CHAPTER FOURTEEN - BLOODY BULLET TRAIN TO LOVE ARC - GREED (PART TWO)

"...Come on out, Messiah."

Light surges from inside the train.

A gleaming golden spear floats overhead above Gabriel, barely visible from inside the intense glow surrounding it. The length of the weapon is adorned with ornate carvings, the visage of a hooded holy woman sculpted into its midpoint. Connecting the shaft to the bottom of the blade, a circular ring surrounds the tip, with the roman numerals I through X engraved across it.

The stump of Mammon's disintegrated arm sizzles with an intense burn.

"I'm sorry, Mari," Gabriel holds back a lump in his throat.

The weapon floats down into his hands. He recoils, stabilizing his grip as light ripples across his entire body.

With the sound of a mechanical hum, the spear splits itself in half, dividing the carved visage of the holy woman at her midpoint. Hovering between the two halves is the source of the light powering the weapon-- a blazing core of pure radiance. The shape of the core resembles a fetus, with two horn-like protrusions sprouting from its head.

"Now, what do we have here..?"

Mammon grabs a nearby devil by the face, exchanging it into another replacement arm.

KACHING!

"I have to say, that's one nice weapon you've got..."

He smiles gleefully.

"I want it."

Though he tries to reach his arm towards Gabriel, he can barely move an inch before a ray of light evaporates it entirely.

The ring surrounding the tip of the spear ticks, and the numeral decreases from X to IX.

Light uncontrollably shoots from the weapon, burning through the ceiling of the train and shaking the entire tunnel.

A massive chunk of rock rains from the top of the tunnel and smashes into the train, squashing a devil below it.

"Five years..."

Gabriel plants his feet firmly on the ground, finally gaining control of the immense power.

"Five years of my prayer, of all my hopes and dreams..."

The numeral on the ring decreases again.

"It won't last long, but it's enough."

Mammon looks pleased.

"Hahaha! Well why didn't you tell me sooner?"

He twirls around his halberd.

"So you just let all those people die, did you?! You had this in your back pocket the whole time, and you just sat and watched!"

Gabriel looks down in silence.

"With the way things are going now, you'll destroy this whole damn train! You'd sacrifice them all, just for this girl?!"

He dashes towards Gabriel, raising his voice.

"That's just greed, isn't it, boy?!"

Gabriel uses Messiah to parry his strike.

The ring ticks down once more.

"You're right... I'm a monster."

The mere glow of the weapon causes Mammon's skin to fry.

"I'm no better than a devil like you."

Mammon jumps away, clicking his tongue.

"And that's why I'm ready to throw it all away."

Gabriel grasps his heart tightly, grimacing in pain.

Ever since releasing Messiah, he could feel it. An intense burn, surely a result of the scorching light that existed to eliminate devils and devils alone.

"Your heart..."

Gabriel looks up confidently.

"It's inside me, isn't it?"

For a second, Mammon appears to be caught off guard. A soft smile grows on Gabriel's face.

"I'm right. You exchanged its location."

"B-But how-"

"You thought I wasn't really prepared to die. You're wrong."

The spear ticks.

More pieces of rock crash through the ceiling around the two. The train tips to the side, just a few inches from falling off the tracks.

Finally, Des crawls out from the pile of ooze encasing him, setting his eyes upon Riru's unconscious body. He runs to her and kneels down next to her.

Gabriel turns towards him.

"Go. You're lucky I'm letting you live."

Hesitation hides behind Des's eyes.

...

"WHAT ABOUT OUR DEVIL KILLING CONTEST?"

"I'm taking down the big boss. Let's just leave it at that, alright?"

He smiles.

"...Just keep her safe, will you?"

Des looks away to hide his expression, grasping Riru's hand tightly in his.

"...YEAH."

Finally, from the rays of light peeking through her eyelids, Riru awakens from her unconscious daze.

She looks over to the source of the light, slowly coming back to her senses.

"Gabriel..?"

Gabriel looks down.

He points his spear towards his own chest.

For the first time, Mammon appears visibly afraid.

He needed to exchange the location of his heart once more. To do that, he had to make contact with Gabriel. 

He sticks his arm into the ground, forming a pool of blood below it. Another pool materializes behind Gabriel, and the arm emerges.

