The Freezing Point Devil's stitched lips curved into a satisfied smile.
It took a step with its pale leg, walking unhurriedly towards Hoshino.
After just a few steps, its footsteps suddenly halted.
"You've finally come to your senses, you dog. This King has waited far too long," a sharp voice, laced with obvious delight, rang out. A leg with three distinct bone segments stepped onto the snow.
From a black void that appeared out of nowhere, a monster covered entirely in barbed spikes emerged.
Its garish purple body stood in stark contrast to the grey and white surroundings. Its two pitch-black eye sockets first looked at the motionless Hoshino, then turned to survey the Freezing Point Devil for a moment.
It raised its head arrogantly, the massive maw that took up half its face contracting and expanding.
"You're really ugly."
Those three words sent the Freezing Point Devil into a rage. Anyone else could have said it, but coming from this one, the words carried the most sting.
Thump. Thump.
The black heart beat violently twice.
The Pain Devil felt a surge of irritation. Its twisted hands clawed at its own body, violently plucking at the barbs, tearing flesh and turning it inside out. As the irritation intensified, a large hand suddenly plunged into its torso and ripped out a handful of internal organs, splattering vibrant purple fluid everywhere.
Its void-like mouth and eyes stretched into elongated ovals from the pain, trembling as it let out a deep, resonant moan.
"Ahhhhhhh~ So goooood~"
While moaning in ecstasy, it continued to viciously mutilate its own body.
"Let me share the feeling~ Fifty-fold."
As its words fell, the Freezing Point Devil's body shuddered slightly, ice-blue blood trickling from the several stitched-together faces on its form.
"You can endure the physical pain, but what about the mental kind?" The Pain Devil's triple-jointed arm straightened, pointing at the Freezing Point Devil.
The memory of Hoshino toying with it replayed over and over in its mind.
The Freezing Point Devil was thoroughly enraged.
It raised a hand towards the sky, its body becoming withered and dry. Countless small figures jumped out from the door behind it, crashing into its body and merging with it.
It opened its mouth, revealing concentric circles of densely packed teeth.
"?"
The Pain Devil tilted its head, feeling inexplicably that the other seemed somewhat familiar.
The Freezing Point Devil raised its left hand, while its right hand drew an intricately carved, ice-blue greatsword from its own palm.
Then, it raised the greatsword high. The countless small figures inside its mouth abruptly straightened up, mimicking the action of drawing and raising swords in unison. A brilliant blue light erupted.
"Holy shit?! It's Him!!!" The Pain Devil turned and fled.
It finally recognized Him.
Initially, the other's aura had been too plain, its body ragged and torn. The Pain Devil had thought it was just some minor devil from a backwater.
But this...
This was a Primal Devil!!!
"Son of a bitch! You hold a contract for so long without giving me any pain, and the first time you do, you're trying to get me killed!"
The Pain Devil was in immense pain at this moment. A Primal Devil, something rarely seen even in Hell, and it had to run into one in the human world.
It swung its bizarre arms wildly, running for its life, and dove headfirst towards the teleportation void.
The greatsword descended, carving a blue arc through the air. The arc rapidly crystallized into ice, falling to the ground and shattering into icy dust.
Shattered along with it was the Pain Devil, along with everything within a massive, fan-shaped area that stretched to the horizon behind it.
In the darkness, a piece of purple flesh connected to four barbs vanished.
The void closed.
The grey tint began to fade.
The borrowed power was no longer sufficient to maintain the 'Time Stop.'
The Freezing Point Devil leaped onto a rooftop, pointing its sword tip at Hoshino.
The greatsword blazed with blue light, emitting a bone-chilling cold.
However, at the very last moment before the grey dissipated, the Freezing Point Devil suddenly lowered its hand.
Thud.
Hoshino fell stiffly to the ground.
His face was ashen, blood welling in his eyes, motionless like a puppet with its strings cut.
He had died from the pain.
The vortex appeared. The world reset once more.
Inside the cave.
Hoshino opened his eyes.
[Lifespan: 15 Days]
[Sands of Time: Remaining Uses 0]
[Freezing Point (Z): 0.1%]
"Whew!" He gasped for air, his heart still pounding with lingering fear. "So treacherous! So despicable and shameless!"
"Good thing I was one step ahead and started summoning the devil halfway through my speech."
He kicked away the branches blocking the cave entrance, took a deep breath towards the direction of the Ice Shrine, cupped his hands around his mouth, and yelled at the top of his lungs.
"Know your place as a side character! Stay put and wait for the protagonist to smack you down, you bastard!"
"Next time, I'll kill you head-on!"
A cool breeze carrying the earthy scent of early spring brushed his face, tousling the stray hairs on his forehead.
Huff, huff, huff.
Hoshino panted heavily, but his condition improved rapidly. He seemed to glow with vitality, an unconscious smile spreading across his face.
A rookie soloing a Primal Devil dungeon—his record was there for all to see!
Crack. Crack.
"Huh?"
His smile froze.
He looked up sharply.
In the sky, an ice-blue wooden door swung open.
A black dot fell out.
Directly descending.
"It can do that?!"
Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and ran. Grey-black armor covered his body up to his waist, his arms becoming a blur as the surrounding scenery vanished in a flash.
Near the Ice Shrine, the heart didn't stop after landing. It swerved and shot towards Hoshino's direction.
Its speed far exceeded Hoshino's all-out sprint.
Snow from the path and the faces of several passersby caught up to the heart, assembling into a body. Its speed increased further.
The Freezing Point Devil seemed to stretch into a white line, stirring up a massive, delayed gust of wind in its wake.
His armored feet cratering the ground, Hoshino plunged into the fir forest.
Crows resting on branches flapped their wings, rising into the air, only to see the rapidly approaching Freezing Point Devil before they could fly far.
"I'm dead!"
He had fallen from heaven straight into hell.
'Even if I barely manage to run out of the barrier, I still can't escape it!'
His brain neurons frantically dissected every possible escape route amidst the adrenaline.
"..."
"..."
"I'm completely doomed!!!"
The fir forest suddenly disappeared. Beneath his feet was an open wilderness with a clear view.
The barrier was right ahead. He focused the Authority of Freezing Point in his palm.
Crack, crack, crack, crack!
A series of sounds like shattering glass.
The barrier vanished. He charged out the moment it disappeared.
The sound of fir trees snapping behind him ceased.
"It's out of the woods. It's less than fifty meters behind me!"
[Sands of Time: Deactivated]
[Five Uses]
[Beginning Cost Extraction]
"Huh?"
There was no time to think. His body felt like an overturned hourglass, rapidly sinking into chaos and debilitating weakness.
His surroundings began to warp and distort. The ground became impossibly hard, his legs going weak with every step, threatening to buckle.
As the Freezing Point Devil entered a thirty-meter radius, a chill ran down his spine as if a snake were slithering there.
A sudden gust of wind.
"Why is it so hard being the main character?"
He no longer had the strength to support his body and fell forward.
In his final moments, an image of Kobeni Higashiyama's pitiful face flashed through his mind.
"I really want to kiss..."
Splat.
He hit the ground.
Contrary to his expectations, the ground wasn't hard at all. Instead, it was surprisingly soft and carried a familiar scent.
Like an oriental fragrance.
Mysterious and captivating.
"Sis, I'm your dog," he thought, before passing out in relief.
"Hoshino-kun, you're truly fascinating. To single-handedly push a Primal Fear to this state."
A black overcoat flapped in the wind.
Makima caught Hoshino as he collapsed against her chest, raising a hand to point at the charging Freezing Point Devil.
"Bang."