“No … we’re too late,” Ms. Gallofree whispers as she watches in paled horror at the massacre the hooded guy’s creating. Ren and Erizora from my team also watch the bloodshed in a grimace. I also just notice the strange lizard girl standing next to Ms. Gallofree is watching the slaughter. I wonder how long she’s been here, but don’t take too much time to cling on it.

More importantly, I’m somehow able to see names as well as HP and MP bars above people’s heads now. Looking above the lizard girl’s head, I learn that her name’s Umeiyon.

“What’s going on?” I ask myself.

“It’s the cursed weapon I spoke to thee about,” Ms. Gallofree answers while turning to me, but not in the right context to what I was asking earlier. “The weapon that possesses the wielder to take the lives of anyone in sight, bringing catastrophe to whoever and wherever it goes, the Cursed Misfortune Tanto of Nyra. The damn White Rapture was foolish enough to set it free from its prison and is now causing havoc to Dondegarm, and possibly all of the Demon-Kin’s Territory!”

“… Wait, a tanto? A weapon like that exists here, too?”

“What art thou talking about?! Is that really the only thing thou got out of what I just said?!”

I mean, a kanabo like Erizora’s being here is one thing, but if a traditional Japanese weapon like a tanto is here as well, why wouldn’t I be surprised? Then again, I’m just as overwhelmed by the many names and bars above people’s heads as they passed by, watching some who got caught by the rampaging man get cut and stabbed, quickly bringing their HP bars down to 0 before I see ‘KO’ blinking over their names.

Ow, are seeing all of these things making my head hurt?

[You have now reached ‘Size Up LV 2!’]

That was fast. Wait, is that why I’m seeing all of this now? Could ‘Size Up’ be some kind of appraisal skill?

“Ugh! Never mind! Mr. Jinma, I may not know how fast thou travel, but thou need to get out of here and warn Dondegarm’s lord about this! I must stay here to direct the remaining citizens to safety and make sure she and the guild master do not get harmed—”

“Look out!”

Schick!

“… Huh?”

At the corner of my gaze, I noticed the hooded man quickly coming this way, aiming towards Ms. Gallofree. I instinctively rushed between them to stop his attack on her, thinking my high DEF would help deal little harm to me.

However, I didn’t expect this tanto to stab me the same way as any other knife would … no, this one’s stab into my flesh was as smooth and clean as stabbing into pudding. I stand there in a similar scenario as the last few moments before my death on Earth, a sharp wound to my stomach, but this time, I’m desperately gripping the stabber’s arm in place and not let him pull the weapon out.

““[Mr.] Jinma!””

I hear a chorus of feminine screams ringing in the air, one of them I could make out to be Lili’s even if it’s smaller and from a farther distance than the others. Time seems to be slowing down for me more than usual, even with my current level of AGI, a ringing fills my head, and I feel a burning sensation from the tanto. In my peripheral, I see my HP bar steadily decreasing.

Fuck … am I really going to die like this again, after not even one day of living in this new world?

The hooded man’s arm trembles as it tries to pull the weapon out. I look up to see the man under the hood, seeing his face pale, drenched in cold sweat and tears, and twisted in agonizing pain after taking a closer look at his profile. Above his face, I read that his name is ‘Rasholl.’

“Help … me …” Rasholl wheezes. I then notice the same emblem that the other cultists wear patched on his white-sleeved arm. If this guy is dressed differently like Gin and the few other subordinates, he must be of another Advanced Class.

Hearing his cry for help though … I find my body contracting and trembling.

Help you? After everything you and your psychopathic servants have done to this city and its people, you want my help now while you got this fucking knife in my gut? Do you realize how much you …?

My mind races and flashes back to the last few moments of my death on Earth, right up to the stab wound by the co-worker I thought I could trust. She, who had helped me settle into that shady loan company; who I thought I could relate to having to work at such a place for the sake of our loved ones; who had kindly returned favors for me teaching her how to cook even though it wasn’t necessary; who had supported me while attending my mom’s funeral.

The few seconds after her stab to my gut, I remember seeing her face drenched from that night’s rain and tears as she shoved the knife that killed me further inside.

The thing that stood out the most to me that night were her eyes, devoid of life and kindness, as if she were hypnotized or put under some spell.

“Please … help me.”

I don’t know if I was hearing things, but that was the last thing I heard before I slapped her hard enough in the face to send her flying off to the side. A ringing sound overwhelms the few words I spoke then, my vision growing blurry in some parts, before it ended with her running away in full clarity in sight and sound. I don’t know what brought me into taking such actions, I wasn’t even aware of my body was doing such a thing. It was like I was cut off from all reason, all of reality, and I just watched how it all went down like an observer looking through the killer’s eyes in a horror movie flick.

