Chapter 63 | Down You Go, Demon!

Theo and the entourage entered the base through different paths.

He entered right through the gates, Emma demolished the section of wall blocking her, Satou flipped over the parapet in one clean motion, and Tatsuya scaled it with unnervingly dextrous moves.

Once inside, they spread even further and stood several tens of meters away from each other. Satou and Theo were together, while the others stood by themselves.

The concrete wall of the base exploded inwards, a massive chunk of it simply being pulverized by the storm of red. The Eviscerator stepped through the opening and threw aside Valerius’ head after having finally drained it of blood.

“Do you get enjoyment out of that, sick bastard?” Theo couldn’t help but ask. He had no understanding of the guy. Was he simply a psychopath, or was there something about him drinking blood?

The Eviscerator stopped walking and tipped his head curiously. He was still occasionally twitching because of the itch, making him look like a cheap horror movie prop.

“Interesting. Nobody has ever asked me that before,” he responded. “I guess I do, Food. I guess I do.”

“Were you born that way?”

“No, I wasn’t. I came to learn art in my late thirties.”

“I see…” Theo muttered. This wasn’t a person who was broken from birth. He was a monster through and through. How could a normal person turn out that way?

“So? Won’t you berate me? Why don’t you start calling me a monster? You will be begging to be spared later though,” The eviscerator said as he started stepping toward Theo. He had probably understood Theo was the head honcho of this ragtag group of first-rates.

“I don’t care.”

“Hm?”

“I don’t really care about your motivations or actions. I assume, even if you weren’t such a monster and we were again on opposing sides, I would still have to take you down,” Theo said with an empty expression.

“…Hah. Good. Then come get me!”

This is as far as I can delay, Theo thought to himself as he activated Shifting Earth. This brief conversation had allowed the others to recover some of their aura reserves for the upcoming fight. They needed every ounce of power they could muster.

As Theo pulled back, The Eviscerator bee-lined toward him, only to get intercepted by Satou, Emma, and Tatsuya. The trio somehow managed to match him in power. Barely pushing him back.

Again and again, hundreds of attacks were made in a blink. Satou’s attacks kept looking for openings in his defenses, Emma kept hammering against his aura, while Tatsuya ate away at his reserves simply with his punches.

The Eviscerator’s eyes were bloodshot, and his skin had become even redder. Possibly from a combination of his demon-like transformation and his constantly scratching his body to find relief from the itch.

His aura-made claws were incredibly durable, standing against actual solid steel and not giving an inch. Hell, even Emma’s Greataxes had become battered during the fight.

As far as Theo’s understanding of them went, Satou and the others couldn’t solidify their aura like that. It seemed the Master-rate was more than a mere increase in quantity, but a sublimation of aura. It seemed less like a simple destructive energy. It was more… Real. More present, if he had to choose a word.

As the fight continued, however, The Eviscerator seemed to start running out of steam. His movements became sluggish, his swings were ever-so-slightly weaker. The collaborative attacks of the four first-rates had chipped away at him enough to tire him.

Then, however, The Eviscerator stopped. His aura was pulled back as he stepped away from the battle. The three warriors also stepped away, only Ameda’s attacks occasionally slamming against The Eviscerator’s skin.

“You have done well annoying me, pests!” He screeched. Then, his hair started whipping around with an unseen gust of wind. His muscles bulged, his veins started popping up and showing under his skin.

“Hah. Idiot. You think I will let you transform?” Suddenly, Theo dashed right at him. The Eviscerator was surprised momentarily, his aura reeling. Theo wasn’t a threat by any means, but nobody would approach him while transforming. Normally, that is.

Closing the distance down to several meters, Theo reached into his satchel and threw several itch potions at the guy. As he was busy transforming, The Eviscerator didn’t have the aura to push them away and received them head-on. The green substance splattered on his skin and seeped into his pores, clogging them and causing even further irritation. He shivered from the simple influx of sensations.

Not being an idiot, Theo quickly turned around and activated Shifting Earth to its fullest to escape. He kept the enemy at the edge of his vision to make sure he wasn’t being chased. Fortunately, The Eviscerator was too busy bulging his muscles and growling to bother with him.

Once by Satou’s side, Theo skidded to a stop and rolled on the ground. He pushed himself up and looked at The Eviscerator. He had completed his transformation, his previously small body now nearly two meters tall, bulging with muscles.

There were all sorts of demonic features on his body. Theo could even see two little stumps growing on his temples. There was definitely something fishy about all of this. Why would a human have horns?

“Are those…”

“He must be a half-demon,” Satou frowned. “Cross-breeding amongst demons and humans usually makes the child more susceptible to mood swings and mental illnesses. His training must have brought out the demon in him.”

“Oh…” Theo exclaimed. He had yet to see a demon before. “Are demons all…”

“No. They are pretty normal. It’s the mixture of the human and demon physiologies that causes the problems. And even still, unless one reaches a certain level of training, one side of the genes will generally stay dormant.”

Theo frowned. He didn’t like that. He didn’t like it when bastards like these had the chance to blame their actions on their circumstances.

Though, either way, he had accomplished his goal.

Even with his transformation complete, The Eviscerator couldn’t get rid of the itch potion on his body. He scratched and scratched, leaving bloody marks on his body.

He seemed to have lost all reason as he roared and launched toward the nearest enemy, the unlucky person being Emma this time. Of course, the others wouldn’t let him free.

Theo slammed his hands down as he adjusted the spell formula. A wall of earth rose on The Eviscerator’s path momentarily. He slammed into it shoulder-first, exploding it into pieces without a problem. Although it didn’t slow him down at all, it did obstruct his vision.

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In that split second, Satou and Tatsuya had managed to converge on him, attacking him from all directions. Emma opted not to clash head-on and turned to run.

The Eviscerator shrugged off all their attacks and kept chasing after her.

He’s tunnel-visioning because of the distress.

All things aside, the most annoying thing for the man had to be the fact that he was being led by the nose by a bunch of nobodies. First-rates were aplenty, pretty much everywhere in the world. Almost every medium-sized group had one or more first-rates in their ranks.

Master-rates, however, were exalted beings. Especially in a rural place like this, The Eviscerator was supposed to be the apex predator. Now, he was nothing more than a T-rex being bullied by a bunch of cockroaches.

“Come. Here!” He growled and bee-lined straight toward Emma. He quickly closed the distance between them and swiped a claw down.

Emma planted her feet on the ground, spun in place to face him, and held her great axes diagonally. All his power came crushing down on her, instantly shattering one of the axes and launching her several meters high into the air.

Theo gritted his teeth. He could see her left arm dangling in all the wrong angles. It had been broken out of shape.

As Emma roared in pain, The Eviscerator held his claws up and waited for her to fall down on them, impaling herself.

Just as it was about to make contact, however, a blunt arrow came from the distance and slammed into Emma at full speed, launching her away from danger.

Good job, Ameda!

Throughout all their bickering and fights, Theo had come to like Emma quite a bit. She was a good companion and was fun to be around.

Not to mention, she had a quest in his system that gave two whole points. How could he let her die so easily?

“Satou, support her! Tatsuya, Tactic 5!” He shouted. Tactic 5 wasn’t actually a tactic, but a signal for all four of the first-rates to act. Theo could see that The Eviscerator was at the absolute end of his wits.

Hearing him, Satou flickered and appeared beside Emma, pulling her up to her feet. The woman held her greataxe and looked at the Eviscerator defiantly.

“Good… Struggle! Struggle as much as you can. Show me what you can d- Huh?”