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A girl ran through the disorderly streets without looking back while chaos erupted all around her. Buildings were being demolished and people were being decimated. There were screams, throes, violence, and blood, nowhere was spared of the mayhem. It was a bloody massacre and the culprits were the Demoids. Still, the girl ran without stopping until she couldn’t anymore.

The girl’s legs eventually gave out and she tripped on a displaced rock tile of the street. She fell and scraped her knees. She wanted to cry and moan but she held it in and pushed herself to her feet while wincing and sobbing. She tried continuing to run but her exhaustion and her injured legs made it so that she could only limp.

She had been fortunate so far. No one paid her any mind or heed all the while she was running. Even those that saw her did not have her in their mind for long. However, the girl’s luck was starting to run dry.

A man screamed at the top of his lungs as he was flung off the rooftop by a Demoid. As it just so happened, the man dropped right in front of the girl who had just started limping. The man turned into a splatter before the girl’s very eyes and doused her in his flesh, blood, and bits. The girl, startled, flinched and fell back on her rear.

Before she could get back up and run the other way, the Demoid jumped down from the roof and landed before the girl. The girl shrieked but fear had taken her voice and only a soundless gasp escaped her mouth. The Demoid was a pale hairless werewolf with bloodshot eyes and blood-red veins protruding through the skin. The girl turned nearly as pale as the Demoid as she slowly clambered away from it.

The Demoid broke into a grin upon noticing the girl. It chuckled in sadistic delight and strode towards her, its claws bared. Many people saw this but they were all either too cowardly to act or currently facing their own plight to offer the poor hapless girl any aid.

A woman tried to save the girl but she was pulled back by another Demoid and was torn apart and devoured. The girl didn’t register the woman’s attempt to help but she did hear the woman’s scream as the Demoid ravaged her. The girl’s trembling gaze was fixated on the Demoid in front of her. Due to the miasma emitted by the Demoid, the girl soon lost the ability to even lift a finger and sat there motionlessly and helplessly as she awaited her demise.

Just then, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky and darted towards the Demoid. The hairless werewolf rolled out of the lightning bolt’s way but it was fast enough to come out unscathed. The Demoid roared at its unknown assailant while clutching its maimed ear.

Not far from the hairless werewolf Demoid, a stout Demoid with long ears was tearing the gown off of a courtesan that it had dragged out of a brothel. It was aligning its disfigured phallus over the woman’s cunt but before the Demoid could insert its deform rod, an aura blade hurtled across its neck. The Demoid’s head slid off its neck and it fell off the woman as its body crumbled into dust.

The hairless werewolf witnessed the fate of its brethren and began looking around more frantically than before, searching desperately for the assailant.

Taking advantage of the confusion, the girl found her courage and tried to run, but she didn’t get far before the Demoid noticed her and apprehended her. However, the Demoid’s arms were sliced off and it fell to the ground, writhing and moaning in agony. The girl didn’t know what happened but she didn’t care and simply ran off without looking back at the Demoid.

“And here I thought you Demoids don’t feel pain,” muttered a Fox-kin with waist-long pale silver hair and five tails as she stood before the writhing and moaning Demoid. She was wielding a single-edged sword that was the length of her height. The robe she wore was in slight tatters but the state of her garments did not diminish the elegance and threat she exuded.

The Demoid flipped to its feet upon noticing the Fox-kin’s presence and catching her scent. It didn’t know how she managed to creep up on it without attracting its attention or notice but it didn’t question the peculiarity too much and pounced at the Fox-kin. Its agony was overwritten by its desire for vengeance.

The Fox-kin flourished her tails and used Mesmerise, dazing the Demoid for but a short while, enough time for the Fox-kin to cut the Demoid up into a dozen or so pieces.

“What a paltry gain,” the Fox-kin snorted in discontent as the Demoid’s body crumbled into dust.

