The steam engine roared as it churned, driving the battered First-Generation God-Armor onward. During the fierce battle before this, Percival's old-world God-Armor had endured a relentless assault from the demons, but her wealth of combat experience had allowed her to evade many of the attacks that would otherwise have been fatal. Though the armor was now covered in wounds and barely resembled its former self, it remained capable of fighting. More importantly, it was a First-Generation God-Armor. The demonic flesh that had been torn apart was already beginning to heal with the passage of time.
"I've never tried it before, but as long as we aren't knocked down and killed outright, the regenerative power of a First-Generation God-Armor should allow us to hold a defensible position and slaughter these demons one by one... But before that, we need to deal with that thing."
Percival's voice came through the communicator. She had heard Arthur's orders as well, and as the person most familiar with the situation on the battlefield, she offered her suggestion.
"Is this everyone you have left?"
Arthur asked. To guard against the possibility of an unforeseen disaster, the Purification Bureau had committed a tremendous amount of force to this operation. Even so, disaster had still found them.
"I don't know. That thing is terrifying. It led the demons straight into our formation and tore through us. The downpour scattered everyone. I don't know what happened to the others, but right now... right now, I think it's just me and Night Owl."
The grotesque God-Armor slowly raised its head, staring toward the black silhouette standing at the edge of the dome. Reflected in the lenses of its bird-beak mask were the figures of people struggling desperately in a sea of blood.
"That thing... is the Plague Doctor. One of the demon-related figures we've been hunting for a long time. Looks like he really is one of Lawrence's remnants."
"The Plague Doctor..."
Arthur remembered the name. A mysterious and sinister physician who traveled from place to place conducting research into humans and demons. His methods were ruthless, and every experiment left behind countless "experimental products." Because of that, he had long been marked as a target by the Purification Bureau and relentlessly hunted.
"What can he do?"
Arthur asked. Someone capable of effortlessly crushing the old-world God-Armors was, in some respects, even more frightening than Lawrence himself.
"No. It's not him who's powerful. It's those demons..."
Whether the interference came from the corruption or from Percival's own fear, Arthur could hear the tremor in her voice.
Through the curtain of rain, at the opposite end of the lift platform, crimson light had already begun to burn across the First-Generation God-Armor. Within the armor, flesh was spreading across Percival's body, merging with her own flesh. It was agonizing, yet it granted her terrifying strength.
A First-Generation God-Armor could continue fighting, but Percival was still only human. Her consciousness had already reached the edge of collapse. Perhaps at any moment, the corruption would consume and destroy her.
"Don't worry about me. There are still three Florend potions inside the armor. I can hold on for a while longer."
As her voice came through, Arthur had the strange sensation that Percival was looking directly at him from beyond the curtain of rain. Countless crimson lights gleamed like a hundred scarlet eyes.
The flesh within the armor tightened. The God-Armor raised its arm, and the greatsword, stained with blood and riddled with gashes, pointed toward the center of the lift platform. A gigantic corpse lay there, pierced by countless iron spears and greatswords. The weapons had been heated until they glowed red-hot, and every drop of rain that struck them erupted into clouds of white steam.
It looked like some nightmare creature pinned to the earth by countless blades. Its flesh was grotesque and horrifying, while malformed bones protruded from its body like the legs of a tarantula, stabbing outward along the spine and driving deep into the steel beneath it. Fierce white flames still burned within the gaps of its wounds, vaporizing the rain and filling the air with billowing clouds of steam.
Yet even that steam could not conceal the forbidden corpse. The howling wind scattered it, exposing the abhorrent remains once more beneath the downpour.
Everyone who saw it felt a faint tightness in their chest the instant they looked directly at it.
A human head sat atop its bloated, distorted body. Its face was twisted in rage, its mouth stretched wide as though it were still screaming. But no one could hear its cries anymore.
It was dead.
A greatsword and a molten spear had pierced its heart and severed its head, while molten iron had fused its body firmly to the ground.
"Is that... a demon?"
Even Arthur found it difficult to believe what he was seeing. The searing white flames had yet to die, and the boiling blood refused to settle beneath the freezing rain. A grotesque body like that, bearing a single incongruous human head...
Or perhaps that was what it had looked like all along.
"More precisely, it's a demon created from a Demon Hunter who was transformed into one."
