The heavy back doors of the van swing open, revealing a cramped interior filled with tactical gear.
Vanessa is there, slamming Akos's red jacket onto his chest. She picks up his shotgun and his legendary katana from the table, sliding the blade—the Totsugeki Field—into a specialized black tactical scabbard.
"We aren't always going to be here to pick up after you," she says sharply, handing the weapons over. "Take better care of your gear. Keep this on your back."
Akos takes the weapons, his expression unreadable. As he turns to step out of the van, Vanessa calls out one last time: "Don't you dare die out there."
Akos glances back with a trace of his old irony. "I think you've got me confused with someone else," he retorts, stepping down into the cold mountain air.
Waiting for him are two matte-black Motocross bikes. Ruka is already leaning against hers, casually smoking a cigarette. Without a word, Akos reaches out, takes the cigarette from her lips, and crushes it into the dirt. He swings his leg over the other bike.
"Mahh! What was that for?" Ruka pouts. "I'm twenty-four years old!"
"Death doesn't care about age," Akos replies, his voice cold as he kicks the engine to life.
Ruka scoffs, putting on her helmet. "You never change. Not even a 'Fake World' could fix that attitude of yours." She revs her engine, and the two of them roar up the steep mountain path, tires spitting gravel.
As they climb, Akos notices the heavy gear strapped to her. "What the hell do you have on your back?"
"An RPG, spare ammo, the works," Ruka shouts over the wind.
"You don't need all that," Akos grunts. "I'm here. We'll finish this fast."
Ruka just rolls her eyes and ignores him, pushing her bike harder.
After a grueling climb, they reach the jagged peak of the mountain. They kill the engines, and the silence that follows is terrifying.
Ruka walks to the edge and looks down. "Holy shit... what is that?"
Below them lies a massive, swirling Rift. It's a 46-meter wide hole of absolute darkness, carved into the earth. It looks like the mountain itself was bitten off.
"The Hole swallowed the peak," Akos notes. "Vanessa showed me the satellite footage. There used to be a mountain right where that void is now."
Ruka begins prepping her gear, pulling on a high-tech helmet equipped with Night Vision. Akos watches her, unimpressed. "Why all the toys? You aren't Special Forces."
"Axx... I'm not a Nature Energy user like you," she snaps. "That's why I use these."
"I remember you had something powerful of your own," Akos muses.
"Of course you don't remember! After this mission, I'll show you something amazing. But for now, take this." She tosses him a small, worn photograph.
Akos catches it and stares. It's a photo from his 15th birthday. Ruka, then 21, is playfully biting his cheek while he has a bag of candy in his mouth. In the photo, a younger Akos is struggling to escape her grip, looking annoyed but secretly happy.
Akos looks at Ruka with a disgusted expression. "You really kept this? I'd rather forget my past than remember this."
Ruka punches him playfully in the side. "Watch it, my little bunny! I'm still older than you!"
Without another word, Ruka leaps off the cliff, diving straight toward the dark heart of the Rift.
Akos sighs, looking at the sky. "Why does my life always involve people like this?"
He adjusts the katana on his back and jumps, disappearing into the blackness of The Hole.
After a short time, both of them hit the ground inside the abyss.
Ruka adjusts her night vision goggles, her jaw dropping in shock. "My god... what is this? It's a whole city inside a hole? WTF!"
Akos looks at her with an icy, indifferent gaze. "I don't see what's so terrifying about it."
Ruka turns to him, stunned. "Oh, wait! I forgot. You're just seeing darkness, aren't you?"
"I hate how people remember the bad things but forget the good," Akos mutters. "With my Infinity Eyes, the darkness is as clear as day to me."
"Fine! How am I supposed to remember all your tricks?" Ruka retorts. "I just know that your brain builds scenarios in half a fraction of a second."
Akos begins to walk forward, his senses expanding. "Just stay close. With this, I can feel the Nature Energy of everyone from thousands of meters away."
"Thanks for the reminder, but I don't recall asking," Ruka says with a huff.
"Stay behind me and stop talking," Akos commands. Ruka glares at him, frustrated. "Hey! I'm the one who's supposed to look after you! I'm the older one, remember?"
Suddenly, Akos's hand flashes behind Ruka's head. He pinches a massive, writhing Devil Worm right out of the air. "See? You never stop talking," he says, crushing the creature in his grip.
As they trek deeper into the rift, the landscape becomes a nightmare of distorted geography. They pass strange buildings, abandoned cars, and fractured streets.
"Bro, why is there a Russian-style house here?" Ruka asks, pointing. "And look—tribal huts from Africa? Arabic skyscrapers? Why is everything mixed together?"
Akos stops, gripping her shoulder. "Read that sign. What does it say?"
Ruka squints at a nearby shopfront. "It's... French? You're lucky I know the language."
Akos thinks to himself: This devil hasn't just swallowed buildings. It has abducted people from every corner of the earth.
Suddenly, Ruka brushes his cheek. "My sweetheart... look."
Akos turns his head and sees them: thousands of devils emerging from the shadows ahead, a wall of monsters blocking their path.
