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  "Aww, you remembered my gift, Loro-." Vanica giggled, eyeing the queen of the Heart Kingdom. "Don't worry, I had to leave early st time because of some b Megicu stuff. But I promise we have all the fun we want today!"

  Lolopechka swallowed hard, her hands trembling as she gripped her staff. She summoned both her ce and righteous anger, meeting Vanica's crazed eyes with a resolute gre. "If I'm the one you want, why did you attack the i people of my kingdom? Why spread such wantoh aru?!"

  "Hmm? Oh that~" Vanica tapped a finger against her cheek in mock thoughtfulness, before her face torted into a disturbing grin. "I just figured you'd be more into our little fight this way."

  "W-What...?" Lolopechka stared at her in disbelief, the color draining from her face.

  Vanica spread her hands, giggling maniacally. "Aww, don't you get it? This was the only way to make you fight me seriously! I thought threatening your precious people would really light a fire under you."

  The horrifying realization crashed over the queen like a tidal wave. Her eyes went hollow, despair settling like a stone in her gut.

  "This...this is all my fault. My people are suffering because of m-"

  "DON'T LISTEN TO HER NONSENSE!" A voied across the gardens.

  Gadjah, the queen's loyal Spirit Guardian, stepped forward, his face twisted in e. "None of this is your fault, my queen!"

  He rounded on Vanica, magic crag around his ched fists. "YOU MONSTER! What the hell gives you the right to toy with human lives?!"

  Vanica looked at him as if seeing him for the first time, one eyebrow arched. "Huh? Why is some no-ra talking to me?"

  "No ra?" Gadjah seethed, his body shaking with barely tained fury. His grimoire floated up, flipping open to a glowing page. Thrusting out a hand, he unleashed a massive bolt of lightning, the air sizzling as it streaked toward the devil host at blinding speed.

  But Vanica merely raised a hand, an inky bck mana shield materializing effortlessly. She cackled as the lightning spshed harmlessly against it. "Oooh, so scary! You really are pathetically weak though. As if you could ever y a finger on me."

  She made a shooing motion at Gadjah, as if he was an annoying fly. "Now run along, nobody. Loro- and I have a pydate, and she doesn't need you hiding her anymore!"

  Lolopechka opened her mouth to retort, magic glowing around her hands - but then she froze. Her eyes went wide as she sensed an immense, unfamiliar power materialize behind Vanica.

  "So you're the one ruining my good mood with your screeg, bitch?"

  An icy voice cut through the air.

  Vanica whipped around to see a man in a dark coat standing there, his eyes fixed on her in a frigid gre. She tilted her head. "Oooh? And who might you be-"

  BOOM!

  Vanica's question transformed into a gurgle as a fist smashed into her face with a soni, sending her rocketing backward in a spray of blood and shattered teeth. She crashed to the ground in a crumpled heap twenty meters away, gasping in pain and shock.

  The newer cracked his knuckles, sneering down at her in disgust. "Tch. Annoying loudmouth bitch."

  He gnced over at the astonished Gadjah and Lolopechka. "You two - get out of here and look after those injured people. I'll hahis cag hyena."

  "But wait, she's-" Lolopechka began to protest, but a cheery voice cut her off.

  "Yoohoo~! I'm baaack!"

  Vanica sprang to her feet, all signs of injury gone. She dusted off her skirt, grinning from ear to ear. "Loro-, you didn't tell me you made su iing friend!"

  She scrutihe man, eyes gleaming. "Aha, I get it now. You're the one who broke my little curse, aren't you? And so easily too!"

  The man smirked, giving a mog shrug. "Oh, you mean that pathetic excuse for a spell? Yeah, it was so weak I almost felt sorry for whoever cast it. Truly pitiful."

  Something flickered across Vanica's face - uainty? Fear?

  'What is this?!' She wondered, goosebumps rising on her skin. 'I...I 't sense his prese all. It's like he's not even there!'

  She grinned even wider, but a bead of sweat rolled down her brow. 'His power...it's like nothing I've ever entered. Incredible...'

  The man chuckled, taking a step forward - and vanished. Vanily had a millised tister a whoosh of dispced air before his grinning face was inches from her own.

  "Peekaboo."

  BOOM!

  Another shockwave bsted through the gardens as his fist buried itself in Vanica's gut with horrific force. Her eyes bulged, blood spraying from her mouth as her insides seemed to crumple in on themselves.

  But despite the devastating blow, she mao spin away, flipping acrobatically to nd in a croue distance away. She coughed, spitting out a glob of blood, but her smile never wavered.

  "Yoohoo, over here!" She sang out, waving cheerfully as if they were pying a game of tag.

