The sudden downpour caught everyone off-guard.
Chika instinctively raised her arms against the muddy deluge. Takakai's momentary distraction proved costly—
—as Kawano raised his pistol with frenzied speed.
Bang!
The gunshot echoed sharply—
—but it was Kawano's chest that bloomed crimson. Staggering back, he stared in disbelief at Takakai, whose S-rank reflexes had outpaced him despite the distraction.
Crash—
The mudslide hit like a tsunami.
Takakai was slammed against stone, skull cracking against rock with enough force to near-unconsciousness. Kawano fared worse—his body ragdolled against jagged protrusions, a spur of rock visibly impaling his side.
Only Chika, having noticed the flood earliest, survived unscathed by curling into a protective ball. Now she swam desperately through the churn, ducking beneath Takakai to buoy him upward.
Boom—
The waters kept rising.
The [Blood Vessels] entrance became a whirlpool, swallowing Takakai's backpack whole. Human bodies wouldn't survive that vortex—either crushed against rocks or trapped forever in the narrow tunnels.
"Hold on!"
Takakai roared, heaving Chika bodily from the water toward a rocky outcrop. She scrambled onto the ledge just as—
—Kawano erupted from the flood, dragging Takakai under.
[Die...]
The whisper cut through the murk with crystalline malice.
Takakai recognized the signs—Kawano had become like he himself during White River Apartments' second loop: a human transforming into something other through cursed item overuse. But where Takakai had retained control, Kawano had fully surrendered.
Eyes shut, Takakai relied solely on his blessing's senses.
A brutal uppercut deformed Kawano's face.
A kick sent him spinning away.
Takakai's fingers danced across his watch's inventory—
Blood doll? Too hard to aim.
Faceless head? Useless against his hybrid state.
Scissors? Same problem—
[DIE!]
Kawano lunged again—
—only for Takakai's surgical blade to sever his right arm at the shoulder.
The waters had now submerged Chika's perch, forcing her to climb higher using pitons left by past explorers.
Meanwhile, the one-armed Kawano tackled Takakai underwater again, both men crashing against stone before a well-placed kick created distance—
—just as a falling rock hammered Takakai into the depths.
"Takakai-san!"
Chika's scream was cut short by debris pelting her back.
More rubble rained down, crushing Kawano beneath.
Then she saw them—
Not floating clothes.
Bodies.
Dozens of waterlogged corpses rising from the abyss, all staring upward.
Without hesitation, Chika dove back into the maelstrom.
The torrent of muddy water crashed down violently, nearly sweeping Chika away in its fury.
Takakai reached out, gripping the girl's wrist as he hauled them both upward through the deluge.
Rocks pelted them mercilessly. With no better options, Takakai focused on dodging the larger debris—the kind that could send them plummeting—while gritting his teeth and dragging Chika higher.
How much further...?
The girl's breathing grew increasingly labored. She was reaching her limit.
Can't stop...
From below, ghastly weeping and pleas for help slithered into her ears.
If we stop...those things will catch us...but...so tired...just...a little longer...
With sheer willpower, she forced herself to climb, hand over bleeding hand, up the jagged cliff face.
The crimson floodwaters kept rising.
The corpses' wails intensified.
[Weren't we just cave exploring? Why did we come here?]
[Mommy...I want to go home...waaahhh—]
[How long have I been here? So dark...so hungry...someone help...]
[Where's this water coming from...no, no, I don't want to die!]
[HELP US! AAAAAAGH—gurgle...gurgle...]
Something clawed at the water's surface, howling, trying to follow their ascent.
But the drowned couldn't leave their liquid grave.
Countless corpses bobbed in the flood.
The stench of decay thickened.
They bloated.
They rotted.
They dissolved.
Trapped here forever, wandering the darkness, melting silently beneath the waves.
"Ng...Hah!"
Takakai reached the cliff's summit first. Wrenching a thick iron spike from the rock, he hammered it into the ground with one brutal strike. Bracing against the spike, he withstood the flood's fury, then reached down toward Chika—now barely clinging to consciousness as she neared complete exhaustion.
"NOW! MOVE!"
His shout cut through the roaring waters.
Her fingers found a rusted piton.
Every muscle screamed in protest.
With her last reserves, Chika dragged herself upward.
Her breathing came in ragged gasps.
Vision tunneling to black.
No...can't stop...
Takakai-san's right there...I have to...
She reached again—
—but her blurring eyes couldn't locate the next handhold.
Consciousness flickered.
Her limbs turned to lead.
Then—something looped around her wrist and yanked violently.
"HANG ON!"
Takakai's voice cut through the haze as Chika was hoisted into the air, hauled up against his chest.
A blue safety line—standard [Explorer] gear he'd kept coiled at his waist—now formed their lifeline. In that critical moment, he'd lassoed her outstretched arm with a slipknot.
Cradling the semiconscious girl with one arm, Takakai stood against the current. Their combined weight and his enhanced physique anchored them, but movement became nearly impossible.
Then—
From the drowning depths below—
A bloodied, skull-split Kawano emerged.
Clawing his way toward them.
"What are you, a fucking Resident Evil boss?! Quit stalking us already!"
Takakai could only quicken his pace toward the [Great Slide], Chika limp in his arms.
His own condition deteriorated rapidly—blood streamed from his head wound, his torn ankle screamed with every step, and countless bruises painted his body. Without his blessing's pain suppression, he'd have collapsed long ago.
[Why...won't...let me...die...]
Kawano's mangled jaw worked grotesquely as he crawled closer.
"The fuck you talking about? I'd kill you again if I could!"
Takakai knew the entity controlling Kawano spoke, but he couldn't help retorting.
The [Great Slide] loomed ahead—
—a winding ascent now gushing with muddy waterfalls.
Kawano's clawed fingers nearly grazed Takakai's heels.
"Hah..."
One final lunge—
Takakai's eyes locked onto a dry platform jutting from the slide.
But his strength wouldn't last.
Then—
A figure rose from that very platform.
A pistol aimed squarely at him.
"Duck."
The voice was calm.
Takakai tilted his head—exposing the monstrosity behind him.
BANG!
Kawano's body convulsed as the round struck home, sending him tumbling back into the crimson depths.