The smoke soon began to clear, revealing Rokas and the others. His defense seemed to have worked; the tourists had barely sustained a scratch.
Their play was also quite successful by the looks of it. Rokas could clearly see every camera in the area pointed in their direction.
Taking a subtle glance at the nearby window, Rokas gestured to Victor to follow his lead. The latter seemed to have understood it, and nodded in reply.
Suddenly, Rokas bolted in the direction of the window, and leapt off the moment he reached it. Victor was not far behind, dashing straight through the opening.
Although their play was not very lengthy, Rokas knew that they had successfully gathered the attention of possibly every individual in the museum. That was more than enough to give Group Two the leeway they needed to sneak inside.
Once Rokas and Victor had reached the bottom, they continued running. A few minutes later, Rokas had told his brother to stop.
"We should be good. Good going, Victor."
"Nah, that was all you. Can't tell how long I've been wanting to get a good hit on you."
"Well, we should get going now. Let's head to the second floor."
With that, the duo made their way back inside the museum. This time, they had taken the back door.
A few siblings had stayed back to guard the exits, and had smiled upon seeing Rokas.
"Thank you for your work. Where are the others?"
"They should be further up ahead, working to secure the perimeter. Only Jesse and a few others continued onward to disable the security system."
"I see. Well then, I will leave this area to you. Let's go, Victor."
The next few minutes were rather quiet. The museum's first floors were devoid of any guards. Rokas had assumed they were taken out by his siblings, but there weren't any traces of battle around.
Either they were exceptionally good at hiding bodies and removing the evidence, or there simply was no battle that happened.
Rokas hoped that it was the former.
But perhaps his hopes were too unlikely. Just in time, a single security guard had seen Rokas and Victor.
Suddenly, both of them felt the air turn dark. It shifted from cold air-conditioned air into a miasmic haze that threatened to swallow them.
Looking at the security guard, Rokas had finally realized who they were up against. This presence simply couldn't be ignored.
They were facing a demon. And by the looks of it, a rather high-ranking one, at that. At the very least, the demon was a B- rank, based off how similar it was to a human's appearance.
"Hey… this ain't good, ya? I was told I'd be sent to fight the slayer of Varnier, but the only people I see here are these sheltered little fledgelings, ya."
Like a zombie, the demon's body lacked any sort of steadiness in its movements. It moved as if it had not a single bone inside it.
"Of course, there's no way a sheltered little swordsman could defeat the Stone Demon, so I don't know what the generals are getting so worked up about, ya."
Both Rokas and Victor raised their weapons in response. Especially Rokas, who had tightened up the moment he heard the mention of Dignitas.
If the demon in front of Rokas was sent to kill him, then what about the others? Were they also under attack?
"It's not good to think of negative thoughts during a fight. I should focus on defeating the demon. Let's go, Victor. We'll defeat it together."
"Hell yeah! This is my first time fighting a demon, so maybe I'll need a bit of guidance. But hell no, I ain't gonna be a hindrance."
***
"What a coincidence. Good evening, Miss Somnus."
It was once again late in the night. Dignitas had stayed behind with Andrea in order to help with paperwork and other things. Their work had extended way past their original expected time, but thankfully just finished.
Dignitas wasn't feeling like sleeping quite yet. During their session, he had drank quite a few cups of coffee and was now feeling wide awake.
So instead of heading back home to his dorm, he had resorted to heading to his now favorite convenience store to purchase some snacks to remove his midnight hunger.
It was then that Dignitas had bumped into Luna, who was once again sleeping on that very same bench. She had awoken the moment she heard the former's voice.
"Yes, it's nice to see you again. How have the stars been to you?"
"That's a weird way to ask someone their wellbeing. But it's been great. I've managed to finish a great deal of the work I had piled up."
"That's certainly nice to hear," Luna replied while yawning. "It always feels good to accomplish something, no matter how small. Do you love writing, Dignitas?"
Dignitas was too stunned to speak. How was she able to perfectly guess that?
"...i do, actually. It used to be my favorite way to pass the time."
"Oh? What happened?"
"I traveled to a place where I can't ever write about it again, sadly."
"I see…" Luna nodded, albeit confused. "I've always wanted to write my own novel, you know. I can imagine just spending the entirety of the four hours I'm awake in writing my book."
"Well, I can tell you as an author that it isn't pretty. But go for it, I'll cheer you on. I always welcome another writer buddy."
"Then, please teach me the ropes, if that's okay. I'd love to get started soon."
"Sure. How about we do it here, at this time? Whenever I'm free, I'll teach you some of my tricks."
Luna clapped her hands excitedly. "That would be wonderful! Thank you. Is there anything you want in return?"
Dignitas basically had everything he needed at this point. Anything he didn't, he would eventually get. With his power as the author, he could manipulate certain parts of the story to cater to the people he wanted.
But he still felt it unwise to refuse a trade from someone who was offering. It wasn't anything big, but he didn't mind asking for it.
"Then, how about we become friends? I'd like to get to know you more."
"Ah, I would love that too!" Luna stood up in happiness. "Oh, too fast, I'm getting dizzy…"
Her body hadn't finished adjusting to standing up yet, and thus left her weak.
Acting swiftly, Dignitas caught her in his arms and laid Luna on the bench slowly.
"Don't push yourself."
"Yes, I really shouldn't. But thank you, Dignitas. Once again, it's nice to meet you, friend!" She offered one of her hands for him to shake, which he did.
Just then, the clouds began turning dark. It was hard to see due to it being night, but the sudden shift in the atmosphere had alerted both Dignitas and Luna.
"Looks like I drew the lots correctly. I knew my luck would pull through, hehe."
In front of them, a mass of smoke had formed, and a man came out. Just like the one Rokas and Victor encountered, its appearance closely resembled that of a human's.
"Time to die, Varnier-slayer. We'll see if your victory against the Stone Demon was real or not!"
Just then, the sound of heels clicking against the floor could be heard. They were coming from Luna, who had stood up from her place on the bench.
Slowly, she approached the demon. Then, she raised her left hand, and light began to converge from all around.
It was a beautiful sight. Out of nowhere, a gauntlet made of pure light energy had manifested itself on her limb. It was twice as large as her hand, and had claws that were sharper than even Dainsleif's blade.
"I apologize for this, but you are disrupting my time with Digntas." Luna murmured.
"Huh? You looking for a fight, girly? I'd suggest you scurry on back with your tail between your legs, lest you want those arms of yours to be gone."
"I really am sorry, I gave you a chance."
Raising her gauntlet, Luna snapped her fingers. At that very moment, the demon felt multiple holes appearing in its body.
Looking down, the demon was surprised to find that more than six spears of light had pierced through its skin.
It's last words were, "You-how?!" Before it gradually began to disappear into dust.
Dignitas was left dumbfounded. In less than ten seconds, a B- rank demon had disappeared entirely from the face of the earth. What was left was dust, the only thing that served as a memory of it ever living.
"Well, look at that. I didn't even get to pull out my sword. You're really something, Luna."
"Thank you! I worked really hard to get here. But I'm still very far away from my goal."
"But uh, how'd you do that? I know Light is the bane of all evil beings, but was that really enough to bridge the gap between a demon and you?"
"I'm afraid that was it. Ah, but I do know my light is different from the normal way people see it, in the sense that it is much more potent against demons. Perhaps that was it!"
"S-sure, whatever you say."