The moment they left the office, the tension was so thick it could almost be cut with a spoon. Every step they took echoed in the silence—a silence so heavy it felt suffocating. Or maybe it was the tension, which didn’t lessen; on the contrary, it grew with every second that passed without anything happening. There were no strange noises, no suspicious machinery, not even the slightest hint of that "inner courtyard that served as a habitat" or the "tank with a floating creature." Nothing. Just the void of an unsettling silence.

  The hallway stretched before them like a dark mouth, swallowing the flashlight’s light.

  "I don’t like this," Nagato murmured, his voice a faint thread of sound in the darkness. His fingers gripped the flashlight so tightly his knuckles were white.

  Luca shared the sentiment. His eyes scanned their surroundings for something, anything that would indicate they weren’t alone. But he found nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that explained the knot of unease tightening in his stomach. They knew something was there—the danger was in when it would appear. In how it would catch them.

  He much preferred it happening while he was alert and had the revolver in his hand (and the blue pill easily accessible).

  And then, just as they reached the hallway with the stairs they needed to take to return to the ground floor, they heard it.

  An echo. A vaguely familiar sound—the crunch of wood breaking into pieces. But it wasn’t the same. Luca knew it instantly. Chainsaw Man had used a machine, and the resulting noise had been mechanical and shrill. This was—as if—as if whoever was doing it only needed one strike.

  Nagato froze in place, his body stiff as a statue, and the flashlight slipped from his hand, hitting the floor with a dull thud. Luca quickly crouched, picking it up and turning it off just as the noise became clear, too clear.

  Without hesitation, he grabbed Nagato’s arm firmly, dragging him back, toward the corner, just a moment before one of the nearby doors was pulverized outward. The wood fragments flew like projectiles, crunching and splintering in all directions, reaching close to them.

  Both of them stood still, holding their breath, as a mass of muscle and scales emerged in the hallway—barely visible to Luca but easy for Nagato to imagine. The floor creaked under its feet, as if protesting under the creature’s weight, and he could almost swear he saw cracks.

  Luca felt his pulse quicken, but he didn’t hesitate, pressing the bracelet on his arm almost instinctively. He immediately received the expected messages.

  R-Titan. The name couldn’t be more fitting. The figure looming before them was a humanoid silhouette that brushed the ceiling with its nose. Its bulging muscles rippled with every step, indicating that what it had in height, it also had in brute strength—as if its actions weren’t enough to showcase this.

  It was great the mission had already finished. He didnt' know if his heart could take another new thing.

  Nagato was completely rigid in his grip, his breathing shallow. Luca didn’t blame him, but he tried to keep him as quiet as possible. The last thing they wanted was to attract that thing’s attention.

  The creature advanced, each of its steps resonating like thunder, until it hit the wall. Then, with an almost casual movement, it raised an arm—a grotesque limb, a mix of scales and human skin—and struck. The wall crumbled like paper, causing a rain of debris and dust. But this seemed to matter little to the creature—it simply continued forward, stepping through the hole it had created.

  Luca gently pulled Nagato, dragging him forward, his mind focused on the sound of destruction echoing from where the hybrid had gone. For a brief moment, they passed by the hole, and he couldn’t help but glance inside, but all he saw was a massive figure, slightly less dark than the darkness itself, moving further ahead.

  He didn’t stop to scrutinize the details.

  They reached the door, and Nagato slipped, blindly, toward the stairs, his body trembling like a leaf in the wind. Luca closed the door with utmost care, hearing the soft 'click' of the lock. Only then did he turn on the flashlight and hand it to Nagato, whose face was terribly pale, his temple glistening with a thin layer of cold sweat.

  Nagato took the flashlight as if it were a lifeline, his trembling fingers gripping it tightly.

  "Let’s go," Luca whispered, his voice firm but low.

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  They left the creature of darkness behind, the sound of destruction gradually fading as they moved away, replaced by an unsettling silence that seemed to envelop the hallway like a heavy blanket. Both of them moved in silence, their footsteps softly echoing on the cold floor, until they reached the reception area. The atmosphere was so still they could hear the echo of their own breathing.

  "Wait," Luca said, breaking the silence with a calm voice. He approached the counter and opened one of the fridges, pulling out two water bottles. He handed one to Nagato, who accepted it with trembling hands. Luca opened his and drank avidly, the cold liquid soothing his dry throat as if he hadn’t had a drop of water in days.

  "...Wasn’t it full of dead people?" Nagato finally asked, a touch of sarcasm in his muffled voice.

  Luca finished the last sip and admitted easily, "I was messing with you."

