[3rd POV]
Ever since the Darkness Devil descended....
No, ever since the battle between Reze and Quanxi, the humans realised that the battle was evolving into something they could do nothing about. In this clash between the Devils of calamity, there was little a mortal with contracts could do.
And with the attack on the Public Safety Commission Headquarters, the whole of Tokyo went through an emergency protocol.
Evacuate from the city. Forget defending their homes; the lives of the citizens were more important.
It was why all the distracted Safety Officials and Devil Hunters never appeared on the battlefield again and focused entirely on evacuating everyone from the city turned battlefield.
It was chaos.
But somehow, someway, the evacuation was successful. At least there were barely any civilians in the central part of Tokyo.
The most vital factor to this evacuation protocol was the Devil Hunters, who made use of their contracts to help the people as much as they could. A tool of war against the devils could also be used to save lives.
They were the real heroes in this war, where everyone fought for their own selfish interests.
But right as these heroes finished their job and finally had time to breathe again, they froze.
All heroes froze.
One could only imagine the kind of influence Makima had on the people of Japan, especially the Devil Hunters. The tragic truth about it was that her influence was as bad as one could imagine.
Every single Devil Hunter with a contracted Devil was under Makima's power of Control.
The true strength of the Control Devil never really relied on her own, but on the people that she controls. If people were weapons to be used, then Makima had the greatest arsenal.
There were over a thousand total Devil Hunters throughout the city of Tokyo. But slightly less than half of them belonged to the civilian sector or the private sector. It was rare for these people to have contracts and they were significantly weaker.
On the Public Safety Commission, the latest census counted 572 active Devil Hunters throughout all the divisions and special squads.
And in that moment, all these members suddenly froze, their eyes glazed over before losing the life in them. Every creature was born with a will of their own, and right now, that birthright was stolen.
Makima herself wouldn't be capable of such a feat alone. But Jin had much more raw power than Makima since he consumed so many Devils. And with their combined effort, Makima's knowledge and experience and Jin's raw power and authority, this feat was achievable.
The people they saved, the weak they protected, all watched with horror as the Devil Hunters became a weapon to be used in this battle.
Five Devil Hunters took out their weapons; those who had lost them picked up the nearest glass shard. And without even a second of hesitation, they slit their throat.
"Fox Devil, in exchange for our lives, help the Pig Devil with everything you have for one hour."
In another location, the Devil Hunters, who were frozen and pale, fell dead in their places after being sacrificed for a contract.
"Darkness Devil," a Devil Hunter said the name before falling over, his body so pale it was white.
...
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[1st POV]
"Ahhhh.....shit," I said out loud when I felt what had just happened.
'It's quite all right. They served their purpose and increased our chances many times in this battle,' Makima said in my mind.
If the Devil I imprisoned inside me cooperated, there were actually quite a lot of things that I could do. For example, right now, I have left a huge portion of using the Control Devil's power in her hands.
Kind of like making prisoners do labour work.
"Let's get this over with quickly," I said, casting a glance towards the sun that was setting very soon.
There was still an aching wound on my chest, but ignoring the pain, I burst towards the location of the Darkness Devil.
It didn't take long for the sounds of explosions to numb my ears. Reze was currently engaged with the Darkness Devil. Her bright explosions seemed surprisingly effective against the enemy as she was able to survive this long against it.
But I guess it also had something to do with the sacrificial contract.
I saw the Darkness Devil tremble for a split second, its black body shifting like it was glitching before quickly recovering. But that split second of pause gave enough time for Reze to blast away and create distance.
The Punishment Devil.
One of Makima's favourite contracts that required the death of one life to be activated. When the sacrifice said the name of the victim, the Punishment Devil would crush the target at the cost of their life.
It was the power Makima used in the anime against the Yakuza. It was capable of killing anyone from any range, as long as you knew the name. Kind of like a death note, but the exchange was a life for a life.
And right now, the hundreds of Devil Hunters under my control were sacrificing themselves every few seconds to give me an edge in this battle.
"Fox Devil," I called out, and immediately, a giant Fox Devil appeared from under the Darkness Devil. The Fox's giant maw clamped down on it. It was a very futile attempt but it was still enough to buy me a few seconds I needed.
My face morphed into that of a pig's. My jaw opened wide, nearly at 90 degrees. The inside of my mouth grew teeth so many that you couldn't see any empty spaces. My teeth gained razor edges, looking more like scalpels instead of teeth.
There was a sense of corruption from my very breath, a taboo that I was about to commit. Eating a fellow Devil and basically committing cannibalism.
And then with every ounce of power I had in me, I slammed into the Darkness Devil and clamped down hard on its shoulder.
The Fox Devil had died right then, the worth of five lives reduced to less than five seconds of free time for me.
But perhaps it was all worth it because I felt my teeth sink in.
The Darkness Devil slammed a fist into my abdomen, the attack somehow pulled and crushed me like I was punched by a black hole before it sent me flying with unimaginable force.
But as I tore away from the Darkness Devil, I also tore a chunk of its flesh.
My throat ripped apart as I swallowed while crashing into a building. The piece of flesh somehow felt like multiple tons in weight.
The feeling of raging fire burned from the pit of my stomach and I knelt down to vomit blood so red it was black.
Horrible.
The Darkness Devil tasted horrible.
