Ende departed. The carriage rolled away in a cloud of dust, vanishing swiftly beyond the far end of the street. Banr remained where he stood, staring with weary resignation at the vials of hallucinogen left behind. Beyond the delicate glass shimmered a liquid that seemed to hold captive fragments of starlight.
It was the key everyone longed for—the key to Heaven itself.
Radiant brilliance swirled within the substance, flowing like molten constellations. Unable to resist, Banr picked up one of the vials. Then, from somewhere in the distance, the shrill scream of iron whistles echoed through the city.
The Reapers were coming.
Mounted police thundered toward them.
There would be no arrest. Whatever plan had been set into motion, Banr understood one thing with absolute certainty—his journey ended here.
He drew a slow breath. Few men could face death calmly, and he was no exception. Yet for the sake of what he believed, he had chosen to stay.
"I shall ascend to Heaven..."
The words served as little more than comfort to himself. Then his gaze shifted toward the others in the room.
"Everyone over here! Grab your weapons!"
His voice cracked through the air like a whip.
Ende had chosen his death, yet Banr felt no hatred toward him. This was simply what they had all been destined to do.
His men were panicking. They had smuggled goods in secret for years without discovery. They had long since stopped considering the possibility of consequences.
But now the iron whistles rang from every direction.
Like a flock of black birds heralding death, they circled above the building.
Banr could die.
But not like this.
Sweeping up every remaining vial of hallucinogen, he barked orders for retreat. This was the border between the Lower Districts and the city above. If they fled deeper into the undercity, they might survive a little longer.
The irony was laughable.
Sometimes retribution arrived with terrifying speed.
Banr slammed through the iron gate he himself had sealed shut and descended underground once more. Dense steam smothered visibility, but he knew the route by heart. Through another junction, past a secondary water intake tunnel, and they would emerge within the Lower Districts.
Behind them, the iron whistles screamed ever louder.
The mounted police had already breached the building.
Above, war airships hovered silently in the sky, watching everything below.
"Search every inch of the place. If they resist, open fire immediately!"
Chief Donas shouted the order as he cautiously pushed open the entrance.
The answer came in gunfire.
Bullets tore through the wooden door in a sudden storm, their explosive echoes sending panic rippling through the surrounding streets.
Donas dove aside and signaled the mounted officers.
Rifles rose in unison.
A volley thundered into the building.
The moment the shooting stopped, Pres charged inside first.
Dust exploded upward.
Amid the confusion, he raised his weapon and fired. Though merely an ordinary officer, Pres possessed remarkably sharp aim. A fleeing figure collapsed instantly, killed by a single shot.
Signs of unloading were everywhere. Broken crates littered the floor.
With fire superiority secured, Donas led his officers deeper into the structure.
He had expected a fierce gunfight.
Instead, Banr and his people had vanished completely.
Within moments the building was under police control.
This time, Suya Hall had committed every resource available. They intended to eradicate the hallucinogen trade once and for all.
"Chief! There's a tunnel here!"
Pres's voice echoed from the darkness.
A concealed passage stood open before them.
Without question, the smugglers had escaped through it.
Donas hurried over.
The tunnel beyond was pitch-black, overflowing with rolling heat and steam. They had brought no lighting equipment. Advancing into such conditions would multiply the danger.
His expression darkened.
He had almost caught them.
Almost.
He refused to let those bastards slip away, yet the darkness concealed countless unknown threats.
There was little time to deliberate.
Every second wasted brought the fugitives closer to freedom.
"Move forward. Watch each other's backs. Nobody gets separated."
To raise morale, Donas placed himself at the front.
This operation was about more than promotion or pay.
It was about cutting a malignant tumor from the body of Old Dunling.
The officers followed without complaint.
Most of them weren't afraid.
They were trained forces with overwhelming firepower and superior numbers.
Justice crushing evil.
What was there to fear?
Yet Pres remained wary.
Perhaps it was because he had encountered someone as unsettling as Lloyd.
He deliberately lingered near the rear, unwilling to lower his guard.
Several officers stayed behind to secure the site and watch for escapees.
The entire operation had unfolded at a ridiculous speed.
