The city had already been bleeding for days. A Gun Devil fragment had torn through blocks of buildings, leaving only hollow shells and corpses behind. Devil hunters scrambled to suppress it, but exhaustion gnawed at them. The people prayed—not for salvation, but for the terror to end quickly.
That was when he arrived.
A lone figure in priestly garb, his steps deliberate, calm, unhurried amidst the chaos. Black hair tied back, eyes half-lidded as though bored, Suguru Geto stood where the fragment had last been seen.
The hunters shouted warnings.
"Stay back! Civilians shouldn't be—"
The ground rumbled. From the shadows spilled a tide of curses—writhing centipedes, leeches, and grotesque shapes that no one in this world had names for. Hunters froze, disbelief painted across their faces. Devils fought devils.
Geto raised a single hand.
The swarm surged forward, crashing against the Gun Devil fragment as it emerged from the smoke. Bullets screamed through the air, tearing apart curses in a spray of black mist, but more replaced them. Elastic Band Curse intercepted explosions. Dragon Curse took flight, swallowing gunfire in its scaled hide. Squid curses fired back in rapid volleys.
The hunters could only watch.
"Is he… helping us?" one whispered.
The answer came as Geto walked forward, calm as a storm's eye. A sphere of cursed energy spun into existence, dense and heavy. With a flick of his wrist, the curses pinned the Gun fragment down, its metallic body thrashing in vain.
Geto's lips curved into that familiar smile.
"Be still."
The fragment's essence tore free, writhing in the air before compressing into a black orb. Geto swallowed it. His aura flared—the metallic hunger of the Gun Devil now coursing inside him.
Gasps erupted among the hunters.
He hadn't banished it. He hadn't destroyed it.
He had consumed it.
And the devils that remained nearby felt it. Their snarls turned to shudders, their instincts screaming recognition. A king was among them.
Curses crowded behind him, devils slithered closer, and for the first time in history, two breeds of monsters stood beneath a single banner.
Geto's voice carried over the ruin:
"This world is chaos. Chaos needs order. You may call it mercy, or you may call it tyranny—but in the end, you will kneel."
The hunters raised their weapons, trembling. But the look in their eyes wasn't only fear. It was the dawning realization that something far worse than devils had appeared.
Suguru Geto, the Black Priest, had begun his conquest.