1 Wake Up and Kill a Devil

Iota, a word that implied 'an extremely small amount.'

An extremely small amount of a certain substance getting into a certain unlucky organ resulted in an unavoidable mistake.

"P-Please, spare me." A grown man with a well-built body gasped to speak, his voice almost inaudible as a result of the cut on his neck. It prevented him from raising his voice. His waxed abs were laid out in full display, almost shining under the dull street light due to the expensive moisturiser used.

His expression was one of fear, his paralysed body refusing to cooperate with his fleeing wishes.

"Come on, I was just getting to the good part." Standing before him was a teenager, sporting rusty grey-tinted hair tied up into a ponytail. In his hand was a box and neatly packed within was a row of empty syringes.

The teenager used a syringe to carefully extract blood from the man while speaking, "Where was I? Ahh yes, I was giving you the meaning of Iota."

"I won't tell anyone about this. Please, spare me." The man pleaded desperately, feeling light-headed the more his blood was extracted.

"So, when my dad pulled out a fraction of a second late, an iota of his sperm spilled into my mom. It was too late by the time she realised she was pregnant." The teenager completely ignored the man's pleading cries as he continued, "The law forbids abortion if the baby is more than four weeks old. It seemed she was on the 'healthier' side and didn't notice anything until three months into the picture."

"I was born as a result and that became my name." The teenager said calmly as he stored the syringe—with the man's blood—in a cold box, "Social stigma forced her into depression and resulted in her suicide soon after, all thanks to an iota of sperm. It's why I gained such a shitty name…"

"Iota."

By this point, the man had fainted, his face blue due to a severe loss of blood. Though, ignoring his condition, the teenager, Iota continued to extract blood, "Which is why you must also use protection. You have an unfairly handsome face. You also take care of your body. Chicks flock toward you like bargain sale. So, mule necks like you look down on protection, right?"

"Anyway…" Iota tilted his head, watching the man go into haemorrhagic shock, "So soon? Damn, you're weak."

"Guess this is it." Saying so, he packed the cold box in a bag and began to clean up the place, carefully wiping off all traces of himself before walking away upon confirming the man's death.

Iota switched streets and walked casually, pausing all of a sudden in realisation, "Damn, I didn't even get to finish the story. Sheesh…"

"This part of the city has too many greenhouse vases."

"Hey there, handsome. Wanna have fun?" A sultry voice resounded nearby as Iota resumed walking. This part of the city was known for its clubs. And operating amidst them, hidden from the law were brothels.

He didn't even spare a glance and spoke in practice, "I'm underage, aunty. Find a grandpa your age."

"This rude fuc…"

It was as if his ears had a natural filtering capacity as the string of swear words didn't even affect him. Iota eventually made his way into an abandoned building with familiarity, observing the place taken over by stray dogs.

He calmly took out a live chicken that he had knocked out beforehand and threw it with strength, watching the dogs wrestle each other for the prey.

Iota then took out the two cold boxes from his bag, setting them before him, labelled 'Gin' and 'Chad.'

"An eight-year-old boy's fresh blood, the perfect paint!" He hummed a little and familiarly inserted a syringe into an apparatus with a brush head. The blood within the syringe began to automatically flow into the brush that he used to draw a circle on the floor.

"Radius 164 centimetres, the same as my height…" Following that, he drew a hexagon within. The shapes were perfect, as if drawn with the impeccable usage of tools. But it was free drawn with hand, implying monstrous practice.

"Now, a live sacrifice…" He muttered upon drawing a smaller circle within, one that was created by tangential lines emerging from the vertices of the hexagon. Iota took out the second live chicken from his bag and placed it within the circle.

He gently pricked its neck, watching a droplet of blood ooze out as immediately, the bloody drawing lit up in response.

The chicken woke up in fright and tried to instinctively flee but strangely, its body remained immobile, restricted by a formless force emanated by the circle.

Strange, jet-black tentacles emerged from the circle as they flowed into the chicken, causing it to tremble in pain as bone-crunching sounds resounded. Its body began to grow in response, becoming more and more humanoid with each passing second.

Iota didn't even seem bothered about the phenomenon as he calmly took out the syringes from the cold box labelled 'Chad' and poured them on the floor. He pulled out a nerf gun and loaded it with bullets that soaked the blood, making preparations.

