She had told her friends that she would somehow bring him to Marcus and also that she would steal his sword for the demon dryad she was sharing a body with.

But to do that, she would need to be extra careful and rely on her intelligence more than ever before, as well on her luck.

She approached the demon leader as he finished removing his blade from Xadi's heart. The scene was so painful that Ashley wanted to fall on her knees and throw up, but she couldn't afford to show weakness right now. She needed to endure it or she would lose her only chance.

The demon saw the girl with green skin approaching him and Ashley tried to do her best imitation of Drya to try and fool him.

"Whoa, boss!! You really did a number on this guy!!"

The words "Kill him!" and "Run away!" kept repeating inside Ashley's mind. While Ashley herself couldn't stop thinking about how she wanted revenge on the demon leader for killing her brother, the dryad wouldn't stop crying like a scared cat and saying that they should just give up and try to escape.

"Huh...? Oh, thanks... I thought he would be more of a challenge considering how much the crossbow mage's friends were talking about how they wanted him gone... Guess I got over-excited..."

This was something that was bothering Ashley a bit. Why were her friends so obsessed with taking out Xadi? But she didn't have time to worry about that. She needed to focus. Focus on the mission.

"So are we heading back to the castle now?"

[He's going to kill us... He's going to kill us... He's going to kill us... He's going to kill us...]

[Drya shut up!! You're distracting me!!]

[I can't help it!! I'm too nervous!!]

Ashley tried to calm down the dryad that wouldn't stay quiet inside her mind. Drya was the one who wanted to steal her leader's sword but after realizing how powerful he was she got cold feet and decided to hide inside Ashley's mind and leave her to do the dirty work. But now, it seemed like she was regretting it and wanted to escape.

[Maye we should back down!!]

[Would you just let me do my job?? And hide your presence! I don't want him to find us out!]

"... Are you ok...? You've been glaring at me for a while..."

"Huh!? Oh! It's nothing... It's just that... Ashy won't stay silent inside my head..."

"I see... Guess it's one of the drawbacks of having a shared body... I hope it won't be a big problem when I try it myself..."

Ashley noticed that he still wanted to move forward with his plan to use Evlin's magic to create an army of fused demons. She really needed to deal with this guy fast. She needed to rely on something she saw while they were all inside of the castle.

"Hey boss...?"

"...?"

"You mind if I stab you a bit? Just once?"

Ashley's desire for revenge was slowly growing stronger, she didn't know how much longer she could hold it in.

"You wanna do it now?? We are in the middle of a war-zone!"

"It's just that Ashy is really annoying me right now and I want to scare her a little bit..."

She kept hearing her own voice screaming "Kill him! Kill him!" louder and louder. She was actually starting to have trouble hearing Drya's voice by this point.

[Ashy, what are you doing...?]

[Quiet you dumb dryad!]

"Fine... But make it fast... We need to end this battle soon so I can get my hands on the crossbow mage."

"Thanks boss..."

Saying that line made Ashley want to scream from disgust, but at least it managed to fulfill her goal. Ashley used everything she learned from Drya to change her arms into a pair of leaf-blades. She would only have one chance so she needed to make this count.

"Hey, boss... You mind if I stab you in the back this time? Just for a change of pace..."

"Fine, but hurry!"

"Thanks boss!!"

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!" She couldn't stop thinking about these words anymore. She was seconds away from losing all common sense and letting her emotions take control of her body.

She forced the best fake smile she could master to trick him into thinking she was Drya. Every muscle on her face was fighting back against her emotions at this moment. But the moment the demon turned his back on her, she dropped her mask and finally looked at him with her real intentions.

KILL HIM!!

The words were echoing even louder than before. Ashley was about to lose her self-control.

A terrifying glare filled with bloodl.u.s.t from a girl that was staring at her brother's murderer and was about to stab him in the back. At least, that's what she wanted to do. But reason was Ashley's strongest point and at the last moment when she was swinging down her blade, she remembered her original objective and changed her target from his back to his arm.

"Mmmm...?"

