Why couldn’t she avert her gaze?

  Why did she have to carve that horrific sight into her mind?

  Gendo’s headless, lifeless body… That lump of flesh, which once had a name, a life, and a voice, was now nothing but a silent accusation.

  Kurumi: 「――Ha」

  Hu was shaking her from the side, prodding her shoulders. But Kurumi’s world was suspended in that bloody hollow where a neck should have been. Time had stopped. Space had lost its meaning.

  Hu: 『Kurumi! Get a hold of yourself! Void creatures are coming—we need to reach the buildings!』

  The voice sounded muffled, as if coming from underwater… Kurumi didn’t react. She couldn’t. Something inside her had shattered the moment she saw that corpse.

  SMACK!

  A hard slap exploded against her cheek, tearing the silence apart. Hu’s hand was trembling, but her eyes were resolute.

  Hu: 「I’m sorry… but wake up!」

  Kurumi jolted back to herself. She looked around. The scene was pure chaos. Veteran soldiers were gritting their teeth and taking guard positions, while the rookies—just like her—were standing there with trembling legs, waiting for death. It was pitiful. They were all like sacrificial lambs.

  Daichi: 『Run to the buildings! Watch each other’s backs! Don’t lower your guard!』

  With Daichi’s roar, Hu grabbed Kurumi by the arm. Taka had already dashed ahead.

  Hu: 「Taka! Protect us!」

  Taka nodded without sparing words. They were running. The metallic taste of adrenaline spread through Kurumi’s mouth. As she ran, she couldn’t resist turning her head back.

  At that moment, she saw terror given form.

  「――――」

  Fifteen-meter-tall grotesque beings, their purple skin clinging to bone from hunger… Their mouths were nothing but teeth. Every second they accelerated, closing the distance. Like living nightmares, coming to gnaw reality itself.

  Taka slammed his shoulder into the door of an abandoned house and burst it open.

  Taka: 「Get inside! Hurry!」

  The moment Kurumi stepped over the threshold, that ear-splitting sound rose again.

  Screams.

  Hu and Kurumi turned back at the same time. The rookies left behind… those too slow to escape… were being torn apart like paper in the claws of the void creatures. The screams of people being eaten alive echoed in Kurumi’s mind, again and again, until they lodged there like a burning brand.

  The weak die.

  It was the world’s simplest and most merciless rule. And Kurumi was the weakest link here. If it weren’t for Sae, she would have already been digested in a creature’s stomach. But Sae wasn’t here. There was no one anymore.

  I’m going to die here, all alone.

  When Hu yanked Kurumi fully inside and slammed the door shut, that chain of dark thoughts was cut off for a moment. Inside were Hu, Kurumi, Taka, Mika, Aryu, Takamura, Jhun, and the only veteran soldier left—Kuryi.

  The silence competed with the sounds of death outside.

  Hu: 「What do we do?」

  Kuryi scanned the outside through a window. Other groups had taken refuge in other houses, but that only delayed death. Once everyone outside was finished, it would be their turn. They were just… the next meal.

  Kurumi leaned her back against the cold wall and slowly slid down to the floor. Right beside her, Takamura collapsed as well, sobbing uncontrollably.

  Takamura: 『I don’t want to die… God, please… I don’t want to lose…』

  Mika grabbed Takamura by the collar in fury.

  Mika: 「Shut up! Instead of crying like a baby, we need to make a plan!」

  A plan? A bitter smile formed on Kurumi’s lips. What kind of plan could be made with this level of helplessness? She hadn’t even been able to say goodbye to Amy. Her life would end for nothing, between a monster’s teeth. Even if there were a plan, her role in it was obvious: bait.

  Hu: 「Kurumi? What are you doing? Get up.」

  Kurumi couldn’t find the courage to look Hu in the face. Her voice was barely a whisper.

  Kurumi: 「There’s no point… What use could I be to a plan anyway?」

  Hu: 「Don’t be ridiculous! We have to work together to get out of here!」

  Kurumi staggered to her feet. Her eyes were empty.

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  Kurumi: 「I won’t be able to do anything. You want to use me as bait, don’t you? That’s the truth.」

  Hu: 「What nonsense are you—」

  Kuryi: 「――――」

  Kuryi cut Hu off. With heavy steps, he approached Kurumi and held out the Magical Barrier Crystal in his hand. The most critical, most valuable piece of the operation…

  Kurumi froze in shock. Why her? Why entrust such a responsibility to someone so weak?

  Kuryi: 「I assume giving this to you should drive it into your head that we’re not using you as bait. Now… will you drop those disgusting thoughts and listen to my plan?」

  Kurumi took the cold crystal with trembling hands.

  Kurumi: 「Why? Really… why me?」

  Kuryi’s gaze softened, though he lost none of his authority.

  Kuryi: 「To me, you’re both a soldier and a child. And I never turn a child into bait. Besides… I can see potential when I look into someone’s eyes. There’s something inside you that even you don’t realize yet. Sooner or later, you will.」

  Kuryi turned and gestured to the others.

  Kuryi: 「Now gather around. And listen carefully.」

  As Kuryi’s voice echoed through the room, Kurumi’s mind was already elsewhere—in the middle of that hell outside.

  The cries of “I don’t want to die!” coming from beyond the walls… that raw, primal scream of terror from a person’s final breath… hammered against Kurumi’s skull.

  Kuryi: 「The other groups are in worse shape than we are. But we have to trust the veteran soldiers leading them. The plan is simple: I’ll draw the void creatures to myself. And you…」

  Kuryi paused, his gaze fixing on the crystal in Kurumi’s hands.

  Kuryi: 「You’ll place the barrier in the gap at the end of the walls.」

  Kurumi: 「――――」

  Responsibility. That word had never felt this heavy. The crystal in her palm felt as if it weighed tons, dragging her hand down. Why her? Why this useless rookie? As Kuryi headed for the door, the doubt inside Kurumi continued to spread like poison.

