"Me? Kill the Darkness Devil? You've got to be kidding me!"
Kobeni Higashiyama froze instantly, repeating the words syllable by syllable as her eyes widened in absolute disbelief.
"Do I look like I'm joking with you?" Zoran stared at her with a knowing, half-amused smile.
Kobeni shook her head at lightning speed.
She began counting on her fingers. "But... it's one of the three Primal Fears, the Darkness Devil! How could I possibly defeat it? Even Miss Makima wouldn't stand a chance!"
In this world, unless they were devoured by the Chainsaw Devil, devils would never truly vanish; dying simply meant they would be reincarnated.
And the Darkness Devil was a being that had never once experienced death; its true form still resided deep within Hell.
As one of the three Primal Fears, its existence stemmed from humanity's most primal terror. Even the Chainsaw Devil at full power would be absolutely no match for it.
Kobeni had a remarkably clear assessment of her own capabilities.
Ordinarily, she was just a timid, easily frightened girl. When she got serious, she possessed a tiny bit of skill, but she didn't come close to matching the truly formidable powerhouses.
Asking someone like her to exterminate the Darkness Devil was practically no different from asking an ant to halt a speeding wheel.
"It's a zero percent chance! Zero percent!" Kobeni mumbled, shaking her head violently.
"Rest easy. You'll be forging a contract with me, won't you?" Zoran replied with serene composure. "You will wield a portion of the Moon Demon's power."
"The Moon Demon?" Kobeni finally began to properly scrutinize the devil standing before her.
Admittedly, based purely on physical appearance, he seemed somewhat different from the typical impression one had of devils.
If she had to put a finger on it, his bearing was exceptionally distinct. In her way of thinking, he looked like someone who had actually gone to school and graduated from a proper university.
As for the rest...
The overwhelming pressure that a devil ought to exude was completely absent.
Though, to be fair, he did put on a pretty convincing show when he was intimidating her just a moment ago.
"Is your power... really that strong?" Shifting her posture, she knelt on the floor with her knees pressed together, looking quite stiff and reserved as she asked a tentative question.
Zoran smiled lightly. "Power is something you only truly comprehend after it has been unleashed. But I can assure you of this: it is by no means inferior to the Darkness Devil."
Kobeni wrestled with the thought, a wave of hesitation washing over her face, before she ultimately couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh.
"As expected, compared to a crusade in the distant future, the car right before my eyes is much more enticing."
She extended her hand, nodding her head with deep resolve. "Mr. Demon, then... please forge a contract with me!"
"Rejoice, for you have made the correct choice." Zoran extended one of his auxiliary hands, pressing it downward.
In an instant, a torrent of majestic dark magic surged directly into Kobeni's body.
The violet-black demonic chi enveloped her completely, only to vanish without a trace a second later, as if absolutely nothing had transpired.
She couldn't help but touch her cheeks and her body; nothing had disappeared.
Forging a contract with this being truly required no physical sacrifice.
Which meant that what this Moon Demon had spoken was the absolute truth.
His ultimate target really was the Darkness Devil.
Then again, who knew where the Darkness Devil even was? Perhaps she would live out her entire life without ever crossing paths with it.
Now that the contract was sealed, Zoran's expression was one of total satisfaction.
His ethereal form gradually turned translucent, fading away until it dissolved completely into nothingness.
It was exactly like Shendu's old ability to assume a spirit form.
Whenever the need arose, he could manifest once more at a moment's notice.
This was the nature of the devils in this world, and it was rather fascinating.
"Mr. Demon? Are you there? Can you hear me?" Kobeni asked experimentally.
Zoran's voice echoed, "I am here."
"That's wonderful!" Kobeni rubbed her palms together, her face flushing crimson as she spoke up. "So, about my car... hehe."
A resonant echo sounded beside her ear: "I am not the Car Devil. We will speak of this tomorrow."
Kobeni's expression deflated instantly, her shoulders slumping.
"Okay," she murmured softly, trudging forward with an exhausted stride.
What a letdown; it turned out she had simply swapped one contract devil for another.
The next time she was deployed on a mission, she would absolutely have to test out his power.
After all, he kept rambling on about other low-level devils and the like. If he was truly as powerful as he claimed, it ought to be pretty incredible!
Kobeni was a deeply impoverished person.
She had nine siblings at home, and she was forced to work part-time jobs alongside her duties as a Devil Hunter just to fund her older brother's university tuition.
Ordinarily, she wore nothing but her older sister's hand-me-downs, and her household environment was deeply suffocating.
Standing at a crossroads in life where her only alternatives were becoming a Devil Hunter or entering the sex industry, she had managed to become an official Devil Hunter within Special Division 4.
Yet deep down, she was an incredibly timid, bashful creature. She was terrified of devils and scared of dying, scared out of her absolute wits, and she spent her days cowering in the shadows.
She lived a life where she could see the dead end from miles away, cutting a figure who appeared completely useless outside of being rather cute.
But life is only life because of its fascinating unpredictability.
No one could have ever predicted that a demon from an entirely different world would suddenly descend, bestowing monumental power upon a pitiful young girl.
In fact, even she herself was still completely incapable of comprehending what this contract truly entailed, or exactly what kind of catastrophic power it would bring her.
Indeed, for a cowering child, the finest remedy was to grant them a taste of power's fine wine; harboring a total lack of confidence was never a good thing.
…
Public Safety Special Division 4, Headquarters Building.
Having received an urgent notification in the early hours of the morning, the Devil Hunters had assembled here ahead of schedule, awaiting orders from their superior, Makima.
Six Devil Hunters stood before the podium, listening to the briefing with vastly different expressions.
Kobeni cowered slightly; she was exceptionally poor at interacting with others. The woman with the eyepatch draped over her shoulder was Himeno, whose demeanor was remarkably uninhibited.
Standing beside Himeno was a young man with a slightly cold disposition and a topknot hairstyle; this was her partner, Aki Hayakawa.
Beside Aki stood an ordinary man named Arakawa, and further to the right was Denji, the protagonist of this world, whose mind was entirely consumed by thoughts of Makima.
Sporting a mop of blond hair, he cut a rather dim-witted figure.
"Hey, what's the big deal so early in the morning..." The Blood Fiend, Power, let out a massive yawn. "This Great Me hasn't had enough sleep yet!"
Distinct from standard devils, a Fiend was the form assumed when a devil possessed a human corpse. While retaining a portion of the devil's distinctive traits and supernatural power, they also possessed an inherently non-human mindset.
Just like Power standing before them, who sported two small horns atop her head and maintained a distinctly violent thought process.
"We have received a request for devil extermination inside the Morino Hotel," Makima stated calmly. "We suspect it is a devil that has consumed a flesh fragment of the Gun Devil."
Makima's gaze remained level as she instructed, "Therefore, I require you all to deploy, eliminate the target, and retrieve the fragment."
As she spoke, her gaze suddenly lingered upon Kobeni for a brief moment, a flicker of deep confusion surfacing within the depths of her eyes.
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