As fast as it possibly can, it reaches towards Gabriel.

The spear ticks, and Gabriel closes his eyes.

From every inch of his weapon, an overwhelmingly powerful wave of light bursts forth.

Riru screams.

"Gabriel!!!!!"

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He opens his eyes.

His vision is entirely enveloped by a pure white light, stretching out endlessly into the distance.

Taking a deep sigh of relief, he lets down his silver spear.

...

In the distance, he can faintly make out the contours of a human figure.

Without thinking, with his body moving on its own, he runs toward it.

As fast as physically possible, he runs without looking back.

His voice cries out.

"Mari!!!"

The figure turns its head.

She smiles, exposing the slight gap between her two front teeth.

"Touma!"

Finally reaching her, his legs give out, and he collapses on the floor.

"Hey, are you okay?!"

She kneels down next to him.

"I..."

His voice stammers uncontrollably.

"I-I'm just glad you're okay... I'm so glad..."

Though he can't completely describe it, something deep inside him feels like its begging to be set free.

Mari has a soft look.

"Yeah. Same for you."

...

The two remain in place, completely silent.

The floodgates within Gabriel feel like they're about to burst open.

"I'm sorry."

He feels obligated, if nothing else, to force out these few words. Tears well up in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I really am. I don't..."

He tries to grasp onto something, anything, on the floor below him, but his hands reach nothing but the endless light.

"I'm lost. I don't know what I'm supposed to do without you. I..."

His voice sounds as if the weight of one more word would cause it to completely crack apart.

"I really miss you, Mari."

Even then, as tears stream down his face, he can't help but repeat the words.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry!"

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As Gabriel tries to speak, something other than words rises from the back of his throat.

He coughs, hacking up blood all over his chest.

The light emanating from Messiah slowly fades. He drops it to the floor with a clatter as it ticks once more.

Mammon's arm, unsuccessful in reaching Gabriel before the explosion of light, crumbles into ash.

Gabriel's lifeless body collapses onto the floor.

Riru can't believe her eyes. She continues to stare, unresponsive.

"What a waste."

Both her and Des turn their heads in shock.

Standing before them, with one remaining arm, Mammon somehow still breathes.

"H-How..." Riru stammers.

A piercing pain pummels against the side of her skull.

Mammon holds a beating heart in his hands.

"What, you think I didn't have a backup plan? If I couldn't reach my heart, all I had to do was exchange for another."

He looks down at Gabriel's lifeless body with a pitiful look. 

"The fool really went and did it, huh? A shame."

He rams his his hoof into the side of the corpse.

The spear ticks.

A single thought crawls out from within Riru's subconscious. She desperately tries to hold it back, but It smells good. 

No matter what It smells good. she did, she just couldn't It smells good. It smells good.

It smells good. It smells good. It smells good. 

"Agh!"

She clutches her head and her horn blasts out from the right side of her skull, ripping through the skin on Des's shoulder.

He grimaces, instinctually retreating.

I wanna taste him. I wanna eat him. I wanna tear him apart.

As she stares unflinchingly at Gabriel's corpse, nothing but pure insatiable hunger fills her eyes.

Her hands grow larger as her claws extend out from her fingernails and her skin turns a deeper shade of red. Her short hair grows back at a miraculous speed, wildly tangling into a long, twisting wall of black.

Her mouth is agape, displaying rows of endless sharp teeth. Des is unable to conceal the terror in his eyes.

"Finally showing your true colors, are you? Now that's the Lilith I know!"

Mammon laughs mockingly. 

"Maybe once you peel back all those layers of filth, once you show them who you truly are..."

Familiar words dig their claws deep inside her brain. She screams out, and her voice reverberates across the entire train.

In a spray of blood, a second horn smashes through the opposite side of her head.

...

As if suddenly running out of energy, her head droops down. Mammon looks confused.

A small bead of water drips from the ceiling. 

And another. And another.

Mammon instinctually grabs onto a seat of the train, exchanging it into an umbrella.

KACHING!

He covers his head as a light shower of rain patters overhead, falling from the roof of the train.

...

"I AM BELPHEGOR."

Des speaks, controlled by a will outside of his own. 

