What a Pleasant Surprise

Inside the Entertainment Facility, shrouded in darkness, a shadow swayed across the ground as a genuine monster slowly entered Leo and Yukino Yukinoshita's field of view.

It was a bizarre creature, its entire body a strange azure blue and covered in scales. Mucus seeped continuously from between them.

The creature stood over three meters tall and resembled the legendary merfolk. Its hands and feet ended in webbed claws, its head was hideous and vicious, and its mouth was full of fangs. Its eyes bulged out like a frog's. It looked both bizarre and terrifying.

"What is that...?!"

Yukino Yukinoshita instinctively took several steps back. The expression on her face was less one of fear than a contortion brought on by sheer physical revulsion.

She couldn't help it. This was the first time she had ever seen a monster like this. Even when she had encountered the Fallen Angel Vaden a month ago, he had at least looked human, apart from his Fallen Angel wings. He was nothing like the bizarre creature before her, which was neither fish nor monster. Just looking at it made her stomach churn.

"That's what an ordinary Devil looks like after falling into depravity."

Leo remained composed and even continued explaining to Yukino Yukinoshita with remarkable calm.

"With no one to restrain them, they also have no one to guide them. Demonic Power can make their thoughts come true to some extent, and these lowborn Devil servants often become so consumed by power and evil desires that, without even realizing it, they alter their bodies and turn into the most revolting things imaginable."

That was one of the reasons Stray Devils were hunted down by everyone. If monsters like this made their way into human society, who knew how much chaos they could cause?

The Three Factions couldn't survive without humanity anymore, so of course they had to protect the stability of human society and keep it from collapsing.

Thus, even when a Stray Devil's former master hadn't put out a warrant or offered a bounty, the Devils' official forces would immediately investigate the Stray Devil's whereabouts and promptly hire Devils active in the human world to go and hunt them down.

Sona Shitori had learned that a Stray Devil had entered Chiba City through a message from the Underworld, so she contacted Leo and asked him to deal with it.

"Do Devils without anyone to guide them all end up like this?"

Yukino Yukinoshita felt relieved that she hadn't left Leo just because she'd been unwilling at first.

If this was what happened after leaving her master, then she'd rather have been run through with a spear by a Fallen Angel.

The Stray Devil before her, however, seemed completely unaware of this.

"I escaped to the human world. Why won't you leave me alone?"

The merfolk-like creature spoke in a low voice. His words sounded like a complaint, but he chuckled as he spoke, as if his mind were already starting to unravel.

Looking closely, Yukino could see that the mucus-like fluid at the corner of his mouth was scarlet.

It wasn't saliva or mucus at all. It was... blood.

"What are you doing here?" Leo's gaze began to turn cold. "Whose blood is that?"

At Leo's reminder, Yukino Yukinoshita realized what she was seeing and got a clear look at the creature's mouth.

The blood didn't look as though it had flowed from the Stray Devil's mouth. It looked more like it had been smeared there.

Like a white stain left on someone's lips after drinking milk.

"You noticed?" The Stray Devil's chuckle grew louder and louder until it turned into a mad laugh. "Look at me. I'm a grown man, and I still forgot to wipe my mouth after eating. How careless of me."

"But it's that homeless man's fault! His life was already as good as over. Wouldn't it have been better if he'd offered up the last bit of value in his body? Why did he have to struggle so hard? It made him difficult to eat!"

"That girl I caught on purpose was much better. She passed out right away, so she couldn't struggle. It's a shame I couldn't hear her lovely screams."

After hearing that, even Yukino Yukinoshita knew what this monster had just done, let alone Leo.

In an instant, anger replaced the revulsion and fear filling Yukino Yukinoshita's heart.

All the hesitation, reluctance, and resistance she'd felt about killing a creature of her own kind disappeared. In their place came the cold and merciless resolve befitting her title, Ice Flower.

"Take care of him, Yukino."

Leo spoke without expression.

Yukino Yukinoshita slowly stepped forward, white mist swirling around her.

It was a chill far below zero, cold enough to freeze everything.

"Crack... crack-crack..."

Cold air rippling around her, Yukino Yukinoshita walked forward one step at a time. Each footfall left a layer of ice on the ground that spread outward from her footprints.

The ground gradually turned into an ice field, and the air temperature plunged in an instant.

