Yukio's body glowed.
"Yukio!?" Sheimi said. "This light!? What's happening!?"
His eyes opened.
"Heh heh heh!" Sadako said. "More power! Open up more power!"
Yukio's body began to shake. "Yukio!?"
"No!" Kuri said. "I have to hold it in... The power must not be increased further! The power must not be opened! The power of the Rin's Blue Flame cannot be sent out easily to you!"
Sadako cried out. "My forehead! My forehead is splitting! It's scorching! Ohhh... Somebody is controlling my body from inside me! I have to endure a little more. My Father. If I complete the utilization, I won't have such an inconvenient body... I'll get rid of it. I'll rule this puny world!"
"That can't happen!"
Rin floated through the air. "Where is this!? It's dark, and scary. Why am I here?Something's been coming after me! I'm scared! Somebody help me!"
"Rin..." Kuri called.
"Huh?" Rin looked around and saw a Blue Flame. "Oh. My flame!" He floated down to get it. "Great. I was worried when I didn't have it. Without it my body couldn't hold up. It's a part of my body."
"That's right. It is of one mind with you and your heart. You can't be away from it. And you shouldn't easily show it to people. Protect your spirit softly."
"Dad...? No, it's not like Dad's arms. Cool, big, wide... I feel at ease."
"It's all right," Kuri said, holding him. "I'll give you protection. I won't let them get your beautiful heart, and the blue flame. I'll be sure to save you."
"The flame's power has weakened!?" said Sadako. It was because Rin had control over it again.
"Rin!?" said Sheimi. "THe convulsions stopped!? His hand... is warm. Is somebody... protecting Rin's heart!?"
xxx
The others were all inside the Infinity Labyrinth now.
"You can see the Delta and Tokyo Bay from here," said Yukio. "Lots of buildings under construction... Like ruins hiding black monsters... Ruins... That image of ruins... I don't want to think that's a vision of the future! I want to defeat these enemies, whose form we can't see, quickly. I want to live without feeling this anxiety, and return to the peace of before! Unless we hurry and rescue Kuri, Rin's heart, and his flame... The time of Death's awakening... The time of the end of the world... Can we return to the peace of before...? Rin...! Kuri..."
"No good," said Shima, his eyes looking out. "I can't get a read on the internal structure or their coordinates. And I can't find any life signs at all..."
"A lot of strong power is accumulating in the Infinity zone," said Bon. "It has a strong influence. Now this land is becoming chaotic."
"Let's go to the basement," Yukio said. "The labs are concentrated in the basement. We might be able to encounter the demons."
"Let's divide into two groups," said Bon. "While we investigate the floors one by one, down from this one, the 56th, you go down to the bottom. Yukio, take the elevator to the basement with me. Shima you go upstairs."
"Two groups?!" Shima complained. "Why am I the only one alone?!"
Bon just smiled. "Be careful." He left with Yukio
"You guys..." Shima called faintly.
"Let's go," Yukio said. "To the basement." They got in the elevator.
"Heh heh heh," Moeto said, working in the lab. "Seems they've boarded the elevator. A death sentence. The pretty ones who carry the lights of the planets' protection. The time has come! The grand occasion of the fruits of my long-awaited dream! My life-work. The superhuman. Hundreds of times a human's brains and physical strength. Tens of times longer a lifespan. Just a little more genetic operation and medicine administration. Then it will be possible to make the cyborg. I'm a genius. They'll be sorry they outcast me. For my research, I've chosen this Omega Area. Gehenna gave me another chance since the accident. After the accident, I greatly reconstructed Kuri's body. It was the birth of the fruit of my dream, the superhuman. During that biggest experiment..."
"They descended... Carrying eggs from Gehenna. Satan chose me. I made a blunder in Kuri's great reconstruction. I found a chance to use an egg of the utilization. I produced beautiful, perfect beings. Next, our loving monster! I won't miss making the failures for us, the rulers of Gehenna. My experiments are for you. If our master's utilization is completed, we can survive completely. But I will continue the utilization by all means! I will get more perfect ones like me! A human has been united with foreign living things. I am clearly the inventor of the new creation, the superhuman. I am its god!"
"Father..." Kuri said, floating above him as a spirit.
The elevator descended.