Percival's voice carried a trace of fear.
"Those demons were the main force that broke through us... I suppose it really is worthy of a Demon Hunter. Even after becoming a demon, they're still that powerful. And after their transformation, they seem to retain the ability to invoke their Authority. That fire that refuses to go out was that Demon Hunter's Authority."
"I suspect they were Demon Hunters from the New Church. Once they realized something had gone wrong here, they chose to enter the battlefield as well. Their target was probably Lloyd. But unlike the Plague Doctor, they didn't seem to know anything about the interior of Blackmount Hospital, so their group split up."
"And those few demonized Demon Hunters were the unlucky ones who encountered the Plague Doctor. It took everything we had to kill them."
Most of the Third-Generation God-Armors had been destroyed fighting those demons. The wounded armors were then surrounded by ordinary demons and slowly devoured piece by piece.
"You're saying the Plague Doctor defeated those Demon Hunters—was he so terrifying that they were forced to become demons, completely losing their minds, only for him to use them afterward to attack you?"
Arthur asked.
"Possibly. The Plague Doctor himself never made a move from beginning to end. We have no idea what his ability is."
An unknown enemy was always the most terrifying kind of enemy, and that lack of information only added another stone to the weight of their despair.
The entire lift platform had become a battlefield of utter ruin. Blood and rainwater pooled together, with corpses and broken bones floating within them. The wreckage of God-Armors and demons stood like towering stone sculptures. Looking upward, endless rain poured down from the heavens, while the sky was completely swallowed by gloom, as dark as night.
Percival began to move slowly. Night Owl rose at the same time.
The performance of a Third-Generation God-Armor was vastly inferior to that of a First-Generation model, but fortunately, Night Owl possessed enough combat experience to compensate. With Percival drawing the overwhelming majority of the enemy's fire, his own battered armor still retained some ability to fight.
They began moving toward Arthur.
Above them, at the edge of the dome, the Plague Doctor watched everything in silence.
Arthur's expression darkened as he searched desperately for a way to find even the slightest chance of survival within this hopeless situation. He had originally expected the Plague Doctor to attack them immediately, but it seemed the man was in no hurry. It was almost as though he were showing them mercy, giving them enough time to discuss tactics—or perhaps enough time for a final prayer before death.
At present, their main fighting force consisted only of Percival and Night Owl. Their God-Armors were damaged, but they remained vital combat assets against the demons. Everything else would have to depend on Arthur himself.
Though the rain and vapor obscured his vision, Arthur could still make out another God-Armor lying at the opposite end of the massive lift platform.
Its blue paint was clearly visible. Its frame was slender and lean, like an agile wraith. One could almost imagine how it would move—swift as thunder, light as a ghost.
This had been Merlin's proposal.
He believed that First-Generation God-Armors possessed certain strange characteristics, especially the inexplicable connection between the armor and its pilot. The relationship between Lloyd and the Black Angel was enough to demonstrate that. But Lloyd was clearly an exceptional case and therefore unsuitable for proper research. So Merlin had decided to use Orvis as the current subject of study, investigating the connection between him and a First-Generation God-Armor.
No one noticed that Orvis, who had been lying motionless across Kestrel's back, slowly raised his head at that very moment.
He could not see what lay beyond the curtain of rain, yet a strange sense of unease had suddenly seized his heart.
It was as though something was calling to him.
Something beyond the rain.
The downpour continued to pour from the heavens. To leave this place, they would have to activate the massive lift and send everyone down to the surface. But from the looks of things, the situation above ground could only be worse than they had imagined.
Before Arthur could make a decision, a strange sound came from above.
The demons.
One after another, they appeared along the edge of the dome, like starving beasts emerging from the darkness. They bared their fangs and claws, their bodies twisted into grotesque shapes, completely surrounding the people trapped below like animals inside a cage.
The Plague Doctor had never been showing them mercy.
He had merely been waiting for the scattered demons to be drawn here by the scent of living humans.
And that was not even the deepest pit of despair.
What truly sent everyone's heart sinking was the demon standing behind the Plague Doctor.
Its bones and flesh had been swollen and distorted by the power of the Mystic Blood. Black iron armor covered its body, and more of that armor continued to grow from between the gaps, spreading like countless sharpened blades across its grotesque form.