Perhaps I bit off more than I could chew. My hunger vanished like I had eaten a meal big enough to fill me. I was starting to vomit up what I had eaten. But even though I took only a piece of flesh, the darkness I vomited out pooled under me and was rapidly spreading like I ate an ocean.
Reze crashed down before me like a comet. Her back faced me while she threw everything forward. Her explosions were blinding, being more like a flashbang than a grenade at the moment.
"Hold on, JIN!!" I could hear her raspy voice while she slowed down the Darkness Devil.
My stomach churned. It took a few seconds but after that, I could feel myself able to digest that small piece of the Darkness Devil.
Too late, though.
The blinding explosions were snuffed out. The Darkness Devil stood before us, encasing Reze in a shroud of darkness. The colours of light were devoured, making the ball seem like a gap in reality.
I reached my hand out fast, touching the barrier of darkness. I utilised the piece of the Darkness Power, making the veil break down just as quickly as the Devil erected it.
I pulled at the unconscious Reze, her body was bleeding all over, looking like an infant pulled out from the womb. I threw her as far away as I could from the battle.
The Darkness Devil beckoned me, tilting its head without attacking. I rose from my place, staring face-to-face with the entity that was far too powerful for me.
But I rarely had it any other way. This was how I always won against the Devils more powerful than me. I ate them piece by piece, adapting and growing to their level as the battle went on.
I said before that a drawn-out battle was favourable to the Darkness Devil since it would be night soon. But let's not forget that I wasn't helpless in a long battle either; it favoured me too. Perhaps a drawn-out battle favoured me more than it did for the Darkness Devil. The only problem was the other factors involved, like the contract for Chainsaw's heart and the death of millions.
"Thief," it said, staring at me. Its body trembled, and the occasional glitching from the effect of the Punishment Devil remained, too, making it seem like some creature that was completely out of this world.
The Darkness Devil made the first move, but it wasn't intended towards me. A surge of black exploded out as it reached its hand to the side, and from the nothingness of the real world, it pulled out a small red devil.
The Punishment Devil was grabbed by its neck; its appearance looked like a very mischievous goblin of red colour with thorns and whip-like tails.
Without much issue, the Punishment Devil slowly decayed with black moss and fell to the ground in ashy pieces.
Suffice it to say, I had pissed it off by taking a portion of its power.
"Anything I haven't tried before, GO!!!" I said, leaping back as far as I could.
But the Darkness Devil didn't come after me because multiple contracted Devils burst forth. At this point, half of all the Devil Hunters were sacrificed.
Future Devil, Stone Devil, Octopus Devil, Needle Devil, and all others that had a contract with a human came out to attack the Darkness Devil in unison.
I hoped they could buy at least some time for my plan. Ten seconds should be enough.
While in mid-air, I switched places with one of the slaves under my control, which Makima had ordered to go to the Public Safety Commission headquarters.
The Devil Hunter died from the fall, whereas I found myself inside the lobby of the headquarters.
...
The whole lobby was littered with corpses, some of which I remembered. The sight of a dead man with a horrendous haircut caught my eye, Daiki.
But I didn't waste any time mourning; every second counts.
Santa Claus had not moved from her place. Makima had made sure that she couldn't escape somewhere, even while she was battling Reze and Quanxi. The girl herself seemed not to care that she stayed in the same place, having full confidence that the Primordial Devil would deal with everything quickly.
"This belongs to my friend," I said, taking away Chainsaw's heart from her.
"It doesn't matter if you take it away or if you kill me. The contract stands," Santa Claus said with a curve of her lips.
I swung my hand, blowing up the upper portion of her body instantly. Santa Claus was not dead, though, as she had many puppets spread throughout the world.
At this point, I could feel that all the Devils that went after the Darkness Devil were dead. I switched places once more, this time with the crows under Makima's control. I appeared a few metres away from Denji and Power.
The two were hiding under fallen structures. Power was sitting beside Denji's lying body. Her hand was inside the deep hole in Denji's chest, using her powers to pump blood throughout his body without a heart.
"Move, Power," I said, pushing her away so that I could push the heart inside Denji's chest.
And then I pulled at the string of the heart. The sound of a revving engine could be heard immediately as Denji's body rapidly regenerated.
And then it went beyond simple regeneration. I saw Denji's body transforming into something I had never seen before.
His skin peeled off, replaced by armour-like bones that took the appearance of a chainsaw's body. The chainsaw that grew out was bigger and more rugged. He had two arms but four forearms, giving him two chainsaws on each limb instead of one.
His gut ripped open and the intestines wrapped around the neck, acting like chains that bound the Chainsaw Man. His height grew, his mass expanded into something far more powerful and nonhuman.
I grinned when I felt the power in his scent.
The sun was setting, and the world was now an orange hue.
And the Darkness Devil came out from the shadows.
"Pochita. That's your name, right?" I asked the Devil as light shone from the inside of its chainsaw head. The light seemed hollow, completely void of humanity.
"Save me, Chainsaw Man," Makima used my voice to say that. I had given her much control since I needed her in this battle.
The vibration of the chainsaw's buzzing filled the air, battling with the thick silence brought upon by Darkness.
And I transformed into a hybrid as well, bringing out all the power imprisoned inside me.
...
...
[IMAGE]
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