"Thank you... for the save," the short-haired hunter breathed, her voice shaky but grateful.
"You're welcome." Rumi managed a tired smile, her chest still rising and falling from the fight. She placed a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "You did great." Her gaze swept over the survivors. "All of you. I'm sorry we weren't able to sav..."
Bang!
The world cracked apart with a single shot.
The hunter's head snapped violently to the side, a spray of blood painting Rumi's face. The girl collapsed mid-grip, her hand still clutching Rumi's as her body went slack.
For a heartbeat, the street froze. No one moved, no one breathed. Mira's smirk faltered, caught mid-expression. Zoey's trembling hand rose to her mouth in shock.
Melissa's eyes widened, but she was the first to react, her voice cutting through the paralysis like a blade. "Sniper! Get down!"
The spell shattered. Hunters scrambled for cover, weapons raised as they ducked behind walls and debris.
Mira and Zoey sprinted for the nearest stairwell, but Zoey slowed, glancing back. Rumi hadn't moved.
She was still kneeling in place, hand locked in the dead girl's grasp. Her mind had stalled completely. What…?
Something warm slid down her cheek. She touched her face, her fingers coming away red and slick. "Huh?" she whispered.
"Rumi!!!" Zoey's voice tore across the chaos.
The sound jolted her back. Her eyes widened with horror, her breath coming fast and shallow. She tore her hand free, and the hunter's limp arm fell heavily into the growing pool of blood. Rumi stumbled backward, her legs threatening to give.
Hands grabbed her arm, Mira's. She didn't waste words, just pulled Rumi with urgent strength toward the stairs.
They reached cover, and Zoey immediately wrapped both of them into a tight embrace, trying to shield them from the panic raging outside. Her voice cracked with worry. "Are you okay?" She fumbled to wipe the blood from Rumi's cheek.
But Rumi shoved her away, waving Mira back too. Her body trembled as she doubled over, bile rising uncontrollably. She dropped to her knees and retched violently, emptying her stomach onto the cracked stone floor.
"A sniper!?" Mira cried, her voice cracking with disbelief. "What the hell? When Zerida said demons might carry guns, I didn't think..."
"This isn't just demons," Zoey cut in sharply, one hand steadying Rumi as she hunched over, retching. Her other hand rubbed small circles on her back. "This has to be the other half-demon."
Bang!
The crack of another rifle shot split the air. Both Mira and Zoey flinched instinctively, ducking low.
"No! Michael!" a hunter's anguished scream followed a heartbeat later, raw and broken. None of them needed to see to know what had happened. Another life cut short in an instant.
"We have to stop them," Zoey said, her voice hard, her earlier panic sharpening into resolve.
Rumi spat the last of the bile from her mouth, wiping it with the back of her hand. Her body trembled faintly, but she forced herself upright, chest heaving as she steadied her breath.
"Rumi, are you okay?" Mira pressed quickly, eyes scanning her up and down. "You weren't hit, were you?"
Rumi shook her head, exhaling slowly as her grip tightened around her weapon. Her eyes shook as they narrowed with new determination. "I'm fine… and Zoey's right. We can't let them keep picking us off. We have to stop them."
Mira's hands clenched on the hilt of her Gok-do. "How?"
"Zerida!" Zoey blurted suddenly, her voice cracking with urgency. "We have to tell her... the half-demon's here!"
Boom!
The ground shuddered violently, throwing the three girls off balance. Dust trickled down from the rooftop as they staggered, catching themselves on the stair rail.
"What was that?" Mira hissed, snapping her gaze upward. She leaned out just enough to peek past the stairwell. Her eyes narrowed, focusing on a tall building hundreds of meters away. Smoke coiled from its upper floors, the glow of an explosion still burning faintly against the night.
Zoey's head popped up beside her, Rumi's just behind. "What happened?" Zoey asked breathlessly.
Mira's lips pressed into a tight line. "I think Zerida already knows."
