Chapter 12: Red Horned Demon (3).

“Haa, f*ck.”

Chayeon involuntarily sighed, watching Arena shouting at the top of her lungs, making the building echo.

Should he just run away alone?

…That would be too pathetic.

Chayeon reluctantly followed her into the hallway.

Clang! Clang!

A shadow spread in the darkness at the end of the hallway, and soon, a woman appeared, her red hair fluttering.

Her red, white-filled eyes glared at them. A joyful smile was on her lips.

Sh*t, she’s freaking scary.

“Heeheehee~♪”

The woman approached, humming.

Stopping about 10 meters away, the woman raised her right hand. Long, blood-red fingernails, reflecting the moonlight, emitted an eerie light.

This is dangerous. Sh*t, should he run away even now…!

“How fortunate~!”

However, at the words that followed, Chayeon lost all strength.

What was with that cute way of speaking?

“What, weren’t you a demon?” He unknowingly blurted out what he was thinking.

The demon, said to be a Level 2 Threat, was looking around anxiously. Wait, something this harmless was a demon?

“A…a demon~?” Supporting her chin with her fingertips, the woman tilted her head.

Cute!

He felt like he’d never experienced such a feeling in his life. As she tilted her head, her horn reflected the light and sparkled. Why had he felt fear while looking at such a cute horn?

“Haa, you startled me. Who are you……”

<<Be careful!>>

“You idiot!”

Heukgu and Arena spoke at the same time. As Chayeon took a step forward, Arena, as if to block him, slashed her sword horizontally in front of Chayeon.

Kaaang!

Something, severed by Arena’s sword, stuck straight into the floor. It was a blood-red, sharp blade.

“Huh?”

“I taught you that you have to be most wary of mental manipulation when meeting a demon! Don’t let your guard down!”

Arena shouted, and Chayeon’s thoughts, which had suddenly stopped, began to flow again.

“How sad~ I thought I could just eat the dim-witted red-eyed kid, but the yellow eyes are quite clever~?”

The woman, who had fired her fingernails like bullets, was giggling.

“What was that just now?”

<<You were almost caught by the demon’s mental manipulation. It seems like she weakened your tension and hostility. Snap out of it.>>

As Heukgu spoke, Chayeon finally felt his mind returning completely.

To let his guard down in front of this woman who was openly dangerous… He couldn’t believe his earlier way of thinking.

If it hadn’t been for Arena, he would have died.

His hair stood on end.

“Hmph! Don’t think such shoddy mental manipulation will work on me!” Arena held her sword with both hands and pointed it at the woman.

The woman let out a spine-chilling cackle.

“The prey I’ve caught on the way here were too easy and uninteresting~ I’ve finally caught something delicious!” The woman also raised her fingernails like blades.

“Cute bunny~ My name is Rubrum-Lunaa. Call me Luna~, okay? What’s your name?”

“Hmph, I won’t tell my name to a demon like you!”

“What are you saying~ You were just shouting ‘I, Kawada Arena, will be your opponent!’ a while ago. Right, Arena?”

“…! Sh, shut up!”

Seeing Arena’s face turn bright red, Chayeon hurriedly grabbed her shoulder.

Seeing the unusually rapid change in her expression, he realized how he had been affected a moment ago.

“Calm down. Don’t get swept away. It’s mental manipulation.”

Stopping Arena, putting strength into the shoulder he held, she suddenly came to her senses and quickly regained her composure.

“Luna and Arena~, we’re like sisters! I, I’ve always wanted an older sister~” The demon, Rubrum-Luna, spoke playfully again, but Arena stared silently at her, pointing her sword.

“Boring.” Luna’s expression hardened, realizing that mental manipulation wouldn’t work anymore.

The playful atmosphere from just now was gone, and a bone-chilling murderous intent emanated from her.

“It’s not fun anymore, so I’ll eat you now.” Luna, who had sharpened her fingernails, disappeared from sight in an instant.

She reappeared right in front of Arena. Her long fingernails rushed towards Arena’s head. At the same time, Arena’s blade swung down, colliding with the seemingly hard fingernails.

Scrape-

Contrary to the common knowledge that metal and metal colliding would make a metallic sound, Arena’s sword bisected the fingernails as if cutting tofu. And,

Slash-

Without stopping there, the blade then reached Luna’s right collarbone and cleanly cut through to her left hip.

Blood-red blood spurted out. Luna’s bisected body passed Arena’s body due to inertia, going over Chayeon and flying behind him, collapsing.

“Hmph!” Arena, covered in blood, scoffed as usual and shook her sword once. The blood on the blade scattered on the floor.

“Huh, what.”

Chayeon, dumbfounded with rabbit eyes, was staring blankly at Arena.

“Is it over?”

She had given off a very strong vibe, but it was this anticlimactic? Chayeon looked at the body sprawled on the ground behind him.

It showed no signs of moving.

“She’s weak?”

“What are you talking about, I’m strong! My Absolute Severance is invincible when it comes to clashing swords!” Arena puffed out her chest with a triumphant expression.

He’d thought she was just someone with a slightly unfortunate side, but it turned out that she had incredible abilities.

That smug expression was the same as always, but today, that appearance couldn’t have looked more reliable.

“What are you doing? Jeon Chayeon, don’t stand there blankly, let’s hurry down. We have to meet a teacher and report!”

“Ah, right.”

At Arena’s words, Chayeon snapped out of it and was about to follow her down the stairs.

“Humhumhum♪”

Their bodies froze at the spine-chilling pitch that shouldn’t have been able to be heard now.

“Hum! Hum!