A minute passed as crimson energy surged within the circle, becoming a mini tornado as the dark silhouette of something flashed within from time to time. Soon, an overbearing voice resounded, "Who dares form a contract with the Devil, Asphalto?"

Click!

Iota finished loading up his nerf gun as he spoke, "Indeed, the blood of a virgin boy summoned a female Devil, as usual. This one seems stronger than the ones from before."

The crimson tornado vanished as the silhouette of a humanoid creature was revealed. Reddish, lava-like horns jutting out of the head, ruby eyes, an elongated jaw filled with shark-like teeth, and an overall malevolent expression.

Two jet-black wings seemingly made of ether unfurled themselves behind the creature that hovered a metre above the ground. It didn't even do anything beyond that, but the sheer presence it emanated caused all the dogs in the abandoned building to froth at the mouth and faint.

Devil!

Iota winced a little under the Devil's stare as he pressed the trigger, shooting the nerf bullets at her.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The nerf bullets slammed into the Devil and smeared blood on her body. There was silence for a couple of seconds before the expression of the Devil paled in response, her eyes finally observing Iota's figure to scream, "You damn fucker! What in horror is this?"

Gahh!

She clutched her head and roared in pain as sections of her body smeared by the blood—from the nerf bullets—began to melt.

"A Chad's blood." Iota said, explaining upon seeing her confusion, "Basically, a man that had whored himself, definitely the farthest from the virgins you love."

"You…piece of shit…" The Devil tried to attack him, only to slam into a barrier of sorts, staring at the magic circle that summoned her being surrounded by the Chad's blood. It prevented her from leaving the summoning circle while Iota took the opportunity to calmly bombard her with attacks.

"I'll…kill…you! Just you…wait…human…" Her screams died as her body melted into a puddle. The puddle was jet-black in colour that spread over the floor and covered the summoning circle, absorbing it before highlighting it with a crimson hue.

The jet-black puddle rapidly shrunk in size soon after, becoming a thumb-sized tattoo, the material resembling human skin. Iota picked it up and dusted it, muttering upon inspection, "Alright, this is pretty decent."

He then packed his belongings, cleaned up all traces of his actions at the place, and left before the dogs woke up.

Police sirens reverberated throughout the neighbourhood soon after as someone had reported the corpse in the alley.

By this time, Iota had made his escape, travelling for a couple of hours to arrive at the other end of the city, and entered an orphanage.

"Where the hell were you, Iota?" A concerned voice resounded as a girl with murky brown hair, a year younger than him appeared before him, carrying a set of bags, having just arrived at the place. She had been waiting at the entrance, nervous, "S-Something is wrong with our orphanage. I can't see anyone around us and when I tried to enter it, I felt a chill. So, I stayed here."

"Tell me, what is happening?" She stared at him in concern.

"You felt a chill?" Iota tilted his head as he placed his hand on the orphanage door, letting out a smile, "Well, no worries, for spring has now arrived!"

"That joke went old years ago! Don't mess with me and tell the truth." The girl pressed forth, expressing mild annoyance, "Did you do something here?"

Her name was Spring, and hence his statement. Orphans didn't have much choice in their neighbourhood and hence, they were given names without much thought.

Iota grabbed her hand and stared at it, focusing sternly. Even though nothing seemed unusual, a faint mark became evident gradually. It was a tattoo, a jet-black symbol of a skull with massive curled horns in an expression of raucous laughter. As he stared at it, the jaws of the tattoo began to slowly move as its eyes seemed to grow more and more sentient.

"It's showing again…" Iota muttered as he took out the tattoo with the crimson summoning circle and slapped it on the skull tattoo, watching it emit a dull light before causing the skull tattoo to turn stale and disappear.

The tattoo with the summoning circle burned up in response. Her hand now looked normal, with no signs of the skull tattoo, "You won't have any problems for another month."

"Did you…kill someone again?" Spring's face paled in response as her knees turned weak. She collapsed on the ground, "Why? Just leave me alone. It's my fate to die a sacrifice."

"Nope, can't do." Iota said, "I only had to kill two people this time. It's pretty cheap, you know?"

"Only cost me two chickens."