Negotiations Break Down, Fight! Fight!

"No, I don't know him," Yuri replied without a change in expression.

Strictly speaking, Yuri wasn't lying.

He had indeed guessed who the other person was, but he had never met him.

He had never even seen the guy's face; his impression of him was confined to memories that scarcely felt real.

But Sonia clearly didn't see it that way. After seven years without a single lead, her target had suddenly left a "trace." No one would want to let it slip.

She shouted, "No, you're lying! You definitely know that guy, or... you're in league with him!"

"Use your head, girl. If I really were in league with him, why would I expose myself in front of you? Don't tell me you think you're clever." Seeing that Sonia's emotions had clearly taken an extreme turn, Yuri said, "Obviously, I'm looking for him too."

At Yuri's words, Sonia realized something was wrong herself. She clutched her temple in pain, as though something were about to "break through the soil" inside her head.

"Sonia!" Erza called out in concern.

"Strawberry girl, stay back. Demon girl is dangerous right now." Griffon flapped a wing to stop Erza from going over.

"With the body of a half-Devil, wielding two kinds of Devil Power at once isn't easy, even if they're highly compatible," Yuri warned her kindly. "If you fail, what little humanity you have left will be devoured by Devil Power, and you'll become a mindless 'beast.'"

"None of your business!" Sonia angrily flung out her hand, as though trying to sever the already short-lived friendship between her and the two of them completely.

It really was none of Yuri's business. After all, it was her own choice.

If he followed his usual habits, Yuri probably would have left her alone.

But how should he put it...? He had something to do with what Sonia had become, however little. If he simply washed his hands of her, that seemed a little too heartless.

"You've noticed it yourself, haven't you? In just this short time, your mood has swung back and forth between anger and gloom several times. That's the effect of excessive Devil Power corroding you." Yuri was unusually serious. "If this continues, you'll become a monster with neither humanity nor reason before you even lay eyes on your enemy."

"That's still better than being helpless while I watch my family die in front of me." Fine beads of sweat covered Sonia's forehead as she roared in pain, "Even if I become a mindless monster, I'll find that guy by instinct and tear the bastard who killed my mother to pieces!!!"

Yuri frowned and sighed inwardly.

Sonia had gone mad long ago, when her mother died seven years earlier.

Perhaps that was also why her body had been corroded by Devil Power, and it was then that an indelible seed had been planted.

In fact, if not for the limits of her talent, Sonia's unyielding will alone would certainly have given her a chance to undergo "awakening" and gain magic of her own.

Unfortunately, fate was cruel. With both her talent and her curse shackling her, becoming a mage was like a natural chasm to Sonia, a threshold she could never cross.

Perhaps it was precisely because she had realized this that Sonia had chosen to go to extremes.

In a way, she was quite like her father. Should he say it ran in the family?

Forcibly suppressing the Devil Power raging inside her, Sonia gradually regained her composure. "Let's continue with the questions. Now it's my turn—"

"No, I already answered yours just now, so it should be my turn to ask," Yuri corrected her, wagging a finger.

Sonia's expression darkened a little. "Suit yourself," she said coldly.

Clearly, she didn't want to argue with Yuri over such a minor detail.

"Then, the third question." Yuri raised a third finger and asked, "Are you willing to give up the Devil Power inside you? In exchange, I'll kill that guy and avenge your mother."

"Huh? Are you joking?"

Yuri shook his head and repeated himself. "I said I'll kill that bastard and avenge your mother. All you have to do is give up the Devil Power inside you, then stay alive to witness it."

Yuri's proposal was more than generous.

Though he called it a proposal, it was really a deal.

And as the other party to the deal, Sonia didn't have to give up anything. She only had to wait quietly to see the results.

By all rights, there couldn't be many better bargains in the world. Any normal person would surely have agreed.

Unfortunately...

"Are you kidding me?! I'll avenge my mother myself, and I don't need anyone's help!!!" Sonia angrily rejected Yuri's proposal, then switched back to her cold, gloomy manner as if changing faces. "Besides, why should I trust you? There's no such thing as a deal this good. Or perhaps you're after this power too..."

Unfortunately, Devil Power had affected Sonia so deeply that it had completely suppressed her original personality.

If this continued, her humanity would soon be devoured completely.

"Can't be helped. Talk no jutsu really isn't for me. It's more satisfying to just get physical." Yuri stretched his neck and walked toward Sonia, step by step. "Since you're not happy with my last question, I'll put it another way."

"Will you give up your Devil Power willingly, or will you 'willingly' give it up after I beat you up?"

"Hmph!" Sonia snorted, her voice fierce. "You want a fight? Just what I wanted!"

With that, she suddenly raised an arm and aimed it at Yuri. A man-eating flower with a gaping maw shot out, moving who knew how many times faster than the ones Qliphoth had controlled earlier.

"Watch out..." Erza had just started to warn Yuri when she felt herself being carried into the air again.

"Oh, come on! What's with all the panicking? With that little bit of skill, she couldn't hurt a single feather on Yuri," Griffon grumbled as he carried the weakened Erza away from the battlefield.

Erza: "..."

He had a point, crude as his words were, but weren't they a little too crude? And wasn't it usually a hair?

Faced with the gaping man-eating flower rushing at him, Yuri raised an arm as well.

But in the next second, the flower swallowed his entire left arm.

"Hahaha! That's what you get for being so arrogant! You didn't even use magic. Serves you right!" Seeing that she had "landed a hit," Sonia burst into wild laughter.

But the smile on her face soon froze.

"Bang!"

With an explosive crack, the man-eating flower biting Yuri's arm burst into a firework in an instant, and the stem behind it exploded inch by inch.

"If this is all you can do, I suggest you give up now." Yuri looked coldly at Sonia, who had lost an arm to the consequences of her own attack. "You can't beat me."