Evening fell, and the setting sun was red as blood.
With bloodstains on its cloak, the Bandaged Swordsman stepped through the shadows of buildings stretched to their utmost by dusk, leaving Dale Lane and entering Kirk Street.
The buildings rapidly grew taller, but the gaps between them widened, allowing light and shadow to mingle.
When the crimson sunlight shone on the bloodstains covering the Bandaged Swordsman, the filth within them instantly thickened like mud, making it look like an undead creature that had crawled out of the earth.
When deep darkness enveloped the bloodstains covering the Bandaged Swordsman, the blood within them congealed like fire, making it look like a demon amid the flames.
It belonged to neither light nor darkness.
It had even less business appearing in the mortal world.
Suddenly, it stopped.
Because...
Cooking smoke!
Wisps of cooking smoke-the finest flavor of mortal life.
It heard busy voices urging one another on in kitchens.
It heard the cheerful, expectant voices of children.
It heard voices in restaurants, weary yet full of energy.
Every voice made it seem ever more out of place on the street.
It was like a heretic!
It quickened its pace, walking toward 2 Kirk Street step by step beneath the frightened gazes of pedestrians scrambling to avoid it and the expectant gazes of the watchers.
When it saw the towering banyan tree that had suddenly appeared, it tightened its grip on its sword hilt.
"Heh heh, the show's starting!"
"What exactly is that thing?"
"Some kind of undead creature, probably?"
"Who cares? We just need to keep watching!"
Eli's keen hearing picked up every word the watchers around him said. The nominal scout for Count Bette couldn't help curling his lip.
An undead creature?
What undead creature could use Evil-Breaking Slash?
*But what was