Prologue – “A Bit Too Far”

Nobody would’ve noticed, it looked like a normal day to your average person, but unbeknownst to everyone, even those fighting for humanity, it was going to be the last time they saw day.

Carias finally healed from her absolute limit transformation, but she had other things to worry about as she tried to get up but failed, her lower body’s skin still absent, her muscles stung at the touch of air. The fight was too fast for her ; just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. She could barely see what was happening, especially after that unexpected transformation that weakened her.

“I need to get up… Ashwin’s done as much as he could.”

She tried to stand up but her bones crumbled under her own weight and she fell back down.

As they exchanged their galaxy destroying blows, one connected, Meras punched straight into Sharkz’s face, something that should have blown his entire head to bits. Instead, he slid back (surprisingly) a few meters, absorbing all of its force, then assumed a strange pose : head down, back completely slouched, legs apart, and both arms hanging.

She tried to move, to reach out to Sharkz, but oddly she couldn’t. It was as if she was frozen in place. She was worried. She could feel all of Sharkz’ energy drain the moment Meras hit him. Carias also noticed his eyes: they were devoid of life, turning from a vivid, aggressive red, to a lifeless black.

Something was off. There was tension in the air. Strands of blue lightning formed a zero on his bare back, then struck, leaving the mark of that number.

It was strange— Meras, an entity who would never give its opponent a break, especially with such an easy fatality in front of it, was just standing there.

The air was freezing, so much so that the area around Sharkz was turning to ice.

Without warning, the entity lunged at him, seemingly jumping out of his paralysis to attack our “hero.” Despite his superluminal speeds, it froze again, about a meter before him, as if an invisible force was slowing it down the closer it got.

‘Space manipulation!’ she thought.

‘He’s still alive, I know it. That technique takes a massive amount of energy.’ Carias searched for Sharkz’s energy point, wanting to know if there was still hope for them. She tried looking for it, but it was nowhere to be found, or at least nicely hidden.

‘That’s weird. I can only sense the technique itself… and not the string of energy behind it.’

She continued searching for it desperately, straining her head as she felt spikes of pain all around her body.

“I found it!” she yelled happily.

Her smile sank. Her visible confusion slowly changed into a frown, before her face finally collapsed under the weight of a million souls.

“—That’s not… him.”

Scenes of mass genocide flashed through her mind, the suffering of every individual clearly visible. Humans, angels, demons, hybrids— nothing was spared, she felt the pain, misery, fear of every single one of them at the same time.

One image stayed stuck in her head, a child looking at her mother’s completely mangled corpse with flies flying around it. The only thing left intact was her face. Her arms were shattered, bits of bone sticking out here and there, her guts were out for display and her legs were in the same state as her arms. The child just stood there, not understanding what was happening, she could only let out a small “Mommy?” before the scene looped in her head.

She felt a ball form in her stomach, pure rage, disgust, along with all of her physical pain.

Tears streamed down her face as she murmured, “How is this possible—”

But she didn’t have time to ask any questions. She made a mistake. She stayed connected to the energy point. She yelled in agony while clutching her chest, digging into her own flesh until her fingers wrapped around her heart, it was too much, even for her.

“Make it stop… I just want to die…”

She vomited blood as she felt her bones being crushed, skin getting pierced, veins exploding from within and blacked out.

The previously calm and hidden energy point was now all over the place, enveloping Sharkz.

‘I can’t move. Kill. I need to kill him while I can. Why can’t I move? What’s he doing?’ The alien thought.

It tried to move its 6 limbs forward, trying to reach towards him. ‘I’ve already adapted to his technique earlier. Why is it not working?’

Steam was coming out of every pore of Sharkz’ skin, then it fell off. His skin just melted off. All that was left was his fiery meat carcass, the heat of Thysmos had apparently got to him and so did the all-out attack earlier. Violently, spikes made out of ice surged out of his body. It merged with his bones and ripped the muscle around it, each fiber snapping, just from touching the ice. Long ones came out of his main joints, and a bunch of small ones all over his body acting like armor. It wasn’t regular ice. It was burning ice, visible dark red blood vessels coursed through it. His face lost all of its regular features to be replaced with more ice. His jaw stretched, the creaking of the bones echoed. It got wider and massive teeth made of the same material sprouted from his already existing ones. His eyes were also entirely red, including his sclera. Three horns sprouted from his head forming a sort of crown.

He had been turned into a killing machine, a horrific creation which God himself had no hand in, nor would ever claim.

The first sound to come out of his mouth wasn’t words, but a gut-wrenching screech—loud enough for the whole planet to hear. A yell that froze the earth in shock, a warning. That’s when reality finally realized its biggest mistake.

Carias managed to open her eyes, ever so slightly, but it was just enough to see the thing her brother had become.

“What… The fuck is that?” That thing’s mere presence shook fear into her.

The Demon vanished for 10 seconds and reappeared with the stench of the entire human race’s blood.

Woah, woah, woah. We’ve gone a bit too far. Let’s start well… From the start!