  Hu: 「……」

  Hu was staring straight at her. There was disappointment and hurt in her eyes. Kurumi’s earlier words—“you’re going to use me as bait”—had stabbed a knife into the trust between them. But now… now wasn’t the time to address that. Death was breathing just beyond the door.

  Taka checked outside through the window. What he saw wasn’t a city, but a slaughterhouse. The streets were littered with human remains; there was so much blood that shallow pools had formed. Red—cursed, all-consuming red—covered everything.

  Kuryi: 「It’s time. Move out!」

  The door opened. The cold, metallic stench of the outside rushed in.

  Kurumi, Hu, Taka, Jhun, Aryu, and Mika… moved like ghosts, taking cover in the shadows of houses. Silence was their greatest weapon. And that weapon exploded in their hands within seconds.

  A void creature turned its head. Those purple, starving eyes locked onto Kurumi. And then, with a shriek, it leapt at them.

  Hu: 『Kurumi! Duck!』

  Kurumi froze. The sound of sharp claws ripping through the air was right by her ear. So this is it, she thought. But the pain she expected never came.

  SLASH!

  The claws hung suspended in midair. Daichi had cut in like a bolt of lightning, his sword intercepting the strike.

  Daichi: 「Keep moving! Don’t stop!」

  With Daichi’s blow, the creature’s shrill scream pierced the sky. It was a dinner bell. All the void creatures turned their heads at once. Hundreds of hungry eyes, hundreds of sharp teeth… all flowing toward Kurumi’s group.

  Hu: 「Taka! A barrier! Can you do something big?」

  Taka clenched his teeth and shook his head. His mana was nearly gone. There was no way he could erect a wall to stop that many creatures.

  Kurumi: 『Think… Think… You have to do something…』

  Her mind began spinning like a machine. They couldn’t run. They couldn’t fight. Then… they had to make them fall.

  Kurumi: 「Taka! Make the barrier low! Right at foot level!」

  After a moment’s hesitation, Taka understood the plan. A spark flashed in his eyes.

  Taka: 「Got it! Fall back! [Yuranjus]!」

  Instead of a massive wall, a glass-like barrier appeared just above the ground. The charging giants didn’t notice the invisible trap. The ones in front slammed into it and crashed down with a horrific noise. Those behind collided into them, toppling like dominoes.

  A chaos of purple flesh erupted.

  Kurumi: 「Now! Don’t stop!」

  They kept running, feet splashing through pools of blood, lungs burning. Kurumi tightened her grip on the crystal. Maybe… just maybe… she really could be useful.

  The fear-filled eyes watching from other houses’ windows saw that small miracle Kurumi’s group had created. A spark had ignited. In the cold of death, the possibility of hope…

  Daichi’s voice rang across the battlefield. It wasn’t a command—it was a will.

  Daichi: 「Until the crystal is placed… protect them at the cost of your lives!」

  Then something horrifying happened. The soldiers burst from their cover like prisoners walking toward a firing squad. They screamed, swung their weapons wildly. All for a single purpose: to draw the monsters’ hunger onto themselves.

  Hu was shaken to her core.

  Hu: 「Stop! This is suicide!」

  But it was too late. One soldier’s scream was swallowed by the crunching of bones. A creature caught him midair and brought him to its mouth like a piece of fruit.

  Soldier: 『No… No, wa—』

  CRUNCH. With the bite, the sound ended. All that fell to the ground were two legs.

  When Kurumi instinctively turned her head, Taka’s sharp voice struck her like a slap.

  Taka: 「Don’t look! Just keep moving!」

  Kurumi obeyed. She didn’t look. She knew that if she did, the image of those legs would crush her. Her steps grew heavier, her breath scorched her throat. But she had to reach that wall. That crystal had to be placed, so that all this spilled blood would mean something.

  At that moment, a massive purple clawed hand descended from above. As death’s shadow swallowed Kurumi, Daichi stepped in once more. His sword flashed; chunks of flesh flew through the air.

  Daichi: 「Go!」

  And finally… they reached the bridge before the wall.

  Kurumi caught one last glimpse of the devastation she left behind. Daichi was being torn apart beneath a pile of creatures. Of Kuryi, only his legs remained. They were the only ones still breathing at the tower now. Stepping over corpses, they crossed the bridge.

  With trembling hands, Kurumi placed the crystal into its socket.

  「――――」

  A moment of silence. Then, a massive pillar of light shot into the sky, bleaching the world white. A shimmering barrier flowed down from above, enveloping the city like a cocoon.

  The mission… was a success. The Shogun District was now under the protection of the Veil of Shadows cult.

  Kurumi collapsed to her knees. Her palms were coated in dust and blood.

  Kurumi: 「Did we… succeed?」

  Hu hugged her, tears streaming down her face.

  Hu: 「We did…」

  Aryu, Mika, and Takamura clung to one another, crying in the intoxication of victory. But that victory’s lifespan ended the moment Taka turned around.

  The color drained from Taka’s face. Beyond the pillar of light, trapped inside the barrier, was a problem.

  The void creatures.

  The barrier had been made to keep them out—but the ones left inside… they were still hungry. And the only living food source within the barrier was these five survivors.

  When Kurumi turned around, she saw that purple tide slowly advancing toward them. They were trapped.

  Hu: 「So… what do we do now? There’s nowhere to run.」

  Kurumi looked around. Stone walls, the glowing barrier, and hundreds of approaching teeth… No escape route. No hidden passage. The monsters that had just devoured their friends were now closing in to prepare their own end.

  The magnificent victory they had just achieved now looked like the last glimmer of light on a gravestone.