"W-what happened!?"
"Someone's dead!"
The market dissolved into chaos. People shoved and scrambled to escape the growing pool of crimson. No one wanted to be the next body to fall.
They knew this kind of killing well. The dark ages hadn't ended. The name lingered on every tongue.
Evilus.
"Charity meal? Smells delicious." The woman mused, completely ignoring the pandemonium around her.
Her hair was a vivid, unmistakable shade of light pink, her torn sweatshirt and leather pants clinging to her lean frame.
Every adventurer who caught sight of her went pale. There was no mistaking her.
One of Evilus's most infamous cadres.
Valletta Grede—Arachnia.
She grinned. "Let me join your little party too. I'll add some bright red fruit to the menu."
Her sword sang as it cut through the air, trailing arcs of crimson. Limbs fell. Bodies crumpled. Screams layered over one another, a chorus of terror and agony.
Against an adventurer of Level 5, the crowd was nothing more than prey.
"Valletta-sama, what are you doing!? Acting on your own is—!" a voice called out, panicked.
An Evilus man pushed through the fleeing crowd, clearly sent to monitor her. But before he could finish—
"Gah—!?"
He was cut down in a single stroke.
The blade pierced cleanly, leaving no time for him to scream or curse. The life of the man who had been plotting chaos only moments ago vanished like smoke in the wind.
Even his supposed accomplice, who had been standing just a few steps away, met the same fate, his life snuffed out before he could utter a single word.
The sight sent a shudder through the fleeing crowd. Even the Evilus agents lurking in the shadows, watching from the safety of the alleys, went pale with dread. Fear choked the air, a cold, suffocating pressure that clung to the heart. Yet, amid that sea of terror, there was one figure who smiled.
A woman stood there, the glint of her long sword catching the daylight. The curve of her lips was cruel, the expression of someone not merely accustomed to violence, but who reveled in it.
"It's so annoying." She sneered, her voice carrying unnervingly across the panicked streets. "Look at that sky. So clear, so peaceful. Tell me, how can we not shatter this place and carve every single one of them into pieces?"
Valletta raised her face to the sky, spreading her arms wide as if she were embracing the chaos itself. Her voice brimmed with a madness that could infect those who heard it.
"These are hopeless times. A hell where there's no time for laughter. If the masses have forgotten, then we'll remind them, personally."
Born killers thrive on malice, they speak in praise of cruelty and destruction.
"Everyone, get started." She ordered, her tone sharp as a whip.
"Yes!" came the immediate, hollow reply from her subordinates.
The minions of Evilus didn't dare hesitate. They had just seen what happened to those who defied her, even the man who had been standing right beside her moments ago was now a corpse. Better to complete the mission before becoming one of her examples.
Across the square, Akira had already caught sight of the chaos. His gaze sharpened instantly, the calm expression in his eyes replaced by something akin to a hawk's deadly focus. Without even a flicker of hesitation, he began casting.
The only thought burning in his mind was crystal clear, he would not allow Evilus to run rampant, not here, not during this charity meal. The hard-earned peace of Orario's citizens would not be trampled under their boots.
Explosions of magic ripped through the air as Evilus mages unleashed spells without care, striking streets, shops, and innocent bystanders. The ground shook from collapsing structures, the air was thick with dust, and cries of pain echoed between the buildings.
At that very moment, Akira arrived on the scene. The magic within his body surged like a raging tide, spiraling outward in a vortex of faint blue light. With him as the center, his magic expanded in every direction, an invisible, precise sweep like a hunter's net, mapping every movement around him.
To him, the world shifted. Color faded. Time seemed to slow. His magic marked each Evilus member, an indelible brand that no one else could see.
Chain Lightning.
He raised both hands sharply. Two bolts of lightning, thick as his palms, burst forth, their blinding glow searing into the eyes of all who saw.
They tore through several Evilus members in an instant, the air around them ionizing into a crackling haze. The bolts twisted mid-flight, transforming into serpentine arcs of living electricity, darting through the crowd with impossible precision.
Not a single fleeing civilian was harmed. The lightning slithered past innocents with the accuracy of a blade's edge, hunting only those marked for death.
Every strike came with a thunderous crack, each roar like the fury of the heavens themselves.
Evilus agents screamed as the lightning hit. Their bodies seized violently, muscles spasming under the sheer force of the current. Skin blistered, clothes burned away, and the stench of charred flesh filled the air. Charcoal-black scorch marks spread across their torsos in branching patterns, smoking under the sun.
It all happened in seconds. In the blink of an eye, Evilus fighters who had been wreaking havoc were nothing more than twitching, lifeless bodies on the ground.
Akira's eyes tracked the lightning's path, constantly adjusting its flow. In chaos like this, even a heartbeat's delay could mean another civilian's life.
One after another, they fell. The Evilus members operating here were annihilated before most could even realize they had been targeted.
"It's over?"
An adventurer, lying on his back, had braced himself for death. He blinked in disbelief as the monster before him crumpled to the ground.
A nearby adventurer grabbed his arm, hauling him up.
"Why are you still lying there?! You wanna make more trouble for the guy who just saved you?"
"Ah, oh, right!"
But the fight wasn't over.
Elsewhere, the streets were still drowning in chaos. Evilus members continued their rampage under the blue sky, their magic and steel cutting down anyone in reach. Adventurers and guards fought back desperately, but the number of threats was overwhelming.
Food distribution points, already crowded, had become battlegrounds. Screams rang out as civilians ran for their lives, while adventurers struggled to defend multiple locations at once.
"Alright, alright. Go to hell, all of you. Scream louder for me." Valletta's voice slithered across the carnage, her words dripping with venomous glee. She exaggerated her tone, mocking the defenders' inability to push back.
Her joy in the slaughter was unrestrained. The desperation and grief in the air only seemed to fuel her. Yet in the next heartbeat, everything changed.
A storm of blue lightning swept across the square. In moments, Evilus formations shattered, their confidence crushed. The tide of the battle reversed so abruptly that both sides froze in shock.
The arrogant smile froze on Valletta's lips. Surprise widened her eyes, quickly curdling into rage.
That name… she'd heard of him before.
Akira.
The rumors said he was only Level 3. A promising upstart, yes, but hardly a threat to her. And yet, in less than a minute, he had done what most adventurers couldn't in ten.
"Is this guy cheating?"
"You bastard!" Valletta roared, slamming a boot into the ground so hard it cracked beneath her. "How dare you ruin my good thing?"
She launched herself forward, a gale of wind exploding behind her. Pebbles and debris from the street whipped into the air from the sheer force of her charge.
Akira felt the magic signatures of more Evilus attacks in distant streets. He glanced at Valletta, his expression unreadable. Even if she was Level 5, he could take her. But it would take time, and time was something the other districts didn't have.
A cadre like Valletta wouldn't be simple to defeat quickly. Strong as his magic was, if he poured enough power into it to break her in one strike, the range of destruction would be catastrophic. Innocents would die. And if he held back to limit collateral damage, the fight would drag out.