It was almost dawn. The artificial lights of the complex simulated a timid sunrise, casting a soft glow on the vast training hall. It was about four in the morning.
Yamero lay on the floor, his torso heaving with heavy breathing, his body still burning from the intense training he had just completed. Sweat beaded on his forehead, but his face displayed raw satisfaction. Nearby, Maki slept soundly, curled up peacefully, as if the outside world had ceased to exist. Daru, meanwhile, sat in front of a row of screens, his face illuminated by the endless stream of information. He hadn't moved for hours. Not a word. Not a sigh.
Aika sat in a chair, elegantly crossed, an open book in her hands. She read with an almost intimidating concentration, as if the silence belonged to her. Yamero finally broke the stillness, stretching his arms with a satisfied grunt:
"Aaaaahhhhh… nothing beats a good workout to start the day right." Without even looking up from her book, Aika replied calmly, almost professorially:
"Just as nothing beats honing your knowledge first thing in the morning." Yamero offered a tired smile and placed his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling:
"Yeah… whatever." Silence fell again. But this time, Yamero couldn't completely relax. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Daru. Too still. Too focused. He hadn't uttered a single word since the previous day, and this unusual silence was starting to weigh on him. Yamero sat up slightly, propping himself up on one elbow, and said in a more serious voice:
"Hey, Daru… what exactly are you looking for?" Daru jumped almost imperceptibly, as if pulled from another world. His fingers stopped flying across the keyboard. He remained silent for a second, then replied without turning around:
"Nothing special. I was just keeping up with the papers... and doing some research."
The answer was too vague. Too mechanical. Aika noticed it immediately. She raised an eyebrow, lowered her glasses slightly with her fingertip, and finally turned her head toward Daru. Her piercing gaze seemed intent on dissecting every word he had just uttered.
"Some research?" she repeated calmly.
Then, in a deceptively neutral tone:
"What kind of research, exactly?"
Daru clenched his jaw. A nervous tic betrayed the tension he was trying to suppress, then he finally spoke, his voice deeper than usual:
"The national newspaper confirms violent unrest in several Japanese cities… Massacres have already begun. Everywhere."
The silence that followed was brutal.
Yamero sat bolt upright, all traces of fatigue erased by the adrenaline:
"What?! The offensive has already begun?..." For the first time in a while, a chill crossed Aika's face. She slowly closed her book, as if each page marked the end of a reprieve, then replied in a cold, lucid tone:
"It was predictable. They no longer had any reason to hide their plan."
Yamero turned to her, his brows furrowed, worry mixed with anger:
"What do you mean by that?" Aika stood up calmly, but her gaze was hard, sharp:
"It's simple. Their project to create modified humans had to remain secret. They wanted to refine it, optimize it, perfect it until it was fully operational."
She paused, letting her words linger in the air.
"But now… it is. So they no longer need the cover. They're launching Armageddon head-on, across the entire globe." Maki, awakened by the raised voices, sat up silently. Her face, still marked by sleep, hardened as she understood. Daru, meanwhile, stared at his screens without blinking, as if he already dreaded what he knew to be true. Aika grabbed a tablet from the table beside her. With a fluid motion, she activated the interface. The screen immediately projected a three-dimensional world map. Red dots appeared, then multiplied at an alarming rate.
"Look," she said simply. The extremist organization's movements were displayed in real time: coordinated attacks, troop movements, areas of chaos, identified participants in several countries. Japan was just the starting point.
Yamero jumped to his feet, his fatigue gone, his gaze burning with fierce determination:
"Let's go give the various groups in the extremist organization a little surprise." Maki jumped, still half-asleep:
"What?!" Yamero crossed his arms, a hard smile playing at the corners of his lips:
"Well, yes. We're not going to let our country fall like this." His voice deepened, becoming sharper.
"We're going to send our warmest regards to those bastards. I'm sure that, all over the world, other rebel groups are already fighting to protect their land. So why not us? Our honor is at stake." A brief silence fell. Aika watched him for a long moment, then a slight, serious smile appeared on her face.
"You're absolutely right," she replied.
She then turned to Daru. "In that case, you and Maki, go and help the civilians and the other rebel groups. Every minute counts."
Then, in a calmer but still responsible tone:
"Daru and I will do everything we can to develop a solid plan for tomorrow's final assault." Yamero grabbed his t-shirt and casually draped it over his shoulder without even putting it on. He was already heading for the elevator, ready to leave, his body trembling with anticipation.
"We'll be back alive," he called over his shoulder.
Suddenly, Aika reached out and stopped him.
