”Uhm…” the voice escaped the Fire Mage’s mouth as he eyed his mysteriously curious bird pal approaching the tied-up refugee from Demonland with huge, wide eyes open. Coda switched her gaze towards Daiko, and it sort of gave mixed signals, because Daiko had yet to realize Coda’s intent in her glare. “D-Don’t look at me like that, I’m sure she’s okay… she’s breathing,” he assured the raptor. It did remind him to check her vitals and if they emitted heat - a neat technique he learned over time. Apparently, dead people emitted little to no heat at all, and it would help him see if she was still alive… yes, he did hear signs of life in her earlier, but she looked so worn out that he was worried for her health too.

And he had decided to let her wear his cloak, because looking at a nude woman felt so wrong in this situation. Even he knew when and where those scenarios would play… he wasn’t that dull.

While trying to zip the cloak above her chest, however, Daiko felt feathery features pushing his hands away. He wasn’t looking at her, but Coda had decided that this was her last chance, so she would make good use of it and fuck all. Her beak aimed directly for the fainted lady’s assets, and Daiko opened his eyes in shock at the naughty assault. “Huh? … G-Goddamn it, Coda! Stop bothering women!”

He had little time to flail her off, because he heard confused screams from behind him. Turning around, his thermal eyes spotted three cultists running for their lives - one of them even had a wet mark on his cloak, specifically the area around his abdomen - and Daiko assured himself that Alisa had humiliated them back at the building. Once when the cultists spotted the jet-haired hunter, the frightened looks on their faces didn’t exactly lower.

“O-Oh shit…” one of the cultists almost wept out by the view of Daiko. To be frank, Daiko felt that they were weakened by a margin due to what havoc Alisa must’ve done to them inside, so he approached them with caution mostly towards the unconscious woman behind him whose bosom was safeguarded by Coda’s body and soul. “So much for our summoning… u-uh, excuse me…” the cultist blabbered whilst gently pushing the other guy away as he fled backwards, away from the Fire Mage’s position and hopefully to end up at the other side of the country.

That was when he was pushed back by a heatwave, striking him down and leaving him on the ground with a terrified expression. Mere embers surrounded Daiko as he now stood in front of the cultist once more, his two fellow cloaked men laying in the unharmed grass with pitch-black skulls… heads completely rid for flesh and blood. Upon finding no escape from the ‘black wizard’, the cultist lashed out with a fist just to see where this scenario of his would end. Upon grabbing his fist with his bare hand, Daiko made sure to incinerate this foe of his until nothing was left but flying dust in the wind. It did provide for quite a light show from the windows in the house.

… Until the Fire Mage discovered a small part of the grass beneath the very hotspot actually burning. After months of training, he still couldn’t prevent his magic from burning the environment?! He hurried in stepping on the embers enveloping the grass knots like a cartoon character, unaware to him that it was quite contradictive to what the monster of Lamia Scale just did to the cultist.

It appeared that a handful of them - definitely less than the original amount - was left alive by Alisa’s power and his as well. She had tied them up, likely for future interrogations, and he aided by picking up the yet unconscious lady after shooing off Coda from her bosom. To think that she was almost killed in her unconscious state to only wake up as a sacrifice to a demonic entity… it was horror fuel, honestly. Daiko found it repulsively terrifying by nature, which only widened the gap of understanding between him and the cultists; he just couldn’t fathom their ways of thinking anymore, because everything they stood for was puke-worthy in his eyes.

But it brought joy and comfort that Alisa likely thought the same. Then again, he didn’t know that much about her opinion in these matters, but she came all this way to infiltrate and stop this group herself. She gave a huge effort to close their little ceremony, and he was grateful for her help.

“Yes… that’s true.”

[EXIT]