A black-painted Toyota high-mobility vehicle lay before the group, its square frame covered by a dark canvas roof matching the body.
Only the left rear vinyl-window door swung open, revealing someone whose appearance struck Messiah and Maria like a bolt from a clear sky.
"Get in."
The figure beckoned them sharply with a grim expression.
It was Father Max Dinger.
Messiah and Maria could only stare in stunned silence. Beside them, Fan and the other two were equally unable to comprehend the situation.
Realizing that his sudden appearance had frozen their escape, the priest grimaced bitterly and raised the left arm hidden behind the seat. Instantly, the air tightened with a sound like threads being pulled taut, and Messiah's eyes widened in shock.
Father Max gripped a MAXI8 Unlimited Revolver ABS SV in his hand, thin smoke rising from its barrel like strands of spider silk.
Sunlight reflected off the silver handgun into Messiah's face, snapping him back from stunned disbelief into reality. At that very moment, groaning sounds crawled up from behind them like fingers groping across flesh.
The others finally returned to their senses as well and turned around.
Creatures that had survived the flood of blood from the giant beast were slithering toward them, seeking to devour them.
Had the priest not fired that shot, the group would undoubtedly have become prey, crushed between monstrous fangs and swallowed into grotesque entrails far worse than their appearances suggested.
"Stop hesitating!"
Pulling the trigger repeatedly, the priest barked at them like a thunderclap and directed everyone toward the cargo bed.
At the same time, several black-clad figures leapt swiftly from the rear of the vehicle, landing in polished black military boots. Without hesitation, they unleashed rifle fire into the advancing horde, spraying bullets wildly until chunks of monster flesh exploded across the rubble. There was no aiming involved.
A trained unit.
They shielded the group.
Messiah and the others were practically thrown into the cargo area, where benches lined both sides facing inward. Before them stood a version of Father Max with not a trace of the familiar man they knew remaining. Revolver still in hand, he shouted toward the young driver gripping the steering wheel.
"This area is dangerous. Move the vehicle. If we remain stopped, we risk encirclement."
The rookie soldier instantly realized this meant abandoning their comrades and looked up at Agent Max Dinger in disbelief.
"What's wrong? Why are you hesitating?"
"B-but—"
The young man opened trembling lips, his words nearly drowned out by gunfire.
Then the seat cover flipped open, and a Black soldier thrust his blood-covered face inside the vehicle.
"What the hell are you doing? Move!"
The soldier already appeared prepared to sacrifice himself. If anything, it seemed to excite him. His furious shouting echoed painfully throughout the vehicle.
The young soldier, Beald Bull, looked toward his superior officer. His eyebrows bent downward helplessly, like a child looking toward a parent.
"Rookie. Real combat isn't sweet. Go."
The Black soldier roared again.
Driven forward by those words, the young man slammed the accelerator.
The heavy tires spun briefly in the blood covering the road, but soon the massive vehicle surged forward, racing away from the river of blood.
Maria Priest clung tightly to Messiah's arm, shaken by how utterly different her father sounded and behaved.
In only a few hours, the world before her had transformed completely.
The city had collapsed.
Monsters flooded the streets in search of human flesh.
Gigantic tentacles and towering giants battled each other.
And her beloved father now carried a gun.
Was the life she had lived until this morning merely a dream? Or had she wandered into a nightmare from which she could no longer escape?
Unable to accept the reality crushing down upon her, Maria could only cling desperately to Messiah. Yet even that made her feel pathetic, and her heart sank again, as though falling from the surface of a lake into its dark depths below.
Feeling the small trembling of the hand gripping his arm, Messiah looked at her face.
Her eyes were wet with tears. She bit down on her lower lip, desperately trying to endure her emotions.
"Father… what is all this? Is this some kind of joke?"
Even Messiah understood easily enough that this was no joke.
This was reality.
The world had collapsed.
But he himself could not even comprehend how to describe what was happening, and so those clumsy words were all he could manage.
"The situation is critical. Wait until we reach a safe place."
There were no roads anymore.
Even while Father Max vaguely avoided Messiah's questions, the vehicle drove straight ahead across endless rubble. Sometimes the massive tires crushed something disturbingly soft and fleshy beneath them.
Whether it was monster meat or human remains, nobody dared look outside the thick vinyl windows to confirm.
Inside the vehicle, only the harsh grinding sound of the diesel engine echoed, while sunlight occasionally flashed across the MAXI8 Unlimited Revolver ABS SV still held in the priest's hand.
"Up there."
Smoke billowed upward as skyscrapers collapsed.
Scenes like the great terrorist attacks of the past unfolded across the city like a living nightmare. Even during the short time Messiah and the others had spent driving through the ruins, countless buildings had already fallen.
Gas lines beneath the city exploded one after another, filling the air with deafening roars and tremors.
Meanwhile, the giant and the monstrous tentacles were still locked in brutal combat, their clashes shaking the high-mobility vehicle again and again as though the earth itself were being struck from below with a hammer.
And yet, amid all this chaos, Father Max remained calm as he pointed toward the highway entrance.