After finishing his inspection of the second floor of the mini-market, which was apparently used as the owner’s living space, Alex finally found a backpack filled with useful supplies. Most of its contents were everyday essentials—batteries, light bulbs, and other small items that could come in handy back at the settlement. Alex held the backpack in his hands, while Juri still clung to his back, her lazy expression making it clear she had no intention of getting off.

A quick sweep of the remaining rooms turned up nothing of interest—everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. From the condition of the place, it was obvious no one had been there for a long time, not even looters. Realizing there was nothing more to find, Alex headed back to the first floor.

Descending the stairs, he spotted a few regular zombies clawing mindlessly at the front glass doors. There was no point in engaging them, so Alex opted to use the emergency exit. He wasn’t worried about setting off an alarm—electricity hadn’t worked in this world for a long time. It might still function in large cities behind fortified walls, if any such places still existed.

Stepping outside, Alex and Juri found themselves in the alley behind the store. Wanting to make sure the others were safe, Alex closed one eye and activated a tracking spell. From a bird’s-eye view, he observed the area. The girls had split into two groups, and he first checked on one of them to confirm everything was fine. As he suspected, most of the zombies in the city were the slow, mindless type, with only a few mutants like hunters, smokers, and boomers wandering aimlessly.

The other group was doing fine as well, aside from Rebecca, who had apparently decided to entertain herself by enthusiastically mowing down zombies like she was in some sort of competition.

Once he finished checking in, Alex sent out a mana pulse to scan for any demonic nests. While he focused on analyzing the city’s magical layout, a few zombies happened to wander into the alley.

Hearing the familiar groaning sound behind them, Juri turned her head and spotted two zombies shambling toward them. Glancing at Alex’s face, she saw that he was still lost in thought, one eye shut. Smiling mischievously, Juri silently slid off his back.

With a playful grin, she leapt toward the zombies and spun around, kicking one of them hard enough to send it flying. Without missing a beat, she slammed into the second one, launching it down the alley just as forcefully.

Alex had just finished scanning the city when two zombies whistled past him, their faces scraping across the asphalt until they slid to a stop at the end of the alley. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, realizing the familiar weight on his back was gone. Turning his head, he spotted Juri grinning cheekily.

Catching his look, she winked playfully and, like a cat, bounced back onto his back with a cheerful hop.

“And why’d you go and kick those two poor zombies? They didn’t do anything to you,” Alex asked with a smirk.

“You were standing there like a statue with one eye closed, so I figured I’d help out! Where’s my thanks, huh? Or did you forget I don’t help for free?” Juri replied, her grin widening.

Alex’s eye twitched, but he said nothing. He knew all too well how these conversations usually ended—and he already had enough “gremlins” in his life who could charm just about anything out of him. The best option was to pretend he hadn’t heard her at all. Though that didn’t always work either.

Choosing to ignore her subtle hint, he lit a cigarette and continued on his way. After the scan, he was genuinely surprised—there wasn’t a single demonic nest in the city, only regular zombies and a couple of harmless mutants.

Juri, realizing she was being ignored, began poking Alex in the cheek and using every trick in her arsenal to get his attention. What she didn’t know was that Alex already had plenty of experience dealing with people like her.

Stepping out of the alley, Alex looked around. The streets were filled with zombies, slowly wandering in all directions. He paused for a second — if he had to sweep through every corner, it would take a lot of time. One of the zombies sensed them and let out a long moan, stumbling in their direction.

When it got close enough, Alex simply grabbed it by the head and held it at arm’s length, preventing it from getting any closer. The zombie reached its arms forward, unsuccessfully trying to grab them.

“Where to next, handsome?” Juri asked with a playful grin, watching Alex hold the zombie by the skull. “Or do you just wanna wander aimlessly around this zombie town?”

“Who knows… Maybe we’ll check out a few places and then head back to the others,” Alex replied calmly, pushing the zombie away.

Alex didn’t have a clear search plan. If he had been alone, he would’ve just created everything he needed with magic or pulled it from his inventory. Taking Murasama off his belt, he started using the katana not as a weapon but as a tool to push zombies aside. When the undead got too close to him or Juri, Alex calmly and methodically parted them like a crowd.

The regular zombies were slow and clumsy. Their only “skills” were groaning and trying to grab anything alive. It bored Alex. He even started yawning from how dull it was, all while leading a whole horde of rotting corpses trailing behind him and Juri like devoted fans.

“This is… kinda weird,” Juri commented, glancing back at the horde following them.

“What is?” Alex asked calmly, not turning his head and continuing to swing his katana to push the zombies aside.

