Gentleman Duel

On the moonless night of Kuoh Town, a blurred silhouette was flying at great speed over the town with a red cloak trailing behind it. The silhouett suddenly came to a halt as it was revealed to be Zeno in his US suit floating mid-air with his red cloak fluttering in the wind while he looked down below to the tall building with a large billboard that has various ads on the rooftop.

On the rooftop of the building below Zeno's position, there was a lone man in a black cloak sitting on the edge of the roof with his legs dangling while he seemed to be observing the streets below for whatever reason that Zeno will find out soon.

Zeno's Symbiote white eyes narrowed as he locked on to his prey before he dropped from the sky, landing on the rooftop soundlessly behind the unaware cloak man without alerting him of his presence.

With the Godblood-enhanced Symbiote suit, Zeno becomes even more stealthy than before, and anyone with no special means of detection will find it almost impossible to detect him conventionally.

Not in the mood to play around with the reason he has to work overtime tonight, Zeno immediately grabbed his unaware prey by the heads from behind before he lifted the man up with one hand effortlessly.

"Wah-Who...?!"

Caught off guard, the cloak man yelled out in surprise as he started kicking his legs helplessly and trying to reach his hands back to grab on to whatever was holding his head from behind him in panic. The current situation was so unexpected that he even forgot how to use magic to blast whatever was behind him to free himself.

Before the cloak man could remember that he could use magic and actually put up a fight properly, something quickly grew out of Zeno's bracer on his forearm that he used to hold the cloak man up, and then it thrust itself immediately at the cloak man's back with a long, spiky tip.

"Arghh...?!"

The cloak man cried out in pain as he felt something piercing directly inside his spine from his back. The man's body then suddenly went into seizures in Zeno's hand, like he was being electrocuted.

"Argh! Ah...?! Gaah...! Ughhh...!"

The cloak man made anguish noises for a couple of seconds before suddenly going limp without being able to make any more sound, but his eyes are still moving around. Seeing that the man was incapacitated, Zeno let go of him and dropped his body on the floor, revealing a silver cable-like rope connected to the back of the cloak man.

The cable was Godblood that Zeno used to connect directly into the man's spine, as Godblood had already hijacked the man's nervous system, rendering him paralyzed.

"Let's see what your deal is..."

The paralyzed cloak man who was on the floor heard the deep, distorted voice of Zeno with fear and panic evident in his eyes. He was helpless and couldn't even groan as the second Godblood cable with a sharp metallic spike grew out of the bracer and thrust towards him as it pierced inside his nape upwards, causing the man a sharp pain.

The spike of the cable was piercing through the man's skull, but it had not touched his brain. The man was so scared that he soiled his pants with urine. Zeno thanks his US suit that he doesn't have to smell that.

Inside the man's skull, there are many small threads of Godblood that come out of the spike, burrowing themselves inside the man's brain from various spots.

The cloak man went into another seizure as his eyeballs were moving around abnormally like a chameleon. He had the privilege of experiencing his brain being raped; no, he is experiencing his brain being gangbanged to kingdom come right now.

Zeno looked down at the man below him indifferently before raising his forearm to his chest level as the bracer projected a hologram-like screen showing the memories of the unfortunate man lying on the floor. Zeno watches and listens to the screen as he learns about any useful information he can get from the man's memories.

"A minion from the Old Satan faction, huh?"

Zeno finally muttered after he learned all the useful information from the man. He discovered that the man or devil on the floor was one of the servants of Creuserey Asmodeus who had been ordered to search for Katerea, who was already dead.

"I guess I now have many places to conduct a field test for my Geborgs."

Zeno smirked beneath his suit. From the memories of the devil that he has brain-jacked, many hideouts of the Old Satan faction have now become known to him. He will definitely raid all their hideouts later together with his girls and Geborgs. He was very excited to see Geborgs in action against the devils of the Old Satan faction.

"Well, then..."

With no more use for the almost brain-dead devil, Zeno stepped on his back firmly and then roughly yanked out the cables from the devil's spine and the brain as the threads of Godblood that burrow inside the devil's brain got ripped out, which tore the devil's brain apart as a result.

