--Here. --Thanks.
I'm just so thirsty...
That's the last of the uncontaminated stuff.
How long do we have to keep living like this?
Until we find our paradise, I guess.
One with a warm bed and a shower?
You know, I wonder what I'd do in such a place...
Maybe be someone's wife?
Briareos? Where are you?
Briareos!
A dead end?!
What's her condition?
She's stable for now.
But I can't believe this would happen...
--Oh, you're conscious. --Are you okay, Deunan?
Briareos...
--What's wrong?! --Do you feel ill?
I-I'm thirsty...
We're placing that squad member in confinement!
What?! What for?!
I'm not obligated to explain!
Move aside!
What are you doing?! Stop, Deunan!
Hey! Wait!
Just step aside!
Wait, Deunan!
Why did I do that...?!
Oh... What is this thirst?!
And this mark...
Halt or I'll shoot!
That's right... The lights suddenly went out then, too...
--Hit the floor if you don't wanna die! --It's no use.
They're too freaked out.
Liesse! Handle things here until backup arrives!
Let's go, Deunan.
--All right, this way! --Wait!
--What was that?! --That's what I'd like to know.
Our comrades suddenly started attacking us!
Comrades?
That's right...
That's how I got this bite mark...!
What in the world happened?
And these corridors are almost like a labyrinth...
Where am I?
Just stay calm and it'll all come back to you...
They really do seem like vampire bites...
Combat bioroids are apparently to blame,
but you just know the tabloids are going to have a field day with this.
Oh, that's right. This place belongs to the Erisian embassy...
Erisian VIPs were being assassinated one after another,
so all the remaining VIPs were brought to an embassy-owned facility
and we were placed under their command to help with security.
These guys dabbled in genocide and ethnic cleansing
during the Erisian civil war.
Amid Eris' political unrest, they found themselves constant terrorist targets
and wound up fleeing to Olympus.
We're bodyguards for war criminals?
Feeling' reluctant?
That's what's tough about being world policemen.
Even Lance was griping about it.
Lance was?
All right! Everyone in position!
Deunan.
Deunan!
Bastard said it'd be an honorable mission, protecting some heroes.
War criminals are called heroes if they win, huh...
The reality is that there's a need for humans
who won't hesitate to trust their own sense of justice
when faced with more than one cause.
I can't believe we have to support such people...
Hey, Deunan.
How beautiful it is...
A rainbow between the still faintly bright sky and the darkened horizon...
Yeah... I've never seen anything like it before...
I had always thought paradise only existed in myths,
but seeing this rainbow makes me believe there might really be
an utterly beautiful paradise out there where all can have happiness...
Utterly beautiful, where all can have happiness...
A rainbow, huh...
A poet long ago once likened them
to bridges spanning the gap between light and darkness.
If we could cross them, maybe they'd take us to places we could only dream of...
Do they even realize they're under guard?
Whether they do or not has no bearing on our job.
Even if they are Minotaurs.
What?
Rumor has it they actually used the local people's blood
as an energy substitute for their combat bioroids.
Their blood?!
Just like how the Minotaur preyed on living sacrifices in his labyrinth.
Is that why they're being assassinated like this?
It's meant to say that now it's their turn to be sacrificed.
--Hey. --Sorry, sorry.
It's the dead of night... When the spirits began to roam...
That's right... After that... I was bitten on the neck...
...and then I bit Deia too...
It's blood...
This maddening thirst
is driving me to attack people and drink their blood!
What? My vision is...!
Magus!
Is this reality? Or am I hallucinating?
There, there. You're safe now.
Y-You're...
Did you save me?
It's only a matter of time until they notice us.
Am I... going to end up like them too?
Are you afraid?
I'm afraid of myself...
I hurt Deia, my own friend...
It takes heart to feel like you've hurt someone or been hurt yourself.
Perhaps you'd be more comfortable
abandoning your heart and becoming like them.
That's not a very funny joke.
They're almost like the evil spirits I see in my nightmares...
Evil spirits...
That's a good way of putting it...
They turned my paradise into hell.
And now they will...
...pay the price.
What's...
What's going on?!
The village I lived in was a paradise to me.
It was a small village, but I was happy...
What are you doing?!
Like them, I too must cease to be...
That's crazy! Why do you have to?!
