[Day 18, 6 days left]
Augustine:(Thought) I still can't comprehend how this city changes its appearance. From a bird's-eye view, this desert-looking section appeared to be an advanced part of the city. But all I see now are houses made of sand and rock, with people dressed like those from Dubai or the Arab regions.
This is Augustine, codename Ace of Spade, S-Class Rank No. 4. Despite his young age, he became one of the youngest zoologists to ever exist. He understands animals better than anyone else, but due to his introverted nature, it has always been difficult for him to connect with people. He rarely had friends, which often left him feeling isolated.
Today, however, he is accompanied by Eric, Angela, and Paper Nate.
Augustine:(Thought) Also, the temperature here is unbearably hot… which makes me wonder—how the hell are these people even living in this?
They were resting in a small shop that sold cold drinks. Under the relentless heat, they gulped them down like madmen before continuing their journey toward the larger parts of the city.
Angela had already tried scouting ahead by flying, but the extreme temperature made it impossible to sustain. She was forced to return and walk alongside the others.
The constant march had begun to take its toll, blisters forming on their feet. Seeing this, Augustine decided to step in and use his ability—ShadowManipulation. Drawing from the shadows around them, he shaped them into four camels, their forms stabilizing just enough to carry the group across the Dune City.
Camels, known as the "ships of the desert," are built for survival in such harsh environments. Their humps store fat, allowing them to endure long periods without food or water. There are two primary types—the dromedary, with a single hump, and the Bactrian, with two. Adapted to extreme heat, they can go days without water and even close their nostrils during sandstorms.
Angela: Nate, you okay? You've been really quiet since we got here.
Nathan: I'm fine… just in a bit of a hurry. Don't worry about me.
Angela: You're the most hyped one among your clones, paper nonetheless, so I'm just asking out of concern.
Nathan: I know. Hey, Eric—you've fought him before. How do you think we can beat him?
Eric: To be honest, with how overpowered his abilities are… unless we find some kind of supernatural force that can counter his, he's practically invincible.
Augustine: So… our chances of winning are that low, huh?
Angela: Not entirely. We have him.
Nathan: Who? Oblivion? Did you forget what he did a couple of days ago?
Angela: No… but he wasn't like that before—
Nathan: Let me tell you something. Kids like him? The moment they realize they can do anything they want… they go rogue. And on top of that, he and Zerathos had a connection long before we ever did. Marshal already mentioned that in the meeting. Our only goal is to eliminate Old Dominion, no matter what. Right now, we focus on that.
Knowing Nate was right, all they could do was sigh and move on.
Suddenly, a massive explosion erupted in the distance, and they rushed toward it. Nate and Angela went ahead, rescuing civilians in need, while another explosion detonated on the opposite side. Without hesitation, Augustine and Eric split off and headed there instead.
Eric: Like old times?
Augustine: Yep.
Augustine drew in more surrounding shadows, shaping them into a massive shield in midair, blocking the incoming debris. At the same time, Eric located nearby bodies of water and pulled them in, guiding civilians to safety.
After a few moments, silence fell. Assuming the area was secure, Augustine lowered the shield. As Eric tended to the injured, Augustine contacted the WHA to report their situation. The WHA immediately dispatched a rescue team, two Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and one Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules.
Angela and Nate continued doing their best to rescue trapped and injured civilians. As they worked, someone suddenly lunged forward and stabbed Angela in the stomach.
Her reflexes kicked in instantly. With a sharp motion of her wings, she knocked the attacker back.
As the attacker's face was revealed, Angela had no idea who she was. But for Nate… she was no stranger.
At the same time, a massive humanoid creature made of rock emerged near Eric and Augustine's position.
Nathan: Angela, go help them. They'll need you.
Angela: What? No, I'm not—
Nathan:(Angry and frustrated) Just go. I've got this.
The creature hurled massive boulders.
Angela reacted instantly, transforming into a falcon mid-motion and deflecting the attacks with her vine magic before shooting toward it.
