The ground was a sea of screams, flesh, fire, and energy. The crash of battle seemed to shake the very air itself.
Grafay, with his mocking smile, leapt into the fray. His left arm suddenly stretched out, transforming into a chain of blades, then a whip that swept a dozen mutants with a cracking sound. His other arm elongated into a gigantic hammer, which he slammed into the ground, sending corpses and stones flying.
— "It's time for the big cleanup!" he shouted, bursting into laughter.
A mutant tried to jump on him. Without even turning, Grafay extended his foot and transformed it into a massive spike that pierced the enemy's chest.
Bakuran and Salomé charged on the front line. Walls of mutant flesh fell under their blows. Bakuran grabbed two opponents, crushed them against each other, then smashed the ground with his fist, creating a shockwave that knocked everything around him down.
— "I'll tear you apart to the last one!" he roared, eyes shining with rage.
Salomé, faster and just as brutal, spun in the air, landing on three mutants at once. Her foot crushed a head like a watermelon, then she turned and pulverized an entire horde with an elbow strike charged with a devastating shockwave.
ErMut and his humanoid mutant comrades unleashed their fury against their degenerate kin. Claws, talons, energy waves, and rapid assaults ravaged their enemies in a bloody ballet.
— "Kill them all! They're nothing but empty shells now!" exclaimed ErMut as he pierced a bestial mutant with his energy claws.
Yuki, focused amid the chaos, snapped his fingers. The air around him warped.
— "Atomic density: rearrangement."
The atoms in the air compacted violently into an invisible dome before him. Mutants entering this zone were suddenly compressed by colossal atomic pressure—their bodies exploded from within. Then he made a horizontal gesture, and the air transformed into a vibrating blade that sliced matter at a subatomic scale, tearing everything in its path.
Nairo, silent and methodical, was a war machine. He did not shout or show any expression. He grabbed a two-meter-tall mutant by the throat, lifted him like a sack of sand, and threw him into a column of enemies. Then, with a single kick, he projected three creatures against a wall, leaving them inert. The air around him seemed colder.
Sally, at the heart of the storm, danced between attacks. Her body whirled, her magical sword sliced the air, cutting flesh, while her free hand cast blazing spells: black flames, lightning bolts, targeted explosions… every mutant approaching was burned, dismembered, or frozen in place.
But in the distance… she saw him. A gigantic mutant, at least six meters tall, a monster of flesh, eyes, and claws. A colossus.
Sally, determined:
— "That thing has to fall…"
But dozens of mutants rose in her path.
She gritted her teeth, ready to charge—but turned to Grafay:
— "Hey, albino cactus! Cover my back, OK?"
She dashed forward… But suddenly, Grafay shouted:
— "GET OUT OF THE WAY, PINK THORN!!!"
Sally felt a titanic shadow… she teleported in the blink of an eye.
BOOOOOOM.
A gigantic arm of Grafay's, swollen to the size of a truck, slammed down where she had been. The blow pulverized dozens of mutants… but also struck the colossus square in the head.
A monstrous roar followed. The giant mutant staggered, its skull bursting like a watermelon. It collapsed with a crash, struck down instantly.
Sally reappeared behind Grafay, winded but still in one piece.
— "You… can't you be more careful?"
Grafay, shrinking his hand back to normal size:
— "Why cover your back when I can pulverize everything in one blow, huh?"
Sally, outraged… then sighed with a smile:
— "Good job, albino cactus!"
Elsewhere, amidst the chaos, Salomé kept striking, scattering mutants like straw… until a shadow surged behind her.
— "What's that?" she said, surprised.
A black arm, made of liquid shadow, grabbed her and slammed her to the ground. But she rolled, got up, did two flips in the air, and landed smoothly.
— "Lazareth, you're a coward to attack me by surprise!"
A dark mass rose from the ground, taking shape… Lazareth, hunched, masked, cane in hand.
— "You're very agile, my dear. Surprising!"
Salomé pointed at him, her eyes flashing lightning:
— "You're going to die here and now."
The ground still trembled… but the tension rose a notch. A high-level confrontation was about to begin, a duel between darkness and raw light…
The ground shook under the impact of the fight. With a leap, Salomé pounced on Lazareth, fist forward, eyes blazing.
Lazareth struck his cane on the ground; a barrier of shadows immediately sprang up like a living wall.
— "Your little tricks… don't work on me anymore!" spat Salomé.
Her fist crashed against the barrier. A shrill crash rang out—then a flash, a shockwave, and the shadow screen shattered into thousands of twilight fragments.
Lazareth stepped back, eyes wide.
— "What?! Impossible…"
Salomé gave him no time to breathe. She launched a new, even more violent attack. Another barrier. Shattered. Another. Pulverized. The dark defenses collapsed one after another.
— "It's… impossible…" muttered Lazareth, voice trembling. "These barriers are supposed to surpass all physical force…"
— "Shut up!" yelled Salomé, her fists blazing with rage.
She struck. But Lazareth vanished the next instant. A shadow. A distortion. He reappeared eight meters behind her, already raising his cane to summon. Waves of shadow spread on the ground, bursting like a black tide, taking shape as clawed beasts twisted from darkness.
Salomé spun around in a flash.
— "Is that all you know? The same old crap!"
She threw herself into the fray. Every blow was a storm. The creatures were annihilated before they could approach. Lazareth tried to protect himself, hastily forging another shield. Too late.
Salomé's fist smashed into him, breaking his defense like glass. Lazareth was violently thrown, his body crashing through several buildings in an explosion of concrete and steel. Entire sections of buildings collapsed behind him.
Salomé leapt in pursuit, almost flying under the force of her furious momentum.
— "Do you really think you can get away?!"
Lazareth crashed at the foot of a skyscraper, half stunned. He got up staggering, the mask cracked on the side.
— "A kid… She's only nine years old? Really?"
Salomé landed abruptly before him, a cloud of dust rising around her feet. She struck her fists together with a low growl.
— "You won't run. Not today."
Lazareth stared at her, panting, then nodded bitterly.
— "You really are a Satsujin Otoko… A born killer. A child who hits like a divine weapon… That's why you must disappear."
Salomé's eyebrows furrowed, her gaze burning with unfathomable anger.
— "What did you just say?"
She leapt again, striking with unleashed ferocity. Lazareth barely dodged, but each movement was slower, more labored. She harassed him like a storm.
— "You talk about justice?" she shouted. "You claim to purify this world, but you let thousands of mutants massacre innocents! Entire families! And all that to get to me? My family?!"
Her fist sank into Lazareth's belly. A hoarse growl escaped beneath his mask, followed by a jet of blackish blood.
— "You don't even have the right to utter the word 'justice.'"
A second blow exploded against his chest. Lazareth was thrown into the air, violently hitting the facade of the skyscraper behind him. The structure wavered… then collapsed in a roar of ruins, burying Lazareth under an avalanche of rubble.
Salomé stood, panting, fists clenched, eyes black as night.
— "I'm going to beat you so badly… no one will even know what you were!"