The Demon Hunter's face was no longer recognizable. All that could be seen was a bloodstained maw opening within the black armor like a mask, thirsting for flesh and blood.
"Even Demon Hunters cannot resist the corruption of the Grail Blood..."
The Plague Doctor sighed softly.
It was actually very simple to accomplish all this. First, break the Demon Hunter. Then, before killing him, inject him with the Grail Blood. Its terrifying power would naturally corrupt the Demon Hunter completely, stripping away the final restraints of reason until nothing remained but the forbidden instinct of a demon.
With that, the Demon Hunter would become one of them.
The Plague Doctor released his grip and dropped the case.
To accomplish all this, he had already exhausted every vial of inferior Mystic Blood he had brought with him. There was no longer any use for the case or its contents.
He had merely been carrying out Lawrence's orders.
Although he had failed to find Lloyd Medici, who had survived by using the Authority—Gabriel, being able to behead Arthur of the Purification Bureau here would still make their subsequent operations considerably easier.
The torrential rain and corruption had severed every line of communication. In the direction of the mild-symptom ward, fire could still be seen burning in the distance. Gawain's defensive line had not yet collapsed.
But by the time they noticed what was happening here, the Plague Doctor thought, everything should already be over.
The remaining demons swarmed toward them. They leapt from the dome and descended onto the lift platform, advancing toward Arthur and the others.
The Plague Doctor, meanwhile, simply sat down along the edge of the dome.
He had no intention of leaving immediately to search for Lloyd Medici. Instead, he watched the scene below with considerable interest.
It was almost a miniature reflection of the struggle between humanity and demons.
Every selfish desire, every distracting thought, every ideal—all of it had converged beneath this cage-like structure.
It was practically a human observation experiment.
The iron-armored demon began to move as well.
Once its reason had been completely destroyed, the Mystic Blood would only continue awakening. Without the restraint of the Binding Silver Nail, these Demon Hunters from the New Church would grow stronger without limit after becoming demons, right up until the moment they died.
The iron-armored demon turned its head.
Within the gaps between the iron plates, something resembling crimson eyes seemed to flicker.
Having nothing left but the instinct to hunt and kill, it watched the Plague Doctor.
The Plague Doctor was strange.
He possessed reason. He still possessed a human form.
Yet in the eyes of the demons, it was as though the Plague Doctor did not exist.
Or perhaps...
He was one of them.
That was why the demons ignored him.
The slaughter was about to begin.
One demon after another dropped onto the massive lift platform. It was like an arena.
An arena where humans and demons would fight to the death.
And the only spectator in the stands was the Plague Doctor.
Arthur could barely think anymore.
The iron-armored demon was clearly another Demon Hunter who had undergone demonization. Its bizarre body continued to mutate as it moved, and Percival's report had already made its terrifying strength obvious.
With the forces they had left, there was only death waiting for them.
To escape, they had to break through the encirclement and raise the platform to the surface. But doing so meant fighting their way through these demons—and perhaps even the mysterious Plague Doctor.
What about retreating?
If they returned to the interior of the research district, they could use its maze-like layout to hold out for a while longer. Perhaps they could even find some deserted corner and hide there, deceiving themselves into believing they might survive.
What about lifting the lockdown?
If they opened the lockdown, they could escape Blackmount Hospital through another route.
But then the demons would be able to penetrate the entire research district.
Blackmount Hospital would officially fall.
"Arthur, Gawain hasn't failed yet. If we can hold out until he finishes dealing with the demons in the mild-symptom ward, we still have a chance to survive."
Percival's voice came through the communicator once more.
"Blue Jade! Kestrel! Take Eve and Orvis, along with everyone else, and get out of here. Return to the research district and find a way to stay alive. Percival and I will hold the demons here. We'll kill them all... or they'll kill us."
Under these extreme circumstances, it was the only plan Arthur could think of.
Blackmount Hospital was different from the Perpetual Motion Pump. Its primary field of research was the human mind, not machinery. The corridors and passageways of the Perpetual Motion Pump had been deliberately designed with rails that allowed old-world God-Armors to move through them.
The research district had no such infrastructure.
The old-world God-Armors could not penetrate deep into it.
They could only remain here and fight.
"Robin! Swift! Take the soldiers and cover me. Find a way to escort me over there!"
