"No soul, huh?" Mira said, her expression tightening as she stepped forward. "So that confirms it. She's nothing like Jinu then." A small, almost reckless smile tugged at her lips. "That's fine by me."
"Don't be foolish," Melissa snapped, seizing Mira's arm before she could move any further. Her grip trembled, but her voice was firm. "You saw what happened. You stand no chance against her. You two take Rumi and run."
Mira turned on her, scowling. "And let something like that roam free? Let her keep killing people in Paris?"
Zoey nodded grimly, her hands pressed against Rumi's back as she tried to soothe the trembling hunter. "We can't allow that, Melissa. It's our duty to..."
"The mission was a failure," Melissa cut in sharply, her tone final.
"This has nothing to do with the mission!" Mira shouted, fury crackling in her voice. Her Gok-do spun once in her hand, its motion sharp and deliberate. "She's a demon. We have to kill her! If we don't..."
"Can't you just listen to my last wish!?" Melissa's voice broke as she yelled, her eyes glistening.
The words struck all three of them like a physical blow. Mira froze mid-motion, Zoey's breath caught in her throat, and Rumi's tired eyes widened.
"Last… wish?" Rumi managed, her voice small and unsteady.
"What do you mean 'last wish'?" Zoey cried, panic rising in her tone. "We all have to escape... together!"
"I'll buy you three the time you need to get out of here," Melissa said quietly, lowering her gaze. Her hand moved to her waist as she unfurled her chain sickle, the metal links clinking faintly under the aurora's glow. "It won't be much, but there should be a transport left in the west district. If it's still functional, it'll take you straight to base. Back to Korea."
Rumi's expression hardened. She pushed against Zoey's support and forced herself upright, her breath ragged but steady. "We're not leaving you," she said, voice firm despite the strain. Zoey stood beside her, mirroring her resolve.
Rumi took a step forward, her gaze fixed on the red-cloaked girl in the distance. "I don't even know what to think about her," she said slowly. "After seeing her, after wondering if maybe I wasn't the only one…" She trailed off, then shook her head, determination lighting her eyes. "But it doesn't matter."
Her sword appeared in her hand, expanding in a flash of violet light into its greatsword form. The blade hummed softly, the air around it rippling with faint distortion.
"Because I am a Demon Hunter," Rumi said, voice ringing clear across the broken street. "It's my job to protect the innocent. And it's our song," she lifted her sword, light gathering along its edge, "that keeps the demons from destroying the human world."
Beneath their feet, the Honmoon pulsed again, slow, rhythmic, and heavy, its glow washing over the four of them like a heartbeat made of light.
When Rumi took a step forward, the Honmoon dimmed, its glow centering around her.
"🎶I dreamt I was a queen on a crimson road.🎶" Her voice was soft, melodic, almost like a prayer carried on the wind.
"🎶A lion with a crown of violet and gold.🎶" She took another step, and the threads beneath her feet began to rise, floating into the air like strands of mist.
"🎶Someone shot you down, and your blood went cold.🎶" Her hand tightened around her sword.
"🎶Tell me, can you wake up? Tell me, can you wake up again?🎶" Her gaze locked on the red-cloaked girl ahead, unflinching.
"🎶So don't let go," Her tone was almost silent, "we're meant to be unstoppable… not listening to the sound, of silence.🎶"
Mira stepped forward next. A fresh patch of the Honmoon pulsed beneath her, forming a stage-light halo of silver threads.
"🎶So let the walls come down, and our colours light up the sky.🎶" Her Gok-do traced glowing lines through the threads, weaving light into motion.
"🎶We are the heroes,🎶" Zoey's voice rose from behind, a new spotlight blooming around her. "🎶We are the heroes… tonight.🎶"
"🎶And when the hearts break loose, and our song becomes a battle cry!🎶" Mira smiled, breaking into a sprint, her boots sparking light across the web of threads as she raced toward the red-cloaked girl's perch.
"🎶We are the heroes!🎶" Zoey smiled through the heat of the moment as she ran past Melissa, determination burning in her eyes. "🎶We are the heroes, tonight!🎶"
While Zoey ran ahead, Rumi moved with steady, unshakable confidence, each step dissolving the exhaustion that had clung to her moments ago.
"🎶I feel it like a surge running through my veins.🎶"
The world around her sank into pitch-black silence, the Honmoon's glow fading until only the jagged, glowing lines of her pattern remained, pulsing faintly like veins of light in the void.
"🎶Just breathe, and we'll ignite this fight again.🎶"
A single, thin thread shimmered within the darkness. It connected to Rumi's chest, stretching outward before splitting into two paths that extended into the unseen distance. At the ends of those threads, Mira and Zoey ran forward, their movements sparking bursts of color that chased away the shadows around them.
