"Ding-ding-dong, she ran away from here."
"But her father took away the one she loved and married her off to the wrong man."
"So she waited for who knows how many years."
"Ding-ding-dong, she waited her whole life."
"When her father died, she dug the grave he had left for her husband."
"An old and withered woman, she went in search of the man she loved."
"Run, girl! Run!"
"..."
The girl's song echoed through the torrential rain. Arthur remembered that, a very long time ago, another girl had softly sung the same song to him. She had told him how much she loved the song, a tune from Leib.
Arthur had once asked her what the song meant. She had said that, roughly speaking, it was about a father who took it upon himself to marry his daughter off to the wrong man, convinced that he knew what was best and could plan the course of her entire life. Unable to resist, the girl simply obeyed. She waited in silence, waiting for her father to die, waiting for her husband to die. And when that moment finally came, the girl, already old and withered, was finally free. Free to chase after whatever she truly wanted.
The girl had said that she wanted to do the same.
But she would never wait that long like the girl in the song. She simply did not have that kind of patience. She would find a way to escape, she had said, and if necessary, she would even resort to unconventional methods.
At the very end, she had reminded Arthur to remember to lock his door before going to sleep.
The freezing rain, the suffocating wind, the pain wracking his body—none of it was enough to affect Arthur.
But at this moment, it was as though he had witnessed something far more terrifying than any demon. After a brief flash of fear, he asked in confusion,
"You promised me..."
The scarlet figure hummed the song from Leib without looking back and shouted,
"Of course! Good children don't lie!"
God only knew where she had learned that.
The sharp blade was swung backward into the demon's skull. Perhaps she simply lacked the strength to cleave through it in one blow, for the blade became firmly lodged in flesh and bone. But Eve immediately kicked forward with all her strength, brutally striking the demon's joint and forcing it down onto its knees. Then, like a woodsman chopping firewood, she brought the blade down again and split the entire head open.
"But I'm not a good child!"
Eve roared as she drove the folding knife into the demon's heart.
The creature's resilient muscles clamped around the blade, preventing it from going any deeper.
Eve gripped the handle tightly with one hand while repeatedly hammering the pommel with the other. With every dull, heavy thud, she drove the blade deeper into the demon's body, like a blacksmith pounding a piece of iron, until she finally pinned the creature completely to the ground.
Blood sprayed over her, staining her entire body crimson.
Then the freezing rain washed every trace of filth away.
At Arthur's suggestion, Blue Jade had once spent a brief period of time with Eve, trying to mend the disastrous relationship between father and daughter. During those days, Blue Jade had told Eve many things, including the story of the snowy night that had changed Blue Jade's entire life.
This feeling was awful.
It was like being a puppet suspended by strings, having someone else's will manipulate her however they pleased.
Eve hated that.
So she had come back.
"So all those things I did... they were just because I wanted to prove something to you, weren't they? Whether I became a detective or fought demons, I was just trying to prove something, wasn't I?"
Eve seemed to be asking Arthur a question.
Or perhaps she was simply talking to herself.
It had been a terrible day.
And yet, perhaps she should be grateful for this terrible day.
So many things Eve had never been able to understand had somehow become clearer today.
"I just... I just don't want to listen to your arrangements anymore! Who the hell wants to go to some damn island? And marry some strange man? I'll really kill him! Just like this demon! I'll chop him into pieces and feed him to the fish!"
Eve shouted wildly, almost as though she were venting everything she had been holding inside.
The folding knife flashed downward again and again.
Her physical strength might not have been extraordinary, but the power that had lain dormant within her body for so long was beginning to awaken.
In truth, she was the final product of the Ranger Project.
The most perfect product.
Her heart hammered violently, like a powerful pump forcing burning blood through every inch of her body. Every sense became sharper. She was still nowhere near as powerful as a Demon Hunter, but for a mortal body, this was already the absolute limit of what it could achieve.
"I'm an adult already!"
Awful words.
An awful situation.
An awful story unfolding in the middle of this awful battlefield.
For a moment, Arthur did not know what to say.
This was supposed to be a battlefield straight out of a nightmare, yet somehow it had turned into some kind of family drama.
He simply knelt there in the shallow, blood-red water, staring blankly at the figure wielding the folding knife.
Like a dancer dressed in scarlet.
Arthur had never imagined Eve could have this side to her.
She was still innocent. She had yet to understand the true terror of demons. Faced with impossible choices, she would still hesitate and feel afraid.
But she was already strong enough.
