Outside the elevator was darkness, so deep that one couldn't see their own hand.
The familiar smell of disinfectant from the hospital assaulted the senses, mixed with unfamiliar, pungent odors.
"Mr. Sephirot..."
Rose looked nervously at Sephirot.
"Don't be nervous."
Sephirot pulled a high-intensity flashlight from the lining of his trench coat and handed it to her. Then, with a flick of his wrist, a silver M1911 appeared in his grip.
He stepped out of the elevator, his pupils faintly glowing red, a natural ability of his Demonic Bloodline, allowing him to see clearly through the darkness.
"You really are a demon..."
Christabella, held in his grasp, stiffened upon seeing this, despairingly closing her eyes and frantically drawing crosses in her mind.
"Click."
A dim beam of light illuminated behind him.
Seemingly suppressed by some rule here, the high-intensity flashlight, which should have projected far, now barely illuminated a few meters ahead.
Rose, uneasy, rotated the flashlight and followed behind Sephirot.
The residual light from the flashlight stretched the shadows of the scattered medical equipment in the corridor, making them look somewhat frightening.
The exposed pipes overhead hid in the shadows of the light, resembling venomous snakes waiting for an opportunity.
The arrival of the Otherworld had drastically altered the layout here.
Sephirot remembered in the movie how Rose had turned left and right here, running around for ages searching for rooms.
But now, only a single dark passage lay before him, like the maw of a giant beast.
"Hmm... Lay a red carpet, and I change into a suit, and it'd look quite like a welcoming passageway."
Sephirot joked.
Both sides of the passage were lined with tightly locked ward doors, behind which faint cries of agony could be heard, accompanied by the hair-raising sound of nails scratching against the door panels.
Scattered rusted mobile beds stood on either side, covered with white sheets that outlined human shapes beneath. Some sheets were stained with unknown fluids.
"Uh... uh ah..."
Suddenly, inexplicable moans emanated from the depths of the darkness, accompanied by the sound of something dragging and scraping against the floor.
Sephirot seemed to think of something, looking forward with some anticipation.
A naked humanoid scorpion crawled out from the darkness.
Its entire body lay prone on the ground, its legs forcibly broken and bent backward, fixed behind its head, dragging itself forward using its two arms.
The monster held its head high, barbed wire encircling its eyes, the spikes deeply embedded.
Perhaps the torture was too excruciating; its mouth remained open, continuously emitting indistinct moans.
A purplish-red tongue hung out, swinging back and forth with the movement of its body.
Seeing this, Sephirot's face showed disappointment.
Thought I'd get to see some supermodel nurses...
Colin.
Originally, he was a cleaner at Midwich Elementary School, who had assaulted Alessa in the bathroom when she was being bullied by her classmates.
"Lust blinded his eyes."
A few words suddenly flashed in Sephirot's mind; looking at the unrecognizable form of Colin before him, his eyes filled with disgust.
Alessa's revenge was cruel, but it must be said, very fitting.
The barbed spikes driven into his eyes were punishment for his past voyeurism of the girl's body.
And this inverted hanging posture forced him to crawl using only his arms, dragging that lower half of his body that had committed crimes across the rough ground.
Every crawl was torment to the root of his sin.
"Huh?"
Seeming to smell the scent of living humans, Colin's head stopped swaying; the tongue dangling outside licked the air rapidly, like a snake's forked tongue.
The next second, this seemingly cumbersome body charged toward Sephirot with an eerie speed.
"Ah!!"
Seeing Colin charge, Rose was so frightened she stumbled backward, falling to the ground, wildly waving her flashlight beam in the darkness.
A shadow flashed in the dark.
In a blink, Colin was already before Sephirot, his massive body leaping high, the tongue mere inches from Sephirot's face.
"Disgusting."
Sephirot could even smell the foul stench from its mouth. He leaned back, simultaneously raising his knee upward.
"Bang!"
Colin's jaw received a heavy blow, the dislocated jaw forced shut; its body flipped in the air from the impact, crashing into the ceiling.
"Plop."
A chunk of rotten flesh was snapped off by the immense force, dropping beside Rose's feet.
Rose instinctively shone her flashlight on it.
A purplish-red chunk of meat, half of it, even bounced twice on the floor.
"Guh..."
