Afro was on his knees, his body incinerated and the smell of burnt flesh rising from his dark skin, his severed arm dripping blood that evaporated before it touched the ground. His long dreadlocks fell over his face. His breathing was shallow, almost imperceptible.
He slowly raised his head, his unfocused eyes finding the figure in front of him, the katana that Yuki had stuck in his neck was still there. Takamura remained motionless, one hand holding his long sword. The Lord looked down and said:
"What a shame. A Sun Flower on his knees before humans."
Takamura had detected Afro's presence in the village days ago. Knowing that he was a Sunflower in the feeding and growth phase, the Lord did not act alone; he sought his brother's support to ensure the capture before the flower became an uncontrollable calamity.
The Captain, still holding Pluto's Sigh, pointed the axe at Takamura's back.
"Hey. There are people around you. You should at least say hello, that's disrespectful."
Takamura didn't even turn his face. He kept looking at Afro.
On the rooftops surrounding the square, demons began to appear. One, two, five, ten, more and more. They emerged from the darkness, red eyes glowing, claws and fangs bared, surrounding the entire square like a living wall.
On the roof next door, Lord Kael, Takamura's brother, stood. He was taller, his body covered in iridescent black scales, six muscular arms, long horns curved backward. A dead woman hung from one of his hands, her neck torn, her body still trembling. Blood dripped down his arm as he chewed a piece of flesh. Kael swallowed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"You were right, brother. His smell is peculiar."
"Son of a bitch!" said Yuki, who, upon seeing the scene, couldn't take it anymore and jumped toward the roof to attack Kael. At the same moment, the demons jumped from the roofs onto the square, initiating a direct confrontation with the adventurers. The Captain advanced toward Takamura with an oblique cut that released a curtain of smoke. Takamura quickly turned and deflected the blow by positioning his sword vertically in front of him, initiating a rapid exchange of blades.
Kira took advantage of the clash between the two and advanced with her dagger toward Afro's neck. However, Afro's body tilted to the side and rose in a mechanical movement.
Kira stopped, confused.
"When did he wake up? Wait... he's still unconscious."
Before Kira could strike another blow, an invisible force wrapped around her waist and pulled her violently. It was Tara. As Kira's body was dragged away, Tara attempted a stomp, but Kira disappeared in a blur of speed, reappearing behind her with the dagger raised. Tara reacted instantly, raising her hand. A wall of black rock rose from the ground, blocking the blow with a sharp crack. The dagger scraped against the stone, sending sparks flying.
Yuki and Kael fought on the roof in a sword exchange so fast that only the sparks from the clash of metal could be seen. Below them, the villagers prayed; nothing was safe. Kael struck a vertical cut from bottom to top, but Yuki defended with his blade bathed in intense fire. The heat was so extreme that Kael's sword became incandescent, forcing the demon lord to take a step back.
Yuki gave no quarter. He activated an explosive dash that caused a phoenix of flames to appear around him. The two were thrown into the sky, where an explosion drew a bird of fire. The light did not last: Kael contained the explosion with his bare arm, absorbing the impact and converting the fire into a sphere of black energy that he threw back at Yuki as she fell. A second explosion, this time dark, lit up the sky.
Far from the square, Shinjimaru arrived at the inn. He entered the room and found Himari cowering, her hands covering her ears to muffle the screams and explosions.
"Stay calm, Master Shinji is here," he said.
Himari, unable to see in the dark, let herself be guided only by the sound of his voice. Shinjimaru hoisted the girl onto his back, quickly grabbed the bag of money hidden under the futon, and ran out. He made his way through the streets toward the west. On the way, he crossed paths with groups of armed adventurers; fear froze his blood, for he knew he was now a wanted man, but no one looked at him. Everyone was running toward the massacre in the main square. The demon invasion alarms rang incessantly throughout the village. Shinjimaru kept running, without looking back.
Amidst the chaos in the square, Afro's body reacted on pure instinct. Even unconscious and with Yuki's sword stuck in his neck, he suddenly leaped onto the roof and began running toward the village gate.
The unexpected escape paralyzed the combatants for a second, before they all rushed after him. The Captain attempted a leap to intercept him, but Takamura was faster: he grabbed the Captain's foot in midair and threw him violently to the ground before leaping to follow the hybrid. In midair, Takamura was caught off guard when Kael's body, thrown by an explosion in the sky, collided with him.
Tara was the fastest figure on the battlefield. She flew, almost reaching Afro's dreadlocks, which floated with the speed of the race. Before she could grab him, one of the backup adventurers in the air immediately materialized a dense sphere of water and fired it with the force of a cannon. The impact caused her to lose her balance in the air, spinning her sideways. Tara regained her posture, but she had already lost meters.
"Damn it! Go get that naked demon who's running away!" shouted the Captain, wiping the blood from his face.
Kael, recovering from the impact, gave the order to his subordinates:
"Kill the civilians in the houses! Spread out!"
With the new threat to the residents, most of the adventurers were forced to retreat to protect the houses. The Captain, however, refused to stop. "Shit, I'm out of Dao."
"Son of a bitch... 110 men were killed in my area!" he shouted, ignoring the Lords. His only target was Afro. Activating his Oni mask, he transformed into a cloud of black smoke and shot in a straight line to capture the hybrid.
Takamura, however, would not allow interference. He immediately drew a portion of his Red Core, stabbed it into his own chest to enhance his biology, and shot even faster. In a counterattack, he anticipated the smoke, grabbed the Captain's face with one hand, and scraped him with brutal force against the ceiling slabs as he ran, then threw the Captain's body back as if it were trash.
The demons abandoned the village en masse, jumping over walls and houses, running after Afro. The chase extended beyond the boundaries of Kurogane village. Jumping between the trees of the dark forest.
As Afro jumped from branch to branch with mechanical movements, Tara intercepted him with a speed that cut through the air. The moment her hands grabbed the incinerated body, she didn't hesitate: she grabbed the hilt of Yuki's katana and yanked it out of Afro's neck with a violent pull, then threw the blade away into the darkness of the forest.
Below consciousness, Afro's nervous system operated on a deep survival protocol. His body had been thoroughly trained to, in situations of collapse, go into autopilot and return to the Dojo. His legs, now limp, still trembled as they tried to find their way home. But the Dojo no longer existed; it was just ashes and burnt memories in his fractured mind.
As Tara carried him away, he repeatedly raved, "Master... I'm coming home... Master, I didn't mean to kill you... I will honor my name with Himari..."
Tears carved furrows in his soot-stained skin. It was the cry of a lost child. Tara, indifferent, landed in a clearing and dropped Afro's body at the feet of the Lords. He fell into the mud, his fingers still scratching at the earth, trying to crawl to a home that had already been wiped off the map by himself.
Takamura stepped forward. The hole in Afro's neck was already beginning to close, the cells multiplying frantically under the stimulus of the trauma. The Lord looked at the creature at his feet, feeling the vibration of energy emanating from the massacred village being absorbed by that body.
"Time for evolution," said Takamura.