The feathers curled, blackened, and fell away. The membranous wings cracked and shattered, their frames breaking with sharp snaps. In less than five seconds, the two pairs of wings had become four smoking heaps of wreckage, falling from her back, smashing against the ground, and breaking into charred fragments.
Her disguise had completely fallen apart.
The skirt around her lower body melted into a viscous black fluid, and from within emerged a thick snake tail covered in dark golden scales. The scales stood erect one by one, their edges sharp as blades, scraping across the ground as it dragged behind her and leaving deep furrows.
Her upper body barely retained its human shape, but something kept writhing and swelling beneath her skin, as if dozens of rats were scurrying under it.
That once delicate, beautiful face began to melt. Her features shifted, her eyes stretched into reptilian vertical pupils, and her mouth split all the way to her ears.
"Kill you," she roared. Her voice could no longer form discernible syllables, leaving only a howl of pure fury.
She lunged at Dean.
But her movements had completely warped, turning into an awkward, staggering charge like that of a drunken beast.
Dean drew his demon-hunting blade.
The Phoenix Ashes coating on the blade gave off a dim crimson gleam in the darkness, as though the blade itself were bleeding. He assumed no stance. He simply aimed the tip at the charging Eve, stepped forward, and thrust.
The simplest straight thrust—the first lesson taught by the Demon Hunter Guild.
The blade pierced Eve's chest, precisely avoiding her ribs. It entered through the center of her sternum and emerged from between her shoulder blades.
There was no blood. What gushed from the wound was a dark, thick liquid like tar.
The instant it