Thanks to the explosion, most of the officers that were sent received injuries that are not fatal but enough to leave them out of commission for the time being.

Only Marshal and the trio seem to be conscious. Marshal, however, is bleeding constantly.

Ira uses the katana in his hand to help himself stand up.

Laos stands up and stretches a little, as he did not take much damage.

Alice's legs shake trying to stand up.

Ira looks around, analyzing his surroundings.

Most of the people that came with them are knocked out.

Ira takes out his phone and dials someone's number.

He talks with the person on the phone for only a few seconds before calling out Alice and Laos.

"Laos, Alice."

Ira takes Alice and Laos's attention.

"Give everyone here simple first aid and call the support division. I'll deal with that demon alone myself."

Laos looks at Ira in doubt.

"Are you crazy?! You can't possibly think you can defeat him alone!"

Ira looks up at where the demon crawled out of.

"Judging by the sounds up there, everyone thinks this is a play or some sort of role-playing."

Looking out at Laos, Ira reassures him.

"Don't worry, I have a plan in mind."

Laos, still doubting, decides to push his doubt aside and trust Ira.

With a smile Laos says, "Alright, don't die, or else I won't be able to take you out for dinner."

Ira shakes his head.

"You never change."

.....

[Is no one among you onlookers brave enough to challenge I? ]

Someone from behind the knight shouts loudly.

"I DO!"

It seems to have caught his attention.

Turning around.

The smoke slowly dissipated as Ira was revealed in his sight.

[Oh? You look quite young, child.]

[From where does your courage come, to challenge me?] 

Ira tightly grips his katana and points it at the knight.

"It's my job to fight beings like you."

The knight seems to have taken quite an interest in Ira's answer.

[Hoh... How courageous of you, child.]

[Then I shall gladly respond to your challenge.]

[Ready yourself.....]

At the same time, many people are getting on the train.

The number of people increased as people kept getting inside.

Most of the passenger cars have been occupied by the people.

The doors to the subway station close.

With a loud announcement.

[«Now departing to—»]

[«Eden City»]

The train now makes its departure.

Ira and Equitas charged at each other.

Their weapons clashed, making sparks as they ground their weapons against one another.

SKRRRRK!

Both get pushed back but start charging against each other again.

Their constant back and forth of striking, blocking, and parrying.

Their swordplay amazes the crowd.

BRAAANG!

Despite Ira holding his ground, he is slowly getting pushed back.

"(Not yet... I have to keep stalling!)"

"(One misstep and it's death!)"

Ira and Equitas lock their eyes onto each other's weapon.

Both of them seem to be focused on only each other, ignoring the surrounding loud crowd cheering.

[Impressive swordsmanship, child.]

For a moment, Ira looks somewhere else.

A mountain where the train usually passes through.

There he sees light coming from a tunnel where there are train tracks.

At this moment the knight kicks Ira in the abdomen thanks to Ira losing focus for a moment.

"GAH!"

The kick was strong enough to send Ira flying out of the fair and coughing up a bit of blood.

Right at this moment Ira's katana emanates a dark-purplish energy that permeates and covers his arm up to his elbow.

Then a small trail coming from the dark-covered arm goes up to Ira's back, around the scapula.

A black wing made from the dark energy.

Using his wing to stop himself midair.

Flying towards the train tracks where, just at the right moment, a train comes out.

All of this the knight saw unfold, while the crowd seemed to think the role-playing was too realistic.

[Dost thou want to change our place of duel? Very well.]

The knight realized that Ira wanted to change their place of duel to on top of the train, which the knight understood to be some kind of fast-moving carriage.

Planting his sabaton on the ground firmly, he jumps. The ground cracks from the sheer force of the jump and the speed of it. As Equitas almost catches up with the speeding train.

Ira is on one knee, huffing and trying to catch his breath.

Surprisingly, Ira hadn't flown off the speeding train. There seem to be tiny spikes on the sole of his shoes that are created from the same thing as his dark-covered arm and dark wing. The very same thing he used to cut the bus demon in half.

Divine Treasure 'Gladius Obscurus.'

A katana found in Svalbard, Norway. During one of its darkest nights around winter.

A weapon that gathers the surrounding darkness and shadows. Turning it into energy for the user to freely use and manipulate.

The current time is almost noon. Where there will barely be any shade nor darkness nearby, except for his own shadow to pull from.

Amidst Ira resting, he can hear a metallic sound of armor in front of him.

[Done resting, child? ]

Ira grits his teeth and stands.

The current direction the train is going in makes Ira's back fight against the air.

"(I don't get paid enough for this.)"

This time the knight is pointing his sword towards Ira.

[En garde.]

Ira retracts the black wing he created and focuses it on his other arm.

Now both arms are covered in darkness similar to armor.

Ira uses the wind that seems to be pushing towards Equitas.

He jumps.

The train continues moving forward, but when Ira jumps, the distance between them gets closed.

Because Equitas is standing on the train and has not moved from where he stands, Ira, who jumped, flies toward the right, where Equitas is.

CLING!

Their weapons clashed and made sparks.

Round 2 of their fight begins.

Ira lands and immediately follows up with bombarding Equitas with nonstop attacks.

Making Equitas move back with each attack.