“Well… doesn’t it bother you at all that we’ve got a whole crowd of zombies tagging along? Or do you just like the feeling of having a horde behind you?”

She smirked, and Alex paused for a moment in thought.

“Hmm, in a way, you’re right. It’s been a while since a crowd of dead fans followed me around. Kinda nostalgic, honestly. But if they’re bugging you, I can wipe them out.”

He batted away a Hunter that leapt at him, like swatting it with a baseball bat.

“Then do it — show me what you’ve got!” Juri said excitedly, hopping onto his back and tugging at his shoulders playfully.

Alex felt her rocking him from side to side. For a moment, he was caught off guard — it had been a long time since a girl had done that. It had started with Hestia, the first one who ever jostled him like that. Since then, it had become a sort of cute habit for some of them, even if a lot of time had passed since the last time.

With a slight smirk, he turned to face the horde still shambling after them. Raising his hand, he shaped his fingers like a gun, pointing the “barrel” at the undead.

“Reverse technique rotation: Red,” he said, looking straight at the center of the crowd.

A crimson-red sphere began forming at his fingertips, spinning wildly and growing rapidly. A moment later, Alex launched it straight into the heart of the zombie group.

The sphere slammed into the crowd, and in the next second, bodies started flying apart, torn to pieces. The wave of destruction tore through the entire horde and vanished, leaving behind only a bloody trail and scattered body parts. A scar-like groove marked the concrete where the blast had hit.

Alex lowered his hand and walked forward without looking back, as if what had just happened didn’t concern him in the slightest. Juri was stunned. She had seen him in action plenty of times, but this was something else entirely.

“What was that technique?” she asked, settling on his shoulders and leaning forward to look him in the eye.

“That was Red,” Alex replied. “In short, it creates a phenomenon that repels everything around it. Imagine a point in space that suddenly expands and stretches outward, pushing everything away with such force it rips things apart. It’s like a black hole… but in reverse. If a black hole pulls everything in, Red pushes everything out.”

“Hmm… confusing, but I think I get it,” Juri said, narrowing her eyes. “So if you’ve got a repulsion technique, does that mean you also have an attraction one?”

“Bingo,” Alex said with a faint smirk as a blue sphere formed at the tip of his finger.

“Then why isn’t it pulling anything?” she asked, staring at the sphere.

“Because I’m controlling it,” he replied. “There’s also a technique that combines Red and Blue. It creates a phenomenon of opposites—space warps, and everything within its zone of effect gets destroyed.”

He snapped his fingers, and between them appeared a small, ominously pulsating purple sphere.

Alex had no trouble explaining or demonstrating his techniques—there was nothing particularly secret about them. Most of them he had already shown during their travels. Dispelling the sphere, he calmly continued walking. However, Juri’s persistent curiosity about seeing the purple technique in action made him let out a tired sigh. He could feel it—if he didn’t show her what it could do, she wouldn’t stop.

But to demonstrate the full power of that technique, he needed a target—he wasn’t going to just launch it into nothing. Only after promising to show her the Purple in action later did he earn a brief moment of peace. Though Juri settled down, the questions didn’t stop—especially about how Chun-Li and Cammy had become so strong.

Alex frowned, clearly not wanting to get into the details of how he had helped the girls gain such power. He decided to keep it simple and mentioned chakra and breathing techniques that they practiced. But soon, he had to explain to Juri what chakra was, and then the basics of breathing techniques. As soon as she heard the core principles, she immediately grasped the concept and started trying it herself.

Alex wasn’t even that surprised. He knew Juri was a true combat genius. By fifteen, she was already a taekwondo master, and she only kept getting stronger with time.

While Alex was still explaining things, an explosion echoed in the distance. A black cloud of smoke rose above a part of the city where the girls were supposed to be.

He was about to leap onto a building to assess the situation when red portals opened right on the street. Marauders and demons began emerging from them.

“Looks like they’re here for you,” Juri said with a grin, pointing at the marauders, who activated their axes with a harsh grinding sound.

“Thanks for the insight, I noticed,” Alex muttered, narrowing his eyes.

Demons poured from the portals like a swarm of locusts. Their numbers kept growing, joined by marauders. Even the dumbest person would realize that this whole crowd was here specifically for him.

Alex scowled and glanced toward the black smoke—where the girls were.

A picture started forming in his mind. These demons hadn’t come to kill him—they came to delay him. To distract him. Understanding the situation, Alex chuckled. Whoever they sent after the girls, they’d handle it. Especially with GIR, MIMI, Stitch, and Wolf with them—those four alone were more than enough to turn the demons into a massacre.