"I- I'm nauseous..." Yukio said.
"You okay, Son of Satan?" Bon asked. "Guess even demon blood can't go against gravity on an elevator."
"It's picking up speed," Yukio thought. "Just like... I'm falling endlessly to hell... Scary..."
"I wonder if Shima is okay," Bon said.
"Did you want to go with him?" asked Yukio. "He should be fine."
"Aren't you scared? Never mind! Being trapped in this building of ghosts and this never-ending elevator is getting to me. From here on, we'd fight the big enemy. Or so I thought. I feel like I'm all alone. It's scary. I just feel a bad premonition coming..."
"Don't call this solitude," Yukio said. "Solitude extends more, infinitely. Like the places where we were."
"Tell me," Bon said. "What kind of places were you at, Yukio?"
"Deserted places. Where there's nobody. Completely alone. No one will come to help you. Lonely places."
"But, in any time," said Yukio, "we looked back at you guys. That was our only ray of light."
"Yes," said Yukio. "When that light shined, it brought us strength. There was nothing we couldn't do."
"Whenever we were about to give up," said Yukio, "that light always led us on."
"This is taking long," Yukio said. "Too long."
"I'm worried about the others," said Bon.
The elevator shook around. The door opened, and they're tossed out of it. They fell through the darkness.
"Bon!"
"Yukio!" Bon called. He lost sight of him. "Darkness everywhere. I'm scared...! Bon! I can't hear his voice! Where is he!? Yukio! Shima! I'm worried. We shouldn't have separated back there. Kurai, Sheimi, Rin! Without everyone, I can't do anything. What should I do!? All alone here is the darkness. What can I do!?"
"That was our only ray of light."
"When that light shined, it brought us strength. There was nothing we couldn't do."
"Whenever we were about to give up, that light always led us on."
Bon saw a point of light high above.
"Always... Everyone is shining on me, leading me... When I'm about to be crushed, I always remember. I'm carrying a light in my heart too. That's the spirit of all of us, in one. Just believe. For the moment that light shines down...!"
He raised his arm to the light.
"I am an exorcist! With the strength given to me by everyone, I will shine through the darkness and make it light! I won't yield to any darkness or delusions!"
He attacked..
Yukio and Bon crashed to the bottom of the elevator. The door opened.
"Welcome to my lab," Moeto said. "I've been looking forward to this. Heh heh. My pretty monsters are feeling hungry."
The demons chased after Yukio.
Yukio attacked with his guns, and The demons tore apart.
"Heh heh heh! Still more! I can make any amount of monsters! Ahahaha!"
"Stop it!" Bon said. "We don't want to fight you here. Where's Kuri!?"
"Kuri? Formerly my daughter. She's at the holy sanctuary now, devoting the light of Gehenna, the power of Rin's Blue Flame, to our Father Satan!"
"Satan!?"
"Satan's quickening has finally begun! It's too bad, but this place will be your graveyard! You will be my first victims! I am Lucifer!" He glowed bright.
"A demon!?"
"I am not like the other demons," he said. "I am a Demon Prince! The union of human and outside life! Die!" A blast of light shot out. The exorcists jumped away.
"Until seconds ago, this was Kuri's father!" Bon thought. He narrowly dodged an attack.
"This isn't a human anymore!" Yukio said. "It's a monster! An enemy!"
He attacked; The monster knocked him away.
"Bon!" Yukio called. He attacked.
The monster was ripped apart in a burst of light. The poor man's soul had been utilized long ago. "Dad... The gentle dad since mom died... The dad who came to save me... He wasn't my dad anymore... Goodbye, Dad..."
"Who's that!?" Yukio said. "It... seemed like someone was there..."
The ground began to shake.
"Something's coming!" Yukio said.
He chanted something and a sphere of light formed around them.
"What's that!?" Bon said. "Something's crashing out through the ceiling!? He's up there! Shima!"
"Something's coming from below!?" Shima said.
The floor broke apart as light blasted through it. The three were thrown into the air.
They floated up through the hole in the ceiling, outside. The sky above was swirling with colors.
"The sky!?"
They saw a glass room at the building's entrance.
"Something's inside the building! That's...!"
Sadako stared at them with a demonic grin. "Heh heh heh."
"That's... Kuri!?"