One week had passed since the factory.
Now he sat beneath an overpass, wrapped in a shredded coat, his body bruised and skinny. His mind worse. The rain had stopped an hour ago, but the wind still dragged the city's cold breath across his skin like a punishment.
He stared at the small TV propped up near a food stall across the street—static flickering, signal barely holding.
Then it came. 00:10 at night.
"BREAKING NEWS: A Level One Threat has been sighted in the forests east of Tokyo. This marks the first appearance of a Class One entity in over five years. All Nightguard Divisions have been dispatched. Civilians are advised to evacuate surrounding areas immediately—"
The image cut to aerial drone footage.
Lucien stood.
What he saw wasn't just dangerous. It was apocalyptic.
A towering monster—thirty feet tall, reptilian in shape, but unlike anything natural—ripped through the forest. Its scales shimmered like obsidian under a crust of frost. Its eyes glowed like pale beacons. With every step, trees shattered and froze over. Its breath came out in waves of ice, leaving trails of dead air.
"Japanese T-Rex?" the newscaster said. "Locals are calling it that, but experts warn—this is something else."
Lucien clenched his fists. He could feel it from here—the pressure.
It didn't just look powerful. It felt ancient.
He took one step forward.
And then stopped.
Going meant revealing himself. Meant drawing attention. Meant risking everything his friends had fought to protect.
"You could help them," a voice in his mind whispered."Or damn them all."
His jaw tightened. "Not yet," he murmured.
Not like this.
Nighguard Corps Headquarters – Central War Room
Red lights flared like bloodied suns across the command interface. A holographic map of Tokyo glowed, the forested outskirts flashing in crimson pulses. Inside the Nightguard command chamber, chaos reigned—but practiced chaos.
"Class One Threat confirmed," the AI voice announced. "Code Black. All divisions mobilized."
The heads of Divisions One through Five stood already assembled.
Karu Arakizawa, captain of Division One, didn't wait for orders. "Deploy my squad. We move now."
To his right stood Cho Linsun, his vice-captain with long black hair and dark brown eyes—and the fastest operative in the entire corps. She locked her fingers and cracked her knuckles with a lazy smile.
Her suit, the Starfall Enforcer, shimmered into place like liquid armor. Two revolvers snapped into her palms, each pulsing with silver-blue runes.
"Target's big. Let's see how fast it drops," she said, eyes gleaming.
Karu smirked. "Try to let the rest of us keep up."
All across the base, teleport circles lit up.
Division One's stealth specialist and new member Kagetsu adjusted his twin daggers, entering full Silent Flow mode—the world around him went mute, and he faded from view like a breath in winter.
From Division Two, Ayumu stepped forward, gravity already warping around her boots. Her presence felt like a black hole.
From Division Three, Lisa cracked her neck and shouldered her twin electric axes. "Time to cut loose."
Division Four's joker Kisuke spun his explosive nunchucks and yelled, "I call dibs on the killshot!"
And behind them, silent but steady:
Rylen. Jason. Emiluna.
Division Five's trio. The ones who'd risked everything for a friend now branded a global threat.
They didn't speak. They didn't need to.
They had a job to do.
Location: Eastern Forest Perimeter – Code Black Zone
The first thing they noticed wasn't the monster.
It was the air.
Frozen. Still. Wrong.
Trees stood like glass pillars, their trunks crystallized in a sheen of death. A low rumble echoed beneath their boots—deep, like the growl of the earth itself.
"Contact in 90 seconds," Cho said, already hovering in mid-air, her revolvers glowing bright. "Remember: no solo hero shit."
Karu took point. "We do this clean. Formation Delta."
From above, 20 elite Nightguard members fanned out, falling into battle positions. Some hovered. Some phased. Some crouched low into the frost. Their suits glowed with power. The sky churned with quiet tension.
And then—
It stepped into view.
Thirty feet of muscle and frost. Its arms were too long, its legs too dense. Its jaws opened wide enough to crush a truck. Ice mist followed every movement. Its tail cracked boulders when it moved. And in its chest pulsed something alien—blue, breathing, hungry.
