While unfortu didn’t surprise Bang that both Metal Knight and Genos’ attacks failed to destroy the meteor.
It appeared today would mark the end.
Bang stood on the roof, hands csped behind his back. In front of him, Genos had just colpsed onto his knees.
“Only nine seds left. I gave it my best shot. Now the time has e.”
Bang arrive beside Genos and said, “You did good. Indeed, our time has e.”
Genos shook his head. “You are mistaken. Look.” he poioward the sky.
Bang’s eyes followed and widened. “What is that?!”
A small, stilting object tore through the air on a direct collision course with the meteor.
“My master has arrived. Just as he foretold to me, he would bee ohat was given to fly.”
ROARRR!
A blinding blue light ed Z-City as the meteor burst into innumerable fragments.
Bang raised his hand to shield his widened eyes. “He smashed right through it! I ’t believe it! But now…”
The shattered fragments rained down upoy, their sharp whistles cutting through the air before deafening explosioed from each point of impact.
“Don’t move, Genos. Well, it’s not like you’re in a state to move around anyway. I’ll keep you safe.”
Bang used his ‘Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist,’ defending Genos and himself from several fragments.
“It’s crashing down!”
Bang grabbed Genos a off the roof. It’s not only this building… The destru is spreading throughout the whole city.
¤ ¤ ¤
Caspian had spent a great deal of time refleg on his choice. Yet, the more he thought about it, the clearer it became that he had made the right decision.
He may have givehe thrill of going all out, but so what? She may have kissed him, but the moment faded, and her past hit her upside the head.
From the pain of being sold out by her parents, to the relentless experiments she suffered uhe psychic research anization Tsukuyomi, and even the deeply ingrained beliefs she built around Bst’s advice — how could two ‘fights’ and a bit of flirting ever hope to pierce through all that in such a short amount of time?
But how could he give up? The hope of a happy life had carried him through his past life, and it would do the same in this new, far greater one.
In the days following his frontation with Tatsumaki, he wandered from pce to pce, defeating monsters wherever he went, though he rayed far from Z-City for too long. As remaining in proximity made it easy to notice the glistening disaster hurtling from space. Enabling him to hurry back to Z-City and await its arrival.
After dealing with the meteor, he wasted no time fleeing the city. His Hero Rank didn’t matter that mu, and he had no i in fag the iable accusations of the devastation that followed.
Subsequently, he returned home and now sat on his futon, a bag of Wavy Lays in hand.
Flipping through the els, he found nothing but live ce of Z-City’s aftermath.
“What am I even supposed to be doing right now? I feel aimless... indifferent. Is this unparalleled strength already getting to me?” He took a deep breath. “No. I ’t let my tendency to isote myself win in this new life. The people I care about—and who care about me now, and those that will eventually care about me— be the anchors that keep me from drifting into madness.”
His thoughts twisted as he stared bnkly at the TV s, absently reag into the bag of Wavy Lays until his fingers met only crumbs.
“This situation won’t do. Wavygyaza might still be unreachable, but there are others I seek out. But... who should I seek?”
Gng out the window and notig that dusk had already settled in, Caspian decided to leave in the m instead.
Besides, he wao wait fenos to return. With Bang watg over him, Caspian wasn’t worried about Genos’ safety, at least not iion to this i.
¤ ¤ ¤
A once quiet m in Y-City had turned into a nightmare.
tless people fled in all dires.
“Help!”
“Child Emperor e save us!”
A Mysterious Being lumbered through a wide interse, smashing away all the vehicles that stood in its path.
-
Name: Faultless Marioe
Disaster Level: Mid Demon
-
“Fwed existences… I, Faultless Marioe, will fix you all.” The being said, its voice a hollow, meical whisper.
Peeking around the er of a nearby building was a young woman with a lea rounded figure, Suiko. Her blue eyes sed the approag monster with sharp focus.
I’ll ralize it in a sirike.
“Miss. I advise you to flee from the area at once.”
Suiko swiveled toward the speaker. “You’re… the A-Css Hero Great Philosopher.”
The Great Philosopher walked past her in sileepping onto the street to block the monster’s path.
With the monster having gotten so close, Suiko could take in its full appearance.
A t, 4-meter-tall humanoid stood with a skeletal frame resembling a charred wooden puppet. Luminous yellow threads shrough its jointed body. Above it, tless threads attached to its back stretched upward into the air, swaying as if maniputed by an unseen hand. At its chest, a dense core of the same yellow threads pulsated—a super-densed mass shielded by tightly woven strands. Its cracked por mask locked into a grotesque grin, with hollow violet eyes that locked onto Great Philosopher.
With every lurg step closer, the air shimmered with heat, the gray pavement crag and bih its feet.
The Great Philosopher flipped through the pages of his rge book. “Why must you do this? What are your iions?”
Faultless Marioe came to a halt and peered downward. “Why? Do you know what it is like to lose everything? I peteer once... a creator of beauty, of life. My marioes were perfect—fwless. But fire... fire took it all. The theater, my work, my purpose. Gone.
In the ashes, I found something... strange. Glowing threads, pulsing with a yellow light I had never seen. I thought it was a gift, a way to rebuild what was lost. So I took them... fused them with the charred remains of my marioes, my art. And then... I made them a part of me.
The pain was excruciating, but it was worth it. ’t you see? The world is fwed, broken, ugly. I will fix it. I will remake it. Every being, every life... I will craft them into perfe. Even if I must tear them apart to do so.”
“Your twisted philosophy… I ot allow it to exist.” Great Philosopher said as he closed his book.
“Death is a small price to pay. I will free you from your imperfes.”
Faultless Marioe raised its arms, joints creaking. The glowing yellow threads tunneling through its limbs fshed violently. Simultaneously, the threads reag skyward from its body pulled taut, as if yanked by an unseen puppeteer. The core in its chest fred, burning brighter, causing the threads in its right hand to extend from its fingers, twisting into the shape of a spear.
Suiko’s heartbeat roared in her ears, each thud eg like a war drum as adrenaline surged through her veins. Her gut told her that this was the stro monster she had ever e across.
Even so, she still stepped out and made her way treat Philosopher.
Faultless Marioe’s head so a grotesque angle. “Another life… Perfe awaits you.”
Great Philosnced back toward her. “Miss. I—”
Suiko raised her hand, her expression resolute. “If I fled while i lives were at stake, I’d be disgrag my grandfather’s good name.”
“A heroidset indeed. Fine. Let us deal with this threat posthaste.”
“Right.”
Suiko dropped into a bat stance, her gaze snapping up to the hulking puppet monster looming over her. She wasn’t a hero. But she didn’t o be. Letting is die? That was a line she never po cross.