"AND I WANNA MARRY YOU, BLOODSPLATTER MOON."

Upon being touched by the droplets of rain, the other devils on the train cease their erratic movements. One grabs its head, and regaining just a small semblance of its cognitive functions, makes a noise resembling gargled speech. 

"Aiiiii... Ahm... Belphagouuuu..."

More devils cry out in response.

"Ai am! Ai am! Belllll...."

"Belphegor Am... I am..."

"I want TO tooo go BacKKKKK..." One of the devils just barely manages to string together an entire sentence.

"I want to. To Seeee him..." croaks another.

"I want... HELLPpp..."

Mammon is unable to hide the curiosity on his face.

"Belphegor? Well, isn't this interesting..."

He turns towards Riru gleefully.

"I have to admit, you've pleasantly surprised me, Gluttony. But I've taken up enough of your time. I suppose I'd better take my leave."

Suddenly, a drop of liquid hits Messiah's radiating core. The number ticks down for a ninth time.

Controlled by a will of its own, the spear rattles across the floor.

Mammon looks over curiously, and Riru, escaping her trance for only a moment, does the same. The rain comes to an abrupt halt.

Glowing as bright as the sun peeking over the horizon after a rainy day, the fetus-like core floats up from between the two halves of the spear, suspended entirely in midair. 

KACHING!

Mammon's umbrella becomes a pistol, and he fires a few shots into the fetus.

The bullets dissolve immediately upon making contact. It lets out a quiet childlike cry.

It continues floating towards Gabriel's body, stopping once hovering directly above it.

With another powerful blast of light, it plunges into his chest.

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Gabriel rubs his tears as he sits with Mari in the empty space of light.

"You don't know what to do, huh?"

She looks to be deep in thought.

...

"Just follow your heart."

"...What?" 

He looks up at her, his eyes red and swollen.

She stares into them deeply. Her expression carries untold warmth.

"You have a good heart, Touma."

...

The words slam into Gabriel's chest with indescribably powerful force.

He couldn't understand it. He knew what his heart looked like, deep down. It couldn't be anything different. But if its what Mari was telling him, then maybe-

"You could do with just listening to it sometimes, right?"

...

As if triggered by this single statement, Gabriel's restraint completely disappears.

He erupts into an uncontrollable sob, grasping Mari in a tight hug.

Under his breath, he whispers it again and again.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..."

She holds him tightly. 

"Come on, quit being a crybaby."

For the first time, he notices she's crying tears of her own. 

"You wanna change, right?"

He looks up at her quietly.

"...Yeah," he responds with a fragile voice.

"You don't need to worry about me anymore. Just focus on what's in front of you."

She smiles.

"You don't wanna keep them waiting, right?"

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When the light fades, Gabriel's body is gone.

Riru and Mammon both look around in suspense.

...

The heart in one of Mammon's hands is pierced by the tip of a golden spear.

With one final tick, the numeral on the ring changes to I, and the entire spear slowly begins evaporating into ash.

"...Huh?"

Blood drips from his mouth.

At the other end of the spear stands a man who, for all intents and purposes, should be dead.

Riru’s eyes instantly fill with tears. Her second horn shrinks back into her head, and her devilish physical features revert back to normal.

"Gabriel!!!!"

She rushes towards him. 

"Gabriel, you're-"

"Agh!"

Feeling something inside him shatter, an indescribable pain rips through Gabriel's entire body all at once. He collapses onto the floor.

Suddenly, the train comes to a screeching stop.

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In the surrounding tunnel, a creeping frost slithers across the ground, crawling up the side of the train and freezing it to the tracks below. 

A giant glacier juts out of the earth in front of the train and blocks it from moving any further. 

Uriel stands on the tracks behind the glacier. His pupils glow a pale blue once more, with snowflake patterns visible within. 

"Finally made it..." he sighs, a chilling mist emerging from his jaws.

A crackled voice speaks speaks into his earpiece. 

"All devil exterminators on the Kodama line, reinforcements from the Kyoto and Tokyo branch offices have arrived. I repeat, all devil exterminators..."

"About time," he mocks, turning his back and retreating into the darkness of the tunnel.

