Piers was already moving, his hands weaving patterns in the air. The temperature plummeted instantly, frost spreading across the concrete floor, but the creature moved through it like the cold meant nothing.
"Vocal mimicry—don't listen to it!" Piers shouted, his analytical calm fracturing.
The creature's stomach-mouth opened wide, and instead of the child's voice, a sound came out that was pure wrongness—a shriek that felt like it was coming from inside Noir's own head, bypassing his ears entirely and resonating in his bones.
Noir's brass knuckles connected with the thing's chest as it closed the distance. The impact should have shattered ribs, should have driven it back. Instead, the flesh simply absorbed the blow, rippling like water, and those too-long arms wrapped around him.
The creature's face—its blank, featureless face—pressed close to Noir's, and he could feel the absence where eyes should have been, the hollow wrongness of it studying him.
Then the stomach-mouth spoke again, but this time it wasn't the girl's voice or any voice at all.
It was his own thoughts.
"What would it feel like to have someone search for you like that?"
Noir's own internal voice. His own moment of vulnerability. Spoken back at him from that lined cavity of teeth.
The creature tilted its faceless head, and the mouth continued in his voice:
"Just an absence where a person should have been."
Pure revulsion gave Noir strength he didn't know he had. He tore himself free, leaving fabric from his crimson suit in the creature's grip, and stumbled backward into Piers.
"The mouth," Piers said quickly, his hands still weaving cold patterns in the air, creating barriers of ice that the creature smashed through like paper. "The spiritual core is in the mouth—"
The evolved ripper lunged.
Its movements were unnatural, too fluid, like it had no skeleton at all despite those visible ribs. It moved like liquid pretending to be solid, like something that had studied human movement but didn't quite understand the mechanics.
Noir's back hit a support pillar. The creature was between them and the stairs.
The stomach-mouth opened impossibly wide—
And the ripper attacked.
...
Meanwhile, three floors above, Soo Ah had found something else entirely.
The upper levels of the warehouse were in worse condition than the basement—sections of the roof had collapsed, letting in shafts of dying sunlight that painted everything in shades of rust and amber. The floor was treacherous, boards rotted through in places, creating dark gaps that dropped into nothing.
Soo Ah moved carefully, her blessed axe shifting from hand to hand as she scanned the shadows. The scream had come from somewhere up here, she was certain of it.
"Hello?" she called out. "If anyone can hear me, call out!"
Silence. Then—
"Here! Over here, please!"
The voice was young, female, coming from behind a collapsed section of wall. Soo Ah moved toward it quickly.
She found the woman trapped beneath a fallen beam, her leg pinned but not crushed. She was young, maybe in her twenties, with the kind of refined look that suggested she wasn't from the industrial district—designer jacket, expensive camera hanging from her neck, makeup still mostly intact despite the dust.
"Thank god," the woman gasped when she saw Soo Ah. Her relief looked genuine, tears cutting tracks through the dirt on her face.
"I was here to vlog—you know, urban exploration content for my channel. I didn't know about the rippers. I heard the screaming and I ran and the floor just gave out and—"
She was talking fast, the words tumbling over each other in what seemed like genuine panic.
"It's okay," Soo Ah said, moving forward to examine the beam. "What's your name?"
"Rui," the woman said. "God, I'm so stupid. I should never have come here alone. My subscribers kept saying these places are safe, that the rippers avoid areas like this, but—"
"Shh, save your energy," Soo Ah said, already positioning herself to lift the beam. It was heavy, but manageable. "This is going to hurt when I move it. Ready?"
Rui nodded, biting her lip.
Soo Ah lifted.
The beam came free easier than expected—too easy. For a moment, Soo Ah's mind registered this as wrong, but she was already focused on helping Rui up, already reaching down to support her.
"Can you walk?" Soo Ah asked.
"I think so," Rui said, accepting Soo Ah's hand. She stood slowly, testing her weight on the injured leg, wincing but managing. "Thank you. God, thank you so much. I thought I was going to die here."
"You're safe now," Soo Ah said, and meant it. Her protector instincts had fully engaged—this was what she was trained for, what she was good at. Saving people. Making sure they got home. "Let's get you out of here."
