The night before the incident...
A full moon hung high in the sky, spreading its beautiful light across the world and filling people's hearts with tranquility.
Yet, inside an old building hidden among the Atlas Mountains, there was one place the moonlight failed to reach.
"The Blood Devil?"
A middle-aged man shouted in alarm. An Arabian sword hung at his waist as his expression turned pale.
His reaction was far from exaggerated.
The Blood Devil was a Third-Rank Devil, a monster responsible for countless devastating losses suffered by their clan over the years. Merely hearing its name was enough to make even seasoned warriors shudder.
Devils were divided into nine ranks, with the Ninth Rank being the weakest and the First Rank the strongest.
There also existed the legendary Zero Rank, a level that had appeared only twice throughout history.
A Third-Rank Devil was by no means insignificant.
On the contrary...
It possessed enough power to wipe an entire city off the face of the earth.
Humans had a similar ranking system, although the number of high-ranking warriors was far smaller.
A gloomy-faced man with a commanding aura answered in a deep voice.
"Our intelligence team has already confirmed it. The Blood Devil has appeared in the city of Meknes."
He let out a heavy sigh before continuing.
"Judging from the timing of its appearance... it intends to target students tomorrow."
He paused briefly.
"Our clan simply doesn't have enough manpower to cover every school in the city."
An elderly advisor stepped forward.
"Then we have no choice but to monitor the schools with the largest number of students."
He stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"Devils usually follow their instincts rather than reason. The Blood Devil, in particular, craves blood above all else. It will naturally seek the places with the highest concentration of prey."
The clan leader nodded.
"Very well. We'll proceed with the advisor's plan."
Hundreds of warriors below the Fifth Rank were dispatched across the city's largest schools in teams of twenty.
Meanwhile, Fourth-Rank warriors were organized into small squads of only three members.
As for the clan leader and several elders...
They would not participate.
There was always the possibility that the devils were using the Blood Devil merely as bait to lure out the clan's strongest experts.
Several hours later...
Students began arriving at their schools, completely unaware of the danger hanging over their heads.
On the rooftop of a nearby building stood a team consisting of two men and one woman.
One of them was the swordsman from earlier, acting as the team's captain.
Beside him stood a young man whose face overflowed with confidence and excitement.
The last member was a young woman with short brown hair and fair skin.
Unlike the others...
She looked visibly nervous.
Suddenly, she cried out,
"Captain! I've located the devil!"
The expressions of all three immediately turned serious.
"Deploy the barrier. Now."
The captain gave his order before leaping from the rooftop together with the young man.
As he descended...
He drew a sword from his mouth.
The captain landed only ten steps away from the Blood Devil.
For a brief moment...
The two simply stared at each other.
Then—
A silver-haired boy suddenly appeared between them.
Waving cheerfully, he shouted,
"Hey, guys!"
Yes.
It was Haziqa.
He wasn't waving at the devil.
He was greeting his two friends.
Unfortunately...
A fraction of a second before the barrier was fully completed...
He accidentally stepped inside it.
The barrier was essentially an isolated world.
Inside it...
Time flowed differently from the outside world.
Before Haziqa could even comprehend what had happened...
He was already dead.
Killed instantly by the Blood Devil.
His final words were...
"Wha... what the hell...?"