[30 Minutes After the Battle]
"Here's her head," Jane said, her voice hollow and cold.
Lyla stood in the center of the devastation, her eyes wide as she took in the carnage. The area around them was a nightmare of shattered earth and pulverized stone. Base 115 was barely recognizable, a testament to the absolute destruction Jane had unleashed.
"Jane... what have you done?" Lyla whispered, her voice trembling. "What is wrong with you?"
Lyla reached out, her hand trembling as she tried to touch Jane's shoulder, hoping to bring her back from whatever dark place she had gone.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Jane's voice was soft, but it carried a razor-sharp edge that cut through the silence.
Lyla flinched but didn't back away. "Jane, please—"
"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!!!!!!" Jane screamed, her voice echoing across the ruins like a thunderclap.
***
[30 Minutes Before the Battle - Base 105]
Lyla stood in the center of the room, her eyes locked on Jane. "Jane, listen to me. You can't do this. You can't go after her on your own. She isn't like the other demons we've faced. She is a beast—an anomaly. You'll be killed."
Jane didn't even blink. Her eyes were cold, her voice flat. "I have to. If I don't prove that we can handle these things without Nova, you'll never leave Leo alone. You'll keep pushing him toward that cursed blade until there's nothing left of him."
Before Lyla could respond, Jane turned and walked out. Lyla lunged to grab her shoulder, but her hand met only empty air. Jane had vanished, moving with a speed that shouldn't have been possible for a human.
Lyla let out a long, shaky sigh and looked at the ground. She turned to the soldier who had brought the news. "You can go now. Prepare the medical bay."
As the soldier left, Leo stepped forward, his face pale with shock. "She just... she just left? Does she really think she can take on that demon by herself?"
Akira, who had been silent until now, stood up. His expression was grim. "Lyla, you need to go after her. Now."
"What do you mean?" Lyla asked, her voice tight with stress.
"That demon girl... Skye," Akira said, his voice trembling slightly at the memory. "She isn't a high-rank demon. She's something else. Her energy is pure darkness, and she treats slaughter like a playground. Jane is strong, but Skye is a monster."
Leo turned to Nova in his mind. *Nova, is he right?*
*He is,* Nova replied. *She surpasses the 7th Harbinger in raw power, though she isn't an official Harbinger yet. She is a Beast-Class evolution. If Jane faces her alone, she won't just die—she'll be tortured.*
Lyla didn't wait for another word. She sprinted out of the room and returned two minutes later, fully geared. She had her shapeshifting scythe strapped to her back and her combat gloves loaded with fresh Demonic Pills.
"I'm going after her," Lyla commanded. She looked at Leo and Akira. "Stay here. Especially you, Leo. Jane is doing this because she doesn't want you in the crossfire. Don't make her sacrifice meaningless."
With that, Lyla vanished into the corridors.
Leo stood there, the silence of the room feeling heavy. He looked at Akira and Rin, who were watching him with wide eyes. "Hi," Leo said awkwardly.
Akira managed a small, sad smile and put a hand on Rin's shoulder. "Come on, kid. Let's get you a bath and find something to eat."
Rin beamed, her eyes lighting up with a childish joy that seemed out of place in the middle of a war. "Yippee! Food!"
As they left, Leo leaned against the wall. *Damn it, Nova. I can't just sit here while Jane is out there.*
*You shouldn't,* Nova agreed. *Jane is in a state of pure spiritual fury. When a human with her potential becomes that angry, they become dangerous—not just to their enemies, but to themselves. Their energy can become unstable.*
Leo didn't need to hear anything else. He headed straight for the lab, where he found Annie surrounded by blueprints and half-finished weapons. She looked up, surprised. "Leo? I haven't seen you in ages. What's with the face?"
"Don't mind me," Leo said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Jane is just... being Jane."
Annie smiled. "She's always been the intense one. So, what brings you to my corner of the base?"
*She doesn't know,* Leo thought. *She doesn't know her sister is on a suicide mission.* He turned to Nova. *Should I tell her?*
*No,* Nova advised. *She needs to stay focused here.*
"I'm actually heading out to check on something," Leo said. "But before I go, can you do me a favor? I'm trying to find my mom. I don't know which base she ended up in after the evacuation. Can you use your systems to track her down?"
Annie's expression softened. "Of course, Leo. I'll get on it right away. Don't worry, I'll find her."
Leo nodded, a small weight lifting from his chest. "Thank you, Annie."
As Leo left, Annie watched him go, a faint smile lingering on her lips. Then she paused, blinking in surprise. *Wait... did I just smile?* She slapped her own cheeks. *Get it together, Annie! You have work to do!*
***
**[Base 130 - The Ruins]**
The area around Base 130 was a graveyard of twisted metal and scorched earth. Caspian's men were scattered, their defenses shattered. Only Caspian remained, standing between Skye and the last of the survivors.
