The beast's moment of triumph turned to dread.
This time, the red-haired girl didn't dodge the venomous barrage. The toxic mist enveloped her, and the monster's lips curled into a gleeful grin. But just as the poison kissed her skin, a surge of devastating magic erupted from her body—splitting the mist apart and evaporating much of it into nothingness. The monster began to tremble.
The strength this girl possessed was beyond anything it had imagined. No wonder she was known as the "Red-Haired Extermination Princess."
In her hand, a sphere of annihilating mana pulsated. If she hurled that power forward—if it even touched him—his body would shatter and death would be instant.
"Mm?"
The Extermination Princess uttered a sound of confusion. Beneath her feet, a magic circle flared to life. Her expression shifted from fierce focus to perplexed astonishment.
"A summoning? Right now? And... am I the one being summoned?"
But then, her face paled.
Her body froze.
A summoning spell unlike anything she'd encountered before was forcing her to respond—dragging her consciousness toward another realm.
The magic circle beneath her wasn't one she recognized. It shimmered with ornate complexity and mysterious geometry far beyond traditional design. Whoever cast this… wasn't human.
The monster, meanwhile, felt relief flood its mind. She wasn't attacking. It didn't understand why, but it dashed past her unscathed and dared to exhale—just a little.
Not yet. Not safe. Not far enough.
Then lightning split the night sky.
The last thing the monster saw before its awareness disintegrated into ash was a cascade of light descending from the heavens.
"Chief! Are you okay?!"
Descending from the air was a black-haired beauty—no less striking than the Extermination Princess herself. Dark wings like a fallen angel's folded behind her as she landed. Her lightning strike had reduced the creature to a charred ruin.
"Chief?"
Worry tightened her brow. That was when she noticed: the Extermination Princess stood paralyzed, breath ragged, limbs locked in place.
It was the summoning circle. This magic—this spell—wasn't just exotic. It was dominative.
"Who's trying to summon you?" the black-haired girl whispered, suspicion pooling in her eyes.
The summoning circle flared once more. Both women flinched.
"Chief! Wait—huh?!"
She thought the summoning would be complete, that her comrade would be pulled away. But the red-haired girl remained. She gasped for breath, shaken but present.
"What happened?" the black-haired girl asked.
"I… don't know," the Chief whispered.
That magic circle had forced upon her an unexplainable sensation—a desire to kneel, to surrender, to obey a summoner whose identity she could not even perceive.
Thank the stars, it hadn't succeeded.
Back at their headquarters—Room 307 of the Supernatural Research Club—they didn't even get the chance to settle in.
A magic circle lit up the floor.
From it, emerged a maid. And she brought news none of them had expected.
—
Minutes earlier, in another place…
The summoning had begun.
The magic circle shimmered—not flat, but vertical, like an ornate door rising from the floor itself.
"This mana fluctuation…" muttered a demon nearby. "That's not an upper-level demon—it's a Demon King. No… perhaps even…"
The power radiating from the circle was overwhelming. The lesser demon fell to his knees, not from choice, but instinct. Something in his blood or soul recognized the authority of what was coming.
And if this human was truly the one calling forth such might… he might actually be that one.
Unbelievable. He was still alive.
"Mr. Bai Yue…" came a frightened voice. It was Aisha.
The summoning circle before her roared with raw, primal magic. This wasn't a gateway. This was a rupture—tearing open the border between Hell and Earth.
Within the circle, a hazy silhouette began to materialize—not from top to bottom, but from the center outward. A translucent membrane blurred the figure's details.
And then—
"Bang!"
"Gupff!"
Aisha's eyes widened.
Bai Yue stepped forward and—without ceremony—kicked the figure squarely in the chest. The creature squealed, stumbling backward through the membrane.
The summoning circle shimmered twice, flickered—and vanished.
Returned to Hell?
Though she hadn't seen the figure clearly, the instant before the kick revealed something: the curve of a childlike body, a twin-tailed hairstyle. A girl, likely the same size as Aisha.
"Mr. Bai Yue?" she blinked.
"It's handled," he said with a wave.
He had wanted to test what sort of entity this summoning circle would yield. But this wasn't the time. He couldn't guarantee whether the restraints on a Pillar Demon would hold. Worse, the creature might recognize him.
So he did the only thing he could.
A kick. A rejection. A clean severance. And conveniently, the mana fueling the circle had run dry.
He had to be careful from now on. That ring of his kept siphoning off his energy for these unexpected summonings.
Though his body retained the magical power from "the other side," the type of mana wasn't the same. Like vehicles running on different grades of fuel—powerful, yes, but not efficient.
He needed to refine it.
And the spellforms here were another obstacle. He couldn't just transplant demon magic into this world and expect it to work. He needed human incantations, formulas, mechanics.
That was why he'd enslaved the demon earlier—to learn its techniques.
Once he understood the rules of this reality, he could translate his legacy. Even his Noble Phantasms.
—
Chapter 139: The Saintess Who Became a High School Girl
She had been abandoned at birth.
Raised in a monastery-orphanage hybrid run by the Church, the girl grew into a devout believer—gentle, kind, unshaken by hardship.
When she was eight, she healed a wounded puppy with a strange light in her hands. A miracle. The Church took notice.
She was crowned a Saintess.
With her healing powers, she eased pain and cured the sick. The faithful revered her. But she never let her heart swell with pride. She stayed humble. As long as her gift helped people—she was happy.
Until the day she healed a demon.
It had been instinctive. She didn't know what it was at first—just that it suffered.
But the Church saw.
The girl was cast out.
Her gift wasn't divine, they said. God's power could not mend the wounds of fallen angels or demons. Therefore, her abilities must have originated elsewhere—from darker places.
They labeled her a heretic. A witch.
And so she was forsaken.
Yet someone offered sanctuary: an organization named Lost Demon Purge.
It was made up of priests and exorcists rejected by the Church—those misunderstood or cast out. They embraced her warmly.
Before her assignment to the Far East, she visited a holy site built by a wise king three millennia ago. Her last prayer, her final communion.
But fate had another blow to deliver.
She healed a man who would have murdered two innocents. Had she let him die, their lives would've been spared. Her mercy had cost others.
She began to unravel.
What if that demon she healed… what horrors had it committed since?
Her strength hadn't brought peace—it had sown calamity.
She was falling apart.
"Aisha, are you spacing out again?"
"Huh? Oh—coming."
They had arrived in a government building in the Far East.
Her new posting was in a local church.
Bai Yue had come with her—called himself a wanderer, like her. Adrift.
He never explained his nationality.
They'd boarded the plane with ease—he'd used a demon's sleep spell to bypass all security.
In the past, Aisha would've objected. She would've helped him find a proper way.
But she was numb. Hollow.
Those innocents—Bai Yue had erased their memories. So they wouldn't suffer trauma.
As for the demon—he'd let it "go." Aisha knew what that meant.
The creature had confessed to murdering over ten people.
She had saved it.
And so, she had enabled its evil.
Her exile was just. Her guilt, crushing.
She had contemplated ending her life.
Only Bai Yue's suspicion held her back.
Too many coincidences. That encounter with the demon. The Church's swift rejection. The Lost Demon Purge's eager acceptance.
What if it had all been planned?
What if she'd been manipulated into leaving the Church and joining this group?
Aisha realized something terrifying.
The organization tasked with eradicating demons… might be working with them.
One demon had revealed the truth: he was part of Lost Demon Purge. The group staged attacks, drove up fear, and the exorcists conveniently "banished" them—for a hefty fee.
So Bai Yue believed Aisha had been a pawn all along.
She needed answers.
She needed to find that demon again.
And reclaim her truth.