Taimanin: The Weakest's Resolve

Arc 2 - Prologue

Three hundred meters below Tokyo, smokes filled the underground city of Yomihara.

A big fire was consuming whole a district. When the workers found out the ventilation system had been sabotaged, they quickly evacuated the city. However, the situation didn't stop there, it became worst. Entrances led into Yomihara all caved in. Humans and demons, those who were a part of the underground city, now found themselves trapped inside a closed box. Panic spread on the streets. Each minute went by, they would begin to suffocate.

As collateral damages continued to rise, a cloaked silhouette slipped past the falling figures and entered the thick smoke. An empty scabbard dangling on the side while drops of blood spilled from the edge of a blade. The mask, which depicting a resentful expression, was staring death at one of the targets.

"How?! How did you.....?! You caused this?!"

The middle-aged man, who was the demons' benefactor, stumbled backward in fear upon seeing the silhouette approaching. He had just got out from one of the burning buildings, bringing belongings with him. His suitcase dropped on the ground, its locks snapped and opened to reveal an article torn from the newspaper.

The headline read...

Yazaki Muneichi, Politician and Chief Secretary of the Minshin Party, was found murdered in his office this morning. Unknown Suspect is still at large.

"Mercy! Have mercy!"

The demon crawled on all four, begging the masked culprit in front of him.

"Nothing for you." The sword raised after those words muttered behind the mask.

"PLEASE! I'm sorry for everything we had done to you! I was just following orders, I had to! Or else Real-sama would have my head on display at the central plaza!"

The demon lowered his head to the ground. Seconds went by in silence, he took the unvoiced reply as the masked culprit was considering the choice to spare him.

That's it! Any shred of humanity should still be left in that individual after the horrible things they'd been put through. Unlike that other crude tanned little brat, so many times they let go of the chance to take him down, this shouldn't be different than those times!

Cough! Cough!

A hoarse voice came from inside the building. It was another demon, his colleague, managed to escape the fire.

Slash.

The colleague's head rolled off the neck the moment he got out. With a splat sound, the deep red flow gradually filled the pavement. The demon fearfully withdrew his gaze and focused on the ground beneath him which was still dried.

This person, they have truly gone insane!

"Where's Real?"

"I...." The demon swallowed a big lump. "Don't know."

"Ah....I see." The mask softly nodded.

"Please spare me! I wasn't the only one closed to Real-sama! I can......I can tell you about the other subordinates! They should be able to tell you where he is!"

"Hm."

The masked figure listened.

However, it was not the demon's plead that got to them. They were listening to something else, their hand went up and touched the earpiece. An important piece of info was disclosed through the comm line.

"Palace of Darkness. North. The Altar."

Keywords from the intel repeated, the demon profusely sweated. The sword in their hand began to turn, he would try to plead again.