The running battle across Seoul takes hours, and it doesn’t get any better. Each Fracture that pukes up these concrete and rebar ants—Urban Ants— is a scene of slaughter, gore and horror. The other kinds of monsters, from Trash Zombies to Glass spiders are just as horrific.

  Thousands lie dead, both military and civilians alike.

  With each death, each failure, the ice in my chest grows more encompassing and colder. Part of me wishes it’ll thaw eventually, but the part that loves it hopes it doesn’t. To be so angry and then to have the power to act on it is intoxicating. I’m sure it’s not a good thing, but damn, it feels great.

  Through the bravery, dedication, and sacrifice of the Republic of Korea’s Armed Forces, the Battle for Seoul does end. Some would call it a catastrophe. Most would call it a miracle. It could have been worse. It should have been worse. I suppose I had a hand in that. Still, despite all the power I now have, the strength, the speed, the durability, only one thought fills my mind.

  Too fucking slow.

  Lieutenant Jang, the first person I talked to in this new and confusing world, is dead. He lost his life saving his men, because I. Was. Too. Slow. I’m still not used to my new form. Being over eight and a half feet tall and more than two tons sounds great, until you think about everything that comes with that.

  I chew up roads even more than a fully loaded main battle tank everywhere I go. I can’t walk into most buildings unless their floors are directly on concrete foundations. Even if I didn’t punch a hole or collapse the entire floor itself, I would easily crush and shatter hardwood or tile.

  Hell, I even have to be careful in how I walk on concrete and roads. Accelerate too quickly, turn on my heel, or step on the corner of a curb or step, and I’ll cause damage. Anywhere from scuffing something to straight up crushing it.

  I’m a living, walking, talking wrecking ball. That does come with some nice perks. In a new world order with actual monsters and magic, being able to rip apart monsters with your bare hands is really helpful. Especially if you can just ignore whatever they’re doing in retaliation. I don’t get physically tired either, which when it comes to a running battle across one of the largest cities in the world, is incredibly valuable.

  I’m still tired though, emotionally, I suppose. I trudge up to the command center in the City Hall, waiting outside the building itself. The entire command center is illuminated with dozens of work lights, pushing back the night. Most of the power in the city has failed, and the black skyscrapers blocking out the stars are eerie.

  The boot print I left on the stairs the first time I was here had been spray painted with glow in the dark paint. Mostly likely to keep people from tripping over it. I’m more careful this time, and I don’t break anything else.

  I’m hoping as I settle into my new existence as a giant death robot I’ll get better about not causing so much collateral damage. I certainly was one of the main causes of it in the Battle for Seoul.

  I was punching craters in roads left, right, and center. Being able to move across the city quickly meant powerful leaps to send me flying over buildings. It left massive craters, and then meant I was falling down into monsters, which left slightly smaller craters. Not to mention my very physical combat style, if you can call it that. I’ll get better. I have to.

  Captain Hwang interrupts my thoughts. I could spin that train of thought off into a separate thread, but I don’t. I’m tired of focusing on a hundred different things at once. Watching hundreds of people die from a thousand different angles. For now, I’ll just be… me.

  The cold is gone, now. But it’s left emptiness behind. I’m not entirely sure which one is worse.

  “Mr. Ryans?”

  She looks tired. It’s been a long night, and it only promises to be longer. I’m tired too, but I doubt she can tell. Machines don’t have body language.

  “How can I help, Captain Hwang?”

  She rubs her eyes.

  “General Cho would like to speak with you, but he’s currently in a meeting with the President. He’s asked me to debrief you, and to discuss the situation going forward. Follow me, if you would?”

  She walks off into the forest of tents surrounding City Hall, and I follow behind her, my boots sinking into the grass lawn. We walk into an empty tent, and she collapses into a chair.

  “Before we begin, I would first like to convey our gratitude. While today’s battle was bloody, it would have been much worse without you. I’ve been made aware that the President would like to have a word with you soon, but until then, just know what you did here today will never be forgotten. You saved countless lives.”

  “We’ll never know how many exactly I saved but we know exactly how many I didn’t.” I bitterly spit out.

  She gives me a look I can’t parse.

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “If I was smarter, faster—”

  She interrupts me.

  “It’s not your fault. You haven’t had your powers for twenty four hours yet. The fact you were capable enough to do what you did is a miracle in and of itself. Don’t beat yourself up over what you couldn’t do.”

  She clears her throat and sits up.

  “The Republic of Korea is deeply grateful for your assistance, dedication and courage in the face of danger. I’ve been told that the President wants to bestow you a medal for your valiant efforts. You will always have friends here, Mr. Ryans. I’m sure you’re probably concerned about what will done about the collateral damage caused during the battle—”

  “You mean the roads I wrecked and the buildings I tore up?”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Yes. Don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of it. It was caused by the active and unwavering defense of Korea and her people.”

  I nod, and she continues.

  “As for debriefing, I have lots of questions. This may take a while.”

  I tilt my head in thought.

  “Can I see the list of questions? I can compile a report extremely quickly. Depending on how thorough you’d like it, I might need a large drive, or four.”

  She pauses, before handing over the tablet. I quickly scroll through, happy that my armor lets me interact with touch screens.

  “Where would you like me to put the report?”

  She tiredly gestures to the tablet.

  “You can store it on there. No need for all the footage like you dumped in the command center before.”

  I quickly generate a report, describing the path I took over the course of the battle and the decisions I made. I also provided some notes on the monsters I fought as well as the Fractures. In total, it was about two hundred pages, and it took me nanoseconds to generate. I quickly connect to the tablet and dump the report into its hard drive, handing it back. A look of surprise passes over her face.

