- Elsewhere in District A -

A male teenager cheered excitedly as he ran through a narrow alleyway, glancing behind him occasionally to check on his persecutors — a group of white, humanoid monsters, sharp triangular teeth revealed and tentacles at the ready.

They were hairless and noseless, with a permanent creepy smile carved onto their faces.

Despite being hunted down by these surreal abominations, however, the young man showed no fear. In fact… quite the opposite.

He suddenly stopped, still frozen in a running position, and wore a sly grin he looked backwards. It was almost as if he was baiting the creatures to come closer.

And so, they did… completely unbeknownst to the fact that they were heading straight into a death trap.

"Heh."

The teen smirked as a green aura enveloped him. Time seemed to slow down as the monsters swiped down, preparing to tear him apart, but right before they could, he dashed away — at near-hypersonic speeds, as time resumed to its normal flow once more.

"WOOHOO!" he shouted excitedly at this rush of adrenaline, dashing straight through the long alleyway, continuing to lead his persecutors towards where he wanted them.

"SCREEE!" the abominations screamed as they continued to ignorantly chase after their prey.

Until at last, they were in perfect position, right in the dead center of the alleyway. The young man spun around to face them and grinned.

"Now, Storm!" he yelled.

"… No need to tell me."

Up on the roof of one of the two buildings forming this alleyway, a lone, slim figure stood. He had deep black hair and wore a cloak as dark as midnight, one that came paired with a fabric mask of the same color, covering his face up to the highest point of his nose.

"Come, chaotic levin, I hereby release thy seal."

The figure slowly and calmly raised one gloved hand, in stark contrast to his ally's reckless, speedy movements. Bright blue electricity began sparking all around him and his deep blue eyes lit up with a bright arcane glow.

"Cleanse this world of evil and turn all enemies mine into nothing but ash. Become my blade, Divine Lightning — Cage!"

He swung his hand down, cutting through the air.

Immediately, multiple blinding flashes of blue lightning struck down on the ground, sealing the two entrances of the alleyway shut and trapping the ghastly white abominations inside.

"Archon, your turn!" Storm yelled, before gritting his teeth in pain and clutching his chest as he fell backwards onto the roof.

"Leave it to me!" a grown, thirty-year old man shouted from the sky.

He floated in mid-air, huge stature complimented by the enormous warhammer in his hand.

"Alright, you little shits…" he spat, every word dripping with venom. "It's time to go back where you came from — hell."

Saying this, he lifted his hammer up into the air with both hands, then zoomed downwards with all of his strength, bringing the weapon down with him.

"DIE!"

Collectively, the monsters looked up as they were swallowed by the massive shadow of Archon and his hammer, but it was far too late to escape.

BOOM!

The massive weapon smashed into the concrete ground, crushing all the abominations underneath. Smoke rose from beneath the hammer, rising into the air and being swallowed by the fog.

Slowly, Archon stood back up, lifting his hammer once more.

"Alright… is that all of them, Fanatic?" he asked through the earpiece he wore, glancing down at the crater in the ground where the creatures had been just moments earlier. They had been utterly flattened on a molecular level, never to see the light of day ever again.

"That is all of th… wait, no, there's one more," the voice of a middle-schooler came back through the comms.

Archon narrowed his eyes. "One more…? I thought we took care of them all already from this Outbreak. Did we miss one?"

"This one… I believe it's the leader of the pack, judging by the energy signatures it's giving off. It used the other Phantoms to camouflage its own energy signature and draw us away from it… how sneaky."

"Tch… where is it now?"

"About two kilometers from your current location, Archon. Northeast."

Immediately, Archon checked his compass and flew back up into the air.

"Are there any humans near it?" he asked, looking around.

"This…" Fanatic paused, as if surprised. "T-There is. Right next to it, in fact. But… he's still alive, somehow."

Archon froze. "What…?"

At that moment, Reaper the robot decided it was a good time to butt in to the conversation.

[Analysis: Subject will not remain in that state for that long, if left unattended. Advising immediate rescue.]

"Yeah… you're right. I'm on my wa-"

[Proposal: Reaper execute this operation instead. Rationale: Reaper is superior in speed.]

A fair point. Since Octane was out of energy, Reaper was the second-fastest of the group. Archon gritted his teeth.

"... Alright, proposal: approved. You go on first, the rest of us will catch up as soon as we can. There's no time to waste — go, now!"

[Instruction: Received.]

*****

- Meanwhile, Elsewhere in District A -

[Embrace the darkness within.]

As the mysterious female voice said those words, Finn immediately felt strength surge through his veins. The energy pulsed in his veins and arteries, as if a different, powerful force had awoken in his body — one humming with endless potential.

As he returned to the real world and time began flowing once more, he wasn't scared anymore. Freed from the tyrannic control of fear, he could now fight back using this newfound strength.

"SCREE!" The monster screamed and swiped down at Finn's body with its sharp claws, thinking he was unconscious.

