Either erupt in silence or perish in it

"Help! Someone, please save me! Just kill me already!!!"

"It hurts so much! This devil has no humanity!!"

Cries begging for death echoed through the eighth-floor hallway.

The voices were chillingly mournful, filled with despair.

They sounded like wronged souls seeking someone to hear their grievances.

"What was that?" Himeno heard something and instinctively stopped the cards she was about to play.

"I heard it a while ago. It sounds like someone calling for help." Kobeni's bangs were soaked with sweat. She clutched her cards in both hands, her mind already conjuring up terrifying possibilities.

"I heard it too. I thought I was imagining things," Arai said as he sorted his cards, clearly unconcerned about the noise outside.

"You're not imagining it. It sounds like the Eternity Devil." Aki Hayakawa nudged Himeno's arm with his elbow as he spoke. "Himeno, hurry up and play. I want to get on the board."

"Oh, right!" Himeno blinked, then laid down the five cards hovering in her hand.

"Five eights."

"Five aces." Aki Hayakawa slammed five cards onto the floor.

The challenge was aimed squarely at Power opposite him.

The resounding slap of those five aces instantly fired Power up.

"We may have been comrades before, but that doesn't mean I'll go easy on you!"

Slap!!

The cards hit the floor with a firm, crisp smack.

Five twos firmly covered the five aces.

Aki Hayakawa wilted at the sight, as though he had taken a mental blow.

"Nice hand, Power."

"Ha ha! I knew this would happen!"

Knock, knock, knock!!

Just as everyone was admiring Power's powerful hand,

a soft knock suddenly came from the door.

"Ah!!" The knock behind Kobeni made her shudder. All her cards scattered across the floor, and she scrambled behind Meng Fan for protection.

"Kobeni, don't make such a fuss. A knock on the door scares you that badly?" Meng Fan gathered his cards and looked at her in disappointment.

"I... I'm scared..."

"Who's knocking out there? Is Denji back? I'll get the door."

"Arai, you don't need to. Sit down."

"Um... aren't we going to open it?"

By now, Arai saw Meng Fan as a highly respected senior.

He dared not disobey him, and even deliberately lowered his voice when answering, filling it with respect.

"Let Kobeni open it. It'll help her build some courage."

"I... I can't! Don't make me go!!"

Kobeni hurriedly waved her hands and backed away several steps.

She was on the verge of sobbing.

"If you don't open that door this time, don't expect to ever get out of here." Meng Fan folded his arms, his gaze resolute.

Seeing that Meng Fan had made up his mind,

Kobeni turned to Himeno.

Himeno, who had been looking down, set her cards aside and stared just as sternly into Kobeni's eyes. "Kobeni, you can't keep using your seniors as shields. You'll have to stand on your own someday. Consider this a test."

"You can do it, Kobeni! Our seniors will protect you." Arai clenched his fist and cheered her on.

Kobeni was only a young woman who hadn't even gone to college yet.

She was young and had never weathered any real storms.

It was only natural for her to be afraid.

But since she had joined the Public Safety Devil Hunters,

Meng Fan and the others had a duty to help her grow.

"If you don't even dare open a door, you should quit the team once we're out."

Aki Hayakawa couldn't be bothered to look at Kobeni's expression.

In his mind, she was even more useless than Denji.

Once they got out, Aki Hayakawa would definitely speak to Makima about what to do with Kobeni.

"I... I'll go, all right?"

Faced with everyone's reprimands,

Kobeni wiped away her tears and slowly stood up.

She knew there was no getting out of opening the door now.

So she forced her trembling legs to move toward it.

Knock, knock, knock!!

Someone knocked on the door again.

"Is... is that you, Denji?" Kobeni asked shakily as she drew closer. "If it's you, please say something."

She desperately hoped the person outside was Denji.

But the reply was a wretched cry. "H-help!!"

"Ah!!! A ghost!!"

The sudden scream outside the door

made Kobeni's knees buckle, and she immediately sank into a crouch.

Meng Fan finally lost patience. He strode over, grabbed Kobeni, and tossed her outside.

Then he casually shut the door.

"Ah!! Open the door!"

Before Kobeni could react, she had already landed in the hallway.

Seeing the closed door, she sprang up and pounded on it.

"Himeno!!" Kobeni shouted. Unable to bear it, Himeno started to get up, but Meng Fan grabbed her.

"If Kobeni gets hurt, I won't be able to answer to her family."

"Relax. The thing outside is ridiculously weak. It can't hurt Kobeni at all."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't tell me you don't trust me anymore?"

With Meng Fan's assurance,

Himeno let out a long sigh and sat back down.

"Don't... don't come any closer."

Outside, Kobeni was being forced to retreat step by step.

She moved farther and farther from the room Meng Fan was in.

"Help!" A small severed piece of the Eternity Devil slowly approached, dragging an enormous heart.

"What... what kind of devil are you?"

"I'm the Eternity Devil. This is my heart. Please, kill me already. I can't take it anymore."

"Ah, the Eternity Devil? How did you end up like this?" Kobeni covered her mouth, having backed all the way to the wall.

Even faced with nothing more than a small severed piece of him, Kobeni didn't dare attack.

"It's a long story. Just hurry up and do it."

The Eternity Devil placed his heart a few feet away from Kobeni.

A little closer, and it would have touched her toes.

"Get away!!"

Kobeni mustered her courage and kicked the Eternity Devil's heart away.

Then she turned and hid in another room.

But the Eternity Devil clearly had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away.

He had now decided that, of everyone there, Kobeni was his best hope of being put out of his misery.

Knock, knock, knock!!

"Help!!!"

"It hurts so much!!"

"No! Stop bothering me!"

Kobeni huddled against the wall with her hands over her ears.

"Help!!!"

"If you don't help me, I'll keep haunting you."

The relentless knocking and endless screams

pushed Kobeni to the brink of a breakdown.

Soon, a kind of madness replaced her fear.

She stopped crouching in the room, wallowing in despair.

Instead, she rummaged everywhere.

At last, she found a dagger under a pillow.

Then she strode toward the door.

She opened it and stabbed at the heart lying just outside.

"Die!!"

The dagger plunged into the Eternity Devil's heart.

Thud!!

Thud!!

She drove the blade down several more times.

Blood splashed all over Kobeni's face.

With his heart riddled with holes, the Eternity Devil finally forced out a few words. "Listen... thank you..."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Morino Hotel returned to normal.

Everyone could hear car horns and birdsong outside the hotel again.

Sunlight streamed through the windows as well.

All of it proved beyond doubt that the Eternity Devil was dead.

The domain trapping them had finally dissolved.