“Roar—!”
A guttural howl, carrying enough concussive force to threaten eardrums, suddenly detonated through the stagnant air.
A split second later, the rust-eaten iron gates of the abandoned chemical plant bulged outward, groaning under the impact of what sounded like a heavy artillery shell.
With a deafening crash of tearing metal, the barricade collapsed into a cloud of choking, pulverized concrete.
From the billowing dust, a grotesque aberration violently tore its way into the street.
It was a creature that had long surrendered any semblance of humanity.
Its exposed muscle fibers writhed like a tangled nest of crimson nematodes, spasming with sickening erraticism as it charged.
Its bloodshot, lidless eyes instantly locked onto a single target: Cyrene, standing frozen just a short distance away.
‘What the hell?
What is happening?!’
Caught entirely off guard by the sudden escalation, Cyrene’s azure, diamond-shaped pupils dilated.
Her body locked up, paralyzed for a fraction of a second by the sheer, visceral horror of the beast.
“What are you standing there for?
Run!”
A sharp, desperate shout shattered her momentary paralysis.
It was the stall owner, his voice cracking under the weight of raw panic.
The man, clearly an undercover operative wearing the guise of a street vendor, possessed reflexes honed by combat.
The very instant the monster breached the gate, he had already kicked his cumbersome pancake cart out of the way.
Pots, pans, and utensils clattered violently across the asphalt, but he didn’t spare them a single glance.
His calloused hands snapped up, gripping a heavy, specialized handgun.
He exhaled sharply, the dark muzzle tracking the high-speed, pulsating mass of flesh with practiced precision.
“Hold still, you ugly bastard!
Did you forget the taste of a live wire?!”
Veins bulged against the man’s temple, his eyes bloodshot as he roared, attempting to draw the creature’s aggro through sheer intimidation.
It was a completely futile effort.
The monster didn’t so much as twitch in his direction.
Its entire twisted reality seemed to have narrowed down to the pink-haired girl standing on the pavement.
A wet, gurgling sound of absolute ravenous desire bubbled up from its ruined throat, its razor-sharp claws gouging deep, jagged trenches into the asphalt with every lunging step.
“Damn it!
You asked for it!”
Realizing words were useless, the stall owner ground his teeth together and squeezed the trigger without a shred of hesitation.
A blinding, incandescent arc of blue light ruptured from the barrel.
The specialized electro-projectile shrieked through the air, burying itself with pinpoint accuracy deep into the monster’s exposed shoulder blade.
A localized grid of high-voltage blue electricity instantly detonated across the creature’s anatomy.
The current tore viciously through its nervous system, illuminating its translucent flesh.
The beast’s massive frame jerked in a violent, uncontrollable spasm, its thunderous stride faltering as a thick plume of charred, foul-smelling smoke billowed from the entry wound.
But the reprieve lasted less than a second.
Just like the previous strike it had endured inside the plant, the agonizing shock failed to drop it.
Instead, the searing pain only seemed to strip away its last remaining inhibitors.
The feral madness swirling within its blood-red pupils deepened into pure, unadulterated frenzy.
Pushing through the paralyzing voltage through sheer, unnatural vitality, the monster accelerated, hurtling toward Cyrene with renewed ferocity.
[Warning: High-risk Abomination detected approaching.
Please flee as soon as possible; this Abomination has been attracted by your presence.]
[Regarding collateral damage: you need not worry for now.
The Abomination’s exclusive target is you.]
Just as Cyrene was struggling to comprehend why this nightmare was so obsessively fixated on her, the system’s cold, mechanical voice chimed abruptly in her mind.
‘Attracted by me?’Cyrene nearly tripped over her own feet as she spun around, her delicate brows knitting together in utter disbelief.’What do you mean, attracted by me?!’
Though her mind was a swirling vortex of confusion and indignation, the rapidly closing distance left absolutely zero room for philosophical debate.
The electrocuted monster was currently dragging its smoking, twitching bulk forward, thick strands of corrosive saliva dripping from its maw as it stared her down.
The naked, gluttonous hunger in its eyes mirrored a starving ghoul that had just stumbled upon a royal banquet.
A distinct, icy chill snaked up her spine, the prickling sensation at the nape of her neck snapping her survival instincts to full attention.
“Seriously…
I really can’t handle this level of enthusiasm!”
Biting her lower lip, Cyrene wisely adopted the system’s tactical advice.
She pivoted sharply, her slender legs kicking into a desperate sprint toward the far end of the street.
True to the system’s word, the abomination completely ignored the stall owner, who was now firing frantically at its back.
It didn’t spare a single glance for the man actively blowing chunks out of its flesh, immediately banking hard to pursue Cyrene like a rabid dog catching a fresh scent.
‘System!
What the hell is actually going on?!’
The wind whipped harshly against her ears, tossing her pink hair wildly.