The confusion and rage from back then fill my mind again as I glare at the pathetic look on this guy’s mug. If the contrasting plea for help while hurting me wasn’t enough to piss me off, the next few words I hear from a new voice put me over the edge.

The condescending tone in this girl’s (?) voice makes me snap.

“Like I’d help you, you fuck!”

Don!

“Guhack!”

I send a powerful palm strike to the man’s chest that breaks a few ribs as he’s sent flying and sliding across the square’s ground, letting go of the tanto that now sticks in my gut. Infuriated, I rip the tanto out of me.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUGH!”

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

I scream in anger and pain as a powerful pulse courses through my whole body. The only thing that was different is the splitting sensation in my head the moment I grabbed and pulled the tanto out, but this pulse overwhelmed that. Not even the burning pain from the stab wound moments ago bothered me anymore.

I don’t know how long this lasted, but after it finally settles down, I feel a strange sense of lightness, my body free of any burdens that were clinging to me moments ago as my scream dies down.

“M-Mr. K-K-Kotori, your eyes …”

“What … happened to you?” Erizora and Ms. Gallofree ask respectively. Ren and the lizard girl, Ms. Umeiyon, stand there and stare at me with widened eyes. I notice then that my perception is completely off from normal. I’m not only hyper-focused, but I can see something emanating within the girls’ bodies. Something akin to wisps of smoke in a surreal magenta color move similarly like the auras of magic I’ve seen so far today. Ms. Umeiyon’s strangely the only one who I’m not seeing anything flowing out of her, and Erizora’s has a cyan colored aura coming off her body along with magenta.

I hold my free hand out and see a strange whitish-gray aura emanating from it that resembles smoke, along with a blend of other colors that seem to separate as they move further away from it. I then notice the bloodied tanto in my hand emanating a purplish-black aura and try to look in its reflection to see what Erizora was talking about with my eyes.

“W-What the?!”

In the reflection is a pair of eyes with black scleras, white irises, and a pupil shrunken to the size of a needle’s point looking right at me.

I jolt my head around to see where that voice was coming from. Remembering what she just said, I look right back at the tanto in my hand. “Was that … you?”

“Art thou … speaking to the being that dwells in the blade?” Ms. Gallofree asks. I nod in response while still keeping my eyes on the tanto. It seems only I can hear what she’s saying as long as I’m holding her.

“She said something about ‘Devil Eyes,’ is that what these are?” I ask Ms. Gallofree while pointing to my eyes in their currently freaky (and kind of cool) condition.

“Y-Yes. It is a trademark of the Devil race that powers them up in various ways when activated. It is what makes them one of the most powerful races amongst demons, but I have never heard of a human bearing the ‘Devil Eyes—’”

the tanto exclaims before I see the ominous aura around the blade grow bigger and more unsettling.

We then feel the ground shake.

“W-What’s going on?!” Ren exclaims.

“It is the tanto bringing the catastrophe! It will draw in many monsters from the surrounding areas to attack the civilians and the city!” Ms. Gallofree answers.

Kshaaaa!

Suddenly, many sharp claws pop out of the ground. The things that pull themselves out of the holes are large creatures with long snouts and thick fur coats that cover their husky bodies.

“Bear Moles?!” Ms. Gallofree exclaims as they come one after another and roar. Indeed, I could confirm they were called Bear Moles from the names and bars over their heads, probably thanks to my new ‘Size Up’ skill. From a distance, we can hear one of the burning buildings collapsing into the large hole that suddenly formed underneath it. “We need to stop them before Dondegarm falls! Literally!”

I look at the tanto once more and assess my current state. My heart is racing a kilometer per minute, I feel completely heated up from the flowing energy, and the lightness makes me question if I’d suddenly float up from the ground at any moment. The memories of the moments before my death on Earth still runs in my mind that I’m angry about, same goes for that bastard who was pathetic enough to call on his own enemy for help in such a state.

Still so furious, I just want something to …

“Hahahaha! This is our chance, boys! The God of Fortune is on our side!” Rasholl suddenly exclaims while standing up with a hand to his chest, still sore from my palm strike earlier. With my heightened eyes, his ‘aura’ emanates a lone cyan color like half of Erizora’s. Glancing around, there are apparently still some of the cultists who were running from him earlier until I made that big show of myself. They were also showing auras of the cyan color as well. “Forget about capturing the demons! Bring this entire city down, kill everyone in your sight, including that freakish traitor of a human over there!” He points at me at the end of his order. Sounds like this guy really is the leader in charge of the infiltration.

The remaining cultists roar in excitement.

“Even if he’s separated from the weapon, the possession seems to have driven him mad and unreasonable,” Ms. Umeiyon says as she observes her surroundings with an unusual calmness. “Or, could it be the weapon’s influence on the monsters affecting these humans as well?”

