Chapter 78

One Down (まず一匹) is the seventy-eighth of The Promised Neverland.

Synopsis
The tables have turned, the hunter is now hunted. Gillian and Nigel chase after Luce and corner him. Gillian thinks of the irony and soon kills him. Meanwhile, Sandy and Sonya prepare their secret weapon to fight Nous and Nouma.

Plot
Luce becomes surprised at how quickly the kids were able to figure out the truth about the demons; as far as they were meant to know, they were only supposed to know about the farms and Goldy Pond and nothing more. Luce makes one last attempt to save himself by pulling out a sword from his back, but Nigel quickly shoots it out of his hand. In a blur of panic, Luce makes a run for it

As Luce runs, all of his moments of torturing the children come back to him, from giving some kids head starts to laughing right in their faces as his subordinates drag them away screaming. Even in his final moments, he thinks of the children only as food, and is taken down by Gillian who sweeps his mask from under him before pinning him to the ground. Luce begs for his life, hoping to stall time until another demon finds him and helps him out. As he asks for two minutes to explain himself, Gillian mocks him with "I'll give you ten seconds", the line he told Gillian when he killed her sister

Luce still doesn't let up, and continues to beg for his life, explaining that even if they kill him they won't be able to kill anyone else. If they spare him, he'll let them all free and all will be forgiven. He says that it's just a game. Something strikes in Nigel, and a glimpse of a little girl he cared for being taken away by the demons pushes him over the edge, and he orders Gillian to kill him. Luce tries one last time, bringing his father into it. However, Gillian refuses to listen, calling him worthless to her sister, and finally shoots Luce three times

Gillian and Nigel now go over their plan, Gillian stating that they still do have the special bullet they'll use later. The reason why they didn't use it on Luce was because he was the weakest of the group, so it would be a waste to do so. With that in mind, Nigel doesn't have any time to waste, with there being exactly six minutes and twenty-two seconds left in their plan. Both of the children head to help another group

As they leave, we cut to Nous and Nouma fighting. The pair is exceptionally well with communicating with one another, their movements in sync as well as their strategies. They're harder to beat since they can detect where the other children are. Sandy and Sonya begin running away, which eventually leads to a trap. Sandy then explains how their plan will work out, since they can't directly take off their masks and shoot their cores since it would be much harder. Instead, there are five special bullets made in order to break those masks, and from that point it will be easier to shoot their cores