Frostjaw Reiken.
It roared—and the world seemed to shake.
The ground trembled. Trees cracked apart. The temperature dropped five degrees in a second.
Then the charge began.
Karu struck first, launching forward with a spiral of fire and earth, his fists slamming into the beast's flank. Reiken staggered—but only for a second.
Lisa leapt in next, her twin axes crackling with lightning. She struck its leg, electricity dancing up its spine.
Kagetsu vanished mid-air, then reappeared above the creature, daggers aimed for its neck.
Ayumu raised both hands—gravity slammed down like a meteor, flattening the terrain beneath Reiken's feet.
Cho zipped through the sky in a blur, firing runic bullets at light speed. Every shot curved unnaturally, adjusting mid-flight.
Kisuke struck last, spinning his nunchucks into the creature's chest. They exploded on impact—bright, blinding, brutal.
For a moment—just one second—it looked like they had a chance.
Then Reiken opened its jaws.
And froze the entire forest.
Ice blasted outward in a sweeping breath, covering trees, ground, weapons, and even members of the strike team in a layer of frost.
Then it moved—fast. Too fast for its size.
It grabbed Kisuke, eyes glowing red.
Kisuke's expression froze. His nunchucks fell. His body twitched unnaturally.
"No—" Emiluna gasped.
Jason shouted, "He's mind-controlled!"
For sixty terrifying seconds, Kisuke turned on them, eyes blank, mouth snarling, striking with inhuman force.
Rylen moved fast to intercept him—too fast for anyone but Cho to keep up with.
Kisuke snapped out of it, but the damage was done.
Jason charged next, kinetic energy blazing around his fists. He slammed into Reiken's torso—and Reiken absorbed it.
"Energy absorption?!"
The blow only made the monster stronger.
"Fall back!" Karu ordered. "Group two, flank it from the west—!"
Another roar—louder, deeper. The snow cracked beneath them.
And high above the battlefield, unnoticed by them all…
A figure hovered. Watching.
His eyes narrowed. His heart burning. His name long forgotten by the world.
Lucien.
The battlefield turned into chaos.
Frostjaw Reiken tore through Nightguard's elite like they were rookies.
Trees cracked like glass. Ice-coated terrain shifted underfoot, turning the forest into a jagged deathtrap. Everything the team threw at the beast—electricity, fire, magic, blunt force—barely slowed it down.
Ayumu hovered mid-air, channeling gravitational pressure into a focused beam that slammed into Reiken's skull. The monster snarled and reeled—but not enough.
"Not working!" she shouted, her breath misting in the air.
"It's healing too fast," Lisa growled, leaping backward as frost crawled up her legs. She hacked it off with her axes, panting.
Below, Karu skid across the ice, blood trailing from his mouth. His gauntlets sparked weakly.
"Switch to Plan B!" he roared. "We stall it—until the suppressor core arrives!"
But they all knew: the core was fifteen minutes out.
They didn't have fifteen minutes.
Reiken twisted its serpentine neck and unleashed another pulse of breath—not just cold, but death. A wave of pure entropy that drained color and heat from everything it touched.
Jason shoved Emiluna aside, letting the blast hit him full-on.
"JASON!" she screamed.
His body was hurled fifty feet through the trees.
He didn't move.
"Rylen!" Karu shouted. "We need your suit—now!"
North Ridge – 300 meters from the beast
Rylen stood alone, back pressed against a frozen boulder. His breath trembled. Snowflakes fell like burning ash.
He tapped the gem embedded in his wrist.
The suit answered.
With a surge of deep green and violet light, the Soulweaver Exosuit wrapped around his body in an instant. Fluid armor locked into place with silent clicks, and two blades extended from his wrists—dark steel humming with arcane venom.
The helmet sealed last, syncing to his breath, his heartbeat, his thoughts.
Welcome, Rylen. Soulweaver online. All systems optimal.
His HUD lit up. Time slowed. Magic options flickered.
He could feel it.
Every heartbeat on the battlefield. Every fear. Every chance.
"Let's end this," he whispered.
He launched.
