It started with little things.

A shadow moving where there shouldn’t have been one. The feeling of being watched—not menacing, not hostile, just present. You had chalked it up to paranoia, the natural consequence of living in a world where Sorcerers and demons roamed freely. But then, the real incidents began.

The first time, you had been cornered in an alley by a pair of rogue Sorcerers looking for an easy target. You had braced yourself for a fight you weren’t sure you’d win—until something shifted in the darkness behind them.

It was quick. Too quick.

One second, they were standing, casting spells. The next, a black void had opened beneath their feet. They barely had time to scream before they were gone, the portal snapping shut behind them with a hollow crack.

You had been left alone in the silence, staring at the empty space where they had stood. No sign of struggle. No sign of who had done it. Only the faintest trace of lingering energy, thick with something... inhuman.

Someone—something—was keeping you safe and you had no idea why.

You should have known you were walking into a trap.

The abandoned warehouse was too quiet, too perfectly secluded. The moment the Sorcerers surrounded you, closing in like predators, you knew there would be no easy way out this time.

They smiled like they had already won. “No one’s coming to save you,” one of them sneered.

You almost believed them.

A sudden jagged, dark portal tore itself into existence behind you, its swirling mass of black and gold crackling with raw energy. The temperature dropped instantly, the presence of the demonic aura suffocating.

A figure stepped out from the void, towering and impossibly otherworldly. His massive horns curled upward, casting long shadows. His golden eyes burned against the black void of his mask, unblinking. His claws flexed at his sides, as if testing just how much force it would take to tear through them all.

One of the sorcerers took a trembling step back. “A… A devil?”

"Took you long enough." Its voice spoke.