  "Vanica."

  "Eh?" The devil host looked around in fusion for a moment, before her eyes gzed over. "Ugh, what do you want, Megicu? I'm kinda in the middle of something here."

  Deep in Vanica's mind, the devil's voice echoed, unusually stern. "That man...be careful, Vanica. There's more to him thahe eye."

  "Oh reeeaaally?" Vanica perked up, curiosity piqued. "Sounds like you know something juicy! , spill it!"

  "I...I'm not certain," Megicu admitted, and there was an uling note in her voice that Vanica had never heard before - trepidation. "But I feel my own power resonating with his...how very peculiar."

  Vanica blinked. "Resonating? Wait, so is he like, another devil host?"

  "Yes," Megicu firmed. "But the signature is strange, muted. If there is a devil in him, it must be a weak, low-ranking one. However..."

  "However...?" Vanica pressed.

  "He has some other power. Something...primal. Dangerous. It ules even me."

  A rare admission for the haughty high-ranking devil.

  "Well, isn't that something!" Vanica murmured. "Looks like this little pydate just got a whole lot more fu-"

  Her musings evaporated as she felt a breath of warm air on her cheek. Her head so the side and she found herself o h the mysterious man. He smiled pleasantly.

  "Yo."

  "Eep!" Vanica yelped, backpedaling frantically to put distaween them. Cold sstered her clothes to her skin.

  'H-How? I didn't see him move at all! What insane speed!'

  "Hmmm, just as I thought," The man said from behind her.

  Vanica spun around so fast she almost fell over. He was examining her with a critical eye, like a sculptor analyzing a bloarble.

  "You have an exceptionally punchable face. It just begs for a beating, y'know?" He cracked his knuckles again, grinning savagely.

  "Grrrr, you smug son of a bitch!" Vaniarled, a manic light igniting in her eyes. Inky bck blood magiveloped her hands, extending into vicious curving talons. "I'll rip that cocky lht off your face!"

  SWOOSH!

  Her blood cws scythed through the air, bck mana radiating from the deadly sshes. But the man dodged them with uny grace, as if the lethal strikes were merely errant breezes.

  Vanica tinued her relentless assault, g and swiping with blinding speed, yet not a single blow nded.

  The man ducked a whistling swipe that would've decapitated a normal human, then thrust his arm forward.

  A reddish aura fred around his fist, pulsing with the crystallized will of Supreme King Haki.

  "Let me show you what a real attack looks like!"

  BOOOM!!

  His fist never even made tact. But the shockwave of sheer pung force that erupted from his arm hammered into Vanica like an artillery shell. The phenomenon of Internal Destru shredded her ans, pulverized her bones, a her bsting backward like a ragdoll caught in a hurrie.

  CRAAAASH!!

  She smashed through the outer pace walls like they were made of cardboard, the a stone crumbling around her broken body as she cratered into the courtyard beyond.

  The man shook out his hand, an irritated look creasing his brow. For a moment, memories of a certain arrogant Witch Queen and her insufferable smugness flickered through his mind.

  "What a pain in my ass..."

  "Hee hee...ah ha ha...HAHAHAHA!!"

  Insane, discordant ughter echoed through the ruined patrance. Bloodied and battered, Vanica rose unsteadily to her feet, her grin stretg wider than should be humanly possible. Her one visible eye had transformed into an alien, cross-pupils orb, radiating manic glee.

  "Oooh, we're gonna have SUCH fun, Mystery Man! But I think it's time I stopped pying around." She flexed her fingers, an aura of malevolent power swelling around her.

  "Let's kick this up a notch! 50%! RELEASE!"

  BOOOM!

  A pilr of midnight energy exploded out of Vanica, the shockwave crag the ground at her feet. She rose into the air as a pair of twisted horns sprouted from her brow ahery bat wings unfurled from her back. Occult symbols etched themselves across the left side of her body, and her fanged es elongated into primal tusks.

  She cackled madly, fpping her new wings with relish. "Ahhh, much better! You're in for it now, Mr. Hero!"

  The man narrowed his eyes, unimpressed by the grotesque transformation. He rested a hand on the hilt of the strange bde sheathed at his waist.

  "Before you were just butt-ugly. But no, you're straight-up hideous. I'm gonna enjoy rearranging your face."

  Vanica's grin faltered for just a sed, a flicker of uainty iransfigured eye. But she quickly recovered, throwing her head ba mad ughter.

  "Bring it, Mystery Man! Show me what you really do! Because now..." The eldritch symbols on her skin fred with bloody light. "...The kiddie gloves are OFF!"

  Thus begins the true battle between the etriter and the cag devil host...

  --- ? ? ? ---

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