"What has frightened you so, human? You are as pale as a ghost."
"I think I figured something out. About why the demon was really summoned here."
"I told you it is attracted to the AntiGod's scent. His overwhelming sweet–"
"Shut up already!" Akuma snapped, running his fingers through his hair. "You keep saying that like I'm supposed to know what any of this means. In case you forgot, I'm just a regular person with regular person knowledge."
Wujing had been so focused on her mission that she'd forgotten how alien this world must seem to him.
"Sorry…" Akuma continued. "I didn't mean to snap like that. It's just that Alice… I know she's in danger. I can feel it. Right now, if a demon really can show up at that mall, then Alice is definitely in danger. She's there right now."
"Alice…? Is that the pink-haired maiden from earlier?"
"We need to hurry. And I'm gonna need you to explain what this 'tear in space' actually looks like."
The sound was like reality itself being torn in half. A golden gate ripped open in the air beside them, blazing with the intensity of a miniature sun. Akuma instinctively raised his arm to shield his eyes, but the light burned through his eyelids anyway.
"It looks a lot like that actually…"
What emerged from the gate defied every assumption Akuma had about demons. Instead of some horned, red-skinned creature from mythology, a massive beak pushed through the tear—easily large enough to swallow a person whole. Two slanted eyes followed. They seemed to track movement in every direction at once.
The demon stepped fully into their world with almost theatrical slowness. Its body was grotesquely round and covered in feathers that absorbed light like fragments of a void. When it opened its beak, the shriek that emerged made Akuma's bones ache.
"What the hell is that?!"
"Stand back, human..." Wujing's voice carried an authority that reminded Akuma she'd once been a general. "I do not know why another demon has manifested here, but I will–"
Golden light began gathering in the demon's throat, condensing into a sphere of pure energy.
"!"
Wujing grabbed Akuma and threw both of them to the side just as the beam of light carved through the space they'd occupied. Where it passed, a parked car took the blow. It didn't explode or melt, rather it simply ceased to exist, leaving nothing but a perfectly clean cut in the asphalt.
Akuma stared at the void where the car had been, his mind struggling to process what he'd just witnessed.
"So that's a demon…"
"They come in many shapes and sizes, but there is no question about what it is…" Wujing confirmed while helping him to his feet. "What I don't understand is why it came here. This area isn't densely populated."
Another beam of golden light. Wujing pulled Akuma out of the way just in time. But the attack had been a feint. The demon calculated their movements, its next shot aimed at where they would land.
Akuma saw the light gathering and knew they wouldn't make it. On instinct, he shoved Wujing aside and raised his arms to block the attack.
"No!" Wujing's cry was filled with genuine terror.
She tackled him at the last second, taking the beam across her tail instead. Like the car, the appendage didn't burn or bleed it simply vanished, leaving a perfectly cauterized stump.
"Are you… unharmed, human?"
Wujing tried to hide her winced expression.
"W-Why did you do that? I could have–"
"No, you could not."
"…What? I'm not so weak you have to baby me!"
"I am not questioning your strength, but that light is made of pure divinity. You would not even have turned to ash or left a corpse. You would have simply... stopped existing."
"Are you serious…? That's... that's what divinity is?"
"Yes. Divinity is the power to bend reality's rules…" Wujing explained. "Gods possess so much of it that they can weaponize it directly. That golden light negates the fundamental laws of existence itself."
Akuma helped her to her feet.
"Then how do we even fight something like that?"
"Normally, we would need a divine artifact, which is a weapon forged from the bodies of fallen gods. They're the only things that can allow a mortal to match a god's divinity."
She glanced back at the demon, which was now floating several feet off the ground.
"Crap, if I knew it would play out like this, I would've brought mine from home."
The demon's next attack came as a rapid series of smaller beams, forcing them to leap from rooftop to rooftop across the city. Each blast left perfect circular holes in the buildings behind them, and Akuma could hear the distant sounds of car alarms and shouting as people fled the area.
"Wait, so divinity is that golden light? That's divinity?" Akuma shouted over the wind as they jumped to another building.
"Yes, human. That is the power the gods wield."
"S–So we just need more divinity, right? That's all it takes to kill one of these things?"
"In theory, yes. But divinity is not something mortals can simply acquire. It is a birthright of the divine, not some power learned through training."
"Then there's something I need to tell you."
"Hm?"
Before Akuma could finish that thought, their escape route was cut off. The bird demon flew directly in front of them, its wings spread wide like a peacock.
Wujing stepped forward without hesitation, meeting the creature's advance with a palm strike to its bloated belly. Where her hand connected, space seemed to fold in on itself, creating a vacuum that tore through the demon's flesh. White fluid sprayed from the wound as the creature's stomach contorted and twisted.
For a moment, Akuma thought they'd won. Then the demon's flesh began knitting itself back together.
"Just as I suspected…" Wujing muttered, dodging a retaliatory swipe from the demon's talons. "This one has enough divinity to negate fatal wounds. It will continue to resurrect itself indefinitely."
Wujing and the demon exchanged blows, her fist against its talons. But there wasn't a clear victor.
"Human! I need you to return to our home and retrieve my divine artifact!"
"…"
Akuma didn't respond.
"Human! This is not the time for hesitation!"
The demon's talons finally found their mark, tearing through her shoulder.
"Akuma! …Please!"
Finally, he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper.
"I guess it's really come to this, huh…"
Golden rays began gathering around Akuma's right fist. It pulsed, spun and seemed to spiral inward on itself. His fist was so bright that it hurt to look at directly.
Then he punched the air, and the golden ray launched itself at the demon at light speed. It struck one the demon's talon, and the appendage simply vanished, leaving the creature to crash to the ground with a shriek of pain and confusion.
Wujing stared at Akuma in shock.
"How did you…"
Without answering her, Akuma grabbed her hand and leaped from the building. As they fell, she caught a whiff of the smell she'd been tracking all morning. An overwhelmingly sweet scent that made her senses reel.
They landed hard on the street below. Wujing doubled over as she caught her breath.
"Akuma… How… did you do that?"
Time slowed to a crawl as she looked up. Another beam of golden light had pierced through Akuma's chest.
This attack hadn't come from the bird demon still writhing on the ground above them. A second demon—one more humanoid and cloaked in shadows—had emerged from another tear in space behind them. Its finger was still extended from where the beam had fired.
The air in Wujing's lungs vanished as Akuma collapsed to the concrete. The light in his eyes faded. Blood pooled beneath him, spreading across the concrete in a dark stain that reflected the afternoon sky.
On this day, the boy named Akuma Tiryns seriously died.