When Tia first laid eyes on the demon, she thought it resembled a gigantic monkey.
Its slender body was covered in black fur, with long, thin limbs and even a lengthy tail. By all appearances, it looked exactly like an ape.
The only exception was its face. It possessed a mouth much like a human's, yet lacked every other facial feature. Above that mouth, positioned vertically, was a single enormous eye, tightly shut.
Since its Concept was not constantly active, the First Squad began with their usual probing tactics.
As always, Cypher released a sphere of light and slowly guided it toward the demon. When it reached a certain distance, the demon suddenly stopped, turning its head toward them.
Its solitary eye opened, revealing a bloodshot eyeball beneath the lid.
Though several hundred meters still separated them, everyone could feel the weight of the demon's gaze.
At the same moment the eye opened, so too did its Concept.
"Concept: Reflection."
Cypher announced the result displayed on the detector.
The six of them exchanged confused looks.
No one had any idea what Concept: Reflection actually did.
"Detonate the sphere."
Following the order, Cypher pushed the glowing orb forward.
Before it even reached the demon, the creature lunged first.
A massive hand, larger than the sphere itself, slammed downward. The instant the energy construct made contact, it erupted into a violent explosion, shredding the demon's hand into a bloody mess.
Quent's hand became a bloody mess as well.
"Urgh!"
Biting down hard to suppress a scream, Quent clutched his injured right wrist.
His palm had been torn apart, blood pouring from the mangled flesh.
It was identical to the demon's wound.
The difference was that the demon's hand regenerated almost instantly before charging straight toward them.
"Everyone stay where you are! Don't move recklessly!"
Issuing the order without hesitation, Tia flew toward the demon alone, drawing its attention before it could reach her squad.
She wasn't falling back into her old habit of trying to defeat the demon by herself.
The incident moments ago had allowed her to realize exactly what the demon's Concept was.
It could reflect injuries inflicted upon its own body onto someone else.
The difference was that the demon could regenerate.
Her teammates could not.
Tia found herself trapped in an impossible dilemma.
She had to kill the demon.
But hurting it meant hurting one of her own people.
Should she sacrifice a teammate to complete the mission?
Even after accepting that casualties were an unavoidable reality for the combat units, she still couldn't bring herself to knowingly send one of her teammates to their death.
"Ahhh!"
Watching the demon reach up in an attempt to grab her, disgust welled inside Tia.
What a vile Concept.
Unable to catch the target hovering overhead, the demon quickly lost interest and turned toward the rest of the squad.
"Your opponent is me!"
"Solar Halo."
A disc of light shot toward the only place Tia dared attack—
the demon's tail.
"Aaaagh!"
Its severed tail sent the demon howling in pain as it spun around to pursue the one responsible.
To keep it from losing interest again, Tia deliberately lowered her altitude, remaining just within its reach as she lured it farther away.
Maybe the Concept has a range limit, she thought.
Once they had traveled far enough that she could no longer see her teammates, she attacked again.
A narrow beam of light shot toward one of the demon's fingers.
"What's the situation?"
She checked over the communicator.
The answer was even worse than she'd feared.
"It didn't work. Caesar's the one who got injured."
The reflected target could change.
In other words, even if Tia ignored everything else and killed the demon outright, it could simply pass each fatal wound onto a different squad member before dying—
or even onto Tia herself.
"Check yourselves for any kind of mark."
"We already did. There's nothing."
"What about the detector?"
"It isn't sensitive enough to tell who's currently affected by Concept: Reflection."
As she searched desperately for a solution, Tia gradually closed the distance.
To the demon, she had become nothing more than an annoying fly buzzing before its face—
one it simply couldn't swat.
Leading it farther away was no longer an option.
If it could transfer its target without even seeing them, then putting more distance between them would accomplish nothing.
Unable to catch Tia no matter how many times it attacked, the demon grew increasingly enraged.
Its once-slender limbs began to swell, thick muscles bulging beneath its black fur.
It unleashed punch after punch toward Tia, each empowered fist carrying enough force to shatter the earth in a single blow.
Watching massive rocks explode beneath those strikes, a terrible feeling crept into Tia's heart.
"Is anyone's knuckle injured?"
"Yes. It's being passed around between the five of us."
So it could spread even when the injury wasn't inflicted by Tia herself.
If the demon starts harming itself...
"Fall back immediately. I'll hold it off. Go find Yinbing and have her remove the Concept."
"Understood."
Just as the five of them prepared to retreat, the demon sensed its prey escaping. It immediately abandoned Tia and charged straight toward them.
"Stop retreating! It's coming after you!"
But it was already too late.
The charging demon leaped high into the air, raising both fists before smashing them down.
Rocks exploded in every direction.
Fortunately, none of them were hit.
Before it could launch another attack, Tia darted in and placed herself between the demon and her squad.
The longer this dragged on, the worse their situation would become.
"Request an Emergency Call. Yinbing—"
She paused.
"No... call Ethel as well."
