Soo Ah took the stairs three at a time, ignoring the way her broken ribs screamed with each impact.
She'd heard something. A sound that might have been a scream or might have been something breaking. Either way, it had come from below, and her friends were down there.
"Piers!" she called out again as she reached the basement level. "Noir!"
The temperature hit her first—bone-deep cold that made her breath crystallize instantly. Then came the smell. Blood and corruption mixed together, thick enough to choke on.
Soo Ah stumbled into the open space, her blessed axe raised, and froze.
The basement was destroyed. Support pillars shattered. Floor cratered. Ice coating every surface in crystalline patterns that caught what little light existed.
And in the center of it all—
Piers.
Kneeling on the ground, staring at something.
"Piers?" Soo Ah moved forward cautiously. "Are you okay?"
Then she saw what he was staring at.
Her legs stopped working.
The blessed axe fell from her grip, clattering against concrete.
Noir's body lay in a spreading pool of blood. His right arm was missing. Glass shards jutted from his skin. And his head—
His head was—
"No," Soo Ah whispered.
She couldn't look away. Couldn't process what she was seeing. The crushed skull. The brain matter. The way his left arm was stretched out as if he'd been reaching for something in his final moments.
"No, no, no—"
Her legs carried her forward on autopilot. She dropped to her knees beside what remained of him, her hands hovering uselessly over his body because there was nothing to do, nowhere to touch that wasn't broken or bleeding or wrong.
"Noir?" Her hands hovered over his chest, afraid to touch, afraid it wasn't real. "I found you bleeding in that forest. Carried you back. You were so heavy and stubborn and alive."
Her voice cracked.
"I can't carry a corpse, Noir. I can't protect something that's already gone. So wake up. Please. Please wake up so I can protect you. That's all I know how to do."
But she could see his eyes. Still partially open. Empty. The light completely gone from them.
Dead.
Noir was dead.
The word hit her like a physical blow. All the air left her lungs at once. Her vision blurred with tears she didn't remember starting to cry.
"I was too slow," she heard herself say. "I was fighting Rui and you were down here and I was too slow—"
Her carefully maintained composure—the playful mask she wore to keep darkness at bay—shattered completely.
Soo Ah bent forward until her forehead touched Noir's chest and screamed.
Raw. Broken. The sound of something fundamental tearing inside her.
She screamed until her throat was raw, until her voice gave out, until there was nothing left but silent sobs that shook her entire body.
All the times Noir had smiled at her jokes. The way he'd stand up no matter how hurt he was. The determination in his eyes during training. The quiet kindness he showed when he thought no one was watching.
Gone.
All of it gone.
She hadn't even realized how much she'd—
The thought cut off, too painful to complete.
Behind her, something moved.
Soo Ah's head snapped up, tears still streaming down her face, and saw the evolved ripper still standing. Its faceless head turned toward her. Its stomach-mouth opened, revealing those glistening teeth.
And it laughed.
Not with sound, but with the way its whole body shook. Mocking. Satisfied.
This thing had killed Noir. Had crushed his head like an insect. And it was laughing.
Something cold settled in Soo Ah's chest.
She stood slowly, retrieving her blessed axe. Her hands weren't shaking anymore. Her vision was clear despite the tears.
"Piers," she said quietly. "Why is it still alive?"
Piers didn't respond. He was still kneeling, still staring at Noir's corpse with empty eyes. Blood ran from his nose and ears, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Piers!" Soo Ah's voice cracked like a whip. "Its core is destroyed. Why is it still moving?"
That penetrated. Piers' head turned toward her slowly, mechanically. When he spoke, his voice was flat. Dead.
"I don't know. I crushed its spiritual core. It should be—" He stopped. "But it's still here. Still..."
The ripper took a step toward them.
Soo Ah moved to intercept, her blesed axe shifting to spiritual energy. But even as she prepared to fight, part of her mind was racing.
Destroyed core. Still animated. That shouldn't be possible unless—
Her eyes scanned the basement, looking for anything out of place. The destroyed pillars. The frozen blood. The scattered debris.
There.
In the corner, partially buried under rubble. A faint glow. Purple-white, pulsing in time with the ripper's movements.
"Sacred item," Soo Ah breathed. "There's a sacred item nearby. That's what's keeping it alive."
She moved before the ripper could react, sprinting toward the corner. The creature lunged after her, but she was faster, driven by rage and grief in equal measure.
Soo Ah tore through the rubble with her bare hands, ignoring the way sharp edges cut her palms. The glow grew brighter as she dug deeper.
Then her fingers closed around something smooth and cold.
She pulled it free.
A small obsidian sphere, no larger than her fist. Intricate symbols were carved into its surface, and inside, something swirled like trapped smoke. Dark spiritual energy—sin itself—contained and concentrated.
This was what was animating the ripper. What had kept it alive even after its core was destroyed.
The ripper shrieked—an actual sound this time, high and desperate—and charged toward her with terrifying speed.
"Piers!" Soo Ah shouted. "Now!"
For a moment, nothing happened. Piers remained kneeling, staring at nothing.
Then something changed in his expression.
The emptiness was replaced by something else. Something cold and terrible and final.
Rage.
Pure, crystallized rage.
Piers stood slowly. His hands began to glow—not with the blue-white of ice, but with something different. Orange-red. Flame.
"You killed him," Piers said, and his voice was so cold it hurt to hear. "You killed my friend."
The temperature around him didn't drop this time.
It rose.
Impossibly, the ice coating the basement began to melt. Steam filled the air as moisture evaporated instantly. The frozen blood liquified and began to boil.
Piers was creating fire.
Not through normal means—through thermal manipulation pushed to its absolute limit. Generating heat so intense that the air itself ignited, molecular friction creating flames from nothing.
The ripper turned toward him, sensing the threat.
"Soo Ah," Piers said quietly. "Break it."
Soo Ah raised the obsidian sphere above her head and brought it down against the concrete with all her strength.
The sphere shattered.
The dark energy inside exploded outward in a visible wave, then dissipated like smoke. The symbols carved into the fragments went dark.
The ripper convulsed. Its movements became jerky, uncoordinated. Without the sacred item sustaining it, the creature was finally, truly dying.
But Piers didn't give it the chance to fall on its own.
Flames erupted from his hands—not shaped or controlled, just raw destructive heat. He thrust both palms forward, and the fire consumed the ripper completely.
The creature tried to scream, but the flames burned too hot, too fast. Its wrinkled flesh blackened and peeled away. Its bones turned to ash. The stomach-mouth opened one final time, then melted closed.
In seconds, there was nothing left but charred remains and the smell of burning corruption.
Piers held the flames for several more seconds, making absolutely certain nothing could regenerate.
Then the fire went out.
The cold returned immediately, frost spreading across the scorched floor. Piers swayed, his legs giving out. He collapsed to his knees again, this time from pure exhaustion.
Silence filled the basement.
The ripper was dead. Truly, finally dead.
But so was Noir.