However, despite the onslaught of attacks from Ira.

Equitas remains composed.

You're getting desperate now, child. Eager to beat me that badly? ]

Equitas blocks and parries Ira's attack.

Ira stumbles back a little but still keeps his footing from falling off the moving train.

Meanwhile, Ira fights for his life on the train.

Someone seems to be walking, taking their time.

Eventually they reach the designated place.

Who is this individual waiting for?

Checking their watch, he seems to be a little early for the designated time he was told to arrive.

"Should be almost time now."

Going back to where Ira is, he seems to surprisingly hold his own against Equitas.

How has he been holding his own against such a being that is supposed to be beyond a human's capabilities?

The answer to that is simple.

Equitas's rank is Greater Demon, a powerful rank just by hearing its name.

However, it is the second-lowest rank for demons.

The lowest rank is Lesser Demons, which are imps.

Greater Demons are those that are capable of speech and have an ability that is either granted to them or they are born with.

Equitas was the latter, being born and based on the knights in the medieval ages.

Hailing from the Wrath ring, a place where those have committed the sin of wrath. Demons born in the Wrath ring are ruthless in nature. To describe the Wrath ring in one word would be 'survival of the fittest.'

Equitas's ability allowed him to go toe-to-toe with strong beings.

'Fair Duel'

An ability where either he or his opponent becomes stronger or weaker, making their overall stats 'equal.'

In their entire fight the one who became stronger was Ira, while Equitas's strength remained the same.

Fair duel only applies to one person only, and even Equitas himself cannot choose whether to make his opponent weaker or stronger nor choose the target for his ability.

In this instance Ira was made stronger to match Equitas.

The deciding factor for this match would be... 'experience.'

Continuing, Ira sends out dark slashes using his Divine Treasure.

Then charges at Equitas at the same time.

Equitas deflects each one Ira gave by the time he deflects all of them.

Ira is already in front of him, bringing his katana upwards and then downwards, putting all of his strength into it.

Equitas responds to Ira's downward slash with an upward slash.

CLANG!

Ira stumbles back because of the force of their swords clashing.

Regaining his footing, he goes back to charging at Equitas.

However, by the time Ira does...

Equitas slashes Ira diagonally to his torso.

Albeit the injury was not deep, it was an almost lethal attack.

Thanks to this, Ira loses his footing and falls off the train.

At the same time the train announces....

[«Now arriving to—»]

[«Eden City»]

Thanks to the injury caused by Equitas, Ira can barely move his body.

As Ira is falling, he is mustering every muscle in his body to move even a bit to soften his fall.

However, because the elevation of where the tracks are placed on the side of the mountain is 24 ft tall.

The impact from hitting the floor will be painful and lead to his death.

Just as everything seems to be hopeless...

Out of nowhere, multiple strings wrap around Ira's torso.

His barely conscious body gets pulled to the source of the strings that are wrapped around him.

Ira sighs in relief.

"I'll leave the rest to you....."

"Graim."

Graim lays Ira down behind him. 

BOOM!

CRACK!

The knight jumped from the train, landing on a car and crushing it from the sheer impact of the fall.

[Do not intrude in this honorable duel.]

With a calming smile as if in control of the situation.

"Apologies for my interference, Sir Knight. Today is the modern era."

Graim's eyes squint a little, and he gives a menacing smile.

"There is no such thing as 'fairness' in today's modern duels."

Suddenly, strings come out of the fingertips of Graim's left hand.

The strings bound the knight before his body could react to it.

Then Graim balls his hand into a fist and slowly tightens his hold on the knight.

[Doth thou think these measly strings can hold me?]

"Of course not. I still have another surprise in store."

BOOM!

The strings burst into flames, slowly melting the knight's armor and burning him.

[Impossible! These flames are-]

Before he could finish his sentence, another string choked the knight in the neck—stopping him from continuing his sentence.

[GAAAHHHHH!]

"Shh."

In the midst of Graim's torture of the knight, he slowly takes his time till the flames have burned the knight thoroughly.

Ira sees the flames burning the knight and recognizes it.

"(A flame that keeps changing colors but ordinary water can never put it out.)"

"(How is Graim using that?)"

Too tired and in pain to even speak, Ira just inhales and exhales slowly to ease the pain from his injury.

"It's about time we end this. I have to take my dear employee to get treated; after all, what type of boss would I be if I didn't tend to my employee?"

The strings tighten at an alarming speed.

Thanks to the armor being melted by the flames, Graim can easily now slice the demon to pieces.

SKRRRRR!

[AAAAHHHH]

Abruptly pulling the strings that are on fire, Equitas is sliced into multiple pieces.

An anticlimactic end for the knight, unsure whether he is still alive or not.

Graim overlooks it and picks up Ira, who has passed out.

He takes the walkie-talkie from Ira's waist and gives orders to the officers in Roseton.

BEEP!

"This is Graim, the leader of the main branch—confirming that the demon has been exterminated."

"Please tend to anyone that is injured, and make sure to cover this incident up as a role-playing event gone wrong."

"That is all for now."

Graim attaches the walkie-talkie to his waist.

Looking at the passed-out and injured Ira, he grins.

"Not bad."

Chapter 9 End...