After Crownslayer finished her story, the group set off once again.
They handled the treacherous path out of the city center, finally crossing into the Lower District.
The journey was a brutal slog.
Everywhere they looked, opportunistic thugs were burning, killing, and looting the remnants of the fractured city.
Earthquakes rattled the ground beneath their boots, and falling debris rained from the smoke-choked sky.
The Catastrophe and the war had ground the urban landscape into an unrecognizable wasteland, turning every step forward into a grueling trial.
A deafening boom shattered the ambient noise as a massive chunk of masonry sheared off a nearby skyscraper.
The impact sent violent tremors through the street, dislodging a deadly shower of concrete and glass.
“Find cover!” Nearl shouted.
She and Ace immediately stepped to the front, raising their heavy shields to form a barricade against the lethal rain of debris.
Dobermann barked orders, keeping the formation tight and preventing panic.
Thanks to their swift reactions, the squad weathered the localized collapse without any serious casualties, pushing through the dust cloud unscathed.
“What is that?!” an operator suddenly cried out, pointing upward.
Kai followed the operator’s gaze.
High above the shattered streets, framed by billowing black smoke and raging fires, a lone woman stood atop the jagged ruins.
Her presence commanded the absolute attention of the battlefield.
“The earth falls into silence,” her voice drifted down, clear and chilling despite the roaring flames.
“Fear has stolen their voices.” She raised a hand, and the ambient temperature spiked.
“The massive Originium bows its head and falls…
it falls into the scorched shadow of death.” “Talulah.” With the apocalyptic Catastrophe serving as her personal backdrop, she was delivering a grim declaration.
It was the absolute fury of the Infected, a promise of vengeance, and a herald that their era had finally arrived.
Kai blinked, shielding his eyes from the glare.
“Whoa, she is really putting on a show up there.” Dobermann did not share his amusement.
She stared grimly at the inferno that seemed eager to consume the entire district.
“Talulah…” “Crownslayer, you have been away from the team for far too long,” Talulah’s cold, measured voice echoed across the ruins.
Crownslayer simply lowered her head, offering no response to her leader.
Talulah shifted her burning gaze to the Rhodes Island vanguard.
Her eyes briefly lingered on the mysterious Sarcophagus being hauled by M3, but she quickly dismissed it.
She had more pressing matters to address than a heavy metal box.
“I will leave these stragglers to you,” Talulah instructed the encroaching Reunion forces.
“Leave none alive.” “Rhodes Island!
Kill them all!” The Reunion soldiers, though heavily battered by the recent Catastrophe, were completely undeterred.
Driven by fanatical rage, they surged forward like a tidal wave of rusted blades and crude Arts.
“Hold the line!” Nearl roared, planting her feet.
“We should have been friends, Rhodes Island.” Talulah began her slow, deliberate descent toward them.
The oppressive stench of burning steel and sulfur choked the air, and the suffocating shadow of death fell over the operators.
“Hey!
Crownslayer, this is your cue to step up!” Kai pushed past his lingering abdominal pain and jogged over to the Lupo.
Crownslayer was visibly trembling, intimidated by the sheer gravity of Talulah’s presence.
She remembered Kai’s earlier warning—that the Talulah standing before them was no longer the person she once knew.
“I will try,” Crownslayer muttered.
She took a deep breath and shouted over the din of battle, “Talulah!
Can you let Rhodes Island go?” Talulah halted.
Her piercing, fiery gaze locked onto the Lupo.
“What did Rhodes Island promise you?” Crownslayer stood her ground, speaking neither humbly nor arrogantly.
“The truth I seek.” A heavy silence stretched between them.
Then, Talulah raised her hand.
“Rhodes Island has wantonly slaughtered our comrades.
They must pay the price.” Searing flames began to coalesce in her palm.
“I shall grant you…
destruction.” Crownslayer’s eyes widened in horror.
Why had it come to this?
The first blast erupted with blinding speed.
Nearl stepped forward to intercept it, but the kinetic force sent the Kuranta knight flying backward.
The specialized alloys of her heavy armor were already glowing red and showing signs of melting.
The second blast struck their only path of retreat.
An entire half-block of ruined storefronts was instantly incinerated, reduced to bubbling slag in a single heartbeat.
The sheer ambient heat made everyone’s hair stand on end.
This was a level of destructive power they simply could not fight.
“You guys go first!
I will hold her back!” Ace shouted, stepping to the absolute front of the formation.
Every operator present knew the grim reality.
With such a massive disparity in strength, staying behind was a guaranteed death sentence.
“Big Brother Ace…” Seeing that her first two casual strikes had not completely broken them, Talulah paused.
The flames around her intensified, drawing inward as she took her time to charge the next attack.
This would be her full-powered execution.
If a miracle did not happen, the entire Rhodes Island vanguard would be wiped from the face of Terra.
