The office felt like a compressed powder keg.
The purple smoke rising from the stone Vargo had shattered twisted the guards' armor, grayed their skin, and warped them into snarling beasts. The Collector's power erased everything human, leaving behind only raw violence.
Hope tightened his grip on the shaft of his scythe. The familiar voices, the safe formulas, began flowing through his mind.
Targets: 12.Average mass increase: 60%.Attack vectors—
"No," Hope said, forcibly silencing his own thoughts.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, replacing the cold certainty of mathematics with something new, hot, and burning in his chest.
Anger.Regret.The instinct to protect.
He turned to Lypin, trembling behind him. Ever since the slap, there had been distance between them. But now, standing at the edge of death, Hope asked her for guidance before making a decision for the first time.
"Lypin," Hope said. His voice was no longer mechanical. It shook, but it was real. "I'm done calculating. Tell me what I should do."
Lypin looked into his eyes. There was no data stream in that green gaze anymore. Just a human being. Someone flawed. Someone grieving. Someone trying to make things right.
She wiped away her tears, remembering Mina's empty stare.
"End them, Hope," Lypin said, her voice hardening like steel. "All of them. No one should ever go through what Mina did again."
Hope turned back toward the battlefield.
Green flames engulfed his body, but this time they didn't move in clean geometric patterns. They roared like an uncontrolled wildfire.
"You heard her," Hope said, swinging his scythe with one hand. "Let's do what needs to be done."
BOOM!
The fight didn't begin with Vargo's scream.It began with Hope's explosion.
Two massive berserk guards charged at him. Normally, Hope would have retreated, searched for openings. This time, he surged forward.
With a raw, instinctive shout, he slammed his scythe into the ground.
[Skill: Soul Impact]
A green shockwave erupted upward, flinging the guards into the air. While the first one hung helplessly, Hope cleaved through its chest in a single fluid motion, like a painter dragging a brush across canvas.
"What the hell is this?!" Deniz shouted, crushing another guard with his shield. "Did this kid just… change his fighting style?"
Bianca emerged from the shadows like a ghost, slicing another guard's throat. As she passed Hope, she grinned.
"Finally," Bianca said. "You're dancing now, kid. Feel the rhythm?"
"I feel it," Hope replied, wielding his scythe like an extension of his body. "And it's… much faster."
Kai swung down from the ceiling, picking off archers, while Lypin slowed enemies from the rear with silvery light. Yaat hid beneath a table, his eyes glowing white as he shouted:
"Three o'clock! Axe incoming!"
Hope didn't think. He trusted Yaat's voice blindly.
He ducked. A massive axe skimmed his hair and buried itself in the wall behind him. Hope stepped onto the handle, leapt, and shattered the guard's helmet with the blunt edge of his scythe.
The tide of battle shifted.
Mathematical precision was gone.In its place stood unstoppable chaos.
And chaos favored Hope.
But Vargo wasn't finished.
Behind his desk, he clutched the purple staff granted by the Collector. His face twisted with sickening arrogance.
"Idiots!" Vargo roared. "Before the Collector's power, you're nothing but insects!"
He slammed the staff into the floor. The office shook violently. A wave of purple energy blasted everyone backward.
Vargo pointed the staff at Bianca, his eyes crawling over the rabbit girl with disgusting desire.
"You especially," he said, licking his lips. "Those ears… The Collector might call you defective, but I adore exotic pieces. My harem's been missing someone like you. We'll have a lot of fun before I break those pretty legs. Just like we did with Mina."
Bianca froze.
The ghosts of her past surged back. Dark cells. Chains. Screams.
Her sword slipped from her hand. Her body trembled.
Trauma could bring even the strongest warrior to her knees.
Vargo saw it.
A dense, destructive purple sphere formed at the tip of his staff.
"I'll start with your legs!"
The sphere fired.
Bianca couldn't move.
Then a shadow stepped in front of her.
Hope.
He didn't assume a defensive stance. He didn't calculate shield tolerance.
He just wanted to protect.
"YAAT!" Hope roared.
Yaat burst from under the table, seeing the future in that single fraction of a second.
"NOT THE CORE! HIT THE OUTER RING! COUNTERCLOCKWISE!"
Hope converted the instruction into muscle memory.
He swung his scythe not at the center of the incoming sphere, but at its rotating outer edge, at a reversed angle.
CRACK!
Something impossible happened.
Hope's scythe deflected the energy.
The massive purple sphere veered off course and flew back toward Vargo.
"What?!" Vargo screamed, eyes bulging.
The sphere struck his right arm.
There was no explosion.
Only the sound of flesh vaporizing.
SSSSS.
Vargo was hurled backward, slamming into the wall with his chair. When the smoke cleared, his right arm was gone, charred from the shoulder down. The staff lay shattered in a corner.
Silence.
All the guards were down. Only Vargo's sobbing remained.
Hope walked through the smoke. The green flames had faded, leaving behind cold, human fury. He stood over Vargo, pressing the scythe's blade against his throat.