He wasn’t worried about their safety. The girls were well protected—their energy shields could withstand a lot. Besides, they knew how to defend themselves, turning their enemies into a bloody mess.

“Your journey ends here, false savior,” rasped one of the marauders. His armor and sword clearly set him apart from the others. “You rejected His offer. We will take everything you hold dear. You will watch as everything you love is trampled under our feet.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, staring at the speaker. This marauder was different from the rest—probably a former commander of the Night Sentinels. But Alex couldn’t hide a smirk. He found the enemy’s confidence amusing, believing the girls couldn’t defend themselves.

“Hold on tight. It’s about to get rough,” he warned, patting Juri on the leg.

“Come on, show these bastards how wrong they are,” Juri said with a grin, tightening her legs around his waist.

The marauder didn’t wait for Alex to finish talking to Juri. He pointed his sword at Alex and gave the order to attack. Demons poured from the portals like locusts. Without hesitation, Alex placed his hand on the sheath of Muramasa and grabbed the trigger mechanism. He waited until the demons got close enough. As soon as they were within reach, the mechanism fired, and the blade shot out of the sheath straight into Alex’s hand.

Grasping the sword, Alex swung it—sharp cuts tore through the air, and the demons didn’t even have time to realize before they were sliced to pieces. Sparks of electricity flickered from Alex’s body. Before the rest of the creatures could react, he vanished, leaving a trail of lightning behind him. Using the thunder breathing technique, Alex rushed through the ranks of enemies, turning their bodies into mangled chunks of flesh. It all happened in a second—the demons were wiped out completely. Only the marauders remained.

Alex stopped, exhaling a cloud of steam.

“Only a bunch of traitors left. Or did you really think bringing cannon fodder here would buy you any time?” he smirked.

“Talk all you want, false savior. Those you care about are already dead. Their souls are imprisoned and subjected to endless torture,” the marauder commander said coldly, filled with malice.

Alex shook his head mockingly.

“You’re as stupid as those who command you. I knew you’d try a trick like this, but, unfortunately for you, I was ready. Those sent after the girls… are already dead. And now you’ll join them, traitor.”

The commander narrowed his eyes. Juri also looked at Alex intently. But Alex didn’t continue the conversation—he simply drew Muramasa, stepped forward… and in that instant was behind the marauders’ backs. They didn’t even realize what happened before their bodies shattered to pieces.

Left alone, the commander roared and lunged at Alex with his sword. Alex felt a rush of air behind him and stepped aside, dodging the strike. With a slight swing of his hand, he severed the enemy’s sword-wielding arm. A second swing — and the marauder’s legs dropped to the ground along with his body.

Alex slowly approached and placed his foot on the former commander’s throat.

“You’re pathetic. Maybe you were once a respected warrior, but now you’re just a dog who’s lost all honor,” Alex said, pressing down harder.

The marauder, clutching Alex’s leg with his remaining hand, looked at him with burning hatred. He tried to say something, but his rasping voice was cut off when Alex pressed sharply, followed by the crunch of breaking vertebrae. Removing his foot, Alex stepped back.

It was clear he didn’t like how demons were appearing more and more suddenly. Looks like some of his plans would have to be accelerated. The last thing he wanted was for portals to start opening right inside the settlement.

“Seems like you’re not telling me something,” Juri said, leaning closer to look into Alex’s eyes.

“You’re right,” he replied calmly. “I just don’t say out loud that these are real demons. But what difference does it make? They can be killed — and that’s enough.”

“Wait… you mean these creatures are actually demons? But… can they be killed with normal bullets?” Juri’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Long story. Better check on the girls. Judging by what that corpse said, another group of demons was sent after them,” Alex said, shaking his head and turning his gaze toward the column of black smoke.

Juri didn’t ask any more questions, noticing Alex wasn’t going to explain. He dashed toward the place where he had seen the black smoke rising into the sky. Looking up, Alex jumped onto the roof of the nearest building and, leaping from one to another, quickly headed in the direction of the smoke.

From a distance, he could already hear sounds of gunfire and fighting. Speeding up, he jumped onto another roof and saw the bodies of fallen demons on the road. Following the trail of corpses, he finally reached the battle site and saw the girls finishing off the last marauder. More precisely, it was Rebecca finishing him off.

With a wide grin, she pressed the barrel of her shotgun to the marauder’s mouth and pulled the trigger. His head exploded in a spray of blood. Rebecca, satisfied, threw the shotgun over her shoulder, turned around, and with the same grin, gave Alex a thumbs-up.

