The corpses of the two brothers, Joey and Aldo, were devoured by a grotesque mouth made of bone.
A wet, grinding chew echoed through the air.
Burp.
The Earthquake Devil let out a satisfied belch, savoring the taste. The brothers had barely whetted its appetite.
A dull boom rolled across the sky.
"Not enough. Not even close. I want more, I want to eat people, more Japanese people. Jiehahahaha."
Something shifted.
Asa and Cael had not gone far when the air grew heavy. It pressed against her lungs, thick and wrong.
She walked a few steps, then her head spun. It felt like the nausea from a long bus ride, the kind that sneaks up and knocks you sideways.
The ground trembled.
An earthquake. Japan got those all the time.
But this one felt off.
Her face drained of color as she gripped Cael's hand tighter.
Damn it, she was going to puke.
"Cael, I…"
She did not finish. She yanked him toward the roadside ditch.
"Blegh!"
Asa doubled over and vomited hard, emptying everything in her stomach, even last night's dinner.
"Asa…" Cael frowned, rubbing her back in slow circles.
When she finished, he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped her mouth clean, then handed her two bottles of water.
His Dark Hole had storage functions, something he had refined for convenience. He carried whatever might be useful, medicine, water, food, even spare clothes.
Prepared for anything.
"Asa, you look like hell. Forget the supermarket, we're going to the hospital."
"Mm…" she nodded, weak but compliant.
She was not alone anymore. She did not have to tough everything out.
Then the sky dimmed.
The air thickened further, almost suffocating.
Rustle, rustle.
Trees along the road shook violently.
Birds scattered in chaotic flocks. Rats burst from drains and sprinted across the street like they had lost their minds.
"Something's wrong," Cael muttered, glancing up. "This isn't a normal quake."
The clouds had changed.
What had been smooth and white now stretched across the sky in long rib-like bands, as if something massive was breathing beneath them.
"I get it," Asa said suddenly. "Infrasound. That's why I feel sick. It's a precursor to a massive earthquake."
Then everything stopped.
The shaking vanished.
The world went still, unnaturally still.
"The calm before the storm," Cael said quietly, eyes sharp.
A heartbeat later, the earth exploded.
The ground convulsed with terrifying force. Buildings swayed violently, as if they might tear themselves free from their foundations.
Boom.
Crack, crack, crack.
The road split open beneath their feet, a jagged abyss tearing outward in all directions.
They were about to fall.
A sharp rush of wind cut through the chaos.
Cael reacted instantly, lifting Asa into his arms. One hand supported her back, the other under her knees.
Air currents surged beneath them, holding them aloft.
They hovered.
Below them, the ground collapsed in chunks, dust and debris rising in thick clouds.
Crack, crack, crack.
The rupture kept spreading.
Asa looked down, her stomach twisting again. The broken road gaped like a beast's mouth, opening and closing as if it wanted to swallow everything whole.
Her arms tightened around Cael's neck.
"I've never seen anything like this…"
Cael's expression hardened.
Aldo's final words echoed in his mind.
"This isn't random," he said. "It's targeting us."
Then a voice rang out.
"Jiehahahaha!"
The sound came from the direction of the funeral home.
They turned.
Their pupils shrank.
The funeral home stood up.
No, not stood.
Something had risen from it.
A devil.
It used tectonic plates as its body, dragging buildings into itself, shaping them into twisted limbs and a grotesque face. Structures from kilometers away were being pulled in, crushed together into a monstrous form.
People caught in the debris were ground into paste.
The funeral home itself had been warped, now sitting atop the creature's head like a mockery of a hat.
The Earthquake Devil towered over everything, more than two kilometers wide, its height even greater.
It dwarfed even the Typhoon Devil.
Asa's voice trembled.
"Cael… our home… it's gone…"
"Yeah," he said flatly.
"It wants to die."
The Earthquake Devil stared up at him, smug and unaware.
"I am the mighty Earthquake Devil. Which one of you is Cael? Step forward and meet your death."
Cael exhaled slowly.
He held Asa securely with one arm. His other hand extended forward, palm open.
"Fear Extraction."
Dark red energy flooded toward him from every direction, thin strands and dense streams alike, gathering and swirling around his body.
Fear.
Not just from humans, but from every living thing within range.
The earthquake had done half the work for him.
The Earthquake Devil laughed.
"Hahaha. An insect thinks it can fight me. How pathetic. Though I admit, that wind around you… it smells like my brother, the Typhoon Devil. Explain yourself, and I might grant you a quick death."
Asa raised her middle finger.
"The Typhoon Devil was trash. I could have killed it with a damn taxi. If that's your brother, then you're trash too."
The Earthquake Devil froze, then roared.
"What did you say?! I will crush you!"
A massive fist descended, large enough to flatten a mountain.
Cael did not even flinch.
"Asa, don't waste your breath on garbage like this."
He clicked his tongue.
Seriously, what kind of outdated thinking was this, bigger equals stronger? Dumb as hell.
The gathered fear condensed in his hand, forming a dark red spear that pulsed with killing intent.
He did not bother with a fancy name.
"Well, screw it. Withering Heart Piercing Attack."
The spear vibrated, eager.
Inside Asa's mind, Yoru trembled.
"This… this is the kind of weapon I've always wanted…"
The spear vanished.
Whoosh.
A red afterimage lingered for a split second.
Then it appeared behind the Earthquake Devil.
The tip was already buried deep.
A hole tore through its chest, wide as a train tunnel.
The devil froze.
Its movements stopped completely.
"Impossible…"
Its massive body began to crumble, collapsing like dry sand.
The fight ended before it even began.
The earthquake ceased.
Then something fell.
Splatter.
Organs rained from the sky.
Within a kilometer, everything was drenched in the Earthquake Devil's remains.