I walked through the barren wasteland while the stars shone above. It was annoying how during the day, the wasteland was uncomfortably hot but during the night, it was unbearably cold.

Three days have already passed since I woke up in the Demon Realm and I didn’t find anyone else except for Crystal Beasts. All I did was fight and walk for the entire day.

“This really is the Demon Realm. It’s very fitting to call it like that since the land is downright demonic”, I muttered.

Crystal Beasts are everywhere and are attacking us on sight. There must be something wrong, Anya said.

What do you mean? Aren’t Crystal Beasts hostile? I asked.

Yes. But they only attack if they are hungry or provoked.

Mikage knows the answer, Noir said.

I do?

Yep. Surely you felt that energy inside them, right? he asked.

Ah.

I see. Didn’t Captain Magus say that the energy is turning people into aggressive beasts? Anya asked.

Yeah. It even turned Coco into a rampaging dragon. So the Crystal Beasts were also affected. What is the Unkindness planning?

I would like to ask the locals for information but we haven’t reached a town yet, she said.

There are towns here? Noir and I asked.

Yes. The Demon Realm is a country filled with demons, onis, and other creatures. Yoclesh and Oga were born here. And like any other country, there are cities and towns, Anya answered.

No wonder I can feel a large concentration of darkness in a certain direction, Noir said.

…

Wait. What do you mean by that? I asked.

Oh? You can’t feel it? I can sense the shadows of many creatures in that direction, Noir’s semi-transparent form appeared in front of me and pointed to the left.

You can sense it all this time and you didn’t tell me?! I asked.

Did you even ask? Besides, I thought that they were probably Crystal Beasts so I just ignored them. Also, you can sense them too, you know? My powers are your powers.

What Noir said made me decide to test things out. I closed my eyes and tried to feel the darkness of the night. Aside from the concentration of energy in the south, I felt what Noir was feeling.

And I almost threw up after collapsing to the ground.

Gahahaha! You actually tried it?! What kind of a careless idiot are you?! Noir laughed.

“Mikage! What’s wrong?!” Anya transformed into her human form and worriedly shook me.

It’s nothing special. He just got overwhelmed by the sheer number of darknesses he felt. Judging from his reaction, he felt all of the shadows here in the Demon Realm, Noir explained.

“All of the shadows in the Demon Realm?! That’s more than hundreds of thousands!”

Actually… It’s hundreds of millions if we count non-living things. Besides, he’s lucky he only felt the shadows in the Demon Realm. He would have it worse if he felt all of the shadows in the world. And his human brain would explode if he accidentally felt all of the shadows in this universe.

Despite the massive headache and nauseating feeling inside me, I managed to listen to their conversation. After a while, I calmed down and shakily stood up.

“A warning would be great next time, Noir”, I groaned.

Oh please. It’s better if you learned the dangers yourself. Humans are more likely to trust their experiences than the words of a stranger, he snickered.

“But to think you are capable of doing such a thing”, Anya muttered

He’s the Primordial Dark. He has authority over all of the darkness in existence. Of course he can easily do something like feeling darkness, Noir replied.

“Noir is probably telling the truth that there are shadows to the left”, I said.

“You confirmed it?” Anya asked.

“No. I was overwhelmed. But I confirmed that it is possible to locate shadows like that. So I’m going to trust Noir.”

Of course you should. If you’re in danger, I’m in danger. I got nothing to gain if you somehow died.

“You’re saying that but you made him do something that might make his brain explode”, Anya growled.

And? Did his brain explode?

“That’s not the point!”

Well yeah. He won’t die from something like that.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

Nothing~~ I’m sure Mikage knows what I’m saying, right?

…

“Let’s try to go to the concentration of shadows. We might get more information there”, I said.

Anya transformed into her sword form and I picked her up. Hopefully, we will be able to get information on what was going on.

###

Two pieces of bread were handed to us and I gave one to Anya. I munched the cold and hard bread but I didn’t mind the taste. At least they were somehow treating us humanely.

Gahahaha!! You landed in prison! That’s a memorable event for sure! Noir laughed.

When I went to the gates of the city, the guards asked for my identification. And when I said I had no papers, they tried to ask for my story. Things were going well until I blurted out about the strange energy.

One of the guards tried to attack me but my shadow automatically rose up and landed a counter attack. And since I attacked a guard, I was arrested.

To think your enchantment worked like that! And when you tried to explain that it was your enchantment, they confiscated your uniform to analyze if you’re telling the truth! Noir said.

