After that, there was no more conversation. We ran up the stairs. Ricardo went ahead. I couldn’t keep up with his pace.

My chest kept hurting. The pain only grew sharper the faster I ran.

But I couldn’t let it show. If I did, he’d leave me behind on the ground for sure.

We ran until the fourteenth floor — the highest point we could still reach.

From the fourteenth floor upward, the stairs were buried under debris and impossible to use. So we forced open the door and stepped into the corridor. It wasn’t intact either; we had to clear chunks of rubble blocking the way as we moved toward the window.

Ricardo tied a wire around my body.

“You had a wire, sir?”

“Not as a weapon — so they didn’t confiscate it~.”

According to him, Ami was the only one who used wires as weapons.

He sat on the window ledge and leaned his upper body out.

Fortunately, it was a bright, windless night.

Ricardo attached the suction pad at the end of the wire to the building’s wall — so we could climb up the exterior.

“You can climb, right?”

“Yes.”

He disappeared outside the window, and I followed.

Below us stretched the wilderness, tinted blue under the moonlight.

We climbed in silence again, breathing in the cold air as we ascended the wire.

Then Ricardo suddenly stopped climbing and smashed a glass window.

Crash!

The glass shattered inward.

He jumped through.

I followed right after.

...Damn.

The sight before us took my breath away.

I never wanted to see a scene like this again. When I was trapped in the building with Forden, no one had been crushed. When I was buried in the hallway with Ricardo, only Marie had been caught under debris.

But this time was different.

We entered through the nineteenth-floor window. The ceiling of the arena — the nineteenth-floor floor — had collapsed, crushing the spectator stands below.

Most of the bodies would probably never be found.

I turned my head away from an arm sticking out between slabs of concrete.

It was terrifyingly silent.

All the lights were broken, and we could only rely on moonlight to see.

From the highest point, I looked down. My eyes, now used to the darkness, picked out the arena far below. It had partially caved in.

The northern section — where Ricardo and I had been — had collapsed.

The opposite side was buried under rubble, but the floor itself seemed intact.

That was where the VIP seating had been.

The place where the Elder who’d been torn apart had sat for a while. Maybe no bombs had been planted there because it had been meant for him. I let out the breath I’d been holding.

“Sir.”

I called to Ricardo as he slid down the slanted debris.

I followed him, bracing my feet.

It was so quiet I didn’t need to raise my voice.

“Do you know where we are exactly?”

“Roughly.”

He didn’t turn back.

But he moved steadily toward one place — fast, but never reckless. Even as he descended toward the arena, he didn’t slip or kick loose debris that might break the fragile balance. I couldn’t help admiring it.

Even with moonlight as our only illumination, his speed never slowed.

Dust thick in the air.

For a while, we focused solely on getting down to the arena.

“Winter!”

Ricardo finally jumped from the edge of the debris onto the surviving section of the arena.

“Fiscer!”

I leapt down after him — nearly a two-story drop — and landed hard on the arena floor.

There were only a few places worth checking. I ran toward the stands, careful not to misstep and fall through the fractured ground below.

“Sir!”

God—

Ricardo and I both flinched at the sudden voice.

But the shock that had made my heart leap quickly turned to relief.

You’re alive.

The tightness in my chest loosened. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Ricardo’s face, as he approached the buried stands, carried deep relief too.

“Winter.”

He touched the rubble covering the seats with care.

“Give me a quick report~...”

“Ah—Asil...”

Asil?

“Thanks to you covering us with your weapon, we weren’t crushed, but Asil’s condition— I think it’s poison. Creature venom, maybe...”

“Calm down and breathe~.”

“The weapon made space for us, so we didn’t get crushed, okay? The ceiling collapsed, but thank god the weapon was sturdy—”

“Winter. Breathe.”

I heard Bobby trying to steady her own ragged breathing.

I stepped up beside Ricardo.

Narrowing my eyes, I ran my hands along the debris to get a sense of its shape.

“I can’t see anything.”

I tried to pinpoint exactly where Bobby’s voice was coming from.

“My breathing’s a bit tight, my head hurts... maybe lack of oxygen. But more than that, Asil’s breathing is getting worse...”

“Waiting for rescue will take too long.”

Ricardo made the call quickly, turning to me.

I nodded.

Thud!

Four hands were better than two.

We started clearing the rubble that covered the waiting area, kicking and prying loose the chunks so they slid down into the collapsed section below. My hands were cut by exposed rebar and sharp concrete, but I couldn’t care.

Heavy piece after heavy piece — thud, thud.

After repeating that enough times, the crushed stands finally revealed themselves like the layers of a crêpe cake pressed flat.

The ceiling of the seating area sagged downward.

Even on top of that ceiling, more debris had piled endlessly.

If Ricardo hadn’t thrown his shapeshift weapon over them in time, Bobby and Fiscer would have been flattened. I frowned at the cross-section of the concrete sandwich before me.

Even now, it wasn’t good.

“The leg.”

Ricardo’s tone went rigid.

Bobby, now able to see us under the moonlight, lifted her head.

Her face brightened with relief — then followed his gaze.

