Sakura was one of the grimmfolk's Seven Grimms of Destruction, holding the seat of Moon element. Sakura was a pink-haired girl—who had her race's characteristic deathly pale-white skin, vertically slit crimson pupils with black sclera and red markings that lined her face and some part of her body. Among the Seven Grimms of Destruction, she was the most adept at covert operations. It wasn't as if she couldn't fight directly. But she had been ordered to avoid direct confrontation by her boss… the Grimm King's son.
But Sakura herself was unsatisfied with that role. She took it to mean that she wasn't trusted, and that her abilities were being looked down upon. So Sakura wanted to show her just how capable she was. That was when Uzume, another one of the Seven Grimms of Destruction, said to her, "Then let's show him."
If things continued as they were, Sakura would never be able to stand equally with him. She would continue to just be the weak subordinate and nothing more. Uzume told Sakura that if she wanted to be recognized, she'd have to accomplish something bigger, more significant. Then, Uzume made an example… saying that she could get the achievement of having taken down Blutgang under her belt. And if Sakura didn't manage that, she'd spend her entire life chasing after him.
So Sakura resolved to change her mission to infiltrate Blutgang to one of assaulting it.
I'm not weak. I can do things other than covert missions.
Sakura wanted to prove that. But just looking at the results, she was probably being reckless. At the very least, she should have been much more cautious with Lunaru Fenris back in the world of the living.
The reason why Vernal and Mercury were dead was because they hadn't been more cautious. Sakura should have learned to be careful from those two. She should have realized that the preconception that the grimmfolk were strong enough not to have to worry was no longer true.
Am I being followed? Sakura had successfully managed to use Anko as bait to get inside, but ever since she'd gotten inside, she'd had an uncomfortable feeling as if she were being watched.
Is it Blutgang's command? No,they shouldn't have the leeway.
The mass-produced Pennys? No, those annoying things were all sent after Anko.
Then who is it? What's emitting this horrible feeling, like the dread is just sticking onto me…? Even though I can feel someone watching me, I don't see anyone anywhere. I don't even see anyone's shadows.
But Sakura could clearly feel whatever it was getting closer.
Wait… Shadows?! Sakura had noticed that she didn't see anyone's shadows.
But what if that's the point? What if the shadows themselves are watching me? At the same time that she reached that conclusion, Sakura's shadow, which had been moving along with her, suddenly warped.
Sakura could feel her insides instantly freeze as an irrational fear forced its way into her heart. Her shadow formed a female demon. The woman had goat horns on her head, two bat wings growing out of her back, and a reptile tail. The woman was a template 'demon from legend.'
"!"
Sakura dodged suddenly as the shadow launched a black beam of light. It was pure luck that she managed to barely dodge the attack.
But the female demon wasn't so easily dealt with that a single bout of luck could stop her. An atmosphere as if it contained all the ill omens in the world overflowed from the shadows. It warped the surrounding scenery, making everything seem darker to Sakura.
"So you dodged it… How pitiful. If only you'd lost consciousness while still unaware of anything, you would have at least avoided feeling fear."
Sakura desperately fought her body, which suddenly wanted to fall to the ground.
All she did was speak. To think just that would disturb me this much and weigh so heavily on my spirit.
The voice caused discomfort akin to nails being raked across a chalkboard. It was as if the words themselves were laced with curses. The female demon herself was like a walking pillar of discomfort. Sakura felt disgusted. The female demon was basically a human's fear that had been forced into physical shape. That was why it was called a demon.
"Ta… yuya…"
"Sakura… weakling. I give you two choices." Her eyes were like empty caverns which glowed maliciously. Just that caused Sakura's knees to shamefully shake like a fawn's. "The first is sweet submission. If you don't resist, I will not harm you, and you will be taken to meet my great king as an offering."
"Ha… haha. How nice. So instead I get to be murdered by Lunaru Fenris?"
"Exactly. Someone like you, who is as significant as a bug, will be able to meet your end at my king's hands. What an honor it will be for you."
Lunaru Fenris showed no mercy to the grimmfolk. Even a child knew that. The second she noticed you, you were finished. No matter if you were a woman, elderly, or whatever, she would chase you to the ends of the earth and take your head. That was the reputation of the Black Angel of Death.
In other words, if Sakura surrendered it would directly translate to her death.
"The other choice is cruel domination. I will tear your limbs off and drag you, covered in blood, to be an offering to my king."