…, Hehehe, hihihi, ahahahaha.”

A high-pitched laughter that seemed to tear through the air struck their ears.

Arena’s pupils were shaking violently enough to be seen from right next to her.

“H-how…?”

A trembling voice, filled with disbelief, leaked from her mouth.

Chayeon, too, couldn’t move from the spot, his whole body paralyzed.

Barely managing to muster the courage, Chayeon turned his head and looked back.

Squirming, squirming

Luna’s bisected body, as if it were a living creature, was squirming and crawling, desperately looking for each other.

Soon, the joined bodies swelled up on their own and were swallowing each other.

The flesh, which had been swelling and twisting, finally calmed down, and Luna, completely unharmed, stood up in place like a puppet doll being lifted by strings.

“Where are you going, kids~?”

Her serpentine eyes glowed red.

A curse came out on its own. He never thought he’d encounter something like this, a scene that looked like it was out of a monster movie, in reality.

“Arenaa~ Is the show over~?”

“This…”

Arena once again drew her sword and leaped.

It was a speed that had grown dazzlingly compared to a month ago.

But Arena’s sword emptily cut through the air.

“I never expected my fingernails to be cut off~ You’re a beast with sharp claws, Arena~?” Rubrum-Luna evaded Arena’s sword with ridiculous ease. Soon, a kick flew towards her abdomen.

Kwang-

A sound closer to an explosion than a strike was heard, and Arena was knocked next to Chayeon.

Chayeon, with no time to worry, watched the demon appear in front of the fallen Arena with a creepy smile.

As if kicking a soccer ball, her right foot was raised high behind her.

If she gets hit by that, she’ll die.

Chayeon jumped at the demon. He wasn’t foolishly thinking of throwing his body to block it.

He was just trying to push the woman to make her lose her balance.

Whoosh-

The right foot heading towards Arena bent at an incomprehensible angle.

“Huh?”

Kwang!

The shin, swung horizontally, hit Chayeon, and his body, unable to withstand the force, flew away.

Chayeon’s body, which had flown into the opposite hallway, hit the hallway wall and ricocheted here and there, sprawled on the floor.

Wood fragments pierced his whole body, and Chayeon’s body, which had been writhing in pain, soon slumped down.

Arena could only stare blankly at that sight.

“Jeon Chayeon…?”

The fallen Chayeon didn’t move at all.

What? Why isn’t he getting up?

Don’t mess with me.

You’re strong, right.

So strong that I couldn’t even graze you for a month, no matter how hard I tried, so annoyingly strong.

Then why are you just lying there?

You can avoid it, right.

Why did you get hit?

…Because of me?

“Oh my? The red-eyed kid blocked it, sacrificing his body~? How touching! What a tearful friendship~”

Heeheehee.

“Don’t make me laugh!” Clenching her teeth, forcing herself to endure the pain, Arena swung her sword.

But still, her sword only cut through the air. As if she had been purposely allowing her to touch her sword at first, no matter how much she swung it, there was no way for the sword to reach her.

“Ugh!”

Luna, who had been twisting her body this way and that, lightly kicked Arena’s stomach with her toe.

The feeling of being hit by a huge iron ball instantly struck Arena’s abdomen.

“Cough!”

Kwang!

Arena, who had been kicked up as it was, hit the ceiling, bounced off, and then,

Thud!

Slammed into the ground.

“Cough, cough, cough, hah! Heoh!”

She couldn’t breathe.

Being attacked again in the same place only multiplied the pain.

Her mind was blank.

“Oh my, you’re drooling, how clumsy. I’ll wipe it off for you, Arena~” Luna’s tongue licked near Arena’s lips.

“Aaaaaaah!”

The left arm that she had thrust out while screaming was grasped too easily.

Crack.

“Aaaaaaaah!!”

The elbow bent in the direction it shouldn’t be bent. Blood spurted, and the shattered and sharpened bone tip tore through her flesh and popped out.

“Hah! Sob, hic, haeuuk!”

Her hair, having been grabbed by the roots, was lifted up. Arena’s eyes, meeting the red, white-filled eyes, shook violently.

She couldn’t win.

Fear seeped into her bones.

“Don’t worry too much, Arena~ I’ll send you to your friend’s side soon! Before that…”

Luna lowered her head and met Arena’s eyes. Emotions that had been shaken by agitation and fear too easily allowed mental manipulation.

Negative emotions such as fear, resignation, and despair seeped deep into her heart.

“Aah…, aaaaaah….” Her tear glands filled, Arena’s face distorted, and tears dripped down.

Her body, unable to control its sobs, trembled violently enough to transmit vibrations.

“Ahahahahaha! What what, how cute! Where did that energy from earlier go, Arenaa~? It’s too good to just eat!”

Heeheeheehee,

The high pitch seemed to tear through the air, striking her ears.

Arena, who had been completely dominated, couldn’t even move her body now. As if she had been given general anesthesia, she didn’t move even a fingertip.

“Should I play with her for a bit?” Luna, who was crouching down and couldn’t do anything, stuck close to Arena.

The demon, with eyes curved like a crescent moon, grabbed Arena’s undamaged right arm and lifted it up.

Her body, which had lost all strength, was dragged along like a doll with cut strings.

“First, lightly~” The red-horned demon curled her right hand around Arena’s pinky finger.

“Ah…, I, I don’t want to……. It can’t be…….” Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.

Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this to me?

What did I do wrong?

Why, why are you doing this.

Why.

..Ugh.

That’s right.

She realized.

This,

This,

Was a demon.

–Crack.

Aaaaaaaaaaah!