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Eden suddenly understood. Circé had never escaped the Core. She was working for them.
“Dante! Dante, the Core’s involved in this!” Eden’s voice shouted in his ear.
The Tiger fired two more shots, each finding their target’s head. The bodies were falling one after another, and the Italians were progressing smoothly through the area. Since they had entered the gates, the gunshots hadn’t stopped, resonating in the air like a concerto of death. The Japanese were pouring out of the building and yelling, but the Italians were slowly winning ground. With Loir controlling what was going on in the area, they were at a clear advantage.
Dante rarely voiced his admiration out loud, but the hacker was indeed impressive. The once peaceful Asian-inspired garden had turned into a deadly maze, full of traps and ready to swallow their enemies any minute. It was as if Eden’s partner had become a god, shaping and bending their reality to his will. For every ten Japanese that ran out of the building, half of them were set to perish or be trapped before they even made it within shooting range of their attackers. Gaps were opening unexpectedly under their feet, gigantic walls pulled from the ground in a timely manner so they’d run into it and violently get hit, and the automatic weapons located in secret hideouts around them would only shoot at the Yakuza. It was as if Loir was controlling this like a video game at the hardest level. Yet, he somehow managed not to harm a single Italian in the process.
They were rushing toward the Red Temple, but not fast enough for Dante’s taste. He was ahead of his men, and his lieutenants were shouting orders for them to advance, but it wasn’t enough. They had to get inside the Red Temple, take control of it by eliminating the Yakuza and the Snake at its head, and then defend their position. This was merely the first part of the operation, and they weren’t progressing as fast as he wanted.
Moreover, there was another nuisance: Thao’s men. They were ahead of them in the race to the building, simultaneously helping the Yakuza defend their ground while trying to get in themselves. The garden had become a battlefield, with dozens of bodies scattered on the ground. The grass and river were soiled with blood. Shots were fired from all sides, each man trying to take cover behind a tree, a rock, or a wall while hoping not to trigger another trap.
In the midst of all this, Dante De Luca was still standing tall, impressively unscathed and unaffected by the chaos around him. The smoke didn’t even make him frown, and his golden eyes were riveted on the tall Red Temple. More precisely, he kept trying to look up at wherever Eden was located right now. He was getting impatient and listening to her wasn’t enough. She wasn’t talking anymore; from her erratic breathing and grunts, he could tell she had begun fighting Circé, and that woman was not letting her win easily.
“Eden?” he called out.
“I’m... busy!” she grunted back. “Just. You. Hurry. Up!”
“Our Kitty is holding up for now,” said Loir, “but that old witch knows how to fight, Big Kitty. They are both in the control room, so I can’t help Kitty! What do we do now? I’m having a lot of fun over here!”
“Keep going,” said Dante calmly.
He was looking around, ignoring the gunshots fired all around him as if they were a mere nuisance, looking for their enemy. The Rat’s men and the Yakuza were nothing compared to the real enemy. If the Core was involved, this was about to go from a mere gang fight to an all-out war. He didn’t believe they would have only sent in one agent. The Core had never used this kind of dirty move before, but they probably had no choice, like them. Hence, they most likely had a similar objective...
“The Core wants the weapons.”
“To steal them?” exclaimed Loir.
“Whether they get them or not doesn’t matter; they probably don’t want us to use the weapons against them. Their goal is to empty our hands so we can’t fight them later.”
“Then they know that we know what they want to do to the Suburbs!” squealed Loir. “...Oh, those villains! Now that they know that we know that they know that we know, it’s going to be so complicated!”
Dante didn’t care much for the crazy hacker’s nonsense, but he grew nervous as the parameters of the operation had changed. He didn’t care about wiping out the Rat or the Snake, but now, they had to beat the Core first and foremost. And Eden was still inside that building while they had more enemies than planned.
“Rolf, I’m going in,” he calmly announced.
“Sir, we haven’t cleared the way yet! Our men are almost there, but the Rat’s people are getting in our way!”
Dante looked around. Indeed, there were way too many people between him and the entrance. This place was too big to begin with. Now that the three groups were fighting, things had gotten out of control. Even if he killed everyone on his way, he would empty his magazines and lose too much time just to take one step inside.
“...That Chimera Eden mentioned. Will it attack if provoked?”
“Oh, our Big Kitty wants to bring havoc!” chuckled Loir. “Well, those things are trained as guard dogs, so even if it hasn’t come out from the lack of orders to attack... it’s still a dog! It should attack when injured!”
“...Then let’s make a mad dog out of the guard dog,” announced Dante, a wry smile on his lips.
Immediately, a dozen Italians changed their aim without a second of doubt and began shooting at the river from before. It was so sudden, many of their enemies stopped firing, trying to see what their firepower was now aimed at. The only man to move was Dante De Luca.
He moved like a shadow amidst the smoke, gunshots, and shouting. There wasn’t a single second of hesitation in any of his movements. He didn’t even flinch when a monstrous, furious growl resonated in the area. The furious Chinese dragon had just gone rampant behind him, the giant creature attacking each human moving without distinction. All the shots were now being fired at the blood-thirsty Chimera, but a small group of Italians followed Dante De Luca inside the red building, the doors opening almost magically for them.
“Do we need to take hostages, Boss?”
“No.”
Just one word and no more questions were asked.
One after the other, the doors were opened, and the Italians walked into the room, fired, and it was over. They were progressing smoothly, but not fast enough. Dante had even gotten rid of one of his guns, out of ammunition, and taken one of the long Japanese swords off the wall to continue spreading blood. The Tiger was impatient and left long cuts in his enemies’ skin like a feline drawing blood with its sharp claws. He was silent, precise, and deadly. He was the first one in a room to kill, the blade hissing before the Yakuza could even understand. Even his own men were secretly impressed to see the boss manipulating such different weapons in perfect tandem without breaking a sweat. Dante De Luca was rarely one to do the dirty work himself, yet this time, not only was their boss on the field, but he was leading them like a god of death, not making a single mistake. That man wasn’t just enhanced; he was inhuman.
The Red Temple was being soiled with the color of its name, one room at a time. Loir controlled both the inside and outside with precision, letting out little amused giggles and regularly updating Dante on Eden’s status.