The other girls noticed her gesture, turned around, and saw Alex. He spotted Sherry and Jake — both looking exhausted, which was no surprise considering the number of demons killed around them.

“So, what did I miss?” Alex asked as he approached.

“Some idiot showed up, started spouting nonsense about us being to blame for getting involved with you,” Rebecca said with a smirk. “I got tired of listening — so I shot him, and Saeko and Beatrix finished him off.”

“They attacked you too? Or did you come to help?” Alex asked, addressing Chiquita.

“We were nearby when the portal opened,” Revy answered for her. “The demons attacked, we fought them off, and met up with the others just as Rebecca took down the talkative bastard.”

“Got it… Are you all okay?” Alex shifted his gaze to Sherry and Jake.

“One of those things almost broke my jaw… Damn, he hit hard,” Jake grumbled, rubbing his sore jaw.

Alex raised an eyebrow and looked at the girls questioningly. Cammy smiled slightly and explained that Jake, in a burst of heroism, had decided to charge head-on but took a couple of heavy hits. Alex shook his head.

Meanwhile, Chun-Li was watching Juri closely, who was sitting on Alex’s back. Their eyes met — Chun-Li squinted, and Juri responded with a smug grin. Alex sighed heavily, placed his palm on Juri’s face, and simply dropped her off his back, clearly not wanting to be the cause of a fight between the two girls.

“And where’s that loudmouth who started all this?” he asked, looking around.

“I told you, we took him down. And GIR burned his body,” Rebecca snorted, rolling her eyes and pointing at the burning corpse.

Alex stared with interest at the burning body that, for some reason, hadn’t turned to ash yet. Intrigued, he stepped closer and, blowing lightly, extinguished the flames. Squatting nearby, he lit a cigarette and began examining the corpse.

There was a hole in the chest from Rebecca’s shot, the head was severed, and the torso was sliced open. He couldn’t help but note how coordinated and efficient the girls had been. This wasn’t just a demon — it was a prince of hell.

Alex was slightly surprised. He had believed all the princes of hell were wiped out by Slayer. Apparently, he had been wrong. Squinting, he pondered. If such demons were starting to appear again, some plans would have to be sped up. First and foremost — reach Anchorage, and from there — the military base in the US.

“Did you find out who it was?” Rory asked, approaching him.

“I did,” Alex nodded. “A prince of hell. Strong. Very strong.”

“How strong?” she asked, intrigued.

“Can’t say for sure, but I thought Slayer had taken them all out. Either this is a new prince, or someone survived… Unfortunately, there’s no point in interrogating him — you all did too thorough a job.”

“Well, sorry,” Rory said with a smirk, shrugging. “Rebecca shoots first, asks questions later.”

Alex smirked. He knew better than anyone what it meant to threaten Rebecca — it was like shooting yourself in the foot with a grenade launcher and hoping for a miracle.

He stood up and leaned toward Rory. Without wasting a second, she grabbed him by the collar and kissed him, pulling him into a passionate kiss with tongue. When she pulled away, licking her lips contentedly, Alex shook his head and smiled. He had been expecting a quick kiss, not a full-on “tongue in mouth.”

Laughing, they returned to the others. Alex glanced at his watch.

“I think it’s time to head back. There’s nothing more to do here. Except maybe collect a few demon samples for the scientists,” he said, addressing the girls.

“I’m not against that,” Rika replied, lazily leaning on the Humvee. “There really isn’t much to catch here anymore. If it weren’t for the demons, this would have been the most boring mission of my life.”

The other girls nodded in agreement. They hadn’t found anything valuable in this town, and none of them intended to search every house and apartment hoping to stumble upon something useful by chance. Climbing into the Humvee, Alex and the girls decided to return to the settlement.

Alex settled into the back seat and inserted a communicator into his ear to check on how the other groups were doing. Connecting to the common channel, he immediately asked the main question — whether the other teams had suffered any sudden demon attacks.

Fortunately, everything was calm. The other squads hadn’t encountered anything except for a few rare zombies, which, like Alex, hadn’t been seen for a long time.

“Looks like the demons only attacked us. What bad luck. It’s your fault,” Revy said, playfully kicking Alex’s leg.

“Hey, it’s not my fault I’m a thorn in the demons’ side. They clearly want me gone and even decided to send some prince of hell after me,” Alex replied, wrapping his arm around Revy’s waist and pulling her close.

“Hmph. That doesn’t change the fact that we’ve been unlucky because of you. Better tell me — who is this prince of hell? Is he the smartass Rebecca took down?” she asked, settling comfortably in his embrace.

