Lead-gray clouds hung over the city, a grim iron curtain blotting out most of the light and plunging the narrow alley at the street corner into profound darkness.
Lloyd leaned against the side nearest the street, a folding knife held openly in his hand. Rain was falling, though thankfully, because of the alley's narrow confines, it amounted to little more than a drizzle compared to the downpour in the streets.
"You've been corrupted, Hig."
Lloyd spoke coldly. He had originally intended to deal with Hig in the safety of his own home, but then he thought of everything that had happened with Madam Van Lud. In the end, Lloyd abandoned the idea.
She had told him before that he was never to bring trouble home with him. And so Lloyd would not kill anyone in his own house.
"What does 'corruption' mean?"
Hig had already lost the strength to stand. His body and mind were both being tormented by an indescribable pain, yet the hallucinations before his eyes were becoming clearer with every passing moment. The closer he came to death, the more vivid and beautiful they became.
"Explaining it would be troublesome. Basically… you're going to die and turn into a monster," Lloyd said.
Hig was not surprised by the answer. He still remembered everything Moriarty had told him back then. It had been a bargain with the devil. Whatever he had received, he would have to pay for.
"So, Lloyd… all this time, you've been hunting monsters?"
"More or less…"
There was no point hiding anything from Hig anymore, so Lloyd answered him directly.
Hig looked at that unfamiliar figure before him. His voice was soft, yet somehow unbearably heavy.
"Then I suppose that makes you a hero…"
No one could have imagined that two men so utterly different from one another would have their first truly honest conversation at a moment like this. Even Hig found it somewhat absurd. He had always thought that the man living next door was some sort of underworld saint, only to discover that he was actually a hero of the city.
What a damn strange situation. What a damn strange conversation.
Lloyd suddenly laughed. He had expected this to become a painful and sorrowful battle to the death, yet somehow it had turned into a conversation beneath the curtain of rain. He slipped a cigarette between his lips and, shielding the flame from the wind and rain, lit it. Thin wisps of smoke curled slowly into the air.
"This isn't your fault, Hig. Because of me, the darkness noticed you. Because of that so-called 'phototaxis,' you were marked as well. I've actually been trying to prevent all of this from happening…"
Lloyd suddenly fell silent. He did not look at Hig. With his wealth of experience, he knew that Hig could not escape him. Yet at this moment, all Lloyd felt was a quiet sorrow and a deep sense of guilt.
During his long years in Old Dunling, Lloyd had always known exactly what he was. He was neither wholly human nor wholly monster. He existed somewhere between the two—the wanderer who walked between dawn and dusk.
Throughout those years, Lloyd had deliberately avoided forming connections with others. He had no real friends. He rarely spoke with Madam Van Lud, and he had always been distant even with Hig, his own roommate.
Because Lloyd knew very well what flowed through his veins.
Secret blood.
That forbidden blood burned like a blazing light within the darkness. It illuminated not only himself, but everyone around him, allowing those uncanny creatures lurking in the shadows to glimpse their existence.
He had understood this long ago, when Selieu was targeted by Lawrence. Selieu had been too close to him, illuminated by that accursed light. Fortunately, Lloyd had managed to save her in the end, preventing the tragedy from ever taking place.
But this time, he had failed.
He had not been able to save Hig.
Moriarty had corrupted him.
Even without Moriarty, Hig would eventually have drawn the attention of some other madman. Perhaps it would have been a monster. Perhaps, someday, Madam Van Lud might have been dragged into all of this as well…
Yes…
They had been too close to him.
They had once been protected by that unknown darkness, only to be illuminated by his own light.
"Have I… gotten too carried away?"
Lloyd stared at the pale, rain-washed street and asked himself the question.
He had killed Lawrence and been reborn amid those flames. It had been a wonderful new beginning. Lloyd had enjoyed what was, by all accounts, a nearly perfect Divine Birthday. Even his usually violent landlady had become gentler. His normally indifferent roommate would sit down and talk with him. He had met people who were perhaps not entirely reliable, but certainly interesting enough—even if their code names were all ridiculous names of birds.
It had been a good beginning. A brand-new life.
Just as 047 had often told him in his memories: Go to Old Dunling. Give yourself a name. Begin a new life.
Lloyd had thought he had finally found that new life.
But perhaps he had simply grown too complacent.
Those uncanny things lurking in the darkness had found him again.
And just like that, all his efforts had become meaningless. Everything had returned to the beginning, repeating itself day after day.
"So, Hig… what exactly does Moriarty want?"
Lloyd's heart gradually hardened, becoming cold as iron and stone. He looked down at Hig's fallen body. The veins beneath his skin had begun to turn blue, spreading upward along his neck like the branches of a grotesque tattoo.
