Akira stood still for a moment. His heart was racing as the system's warnings flashed in front of him like an out-of-control fire.
He could feel Mia's warmth and remembered the connection they almost shared. But all of that was drowned out by the loud alarms ringing in his head.
He could feel the unnatural energy in the air. Something was happening… something dangerous. So he made his choice.
[B: INTERVENE]
Survival and power trumped everything else. It had to.
Akira rolled off Mia, grabbed his shorts, and pulled them back on. His hands shook as adrenaline flooded his system.
"Mia, I have to go! Now!" he said, already moving toward the door.
"Go?!" Mia's voice was filled with disbelief and rage. "Are you fucking serious, Akira? Of all the times, you have to go NOW? We were literally about to…"
She grabbed for him, but he was already too far. "Don't you dare abandon me! Akira, if you leave me now, I swear to God I will never forgive you! Do you hear me?!"
Akira didn't look back. He snatched his dagger from the gym bag near his desk and threw open the door.
[AFFINITY LOSS: MIA (-15). CURRENT AFFINITY: 63]
The notification flashed, but he barely registered it. He burst into the dark hallway, and his enhanced senses from the ritual immediately picked up on the wrongness in the air.
Ayaka was already there, waiting.
She stood in the shadows wearing a tight black tactical bodysuit, nothing like the silk robe from earlier. Her silver hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her eyes glowed faintly with demonic energy.
She looked less like a transfer student and more like a warrior preparing for battle.
"You felt it too," Ayaka stated flatly. It wasn't a question.
"Hard to miss," Akira replied, gripping his dagger tighter.
"The instability is a direct result of our exchange earlier. Our ritual opened a rift somewhere nearby. I'm estimating Grade Gamma, possibly higher depending on…"
"It's Grade Delta," Akira interrupted, correcting her.
Ayaka's eyes widened slightly. "Delta? That's... problematic. Are you certain?"
"The system doesn't lie about threats."
She processed this for a moment, then nodded sharply. "Then we have no time to waste."
[NEW QUEST: CONTAIN DELTA THREAT]
[REWARD: +10 PERV-POINTS, TITLE: DEMON HUNTER]
"Where is it?" Akira demanded.
Ayaka extended her hand, pointing down the hallway toward the building's exit. "That direction. Approximately 350 meters away." She met his gaze. "I'm coming with you. I know how to navigate a fresh rift. You'll need me."
Akira nodded. An ally who knew what they were facing was invaluable. "Let's move."
They headed for the main entrance in tense silence. Behind them, the door to his room opened.
"Akira!" Her voice echoed down the hallway. "Don't you dare ignore me!"
But Akira was already through the building's front door, with Ayaka right behind him.
Mia ran to Akira's window, throwing back the curtain just in time to see them sprinting down the street side-by-side.
That silver-haired freak and Akira, the guy who'd just been about to give her exactly what she needed, what she'd been craving since the gym. She'd seen how big his dick was, felt it, knew he could satisfy her in ways her previous lover never could.
And now he was running off with her.
Mia's face twisted with betrayal and jealousy, quickly turning to pure anger. Her nails pressed hard into the windowsill. "You're going to regret this," she whispered into the empty room.
—
Akira and Ayaka ran through darkened city streets that should have been alive with late-night activity but were instead strangely silent.
Ayaka moved with surprising speed and grace, without making a sound, even at a full sprint. Akira pushed himself to keep pace, his newly awakened powers making him faster and stronger than he'd been just days ago.
[SYSTEM NAVIGATION: 250M TO RIFT LOCATION]
The counter ticked down as they ran.
[200M]
[150M]
[100M]
They turned a corner into an industrial district and stopped at the edge of an abandoned construction site. The unfinished buildings stood tall against the night sky, looking like the skeletons of giant creatures.
The air was filled with a strange energy that smelled like ozone and brimstone. In the middle of the site, where a steel support frame should have been, there was a huge dimensional tear in space. It floated in the air, swirling with an uncomfortable mix of green and purple light.
"What the fvck?" Akira breathed.
Ayaka stopped them just outside the construction site's perimeter. "This is not a mere tear in reality. This is a Gate… a temporary pocket dimension connected to our world by a thin membrane. Think of it as... a dungeon."
"A dungeon?"
"I'm guessing the Grade Delta threat isn't something trying to cross into our world from the demon realm," she explained, her eyes never leaving the swirling vortex. "It's a Guardian inside the pocket dimension, attempting to force the Gate fully open from within. If it succeeds, the barrier between dimensions weakens permanently in this location."
"So we have to close it," Akira said, adjusting his grip on the dagger.
"No… we have to defeat the Guardian," Ayaka corrected. "That's the only way to close it. See, a fresh Gate must be stabilised from the inside, or the entire structure collapses catastrophically, releasing whatever entities are trapped within directly into our world."
She glanced at him, and for the first time, he saw genuine excitement in her demonic eyes. "Tell me we are going in, Akira-kun."
[QUEST UPDATE: ENTER GATE AND DEFEAT GUARDIAN]
"How do we enter?" Akira asked, studying the rotating energy.
Ayaka smirked. "You simply step through. But understand, once inside, there's no turning back until the Guardian is dead. The Gate won't release us until the threat is neutralised. We succeed, or we die trying."
Akira looked at the swirling vortex, then down at his dagger. He had a weapon, some accumulated power, a Succubus ally who knew what she was doing, and a desperate need to get stronger… fast.
He thought of Kenji. Of Sakura. Of everyone who'd ever looked down on him.
"Let's go," he said firmly.