  “That’s very thorough, Mr. Ryans.”

  “Most of it is observations of the Fractures and the monsters they puked up.”

  “Thank you. I suppose that’s everything. You’re free. If we have anything else we’d like to ask you, we’ll call you on the radio. I understand that you intended to return to the U.S. Embassy earlier, but if you’d be kind enough to stick around, the President and General Cho would like a word.”

  She gets up, grimacing, and walks out of the tent. I follow her.

  “In any case, I still have more work to do. We have two more Fractures that still haven’t ruptured yet.”

  Oh, right.

  “Ah, Captain Hwang? Would you mind if I took a look at one of them?”

  She smiles tiredly.

  “Yes, we’d be happy to do that. I’ll have a truck drive you over to one as soon as possible.”

  “I can walk, Captain. I don’t get tired…”

  She chuckles.

  “Yes, but, you are a bit hard on the roads. No need for anything more than necessary, yes?”

  Shit, right.

  I look away in embarrassment. I guess I was wrong. Machines do have body language. Not entirely human, not entirely machine. What a curious thing I am.

  She winces.

  “That wasn’t a condemnation, Mr. Ryans. Just a statement. You are a tank. Powerful, durable, and extremely lethal. There’s a cost for that, and, right now, we don’t need to pay it.”

  She smiles.

  “Please, do not feel bad.”

  I nod, and I wait by the road. Several minutes later, a military open top cargo truck rumbles up to me. The driver leans out.

  “Which Fracture do you want to go to?”

  “Which one is closest?”

  “The one Downtown!”

  “That one, then.”

  I carefully climb into the truck, and it sags a little with my weight. I lean up against the cab.

  The drive whistles.

  “Shit, you’re heavy.”

  He flushes.

  “Uh, sorry.”

  I chuckle. It’s a rough, grinding thing. Like rubbing two rocks together.

  “It’s fine. Let’s go.”

  The roads are still mostly empty, and it doesn’t take us long to make it to the Fracture. Even from several blocks away I can tell this one is different from the others, but I’m not exactly sure in what way.

  The drive stops about fifty yards away from the outer-most line of defense, one of three. After the other Fractures ruptured, and the danger they pose became clear, the General massively reinforced the other ones. Now they have multiple tanks, over a dozen APCs and whole companies just waiting for whatever horrible creatures will pour out of this Fracture. As I walk up to the outer line, one Lieutenant Kim meets me. He holds out a hand for me to shake.

  “Mr. Ryans! We were told about your arrival, and if you follow me, I’ll take you to the Fracture. Captain Han is busy coordinating and planning for the defense, so I’ll be your guide. If you’d like to talk to him about assisting with the defense, I can let him know…?”

  I go to shake his hand before realizing I’m still covered in gore. I look at myself. More pale yellow and black than gunmetal gray. Kim notices my hesitation and withdraws his hand, chuckling.

  “No worries, Mr. Ryan. We could all use a shower.”

  I nod. “I think maybe a pressure washer in my case.”

  Kim chuckles again.

  “Anyway, would you like to talk to the Captain about joining the defense? Please, follow me to the Fracture.”

  “We’ll see. There’s another Fracture that hasn’t ruptured yet. I’ll probably take a look at that one as well.”

  He nods, and begins leading me to the Fracture. I walk carefully, trying to minimize the wear on the road.

  “Understood, Mr. Ryans.”

  After we reach the inner most line of defense, nearly a hundred yards away from it, he stops.

  “Ah, this is close as I should go, Mr. Ryans…” he says nervously, and I wave him down.

  “It’s fine.”

  As I get closer and closer to the Fracture, I can quickly tell this one is different. While its visual component is the same size as the other ones, it’s… denser? Deeper? It’s clearly more than three dimensional, just like the other Fracture I had a chance to study.

  I walk around it slowly, and no matter from what angle I view it at, there’s always something that looks like it’s around a corner. It reminds me strangely of how old video games implemented 3D objects. A single two dimensional image that just rotated so it was always pointing at the player, except this is a three dimensional one.

  I come within arm’s reach, and have to I resist the strange instinct to touch it. I’ve watched enough sci-fi to know not to touch the weird spatial anomaly, especially one that’s proven to pour out deadly monsters.

  I get lost in its depths again. It’s a spiraling, infinite, fractal like structure. Diving down, deep and sideways from the universe. This is different in some subtle ways, but it’s hard to really tell.

  Looking into it is like trying to see down a drain pipe that curves off to the side. Too small, too narrow, to get a good look. But the Fracture itself isn’t the only thing here to study. More of that strange not-energy, not-matter, not-magic mist is here, pouring off and out of it. There’s something more about the mist coming from here. A part of me knows what this is, like a word on the tip of my tongue.

  I look at my hand, the mist running away from my armor. I watch the mist as it flows out, following strange streams and rivers. It’s not stopped by matter, I can see it pass through buildings and even sinking into the road itself. Most of it dives deep, into the road, far beyond my ability to sense it.

  But some of it, tiny rivulets compared to the stream that dives into the ground, flow towards the defenses, the two positions putting the Fracture in the middle of intersection in a cross fire. I turn my focus back to the Fracture.

  Something for later.

  With a flash of inspiration, I think I know what’s different about this Fracture. It’s just more. Following from the drain pipe analogy, this pipe is deeper and wider. Just more Fracture, whatever a Fracture is, anyway. I suppose that if it’s deeper, it takes longer for whatever is down there to come up.

  Bigger pipe, bigger monsters, and more of them. Fantastic.

  I walk back to Lieutenant Kim.

  “I should speak with the Captain, if he’s available. We may have a problem.”