* * *

"D-don't come any closer! Take one more step and I'll slit his throat!"

"Hmm. Well, now..."

A deathly pale face. Eyes shaking as if in an earthquake. Parched lips and a dry voice. Ryu Gang-cheol was the picture of a cornered criminal, and Limon scratched his cheek as he looked at him.

"Look, I understand why you're nervous. I do, but..."

Limon had cut down dozens of his clones at the very least. And Ryu Gang-cheol's skill seemed to share memories and consciousness with them in real time. After having the torturous memory of dying helplessly dozens of times in quick succession burned into him, it was no wonder Ryu was on the verge of a breakdown. No wonder he'd resorted to taking a hostage.

Of course, Limon had seen that countless times before. It was nothing new to him.

"Even so, what exactly do you expect to accomplish by taking him hostage?"

Limon was baffled. Ryu Gang-cheol had chosen the most unlikely hostage imaginable.

"Don't you agree, Director Wang?"

The mustached middle-aged man in Ryu's grip was covered in blood. Both his arms had been severed near the elbows and shoulders, and knives were embedded all over his body. Wang Gi-neung spat out a gush of blood, then answered with a grin.

"You can say that again."

"Shut up!"

Perhaps irritated by how calm his hostage was, Ryu yanked Wang's hair and drew his knife lightly across Wang's throat, leaving a trickle of blood. It was a warning that he could kill Wang whenever he wanted.

But the gesture was wasted. Not only Limon but Wang himself ignored the blood running down his neck and carried on talking.

"You look terrible for someone I only saw a little while ago."

"Sorry to present such a sorry sight. I managed to kill about ten of them, but more than that was beyond me."

"Oh? You put up a decent fight, then."

"I am the head of the Wang family of Shanghai, after all. I had to struggle at least that much to save face, didn't I?"

"Whatever face you had vanished the moment you got taken hostage."

"Ouch. That cuts deep."

Were they in the middle of a hostage standoff or chatting over tea? Ryu stared blankly at the two men, who were talking so calmly he could hardly tell, then burst out:

"Hey! Can't you see this knife?"

"I can see it perfectly well."

"Then why are you so calm? Keep this up and I really will kill this comrade!"

"Go ahead."

Ryu froze again.

"... What did you just say?"

"I said kill him. I don't care."

"Is that something you say in front of a hostage?!"

"Sorry, but Black Dragon Construction hasn't signed a contract with the security company I run. I've got no particular reason to protect him."

Limon sounded genuinely uninterested. Ryu gaped at him, then clenched his teeth.

"D-don't bluff! You're pretending not to care so you can save the hostage, aren't you?"

"If that's what you think, just kill him. What's a murderer like you hesitating for?"

"You...!"

At last, Ryu was at a loss for words. Wang chuckled at him.

"That's why you ought to choose your target carefully before taking a hostage."

"... You're laughing, comrade? That man is telling me to kill you!"

"If I'm going to die anyway, I might as well laugh."

"Why have you given up so quickly?! At least beg him to save you!"

"Ha. What a funny joke."

Wang gave a dry laugh, then tipped his head toward Limon.

"Lord Ghost, look at those eyes. Do they look like the eyes of a man who's come to save anyone?"

"..."

Ryu pressed his lips together. When he'd instinctively turned to follow Wang's gaze, he'd seen Limon watching him steadily. There was no worry, no concern, no anxiety in those golden eyes. They were merely languid and still—so still they were chilling.

Ryu had seen plenty of criminals and lunatics in the Liberation Brigade. One look at those eyes told him what they were: the eyes of a killer. If he used Wang as a shield, Limon would cut through them both in an instant. That gaze valued a human life no more than a log.

"You'd have been better off grabbing a passerby as your hostage."

Wang had realized that the moment he saw Limon and had given up any hope of rescue long ago. At his words, Ryu finally let out his frustration.

"What kind of fucked-up shit is this?!"

It was bad enough that the dozens of clones attacking the subsidiaries had all been wiped out in mere tens of minutes. Now the hostage-taking he'd saved as a last resort had proved completely pointless. It was enough to make him want to cry.

"A piece of shit gets treated like shit. What, did you expect a reward?"

"I doubt he saw this coming."

"You're hardly in a position to talk."

"That's why I said it. Never have I regretted not being born into the White Dragon Clan as much as I do now."

"I don't know about that. I'd wager your life that if you'd been born among those fools, they'd have driven you mad with frustration."

"Ha. You've got a point there."

Leaving Ryu standing there, Limon talked with Wang and even let out a brief chuckle. Then he asked casually,

"So, finished with your last words?"