They started toward the stairs, Rui leaning on Soo Ah for support. The woman was talking now, the shock wearing off into nervous energy.
"I've been doing urban exploration for two years now," Rui said, her voice still shaking slightly.
"Abandoned hospitals, old factories, haunted houses—nothing like this has ever happened before. The buildings are always empty, you know? Just... empty and forgotten. I make content about forgotten places. About things people left behind."
Something in her tone made Soo Ah glance at her.
"That sounds fascinating," Soo Ah said, trying to keep the conversation going. Keep Rui calm. "What got you into it?"
"The stories," Rui said simply. "Every abandoned place has a story. Every empty room used to be full of people living their lives, and then one day it just... stopped. I like documenting that moment. That transition from alive to dead."
The way she said "dead" made Soo Ah's skin prickle, but she dismissed it. The woman was traumatized, scared. People said odd things when they were in shock.
They'd reached the top of the stairwell when Rui stopped.
"Wait," she said. "My camera. I dropped it back there when I fell. It has all my footage—"
"Leave it," Soo Ah said firmly. "We can send someone back for it later. Right now we need to—"
"Please," Rui said, and her voice cracked with genuine distress. "It's my livelihood. Everything I do is on that camera. I can't lose it."
Soo Ah looked at her—really looked at her. Saw the desperation in her eyes, the way her hands were shaking. This woman had already lost so much tonight. Her sense of safety. Her confidence. Maybe letting her retrieve something, keeping some small piece of control, would help.
"Where exactly did you drop it?" Soo Ah asked.
"Just back by where I was trapped. Thirty seconds, I promise."
Against her better judgment, Soo Ah nodded. "Quick. In and out."
They moved back toward where Rui had been pinned. The light was worse now, the sun setting faster than Soo Ah had realized. Shadows were pooling in the corners, making the space feel smaller, more claustrophobic.
"There," Rui said, pointing to where her camera lay near the collapsed beam. "See? Right there."
Soo Ah moved toward it, bending down to pick it up. The camera was expensive, professional-grade. The kind serious content creators used.
"You really are dedicated to this," Soo Ah said, turning back to Rui with a small smile. "Most people would have—"
The smile died.
The kick came from nowhere—fast, precise, aimed directly at Soo Ah's ribs. The impact drove the air from her lungs and sent her stumbling sideways. She managed to keep her grip on the axe, but barely.
"What—" Soo Ah gasped.
The second kick caught her in the same spot, and Soo Ah felt something crack. Pain exploded through her side, white-hot and blinding.
Rui's movements were fluid, practiced. Not the movements of a vlogger. The movements of someone who'd killed before.
"Most people would have run," Rui finished for her, examining her nails casually. "But you're not most people, are you?"
Soo Ah tried to raise her axe, tried to create distance, but another kick caught her leg, buckling her knee. She went down hard, the impact jarring her injured ribs and sending fresh waves of pain through her body.
"Who—" she managed to gasp. "Who are you?"
Rui crouched down, bringing her face level with Soo Ah's.
"Does it matter?" Rui asked, tilting her head. "You're already dead."
She stood, drawing back for another kick—this one aimed at Soo Ah's head.
Soo Ah rolled, the blessed axe coming up in a desperate arc. Rui danced backward, but not quite fast enough. The edge of the blade caught her arm, spiritual energy burning through her jacket and into flesh.
Rui hissed—not in pain, but irritation.
"There she is," Rui said, examining the burn mark with detached interest. "The fighter."
Soo Ah forced herself to her feet, every breath sending sharp pain through her ribs. Her vision swam, but she kept the axe between them, kept her stance defensive despite the agony.
Blood dripped from her mouth where she'd bitten her tongue.
"Sinner," Soo Ah spat, and the pieces clicked into place. "This whole thing—the trap, the rippers, everything—"
Rui's smile widened. "Very good. And now you get to die knowing exactly how predictable you are."
She moved forward, and this time Soo Ah was ready.
Below, an evolved ripper lunged at Noir with impossible speed.
Three floors up, Soo Ah's blood painted the rotted floorboards.
And the sun kept setting.