"Hey! Wait! Where the hell are you going alone, Third Squad Leader?!"

Gustav shouted angrily after realizing Moon had recklessly rushed ahead by herself.

But his voice was useless.

Whenever Ethan was involved, Moon’s composure visibly crumbled.

"Damn it!"

Cursing beneath his breath, Gustav unleashed his Aura Armor at a far greater intensity, strengthening his physical abilities to the limit.

"I expect a proper explanation later, Raiden..."

"That is, if we survive this cursed night."

The instant he finished speaking, Gustav accelerated violently, finally matching Moon’s speed. If he could not stop her, then accompanying her had become the only option left.

The two of them rapidly disappeared into the distance, leaving Raiden and the remaining hunters of the First Squad far behind.

Even though the others were using Aura Armor as well, none of them could close the gap.

Watching their backs vanish ahead of him, Raiden felt bitterness rising within his chest for the very first time.

Unable to catch up.

Unable to change anything.

For the first time in his life...

He truly felt the bitterness of weakness.

"Let’s keep moving," one of the First Squad hunters urged the others. "Once the fighting starts again, we’ll catch up to them sooner or later."

Everyone immediately prepared to continue forward—

Until a sudden voice called out to them from behind.

"Guys...! Guys, wait!"

The voice was distant and weak, but thanks to their enhanced senses, they heard it clearly. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Turning around, they spotted one of the mages who had been accompanying Luna Heart earlier desperately running toward them, completely out of breath.

"You’re one of the Fifth Squad mages..." one of the First Squad members muttered with a frown. "What are you doing here?"

The exhausted mage bent over while gasping for air before hurriedly blurting out his words.

"We found a way...!"

"A way to wipe out a huge number of those monsters all at once!"

That immediately caught everyone’s attention.

The mage quickly explained Luna’s plan.

"All we have to do... is lure them toward her."

"She’ll handle the rest."

The strategy itself was simple.

Luna had been preparing a high-level fire spell for some time now, one powerful enough to annihilate a massive number of monsters in a single strike if they were hit directly.

If successful, it would drastically reduce the horde and make cleaning up the survivors far easier.

But the real problem remained—

How exactly were they supposed to lure all those monsters toward her in the first place?

...

...

Meanwhile...

The chase had entered an increasingly dangerous phase as the monsters gradually closed in around Ethan.

Whenever he glanced behind himself now, he saw nothing except monsters.

Monsters sprinting through the streets hard enough to shake the stone roads beneath them.

Others crawled across walls and buildings in endless swarms, covering entire structures like starving colonies of ants.

And above them all—

Gigantic flying insects blocked out the sky itself.

"Seriously...?"

"All of this came for me alone?"

Ethan laughed mockingly at himself and at the absurdity of his current situation, exhaustion clearly visible within his eyes.

Not physical exhaustion.

Mental exhaustion.

His mind itself had become a battlefield now.

Hundreds upon hundreds of distorted voices invaded his skull relentlessly, tearing through his thoughts without mercy.

Every monster chasing him carried a story.

A story of a human being who had become a monster.

And Ethan could hear all of them perfectly.

Some voices demanded answers.

Others begged for death.

Some sobbed endlessly in despair.

But most of them screamed in maddened agony, unable to endure the pain consuming them.

It felt as though he were hearing the thoughts of a thousand people simultaneously.

"I feel like someone’s trying to crush my brain with a giant hammer..."

The countless voices made even seeing properly difficult. Several times already, Ethan had nearly stumbled directly into the monsters’ bloody jaws.

Fortunately for him...

He was not alone.

Jackson rapidly caught up, leaping wildly between buildings like an enraged beast before hurling himself straight into swarms of monsters, killing two or three with every single jump.

"What exactly are you planning, boy?!" Jackson shouted while pursuing Ethan and the monsters closely.

"What’s your plan?!"

Ethan answered with a dry laugh.

"This is the plan."

There were no brilliant schemes.

No perfect strategies.

This pursuit was the only thing Ethan had managed to come up with.

’Right now... all I can do is draw the monsters toward myself.’

’And buy enough time for the others to figure something out.’

Ethan’s eyes darted rapidly across the city as he searched for his next route, trying to determine which direction he should swing toward next with the grappling hook.

The cold air slammed relentlessly against Ethan’s face from the sheer speed of his swinging.

By now, he had become frighteningly skilled at it after spending an entire month soaring between buildings like some version of Spider-Man trapped inside a nightmare.

That brutal training had paid off.

It was the reason he had managed to stay alive this long.

"You’re telling me your entire plan is to run away and leave everything to your companions?!" Jackson roared with a deep frown after finally realizing the boy truly had no grand strategy at all.

Not the kind he had expected, at least.

Ethan did not even bother answering.

With all the chaos raging inside his skull, focusing alone was already difficult enough.

"Foolish brat!!"

Jackson shouted angrily while tearing apart more monsters with his bare hands.

"There is no point in relying on others! Especially weak companions like yours!"

"That level of strength isn’t enough to change anything!"

There was emotion hidden within Jackson’s voice.

A strange kind of bitterness Ethan could not fully grasp amidst the madness of the current situation and the deafening roars of the monsters surrounding them.

The only reason Ethan could hear him at all was because Jackson’s voice was absurdly loud to begin with.

"All you’ll gain from trusting others is one of two outcomes!"

"Either you die after they fail you..."

"Or they die before your eyes because they were too weak and too worthless to survive!"

Every single word Jackson spoke made Ethan feel as though the giant was speaking from personal experience.

As if ancient scars hidden deep within him had never truly healed.

Scars that had shaped him into the man he was today.

"You’re wrong, Jackson."

Ethan finally answered while swinging violently between buildings.

"I’m not the kind of man who relies on his companions because of emotions or blind faith."

"I trust them because I know exactly what they’re capable of."

At the very least, Ethan had confidence in that much.

Confidence born from everything he had seen from them so far... and from the countless experiences he carried from his days as a player.

That was why he had gambled on them in this desperate situation.

Why he was risking his life to buy them time.

One mistake was all it would take for him to fall from the sky directly into the monsters’ claws.

And somehow...

He had survived for quite a while already.

But it seemed his luck had finally run out.

Jackson realized it the instant he saw one of the giant insects finally catch up to Ethan.

The monstrous creature lunged at him violently from above, smashing directly into him and sending both of them crashing toward the streets below.

Everything happened in an instant.

The collision was brutal.

Both Ethan and the gigantic insect slammed straight into the ground amidst the countless monsters below.

And the moment they fell—

The surrounding abominations descended upon them from every direction at once, driven mad by their desire to tear apart the bearer of the Darkness Curse.