The game had begun.
Or rather, this was another stage of the game, another obstacle in the path. Moriarty did not enjoy tormenting ordinary people—he found it boring. If he had chosen to act against Hig, then there had to be a purpose behind it.
And ultimately, that purpose pointed toward Lloyd himself.
With a dark expression, Lloyd slowly walked toward Hig.
Then, just as he reached him, he seemed to realize something and stepped out into the pale curtain of rain.
Silence.
Far too much silence.
At some unknown point, every stray sound had disappeared. There were no pedestrians in the street, no Iron Serpents or carriages passing by.
Lloyd could barely make out the buildings through the rain. Every window and door was tightly shut, standing like gray-black walls around him, trapping him within this deadened street. Lights glimmered behind the curtain of rain, their radiance blurred and distorted, as though some enormous creature were staring at him from beyond the downpour.
Then a sudden gust of wind shattered the stillness.
A razor-sharp flash of steel tore through the falling rain.
A monster hunter descended from above, a thousand layers of force crashing down upon the nail sword in his hands as it fell like a guillotine.
Lloyd leaned backward. The sword slammed viciously into the ground, sending a great sheet of water spraying into the air. In the next instant, Lloyd struck back. His folding knife carved a half-circle through the rain, spraying blood and water alike and forcing the monster hunter backward.
"A monster hunter from the New Church?"
Lloyd asked.
The hunter had no intention of answering. He remained silent, raising his nail sword and assuming the stance of a beast ready to pounce as he confronted Lloyd.
The rain continued to pour.
Lloyd no longer had the luxury of worrying about whether Hig would live or die. Compared to a monster hunter, an already-mutated creature posed almost no threat at all.
Yet Lloyd was puzzled.
Was this part of Moriarty's game as well?
And if so, what was the point?
Sending a single monster hunter to ambush him…
Lloyd was fully armed now. If he wanted to, he could probably blow this entire street apart.
A lone monster hunter would have difficulty posing any real threat to him.
Unless…
The thought had barely formed when the hunter moved.
At almost the exact same instant, Lloyd drew the shotgun concealed beneath his coat and fired toward another direction.
Brilliant fire erupted beneath the curtain of rain, vanishing almost as quickly as it appeared. Yet that dazzling light lingered for the briefest moment, forming a burning serpent that tore through the darkness.
The monster hunter's sword struck empty air.
Lloyd had been faster.
Ripples exploded across the flooded street. Following the cover of the blazing serpent, the folding knife pierced through the white curtain of rain, crossed blades with the nail sword, and then drove straight into the chest of another monster hunter.
There was still a trace of confusion on the rain-soaked face.
The hunter seemed unable to understand how Lloyd had discovered him.
"Corruption… The ascension of secret blood comes with corruption. And that gave you away."
Lloyd whispered into his ear.
He twisted the folding knife, widening the wound, and at the same time slipped the shotgun back beneath his coat. He seized the wounded hunter and pulled him close, almost as though embracing an intimate friend, before smashing him into the blind corner where two walls met.
Lloyd used the hunter's body as a shield.
With his back against the walls, he held the unlucky man's head firmly in place, forcing his gaze toward the corner so that he could see nothing behind Lloyd.
"Don't move. If you keep forcing your secret blood to rise, believe me, my knife is very fast."
Lloyd issued the warning quietly.
He hoped the threat of death would be enough to keep the hunter under control. If the man ignored everything and allowed his secret blood to surge recklessly, Lloyd was not confident that he could incapacitate him quickly under the current circumstances.
The rain was far too quiet.
It was only the faint flow of corruption that finally exposed the truth.
And once Lloyd had seen through their deception, the monster hunters no longer bothered hiding themselves.
Countless traces of corruption spread through the downpour. Chaos became tangled with chaos. Gray-black silhouettes slowly emerged from behind the curtain of rain, like the dead climbing out from freshly opened graves.
Lloyd did not move rashly.
Instead, he rapidly analyzed the situation before him.
The game had begun.
Or perhaps more accurately, the hunt for Lloyd Holmes had begun.
This was Old Dunling.
These monster hunters had appeared openly before him. They were no longer afraid of the Purification Bureau.
Had they finally reached some sort of agreement with the Bureau?
Or was Lloyd himself one of the terms of that agreement?
As expected, those bastards could never be trusted.
When all was said and done, they were merely people working for that mysterious Queen Victoria.
Everyone stood on the same side only because their desires happened to align.
And when those desires diverged, unity would shatter.
Could this be what Moriarty had been waiting for?