The demon could not feel pain due to his superior regenerative power boosted by the weapon, but he was still shocked by seeing his arm falling in the snow. He turned around to look at Ashley.

"... I think you misse- Grraaaahhhh!!"

He then realized that his fallen arm was carrying his sword and without it, the power to nullify pain was turned off and he could feel the agony from losing a limb taking over his mind.

"They h.e.l.l are you doing???"

KILL HIM!! KILL HIM!! KILL HIM!! KILL HIM!!

She couldn't control it anymore. Ashley then took this chance to raise her blades again and finally stabbed the demon leader in the heart like she wanted gathering all the hate and suffering she was building up into that attack.

"Grraaaaahhhhh!!!!"

She looked into his eyes and whispered a few words.

"Getting some payback..."

The demon leader fell on the floor twitching in pain. Ashley wondered if she should use this chance to finish him off for good but she could see his body starting to regenerate already at an absurd pace. The words stopped screaming inside her mind and she was finally able to think clearly again after releasing all her anger.

[Run!!!!! Get out of here!!!]

"R- Right!!"

She rushed towards the arm and grabbed the sword that it was holding. But the minute she touched the black blade she started to hear hundreds of voices screaming in pain and agony inside her mind.

[I don't want to die!! Let me live! My child!! You killed my child!! Please spare me!! You monster!! You killed my family!! You destroyed my city!! Let me go, please!! It hurts!! It hurts!! You took my husband from me!! Stay away!! Mother!! Father!! Please save me!!!]

She could hear voices, men, women, and children, from all ages, all yelling in suffering about their final moments before their souls got absorbed by the sword.

"Aaaahhhh!!!"

Ashley couldn't bear the screams and dropped the sword by accident. She felt like throwing up after falling on her knees.

[What are you doing!!!?? You had it!!]

"The screams... There were... There were so many!!!"

[We need to move!!! Hurry!!!]

Ashley turned her hand into vines and started to wrap the sword in a coc.o.o.n. She touched it again to confirm that she wasn't hearing anything. The voices were still there but they were felt m.u.f.fled now.

"This should work."

She grabbed the coc.o.o.n and rushed as far away as she could. She looked behind her and saw the demon leader starting to finish his healing.

"DRYAAAAAAD!!!!!!"

[He's going to kill us!!! What have I done!!??]

"Drya, for once in your life, stay quiet!!!!"

Ashley was seconds away from panicking. The first part of her crazy plan had worked, but now she needed to lead the demon towards Marcus so they could destroy each other.

[Gustav!! Gustav are you there??? Please!!]

[Ashley!!?]

[Gustav! I stole the demon leader's sword and he's going to chase after me soon!! You need to tell me where Marcus is!! Now!!!]

[You what!!!???]

[Gustav!!! Hurry!!!]

Gustav was having trouble processing this information but he didn't have any choice. Ashley did something crazy again and just like her sister, he needed to back her up.

[Evlin found Marcus three houses away from a huge black warehouse very close to the city's entrance. Can you find the way?]

[I can! It's inside the dryad's memories!!]

[I'll meet you there! Stay safe!!]

[Thank you!!]

Ashley continued to run with all her might. She was rus.h.i.+ng through the city as if her life depended on it because it probably did.

"GET BACK HERE!!!!!"

She heard the demon leader screaming while chasing after her and turned her head to meet with his terrifying glare. Even if right now, thanks to his curse, it made it look like Ashley was looking at a mirror image of herself, she wasn't sure if even she could make such a scary face.

She looked back to her path and almost got her head sliced off by a metal sword.

"What the...!?"

She managed to duck at the last second but ended up tripping and falling on the snow. Since her body was now half-plant, she felt even colder than usual.

"Ashley??"

She stood up to see what almost hit her and noticed that it was Lilith, still in her red harpy form looking at her with confused eyes. Not too far from there, she could also see Daren in his lion form fighting some kind of archer slayer.

"Lilith??"

Lilith was looking at the plant girl and for a split-second became enraged when a.s.suming it was the dryad. But she saw into the girl's eyes and could tell that something was different.

"Ashley, is that really you??"

