“Who am I? Oh, of course. Where are my manners?” chuckled wryly the elderly knight. “I am Sir Davos. Commander of the Eighth Battalion, here on a mission to expose William Marsh as the malefactor that he is. And what is your purpose, Lady Erynthea?”

Erin stared for a while without answering, her hands gripping on her sword, not tightly enough to draw veins nor loose enough to slip off the grip.

“Your silence won’t help you, Your Ladyship,” said the female adjutant of the elderly knight, or so Erin assumed that’s the position of the woman.

Eventually, Erin loosened her grip and straightened her back.

“Oh? May I take it as a sign that you are here for the same purpose as I am?”

Erin nodded.

“Hmm… Curious. What do you have against Marsh?”

“I witnessed his machinations. I saw the empty villages. The kingdom’s not doing anything. If they are, they aren’t doing it fast enough. I got tired of waiting for someone to take out the garbage. Figured that I might as well do it myself.”

“Ah, a noble reason, but is that the truth, or just a masque to hide some unsavoury motives?”

“It is the truth. I just don’t like seeing criminals running free. And he’s the reason that my friend’s in a bit of a bind. Are those enough reasons?”

“Those are certainly unconventional reasons, but they are acceptable. You can tell your friend to come out now. He can’t hide from me.”

Erin raised an eyebrow and glanced behind. That was all she did.

“Not going to tell your friend to come out for a greeting?”

“What friend?”

Davos smiled. “The friend hiding behind that large piece of debris behind you.”

“I don’t think anyone’s there.”

“Is there a reason that you felt the need to be so stubborn?”

“Am I stubborn for stating something I assumed to be true?”

“Mary, if her friend doesn’t show himself at the count of five. Treat the two of them as hostile.”

“Understood, Sir.” Marry nodded and drew her sword.

“One, two,—” Davos began counting.

“There is no one there.”

“Three, four—”

Aedan jumped out from behind the debris. “Alright, alright! I’m out with my hands in the air!”

Erin rolled her eyes.

“At least your friend has more sense than you, Lady Erynthea. Is there a good reason that you are hiding him from us?”

“Aside from the fact that you are a stranger? No, I suppose there is no good reason.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“Why would I?” Erin scoffed. “You told me who you are, and I don’t have the means to ascertain the truth in your claims. Why should I trust you? For all I know, you could be working for Marsh, and you’re just waiting for me to let my guard down.”

“Hmm… That’s true. I have given you no reason to trust me. Forgive me. That was very… thoughtless for me. So, how can I gain your trust?”

“You can’t. At least not in this place. We will go our separate ways and never cross paths. Once we’re back in the overworld, then we can discuss this further.”

“Do you believe it’s wise to walk on our paths in this place?”

“I’m a Fae. I can handle these lesser Demons just fine. As for you, I doubt you will have much trouble against these levels of demons.”

“That may be true, but I believe it is still wiser to stay together. Even if I’m your enemy, it would be in my interest to work together during our tenure in this hellish landscape.”

“That’s a risk that only a fool would take and—”

“Wait a minute,” Aedan cut in.

“What?”

He leaned in close to her ears, even though it was a needless gesture. He could whisper from a few feet away and she would still hear him. “I should let you know that the Soul Eater has yet to be destroyed.”

Erin’s eyes widened. “What?” She turned to where the pieces of the Soul Eater were. They had been charred to crisp and they were now no more than dried-up husks. “What do you mean it still isn’t destroyed?”

“It’s not dead yet.”

“I know it means it ain’t dead yet. But how is that possible? Look at it!”

“The core of the Soul Eater is underground. It escaped right before the flames could fully consume it.”

“And you’re telling me this now?”

“Well, I wanted to tell you straight away but those two show up. I was hoping the Soul Eater would strike at them first, but it would seem that it’s biding its time.”

“What should we do?”

“Blast the ground as hard as you can.”

“You do realise how that will look to those two, don’t you?”

“They’ll understand once they see it.”

Erin sighed. “I hope you truly have run out of good ideas because this is a bad one.”

Aedan shrugged and stepped away.

“Are you done with your… discussion with your friend?”

“Yes, I’m done.”

“So, have you changed your mind?”

“About that… Something else came up.”

It was Davos’ turn to raise an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”

Erin smiled wryly and raised her sword. She activated her Aura Domain.

“What do you think you are doing!?” Mary growled and pointed her sword at Erin.

“My prior commitments have yet to be resolved,” answered Erin. “I’m resolving it right now.”

Davos said nothing and simply placed his hand on the hilt of his sword as Erin swung her sword down.

An explosion ensued the moment the tip of Erin’s blade touched the ground. Chunks of the land flew off from the foundation as the force gouged deep into the ground and the shockwave pushed everything away from the epicentre. Davos and Mary were also affected, but the two seasoned warriors were quick to react. They had moved out of the affected radius before any true harm could come to them. From amidst the chaos, something emerged from beneath the dirt and soil.

