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The moment Erin and Nivia landed before the devastation, the creators of the said devastation shifted their focus to the two Fae. Gone was the erratic madness in their eyes, replaced by a seemingly concentrated unrelenting resolve that borderline obsession and insanity. They gripped their weapons tighter and sharpened their gazes.

“Strange and curious…” Nivia muttered, lowering her posture to assume her battle stance. “They don’t look surprised.”

Erin squinted her eyes as she peered at each of the bandits and also the Demon. “They’re expecting us… or perhaps me.”

“A trap?”

“Let’s find out,” Erin said and shot a quickly-conjured Lightning Bolt into the face of the eight feet tall humanoid Demon.

Nivia cast a strong gust spell that raised a cloud of dust from the scattered debris.

The Demon shot out of the smoke and flew straight towards Erin.

“Erin!” Nivia shouted.

Erin gestured to Nivia to stay away and met the Demon’s charge with a Thunder Shell. The Demon broke through her spell instantly and rammed into her. The retaliation of the spell’s effect barely made the Demon shrug and did nothing to stop its charge. Erin went tumbling but she found her balance and footing after only a single flip. The Demon pressed on with its charge and swung its gigantic claws at Erin. She flourished her tails with Mesmerise, dazing the Demon for but a second, and she sliced off the claws that came for her. The Demon shrieked but did not dwell on its agony longer than necessary. It dodged under a slash that aimed for its neck and sidestepped a cut that could have bisected it into two. It tried charging at Erin again but she scattered Essence Flare around her, deterring the Demon. She then capitalised on its fear and lunged for its neck again. The Demon clicked its tongue and jumped to the roofs, avoiding its death.

“Coward,” Erin muttered under her breath but she hoped the level fifty Demon would hear it.

And the Demon did hear her derision. It grimaced with indignation from the roofs.

Erin taunted the Demon with a gesture for it to come down from the roofs. While she was ridiculing the Demon, one of the crazed bandits rushed at her, yelling with his sword raised. She easily deflected that bandit’s blow and decapitated him without even being able to see her blade’s movements.

The Demon reappeared in front of her before she knew it and it lunged with its other claws swinging. Erin dodged low and counter with an uppercut of her sword, taking its other arm too. The Demon instantly grew a new pair of arms and retaliated with a swipe. Having anticipated that, Erin made quick work of the Demon’s new pair of arms. The Demon widened its eyes in fear at the failed surprise it had planned. Erin lunged with a thrust that was meant for its head. The Demon tutted and stomped the ground hard. Erin lost her bearings but she used her tail to keep herself upright and thrust her sword through the raised smoke. But she cut only the air. When the smoke cleared, she saw the Demon was already in the distance, running away.

“Take care of things here, Nivia!” Erin shouted and chased after the Demon without waiting for a reply from Nivia. She heard Nivia shouting something in response behind her but her focus was set on the escaping Demon. She chased the Demon through the streets and alleys, eliciting shouts and cries from the city folks they passed by.

Erin was also directing some of her focus to the roofs and the side of the streets. She had passed by not a small amount of guards but none of them moved their muscles to help her. She would have assumed they were simply afraid of going up against a Demon but their expressions did not spell fear but relief, almost as if they were relieved that she was chasing a Demon through the city they were supposed to be guarding. Erin remembered there were Seers in the city that were constantly surveying the city. It was impossible to not have come up with a response by now but Erin neither saw nor heard any guards coming to help apprehend or subjugate the Demon.

The chase eventually led Erin to a quieter part of the city where the people were also fewer in number. She saw the Demon disappearing into a wide alley behind a large derelict building. The area reminded her of the slums in Quinteburgh but with the glaring difference being if the people bothered covering up and painting over the blemishes.

“Definitely a trap,” Erin muttered and followed the Demon into the alley nonetheless, but not before using Life Sense. Aside from the rats, bugs, and insects, there was only one person in the alley. With light cautious steps, she trod into the alley.

The Demon was just standing in the middle of the alley, beckoning for Erin to come at him with the same gesture she taunted him with and he was even grinning.

“Hmm,” Erin hummed unamusingly.

“Erynthea…” the Demon uttered.

“You know me, what a surprise.”

“The boss was right.”

“I’m sure he is.”

“You’re not very bright for a Fae.”

“If you have a trap, just spring it already. Time is important to me but I don’t expect people like you to understand.”

The Demon chuckled. “Yes, there it is… those mockeries and insults of yours… The boss has told me all about that trick of yours.”

“Did your boss also tell you that you talk too much?”

The Demon’s grin disappeared instantly and a scowl took its place.

“Huh, he did… My deepest apology and condolences from me. I didn’t mean to hurt your frail feelings and fragile ego.”

“I can see why so many people want you dead.”

“And yet, they’re the ones who ended up dead.”

The Demon snorted. “Unfortunately so… I really wish I could kill you…”

“Giving up already?”

“Actually, I was just stalling for time.” As the Demon said that, the space behind her rippled and parted like mere fabric. Another humanoid Demon stepped through the portal. This Demon was also level fifty and it looked just as hideous as the other one. This one was shorter but more brawned in its physique.

“Another human-turned-Demon with his sense of self… Marduk really wants me dead, doesn’t he?”

“You should not have said that name, foolish fox,” said the burly Demon. “And the boss doesn’t want you dead… Not yet.”

