"AZA!"
Five minutes after my duel with the Oni, the heavy tavern doors burst open with a thunderous CRACK.
Eva strode in like a storm given form, her purple hair whipping around her face, her eyes scanning the room with a lethal intensity that only cooled when they landed on me. Behind her, Umbra, still carrying Rina, padded in, her face pale and her eyes wide at the tableau of carnage. And trailing behind them, a squad of heavily armed...
Well, you can't say "heavily armed" on a bunch of succubi in leather armor that left little to the imagination, carrying whips. They looked more like they were heading to a BDSM party than a rescue operation.
"…You absolute idiot!" Eva hissed, stalking toward me. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"I had it under control," I said with a lazy shrug, wiping a smear of blood from my cheek with the back of my hand.
"Under control?" She gestured wildly at the carnage. "This is your definition of 'under control'? You painted the entire tavern in intestines!"
"It's an artistic statement," I replied with a deadpan expression. "I call it 'Still Life with Dismemberment'."
"Azariel!" Rina slid off Umbra's back and rushed to my side, falling to her knees and looking up at me with wide, adoring eyes. I reached down and patted her head, scratching behind one of her small horns.
"Rina, I told you to wait for me in the brothel," I said, my voice softer than it had been moments before.
She just shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes.
"I... I was worried!" she stammered.
"Good girl." I smiled, stroking her black hair.
"But I told you I'd be fine. And I am. See?" I gestured to my body. "Not a scratch on me."
A small lie, but she didn't need to know about the cut on my cheek.
Eva's gaze swept over the room again, taking in the dead demons that I didn't devour.
After my duel with the Oni, I let him go. He bowed to me one last time and left without a word.
Those five minutes I spent meditating in the center of the slaughterhouse, just enjoying the silence and pondering the fact that I managed to regain my old sword art.
It was a blissful silence. A peaceful five minutes. But it was broken by Eva's dramatic entrance.
And now she's here, lecturing me like a mother who just caught her child playing with matches.
"So you killed all of them?" Eva asked, her tone flat—but her eyes were sharp, already counting bodies, assessing the situation.
"No," I replied.
That stopped her mid-step.
"No?" She turned slowly.
"I ate most of them, but one walked out," I admitted with a shrug.
"!!!" Rina stiffened. Umbra's ears flicked. The succubi behind Eva exchanged confused looks, leather creaking as they shifted their weight.
"…You let someone go?," Eva said carefully.
"An Oni," I added. "He was a worthy opponent. He fought with honor."
"Honor." The word left Eva's lips like a curse. "In Hell? Honor's just a fancy way of saying 'easy to kill'."
"Not this one," I countered, my grin returning. "He was good. Real good. Besides, I have a use for him... in the future."
"..." Eva stared at me, her expression unreadable.
After a few seconds of silence, she sighed and shook her head.
"Fine, it's your mess," she said. "But you owe me an explanation. Later."
"Of course," I said with a wink. "Now... about the slaves."
"Let's wait for the others," she said, sitting next to me.
Two minutes later.
Akane Onee-sama and Liza arrived on the scene. Liza looked pale, her face a mask of disbelief as she took in the carnage. Akane, on the other hand, looked completely unimpressed. Her eyes swept over the room, taking in the dead demons, the blood, the gore, and me, sitting in the middle of it all like a queen on her throne of corpses.
"Glad you could join us," I said with a grin. "We were just about to start the party."
"Azariel," Akane's voice was cold, her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. "Don't you ever disappear like that again... you nearly gave me a heart attack."
I rolled my eyes. This succubus is too dramatic. She simply forgot the fact that she pissed in my mouth and fucked the shit out of me an hour ago, and now she's acting like a worried mother.
"Relax," I said. "I had it under control."
"This is not control, Azariel." She gestured to the room. "This is a massacre."
"A beautiful one," I corrected. "They deserved it anyway."
"Azariel... this..." Liza's voice was barely a whisper, her eyes wide with horror and... something else. Awe?