"Lilith the demon leader is- Aaaarghh!!"

Ashley screamed her lungs out after noticing a man with a silver spear and a silver claymore leaping towards Lilith and her.

Lilith saw her reaction and managed to parry that attack with her sword at the last second.

"You were fighting a demon slayer while being in a monster body??"

"And you were getting the demon leader to chase you??"

"Huh... No comment..."

"GIVE BACK MY SWORD!!!!"

The demon leader jumped into the sky and started to fall like a missile in the middle of their battle. The impact created a huge wave that launched all three flying backwards and colliding with nearby houses.

"Guaaahhh!!!" x 3

The demon leader spotted Ashley buried in the snow and slowly walked towards her.

"Ok, you had your fun... Now give me my sword back before I REALLY get angry!!"

"Maybe this wasn't a good plan after all..."

[YOU THINK!!!???]

Drya wanted to strangle Ashley right now but it seemed like the demon leader had already got that covered.

But while the leader was distracted glaring daggers at Ashley, Lilith jumped on him and tried to slice him with her sword.

"Stay away from her!!!!"

"Kuuuhhhh!!!"

She managed to stab him in the shoulder and he felt the power of the metal burning his skin.

"You dare...??"

He grabbed her sword and threw both it and Lilith herself up in the sky.

"Aaaaahhhh!!!"

He aimed at her with his arms and released a blast of energy towards the falling bird girl.

"Kyaaaahhhhh!!!"

"Lilith!!"

Lilith tried to block the energy blast with her armor but it was too strong for her. She started to fly even higher but a ma.s.s of black shadow jumped towards her to grab her.

"Lilith!! Are you ok!!??"

"Daren...? Ah!! Your hands!!"

While Daren was holding Lilith to save her from her fall, she noticed his arms burning from touching her armor.

"Daren let me go!! You will kill yourself!!"

"Just this much is fine, don't worry."

The leader was about to charge another blast towards the two monsters but he suddenly felt two objects impaling his body.

"Ugh!!! What is it this time??"

"I have you now bird demon!!"

He saw Clayton stabbing him with his spear and claymore. Because of the demon leader's curse, Clayton was looking at him and seeing Lilith in her bird form since he hated her for what she did to his teammates.

"For crying out loud... It's one thing after another..."

The demon leader grabbed Clayton by the head and smacked him against a wall.

"Gaaahh!!"

"Clayton!!"

Orion saw this scene and started to shoot the leader with silver arrows. But the leader was faster and blasted the arrows with his cursed energy.

"I don't have time for this... Where is... Huh!!?? Where did she go??"

He turned his attention to glare at Ashley again but realized she had already disappeared.

"DRYAAAAAD!!!!!! GIVE ME BACK MY SWORD!!!!!"

Ashley was hiding behind a wall and was observing the demon leader's fury growing by the minute. She really did come up with an insane plan this time. What's worse, as usual, Drya wouldn't shut the h.e.l.l up scared inside her mind.

[We are dead!! We are dead!! We are dead!! We are dead!! We are dead!! We are dead!!]

"No we're not!! We just need to reach Marcus!!"

[Have you forgotten that you're also a demon right now?? When Marcus sees you what do you think he will do to you???]

"... ... ... Oh..."

[Aaaaaaghhhh!!! We are going to die!!!!]

"... We need... More power..."

Ashley looked at her coc.o.o.n and started to come up with an idea.

[You wanna try using the sword against him?]

"This thing boosts demon power, right? And I'm a demon right?"

[But can you even hold it?]

"..."

Ashley took a peek on the demon leader and noticed that Lilith and Daren were trying to fight him while the slayers kept trying to get a few hits against her friends and the leader as well. It was chaos. All three sides were fighting and trying to kill each other.

"Everyone else is fighting... I can't be the only one who keeps hiding..."

[Those who hide survive!!]

"I don't want to survive!! I want to live!!"

She picked up the coc.o.o.n and started to remove her vines.

"And I can't live while my friends die..."

She tore off the vines and grabbed the coc.o.o.n and suddenly the power to the cursed sword started to flow into her body.