Old Ernst nodded. He walked to the window and gazed in the direction of Laos District. Lightning flashed intermittently within the dark clouds, and the accompanying booms of thunder lit up his face.

"This time, we must take back what belongs to us, no matter what!"

...

...

RUMBLE.

As several bolts of lightning tore across the night sky, the thunder grew louder. From within the dark clouds, raindrops shimmering with a red halo began to fall.

「At the border between Laos District and Ruer District.」

By this point, a crowd had already gathered.

Among them were Deputy Director Balats of the Secret Investigation Department, Nifa, and Dorff.

"Balats!"

Dorff stared into the deep pit at his feet. Piles of flesh and blood, matted with dozens, even hundreds, of severed limbs, were scattered across the crater floor.

And on one of the arms, a ring that was incredibly familiar to him...

"What... what the hell happened? Where’s Director Ales? Where is he?!"

Balats pressed his lips together. He cast a sorrowful glance at the scene below before turning his head away.

"Say something!" Dorff’s burly frame lunged at him, and a massive fist slammed into his face. "This isn’t what was planned."

"Why wasn’t it you down there? Why wasn’t it you and Nifa?"

"Tell me, the Director isn’t here, he’s still back at the Secret Investigation Department, right?"

"SAY IT!?"

Even with a fist like that crashing into his face, Balats remained silent, his hand holding the lantern steady.

The faint, yellow candlelight illuminated him but offered no warmth. Instead, as the rain soaked him, all he felt was a bone-piercing chill.

’Ales, you really left without a moment’s hesitation.’

"Dorff, this was Ales’s decision. It’s not Balats’s fault."

Nifa, standing nearby, kept her eyes fixed on Ales’s arm. The familiar energy of his electrical Elemental Power still lingered on it. For some reason, she felt a strange sense of relief.

"You knew, too?" Dorff’s eyes were bloodshot. He glared at her and snarled, "Don’t you know that nothing could be allowed to happen to Ales? Do you know how many people in all of Caster were just waiting for him to be gone?"

"Do you know how many people will die because of this? Do you realize the position this puts the Secret Investigation Department in?"

"I know better than anyone,"

Nifa said softly. "Do you remember the prophecy? ’Gunfire rings, the death knell tolls. Death descends: the Abyss of Despair, or eternal life at Dawn.’"

"What does that have to do with Ales? With his power, as long as he stayed inside the Secret Investigation Department, he would have been fine even if the Caster City State fell!"

"That was Ales’s choice. For him, to live was the Abyss of Despair, but to die was eternal life at Dawn..."

THUD!

Dorff, unable to take it anymore, swung his fist at Nifa as well. At the last second, a moment of clarity made him subconsciously avoid her face.

"Dorff!" Balats lunged forward and restrained him. "Are you insane!?"

"To hell with your prophecy, I don’t believe it!" Dorff raged, struggling relentlessly in Balats’s embrace. "It’s all your fault, you goddamn woman! Back then, you never should have... *sob*... *whimper*!"

Hearing this, Balats’s face paled. He quickly clamped a hand over Dorff’s mouth. "Nifa, go see if Ales left anything behind. Take it all with you before the others get here."

"Okay."

Nifa clutched her side where she’d been hit and calmly descended into the crater.

A severed arm, a short, oak-handled knife, a small, flat flask, a scrap of cloth from the Director of the Secret Investigation Department’s uniform, and a torn slip of paper...

"...Caster City State offering prepared. Sacrificial ritual can be initiated at any time..."

Nifa stared at the note’s contents, a flicker of grief in her bright eyes. ’You were right, Ales...’

"Bastards! Why didn’t you die instead?! Why couldn’t it have been me?!"

Dorff still couldn’t believe it. That Ales, who had clawed his way up from a life of suffering, would have his story end like this.

’It shouldn’t have been like this. This is no way for a legend to take his final bow!’

"Hah... hah... hah..."

Just then, Albert, the head of the Combat Department, appeared at the edge of the crater. "Deputy Directors, can one of you tell me what happened here?"

"Did you already eliminate the Abyssal Sect and the Bone-Eating Mother Worm?"

"Albert, you’re just in time! Kill... kill both of them!" Dorff roared, still struggling. "Director Ales is dead! It was them! It was them..."

"The Director is dead?"

Albert froze, his gaze falling to Nifa in the crater below, and the arm she was holding. He remembered the bolt of lightning he’d seen earlier, one that had stretched across half the city state.

"Could that have been... the Director? How is that possible?!"

Nifa offered no explanation. Instead, she produced a dark blue token and said in a cold, clear voice, "As Acting Director of the Secret Investigation Department, I order you, Albert, to continue your mission!"

"The Bone-Eating Mother Worm is dead. The people within the city state infested by the Bone-Eating Worms will soon become violent and uncontrollable. Any questions can wait until we are back at the Secret Investigation Department."

"And Balats, bring Dorff. It’s time for us to leave."

"Alright."

Balats forcibly pulled Dorff away. ’Acting Director...’

’So Ales had already arranged everything?’

"You... the Acting Director?" Albert stared blankly at Nifa, feeling as if he were looking at a stranger.

"It’s true."

With that, Nifa picked up the small lantern, opened a black umbrella, and began walking slowly toward the Secret Investigation Department.

’True?’

"How ridiculous. How could Director Ales die here?"

’The ones who deserved to die are still alive, while the one who didn’t has met such an end...’

Albert adjusted the hat on his head, his gaze dark as he stared at the crater ravaged by lightning. After a moment’s thought, he poured out a bottle of developing solution.