Elena was sick of it.
She had tried returning home to grab her belongings, but men in suits equipped with cybernetic armaments were already stationed around her flat.
When she hid in the alleys of Munich, hoping for even a moment of rest, the homeless recognized her face instantly.
Then she saw it, her photo plastered across every street, digital board, and every screen. When she attempted to flee the city, she realized Munich was under strict lockdown. No one was allowed to leave or enter unless they were military personnel.
She had nowhere left to go.
"...."
If the Revenant Knights had caught her back then, she would've been tested, and her true nature as a Glassheart exposed. She had no other choice but to escape.
It was utterly ridiculous.
Every trace of the men she had killed in self-defense had already been erased. There was no possible way they could have uncovered that she was the Manticore. No way they could have known that she had been the real victim.
Those men never wanted to pay for her services. They wanted to take her, hurt her, and sell her. One had spiked her drink. Another had assaulted her outright.
In that line of work, danger was expected, but Elena had long understood that to reach the powerful, a woman like her, with no money, no family, and no name, had to sell herself just to be noticed.
That was how this rotten world worked.
It had always been like that. Her foster families had seen her charm. Her first foster father had assaulted her. She killed him in self-defense and then killed the foster mother who had witnessed it.
The next family tried to sell her to an old man. She killed them too. That was when Elena finally understood the truth. She was beautiful enough to survive and beautiful enough to use her face to her advantage.
That was how Elena Kasner, daughter of a Czech prostitute who had abandoned her, ended up like this,
And yet, despite everything, despite the truth that she had only ever fought to live, the city turned against her. Every headline, every poster, and every report painted her as the monster.
At that moment, a memory surfaced.
'The other kids always hurt me… They said I have no daddy…'
——But you do have a daddy, Elena. A very important one.
'Really?'
——Of course."
Her mother pointed toward the window, where an election poster was plastered on the opposite building. The image showed a man in a suit, smiling confidently beside the seal of the Republic.
——See him? That's your daddy.
"But… why can't he see us?"
——Because he's busy, sweetheart. He's a very important man. But one day… one day, he'll come back for you. For us.
Elena remembered staring at that poster for hours, tracing the man's face with her small finger.
It was unfair.
All she had ever wanted was to get close to her father.
To have him recognize her.
She had climbed her way through school, taken on every degrading service to pay for her tuition, fought her way into the hospital, and earned a place at her father's side.
She had done everything for that one, impossible thing.
All she needed… was for him to recognize her.
With nothing left to lose, Elena decided she might as well take the risk. The worst that could happen was rejection. And that was fine. She had endured far worse.
As long as her father knew, just once, that she was his daughter, that was enough.
* * *
Elena barely managed to evade pursuit, but enough to keep herself alive.
She'd been sighted once and slipped away. Then sighted again, only to vanish into the maze of the city with a few cuts and bruises as the price.
She knew Munich's underbelly like the back of her hand. The narrow corridors, the flooded tunnels, the forgotten maintenance shafts that stretched beneath the city like veins.
For most, the underground districts were a death trap. But for Elena, it was home.
Prinzregentenstraße.
This was the difficult part. The avenue was one of the busiest in Munich. And somewhere beyond the barriers was the mayor's estate.
Her father's home.
Elena's breath trembled in the cold night air. By all means, she had no choice but to survive here. One wrong step and the Revenant Knights would find her.
But she was so close. After everything, she could finally see the mansion in the distance.
Just a little further.
"...Daddy."
From beyond the tall gates and trimmed hedges, Elena saw that the mansion was dark. Her father likely wasn't home yet. But that didn't matter.
She could wait.
If she could just make it inside, hide somewhere within the estate grounds, she would be safe. No Revenant Knight would dare set foot here.
Here, in her father's home, she would finally be safe.
With her inhuman strength, Elena vaulted over the gate. The landing wasn't graceful due to the wounds sustained during her clashes with the Revenant Knights and police earlier.