These people tested a weapon on my village.
Just like with them, it spread among the villagers,
causing them to slaughter each other.
The name you used is the only name befitting the ones responsible...
" Evil spirits"
They've been affected by molecular weapons based on Alcides' genes.
They usurp intracellular signal transduction to perform bio-modification,
effectively increasing physical and regenerative capabilities.
Their agility and endurance were on par with combat bioroids.
Can the human metabolism really do that?
It requires taking the blood of others.
So that's the truth behind the Minotaur rumor, huh...
I can't believe they used a weapon like this during their civil war...
This molecular weapon was named after its first victim--
Your body blows pack a real wallop, Hekaton...
Sorry. I couldn't afford to go easy on you.
I'd be dead now if I hadn't been wearing this Garthim!
Where's Deunan?
I wasn't able to recover her.
Oh.
So, what's this weapon called?
"Erinyes."
That was the name taken from me.
Everything was taken from me. All I was left with...
...was a hatred for these people and a thirst for bloody revenge.
Killing them out of that thirst
only succeeded in turning me into an unfeeling spirit as well...
There's no such thing as evil spirits.
You're wrong.
A paradise-like city filled with light will also have shadows.
Amid the darkness unnoticed by humans,
one evil spirit has crawled from the depths of hell for revenge...
Me.
The rainbow!
Look at the rainbow!
You said there might be a paradise out there somewhere.
I used to feel like there was a paradise out there too...
...whenever I was with him.
But lately, it feels like paradise is just a dream or illusion...
Perhaps there never was a paradise to begin with...
No. I will find paradise... I know it.
Even you can...
I must cease to be, if you're to find your paradise.
Because paradise has no place for evil spirits...
I can't believe it would be used this way...
Olympus' esteem for Tartaros' technical skill and ES.W.A.T.'s flexibility
is indeed well-deserved.
Well done, all of you! You saved us!
They tested a weapon on my village.
Minotaurs...
How is this reality any different from my nightmares?
Deunan.
You all right?
Is this...
...the reality you talked about?
This makes her no different than people offered as sacrifices
in the labyrinth of "causes" you spoke of!
Calm down, Deunan! Who's "her"?
The woman right here--
Wh-Where'd Erinyes go?
Deunan?
You were the only one here.
That's nonsense! She was right here!
You know, that lady who was there when we looked at the rainbow!
You and I were the only ones there then. You know that.
You're lying! You had to have seen her from above!
No, it really was just you.
You may have stress-induced short-term memory loss.
You can't be serious!
Are you saying that wasn't real?
Am I still having a nightmare?!
Please! If this is a nightmare, hurry and wake me up!
Erinyes?
Erinyes is my mother's name.
She was the first victim of the cognitive networking molecular weapon.
Your mom was the first victim?
This is Eumenides, a molecular designer who defected from Eris
and developed a vaccine with me.
But why didn't we end up completely like them after we were bitten?
The Erinyes doesn't have artificial intelligence per second,
but its key trait is its ability to form highly advanced cognitive networks.
If it determines a host isn't a target, it will terminate itself.
It disintegrates after killing a target, leaving no traces behind.
This made it impossible to detect with current postmortem methodology.
That's why we thought the victims were being assassinated by terrorists.
Their own weapon wound up being used on them...
The thing is, as far as I know,
no anti-government organizations were involved at all.
Then who's behind it?
Analysis suggests molecular canceration caused a bug in its programming,
and that it reached Olympus via humans who had departed from Eris.
Is that really possible though?
A cancer-induced glitch causing all this instead of the manmade program...
No human being would go this far without one hell of a reason.
A grudge...
I've already sent the vaccine data to my associates back home.
Eris' regime of terror has used the weapon to massacre countless anti-government activists.
This will help set things right.
I have faith my mother's grudge will lead us to victory.
The reality is that there's a need for humans
who won't hesitate to trust their own sense of justice
when faced with more than one cause.
The Erisian civil war won't end...
Maybe the Erinyes I met
was the ever-wandering grudge of the casualties of war.
A poet long ago once likened rainbows
to bridges spanning the gap between light and darkness.
Wars will never go away.
Rainbows bridging the gap between enemies don't exist in reality.
In which case, there might never be anything rainbow-like
bridging the gap between me and Briareos either...