Arthur extended his hand again, pointing toward the blue-painted God-Armor at the far end of the curtain of rain.
Everyone began to move.
Even the silent Night Owl drove his God-Armor into a half-kneeling position. Its legs had already been damaged by the demons' bites, making it difficult for the armor to stand.
This was the same Dancer he had used during his battle against Lloyd.
Night Owl turned the intact portions of its external armor toward the front. The entire God-Armor became a makeshift fortress, shielding the soldiers behind it while they fired over its steel frame.
Then he reached for the last God-Armor firearm on the weapon rack and waited for the right moment to fire.
Percival moved as well.
As the Knight Commander, the First-Generation God-Armor she piloted had now become their strongest combat force—and their only real chance of victory.
After the Perpetual Motion Pump developed lacquer-antimony, the material was applied to numerous fields. One of them was the propulsion system of the God-Armors. The fuel tanks carried by the Dancer contained lacquer-antimony as well.
There was no need for high-mobility charges anymore.
The demons would come rushing toward them on their own without Percival needing to charge.
Perhaps to reduce the burden on the armor, she removed the two remaining fuel tanks.
It was then that violent tremors erupted from the road behind them—the route they had come from.
The howls of demons echoed through it.
They were being attacked from both sides.
The demons inside the research district had followed the scent of living humans all the way here.
"Change route! Move forward!"
Arthur shouted immediately.
Several routes led toward the lift district. The evacuation group could no longer retreat along the way they had come, but they could still advance through another passage.
The problem was that the demons were waiting ahead.
Everyone made the choice they had to make.
Night Owl, who had only just lowered himself into position, immediately forced the God-Armor upright. It staggered violently, but it still struggled forward and seized the wreckage of other God-Armors, piling the broken metal along the route Arthur had come from.
He sealed the passage against the invading demons.
The group began to run toward another exit.
At that moment, the demons that had descended onto the platform had already crossed the center of the massive lift.
A sharp wind tore through the air.
A heavy black shadow passed over everyone's heads.
One of the fuel tanks was hurled directly into the swarm of demons.
A thermite round struck it with pinpoint accuracy.
The fuel mixed with lacquer-antimony detonated instantly.
A sea of fire erupted, swallowing most of the demons in an instant. The shockwave carried the scorching heat outward, scattering the rain and nearly knocking everyone off their feet.
Behind them, the First-Generation God-Armor still held the posture of the throw.
Beneath its towering frame, Robin raised his thermite rifle.
"Keep running!"
Percival's voice rang through the communicator.
The First-Generation God-Armor immediately charged toward the center of the massive lift, dragging its greatsword behind it. The blade scraped against the steel, throwing off blinding sparks, before the armor brought it down like a bolt of thunder.
The shriek of tearing metal merged with the thunder of gunfire.
The entire battlefield descended into chaos.
Countless rounds streaked through the rain, trailing flames as they crossed the darkness in crimson arcs, weaving together above the battlefield.
It looked like the end of the world.
Above them, gray-black clouds churned together, while freezing rain poured endlessly from the heavens.
Blue Jade and Kestrel were at the very front of the group. They had to find a way to get these two important people out.
The exit was getting closer.
This should have been a moment of farewell between those who were going to die and those who might survive.
But Arthur did not even look at Eve.
He knew very well that, barring some miracle, this might be the last time he ever saw her.
Yet he could not bring himself to turn around.
As though he were afraid of what he might see.
He forced himself to look in another direction instead.
Because they had changed their route, Arthur was drawing closer and closer to the blue-painted God-Armor. Once they had escorted the evacuation group away, they could continue forward, seize that God-Armor, and keep fighting.
"Are you not going to say anything?"
As they moved, Blue Jade suddenly spoke softly to Eve.
Eve seemed not to understand what she meant.
Blue Jade did not look at her. Her eyes remained fixed on the demons trying to approach, and she used the thermite rifle in her hands to drive them back.
"Just don't regret it."
Blue Jade said it again, in a voice that seemed almost incomprehensible.
They were almost at their destination.
The group would soon split apart here.
Some would go to their deaths.
Some might survive.
But at that very moment, a piercing wind tore through the air.
Fragments of metal shot forward like blades, slicing through the bodies of several soldiers and medical personnel. Amid the blood and torn flesh, bloodstained shards of iron slammed into the wall.