After clearly seeing that thing, a strong urge to vomit made Rose tightly cover her mouth.
Colin landed face-up, like a turtle flipped on its back, revealing the bloodied, mangled lower body that had been dragged along.
It struggled painfully to twist its body upright, but a cold gun barrel was already pressed against its forehead.
Sephirot held the gun in one hand, his glowing red eyes coldly gazing at this scum who once tyrannized the school.
"Next life, be a... wrong."
"For your kind, just stay quietly in Hell."
"Bang!"
The muzzle flash briefly lit up, momentarily dispersing the darkness of the corridor.
Colin's struggling body stiffened.
Unlike the blood and flesh flying when monsters in the Fog World were blasted apart, Colin's body instantly turned scorched black.
Then, flames erupted from all parts of his body.
Within mere seconds, it turned into a pile of ashes.
The battle ended.
All returned to silence, only the lingering smell of gunpowder in the air proving what had just happened wasn't a hallucination.
Rose sat on the ground, chest heaving, her mind a blank slate.
She stared blankly at the pile of ashes, then lifted her head to look at the youth before her, who was adjusting the style of his trench coat.
That monster that had made her despair just seconds ago had it really been dealt with by this man so casually?
And the monster hadn't even had a chance to retaliate?
In the darkness, the crimson light swirling in the young man's eyes appeared unnaturally sinister, carrying a cold indifference and power that seemed to transcend all living beings.
"Sephirot… Mr. Sephirot?"
Rose swallowed and asked quietly, "Is that monster… dead?"
"Been dead for decades."
Sephirot replied flatly. Seeing Rose still sitting on the ground, he stepped forward and extended his hand.
Under the flashlight beam, this pale hand was slender and strong, forming a stark contrast with the bloody, filthy surroundings.
Rose instinctively took his hand, using it to help herself stand up. Her legs were still somewhat shaky even now.
Only at this moment, standing face-to-face, did Rose finally see Sephirot's face clearly for the first time, and those eyes flowing with dark crimson light.
These were definitely not eyes a human should possess.
Rose's heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively asked, "Your eyes…"
"Hmm…"
"This is cutting-edge technology, contact lenses, invented by Umbrella Corporation. As a detective, I have a pair for convenience in my work. Makes sense, doesn't it?"
Sephirot said, pointing toward his own eye corner, as if there really was some high-tech gadget hidden there.
Rose stared blankly.
All this absurdity had made Rose's ability to accept things incredibly strong.
Even if Sephirot claimed he was God now, she'd believe him.
"Let's go."
Sephirot weighed the now silent and terrified Christabella in his hand and continued walking deeper into the corridor.
Rose followed behind him, still shaken.
The monster earlier had given her a tremendous shock, but at the same time, Sephirot had given her a shock even greater than the monster.
She swore, in all her life, she had never seen a human so powerful, this strength completely surpassing her understanding.
Rose gripped the flashlight, scanning the surroundings. Although her expression remained somewhat reserved, her mindset had relaxed considerably.
After all, standing beside someone more terrifying than a monster, there didn't seem much left to fear.
However, unexpectedly for Sephirot, the following journey was unusually smooth.
He followed the passageway straight ahead, and nothing burst out from the doors on either side to obstruct them.
Soon, a wooden door appeared at the end of the passageway. The windows beside the wooden door were curtained, and from inside, flickering firelight faintly seeped through.
(Translated by yourtl.app)
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TL NOTES — CROSSOVER GUIDE Some references in this chapter come from source universes that may be unfamiliar to some readers. The notes below are here to help readers unfamiliar with these universes follow along more easily.
CHARACTERS
Colin — A character original to the Silent Hill film (2006). He was a janitor at Midwich Elementary School who sexually assaulted the young Alessa while she was being bullied by classmates. He does not appear in the games. In the film, his fate inside the Otherworld is shown briefly but graphically: Alessa's punishment contorted his body into a grotesque crawling form, with his legs broken backward over his head and barbed wire driven through his eyes, forcing him to drag himself across the ground using only his arms for eternity. Each aspect of his deformation corresponds directly to his crime.
CONCEPTS
Umbrella Corporation — A reference to the Resident Evil franchise (Capcom, 1996–present). Umbrella is the fictional pharmaceutical and bioweapons megacorporation responsible for the zombie outbreaks in that series.