The Anima Girl, Jill

The girl Azu had kicked landed a short distance away.

It looked like the kick had landed squarely in her gut, yet she showed no sign of pain.

She slowly righted herself and looked our way.

Azu stepped between us, blocking the girl's line of sight.

Her sword was already drawn.

I coughed a few times, but nothing else seemed wrong.

"You saved me. I let my guard down too much."

"I heard a huge crash and came running. Do you know who she is?"

"Never met her. She attacked without warning, so she's not exactly friendly."

"So she's an enemy."

As if that was all she needed to know, the air around her shifted.

Azu took the Ash King's stance, and the girl across from her assumed that eerie posture once more.

The girl looked even younger than Azu, yet in that stance alone, there was something spine-chilling about her.

Something far more terrifying, as though she weren't human at all.

Azu must have felt the same impression from the girl, yet she stood her ground without breaking her stance, placing herself in front.

Simply, utterly dependable.

Azu exhaled.

Her breath became a white mist that drifted upward, then cooled and disappeared.

The instant the mist vanished completely, both Azu and the girl moved.

The two were the very picture of opposites: stillness and motion.

Azu closed the distance swiftly. The girl, meanwhile, slowly raised her sword overhead.

Azu swung a diagonal slash at the girl, but she deflected it with the hilt of her sword with minimal movement.

Threading through the opening Azu left, the greatsword came sweeping in.

Rather than dodge, Azu took it head-on.

The impact sent a shudder through the air.

"That eye."

The girl peered at Azu's right eye curiously.

A rainbow of seven-colored light.

For the first time, emotion stirred in those red eyes.

"Pretty. Give it to me."

"I have nothing to give you."

Azu channeled the Apostle's power and shoved the greatsword back.

It must have been more force than she'd expected, because for the first time, the girl's balance broke.

The greatsword was flung wide, dragging her along with it. She stumbled several steps before jamming the blade into the ground to stop herself.

Azu pressed the attack, but the girl blocked with the embedded greatsword.

Their faces were inches apart.

"… You're as strong as me? What to do."

"You tried to kill my Master. What are you?"

"Me? I'm Jill. Iefuda's tool. He says I can become an Anima too. I don't really get it though."

"I didn't ask your name!"

Azu pushed in another step.

Jill was clearly on the back foot, yet there was no trace of panic in her expression.

"I'll lose at this rate, so I'll get a little serious."

The moment Jill said that, Azu was sent flying backward.

She fell back to my side.

"I couldn't finish her. That girl… something feels very off about her."

"Don't push it. Elza and Alexia should be coming down soon."

"Understood."

Both returned to their opening stances.

In the deep darkness of the night, the eyes of the girl who'd called herself Jill blazed with an intense light.

She looked less like a human and more like a demon.

When Azu used the Apostle's power, she possessed a pure strength that had impressed even the Dragonslayer.

It was hard to believe any power could rival that.

There was no doubt Jill was something extraordinary.

The meeting of Azu's and Jill's gazes alone seemed to warp the space between them.

If they kept fighting, one of them would die.

It was then that Alexia, Elza, and Finn finally came downstairs.

"What's going on?!"

"I'm sorry we're late."

"It's her! That girl! She tracked me down somehow!"

One on one, Azu and Jill were evenly matched.

But now it was four against one.

And Alexia was stronger than Azu.

The advantage had shifted entirely in our favor.

Jill seemed to understand that.

The blazing intensity in her red eyes returned to normal.

"Too bad. Job failed. Bye-bye."

"You're not getting away!"

Jill leapt backward, vanishing into the darkness.

Azu chased after her, but by whatever means, the girl had already disappeared.

"Finn, was that the girl who was with Iefuda?"

"That's the one. I can't believe she tailed me so blatantly. Between that and seeing through my concealment, she's probably not a normal human."

"I'd say so. More like a monster in human form."

Those emotionless red eyes.

And then the blazing intensity when she'd unleashed her power.

Combined with features as flawless as a doll's, the result was deeply unsettling.

"I didn't sense any demonic presence, but… I did detect a faint trace of the Creator King's apostle power."

"The power that dwells in Azu?"

"No. It wasn't inherited through proper succession. Someone is forcibly drawing it out by some means. The misuse must be stopped."

As a priestess of the Creator King faith, she couldn't overlook this.

If it was the Apostle's power, that would explain how the girl could match Azu's physical abilities.

How had Iefuda gotten that girl on his side?

"Nothing ever goes smoothly, does it? So, what do we do about this?"

"About this…? Ah, right. We need to deal with this first."

The aftermath of the girl's rampage was clearly etched into the ground.

Leaving it like this would definitely cause problems.

There was a risk that we, as the inn's guests, would be suspected.

Fortunately, the ground was just bare dirt.

"Alexia, smooth it over."

"I knew you'd say that. Well, I was late to the scene, so I suppose I owe you that much."

Alexia cast earth magic and smoothed out the traces in the ground.

Before long, the surface was good as new.

The grass and weeds in the area had been completely cleared away, but they'd grow back in a few days and no one would think twice.

"Master, what happened?"

"I heard some grating noise and felt compelled to go check. I'm not sure why."

It had felt almost like being in a dream.

"Please, if something like that happens, take at least one of us with you. Even with Elza-san here, it'll be too late if something happens first."

Azu's expression was deadly serious. I nodded.

"You're right. Sorry for worrying you, Azu. I'll do that from now on."

"It's a promise. You'd better not break it."

I'd been thoroughly scolded.

We returned to the inn and stayed awake together until morning, just in case.

Nothing happened, and the morning sun streamed in as it always did.