Seeing Yukino Yukinoshita like this, the Stray Devil didn't feel afraid. Instead, he grew excited.

"Is this girl going to fight me? Good, good. She's just as pretty as the one I caught earlier, and looks just as fresh and delicious."

The Stray Devil's face grew even more vicious. Real saliva replaced the blood at the corner of his mouth, dripping down bit by bit.

"I'll gladly accept the food those Underworld scum sent me!"

As he spoke, the Stray Devil moved.

"Whoosh!"

Like a fish suddenly flicking its tail and darting through the water, the Stray Devil slammed his sticky foot against the ground and charged at Yukino Yukinoshita, splattering mucus everywhere.

He was incredibly fast. Even without the information from the Underworld, Leo could easily tell that he was probably a Devil servant of the "Knight" rank.

Even though he'd betrayed his master, he still retained the Knight's defining trait. His three-meter-plus frame became a Meat Tank as he charged toward Yukino Yukinoshita.

"Bam!"

The next moment, the Meat Tank slammed straight into Yukino Yukinoshita with a resounding crash.

But the Stray Devil hadn't hit the girl's delicate body. A thick wall of ice had risen in front of her at some point.

The wall curved like frozen water. The Stray Devil bounced off it, ice shards flying everywhere.

"Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam...!"

Then, a series of violent impacts rang out.

They weren't from another attack by the Stray Devil. They were Yukino Yukinoshita's doing.

The instant the Stray Devil bounced away, she showed no mercy and pressed her advantage. The ice wall exploded, turning into countless irregular ice projectiles that pelted the Stray Devil one after another.

The ice projectiles struck him like machine-gun fire, bursting apart and pounding into him with a series of muffled thuds as he howled in pain.

"Damn you, brat...!"

The Stray Devil was furious. He stopped chuckling and roared instead.

"I'll tear you apart!"

Covered in ice and frost, he charged at Yukino Yukinoshita again, his face twisted with rage.

But he failed to notice that ice had formed around his joints, slowing him down considerably.

"Don't come near me, you ugly thing."

Yukino Yukinoshita became a true Winter Goddess, even more cold and sharp-tongued than usual. White mist surged around her in waves, and all kinds of ice shot out from within it to attack the Stray Devil.

Ice bullets, ice spikes, ice pillars, Ice Blades, ice darts... A seemingly endless stream of projectiles made of ice flew from the mist, striking the Stray Devil and driving him back.

Seeing that he couldn't win, the Stray Devil tried to dodge and circle around Yukino Yukinoshita's attacks. But she didn't care where he ran. She simply unleashed a relentless barrage of ice, attacking from every direction and leaving him nowhere to hide.

Gradually, the Stray Devil's furious roars turned into pitiful screams. His scales were either frozen solid or sliced open by sharp ice spikes and Ice Blades, leaving him a bloody mess.

He tried to get close to Yukino Yukinoshita, but the barrage of ice drove him back, or the white mist swirling around her nearly froze him into an ice statue, forcing him to run.

Yukino Yukinoshita seemed prepared for that too. The moment the Stray Devil showed signs of fleeing, she froze his feet and sent him crashing to the ground.

The girl mercilessly battered the monster. It was a breathtakingly brutal sight.

"What a pleasant surprise."

Leo had expected Yukino Yukinoshita to struggle a little because of her inexperience, but his eyes lit up at the sight.

It was true that Yukino Yukinoshita had never been in a real battle and had no combat experience. But she was clever, and as long as she could think clearly, she could respond to the situation with whatever strategy she thought best.

She had probably already figured out the Stray Devil's movements and fighting style, and had worked out a plan for winning. That was why she could attack in such an orderly way, gradually backing him into a corner.

What surprised Leo most was that Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't summoned Ice Princess. She was fighting with Demonic Power alone.

That was right. Yukino Yukinoshita hadn't used her Longinus. She'd achieved this result through nothing but a Devil's power.

"Spare me!"

With both hands and feet frozen solid, and even his body slowly freezing, the Stray Devil began to beg for mercy.

"Disappear!"

Yukino Yukinoshita hesitated instinctively, but then remembered everything he'd said and immediately made up her mind.

"Crack-crack-crack—"

Before long, the Stray Devil's entire body had frozen into a massive block of ice.

"Crash!"

The ice shattered, and the vicious Stray Devil crumbled into ash amid a storm of flying ice shards.