Since they had no way of identifying who was currently linked by Concept: Reflection, the demon could simply transfer the connection again before Yinbing dispelled it.
Their only hope was that Ethel's Concept: Heart could identify the current target.
Otherwise...
...every one of them would die here today.
"Until they arrive, nobody dies."
"That's an order."
The six of them began circling the demon.
Unable to block its attacks, they could only dodge.
Relying on years of combat experience, they barely managed to weave through the relentless barrage.
Suddenly, the demon's assault slowed.
Apparently tired of playing this game of whack-a-mole, it raised a fist and smashed it toward its own thigh.
"Not a chance!"
At the critical moment, Tia fired a beam of light through the demon's palm, knocking the strike off course.
A gaping hole instantly appeared in Cypher's palm as well.
Still, a hole in his hand was far preferable to a shattered leg that would rob him of all mobility.
Now everyone had another responsibility.
Not only did they have to evade the demon's attacks—
they also had to stop it from injuring itself.
Despite their efforts, cuts and wounds gradually accumulated across everyone's bodies.
Tia attempted to restrain the demon using rings of light.
The creature responded without hesitation by snapping its own bones to escape.
At the same instant, Muzhen's left arm suffered a severe fracture.
Tia rapidly reviewed every detail she had observed.
She couldn't allow her teammates to keep getting hurt.
The Concept had only activated after the demon opened its eye.
Its gaze had to be the key.
Yet even after luring it so far away that it could no longer see her teammates, the connection had remained intact.
Once someone had been seen, leaving its sight wasn't enough to sever the link.
Then why had it cared about them escaping?
If the connection persisted regardless of distance, it shouldn't have mattered whether they fled.
She had overlooked something.
Fixing her eyes on the demon's eye, she continued thinking.
Destroying it outright was too risky.
No one could guarantee that blinding the eye would forcibly break the connection.
As she watched...
the demon suddenly rolled its eye upward until the pupil disappeared beneath the eyelid, leaving only the whites visible.
What is it looking at?
Tia realized that ever since all six of them had begun distracting it together, the demon's eyeball had constantly been moving—
sometimes even rotating toward the back of its skull—
as though searching for something.
Why?
Switching targets shouldn't require seeing them.
She had already confirmed that while drawing it away earlier.
Back then, the injuries had continued passing among the other five.
So why was it constantly moving its eye now?
She glanced toward her teammates.
A hypothesis formed in her mind.
"Everyone, spread out and find cover."
"Stay out of its sight."
"And don't stay near anyone else."
Once everyone was hidden, Tia fired another beam.
"Who got injured?"
"I did."
Wanzhu's voice came through the communicator.
"Wanzhu, you're left-handed, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Then lend me your right hand."
"Solar Pillar."
Another beam pierced the demon's right palm.
At the exact same location, a matching hole opened through Wanzhu's right hand.
"Everyone, close your eyes."
"I'm going to blind it for ten seconds."
"Anyone who isn't blinded, escape to somewhere it can't see you as fast as possible."
"Miniature Supernova."
Imitating her own Concept Release, Tia deliberately reduced the attack to brilliant light alone, eliminating the heat.
The blinding flash forced the demon to cover its eye in agony.
Ten seconds later...
the other five had completed their retreat.
"Wanzhu, are you still the linked target?"
"Yes."
"Solar Pillar."
"Solar Pillar."
"Solar Pillar."
"Solar Pillar."
"Solar Pillar."
Five consecutive beams struck precisely the same spot.
Watching the wound heal again and again before being reopened, Tia finally confirmed her theory.
"The other five are completely unharmed."
Once marked by the demon, a person remained connected no matter how great the distance.
Even if the demon couldn't see them, the connection itself remained.
But changing targets wasn't so simple.
At first, Tia had assumed that both maintaining and transferring the mark required no line of sight.
Yet once everyone split up, the demon had begun constantly searching with its eye.
Because the five were no longer grouped together.
The mark could only move between people who were close to one another.
If nobody was nearby...
the demon had to use its eye to establish a new mark.
She couldn't completely rule out the possibility that the demon was deceiving them.
But the odds were vanishingly small.
Demons weren't humans.
They didn't employ Concepts with such elaborate deception.
"The five of you, go meet up with Yinbing and Ethel."
"Tell them everything we've learned."
"Wanzhu, stay hidden."
"Don't go anywhere near them."
Hearing Tia's explanation, the others quickly understood the situation and immediately withdrew.
Once the blindness wore off, the demon realized most of its prey had escaped.
It roared furiously.
Now it could only transfer its injuries onto a single person.
At this point, Tia could kill it.
All it would cost...
was Wanzhu's life.
Even so, she still wanted to hold out until reinforcements arrived.
"Wanzhu."
"If things get out of control..."
"I'll kill you along with the demon."
"Understood."
Having prepared for the worst, Tia turned her full attention back to the battle.
She had to hold on until Yinbing and Ethel arrived.
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