Lamia and Darmaine boarded the Indus vessel, leaving the darkness of Mildonia behind as the ship advanced.
Lamia burst into the control room, her expression sharp, and confronted Darmaine.
"Hey, where's Endi?"
"Endi's not here. You think he'd pick a fight with those bastards and come back alive?"
Darmaine busied himself with launch preparations, the ship already moving. His cold, dismissive words pierced Lamia's heart like blades of ice.
"You tricked me, didn't you?! Some of your men are still back in Mildonia, aren't they?!"
"Shut it! I'm fighting for my own skin here! From now on, I'll be hunted by both Nakatam and the Old Doal Army! But since I've got you as a hostage, I'm not too worried! Gya-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
His vulgar laughter was like a cloud of poison gas filling the air. Lamia shot him a chilling glare.
"You're the lowest kind of human being."
"Lowest? Fine by me! I'm the ultimate vile lifeform!"
Lamia left the control room and stepped onto the deck. She gazed at distant Mildonia, her thoughts consumed with Endi's fate. Her eyes shone like a lost lamb yearning for starlight.
Meanwhile, Endi cowered under Azbal's cold stare in the rooftop garden. Realizing he had unconsciously stepped back, shame seared his chest.
"Guild, there was noise downstairs earlier. What happened?"
"The pigs tried to break out and attack us. More importantly… Lamia's dead."
Guild's words stabbed Endi's heart like a mad blade. Horror seized him.
"This whole riot was Darmaine's doing. When Jackson's men cornered him as he tried to escape with Lamia, he… he jumped with her in his arms…"
"Did you confirm the body?" Azbal's voice was like the frozen surface of a lake—calm, utterly devoid of feeling.
"N-No, not yet…"
"Send someone to check immediately. Where's Jackson?"
"Jackson and the others… got taken out by the demon. That blond brat… he knocked them all out…"
Guild's fear was like a sparrow trembling in a storm.
At that, Endi's anger boiled over.
"Hold it right there! Lamia's dead? Don't you dare spout crap like that!!"
The moment he tried to rush forward, razor-sharp wooden tendrils erupted from the ground, spearing through his chest. Blood gushed, agony drowning his world.
"Damn noisy brat," Azbal muttered.
The vine retracted into the earth, only for another to coil around Endi's neck and hoist him into the air, as though dragging up a sunken ship from the abyss.
"You working for Nakatam?"
Endi had no strength left to reply. Azbal sneered.
"Ku-ku-ku… no matter. I'll finish you now."
The instant Azbal approached, Jessica leapt from nowhere, slicing through the vine with a dagger. She was like a hero arriving in the nick of time.
Jessica caught Endi and tried to flee, but the exit was blocked by trees.
"Guild, who's that girl?"
"T-That's Jessica! An officer of the Nova Family!"
Panic gripped Jessica.
Guild shouted, "Hey, Jessica! What the hell are you doing? Is that brat a new recruit of the Nova Family?!"
"Guild Chief, we had nothing to do with this riot! So let us go, won't you?"
"Whether you're involved or not isn't for you to decide—it's for me! Treason is punishable by death. And you're no exception, outsider of Mildonia."
Jessica's heart teetered on the brink of panic. The more she thought, the less escape she saw.
"Ku-ku-ku… kill the doubtful. That's my way."
Azbal's whisper swept through like a wind of death.
But suddenly, a small airship appeared above them.
"Look!" Jessica's voice lit with hope.
It was crewmen who had returned from the poaching vessel, four of them aboard.
"Jessica! Hurry!"
She tried to leap aboard with Endi, but Azbal's voice froze the air.
"Ku-ku-ku… you think you can escape?"
The trees writhed like serpents, lashing at the airship.
Despair swallowed them all.
But just before the branches struck, they erupted in flames, reduced to ash in an instant. Azbal's mind stalled.
Then the entire garden ignited, and from the forty-sixth to the fiftieth floor, everything became a sea of fire.
"Gyaaaah! What the hell?! Why?!" Guild shrieked, like a beast fleeing from the blaze.
Jessica gaped.
"W-What is happening…?!"
"Get aboard, now."
From nowhere, Cain appeared, his words swift as the wind. His presence was like that of a divine messenger commanding the fire.
"Cain?! Where were you? How did you get here?"
She glanced at the exit—once blocked by trees, now reduced to mounds of ash.
"You… did you set the fire?"
"Who knows? I didn't do anything." Cain smirked wryly.
Amid the chaos, Jessica, Endi, and Cain managed to board the airship.
"There! Azbal, that's him! That blond bastard's the one who took out Jackson and the others!!"
Guild pointed at Cain, screaming.
For a moment, Azbal and Cain's gazes clashed.
Cain returned a mocking grin.
Azbal's eyes blazed red, his killing intent swelling.
The airship ascended, vanishing into the sky with the burning tower behind.
On the deck of the Indus vessel, Lamia stared at the moon.
"Endi… you're alive, right?"
Her whisper was like a prayer cast into the night sky.
Moments later, the airship approached.
Darmaine rushed out of the control room.
"Damn it! Already on our tail? …Huh? Did Mildonia even have ships like that?"
The craft landed on deck, and all but Cain disembarked.
"You're Darmaine, right? Get a medkit! He's badly injured!" Jessica shouted.
Darmaine's eyes widened.
"Endi!!"
Lamia's cry was like chains breaking in her heart. Relief flooded her chest—Endi was alive.
"Unbelievable… you actually made it out alive… But look at him—he's lost too much blood. He won't last."
"He will. If he's still breathing, I can save him."
Lamia stood firm, kneeling beside Endi. Her figure was like a saint igniting hope.
"You won't die here, right, Endi?"
Watching from inside the airship, Cain muttered, cold sweat on his brow.
His voice was like the whisper of one holding the threads of fate.