Chapter 176 - Vol. 3 - 49

Ash stared at it for so long, Kaori had to shake her to get her to react. 

"Uh, it's getting closer," Kaori told her, "w-what do we do?" 

Ash looked back at her, blinked, and grabbed her by the wrist. 

"RUN!" Ash told her and Kaori yelped as she forcefully pulled her along. She had no clue where they were running to, but Ash only knew that she and Kaori needed to get the hell out of there. 

Level. Fucking. 90.  Ash thought.  LEVEL. FUCKING. 90. What, how, where did Niven even find that thing!?! 

The two of them circled a blood-covered corner as sounds of fighting seemed to surround them. No matter where they went, there were soldiers facing off against the demons, which pretty much confirmed to Ash that Niven intended to take a much larger portion of the city tonight. 

Ash looked back and was relieved to see that the demon wasn't there. However, now that the two of them had made a sizeable gap between themselves and that horrid creature, that brought a new problem. 

Where do we go? 

---

Onyx Battlefield Moments, 1: The Librarian

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Kaori

As the two ran away from the level 90 demon, they eventually decided that it would be best to involve themselves in the fighting once again. As long as they steered clear of whatever that thing had been. Ash identified a few demons nearby and ran up to them, helping a few soldiers fight them back. Kaori, however, stood and watched for a moment. 

Since that talk she and Ash had at the portal realm, many things had been passing through her mind, but no answers had come to her yet regarding what she needed to do to ease these troubles. When she'd punched through that demon's head earlier, she felt like that was something along the lines of what she needed, that the answer may be violent in nature, but she had yet to discover it. So, for now, she just settled for trying to help Ash and the others whenever possible. 

Because of that, she had been about to walk up and assist the half-demon, but then she heard something. There was a sound like pained moaning coming from her left. Kaori looked away from where Ash was fighting and searched for it, finding a small building that looked like it had been broken down by random spells that had unfortunately landed there. As she got closer, she became sure that the sounds were coming from here. 

Kaori approached the rubble and gasped when she saw an old man pinned down by some rocks. He was bleeding from his forehead, but his entire body had likely been broken by the stones on top of him. 

"A-Ash!" Kaori called, as she realized this man desperately needed some healing. 

"... Are you an angel?" The old man asked as his eyes met Kaori's. 

"Ash!" Kaori called again. "I think he's delusional!" 

The old man looked away. 

"... Never did I think my little bookstore would suffer such a fate," the man muttered as Kaori turned around, wondering what was keeping Ash from coming. "So many years, so much of my life..." He coughed, "only for it to end like this." 

"Sir, please, don't talk, save your strength," Kaori said to him before she got up and searched for the half-demon. She found Ash killing off a nearby Gluttony demon and ran up to her. The half-demon's eyes were narrowed, flickering back and forth from one possible target to another, something that halted when Kaori walked in front of her. 

"Ash," Kaori said. 

"Yeah?" Ash shook her head. "What's up?" 

"There's an injured civilian over here, come!" 

Kaori took her back to the broken-down bookstore. She spotted the man under the rubble and turned back to Ash. 

"He's been there for a while, it seems like. He needs help," Kaori told her. Ash nodded and Kaori started to look around for anyone else who might need assistance. 

"Wait... Kaori..." Ash said as she crouched beside him. Kaori wasn't looking. 

"There are probably a bunch of other people like this," Kaori muttered as she felt a bit colder. "Some people who might have not been prepared." 

"Kaori..." Ash said again. 

"I don't hear anyone else though, so... Maybe we should look for people somewhere else. After that though, what would we..." 

"Kaori!" Ash said and Kaori was startled. 

"Yeah?" 

"He's dead." 

"... Oh." 

---

Onyx Battlefield Moments, 2: The Orphan

---

Ash

Ash lost count of how many demons she'd taken out at this point. The fighting continued and didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon.  How far is Niven planning on going? The buff already ran out,  Ash noted.  Then again, that demon is level 90 without it. Can anyone take it out? 

"Savior!" Suddenly, someone called to her from the side. 

Ash turned towards them, raising a brow. 

"Yeah?" 

"We suspect there might still be people in these buildings, people who didn't evacuate in time." 

"... Damn." 

That was all Ash said. She turned away from the soldier and continued looking for targets. 

"Uh, Savior? They are probably trapped there thanks to the demons on the streets." 

"Sucks for them?" Ash said, shrugging.  Now, who do I fuck up next?  Ash thought as the soldier cleared his throat. 

"Don't. You. Think. You. Should. Help. Them???" He asked. 

Ash looked back at him and scowled. 

"If it'll get you to stop annoying me, fine, I'll look for some people. Now, fuck off." 

The man blinked twice before walking away. 

Ash had half a mind to just go back to fighting as she was left alone, but as she looked around, she heard a demon growling from inside a house to her left.  It's probably safer to fight inside there, where people can't get you from behind,  Ash thought as she walked in. 

The sounds of battle outside muffled slightly as she stepped into the building. It smelled like a bad combination of dust and blood. Ash looked around, trying to feel out where the enemies were. She heard a few sounds coming from a room to the right and began walking slowly towards it. An open door held the source of the sound behind it and Ash slowly opened it before a claw instantly swung in her direction. 

Ash backed up, gritting her teeth. The demon growled at her as it swiped again and this time, slashed her face, clipping her. Ash pushed through the pain though and stabbed its gut, lifting it up into the air with the amount of force she put into it. She ripped her gauntlet out, and with it violet blood poured all over her, covering Ash's body. 

The demon fell lifeless to the ground and Ash sighed. 

Alright, time to head back out... 

However, she heard something that made her pause. Someone sniffled. The sound came from the room she'd just been about to investigate before the fight. Ash narrowed her eyes at it as she heard a soft sob come from the same room.  Is that a monster or...? 

Ash started walking back in. She pushed the door open again, and this time no demonic hand came out to slash her. Instead, the sound of a soft cry came out again, from a nearby closet. Slowly, Ash moved towards it. As silly as it might have been, she honestly felt a little nervous. There was a small chance that there was a demon hiding behind the closet trying out some new strategy to catch people off-guard and that was why Ash had her gauntlets out, just in case. 

Either that, or she was just paranoid. That was a possibility. 

Regardless, Ash walked over to it and slowly opened the closet up. Someone cried out "no", and Ash yanked the door open. 

There was, however, no enemy there. Instead, there was a little girl, curled up and crying. 

Oh, okay, bit of a waste of time but...  Ash thought, but she stopped when she noticed a few details. 

For one, this girl had two short horns on her forehead, white hair and although her eyes were closed, Ash guessed they were violet. She was crying, her little fists raised in self-defense as she had no idea what had just opened the closet up. 

Ash sighed. 

Shit. 

She de-transformed her weapons, crouched, and tapped the girl's shoulder. She trembled, shivering as she whimpered a little. 

"Kid, open your eyes," Ash told her. "If I were a demon you'd be getting eaten by now." 

Hearing that, the child slowly opened her eyes and as Ash had guessed, eyes just like her own looked back at her. 

"I... What?" The girl mumbled, her tears still falling as she looked over at Ash. 

A small part of Ash felt like she was looking into a mirror. Something she absolutely had not needed on this night. She shook her head, ignoring the part of her heart that hurt just a little at the sight of this girl, and she extended a hand towards the girl. 

"Come on, or are you just gonna stay there till something else finds you?"