Sensing and witnessing the death of two of their brethren, all of the Demoids in the vicinity turned their attention to the Fox-kin. They were no longer of sound mind or capable of rationality. However, the desire for self-preservation and vengeance was deeply rooted in their minds. They had no love for each other but seeing the deaths of their kin still brought about an indescribable anger in them.

Acting on their primal instincts, some of the Demoids fled from the Fox-kin while the rest remained and glared at the Fox-kin with hatred.

The Fox-kin flicked her ponytail behind her shoulders and returned the glare to the Demoids with a triumphant smirk.

“My time is borrowed. So have at me or scuttled back to your hidey holes,” the Fox-kin uttered with a firm and rumbling voice.

The Demoids snarled at the Fox-kin, spurred by her taunt, and charged at her from all sides. The Fox-kin widened her smirk and changed her weapon of choice into a pair of long swords. She clad one blade with Essence Flare and another one with lightning but both were laced with Arcane Edge. She spun out of the way of a Demoid’s claw and cut the Demoid in half with the blade clad in Essence Flare. The cyan flames swallowed the Demoid in seconds and burned it into ashes all the while the Demoid screamed sharply.

“Huh… it’s vulnerable to the Spirits…” the Fox-kin remarked in wonder.

She ducked under a swipe of a Demoid’s tail and retaliated with a horizontal slash that cleaved the Demoid in half with her lightning-clad blade. The Demoid also perished with just this much injury.

“It’s as vulnerable to ordinary means as ever… Curious.”

The Fox-kin continued her assessment in wonder and perplexity but she didn’t leave her mind absent of vigilance. With swift movements and deadly precision, she eliminated all of the Demoids in the area with the minimum amount of effort. These Demoids she fought were far easier than the ones she had fought before and it left her with a bitter and unsettling aftertaste.

“Just what the hell are you planning, Marduk? Letting loose all of your Demoid thralls to rampage around the city? This couldn’t be all there is to your plan.”

The Fox-kin’s deep thoughts were interrupted when loud cries of despair could be heard from a few buildings down the street. She pulled herself together and dashed towards the pleas for help. But before she could, a Demoid sprang to life in its ash form.

Taken completely by surprise, the Fox-kin was sent flying through the streets by the Ash Demoid. She bounced on the ground for two times before recovering her bearings and flipping herself to her feet. Regaining her composure, she took a good glance at her sudden assailant, a Demoid that was composed of ashes.

“Oh, great… There it is once again, the peculiarity of a Demon’s self-preservation… Just great. Is this what you’re aiming for, Marduk?” the Fox-kin wondered out loud as she faced the Ash Demoid with a grim expression.

“I… know… you…” the Demoid spoke in a raspy hollow voice.

“You do?” the Fox-kin asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Erynthea… We… were told… about you…”

Erin shrugged. “I see. I would say I’m flattered but not anymore. This has become very annoying and infuriating.”

“Because… of you… We… have… been abandoned…”

“It’s certainly not because of me. You are all nothing but disposable pawns in the first place.”

“Lies…”

“Thinking otherwise is just the sheerest folly on your part. What makes you think you are worthy of being retained by your employer?”

“I am… different… special…”

“Maybe in your own delusions, you are. Or perhaps your employer tempted you with some honeyed words. But out here in the real world, you are far from being special or different. You are the most basic of the commonplace.”

“You… you.. You… you!!!” the Demoid shrieked furiously at lunged at Erin.

She threw an Aura Shot but the Demoid avoided the attack by spreading out its ashen body and continued in its lunge.

“Oh, fuck off,” Erin scoffed with a tut.

The Demoid crashed into Erin but she retreated using Warp. Then, she immediately used Mana Harvest to replenish the Mana expended from using Warp. The Demoid trailed after her incessantly as she kept running from it. The Demoid skillfully avoided her blade every time she swung at it by dispersing its ashen body from the path of her blade. She threw lightning and cyan flames at the Demoid but its ashen body rendered none of her attacks ineffective.

