When he was sufficiently prepared, he looked at Miyu from the doorway. The girl slept like a stone at the bottom of a river. Her ears twitched from time to time and her feline tail curled between the sheets.
'Honestly… You didn't even hear the notification from your communicator. You're such a handful.'
Even though it was better to let her rest, Miyu's powers would be a huge help in situations like this, but the girl was completely knocked out in bed. And trying to wake her up wasn't a good idea either, as her nails were very sharp.
Nova could try, if he felt like losing an eye, but it was better not to risk it.
'I just hope you don't make a scene tomorrow.'
With a faint, relaxed smile, he closed the door carefully so as not to make too much noise, and then approached his mother's room. He tried to knock on the door to say goodbye, but stopped himself before doing so.
'I should say something to her, but... There's no need. I'll be back soon.'
So he set off on the path marked on the map on his communicator. He didn't even bother opening the door; he slipped out through the living room window like a shadow in the night. After all, Nova had no time to waste opening and closing the door—a Category 5 Aberration was waiting.
Leaving the grounds of the house, he ran between the sidewalks at full speed.
'If my performance is good, that would put me within a few steps of reaching the Sixth Level.'
Advancing one level would put him in the crosshairs of the strongest Empaths.
Empaths are ranked by level based on their usefulness. A First Level Empath is, in essence, one of the most powerful beings in the country—surpassed only by Feelers, who exist beyond even Elite Empaths.
'But... Sixth Level, huh. Will I ever be able to reach the First Level? Or better yet, will I ever be able to become a Feeler?'
He laughed at himself in his mind.
'That's impossible. I've never even seen a Feeler in person—how would I know if I became one?'
The mere idea of seeing himself at the top of the world was strange. Being an Elite Empath was more than enough.
He continued to move quickly in the glow of the clean, lonely streets at night. After a few minutes, near an intersection of two major roads, he jumped onto one of the roofs. There he continued running toward the mark on the map.
The moon had already passed its highest point and would soon hide behind the horizon. Meanwhile, the Empaths, who never rest, would make sure that dawn would come for the people of the city.
Before reaching the danger zone, where screams, roars, and explosions were already beginning to be heard, Nova frowned slightly.
'I'm still a little dizzy. It feels off.'
The emergency call was quite untimely. The night was going to be long because of it.
'And it's the first time in my three years as an Empath that I'm going to fight a Category 5.'
No wonder. Category 5 Aberrations are extremely dangerous.
Aberrations are classified into eleven categories. The weakest are Category 10, while the strongest and most impossible to find are Category 0. Never, in the history of humanity after the impact, has a Category 0 been seen.
Furthermore, many of the Category 10s are considered common animals today. Poki would have been classified as a Category 10 in the past, but today his breed is considered very docile—as pets and companions for humans.
'Category 5, Titan, huh. Its mere presence threatens cities. How scared I am,' Nova thought sarcastically. He felt calmer than usual.
The closer he got to the Nox district, the more his dizziness and general discomfort faded away. It seemed that his own superhuman metabolism was with him tonight.
He jumped once more onto a rooftop with all his strength before continuing to run, his trench coat fluttering in the cold wind.
His shadow was cast in front of the moonlight.
'Let's see how strong I've become.'
His amber-colored eyes reflected the greenish lights of the city.
***
The screams and orders of a dozen Empaths echoed through the streets like a chorus from hell.
The air smelled of sulfur and burned the skin. The atmosphere was hot—suffocating. The ground beneath the feet of the ten-meter-tall monster melted into magma, and smoke rose to caress the clouds.
Amidst all this disaster, there was a handsome young man running back and forth among the largest debris, commanding the other Empaths.
He wore a black uniform with gold accessories. His gaze was stern, covered by a strand of long silver hair. His blue eyes focused their full attention on the beast that was attacking the buildings.
"We need healing over here!"
His orders traveled through the air and were obeyed by the Empaths.
They all wore the same black uniform: black pants with military leather boots, dirty and scraped from the confrontation, an elegant black jacket with unbuttoned buttons, gold accessories hanging from the shoulder pads, and a pastel blue undershirt.
It was strange that they were so well-dressed for a fight.
"Sion! Get out of there!"
He pointed his finger desperately. Instantly, a burly, dark-skinned man with a large hammer in his hands, who was standing in front of the titan, jumped to the right. A moment later, the Aberration's gigantic foot stepped on the same spot where the man with the hammer had been a second ago.
The ground turned into magma as a result, splattering molten rock onto the asphalt.
The beast roared angrily. It was a colossus dressed in small armor made of metal plates ablaze with fire, covering its chest and crotch. Its skin was black as coal, with broad arms and short legs ablaze with magma cracks, its fingertips glowing like hot metal sizzling in a bonfire.
Meanwhile, the Empaths jumped, floated, and struck around the beast to distract it. One of them had large black feathered wings and shot at the colossus's face with a black assault rifle with a magazine glowing with a slightly bluish white liquid.
The beast, meanwhile, turned its head from side to side to see the fly shooting at it. It waved its giant hands, trying to crush him, but the man with black wings and brown hair dodged by flying between the larger debris.
"Abby! Shoot the bastard!"
At the command of the handsome guy who appeared to be the leader, a girl wearing a large pointed black hat raised her staff, which had a strange floating jewel shaped like a white flower at the tip.
Immediately afterward, the winds began to roar, whistling around the girl like a tornado. That tornado turned into a dense sphere the size of a basketball and shot toward the beast.
The guy with the wings watched the attack and evaded it by retreating with his companions.
The wind sphere exploded the moment it collided with the colossus's face, generating a shockwave that moved everything around it with a strong blizzard.
This caused the colossus to fall backwards from the force of the impact.
Taking advantage of this, the Empaths immediately gathered above it to stab it with their swords and shoot it with the powers of their Spectrum.