The devil, fortunately, dies instantly from that without having to feel any more pain that will soon follow.

The cables then get absorbed into the bracer as Zeno moves his foot away from the devil. After that, Zeno pointed his palm at the devil body, and suddenly his hand morphed into a symbiote head with a maw open wide before it took a bite at the devil body, and then it gradually swallowed up the body entirely.

The symbiote head then morphed back into his hand as Zeno turned around and flew up into the dark sky of the moonless night. Zeno doesn't intend to take prisoners in this hunt since there is no reason to, so he will kill and eat them all.

÷×÷×÷

Zeno decided to deal with those that were moving around on the outskirts of Kuoh first, and then he would move inward to the center of the town as he took out the devil servants of Creuserey one by one.

Zeno flew to the farthest devil that was loitering around the forest near the town and then dropped on top of the cloak devil as he stomped on his heads.

"Argh...?!"

The devil got pushed to the ground by Zeno's weight and powerful stomp as his face smacked on the dirt. Zeno grinds his foot on the devil's head for a couple of seconds before he steps off of the devil's head.

"Ughh... what the fu-?!"

The devil quickly gets up with a broken nose as blood gushes out from his nostrils before he sees a large maw filled with sharp fangs and a long red tongue lunging at him.

"Ahhh?!!?!"

The devil screamed in fright as he tried to cast a barrier spell to defend himself, but the maw was already biting on to his torso as the fangs pierced through his skin and muscles.

"Arghh! Ahh!! Arrghhh...! Shit...!! Fuck...!"

As Zeno promised, he would eat his prey alive. Zeno, with the indifference of a butcher, did just that as he controlled the symbiote head, morphing from his hand to chew on the devil while the devil screamed in agony, his bones and flesh torn apart with every bite.

"Arrghh! Y-You! Ahh...! Fuck you...!"

He tries to retaliate as a final act of defiance with a lightning spell, but his magic lightning just got absorbed harmlessly inside Zeno and ended up strengthening him instead. The devil can only scream in despair as his body gets chewed up and swallowed alive.

"That's strangely therapeutic..."

Zeno muttered as he felt calmer now after venting his anger at the poor devil.

"There are 18 more to go..."

With nothing more to do here, Zeno turned around and flew up in the sky, his red cloak fluttering behind him. His next target will also experience something similar to that of his previous victim.

÷×÷×÷

Very late in the night, inside the bar, with a few customers still not going home, a male devil with short black hair and yellow eyes in a black trench coat was sitting alone at the bar counter while secretly listening in on the conversations of the other people. He takes a sip from a glass of beer on the bar counter with a sense of resignation.

He doubts he could go back to the underworld any time soon after Lord Asmodeus outburst, which ended up sending them to search for the disappeared Lady Leviathan without any lead. They are basically searching for a single needle in the haystack.

When he was considering leaving the bar and going to find a clue from another place, suddenly a tall and muscular young man with blonde hair and icy blue eyes took a seat next to him, despite other seats being available on the bar counter.

The devil glanced at the young man with caution as his body tensed up from the sudden encounter. The devil sees the young man, who dresses in a black jacket over a white shirt and jeans with black boots, and seems to not pay attention to him as he calls out to the bartender.

"Give me beer!"

He ordered the bartender casually before he turned to look at the devil beside him with narrowed eyes and a small smile on his lips.

"New in town?"

The young man asked as he placed his right arm on the bar counter. The devil's heart skips a beat from the question and now feels suspicious towards the young man. He was about to tell the young man to mind his business, but the young man slapped him on the back first, which caused him to almost bite his own tongue.

"Of course you are!"

The devil was very surprised by the strength of the young man, which affects even him as a mid-class devil. He now becomes alert as he considers his next course of action. He suspected that this young man might be an agent of this town's governor.

"You know... I was already comfortable on my bed, all nice and warm... and then suddenly some dumbasses just had to interrupt my sleep with their damnable presences; don't you think that was very rude...?"