“I’m very frightened right now,” Erin retorted dryly and lunged at the burly Demon with a slash but halfway through her slash, her sword disappeared.

The burly Demon snickered and swung its fist into Erin.

She spun her lithe body out of the fist’s way and responded with a Lightning Bolt but not even a spark was produced on the tip of her finger. “Oh, bollocks.”

The burly Demon swung its fist again but it didn’t even graze Erin.

“This is going to be inconvenient.”

“Stop spouting nonsense, idiot Fae! Your magic has been sealed and there’s nowhere for you to run.”

“Why do you think I would run? Don’t assume your own thoughts onto me, it’s disgusting.”

“This fucking bitch!”

“Rudon, don’t!” shouted the tall Demon.

Erin dodged low and went under the burly Demon’s hook. Coating her fist in Essence Flare, she sent a straight into the Demon’s abdomen. It didn’t send the Demon slamming into the wall as she expected but it did make the burly Demon writhe around in pain, trying to douse the cyan flames on its belly.

The tall Demon roared in frustration and charged at the Fox-kin with its claws raised.

Erin did not move and simply stood there to be clawed, except that the tall Demon steered his claws to the walls and Erin threw a haymaker into its face with her cyan flame-coated fist. The punch barely made the tall Demon stagger but it did inflict a lot of pain, though the tall Demon was handling it better than its peer.

“You truly can’t kill me.”

“Not yet, Fae,” the tall Demon growled. “We can’t kill you but that doesn’t mean that I can’t break every single bone in your body.”

“That would most likely kill me.”

The tall Demon had enough of Erin’s jibe and charged at her furiously again. Erin dodged each of the Demon’s grasps and strikes with graceful precision. Though Erin couldn’t use her Arcane Arts, her Abilities were still pertinent and there were still her intrinsic prowesses. However, without magic, she could feel herself tiring out significantly faster. Eventually, when the burly Demon joined in, Erin reached her limit in her hand-to-hand combat. The Demons managed to graze her shoulder and her thigh with their claws and a punch caught her across the jaw and also square in the belly sending her flying and tumbling across the ground.

“You’ll regret letting loose that tongue of yours,” snarled the tall Demon.

“Do please shut up,” Erin groaned as she pushed herself to her feet with some strain. “Lest you talk yourself into a wall and proceed to lay the blame all on me.”

“I’m glad the boss forbade us from killing you. That will be too easy for a bitch like you.”

“If that’s the case, I wouldn’t have walked right into this all so obvious trap of yours. Your mistake, your bane.”

“Is that ignorance I hear or a bluff?”

“Take that as you will. It matters not to me.” Erin chuckled, wiping away the blood on her lips. “But your mistake and bane is the fact that you think that I knowingly walked into a trap without any contingency in mind.”

The burly Demon’s expression warped with rage. It blinked towards Erin and held her off her feet in a chokehold. “The boss knows everything about you, stupid bitch! Your Spirit Magic doesn’t amount to much in combat. Your Essence Flare is no more lethal than a small firework without Fairy Dust. You’re nothing without your sword and magic.”

Erin sneered. “That’s not all I am nothing without,” she scoffed and spat the blood in her mouth onto the Demon’s face.

“You fucking bitch!” the burly Demon roared and swung its fist.

But Erin caught the Demon’s fist like she was simply stopping the punch of a child’s strength.

The two Demons widened their already nightmarishly wide eyes.

“I was hoping that it wouldn’t have to come to this,” Erin said and swatted the hand away that was choke-holding her. She then palm-thrust the burly Demon and sent it flying across the alley, skidding across the coarse filthy ground. A message reading; User has entered Martial Lust (Lesser) state, stats increase by half, appeared in her mind. As if that message resonated with her inner thoughts, she burst out laughing erratically. “Thank you, god…” she muttered perfunctorily.

The tall Demon was staring at Erin with a trembling gaze. “What in hell’s name is this…? The boss said nothing of this!” Panic was apparent in the Demon’s eyes.

“Pathetic,” Erin scorned. “Full-fledged Demons would not be cowering like you two are doing now. They will be disappointed but don’t disappoint me now!” she bellowed and tossed herself straight at the tall Demon. She snatched a pipe off the wall as she streaked towards the Demon. Water came spilling out from the fickle vandalism she just committed.

The tall Demon roared to keep its wits with itself and charged at Erin. She swiftly dodged its feral jab and slammed the pipe into its face. Though it did not leave any permanent damage, there was an intense fleeting pain. She dodged under a swipe and stuck the pipe into the Demon’s ribs. It screeched agonisingly and slammed both its fists down but Erin was long gone from that spot. She came up behind the Demon and kneed it behind its head. The Demon stumbled but it immediately countered with a wild wide hook but it found nothing but air. Erin surprised the Demon with an uppercut to its jaws. That punch was strong enough to send the Demon off its feet and Erin launched the Demon into its fellow Demon and the two went tumbling together in a tangle.

“Is that the best you two Demons can do?” Erin howled with her arms spread. “I am so disappointed. I heard grave things about Sephrodia Valley but it’s this all that I should be expecting from this city?”

The tall Demon got to its feet and straightened its posture. “Don’t worry, you conceited vixen. There’s more to come. In fact, they are already here.”

At the tall Demon’s words, a spatial portal opened behind Erin and out walked another humanoid Demon but this one had four arms, each with a sword in hand.

Erin laughed with an outlandish glee. “Oh… this is perfect.”