Without waiting for another word, she broke from cover, sprinting across the open ground. Rumi and Zoey were quick to follow, their steps pounding in unison as they cut through the chaos toward Melissa's position.
They found her kneeling, head bowed low, beside three fallen hunters laid carefully side by side. The flicker of nearby lanterns cast long shadows over the still bodies. Around her, the other Demon Hunters bristled, weapons raised, forming a tight perimeter in anticipation of another strike.
"Melissa!" Rumi called, her voice sharp with relief as she skidded to a halt. "You're okay!" She pointed back toward the smoking tower. "We think the half-demon's over there. We'll handle it. Keep everyone else safe."
Melissa looked up briefly, her expression tight, but said nothing. Rumi didn't wait, her mind was already fixed. She bolted toward the building, crossing several meters in seconds, her speed blurring the air. Mira and Zoey fell in behind her, keeping pace as Rumi raised a hand to her earpiece.
"Zerida!" she called. "Did you get her!?"
High above, in the hangar of the hovering helicarrier, Zerida's silver eyes narrowed. She knelt low, her armored coat trailing behind her. Her bow was still raised, her right hand stretched forward while her left had just released the string. The vibration of the shot lingered in the taut silence around her.
She immediately pulled another arrow from her quiver. At first glance, it resembled a standard arrow, although its shaft was lined with faintly glowing inscriptions that pulsed like veins of light. But this one was different. Sleeker, heavier, and reinforced with metallic ridges along its length, the arrow hummed faintly with stored energy. Tiny vents near the arrowhead released wisps of vapor, hinting at the hidden mechanisms inside.
The smoking building was a testament to what destructive power that single arrow had.
Beside her, Celine lowered the sleek purple binoculars from her face, her expression unreadable. She raised them again, adjusting the focus through the smoke. "I don't see... wait." Her voice wavered slightly. "I see something... petals?"
"Petals?" Zerida repeated, her brow furrowing in confusion.
Celine didn't answer at first. Her breath caught as she adjusted the lenses, the faint reflection of drifting fragments glowing against the smoke. "Yeah... petals. They're glowing. Red."
Her words carried a weight that made Zerida's grip tighten on her bow. Red petals were no natural occurrence.
A low hiss cut through the air, so faint it could've been mistaken for static. Then the smoke churned unnaturally, swirling like it was caught in a current. The smoke kept fading until the faint outlines of a figure started showing.
From the helicarrier's vantage, Celine could see it clearly. A tall silhouette, cloak flowing with the smoke, backlit by firelight, wreathed in drifting crimson petals that disintegrated into sparks whenever they touched the ground.
"It's her," Celine breathed. "The half-demon."
Zerida's silver eyes sharpened. She nocked the glowing arrow, drawing the string back until the air around it hummed with compressed force. Her heartbeat slowed, her vision tunneling on the figure through the haze.
The smoke scattered, and the figure's head tilted. Even at this distance, it felt deliberate. Like she was looking directly at them.
"She sees us," Zerida muttered.
"Is that...?" Celine started, but the words were drowned out by the sudden crack of a gunshot.
Zerida moved on instinct, twisting her body as the bullet screamed past her shoulder, splintering a support beam behind her. Sparks showered the hangar.
"Seriously!" she barked, dropping to a knee.
Celine ducked low, heart hammering. "How the hell... she's firing up here!?"
Another shot rang out, whistling close enough that the shockwave tugged strands of Zerida's hair loose from her braid. She hissed through her teeth, anchoring her aim on the figure below.
But when her gaze returned to the smoking building, the silhouette was gone.
The petals, however, remained, swirling faster, enveloping downwards like a storm of crimson embers.
"They're going after the girls," Zerida realized. Her voice was steel, but a faint chill crept down her spine.
---
On the ground, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey skidded to a halt at the base of the ruined tower. The smoke poured down in heavy curtains, stinging their eyes and filling their lungs.
Rumi's chest heaved as she scanned the shattered windows high above. "Zerida said she had her. Where..?"
