Allen's suit and scythe dissolved into black flame as he walked calmly down the street. Yet every pair of eyes followed him—civilians who had witnessed the battle, heroes who had seen his methods. Their gazes held fear, confusion… and something darker.
"Allen."
Crimson Shadow approached, calling out, but Allen continued walking as if he hadn't heard.
"Allen, wait."
He placed a hand on Allen's shoulder—only then noticing the silent tears streaming from Allen's eyes.
"For your own sake, Shadow… stay away from me."
Brushing his hand aside, Allen resumed his path.
Shadow exhaled heavily, watching Allen disappear around a corner. Only then did Shinobi and Titan approach from the left side of the street.
"Did you manage to talk to him?"
"Well… in a sense, yes. But whatever he's going through is worse than when he learned Calibur was coming."
Shinobi spent a moment in thought, then shook his head.
"It's better if we talk inside the headquarters. Not here, with civilians and heroes everywhere. Titan—order reconstruction to begin. We'll wait for you in my office."
Titan nodded sharply. He marched toward the heroes who still stared in Allen's direction and began barking orders—insulting them, even—until they moved to rebuild the civilians' homes.
---
Shinobi studied an old document that Shadow had extracted by hacking the Hero Federation's internal database.
"Well?"
Shadow's question implied something far worse than what the paper stated.
"It's hard to believe… a human turning into a monster?"
"Heh… I thought the same until I spoke with Allen at the hospital. He showed me a different perspective. After that, I tried digging up information on the Gigax Leo… and accidentally opened Pandora's box."
Titan pushed the door open and entered, his yellow military uniform covered in dust and dirt.
"Did I miss something?"
"Not much, Titan—only Aegis's long-term plans."
"Oh, oka—wait… WHAT?!"
Titan froze. Shinobi handed him the document, which Titan read thoroughly before collapsing into a chair.
"Let's start from the beginning. We're talking about Aegis—the only X-Rank hero in existence, and the president and founder of the Hero Federation."
"Correct."
Shadow nodded. Titan broke into a cold sweat.
"How on earth did you get this? Shadow, I know you're good with tech, but this is Aegis we're talking about."
"The day I accessed the data was… strange. No security. No firewalls. Almost as if someone wanted me to retrieve information about the Perfection Project."
Titan stared at him, stunned speechless—until Shinobi continued.
"According to the Perfection Project data, there are twelve subjects, each based on the Zodiac. Every one of them can transform into a monster at will, vastly increasing their combat ability."
Shinobi turned on the computer, displaying a list of names. Beside each: two numbers and a codename.
"Aegis classified each of the twelve according to monster category, and something called 'Growth Level.' Take the Gigax Aries, for example—Category 6, Growth Level 2."
Titan nodded, understanding the implication of a "level."
"So the Gigax Leo and Gigax Aries were part of the Perfection Project?"
"Correct. And not just them—the Gigax Taurus that attacked recently was also one of the twelve. That leaves nine subjects still unaccounted for… Especially Gigax Scorpio."
Titan blinked in confusion, but Shinobi scrolled to the Scorpio entry—and his blood ran cold.
"G-Gigax Scorpio… Growth Level 3, Category 8…"
Shadow let out a strained smile. Titan shot to his feet and leaned closer to the screen, a bead of sweat dripping down his temple.
"Category 8… that's even worse than the Umbralux Draco…"
But then Titan noticed something else—something that froze him solid.
"Gigax Leo… Growth Level 4… Category 9? But when she appeared, she was only Category 5!"
"You're not understanding, Titan. The Growth Level shows their limit. In Leo's case, her ceiling was Category 9… but because Allen killed her before she fully matured, she only reached Category 5."
Cold sweat soaked Titan's back. He dared not imagine the power Leo would've possessed had she completed her evolution.
"However, there's an anomaly in the Perfection Project."
Shadow grabbed a stack of papers from the desk, flipping through them until he isolated one.
"Seira—Gigax Leo, for clarity—was still in the experimental phase. The others had already reached final-stage development. The strange thing is… only weeks after she was added to the project, she lost control. And Allen killed her."
"So the question you want answered is what links Allen to the Project subjects."
Shadow shot Shinobi a playful wink—confirming his guess.