It wasn't just Behemoth.
Even the elite Fourth-Tier mourners had already slaughtered thousands on their own, cutting through entire battalions like a scythe through grass.
Busujima Saeko and Miyamoto Rei stood back to back, soaked in blood, their breaths ragged and shallow.
Around them lay countless corpses both the shambling dead and the twisted remains of dungeon beasts. Their stamina was nearly spent, but they kept swinging.
"Saeko-senpai… looks like this is as far as we go."
Rei coughed blood, her lips curling bitterly. There was nothing left they could do.
"…Yes." Saeko's sword cleaved a mummy in half before she exhaled heavily. "No regrets if it ends here."
And yet, a single thought crossed both their minds.
I wonder if our master will be satisfied…
"Bang! Bang!"
All at once, the monsters circling them parted like a tide, forming a silent corridor.
Crisp applause echoed through the still air as a spotless figure stepped forward.
Tap… tap…
Ella walked calmly down the path, her hands coming together in rhythm. The air itself seemed to chill.
"You…!" Rei's eyes widened in recognition. "You were the one on the fifth floor… the mist, the slaughter…"
That white fog, the massacre...it had been her.
The truth clicked instantly. Ella was the one who had dragged them into this endless war.
"I convey my compliments on behalf of my master," Ella said softly. "He is very pleased."
"…Master…"
The two exchanged a look. So they shared the same master after all.
Ella stopped clapping. From her pale hands sprouted gleaming, razor-sharp claws. Her voice, though gentle, carried like a death knell.
"My master asked me to reward you with an honorable death. Goodbye."
Shff!
In the blink of an eye, she vanished only to reappear behind them.
"Ghhk—!"
A scarlet bloom spread across their chests. Ella's claws had pierced straight through their hearts. Warm blood poured as their vision blurred.
At the very end, as their lives flickered out, both girls saw Yami Tsukishiro's figure in their minds one last time.
"At least… our master is satisfied…"
Their bodies fell, no regrets left clinging to their souls. Slowly, they dissolved into glowing motes of light.
Ella turned, her expression serene, watching the particles fade into the darkness.
Part of the task assigned to her by the master was now complete.
"Hmm?"
As if sensing a shift, Ella suddenly raised her head.
Her crimson eyes locked onto the blood-soaked night sky. For a moment, she stood frozen, caught in its eerie glow.
Far away, Takagi Saya also seemed to feel the disturbance. She lifted her gaze upward, her expression calm, neither joy nor sorrow crossing her face. Only a quiet murmur slipped from her lips.
"…This war is nearing its end."
"Report to the commander! The system is back online!"
Inside the command room, lights flickered and instruments roared back to life. The large screen before them lit up once again.
But the image that reappeared was not the dawn of victory.
Instead, it was despair.
The defensive lines had collapsed completely. Monsters swarmed freely, tearing through soldiers and civilians alike.
Severed limbs, rivers of blood, and the echoes of screams filled the screen, a living tapestry of catastrophe.
"…."
No one could speak.
This… was not a war.
It was a massacre. A unilateral crushing.
They had lost.
The commander remained silent for three long seconds before he moved. Slowly, deliberately, he walked to the console at the end of the room.
His hand unlocked a panel and revealed a red button beneath a sealed cover.
He placed his palm against it, pausing only to look around the room.
Everyone in the command center rose to their feet, their eyes fixed firmly on the screen—faces grim, yet resolute.
"…Then let them see it. The final will of humanity."
The commander slammed the button.
A harsh red light spread across the screen, followed by the cold numbers of a countdown.
Outside, Ella's expression shifted. For the first time, a ripple of urgency crossed her face. A suffocating sense of crisis surged through her body.
Raising both hands, she summoned the mists once again.
From every shadow, the chaotic fog spread outward, swallowing the ruined city whole.
The night sky, already steeped in crimson, warped and twisted under its influence—transforming into something even more sinister, an omen of what was to come.
The next moment, a blinding light tore across the horizon like a streak of divine lightning.
"BOOM!!!"
The roar thundered through the world, loud enough to rupture eardrums.
From beyond the light curtain came the sound of annihilation, an explosion so vast it seemed to split the heavens themselves.
A shockwave surged outward, flattening everything in its path.
The very air compressed in an instant, igniting into a colossal fireball that devoured the land.
It grew larger and larger, swallowing buildings, streets, and monsters alike.
The temperature skyrocketed, scorching the atmosphere itself. Reinforced concrete warped and sagged like wax, the ground cracked open and glowed red as if rivers of molten lava had been unleashed.
The flower of death bloomed.
Flames churned into the sky, burning brighter and redder, painting the night with the color of the world's end.
Screams echoed and then vanished, snuffed out one by one.
A mushroom cloud rose high above Tokyo, spreading its suffocating shadow across the city, across the nation—across the earth.
And then, silence.
What remained was ruin. Nothing but scorched rubble, melted steel, and the acrid stench of ash.
"Guh…!"
Someone swallowed hard, unable to look away from the hellscape on the screen.
—Nuclear bomb.
The word passed through the minds of every human who witnessed it.
The ultimate weapon of mankind.
The city of Tokyo—erased.
But with its destruction, so too had the monsters been annihilated. No corpses. No remnants. Nothing remained but ruin.
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