"…Aren't both choices the same?"
"Indeed. You may either surrender and die, or resist and die painfully and miserably. Choose, weakling."
The female demon mercilessly proclaimed her death sentence. That alone indicated the difference in their strength.
"I refuse both options!" Sakura roared, squeezing out all her pride and self-respect to do so in the face of the proclamation of her death.
Her opponent was one of the Black Empress's Twelve Zodiac's Guardians—Demon Queen Tayuya. On top of that, she was an archdemon and hailed as the cruelest and most ruthless among them. But Sakura was one of the Seven Grimms of Destruction, the pride of the grimmfolk. And in a stroke of odd coincidence, her attribute was also the Moon element, the same as Tayuya.
Since they both had the same elemental attribute, Sakura knew Tayuya's strengths and weaknesses like the back of her hand. She was confident that she was one of the few people who could resist her mental interference spells at the very least, which was better than any of the other Seven Grimms of Destruction could claim.
"Yaahh!" Sakura concentrated mana to make a black sword and leaped forward to slash at her enemy.
Tayuya showed no signs of even attempting to dodge or defend against her attack. With her arms still folded together, she cleanly accepted the blow from Sakura of the Seven Grimms of Destruction.
The result: she wasn't hurt in the slightest. The sword Sakura attacked her with dispersed, leaving Tayuya without a scratch. But Tayuya hadn't used any sort of special magic. The simple difference in their stats was just so huge she couldn't hurt a hair on her body. That was it.
"How slow. How brittle. And how weak," Tayuya spat out, filled with disdain.
She flicked her middle finger, blasting Sakura away. The move was more commonly referred to as a forehead flick on Earth. That was all it took for Sakura to be blown away, flying and tumbling for over 100m while gouging out chunks of earth.
Tayuya dove towards the ground, trying to chase after Sakura. After a moment, she appeared from Sakura's shadow. No, she didn't just appear. She was clearly larger than she'd been previously. Her head almost scrapped the ceiling of Blutgang's first floor, and Sakura only barely managed to reflexively dodge the attacks from Tayuya's larger arms.
"G-Gigantification by concentrating mana?!"
"Oh? So you can tell."
This form of Tayuya's wasn't real. It was simply a body created by gathered mana. In other words, it was a type of spell. Magic was just a skill used to change mana into a physical phenomenon. For example, Metal elemental magic could even produce metals and ores. Tayuya's spell worked off of the same principle. By using mana, Tayuya managed to create a duplicate of herself. It was a phantom body that would disappear as soon as the spell was over… But until it did, it had real, physical properties.
"You monster…!"
So this is the strength of the Twelve Zodiac Guardians! This is how a dweller of Helheim fights! Sakura felt the gap between her and her opponent strongly, and she immediately threw away all thoughts of opposing her head-on.
Sakura jumped, attempting to create some distance. Tayuya gave her a look which was hard to discern the meaning of.
"Capture her."
Black tentacles sprouted from the gigantic Tayuya's body. But they weren't just tentacles. Each one of them ended in fangs. The tentacles surged at Sakura, along with a hard-to-bear noise, a harder-to-bear smell, and a general feeling of physical disgust.
If Tayuya had brought all her strength to bear at that point without minding her surroundings, Sakura would probably not have been able to avoid the attack. Tayuya would surely have gone after Sakura, involving entire houses in her rampage and not minding any amount of collateral damage or wounded civilians in her mission. As a result, she would have easily captured Sakura. But Tayuya had received a certain order from her king to not involve her surroundings. That caused her fierce attacks to dull significantly. Since the town was packed so tightly together, it was even harder to attack while avoiding the buildings. Ironically, Blutgang itself was protecting Sakura, who was here to destroy it.
But that still didn't mean Sakura had the advantage. No attack Sakura could make would work on Tayuya in the first place. In fact, it was obvious to Sakura that if she even tried to attack, Tayuya would take advantage of the opening to instantly capture her.
Should I retreat…? Feelings of inferiority crept into Sakura's heart, gradually strangling her perceived options. I don't stand a chance against this demon.
Sakura wasn't stupid enough not to be able to realize that, especially since she knew what had happened to that idiot Vernal when she decided to jump in without thinking. But… I can't. If I retreat now, I'll be damaging his reputation! I can't keep putting more weight on his shoulders just because we're incompetent…!