“Ah.”

Ricardo’s voice was flat as he looked at her trapped right calf.

“Yeah. Lucky it’s just one leg.”

“Should’ve covered a wider area.”

His voice was grim.

He was talking about the silver ceiling of his weapon covering Bobby and Asil. It was still holding the weight above them.

Bobby smiled faintly at the frowning man.

“No, then it wouldn’t have been thick or high enough. We’d both be dead meat. I should’ve lain flatter — my mistake. See? Asil’s fine.”

“I can’t clear what’s on your leg.”

“Obvious.”

Even as tears streamed down her face, Bobby kept smiling.

“As long as we get out alive, nothing else matters.”

We should’ve been more careful.

We shouldn’t have dismissed the Elder’s warning before he was torn apart by that Creature. My chest tightened as I looked at Bobby’s trapped leg.

Even with the Green Dream antidote, that leg was beyond saving.

Just hours ago, she’d been perfectly fine.

“Take Asil first.”

Bobby met my eyes as I bit my lip.

“Look at her arm. It’s completely swollen. I caught some of the poison myself. What if she dies?”

“She won’t....”

Ricardo bent down and injected the antidote into Asil’s arm. Then he pulled the unconscious silver-haired senior free from above Bobby.

He handed her to me.

“Take her down.”

“You have to come too.”

I took Asil in my arms.

“The shapeshift weapon won’t hold much longer. Same for this floor.”

“Agreed.”

Bobby pointed toward the arena.

“There’s been weird noise from above for a while now. Give her the antidote, then cut my leg off. Get us out of here.”

Ricardo drew in a long breath.

It looked like he was fighting to control his breathing before hyperventilation set in.

Yeah. He’d held it together until now — in a place where countless people had been crushed to death. If I felt close to breaking, what about him?

But there was no time to calm him down.

I handed Asil back to him.

“I’ll do it.”

Ricardo turned slightly and met my eyes.

Cold sweat still trickled down his face.

“Go down first, sir. I’ll follow right after.”

“Right.”

Bobby muttered absently, staring up at the silver ceiling.

“You’re good with a sword. You’ll make it hurt less.”

No time for sentiment.

Guilt and sorrow weren’t for now. I bit my lip and waited for Ricardo’s decision. His eyes swept over the layers of fallen debris pressing down on his shapeshift weapon, the arena floor barely wide enough for us to stand.

The air was suffocatingly still.

Ricardo decided quickly.

“Come right after me.”

“Yes.”

“Winter.”

He grasped Bobby’s outstretched hand tightly, then let go.

“Hold on.”

Bobby gave a small laugh.

Still lying down, she waved to the senior climbing up the arena wall with Asil slung over his shoulder.

When she finished waving, she turned her head and looked up at me.

“Sorry for making you stay.”

What could serve as a blade?

I didn’t answer. I turned quickly, antidote syringe in hand, scanning the area. Something straight, sharp-edged, small enough to grip.

I quickly picked up two pieces of debris from the corner of the arena.

I struck them together, sharpening one.

“Ah!”

Bobby screamed when she saw me approaching with the makeshift blade.

“Now that it’s happening, I’m scared!”

“I’ll make it quick.”

I’d done this plenty of times before — on battlefields.

Back then, we used to cauterize the wound with red-hot blades. Thankfully, we had antidote now.

With an enhanced body, the wound would seal quickly. The lost calf wouldn’t grow back, but—

I stuck the needle into Bobby’s arm.

“Feels... better.”

Good.

I pocketed the syringe and raised the improvised blade. I examined the boundary of her trapped leg — her shin protruding from under the silver ceiling.

It had to be done in one strike.

“Sir.”

“Hm?”

“What class are you?”

“Huh? Me?”

Bobby blinked in confusion.

“I’m tenth—”

Slash.

A clean cut.

Bobby screamed.

I ignored the shrill cry and pulled her freed body out. The senior’s form emerged from beneath the silver ceiling. When she stretched her left leg, the imbalance with her missing right was plain.

Don’t get sentimental.

I slung her over my shoulder and sprinted toward the wall.

“I’m sorry.”

Stepping on rubble, I leapt up and climbed over the collapsed stands.

As I climbed fast along the slanted debris, I muttered:

“I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“For what?”

Bobby’s muffled voice came from my back.

Her face was buried in my shoulder, clutching at my shirt.

“What are you sorry for? What....”

“If only I’d been a little faster—”

“No.”

She cut me off firmly.

Then, still pressing her face into my back, she added softly,

“Thank you for coming back.”

Her voice didn’t shake anymore.

“Thank you for pulling me out....”

If only I’d paid a little more attention.

If only I’d realized Marie {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} was one of the appendages. If only I’d handled things smarter when maintaining my enhanced body alone. If only I’d killed that Creature faster, or not ignored the Elder’s final warning. If only I’d grabbed Ricardo and run toward them—maybe none of this would have happened.

I regretted endlessly as I headed for the window.

All the mistakes I’d made.

And I kept pushing the guilt aside—

until the moment came when we had to scale down the outer wall of the building.