The black-and-red greatsword, reeking of sulfur, swung horizontally straight at Luo Shu. The heavy blow tore through the air, producing a shrill howl as it sliced forward. Yet, faced with this devastating strike, Luo Shu appeared frozen in place, making no attempt to dodge or block. His utter stillness immediately triggered Mapa's instincts, and at the last possible moment, the massive greatsword missed Luo Shu's nose by a hair's breadth.
"…What is this…?" Mapa's monstrous face, with its six compound eyes, showed an expression of bewilderment he himself couldn't explain. "A distance miscalculation? A mistake like that… how could I make such an error?"
"I told you already." Luo Shu's face held a warm, almost friendly smile. "Our styles… actually match quite well."
"Styles?" Mapa stiffened, realization dawning slowly. "Poison?"
Luo Shu simply smiled back at him in silence, offering no answer. But the truth was obvious. From the moment he had learned that his enemy was a demon, Luo Shu had made his preparations. A poison specifically designed to target demons, transmissible through the air—that was one of his trump cards. After all, for a wind sorcerer, spreading poison was almost too convenient.
"You poisoned me…?" For a moment, Mapa struggled to comprehend. "Impossible… poisons effective against demons… shouldn't those be in the hands of demon hunters? And they'd need to be prepared on site… don't tell me…"
Suddenly, Mapa's expression changed as suspicion surged through him. Eyes darting warily around the cavern, he shouted in alarm, "It's you, isn't it?! Sharon the Pure!! I never thought you'd actually cooperate with the SDS!!"
His voice echoed repeatedly through the cavern, yet to his surprise, that familiar woman never appeared.
Just then, Mapa seemed to realize something. His gaze dropped suddenly to his own arm—the one clutching the greatsword. There, dark red blood was slowly oozing from a wound, and his grip was visibly weakening.
At some point, Luo Shu had silently moved to Mapa's left. Looking genuinely surprised, Luo Shu remarked, "Oh? The poison's already begun dulling your nerves? A poison that only affects demons and is harmless to humans… now that's an interesting concoction."
"…That blade…" Mapa's attention focused entirely on the weapon Luo Shu now held in his hand—a long, oddly shaped black-and-pink blade.
"Oh, this?" Luo Shu twirled the strange longsword, which had an intricate hollowed-out design, his face brightening with an almost cheerful smile. "I'm temporarily calling it the Sealblade. It seems to really hate demons."
[Sealblade (Provisional Name) – Hero Grade]
[A demon-slaying blade possessing multiple attributes: anti-magic, sealing, durability. Forged using demonic techniques specifically to counter demons, it exhibits powerful effects against them.]
"It's rare to find an abyssal tool without any side effects. Then again, perhaps it's not truly an abyssal tool… more like an extension of something else."
Listening to Luo Shu's explanation, Mapa spoke with grim calmness, "You're waiting for the anti-magic power of that blade to corrode my cellular activity, aren't you?"
Luo Shu rested the Sealblade casually on his shoulder, sighing as though in admiration. "See? That's why I said we speak the same language."
"Or, to put it less politely… we're both shameless enough to play dirty, aren't we?"
"I see now… I miscalculated." Mapa's expression shifted, regret seeping into his monstrous features. "The wind sorcerer working against me wasn't that kid standing in plain sight… it was you, wasn't it?"
Frustration clawed at him. He never imagined that after a lifetime of trapping others, today he'd be the one caught in someone else's net.
He had believed Luo Shu to be nothing more than a tool—a pawn the SDS had pushed forward to control demons using the Demon Heart. It never crossed his mind that Luo Shu was actually a wind sorcerer himself. And what stunned him even more was how Luo Shu had kept Kazemaki Ryuya casting wind spells openly, using him as bait, while hiding himself in the shadows the entire time.
Such insidious tactics made Mapa feel like he wasn't fighting a human, but rather a fellow demon—one even more devious than himself.
As Mapa wallowed in frustration, Luo Shu's calm voice broke through. "You might want to stop those pointless little tricks."
"Your method of body-hijacking… or that worm-like thing of yours. To parasitize someone, you'd need to get control of the heart first, wouldn't you?"
At Luo Shu's words, Mapa's six compound eyes trembled involuntarily. Hidden within his right hand, concealed until now, was a parasitic demon worm marked with several concentric ring patterns. Even the worm shuddered slightly.
"Five meters… that's your safety radius, isn't it? That worm can spit silk to latch onto anything within five meters, then burrow straight into its victim's body? Disgusting, but I'll admit, as a survival mechanism, it's quite effective…"
Mapa watched helplessly as Luo Shu slowly retreated, putting precisely five meters between them—not an inch more, not an inch less—positioning himself right outside the worm's strike zone.
"How… how did you know…?" Mapa stared at Luo Shu, unable to comprehend. He had taken every precaution to conceal that secret technique. Even within the Celestial Astronomy Order itself, no one knew about his heart-stealing parasite. Yet somehow, this man standing before him acted like he could see the future, predicting his abilities, even calculating his parasite's exact range.
"Are you… a clairvoyant?"
"Take a guess." Luo Shu's expression grew meaningful. "And just to remind you… you assumed I was working with Sharon, didn't you?"
"Well then… here's a question for you." Luo Shu's voice turned cold and sharp.
"Where do you think Sharon, who should've shown up here… actually is?"
"Is she lurking nearby, waiting to ambush you? Or, perhaps… is she already following the instructions of this so-called clairvoyant, and headed straight for the place where your real body is hiding?"
At those words, Mapa's compound eyes trembled violently. A second later, his face twisted into a feral grin.
"You're bluffing!!" he roared. "You're no clairvoyant! I am here! This is my true body!!"
"Oh~" Luo Shu's grin turned playful. "Then isn't that just perfect?"
"What…?" Mapa froze.
In that instant, a slender sword blade pierced straight through his right arm, skewering the parasite hidden within.
Mapa stood there, dumbfounded.
He stared at the sword tip protruding from his arm—the unmistakable blade of the Enraiha.
In the distance, Ayano Kannagi, her legs barely supporting her trembling body, managed to smile faintly.
"Luo Shu's been dropping hints all this time. Even if I'm half-unconscious, I still knew where to stab, you idiot demon."