All hope seemed lost for Erin but her face did not show despair.

Wielding two swords, she danced with a brutal elegance as the Demoid tried to retaliate but Erin’s precision with her strikes did not give the Demoid any opportunity to do so. It was a stalemate with neither side having much grounds against the other. However, that soon came to change. The Demoid was only a half-Demon in the end. Its Mana was rapidly expended and unlike Erin, it had no way of replenishing it as quickly as the consumption.

Gradually, the Demoid’s movement slowed and Erin managed to injure the Demoid with Essence Flare due to it being unable to shift its body shape as fluidly as before. It wasn’t long before Erin overwhelmed the Demoid with her stronger perseverance and disintegrated the Demoid with Essence Flare.

She came out victorious but she wasn’t thrilled. The desperate pleas for help had stopped. She rushed towards the direction he heard the cries from and found only the mangled corpses of a family on the street with ruin and debris surrounding her. Corpses were scattered and strewn about the streets. Carriages and carts were turned over and some were burning.

A strong grasp gripped her heart and an ache assailed her head at such a sight of the city's destruction. Erin staggered in her steps, reminded of a past experience where a town was devastated by goblins due to the people and the government underestimating the threat. They successfully repelled the goblins but the town was ruined anyway.

“No… it won’t be like that… Not while I’m here…”

Casting aside the nightmarish experience, Erin resumed her haste and dashed through the streets, felling any Demoids she came across. Other than a few Demoids which showed extreme perseverance, the rest perished without much difficulty by her blade. The Demoids did not offer her much experience but with the amount that he killed, he garnered enough experience to reach the level of fifty.

[Experience gained +5% - Level Progression: 100%]

[Erynthea: Level 49 increased to Level 50]

[Skill Points gained +2 | 6]

[Ability Points gained +2 | 6]

[Level Progression: 0%]

Without hesitation, she used four skill points to raise her Spatial Magic to level five. A great piece of knowledge flowed into her mind with that increment and she broke into a smile at the spell she just learned.

“Lady Fae!” cried out an elderly man with scars and bruises who came trotting up to her amidst the ruins of the streets.

Erin didn’t recognise the elderly but since she saw only awe and reverence in the elderly’s gaze, she didn’t show him any hostility. “Yes, what is it?”

“T-thank you, Lady Fae!” The man dropped to his knees and took a deep bow. “You saved me and my family… Thank you.”

It wasn’t just the elderly man who came up to Erin and offered his gratitude. Many others did the same. They came up to her and expressed their undying gratitude for killing the Demoids and saving them. They were all looking at Erin as if she was the sole beacon of hope.

Seeing such a reaction from the city folks, Erin frowned. “What of the guards?”

“All dead, milady, as far as I know,” answered a young man with a heavy bruise on his shoulder. “The guards didn’t stand a chance when these Demons just appeared out of nowhere.”

“They didn’t appear out of nowhere. I saw them… I saw people turning into these Demons…”

“I saw the guards turning into Demons too!”

In a clutter, everyone was explaining the circumstances and retelling their experience on how the chaos started. Although Erin already figured out what had happened, it did put her mind at ease to know that her speculation was right.

Just as Erin was prepared to leave, a young girl leapt at her out of nowhere and gripped Erin’s hand tightly.

“Wait, m’lady! Please don’t leave us!” cried the young girl.

“But I have to, little one,” Erin told the girl.

“What if the Demoids come back? What will we do then?”

“Yeah, the girl’s right. What do we do if the Demoids appear again and you’re not here?”

Spurred by the girl’s words, the survivors began clamouring and pleading for Erin to stay.

Erin smiled wryly at the crowd. “I’m sorry but I have to go. There are others out there who might need my help. I can’t just stay here.”

“Piss on the others!” a man shouted. “What makes their lives worth more than mine or the others here!?”

Erin sighed inwardly. “Great… Here comes the most difficult part.‘