The island had been fractured. After days of intense combat, the resistance managed to secure control over the south, forcing the Empire to retreat toward the north. From the gray sky, those imperial "planes" soared through the clouds, dropping showers of flyers demanding an immediate surrender, but below, in the controlled zone, the tension only grew.
Zein, temporarily assigned as a messenger to avoid the front, took advantage of his first free day in weeks to go out with Lyra.
They walked through deserted streets. They barely crossed paths with an occasional vagrant taking shelter in the doorways; most of the inhabitants had fled the city or preferred not to risk leaving their homes. However, in the small park near the tavern, the echo of the war seemed to fade away. Lyra ran through the dry grass, laughing as Zein tried to catch her, enjoying a necessary breather. The break was brief, especially knowing that Kio had been sent on a mission to Dravemur and would not return for a month, leaving the girl under Kiera's exclusive care.
A flash of a familiar uniform interrupted the game. A few meters away, semi-hidden under the shadow of a tree, Kiomi was observing the perimeter. Her presence there was disconcerting; she was supposed to be on the firing line in the north. Exchanging a look of strangeness, the siblings approached.
—What are you doing here, Kiomi? —Lyra asked, tilting her head.
—Mission from Miguel —she responded with disdain, without deigning to look at Zein.
—From Miguel? But the front is... —Zein tried to question, but Kiomi cut him off by turning her back.
Suddenly, the silence of the park began to fill with murmurs. Small groups of people started to converge in the plaza. Zein recognized several of them: they were squadron commanders, strategists, and supply leaders of the resistance. All high-ranking officers.
Kiomi's eyes sharpened, analyzing the situation with the speed of a predator. Her battle instinct ignited all at once.
—Something is strange here —she murmured to herself.
With a firm step, she intercepted one of the newly arrived officers and then another, questioning them in a low, sharp voice. The answers did nothing but set off her alarms: to each of them, separately, Miguel had ordered them to report to that exact point at the same time.
Intrigued by the sudden seriousness of the atmosphere, Lyra slipped among the adults, quietly drawing closer to listen to what they were talking about.
—How strange that we are all here for the same reason, even you, Kiomi —one of the strategists commented—. You have climbed quite fast these past few weeks due to your achievements on the front.
—Yes, you are practically one of the highest-ranking officers among everyone present —another added, nodding with respect.
—Kiomi... —Lyra interrupted, gently pulling the sleeve of her uniform.
—What? —she responded, looking down with annoyance.
—Hadn't you joined the resistance just recently? How did you move up so fast? —the girl asked, tilting her head.
Kiomi looked at her, somewhat caught off guard.
—How is it that you know...?
—I have ears like everyone else —Lyra bragged, crossing her arms with a proud smile—. It's normal that I end up hearing all kinds of things when I'm in the tavern.
—You're right —Kiomi admitted, flashing a forced and almost imperceptible smile while giving her a quick pat on the head to push her away.
The conversation froze when a savage roar echoed across the plaza. From the opposite end, an imposing humanoid figure advanced toward them. Its body, tall and massive, was covered in blue-toned scales and gills that flapped forcefully; it wore no clothes, exhibiting an imposing musculature.
—Behold the king of the depths! —the being bellowed, raising its webbed arms—. I have come to avenge my subjects for the massacre at the docks on that fateful day!
Instantly, Zein planted himself in front of Lyra, covering her with his body while the rest of the officers drew their weapons and went on the defensive. The creature locked its bifid eyes directly onto him.
—You! —it roared, pointing at him with a claw—. You smell of my kin's blood, murderer. You don't know how much it cost me to track you here.
Kiomi shifted her gaze toward Zein for a second, loaded with absolute contempt, before summoning her musket in a flash of black magic. She aimed directly at the blue beast's head without hesitating.
—Prepare to die! —the monster threatened, tensing its muscles to charge.
But its cry was cut short.
From the top of an adjacent building, a colossal shadow fell from the sky like a meteorite. The impact against the ground cracked the pavement. Before the aquatic monstrosity could react, the enormous figure grabbed it brutally, pinning its legs with one hand and its chest with the other. With a sharp, violent, and merciless pull, it ripped the creature in half.
A shower of blood stained the grass of the park as the two halves of the self-proclaimed king fell lifeless to the ground, revealing the imposing attacker that had just descended.
The being had a face that was a nightmare of metal and fused human anatomy. A heavy bone or armored plate covered its forehead like an impenetrable visor. Two sharp, geometric lateral metal plates framed its jaw, exposing a row of teeth clenched in a perpetual grimace of agony. Its eye sockets were pits of absolute darkness that devoured the light. The most unsettling part was how the metal sank directly into the flesh of its neck.
Blue blood dripped in streams down the body of that behemoth.