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In a nearby tunnel, the torn limbs of devil exterminators are scattered across the ground, and spilled innards stain the earth with a deep red.

Otsuka, the commander of the squad, is now nothing but a ravaged corpse. His brain spills out from a collapsed cavity in his skull. 

The few remaining devil exterminators in the squad fire at the wall of black ooze in a desperate attempt to stop Bernadette's rampaging doll.

The same message reaches their ears through the radio.

"Reinforcements from the Kyoto and Tokyo branch offices have arrived..."

"Reinforcements... We're saved," an exterminator mutters, his eyes wide as if he'd just witnessed a divine miracle. 

"We'll be okay! Just hold out a little bit longer!" shouts another through ragged breaths.

"No need."

The woman's bright red hair is instantly identifiable against the blackness of the tunnel she emerges from. Fully adorned in devil exterminator garb, she wields the massive spine of an unknown creature in her arms. A demonic aura of light surrounds it.

"I'm already here," Lucy sternly announces.

The faces of the surrounding exterminators glow with joy.

She lifts the spine above her shoulder, firmly plants her feet, and unleashes a mighty swing.

Distorting the air itself, a powerful gust of wind ripples from the weapon and carries the demonic aura in the shape of a curved slash. Nearly losing the composure of its form from the sheer force of the howling winds, the monster of ooze is sliced in two.

The exterminators erupt into raucous cheers.

…

Somewhere not too far away, Osakabe hides with his back up against the wall.

 Just minutes ago, he'd run from the battle with the beast, and would've left his fellow exterminators to die if it wasn't for Lucy's miraculous arrival.

He looks down and squeezes his pistol tightly in his hand, glaring with frustration.

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Mammon falls to his knees, blood spurting from his mouth. Even on the verge of death, however, he can't help but stay and watch the unbelievable sight.

Riru watches horrified as Gabriel writhes in pain, the veins on his neck about to burst from his screams. 

His hands grow larger, and his skin changes hue.

Thorned horns rip out from inside his skull, curling around his head and framing it in a way similar to a halo.

...

Finally, the pain stops.

He lifts himself off the ground, breathing heavily through his sharp teeth.

Though it seemed impossible, Riru couldn't mistake the sight in front of her. It was a transformation she'd undergone too many times herself.

Unmistakably, a devil stood before her.

"How beautiful.."

Mammon coughs, clearing the thick layers of blood from his throat.

Quickly coming to his senses, Gabriel picks up his spear and walks over with an emotionless look.

"My Curse is an amazing thing, you know. Everyone who became my weapons, who died for my sake... they've all become a part of my life. They're treasures..."

 Mammon's voice trails off. Gabriel seems to come to a realization.

"If I'm gone, all my treasures will be gone, too. I've got nobody, nobody who's gonna remember me, nobody who's gonna inherit my treasures..."

Life begins to fade from his eyes as he quietly whispers.

"I'm scared. I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die.."

...

When the two exchanged memories for a moment, Gabriel was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information pouring into his head at once.

But even then, he was able to grasp onto a single memory-- A vision of Mammon in his past.

The devil, with only two arms and one face, stands with a similar looking devil, and the two smile together. They seem to be extremely close. 

My treasure...

"You were close with someone once, weren't you? Your brother."

Gabriel looks has a pained look.

...

Mammon stays silent.

"Go on, tell me... what happened to him?"

A fury builds in Gabriel's voice.

"How much did he cost?"

"Please, boy, I beg you..."

Mammon's expression is equally pained.

"...Just let me die in peace."

...

With those final words, his body slumps over.

...

Riru still can't believe her eyes.

"You're a devil..." 

"I wasn't, at least not until now. I'm not sure how it happened myself," Gabriel rubs his head, the shock from his sudden awakening finally starting to catch up with him.

Struck by sudden inspiration, he recalls something his instructor told him all those years ago.

"With the way Blessings tend to work, I wouldn't be surprised if it's linked to your heart..."

"My Blessing, it... it's a holy light that kills devils... but don't think that's all it is."

He softly brushes his fingers across his horns.

"...I think this is what I wanted. What I've always been praying for."

"HAHAHA YOU'RE ONE OF US NOW."

Clearly, Des had recovered from the effects of Riru's strange ability.

