The violent re-entry through Earth's upper atmosphere was nothing more than a minor disturbance to Malkor.
As he descended into the cloud layer above the central border territory, his body glowed with a intense golden re-entry trail.
Malkor transformed into a zethrian.
He touched down lightly on the paved outskirts of the border .
But before he could fully settle onto the ground . The border was already a disaster zone—human Xenocide forces were actively battling the Zethrian drones while terrified civilians scrambled through the burning streets toward shelters.
Sirens blared in a deafening, continuous loop, their red emergency lights reflecting off the pooling rainwater and shattered glass.
Malkor didn't even turn his head toward the chaos. He took one step forward, intent on navigating through the border toward his target.
"Hold it right there, alien scum!"
A heavy, dust-covered figure dropped from the ruined roof of a nearby watchtower, landing heavily on the pavement twenty yards ahead. The man rose slowly, his clothing torn and weathered as if he had just returned from a brutal, months-long expedition. His breath hitched in ragged gasps, but his eyes burned with an unyielding, fierce intensity as his blue aura flared to life around his knuckles.
Without waiting for an answer, the wanderer lunged. He covered the distance in a fraction of a second, driving a low, explosive left hook straight toward Malkor's ribs, using the momentum of his landing to double the kinetic impact.
Malkor didn't dodge. He simply shifted his weight backward by a fraction of an inch, letting the fist graze past his leather coat.
*BANG!*
The displacement of air from the man's punch shattered the brick wall behind Malkor, but the strike itself missed its mark. Malkor countered instantly with a swift, horizontal palm strike to the man's throat.
The wanderer barely managed to throw his left forearm up to block, the sheer force of the impact sending him sliding ten feet across the asphalt, his boots carving deep black gouges into the street.
Gritting his teeth against the numbing pain in his arm, the wanderer pivoted on his back foot, springing back into the engagement with a relentless barrage of close-quarters strikes.
He threw a rapid jab-cross combination aimed at Malkor's chin, followed immediately by a spinning back kick directed at his chest. Every strike carried the weight of a seasoned warrior, crisp, precise, and lethal.
*BANG! CRACK! BANG!*
Malkor met the frantic assault with absolute, chilling efficiency. He tilted his head to let the jab whistle past his ear, caught the straight right cross in the palm of his hand, and stepped inside the arc of the spinning back kick. Using the man's own rotational momentum against him, Malkor drove a brutal, short-range elbow strike directly into the wanderer's exposed collarbone.
*BANG—!*
The wanderer let out a loud laugh, but instead of retreating, he grabbed Malkor's collar with his remaining good hand, pulling him downward as he drove his knee straight toward Malkor's diaphragm.
Malkor's eyes narrowed slightly.
He pressed his thumb against the center of his own palm, instantly activating his signature technique—the **Infinite Seal**.
The man was swallowed into the infinite seal.
Malkor narrowed he's eyes "that man...if I had continue fight he would have won, maybe but I can tell he's not ordinary".
Inside the warm, quiet kitchen, a woman sat at the wooden table. Her expression was tired but gentle as she held a small wooden spoon, carefully feeding her young child who sat in a high chair beside her. The radio played softly in the background, muffled by the tranquil atmosphere of the home.
*ZIP.*
The air in the center of the living room folded in on itself then Malkor materialized, his presence immediately killing the warmth in the house.
The temperature plummeted instantly.
The woman froze. She slowly set the spoon down on the table, her body tensing as she turned her head toward the intruder.
"Hello," Malkor said, his voice quiet, flat, and devoid of any emotion.
The woman stood up slowly, placing her body directly between Malkor and the high chair. Her posture shifted instantly from that of a loving mother to that of a trained, high-tier martial combatant.
Her silver eyes narrowed into sharp, lethal slits.
"Who are you? What do you want?" she demanded, her voice low and steady despite the cold terror creeping up her spine.
"That's none of your concern," Malkor replied simply.
Before the last word left his mouth, Malkor glided forward, his palm thrusting straight toward her chest with lethal velocity.
Elias mother didn't flinch. Bending her knees, she dropped beneath the strike with incredible grace, her boots sliding silently across the wooden floorboards.
She swept her right leg around in a wide, sweeping arc aimed at Malkor's ankles, intending to throw off his center of gravity.
Malkor effortlessly hopped over the leg sweep, hovering an inch above the floor.
Capitalizing on her low position, the woman drove her palm upward in an explosive riser-strike, aiming directly for Malkor's jaw.
She bent the local air density around her hand, turning her palm into a compressed blade of kinetic energy.
*SWISH!*
Malkor tilted his head back by a hairsbreadth. The air-blade sliced harmlessly through the fringe of his hair, embedding itself deep into the ceiling above and tearing open a massive structural gash.
Without breaking his flow, Malkor brought his heel down in a lethal axe-kick aimed at the back of her neck.
The woman rolled frantically across the wooden floorboards, dodging the heel by a microsecond as it smashed through the floor, pulverizing the timber into splinters.