Had he simply decided that the time was right, and only now made his move?
Lloyd's heart sank.
If the Purification Bureau had chosen to side with the New Church, then there was no hope of him fighting them head-on.
At least, not yet.
Lloyd knew all too well the terrifying degree of control the Purification Bureau exercised over this city. He also knew about those mass-produced Third-Generation Old Era Divine Armors.
Suddenly, the monster hunter Lloyd had been holding began struggling violently.
Lloyd did not hesitate. He prepared to pull out his knife and finish him.
But the folding blade was firmly trapped within flesh.
During the brief moment Lloyd had spent analyzing the situation, the hunter's terrifying regenerative ability had already taken effect. Flesh had grown around the blade, entangling itself with the steel and delaying Lloyd's attempt to withdraw it.
That brief delay was deadly.
The captured hunter suddenly wrenched himself free. Both hands clamped tightly around the folding knife buried in his chest, while at the same time the other monster hunters scattered throughout the street rushed forward with their nail swords.
Lloyd immediately released the knife and kicked the hunter in front of him aside. He raised his shotgun and fired.
He had prepared the ammunition beforehand. Only the first shell had been loaded with a Dragon's Breath round; the rest were ordinary buckshot.
The pellets tore through the curtain of rain, but had little effect on the monster hunters.
Blades collided, throwing off showers of sparks. In the blink of an eye, they were upon Lloyd.
He pressed himself against the dead-end corner behind him, ensuring that he would not be surrounded from both sides.
The clash between the old and new monster hunters erupted in an instant.
Lloyd had always possessed one particularly useful habit. Battles against monsters were invariably high-intensity affairs, and weapons wore down quickly. He carried several folding knives on his person.
He immediately hurled two of them into the fight, twin blades flashing through the rain.
The knives met the edges of the nail swords.
At the same time, his secret blood surged.
Dense iron armor spread across the surface of his skin, forming layer by layer until it enveloped his body completely.
Like a black beast tearing through the rain, Lloyd burst forward, leaving blood in his wake.
The monster hunters clearly had not expected such a violent response from Lloyd. He had unleashed his Authority without hesitation.
In answer, brilliant white light began to rise within their eyes.
Savage power coursed through their bodies.
If no one stopped them, the entire district might soon be reduced to ruins.
Then a shrill whistle sounded.
Something was racing through the curtain of rain.
Brilliant headlights cut through the darkness like blades, tearing apart every obstacle in their path.
An Iron Serpent thundered onto the battlefield.
But this was no ordinary Iron Serpent.
It was an armored one, reinforced from end to end. Its iron plating lifted section by section as steam billowed from beneath the chassis.
Father Anthony's voice rang out through the storm.
"Enough! Stop!"
The monster hunters recognized that voice.
At Father Anthony's furious command, they all halted.
Even the raging beast ceased swinging its folding knives, standing cautiously as it watched the scene unfold.
Nothing that happened here could escape the notice of the Purification Bureau.
Countless large Geiger counters were spread throughout the city.
Lloyd had expected Arthur to arrive.
He had not expected Father Anthony.
Now everything was perfectly clear.
The Purification Bureau had reached an agreement with the New Church.
And then another figure stepped down from the Iron Serpent.
Arthur opened a black umbrella and looked solemnly at Lloyd.
"We need to talk, Lloyd Holmes," Arthur said gravely.
Having already prepared himself for this possibility, Lloyd was not surprised.
The iron armor peeled away from his body, revealing his calm face beneath.
"Talk about what?"
"Many things. About what's inside you… and about how we are going to deal with the False Grail."
Father Anthony spoke this time.
"So this is how you intend to deal with it?"
Lloyd pointed his folding knife toward the monster hunters.
The brilliant white light in his eyes continued to burn quietly, showing no sign of fading.
"If I told you this was all some misunderstanding, that would sound rather ridiculous, wouldn't it?" Anthony said bluntly. "So there's no point dressing it up with pretty words. Yes. This is our solution. You are an extremely dangerous monster hunter, Lloyd. You know every method there is for killing monsters, and to make matters worse, you are carrying the False Grail."
Anthony seemed ready to continue, but Arthur suddenly strode forward.
He showed no fear of Lloyd in his current state.
He simply reached out, pressed Lloyd's head down, and leaned close to his ear.
"I'm sorry, Lloyd. This is the Queen's order."
As he spoke, more Iron Serpents arrived one after another.
Personnel from the Purification Bureau emerged as well.
Beneath the curtain of rain came the low hiss of steam, accompanied by the grinding sound of steel.
A grim gray silhouette stood not far away, watching in silence.