionless. Everyone stares back at it. Most of us see a true demon for the first time. The feeling of pressure combined with fear has overwhelmed us.

The demon has arrived.