章 1: Moonlight Rendezvous
Blue ray… a ray of the moon,
"There! The devil runs off towards Gadcru Hill…!"
The sparkle of the stars was shifted into the glitter of torches, devouring the tranquility amongst the surrounding woodland by making use of their war cry of theirs to enlarge the tiny courage they had. Least a little it might have worked, for they were all just a bunch of ordinary dwellers; dwelled in the small village near the foothill limited only by the forest line surrounding it…
"Move it! Faster! Show no mercy just because the damned devil occupies the body of an innocent girl - it's just one of its trickery, trying to deceive us."
…yet it was the leader of the village, shouting the loudest he was while raising his own torch as high as he could so that the blackness of the sky blended with its color of crimson desire as well for destruction—the color of fire—leading his people in pursuit of this devil,
If what the villagers said was to be believed, concerning this devil who already was above all of them in fact in every aspect, mainly ability and capability. Consequently, they would have no chance against this devil,
Unless they had a prominent individual among them whose power was greater or at least equal with the said devil… and sure they had such right now,
"Where's this Gadcru Hill you mentioned?"
Solidly standing beside him was a figure of a Holy Knight, as high as approximately fifteen inches taller than the rest of this village population apparently, rendering him stood out the most amongst them… apart from the rigid silvery, argent-hued armor he wore from head to toe and his deep black greatsword which adorned with starlight-like sparkles on its stygian surface resting on his back. A heavy yet smooth muffled voice came underneath the helmet, giving a serious impression on anything he was about to say… quite an authoritative figure he was,
"Y-yes, Gadcru Hill," the village's leader answered haltingly. Quite a normal reaction he showed, moreover after listening to such a voice, "It's the nearest hill from our village... about five hundred yards to the northwest."
"I see…"
Then one of the villagers, from the scout team, came out from the dense forest. No time for him, however, to gasp the chilling air, instead of using the spare time to fill his empty lungs, he made use of this time to shout as he was about to inform the main force regarding this devil, "She changed her direction! She's now moving to the east… towards Vadge River!"
"Vadge river, huh?" those crossed arms on the silver torso were slowly straightened beside his steady body as he listened to the latest news… apparently now the Holy Knight was about to make his own preparation of making his hand dirty, knowing now his turn was about to come, "It's quite far from the village, is it not?"
"Correct, Lord Kharys. It is five days of walking toward the east, near the border of the Dievai Empire."
"Understood." the Holy Knight—whom they called Kharys—his right arm then reached out for the greatsword bereft of a scabbard on his large back. It looked heavy, dark, and dense, yet it was adorned with tiny glittering lights that filled the entire surface of the black metal as though the void was filled with the entire starry night of the skies. He grasped it using his right hand, while the other prepared to make an incantation gesture of a simple one… because, in just a blink of an eye, a magic circle began to emerge beneath his feet. Glowing grayish-white it was, thus dazzling anyone's eyes watched it, "Head Villager, sire." Kharys spoke after he was done with his incantation to buff himself, "It is better for you to order the others to retreat. I'll be straightforward, you and your people have no chance to keep up let alone fight against this devil in the first place. But no worries, because as a replacement, please allow me… I'll hunt the devil in five seconds."
The confident tone uttered by this prominent individual, increasing the morale of the villagers happened to overhear it. Not just some prominent individuals in fact, but the well-known Holy Knight who was sent directly by King Horik himself in regard to protect his people,
"We understand, Lord Kharys. " the Head of the Village then responded, obeying his advice, "You better be careful as well."
Giving his last nod before setting off, the Holy Knight then began to jump so high that he was seen as though flying across the dense forest just beneath the hanging sparkling yet gloomy skies. To the east he went, where the largest river on the continent existed… with his greatsword drawn above the forest bathed in the blue moon, he sped up his momentum in order to catch up with this devil.
.
.
.
.
.
A devil in the form of a beautiful lassie, having an appearance that of a fourteen years old girl of human age with medium-long hair covering her tiny graceful back without any presence of a pair of signature wings nor tail that was typical to a demonic kin, yet seeming she was endowed with superhuman abilities, both mentally and physically, which she could use to escape from the pursuit of the villagers who seemingly were unfriendly to her presence… jumping from one branch to another… barefooted… she was moving so fast that ordinary eyes would only perceive it as a shadowy silhouette following the lead of the cold night breeze.
And when an open space approached, right above this Vadge River where the moonlight shone the shiniest without trees might block its way… a glimpse of her body, therefore, was finally revealed under this bright blue of moonlight,
White rather pale skin covered in dark brown ragged clothes; the twin horns were plain to see protruding upward from both of her temples between her straight, white-as-snow hair with slightly carmine color on its end… and her golden-yellow eyes gazed sharply at the other side of the river.
Thinking she just needed only to jump across this two-mile-wide river with the assumption that the villagers would lose her track and eventually give up on the pursuit. Yet little did she know about the ace card owned by the villagers, or rather the ace card they asked for, now had been used at the last moments,
All of a sudden, an enormous blue magic circle emerged from the reposeful surface of the river. Thanks to its glowing nature, this devil was capable of noticing it immediately, thus using air as her foothold to dodge the attack later seen as a form of large, long, and wide ice spears that appeared less than a second from the magic circle. She, hence, jumped mid-air to the other side… if only she was late even a second, maybe what was on top of that icy mountain was her impaled body… dozens of giant ice spears that would pierce her whole body.
As an anticipation step for the probability of another trap or magic-based mines on the ground, she chose to stand in the air while looking around cautiously… prepared for another attack that might surely come once again. Because judging from the previous one, this attacker might have been observing from nearby,
And just like she had predicted…
"Oh… you managed to dodge it, escaping death despite being in mid-air. Thought I'd underestimated you it seemed."
…a heavy-toned voice was then heard. It wasn't too hard to guess where it might come from, after all in such an open space. And so this devil looked up, querying calmly to the silver figure who was floating above not too far from her,
"Who are you? Why did you attack me?"
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