Three floors above, Soo Ah tasted blood.
Her ribs screamed with every breath. The cut on her forehead kept dripping into her left eye. Her blessed axe felt impossibly heavy in her hands.
But she was still standing.
Rui circled her like a predator, completely uninjured except for that single burn mark on her arm. The sinner moved with fluid grace, each step precise, professional.
"You're tougher than you look," Rui said. "Most seers would be unconscious by now."
Soo Ah didn't waste energy responding.
Rui struck without warning—a kick aimed at Soo Ah's broken ribs.
Soo Ah blocked with the axe shaft, but the impact sent fresh agony through her side. She stumbled backward, vision swimming.
Rui pressed the advantage. A flurry of strikes—fists, elbows, knees—each one precise and devastating. Soo Ah blocked most of them, but not all.
I'm going to die here.
No.
Soo Ah's grip tightened on her axe.
She thought of Noir standing up despite Sin Jin's heavy blows during training. Of Piers fighting with shaky hands. Of Shin Jin's promise of movies and dinner.
They're counting on me.
Rui came in for another strike, and this time Soo Ah didn't block.
She ducked and spun, her blessed axe transforming mid-swing to pure spiritual energy. The blade caught Rui across the chest, sending her stumbling backward.
"Finally," Rui said, touching the burn mark. "There's first blood."
Soo Ah's spiritual energy flowed outward, filling the space. Small purple shields materialized in the air around them—dozens of them, translucent and humming with power.
Rui's expression changed. "What?"
The shields moved.
They flew toward Rui from every direction, enclosing her in a spherical cage. The sinner tried to dodge, but the shields followed, hemming her in until she was trapped inside a prison of purple light.
"Let me out!" Rui slammed her fists against the nearest shield, but it held firm.
Soo Ah poured more energy into the technique. The shields began to pulse, drawing power from the space within. Dark energy—sin itself—started leaking from Rui's body in visible streams, absorbed by the purple barriers.
Rui's movements became sluggish. Her strikes weaker.
"Stop—" she gasped.
But Soo Ah only pushed harder.
The shields contracted, squeezing tighter, draining faster. Rui's skin began to pale. Her legs buckled. She fell to her knees, hands pressed against the barriers, eyes wide with the realization that she was going to die.
""You wanted to document forgotten places?" Soo Ah said quietly. "Congratulations. You're about to become one."
The shields pulsed one final time.
Rui's body went limp, drained completely. When the shields dissipated, she collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
Dead.
Soo Ah stood there, breathing hard, staring at the corpse. The victory felt hollow.
"Noir," she whispered. "Piers. I'm coming."
She started toward the stairs, her axe dragging behind her.
...
In the basement, Piers was losing.
His hands were numb. His spiritual energy nearly gone. Blood ran from his nose and ears.
The ripper kept coming.
He'd frozen it a dozen times. Shattered its limbs. But it always reformed, that stomach-mouth releasing sonic attacks that cracked his skull from the inside.
Behind him, Noir lay motionless.
Focus.
The ripper lunged. Piers flash-froze the ground, drove an ice spear through its chest.
The creature barely slowed.
Its arms wrapped around him. The faceless head pressed close.
I'm sorry, Noir.
Piers' hands moved. The temperature plummeted. Frost exploded across every surface.
His technique activated fully.
Absolute Zero.
The ripper's flesh froze solid. Its wrinkled skin turned blue, then black. Piers drove his hand into the creature's chest and closed his fingers around the spiritual core.
He crushed it.
The core shattered.
The ripper convulsed—
And its hand shot out, catching Piers across the face.
The impact sent him flying into a pillar. He hit hard, slid to the ground. His vision swam. Tasted blood.
The ripper was still moving.
Its core was destroyed, but something kept it animated. The creature turned.
Not toward Piers.
Toward Noir.
No.
Piers tried to stand. His body refused. His legs wouldn't work. He could only watch as the ripper moved toward Noir's body.
Noir gasped.
Air filled his lungs. His eyes snapped open.
He stared at the ceiling for a moment, disoriented. Then looked down at himself.
His right arm was gone. The stump had stopped bleeding somehow—not healed, but cauterized.
His thoughts raced.
I can't die yet.
Not yet.
My mother's soul will never rest until I find her tormenter.
The masked man. The one who'd killed her.
I have to know.
Noir rolled onto his side. Then his stomach. Started crawling.
His left arm dragged him forward. Glass ground against concrete. His legs pushed weakly.
Keep moving.
Footsteps behind him.
Slow. Deliberate. Getting closer.
Terror flooded through him. He tried to move faster, but his body had nothing left.
The footsteps grew louder.
Right behind him.
Something pressed down on the back of his head.
The ripper's foot.
Cold. Heavy.
Noir tried to scream, but the pressure increased. His face pressed into concrete. His jaw cracking.
No!
The pressure became agony.
Not like this—
His skull began to crack.
Mom, I'm sorry—
The ripper's foot came down.
There was a wet, terrible sound.
Like an egg breaking.
Then silence.
What remained beneath the ripper's foot was unrecognizable.
Noir's head had been crushed completely. Brain matter and skull fragments spread across the concrete.
His body twitched once.
Then went still.
The crimson scarf absorbed the blood. The silver threads pulsed once.
Then went dark.
Piers watched it happen.
Watched Noir crawl away.
Watched the ripper follow.
Watched the foot come down.
The sound.
"No," he whispered.
The ripper turned toward him, its stomach-mouth opening.
Piers stared at what remained of his friend. At the blood spreading across concrete. At the arm stretched out as if reaching for something.
The words came out flat. Dead.
"Noir... is dead."
The ripper took a step toward him.
Piers couldn't move. Couldn't think. Only the image of his friend's head being crushed.
I failed him.
The ripper reached for him.
Then—
Footsteps on the stairs.
Running.
"Piers!"
Soo Ah's voice.
The ripper paused, turning toward the sound.