"HOW DOES THAT WORK FOR EXTERMINATORS DO YOU GUYS LIKE KILL YOURSELVES OR SOMETHING."

"Shut up, Des!"

Riru looks over to the other mindless devils on the train, who still seem to be in the process of recovering.

"Am I... Am BelPHAGOAaaa..."

"Huh? What happened to-"

A bullet whizzes past her ear, nearly blasting through her skull.

...

A squad of exterminators surrounds the group of devils from both sides, unflinchingly pointing their weapons.

"They're not attacking..." one mutters.

He looks to Gabriel, and the two make eye contact.

"...Gabriel..?"

"Officer Nakamura..."

Nakamura's face stiffens, and his grip on his pistol quivers. He lowers his arms.

"W-What? B-but you're-"

"Don't hesitate. It's clearly a devil," another exterminator spits, holding up his katana in a battle-ready pose. 

Nakamura hesitates.

He takes a deep breath, pointing his gun once more.

"Gabriel!"

Gabriel flinches at the sound of the voice coming from behind the crowd of exterminators. They turn their heads in response.

A familiar face pushes through the wall of bodies. Her neatly cut bangs fall right above her glasses, perfectly framing her pretty face.

"Theresa..." Gabriel stares at her in astonishment.

"Here, take this! You're gonna need it!"

A small rosary bead flies into the air and above the crowd. He throws up his arm, catching it with ease.

A slim katana materializes in his grasp.

An exterminator shouts at Theresa furiously.

"Hey! What the hell do you-"

"I don't know what happened! And I know that I'm never gonna replace her! But still..."

She casts her gaze down, clutching her rosary in her hands.

"I wanna be there for you."

Taking her words as a sign of betrayal, exterminators shift their attention, pointing their weapons towards her instead. Taking his only opportunity, Gabriel looks over to Riru and Des.

"Now's your chance. Get out of here already."

Des firmly nods, scooping up Riru in his arms.

"Agh! Hey! What the hell are you-"

KACHING!

...

In that single moment, the vision of everyone in the train car was filled with nothing but a dark, oppressive shade of red. 

Recognizing the sound, Gabriel's eyes immediately dart over to Mammon's corpse.

With one last gasp of life, Mammon's remaining arm moves ever so slightly.

Coming to the same realization, the exterminators fire a torrent of bullets down into the corpse. Whatever life remained within the body had now surely been snuffed out.

Gabriel takes notice of his surroundings, and one thing becomes immediately clear.

He no longer stood inside a train.

The fleshy, pulsing walls of red surrounding the group on all sides indicated something entirely different. His feet squish into the slimy mass below him, made up of long tubes resembling intestinal tracts. 

Confirming his suspicions, an unimaginably loud and guttural noise bellows across the walls.

Through the Curse of exchange, the train itself had been swapped out with something new. Something unmistakably alive.

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The surrounding tunnel quakes at the sound.

Uriel stops in his tracks, turning to take another look at the train. Small cracks form in the glacier blocking its path. 

Behind the glacier looms an incomprehensible shadow.

Nearly causing his eardrums to burst, a piercing shriek wails across the tunnel and shatters the glacier into millions of tiny pieces.

Uriel covers his ears and shields his body from the shards of ice.

...

He quietly peeks through his eyelids.

Towering above him, the size of the train itself, is a colossal monstrous beak, dripping with cascades of saliva.

A puff of breath shoots from its nostrils, blowing back Uriel's hair.

"...What a day," he sulks.

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With a last swing of her demonic spine, Lucy delivers the final blow to the rampaging doll.

Pieces of the monster's gelatinous body are splattered across the tunnel and smother her clothing in a layer of thick ooze.

She runs a hand through it, shaking it off her fingers with a disgusted look.

Her muscles tighten, and she squints her eyes in preparation of her punishment. 

In that moment, every inch of her exposed skin is simultaneously set ablaze. She winces in pain.

Causing the walls surrounding her to rattle, the roar of the colossal subterranean monster can be heard in the distance. 

"Miss Lucy... What was that noise..?" an exterminator looks terrified.

Without giving a response, she picks up the small microphone attached to her uniform.

