"Help! Can someone save me? Hurry up and kill me!!!"
"It hurts so much! This devil has no humanity!!"
At this moment, waves of agonizing screams begging for death continuously echoed down the 8th-floor hallway.
The voice was bone-chillingly desolate and brimming with despair.
It sounded like a wrongfully killed spirit seeking someone to vent its grievances to.
"What's that sound?" Himeno heard the commotion and instinctively paused the cards she was about to play.
"I heard it a while ago. It sounds like someone is crying for help." Kobeni's bangs were soaked with sweat. She gripped her cards tightly, her mind already conjuring up terrifying scenarios.
"I heard it too. I just thought I was hearing things," Arai said while organizing his hand of cards, clearly unbothered by the noises outside.
"It's not a hallucination. It sounds like the Eternity Devil." As he spoke, Aki Hayakawa nudged Himeno's arm with his elbow. "Himeno-senpai, play your cards quickly, I need to open."
"Oh, right!!" Himeno snapped out of it, then dropped the five cards she had been holding mid-air onto the floor.
"Five 8s."
"Five Aces." Aki Hayakawa slammed five cards down onto the floor.
Aiming straight at Power, his opposing player.
Seeing the five Aces land with a loud smack, Power instantly got fired up.
"Even though we were comrades before, that doesn't mean the great me will show any mercy."
Smack!!
A resounding, forceful slap of cards echoed.
Five 2s firmly crushed the five Aces.
Seeing this, Aki Hayakawa looked as if he had suffered a critical mental attack, his entire demeanor instantly deflating.
"Power, good cards."
"Haha, the great me predicted this long ago."
Knock, knock, knock!!
Just as everyone was admiring Power's heavy firepower, a faint knocking sound suddenly echoed from outside the door.
"Ah!!" Startled by the knocking behind her, Kobeni flinched violently. The cards in her hands scattered all over the floor, and she scrambled behind Arata seeking shelter.
"Beni, stop making a fuss over nothing. A simple knock on the door scares you this much?" Arata gathered his cards and looked at Kobeni with disappointment.
"I... I'm scared..."
"Who's knocking outside? Is Denji back? I'll go get it."
"Arai, you don't need to go. Sit back down."
"Um... shouldn't we open the door?"
At this moment, Arata seemed like a highly respected senior in Arai's eyes. He didn't dare disobey his words, and even his response was deliberately lowered, full of respect.
"Let Kobeni open the door. Think of it as courage training for her."
"I... I can't! Please don't make me go!!"
Kobeni waved her hands frantically and backed away several steps, almost on the verge of sobbing out loud.
"If you don't go open that door this time, don't even think about getting out of here," Arata said, crossing his arms with a resolute gaze.
Seeing that Arata had hardened his heart, Kobeni turned and cast a pleading gaze at Himeno.
Himeno, who had been looking down, set her cards aside and stared into Kobeni's eyes with equal seriousness. "Kobeni, you can't keep using your seniors as meat shields. You have to learn to stand on your own eventually. Consider this a test."
"You can do it, Kobeni! Senpai and the others will protect you," Arai said, clenching his fists to cheer her on.
But Kobeni was merely a girl who hadn't even gone to college yet. Young and inexperienced with the harsh storms of reality, it was completely natural for her to be scared.
However, since she had joined the Public Safety Devil Hunters, Arata and the others had an obligation to help her grow.
"If you don't even have the guts to open a door, do us a favor and voluntarily quit the squad once we get out."
Aki Hayakawa couldn't even be bothered to look at the expression on Kobeni's face. In his mind, Kobeni was even more of a drag than Denji. Once they got out, Aki definitely planned to talk to Makima about reassigning her.
"I... I'll go, okay."
Faced with everyone's reprimands, Kobeni wiped away her tears and slowly stood up. She knew that her opening the door was already set in stone, so, forcing her trembling legs to move, she walked toward the door.
Knock, knock, knock!!
The door was knocked on again.
"Is... is that you, Denji-kun?" Kobeni asked, her voice trembling as she got closer to the door. "If it's you, Denji-kun, please say something quickly."
At this moment, she desperately hoped from the bottom of her heart that the person standing outside was Denji.
But the reply was a miserable, "Help... me!!"
"Ah!!! A ghost!!"
The sudden agonizing cry from outside made Kobeni's legs turn to jelly, and she instantly squatted down on the floor.
At this point, Arata lost his patience as well. He stepped forward, hoisted Kobeni up by her collar, and tossed her right out the door, casually slamming the door shut behind her.
"Ah!! Open the door!"
Before Kobeni could even process what happened, she had already landed in the hallway. Seeing the closed door, she scrambled up and frantically pounded on it.
"Himeno-senpai!!" Kobeni screamed. Himeno couldn't bear it and was about to get up, but Arata grabbed her and pulled her back.
"If Kobeni gets hurt, I won't be able to explain it to her family."
"Relax, the thing outside the door is weak as hell. It can't hurt Kobeni at all."
"Are you sure?"
"Don't tell me you don't trust me anymore?"
With Arata's reassurance, Himeno let out a long sigh and sat back down.
"Don't... don't come any closer."
Meanwhile, outside the door, Kobeni was being forced to retreat backward constantly, getting further and further away from the room where Arata and the others were.
"Help me!" A small, severed chunk of the Eternity Devil's limb was dragging a massive heart as it slowly approached.
"What... what kind of devil are you?"
"I am the Eternity Devil. This is my heart. Hurry up and kill me, I can't take it anymore."
"Ah, the Eternity Devil! How did you end up like this?" Kobeni covered her mouth, her body already backed up against the wall.
Even though it was just a tiny severed chunk of a limb in front of her, Kobeni still didn't dare to strike.
"It's a long story. Just hurry up and do it."
The Eternity Devil directly placed its heart just a few feet away from Kobeni. Any further forward and it would have touched her toes.
"Get away from me!!"
Kobeni lashed out with a kick, sending the Eternity Devil's heart flying. She then turned and hid in another hotel room.
But the Eternity Devil clearly didn't want to miss this opportunity. At this point, it had already decided that among everyone there, Kobeni was its best hope for release.
Knock, knock, knock!!
"Help me!!!"
"It hurts so much!!"
"No! Stop bothering me!"
Kobeni covered her ears with both hands and hid by the wall.
"Help me!!!"
"If you don't help me, I will haunt you forever."
The ceaseless knocking and the endless, agonizing screams brought Kobeni's mind to the brink of collapse. Soon, her fear was replaced by a kind of madness.
She no longer squatted in the room giving up on herself. Instead, she started rummaging frantically.
Finally, she found a dagger hidden under a pillow.
Then, she took large strides and charged at the door. Yanking the door open, she stabbed downward at the heart lying by the entrance.
"Die!!"
The dagger plunged violently into the Eternity Devil's heart.
Thud!!
Thud!!
She brought the blade down several times in rapid succession.
Kobeni's face was splattered with blood.
And the Eternity Devil, its heart stabbed into a honeycomb, squeezed out its final words: "Let me say... thank you..."
As soon as the words fell, the Morino Hotel returned to its normal appearance.
The group could already hear the honking of cars and the chirping of birds outside the hotel, as well as see the sunlight shining through the windows.
This unequivocally proved that the Eternity Devil was dead. The domain trapping everyone had finally dissolved.