The metallic tang of ozone and scorched circuitry hung thick in the air around the smoking plaza.
The corporate operatives lay scattered across the fractured pavement, their high-tech pearl-white armor reduced to smoldering scrap, their breathing shallow and ragged.
Deku Kwanoh stood amidst the wreckage, his posture impeccably straight.
The tattered high school uniform he wore was heavily soiled with the grit and grime of the slums, yet the dark, piercing aura radiating from his frame commanded absolute authority.
He had extracted every relevant detail about the corporate extraction schedules, the structural weaknesses of the Aether-Corp perimeter gates, and the upcoming transport windows for the Divine Tree’s fruit.
So, the real harvest doesn’t begin until midnight, Deku mentally noted, a cold, calculated smirk playing at the corners of his lips.
That gives me enough time to secure the immediate perimeter, solidify my control over the local enforcers, and ensure that no one dares interfere when I claim what I want.
He turned his back on the groaning mercenaries, stepping over a twisted chunk of hull plating.
But before he could take two steps toward the inner slums, the atmosphere above the quarantine zone suddenly shifted.
The roaring pillar of emerald light illuminating the purple-tinted sky violently flared, shifting from a soothing emerald green to a harsh, blinding crimson.
The air pressure plummeted instantly, making Deku’s eardrums pop as a high-frequency shockwave tore through the district.
Unidentified biological anomaly detected descending from upper atmospheric orbit.
The automated emergency broadcast systems across Sector 9 stuttered to life, their distorted, mechanical voices echoing off the rusting corporate monoliths.
Across the barricaded streets, sirens wailed with frantic urgency.
Deku narrowed his eyes, looking up into the smog-choked clouds.
The swirling vortex of crimson light parted, revealing a massive, undulating silhouette plunging downward at terminal velocity.
It wasn’t an Aether-Corp transport, nor was it a human-piloted craft.
It was an extraterrestrial threat—a towering, multi-jointed beast composed of jagged obsidian exoskeleton and churning, liquid-like tentacles that warped the space around it as it fell.
An alien vanguard beast, Deku realized, his mind working at lightning speed.
The Divine Tree’s emergence didn’t just attract corporate scavengers; it drew the very things humanity has been fighting for centuries.
The beast crashed down into the outer perimeter less than a hundred yards away from where Deku stood, obliterating a row of abandoned industrial warehouses in an explosion of concrete, dust, and shockwaves.
Through the billowing clouds of gray debris, a dozen low-tier corporate security guards and syndicate enforcers who had been hiding nearby scrambled out, firing frantic plasma bursts at the creature.
Their weapons barely scratched its glistening obsidian carapace; the energy bolts either bounced off harmlessly or were swallowed by the swirling spatial distortions rippling across the monster’s hide.
The beast shrieked—a sound resembling tearing metal and grinding glass—and lashed out with a massive, whip-like tentacle, instantly crushing three corporate guards into the pavement. Read this novel at novelping . com for the best experience.
Panic rippled through the remaining combatants, who turned and fled in absolute terror.
Deku Kwanoh didn’t run.
Instead, a dark, manic thrill surged through his veins.
The system in his mind hummed violently, vibrating with a new, aggressive resonance.
This wasn’t a schoolyard brawl, nor was it a scuffle with petty slum thugs or arrogant corporate mercenaries.
This was a true test of existence against the alien anomalies that had reshaped the world.
He cracked his knuckles, the sound crisp and loud over the roar of the monster.
The Tier 2 spatial distortion coiled around his fists like a living shadow, and his newly awakened inner mutation core pumped liquid fire through his muscles.
”Let’s see how well your space-time holds up against a real lesson,” Deku whispered to himself.
With an explosive burst of speed that shattered the concrete beneath his feet, Deku launched himself straight toward the towering extraterrestrial beast, his dark eyes burning with the unyielding ambition of a true campus don ready to conquer a much larger school.