She sprang back onto her feet, launching into a furious, high-speed boxing combination. Her fists blurred into a gold-and-crimson storm, striking at Malkor's throat, ribs, and face with absolute desperation.
*BANG! BANG! BANG!*
She gave everything she had. Every strike was infused with the entirety of her life force, her love for her children weaponized into pure, unbridled power.
But Malkor dodged everything.
Moving with the effortless precision of a phantom, he slipped her left hook, parried her right straight, and stepped inside her defensive guard.
He didn't use a flashy technique; he relied on absolute, cold lethality. He reached out, his fingers wrapping around her throat with a vice-like grip, completely shutting down her breath and stopping her momentum dead in its tracks.
She gasped, her hands desperately clawing at his pale wrist, she tried to break his hold.
"Your efforts are admirable," Malkor whispered coldly. "But ultimately meaningless."
With a swift, brutal flex of his arm, Malkor drove his hand straight through her chest.
She stiffened, her eyes opening wide as a crimson stain bloomed across her dress.
Malkor retracted his hand, letting her lifeless body fall heavily to the wooden floorboards. Without missing a beat, he turned toward the silent, trembling high chair and ended little baby girl life in a single, cold second.
Just as the mother's body hit the ground, the front door burst open.
Young Elias stepped into the room.
The bright, cheerful smile on his face instantly vanished. His eyes locked onto his mother lying in a pool of blood, then shifted to he's baby sister, and finally met the cold, face of the monster standing in his living room. Elias eyes locked unto the golden eyes of Malkor.
Elias froze. His brain completely short-circuited.
He couldn't scream. He couldn't run. He couldn't breathe. The sheer, incomprehensible horror of the scene paralyzed his nervous system entirely.
Malkor slowly turned his head, his cold golden eyes locking onto the trembling boy.
"You're next," Malkor said quietly.
"Damn you...!"
A violent roar tore through the air from the second-floor balcony. Zane dropped from the landing above.
His face was a contorted mask of pure, unadulterated agony and rage as he looked at his mother's body.
"I'm going to kill you! I'm going to rip you to pieces!" Zane screamed, his tears mixing with the blood pouring from his biting lip.
Zane turned his head briefly toward the hallway behind him, where young Tyson had just run out, wide-eyed and horrified.
"Tyson! Take Elias and run! RUN!" Zane screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice breaking with unbearable pain.
Tyson didn't hesitate. Though tears blurred his vision and his heart hammered wildly against his ribs, he sprinted forward, grabbed the paralyzed Elias by his collar, and dragged him backward out the front door into the rain-slicked night.
As Tyson ran through the dark streets, pulling his younger brother along, his mind broke under the weight of his own powerlessness.
*"Damn it... why can't I stop running?!"* Tyson sobbed silently, his boots pounding against the ground as tears streamed down his dirt-stained cheeks. *"Why am I running?! I just left them there... Mom... my little sister... Zane... damn it! Why can't I stop running?! Whyyyyyyyy?!*
Back inside the house, the battle was short and catastrophic.
Zane threw himself at Malkor with everything he possessed. He unleashed a barrage of fighting combinations, tearing the house to shreds as he fought with Malkor.
But Zane's rage made him reckless. Malkor exploited every opening with surgical precision, slipping inside Zane's guard, shattering his ribs with a series of heavy body blows,
*BOOM! CRACK! THOOM!*
Within three minutes, the house was reduced to rubble. Zane lay on his back in the ruined lawn, covered in his own blood, his breathing ragged and shallow as his shattered bones prevented him from rising.
Malkor didn't waste time finishing him. He stepped over Zane's bleeding body and glided into the night, tracking the residual energy signature of the fleeing children.
It didn't take long. Less than a mile away, near the river, Malkor materialized directly ahead of the two boys.
Seeing the monster appear out of thin air, Tyson made a split-second decision.
With a desperate, mighty shove, he shoved Elias off the bridge, sending the younger boy tumbling down into the cold, churning rapids of the river below, far away from Malkor's immediate reach.
Tyson turned to run, attempting to draw the killer away, but Malkor was already there.
*STAB!*
Malkor reached out, his hand piercing straight through Tyson's abdomen from behind. Tyson gasped, his body going completely rigid as cold, blinding agony shot through his entire frame. Blood spurted from his mouth, dripping onto Malkor's pale arm.
Malkor didn't pull his hand back. Instead, he pressed his open palm against Tyson's back and unleashed a short-range, point-blank blast
*BOOM!*
The explosive force tore through Tyson's body, launching him fifty yards across the dirt.
Tyson hit the ground hard, tumbling through the mud before coming to a rest near the edge of the woods. He lay there, flat on his back, his vision rapidly fading into complete darkness as his blood pooled beneath him.
Malkor stood at the edge of the riverbank, looking down at the empty, rushing water where Elias had disappeared, and then at the motionless body of Tyson lying in the dirt.
Satisfied that the Walker lineage had been thoroughly broken and cleared from the board, Malkor tu
rned his back on the scene, stepping into the Infinite Seal and vanishing into the night.