I put on the brakes as exhaustion comes over me, accompanied by a surprised expression showing how unexpected this outcome is.

"What was that?! Some kind of psychokinesis?"

I once again fill my lungs and exhale.

"Calm down Himari, it's just a demon, you have trained for this."

I turn to face the demon, but that demon is already leaning towards me with its face just before mine, staring directly into my eyes.

"Ha-"

I go flying a few meters as it flicks me on the forehead. I end up rolling on the ground for a while before I finally manage to rebound.

Without a chance to regain composure, the demon appears to my right side and swings its fist.

I have my sharp reactions to thank when I manage to dodge it by lowering my head just above the ground. Even so, the fear visible on my face right now is as clear as day.

This is really bad, there's no opening for escape. If it goes on like this, I will be lucky to escape with a missing limb!

I then lift my head again, just in time to capture the barrage of punches coming at me.

One after another, the demon's fists meet nothing but air as I dodge backwards, until I hit a rock with my ankle and trip.

I don't even get to land when the demon kicks me in the stomach, causing me to come crashing into the house on my rear.

As I'm stuck in the building's wall, I spot a shadow on the ground and look up at the sky. The demon is about to land on me.

Desperate to survive, I force my way out of the wall and just barely evade the demon's attack as I drop on all fours to break the fall.

To think I thought I could manage to keep this monster at bay before they return, I was naive.

I'm out of breath, blood is coming down my head, arms and now also my mouth as I start coughing it out.

I look at the wall I was stuck in just a moment ago, but instead, it's once again the demon...staring right into my desperate eyes.

As all this is happening, unable to move, Nolen is left with no choice but to watch a young girl being toyed with. As if she belonged to some kind of pet.

[Yuuna's Perspective]

While that is happening without our knowing, we try and try but nothing. We try as hard as we can but there just isn't anyone to help us. All the knights are....gone.

"You think...the demon killed all of them?"

I ask myself this question as I slowly start losing hope. Despite this question being for myself, Lena answers it for me.

"There's no way that would happen. The buildings here are in one piece and even if they went all the way to where the demon was at the time, I have a hard time believing they would all die this fast. A whole district of knights and we can't find a single one. This doesn't feel right. I don't know what's going on, but it isn't good."

As we all listen to her short speech, Enmei becomes very impatient and runs off.

"I'm going back!"

"Enmei!"

Lena goes after him and the rest of us follow her.

Running through the enclosed street, a couple of explosions can be heard, and the smoke created by them can be seen in the near distance. A few moments later, everything goes silent. We have no clue where to go as there are multiple locations indicating a battle. Enmei speeds up to the level where I'd need to use my ability to catch up and gets up on a rooftop.

Lena continues chasing him as she also speeds up.

I stay behind with Charlotte and Hidiku, it's not possible for us to follow them, yet we don't stop and go after them on the streets.

[Lena's Perspective]

Following Enmei, running on a rooftop, I lose track of him, but soon manage to find him again.

Enmei standing still on top of another house before me.

He finally ran out of steam.

I grab him by a shoulder as soon as I'm able to reach him. I try to catch my breath.

I feel a sensation radiating through my hand. Enmei is shaking.

Has running really took out so much of him? No, this guy has more energy than he should own.

I come closer to have a better look at his face.

"Enmei?"

Fear, anxiety, sorrow. There are countless emotions that could be read out of his expression as he's looking down the building. So I investigate the direction.

My expression changes immediately. I'm in disbelief to what I'm witnessing.

In the crumbled house beneath us, Himarin is lying on her back, trying to push herself backwards using her arms as the Demon is right above Himarin, trying to reach her. She hits a wall and covers her face with her left arm as in an instant it gets cut off through her elbow.

She screams in pain.

The demon proceeds to pierce Himarin through her stomach as a bit of her intestine can be seen being pulled out.

As steam like substances begin to escape Enmei's mouth. This happens whenever he becomes upset. As someone that can control flames, his lungs begin to heat up which vaporizes the water within his lungs and mouth, creating water vapor.

He snaps and leaps towards the demon as he carries his great-sword engulfed in flames but just like last time he attempted, he ends up getting knocked back into the building he jumped off as the demon uses the same arms it was using to torture Himarin, causing it to rip out the rest of her intestines, scattering them around.

I'm down at the massacre when a piece of it ends up landing on my body. Tears come running down my face.

Himarin's body starts twitching as she cries and screams due to the unbearable pain she is going through.

I fall to my knees.

My legs won't move...I can't do...anything.

I'm....useless.

[Yuuna's Perspective]

We finally catch up with Lena and Enmei when we witness something unexpected. As we stand between the house Lena is on our right and the crumbling house on our left, we are instantly halted as blood and insides can be seen scattered around the field. From within the house the demon walks out, holding Himarin by her short hair in the air.

Conflicted about what to do, as I look at someone who I consider family, being massacred right before my eyes, I cover my mouth.

I think...I see a tiny bit of her intestine hanging out of her wound...

I think I'm going to throw up.

We froze up completely as terror has full control over us, except for Hidiku. He starts walking towards the demon as it has his older sister in its grasp. He looks like he's losing balance and is about to fall over.

"Hey...this is some kind of a joke...right? Stop playing around...we need to get into the shelter before the demon gets us...right?"

He has lost it completely.

Himarin looks at her little brother. A faint smile appears on her teary face as the demon is sliding its nail beneath her skin next to her ear and says with a soft voice.

"Forgive...me..."

Memories of the siblings flash before Hidiku's eye just before the demon rapidly swings its arm, tearing the skin off Himarin's face and tossing her back into the crumbling house.

