小嫂子的味道

The ground rumbled and cried, the earth before Zero's feet was shaking so rapidly that he thought the world might break. This was an earthquake of an intensity he'd never felt or even seen before.

He was barely able to stand on his feet, thought that didn't last long and he lost his balance. Although in the middle he was stopped by Req who then held him from the behind as she gazed up at the future Zero—despite the fact that she couldn't see a thing due to the light released from the explosion.

There was a single loud buzzing sound after the explosion that lasted long until the light from the blast faded in the sky. Slowly the view of the upside became clear.

There was total devastation around them. All the land, as far as the eye could see, had turned charred and reduced to ash. Even the Roswell city was gone; all the buildings and structures and roads, all were vanished without a trace. All there was left was ash and black and ebony.

However Req's eyes were elsewhere. She was gazing up at the future Zero and the demon he was sparing with. First she saw the demon.

He was still floating up in the air with his back straight, but it would be wrong to say that he took no damage. In fact, he was barely alive.

His body was completely burned, his horns had been broken in two. But most of all, there was a cut starting from the top left of his shoulder and going down, slicing deep into his skin. There was no need to tell how deep the cut was.

It was perfect, and precise. So carefully measured and performed but equally powerful. It had sliced straight through the demon's hard skin. His hand and shoulder were completely separated from his body—there was a very fine but clear gap in between—but they were still attached to his body.

"That's a dirty little trick you are playing," the girl before the demon said in a heavy voice. Her eyes had gone completely dark, and the shadows engulfing and intertwining around her body had increased.

"But it suits you. Dirty little tricks are all you pests capable of doing," she said with a sarcastic smirk.

Her words were true. Almost all of the demon's body on the left side had been cut apart, but he was holding them together with his gravity magic. That was just a trick to keep his body together and prevent blood loss.

She raised her eyelids and looked upon the demon, and it sent quite a shudder down the demon's spine. There was pure bloodlust in those eyes of hers.

He now realized the difference in their power. Even his gravity magic—one of the most powerful magics in the demon world—was nothing but childsplay for her. She rejected it like a parent does the wishes of a spoiled kid.

"You've already taken much of my time. I'd thought to end it with that last one but it seems like I'm growing weak. All the more reason to finish this quickly," she said.

She raised her right to the side, in which she held the completely black sword. Soon the stems of dark shadows started emerging from the blade and connecting to her hand.

In a matter of seconds her sword was completely absorbed among the other shadows that covered her hands and body. She then closed her fist and looked at it as if checked, then her gaze came back to the demon.

"Farewell. Ssznozz Kilsek; the demon warlord," she said. What happened after couldn't even be counted in a second, it was much faster than that.

She vanished from her place and even before the after image she's left behind could fade she appeared again right in front of Ssznozz the demon.

He felt a stinging sensation and his body went cold. Looking down he saw her right hand had stabbed right in the center of his chest, and crushing his core to literal pieces it had come out from the other side.

"It was nice killing you…again," she said.

He coughed blood and looked at the beautiful girl before him as all the life faded out of his eyes. His body went limp and cold, and it hung down from her arm.

However, a few moments later she felt heat spreading in the center of his body. At first she was confused; after all, this hadn't happened before. But it didn't take her long to realize what was going on.

She pulled her arm out, but the demon's body still floated. A purplish-black glow shone from his chest, and the next second his entire body started shrinking. And as it was shrinking, it pulled in all the air from the surroundings.

'A self explosion, huh? By shrinking his body to an impossibly small level forcefully he intends to create a small black hole. But that black hole won't have enough energy to sustain itself; an uncompleted black hole to be precise. And due to that it will eat itself and explode,' she thought, looking at the now-forming black hole.

[But it's not really a problem, is it?] Future Req's voice resounded in her head.

'Yeah. I was just thinking that this didn't happen last time.'

By this time the demon's body had been reduced and what lay there now was a dull black orb around the size of a fist with a bright and continuously moving ring around it. The ring was moving rapidly around the orc; and with each rotation its speed increased.

[It's going to explode.]

'And we can't have that, can we? After all, even though it's small the explosion will be equivalent to that of a supernova explosion. This planet won't be able to withstand it.'

Thinking that she stretched out her hand, the shadows covering her entire palm black like a skintight glove. She pulled forward and then grabbed the orb with her hand. The shadows covering her hand slipped from between her fingers and encircled the orb.