Three days passed — and in those three days, Riku became an urban legend in District 9. The floor of a smuggling warehouse was covered with the bodies of a gang of thieves who had made the mistake of crossing his path. Riku stood still, Kael’Zhorun’s armor pulsing in a vivid red, fueled by the recent carnage.

  — Weak… pathetic… — the demon’s voice echoed inside Riku’s mind. — I can smell fear coming from the streets. We’re getting stronger, boy.

  Riku didn’t answer. He just stared at his armored hands, feeling the power coursing through him like electricity. But suddenly, the warehouse silence was cut. Not by a scream or a gunshot, but by the sound of calm, rhythmic footsteps.

  From the dim shadows at the back of the building, a figure emerged.

  It was a woman. She looked about 26 years old, with eyes that carried the coldness of someone who had seen the end of the world and wasn’t impressed. She didn’t tremble. She didn’t hesitate.

  — Kael’Zhorun. The Ex-Commander — the woman’s voice was devoid of emotion, like a court sentence. — An old mistake that refuses to disappear.

  Riku turned, claws extending.

  — Who are you? If you came for their money, you’re late.

  The woman stopped ten meters away.

  — My name is Mika Kurose. And I didn’t come for the money. I came for annihilation.

  — Riku… careful… — Kael’Zhorun’s voice changed. The arrogance vanished, replaced by icy caution. — I know that scent. It’s the smell of the void.

  — You’d stink less if you were truly dead, demon — Mika said, touching a metallic bracelet on her wrist. — And this boy… is just another symptom of the infection. Nothing personal, Aoyama. But you let trash inside your body. And trash needs to be incinerated.

  The air around Mika didn’t heat up like it did around Riku. It grew cold. A white and silver armor, with icy blue details, began to manifest around her. Unlike the organic brutality of Kael’Zhorun, Mika’s armor — Vaal-Nyrex — was of surgical precision. It looked designed to kill with the least effort possible.

  Mika didn’t scream. She didn’t strike a battle pose. She simply drew two short blades that shone with a pale light.

  — Vaal, analysis — she whispered.

  A blue glow ran through the slits of Mika’s helmet. The demon inside her, Vaal-Nyrex, didn’t answer with words. It simply sent a pulse of data straight into her brain.

  — Understood. The core is in the boy’s chest — Mika concluded.

  — You talk like I’m already dead! — Riku roared, charging like a red meteor.

  — She’s an Eraser! — Kael’Zhorun shouted. — Vaal-Nyrex… the demon that devours itself! Riku, fall back! If she hits the core, we will cease to exist!

  Mika Kurose adjusted her stance, blades lowered, eyes fixed on Riku like a surgeon looking at a tumor.

  — There’s no need for drama — Mika said calmly. — You’re a geological error, Kael. And I’m the eraser. Riku Aoyama, you have five seconds to try to run before I start deleting your limbs.

  Riku felt a chill that didn’t come from fear, but from Mika’s presence. It was as if the light around her was being sucked into a vacuum. Unlike thugs or the Iron Hounds, Mika had no openings. She was a right angle in a world of chaotic curves.— DIE! — Riku roared, letting hatred take control.

  He leapt, using the strength of his armored legs to shatter the concrete floor. Midair, he unleashed a sequence of savage blows. His red claws tore through the air, leaving trails of scarlet energy boiling with Kael’Zhorun’s fury.

  Mika moved. No waste. She didn’t leap or shout; she simply swayed her body, dodging the claws by millimeters. The sound of Vaal-Nyrex’s blades slicing the air was an electronic hum — thin and lethal.

  — High cadence. Zero precision — Mika murmured, her voice cold through the silver helm. — Vaal, interception mode.

  In a motion Riku could barely follow, Mika crossed her blades. When Riku’s claws collided with the silver metal of Vaal-Nyrex, there were no sparks. There was absolute silence. Kael’Zhorun’s red energy simply vanished upon touching Mika’s blades, as if it had never existed.

  Riku felt a blunt impact in his stomach. Mika had delivered a side kick that hurled him into a stack of metal containers. The crash was deafening.— Riku, listen! — Kael’Zhorun’s voice was panicked. — She isn’t fighting you — she’s undoing my existence with every touch! If we stay in open combat, she’ll erase us piece by piece!

