The alarms didn't stop ringing.
They only grew more lounder.
Somewhere below Ishabana's palace, the ground let out a deep, grinding groan—like something massive was forcing its way up through layers of stone and history that were never meant to be disturbed.
The tremor came again.
Stronger.
Yanma didn't look away from his monitors. His fingers kept moving across fractured data streams, expression unchanged.
"Second wave confirmed," he said. "No—this is full breach. Right on schedule for something that ruins my day."
His eyes shifted slightly To BJ.
Still collapsed on the floor Unmoving.
He clicked his tongue.
"Unbelievable. Kid's sleeping through the apocalypse. That's a special kind of talent."
Another impact shook the palace walls.
Hymeno rose from her seat. The air pressure in the room shifted with the distant destruction outside, making her dress ripple like a warning flag.
"He's reached his limit," she said calmly. "Leave him. She turned toward the balcony.
"And we don't have time for hesitation."
Outside the palace, the gardens were already dying.
White marble streets cracked open like broken porcelain. Black smoke rose in thick columns, swallowing color from the world.
Sanagim swarmed through the kingdom in waves, their chitin clicking against stone like a living infestation learning how to spread.
Then the ground stopped trembling.
Silence.
Then something beneath the city moved.
A massive shape forced itself upward through the central district
tearing through foundations like they were soft earth.
Stone exploded outward.
Glass shattered across entire blocks.
Something enormous was waking up.
It didn't emerge as a creature first.
It emerged as a consequence.
A sphere of armored chitin rolled up through the ruins, crushing an entire boulevard in its ascent.
Then it stopped.
Unfolded.
Segment by segment.
Like something built to destroy pretending it had a body.
It stood.
Towering.
Heavy.
Unnaturally certain of its own existence.
"I am Danjim General of the Bugnarak."
The voice was loud.
It scraped through Ishabana like rust through clean metal.
He looked at the city.
At its symmetry.
Its beauty.
Its order.
Something in him recoiled violently.
"This world still pretends it deserves to exist."
One step forward.
A clock tower collapsed instantly.
No warning. No resistance.
Just disappearance.
"I will correct it," Danjim said. "I will return this illusion to dirt."
Then he curled inward.
Chitin locked into place.
And he rolled The city broke into motion. Danjim tore through districts like a living disaster, carving straight paths through centuries of architecture.
Buildings didn't fall after impact.
They were erased in contact.
Yanma's voice came through comms, sharp and irritated.
"That's not a second wave. That's a full demolition project."
Hymeno replied instantly.
"Then we stop the contractor."
Gira's voice followed.
"I will crush it where it stands."
Hymeno stepped off the palace balcony.
No hesitation.
No ceremony.
Her yellow dress caught the wind like a falling banner refusing surrender.
"Ishabana will not be defiled," she said.
Her Ohger Calibur ignited mid-air.
Light cut through smoke.
Yanma hit the battlefield like a malfunction in reality.
Blue electricity tore through his blade as he moved straight into the swarm of Sanagim.
No stance.
No patience.
Just velocity.
He cut one down mid-lunge and fired into another without turning his head.
"Why is it always bugs?" he muttered.
Gira arrived through the smoke like judgment made physical.
"I am the Evil King!" he declared. "And I will bring order through destruction!"
He met Danjim head-on.
Blade against shell.
Impact rippled through the street grid, stopping the monster's advance for the first time.
Only briefly.
But enough.
Hymeno arrived in silence.
Then violence followed it.
A blur of violet light swept through Sanagim formations around civilians, severing them instantly with surgical precision.
"Move," she said.
Danjim turned toward her.
That was his mistake.
Her scythe ignited fully.
One arc.
Perfect.
Clean.
Danjim staggered.
A fracture opened in his armor.
He paused.
Then reached inside himself.
Pulled out a glowing Shugod Soul.
The city seemed to hold its breath.
He swallowed it.
Silence lasted half a second.
Then reality broke.
Danjim expanded violently, armor splitting and reforming as his body rewrote its own limits.
Skyscrapers became minor obstacles.
The sky felt closer.
He rose until Ishabana itself looked small beneath him.
"Fine," Yanma said, staring up. "We go big."
The sky tore open.
Shugods descended.
God Kuwagata.
God Tombo.
God Kamakiri.
They collided mid-air.
Steel screamed into unity.
KING-OHGER formed.
Inside the cockpit, everything tightened.
Three pedestals.
Three operators.
One unstable machine trying not to collapse under conflicting wills.
Danjim struck first.
King-Ohger slid backward, stone breaking beneath its feet.
"Stabilize left side," Gira barked.
"I am stable," Hymeno replied. "You are the imbalance."
"I'm holding the entire structure together!"
"Then hold it correctly."
Yanma exhaled sharply. "Both of you are exhausting."
Then he pushed forward.
"Stop talking. Hit it back."
Danjim rolled.
Entire districts tilted with him.
"He's heading for central district," Yanma said.
"I see it," Hymeno replied.
"No," Yanma snapped. "You see aesthetics. I see physics."
"Both are irrelevant if the city collapses."
That silence again.
Worse than arguing.
Then Hymeno acted.
"Guardian Snail."
"Hey—no authorization—" Yanma started.
"I don't need it."
Metal locked.
A Shugod attached to King-Ohger's arm.
Then it activated.
Golden bullets erupted, hitting Danjim's joints and leaving him open.
"Structure compromised," Hymeno said.
"Finally," Yanma muttered.
Gira lifted his blade.
"Now."
They moved without coordination, yet somehow together.
King-Ohger's blade descended.
Light swallowed the battlefield.
Danjim vanished in a dome of destruction that shook Ishabana to its core.
Silence returned.
Then hospital white.
BJ's eyes opened.
The world felt too still.
Pain anchored him in place before he could even think.
"You're awake," Yanma said from the side.
BJ turned his head slowly.
Yanma looked like he'd survived an argument with reality and lost.
"You slept through a city-ending disaster," he said. "Congrats."
"What… happened?"
"Big bug. Bigger robot. Bigger explosion. Same usual nonsense."
Hymeno was by the window, her back to them. She was leaning her forehead against the cool glass, her breath fogging the pane as she watched the smoke rise from the streets below. She stayed like that for a long moment before finally turning around. Her face was pale, but her eyes were sharp as they landed on BJ.
"You've been out for hours," she said, her voice soft but carrying that unmistakable royal command. "The Bugnarak brought a something ugly into my kingdom and now My doctors have been working since noon to pick up the pieces."
She stepped closer to the bed, looking down at him. "You're lucky the palace walls are as thick as they are. You slept through a war, BJ. I hope for your sake you never have to see what actually happens when we have to call the Shugods."