Night had fallen. There was only Ryukyu, Raven and Katro at base when she'd returned a few hours ago, and they were glad to hear that Sunden was well guarded. All four of them were taking a break, but Ryukyu was preparing to get back into combat.

  "I haven't heard any reports of Aberrant sightings close to cities." He said, "But I need to scout."

  Ryukyu transformed and flew into the air, leaving through the crater at the top of the mountain.

  "Wright is stopping an attack somewhere underground. He'll be back soon. We're waiting to see if he finds anything out that we could use."

  Katro had suffered the worst bruises with how far he demanded he push himself. It was as if he wanted to make a point to Muryoko that even Outer Rank 6 can and will stand against him. That said, he was looking a lot better after some rest. And that sort of concerned Jade. He wasn't taking care of himself.

  These past two days had opened up one crucial fact to Jade. One of which she'd pondered heavily but hoped wasn't true. Zinnia would have been better than her. If Zinnia were here, the Nexeans would be able to actually recover after every battle to be ready for the next. Jade had anticipated this ever since she volunteered to stay behind as support two days ago. But those two days were long. It's true that she was an enormous help in a few of the many battles, but if one of the Outer Ranks were to lose a fight, or worse… die… that was on her. There were the consequences of Nemean choosing her over the healer. The healer that, right now, they could use.

  Jade thought about this as she headed to the elevator, but was interrupted when she heard a sound. A clatter.

  There shouldn't have been a reason to be suspicious… except for the fact that the sound was coming from a door with a big electrical sign on it. It said "KEEP OUT"

  It wasn't something mysterious or anything, and when she asked Katro, he answered immediately with what she was thinking. "Oh, it's just an electrical room. Don’t mess around in there. The power is what keeps our appliances online and the Aberrants away.."

  As far as she knew, there was nothing wrong with the power. But maybe she was too tired to notice. It was probably Raven being paranoid.

  If that was the case, it was dangerous for Raven to be in there alone; she was tired, too. Jade pushed the door open to help her.

  "Raven? Is everything fine?" She looked around. It was a dark room. There were a bunch of wires and glowing buttons across every wall, and generators across the room created a maze of corridors. Jade spent a moment trying to navigate it to find Raven, cautious not to touch anything, until she had a better idea. She reached out with her mind to try and locate Raven. She found the mind, and instantly recoiled.

  "You!" Jade hissed. She hadn’t felt that mind in a while. What was he doing here? She was confused, but above all else, she was paranoid. Why would he be in this room?

  A light flickered, illuminating the face of Scott.

  The boy simply looked her up and down, before pulling out a knife and cutting a wire. He spoke with a serious voice,

  "Someone's nosy, aren't they? I wanted to find the plug, but this will do."

  Lights kept flickering, and Scott kept cutting wires. Jade unfroze. She had to make him stop. She attacked him, head on, but he raised a hand towards her. Despite being in a closed off room, a gust of wind hit Jade, pushing her back. It shouldn't have been more than a minor inconvenience, as she only flew so far before hitting a generator. Unfortunately, she hit a generator. Sparks flew from it, and that gave Scott an idea.

  "I'll warn you now. Get out of here before this place blows." Scott picked up a nearby crowbar and opened up the walls of a generator.

  "Scott. Stop!" It was too late. Scott threw the crowbar into the whirring mess and ran. Jade had no time to do anything but follow him. The two of them burst out of the door, as the generators blew up behind them. They barely made it out, and smoke bellowed out of the door. Jade tried to get up, coughing, but she'd been hit worse than Scott. He ran. Jade could barely see him, as the lights of the building had completely shut off. He burst out of the halfway open automatic doors and ran.

  "Someone!" Jade yelled, primarily to the downstairs dorms, "I need backup!"

  This was horrible. Scott had somehow gotten in, and he'd shut off most of the power. Why? He was going to get away, as well. Just then, someone came from downstairs.

  "The power shut off, what's happene-?" Katro faltered when he saw the state of Jade.

  "Hurry! Get him!" Jade didn't normally sound this panicked, and Katro followed her gaze.

  "No way… is that-"

  Scott was already too far for Katro to catch up. But somebody still stood a chance. Katro screamed out to the ground, “RAVEN!”

  Only a few seconds later, Raven burst out of the floor, already in her winged form, and shot after Scott. She was fast, way faster than Scott. There was no way he'd get awa-

  Jade's heart sank. Her skin crawled. Someone… something… really powerful had touched her mind.

  "Raven… stop-" she tried to say, but her voice was quiet. She couldn't do anything but watch.

