She is not an investigator.

In an instant, the enormous body was frozen in place, and Igris rushed forward.

Facing its massive body, Igris plunged the blade in her hand into its iron-hard body, and took the opportunity to leap high into the air, landing directly on its back.

At that moment, the stagnation ended. Before the giant spider could even feel the pain and wail from the new wounds on its body, its back was torn open again by Igris's blade, leaving a deep gash.

Dark green blood gushed from the wound, and Igris hurriedly moved aside to avoid being drenched in the liquid, but she still got splashed quite a bit.

Igris, positioned on its back, was completely out of its attack range; its enormous size meant that its claws had no way of reaching Igris.

Without hesitation, it ignored the raging wound on its back and rammed its head into the corridor leading to the second carriage.

Igris quickly bent down, still tightly gripping the sword blade embedded in its back, so as not to be easily thrown off.

But precisely because of this, it actually managed to tear through the wall between the trains and force its way into the second carriage.

Countless people stood rooted to the spot, watching the enormous creature suddenly rush in, but no one made any reaction.

Just as Igris had predicted, this group of people were monsters even more monstrous than the spider itself.

But by the time Igris regained her balance, the spider's last remaining foreleg swept everyone in front of her to the ground, and with its heavy, massive body, it pressed down on them.

With an indescribable cracking sound, blood and minced flesh mingled together and were all exposed beneath its body.

Then, just like before, it used its last forepaws to crawl forward and keep pulling these things towards itself, trying to swallow them all into its body through that train-engine-like entity.

It was eating, and Igris didn't know what that would lead to, but Alvin had already warned her, so she wasn't going to watch it finish eating.

After all, she hasn't eaten yet!

Clang—!

Igris pulled the sword blade from its back and plunged it into its head.

But before Igris could act, the spider suddenly began to twitch restlessly and crashed heavily into the side of the carriage wall.

It sensed that Igris had pulled out the weapon, and actually suppressed its appetite, trying to be the first to throw Igris off its body.

As expected, Igris's body finally lost its balance and was thrown off by its movement.

As her body crashed heavily to the ground, the giant spider let out a loud hiss and quickly began to devour the flesh in front of it.

Its feeding behavior is strange because this spider does not have a mouth. When it eats, it simply opens its head, which is like a steam train, and then uses its claws to stuff the food in front of it into the mouth.

This speed is indeed not slow, but it also has a fatal weakness.

That means it only has one front paw left.

"whispering sound…"

Frustrated by being thrown to the ground, Igris raised her sword again, took a sudden step, and charged towards the spider that was still feeding.

But as soon as she took a step, she stumbled, the force of her initial movement causing her to crash heavily to the ground again.

"Ugh..."

Because she tripped, Igris's cheek slammed onto the ground, causing her to instinctively clutch her nose in pain.

Whether her nose was broken or not, the constant pulling sensation from behind gave her a vague sense that something was wrong.

She hurriedly turned around, only to see that the passengers who had been staring blankly and waiting to die were now all looking in her direction. One of them even grabbed Igris's ankle and kept pulling her backward.

Igris gritted her teeth and shot the culprit who had caused her to fall, but before she could take another step, more people swarmed around her.

They kept entangled around Igris's legs, hindering her steps, but did nothing else to harm her.

They were like... helping the spider buy time.

They're just stalling for time.

...was it just responding to the spider's request?

The Gods' Fool - The Northern Train: Chapter Thirty-Eight, The Inheritance of Desire

"Go away!"

The flames on Igris's body scorched everything that came near her, but the burning still took time, and they still rushed forward without hesitation, grabbing her ankles and hugging her thighs.

Igris's sword blade even fell not far away when she was pulled down, and for a moment she really couldn't easily break free from these people's restraints.

The spider's feeding speed also began to slow down noticeably, as if it was about to finish.

Igris gritted her teeth, then suddenly thought of something.

If that sword was the most frequently used item she acquired in that manor, then naturally, she wouldn't only have that one item.

Igris reached into her pocket, where a scalpel had been sitting for who knows how long.

Igris never used it because it was too small, too delicate, and unsuitable for combat.

She couldn't face her enemies with a finger-length blade like that murderer, but it was sharp enough to slice off any arms that tried to harass her.

So, for the first time, she took out the scalpel and held it in her hand.

But before she could even wave it, an unprecedented impulse and excitement surged from the depths of her heart.

It was a more mysterious and obscure aura.

It is also a kind of indescribable existence filled with despair and desire.

Yes, it was art that she was intimately familiar with—dangerous yet full of beauty.

"Ha...we meet again. This is the third time, isn't it?"

Time seemed to freeze at this moment, everything around seemed to stand still, and even the raging flames seemed to solidify.

Apart from Igris and the person in front of her.

"...Why did you..."

"Do you know my name? The Ripper. My name is no longer important to you."

It was like an encounter in a secret realm, and like a reunion on a rainy night.

He strolled slowly to Igris' side, his head wrapped in layers of bandages, and turned his gaze to her.

"Is it a title, a mark, a totem, a... symbol?"

Igris's body was trembling, but she didn't know why she was trembling.

She wasn't afraid, but every cell in her body was trembling.

This is…

Oh, right.

She was excited.

A deeper, more intense desire.

It guided her and led her.

It attracted her—

“We will meet again, and even this time, it won’t be our last meeting… I will stay by your side until you truly understand the meaning of that name.”

He pondered for a moment, then shook his head with a light laugh.

"No... no, even if you understand the meaning of that name, I will still follow you."

Jack?

Is that his name?

He slowly approached Igris and picked up the scalpel in front of her.

Then, under Igris's gaze, he slowly cut open the bandages on his face.

The white strips of cloth fell down, revealing the mysterious face before her eyes.

That is…

That is—!

She herself.

Igris.

"..."

“You should have done this a long time ago. You should have known when you took that knife.”

He, or she.

"We live our whole lives in our own shadows, you and me."

As the last word faded, the version of herself in front of Igris slowly embraced her body.

Ignoring the scorching flames, he pulled her into his arms.

"I am also you."

"...!"

The next moment, a piercing sound rang in Igris's ears, and everything around her returned to normal in that instant, but the restraints on her body had been completely severed without her noticing.

Blood stained half of her body red. She looked around and saw only severed limbs on the ground, and no one was standing there anymore.

The giant spider, which had been feeding, was now screaming in agony. Its steel-hard limbs had all been severed, leaving only its body lying on the ground, struggling but unable to move.

Igris unconsciously touched her face, as if she had realized something, and hurriedly took out the shard of mirror.

Her face was reflected in the mirror.

That was the appearance that should have belonged to the Ripper, wrapped in layers of bandages.

The flames on Igris's body had gone out at some point, and with the wailing and screaming of the spider that was still alive, hunger crept up Igris's spine again.

She looked at the scalpel in her hand; the blade was still stained with blood, but she had no recollection of ever using it.

As she wiped away the blood, the bandages on her face also receded like the tide, revealing her original appearance once more.

It was at this moment that a familiar voice rang in her mind.

[Name, identity, or symbol? His existence is more profound than most people expect, perhaps from the past, or perhaps from the future.]

Title Change: The Ripper → A Strange, Incomplete Being

You can use that power, but no one knows where it comes from or how much of it exists.