Caspian was breathing hard, his uniform torn and soaked in blood. "I'm going to die," he muttered to himself. "But I'm taking a piece of you with me."
Skye giggled, her voice high and melodic. She skipped toward him like a child in a park. "I love it when you 'resist'! It makes the torture so much more fun. Come on, entertain me more! Show me how much a human can scream before they break!"
Caspian raised his rifle, but the click of the trigger revealed it was empty. Desperate, he tapped into the last of his own spiritual reserves, channeling the energy directly into the gun's chamber. The energy solidified into a jagged, glowing projectile. He fired, but the sheer pressure of the shot caused the rifle to explode in his hands.
The bullet streaked toward Skye's head. Her eyes instantly turned pitch-black, and her skin rippled, turning into obsidian scales. Her clothes tore as her body expanded, her teeth lengthening into razor-sharp fangs. She didn't dodge; she simply punched the bullet.
The collision created a massive shockwave, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air. When the dust settled, Skye stood there, her hand mangled but already beginning to knit back together.
But she wasn't looking at Caspian anymore. She was looking at a figure walking majestically through the ruins.
It was Jane. She was radiating an immense, suffocating amount of spiritual energy. Her eyes were glowing with a terrifying blue light, and she held her long sword with a grip that seemed to vibrate the air around her.
"Jane?" Caspian gasped, his voice weak. "What are you doing here? Where are the others?"
"Leave, Caspian," Jane said, her voice a low, dangerous growl. "By the time I'm finished, this entire area will be ash. And this demon will be dead."
Caspian saw the look in her eyes and didn't argue. He scrambled away, hoping to find Lyla or any other allies who might be coming to stop the madness.
Skye's grin returned, wider and more jagged than before. "Finally! A real toy to—"
She didn't finish the sentence. Before she could even blink, her head was severed from her shoulders.
Jane was suddenly standing beside her, her sword already mid-swing for the next strike. "Shut up," Jane hissed. "And fight."
Jane became a blur of steel and blue light. She slashed Skye into a dozen pieces in a matter of seconds. The air was compressed by the force of her swings, and the ground was carved with deep, glowing scars. Skye's core was exposed—a pulsating, dark gem.
Skye, realizing she couldn't regenerate fast enough, detonated her own core in a desperate burst of dark energy, reforming her body several yards away.
She was trembling. Her eyes were wide, her breath hitching in her throat. For the first time in 400 years, Skye was terrified. She had always been the predator, the beast that others feared. But looking at Jane, she realized she was facing something far more dangerous than herself.
Skye had always relied on her Dark Energy to overwhelm her opponents. But against someone like Jane—someone who had achieved perfect spiritual manipulation through pure, unadulterated rage—her darkness was being swallowed whole.
Jane tilted her head, her gaze fixed on the trembling demon. *Why isn't she attacking?*
Jane took a step forward. Skye let out a piercing shriek. "Don't! Don't you dare come near me! I'll call my sister! Xyne will kill you all!"
Jane didn't stop. She whispered a single command: "Spiritual Energy Manipulation."
Her aura exploded, her power level spiking until it rivaled the 5th Harbinger. The sheer pressure of her presence caused the ground to crack beneath her feet. "Explode," she muttered.
She lunged, her speed so great that Skye didn't even have time to scream. Jane reached out with her bare hand, grabbed Skye's head, and wrenched it from her body. At the same moment, she channeled a burst of energy into Skye's chest, causing the demon's body and core to disintegrate in a massive explosion.
Jane stood in the center of the crater, holding Skye's severed head by the hair. She looked down at the lifeless eyes. "Did I play with you enough?"
She looked up to see Lyla and Caspian standing at the edge of the clearing. Lyla was staring at the destruction in horrified silence. "Jane... what have you done?"
Jane walked toward them, her movements stiff and unnatural. She tossed the head at Lyla's feet. "Here's her head. Just like I promised."
Lyla looked at the head, then back at Jane. She was shocked—Jane had defeated a Beast-Class demon without receiving a single scratch. But something was wrong. Jane's energy wasn't fading. It was growing.
Jane tried to walk past them, but Lyla reached out and grabbed her arm. "Jane, stop. We need to talk about this. You're not yourself."
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Jane's voice was a low, vibrating snarl.
"Jane, please—"
"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" Jane screamed.
In a flash of blue light, the hand Lyla was using to hold Jane was severed at the wrist.
Caspian lunged forward, trying to restrain Jane from behind. "Jane, calm down! It's over!"
Jane didn't even turn around. She packed an insane amount of energy into her fist and punched backward, hitting Caspian square in the chest. A beam of pure celestial light tore through his body, and he exploded into a mist of red and blue energy.
Lyla stood there, her hand already beginning to regenerate, her eyes wide with terror. *The Spiritual Pill should have worn off by now,* she thought. *What the hell is happening to her?*
**To be continued...**