The projectiles piercing into his side pushed him backwards with an immense punch, and Red couldn’t keep his balance. He tumbled to the ground, sliding through the paved street for meters on end.

His entire world was spinning, and the youth didn’t even have the time to register the damage caused by the projectiles when Aurelia’s words reached his ears.

“There’s another dagger!”

‘Another one?’

Red didn’t see or hear it, still tumbling around from the first impact. He could only use his crimson sense to feel the rough direction of the assassin’s fluctuation and guess where the attack would come from.

His fingers dug into the gravel, arresting his momentum in that split second as he sought to regain some semblance of balance. His eyes darted in the direction of the fluctuation, spotting a blurry glint midair arcing in his direction.

It was too fast to dodge, much less in his position. Not to mention, if it exploded in that same manner, it would hit him right in front of his body, and he was certain he wouldn’t survive that.

As both pain and numbness spread from the pierced left side of his body, Red’s hand shot to the hilt of his short sword like lightning, drawing it out and hurling it towards the flying dagger with a single motion.

The projectile glowed with the same menacing light from before, mere meters away from him, when the dark sword struck it.

Another explosion of metal happened, sending Red’s blade flying away. At the same time, the shattered shards were redirected from the impact, lodging themselves on the pavement and buildings around Red.

A second lethal blow, and this turn, he avoided it. Yet there was no time to breathe or think.

The shadowy figure on the other end of the street was still moving, and although it seemed incredibly hard to discern their movements, the glint that came from their hand was indistinguishable.

‘Another dagger.’

Red’s heart fell. Every single one of those exploding shards felt like being hit by a dozen arrows all at once, and even now he felt unable to discern the damage done to the left side of his body. Yet he had no more short swords to block the attack with, and he certainly wasn’t capable of dodging the dagger even if he was fully prepared.

He was going to die if he was hit again.

Under such pressure, Red moved out of instinct. His right hand reached down, grasping around the hilt of the worn-down longsword. A guttural roar only he could hear echoed in his mind, and the youth stood ready to draw the demon out.

However, he couldn’t spot the glint flying in his direction. His eyes darted around in confusion, afraid he had somehow missed the dagger being thrown, but a second later, he saw it.

It was still in the hands of that shadowy figure. They had stopped moving, so Red could discern their raised hand, which had ceased midway through hurling the dagger.

Something had caused the assassin to stop, yet the youth could not see nor feel anything out of the ordinary around them.

‘What is-’

Before he could even finish his thoughts, the shadowy figure turned around and ran. Red couldn’t keep track of them as they seemed to blend into the night even past his dark vision, and soon enough they had disappeared from the range of his crimson sense.

“What… What happened?”

Red asked out loud through ragged breaths.

“It doesn’t matter!” Aurelia’s voice reached his ears. “Focus on recovering! Their spiritual energy is inside your body!”

The youth was hesitant to let go of the hilt of the longsword, as if afraid the assassin would return the next moment, but a second later, he felt a spreading warmth in his side.

Blood, pouring down his clothes. The weakness hit him a moment later, as his legs buckled under him.

‘Damn it, I need to…’

“W-What happened?!”

“What was that noise?!”

“S-Something broke through my window!”

Only now did the brief confrontation seem to catch the attention of other people. People peeked their heads outside of their homes, looking over the street in a panic. Their gazes all gathered on Red, the only person standing on the pavement at that moment.

“Who is that person?”

“Look mom, they’re bleeding!”

“Someone call the guards!”

The youth could feel his consciousness slipping away as people pointed and spoke at him. He couldn’t concern himself about them, though.

‘I can’t fall unconscious here.’

If he did, then even if he survived, everything would be over.

He could feel his body trying to repair itself - a power from the crimson being he had used many times in the past - and yet there seemed to be something stopping his flesh from reconnecting. It was a discomforting feeling, and weakness was grasping him even further.

“Don’t panic and listen to me, goddamn it!” Aurelia’s angered voice reached his ears. “Sit down and circulate your energy!”

Red mumbled while drawing quick breaths. “… H-Here?”

“Yes here, you moron! You’re going to die if you don’t!”

The youth knew the situation was precarious, so he didn’t ask anything else. He sat cross-legged with some difficulty, having to drag his left leg into position, and tried to focus on his circulation even as blood continued to flow down his wounds.

The small amount of Azure Spiritual Energy Red had stored flowed out from his Spiritual Sea, swimming into his veins.

“Direct it towards you wounds now! Use your energy to expel it!”

He followed Aurelia’s instructions, redirecting the stream of energy towards the left side of his body. He couldn’t feel much from there after being wounded, but the awareness afforded to him after breaking through allowed him to locate the spots where the shards had pierced him.