Perhaps among these experts who dedicated their lives to fighting demons, she was still far from exceptional.
But at the very least, she could protect herself now.
"So get up already, you old bastard!"
Eve shouted at him.
For some reason, Arthur suddenly felt a weight lift from his chest.
He did not even understand why.
No one knew how many weapons she had hidden on her.
Sharp scalpels flashed through the rain, stabbing into the joints of the demons. They could not kill the creatures, but they could at least hinder their movements.
During her time at Blackmount Hospital, Eve had not spent all her days singing and dancing with those lunatics.
She had also read plenty of medical books, including texts on human anatomy.
That was one of the influences Lloyd had left on her.
After all, their very first contest had ended with Eve being toyed with by the detective simply because she lacked sufficient knowledge.
Gunfire erupted.
Those who had been knocked down struggled back to their feet, reclaimed their weapons, and opened fire on the demons rushing toward them.
There was no supernatural power this time.
Only humans and demons engaged in a pure, brutal slaughter.
Another black shadow came crashing down.
But Robin, who had just managed to crawl back to his feet, caught it.
After such a long and violent battle, even Robin was running out of strength. He caught Night Owl, thrown toward him by Percival, only for the two of them to crash backward into the pooled water together.
The gunfire grew denser.
The impact had interrupted the group's advance, and the demons seized the opening to close in around them.
Yet strangely, no one felt much fear anymore.
Blue Jade pulled Arthur to his feet.
Their eyes met for a brief moment.
And in the midst of this hopeless situation, there was actually a faint smile on Blue Jade's face.
"What did you say to her?"
"I didn't say anything. She came to that conclusion herself... And perhaps that's not such a bad thing, is it?"
Arthur fell silent.
After a long while, it was as though he had finally let something go.
There was no more grief in his expression.
"But... but I still can't let her die here."
He said it quietly.
Even now, he still could not accept that.
Thousands upon thousands of strands of rain battered every person on the battlefield. Lightning tore across the sky, illuminating their faces in a sickly white glow, while countless grotesque silhouettes roared around them.
Arthur let out a long sigh.
Then he took the folding knife from Blue Jade's hand.
Perhaps he understood Eve now.
But even so, he still could not accept this.
Then...
Then...
Arthur raised his head again.
The despondency that had filled him before was gone.
He looked almost like a madman, clinging obsessively to some impossible belief, convinced that the despair before him could not kill humanity.
If that was the case...
Then kill them all.
Kill every last demon.
"Victorious reunion!"
A wildly enthusiastic voice rang out at that very moment.
Dozens of burning trails tore through the curtain of rain and slammed into the demons.
After such a long battle, the ammunition for the thermite rifles had been almost completely exhausted. Everyone had already been forced to switch to melee weapons.
Were they reinforcements?
Arthur turned toward the direction from which the burning trails had come.
A group of patients came charging toward them, raising thermite rifles above their heads as they sang and danced.
Everyone saw them.
Whether it was because of the rain or something else, their eyes grew inexplicably wet at the sight of these lunatics appearing in such a hellish situation.
They ran like a pack of wild monkeys loose in a park, weapons stolen from tourists clutched in their hands, firing thermite rounds with bizarre poses and utterly pitiful accuracy.
Yet this ridiculous group looked, at that moment, like an army of ten thousand.
"Reunion successful! Commander Eve!"
Old Cole shouted excitedly from the front of the group.
"You..."
Eve stopped hacking at the demons and stared at them in disbelief.
She had thought they were dead.
Yet here they were, standing before her again, shouting nonsense about some grand reunion.
In truth, Eve had only said those things to trick the lunatics into leaving.
She had never expected these idiots to take her words seriously.
Then again...
They really were idiots.
Eve did not know whether she should laugh or cry.
"After a thorough reassessment by the Strategic Department, we have concluded that ghost-hunting operations simply aren't suitable for us! Running away all the time will only make the enemy underestimate us!"
Old Cole roared.
"So we've decided to fight back! If we kill every last enemy, we won't have to run anymore, right?!"
Even Gavin, who had remained silent until now, shouted along with him.
"Charge! Charge!"
Deren joined in as well.
Somehow, the man had become even more insane.
Eve had not expected that.
Deren seemed to notice the confusion in her eyes, and he immediately shouted even louder, sounding like a soldier delivering a formal report.
"After receiving profound instruction from my comrades, I have come to understand the shamefulness of my conduct during wartime! Here and now, I apologize for my past actions and swear that I