The humanoid towered over everything—nearly seventy-five meters tall, as tall as the Empire State and its massive frame dwarfing the surrounding structures.
Gizmo: I AM GIZMO, CODENAME: LUSH LIFE. AND I'VE COME TO BRING DESTRUCTION TO YOU ALL.
Eric: What a loud motherfucker. Augustine—get them to safety. I'll hold him back.
Augustine: On it.
Without hesitation, Augustine summoned multiple shadow beasts. They surged outward—larger, stronger, and far more formidable than their real counterparts. Among them were mythical forms: a harpie, a centaur, a minotaur—creatures shaped from darkness itself.
The beasts carried civilians away as quickly as possible, putting distance between them and the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Eric held Gizmo in place just long enough.
Angela seized the opening.
Using weakness magic, she pierced straight through Gizmo's defenses and blasted through his chest in a single, decisive strike.
Gizmo: You really think… you have enough power to stop me?
He slammed his foot into the ground.
The impact triggered a violent earthquake.
Augustine's eyes snapped toward a child who had stumbled—frozen in place, directly in the path of falling debris.
The collapsing building roared as it came down.
Augustine reacted instantly—surfing along a shadow path he created beneath his feet. He grabbed the child and, with all his strength, hurled him toward safety, where a shadow beast caught him mid-air.
But—
There was no time left.
The building crashed down.
It swallowed Augustine whole.
Eric: "AUGUSTINE!!!"
On the other side of the battlefield, Nate stood face to face with a familiar figure.
Lyra.
Lyra: What's wrong, big brother? You look like you've seen a ghost.
Nate froze.
Then—his composure shattered.
He rushed forward and pulled her into a tight embrace, his hands trembling.
Lyra: It's okay… I'm here. I'm here.
Nathan: I—I missed you so much… I didn't know if I could keep going anymore. Where have you been?
For a brief moment, everything felt… right.
Then—
Lyra giggled.
Soft at first.
Then it twisted.
A sharp, unnatural laugh slipped through her lips.
Nate slowly pulled back, confusion creeping into his eyes.
Something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
The way she smiled—
It wasn't her.
Lyra / Zerathos: It's not hard to deceive you… when you're blind.
Nathan: You're—
Lyra raised her hand.
Cyan hexagonal pattern formed from her hand—
Before Nate could react, a massive piece of debris shot in from his blind spot at terrifying speed.
It slammed into him.
Crushing him against the rubble.
Eric and Angela struggled to restrain Gizmo, but it wasn't enough.
His right arm broke free—
And came crashing down with a punch powerful enough to level the entire city.
Angela's Sumarbrander spun violently, generating a storm of wind that intercepted the strike just in time.
But—
Gizmo's left arm broke free.
And this time—
No one could stop it.
Then—
When all hope seemed lost—
Every shadow in the area collapsed inward.
Drawn toward the rubble where Augustine had fallen.
For a brief second—
Silence.
Then—
BOOM.
The rubble exploded outward.
Augustine emerged—
Riding a massive shadow dragon.
The creature roared as it intercepted Gizmo's punch, halting it mid-impact.
Angela: Wait… if he's using a dragon—
Eric: Then he's really pissed.
A grin spreads across his face.
Eric: That bastard's done for.
Amidst the chaos, the rescue team arrived just in time.
They moved swiftly—guiding civilians, carrying the injured, loading them into the aircraft as the battlefield raged on behind them.
Gizmo launched a heavy punch—
But Augustine reacted instantly.
The shadow dragon twisted mid-air, narrowly dodging the strike, before sweeping low with its tail—
Slamming Gizmo into the ground.
Gizmo: I already saw that coming… Take this!
Despite his massive frame, Gizmo spun at an impossible speed—
Driving a spinning uppercut straight upward.
The impact blasted Augustine and his dragon into the air.
Nathan pulled himself out from the rubble, bloodied—but conscious.
He steadied himself, breathing hard.
Two seconds.
That was all it took for him to recover instantly.
He looked up—
Lyra was gone.
Nathan: Zerathos… possessing my little sister and use her against me? I'll definitely come for you apart.