“There!” Aedan shouted.

“I see it!” Erin lunged at the core of the Soul Eater. It was formless by itself. It had acquired a new form, one of dirt and rocks, held together by the gaseous yet slimy substance.

“Wait! That’s not all there is—”

At the same time as Aedan’s warning, Erin felt a cold grip around her neck. There was nothing around her neck. It was only in her head, though the message was very real. It was a warning of imminent death, her death. She stopped in her lunge and leapt back just as tendrils emerged from further beneath the small crater that was formed from her preemptive attack.

The ground trembled and it began to rise. Erin had assumed the terrain was shifting due to some unexplained phenomenon of this world, but she quickly realised it was not the terrain that was changing. The ground did not rise. It was the Soul Eater that was rising from the ground. It had taken the form of a humanoid giant using dirt and rocks as the materials.

“What in hell’s name is that?” Davos gasped in surprised terror. He could feel the chills crawling all over his skin, even though it was warm.

“A Soul Eater!” Erin answered from across with a shout. “Don’t let its tentacle touch you, or you’ll get your soul eaten!” she said and lunged at the Soul Eater once more.

“Do you never learn!?” Aedan was admonishing her from behind.

“It’s on the defensive! It would never show its move unless I attacked first!”

“Ah, I suppose that’s true.”

Erin aimed for the Soul Eater’s legs like before. She was prepared for the Soul Eater to send out fragments of itself, but it didn’t. She reached its legs without any mishaps, and she swung her sword.

With its legs severed, the Soul Eater toppled, but it regained its balance by completely altering its physique. It had turned into a quadrupedal-esque form with all four limbs.

Erin snorted in disbelief. “How very demon-like. It is a demon after all. This is going to be annoying.”

From behind, Aedan fired a shot from his revolver. The bullet reached its mark in less than a second, leaving behind a trail of spiralling smoke and fading light. The bullet struck the left frontal limb of the Soul Eater. It would have collapsed had it not been for its rapid regeneration ability. It immediately grew another limb to replace the one it lost.

Erin caught up to the Soul Eater. Her Aura Domain swallowed the scuttling demon. The current body was a product of an urgent circumstance. By simply being within Erin’s Aura Domain, the Soul Eater’s body began to crumble and crumple. Erin hastened the process by cutting its body in half. “Now, which is it?”

The Soul Eater’s hind half turned into husk and crumbled into nothing while the frontal half sprouted two new pairs of legs and resumed skittering away from Erin. “Does it only know how to run?”

“It can’t beat you! It certainly ain’t going to join you! Not that you would let it even if it wanted to.”

Erin clicked her tongue and chased after the Soul Eater.

“What can we do to help?” asked Davos, who suddenly appeared beside Erin along with Mary.

“Just immobilise it. Only I have the means to destroy it completely, that is if I don’t be careless and overlook a single part of it.”

“Cutting the limbs seems to be a pointless endeavour. I will aim for its entire body.” 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

“I will also assist.”

“Just watch out for any sudden attack. I won’t be bearing any responsibility for any mishaps.”

“You won’t need to, Lady Erynthea. You may be a long-lived being, but my experience would not lose to yours. Allow me to demonstrate the might of a Grand Knight!” Davos grinned and floated into the air.

Erin had to blink twice. She didn’t see it wrong. The elderly knight did not kick off the ground and jump into the air. Something pulled him up. He floated, in other words. High in the air, she felt a strong convergence of energy in his blade. The elderly knight’s level must at least be in the upper seventies or the brink of the eighties, she wagered.

Davos then thrust his sword forward. Shockwave rippled from that single move of his. A projection of an afterimage was formed. The afterimage flew towards the Soul Eater. The projection of Davos’ aura turned the Soul Eater into pieces, leaving only the head intact, relatively. The head of the Soul Eater morphed into a hasty form that appeared to prioritise speed and movement.

“Mary!” Davos shouted from above.

“Don’t worry! I won’t let it get away!” Mary charged right into the fray while the Soul Eater was still being shredded by Davos’ aura projection.

“What the…” Erin couldn’t believe her eyes again. Mary sped right past her and she saw a pair of wings on the back of the female knight. They were feather-like wings, but they were not actually made of feathers. The wings were constructs of a spell.

With her wings, Mary reached the Soul Eater before it could even run for a few yards. It tried to jump away but Mary had it encased in a cube that was formed of corporeal translucent light panes. “Fae! Do your thing now!”

Erin was already upon the trapped Soul Eater with her blade enveloped in Essence Flare. With Mystic Blade imbued, she swung down at the Soul Eater, cutting through the prison of light. The cyan flames caught onto the Soul Eater. It cried sharply and flailed around with an erratic display of its morphing ability. However, the flames spread fast and it was already small in size. The flames enveloped it completely. No parts of it were safe. The dying throes of the Soul Eater could be heard fading as the cyan flames burned it away into nothing.