"Mika!"

After he took care of Xander, Shira charged at Mika again.

However, Mika dodged every single attack from Shira without breaking a sweat.

"Kill me...! Or else you can’t get past me...!" Shira stated exhaustedly.

Shira was labeled a semi-transcendental being but due to the excessive injuries it already had to bear before confronting Mika, it was greatly weakened. It was so weak that even a B-rank demon could beat it.

"What about our promise?"

Still, Mika understood what Shira was trying to say.

Because of Martha’s ability, Shira was forced to kill Mika, meaning that it would always pursue Mika until the command was lifted or until Shira died.

"The fact alone that you were trying to help me makes me happy enough." Shira replied softly as it readied itself.

"I see."

Mika closed his eyes when Shira leaped to him with its arm retracted.

It threw a heavy punch but Mika caught the fist. He threw Shira to the ground.

"Don’t hold back, Mik-"

As Shira turned around, Mika dislocated its jaw with a quick kick.

The king of the jungle wobbled shortly until it fell completely and slowly lost consciousness.

"This will do for now." Mika said as he headed deeper into the jungle.

Mika sensed a demon’s presence in the vicinity.

Assuming that it was really Martha, then the spell on Shira would be lifted once she died.

"So it’s really you...! How did you survive...?" the grumpy Martha asked with a frown on her face.

"I won’t die until I’ve killed every single one of you." Mika replied coldly.

He quickly arrived at the place where Martha was camping at.

"..."

She looked at Mika’s halo.

"You’ve been fighting against Xander and that beast, right? Are you sure about facing me after fighting those two?" she remarked with a menacing grin.

Oddly, he was unscathed but Martha knew about his time restriction and considering the amount of time that passed since Shira first left, Mika did not have much time left to fight her anymore.

"I will make sure to make you suffer...!" she declared as she got up.

Her stomach was still hurting but she had to bear with it for now.

"..."

Mika sighed.

"You’ve got it all wrong." he said as he walked to her.

Unbeknownst to her, the halo was now permanently shining above his head and his power did not have a time limit anymore.

"It will be me who will make you suffer." he stated threateningly as he stood right in front of her.

"O-oh~?"

Martha tried to mock him by acting tough but she was nervous all of a sudden.

"!"

Instinctively, she reached out to his neck.

"GAH!"

However, her forearm was cut off before her fingers could even poke his skin.

Mika gathered lightning and light in his other hand.

A loud bang occurred in the jungle as Mika launched a magical attack that destroyed a part of the jungle.

"..."

Paralyzed by fear, Martha, who barely dodged, looked at the trail of destruction Mika left behind.

There was a long crater. No trees or roots were spared.

Martha realized only one thing at that moment: She had to get away from there.

Thus, she spread her wings and flew away.

"..."

Mika did not move yet. But he stretched his hand to her as Excalibur vanished.

"Did this monster get stronger?!" Martha cursed as she flew as fast as possible.

"?!"

But she came to a sudden halt when a big spear came from above.

The earth trembled due to the impact of the spear that had the width of a town.

"This will be your grave."

"!"

Mika appeared between her and the spear and kicked her down.

He proceeded to create a small ball out of lightning and light again and threw it at her.

However, he did not hit her again, leading to more damage to the jungle as the ball expanded like an explosion once it got into contact with the soil.

"..."

Martha’s body was for the most part numb.

"Ugh...!"

She struggled to move.

"AARRGHH!!!"

The Holy Spear pierced her exactly at the same spot where Mika previously stabbed her with Excalibur.

She screamed loudly in agony even if her throat hurt and her voice almost vanished.

"..."

Mika descended upon her and used his silver sword to stab her once more. This time, he thrust the sword into her left thigh. And because the sword was enhanced with light and lightning, the pain increased tremendously.

Her body was constantly under an electrical shock and the light, which was a demon’s natural enemy, did not make it any better. However, she could not decide which pain was greater.

Then, Mika pulled out the weapons from her body and lifted her with his hand.

He retracted his hand and threw Martha away, making her back crash through multiple thick trees.

His right hand glowed brightly and soon, hundreds of light arrows were shot from above at Martha’s current location. In addition, light pillars hailed straight down to Martha.

And because it was a hassle to go through the dark and deep jungle, Mika summoned the spear.

"Enlarge."

As he swung the enlarging spear horizontally, he destroyed everything in his way.

"You monster...!" Martha muttered weakly.

Her body was burnt up and she could not move an inch of her body as she lied in a crater caused by Mika’s attacks.

"..."

After he arrived, he looked down on her apathetically.

Using Excalibur, he slashed her across her upper body.

"This will be your last chance to talk so tell me, why did you do all of this?"

"..."

Because she did not respond immediately, Mika rammed Excalibur in her other arm.

But after all the pain she suffered, she started to scream less over time.

"Because you were in the way..." Martha muttered, which Mika barely heard.

"You destroyed my playhouse the first time we met..."

The Desolated Fortress.

"You destroyed our first step of building a potential stronghold for my kin..."

The invasion in Loogam.

"You were the main piece of every single thing...!"

Her voice sounded rough and lightly enraged.

"I had to get rid of you... But I wanted to make you go through hell before that... So what better plan was there than to kill those close to you...?" she chuckled.

Before she and her group headed to Mika’s village, Martha spent a lot of time investigating Mika’s background and his surroundings, enabling her to target his mental weak spots.

"I had a feeling that you’d come instantly to the village when we ambushed it but it didn’t matter... After all, we prepared an executioner for you..."

But said executioner failed to confirm his death.

"You’re truly a textbook demon. Evil through and through." Mika remarked disgustedly.

He pulled out Excalibur and pointed at her throat.

"However, I will still grant you the opportunity to utter your last words."

Mika initially thought that he would lose it if he would see Martha again but strangely enough, he was calmer than he thought. It was as if his sense of wrath and hatred was subdued.

"You are on good terms with that monster, right...?" she asked with a faint smirk.

"..."

"Then, maybe I shall act out my part as the evil until my very end..."

Her smirk widened.

"Shira, kill yourself."

Mika cut off her head immediately after she finished her phrase.

"Tch."

Martha was dead and yet, he felt like he still lost to her at the end. But he had no time to complain. He had to hurry over to Shira.

The command Martha uttered may have not been heard by Shira but it was apparently enough to just utter the words without the target person having to hear them.

Meanwhile, the barely conscious Shira received a sudden headache for a moment.

Its upper body strangely got up and reluctantly, its arm was moving towards its chest with the fingers straightened.

"Damnit..." Shira muttered with a self-deprecating smirk.

Its sharp nails began to dig into its flesh.

"Seems like we won’t meet each other again, Mika..."

Its arm tensed up and abruptly thrust deeper into its own chest until its hand was poking out from the back.

"..."

After pulling the arm out, its upper body bluntly fell.

From afar, he heard a voice calling out to him but it had no strength left to face the person or to even keep its eye open.

As its white fur was soaked in red blood, Shira closed its eye forever.

And as Shira faced the darkness, it remembered the days when it was still a human.

Shira remembered how he fought monsters with a relic that allowed Shira to borrow the strength of a monster.

It also remembered the moment it desperately yearned for strength upon facing countless of monsters alone.

"Ah... I see... That’s when it happened..." Shira murmured.

All the strength left its body.

It did not even react when Mika came and tried to wake it up.