Soren stopped dead in front of the wooden door, eyebrows knitted together.
He glanced back down the pitch-black corridor behind them.
Rose instantly went rigid. "What is it, Mr. Soren?"
"Something wrong? Is there a monster waiting back there?"
She was literally the last in line—if anything came crawling out of the dark right now…
The thought made her shiver hard.
"Definitely something off," Soren muttered, still staring into the hallway. "Way too off."
He sounded almost disappointed. "This place is supposed to have a whole welcoming committee of hot nurses."
"N-nurses?"
Rose scooted closer to him, refusing to look behind her.
"Yeah, you know the type—kinda abstract-looking, killer bodies, and they do this weird robotic dance thing." He spun the M1911 around his finger once. "I even saved extra bullets just so I could give 'em a thorough physical."
Rose's face went completely stiff. She stared at this guy seriously complaining about the lack of monsters like he'd been robbed of a birthday present.
What the hell kind of brain wiring did this man have?
Weren't they here to find people? Shouldn't the absence of monsters be a good thing?!
Christabella, still dangling in his grip, trembled in total silence. She had zero clue what he was talking about and could only pray like hell that the crazy bastard would forget she existed.
"Whatever," Soren sighed, sounding bored out of his mind. "Let's go meet the little loli."
"Ms. Da Silva, this is the end of the line. You're about to see your daughter."
He lifted one leg and slammed a boot straight into the wooden door.
BOOM!
The door exploded inward.
A blinding white light burst out of the room and swallowed all three of them whole.
A chaotic, heartbreaking flood of memories flashed in front of their eyes.
—This was Alessa's life.
A frail little girl cornered by classmates, their fingers jabbing at her while they screamed:
"Fatherless bastard!"
"Witch!"
"…"
The scene shifted. The terrified girl hiding in the bathroom, only to be cornered by the janitor Colin. In the dim stall his leering face and wandering hands were everywhere.
Next came a grand hall packed with screaming cultists waving torches. A woman in bishop's robes stood on a platform, voice ringing out:
"No tears for the demon!"
"Once again, we are victorious!"
It was Christabella.
Behind her, the little girl was tied to a ladder, body coated in wax. Flames licked up from her ankles and quickly devoured her.
The final memory: the severely burned child being rushed to the hospital by police.
She survived… only to spend every single day in the basement, screaming through endless pain and dressing changes.
Until hatred finally bloomed, the darkness came, and swallowed the entire town.
"Whew—"
The light faded. The visions vanished.
Soren blinked. The room in front of him had completely changed.
They were standing in a ruined underground ward. Black tar seeped from every wall. The air reeked of charred flesh.
In the center sat a filthy hospital bed hidden behind a torn curtain.
Underneath the bed wasn't a floor—it was an endless pit of roaring flames, like the mattress and whoever lay on it had been burning for decades.
Right beside the bed stood a hulking figure that radiated pure menace.
Giant triangular helmet. Naked, muscle-corded upper body still splattered with fresh blood. The enormous sword planted in front of him like a sentinel.
The same Pyramid Head who had carved through the cultists upstairs like butter was now standing guard in front of Alessa's bed like a loyal knight.
"Huh…"
Soren raised an eyebrow at the sight.
No sexy nurses outside. Even the nurse who was supposed to be taking care of Alessa had been replaced by Pyramid Head. This little girl really kept all the good stuff to herself?
At that moment, a little girl in a blue dress stepped out of the shadows.
Dark Alessa.
She stared straight at Soren, voice soft but puzzled.
"Who are you? Why did you ruin my plan?"
"And there's something about you… a scent I recognize. Ancient. Powerful. Not human."
"Guess I've always had a special constitution," Soren shrugged, completely unfazed even though he was face-to-face with Silent Hill's final boss.
"I'm here for two things."
"First, this lady hired me to bring her daughter home." He jerked a thumb at Rose, who was still lost in the memory flood behind him. "Second, I'm looking for someone."
He held up Mary's photo. "Ever seen this woman?"
Dark Alessa didn't even glance at it. Her empty black eyes stayed flat.
"I've never seen her."
Soren's expression didn't change as she kept talking.
"But I did see a man two days ago. He entered Silent Hill searching for something. Then he disappeared."
Her voice stayed ice-cold. "He never made it into my world. He fell straight into the abyss of his own heart."
Soren's eyes narrowed. He already had a pretty good guess. "Any description?"
Dark Alessa flicked a small hand. A floating image appeared in mid-air.
It showed a blond man in a green jacket walking down a foggy street, occasionally prying open car windows and grabbing stuff from inside.
James Sunderland?
Soren watched the guy looting supplies exactly like he did in the game and almost smirked.
So he still got dragged in after all.
Silent Hill was way too personal. Everyone's guilt and darkness shaped their own private version of the Otherworld.
Alessa ruled a Silent Hill built on revenge.
James…
That wife-murdering bastard had clearly fallen into his own personal hell of atonement.
Back when James first walked into the Devil May Cry office, he'd claimed he got a letter from his wife Mary—who'd supposedly died of illness three years earlier.
But Soren, as a transmigrator, knew the truth: Mary hadn't died of sickness. James had smothered her with a pillow. Afterward his brain simply refused to accept it, buried the memory, and invented a kinder lie he could live with.
In the end, his guilt and darkness had called Silent Hill to him.
Even in this life, even after he hired Soren instead of coming alone, the town still pulled him in.
Soren shook off the thought and looked back at Dark Alessa.
"Let's make a deal."
"You send me into that guy's world and give this lady back her daughter."
He lifted Christabella like an offering. "In exchange, you get the bishop."
Dark Alessa tilted her head, a cruel little smile touching her childlike face.
"Moving between worlds inside Silent Hill is easy for me."
"But… why would I make a deal with you?"
She looked almost amused. "Right now that woman is already in your hand. All I have to do is kill you and she's mine anyway."
The second the words left her mouth, Pyramid Head slowly lifted the massive sword in front of him.
Shhhrrrk—
The blade scraped across the floor, throwing up a trail of sparks. The colossal body took one heavy step forward.