  Two Deviants stepped onto the grassy field of Nexus HQ. This was the first time Nexus had ever been infiltrated. Now Jade knew why Scott had turned off the power. They were vulnerable.

  The first Deviant was giant, towering over any that Jade had seen before. He had a crown with black horns, as was his aura. He carried with him an obsidian sword, which was unsheathed and dragged across the ground.

  The second one was really short for a Deviant, only about 6 feet tall, and carried no weapon. He wasn’t angry, motivated, bored or any emotion. His energy was white and he lacked any visible intimidating factor. He was just… existing.

  Somehow, Raven didn't see them. She chased Scott as if they weren't there. The giant Deviant dropped his sword to the ground, and Scott ran past him. The Deviant reached out an enormous hand and grabbed Raven by the neck as she flew into him. Raven's eyes instantly widened as she suddenly saw the enemy, and she began charging up a beam. There was no way she'd get the time to fire it, but the Deviant narrowed his hollow, empty eyes and let her power up. Raven must have been terrified at this point, but she had no choice but to continue with her plan.

  Raven shot the beam point-blank into the Deviant's face. The light blinded Jade, but she didn't look away. She was trying to attack the mind of the Deviant, but it was so incredibly powerful. A thousand walls of defence and traps.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  When the light faded, Jade blinked the spots out of her eyes. That was a direct hit from Raven's strongest attack.

  The Deviant hadn't even blinked.

  "Nice job, Horoguramu." The smaller Deviant said in an empty voice.

  "Shut up, Sabitsu."

  "That was a compliment…"

  Katro snapped out of his fear before Jade did, and he turned invisible. The Deviant called Horoguramu tightened his grip around Raven's neck, and she began gasping for air. Her energy mask faded away, and she tried kicking at Horoguramu. She couldn't even reach him. As for the smaller Deviant, Sabitsu, he was looking elsewhere. Towards Jade, but not at her.

  "No way…"

  Jade reached her mind out and located Katro.

  Katro, abort! I think the smaller one can see you!

  Katro heard her, and realised she was right. Still, he refused to leave Raven and instead ran right at Horoguramu.

  He missed. Jade could only locate his mind, but she could feel that he was running straight past the Deviants, into the tunnel they'd come from. What was he doing? Jade tried to talk to him, but something was interfering with their connection. It was blurry, and he kept running deeper into the tunnel for a full minute. Then the connection was gone.

  Katro? What happened?? Katro!

  Katro reappeared from the dark tunnel. He'd been thrown back towards Headquarters, and flew across the entire field before hitting the ground. What the hell was that? Jade found the use of her legs and rushed up to Katro, who was alive but unconscious. He was bleeding all over.

  "Katro? Wake up, Katro!"

  "She's not threatening us, Horoguramu. Let her go."

  Sabitsu was telling Horoguramu to release Raven. Why? Horoguramu snarled.

  "She's a Nexean, isn't she? Probably helped kill Sekara. Why shouldn't I kill her?"

  "Because she won't live much longer. None of them will. Might as well let her live her last few moments. You know I don't lie."

  Horoguramu growled, but listened to him.

  "Fine, but if I regret this, it was your decision."

  He threw Raven onto the grass in front of them and took a step towards the building.

  "Save her if you want to, girl." Horoguramu spoke to her. "You're the only conscious one. Do you want to stay that way?"

  Jade didn’t know what to do, but she complied. She dragged Raven over to Katro, and the Deviant let her.

  "What do you two want?" Jade was barely able to keep herself under control. If she lost her temper, she'd lose her life as well.

  "It doesn’t matter to you. You're going to die soon anyway." Sabitsu said in an innocent voice. He sounded like a child that was just saying things the way they were. Horoguramu picked his sword back up. "The Nexeans have been dismantled, my Lord."

  Jade had almost forgotten about the thing Katro had run into in the tunnel. She could make out its silhouette, and tried to touch its mind.

  There were no defences in the mind of whatever this thing was. But it felt scarily familiar. The only thing standing between Jade and the metaphorical city was the same silhouette she'd seen in the tunnel. She wasn't alone.

  "It's you." The figure said, in a scraping, terrifying voice. "You're Jade, aren't you?"

  A wave of fear washed over Jade. She tried to back away, but her feet wouldn't move. She couldn't tell if she was inside his mind or in the real world. The only thing she knew for sure was who this was. She was faced with Muryoko. The Deviant King.

  Jade burst back into the real world as Muryoko stepped into the moonlight. He had enormous horns and spikes on his shoulders, and his aura and gaze were piercing red. His pupils were visible, which was the first time Jade had seen that among Aberrants. Did that mean he actively turned off Elano's Heart?