Panic took over the plaza. The resistance officers tried to scatter and run, but the ground vibrated violently and a series of massive stone walls sprouted from the earth, blocking the exits and trapping them within the perimeter.
The air filled with a terrified murmur.
—Shit, it's Sora... —one of the commanders whispered, his face pale.
—Who is Sora? —Zein asked, looking for answers as he drew his weapon.
—He's one of the Duke's direct generals —the man responded, his voice trembling—. One of the strongest bastards on the entire island.
—Direct generals? What does that mean?
—I'll explain later if we make it out of here alive! Although I doubt it...
Without wasting time on regrets, Zein ran toward one of the stone walls Sora had summoned. He concentrated his strength and, with a magic-infused punch, cracked the structure, opening a hole large enough for the people to evacuate.
Immediately, he turned toward his sister and knelt to meet her height, taking her firmly by the shoulders.
—Lyra, I don't know who this guy is, but he's strong. It's too dangerous for you to stay here —he told her, forcing a smile to convey calm.
—But...
—Go with Alexander, find shelter, and don't come out until I go get you, okay?
—Do you promise me you're going to return safe? That you'll come for me? —Lyra asked, her eyes glassy with fear.
—I promise you.
Lyra nodded and, along with the rest of the officers crowding the exit, escaped in a hurry from the place.
—Ah, well... —Sora articulated. His voice was thick, heavy, and dragged out the words with an unbearable arrogance—. After how much it cost me to design this little theater to draw you all in and kill you together. What a waste.
The imperial general began to shake the remnants of blue blood off his arms with total parsimony, as if the escape of the rebels were a minor inconvenience that did not deserve his agitation.
Zein used his magic to seal the hole he had opened, raising the stone wall once again. The park fell into a deathly silence, enclosing him and Kiomi alone with the monster.
—Do you have any idea how strong he is? —Zein asked his companion, without taking his eyes off the general.
—Do you remember the nuclear explosion in the middle of the sea? The one the liquidators are working on? —Kiomi asked, with a tension in her voice that Zein had never heard before.
—Yes.
—If I tell you that he was at the exact epicenter the day of the blast and survived as if it were nothing, do you get an idea of what we are facing?
—Shit... —Zein gritted his teeth, gripping the handle of his sword.
—You flatter me, Kiomi. And yes, I know perfectly well what your name is, just as I know every single one of the vermin that just fled —Sora intervened, finishing shaking off the last traces of blue blood with an arrogant smile—. Although letting them go is useless; I will just finish off the two of you first and then I will go hunt them down one by one.
Sora kept silent for an instant and shifted his bifid eyes toward Zein, tilting his head in bewilderment.
—Who are you, by the way? You are not in the files of the resistance's high command —he commented, scratching his jaw with disdain—. Well, not that I care. You are going to die here anyway.
Kiomi did not let him finish. She raised her musket in a lightning movement and pulled the trigger, aiming directly at the center of his forehead. The shot echoed sharply, and the projectile pierced his skull. Sora collapsed onto his back, remaining motionless on the ground.
«It cannot be this easy... Or can it?» both thought, fixed on the body.
Suddenly, a viscous sound broke the calm. The hole in Sora's head began to close; the flesh and bone regenerated in seconds until no trace was left. The general sat up with total parsimony, stretching his arms.
—That hurt a little, you know? —he said, cracking his neck with a mocking smile.
Before they could process it, Sora vanished. The pavement beneath his boots fractured from the violent forward momentum, cutting the distance in a blink. His clenched fist went straight for Zein's face.
Out of pure survival instinct, Zein summoned his sword just in time to interpose the blade. The impact resonated like a bronze bell; the steel vibrated with such violence that it numbed his arms, and his feet slid backward, cracking the ground beneath the pressure.
Sora did not even flinch, holding the strike against the weapon with a terrifying fixity. Kiomi, taking advantage of the flank, gave him no respite: the barrel of her musket roared again at point-blank range, opening a new, clean hole in his head.
Blood and bone fragments were expelled backward, but Sora's body did not even stagger. The breach in his skull began to close immediately with a viscous hiss, as if the shot had been a simple nuisance.
—Nice try —Sora said, shifting his bifid eyes toward Kiomi.
The general launched into the attack, but as soon as he crossed the space between them, several invisible threads that she had tautened beforehand vibrated forcefully in the air. Sora's body was caught for a fraction of a second. It was enough. Kiomi yanked the line with a sharp movement of her hand, and the threads completely deflected Sora's momentum, throwing him violently to one side. The general dragged himself several meters along the pavement before regaining his balance.
Zein took advantage of the opening without hesitation. He closed the distance and unleashed a horizontal slash with all his strength. Faithful to his promise, he turned his wrist at the last instant to strike with the flat back of the weapon. The blunt impact resonated on Sora's jaw, twisting his face and forcing him to take a step back.
For a second, the park fell into a deathly silence.
