Dead silence.
No screams.No explosions.No Nomu tearing through steel and flesh.
Just smoke drifting through the shattered skeleton of what used to be Sector 3.The world felt… paused.
I stood motionless, my hand still outstretched from the throw. The toxin's detonation had silenced everything, even the battlefield itself.
Ash rained from the sky like snow. The air smelled of burnt flesh and chemicals. Beneath my boots, the earth trembled quietly—no longer with rage, but with exhaustion.
Then I heard it.
Not a scream. Not a growl.
A cough.
A survivor.
One of mine—Thorn—dragging herself from a pile of rubble, bloodied but alive. I blinked. My vision cleared. More shapes began rising through the smoke.
Ghost, limping with his mask cracked. River, propping up Inferno. Obsidian helping Ryah, who clutched an empty toxin injector.
They were alive.
Bruised. Burnt. Barely holding on.
But alive.
I exhaled a breath I didn't realize I was holding.
Then—
A sudden gust. The winds shifted.
The dark hole was gone—caved in, sealed by the explosion. What remained of it smoked and hissed like a dying beast. No more Nomu came from it. Whatever portal or spawning machine lay beneath was dead.
We had turned the tide.
But only just.
I turned toward the broken skyline—and that's when I saw them.
My childhood friends.
Diamond. Marcus. Eliza. Riley. Ryan. All limping. All bruised. All staring at me.
Not as Phantom.
As Anos.
Their eyes said it all.
You lied to us.
You fought with us… and still hid from us.
Before I could open my mouth—before I could even breathe—Izuku stepped forward, half his face bloodied, his arm trembling as he pointed at me.
"You're my brother," he said, voice hoarse. "And you're him."
His knees nearly buckled, Bakugo and Shoto barely keeping him upright.
I took a step forward.
Then froze.
We weren't out of danger yet.
A rumble echoed through the remains of the city. The Nomu weren't pouring out of the hole anymore, but they still roamed the ruins—cut off, leaderless, wild. Dangerous.
I turned back to my assassin team.
"We end this. Now."
They nodded. Ghost flicked his knife. Thorn gritted her teeth. Ryah handed me one last capsule. Just in case.
Then I turned back to Izuku.
"I'll explain," I said, voice low, only he could hear. "If we survive."
He didn't answer.
But he didn't stop me either.
I leapt into the air.
One final push.
One final stand.
Let them question me later.
Right now—
The battlefield was mine.