The red-cloaked girl narrowed her eyes, her gaze sweeping the shifting darkness. She pulled her mask back over her face, the faint red glow of her cloak casting ghostly light around her, her only illumination in the abyss.
A flash erupted. She twisted back just in time, a blade cleaving through the space where she'd stood.
"🎶So let the walls come down, let our colours light up the sky.🎶"
The words rippled through the void, Mira's heat radiating through every syllable. The darkness quivered, folding back as light began to bloom again, rising from the Honmoon beneath their feet.
The red-cloaked girl ducked under a glowing Shin-kai that sliced past her head, the heat of it brushing her hood. She twisted into a backflip, narrowly avoiding two more Shin-kais that whistled through the air toward her back.
Halfway through her flip, upside down and weightless, her silver eyes locked with Zoey's, burning with fierce determination. Three Shin-kais gleamed between Zoey's hands as her voice rang out through the night.
"🎶We are the heroes! We are the heroes! Toniiight!🎶"
Before the red-cloaked girl could land, Mira was already behind her, her Gok-do carving a blinding arc through the air.
"🎶And when our hearts break loose, and our song becomes a battlecry!🎶"
The red-cloaked girl twisted again mid-air, forcing a second flip that carried her clear of both attacks. Sparks of violet and red scattered around her like shattered glass.
Zoey didn't pause. She spun sharply, flinging her blades backward in a dazzling spiral.
"🎶We are the heroes! We are the heroes! Toniiight!🎶"
The instant the red-cloaked girl's boots touched the ground, a violet mist swept across her vision, then a kick struck her legs, sweeping them clean out from under her. Rumi emerged from the haze, her glowing patterns pulsing with light.
"🎶You and I…🎶"
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
"🎶Our song is like a battlecryyy!!!🎶"
Time seemed to slow. The red glow of the cloaked girl and the violet brilliance of Rumi's patterns intertwined, two storms of color suspended in motion, colliding in a moment of violent beauty that painted the darkness like a living mural.
Even in that slowed moment, the red-cloaked girl's mask turned toward Rumi. The two locked eyes, one suspended horizontally in midair, the other crouched low, her leg still sweeping through the motion that had tripped her opponent.
Rumi's sword burned bright, cutting through the thick air as it arced toward the girl's face.
🎶🎶[Oh Oh Oho]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Oh Oh Oho]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Oh Oh Oho]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Oh Oh Oho]🎶🎶
Clang!
The girl's scythe snapped open in a flash, its shaft catching the blade just in time. Sparks exploded as the sword slid down the steel, shrieking against it before the impact hurled the girl backward into the air.
"🎶And we'll shine, till our songs light up the sky!!!🎶"
Rumi's roar rose like thunder, beautiful and defiant, as if the Honmoon itself was singing through her.
She leapt after the airborne girl, a trail of starlight bursting from her heels. "🎶And we'll dance to the sound of our battlecryyy!!!🎶"
Her sword came down in a blazing arc, slamming against the scythe's shaft. The red-cloaked girl was driven down like a falling comet, crashing hard against the street below.
But she rolled with the fall, landing smoothly before spinning her weapon in a wide circle. The edge of the scythe met Mira's Gok-do mid-swing, the clash ringing like a bell across the burning sky.
"🎶We are the heroes! We are the heroes! Toniiight!🎶"
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
The red-cloaked girl tilted her head just in time, a Shin-kai slicing past and cutting a few glowing threads from her hood.
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
With a sharp twist, her scythe caught the shaft of Mira's Gok-do. She yanked the hunter forward, spun with impossible grace, and hurled her aside in one fluid motion.
Before Mira even hit the ground, another figure dove in, a blur flipping over the red-cloaked girl's head.
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
Melissa's eyes burned as she passed overhead, her chain sickle unfurling mid-flip in dozens of hoops, swirling around the red-cloaked girl like orbiting stars before tightening all at once.
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
🎶🎶[Who we are... Ah... Ah... Ah.]🎶🎶
The chains constricted, locking around the girl's limbs as Melissa landed behind her, sickle gripped tight. The clinking metal glowed faintly in the darkness, holding their enemy still.
In that same breath, Rumi appeared in front of her in a flare of violet smoke, sword drawn back for a killing thrust.
Mira reappeared to her left, her Gok-do already arcing downward.
Zoey flashed into view on her right, all six Shin-kai circling her body before launching forward at once.
The red-cloaked girl was trapped on all sides, Rumi before her, Mira and Zoey flanking her, Melissa behind, while the Honmoon beneath their feet blazed like a radiant stage in the night.