"No need to take the elevator," she said calmly.
She placed her hand on a sign hidden in the wall.
"There's a secret passage here. A tunnel that will take you directly to the city center." The wall opened with a soft mechanical rumble, revealing a dark corridor lit by bluish lights.
Maki yawned quietly, rubbing her eyes, still numb:
"Seriously... not even time for a coffee..." She took a deep breath, then clenched her fists, her vision gradually regaining its clarity.
"Okay. Let's go save our country, and soon the world. "
Aika lightly touched the surface of her table with her fingertips. At that simple touch, a silent mechanism activated: a platform slowly rose from the floor, revealing two ultra-sophisticated motorcycles. One was a deep red with metallic reflections, the other a matte black crisscrossed with discreet lines of light, as if the machine were breathing.
"Take these machines to get there faster," Aika said confidently. Yamero let out a mocking laugh, tilting his head slightly:
"You do realize we're infinitely faster than those things, right? I can be downtown before you even blink." Aika shrugged, a mischievous smile playing on her lips:
"Yeah, obviously."
Then she added, with a hint of amusement:
"But arriving downtown in style never hurt anyone, does it?" Maki managed a faint smile, still tinged with fatigue, but her eyes already shone with excitement. Without wasting a moment, she straddled the black motorcycle, while Yamero climbed onto the red one, immediately feeling the power throb beneath his hands. The engines roared, a deep, controlled sound. Ahead of them, a passage slowly opened, revealing a long, dimly lit corridor.
"Don't get yourselves killed," Daru said bluntly, his eyes fixed on the screens.
"Count on it," Yamero replied confidently. In a fraction of a second, the two motorcycles accelerated and vanished into the darkness of the tunnel, swallowed by the gathering night. Silence fell once more over the base. Aika stared for a moment at the now-closed entrance, her expression suddenly more serious. Daru moved slightly closer, his arms crossed.
"They'll attract attention," he said calmly. "That's the goal," Aika replied.
She turned toward the screens, her gaze becoming cold and calculating.
"While they're making noise… we're preparing for the end of this war."
The engines roared through the vast tunnel, their echoes reverberating like frantic heartbeats. Yamero and Maki accelerated even further, the speed crushing the air around them. The walls rushed past until they blurred, then suddenly—
The tunnel ceiling ripped open with a metallic crash.
The two motorcycles were hurled outward, leaping like bullets from a cannon, before crashing back down into the heart of downtown Tokyo.
And there… hell.
Yamero slid to the ground, his head tilted back—his smile was gone.
Maki slammed on the brakes beside him, his eyes wide with shock.
Before them lay a scene of carnage.
Gripped-open buildings, devastated streets, flames everywhere. Armed groups advanced methodically, supported by military units, autonomous robots, and war machines with inhuman silhouettes. Further on, monstrous, deformed creatures with blood-dripping fangs pounced on defenseless civilians, devouring them with sickening brutality.
And among them…
Humans.
Or at least, what was left of them.
Their bodies radiated unstable energies, their eyes were empty, their powers unleashed—living proof of the extremists' plan. They pulverized everything in their path, indiscriminately.
The ground was littered with piled-up corpses: civilians, police officers, children, the elderly… Blood formed dark pools among the debris. The security forces, under control or corrupt, gunned down innocent people who tried to flee, without the slightest hesitation.
A monster tore a man in two before their very eyes. A scream abruptly died away.
Maki gritted his teeth, his fists trembling on the handlebars.
"...It's...it's worse than I imagined..." Yamero remained silent for a second. His eyes scanned the scene, cold, burning with anger. The atmosphere seemed to weigh heavily on him, but something else was rising within him...a deep rage, held back for far too long.
"Daru was right..." he murmured.
Then his voice hardened.
"They've really decided to turn this country into a slaughterhouse." He dropped his motorcycle, moving forward slowly, his gaze fixed on the armed groups. Around him, the air seemed to vibrate, as if the city itself were holding its breath.
"Maki..." He offered a grim smile, devoid of any lightness.
"We arrived just in time to give them a taste of their own medicine." In the distance, an explosion rang out.
The bloodbath had only just begun.
The first shots rang out without warning.
The armed groups and military units pivoted en masse toward Yamero and Maki, opening fire at full speed. Bullets traced lines of death in the air, explosions shook the asphalt, and the bursts of gunfire should have crushed any human being.
But nothing.
Not a single bullet struck its target.
The projectiles slammed against their bodies, deformed, and fell to the ground like harmless pieces of metal. Some even seemed to vaporize before impact, as if an invisible force were preventing them from reaching them.