The Counterattack Begins:
He hit Reiken from behind.
One blade sliced through its thigh—venom pulsing into the creature's leg. The beast roared in pain.
He didn't stop.
He flickered behind its head and stabbed again. The second blade pierced the nape—and a pulse of soul energy surged in.
The creature froze.
For a second.
[Soul Anchor embedded. Phase one: 19 minutes until Soulfracture available.]
Reiken swung wildly. Rylen dodged mid-air, slipping through shadows, dancing with gravity.
Cho appeared beside him in a blur, twin revolvers spinning.
"You got the big guy's attention now," she grinned.
"Good. Let's keep it that way."
She dove. He followed.
Together they carved through Reiken's defenses—bullets bending around limbs, blades biting deeper, magic flaring with every strike.
Ayumu returned to the sky, casting illusions over the battlefield—Reiken lashed out at phantoms instead of real targets.
Emiluna reached Jason's side and slammed her hands onto his chest, eyes glowing golden. "Don't you dare die on me."
His body twitched. A breath escaped his lips.
He was alive.
Lisa, Karu, and Kagetsu regrouped near the monster's feet, timing attacks to Rylen's strikes. The team moved as one now, fast, focused, lethal.
For the first time—
Reiken stumbled.
Its ice breath slowed. Its glow flickered.
[Soulfracture countdown: 12 minutes.]
But the monster wasn't done.
It roared—and the air shattered.
A wave of psychic pressure knocked half the squad down. Ayumu dropped from the sky. Kagetsu's invisibility faltered.
Reiken's body pulsed blue.
Its chest split open—revealing a second core.
Jason sat up just in time to see it. "No—It's got a backup!"
Reiken surged forward, swiping its tail. It slammed Cho mid-air, sending her crashing through two trees. Blood trailed behind her.
Karu caught her before she hit the ground.
"We're losing tempo!" Emiluna shouted. "Rylen—what's the plan?!"
Rylen's mind raced.
The second core couldn't be physically broken—its energy was shielded by psychic feedback. Normal weapons wouldn't work.
Only one option left.
[Soulfracture: 3 minutes.]
He exhaled.
Then, calmly: "We hold the line for 180 seconds."
Everyone froze.
"Three minutes," he repeated. "That's all I need. When my blades fracture its soul, it drops for good."
Karu met his eyes. "Three minutes is a lifetime in this fight."
Rylen smiled inside the helmet. "Then let's live it well."
What followed was chaos—and poetry.
Jason rejoined the battle with kinetic shields flaring, body bruised but burning with rage.
Lisa unleashed her storm form with her axes, arcs of lightning radiating across her arms like living snakes.
Ayumu, hovering again, dropped gravitational anomalies onto Reiken's legs, slowing its regeneration.
Kagetsu blinked in and out of existence, cutting tendons and retreating like a ghost.
Karu and Cho moved as one, fists and bullets colliding with unnatural rhythm.
And Rylen—
He was everywhere.
Slashing. Blinking. Healing. Warping space.
He phased through Reiken's skull, drove his blade deeper, and triggered Soulfracture.
[20:00 mark reached. Initiating soul break.]
The suit flared violet. The blades sank to the hilt.
Rylen whispered, "May your spirit rest."
A pulse of light erupted from inside the creature. Not fire. Not magic.
Truth.
The beast stopped moving.
Its body collapsed in a burst of energy and frost, cracks racing across its hide like shattered glass. It let out one last, broken cry.
Then silence.
The forest was gone.
A crater remained, filled with the bodies of trees, frost, and steaming wreckage.
Nightguard stood victorious.
Barely.
Ayumu sat cross-legged in the snow, eyes closed. Lisa leaned on her axes like crutches. Jason lay flat on his back, wheezing. Emiluna wept in quiet relief.
Rylen stood at the center of the battlefield, his suit sparking, his blades dripping with soul energy.
Cho landed beside him.
"You know," she panted, "you're getting scary."
He didn't answer.
Above them a figure hovered.
Unmoving.
Watching.
The wind carried a whisper none of them could hear.
Lucien.