The air tasted of ozone and pulverized stone as Ryder launched himself through the ruined streets. The immense energy drain from the previous fight was a dull, constant ache, but the new threat the unseen source controlling the Stone and Tree Kaiju demanded immediate attention. He moved not like a human, but a missile fired with singular purpose.
"Ryder! Hey, Ryder! Wait up, Ryder!" Sitri's voice, though amplified by her own strange energy, faded behind him.
Ryder didn't glance back. His mind was focused on the faint, unique signature of the commanding presence. "Don't follow me," he called out, his voice rough.
"Why should I not?" she yelled back, her tone a mix of concern and stubbornness.
He didn't explain. Explanations took time, and time was what he had purchased with twenty-two lives. Ryder increased his pace, pushing his body to the absolute maximum. The residual aura flared around him, and he shot forward, moving at a speed Sitri, powerful as she was, could not match.
"Shit! I can't keep up," Sitri muttered, coming to a frustrated stop. She knew better than to interfere when Ryder was consumed by the memories of his failures. "The danger isn't over yet. Thankfully, I have recovered after resting." She turned, heading back toward Skype and the trapped citizens, ready to use her own considerable strength.
A Reaper's Casual Violence
Ryder burst out of the ruins and into the scarred landscape near the forest border.
"Hm... Boss, someone is coming." A distorted, guttural voice echoed through the invisible command structure of the Stone Kaiju, alerting their perimeter guard.
"Kuak!" The guard, a massive, muscular humanoid Kaiju whose skin was the texture of rough hide, stepped into Ryder's path.
"Hey, you there, you mere human! Halt right there this instant!" the Kaiju bellowed, its shadow falling over Ryder. "This is my territory! Do not cross without permission. If you do, you will not be able to go back alive!" the Kaiju warned, enraged by the sight of the boy who was running forward with no intent of stopping, treating the warning as thin air.
"Hey, are you li..." Before the Kaiju could finish its final word, Ryder was already in the air. He didn't bother with an intricate move or a complex technique. This Kaiju was just an obstacle, not a worthy fight. He delivered a simple, brutal flying punch powered by the unstable core of his combined Aura.
BANG!
The impact was deafening. The Kaiju's armor shattered inward, and its colossal body was sent crashing into the nearby rocks, instantly killed not by injury, but by sheer kinetic force and the lethal infusion of the Aura Slaying energy. Ryder landed lightly, never breaking stride, his gaze still fixed on the horizon.
As the dust settled, a gasp drew Ryder's attention. A small, dark figure tumbled out of the high branches of a surviving, gnarled tree where she had been hiding. She was a girl, dressed in simple traveler's clothes, her eyes wide with terror, not at the fallen monster, but at Ryder's chilling display of power.
Ryder paused, the flow of the 22 failed timelines flooding his consciousness a constant stream of agonizing memory. He muttered, half to the girl, half to the vengeful ghosts of his past selves:
"I saw everything that happened in the future. All my friends killed by those evil, vile beings. The world was brought to an end by their hands. There is only one thing that I can do."
His voice hardened, becoming the cold decree of the Grim Reaper.
"My goal is to kill the Kaiju. I will slay all the Kaiju. I will drive them to extinction," he declared.
But even with the power coursing through his veins, the internal doubt—the weakness of the past self—crept in. "But can I achieve this goal that I have been chasing? All my future selves failed, one by one..."
"Hey."
Ryder was caught off from his morbid thoughts as the girl hesitantly approached him.
"Thank you for saving me... but my friends are all dead." Her face was streaked with soot, but her gaze was sharp.
Ryder finally turned back, and he was shocked. The exhaustion, the pressure of the fight, and the endless cycle of failure suddenly faded away, replaced by an acute, devastating recognition.
"Hey, Scar! You are alive!" Ryder exclaimed, a flicker of genuine, heartfelt joy breaking through his hardened demeanor.
"What? What is that supposed to mean?" the girl said, genuinely confused.
Ryder instantly realized his mistake. "Oh, sorry. This is the past, so you are supposed to be alive here. I forgot."
"What are you saying?" the girl asked, stepping back slightly, wary of the lunatic who could punch a monster through solid rock.
The Massive Revelation
Ryder regained his composure, a sly, almost manic grin spreading across his face.
"Your old me told me to find you when I returned. So you came to look for me instead? That's good," Ryder said with a cheeky, relieved smile, completely ignoring her confusion.
"What in the world are you talking about?" the girl said in surprise.
"Well, it's good that I have found you in any case. So, Scarlet, join me so we can achieve our goal of exterminating all Kaiju on this land," Ryder proposed, his urgency overriding any need for a slow introduction.
The girl shook her head emphatically. "Sorry. It looks like you are talking to the wrong person here. My name isn't Scarlet."
Ryder's expression turned serious, the exhaustion replaced by the piercing insight of the many lives he had lived. "Oh, sorry about that. You won't be able to remember me because I was the only one who came back."
He pointed a finger at her, his voice low and intensely serious, delivering the shattering truth:
"Well, whether you like it or not, you are Scarlet. And you are a Kaiju Lord."
The girl's eyes widened, her terror giving way to outright shock. "What?!"
"You are Scarlet, the leader of the Black Blood Kaiju... oh, sorry, the former leader of the Black Blood Kaiju."