Then—
A thunderous explosion echoed from the direction of his allies.
Nathan turned—
And what he saw…
Was something far worse than he expected.
While Gizmo was on the ground, he suddenly reached out and grabbed one of the departing aircraft—a C-130J Super Hercules filled with civilians, just about to take off—and hurled it straight toward Augustine's dragon. The impact was catastrophic. A blinding explosion tore through the sky, and in an instant, every life aboard the aircraft was gone. The aftermath left a heavy silence in the air, one that pressed down on Nathan's chest as he stood frozen, unable to move.
Nathan:(Thought) All those people… they did nothing… and still…
His fists clenched tightly, his body trembling—not from fear, but from something deeper, something burning.
Nathan: I WILL SAVE THEM!
Without another word, he stepped forward and then vanished—not merely moving fast, but surpassing speed itself. He ran at twice the speed of light, and as he did, the world around him began to distort. Buildings flickered, debris that had fallen moments ago lifted back into the air, and flames that once consumed everything folded inward, retreating into nothingness. Time itself was rewinding, events reversing as if the destruction had never occurred.
In theory, nothing can surpass the speed of light, as it would require infinite energy and mass, as explained in Einstein's Theory of Relativity. But if something were to break that barrier, it wouldn't simply defy physics—it would shatter causality itself. Effects would precede their causes, and time would no longer move forward but collapse backward.
And Nathan… was forcing reality to follow that impossible rule..
Nathan:(Thought) Doing this could shatter causality, twisting time into a paradox where the future influences the past. But it will only last for five seconds… just this once, no more than that.
From far away, Zerathos observed the scene, untouched by the reversing flow of time. Using his Absolute Causality Manipulation, he stood outside its influence entirely.
Zerathos: No, Jaded Angel. You are not creating a paradox—you are fulfilling it. Your fate… and theirs. For some reason, fate bends even the laws of physics. And you, Nathan—you were always meant to save those people, by any means necessary. Strange… but why? Even I wonder.
Nathan move relentlessly, even though the sheer force of energy he was giving out was tearing his limbs, he kept going.
He formed a paper whip in an instant and latched it onto the dragon's arm, pulling himself upward with explosive speed. In the same motion, he redirected his momentum and dived straight toward the C-130J Hercules, crashing through its window before it could meet its fate.
Arriving just before the moment of impact, Nathan slowed his speed back down to the speed of light, now that the danger of explosion had not yet occurred.
There was no time to form a complex plan, so he acted on instinct. He fired four large, sharp sheets of paper, slicing open the cargo bay. The moment it opened, he deployed a massive paper sheet from his palms, connected from the aircraft to the ground, forming a steep slide.
He dashed through the interior, binding every passenger with paper ropes in seconds. Without hesitation, he sprinted back out, dragging them along and releasing them onto the slide one by one.
The Hercules exploded shortly after.
But this time—every passenger survived.
Now was the moment for teamwork. While Nathan focused on shielding civilians and assisting medevac from collateral damage, the others would finish the fight against Gizmo.
Augustine: In ten seconds… give it everything you've got.
Eric & Angela: Got it!
Gizmo wasn't sure what they were planning, but he remained on guard.
Without warning, Augustine's dragon unleashed a torrent of fire, forcing him backward. As he stumbled, losing his footing, Eric summoned towering spikes of water that surged upward, piercing through the ground and locking Gizmo mid-air.
For the finisher, Angela shot high into the sky, wielding both her blade and Sumarbrander. Her body spun into a horizontal cyclone as she descended with devastating force—
—and in a single motion, she decapitated Gizmo before he could react.
His body fell.
And then—reformed.
Gizmo's real body restored itself almost instantly as he dropped into a small pond below. The trio rushed forward, ready to capture him—
—but he was gone.
Angela: What?! Where is he? He couldn't have gone far.
Augustine:(Thought) When he was falling, his real body rapidly reformed as the giant rock figure crumbled. Which means… his ability is—
Realising what Gizmo's true ability was, he quickly warn the others—
Augustine:Get away from that pond!