  "I knew it was bullshit," Nagato muttered, sending him a look.

  Luca flashed a fleeting smile, and for a moment, they stayed like that, in silence, drinking water.

  Then he turned serious. "We have to go back the way we came. Pass through the museum to reach the shops and cross to the front." He paused, considering the options. "It’ll be better to go through the garden. More cover."

  Nagato shuddered, his gaze lost for a moment before nodding. "...I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I prefer the bugs outside to the ones inside," he murmured, squeezing the water bottle so hard it seemed like it might break at any moment. "Damn, who the hell thought of...?"

  Luca didn’t say anything. There were worse things than hybrids between dinosaurs and humans, but that was something Nagato would understand on his own in the future—if he survived, of course. For now, his state didn’t seem to be the best. But that was to be expected, he supposed. Not everyone was used to compartmentalizing trauma so quickly.

  "Here," Luca said, pulling out one of the two revolvers and handing it to Nagato. "It has two bullets, so use them well."

  "...Thanks," Nagato replied, his tone reluctant, but his hand firm as he accepted it.

  Now it was just a matter of getting out of there.

  "The windows are locked," Nagato confirmed after peeking into one of the offices facing the street. "But at least there’s nothing."

  Luca nodded, having checked another office himself. "The door it is, then."

  Before opening it, Luca stopped and listened carefully to the noises outside, his body tense and alert. However, he heard nothing beyond the occasional thunder rumbling in the distance. Carefully, he turned the knob and cracked the door open, taking a quick look outside. Everything seemed still in all directions: the museum, the garden, the enclosures. Only the rain fell heavily, hitting the ground with a constant, heavy sound.

  "It’s clear."

  The drops hit them hard as soon as they left the building’s protection, soaking them again within seconds. But despite this, they didn’t spare any effort to reach the garden, using the rain as an advantage to cover their movements.

  To be honest, soaked as he had been before, Luca felt like he couldn’t be any wetter even if he took off all his clothes and jumped into one of the lakes. So he ignored his state more easily and focused on scanning the surroundings for any sign of danger.

  Whatever Nagato said, there were still twelve predators roaming freely around the park. And although the place was big, it wasn’t so big as to feel safe from running into any of them—especially when one of the enclosures was across the street.

  They reached the end of the building and from there crossed the asphalt road to reach the garden. They used the cover of the bushes and trees again, moving stealthily. For a moment, everything seemed to be going well. They managed to reach the lake without any issues, at least.

  Luca wiped his face with a soaked sleeve and frowned toward the enclosure he was sure belonged to the Yutyrannus. Nagato pushed him slightly from behind to keep moving, apparently being the one most eager to get this over with.

  Newbies. Patience was a virtue for very good reasons.

  A movement caught almost by accident made Luca stop the impatient younger man, his attention focusing on the enclosure across the lake. Fortunately, the bushes in front of them and the distance were enough to not worry about being easily spotted. But that didn’t mean he felt like moving stupidly when a predator could see them.

  Nagato turned off his flashlight just a moment before the Yutyrannus emerged from the vegetation of its habitat. The predator crossed the huge gate, now an open passage, and peeked out into the street. The rain hit its feathers, sliding to the ground almost like streams, and its small eyes scanned its surroundings. But—curiously, the rain, perhaps, seemed to be too much for Long Ning, as it turned around and vanished back into its enclosure.

  One less to worry about, Luca thought, waiting a few seconds before nodding to Nagato to continue. They ran past the side of the lake facing the Yutyrannus—Luca felt it was safer than going the other way toward the museum simply because they had just seen the enclosure’s resident go back inside. The museum... well, any of the dinos could be there.

  Soon they reached the other side where there was more garden, and they slipped through as best they could until they reached the shop area. They were simple square spaces with glass walls—some transparent, others darker—and only a few scattered lights around. But the lighting was more than enough for Luca to notice the presence of people inside, hiding. He could even see some expressions.

  They were scared. Men, women. Even children.

  Perhaps it was because they got close enough, or it could have been another reason, but a breeze brought the sound of crying, not completely buried by the rain. It was a sound capable of breaking anyone’s heart with even a little bit of one.

  Luca turned to Nagato, serious, "We have to get out of here."

  A brief flash of relief crossed the other man’s face, and he nodded.

  But before they could leave, the door of the nearest shop opened, and a familiar figure appeared in the doorway. Liona gestured for them to come inside. Her face, illuminated by the faint light of one of the few spotlights, was marked by concern, her dark eyes anxious.

  Luca shared a look with Nagato and, slipping the revolvers into his clothes, without wasting a second, they ran the few meters separating them from the shop.