It was then that he saw it - or felt it would be more appropriate. A series of foreign objects surrounded by a turbulent violet energy that continuously tore away at his flesh as it tried to regenerate - the metal shards. It was still attacking him even after having pierced into his body, and he couldn’t imagine what would have happened if he didn’t have the crimson being’s regeneration to help him.

Red directed his azure energy towards it without even needing Aurelia’s prompting. There was an immediate clash as this foreign energy reacted violently to the youth’s own energy, and the two streams started to fight against each other.

He couldn’t help but frown as he felt the resistance offered by the violet energy. Both of these power sources were wiping each other out, and while the method was working, Red wasn’t certain he had enough energy to erase this invader completely.

Thankfully, though, his body also seemed to react at that moment. The regeneration that had slowed down started to gain ground, slowly pushing out the metal shards lodged in his flesh and organs.

One by one, small pieces of metal covered in blood were expelled from his skin, and with it the violet energy they carried. This, in turn, allowed Red to focus his efforts, even as his own regeneration also slowed down, spent on whatever sources of energy it used.

Soon enough, every projectile was dislodged from his body, falling to the ground with some clinks, and his wounds closed up. The immediate danger passed, and Red allowed his circulating energy to return to his Spiritual Sea.

Yet, what came next was another wave of weakness the likes of which he never felt before. He tried to get up, but the left side of his body seemed to weight ten times more than usual, and he was too frail to even raise his arm.

“Don’t force it!” Aurelia said. “You’re gonna open your wounds!”

“The regeneration… It didn’t work?” he asked.

“The only reason you’re still alive is because of your regeneration! Of course it worked!”

“But why…”

Red trailed off as his senses returned to him. A crowd was starting to gather, looking at him with expressions of both fright and curiosity. The youth even saw some people eyeing his short sword on the other side of the street with wonder, but he was too weak to stop them.

‘I need to get out of here.’

Yet, his body still struggled to move properly. Right as Red thought things couldn’t get much worse, he saw a group of guards rounding a street corner and approaching the commotion.

“What is going on here?!”

It was then that the youth lost all hopes of not escalating the situation further. Instead, as he recognized how things might go, he focused instead on eliminating some evidence.

‘I can’t let them examine my blood.’

Aurelia explained to him his primary source of demonification likely came from his blood, and if someone got their hands on it, they might be able to discern his corruption. This wasn’t a problem most of the time, as Red could absorb blood through his skin like he was breathing air, and the crimson being was only too eager to recoup its lost power. However, plenty of the fluid had spilled to the ground while he was meditating, and he needed to be quick to reabsorb it.

The guards had already made their way through the crowd, and their attention obviously fell on Red at the center of it all.

“What happened here?!”

The leading guard asked out loud to no one in particular.

“We just heard the noise and came outside!”

“We found him like this!”

Some people were eager to speak up and explain the situation, but the guards mostly ignored them once they understood they knew nothing. Their attention immediately turned back to Red.

“You! Tell us what happened!”

“I was attacked.” Red said.

“Attacked? Attacked by wh- Hey, stop moving around!”

The guards, who seemed to be quite on the edge, all grabbed their weapons as the youth tried to stand up. Red, however, only slightly moved to the side before falling down again so he could put his right hand over the small pool of blood at his feet.

“If you don’t stop moving, we will be forced to arrest you!”

The leading guard threatened him, but his voice and posture seemed quite hesitant.

“Arrest me for what?” Red asked. “I was the one who was attacked.”

“Then tell us what happened, gods damn it!”

“An assassin tried to kill me.” he said.

“An assassin did this?” The guard frowned with uncertainty, looking around at the damaged street from the man’s exploding dagger. “What did they look like?”

“I couldn’t tell.” Red shook his head. “Their body was covered in darkness.”

At these words, the guard’s expression immediately paled. This also seemed to set off the crowd surrounding him as they let out gasps of surprise and fear.

“D-Darkness? Don’t tell me…”

“It’s one of the Shadows! They tried to kill him!”

This revelation immediately set the crowd ablaze. The guards immediately seemed uncertain of how to proceed, and they had an even harder time disguising their fear.

The leading guard, however, tried his best to keep his composure. “Y-You expect us to believe you met one of the Shadows and survived?”

Red shook his head. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. I only know I couldn’t see them.”

His words and composure seemed to breed even more uncertainty in the guard’s mind. He looked over at one of his companions and nodded.

“Alert headquarters. This is not something we can deal with.”

As Red heard these words, he became even more certain that this situation was about to escalate far out of his control.