But right before it could pierce his heart, Finn's hand shot upwards and grabbed its arm.

"Gawr…?" the monster let out in a confused tone, but before it could react, Finn immediately used all of his strength to swing it onto the ground beside him, smashing the appendages on its back painfully against the concrete floor.

"SKREEE!" It squealed once more, but this time from agony rather than delight.

'Oh? So the tentacles are their weakness?' Finn thought, then immediately rolled to his left to straddle the monster, their positions now reversed.

He couldn't see due to his injured eyes, but he could roughly guess where the Ghost's face was. Without any hesitation, he sank his fist into it, seething with anger.

"How dare you… kill innocents…"

"SKREE!" the Ghost shrieked in pain.

Rearing his fist back, he immediately unleashed another devastating punch with all of his strength, straight into the Ghost's ugly head. It screamed once more, the unnaturally high-pitched voice drowned out by the sound of rain and thunder all around them.

"How dare you… kill my family…?!"

Finn roared in dark fury as he continued pummeling the Ghost, mind filled with one emotion and one emotion alone: hatred.

He wanted to continue beating this Ghost, over and over again, until he felt satisfied. When that would be, he had no idea, but he needed something to vent out his hatred on — this creature just served as the perfect punching bag.

But as he continued, Finn slowly felt his arms start to get weak. The Ghost still kept on screaming every time he hit it, signaling it was still not dead despite taking such a beating. Finn, however, was slowly running out of energy.

He may have awakened to some sort of new power, but he was still human — and all humans had limited stamina.

And finally, on his 124th punch, Finn's arm fell limply by his side, unable to unleash another swing. He tried switching to his other hand to continue the beating, but this brief time span gave the Ghost the opportunity it needed to escape this predicament.

In an instant, it stabbed forward with its claws. Finn, being blind, was unable to react.

"K-Kuh…" he gasped as he felt something pierce through his chest, and felt a hot liquid surge up his throat.

Against his own volition, he spat the liquid out. He didn't need to be able to see to know what it was — blood.

It dripped down the corners of his mouth, matching his closed eyelids that also had blood flowing out of them.

'Even with this new power… I can't live…?' Finn thought, ashamed of himself. 'How pitiful… how irritating…'

The Ghost pushed Finn backward onto the ground, freeing its tentacles at last. Then, it twisted its hand inside Finn's chest to add on to the agony.

"Gah!" Finn yelled in twisted suffering, coughing out blood.

'It's over… it's all over…'

The mysterious entity who granted him this power realized she had to say something. Or else, all the energy and effort she spent on this boy would be lost.

[Giving up that easily?] She taunted within Finn's head.

[What happened to your revenge? What happened to killing every single one of them until none are left?]

"Shut... the fuck... UP!"

Finn gritted his bloodstained teeth, spurred on by the adrenaline in his veins and the proactive words of the entity, then made a daring move.

He suddenly took a step forward, causing the creature's hand to pierce through his body. It hurt like vinegar was being splashed all over his wound, but he endured it.

"Gawr?" the creature was once again confused, and quickly tried to retract its hand, but...

... It did not work.

Its hand had caught onto one of Finn's ribs, completely stuck. Finn took another step closer, body shaking. He was aiming to grab the creature's throat and choke it to death, but the creature still had another limb.

"Grrr… GAWR!" The monster growled and went for Finn's throat first with its free hand.

Unfortunately, Finn couldn't see this attack. He was completely done for.

He may have survived an impaled chest, lived for more than 5 seconds around a Ghost, but once his head was severed, there was nothing left to say.

The story was over before it even began.

… Or was it?

[Subject AC3 located. Hostile detected. Initializing rescue operation.]

A black scythe suddenly flew down from the sky, cleanly cutting the monster's arm in half.

"SKREEE!" It shrieked in pain as black blood splurt out of the stump of its severed arm, and quickly tried to pull away with all its strength. However, its other hand was still stuck in Finn's body, so it was unable to do so.

"Gah!" Finn cried out at the sudden force, his ribcage threatening to shatter. He had no idea what was going on outside the pitch-black world of his, and could only judge by sound.

He heard the sound of wind beside his right ear, as if someone had flown down next to him. Then, the sound of something metal being pulled out of the concrete ground… and finally, the last, dying scream of the Ghost.

Finn felt the claws lodged in his chest fade away, and he immediately collapsed to the ground, breathing softly. He had been relying on the monster's arm to remain standing; once it was gone, he no longer had any energy to stay on his feet.

He heard the metal clanking of a robot marching towards him, then the mechanical sounds of it twisting its head to look down. And after a few seconds, its monotone, emotionless voice spoke.

[Subject AC3 — scan complete. Status: Imminent Death. Injuries: Fatal. Chance of Recovery: 0%. Estimated Lifeforce Remaining: 0 minutes, 34 seconds.]

In his mind, Finn chuckled self-depreciatingly.

'So much for killing all of them...'

And just like that, his consciousness faded away.