“Yeah, that was him. But I don’t really know much about these ‘princes.’ I thought they’d all been wiped out long ago. But apparently, I was wrong. Either it’s a new contender who rose up the demon hierarchy,” Alex said, thoughtfully scratching his chin.

“If you don’t even know, then there’s nothing to worry about. They can be killed, right? That’s all there is to it. Sure, he threw around some big words, but in the end — bullet to the chest, head off, and say hello to the afterlife,” Rika commented casually.

Alex shook his head at her words, but she was right about one thing — even “princes of hell” could be killed. Just deal enough damage, and anyone will fall.

On the way back, Alex shared his thoughts with the girls: he planned to speed up the implementation of his plans to hold back the demon invasion. He also needed to deal with other problems in this world. He wanted to hear the girls’ opinions because depending on how quickly he acted, the situation could either improve — giving people a breather — or worsen. In the worst case, Davoth’s army might finally turn its attention to humanity, seeing them as nothing more than pesky cockroaches to be exterminated at the mere thought of resistance.

The girls listened and made it clear they fully trusted his judgment. The decision — whether to accelerate events or not — was his alone.

When they arrived at the settlement, Alex and the girls took the items found during the raid to the warehouse. After that, the girls headed home — to rest and relax in a hot bath. Alex, meanwhile, led Sherry and Jake to their new temporary residence.

“Here, you can stay here for now. Rest up. There will be a lot happening in the next few days,” he said, addressing them.

“It’s scary to even imagine. Today’s demon encounter was more than enough for me. You didn’t say these were real demons, did you?” Jake asked, giving Alex a sharp look.

“And if they were — does that change anything? They can be killed, and that’s enough,” Alex shrugged.

“Can’t argue with that logic,” Sherry smirked, shaking her head.

“All right, rest well,” Alex nodded and headed toward the exit.

Leaving Jake and Sherry behind, Alex headed to the clinic to deliver the demon samples to the laboratory. Upstairs on the second floor, designated for scientific research, he quickly found Rebecca Chambers—deeply absorbed in her work, wearing a white lab coat. She was rapidly jotting something down in a notebook, completely ignoring everything around her.

Alex stood by the door and knocked softly.

“Oh, Alex!” Rebecca exclaimed, looking up in surprise. “I didn’t even notice you. Have you been here long?”

“Just got here. Brought you the samples, like you asked. Unless they were supposed to be alive,” Alex said with a slight smile, stepping into the room.

“Dead ones work just as well,” Rebecca smirked. “Now tell me, are these different samples? Or did you drag in pieces of the same demon?”

“Wrong guess. And by the way, I have another surprise for you. Today we ran into a new demon. So here you go,” Alex said, pulling the prince of hell’s hand out of his backpack.

He placed the prince of hell’s hand on Rebecca’s desk. She was, to put it mildly, stunned. She stared at the severed limb lying before her, then slowly shifted her gaze to Alex—clearly asking with her eyes, “Are you seriously bringing me an entire hand?”

Alex nodded silently, confirming that yes, it was for real.

Rebecca looked back at the hand, then at Alex again. Once she was sure he wasn’t joking, she dropped her hand on her forehead and sighed heavily.

“So what do you expect me to do with this?” she grumbled. “This morning you brought me a headless mutant, now a hand. What’s next? Are you going to bring me a monster the size of a building?”

“If you need it—I can handle that too,” Alex replied with a smile, leaning closer. “As I like to say: I’ll grant any wish you have. Just ask.”

“Oh, whatever… idiot,” Rebecca muttered, lightly pushing his face away.

Alex chuckled quietly and sat down on the chair nearby, deciding to watch her work for a bit. Meanwhile, Rebecca carefully placed the prince of hell’s hand into a sealed container, continuing to work diligently.

While she was busy, Alex decided to chat a little—and find out where Claire had disappeared to. The conversation was easygoing; he tossed remarks back and forth with Rebecca, keeping her entertained and helping her pass the time. He knew the other girls were relaxing in a hot bath, so he had a bit of free time.

He watched as Rebecca took samples from other demons, transferred them into containers, and sorted them according to the names she herself had come up with. Finishing the first stage, she moved on to analyzing blood samples. Comparing compositions, she tried to find common traits or weaknesses.

Alex sat quietly nearby, helping when needed—handing tools, making notes when she asked. He enjoyed spending time with her, especially when everything was calm, without gunfire or bloodshed.

At that moment, they were simply doing their jobs. No rush. No panic. As if the world had stopped collapsing, if only for a little while.

To be continued…

+3 Chapters on my Patreon: p*treon.com/GreedHunter

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep