The hard-shell suitcase mentioned in the mandate was exactly where the intel said it would be: encased within the upper torso of the Gastrea's corpse.

  Rentaro stepped onto the monster's remains, straining to pry the heavy case loose. As he did, a sudden, primal chill crawled up his spine. He didn't care what was inside; he just wanted to hand it over and end this nightmare.

  But then, a distorted, mocking voice echoed from the shadows behind him.

  "Hehe... good work, Satomi-kun."

  "Who's there?!"

  Rentaro spun around, only to find a white mask inches from his own.

  Kagetane Hiruko appeared like a vengeful ghost. The body Haruki Aizawa had previously mangled seemed fully repaired, and with superhuman speed, he smmed his palm into Rentaro's chest, sending him flying.

  "Gah!!!"

  Rentaro tried to stabilize himself, but he was overtaken by overwhelming physical force. He smmed into a thick tree trunk with a sickening thud. The impact squeezed the oxygen from his lungs, his vision blurring as his consciousness threatened to flicker out.

  "Rentaro!"

  Enju Aihara saw her partner fall and lunged to help, but Kohina Hiruko appeared almost instantly, her dual bdes fshing as she forced Enju into a defensive stalemate.

  Realizing they had been pyed—the "mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind"—Rentaro let out a roar of pure fury.

  "KAGETANE—HIRUKO—!"

  "The powerless roar of a loser... what a lovely sound," Kagetane chuckled, picking up the suitcase. "Are you waiting for the other Promoters to save you? How tragic. I eliminated every single pair that drew close to this location on my way here. No one is coming."

  "Damn you!"

  Knowing he was cornered, Rentaro forced himself up, drawing his handgun. But the bullets simply stopped in mid-air, hitting the shimmering repulsion shield.

  "Tendo Combat Style, First Form, Number Eight—Firewheel Fan!"

  Rentaro unleashed a flurry of high-speed strikes, but even his best martial arts couldn't put a dent in the invisible barrier.

  Kagetane slowly raised his hand, a cold smile audible in his voice. "Useless, useless, useless. You cannot overcome me, Rentaro Satomi. Accept your weakness. Maximum Pain!"

  A massive horizontal shockwave erupted. Rentaro was hurled through the air like a ragdoll, smashing into a jagged rock formation. He colpsed into the mud, a pained cry escaping his throat.

  "...Any st words? My dying friend?"

  "Damn it... DAMN IT ALL!"

  Rentaro could only howl in frustration as Kagetane leveled his gun at the boy's head.

  But just as the trigger was about to be pulled, the falling rain seemed to freeze for a split second.

  Shing!

  In Kagetane's vision, the very water in the air seemed to sharpen into liquid bdes. A high-pressure wave of moisture sliced across his mechanical torso, forcing him to stumble back.

  The shield held, but the momentum was disrupted.

  Thud.

  Haruki Aizawa stepped out from the dense foliage. He didn't waste a second on words. He drew Onikiri and lunged, his bde a streak of bck lightning aimed straight at Kagetane's throat.

  "You again! Sword Ghost!"

  Kagetane's voice fred with genuine rage. He hadn't forgotten the humiliation of their st encounter. He immediately diverted all his power into his repulsion shield.

  Haruki didn't flinch. He pushed his body beyond its limits, a crimson mist of blood-red energy erupting from his pores and swirling around his bde.

  "MAXIMUM PAIN!"

  "MOUNTAIN SMASHER!"

  The two forces collided in the heart of the forest. The sheer atmospheric pressure of the impact leveled the surrounding trees and sent a shockwave echoing through the mountains.

  When the dust settled, Kagetane's body had been cleaved open once more.

  This time, Haruki showed no mercy. He drove his sword straight through the center of Kagetane's chest, the Varanium edge tearing through the internal machinery and ripping his torso nearly in half.

  "Hehe... hahahahaha..."

  Despite the brutal defeat, Kagetane didn't sound regretful. He coughed up dark fluid, his mask cracked and falling away to reveal a face that was more machine than man. He looked at Haruki and ughed.

  "You really aren't human, are you, Sword Ghost? But I'm afraid... you're still too te."

  "What?"

  "The Seven Stars Legacy has been unleashed! The Stage V Gastrea is already on its way. Everything... everything is going to burn."

  The forest went silent. A heavy shadow seemed to fall over Tokyo, cold and final.

  Stage V. The apex of the Gastrea.

  In this world, Gastrea can evolve through various stages, but the natural limit is Stage IV. A normal monster cannot simply "grow" into a Stage V.

  The Stage V Gastrea were born as they are. There are only eleven of them in existence, each named after a sign of the Zodiac. Every single one possesses the power to erase a city like Tokyo from the map. They are immune to the magnetic fields of the Monoliths; in fact, they can tear the massive towers down like they were made of toothpicks.

  "Impossible! There's no way to summon a Stage V manually!" Rentaro shouted from the ground, his voice cracking with desperation.

  Kagetane sneered. "Just because you are ignorant of the method doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Until today, you didn't even know what the 'Legacy' was, did you?"

  Rentaro fell silent.

  Haruki stepped closer, his bde resting against Kagetane's remains. "The Legacy... it's a beacon for the Stage V?"

  "Precisely. A secret the Tokyo Government has kept buried for years," Kagetane said. He seemed to realize his end was near and spoke with a manic honesty. "Everyone in this city lives in a web of lies. We're all just actors in a tragedy, pying our parts until the curtain falls."

  Haruki didn't care about Kagetane's philosophical rambling. If a Stage V arrived, the Outer Districts—where the Cursed Children lived—would be the first to be vaporized.

  He swung his bde, cleanly decapitating Kagetane Hiruko and crushing his mechanical brain. He wasn't taking any more chances with this "actor."

  Haruki then walked over to the shattered suitcase. He expected a high-tech weapon or a biological vial. Instead, he found a battered, rusted child's tricycle.

  He and Rentaro shared a look of utter confusion. But if Kagetane was right, this piece of junk was the catalyst for the apocalypse.

  "I'm taking this outside the Monoliths," Haruki said after a moment of silence.

  "Are you insane?" Rentaro gasped. "The world beyond the Monoliths is crawling with thousands of Gastrea! Without the barrier's protection, you'll be swarmed in seconds!"

  "Then give me a better idea," Haruki countered, his gaze ft. "If this thing stays here, the monster comes here. If I take it out there, I can lead it away from the city."

  Rentaro had no answer. Haruki's pn was suicide, but it was the only way to save the millions of people in Tokyo.

  "I'm going," Haruki said. He looked at Kayo, who had approached the clearing. He expected her to protest, but she remained calm, her 210 IQ already having calcuted the risks. She knew his choice was the only logical one.

  "Please... come back safely," she whispered.

  "I will."

  Without another word, Haruki snatched up the tricycle and took off toward the Monolith boundary at a speed that defied the ws of physics.

  Beyond the Monoliths, the world was a nightmare of twisted biology.

  The moment Haruki crossed the threshold, the "scent" of the Legacy on him acted like a fre. Hundreds of Gastrea—Stage Is, IIs, and IIIs—screamed and lunged from the shadows.

  But Haruki didn't feel fear. He felt a surge of exhiration.

  For the first time since arriving in this world, he didn't have to hold back. He plunged into the sea of monsters, his bde a whirlwind of bck and crimson. Every kill fed his system. Every drop of Gastrea blood fueled his growth.

  [System Notification: Level 3 Reached]

  [New Archetype Unlocked: The Darkin Bde]

  A surge of dark, ancient power flooded Haruki's veins. His right arm, already marked by purple veins, began to pulse with a terrifying, demonic energy. He felt a presence in his mind—a hunger for battle that dwarfed his own.

  He wasn't just a swordsman anymore. He was a harvester.

  He spent nearly an entire day in the wastend, sughtering everything that crossed his path. He lost track of the count. He was completely immersed in the "joy" of the hunt.

  And then, the sky turned dark.

  The Stage V Gastrea—Scorpio—had arrived.

  It was a mountain of flesh, four hundred meters tall, looming over the horizon. It waded through the ocean like a god, its dark, scarred muscles pulsing with a diseased light. Massive sickle-like appendages protruded from its neck and head, and its single remaining eye was a pit of darkness.

  If this thing reached Tokyo, the city would fall in minutes.

  Faced with this absolute disaster, Haruki felt like an ant. There was no conventional way to kill something of this scale.

  Yet, as he stared up at the titan, he didn't feel hostility radiating from it. Instead, through his new Darkin senses, he felt something else coming from the monster.

  It was a deep, soul-crushing wave of sadness and agony. Scorpio wasn't a predator. It was a victim in constant, unimaginable pain.

  ***********************************************

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