Smoke plumes grew into the sky gathering together into a gray mass of clouds. tless craters left behind from the unstable bst altered the terrain far more than anything Yumi had done before with her attacks. Any hints of nature were ripped away. Only the sm craters remained dotting the foothills.

  Sileherwise reighrough the field. No hints of the demons that made the mountain their home or the fighting of Yumi and the demon. All seemed dead. And anything that might have survived waited to know if it was finally safe again.

  Safety however had stopped being part of either of their s. The destru saw to that. Out of the smoke at the epiter of the bst a rge shadoeared. It was the demon, however it came out of the explosion far worse. Two of its tails were merely bloody stumps now with dark red thickly coating the fur. Along its back, rge ses of its bck fur were stuck together from bleeding. Even its head was scarred with part of its ear missing and pletely burned away fur on the left side.

  A roar of pain unleashed from its maw dripping blood. Pain g desperately to the demon refusing to release it. It staggered forward to Yumi. “You ’t hide from me! Drenched as you are in our blood, I easily find you, Hunter!”

  Yumi surfaced from the smoke standing before the demon. “I’ve no iion of hiding from you, demon,” she mustered through all of the pain. She didn’t know how much pain the demon was in, the sight only gave her a sense. ‘I ’t believe he’s still standing… What does it take to kill him?!’ Questions about the demon did nothing to stop her own pain, which she was certain was worse than whatever he might have been suffering.

  “You’ve used up all your power.”

  “Is that what you think?” She slowly walked a few steps closer to the demon to prove him wrong. ‘I have something else, but I don’t know if it’s enough to finish this… He looks like he still has plenty left in him…’

  Laughter filled the air from the demon. “All you have left is an act.”

  “We’ll see how much of it is an act when you’re dead!”

  She kept pushing her front, which amused the demon. But Yumi gave a good enough performahat there was some hesitation. He stared down at her, tinuing to read her fabsp; “Your bluff won’t work on me. A ruthless killer like you wouldn’t hesitate for the kill if you could take it.”

  A smirk appeared through the blood on her fabsp; “You’re right. I just kill you on the spot. But I’m growing tired of this gau you’ve id out for me. The only reason I’m here is to firm that you’re lying, on the remotest ce you aren’t.”

  “Oh we weren’t lying.”

  “You’d like me to believe that. I’ve no reason to trust anything a demon says.”

  “Yet you’re still here hanging onto your st breath before I kill you.”

  “You’re talking pretty big for someoing. I already said I’m only here because I ’t afford to assume.”

  “Then you’ve e to die.”

  White bdes appeared around Yumi dispying her power for the demon. “I’m ready to kill you at any time!”

  “Empty threats!” The fur along the back of the demon glistened with a red hue. It seemed to be bag its threats for Yumi as well. They stared across at each other with barely more than a meter between them.

  Chapter 405 – Stalemate’s End

  One minute passed. Two mihree and silence broke.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Yumi remarked. her of them had moved. The lohat they stayed still the more it became clear. They had bee like statues, unwilling, not wanting to move. If it tinued anymore they could turn to stone.

  The tension pletely shattered. He o her with the red glow disappearing along with her ons. “her of us have enough power left.”

  Dropping to the ground, finally able to have peace, Yumi’s legs could rest. A small chuckle came out of her as she found their situation strange. “I’ve been killing your kind since I got here. It feels a little odd not to want to do it.”

  “Yes, I agree. It’s rare to find a human as powerful as you, even among Hunters.”

  She looked up at the still intimidating presence of the demon. “So you gonna transform bato a human?”

  “I’ve spent too muergy to do that. This is my real form, my human form is merely a disguise and requires a lot of energy and focus to maintain.” He looked about at the destru wrought by their fighting. Given his height, he had a better view of it than her. “I haven’t seen our nd sed before.”

  Yumi could only focus on the crater that she sat in, which easily fit the demon with plenty of room to spare. “Yeah, sorry about that. Though you were trying to kill me.” She gave a slightly sheepish grin to the demon. ‘Why am I apologizing to a demon?!’

  “It’s the sign of a good fight. Nothing wrong with that.”

  ‘He’s got a way of looking at things like Seiji. I’m not sure I’ll ever uand it…’

  “It’s the same for you, is it not?”

  Standing ba her feet, she pushed herself forward to look out over the crater. “What happens now? her of us are in any shape for a fight, but nothing’s resolved.”

  The demon walked out of the crater, having a better view of the nd than Yumi. He looked down to Yumi after seemingly firming something. “You’ve proven your worth in my eyes.”

  “And what does that mean to me?” All any of this mattered for her was finding out if Yuki was actually here or not. If she could get some real truth out of the demon, she could leave now and resume her search without being forced down the distra.

  “It means that I’ll take you to my Lord.”