Sora straightened his head with an exasperating slowness. His expression hardened.
—Are you taking me for an idiot?
Before Zein could regain his guard posture, Sora spun on his own axis and delivered a brutal kick straight to his abdomen. The impact sounded like a demolition. Zein went flying backward, crashing through the first stone wall as if it were paper. Then another. And yet another. The debris and dust exploded around him in a perfect line of destruction, until his body ended up embedded against the structure of a distant building. The entire floor shook.
—If you only use the back of your sword, you will never leave a scratch on me —Sora declared, landing elegantly on his feet over the remnants of the pavement.
In the distance, buried amidst blocks of stone and clouds of dust, Zein could barely breathe. The blow had emptied his lungs, and the pain clouded his judgment. In the middle of the agony, Miguel's words and the faces of those who depended on him flashed through his mind.
«If I keep going like this... I won't be able to protect anyone,» he thought in desperation, swallowing saliva that tasted of blood. «If I keep holding back like this, Sora is going to kill me right here. And afterward... he will go for Kiomi. He will go for Lyra.»
Sora lunged at Kiomi again, granting her no respite. The ground cracked beneath his boots with every shift in direction, pursuing her with an almost animalistic aggressiveness. Kiomi barely managed to maintain a safety margin, propelling herself from one wall to another with the help of her threads while opening fire between jumps. Several bullets pierced his torso; others tore pieces of flesh from his shoulders, but the wound closing a moment later nullified any impact.
The threads tautened in the air again in a desperate attempt to slow him down. The invisible lines embedded themselves deeply into his skin, restraining Sora for a fraction of a second, but Sora simply continued moving forward, letting the wire slice his flesh just to close the distance.
Kiomi gritted her teeth upon seeing him raise his fist. He was right on top of her. For a millisecond, the certainty that she would not manage to dodge him froze her in place.
Then, a silver flash crossed the air before her eyes.
Sora's arm went flying, spinning through the air.
Zein appeared at his side in a burst of speed, completing the arc of his sword as a fountain of blood erupted from the severed shoulder. The weight of the cut destabilized the general, making him fall heavily to his knees.
Time seemed to stop in the park.
Kiomi held her breath, her chest heaving violently. Zein stood firm, repositioning into a high guard posture, with the edge of the blade pointing forward. At the feet of both, Sora observed his own mutilated limb with a twisted smile, as the muscle fibers, blood vessels, and bone began to weave themselves back together at an absurd speed.
As soon as the limb was whole, both reacted at the same time.
Zein lunged forward with a downward diagonal slash, while Sora unleashed a straight punch toward his face. The clash was brutal. The general's fist impacted squarely on Zein's cheek, snapping his head back violently and spraying blood from his mouth; at the same time, Zein's steel bit into Sora's newly regenerated shoulder again, severing it for a second time. In the midst of that savage exchange, thunder ripped through the air.
The bullet from Kiomi's musket hit Sora directly in the cheekbone. The force of the shot made half of his face explode backward, forcing Sora to retreat a couple of steps. However, the dazed state lasted barely a blink. But it was enough.
Zein seized the general's millisecond of blindness, spun on his own axis, and delivered two lightning slashes. The steel cut clean, and Sora's legs were separated from his body before he could react. Losing his balance completely, Zein finished the offensive with a brutal kick to the chest that sent him flying several meters backward.
Sora's amputated torso soared through the air, but gravity was not faster than his monstrous nature. Even before touching the ground, his legs were already sprouting from the wounds mid-flight. The bones assembled themselves and the muscles wove together while the body spun uncontrollably. By the time he finally landed on his feet, impacting the pavement, he was whole once more.
Zein did not hesitate. He propelled himself forward and launched a direct, lethal thrust at the heart. Sora didn't even try to dodge it. He received it head-on, with his chest open.
The sword ran him through from side to side. The blood erupted dark around the embedded blade, but the general widened his grotesque smile. Enduring the damage without blinking, he used the sword driven into his flesh to close the distance and gripped Zein's arm with an iron hold, imprisoning him. He was trapped.
Sora's other fist was already traveling at the speed of sound, straight to pulverize Zein's face. With no room to cover himself and with Kiomi too far away to reload, the blow seemed definitive.
Then, the air compressed with a blast.
A silhouette crossed the perimeter like a lightning bolt. A kick imbued with seismic power impacted Sora's side with unimaginable violence, shattering the behemoth's ribs and forcing him to let go of Zein as he was sent flying, tearing up the ground in his wake.
Zein fell to his knees. Looking up, the imposing silhouette that interposed itself between them and the imperial general brought his breath back. Beside him, Naoko was already drawing her weapon, her gaze fixed on the enemy.
Miguel stood firm, adjusting his combat gloves as the dust from his entrance settled.
—Don't worry, Zein. We are here now —the veteran declared.