Scarlet

“So…” Tar comments as I sprint across the barren wastelands that are the Northeastern continent with abandon. “You did say you wanted people to try attacking you.”

“I wanted bandits and thieves to attack me,” I state out loud, a scowl on my face. “What I did not want was an entire fucking city’s population chasing after me because of some damned lunatic!”

I swear that bastard knew that I was listening and was even enjoying it!

“He seems to have lost himself to his Sin,” Tar adds, making me grimace at the thought.

For a demon to lose themselves to their Sin is a crime punishable by death should they not recover themselves within a month of losing themselves. Because after that they won’t even care about the Demon King’s authority. The most he can do is order them to sit still and do nothing, and that’s only if he was there in person to deal with the individual in question.

To lose themselves to their Sin they end up completely giving into their Sin, letting it fully drive their actions as they either take a backseat or let it wipe out their consciousness entirely. And in this guy’s case, he seems to have just taken a backseat to his Sin as his hunger for chaos drives him forward.

In other words I need to get the fuck off this continent as soon as possible.

“Couldn’t you ask your grandfather for help?” Tar asks, sounding concerned.

But I just shake my head as I run.

Not possible. At least not until I reach the central continent.

He mentioned before that while he could technically listen to everything on the planet with his sense of hearing, that isn’t exactly pleasant so he generally limits his hearing to just around his central continent while using his blood clones and magical senses for the rest of Tartarus.

Meaning he won’t hear me unless I cross the waters to the central continent.

Especially since he can’t sense me with Black and Purple’s shielding, so all he likely sees is a large swathe of land that is invisible to his senses slowly approaching him. Land that includes my pursuers.

“That’s bad,” Tar mutters. “Very bad.”

Yep.

I continue running for my life for who knows how long until I finally reach the waters where a port city is nestled with various ships. But I quickly realize based on the dust and the sounds of running I hear in the distance that a ship won’t be fast enough. Especially since I’m pretty sure the lunatic is starting to use his own magic to boost the pursuers.

So I continue running in my quadrupedal beast form, uncaring of others seeing me as I jump straight into the frigid waters and begin swimming through it faster than any ship could likely go.

And after several minutes of swimming, I throw a quick glance back to find not a single soul following me, making me let out a sigh of relief.

Then I hear the lunatic cackling again as if he were waiting for me to look back.

A shiver runs down my spine when a large wave of black and purple miasma shoots outwards, covering everywhere as far as the eye can see a few kilometers in front of me. And my eyes widen in fear as the sight of the pursuing demons somehow being brought above the cloud of miasma where they then run along its top.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I shout before turning around again and continuing my panicked swim towards the central continent. But this time the pursuers manage to close the distance a bit.

I still make it to the central continent with a few kilometers between me and the pursuing forces, but when I jump out of the water onto the red stone that makes up the continent’s surface, I quickly find the lunatic floating right in front of me while hanging upside down and laughing.

But he doesn’t do anything, so I continue running.

|Kitsugami Shirou – Undead Kitsune – Level 1381|

Just identifying him sends another chill down my spine though, since until now he’s kept enough distance that all I’ve been able to do is hear him.

He’s almost a damned count. And I thought he was an undead foxkin, not a kitsune?!

This guy could literally kill me with the snap of his fingers. And I doubt he cares about Gramps killing him in return.

Just in case though I activate my crest to showcase who I am, hoping against hope that it stops some of the approaching demons.

But all that happens is that a cloud of miasma forms in front of my chest, blocking my crest from view just like how he blocked my voice earlier when I tried to shout at the demons chasing me as the lunatic clicks his tongue and waves a single finger at me as if I were some child doing something I shouldn’t. And that action alone makes the anger and pride within me boil to the surface.

Being treated a like a helpless child for him to play around with.

I grit my teeth as I begin to hear those same voices from back on Earth entering my head. But I try a lot harder this time to fight against them now that I know exactly what they are.

Fortunately I manage to retain my sanity this time, only thanks to me trying as hard as possible to ignore the lunatic who is currently dancing in the air around me like a damned monkey.

“This guy is just asking for the Demon King to kill him and the entire city he’s forced into this,” Tar says, making me grit my teeth even harder as I run across the stone further into the central continent.

“How about we wait until after they’ve already roughed you up at least a bit till we let them find out about your little identity, My Precious little Puppy!” the lunatic eventually says with a cackle, his voice somehow restricted to our area alone. “Then I can see how they react to knowing they’ll be killed by His Majesty!!!”

“You really are insane!!” I exclaim as I run, but the man just shouts back with a laugh, “I know! Thanks for the compliment!”

Fucking, hell!

I continue running, wondering if I should just shout for Gramps’s help. And eventually I decide to throw away my damned fucking pride and shout.

But when I try the man just silences me in the same way he did before.

“No, no, no, we can’t have that, now can we?” Shirou says with a playful smile on his face. “Let’s wait for the grand finale to bring him here!”

Are you kidding me?!

I swear I’m going to get rid of the Sin Curses if it’s the last fucking thing I do!