Meanwhile, Rudo and the supporters make it to the exit door. Grizz opens it and finds a staircase, instructing the rest of the supporters to go up and call for backup while he stays behind to check on Zanka. Just then, someone rushes toward them, and they assume it must be Zanka, thinking he’s already dealt with the raiders.
However, it turns out to be the enemy boss. The raider gives Rudo a careful look, confirming he’s their target. He leaps onto the exit door and smashes the wall, blocking their escape, recognizing Rudo as the spirit giver. Grizz Rubion warns him that Rudo is now part of the Cleaners and that messing with him will make him the enemy of all of them. The boss ignores the warning, saying he was only late because of his poor sense of direction. He claims he never meant to give them this much time and begins walking toward them.
While Grizz tries to ask about Zanka’s whereabouts, the raider brushes him off and tells Rudo that someone wants to chat with him. The raider rips off Rudo’s mask, telling him there are no trash beasts here. When Rudo asks about Zanka, the boss says he went easy on him and only knocked him out, though the poison might be giving him a bad time.
The raider then uses his vital instrument to transform the rings on his fingers into sharp claws, warning Rudo to come quietly. Both supporters jump on him to try to hold him down, but they fail and are slammed to the ground. As the boss raises his claws again, Grizz steps in front of Rudo, vowing to protect his team at all costs.
The boss lowers his claws and mocks what he’s heard about the so-called weak supporters the Cleaners have, saying they are useless and cannot protect anything. Rudo tells Grizz to fall back since he cannot fight the raider unarmed, insisting he can handle him himself. The boss smirks and asks Rudo to promise he won’t get mad — before revealing that he’s already murdered Grizz with an unseen attack.
The raider stabs his claws through Grizz, declaring that weaklings like him are worthless. Grizz’s lucky charm falls as he dies, and Rudo quickly catches it.
A memory flashes in Rudo’s mind — back to when Regto came home and found him banging his head against the wall, blood running down his face. After laying the boy down, Regto asks why he did it. Rudo replies that Regto taught him never to hurt others, so instead, he hurt himself.
Seeing this gives Regto a headache, but he sits down and gently asks what made him do it. Rudo says the pain in his hands had started to fade, he was avoiding people, and he doesn’t really know why — only that he carries a burning hate inside. Even if someone asks him to explain, he can’t put it into words.
Hearing that, Regto understands Rudo feels abandoned by his parents and now believes he is worthless, a burden too heavy for a child to bear. Rudo then asks what “worthless” really means. Instead of answering, Regto patches him up and takes him outside, saying one reason for his sadness is that he has nothing fun to do. He encourages him to discover the world until he finds something he truly enjoys.
Regto hypes him up, saying there will come a day when his empty room is filled with things he loves — but makes him promise to give advance warning if he ever wants to bring a girl home.
After that, they head to the backwater village’s library to read books. Later, Regto tries teaching Rudo how to play soccer, but the innocent boy feels bad for the ball and starts patting it instead. Next, they try cooking, and Rudo shows surprising skill at cutting vegetables — so much so that he even cuts straight through the board. Though it’s an epic fail, Regto is glad the boy at least showed some energy. They still have plenty of time to discover what he truly enjoys.
Just then, Rudo sees a villager throwing away trash and asks Regto what he is doing. Fascinated by the discarded items, Rudo barges through the door and dives into the dumpster. By the time Regto catches up, he finds the boy bawling his eyes out while clutching an object tightly. Confused, Regto wonders what kind of emotion he is even witnessing.
Through his tears, Rudo cries that it’s horrible for an object with a long life ahead to be thrown away simply because it’s slightly broken. He yells nonstop that he wants to fix it. At that moment, Regto realizes Rudo is not just projecting his own feelings onto the object — he genuinely sees worth in things others already consider worthless.
Back in the present, Rudo awakens the power inside Grizz’s lucky charm. Still clinging to life, Grizz finally understands why he could never activate it himself: no one had ever truly grasped its nature until now. Rudo’s ability doesn’t simply turn random objects into vital instruments — instead, it brings out their true hidden worth.
