The Fall
“Haa~ Why the sudden call for backup? And you won’t even show that pretty face of yours.”
“...? Who...?”
“What. A person?”
Yekaterina, clad in a black coat, strode forward, her crimson eyes locking onto us.
I was the one who had summoned her here, yet I could not acknowledge her. My identity as Lucifer had to remain secret, and the only reason she had come was to protect the clandestine laboratory she had established in the Gyeonggi region from any damage.
“Well, whatever. Just stay back on your own. You might get caught up in this and hurt.”
“...Excuse me?”
While Yulia blinked in a daze, Isabella pulled her firmly backward.
“Huh? Why—why are you—?!”
“Please step back.”
“Do you know her?”
“...In the underworld, there is no one who does not know her.”
“The underworld...?”
Yekaterina extracted blood from the corpse of a nearby monster. The blood gathered at her fingertips and shaped itself into a massive scythe.
“Hmm... the quality of this blood is rather... well, not completely unusable.”
She spun the scythe through the air a few times, then shifted her center of gravity sharply forward. In the same motion the blade in her hand swept in a wide diagonal arc.
Slash—!
A crimson slash erupted from the scythe and cleaved the demon’s body cleanly in two. For the first time, a proper blow landed on the creature that had ignored and passed through every physical attack below a certain level.
Rumble—!
“Hmm~? Bigger than I thought. Roots sunk deep underground, is it?”
The entire area where the demon’s tentacles had been planted heaved and overturned with a single thrash of its body. Dozens of buildings collapsed; ruptured water mains sent torrents surging back up through the streets.
“Lucifer. I’ll help you right now, but you’ll have to repay the debt. You know that, right?”
Assuming I was watching her, Yekaterina glanced toward the nearby CCTV cameras. The person she was looking for, however, was sitting right here, observing her every move.
“Well then...”
She reached toward the blood streaming from the demon’s body. Something failed to respond properly; a faint frown creased her brow.
“Regeneration...?”
At that same moment the bisected halves of the demon began to knit themselves back together. Its body, once roughly fifty meters across, shrank to thirty or forty, yet in an instant there were two of them.
“What is this? Immune to physical attacks?”
Yekaterina considered its weakness for a brief second, then twisted her right hand and seized the massive form outright.
“No way. Looks like its regenerative power is absurd. Let’s see if it can still get up after I crush it flat.”
Crunch—!
One of the two demons was wrung like a wet rag, compressed into a tiny point. Until that moment I believed she had finished it. Then the creature rose again as if nothing had happened.
“Huh?”
A note of genuine surprise escaped her lips.
“It doesn’t die from this?”
The blow had landed—that much was certain. Through my dual vision the demon’s form was visibly diminished. Beyond that, however, there was no further outward change.
“Tch... no choice, then.”
After a moment’s thought she operated a remote she had brought in her pocket. I knew exactly what it was.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—!
The roar of helicopter rotors cut through the air. At the same time at least several dozen living creatures poured from trucks and charged toward us.
She brought Leviathan’s main force?
With the internet unstable, Laplace’s capabilities had been heavily restricted; I had failed to notice. I had asked her to come help, but I never imagined she would drag the full strength of Leviathan along.
Boom! Kaboom—!
Missiles from the attack helicopters slammed into the demon and detonated. It repaired the damage almost at once, yet the barrage was enough to pin its movements. In that opening the dozens of bioweapons Leviathan had purchased from me swarmed the creature.
Mantid-like beings with alloy-edged claws, bee-like fliers that spat high-temperature flammable liquid from their stingers—Yekaterina was controlling them directly through her unique ability rather than through bloodstones like mine. The mental strain should have been crushing, yet she handled it with ease.
Every wound carved into the demon’s flesh erupted with blood. She was amplifying the bleeding with her power, turning even the slightest scratch into a life-threatening injury.
Kieeeeek—!
One of the rampaging demons finally collapsed onto the boulevard.
“Haa, this one’s nothing special. Weaker than that Siberian bastard I cleaned up a few decades ago.”
Yekaterina wore a faintly weary expression, yet inwardly she was pleased. Even for someone of near S-class power—or greater under the right conditions—solo subjugation of a demon was essentially impossible. Hundreds of heroes and tens of thousands of personnel were normally required. Before the Industrial Revolution, demon hunts had been pure fantasy. Yet here she had slain one of the split pair, and the remaining half was on the verge of death as well.
Good. If we just keep pushing like this...
That was what she thought—until a sudden unease made her scan the surroundings.
Rumble...
“It still has strength left...?”
The demon still possessed enough power to warp the terrain. It had been luring them into complacency, drawing them underground where unmanned turrets could not support them. By the time Yekaterina realized it, it was already too late.
Rumble-rumble-rumble—!
The demon’s body twisted violently, and the entire district began to sink into the earth. Screams erupted from every direction as people plummeted into the bottomless ground.
“Kyaaaah—!”
“The ground—the ground!”
“Grab something that can hold you! If you fall like this you’ll die!”
Unfortunately Yulia had already exhausted most of her strength. She no longer possessed the power to raise a wind that could protect everyone the way she had before. At this rate we would all be buried alive. I had no choice but to decide.
“Hup...!”
I reacted instantly, driving a small anchor of monster blood into a building that still stood clear of the collapse. Once the blood anchor was firmly set, I drew blood from a fallen monster nearby and forged a chain dozens of meters long, then checked the remaining power of my bloodstone.
Barely enough.
I could save everyone left, but it would consume nearly all the bloodstone’s power—my trump card. So what? If I did not use it, the others would die for certain.
Clatter-clatter—!
Blood chains shot toward the falling people and coiled around their bodies. Their descent slowed effectively, yet the strain slammed into my heart.
“Ugh...!”
I bit my lip and flung more chains toward the remaining survivors. Those caught by the links stared up at me with questioning eyes. Yulia’s gaze in particular was unmistakable.
Since when have you had a unique ability...?
That was what her look seemed to say. I offered her a small smile and pulled.
The blood chains hauled the people who had been plummeting into the endless abyss back up to solid ground.
“Hah... hah...!”
I saved them. With my own power, I saved them.
I was still lost in that thought when—
Huh?
Strength drained from my body and my vision darkened. A dizziness so fierce I could barely stay conscious slammed into my skull; in the next instant I lost my balance.
“Ah...”
A deflated sound slipped from my lips. The reason was obvious. The anemia I had been suppressing with the bloodstone’s power had finally crashed over me the moment that power ran dry.
Ah, of all times...
Bad luck. The direction I was collapsing was not the still-solid ground, but the crumbling earth itself.
“Seo-hyun...!”
Yulia’s desperate cry reached me. Through flickering vision I saw her racing toward me.
Yulia...
“Seo-hyun!”
She burned what little remained of her unique ability to reach me. Too late. Before she could arrive I would fall into the earth. The odds of survival were slim.
So I smiled. I wanted the last image of me that remained in her mind to be a bright smile, not a face twisted in pain.
“Yulia.”
I forced the last of my strength into the words. Her face crumpled with grief. It hurt. I had wanted to stay with her longer. I should have told her sooner that I wanted to be by her side. But the only words left to me now were a handful of syllables. So I gave her the single sentence that would help her most.
“Climb to higher ground.”
My eyes closed. The world accelerated; cold subterranean air brushed my skin. And so, together with the demon, I fell into the endless underground.