"Watch your trigger discipline."
One officer reminded the others.
They advanced in pairs.
In such narrow corridors, firearms became awkward and dangerous. A careless shot could easily kill an ally.
Eve was among the group.
Being a newcomer, she had been assigned to the last formation alongside Pres, the same officer who had guided her during her early days.
They were old acquaintances by now.
If Eve had listened to Pres back then and ignored that damned Iron Serpent, perhaps none of the events that followed would ever have happened.
"This time, you should probably listen to some of my... advice."
Pres lowered his voice.
In the dim tunnel, Eve glanced back.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean this place is dangerous. We're underground, not on the surface. There's only forward or backward, and the tunnel gives us no alternatives. Gangsters love this kind of terrain and hate it at the same time. With enough firepower, nobody can retreat or push through."
For a policeman, Pres spoke with suspicious familiarity about gang warfare.
"These enclosed spaces are a nightmare," he continued. "And I've got a bad feeling."
There weren't many people in Suya Hall whom Eve trusted.
Pres was one of the few.
At the very least, she could tolerate his rambling.
"What kind of feeling?"
"Hard to explain. Like you already know something terrible is about to happen."
The sensation wasn't new.
It had lingered for a long time.
But recently it had grown stronger.
Eve's expression shifted.
Though the lighting was poor, Pres noticed immediately.
After a brief pause, he asked carefully,
"Don't tell me..."
"That's right."
Eve answered without hesitation.
"I feel it too."
The intelligence driving this operation had largely come from Eve herself.
In truth, she had begun doubting everything.
Weeks earlier, while investigating the hallucinogen trade, she had encountered the Rat.
The creature had provided an alarming amount of hidden information.
Only later did Eve realize how unnatural the encounter had been.
It wasn't that she had found the mysterious Rat.
It felt more like the Rat had been waiting to be found.
As though someone behind the scenes had orchestrated every step.
Pres's experience was stranger still.
He remembered that bizarre night.
The mounted police had attempted to assault the underground palace and encountered a mysterious military force.
And there had been Red Falcon—the man who had handed him a firearm.
Though Lloyd had done everything possible to keep him away from the darkness, Pres had still been touched by it.
He could feel the presence of unknown terror.
And because of that, he remained vigilant.
Then the explosion came.
The confined tunnel magnified its fury.
Scorching pressure blasted down the passageway, hurling Donas to the ground.
The superheated air became nearly impossible to breathe.
Several officers almost collapsed.
Yet before panic could spread, hurried footsteps emerged from the darkness.
Weapons rose instantly.
Every officer tensed.
Then a young, frightened voice echoed through the steam.
"D-Don't shoot!"
Em coughed violently.
The searing heat had burned him badly.
Hands raised high, he stumbled from the mist.
Donas had already drawn his revolver.
The last thing he expected was a child.
Minutes earlier.
"Aren't we going any farther?"
Em asked nervously.
His eyes remained closed, yet streams of light flowed through the narrow gaps between his eyelids.
Lloyd stood motionless in the sweltering steam.
After sprinting for some distance, he had abruptly stopped, seemingly indifferent to the unbearable heat.
Em's breathing had become labored.
Every inhale felt like drawing boiling water directly into his lungs.
"They've come back."
Lloyd spoke suddenly.
He never intended to let the situation spread beyond control.
Just as the Purging Agency's doctrine dictated—what belonged to the darkness should end in the darkness.
Demons were not supposed to run through the streets of Old Dunling in broad daylight.
When Banr detonated the steam pipelines, Lloyd had immediately accelerated. He suspected the smugglers were nearing the exit and intended to seal every possible escape route.
Then he heard it.
The faint but unmistakable chorus of iron whistles.
The mounted police of Suya Hall had somehow entered the chaos.
Returned?
Before Em could understand, Lloyd suddenly covered his mouth and turned away, shielding the burning glow from the darkness.
The unfortunate boy thought Lloyd intended to kill him.
Then footsteps echoed nearby.
Banr and his people had returned.
Em's heart sank.
Even surrounded by boiling steam, he felt no warmth.
The approaching footsteps sounded like monsters charging through the dark.
