The rain hadn't stopped since the night before. The sky was still cloaked in grey, the streets slick and cold. Morning had come, but the world looked like it hadn't woken up yet.
Riku walked silently through the market streets, a grocery bag slung over his shoulder—errands for his mom, the usual routine. Despite everything that happened in his dream, he felt… off. The memory of Daigo, Shun, and Miki bleeding still lingered, the image of himself in Divine Avatar form haunting the back of his mind.
He tried to brush it off.
"It was just a dream…" he muttered.
But deep down, he knew better.
Then it hit.
A loud explosion thundered through the air just a few blocks away. The street trembled beneath his feet. Screams followed—terrified, panicked.
Riku dropped the bag and sprinted.
When he turned the corner, his eyes locked onto the chaos.
A man stood in the middle of the road, his arms glowing with corrupt Essence. Black and red blasts shot from his palms, ripping through cars and storefronts, targeting innocent civilians.
A beam of destruction flew toward a group of children frozen in fear.
Riku appeared in an instant, his body shielding them as a translucent blue barrier sparked into existence, absorbing the blast.
The man's eyes narrowed. "An Essence Warrior, huh? You're all the same. Tools of the system."
Riku didn't reply.
He vanished in a blink—and reappeared in front of the man, slamming a glowing punch into his gut with bone-shattering force, launching him through the air and crashing him into a wall. The entire street shook, but not a single building fell. Riku's control was perfect.
The attacker coughed blood, stunned—but not done.
He surged back, unleashing a flurry of corrupted Essence strikes. Riku weaved through them, his body fluid, precise. His counters were relentless. With a final spinning kick laced with pure energy, Riku knocked the man unconscious, pinning him to the ground with a binding seal of blue Essence.
Civilians stared in awe. Whispers rippled through the crowd.
"Isn't that… the D Rank kid?"
"No—he's A Rank now. That's Riku Hayashi."
But before relief could settle—four more explosions rocked the city in every direction.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
A chilling voice echoed across the city, carried by Essence waves.
"WE WILL DESTROY ESSENCE WARRIORS.""YOUR ERA IS OVER.""THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING."
Riku's eyes widened.
He turned to the horizon, watching smoke rise in the distance.
And he knew—it wasn't just a random attack.
It was a coordinated assault.