My multitool snaps open. I slice a long strip of white linen from a shattered tablecloth and wrap it twice aroundmy stomach, pulling it tight over the deep cut. Pain flares sharp enough to make me hiss as I knot it in place.
I breathe through it.
Then I walk back to my abandoned bag and shoulder it on.
I press the elevator button.
The earpiece crackles to life.
“Saint? Can you hear me?” Grim’s voice breaks a few times.
I let out a breathless laugh as the doors slide open.
“Oh, now you show up. After I’ve done the hard part.”
“…Did I miss anything good?
I step inside and shake my head.
“Nah.”
I press the button to 115.
The doors slide shut, carrying me upward, leaving the ninety-second floor soaked in blood, silence, and the Onryo Forty-Nine massacrebehind me.
Iset the charges every twenty-three floors, the entire length of the building’s spine.
Twenty-three. Forty-six. Sixty-nine. Ninety-two. One-fifteen. One-thirty-eight. One-sixty-one.
Clean. Even. Fatal.
Now all that’s left is to get to the top. Set them off and bring this beast down.
The elevator hums as it climbs, smooth until it isn’t.
It stops short. I push the button for the top floor but, no.
ACCESS RESTRICTED.
Of course it is.
The display tells me I’ve got three floors left to climb, and no amount of glaring is going to convince the system otherwise. I step out and head for the stairwell, boots heavy, side screaming where the bandage is already soaked through.
I start up.
“How many more are coming into the building?” I ask. “Like… a lot?”
Grim exhales. “Definea lot.”
“More than the Onryo Forty-Nine.”
There’s a pause. “Whoa. Was there really forty-nine of them?”
“I didn’t exactly count.”
“That’s awesome. But yeah—there’s a shit ton more headed your way. Like, actively trying to crawl up your ass.”
“What levels?”