"I... I never saw anything like this before."
"She is a monster," Akane said, her voice laced with a mix of anger and... pride? "She is our monster."
"Let's just get the slaves and go," I said with a sigh, trying to ignore the pain in my arms and legs.
The transition from the "Grandmaster" state back to reality was like being doused in ice water.
My muscles didn't just ache; they felt like they were being shredded from the inside out. That final strike—the one that had nearly cleaved an Oni warrior in two—had required a level of physical output my current body wasn't built for. Succubi are built for endurance of a different kind, not for channeling the raw, explosive force of a legendary hero's sword art.
"Ugh!" I tried to stand, but my knees buckled.
"Whoa!" Eva was at my side in an instant, her arm catching me before I could face-plant into a puddle of demon ichor. "I've got you. Damn it, Aza, you're burning up."
"I'm fine," I lied, my breath hitching. "Just... a bit of recoil. Nothing serious."
"Recoil? You look like you wrestled a rock golem and lost," she shot back, her grip tightening. She half-led, half-dragged me to a slightly less gruesome patch of floor, propping me against a relatively intact wooden support beam.
"This way."I pointed at a certain door, and Eva carried me toward it.
...
The cages lined the back room like rows of teeth in a diseased mouth.
Iron bars. Chains. Runes etched deep into the metal, still faintly glowing with suppression magic. Inside them—women, demons, beasts—skinny, bruised, terrified. Some flinched the moment we entered. Others didn't even have the strength left for that.
The stench hit harder than the blood outside.
Fear.
Sweat.
Hopelessness.
"Those bastards," Liza hissed, her hands trembling as she stared at the cages, her shock finally hardening into pure, focused rage.
"Let's get them out," Akane said, already moving, her voice clipped and efficient. She gestured sharply to the succubi squad. "Break the locks. Carefully. Check for traps."
"Yes, Onee-sama!"
One by one, they were freed. Each new cage opened revealed another hollow-eyed gaze, another soul worn down to nothing. They stumbled out, clinging to each other, their legs too weak to hold them properly. Liza and a few of her more empathetic succubi were already tending to them, wrapping them in cloaks, murmuring reassurances that were met with blank stares.
I watched from my slumped position against the wall, my vision flickering at the edges. Every breath felt like inhaling ground glass. That was the problem with having a "Grandmaster" soul trapped in a "Novice" vessel.
"Aza, drink this."
Akane was suddenly there, pressing a vial of shimmering violet liquid to my lips. It smelled like crushed hibiscus and something metallic—high-grade mana restorative mixed with an aphrodisiac kicker... Of course.
I swallowed it down, the heat blooming in my stomach and dulling the worst of the agony in my limbs, replacing it with a low, pleasant thrum. My head cleared.
"Better?" she whispered, her fingers lingering on my throat, her thumb tracing the pulse there. She was looking at me with that look again—the one that said she wanted to either mount me or cage me.
Probably both.
"I'll live," I rasped, my voice finally regaining some of its strength.
"Here, take this."
I pulled out the key to the slaving crystals. "The pigman was... generous enough to leave behind the master key."
Akane took the key. She stared at it for a full ten seconds before leaning in and planting a soft kiss on my forehead.
"Thank you, Azariel, for rushing to save Rina," she whispered. "But please, don't ever put yourself in danger like this again."
"I promise," I lied.
She straightened up, her expression once again the cool, composed leader, and turned to the slaves.
"We are taking you somewhere safe," Akane announced, her voice ringing with authority. "You will be fed, you will be healed, and no one will ever touch you again without your permission. This I swear."
A few of the women dared to lift their heads. A flicker of something—not quite hope, but the ghost of it—passed through their eyes. The others remained empty, their bodies simply moving where they were guided.
I, on the other hand, dropped my weight on Umbra's back and ordered him to carry me.
"Grrr," he growled in protest.
"Carry me, you big baby," I grumbled. "I'll feed you my milk when we get back."