The ground trembled beneath their feet — this time not subtle. A full-bodied quake, like something massive was stomping toward them. Sanae's boots hit the cracked stone as she sprinted down what remained of the main street, flanked by Zoltan and Asami. The collapsed village square opened ahead — shattered homes, fallen statues, and smoke curling up in twisting tendrils. The earth here was still scorched from old magic, and the air burned sharp in their lungs.
"Contact," Zoltan muttered, his red eyes glowing faintly. He flicked his fingers and two Shikigami burst into form — pale paper wolves, swirling with crimson ink. They emerged from the stone ruins into what used to be a plaza. The center fountain was shattered. Smoke curled up from broken rooftops.
Sanae stepped forward, fists clenched, the failsafe device tucked inside her blazer. Her jaw was tight.
Then it came.
A sound more felt than heard — a bone-rattling rhythm like massive hooves pounding a warpath. Then, from behind the skeletal frame of a collapsed clocktower, it stepped into view.
The demon stood nearly ten feet tall, Its body was a grotesque blend of cracked obsidian flesh and bone plating, ribbed with red, glowing mana veins that pulsed with each breath. Its head was like a warped bull skull with no eyes, and its right arm ended in a jagged metal club fused into its limb like an infection.
And it wasn't alone.
Two more lumbered behind it, each different in shape, but no less massive. Behind them were the slinking shapes of smaller, pack-like demons — maybe scouts, maybe just predators riding on the wake of destruction.
"One massive boy," Asami muttered. "And at two smaller ones."
Sanae's heart slammed against her chest. Her breathing was sharp, not from running — from fear. Not the scared kind. The kind that told you this was real. That they were out of time. She reached inside her blazer, fingers brushing the failsafe device. The slim metal disc pulsed faintly with blue light. The signal. The call for emergency extraction. One button press, and the academy's nearest team — maybe even staff — would get the alert. But pressing it meant one thing: they failed the mission.
Her fingers froze.
"...No," she whispered. "Not yet."
Zoltan moved first, using his two Shikigami they spiraled forward in crackling bursts of ink and flame. They collided with the lead brute — and detonated.
Smoke.
For a second, Sanae thought they might have hurt it. Then the demon charged through the smoke completely unfazed and slammed its club down. Sanae jumped, barely dodging as the club shattered the ground — stone erupting into the air like shrapnel. She landed rough, one leg twisting awkwardly on the landing. Pain screamed through her ankle. Not broken — but close.
"Asami, left—!" Zoltan shouted.
A smaller demon rushed in, mouth wide with jagged teeth. Asami's eyes narrowed — she raised her hand, and with a pulse of mana, it lifted off the ground mid-leap. She twisted her wrist — the demon slammed sideways into the wall. It crumpled. Not dead. But stunned.
Zoltan's fingers blurred, summoning a serpent-shaped shikigami that twisted around the demon's legs and dragged at its momentum. But another demon crashed through a wall to their left — a second monster barreling toward Sanae. Sanae's arms glowed — her physical enhancement flaring to life — and she met the brute mid-leap with a leaping elbow to its face, cracking its mask.
But the demon struck back with a hammer-fist to her gut. And this time, it hit her. Hard. She flew — into a stone pillar — and dropped. The world dimmed.
"Sanae!" Asami's voice cracked — but her focus slipped, and a telekinetic shield she'd thrown shattered before it reached Zoltan. Zoltan bled now — a long gash down his cheek. His shikigami were scattered, ripped apart.
"These things don't stop—!"
Asami's telekinesis gripped jagged metal — she hurled it like spears, piercing one demon's thigh. It slowed. But Sanae was still down.
"Sanae!" Asami's voice cut through the haze.
Sanae blinked, dazed. Her hands were trembling. Blood leaked from her temple. She tasted copper. Her hand went back to the failsafe device. Her thumb hovered.
Zoltan landed beside her, panting, face bleeding from a long gash down his temple. "This is bad," he growled. "We're gonna get wiped. We can't even coordinate — they're pushing us apart."
Another brute was moving toward Asami now. She was holding it back — barely — with telekinesis, arms shaking, teeth clenched.
"She can't hold that much weight," Sanae whispered.
The Shikigami wolf beside her cracked and shattered into ink. Zoltan swore. "We're spent. And they just keep coming."
Sanae looked at the device. She didn't want to push it. She'd trained too hard for this moment to end like this.
But...
She thought of the others. Manjiro. Celosia. Kiyoshi. Giyuu. Haruki. If any of them were going through this too, then someone had to survive to help. Her thumb pressed down. The failsafe chirped with a soft tone — then pulsed a bright flash of blue light, sending a flare of mana skyward like a beacon.
"Signal sent," she gasped.
Zoltan looked at her — surprised. Then nodded.
Sanae stood tall. "Until reinforcements arrive we must hold them off."
She surged forward — pain screaming in her ribs — and caught the demon's arm mid-swing with both hands, her magic flaring gold. Her boots skidded through dirt. Her arms trembled. But she held it. "Asami—!"
"I'm on it—!" Asami clenched her hands. Her eyes glowed.
She didn't throw rubble this time. She threw the demon's own arm — torn off telekinetically — and drove it through the creature's chest. It shuddered. Then fell. The three of them dropped to their knees, gasping.
Blood. Dust. Bruises. Mana low.
Asami leaned back, covered in ash. "We're all gonna die if more of them show up."
But no more came — for now. The silence hung like a blade.
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