Yuki quickly pulled Yumi up from the dirt. He didn’t know how badly she was injured or the others. ‘I never imagihat they would all be defeated. Will things end here? Do Yumi’s personalities win their bet?’ Regardless of their fate, Yuki could only focus ohing. Missing a hand and lower half of her leg, Yumi was in the worst shape.

  He picked up Yumi and carried her over to Saki and Seiji. ‘How are they doing? I o heal them…’ Unfortunately, the demons already began to recover from his initial intrusion. And worse of all the demon ander led the charge. She waheir blood.

  Casting out this mist once more, he weakehe earth below the demons. Turning it into almost the sistency of quid, the first rank colpsed. It wasn’t enough to trick the ahough. The demon had a rge enough stand height that it provided only an invenieo her. Even slowed down, that was enough for him to redirect the remainder of his mist at the demon to topple it.

  “That’ll buy enough time.” His Field went down and quickly, his mind ordered together a new Law necessary for their survival. As the demon ander recovered, fmes burst from it in anger for being dehe kill. Hurriedly, Yuki finished his new Field. A barrier quickly locked into pce around them in a small dome.

  Fmes washed over in waves on the barrier uo make it budge. Frustrated, the demon smashed the giant sword into his barrier with er results. Alongside their leader, more of the demons arrived to try to crack through. Nothing they did could break it though.

  Pausing itack, the demon stared down at Yuki. She stared at him as though trying to remember him. “There’s no human alive with this sort of power. Who are you?”

  Yuki finished firming all he needed from the demons and turned his eyes towards his friends. The healing effects of the array already began re-growing Yumi’s lost limbs. Small wounds were already disappearing to their audience’s surprise.

  Enough of the wounds that kept them uo move disappeared. Saki and Seiji rose first looking with surprise to see Yuki kneelio them. “What happened?” she asked with the st minute hazy.

  “I found you all colpsed with the demons closing in. I’m holding them off for now, but we’re pletely surrounded.”

  “…dammit…” Seiji muttered to himself, keeping oddly silent.

  Yumi pulled herself up and to her feet quickly once she could move her body. Even with her body weakened, she ighe imbahat fought her to remain upright. The dull pounding of the demons barely a few meters away reminded her that the situation remained unged. ‘It wasn’t enough… I o be stronger… I’m still too weak…’

  Caught up ihoughts, it was a while before she noticed Yuki grabbing her hand. “You’re still mending. Please don’t think about going back out to fight, Yumi.”

  She hesitated seeing the look in his eyes, the worry and for her life. However, if she did nothing, how would they get out of the situation? Yumi gnced around the barrier seeing all of the hungry demons wanting a piece of her. “If you keep healing my wounds, I fight.”

  “That’s not a healthy way to fight, yoing to still lose blood!”

  “But what choice do we have?!”

  “It may be our only option, Yuki,” Saki agreed with some reluce, “It’s not like it’s the only time you’ve do.”

  “The lethality is different!”

  Suddenly a loud roar ripped through the battle. A roar that came from no demon or beast. It even startled the demons that started to turn towards the sound. Another roar came out worse tha. Ahly sound came from the north that couldn’t be produced from any mouth or throat. It had no likeo pare for any familiarity. They were left with the unsatisfactory simplification of a roar. It crawled through the ranks with a deep peing echo that twisted and shifted pitch the more it went.

  Arriving closer with fewer obstrus, a fsh of light and cries went with eabsp; Demons were dying in mass to the unknown sound and it came closer. Then it struck the barrier Yuki structed. Within an instant a tear ripped through his barrier fully exposing them to the dangers. An act that shocked Yuki more tha, as he khe strength necessary to do such a thing with ease.

  Through the raining blood of demons, a figure appeared. Pained whispers from the demons that withe age first hand passed along eerie echoes. “The woman. Demonsyer.”

  As the figure came more clearly in view Saki recalled their name. “Masa…”

  Chapter 422 – A True Bde

  Not looking as keenly at the battle as Saki, Seiji looked over at her to firm it. “That scary ass woman from before?!”

  “I’d never fet a face like that.”

  “That expins the power…”

  Yumi remained out of the loop and stared out at the figure barely getting any sort of sense of them. There was too much demon blood c them up. They carved an even more bloody path of destru than her.

  While she wanted answers, the demons pletely gave up on them. The ander redirected the army to the woman. They lost i in their group. And the way the leader reacted, treated the single woman as a far greater threat. All of the bloodlust for her death faded away.