Then an even more violent tremor erupted.
A severed mechanical arm crashed viciously into the middle of the formation.
The impact sent Blue Jade and the others sprawling into the dark-red water pooled across the floor.
Their vision was completely swallowed by the torrential rain.
Under the raging wind, even breathing became difficult.
"Night Owl!"
With a roar, the First-Generation God-Armor burst through the curtain of rain and gale-force wind. It swung its massive greatsword down with savage force, striking the black silhouette.
But the attack clearly failed.
The greatsword erupted in sparks before being violently deflected.
It was the iron-armored demon.
Using the rain and vapor as cover, it had launched a sudden ambush.
The battered Third-Generation God-Armor had no chance against it.
Its entire arm was torn away in an instant, and the severed limb crashed into Blue Jade and the others.
Night Owl froze behind his faceplate.
A blood-red maw opened behind the armor as the demon bit down hard on the reinforced external plating.
He could smell the stench of blood in the damp air.
The sound of the God-Armor breaking apart was unbearably clear.
He was like a beautifully wrapped dessert laid out before a starving beast.
The iron-armored demon could not resist tearing Night Owl open and devouring the fresh flesh inside.
The frame of the God-Armor was nearly torn apart.
Half of Night Owl's arm was completely exposed. The brutal force of the disassembly had twisted it into a grotesque angle, blood dripping from his fingertips.
With his remaining arm, he seized the God-Armor firearm from the weapon rack.
The steam engine gave everything it had left.
It roared.
"You really like eating, don't you?"
His voice was calm, but beneath that calmness was fury.
A blinding burst of fire erupted between the God-Armor and the demon.
The demon's entire body was protected by iron armor.
Only its mouth was defenseless.
Scorching flames mixed with molten iron poured directly into its throat.
At last, the unbearable pain forced it to release Night Owl.
But at such close range, the already ruined Third-Generation God-Armor was completely destroyed.
The entire cockpit was half-melted.
Another blade of light descended.
Percival struck the iron-armored demon with her greatsword, forcing it back, then immediately reached into the twisted metal cage and dragged the unconscious Night Owl free.
More howls erupted around them.
They hammered against the eardrums, bringing sharp pain.
The freezing rain slapped against Arthur's face, and the brutal cold brought his consciousness back into focus.
With considerable effort, he pushed himself up from the ground.
That last attack had scattered the entire group.
Some were dead.
Some still lay unconscious on the ground.
Others had already picked up their weapons and were firing at the demons attempting to close in.
Arthur raised his head.
And then he saw the girl who had just climbed to her feet, just as he had.
Eve stared at him in terror.
Arthur stared back at her, momentarily lost.
"Run!"
The emptiness in his mind lasted only for an instant.
His expression twisted as he grabbed the weapon lying beside him.
The entrance was directly behind Eve.
He had no idea what awaited her beyond it, but whatever it was had to be better than remaining here.
"You promised me!"
Arthur shouted at Eve again.
Her mind was completely blank at that moment. Like a machine that had lost all sense of its surroundings, she simply obeyed Arthur's command.
She turned and ran.
Her speed was astonishingly fast.
Arthur watched her retreating figure.
To his surprise, he felt a faint surge of joy.
Then he ran as well, heading in another direction.
As long as he could pilot that God-Armor, they still had hope.
As long as they could hold out until Gawain finished his battle, there was still a chance for the situation here to turn around.
Arthur suddenly became optimistic.
He did not even know where the feeling had come from.
Perhaps Eve's escape had caused him to lower his guard.
He never noticed the danger closing in.
His eyes held only the sleeping God-Armor lying ahead.
A sharp claw tore through the curtain of rain, seemingly about to sever Arthur's head in the next instant.
But then Arthur heard it.
A strange song drifting through the rain.
He seemed to remember hearing it somewhere before.
His running figure suddenly froze.
Someone seized him by the collar and yanked him backward, violently stopping him just in time to evade the demon's strike.
Then a scalpel flashed past his cheek.
It pierced straight through the demon's eye.
A metallic shriek rang out immediately afterward.
The folding blade swept through the air in a razor-sharp half-circle, severing the demon's arm completely.
Blood mixed with the freezing rain and fell like a crimson curtain.
Arthur crashed backward onto the ground.
At the same time, a scarlet shadow passed over him.