In the city below...
The inhabitants had gathered in emergency shelters. Surveillance drones filmed the scene in real-time, projecting red alerts onto buildings. Transportation had halted. Children cried, and parents tried to calm them. The authorities' loudspeakers repeated the instructions: "Fissure detected – Immediate evacuation – Threat level unknown."
In the center of the square, a heavy silence preceded the horror.
The fissure widened further. Two legs emerged. Black, smooth, oozing with organic matter. A massive torso followed, covered in red eyes, all moving, observing in every direction. Two maws opened, drooling black liquid. Four tentacles burst from its back, ending in sharp blades vibrating with instability.
The colossus stood several hundred meters tall.
Nadir squinted.
—"Level 4."
It would be a tough fight. But he had seen worse. He had killed hundreds of level fives. But he hoped there weren't any of that level in the fissure yet.
He lowered his spear. His energy concentrated in his armor. He would strike first.
A shrill alarm split the air, followed by the sudden appearance of a shock squad.
The Hearts of the Universal Guardian materialized in a flash of white light, landing in perfect formation on the trembling ground of Kepler 23b5. Each was equipped with synthetic armor, ionic halberds, and support drones. They formed the tactical shield of the galactic organization, the first line of defense for a planet. But that day, their bravery weighed nothing against the power of this nightmare.
A black wave streaked through the air with vibrations of unimaginable violence.
In a second, the hundred Guardians were mowed down.
Their armor exploded like empty shells. Their limbs were slashed by the nightmare's blades. Their cries, brief, were swallowed by the icy silence that followed.
A monster with a distorted silhouette advanced, walking on the bloody carcasses.
...
From the top of the hill, Nadir had seen everything.
He gripped his spear. It began to crackle, navy blue electric arcs dancing along its battle-blackened metal.
"Damn beast..." he growled.
He leaped.
His body cut through the air like a neon comet. He crashed into the monster, their collision creating an instant crater. The impact sent a shockwave that razed the surrounding buildings, turning the alleys into labyrinths of rubble.
The Nightmare screamed. The sound shattered windows for kilometers.
Nadir rolled to the side, planted his spear into the ground, and propelled himself again. He delivered two diagonal strikes that tore out eyes. The monster retaliated, and he sliced its blades with an ascending strike, then with a transverse twist, he exploded one of its jaws.
His claws extended mid-air, black, fluid, tearing through the air like paper. His teeth, immense, opened to reveal multiple internal rows, ready to devour. It unleashed even more blades.
Nadir fought with the precision of a mechanical god. Every strike, every retreat, every impulse of his energy launcher was calibrated to kill. But the monster regenerated. Its body closed over the wounds. Its screams warped space.
And all around them, the city died.
Buildings collapsed. Civilians were cut down by debris. The ground split. The air vibrated. The sky took on an ashen, almost apocalyptic hue.
Nadir felt his veins pulse.
The neon, a quantum fluid that flowed within him like living plasma, rose a notch. His skin turned electric blue. His muscles tensed, bulged. His eyes became two azure embers.
In a bestial cry, he lifted the Nightmare with his bare hands and hurled it into the sky.
Up there, suspended for a moment in the void, the monster screamed, but Nadir gave it no respite. He leaped after it, faster than a missile, slicing through the blades that flew to meet him—one, two, six, ten—cutting them with fury, even though they regrew almost instantly.
He drew closer.
"Raaaahhhh!"
His nano-armor cracked, tore. The sensors, the armored layers, all gave way under the energy explosion. His bare chest glowed. On his skin, a number appeared: 1453, his Quantum Number.
He threw his spear.
It became a blue meteor.
A comet of pure, vibrating electricity.
It streaked across the sky.
*BOOOOOOM*
Everything shook. Not just the city. The entire planet.
A tectonic shockwave shattered the magnetic lines. The oceans vibrated. The sky split with a lightning bolt that never faded.
Then, silence.
Nadir fell amidst the ruins. Gasping. On his knees. The ground was scorched. Dust covered everything. His skin still smoked, burned by the excess neon. He looked up.
The Nightmare's body crashed in the distance, raising a cloud that rose like a nuclear mushroom. It no longer moved. Its skin disintegrated. Its red eyes finally dimmed.
"Ah… I made it…" Nadir whispered, breathless.
One by one, survivors emerged from the rubble.
Faces black with soot, eyes wide, covered in blood and ashes. Those who had had the presence of mind to run to the bunkers, those high-density underground shelters, were safe from the dark energy. A few rare buildings, armored or protected by stasis fields, had held. Others had been lucky not to be in the path of the Nightmare's blades.
A child limped forward, tears in his eyes.
"Thank you, General… You… you saved our lives."
Nadir looked away, grimacing. He slowly rose, his hand still on his chest.
"Not… as much as I would have liked…" he replied in a breath, his gaze fixed on the horizon.
The gaping, black fissure floated in the air. A tear in reality, from which the Nightmare had emerged, was slowly closing.
"Is it... over?"
He looked at the hill. It seemed intact. Too intact.
Apart from the debris, it had barely been touched… really?
"It should be in pieces. My luck… could it finally be on my side?"
But he didn't have time to finish his thought.
A white figure floated a few centimeters above the ground.
His breath caught.
"No… no, it can't be…"
He trembled. His hands, his chest, his mind. His entire being refused to believe what he saw.
"Damn…"