Dark clouds churned high above Z-City, their heavy slate-gray mass rolling with the wind that howled through the streets below.
Before the dust and debris could settle enough for Genos to see the monster clearly, it hurled the person it had been holding straight at him.
Genos tossed the teddy bear over to the entrance of a bakery on the street corner.
His eyes flicked back. The flying person was almost on him. Genos planted his feet and bent his knees, bracing for impact. His arms shot forward and caught the figure. Their weight staggered him, far heavier than anyone that size should be. Causing his joints to creak as he sank into the pavement, channeling the force through his frame.
He pivoted sharply and spun, redirecting the momentum. The excess force bled off in a controlled whirl while chunks of pavement tore loose and scattered as he completed the rotation.
Genos looked down at the figure in his arms. "Mumen Rider?" He then set the hero down, but Mumen Rider's legs buckled, and he collapsed to his knees.
"I was too weak… too weak to save them. So many lives lost!" Mumen Rider's fist smashed into the ground. "My justice… What good did it do today?"
Genos hadn't the mind to spare Mumen's distraught state right now. As he could now see the street ahead. Dozens upon dozens of bodies littered the sidewalks and road. The massacre was greater than the tragedy behind him at the intersection's center.
The monster came to a stop several meters before him.
-
Name: ???
Disaster Level: ??? Demon
-
Its appearance was that of a wraith-like woman, currently levitating above the pavement. Her long, silvery-white hair cascaded over her face like a curtain of moonlight. Bone-white wisps of energy orbited around her figure. While her delicate, frail frame was wrapped in a flowing, tattered black kimono marked with faded celestial patterns.
Genos took several deep breaths, doing his best to calm himself. He had to remain level-headed. This monster had stolen away an untold number of lives and he refused to fly out in a rage or underestimate it.
"Oh… another hero… not levanting either?" she asked. "Most do. They see the air twist, feel the pull in their bones, and they flee. Yet, never succeed. Unavailing. But you… you stay. Unsound. Unwise."
She bobbed in the air.
"A gift I shall part unto you. Knowledge of me, your reaper, to take with you to the everlasting cessation…
In the past, I was just an abandoned young girl. Small, weak, forgotten. But the 'Tsukuyomi' took me, broke me, and tore me from the world. They burned my mind, stole my senses, made gravity my prison.
Then, the eclipse came. The walls fell. The silence remained.
Now, I drift. Untethered, untouched. The world bends, the earth trembles… but I do not land. Never theirs, never yours, never mine. Only falling. Never landing."
The 'Tsukuyomi?' Another evil group?
Genos' gaze remained steady. "What or who are the 'Tsukuyomi?'"
"The ones who reach where they should not. Who take what does not belong to them. Who molds the mind until nothing remains but what they desire..."
No matter what she went through, there is no excuse for her actions.
"You were taken and suffered, yet instead of targeting this 'Tsukuyomi' group, you chose to end the lives of so many innocent people?" Genos braced himself, ready to counter any attack she might launch. "Even your death won't be enough to atone for what you've done. But I don't want the families of these victims to suffer the torment of not knowing who stole away the precious pieces of their world. So I ask you, what is your name?"
She slanted her head, silver hair shifting like a curtain of light as she let out a giggle, brittle as broken glass.
"A name…?"
Her voice wavered. "Now, they call me many things. A shade. A fracture. A remnant. The 'Tsukuyomi' still hunt for me. A mistake they wish to erase."
The air wavered, layers of transparent force curling around her, distorting the space between them.
"If you must call me something… let it be the first name I received upon my true enlivening."
"Gravitic Maiden."
¤ ¤ ¤
Caspian fell feet-first toward the lava lake that was briskly approaching.
He smashed into the lava, his feet sinking down as magma splashed around him.
The lukewarm feeling of the molten rock made him smile. Zero discomfort, zero needing to adjust. Feeling this still wasn't enough, he tried to focus on other aspects of himself.
Caspian closed his eyes and realized he could sense every living being around him.
His mind's eye revealed a dark void studded with a multitude of stars, each varying in size and brilliance according to what he assumed was the lifeform's level of power. Focusing on any star projected a luminous, real-time image of its counterpart.
The brightest star within his newfound ability's ranged hovered straight above him. Tatsumaki was staring down at him with an expression of tension and incredulity. Higher still, the second brightest star Orochi streaked toward them like a comet.
This feels like the 'Divine Sense' ability I used to read about in my favorite novels. It appears my soul's growing stronger. As for a name, I'll simply call it 'Sense.'
How much would he grow? Would he surpass the 'Jupiter sneeze' level of strength, or had he already?
Twenty seconds remained until Orochi arrived.
I feel as though my control…
He opened his eyes and let his thoughts fade as he pointed his index finger toward the mural at the top of the ancient steps. With a few precise swipes of his finger, invisible blades of force rocketed out and sliced through the rocky formation above and around the mural. Causing huge chunks of stone to crash to the ground, revealing 'God's' prophetic mural in their place.
Caspian's lips curled before he focused upward at the approaching star.
"You were once a broken man, offered an opportunity to change by her. Now, you're a broken monster, and I'm offering you a different kind of opportunity. I wonder what pathway you will choose to journey down…"
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