"Hey, Ryder. Fall to the floor," Scarlet commanded, her voice suddenly flat and devoid of any prior playful malice.
"Why?" Ryder replied, momentarily confused by the non-sequitur, but the dangerous shift in her tone put him instantly on guard.
"Just do it before I make you look like a genuinely dead man," Scarlet said, an edge of genuine warning entering her voice.
"Oh, okay." Ryder didn't argue further.
He complied with exaggerated theatricality, falling to the damp, grime-covered alley floor with the grace of a sack of rocks. He lay there dramatically, his breathing heavy and audible, playing the role of the incapacitated hero.
"Good, good," Scarlet murmured, giving a satisfied nod that no one else saw.She then spun around, transforming her expression instantly. Her features crumpled into a mask of deep, agonizing concern, and she took a small, shaky step toward the terrified cluster of survivors and mercenaries."I… I have to say something difficult," Scarlet began, her voice now tragically soft, laced with forced sorrow.
She even managed to produce a faint shimmer in her crimson eyes, selling the performance of a heartbroken partner.
"We can't have our master Kaiju Hunter, the Grim Reaper, fighting by himself on this mission. It would be suicide."She gestured toward Ryder's prone form with a trembling hand.
"He has already fought a high-rank Kaiju on our way here, one that nearly killed him, and that's why… that's why he fell from the sky in the first place." She shook her head, allowing a single, fake tear to trace a perfect path down her cheek.The raw emotion in her performance was chillingly convincing.
"It is true, we did see him falling from the sky," Mikel confirmed, his eyes wide with concern for the supposed hero.
His mercenaries nodded grimly in agreement.Scarlet pressed her advantage, her voice cracking with manufactured grief.
"If he continues fighting like this, if he pushes his body one more time, I think his career, his very life, the life of my beloved… it will be over. He cannot lead you.""If that's the problem, Mrs. Sorcerer…" Mikel began, his tone shifting from grateful to deeply concerned.
"Don't say anything more," Scarlet cut him off, raising her hand to stop him. Her voice hardened slightly, regaining its cynical edge. "I was thinking you guys could just go your own way, forget you came across us in the first place, and simply cross the border. But you didn't.
You came here, begging us to take down this Kaiju for you."Her eyes swept over the group, burning with cold accusation. "There must be a very, very powerful reason for that. A reason stronger than your fear."The men exchanged nervous, guilty glances.
The alley fell into a heavy, uncomfortable silence.
"Erm…" they mumbled, unable to meet her gaze. The silence was their confession. Scarlet straightened fully, the fake sorrow vanishing as quickly as it appeared, replaced by the judge's condemning glare. Her voice dropped to a level of profound, cutting coldness.
"I know the reason. It is because you guys feel bad. You feel the crushing, agonizing shame of guilt for letting your comrades and family die.
You abandoned them so you could escape, and now your conscience has driven you back to seek some form of twisted salvation.
""No! It is not like that!" Mikel protested, though his voice lacked conviction, his eyes darting away."If so, then why did you run in the first place?" Scarlet countered, her voice rising in a rhetorical challenge.
"Why aren't you dead alongside the others? Why are you hiding behind children? Why are you a hunter who ran from the hunt?"The guilt hit them like a physical blow.
"We have nothing to say," Mikel admitted, defeated, his head bowed low. "We know what we did. We were just powerless to face him. He was a force of nature, too strong for us."
"Then I give you a chance at redemption of your sins," Scarlet said, her hand moving to the hilt of the powerful, gleaming sword Ryder had been using earlier. The blade, radiating a faint, palpable heat, was known as the Aura Blade, a weapon of extraordinary, focused power.
She drew it with a sharp, metallic ring, holding it out to Mikel.
"If you finally understand what I am talking about, if you finally grasp the price of your survival, with this, you will be able to fight back at him and redeem yourself for those you left behind," Scarlet's voice was a low, seductive lure."I must warn you," she continued, her expression chillingly clear.
"You might not come out unharmed, even if you take the Grim Reaper's blade and fight with it. The Third Lord is not an opponent to face for survival he is an opponent to face for atonement.
The only lives you protect on your own are the ones you sacrifice to buy time."She fixed Mikel with an unblinking stare. "What is your answer, Kaiju Hunter? Will you continue to run like cowards, hiding your shame in silence, or will you avenge your fallen ones who died in the hands of that evil? Will you make the town of your family and comrades the price of a clear conscience?
"She drove the final dagger home, placing her own hand on the Aura Blade.
"Fight with me," she commanded, her voice ringing with the irresistible call to sacrifice.Mikel's eyes, filled with a tormented mixture of guilt and sudden purpose, locked onto the shimmering weapon.
He snatched the blade from her hand, the sudden weight of the powerful sword seeming to straighten his spine. "Yes! We will join you!" he roared, his shame finally giving way to ferocious intent.His entire crew roared out a guttural battle cry as they all stood up, one by one, their mercenary discipline returning, fueled by the intoxicating promise of redemption.
"That is the spirit," Scarlet said, the evil, triumphant smile finally spreading across her face. Her performance was complete, and the bait was set. Ryder's silence was his complicity, and the mercenaries' guilt was their leash. The deadly game against the Third Lord Raid was officially underway.