Hidiku loses control and pulls out his bow as he proceeds to charge it - injecting his energy into the arrow that's about to be fired.

"BASTARD!"

I somehow manage to snap out of it and grab the still frozen up Charlotte's hand then drag her to Himarin.

"She needs healing, fast!"

The demon notices Hidiku and begins to approach him.

Hidiku releases the arrow and a powerful blast forms on the monster's stomach, but nothing more.

It was ineffective. Hidiku is far too weak to deal with a demon at this level.

Watching it from above, Lena regains composure and pulls out her weapon to stop the demon before anything happens to Hidiku.

I barely notice it thanks to the shine its glass part emits.

Lena uses something like magic. It materializes weapons that look like they are pulled out of another world, meant for long range. I think she called them rifles or pistols, they use something called bullets as ammo, I think? They are pretty strong and loud.

I'm not the only one that notices though.

The demon directs it's view to her and leaps to the air.

As it gets closer and closer, she takes aim at the demon's forehead.

"Go back to hell."

The bullet fires out of her rifle and hits the beast just as planned. It gets knocked back and falls to the ground but soon after it gets back on its feet and shakes it off.

"What!?"

Enmei once again appears right above it.

Meanwhile I'm with Himarin, holding her hand as Charlotte is panicking, trying her best to heal her. We don't want to give up.

"Don't waste your...energy on me...I'm beyond...saving.."

Himarin says faintly as she starts coughing up blood.

"I'm not letting you die here!"

"Charlotte...please. The others will...need it more."

Suddenly, Enmei comes flying inside and hits Charlotte while I only get knocked off to the side.

I try to break my fall using my arms, so I don't end up on the ground face-first.

As I try to get myself up, I feel a weird sensation with one of my hands. It feels cold and tender.

I look at my hand, my vision blurs and my head starts feeling light.

It was Himarin's missing arm.

This is too much...I can't hold it in any longer.

I throw up.

"Yuuna!"

It's Lena's voice.

I follow it with my gaze, but instead, I spot the grinning demon approaching me.

It steps into the house with one leg and the other.... gets cut off?!

The monster that seemed untouchable suddenly loses a leg and starts falling over on its back.

Looking up the sky with visible confusion, something appears above, coming down directly at the hellish beast.

The demon moves its head slightly to the side when something that appears to be a katana pierces the ground exactly where the demon's head was just placed. It's wielder - a knight.

The mysterious knight leans over to the demon and smiles.

"Long time no see."

Short black hair covered with a general hat. Blood like red eyes and height around Hidiku's. A cape covering most of his torso as the breeze pulls it over the rest of his body, letting only the long black bottoms and boots to be seen.

The demon lifts itself up by one of its arms, putting it beneath its back, and does a spin as it tries to kick the knight. Forcing him to jump away, the demon gets up and leaps over a building as it heads in the direction where the academy is.

"Follow him."

As he yells, two more shadowy figures leap across us. They are too fast to be recognizable.

[Lena's Perspective]

I jump down the house and run to Himarin.

Seeing her body up close feels much more depressing to me. After all, it's one of my best friends, hanging on to the last bit of strength she has.

I take her hand and lower her forehead to it.

"Lena...I'm glad...you are ok."

"Mhm.."

I only let out a sound indicating a confirmation. I can't bring herself to say it in words. I wasn't able to help her....I couldn't do a thing.

"Promise me...one thing."

"What is it?"

Himarin coughs.

"Take care of the rest...For me. Make sure they...become strong and live...long."

I lift my head up and look into her eyes.

"I swear on my life, I won't let any of us die."

"Thank you..."

I stand up and turn around as I spot the mysterious knight standing outside of the construction, looking at us.

I walk up to him, so close there's not a meter left between them.

The knight looks at me.

"You have my condolences."

Anger emerges within me.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Naomi Ichimiya, the leader of the military's elite squad.

"Alright Ichimiya."

I grab him beneath the collar as my anger grows.

"Where have you been while this monster was rampaging over the town? In fact, where are the rest of the knights? As a knight of this so called 'elite squad', isn't it your job to protect the townspeople?"

"My apologies. There were swarms of demons surrounding the town, while there already were knights with a single inside demon inside. As you could imagine, the situation would have been a lot worse if we wouldn't have cleared them first."

A swarm outside of the town? But even so, that still doesn't make sense....They must have known how powerful this demon is. Surely he could have come here from the start instead of fighting the swarm with the rest..

[Yuuna's Perspective]

As Lena is on the verge of hitting the ally knight in the face, I'm attempting to come back to Himarin without fainting.

She extends her hand towards me.

"Yun...Yun.."

I descend to my knees and once again hold her hand with both of mine.

"I'm right here."

Tears are coming out, it's painfully apparent she doesn't have much more time.

Despite not having any skin covering her face anymore, the smile on it is as clear as ever.

"There's something...I need to give you."

Our hands start glowing with a black shine.

"What's happening? Is this soul transfer? H-Himarin...this is one of the forbidden arts, where have you learned this?"

Himarin softly giggles.

"It's a long story. Don't let anyone know of what's about to happen. Keep this to yourself."

Looking at her desperately with confusion, knowing I must soon let go, I try to talk to her. Even if it's just a few words.

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

"You will know...in due time..."

Himarin's grip loosens, and her hand slowly slips out of my grasp, ending up falling to the ground. She stays still on the ground with a gentle smile as a soft breeze

Sobbing over her, I give her my last words.

"Goodbye...Himarin."

My head starts spinning and my vision goes dark.