The pain slowed her down, and that brief struggle cost her.
The estate guards spotted her immediately. They shouted warnings, closing in to detain the intruder.
But Elena reacted on instinct. Her crystalline nails extended, and she slashed through the air. In seconds, the guards fell.
She didn't stop to look at them. She kept moving forward.
"Haa… H-haaa…"
Elena peered through the window. The mansion was dark, but there was a fireplace flickering in what looked like the living room.
There, seated in front of the fire, was a solitary figure. She couldn't make out his face, but she didn't need to. She knew it had to be him.
"...Daddy."
Of all the moments she had shared with him during his medical checkups, she had wanted to tell him the truth. That she was his daughter.
But fear had kept her silent.
Fear of rejection.
Fear that he would look at her not as family, but as a mistake.
So she had promised herself she would wait until she became someone worthy of acknowledgment. A doctor. A woman he could be proud to call his own.
Thinking back, it was a cruel regret. If she had known things would turn out this way, she would have told him, even if it meant being rejected.
Now, what was she?
A fugitive. A monster. A dying woman hoping for a father's recognition that would never come.
"...."
Her gaze turned to her reflection in the glass. Despite the blood streaking her face, she was still beautiful.
Elena walked toward the entrance of the mansion. She raised her trembling hand and knocked twice.
"Haa… What should I say…?"
She clasped her hands together, fidgeting as she rehearsed the words in her mind.
"'Hello, Father… No, too sudden."
Her pulse quickened. A lump formed in her throat as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
"'I'm your daughter… No, that's… too direct."
She paused, biting her lip.
"'I've been looking for you for a long time…'" she whispered. "'Please… listen to me, just once.'"
Her eyes lowered.
"Please… just recognize me."
Creak——
The door slowly creaked open.
Elena froze, staring at the open doorway. It wasn't the kind of movement that came from someone inside. It opened on its own, as if it had never been locked at all.
A small, trembling smile touched her lips as she stepped inside.
"D-Do you remember me from the hospital…"
The mansion was dark inside as if electricity had never been invented.
It was then.
"...!"
Two crimson eyes glared at her from the darkness.
Slash——
Pain reverberated through her body before she could even react. Elena screamed as her legs were severed cleanly at the thighs. She collapsed to the floor with a wet thud, blood splattering across the tiles.
"Ah—Aaaahhh!"
Her vision blurred, tears mixing with the blood on her face. She could barely make out a figure standing over her. A blonde man in a suit she didn't recognize.
"Hello, Manticore," he said.
Elena reached out weakly. Her crystalline nails began to extend like claws, but her strength failed her before they could fully form.
The pressure in the air told her everything she needed to know. An electromagnetic interference wave was suppressing her body.
"What's this? You're crying?" the blonde man said, tilting his head slightly. "That's funny. Am I supposed to feel sympathy for your filthy kind now?"
"D-Dad—" Elena's voice trembled.
Desperately, she tried to recreate her missing limbs with crystal, forcing the shards to form, but before they could solidify, the man crushed them under some sort of cybernetic boot.
The sound of shattering crystal filled the room, followed by her screams echoing against the walls.
"Aaaaahhhh—!"
"If you have someone to blame for your pathetic existence, blame your mother for giving birth to trash like you, disgusting Glassheart."
Elena's eyes widened. Through the blur of tears and pain, she caught sight of people hiding behind a pillar. A man, a woman, and young girl, staring back at her with wide, terrified eyes.
"Now," the man continued, "I only have one question for you. Those serial suicides, do you have any idea who's behind them?"
"N-No…"
"I know you didn't do it," Julius said. "But that doesn't matter."
He pressed his cybernetic boot down, crushing her back. Elena screamed again, her body convulsing.
"You're still a Glassheart. You people have no place in this world."
"Da—" Elena reached out.
Slash——
And just like that, it ended.
The life of a woman who had only ever known how to struggle was brought to a close in the very place she had called her salvation.