Closer.
Closer.
And just as they reached Lloyd's position, they abruptly changed direction, disappearing down another passage.
Banr passed within arm's reach of Lloyd.
One more step and he would have discovered him.
But the steam and darkness concealed Lloyd perfectly.
"Looks like Suya Hall blocked the exits."
Lloyd spoke quietly.
There was no time to wonder why the police were here.
This unexpected complication had disrupted everything.
The smugglers would no longer lead him to whoever stood behind them.
"Run straight ahead, Em. You'll probably run into some officers."
Lloyd paused.
"My advice? Raise your hands while you're running."
Em didn't understand.
Then Lloyd suddenly leveled a shotgun at him.
Before the boy could react—
Boom.
The shotgun fired.
Em bolted in blind terror.
Following Lloyd's instructions, he sprinted forward as fast as he could.
Behind him, Lloyd occasionally fired another shot.
None of the rounds struck him.
Instead, they shattered overhead steam pipes.
Scalding vapor erupted into the tunnel once more, flooding every passage.
Such conditions would slow the police considerably.
Whatever their goals were, Lloyd had no desire to see them involved.
The hallucinogens were still present.
If things escalated, the result might become a war between monsters.
Turning a corner, Lloyd watched condensation gather along the edge of his folding knife before sliding down the blade.
Banr continued forward with the hallucinogens.
His life was counting down toward its final moments.
Yet when a man knows exactly when death awaits him, certain fears begin to lose their power.
He lowered his gaze to the vial in his hand.
The swirling starlight within was mesmerizing.
Though he had spent years transporting the substance, Banr had never once sampled it.
He had lived like an ascetic.
He was one of the Displaced.
A man filled with rage.
Rejected by Ingelvig.
Unaccepted by Gaulnalo.
A man trapped between nations.
A man with no home.
Banr was a scar left behind by war.
A people who should never have existed.
For years he believed suffering would be his only future.
Until someone told him:
If nobody will accept us...
Then we shall build our own Heaven.
"I shall ascend to Heaven..."
He whispered the words again.
Then the air shifted.
Steam churned violently.
The instincts of a veteran warrior screamed a warning.
Banr spun around.
And saw the wolf waiting in the darkness.
Brilliant eyes burned there.
Like a predator stalking the night.
For a fleeting instant, it seemed less like a man and more like some monstrous thing observing them from beyond the shadows.
Banr's soul trembled.
Then illusion shattered beneath a roaring gunshot.
The Red Dragon exhaled.
Ignited magnesium burst from the muzzle, scattering blazing white fire through the darkness.
A river of flame surged forward.
The tunnel exploded with light.
Moist air became dry.
The already suffocating heat grew even more unbearable.
Dragon's Breath ammunition possessed little true stopping power.
Once the burning magnesium left the barrel, its kinetic lethality was almost nonexistent.
Its purpose was fire.
And fear.
Lloyd achieved both.
Everyone froze.
The brief illumination revealed their positions.
Using his extraordinary night vision, Lloyd memorized every target.
The light vanished.
The knife arrived.
He didn't need many survivors.
One would suffice.
There was no opportunity to resist.
The sudden brilliance had blinded everyone.
Even after darkness returned, ghostly afterimages lingered across their vision.
Then the cold blade sliced open throats.
And froze lives forever within the darkness.
Everything happened too quickly.
By the time the second man collapsed in agony, Banr had only just begun recovering from shock.
The monster continued its slaughter.
He heard steel shrieking through the air.
He felt terror being planted inside every soul present.
Burning white light danced through the darkness, leaving lingering trails across his vision.
"F-Fire!"
Someone finally screamed.
A trigger was pulled.
Then dozens more.
Muzzle flashes erupted throughout the tunnel, blooming and dying in rapid succession.
A storm of steel bullets surged toward the shadow.
They hit.
But the rounds ricocheted away.
Sparks burst like metal striking metal.
What... was that thing?
Banr had no idea what stood before him.
Then those eyes turned toward him.
Close.
Far too close.
Staring into those blazing flames felt like gazing directly into daylight itself.
And his soul began to burn.