"The loser has no right to complain. As family head, I couldn't even look after myself, let alone protect my clan. What could I possibly say? Just give me a clean death, please."

"All right. I'll finish it with one stroke so it'll be easy to stitch your corpse back together."

"Much obliged."

A chill ran through Ryu. It wasn't only the razor-sharp air beginning to emanate from Limon as he held his sword angled down. Limon had already accepted Wang's death as a certainty, and Wang was thanking him for it. The sight of the two of them was so far beyond Ryu's understanding that it felt like facing madmen to whom common sense meant nothing.

'... I made a mistake.'

He shouldn't have judged lunatics like these by common sense. No, he should have let Eugene and Bellows handle this and stayed out of it entirely.

But it was too late.

"Well, it doesn't look like there are any more clones to cut down..."

By the time Ryu realized his mistake, the god of death, black light glinting in his golden eyes, had already leveled his sword at him.

"Let's finish this."

Ryu ground his teeth. He had already died at Limon's hands dozens of times, so he knew that sword couldn't be stopped. Whether he ran, fought, or fell to his knees and begged, once Limon decided to cut him down, all his "current self" could do was struggle and die. That was why a fierce light entered his eyes.

"Fine. If you want to see how this ends so badly, I'll show you. But don't say I didn't warn you!"

Limon paid the shout no mind. He was used to villains yelling curses and threats in a final show of defiance before they died.

"Hmm?"

But a moment later, his eyes narrowed. It wasn't just that Ryu's whole bearing had suddenly changed as he gripped his knife. Through the eyes of the constellations, which Limon had been using to check for remaining clones, he saw something strange.

Though they were clearly indoors, stars glittered in the night sky. They shimmered, and the light of one shone down on Ryu as clearly as a spotlight.

'What is this...?'

Limon moved at once, swinging his sword at Ryu. It was a lightning-fast slash that would have taken the head off the Ryu of moments before before he could react.

KLANG!

But the sword failed to cut him. The starlight surrounding Ryu repelled it. As Limon raised an eyebrow at the unexpected force that pushed him back, Ryu ruthlessly flung aside Wang, his hostage, and spoke with a twisted smile.

* * *

The Underground Dragon Palace beneath Leviathan.

Bellows, the braided-haired man fighting Li Qingyu with all his strength despite being driven entirely onto the defensive, faltered. Then he suddenly looked up.

"... That idiot."

Above him was only a vast ceiling, part of a structure deep underground. But Bellows glared as if he could see something beyond it.

"Borrowing the power of 'above' without even asking my permission. Has being called a fool so often finally made him one?"

His irritation lasted only a moment. Bellows caught Qingyu's attack on his statute book, using it as a shield, and the heavy impact that traveled through his hand made his eyes turn cold.

Fool or not, Ryu Gang-cheol was also a ghost of the Liberation Brigade. Bellows didn't need to see what was happening outside to know how bad things must be if Ryu had gone so far as to violate the Brigade's military regulations.

'Ordinarily, this isn't permitted, but...'

Ryu had already crossed the line. Bellows himself was on the defensive. Above all, the mission was too important. After weighing everything, he murmured to himself,

"Very well. In that case, I'll settle this here and now."

Bellows stopped evading Qingyu. Instead, he stood straight where he was, focused his will, and activated a skill.

* * *

"What the fxxx?"

Eugene muttered without thinking as she thrashed about, searching for Yo U-in and the Ink Dragon Unit. Though she was trapped in black mist that swallowed all light, she could sense a star flashing like an explosion in the distant sky.

'Why?'

She was bewildered, but only for a moment. Before she could make sense of it, a second star began to surge violently, leaving her stunned.

"... Comrade, you've lost your mind."

This was a forbidden power: the reason they were called ghosts, a taboo even Ryu Gang-cheol and Bellows, despite his command authority, were not allowed to use lightly. If things went badly, they could all be executed for violating military regulations even if they completed the mission safely. That was why she hadn't even considered using it until now.

"They're dragging me down with them."

But with Ryu and then Bellows having made their decisions, she had no choice. Holding back herself wouldn't spare her collective responsibility. More than that, now that it had begun, dithering wasn't her style.

"Not my style, but... sorry."

She would have preferred to fight to the death like this, if possible. But the mission came first. Suppressing her reluctance, Eugene connected herself to "above" and spoke quietly.

"『Constellation Descent XII』, Fool."

"『Constellation Descent V』, Judgment."

"『Constellation Descent III』, Berserker."

The three voices rang out one after another. And the moment three brilliant stars fell from the distant sky—

BOOOOM!

—Roots covered the earth.

—The laws of the world were overturned.

—Blood-red madness erupted.