  Riku rose from the wreckage, chest plate dented. He looked around. The warehouse was vast, filled with narrow corridors formed by cargo crates and heavy machinery.

  — I’m not a warrior, Kael… — Riku spat blood inside his helm. — I’m an alley rat. And rats know the shadows better than anyone.

  He released a jet of black smoke and soot from his armor joints, obscuring the field of vision. Instead of attacking head-on, he dove between iron shelves.

  Mika walked calmly into the smoke. The blades in her hands glowed faintly, cutting through the haze.

  — Hiding only delays the inevitable, Aoyama. The error is still there, pulsing in the dark.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Suddenly, Riku came from above, toppling an entire rack of steel beams onto her. While Mika sliced the beams in half with terrifying precision, Riku flanked her from below, using a ruptured gas pipe as distraction.

  He grabbed a metal container and hurled it at Mika. She cut it into four perfect pieces, but the effort gave Riku the opening he needed. He burst from the shadows behind her, striking with all of Kael’Zhorun’s power aimed at the back of Vaal-Nyrex’s armor.

  Riku’s claws hit Mika’s back. He expected to feel flesh tearing, but instead it felt like striking a wall of liquid diamond.

  Mika didn’t even lean forward. She spun on her axis, and the blade in her right hand traced a perfect arc that cut through Riku’s armored forearm.

  — AAAAAAAAGH!

  It wasn’t just a physical wound. He felt as if part of his soul had been deleted. Where the blade passed, Kael’Zhorun’s armor didn’t merely break — it dissolved into digital ash, revealing Riku’s human arm beneath, trembling, pale, vulnerable again.

  — Lack of focus — Mika said, preparing the final thrust toward his chest. — You use your demon as a shield. I use mine as a cleaning tool. That’s the difference between us.

  Riku staggered back, clutching his exposed arm, while Mika advanced with the calm of an executioner who knows the condemned has nowhere to run.

  Mika had run out of patience.

  — Zan.

  The word left her lips like an execution command.

  Vaal-Nyrex reacted instantly. Silver plates shifted along Mika’s back, expanding into four wings of solid, icy energy, sharp as scalpels. The air didn’t just grow cold — it stopped vibrating. Mika launched forward, turning into a flash of white light, blades ready to delete Kael’Zhorun’s core in Riku’s chest.

  Riku closed his eyes, feeling the end.

  But the blow never came.

  A funeral bell echoed through the warehouse. An indescribable weight fell over the space — a melancholy so deep that even Kael’Zhorun’s hatred faltered.Between Mika and Riku, a new silhouette materialized. The armor was a pale blue-gray metal, like the skin of a corpse under moonlight. Spectral fabrics floated from her shoulders like a widow’s veil.

  Ayane Tsukishiro carried no weapons. She simply extended an open hand.

  The impact of Mika’s charge against Ayane’s palm created a shockwave that didn’t destroy the walls, but unleashed a deafening whisper of thousands of voices crying at once. Morrvhael’s cold blue light collided with the void of Vaal-Nyrex.

  — There has been enough pain here today, Mika — Ayane said. Her voice was gentle, yet carried the weight of a thousand battlefields. — Let the boy go.

  Mika stepped back, her energy wings buzzing unstably. For the first time, her indifference shifted into restrained irritation.

  — Ayane Tsukishiro. The Walking Lament. You’re exactly the kind of anomaly Morrvhael loves — a savior who carries corpses on her back.

  — Morrvhael… the Collector of Goodbyes… — Kael’Zhorun whispered in Riku’s mind, trembling. — Don’t touch her, Riku. If she touches you, all the pain you caused today will return at once.

  Ayane didn’t look at Riku, yet her presence stabilized him. The pale blue glow of her armor began absorbing the “lament” of the thieves Riku had killed minutes earlier. Her armor grew visibly denser, heavier.

  — Riku Aoyama — Ayane called without turning. — I feel the weight of your sister inside you. But if you die here, her lament will be forgotten. Stand up. Fight with me.Riku, seized by a sudden sadness that wasn’t his own, forced himself to stand. Kael’Zhorun’s armor regenerated the erased arm, fueled by the residual energy Morrvhael exhaled.

