Immediately after Hawkeye’s arrow reached the demon’s left hand, the first to react was, amusingly enough, not the demon.
It was Berserk.
“Retreat!”
From the tips of her toes to the crown of her head—even the fine hairs standing on her skin—everything screamed at her.
If she did not run right now, she would die.
She would die without even getting a chance to do anything.
“Waaah!”
So she reflexively seized Mistletoe by the nape and threw herself into the Vermilion Bird’s embrace.
According to her instincts, this was the place where their chances of survival were highest.
Crash!
And then the storm erupted.
Its intensity was on an entirely different level from the blast the Vermilion Bird had shielded them from before.
“Ghh!”
“Ghek!”
[Waaah!!]
The Vermilion Bird was not oblivious either. It lowered its neck around them, spread its wings, and formed a second layer of protection.
Of course, even that could not completely block the indescribable collision of energies.
The space outside the Vermilion Bird vanished first, almost as if it had evaporated.
What remained shortly afterward was an almost hemispherical crater tens of meters deep.
“Fu… ck.”
“Whew.”
Then air rushed violently into the space where the crater had formed.
The explosion had temporarily produced a vacuum, and with the force now exhausted, the surrounding air came flooding back in.
Berserk’s and Mistletoe’s hair whipped wildly forward in the reverse wind.
[Aaaagh!]
Berserk stepped forward into that wind.
It was only natural.
The…