But too late.
Multiple long spikes burst from the water, striking everything within range. Eric and Augustine managed to defend themselves, but Angela—closest to the pond—was caught.
The spikes tore through her in multiple places.
Blood burst into the air as she was thrown back.
Unable to ignore the situation, Eric reacted instantly. He lifted the pond's water into the air, compressing it into a dense, spherical mass and locking it in place.
Eric: Your ability is to merge with objects… isn't it?
Augustine: But you have limits, don't you? No wonder you didn't merge with living things.
Gizmo's face twisted within the suspended water. He tried to strike—
—but couldn't.
Eric had him contained.
Gizmo: You can't win. Your fate is already sealed. None of you can stand before us. And if that doesn't convince you… I'll show you.
Gizmo reformed his original body, breaking free from the isolated water. He lunged toward the rocky ground, reaching to merge with it—
Augustine: Bet you didn't see this coming.
A massive fist of shadow formed and slammed into Gizmo, launching him far into the distance. Before he could recover, Eric seized control mid-air, halting his momentum, then hurling him higher before driving him down into the ground with crushing force.
The impact staggered him.
Eric struck again to keep him off balance—but this time, Gizmo managed to touch the ground.
And merged.
For a moment.
Then—
Something was wrong.
The ground he fused with… wasn't fully connected with Earth, it was resting on a shadow construct.
The shadow hand closed instantly, crushing the terrain around him and sealing it into a compact sphere—locking Gizmo inside before he could reform.
Gizmo: Wait… what are you doing?
Eric: Sending you somewhere far away. Somewhere you won't cause trouble.
Augustine: You don't need to breathe when you're merged… do you?
Gizmo: No… you can't—
Augustine make a pose like the one from a baseball pitcher and hurled the compressed sphere high into the sky—
—beyond the atmosphere.
Gizmo: NOOOOOOO!!!!!
Gizmo drifted into orbit, trapped between Earth and the Moon, unable to return under the pull of gravity.
As long as he remained merged with the rock, he wouldn't need air.
But if he separated—
He would have seconds.
The vacuum would take him first.
Consciousness fading almost instantly, lungs collapsing, his body freezing in the endless cold of space.
There was nothing he could do.
And eventually, he stopped thinking.
Back on Earth, rescue teams arrived, guiding civilians to safety as the chaos finally began to settle.
Angela's wounds weren't fatal, but the blood loss was severe. Nate worked quickly to heal Angela while Eric stabilized her circulation.
Angela:(Panting) Heh… that was one hell of a fight. Still better than Maroon Memories, right, Nate?
Nathan: Can't argue with that. Get some rest—we'll move once you've recovered. Augustine, report back to HQ.
Augustine: On it.
Angela: Hey… how did you manage to save all those passengers, Nate?
Nathan: I—(pause) you know how fast I am. It was easy.
Angela: What about the girl? Did you catch her?
Nathan: She… uh… slipped out of my hands.
Angela: …...That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard in my entire life. Fastest man alive, my ass.
Nate poked her wound.
Angela: Ow—ow—ow! Careful, bitch! That hurts.
Nathan: And such words come from a noble Valkyrie like you.
Angela: Oh, fuck off. We ain't in the Viking Age—or the 13th fucking century—anymore.
Nathan:(Sighs) Whatever.
They received a message from Alan. He and Blake had found the temple—complete with an image and exact coordinates.
Augustine: So this means—
Eric: We now know exactly where we're heading.
Nathan stood up after healing Angela and clear his throat.
Nathan: You can choose—come with me, or retreat and secure the other cities. But if you're coming with me… there's no turning back. And it also means you could potentially die.
They fell silent, weighing the choice. Only for a moment.
Augustine: We stick as a team. So we fight as a team.
Eric: I've got a score to settle with that sone of a bitch. I'm in.
Angela: Can't miss all the fun. I'm definitely going.
Nathan smiles and gave a nod of approval.
Nathan:Then let's roll.