  Tossed aside almost made her feel ahat after everything, she was no longer even worth the time. Yet at the same time, sidering what she saw the woman do it was clear that they were in a pletely different league than Yumi or any of her friends. None of them could even pare. It was actually a bit awe inspiring that there was someone so vastly out g them that she couldn’t even see where the mountain began to even start the climb. It felt simir to that Demon Lord she met, but very different.

  It took her almost a mio be pulled away from age that the woman wrought upon the demons. She looked back at her friends seeing differeions from them. Yumi remembered that they seemed like they knew her. “Do you know them? Someohat you met?”

  “That’s right, we didn’t get around to all the details yet.”

  “Yeah, we shit ourselves finding her, while looking for you.”

  “So she’s an ally?”

  Saki looked over at the vast sea of death the woma in her wake. The battle nearly came to an end already. “I’m not sure. All we know is that she’s not an enemy at least, for now.”

  Yuki lowered his Field, having finished healing everyone. Staring down the field, he couldn’t see much of anything but fshes of lights. He knew nothing about what was happening with any crity. He could only make guesses, but given what he witnessed so far, it retty to him. “Someoh that sort of power is not one we want as an enemy…” Ease of killing all of the demons and crag his barrier left his body sweating.

  The power difference felt nothing like what he had seen before. Even the seemingly impossible heights that he scraped to reach to beat Demosthenes, Eudokia and even Takako felt like hills in parison to what he saw unfold. There was a gulf he wondered if any of them could even attempt to cross. “Maybe because it’s not real…”

  “What the hell do you want to do?” Seiji asked, getting a real sense of everyone’s hesitanbsp; He already felt the woman’s power before and this was calm in parison. He wasn’t ied in that again.

  “If I had to guess, they were the ohe demons were after, not Yumi.”

  Yuki nodded in agreement. “You might be right. They were just looking for a woman, we merely assumed it had to be Yumi because of her as. But what did she do to get their wraith?”

  “I heard something about a Demon Lord, but it’s only a guess that it could be reted to what we saw.”

  “And her name is Masa?” Yumi checked to firm correctly. She found herself tilting her head to stare at the woman more. A small pulsion drew her sight back towards the woman.

  “That’s the name Seiji got out of her before she left.”

  “Masa…” Yumi turo walk away from them with the mysterious swordswoman in her sights.

  “Where are you going, Yumi?”

  ‘There’s something familiar about it. I feel like I know that name from somewhere. But where? Why does it seem like something I know? Something that I heard… But I don’t know it…’ Questions mounted for Yumi the longer she tried to solve the identity of the woman. She was a plete strao her. That much she could be certain. There was nothing about her that was familiar to her, physically. She never saw her before.

  She was certain.

  A was not.

  She couldn’t be certain.

  Something tugged on her. She felt pelled to keep walking. She had questions and even more that she wanted from the woman. Keeping her distance from the stranger wasn’t an option.

  Suddenly, Saki grabbed her arm trying to stop her. “What are you doing, Yumi? We know nothing about her and possibly by luck or capriciousness were spared in our st enter.”

  The shaking in Saki’s hands made it clear, though it also surprised Yumi to discover. She looked back at Seiji, finding the same thing. ‘They’re afraid of the woman. I’ve never seen Saki scared before… But why? I don’t see any reason.’

  Roars of the st demon to fall brought a finality to the silenbsp; A violent peace was achieved for the town. Yumi turned away from Saki, not willing to accept the same sort of fear that they grew. She pulled her arm free and walked into a hurried pabsp; Even before the bde could return its sheath the woman started to walk away. Yumi would miss her ce if she deyed.

  Disappearing from the spot, she used a burst of speed to get around to the woman before she disappeared. It was almost like a natural disaster. pletely merciless to all and fade away as if nothing even happened.

  “Excuse me! You’re named Masa, right?”

  The aused with a new interruption before her. Still holding her bloodied bde, she flicked the blood to the ground. “And who are you?”

  “I saw you fighting. You were able to kill them all so effortlessly while I struggled.”

  Saki and the others caught up to Yumi finally trying to pull her away before she made another mistake like Seiji. “I thought I told you that we o go che the townspeople,” she made up trying to get Yumi away safely. However, Yumi immediately protested and broke free again. “What are you doing?!”

  “You’re strong, very strong. I want to learn your teique!”