Deep in the dense forest, ten kilometers outside Knox City, lay a Demon Race hideout.
“Humans… fresh… blood.”
“Stupid! Human larva… little blood!”
A Harpy holding the unconscious Emma was struck hard on the head by another of its kind that was a size larger.
It rubbed the bulging lump on its head somewhat resentfully and let out a harsh caw, though it could not hide the excitement in its clouded eyes.
For low-level Magic Monsters like them, being able to step out of the Labyrinth and hunt humans in the vast world was enough to make the murderous instincts in their blood boil.
Not to mention, they could savor fear and despair they had never seen before; they were currently on an incredible high!
Furthermore, that lord had promised them that if they collected enough humans, they would be rewarded with that lord’s blood.
When that time came, they might even break through the shackles of low-level demons and become Great Demons standing above all others.
The slightly larger Harpy leader fantasized about a beautiful future where it ruled its own territory while commanding its subordinates to deliver the newly kidnapped human larvae into the underground storage room.
Staying out of the sunless Labyrinth felt amazing.
On the surface, even the air was sweet, the soil beneath its feet was soft, and even the moonlight shining on its feathers was exceptionally…
‘Wait, where did the moonlight go? And what is with this sudden, violent wind pressure?’
The large Harpy looked up in confusion.
It did not see the pale, ghostly moon.
Instead, what met its eyes was a massive, pitch-black hammer that blotted out the entire sky.
“DIE!!”
The heavy hammer named Nocturne smashed toward the earth.
Before the Harpy could even let out a single wail, it was crushed into fine powder.
At the exact moment the hammerhead, carrying the force of a thousand tons, was about to strike the ground, Katy’s arms snapped with sudden power.
Accompanied by the ear-grating sound of metal screeching, Nocturne halted less than one centimeter from the ground, ultimately only gently bending a single wildflower.
“Whew… that was close.”
A soft sigh escaped from beneath the black armor.
She had heard from that bird-man’s words that they had hidden the kidnapped humans underground.
If she had swung this hammer with no restraint, the next part of the story would have changed from a rescue mission to an archaeological excavation.
Katy took a step forward and suddenly felt her body grow light.
The heavy armor on her person turned into black-purple particles of light and dissipated into the night wind.
‘Tsk, did three minutes pass already? This duration is a bit too weak.’
The girl looked down at her arms, which had returned to being fair and slender.
She curled her lip, then locked eyes with a Harpy that had crawled out of the hole nearby to see what was happening.
“Hmm?”
“Caw?”
With a brain capacity no different from a house cat’s, the Harpy could not understand why the overwhelming pressure that had just made its legs shake had suddenly vanished.
It only knew that in front of it stood a human child in a black trench coat who looked fragile and easy to bully.
‘A chance!’
With a strange shriek, the Harpy lunged forward, brandishing two small sickles.
‘If I kill this human, the leader will definitely reward me—’
*Swish!*
Its swinging strike was easily avoided by the girl with a casual sidestep.
As the creature’s beady eyes widened in shock, the seemingly harmless blonde girl reached out both hands and gripped its massive beak from above and below.
Katy took a deep breath, and with power exploding from her core, she wrenched them apart!
*Crack!*
Following a bone-chilling tearing sound, the Harpy did not even have time to let out a scream before its head was literally split open.
To Katy, it was as easy as cracking open a ripe watermelon.
Red and white fluids splashed everywhere, with a few drops even landing on the girl’s fair face.
“Ugh, smells awful…”
She threw the remains aside in disgust and pinched her nose as she stepped over the corpse, which was still twitching and beginning to dissolve into black ash.
“Really, I should have brought my staff next time I went out.”
The hole was not dug deep.
Inside, a dozen or so humans lay scattered about with sickly, pale faces; they ranged from the elderly to the young.
The girl named Emma was closest to the entrance, still clutching that bag of white candles tightly in her arms.
Katy’s azure vertical pupils, which glowed faintly in the dark, scanned the unlucky bunch as she sighed.
The good news was that she arrived in time, so these little humans wouldn’t die.
The bad news was that the reason for their pale complexions and weak breathing was a curse that continuously devoured their life force.
The girl scratched her eyebrow, feeling a bit apprehensive.
Logically, as a Calamity Pillar, she could break the curse by forcibly absorbing the Mana.
However, this also meant that for a short period, her body would possess a demonic aura that an experienced Hero like Gray could easily sense.
If she happened to run into Gray later, covered in the black mist of a curse while a group of unconscious people lay beside her, she might get sliced in half if she couldn’t explain herself clearly.
