The giant mutant zombie was just inches away from Silya, Silvia, and the crying little girl.
Its massive, bloodthirsty arms were raised high, ready to crush them into the dirt.
Flame watched in pure desperation, his body broken and unable to move, screaming out as the monster closed the distance.
Then, a sudden, terrifying presence suffocated the entire street.
It was a pressure so heavy and monstrous that Flame, Silvia, and even the giant zombie itself froze in sheer instinctual terror.
WHOOSH!
Before anyone could comprehend what was happening, a massive block of concrete came flying through the air like a missile.
It slammed directly into the side of the mutant zombie’s head with a sickening, bone-crushing thud.
The sheer force of the impact launched the enormous creature sideways, sending it crashing violently into a nearby brick wall before it collapsed heavily onto the pavement.
Everyone stood in absolute shock.
The silence was deafening.
Flame slowly turned his head toward the source of the flying concrete, and his breath caught in his throat.
Reian was standing there.
His head was tilted downward, his face completely shadowed as he stared at the ground.
Thick, dark blood was dripping steadily from his forehead and hands, splashing quietly onto the dirt.
He shouldn’t have been standing.
His chest had just been crushed, yet here he was, radiating an aura that felt entirely inhuman.
The mutant zombie groaned, its stone-like muscles pulsing as it slowly began to push itself back up from the debris.
Hearing the noise, Reian lifted his head and looked straight at the creature.
Flame’s eyes widened in horror.
Reian’s face was completely painted in raw, crimson blood, but his eyes—they weren’t normal.
In the next blink, Reian vanished.
He lunged forward at a speed so violent it tore up the asphalt beneath his boots.
Flame could barely trace his movements; it was impossibly fast, far beyond anything a human could achieve.
Seeing the blur rushing toward it, the giant zombie went completely berserk.
It roared, throwing its massive weight forward to meet the challenge.
But Reian didn’t flinch.
As the monster swung a fist that could shatter a building, Reian fluidly ducked under the attack, slipping directly into the blind spot behind the creature’s back.
Before the mutant could turn around, Reian grabbed its thick, mutated arm with his bare hands.
With a burst of raw, terrifying physical power, he slammed the massive beast down onto the ground.
Then, planting his foot on its spine, Reian pulled.
RIP!
With a sickening tear of flesh and muscle, Reian brutally ripped the zombie’s entire arm clean off its socket.
The monster screamed in agonizing rage.
Spinning around with its remaining arm, it lashed out blindly, its massive fist striking Reian square in the chest and sending him flying backward across the intersection.
“REIAN!” Flame and the girls screamed in unison, panic gripping their chests.
Adrenaline surging through his veins, Flame forced his broken body up, desperate to stand on his own two feet.
But as he wiped the blood from his eyes, he stopped.
Reian hadn’t crashed.
Without pausing for even a microsecond, Reian rushed right back into the danger zone.
He closed the gap instantly.
He ducked another wild swing, grabbed the monster’s second arm, and brutally tore it from its body, spraying black blood across the street.
The weaponless mutant could only roar in helplessness.
Reian didn’t give it the chance.
He clamped his blood-soaked bare hands onto the monster’s head, twisted, and forcefully ripped its skull clean off its shoulders.
The massive torso of the mutant zombie twitched once, then fell flat into the dirt, completely dead.
But deep inside, a completely different battle was raging.
Inside his own consciousness, Reian was trapped in the pitch-black void, locked tight in those heavy, burning metal chains.
He was completely conscious, watching everything through his own eyes like a helpless passenger inside a runaway vehicle.
He could see his hands covered in black blood, feeling the terrifying strength flowing through his muscles, but he had zero control.
“Let me go!” Reian screamed, pulling against the chains until they cut into his skin.
“Stop this!”
Out of the darkness, a cold, mocking laugh echoed.
The massive, dark shadow materialized right in front of him, entirely undisturbed by his screaming.
“Look at them, boy,” the ancient voice hissed, its glowing eyes narrowing with cruel amusement.
“Look how fragile they are.
You begged for power to save them, and now your own hands will tear them apart.
Don’t close your eyes.
Watch.”
“NO!
STOP!” Reian roared, thrashing wildly against the bindings.
But the shadow simply dissolved into the darkness, leaving Reian spinning in panic.
He could feel his physical body turning around.
He could see Silya, Silvia, and Flame standing just a few yards away, trembling.
From the perspective of the group, the nightmare wasn’t over.
The giant mutant was dead, but the entity standing on top of its corpse didn’t look human.
Reian stood drenched in black and red blood, his breathing heavy and erratic.
Suddenly, his head snapped toward them.
Without warning, Reian burst into a sprint, charging straight at his friends with murderous intent.
Deep inside the void, Flame’s voice suddenly pierced through the darkness like a beam of pure light, giving Reian a single anchor to hold onto.
Just as Reian’s blood-covered, unconscious body reached the group, Flame threw himself directly into the path of danger.
He didn’t draw his sword.
He didn’t raise his fists.
Instead, Flame stepped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around Reian, pulling his feral, blood-soaked best friend into a fierce hug.
“Brother…” Flame whispered, his voice trembling but steady.
I know this is you.”
The violent momentum stopped.
Reian’s hands hovered in the air, trembling violently just inches away from tearing Flame apart.
“The power inside you…
it belongs to you, Reian,” Flame said, tears streaming down his face as he held on with everything he had.
“Don’t let it control you.
It’s yours.
Accept it!”
Inside the void, Reian heard him.
He didn’t just pull against the chains this time—he welcomed the horrific, burning pain, letting the ancient metal sear straight into his very soul.
He didn’t try to break the bindings; he absorbed them, forcefully dragging the entity’s dark power into his own consciousness until the glowing links melted directly into his skin.
With a final, agonizing mental scream, he choked the shadow out of the driver’s seat and seized back control.
Instantly, the murderous aura vanished from the real world.
Tears began to flow down from the eyes of Reian’s bloody, completely exhausted face.
He looked at Flame, his mind finally his own again, though his voice was barely a whisper.
“Flame…
my brother…” Reian choked out, his body trembling under the massive strain.
“We have to leave.
Now.
Get to the jungle…
quickly…”
The moment the words left his mouth, the extreme toll on his body caught up to him.
Reian’s eyes rolled back, and he collapsed heavily into Flame’s arms, completely unconscious.
Flame didn’t waste a single second.
He scooped Reian up into his arms, holding him secure against his chest.
“We’re moving!
Now!” he ordered the girls.
They sprinted away from the horrific intersection, leaving the ruined town behind as they fled toward the dense, overgrown treeline of the nearby forest.
They ran for hours.
The bright afternoon sun slowly dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in deep hues of orange and purple before turning into a cold, dark evening.
Everyone was running on pure fumes, their legs burning, their lungs gasping for air, completely exhausted from the non-stop horror of the day.
As they pushed deeper into the dark woods, Silvia suddenly stopped, her eyes widening as she noticed something strange ahead through the thick trees.
“Wait…
look over there,” Silvia whispered, pointing into the shadows.
Flame and the others looked up, and their hearts stopped at the bizarre sight waiting for them in the dark.
Sorry for the 4-day delay, everyone!
I ended up falling pretty sick and needed some time to recover.
Thank you so much for your patience—enjoy the chapter, and the story is back on track!