Shin walked towards the slightly opened door—only to pause only two steps later. He squinted at the thin web visible in the air.
Thousands of strands, almost invisible in the air, created a three-meters tall wall around the lighthouse. It looked as durable as a spider's web—in other words, not at all.
'Is this a defensive formation?' Tetsu asked, peeking her head from Shin's shoulder.
'Yes. It's not too powerful, though. Just two Verses. But if we went into it blindly, those strands would've tried to cut AND strangle us.'
'Cut us?' Tetsu huffed. 'They are too weak for that! Boss, let me show that formation who's the superior demon here!'
Shin nodded. 'Go ahead.'
Tetsu sprung forward fully. She was grinning as she outstretched her arms and sent a volley of dozen jagged metal pieces flying at the web strands.
The metal sawed into the threads, but they were more durable than they looked. As soon as a piece of metal touched a strand, all others nearby would gather around it, surrounding and trapping it until even Tetsu's power couldn't pull it free.
Tetsu's attack cut several dozen strands, but all the armor on her arms was trapped in the formation.
Still, the formation grew much thinner overall. Too many strands were holding Tetsu's armor, who snarled at them with affront.
"That thing! Well, I will show it! Take this!"
With that battlecry, Tetsu stepped towards the web and swung her claws at it. Under their sharpness and the force of Tetsu's blow, the web strands snapped into pieces before they could even try to ensnare her.
"That's right, Tetsu!" Shin said. "This is a defensive formation with two Verses, after all! It can take some damage, but you will deal with it easily in melee."
She wasn't listening.
"Take this! And this! This this this!" Tetsu shouted, cutting more and more of the formation. In a few seconds, her armor was free, and returned to her arms.
In a few more seconds, the formation was gone. Tetsu shook the last pieces of web from her fingers and turned to beam at Shin.
"Good job, Tetsu." Shin nodded, smiling back at her. "Now… do it again."
"Huh?"
Shin pointed behind her. "The owner of this lighthouse was too paranoid to be satisfied with only a weak barrier like this. Since he didn't have the power or resources to make stronger barriers, he just made seven of them. Six more to go."
Tetsu slowly turned her head where, if you looked hard enough, you could see a thin web of silky strands.
"I suppose I can help, too," Shin added, frowning. "My knife should be sharp enough…"
"No! I can do it. You can rely on me, boss! Six barriers will only take a minute, trust me!"
After one last smile at Shin, Tetsu lunged for the next barrier, tearing at it with urgency. In a few seconds, there wasn't enough of it left to support the demon's existence.
In no time, Tetsu had already finished the last formation and strutted toward Shin with an expectant expression.
"So, was that really a minute? I really tried to cut them faster…"
"Oh. I didn't actually count." Shin shrugged. "It felt very fast, though. I didn't have the time to get bored."
He wouldn't admit to anyone, but he was too distracted by the enthralling way Tetsu looked when she was so focused on the task. The flex of her hip muscles, the stretch of her grin…
But Tetsu must've caught a hint of Shin's emotions either way, because she smiled wider.
"I'm so glad, friend…" she murmured, placing her hands on Shin's chest. "I really love to serve you well, you know. Just what you deserve…"
Her fingers trailed down Shin's chest for a second, before she sank inside his body.
Shin let out a slow breath and tried to force his stupid, teenage body to not consider this an invitation to sex.
'There are more traps ahead,' Shin said, focusing on the task in front of him. 'But we shouldn't have troubles with those, either.'
The first trap was right at the door, waiting for anyone whose guard was down after dealing with seven formations in a row. After all, only madmen would put a trap right after that gauntlet.
The creator of traps WAS a madman. But the shooting blade hidden in the doorway was obvious if you knew what to look for.
Shin smirked, feeling strangely satisfied that at least here, things were exactly as they should have been.
He broke the blade's mechanism with a swing of a crowbar and stepped inside.
A sickeningly sweet smell of incense assaulted Shin's senses. The place was dark, so Shin brought his torchlight to look around. The first floor of the lighthouse was once a living space, but now it looked half-abandoned, with old floorboards and decaying furniture.
Shin made two steps forward and smashed a false floorboard under which hid a bear trap. The strike was hard enough to break the spring of the trap and prevent it from closing around the crowbar.
There were more traps like these, but Shin destroyed them, too. Even a couch in the living room was booby trapped, but Shin left it alone—he didn't plan on sitting on it.
Instead, he went right to the top of the lighthouse. Everything of value was there.
Shin stepped only on every second step of the staircase, since every other one was trapped. Except for the very end of the staircase, where the creator of the traps tried a mind trick again by placing a trap on a "safe" step and leaving the other one safe to walk on instead.
'I'd give him points for creativity, but wouldn't it be the same as patting myself on the back?'
Shin jumped over both the steps, landing squarely on the top of the stairs. He prepared to meet the warlock of the lighthouse, who was hiding there.
But when he opened the door, instead of the warlock, he saw muzzles of several guns aimed at him.