  Mika Kurose assessed the situation, her eyes scanning the area.

  — You’re a nuisance, Ayane — Mika said, retracting the wings of Zan Mode. — Saving this boy is like postponing the cleaning of an infected wound. He’ll only create more laments for you to carry.

  — I know — Ayane replied calmly. — But today, he lives.

  Mika sheathed her blades. The glow of her armor faded as she stepped back into the warehouse shadows.

  — Enjoy the borrowed time, Aoyama. Next time, I’ll bring an eraser bigger than a saint’s compassion.With Mika’s departure, the pressure in the air lessened. Ayane’s armor began dissolving into blue mist, revealing a 22-year-old woman with eyes that seemed to have witnessed centuries of suffering. She swayed slightly, bringing a hand to her head.

  Riku let his armor retract as well. He looked at Ayane, confused and exhausted.

  — Why did you help me? You saw what I did here… I killed all of them.

  Ayane looked at the bodies around them, and for a moment, Riku saw the transparent silhouettes of the dead, whispering into her ears. She closed her eyes, feeling their pain.

  — I didn’t help you because you’re good, Riku — she said with infinite sadness. — I helped because I heard your scream. And the scream of the one who encouraged you.

  She took a step toward him, but stopped, respecting his space.

  — My name is Ayane. And unfortunately for both of us, our demons have just become neighbors.

  Ayane walked to a wooden crate and sat down with a heavy sigh. The bluish glow in her eyes was fading, but the pallor of her face revealed the strain of containing the voices of the dead now inhabiting her mind.

  Riku watched her with a mixture of gratitude and distrust. Kael’Zhorun remained in tense silence inside him, like a predator recognizing another of its kind.

  — The world you knew ended the moment you put on that ring, Riku — Ayane began, looking at her own hands. — What you carry isn’t just a demon. It’s an Alpha.

  Riku frowned, leaning against the cold wall.

  — Alpha? Kael’Zhorun said he was a commander, but never explained what that means in practice.

  — Hell is divided by power and essence — she explained. — There are Mid-Tier Demons, like foot soldiers; their armors are unstable and usually consume the host in days. There are Superiors, generals with specific abilities and great destructive power. And then there are the Seven Alphas.

  She stared at Riku’s ring.

  — The Alphas are the original entities. They don’t just destroy; they alter reality around them. There are only seven of these armors. I carry one. You carry another. Mika Kurose carries the third. That means four are still out there. Some hosts are like me, trying to survive. Others… want all seven. They believe that by gathering the Alphas, they can reopen the gates and rule both worlds.

  Riku felt a weight in his stomach, remembering Mika’s terrifying speed.

  — And that woman, Mika… what did she do? She said “Zan” and suddenly had wings. It felt like she wasn’t human anymore. What was that?

  Ayane gave a sad smile.

  — Zan Mode. It’s the peak of synchronization between human and demon. It’s not just wearing the armor — it’s allowing your soul and the demon’s essence to become one being for a short time.

  She gestured with her hands as she explained.

  — When the bond is strong enough, you stop being a “user” and become the demon in flesh. You can reshape the armor, create wings, manifest impossible weapons, or amplify your power to catastrophic levels. But there’s a price: Zan Mode consumes your humanity. If you stay in it too long, or use it without mental readiness, the armor never comes off again. You become a permanent monster.

  Riku looked at his fist. The idea of merging with Kael’Zhorun terrified him — but the idea of facing Mika again without that power scared him even more.

  — Why are you telling me all this? — Riku asked. — You said I’m not “good.”

  — And you’re not. But you’re necessary — Ayane stood, approaching him. — Mika and the other Alphas who are coming won’t stop until we’re ashes. Alone, you’re just a target. Together… maybe we can end this cycle of lament.

  She extended her hand to him. It wasn’t an ordinary gesture of friendship; it was an invitation into a war Riku hadn’t even known existed.

  — She’s right, boy… — Kael’Zhorun’s voice echoed, dark. — Vaal-Nyrex would erase us in seconds. We need her Lament if we want to survive the other four. Accept. For now.

  Riku hesitated, remembering Akari’s face from his dream. What would she say seeing him ally with demons and heirs of chaos? Probably to live.

  — Where are we going? — Riku finally asked, taking Ayane’s hand.