Her words cut off as a single crimson petal drifted lazily down in front of her face, glowing faintly before burning away in the air.
Zoey grabbed her arm, voice trembling. "...Rumi. Look."
The street was filling with them. Red petals, glowing, dissolving, painting the air like falling ash.
One petal drifted down, slow and deliberate, as though the world itself had paused to watch. Unlike the others, it didn't burn away. It swayed, lazy and weightless, until it kissed the stone floor.
The effect was instant. The threads of the Honmoon flared, the ground pulsing with light as if stirred from slumber. A jagged tear split open across the glowing weave, and from within, a massive hand clawed its way through. The air warped as a hulking Dokkaebi dragged itself out, its grotesque frame emerging with a guttural snarl.
Rumi's grip tightened around her blade. Her stance shifted forward, ready to strike, but Mira caught her wrist.
"Rumi, look!"
She froze mid-step, following Mira's gaze.
Zoey was already pointing, wide-eyed. All around them, more petals were falling, dozens this time. They didn't vanish in flame. They drifted gently, silently, before settling against the ground.
And each time one touched, the Honmoon's threads blazed like a starburst. The brilliance was fleeting, flaring white before bleeding into a deep, otherworldly pink. Tears opened across the battlefield, one after another, rending the air like paper.
From every tear, the grotesque outlines of monsters began to claw their way free.
The battlefield was lighting up like a grotesque Christmas tree.
Rumi took another step back, her back coming in contact with the backs of Mira and Zoey as all three girls stood back to back to back.
The first Dokkaebi hauled itself fully through, its twisted horns scraping against the tear before it hit the ground with a heavy thud. Its eyes burned with a savage light, curving in a feral grin as it fixed on the three girls.
Another tore free beside it. Then another. And another.
In moments, the street was alive with the sound of claws dragging against stone, snarls echoing as more shapes forced their way through the fabric of reality. The petals kept falling, feeding the chaos, each one striking like a spark on dry kindling.
Zoey's knuckles whitened around her Shin-kai. Her voice was shaky but determined. "This is bad. Real bad. Horror movie bad."
"No kidding." Mira's smirk was gone now, her jaw tight as she spun the Gok-do in her grip. "They're coming in waves."
Rumi's chest rose and fell, her eyes darting between the growing number of portals. Her sword glowed faintly in her hands, the pink particles flickering to life along its edge. Her voice was steady, but her legs tensed like a coiled spring. "Doesn't matter. We stop them here."
The first Dokkaebi lunged.
Rumi surged forward in the same breath, her blade carving a clean arc through its chest. The beast collapsed into smoke and dust, only for two more to burst free behind it.
Mira swung her Gok-do in a wide spin, the blade singing as it cleaved through one head, then pivoted into a crushing strike that shattered another's skull. Blood sprayed across her cheek, but she didn't blink, even as the blood quickly flaked into pink particles.
Zoey's Shin-kai split into two, flashing in rapid arcs that pierced through the chest of a snarling demon before it could close the gap. She landed a hard kick into another's face, knocking it back into the path of Mira's next swing.
But for every monster that fell, two more crawled out of the tears. The street was filling with them, the crimson glow of petals casting everything in a sickly, dreamlike hue.
"Damn it!" Mira spat, gritting her teeth as she pulled her weapon free from the chest of a demon. "There's so many of them. How are they doing this?"
Zoey's head whipped up toward the smoke-covered rooftop. Her voice dropped, almost a whisper. "Over there."
Rumi froze mid-swing, her sword buried in a demon's chest. The petals brushed against her cheek as they fell, warm, unnatural, almost pulsing with a heartbeat of their own.
And then, through the haze of monsters and falling crimson, she saw her.
A figure standing calmly atop the rubble, cloak shifting with the wind, rifle balanced casually in her hands. Crimson petals drifted from the ends of her cloak like an aura, each one flaring before spiraling down into the Honmoon. Her face was covered by a jagged white mask with black and red markings, but the silver glint of her scope caught the light.