"Please…" Vargo whimpered, tears and mucus mixing with blood. "Don't kill me!"
Hope pressed harder, drawing a thin cut.
"Mina begged too," Hope said quietly. "Did you listen?"
"Information!" Vargo screamed desperately. "Mina wasn't the only one! The others—the girls! I know where they are!"
Bianca stepped forward, shaking but furious. "Where?" she demanded.
"The old salt warehouses south of the harbor!" Vargo spat rapidly. "And the Crimson Cabin at the Forest Border! There's a shipment tonight! The Collector's ship is coming! If you kill me, you'll never find them! I'm the only one who knows the access codes!"
Vargo looked into Hope's eyes.
The calculating stare was gone.
This boy was emotional.This boy could be fooled.
"Let's make a deal," Vargo said. "I'll give you the codes and exact locations. In return… swear it. Swear you won't kill me. Let me go."
Hope hesitated. He looked at Lypin. In her eyes, he saw hope. We can save them.
He turned back to Vargo.
Mathematically, Vargo might have been lying. If Hope activated biological analysis, he would've noticed the subtle fluctuations in pulse, the glint of cunning in his pupils.
But he didn't.
Because being human meant choosing to believe.
"Alright," Hope said. "I swear. If you tell me where those girls are… I won't touch you. I won't kill you."
Inside, Vargo screamed in triumph.
Stupid brat.
He rattled off two locations and a complex code.
"Salt Warehouse: Blue Moon. Crimson Cabin: Silent Night. Now step aside. I'm leaving."
Hope withdrew his scythe and stepped back.
"You can go," Hope said.
Vargo staggered to his feet, supporting himself with his remaining arm. He limped toward the door.
He had survived.
Then a shadow blocked his path.
Bianca.
"Move, you whore!" Vargo spat. "Your friend swore! He won't touch me!"
Hope spoke calmly from behind. His voice was firm, judicial.
"I swore, Vargo," Hope said. "I said I wouldn't touch you."
Bianca drew her serrated blade. There was no fear left on her face. Only distilled vengeance.
"But I," Bianca said, spinning the blade between her fingers, "never made such a promise."
Vargo's eyes widened in horror. He looked back at Hope.
"But—this is a trick! This isn't honest!"
"Yes," Hope replied, turning away. "I learned tricks from you. This is justice."
Hope walked out of the office. Deniz, Lypin, and Kai followed. The door shut.
Moments later, Vargo's screams echoed through the corridor. Long. Desperate. Full of pain.
Hope walked on.
Lypin caught up and took his hand.
"You did the right thing, Hope," she said softly. "We'll save the others."
Hope nodded.
For the first time, he felt complete. Like a hero. He had made the right choice, punished the villain, and secured information to save the innocent.
Inspector Conan waited at the end of the corridor, holding a small magically powered communication crystal.
"Did Vargo talk?" Conan asked, crushing out his cigarette.
"Yes," Hope said proudly. "Salt Warehouse and Crimson Cabin. We have the codes. We should move now."
The screaming stopped.
Bianca stepped out, her hands bloodied but her expression calm. Vargo was dead.
Conan studied Hope's victorious face, then glanced at the crystal. A bitter smile crept across his lips.
Hope.The most dangerous poison in the world.
"Kid," Conan said, his voice heavier than ever.
Hope stopped. "What is it, Inspector? Calling backup?"
Conan shook his head. "I just spoke with my birds," he said. "That 'Salt Warehouse' burned down three days ago. No one inside."
Hope's smile froze.
"What?"
"And the Crimson Cabin…" Conan pocketed the crystal. "It was raided yesterday. Completely cleared. The only thing left was the Collector's symbol. And a note."
Conan met Hope's eyes.
"'You're too slow.'"
The corridor fell silent.
Hope's thoughts stalled.
"But…" Hope whispered. "He made me swear. He looked me in the eyes. He was scared. He couldn't have been lying…"
"He lied," Conan said coldly. "He stalled you. Not to save his own life—but to send you in the wrong direction so the Collector's real shipment could escape. Vargo did his job, even in his final moments."
Hope leaned against the wall. His legs shook.
He hadn't analyzed. He hadn't checked biological data.
He had believed.
He had chosen to be human.
And that choice had cost the lives of dozens of girls he could have saved.
"Welcome, Architect," Conan said, placing a hand on Hope's shoulder. "Welcome to the world of being human. Equations don't always balance here. And sometimes… what feels right is your greatest mistake."
Bianca slapped Hope lightly on the back, smiling.
"Don't dwell on it, kid. You wiped out Vargo and his crew. That still makes you a hero."
Hope felt slightly relieved, but losing the Collector's trail—and being deceived by a lie—gnawed at him.
Lypin squeezed his hand and looked him in the eyes.
"Don't worry," she said. "We'll find the Collector. And we'll save everyone left."
Her gaze steadied him.
There was no need to rush.
A long road lay ahead.
The Collector had taken the first hit from this newly formed team. He wouldn't be able to continue his dark operations as easily anymore.