  “I’m not ied iing your Lord. Only—“

  “Yes, finding your friend. You’re quite focused. Don’t worry, he’s there as well. My Lord did send out the invitation for this meeting.”

  Staring at the demon, it was even harder to get any sort of read on him. It might have been worth something if he was in human form, though Yumi knew even that would have been mostly fruitless for her effort. As a real demon i form, she had no hope of knowing anything about his i behind those words. She couldn’t even tell if there were facial muscles with enough fine trol to craft any sort of subtlety or deception.

  Which simply left her in the same position as before. “I’ll see this to the end to find the truth.”

  “Still untrusting.”

  “Do I have a reason to be anything else?”

  “For what reason would I have to lie? If I just wanted you dead, I could have dohat at any point while you were fighting your here.”

  “If you were only ied in a fight and not killing me, you wouldn’t have sent your pawns at me first.”

  “Make no mistake, I want to kill you, but I don’t just fight anyone. Reputation is just words until I see proof.”

  “You sent demons you knew were going to die just to see if I was worth killing?”

  “Low level demons like that are like grass, bountiful and thick, but ultimately only fill up space.”

  Yumi stared in silence for a moment abs his reply. It took her a bit to fully take it in. For some reason, she thought that he might have been different from the rest. Yet it just proved he was the same as the others that she already killed. It felt like a tradi.

  He looked down at her, finding her ck of reply a bit curious. Unlike her, he figured her out quickly. “Horrified that I would sacrifice demons for ay reason?”

  None of it really came out in his face, but she got the feeling he was mog her. It was enough to snap her out of her internal of knots. “Just reinf what I already knew.” Yumi pushed herself up with what little power she still held to hover. Though it strained her mind tapping into the thin threads of her power, the relief it gave her legs and body made it a suitable trade off in pain. “Let’s get going.”

  He followed with ease in his long strides over the ed wastends of the hills. “For a ruthless Hunter, you’ve got a stra of optimism in you. Almost like you didn't grow up in this world.”

  Keeping the dire that the demon pointed out, she didn’t try to look over to her traveling partner. Even knowing that they were both drained of power and will to fight, she still felt like at any moment he would jump to kill her off. Unlike her, even without powers to wield with ease, he still had a massive body that would tear her apart. She didn’t know why he would just stop at su advantage. This demon made less sehe more she thought about it.

  “Unwilling to make versation?”

  “Tch…I’m not in the habit of sharing words with someorying to kill me.”

  “That seems untrue, given our versation already.” Yumi gave him a cold shoulder for his troubles of poking holes in her words. “Is there a subject that you would prefer to discuss?”

  The demon hahe versatioo her. Having it in her court wasn’t something that she repared for sidering the pany. If she could, she would have already e. But with the usual option gone, she was left having to listen to him.

  Given how much they had been out to kill her and they never really gave her a good reason at the start. A demon just attacked her as though it was the most natural thing for them to do. Any sort of time in the vilge with the people forced to live in such close proximity to them made it clear the human perspective.

  The media that she knew was rgely onpce as well. Just something that she easily accepted. So it came off jarring and awkward when one just wao have a versation. Everything within her just wao kill it and move on. It was only going to kill her eventually. He even said as mubsp; He just hadn’t right now on a whim, because of some voluted sense of personal honor or code or something that she didn’t uand, or wish.

  Yumi found herself thinking more about the other topics than whatever the demon asked her about. ‘I’m not sure why I’m even ag like I’m supposed to be questioning this. It’s all just fake anyway. I shouldn’t be thinking about this like it actually matters. We’re just stuck here until Phoibe rescues us.’

  “I didn’t mean to stump you with su intellectually challenging question.”

  “’t kill me, so you’re tossing insults now?”

  “Just cheg if you were even listening. You seemed distracted.”

  “Why does it even matter to you?”

  “Still hostile toward me I see.”

  “You want to kill me.”

  “Doesn’t mean we ’t be cordial.”

  “Yes, yes it does!” Yumi shouted, stopping for the first time and toug the ground. She gred up at the demon uo see anything that might be humanity, despite his previous form he could hold.

  “Just because of that? Sure it’s not something else?”

  “What are y to imply?”

  “It’s because I’m not like you.”

  “Are you getting hurt over empty feelings because you think you’re being discriminated against?”

  “And you haven’t killed just because of what you saw?”

  “Never!”

  “The two demons we sent to you were only messengers. Some of the weakest we had with express orders not to attack, yet you killed them without even a sed to see what they wanted. Are you really so noble?”

  “What?!” She took a step back trying to figure out how he evehat happened. ‘Has he been followihis whole time? Watg what I do?’ Though she still found it insulting to be lectured by a demon. “They were demons!”

  “And that’s justification enough? We’re demons so we must die, no questions asked? We’re living, intelligent beings like humans, yet you uionably have determined all of us are worth killing. And you wonder why we demons kill humans to begin with.”