Evening sunlight painted the sky in brilliant shades of orange and crimson as Victor arrived in China's Magic City.
According to Arthur's intelligence reports, one of the Asian Blood Nests was located somewhere in this metropolis. Yet when Victor touched down, he found no sign of the dimensional portal.
Instead, the landscape was dotted with massive craters and scattered remains, pieces of flesh and demonic body parts littering the ground like grotesque confetti.
Victor surveyed the carnage with knowing eyes. "Someone already destroyed the Blood Nest here."
He expanded his spiritual sense outward, and sure enough, his suspicions were confirmed almost immediately. Several hundred kilometers from Magic City, a fully armed force of tens of thousands was retreating in orderly fashion. Following the trajectory of their march, Victor discovered a new city constructed from reinforced concrete rising from the ruins.
Tens of millions of people lived within its walls.
These people really do deserve their reputation as the world's infrastructure masters.
While survivors in other parts of the globe were still scrambling to stay alive in the aftermath of August 9th's apocalypse, the people of this continent had already rebuilt a functioning nation and eliminated the invading threat.
"Looks like my help isn't needed here after all."
Still, Victor decided to do what he could. Before leaving, he spent the next half hour hunting down and eliminating the remaining hell demons scattered across the China continent.
His next destination: Australia.
Unlike the fortunate people of China, Australia's inhabitants had faced a far grimmer fate. Every human living on the continent had been systematically wiped out. Not just humans either, all animal life had vanished as well.
Their souls had been devoured. Their flesh and blood had been harvested to construct the Blood Nest itself.
The entire landmass had been tainted by hell's corrupting magic. Even with the Blood Nest destroyed, the continent would never again be suitable for human habitation.
"Only one solution, then."
Victor raised his hand and, with a casual gesture of overwhelming power, teleported the entire Australian continent into outer space. While he was at it, he obliterated the Blood Nest to prevent any demons from escaping through the dimensional rift to wreak havoc elsewhere.
With that task complete, Victor had accomplished what he'd set out to do.
When he returned to the survivor base, both Krul and Shinoa had already arrived back as well.
"Perfect! The Blood Nests are gone and the spatial rifts have sealed themselves," Shinoa said, exhaling with relief. "Now we just need to eliminate the remaining enemy forces as quickly as possible."
Thank god she and her sister had decided to visit their homeworld today. If they'd waited even a few more days, they might have returned to find nothing but ruins.
"I'll leave the cleanup to you and Mahiru," Victor said. "Krul and I are heading back."
"No problem." Shinoa nodded readily.
The remaining work was relatively straightforward. She and Mahiru could handle it themselves without issue.
"Speaking of which, where is my sister?" Shinoa asked, glancing around. "Arthur, have you seen her?"
Arthur shrugged helplessly. "No idea. She went out earlier and hasn't come back yet."
BOOM!
The words had barely left his mouth when a massive explosion thundered from outside the building.
"What's going on? Are we under attack?" Arthur shot to his feet, his expression grim.
Victor's face twisted into an expression somewhere between amusement and exasperation. "Relax. It's not an enemy attack. Just a fight."
He turned and walked out, Krul and Shinoa following close behind.
The moment they stepped outside, a dark figure came hurtling through the air toward them at high speed.
Everyone instinctively dodged to the side.
CRASH!
The figure slammed into the wall behind them with bone-crunching force, embedding itself deep into the concrete.
Victor blinked. Well, well. If it wasn't Guren Ichinose himself.
"Mahiru! What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"You bitch! Why would you hit Guren?"
Miju's furious voice cut through the air.
Following the sound, Victor spotted Mahiru standing among a small crowd, arms folded across her chest with an expression of cool indifference.
Opposite her stood Guren's infamous harem trio, led by the visibly enraged Miju.
"Oh my, I was just swatting away an annoying pest," Mahiru said, her smile never faltering despite the murderous glares directed at her.
"You bastard..." Miju's temper flared white-hot. She summoned her demon cursed gear on the spot, ready to attack.
Fortunately, Sayuri proved to be the more rational one and grabbed her arm, holding her back.
They had to stop her. The woman standing before them was clearly far stronger than all three of them combined. Rushing in would only result in humiliation, or worse.
"What happened here?" Victor asked as he approached.
The moment Mahiru caught sight of Victor, her entire demeanor transformed. The cold, distant expression melted away, replaced by something softer and almost playful.
"Oh, Victor, you're back!" She adopted an exaggerated tone of distress. "These people are trying to bully me! You have to teach them a lesson!"
"Bullshit!" Miju shot back immediately. "You're the one who attacked Guren first!"
Mahiru's smile turned razor-sharp. "If he hadn't kept bothering me, would I have needed to hit him? I already told him I'm not interested anymore, but he just wouldn't take no for an answer. So I couldn't help myself."
"Even so, did you have to be so brutal?" Sayuri interjected, her voice strained with emotion. "Guren's still recovering from his injuries. He's a wounded soldier!"
"So what?" Mahiru's eyes flashed with genuine anger. "After everything, after I was once his girlfriend, do I need your permission to defend myself? Just because I have someone new in my life?"
"Shut your mouth!"
Mahiru's expression turned glacial in an instant. A wave of killing intent rolled off her like a physical force, so intense it made the air itself feel heavy.
"If any of you dare mention the past again, I'll rip your tongues out."
Being Guren Ichinose's girlfriend was the darkest chapter of Mahiru's history, a humiliation she desperately wanted to erase from existence. She didn't want people knowing about it, and she especially didn't want it mentioned in front of Victor.
Even though Victor already knew.
"Ahem... Mahiru, so in your eyes, everything we had was worthless..."
At that moment, the barely conscious Guren stirred. He raised his head with agonizing effort, looking at Mahiru with eyes full of pain and sorrow.
Mahiru snorted derisively. "What value is there in something forced on you? Emotions manufactured by someone else's manipulation?"
"No... I don't believe it's fake. Cough, cough..." Guren's gaze drifted toward Victor before returning to Mahiru. "You must be under his control. That's why you're pushing me away, right?"
Victor felt his stomach turn.
The creature called the "simp" truly was a marvel of nature. It would twist reality itself rather than accept the truth, constantly engaging in the most pathetic forms of self-hypnosis.
Even Mahiru seemed momentarily stunned by the sheer absurdity of the statement. Then she burst out laughing.
"Control? Threatened? Look very carefully, does this look like I'm being controlled?"
Before anyone could react, Mahiru walked straight up to Victor, rose up on her toes, and pressed her lips firmly against his.
The kiss lingered, deep and unmistakably genuine.
When their lips finally parted, Mahiru turned back to Guren with a satisfied, almost dreamy expression.
"Everything I do is voluntary."
That was the final blow.
Guren's heart, already cracked and bleeding, shattered completely. He slowly closed his eyes, two trails of tears sliding down his cheeks as consciousness finally left him.