The young man said while he is drumming his fingers on the bar counter as his smile widens on his face and his icy blue eyes are looking at the devil predatorily.

The devil's eyes widen in surprise as he clenches both of his fists, ready to fight the young man. The tension was rising between them as a song suddenly played out of nowhere.

[ -and this bird, you cannot changeeeeeee~ Looord knows, I can't changeeeeeeeeee-aee~]

Then the devil threw a punch to the young man's face first without caring about the mundane people in the bar, but unfortunately, his fist met the young man's palm as the devil felt like he just punched a soft mattress without even affecting the young man.

"Ah! London-style duel it is!"

"Wha...?!"

The young man shouted with excitement as he abruptly stood up with the devil's fist still in his grip. The devil also quickly stood up and tried to cast a spell at the young man, but he suddenly felt his demonic energy mysteriously become uncontrollable and unreachable, causing his spell to fail and a mini-explosion to explode in his casting hand.

"Arrgh...?!"

"Hahahaha!"

[ Lord, help me, I can't changeee-yea-yea-yea-yea-yea-yea-aee~! ]

Luckily, the devil didn't cast a powerful spell, and the mini-explosion only caused a second-degree burn to his hand. While the devil was still in confusion, the young man with a small knife in his hand that came out of who knows where already rose them above his head before he stabbing down at the devil's chest from above.

"Arghh...?! Ah...! Argh! Gah...?!"

[ Loooord, I can't changeeeee~ Won't you flyyyyyyyy hiiiiiiiiiiiiigh, freeeeeeeeee birddddddddd, yeah~! ]

"Freeeeeeeee birdddddddddddd~!"

The small knife pierced in the devil's chest without causing him a fatal wound as he cried out in pain, and then the young man pulled the knife out of his chest before repeatedly stabbed him in the chest and stomach like a lunatic with a malevolent grin while singing along to the song, much to the horror, pain, and confusion of the devil.

Three minutes later, after the duel in which the devil desperately tries to stop the young man's frenzy as he repeats stabbing him like a lunatic, he even resorted to begging pathetically with no avail. The young man showed him no mercy as he kept stabbing him until he died with many stab wounds and a large amount of blood soaking his clothes and the young man's.

"That was entertaining..."

The young man, or Zeno, sighed with a satisfied expression as he released the dead devil's fist from his hand as the bloody body dropped to the puddle of blood on the floor. Zeno looked around inside the bar, as no one was paying him or the dead devil any attention.

That is because when he first took a seat beside the devil, he secretly released Godblood to build a barrier around him and the devil that blocked sound and visuals, as well as put up an illusion for those outside the barrier to see only him talking to the devil normally from the outside perspective. The barrier also generated an anti-magic field with the music for the mood.

The devil was already screwed since Zeno took a seat next to him.

"There is only one left..."

Zeno stretched his body a bit before he got rid of the body and blood. He now took out 19 of the infiltrating devils, and only one was left.

÷×÷×÷

In the suburbs of Kuoh Town, a woman in a black cloak was jumping from rooftop to rooftop as she looked inside the windows of every house she moved past. She was searching blindly, as she was ordered to by her superior. She doesn't know that she is the only one who is still alive.

So far, she hasn't found anything worthwhile in her search after looking around the neighborhood for an hour.

"This is a waste of time..."

She mumbles with helplessness as she can't refuse her lord's order for them to do a blind search for clues in Kuoh. She curses her luck every day that she was born as a servant to the Asmodeus house.

The woman stopped on the roof of some house, and then she looked inside all of the windows creepily with her red eyes before she spotted a human girl with brown hair sleeping in the bed with her bare butt sticking out of the blanket.

The woman clicked her tongue with a bit of envy for the human girl who can live so carefree every day while she can die just from looking at her lord the wrong way.

"Hah..."

She sighed as she sat down on the roof, hugging her knees and emitting a depressed aura, without noticing a large figure standing behind her silently with intrigued white eyes that was observing her.