The silence was heavier than the preceding chaos. The fire the inferno birthed by the Dragon Lord Grym had been contained, thanks to the sheer, concentrated power Ryder unleashed, which seemed to scour the very air. But the victory was stark. Half of the city was destroyed, reduced to smoking rubble and fractured skeletons of concrete. Worse still, the ground was littered with the ghosts of citizens who hadn't made it. The cost was paid in blood and ashes.
Ryder stirred, a low groan escaping his lips. His mind felt clear, yet his body was a dead weight, heavy with the accumulated exhaustion of twenty-two failed timelines and the catastrophic energy drain of the Aura Slaying Art.
"Oh, you woke up, Ry," a voice said cheerfully.
Ryder blinked, his eyes adjusting to the dim, unfamiliar room. The girl, Sitri, was sitting beside him on a simple cot, her white hair framing a face that was uncharacteristically focused.
"Si... Si-Si..." Ryder mumbled, his throat rough.
"What?" Sitri prompted, leaning closer.
"You are okay, right?" Ryder managed, the first priority of his programming to protect the things he still cared about u
Immediately asserting itself.
Sitri smiled that same unsettling, carefree smile. "Yes, I am. Why are you asking, Silly?"
"It is nothing," Ryder replied, pushing down the memory of Grym's iron whips and the thought of what could have happened.
Before the conversation could continue, the door creaked open, and a tall, heavily-muscled man in scarred armor stepped into the room, leaning on a salvaged rifle.
"Are you okay now?" the man asked, his tone gruff but laced with concern.
"Skype! You are alive!" Ryder called out, a genuine note of relief in his voice. Skype was one of the senior Kaiju Hunters from this timeline a mentor figure he'd lost countless times before.
"What, did you want me to die? And that's Mr. Skype to you, kid. I am older than you," Skype grumbled, though his eyes showed his relief.
"Why are you here? Go away! Don't bother us," Sitri snapped, immediately adopting a protective and territorial stance beside Ryder.
Skype's face darkened. "What? This is my house, for crying out loud! Both of you should be the ones to get out!" He gestured around the small, intact dwelling. "I bought both of you here after you passed out, and this is what I get in return?"
"Oh, okay," Ryder said simply, accepting the situation with the calm of someone who had seen worse arguments in worse timelines.
Skype sighed, running a hand through his short, messy hair. "Anyway. What are you going to do from now on? Grym's gone, but the high command..."
Ryder, despite his exhaustion, launched into the strategy that had been refined over decades of repeating this scenario. "As you know, the Kaiju God decreed this kingdom be razed down to ashes. We broke the spearhead, but the war isn't over. It will be best to leave."
He pushed himself up against the pillows. "The Lesser Kaiju will come back. They always follow the command of their leader, no matter what. If the Kaiju continue to attack here, there will be more casualties. If we leave the kingdom and cross the border, they won't follow us. The decree was specific to this territory."
"So..." Before Ryder could continue his tactical summary, the crushing weight of the energy drain finally asserted itself. He simply collapsed back onto the bed and was instantly asleep, the conversation unfinished.
"What the hell?" Skype said, staring at the suddenly unconscious boy.
Sitri moved to cover Ryder with a blanket, her expression distant. "He fell asleep. It looks like he pushed himself when he fought that Kaiju. His power is still unstable too much future and failure in one punch."
Skype lowered his rifle, looking troubled. "So, aren't you going to ask him what transpired there? What that power was?"
"No," Sitri said, tucking the blanket around Ryder's shoulder. "There is no need. I trust Ryder."
The Second Wave
Their tense silence was obliterated by a sound that shook the very foundations of the house not an explosion, but a heavy, rhythmic percussion, like enormous fists hitting the earth.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A distant chorus of terrified shouts began to rise from the surviving parts of the town.
"They're coming! They're coming!"
"What? What the hell is going on?" Skype yelled. He and Sitri rushed outside to see what fresh disaster was unfolding.
The sight was unexpected and terrifying. The first line of defense was not the chitinous, toxic Kaiju they knew, but Stone Kaiju massive, lumbering figures made of granite and living earth, impervious to small arms fire, slow but inexorable, advancing on the remaining civilians.
But they weren't alone. "Hey, the trees are moving too!" Sitri exclaimed.
From the surrounding forest, the very timber had awakened. Large, gnarled, man-shaped Tree Kaiju gathered around the town, their branches scraping the sky, closing off every avenue of escape. They were not beasts of blood, but beasts of earth and wood—a different faction, fulfilling the same destructive decree.
"Shit! They are too much! We need to get out of here right now!" Skype shouted, raising his rifle, knowing bullets would be useless against stone and wood.
"There is no way we can leave the people to die!" Sitri retorted, pulling a shimmering, silver blade from nowhere. With impossible speed, she slashed a Tree Kaiju down, the ancient wood parting cleanly before her weapon.
The fight had begun, and they were hopelessly outnumbered.
Suddenly, all the Tree Kaiju froze. A cold, quiet wave of energy passed over the chaotic scene, and one by one, the massive, gnarled figures began to turn to dust, falling into the earth they were meant to protect. The Stone Kaiju stalled, confused by the death of their allies.
Skype and Sitri looked up in shock.
"Ryder! What are you doing here?" Sitri cried out, seeing the boy standing on the roof of a battered building overlooking the battle. He looked pale and dangerously unstable, his Aura crackling with premature exertion.
"A Kaiju is nearby," Ryder said, his voice strained and quiet, yet amplified by his power. He didn't waste time looking at the threats. His eyes were already locked on a distant point beyond the forest. "I need to head to the source of the problem."
He didn't wait for a reply. He launched himself off the roof, moving with impossible speed, rushing towards the root of the new, secondary threat.
"Ryder, wait!" Sitri said, calling out, torn between following him and staying to protect the remaining civilians alongside Skype. The war was already far from over.