While maintaining a steady, rhythmic sprint, Cyrene interrogated her internal interface, her mental tone dripping with exasperation.
[Answer to Host: Because you have unlocked your abilities, your body is currently passively emitting a high-purity aura of Memoria.]
[Memoria is, at its core, a potent form of conceptual energy.
To low-level Abominations, the exquisite quality of the Memoria radiating from your person acts as a blinding lighthouse in the pitch dark.
It is more than enough to drive them into an evolutionary frenzy, as devouring you would grant them unmatched ascension.]
[Therefore, whenever you enter the sensory range of an Abomination, they will detect your presence and pursue you at all costs.]
“And why exactly didn’t you mention such a critically important detail earlier?!”
Absorbing the system’s dry explanation, Cyrene felt a massive, throbbing headache blooming behind her eyes.
Her perfectly paced footsteps nearly faltered.
If she had known she was walking around as the ultimate ambrosia—a literal all-you-can-eat buffet for monsters—she absolutely would not have chosen today to casually investigate this perimeter.
[Due to insufficient prior data, the system was only able to confirm this biological mechanism through real-time inference and analysis after the Abomination actively locked onto you and exhibited highly abnormal behavioral patterns.]
Cyrene swallowed a groan of pure frustration.
This kind of mechanical hindsight was nothing short of maddening.
The thunderous, wet impacts of the creature’s footfalls were drawing agonizingly close, the nauseating stench of rotting blood and ozone practically breathing down the back of her neck.
‘Forget it.
There’s no point arguing with an artificial idiot while I’m about to be eaten!’
Cyrene drew in a sharp, stabilizing breath, forcing her racing heart to calm down.
Since this grotesque nightmare was solely interested in her, the undercover stall owner was safe for the time being.
The only viable tactical option left was to call in the heavy artillery.
‘Thank god I agreed to let Phainon tail me from the shadows today.
Otherwise, this would have gotten incredibly messy…’
She sighed internally, preparing to issue the command.
Yet, a sharp pang of hesitation stayed her hand.
If she ordered Phainon to manifest right here, right now, it wouldn’t just expose his existence to the world.
Under the highly paranoid, watchful eyes of the Authorities, she—the supposedly fragile, innocent civilian girl miraculously saved by an ‘unknown powerhouse’—would instantly be placed under maximum surveillance.
Think about it: a cute, pink-haired girl just happens to take a stroll near a quarantined chemical plant.
A monster just happens to break containment, goes completely berserk, and just happens to bypass all armed guards to chase her.
And then, a majestic, god-like warrior clad in white and gold just happens to stroll by and obliterate the threat…
It was a script so painfully cliché that even a third-rate hack writer would be embarrassed to draft it!
The Authorities weren’t stupid.
They would never buy a string of coincidences that convenient.
But as the heavy, predatory footsteps closed the final gap behind her, Cyrene knew she had run out of runway.
Suspicion later was infinitely preferable to being digested now.
“Whew…
Phai—”
Just as her lips parted, ready to scream for her summoned companion to descend and flatten the street.
“Zzzzt—!!!”
A deafening, catastrophic crackle of electricity—magnitudes more violent and intense than the stall owner’s meager handgun—suddenly ruptured the air.
Immediately following the flash.
“Roar—SKREEE!!!”
The monster’s blood-curdling roar was instantly choked into a shrill, agonizing shriek.
The sickening, wet sounds of flesh spontaneously combusting and heavy bones snapping under immense pressure echoed down the alleyway.
That suffocating, relentless wave of predatory pressure vanished in an instant, cut down like a puppet with its strings severed.
Cyrene’s sprinting legs locked up, the rubber soles of her shoes screeching against the pavement as she skidded to a halt.
Stunned by the sudden silence, she instinctively whipped her head around.
The previously unstoppable, violent abomination was now nothing more than a smoking, unrecognizable heap of charred meat slumped on the asphalt.
Its blackened limbs twitched sporadically in the throes of post-mortem nerve death.
Thick, blindingly bright arcs of blue electricity continued to dance and crackle across its ruined corpse.
Yet, standing beside the smoldering remains, the familiar, reassuring figure of Phainon was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, emerging from the dissipating smoke, was an entirely unfamiliar girl.
The stranger was leaning heavily against the rough brick wall of the alley, her chest heaving in violent, ragged gasps as she fought to pull oxygen into her lungs.
It was painfully obvious that unleashing that devastating strike had drained a massive toll on her physical stamina.
Her left hand was pressed weakly against the masonry to keep herself upright, while her right arm hung loosely at her side.
Coiling around her slender fingers and wrist were several volatile, residual arcs of blue lightning that had yet to fully dissipate into the air.
And hanging heavy in the stagnant urban air, the sharp, metallic tang of ozone and burning flesh grew ever more intense.
[Elysian’s Note:
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