“Cough… *hack*!”
While the Demon Race’s top spy, Noctiluca, was still hesitating about whether to run away, Emma suddenly coughed violently on the ground, a trace of black blood leaking from the corner of her mouth.
The effects of the curse were more pronounced on those with weak constitutions, and Emma, having grown up in an orphanage, was clearly not the robust type.
‘Sigh… fine, I’ll just wing it and lie later. Gray isn’t that bright anyway; if all else fails, I’ll just act cute.’
Katy looked at the girl’s pained little face and let out a long, helpless sigh.
She stepped forward and pressed her palm against Emma’s forehead.
An unsettling blackness was stripped from the girl’s small body, subsequently flowing into Katy’s.
While she could have taken these cursed wretches to the cathedral in the city to let the Bishop in Purple purify them, this girl would likely breathe her last before reaching the church doors.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
Five minutes later, the pale complexions of the dozen or so kidnapped humans gradually returned to a healthy flush, and their breathing stabilized.
In their place was Katy, leaning against the cave wall with a white face, feeling somewhat nauseated.
The girl let out a loud burp without any regard for her image.
“I only absorbed this much of a curse, so why do I feel… *hic*… stuffed? I’ve really gotten weaker than before… By the way, who cast this curse? It tastes like blood.”
Just as she was rubbing her slightly bloated belly with a sense of disappointment in herself, a dark shadow lunged without warning from the deep shadows of the cave.
Pale fangs were aimed straight for the girl’s vulnerable neck.
This was a Blood Bag.
Among the Blood Demons, they were individuals with a status even lower than low-rank Blood Demons.
Their entire purpose for existing was to provide a stable food source for the Blood Demons or to kill each other for entertainment when the Blood Demons were bored.
This Blood Bag had been lying in wait in the shadows for a long time.
Neither Noctiluca’s pressure nor Katy’s bloody display of tearing the Harpy apart on the surface had made it leave its hiding spot.
Only now, at the moment the blonde girl finished absorbing the human’s curses and revealed her most vulnerable side, did its predatory instincts drive it to pounce.
If it could just suck the blood of this girl who was overflowing with Mana, it could evolve! It could escape its fate as a Blood Bag!
So close!
Its fangs were only centimeters away from that snowy-white neck—
*BOOM!*
A deafening roar of thunder, like the wrath of a god, tore through the night sky outside the cave.
The flash of lightning even illuminated the deep cavern.
Startled by the thunder, Katy let out a “Waaah!” and tumbled onto the ground, just happening to dodge the lethal bite.
The Blood Bag, missing its target, slammed headfirst into the cave wall and collapsed, seeing stars.
***
Two minutes ago, at the Knox City branch of the Pioneer Covenant Association.
Lobelia and Gray stepped out of the special communications room one after another, both frowning simultaneously the moment they crossed the threshold.
“Such dense Mana. Is it a Starshine… no, a Nightlight-level Demon in the city?”
A red light flashed in Lobelia’s pink eyes.
The originally invisible Mana was now dyed purple in her vision.
In the direction of the city’s eastern district, the purple soaring into the sky was so thick it looked as if a clumsy artist had accidentally knocked over a bucket of paint.
Behind her, Gray’s heart recognized this soul-shaking aura before his logic could.
‘Noctiluca! I sensed his aura on the outskirts of the city before. Has he actually stretched his demonic claws into Knox City this time?!’
His long blade left its sheath, pointing straight at the sky.
Although he did not possess Insight Magic as refined as Lobelia’s, Gray’s experience fighting Noctiluca for over half a year was enough for him to lock onto the Calamity Pillar’s position instantly.
“Hey, that’s a Calamity Pillar! Shouldn’t we call for backup and wait for the Association’s support?”
Lobelia reached out, but she failed to grab the young man’s sleeve.
He had already transformed into a streak of brilliant azure lightning, vanishing into the night sky, leaving only a fading echo behind.
“—You are my backup! Keep up!”
Watching the fleeting bolt of electricity, Lobelia sighed.
In Gray’s eyes, her level of importance wasn’t even worth comparing to that little girl named Katy, but why did she feel like she couldn’t even compare to this boss named Nocti-whatever?
Despite her complaining, her pride as an A-rank Mage would not allow her to back down.
With a snap of the girl’s fingers, a crimson magic wand manifested in her palm.
“Set sail.”
The Rose Ship lifted her up, chasing after that bolt of lightning as they flew toward the outskirts of the city.
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