The sky growled once again. Sezel waited for Vesta to turn back, but she never did. It was as if she was frozen from shock at what she saw. Sezel, now curious, also tried peeking. He leaned to the other side of the crumbling wall, peering through a different gap. The sight that greeted him made his face twist into a mask of pure, unadulterated anger.

The tall, muscular man and his two teammates stood near the dead Slayer's body. The man kicked the corpse, turning it over into a grotesque form, and even after doing such inhumane action, his face was twisted in a grin.

"Bastard," Sezel cursed. He wondered if the man was even human. The mindless beasts of the Spirit Realm, for all their cruelty, killed to survive, to fulfill a primal need. They didn't have the capacity for malice.

But this man… he was a fully grown, sentient human being, and to feel nothing, to grin while performing such a vile, pointless act, made him something less than human and something worse than a beast.

Sezel's gaze flickered to the other group, and his breath hitched in his throat. The two cohorts had finally seen each other. The team led by the large, muscular man and the other team, the one with the tamed Night Crawler, were locked in a silent, deadly standoff. The air grew thick, heavy with a palpable bloodlust that Sezel could feel even from his hiding place. The muscular man's grin only widened, his eyes alight with a savage, joyous hunger.

The other team's leader was just as intimidating, though in a completely different way. He was not tall like his opponent, nor did he possess a body ripped with muscle. But there was something about him that sent shivers down Sezel's spine, and he knew, with a certainty he couldn't explain, that this man was the true predator here.

After all, one should not forget that in this world, power tops appearance, and this man was hiding a power that was far more terrifying than simple, brutish strength.

Sezel immediately pulled back from the wall. He grabbed Vesta's hand and jerked her back from her trance-like state. "Let's go," he whispered, his voice urgent. "We don't have time for this." The distant rumble of the clouds, a reminder of the reality.

She nodded, her eyes still wide with a horrified fascination, and they both turned to sprint.

SHOT!

A deafening, sonic crack tore through the air. A bullet, moving with impossible speed, ripped through the crumbling wall they had been hiding behind, passing through the space between their bodies. It struck the ground with the force of a cannonball, a small explosion of dust and shattered stone erupting at their feet.

Sezel and Vesta's bodies froze on cue, their eyes wide with shock.

"Stay where you are," a deep, feminine voice warned, her words carrying authority. "If you move, the next bullet will not miss."

Sezel's mind churned, frantically trying to place the voice, to identify the new threat. Only one option came to mind. 'It's the lady with the large weapon on her back.' The truth of that cloth-wrapped object was now laid bare. It wasn't a sword. It was a sniper rifle, a weapon of terrifying, long-range.

His thoughts were cut short as his hand was suddenly snatched to the side. Vesta had grabbed his hand and was sprinting, pulling him behind her with a strength that was born of sheer panic.

Sezel looked at her, bewildered. "What are you doing?" His mind raced. Did she not hear the warning from that lady? But as they ran, no second shot came. For a confused, disoriented second, Sezel wondered if it had all been a bluff.

Vesta continued running, ignoring him as if she was running from a predator she couldn't kill.

After they had put some distance between themselves and the blast site, Sezel finally jerked his hand free of her grip and skidded to a halt.

Vesta, too, stopped, her body trembling. "What is it?" Sezel demanded, his voice low and dubious, his own fear now replaced by a growing suspicion.

Vesta turned around in a stiff movement. Her face was a mask of pure shock, her clothes soaked with a cold sweat that clung to her body. Her long, black hair, which usually danced in the air, was now damp and plastered to her skin. Her ruby eyes, wide, stared into Sezel's, and for the first time, he saw true, gut-wrenching fear in them.

His own eyes widened. To make a Rank-5 Slayer, a being of immense power, run with such terror… what had she seen? He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it, her voice a low, strangled whisper. "They're dead."

"What? Who is dead?" Sezel asked, dazed, his heart beginning to hammer against his ribs again.

"The muscular man," she said, her voice trembling. "And his whole cohort. They're dead."

Sezel's heart skipped a beat. "What?" His lips parted in a pure, shocked expression. But what she said did make some sense. The bullet never came after they ran, but there was no sound to make him believe that the two groups had even indulged in a battle. How could anyone be dead?

"That man," she started, swallowing a hard knot of fear in her throat, "he is the infamous criminal known as 'Captain Killer'."

Sezel's eyebrows furrowed. The name meant nothing to him. He had never cared about the politics or the legends of the Slayers. But now, as a part of this world, his ignorance was a dangerous, potentially fatal liability. And from the way Vesta was reacting, this "Captain Killer" was someone to be feared.

"We need to go," she declared, her voice regaining a sliver of its usual command, though it was now laced with a desperate urgency. "We need to get back and hide with Shiki and Mari. They already know we're here. That man… he is nothing but bad news." She took a shuddering breath. "He is one of the worst of the Rank-5 Slayers, a monster at the pinnacle of power. A perfect example of what happens when absolute power falls into the wrong hands."

Every next word felt colder than the previous, and Sezel was now completely, utterly convinced. They needed to run. They needed to hide.

He nodded hesitantly, and they both began to sprint again, their steps more desperate now, their flight no longer just from the coming rain, but from the beast in the form of a human that might be hunting them.

CRASH!

Suddenly, a massive, dark object fell from the sky like a meteorite, its descent a silent, terrifying arc, and slammed into the ground just ahead of them with a force that shook the very foundations of the ruined city.