The moment Evan locked gazes with 'Baron Geto', his entire body screamed at him.
It told him that the man seated before him, was a completely different kind of existence. One that should not be in the world of Aidos at all.
As 'Baron Geto' saw Evan's shocked expression, he revealed a fearless grin in response, clearing all of Evan's doubts.
'Baron Geto', was a demon.
To be precise, the real 'Baron Geto' had long since perished and a demon was currently masquerading as him.
Evan's brain recalled that the current baron had succeeded his father after a bloody succession battle.
Perhaps it was then.
It was at that time that the demon took over.
[Evan...!]
Whenever it was, Evan did not have the time for that right now.
He needed to warn Merle and the others, especially as Merle still hadn't fully recovered from overloading her magic circuits.
As if by reflex, he placed his left hand in his inventory and pulled out the unforged. In his right hand, he summoned the sword of Pride, Vanitas.
However, his opponent wasn't one to let him prepare arm himself completely.
"Did you know? More than half of Geto's C rank adventurers are currently in this building. I wonder what would happen if I were to blow it up?"
The words he suddenly spoke left Merle and the other two members of the MIN Triad stunned. However, this was not the time for them to be staring at Baron Geto blankly.
Evan kicked off the ground and dashed towards the demon in human skin with his swords raised high.
"Let's find out, shall we?"
"Merl-!"
**TINGGGGG!!!!
Evan could not complete his statement.
His vision suddenly went white as he heard a loud ringing sound in his head.
**KAAABOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!
◇ ◇ ◇
To the adventurers of Geto City, it was another day of work. Accepting quests and taking commissions like always.
Some were even having breakfast in the guild building, while others were catching up after having not seen each other in a while.
The 7th of November, Year 1051, was a normal morning.
And that was precisely why none of them expected it.
None of them could have possibly counted for the possibility, that a demon from another world, would suddenly blow up the entire building.
**KAAABOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!
There was a bright flash of white light as the entire adventurer's guild building suddenly went up in flames.
Screams rang out as the force of the explosion affected the nearby buildings. The normal citizens who had no relation to the adventurer's guild screamed out in fear as they ran for safety.
In the middle of wrecked building that was suddenly burning to ash, a single individual dressed in a knight's uniform stood.
His body was suddenly engulfed by a wave of darkness.
When the darkness receded, his knight uniform had been changed to a pitch-black full body armour. In his right hand was a fairly large one-handed sword that he swung around randomly.
Shrugging his shoulders, a pair of brown bat-like wings with a wingspan of about four meters emerged from his back.
Flapping them lightly, his body levitated from the ground and floated into the air.
He looked down on the city below him, at the humans and beastkin running for safety. At the adventurers who were rushing towards what was left of the guild building to assess the situation.
'Good thing I sent out the guild master beforehand. He was the only one who would have been able to defeat me.'
Thinking of the plans that he had made for this day, he couldn't help but heave a sigh of exasperation at how much stress he went through.
'When I saw him and saw his title, I was scared shitless. But I realized that he was just a brat who was still weak, so I made sure he would go on that commission alone and corrupted the leader of those bandits.
Somehow, he survived.
Next, I manipulated the dungeon boss, even gave it some of my power to make it stronger and had it corrupt him.
However, he was able to get rid of the corruption somehow and the empowered dungeon boss only served to make him stronger.
In the end, I decided to do things the old way.
All these scheming and conspiring doesn't really suit me. It would have been better if I just waltzed up to him and beheaded him the moment that I saw him.
I couldn't have cared about the consequences, after all I was done with my mission here already.
However, I ended up wasting time and giving away a part of my power, all for naught.'
He gazed downwards, at the adventurers who had finally taken notice of him floating in the air and had attempted to use long range attacks against him.
"Fools."
He rose his free left hand and pointed it at them.
"Burn."
And so they did.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
"HELLPPPPPMMEEEE!!!!"
"IT HURTHS!!"
The adventurers screamed around as they burnt to their deaths but he paid it no mind. His gaze went towards the wreckage of the guild building as he thought to himself.
'He's not dead.
I'm sure of it. Something protected him at the last moment. Something from his shadow.'
**BOOMM!!!
He was about to descend towards the wreckage when a sudden explosion caught his attention. He turned his gaze in the direction he heard it come from and was met with a quite unbelievable scene.
"She's ...unscathed?"
The cause of the explosion, was the young woman who was gazing up at him with piercing red eyes.
The young woman who looked no more than eighteen years old had released a burst of magic power, clearing all the wreckage in the area around her.
She flicked her fingers and a jet-black sword appeared in her hands, it had red lines running through it like veins and emitted a familiar dark mist that he could not mistake even in a thousand years.
"Demonic energy...? And it's very potent, way too potent to be an imitation with magic power. In other words, a genuine bona fide demon.
That sword is also the one the brat was holding, so I take it that she's hostile.
As such, I move with the intent to kill."
As soon as he said that to himself, he flapped his wings to propel himself in her direction with his sword raised high.
Perhaps sensing his intention to battle, the unidentified demon rose her weapon and kicked off the ground and into the air.
**SWISH! CLANGG!!!
In the middle of the wreckage of the Geto city's adventurer's guild building, the sound of blades clashing signified the beginning of a battle between two demons.
◇ ◇ ◇
Evan saw himself in a broken world.
An Exploding sun.
A broken moon.
And earth shattered beyond repair.
With a sword in hand, he sat down on a hill of corpses as he gazed at this apocalyptic scenery.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
A sonorous voice rang out from behind him. He tried to turn around but he found out that he could not.
"I would love for you to admire this scenery with me. Sadly, you aren't meant to be here."
"Then where am I meant to be?"
"You don't need me to tell you that, do you?
The Prideful one is risking her life to give you a chance to recover, don't let it go to waste."
Right after he heard those words, his vision darkened as his consciousness faded.
◇ ◇ ◇
Evan opened his eyes as, feeling pain all over his body. He felt something force its way through his lips and he felt a liquid go down his throat.
His eyes widened to see the sight of a crying black haired little girl, forcing him to drink what he believed was a healing potion.
[Master!]
The familiar voice rang out as she tossed the bottle aside and pulled out another bottle, forcing its contents down his throat as he felt his energy wildly circulating through his body.
"Cough!...cough!!"
Evan coughed out loudly as he forced himself to sit up.
He gazed at the scenery of destruction around his with a deep frown on his face.
'Would all this not have happened if I simply refused to meet him?'
He patted the head of the injured spirit who was clinging to him while in tears and he forced himself to his feet.
His eyes caught a burnt-up corpse not too far from where he was, turning in another direction he saw the figure of a nameless adventurer who was impaled by a broken beam that fell on him.
Behind him was the severed upper body of the adventurer he saw eating breakfast in the guild hall just before he spoke to the receptionist.
He was sure that they were many more adventurers who were just going about their day like normal, normal citizens who had come to the guild to post commissions or see off their loved ones who were going on long trips.
'What if I had just left immediately? He wouldn't have done this, right? So many people would not have died for no reason.'