At the base, alarms howled like dying sirens, their unrelenting screech rattling the walls and floor until the very air vibrated with tension. The red klaxons pulsed in staccato bursts, painting the corridors with flashes of crimson, as if the building itself were bleeding.
Inside the surveillance room, where screens flickered with ghostly light, Master Kazuki and Master Takashi stood like immovable statues, their expressions carved in stone. Maps and thermal scans sprawled across the monitors, shifting with each new sweep of the satellites overhead.
The door slammed open with a metallic clang. Hikari stormed inside, silver ponytail whipping like a blade. Her breath came quick and sharp from the sprint down the corridor, but her eyes were already locked on the screens. "What's going on?" she demanded.
The tech expert, fingers flying across his keyboard, didn't look up. "A demon has been spotted." His voice was tight, almost mechanical, as though he couldn't afford the luxury of fear.
Master Takashi leaned forward, his shadow spilling across the screen. "Possible size of the target?"
The tech zoomed in. The grainy thermal silhouette of something monstrous expanded, each pulse of the feed making its outline clearer. "Nearly man-size. Maybe seven to eight feet."
The number hung in the air like a death sentence.
"We'll deploy the Alpha team," Kazuki said with finality. His hand clenched behind his back, though his face betrayed nothing.
Hikari snapped to the intercom. "Akihiro. Jade. Head there now. Immediate engagement protocol."
"On it," came Jade's cool reply, though even the speaker couldn't mask the tension beneath her tone.
But by the time orders were issued, the true battle had already begun elsewhere.
---
The city street was a graveyard of concrete and splintered wood. A once-cozy home had been gutted, its roof collapsed in a jagged mess, smoke curling like black snakes into the night. The air reeked of burning plaster and coppery blood. Amid the wreckage, a family clung to survival.
The mother lay pinned beneath a fallen beam, her legs twisted unnaturally, her face pale with agony. Sweat beaded on her brow as she tried to mask her pain, urging her children to flee. Three little ones clustered around her—two younger, crying uncontrollably, and the eldest, a boy just entering his teens.
The demon towered before them, nearly seven feet and a half of raw nightmare. Its body was swollen with muscle, skin cracked like volcanic rock glowing faintly with ember veins. From its skull jutted curling ram's horns, jagged and black, framing a face that was both beast and mockery of man. In its clawed hands it gripped a hell-forged maul, the weapon's surface etched with runes that pulsed like open wounds.
The creature's heavy footfalls split the ground with every step. Its shadow fell across the trembling family as if death itself had chosen them.
"Run!" the mother screamed, her voice raw, desperate. "Leave me here—go!"
But the boy planted himself in front of his siblings, his small frame trembling yet unyielding. His fists clenched, though they shook violently. "Hey, beast!" he shouted, voice cracking but firm. "If you want to hurt my family, you'll have to get through me first!"
The demon's lipless maw curled into something grotesquely close to a smile. Its laugh was a sound no human throat could birth—like rocks grinding together in a pit of bones. "So be it," it rasped, every word crawling into the marrow.
It raised the maul, its massive shoulders twisting back. The weapon glowed faintly red as it caught the ambient firelight. The swing began—slow, deliberate, as if to savor the fear before the kill. Each fraction of a second the momentum built, air pressure bowing around the descending arc.
The boy squeezed his eyes shut.
And then—metal met flesh, but not his.
A forearm braced the strike, sparks scattering as steel clashed against something harder than bone.
Renji stood there, sweat already streaking his brow, veins popping as he held back the full force of the blow. His teeth gritted, lips curling into a grin that didn't match the strain trembling through his body. "Hey, ugly," he growled, his voice a low rumble. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
The demon blinked once, surprised by the resistance.
With a guttural yell, Renji shoved upward, knocking the maul slightly off balance, then drove his fist into the beast's gut. The impact thudded like a hammer against a slab of meat, forcing the demon to stagger a step.
Renji turned his head just enough to shout at the boy. "Go! Watch over your family—I'll handle this."
The boy hesitated, wide-eyed, then scrambled back to his mother's side, clutching his siblings close.
Renji rolled his shoulders, blood humming like fire in his veins. His voice dropped low, almost to himself. "It's just you and me now."
The demon's eyes narrowed to burning pits. With a roar, it charged, swinging the maul with bone-crushing intent. The weapon cleaved through the air, each strike accompanied by the whistle of death. Renji ducked and twisted, narrowly evading, the shockwaves of near-misses cracking the pavement beneath his feet.
But even he couldn't dodge forever.
One horizontal strike caught him square in the chest. The blow hit with diamond-crushing force, hurling him across the rubble. He landed hard, blood spewing from his lips, his body skidding along stone shards that tore at his skin. His ribs screamed in agony.
The demon loomed, head cocked as though already bored of the fight. It turned its gaze back to the family, raising its maul lazily, prepared to finish them off instead.
Renji spat blood, dragged a shaky breath, and forced himself upright. His voice was hoarse, broken, but laced with defiance. "Is… that all you've got?" He slid into a traditional taekwondo stance, knees bent, arms raised. Every muscle ached, but his eyes burned with resolve.
The demon chuckled—a low, cruel sound—and lunged. The maul came down in brutal arcs, but this time Renji was ready. He sidestepped, pivoted, then snapped a roundhouse kick into the beast's jaw. The impact cracked loudly, snapping the monster's head sideways.
For a heartbeat, silence. Then its eyes blazed with raw hatred.
What followed was a storm. The demon unleashed every ounce of strength, each swing faster, heavier, fueled by fury. Its maul hammered into Renji's body—his abdomen, ribs, thigh, chest. The final vertical blow caught him on the jaw, flinging him high into the air like a ragdoll before crashing him into the ground in a heap.
His vision blurred. Pain engulfed him. As darkness clawed at his mind, he thought bitterly, So much for a demon-slaying system.
The demon stalked closer, intent on ending it. But when its claw brushed Renji's spilled blood, it hissed in sudden pain. His blood sizzled like acid against its flesh. The creature paused, intrigued, then smirked cruelly as it turned toward the family once again.
"No…" Renji croaked. His limbs refused him. The terrified cries of the children reached him, cutting through the fog of unconsciousness. Something inside him snapped.
Veins across his arms and neck ignited with a faint glow, pulsing as though something ancient stirred in his core. His body convulsed, a heat flooding him that was not his own. His right eye seared with agony, then burst open with unnatural light.
"Hey… ugly!" His voice thundered this time, filled with an inhuman resonance.
The demon froze mid-swing, its massive horns trembling as it turned. For the first time, it faltered.
Renji stood again, his body battered but no longer broken. His veins glowed with abyssal energy, and in his right eye burned the mark of his lineage—the Demon's Eye. Its iris swirled with black and crimson, like a storm raging in eternity.
The demon recoiled, a shiver of instinct betraying its bravado. It had seen hunters. It had seen killers. But what stood before it now was something else entirely—something meant to hunt even demons.
Renji rolled his shoulders, blood dripping down his chin. His voice came low, calm, dangerous. "Your time's up."
And with that, he surged forward, the ground cracking beneath his feet, closing the gap between man and monster in the blink of an eye.