"Kyoto squad, do you copy? What's the situation?"

Nothing but the harsh buzz of static comes through on the other end.

"Hello? What's-"

Interrupting her frantic questions, a huge chunk of earth collapses from the ceiling, nearly crushing the other exterminator.

Torn apart by some kind of tremendous force, the very ground the two stand on begins to crack apart.

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The massive beast ruffles its body, sending powerful vibrations across the walls that contain it.

It thrusts its head upwards, crashing its head through the top of the tunnel.

Uriel spits out a cloud of freezing air, which quickly materializes into a dome of ice to shield him from the falling rubble.

The creature continues to burrow up, dragging its long snake-like body closer and closer to the surface.

Inside its body, the exterminators surrounding Gabriel, Riru, and Des fall towards what was once the back of the train as a result of the shifting gravity. 

Making a quick decision, Des digs his claws into the fleshy tubes comprising the 'floor'. He grasps for dear life with a single arm, carrying Riru in the other.

"Gabriel!!!" Riru screams.

"Don't worry... I'll see you again," he has a warm smile.

Riru watches as he falls further into the depths of the creature's insides.

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An older man grasps the top of his steering wheel with wrinkled hands. He taps his fingers to the rhythm of the jazzy tune playing from his radio. 

His car sits at a red light.

At the intersection ahead, a tiny crevice cracks across the center of the road.

The interior of the man's car quietly trembles. He widens his eyes in shock.

Extending from the crevice, a giant fissure is formed in the earth, and entire chunks of the street are heaved out of the ground.

In a final burst, the train-sized creature's beak breaches through the surface.

It continues extending, shrouding the man's car entirely in shadow. He raises his head with his mouth held open. 

The snake-like body slithers further and further towards the sky, sticking out of the ground at a height rivaling the highest skyscrapers in Tokyo.

Now having almost fully emerged, the creature looks even more monstrous than before. Rings of oversized eyeballs wrap around its skull, and its upper body is dotted with patches of red plumage. 

The two curved horns stretching out from its forehead reveal its identity as a devil.

It ruffles the feathers on its body and two flaps of skin lift from the back of its head, painfully peeling away from its flesh. From under the flaps, two long folded protrusions shoot out with a blast of blood.

The additional limbs unfold in an instant to unveil two magnificently feathered wings.

Droplets of blood shoot into the sky and rain onto the street below, covering the man's windshield.

With another roar, the devil takes flight. A single flap of its gigantic wings sends a shockwave radiating across dozens of miles in all directions. 

Cars are sent tumbling across the street, their alarms all blaring at once.

Finally, the devil has fully emerged from the ground. 

At a speed even faster than an airplane, it speeds off into the distance.

People step out of their vehicles in awe, snapping pictures of the unbelievable sight.

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Inside, Des and Riru lift themselves to their feet. With the devil no longer standing upright, the center of gravity had shifted. 

Riru stares desperately into the endless black corridor of the devil's interior. 

"I'm gonna go find them. Gabriel, and Fukuzaki, too, and-"

"STOP."

Des grabs her hand.

"Hands off!" she violently shakes her arm.

 She turns to face him, noticing the desperation in his eyes.

"PLEASE STAY. I DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU TOO."

...

She rips her arm away from his grasp.

"Then let's just find a way out of here already," she mumbles, ramming her toe into the fleshy wall beside her.

Upon the impact, the devil's gills simultaneously open up, positioned like windows at equal distances across the walls.

Howling winds flow into the interior and batter against the two devils. Riru grabs one of the gills to avoid being flung backwards.

She peeks her head outside the opening and looks down, greeted by speeding blur of the cityscape thousands of feet below her.

"...What?"

Off in the distance, the tall silhouette of Kyoto Tower faintly comes into view.

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The wooden gates of the Japanese-style mansion swing open with hollow thud.

The bearded man's geta sandals clack against the steps leading down to the lush and perfectly maintained garden. 

Save for the wildlife and the single old man, not a soul remained at the Kyoto Branch Office of the Devil Extermination Department.

Grasping the ornate katana hanging from his waist, he slowly steps towards a flock of clows sitting in the center of the cobblestone path.

With a single knock of his sandals, the crows caw ominously, scattering in all directions.

