World Eater

"Although I must say, you are disappointingly unprepared. Your only means of attack is with physical force? Really?"

"*&^%!?"

The unbothered Scientia shook its head and grabbed the head of the distorted being in a spot where its face should be.

Without any command or apparent trigger, the yellow wires of the blue gauntlet began to glow, and the distorted being turned rigid.

The being did cling to the gauntlet, even making some attempts at hitting and clawing at it, but it stopped in the span of a few seconds.

After a few moments, the demon released the being's leg, only holding onto its head with a rather intrigued expression.

Then, another baffling phenomenon occurred.

Slowly, the distorted space the unknown being turning into something physical.

After a minute or so, it turned out that Scientia wasn't gripping some otherworldly creature but some maid…!

"Ghhh…!"

"..."

Then another minute passed, and the maid, a young brown-haired woman, let out a muffled growl, gritting her teeth and adamantly refusing to scream out despite the obvious pain she was in.

"Hhhhhghhh…!

After another minute, Adrianna, Melinda Fenrioette's personal maid, wheezed as her eyes were flashing whites from the indescribable feeling of her strength being torn out of her.

"Odd… Cogito never factors in the experience of the target of her inventions… What makes you hold back your screams? Is it pride…? Is it… loyalty…?"

Scientia furrowed its brows, carefully studying Adrianna's expression, or at least the parts of the girl's face it could see through its own fingers, before wondering out loud, intrigued, and glancing at the building in which a certain gold-haired girl hid in.

"You're worried that she will come out if you scream. That's so futile, though. I'm going to take her anyway. The humans from the so-called intelligent races of Jewlboxia are such interesting research subjects. I might…"

The demon spoke mockingly, sure of his complete and unshakable superiority, only for two fist-sized metallic spheres to be thrown at him from behind…

*THUNK* *SHING* *SPLURT*

"GHHH…?!"

Upon contact, the spheres unfolded into spinning wires that slashed relentlessly, digging deeply into Scientia's dark green flesh, spilling blue blood everywhere as it wheezed in pain.

*thump*

"...hhhgh…!"

The demon dropped Adrianna, who plopped pitifully on the ground, convulsing all over and unable to control her own body properly.

"I… don't know what this is…"

Scientia took a step back, staring confused at the unfurled wires slick with its blood.

"Sucks to be you."

"...?!"

Someone scoffed, making the demon look around for the newcomer - resulting in it staring at a white-haired human with pinkish eyes holding the maid he snuck out of Scientia reach who knows when.

"I was not supposed to be harmed by mana nor by physical attacks… What did you do to change the phenomenon I'm familiar with, oh challenger blessed by goddess Perseverance?"

Scientia asked, intrigued, while its flesh began to bubble as if boiling and started a rapid healing process.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not blessed. It's supposed to be a secret, but I'm simply something called an albino, and the goddess doesn't care about me any more than any other mortal. Oh, and also, I am not your opponent."

"...?"

Rose revealed with a provocative grin, making Scientia furrow its brows at him.

"Then who…?"

"Sci~ en~ tia…~"

The demon asked, but then a whisper from behind caused him to be struck by a sudden chill. Despite being still half-encased in red-hot metal, his body got covered with goosebumps, prompting him to rapidly turn around…

"..."

"!!!"

…turn around and be faced with the torso of a freakishly tall and lanky humanoid - although, in this case, the monstrosity was really stretching the term humanoid.

The creature that brought fear into the heart of a demon seemed to have a rather normal legs and torso - except for their size- but its nightmarishly long arms, dragging alongside the ground with at least five elbow-like joints before they ended in massive hands with fingers more akin to the legs of an enormous spider than anything else, were straight out of a nightmare.

"...wh… wh…?"

Scientia's bluish teeth chattered so much that it could not let out a proper sound, as every single fiber of its being was screaming at it to not raise its head.

To not look up.

To not even dare to attempt seeing the face of the monstrosity.

But Scientia did it nonetheless.

And as it did, its eyes widened, and it shivered even more.

"...Munin's World Eater experiment…! Wh-why is one of you still alive…?"

Gazing into the humongous jaws filled with gyrating combat-knife-sized jagged teeth, Scientia asked in utter disbelief while the slick line of corrosive saliva dropped on its shoulder, melting through the skin as if it was a wet tissue.

*CHOMP*

"GHUAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

Only when the beast's hands bound it, and the bear-trap-like jaws locked on its head and torso did the demon begin to move, wailing its legs and arms desperately as the gyrating teeth were drilling into its skin softened by the corrosive saliva.

"NGHOOOOOOOOO! NOOOOO!"

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*

Scientia howled, breaking free the arm clad in the blue gauntlet and slamming it repeatedly into the monstrosity's face, at least attempting to aim for the eyes…

…even though it never confirmed the creature had eyes in the first place…

"NOOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOO! NHHHFGHH…!"

*CHOMP* *CRUNCH*

While the demon screamed its lung off, it annoyed the beast with its flailing, so the next moment, the monstrosity opened its jaws for a moment - long enough for Scientia to put its arm in during its desperate attempts - and then chomped down again, easily biting through the blue gauntlet and the demon's arm.

"GHAAAAARGHHAAAAAHAHAGHJAHH…!"

Scientia howled madly, spraying its greenish blood everywhere while flailing its mutilated arm around, but the stub wasn't the only source of the gore…

The blue blood was sprouting out of the monster's jaws as it continued to slowly grind the demon into scraps of flesh.

"...Hhhhhn… ghhh…!"

The only sound the monstrosity let out was a focused growl as the creature put more strength into holding down the demon's torso while straightening its back and pulling back its head, slowly and carefully shaking it from side to side…

*SQUEEEEEEEEEELCH* *SPLUUUUUURT*

…and finally ripping Scientia in half with blue and dark green gore splashing everywhere…

Truly a fearsome sight, a scene of the feasting spot of a vicious beast without a shred of humanity left.

"...you don't think that it will be able to regenerate enough for me to ask about the old man Munin's whereabouts…?"

Rose, standing on the side, covering his eyes with one hand while supporting the unconscious Adrianna with the other, asked, adamantly refusing to face the monster.

"..."

For a moment, the nightmarish creature stopped chewing and lowered its head to look at the lower body of the demon in its grasp.

The massive gaping wound was already bubbling as if boiling, and the torso seemed to be slowly but surely regenerating itself.

"..."

The monster chewed a bit more, and a few pieces of blue gauntlet fell out of the corner of its mouth.

"...huaaahg…"

Then, the monstrosity slowly opened its jaws, putting out its snake-like tongue coiled around something that looked like a large blue mana crystal.

…but just as suddenly as it put it out, the beast sucked it back in and…

*CRUNCH*

…crushed it with its numerous teeth, grinding it down to a fine powder…

*splat*

…which immediately caused the bubbling to stop and turn all the regenerated parts into greenish-blue goop.