The deep black tree roots stretched like walls along the edges of the cavern, sinking into a shallow pool of water.
Embedded in the roots was a strange black-red blade, impaling a humanoid figure.
The figure was entirely encased in a greyish-white, rock-like armour, covering everything from the feet to the top of the head—even most of the hair was tightly wrapped. Only the right half of the face remained exposed.
From what little of the face was visible, the figure appeared to be a girl no older than fifteen or sixteen, with pink hair and delicate, pretty features.
"Is this the sealed High-Rank Demon?"
Luo Shu stared at the sealed demon—or rather, the demon girl—his expression filled with disbelief.
Instead of a monstrous figure with twisted horns, a grotesque face, bulging crimson muscles, and bat-like wings, they got a pretty pink-haired girl?
This was a demon?
This was supposed to be a demon?
Ayano Kannagi was equally shaken upon seeing the demon's true form, exclaiming in shock:
"She's just a child..."
'Hey, you're not much older yourself...' Luo Shu mentally retorted before turning to Takina Inoue. "Takina, bring out the equipment and confirm."
"Ah, right."
Still slightly dazed by the demon's appearance, Takina quickly pulled the backpack she was carrying to the front, opened it, and retrieved a device resembling a camera. She then focused it on the sealed girl.
"Waveform matches the data. It's definitely demonkind."
Hearing this, Chisato, standing nearby, scratched the back of her head and sighed in frustration:
"Seriously, this is nothing like the Lesser Demons we've fought before... Are we really supposed to beat up this girl and drag her back?"
"Otherwise? We've come all this way, and you want to go back empty-handed?"
Luo Shu looked at the useless bunch before him, who were shaken just by the demon's appearance.
'Ah, I'm just as useless, so never mind.'
"Anyway, let's first try to see if we can safely extract the person."
As he spoke, Luo Shu stepped carefully through the shallow puddles on the ground, approaching the sealed demon girl cautiously.
When he got close, he observed the girl whose arms were suspended by branches in a Y-shaped pose, yet wore a simple, sleeping expression. After scrutinising her for a moment, he suddenly frowned and reached out to check beneath her nose.
"?! She's still breathing!"
Hearing this, Ayano Kannagi exclaimed in shock: "No way? She's still breathing after being impaled by such a huge sword? Wait, do demons even breathe?"
"Didn't we just confirm she's breathing?" Ryuuya Kazamaki muttered under his breath.
Ayano Kannagi turned to glare at him, not even addressing him as 'Kazamaki-nii' this time.
Ryuuya Kazamaki immediately lowered his head and fell silent.
Meanwhile, Chisato Nishikigi, who had also approached the demon girl, reached out to touch her shoulder and gasped:
"Wow!! This texture!! It's real stone!"
Takina Inoue moved closer, too, feeling the dark tree roots behind the girl. She produced a folding knife from somewhere, stabbed the root, and after assessing the feedback, frowned:
"It's very hard. Unless we use explosives, our current tools probably won't be enough to dig through."
"Let me try too." Ryuuya Kazamaki cupped his hands together, gathering gusts of wind between his palms that coalesced into a transparent Wind Blade.
With a forceful push, he launched the Wind Blade, which instantly struck the tree roots above the demon girl's head.
With a sharp crack, a shallow scratch no more than two millimetres deep appeared on the root.
"No good. Wind Arts are useless, too. Or rather, I'd need at least a month to cut out a section large enough to wrap around a person."
Hearing this and witnessing the entire process, Luo Shu realised that even if he tried, he'd only manage a cut five or six times deeper at best. Extracting a large chunk of root without alerting the demon and carrying it away intact was impossible in such a short time.
At the mention of a month, Chisato clicked her tongue:
"A month? Staying in an environment affected by the Abyss for more than two hours causes one to become lost in it. How could we possibly have a month?"
"Should I try burning the roots?"
A flame ignited in Ayano Kannagi's hand, which she then hurled at a section of roots farther from the demon girl—clearly testing how effective her fire would be.
Boom!
The flames surged, spreading across several square metres of roots. Yet after the fire subsided, aside from slight charring, the roots showed little visible change.
Seeing how ineffective Ayano Kannagi's attack was, Ryuuya Kazamaki looked stunned:
"Seriously? Its fire resistance is stronger than its wind resistance?"
As the heir of the Kannagi family, Ryuuya knew exactly how potent Ayano's flames were—they could melt steel instantly.
Yet even that couldn't burn through a single root.
'This tree root is a treasure...' Luo Shu glanced at the enormous root, then looked up at the cavern ceiling, still unable to see the main body of the tree. A rough estimate made it clear this tree was beyond his reach.
No helping it—the thing was simply too massive to move! Who knew how many hundreds of metres tall this tree was?
"So that means we can only try pulling out that blade? Or sword?"
Chisato Nishikigi tentatively poked the black and red blade with her finger. Seeing no reaction, she exchanged a glance with Takina Inoue.
Takina took a deep breath, then retrieved a black wooden box plastered with talismans from her bag. She forcefully tore off the talismans and opened the box, revealing a pair of black gloves inside.
Luo Shu turned his head, eyeing the talismans covered in death curses written in various languages and animal blood—essentially a multinational compilation of curses—and raised an eyebrow slightly, recalling Takina's explanation in the car earlier.
'Seal-breaking Gloves, a Grade 2 Abyss Artefact. Function: alters the wearer's hands to meet various unsealing requirements. Side effect: hands undergo semi-permanent modification with each use. Requires drinking water from the Grade 3 Abyss Artefact Healing Spring within ten minutes to effectively counteract the side effects.'
The SDS specifically retrieved this Abyss Artefact to break the seal on the demon.
"Takina." Chisato Nishikigi called out with palpable tension.
At that moment, Luo Shu suddenly stepped forward:
"Let me handle this."
"Eh?" Takina Inoue blinked in surprise, but before she could react, Luo Shu continued: "I'm faster. If anything goes wrong during the unsealing, I can retreat quickly."
Hearing this and considering how Luo Shu's Wind Arts could enhance his speed, Takina didn't argue, simply handing over the box.
Luo Shu took a glove from the box and slipped it onto his right hand. The initially loose glove immediately conformed to his palm.
He glanced at the system's detection results, noting they largely matched the SDS's intelligence, though with a few additional methods to counteract side effects.
Seeing this, Luo Shu focused, flexed his gloved right hand, then stepped forward to grasp the blade impaling the demon girl's abdomen, gripping the hilt.
A blood-red hue instantly spread from the glove up Luo Shu's entire right arm. He calmly observed the glove's transformation before turning to the group:
"Everyone ready?"
After steadying their breaths, they nodded.
With a forceful tug, Luo Shu yanked the blade free.
The moment the blade left her body, the demon girl's closed eyes twitched before slowly opening to reveal wine-red pupils.
Luo Shu's danger senses screamed. He immediately used the wind to lighten his body and leapt backwards while shouting:
"Ayano!!"
"Leave it to me!"
As she spoke, Ayano Kannagi's hands suddenly held an ancient sword wreathed in tangerine flames.
The blade tore through the air, trailing a crescent of orange fire as it slashed toward the demon girl.