<“Hahahaha! Think you can take them all on?! Let’s see how long you last until you let your guard down enough for me to control you!”> the tanto girl exclaims.

I don’t know if it’s the adrenaline and the hyper-focused vision making me think things, but I suddenly feel a powerful intent to kill coming from behind me.

“Graaaugh!”

“Mr. Jinma—!”

Zasha zasha zasha!

Just as Ren started her warning, I quickly move towards the murderous intent of the axe-wielding cultist and swipe the tanto thrice before I find myself behind him. I look back to see him standing in place before both of his arms and his head fall from his body due to the clean cuts that sever them. He looked like he didn’t know what happened as his body collapsed into pieces. His HP bar dropped down to 0 in an instant, and instead of a blinking ‘KO,’ a big, bold, ‘DEAD’ appears over the guy’s name, Samuel, that’s now faded to gray letters from its white font.

Well … he certainly won’t come back from that, I think as I take in the fact that I suddenly took someone’s life for the first time.

the female voice in the tanto asks shakenly as the bloodied blade emanates a different glow. I realize then that my mana, my whitish-gray magic, is blending with hers to create this surreal, beautifully bright magenta color. I didn’t even know I was putting my magic in there like I was with the previous swords for their ‘Slash’ skills a while ago.

More importantly, I never thought I’d feel such a rush, so alive as I do right now. I can feel the ‘Sadistic Smile’ growing on my face as I turn to the enemies, monster and human-alike, coming to attack me.

“This … is gonna be fun,” I say as I ready the tanto in my hand for this sudden adrenaline rush of a battle. “Come! I’ll take every one of you fuckers on!”

“Mr. Jinma! Stop!”

I couldn’t register Ms. Gallofree’s plea as I sprint into the horde of enemies with my magic imbuing the cursed blade’s.

I start swinging the blade through my enemies almost like air, leaving deep gashes, cuts, stabs and severs of their bodies as they fall one after another. Their decreasing HP bars mark a good indicator of how much damage I’m causing, quickly going by instinct how much power I can put in my next attack and where I should land it for the best outcome. It all comes so easily because everything around me seems to be moving in a much slower speed than usual, or is it that I’m going so fast that I’m able to react more quickly than normal? I can’t tell, but either way, it’s allowing me to take out these guys a lot quicker and easier than I thought.

the now sexy female voice from the tanto moans in my head with each contact between flesh and blade.

For some reason, I think I could feel what the tanto’s feeling. Powerful arousal builds within me as more blood from the cultists and Bear Moles is shed, my magic blends and mingles with the blade’s like a sort of dance, becoming one that’s getting larger by the second. It tickles me in a certain area that I didn’t think would feel so good compared to taking care of it myself.

I don’t know what to make of this, but I want this to keep going for as long as I could, this rush of adrenaline and ecstasy I’m feeling as I’m letting out the anger from my past onto these pathetic cultists and monsters who were dumb enough to approach me without caution.

Before I realize it, there aren’t any enemies left, and I’m surrounded by many corpses of cultists and Bear Moles, cut, bloodied, and severed into many pieces. Just as I’m about to feel down about this excitement suddenly ending …

Kshaaaa!

“Guooooooo!”

The largest Bear Mole I’ve seen yet, or ‘Emperor Bear Mole’ as the name above its head reads, pops out of the large hole made from the many smaller ones grouped into one place. It roars in ferocity after witnessing the outcome of this massacre.

“… Perfect,” I say before holding the tanto in both hands with my ‘Sadistic Smile’ still on me. I start pumping much of my mana into the tanto, our blend of magic now growing so ridiculously long that if it were to become a new weapon, it’d be akin to another traditional Japanese blade called an odachi if my memory’s correct.

the female voice’s moaning grows louder and more intense as our magic builds.

What I assume to be the Emperor Bear Mole roars and charges at me just as I’m near the peak of my attack.

As if our magic is near to bursting, I swing the ominous odachi-like weapon across.

“Demon’s Wave Slash.”

ZUSHA!

<“Aaaaaahaaaaaaahn~ ♥♥♥ !”>

As the scream of ecstasy fills my head, a large, ominous, purplish-black arc of mana cuts through the air along with my swing. It looks like it extends to about 5 meters long [~16.5 feet] as it approaches the Emperor Bear Mole, phasing right through it, as well as the building behind it before dissipating. The large monster while on its run suddenly splits into two before it realizes what happened. The top half of the building behind it falls and collapses along the clean cut from the improvised skill I came up with moments ago. Once the crashes finish, the area falls into dead silence … well, I assume it’s silent. I could actually still hear the female voice wheezing in my head. The magic that makes up the ‘odachi’ dissipates, reverting the weapon back to the original tanto form.