“It’s great that I was in my human form. If I stayed as a weapon, I would get confiscated too”, Anya sighed.

“But this is bad. If we stay here, we won’t be able to do anything. Will I serve my sentence here?” I asked.

Who knows? If you want, you can just bust out of here easily! Wanna do it?

Before I could answer, the door of my cell opened. The guard glared at me but at least, he didn’t attack me.

“Someone’s here to talk to you”, he said.

Anya and I followed him to a room. When we got there, we saw a white-haired girl sitting at a table.

Two horns were on her forehead and she was wearing a black-red kimono. There were also two katanas on her back.

The door closed behind us and there was no way out. Was I supposed to talk to this girl?

“Are you my lawyer?” I asked as I sat down.

“Lawyer? Are you saying you need one?” she asked back.

“If I have to defend myself in court, then yeah. I don’t know any of the laws of the Demon Realm so I’ll need a lawyer if I want to prove my innocence.”

“So you’re still claiming that you’re from Westa and got teleported here?”

“That’s what happened.”

The girl picked up the paper on the table and began reading it.

“You claimed that you are Mikage Kamishiro, an administrative officer from the 13th unit of the Westa Knight Order”, she said.

“That’s me”, I replied.

“From the analysis of the Mage Guild, your clothes were indeed enchanted to have a defense mechanism that used Dark Magic. While you might get in trouble for an unregistered enchanted item, you can get away with it if your claim of being teleported here against your will is true.”

“So I have a high chance of winning in court.”

“Assuming the Demon Constabulary would press charges. But we can avoid that if you answer my next questions honestly.”

“Ask away.”

“You’re saying you can feel a strange energy in the Crystal Beasts?”

Her red eyes stared directly at me. I could feel her analyzing every single movement I made in order to catch any sign of dishonesty.

“Yeah. It’s a bit hard to explain but I’m a special kind of human. Thanks to that, I can feel a strange energy that’s been in the Crystal Beasts. To describe it, it’s like staring at a deep dark abyss and-”

“Having a suspicion that something else is staring back”, she continued.

I knew it. Something was happening here.

The white-haired girl thought deeply while I waited for her to continue interrogating me.

She’s quite a troubled one, huh? Noir asked.

What do you mean? I asked back.

Oh? You still aren’t used to my powers. Understandable. Have a good one.

Something exploded outside and the white-haired girl looked alarmed.

“Hey! What’s going on?!” she shouted.

The door opened and the demon from earlier entered the room.

“Another demon is rampaging. Darkness is coming out of his body”, he said.

The two of them ran off while I didn’t move from my spot. I could feel the strange energy outside so I was certain that it was a problem. However, I was still a prisoner so if I were going to unnecessarily involve myself, I might get in trouble.

Ah. That dude is a goner, Noir said.

“What do you mean?” Anya asked.

He has a massive concentration of that energy inside him. It’s eating away his Life Force like a rabid dog chowing down on meat after being hungry for a whole week. It’s sad that he’s suffering in the last hour of his life.

“Anya. Let’s go”, I told her.

She transformed into her sword form and I grabbed her. It didn’t matter if I were going to make things worse for myself. If I were going to let that demon die, I would be living with a guilty conscience for the rest of my life. This was what Amelia would do anyways.

I got out of the prison and saw the white-haired girl pinning a male demon to the ground. Dark mist surrounded the two of them and was going towards the katana of the girl.

“President!” a demon in a uniform shouted worriedly.

“Stay away! I’m overusing Rakshasa right now! You’ll just become a casualty if you get near!” the girl told her.

“Impossible. That person is still conscious despite being under Rakshasa’s influence?” another demon in the same uniform muttered.

Rakshasa… To think I’d meet it again, Anya said.

What’s that? I asked.

Before you go have a long and boring infodump, you might want to save that demon first. That sword is draining away his stamina. However, the strange energy inside that demon is replenishing the lost stamina at the cost of his Life Force. If this keeps up, he won’t even last ten minutes, Noir interrupted us.

Since Noir had a point, I decided to just ask questions later and walk towards the two of them.

“You! What are you doing here?! Get away!” the white-haired girl told me.

I faced my palm at the demon and focused. In the next second, darkness came out of the demon and was absorbed by my hand.

When the last ounce of the strange energy was drained from that demon, he closed his eyes and passed out.

The dark mist disappeared and the girl sheathed her katana. She had a confused look on her face but her eyes were warily looking at me.

“Who exactly are you?” she asked.

“Mikage Kamishiro, the vessel of the Primordial Dark.”