Finally, he reaches the walls encircling the edge of the garden. He raises his head and squints his eyes, shifting his gaze to the colossal flying devil in the distance.

...

He holds a hand to the hilt of his katana and lifts it less than an inch out from its scabbard.

The steel of the sword shines brilliantly. As if it has a life of its own, the shining silver crawls further up the length of the sword, reaching its hilt.

The sky darkens as the sun starts to sink below the horizon. The garden is illuminated by the beautiful golden glow of the setting sun.

The old man's fragile voice croaks from his lips.

"A frantic last breath.

Rising sun grieves the lost moon.

Steel dwells in our hearts."

The steel of the katana continues climbing up the hilt, reaching the man's fingertips. The higher it crawls, the more his hand transforms, becoming same color as the blade.

Eventually, it reaches all the way up to his elbows. He speaks one final phrase.

...

"Tekketsu Hisshi."

...

In a flash, the katana flies out from the scabbard in a single flawless motion.

 A circular gust of air blasts out from the sword. It extends far past the walls of the garden, stretching deep into the city.

Power instantly cuts out from nearby buildings, accompanied by a small earthquake. As the circle of wind grows larger in diameter, more lights across the city are instantly snuffed out.

The circle reaches across all of Kyoto, shrouding the city in complete darkness with an exception for the setting sun's subtle glow.

In another country, somewhere far away, a boy sits in the center of a living room with his eyes glued to the TV in front of him. The image of the TV instantly cuts out, leaving him with a confused look.

"Мама, что случилось с телевизором?"

Somewhere else in the world, all the computer screens inside an office building abruptly shut off.

"怎么了?", a distressed employee asks.

...

Back in Kyoto, breaking through the darkness that only lasted a few moments, the electricity powers back on. A wave of illumination quickly washes across the entire city. 

The zooming devil, approaching Kyoto with every passing second, stops for a moment. A small slit runs across the entire length of its body.

...

Blood bursts from inside the cut.

Thousands of other slices carved across the devil, now visible, erupt in similar displays of gore.

Blood rains onto the city below, drenching the buildings with a layer of red.

A falling clump of blood splatters onto the cobblestone floor of the garden.

The old man slides the katana back into the scabbard. He breathes a sigh of relief.

One of the crows in the garden lands on a tree branch, keeping its gaze fixed on the old man.

BA-KAW!

"Kouji Hidetsugu."

The voice comes from behind the man.

He looks down, noticing the red stain spreading across his robes.

...

The blade of a katana sticks out from his chest.

"Dissatisfied with the growing westernization and corruption of the Devil Extermination Department, you chose to keep your family name, despite becoming an Ascended. You've raised up a squad of your own here in Kyoto, including your own daughter, hoping to slowly change the organization from the inside."

The man behind Hidetsugu, with disheveled black hair and cat-like eyes, continues to speak.

"You're a good man."

Officer Amano smiles playfully.

He shoves his blade deeper into Hidetsugu, coming closer and pressing his lips up to his ear. 

A quiet melancholy washes over his face. 

"I promise I'll never forget your name," he whispers.

With those words, he rips his katana from Hidetsugu's chest, and the man's lifeless body collapses.

...

Amano innocently tilts his head to the side, touching his chin.

"So, um... what was it again?"

He sticks out his tongue. 

The crow caws once more, flying from its perch.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The flying devil twirls and convulses in the air, scattering more of its blood as it begins a downward spiral of descent.

On its way down, its hulking body grazes against the edge of Kyoto tower. Cracks slowly form cross the tower's foundation. 

With a snap, the foundation breaks, and the entire building is on the verge of collapse.

Civilians scream, scrambling away in a futile attempt to escape the falling structure. The shadow of the tower grows larger with each passing second. 

It crashes down, razing an entire block of the city in its wake.

Like a falling meteor, the devil similarly plummets to the ground.

Diving headfirst into the wreckage, its beak rips through the earth, shoveling through the debris and causing even further destruction to the city.

...

Losing momentum, it finally drags to a stop. Life fades from its eyes as the floating dust settles around its body.

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Awakened by the sound of a cawing crow, Riru quietly opens her eyes.

Complete and utter darkness overwhelms her senses.