Yamero advanced slowly.
His face was frozen in pure, icy, unfathomable hatred.
Maki walked beside him, silent, her eyes darkened by the sight of the bodies around them.
"…Pathetic," Yamero muttered in a low voice.
In the blink of an eye—
He vanished.
The soldiers didn't even have time to understand. A fraction of a second later, Yamero stood in the very center of their ranks, surrounded by faces frozen in terror.
He raised his hand.
Crack.
A simple snap of the fingers.
The air imploded.
A monstrous shockwave erupted from Yamero, warping the space, crushing everything in its path. Bodies were pulverized before they could even scream. Weapons, armor, vehicles—everything was disintegrated, reduced to nothing.
Nothing remained.
No blood.
No debris.
Not even a trace of their existence.
The ground was smooth, as if no one had ever been there.
Maki stopped, observing the scene, her breath coming in short gasps. A simmering anger burned within her, but also an implacable resolve. — …They chose the wrong target, she murmured.
Several tanks loomed before Maki, their heavy cannons already trained on her, ready to unleash their full firepower. Engines roared, sights locked.
Maki took a deep breath.
She was ready.
Ready to take the hit.
Ready to show them, once again, that their efforts were futile against her.
But her gaze shifted suddenly.
A few dozen meters away, a group of innocents were desperately trying to flee. Panicked civilians, stumbling, clinging to one another… before falling right into the middle of the combat zone, trapped between her and the tanks.
Time seemed to slow down.
"…Damn," Maki breathed.
Without the slightest hesitation, she raised her hand.
A translucent barrier instantly sprang up around the civilians, expanding like a protective sphere. A pure, stable, perfectly controlled protective dome.
The first salvo struck.
BOOM—!
The shells slammed against the dome in a succession of deafening explosions. Flames licked its surface, shockwaves reverberated through the air, and the street shook violently.
Inside, the civilians remained unharmed.
The tanks continued firing. Again. And again.
Armor-piercing shells, concentrated fire, heavy bursts.
Nothing.
Not a crack.
Not a vibration.
Not even a scratch, not the slightest bit of damage.
The dome shone faintly, motionless, as if the attacks were nothing more than harmless rain.
Maki stood before the barrier, straight, her gaze hard, her fists clenched. "You're wasting your ammunition," she said coldly.
"As long as I'm here… no one will touch these people." Inside the dome, the civilians stared at her in astonishment, some with tears in their eyes, realizing they had just been protected by a force beyond the reach of any human weapon.
And facing them, for the first time, the tanks seemed to hesitate.
For they had just understood one thing:
they were not facing a wall… but absolute will.
With a simple gesture, when two of his fingers touched, the very air seemed to contract.
In the sky darkened by smoke and flames, magical circles of brilliant white appeared one after another, engraved with luminous and perfectly ordered symbols. Their cold glow contrasted sharply with the chaos below, imposing a heavy, almost sacred silence.
Then—
Lightning struck. Not one, not two… but dozens of bolts, crashing down with unimaginable force upon the tanks. The crash was deafening, as if the heavens themselves had decided to judge the earth.
The impacts were instantaneous.
The metal of the vehicles began to melt, to twist, to flow onto the asphalt like ice exposed to the most intense sun. The cannons warped, the armor liquefied, the tracks slumped with a muffled metallic screech.
In mere seconds, the once-menacing tanks were nothing more than shapeless masses of incandescent, smoking, useless metal.
Maki slowly lowered his hand.
The magic circles dissipated into thin air, as if they had never existed, leaving behind a charred street… and silence.
—End of exercise.
Maki raised her protective dome, allowing the group of innocents to advance and reach safety. But no sooner had they gathered momentum than three hideous monsters appeared before her, their suffocating presence filling the air with an aura of malice and danger.
The first, a creature with an enormous horn on one side of its head and covered in countless eyes scattered across its body, stared intently at Maki, as if probing her every move. Its ragged breath was accompanied by almost inaudible whispers that seemed intent on breaking her concentration.
The second was twisted and slimy, with bat-like wings spread wide, its shapeless limbs undulating through the air with a disturbing fluidity. A dark, gooey substance dripped from its claws and joints, clinging to the ground with every step, like an extension of its malevolent will.
The third one, immense and greyish, was over ten meters tall. Its vaguely human silhouette, devoid of a face and ears, moved with an unsettling slowness. Each step produced a deep rumble that made the ground vibrate and sent shivers through Maki, as if the earth itself recognized its power.