"Ah, my little bunny!" Ruka chirps, her tone shifting to a dangerous excitement. "I'll take the right side, you take the left!"
She reaches into her massive bag and pulls out two jagged, terrifying weapons: SWORD SPIKE (MISS CURSE SPIKE). Without waiting for a plan, she lunges forward into the horde.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Akos shouts after her, his eyes glowing with frustration. "I told you to stay beside me, damn it!"
Ruka moves like a lethal whirlwind. She dives into the center of the horde, her Sword Spikes blurring as she carves through limbs and necks with terrifying precision. When the devils begin to swarm her from all sides, she kicks off a monster's chest, vaulting high into the air.
She doesn't just jump; she runs across the heads of the crowd, decapitating monsters as she goes. Blood sprays across the ruins of the displaced city streets. She lands a heavy kick on a devil's skull, causing it to explode on impact, before hurling her dual blades. They spin through the air like high-speed boomerangs, slicing through a dozen necks before returning to her hands.
In a seamless motion, she holsters the spikes and draws two Deagles. Bang! Bang! Double headshots. Another devil lunges from the right—she twists her body, firing the right Deagle into its face while simultaneously swinging the left to blast a hole through a second attacker behind her.
"You aren't the only one with beautiful eyes, Akos!" she shouts, slamming her guns back into their holsters as the spikes fly back into her grip.
Suddenly, the world turns grey. Everything—the falling debris, the spraying blood, the screaming monsters—stops dead in its tracks.
[EYES SIGHT]
Ruka has activated her unique ocular ability. For a few stolen seconds, time is frozen for everyone but her. She blurs through the stationary crowd of monsters—beings that look like twisted human zombies, giant leeches, and mangled hounds.
She systematically carves through them. The MISS CURSE SPIKES are not just sharp; they are specialized weapons of high pressure and extreme heat. As the blades pass through the devils' cold blood, the temperature spikes instantly, causing their internal fluids to boil and expand. Their bodies swell like overinflated balloons before bursting apart. The "Curse" effect of the blades makes the slaughter effortless.
To Akos, who sees everything in extreme slow motion through his own eyes, Ruka is a streak of violet light.
In a heartbeat, she finishes the last devil and appears right beside him. She leans in, her lips inches from his ear, and whispers:
"Can your eyes do this, my handsome little bunny?"
She presses a quick, playful kiss to his cheek.
Ruka deactivates her ability. Time snaps back into place. The shock of the temporal shift combined with the raw power of her voice echoing in his heightened senses hits Akos like a physical blow. The pressure in his head spikes, and a thin trail of blood begins to leak from his right ear
Akos remains dead silent, standing amidst a sea of 892 slaughtered devils. The air is thick with the copper stench of blood; organs and shredded flesh are scattered across the distorted pavement like a macabre carpet.
"What the hell was that?" Akos mutters, his voice low and raspy.
Ruka bursts into a fit of laughter, her eyes glowing a fierce, deep crimson. She slaps him on the back with enough force to make him stumble. "I love the way you react! Hahaha!"
"Ugh..." Akos shoots her an icy look, pressing his hand against his ear to dull the throbbing pain from the sensory shock. "Can you stop with the compliments?"
"Mah! I'm not complimenting you," Ruka retorts, her grin widening. "That's why I told you I'd show you something special."
Suddenly, Vanessa's voice crackles through Ruka's earpiece, breaking the moment.
"Sorry to ruin the atmosphere, kids," Vanessa says, her voice steady but concerned. "But Ruka, your heart rate is redlining. Your body isn't holding up well. This suit tracks every biometric change, and using those eyes is draining you fast. You're lucky your sister isn't here, or she'd be throwing a fit right now."
Vanessa pauses, her tone softening as she addresses Akos. "And a note for Akos... sorry to bring this up now, but Ruka was one of the first people in your life. You grew up together. I know we're moving fast because we have to save the Sorcerers from the Fake World, and we don't have time to rebuild your memories yet... but I promise you, after this mission, I have dozens of albums filled with photos of you two. Anyway, moving on. Out."
Ruka opens her mouth to snap back at the monitor, but Akos's hand instantly clamps over her lips.
"Quiet," he whispers. "I heard what Vanessa said, but something is coming."
Ruka falls silent, her body tensing. In a blur of motion, Akos grabs Ruka and yanks her backward just as a colossal foot slams into the ground where they stood, shattering the concrete.
Towering before them are Giant Devils. Their massive bodies are a grotesque fusion of muscle and fur, resembling bipedal wolves with elongated, jagged claws. Their faces are crowded with dozens of glowing red eyes, and they stand anywhere from 7 to 13 meters tall.
"Holy my life... we are cooked," Ruka whispers, staring up at the wall of fur and teeth.
Akos doesn't flinch. He unstraps the black scabbard from his back and thrusts the katana into Ruka's hands.
"Hold this," he says, his gaze locking onto the lead monster. "Stay here. Don't move."
He cracks his neck, a cold, lethal energy beginning to roll off his shoulders in waves.
"Let me cook."