She reaches around for something to touch, brushing her hand against a thick wall of flesh.

Attempting to lift herself from the ground, her body is weighed down by a heavy mass. 

...

She reaches her arm towards the wall, brushing her hand against the fleshy substance.

She extends her claws from her fingertips and jabs them deep inside the flesh.

As if responding to the stimulus, the devil's gills abruptly open once more, and Riru spills outside its body with a torrent of mucus and blood. 

Her eyes take a moment to adjust to the light of the outside world. Finally, she's capable of identifying the unknown mass weighing her down.

Des's body, ripped and mangled, wraps itself around her. His arms are bent into positions they shouldn't be capable of, and his shattered bones pierce through his flesh.

Terrified, Riru quickly draws a sigil on his body. It ignites with a flame.

Des's arms snap back in place, and the missing chunks of his flesh reform. Consciousness returns to his eyes.

"BLOODSPLATTER MOON..."

"Des! What happened?! I thought you were dead!"

"I TRIED TO PROTECT YOU..."

He lifts himself off Riru, rolling his shoulder back in place.

"IM JUST GLAD IT WORKED."

He has a warm smile.

...

"The last thing I remember... we were falling," Riru mutters.

She takes a look at her surroundings.

A few feet away from her, a crow uses its beak to tear a strip of flesh from a broken corpse.

A woman wails in pain, attempting to crawl out from a pile of rubble, but her legs are crushed by its weight. Her screams can barely be heard behind the chorus of car alarms.

Piles of bodies are haphazardly thrown across the street, some ripped entirely into pieces.

The extent of the carnage was unfathomable. Even Belphegor's attack on Shinjuku couldn't compare.

A large portion of Kyoto had been utterly decimated by the falling devil. Countless lives were lost, some bodies never to be discovered again.

Including the deaths caused by Mammon and his devils on the train, the total body count likely numbered in the thousands.

All of Japan, or rather, the entire world, would soon come to remember this day.

The long, bloodstained day when the Greed Prince of Hell was finally put to rest.

The day when love gave birth to a devil.

...

Riru comes to a sudden realization. 

How could she forget, for even a moment?

"Gabriel! Fukuzaki!"

As she lifts herself up, she's immediately struck with an intense pain up her right leg. She winces, shrugging it off, and limps to another section of the flying devil's corpse.

She digs through its flesh with her claws.

"Misaki! Inuyama!"

She pulls open a hole in its body with her claws, peering her head inside. Nothing but darkness awaits her.

"Please, answer me!"

She moves further down the devil's length, looking inside one of its gills.

The corpse of a devil exterminator, one she didn't recognize, is partially dissolved by the stomach acids of the devil.

She quickly looks away. The sight only heightened her fears.

Des looks worried.

"I'LL HELP TOO."

Riru moves to yet another section of the corpse, and Des does the same in the opposite direction.

The two spend what feels like hours frantically digging, completely excavating the remains.

However, nothing but a few more unrecognizable corpses could be found.

...

Riru slumps down.

She could feel the tears growing in her eyes, but she didn't quite have the strength to let them out.

Maybe it was because, somehow, she foolishly still clung to the idea that everyone might still be okay. 

Though she was smart enough to know it was impossible, her brain refused to let go of the small glimmer of hope regardless.

...

Was it really hope, or just denial in disguise?

...

Des awkwardly sits down next to her, unsure of what to say.

"I'M SORRY. ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS."

In that moment, Des's voice was the only thing she felt capable of clinging onto.

Though she'd tried time and time again to push him away, he'd still always put himself in front of danger purely for her own sake, nearly sacrificing his own life in the process.

The one person she willfully overlooked was the one who confidently stood by her side until the very end.

It smells good.

The pain pounding at her skull was more subtle this time, to the point where she could barely even notice its presence. 

...

But as if triggered by the pain, a strange thought enters her mind.

She couldn't help but put it into words.

"Hey, Des?"

"YEAH?"

Riru looks away and clutches her sleeve, embarrassed.

...

"Do you wanna have sex?"

"YEAH."

...

...

...

"WAIT WHAT-"

LOVE X DEVIL

BLOODY BULLET TRAIN TO LOVE ARC - END