“An impressive bond,” Talulah noted coldly.
“Now, turn to ash.
Incinerate.” A terrifying torrent of liquid fire erupted from Talulah’s outstretched hand.
A massive heatwave swept across the broken asphalt, a wall of absolute destruction meant to erase Rhodes Island from existence.
Ace slammed his heavy shield into the ground.
Nearl pushed her Originium Arts past their safe limits.
Dobermann, clutching a bleeding wound on her arm, desperately commanded the rearguard to keep the Reunion grunts at bay.
Amiya raised her hands, a dark, desperate light preparing to bloom from her rings.
To Kai, the world suddenly ground to a halt.
The frantic shouts, the roaring flames, the suffocating heat—it all froze.
Even the agonizing, tearing pain in his abdomen vanished entirely.
‘No, it shouldn’t be like this,’he thought, staring at the incoming wave of death.’Has nothing changed?
Why?’ “I won’t allow it!” A startling pulse of energy erupted from the center of the Rhodes Island formation, expanding outward to form a translucent, shimmering film of light.
It looked incredibly fragile, like a soap bubble that would pop at the slightest touch.
Yet, when Talulah’s devastating inferno crashed into it, the flames split and washed harmlessly over the dome.
Ace stood mere inches from the barrier, bracing for an impact that never came.
He did not feel a single degree of heat.
Amiya halted her desperate spellcasting.
She turned around, tracing the source of the immense energy, and gasped.
Kai was partially levitating off the cracked pavement.
His fingers were splayed forward, radiating a dazzling, pure light that bathed the surviving operators in a warm, comforting glow.
“Mr.
Kai!” Amiya cried out.
Kai glanced down at Amiya and flashed a confident smile.
Even though he was completely bewildered by the situation, the sensation flowing through his veins felt incredibly familiar.
The crippling pain was gone, replaced by an endless, surging ocean of power.
Right now, he felt terrifyingly strong.
Across the battlefield, Talulah frowned.
Her expression shifted into one of genuine confusion.
How had she failed to sense a powerhouse capable of matching her Arts hiding within the Rhodes Island ranks?
It hardly mattered.
She narrowed her eyes and maintained the relentless output of her flames.
“Dobermann, take Amiya and the others and leave first,” Kai ordered, his voice carrying easily over the roar of the fire.
“Hey!
Kai, what is going on with you?
Don’t try to be a hero!” Blaze’s voice crackled over the tactical comms.
The feline Elite Operator had been tearing through the flanks, desperately trying to relieve the pressure on the main group.
“Mr.
Kai, what are you saying?!” Amiya protested, her eyes wide with concern.
“We won’t leave a comrade behind!” “Amiya, trust me.
I am terrifyingly strong right now,” Kai said casually.
He took a moment to flex his fingers, familiarizing himself with the vast energy coursing through him.
It was strange, but he felt as if this power had always belonged to him.
After just a few seconds of adjustment, wielding it felt as natural as breathing.
“But…” Amiya wanted to argue, but Ace placed a heavy hand on her shoulder.
“Amiya, maybe we can trust him.
I will stay here to assist.
You take the others and leave first.
Do not waste this opportunity,” Ace said firmly.
The rest of the squad might not fully grasp the sheer scale of Kai’s sudden awakening, but Ace had just stared death in the face.
He knew exactly how sturdy that thin film of light really was.
“This…
alright.
Big Brother Ace, Mr.
Kai, you must return safely, okay?” Amiya was not an indecisive leader.
She gave them one last look before turning away.
She and Dobermann quickly rallied the main force, securing the Doctor’s Sarcophagus and dragging Crownslayer along with them.
They punched through the scattered Reunion defensive lines, leaving only M3 and Ace behind with Kai.
Watching the extraction team fade into the smoke, Kai stretched his arms overhead, joints popping, and grinned.
“Now, it is round two.” M3 leaned in close, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Kai, what is the deal with you?” “I am not sure either.
All I know is that I seem to be pretty strong now,” Kai replied, glancing at her.
“Why did you stay behind too?” “Kal’tsit told me to protect you!” M3 planted her hands on her hips, completely oblivious to the absurdity of the current power dynamic.
“Alright, suit yourself,” Kai chuckled.
Talulah finally unleashed her next charged attack, a concentrated spear of white-hot plasma that shrieked through the air toward them.
Kai casually reached out a hand and made a twisting motion with his wrist.
The air itself warped and folded.
The apocalyptic flames, capable of incinerating a city block, froze completely in mid-air.
Then, like a candle starved of oxygen, they simply snuffed out into nothingness.
Ace lowered his shield, his jaw practically hitting the floor.
“You call this…
seeming pretty strong?” [Rhodes’s Note: Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?
(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent!
to use the links!)