Chapter 3

Abandon All Hope, Part 2 (すべて希望を捨てるその②) is the third chapter of the Ellipsis light novel.

Summary
Sada and Jimmy sneak off toward a section of the unclaimed chains, meeting a girl and her group along the way with a similar idea. The girl introduces herself as Natsukawa, who proceeds to tell Sada that she's helping the younger and older people trapped within the swamp to their chains. Sada goes to introduce herself, but finds she is unable to recall her family name. Having a vision of the Cindered Waif, the spectre reveals her full name as Sada Shuiro. Sada tells Natsukawa her name, but secretly finds her idea of helping others foolish. Once they reach the area, Natsukawa's group grab their chains and are whisked away out of the swamp. However, Jimmy abandons Sada and rushes for the remaining chain; claiming it for himself and escaping.

Sada prepares to leave on her own, but Natsukawa convinces her to travel together. Sada, annoyed by Natsukawa's genuine traits, gives up and begrudgingly forms an alliance with Natsukawa. Sada and Natsukawa spot roughly twenty people remaining within the swamp at this point, all pinned down behind fallen trees and carnage with nowhere to go. The remaining chains are within the section of the quarry nearest to Gozu. With the deathly silence in the swamp now, Mezu begins to methodically hunt down the remaining souls. Sada is informed by Natsukawa that the chains are disappearing. Having counted exactly one-hundred notches around the quarry in total, Natsukawa deduces that with every person killed, a chain disappears.

The two girls are forced to snake across the swamp avoiding Mezu while Gozu sits in the muck holding his massive blade. As the two inch towards a massive hollow tree at the center of the swamp, they notice one man peek up above a far-off log to find a way around Gozu for his group hiding in the tree. Gozu spots the man leading a group of four toward his position and slams its blade down toward the direction of his hiding place. Following the sound, Mezu lunges at the log and snatches the man up: crushing him to death. As Mezu slaughters the other four, Sada deduces that Gozu serves as Mezu's "eyes" and directs the demon toward other survivors Gozu spots. Reaching the hollow tree, Sada and Natsukawa make their way inside, finding the remaining four survivors trapped within.