Sakura chose not to retreat. She had a reason not to.
The Seven Grimms of Destruction had done nothing but fail recently. Vernal had failed to conquer Svel and had lost Fiona. Penny had disappeared, and someone had taken most of the treasure that'd been kept in the Black Empress's Grave. Mercury had died in Gjallarhorn. Tayuya had betrayed the grimmfolk. And finally, Lunaru Fenris's revival has been confirmed.
It could be surmised from all these events that the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians were once again gathering under Naru. It was unknown to the grimmfolk just how many had returned to Naru's side at the moment, but no matter the number, it was terrible news. Rumors that the Seven Grimms of Destruction weren't worth much had already started circulating among the grimmfolk, and their subordinates had begun to lose faith in them.
That's fine, though. I don't mind being underestimated. But if this keeps going on, our failures will become him, since he founded the Seven Grimms of Destruction. Sakura couldn't bear the thought of that happening.
I… I'm… not weak!
The Seven Grimms of Destruction were just a collection of individuals, not a unified group. One thousand years ago, almost all the powerful grimmfolk had disappeared. The Seven Grimms of Destruction were a group of commanders brought together to temporarily stabilize the grimmfolk, who had descended into chaos after the loss of their most powerful individuals. Saying that they had been chosen for their strength was nice, but that really just meant that they were comparatively strong among the grimmfolk who had degraded far too much in strength. They were basically straw dummies.
Originally, a level 300 grimmfolk would never have been in a leadership position. In fact, they wouldn't even have been in a leader's entourage. The grimmfolk had been overflowing with level 1000s one thousand years ago, after all.
A grimmfolk's strength was decided the moment they were born. Strong grimmfolk would always be strong, the weak always weak, and the half-assed always half-assed… There was no way to change the level they were born with and no way for those in the lower ranks to rise.
Sakura, who was born at level 300, was not considered to have a bright future among this race who had their roles decided from birth. Her death was basically inevitable if she ever ran into Lunaru Fenris or her subordinates, so Sakura could only desperately try to avoid doing so. She had no choice but to look on from the sidelines as the stronger grimmfolk all died, even while envying those with high levels.
I don't want to die. I want to keep living.
The instinct telling Sakura to attack humans didn't matter to her one bit. She just fervently wanted to keep living. And at some point after having continued to live, she found herself among the most powerful of living grimmfolk. Sakura hadn't become stronger. Everyone stronger than her had simply died, so she'd automatically risen to the top.
The stage she was currently standing on was originally so high up she would never have been able to reach it. But the Seven Grimms of Destruction had been brought up in a hurry, since all the people on that stage had gone. That was why the Seven Grimms of Destruction existed, and Sakura was one of them.
For the first time since she was born, Sakura was in a seat of power meant for the strong. She knew she was utterly unfit for the role, but she still didn't want to leave it. She hated being looked down upon and scorned while having to keep running her whole life. That was more than enough reason for her to want to stay. So Sakura desperately acted strong and hid her actual, weak self. But a bluff was just a bluff. And masks were just masks. Every time she faced someone who actually was strong, Sakura was made to realize her own insignificance.
"Stop pushing yourself to put up such a strong facade, Sakura." The man who'd chided Sakura like that in the past was exactly what she was trying to seem like—someone actually strong from birth. He was born in the same generation as Sakura, and they had been together since childhood. He was a man who had been destined to be strong since the very beginning. He was the Grimm King's son, Natsu. He was the master that Sakura and the others served and the founder of the Seven Grimms of Destruction.
"Don't underestimate me, Natsu! I am one of the Seven Grimms of Destruction!"
"Don't be so full of yourself. The Seven Grimms of Destruction are just a temporary set of commanders chosen because there is no one else. It doesn't mean that you all are strong."
"…!"
"So don't feel the need to push yourself so hard. Just do whatever you can. Don't push yourself too far, and concentrate on covert operations and sowing confusion."
Sakura had admired Natsu since childhood. She was always strong, at a level someone weak like Sakura could never reach. But she was always looking at his back. She knew that that didn't make a good match. She'd been told that over and over. But nevertheless, she wanted to be near him. Even if no one else would accept it, she at least wanted him to recognize her. She wanted him to talk to her. She wanted him to turn around for her. Sakura wanted to show him that she was someone useful. That was Sakura's one, true wish, hidden beneath the facade she showed to the world.