Rudo transforms the lucky charm into a defensive weapon with a large eye. Instead of panicking, the enemy boss drools over it, intrigued. He grows curious and asks Rudo if this is his vital instrument, eager to learn everything about it. Meanwhile, the other supporter carries Grizz to safety, doing his best to provide first aid.
Rudo recalls how Grizz was the one who made him realize what he truly wanted to do. If not for him, he would still be lost. With that in mind, Rudo steels himself to strike the enemy.
The raider introduces himself as Jabber Wonger, saying he loves strong givers. He holds out his claws and asks Rudo his name. After the introduction, Jabber gets excited like a maniac, shouting that he wants them to tear each other apart, before dashing toward him.
Meanwhile, the supporter struggles to stop Grizz’s bleeding, but the blood keeps flowing heavily. Watching Rudo fight, Grizz realizes the reason he couldn’t fight before was because his emotions clouded his true purpose. But now, there’s nothing left to distract him.
Back in the fight, Jabber leaps back and clings to the wall, taunting Rudo and asking why he isn’t coming to him. Rudo simply tells him to come himself. The raider obeys, lunging over him with a powerful attack — but lands flat on the floor as Rudo has already dodged it.
Jabber follows up with a barrage of attacks, but Rudo dodges every single one.
Finally, when Jabber asks why his attacks don’t even reach, Rudo explains that his friend Grizz prayed for everyone to return safe and sound — and “safe” means uninjured. That’s why he is focused on defending so that none of the enemy’s attacks can touch him.
Jabber remarks that Rudo’s vital instrument only seems to increase his ability to dodge, and mocks how useless it would be if he couldn’t attack. But Rudo points out that Jabber has been missing the truth all along. He hasn’t taken a single step, yet he’s still dodging every strike. The one moving the whole time has been Jabber himself, which means Rudo can predict his every move.
As Jabber rushes in again, Rudo uses his vital instrument to paralyze him. Since the talisman cannot attack, he follows up with a punch — because fists are Grizz’s preferred weapon, and he wishes to honor his comrade. The raider bleeds from his nose but laughs like a maniac, impressed that Rudo used such a terrifying instrument only to guide his movements and finish with a fist.
Rudo reminds him that he was the one who wanted to “have fun,” so he’s more than happy to play along — until he leaves him a heap of trash on the ground. The disrespect enrages Jabber, who jokes that Rudo is cold-hearted for not feeling guilty about showing no mercy. But Rudo tells him he’s the only exception. At that moment, Jabber appears behind him, ready to strike — only to be paralyzed again and smashed with a brutal punch to the gut that sends him flying.
The boss quickly recovers, leaping around so fast that dust clouds fill the area, making it impossible for Rudo’s eyes to track him. Jabber smashes pillars apart, hurling slabs of stone at him from every direction. Forcing Rudo to shield his eyes, he charges in for the kill. But the Lucky Charm’s all-seeing eye freezes him once more, letting Rudo nearly crush his skull — though Jabber slips away at the last second.
Laughing madly, Jabber charges back in, moving even faster. But each time he gets close, the eye freezes him, and Rudo blasts him away again. The lunatic bounces around like a blur, yet Rudo continues blocking his attacks and pounding him into the ground. While Jabber cackles in madness, Rudo silences him with a final two-punch combo that knocks him out cold for a moment, sending him stumbling until he collapses against a wall.
Panting like a dog, Jabber hears Rudo telling him to just give up already. But the raider only smiles, saying it has been a long time since he was beaten this badly — and he thinks Rudo enjoyed it too. Disgusted by his expression, Rudo watches as the man suddenly grows serious.
Jabber theorizes that Rudo’s vital instrument works by sensing the killing intent of an enemy and moving him out of harm’s way. But he also noticed that when he threw slabs of stone, things without bloodlust didn’t trigger it at all. With a twisted grin, he begins describing his own vital instrument, Manira:
“The right claw carries a poison strong enough to paralyze a target until it can barely breathe… before piercing straight into the chest.”
Rudo stares in confusion as the madman laughs in delight at the thought of pain. Then Jabber explains his real plan: if he blacks out from his own poison and fights unconsciously, there will be no killing intent for Rudo to detect.
As he says this, his consciousness slowly fades, his body twitches, his eyes roll back, and the wall behind him shatters.
