Toshi moved silently through the desotion, his every measured step stirring a pale veil of ash from the fractured, parched earth. Behind him, the st ravaged vilge exhaled tendrils of smoke into a charred sky, its ruins suffused with the grim aftermath of his recent work—fresh corpses scattered among slick, bloodstained surfaces. His stride was steady, driven by a single-minded focus on his next target.

  Another devil to dispatch. Another task to conclude.

  Nothing else held meaning.

  The agonized cries of the dying had long lost their capacity to disturb him; they had faded into an indistinct backdrop of suffering.

  Yet, amid the barren wastend, an alien sound broke through the relentless hum of destruction.

  A child's cry.

  He stopped abruptly, his face a frozen mask carved of cold marble, betraying no emotion—a statue forged by an indifferent hand. A few paces ahead, a small devil boy crouched on the ashen ground, his frail body curled as if trying to vanish, trembling hands desperately trying to stanch his tears. Every shudder of his body and every breaking cry evoked a haunting familiarity.

  "Mom... Dad... where are you...?"

  The terror woven through the boy's muted plea resonated with memories of loss—a sound Toshi had encountered too often. The parents were gone.

  No—they were not merely absent.

  He had ended their lives.

  Advancing with deliberate slowness, Toshi drew near, his bde slick with the blood of untold victims, its ominous gleam catching the dim light. In that moment, with one precise, decisive stroke, he could have silenced the child's agony forever.

  And yet, he did not lift his weapon.

  Instead, he stood rooted, his eyes locked on the inconsoble child as he silently weighed the meaning of the moment.

  What would it prove?

  The child was beyond help now. Ending its life would be an act of futility.

  With an almost dismissive exhale, Toshi stepped aside, leaving the sobbing devil to the mercy of his fate.

  Not worth the effort.

  As he moved away, the child's cries slowly dissipated into the wind, and for a fleeting heartbeat—so brief it bordered on imperceptibility—something stirred deep within him.

  Something he couldn't quite name.

  Continuing his solitary march, Toshi suddenly caught another sound—a voice, soft and insidious, barely a murmur.

  "Ru..."

  He paused. A subtle twitch of his calloused fingers, a slight turn of his head as he surveyed the empty, wrecked ndscape. Nothing was there. The murmur had materialized from the emptiness. His eyes narrowed in suspicion, a fleeting thought that perhaps his senses were betraying him. Yet, he pressed onward.

  Then it came again.

  "Ru... come here..."

  This time, the sound was unmistakably clearer, gentler, imbued with a striking familiarity that sent a shiver down his spine. Every muscle tensed in response. That voice...

  A deep furrow marred his features as he quickly pivoted, alert and scanning the fractured world. Yet again, nothing tangible revealed itself. The crying child remained distant; the wind moaned a mencholic dirge; the ruins maintained their oppressive silence.

  Still, the voice persisted—

  "Ru... my child..."

  His breath became erratic, and his grip on the bloodstained bde tightened almost painfully. The relentless call gnawed at his resolve, incredibly irritating him. His name was Toshi. Ru was not a name rooted in his past. Still, the voice would not relent.

  "Ru... come back to me..."

  His hands clenched into fists as anger surged, his heartbeat driven into a furious crescendo. It wasn't real. It must not be real. And yet, the whisper echoed, swelling into a louder, more insistent plea.

  "Ru... why are you running?"

  With his pulse thrumming in his ears, the ruined ndscape around him began to distort—the shattered edifices, the curling smoke, even the sky itself twisted and blurred as if succumbing to the chaos of his inner turmoil. Toshi ground his teeth, his eyes flickering with a rare, raw intensity. His breathing quickened; his fingers quivered as the very fabric of his being felt unsteady. The echo of those whispered pleas cwed at his mind. His fists tightened until his knuckles bleached, and with a ragged, fierce exhation, he bellowed—

  "Who dares to toy with me?!"

  His body shuddered, not out of fear, but propelled by something darker, something untamed and ferocious. Then, in a sudden, violent eruption—

  BOOM!

  The ground beneath him split apart as the unleashed fury exploded outward. Rocks and shattered debris were flung helplessly into the air, caught in the manic vortex of his raw, unbridled power. The atmosphere trembled as a shockwave tore its way through the desote nd. Instinctively, his limbs surged into motion. His bde arced wildly through the air, a deadly crescent of retribution. The surrounding ruins buckled under the uncontainable might of his assault, his power coursing unchecked through the battlefield.

  The murmurs of the unseen presence fell silent.

  Yet, his battle was far from the end.

  From the distance, a massive surge of energy erupted—a crion call to the elite devils dwelling in the shattered city beyond. Their senses, honed to detect disturbances, rang out in armed urgency.

  "What in the hell is happening?!"

  "This energy—unlike anything we've encountered before!"

  "Send reinforcements! Whoever has unleashed this force must be stopped, at all costs!"

  Without dey, the elite forces of hell surged through the smoky skies, their forms weaving toward the epicenter of devastation.

  Toshi barely acknowledged their arrival; a profound indifference shrouded him as his mind simmered with the residual heat of his unspent rage, a fire that refused to die despite his best efforts. The first Elite descended, his imposing presence accentuated by a raised hand from which a massive, ominous bck spear materialized—oozing with lethally potent energy.

  "Identify yourself!" the Elite demanded, voice booming across the chaos. "Who are you? What is your purpose?!"

  Toshi's eyes, streaked with red fury, narrowed to slits as he issued a curt response—

  "Silence."

  In a blur of motion, before the Elite could react, Toshi's bde swept through the air, decimating him with a single, ruthless strike that cleaved his form in two. In an instant, the remaining Elites unched a coordinated assault. The battlefield erupted into chaotic violence. Energy bsts streaked the air; cshing swords rang amidst the cacophony; even the very ground heaved and cracked under the strain of the ensuing combat. Yet, nothing could stem his relentless onsught.

  Toshi fought like an unbridled force of nature, sidestepping deadly strikes with a predatory grace and slicing through enemy ranks with terrifying precision. One foe after another fell before him, their blood seeping into the broken earth, their screams gradually fading into a sorrowful murmur.

  High above the bedm, a towering shadow loomed over the carnage. A figure of ominous presence, his crimson eyes gleamed fiercely against the backdrop of raging fmes. He had borne witness to enough. A sly, knowing smirk flickered at the corner of his lips.

  "Interesting."

  With a single, unwavering step, the King of Hell himself—Zokaris—descended into the fray. As fmes danced with a menacing rhythm across the battlefield, Toshi, his breath ragged and heavy, turned to face this formidable new arrival. It was clear: a tempest was gathering.

  Chapter End.