  "Jade." He said, making her skin crawl again. Horoguramu and Sabitsu kneeled in front of Muryoko as he walked forwards, every step making the ground tremble. "You got me real good, wrestling Ciela back from me, didn't you?" His voice was so, so cold. "I believe I said something about getting you back for that, right? So how are we going to do this?"

  Jade was on the ground, trying to keep Muryoko's gaze, but she couldn't. She kept her eyes downwards, trying desperately to think of something.

  "Will you be a problem for me, Jade? Your power is incredibly frustrating. Answer me. How are we going to do this?"

  Muryoko was right in front of Jade now, who's thoughts had completely stopped. She felt like an animal waiting for slaughter.

  "Stand up, Jade. Like how you stood up to me before. Go on, Jade. Stand."

  Jade suddenly felt very light, as if gravity itself had given up on her. Muryoko roughly grabbed her by the hair, pulling her upright, and gravity returned, keeping her on her feet. She still had to strain her neck to look at Muryoko.

  "Look at you now. Standing up straight, yet it still pains you to even meet my eyes. So tell me, Jade. What can you do? What can you, or any Nexean, possibly do to take me down? Your cause is doomed to fail. So what's the point in getting in my way?"

  Jade was still looking almost directly upwards at Muryoko. Movement flickered behind him. She smiled.

  "You aren't immortal, monster. Are you?"

  Muryoko narrowed his eyes, wondering what she meant, before an inferno shot down from the heavens, engulfing Horoguramu and Sabitsu.

  Muryoko turned to see his subordinates under attack. Jade silently cursed herself. If she weren't in the blast zone, Ryukyu would have attacked Muryoko. She had to get out of the way somehow.

  Ryukyu landed and gave an enormous, challenging roar. The strongest Outer Rank had taken the field.

  "I'll deal with him." Horoguramu announced, barely scathed. "Master Muryoko, you go on."

  "Oh, that's quite alright, Horoguramu. I'd like to watch this. You there! Dragon! You're an Outer Rank, correct?"

  Ryukyu couldn't answer, not that he would. Muryoko took his silence as a yes.

  "One of your kind killed a Prime of mine. Show me that strength. Horoguramu, continue."

  Horoguramu lifted his sword and the surrounding air shimmered. An enormous figure appeared around him. It looked exactly like Horoguramu in shape, but lacked any details, and had translucent skin made of a dark, liquid-like energy. Horoguramu rose to the centre of it, as if he were operating a robot from within. The 50-foot figure mimicked his very movements perfectly.

  Jade was scared, but Ryukyu simply roared in response. Muryoko and Sabitsu watched as Ryukyu took to the sky. The titanic Horoguramu formed a sword in its hand, made of that dark energy, and swung it at Ryukyu, who barely avoided it. He flew under Horoguramu's guard and let off another intense fire. It seemed to just bounce off.

  Ryukyu snarled as he avoided another attack. He seemed to figure that, if fire wouldn't work, he'd have to use brute force. That said, the energy that Horoguramu's outer body was encased in was probably hard to break through.

  Ryukyu wasn't so reckless as to charge head first into an unknown substance, so he experimentally clipped the body with the tip of his wing.

  It decayed to bone.

  Ryukyu roared in pain and struggled to maintain flight. He cautiously landed and looked up at the looming figure, which vanished, dropping Horoguramu to the ground.

  "It's over." He said, as if he wanted to finish off his victim without even using his power. Ryukyu wasn't finished, however. He let out an enormous roar, louder than Jade had heard before. Parts of the mountain began crumbling, and a giant chunk of rock fell from the mountainside towards Muryoko and Jade. And by giant, Jade meant the size of a building. She tried to scramble away, but Muryoko didn’t move. He simply stood there and let it fall on him.

  It didn’t connect. The enormous chunk of rock slowed down when it reached Muryoko, as if afraid to touch him. Muryoko put his palm on the underside of it, as it was moving at a snail's pace, and gently manoeuvred it until he had a decent grip. Then he threw it at Ryukyu.

  The rock seemed to speed up as it left Muryoko's hand, and it approached Ryukyu at a speed so unnatural for an object of that size. Ryukyu couldn't react, not with his broken wing. He braced himself, and the boulder shattered into pieces.

  Standing in front of Ryukyu, having taken the brunt of the attack, was Wright.

  An Inner Rank had joined the battle.

  Come check out our Discord server!

  https://discord.gg/FQEam4725