Jera was trapped.
The Vault's warning screamed in his ears. "...she thinks you're an invader! She just gave the 'Exterminate' order!"
Behind him, Seraphina was clinging to his rig, her body trembling. "Jera... what do we do? What do we do?"
Her panic was his panic. The "Cain Walker" mask was gone. This was just Jera Murphy, a 24-year-old man, in a dark tunnel, protecting someone for the first time in his life.
"They're coming. The Hunters," Jera said, his voice his own, low and strained. He pushed Seraphina back into the small, reinforced alcove he'd shielded her in. "Stay here. No matter what you hear. Do not move."
"Jera, wait!" she grabbed his arm, her violet eyes wide with a new, dawning horror. Her Oracle sense was flaring. "The other thing! The monster! The one you buried!"
"It's buried. It's done."
"NO!" she shrieked, her fingers digging into his suit. "It's not dead! It's... it's eating. It's consuming the rubble, Jera! It's... oh, gods... it's growing. It'll be free in minutes!"
The pincer was complete.
In front of him: a kill team of S-Rank Hunters.
Behind him: an un-killable, conceptual monster that was growing.
The sound of three distinct, high-speed landings echoed from the escape tunnel.
They were here.
Three figures in stark, white-and-black Hunter Bureau combat armor stood in the darkness, their helmet lights cutting through the dust. These were the Remnants. The S-Ranks who hadn't been at the auction.
"Target confirmed!" the leader, a massive man with a tower shield, boomed. This was "Aegis-7," the Bureau's S-Rank Tank.
"He's with a civilian!" a second, impossibly fast Hunter named "Velocity" hissed, her form already blurring at the edges.
"Look at the collapse!" the third, "Conduit," pointed. "Kane was right. He caused this. He's destabilizing the dimension!"
"Cain Walker!" Aegis-7 yelled, his voice pure iron. "By order of acting-Commander Kane, you are to stand down and surrender! You are charged with the assassination of the seven Ascended and high treason against humanity!"
"You're wrong!" Jera yelled back, his real voice surprising them. "I didn't kill anyone! They're trapped! The real enemy is behind me!"
"LIES!" Velocity shrieked, and she moved.
She was an S-Rank speedster, moving at Mach 3. She was a blur of silver light, her twin mana-daggers aimed at his throat.
Jera's mind, now running on pure, terrified adrenaline, saw her. She was... slow.
He couldn't dodge; Seraphina was behind him.
He couldn't use his shield; the mana would feed the thing in the rubble.
He had to block.
[Action: Physical Block (Base Stats Only).]
Velocity's S-Rank, mana-infused daggers, which could slice a tank in half, hit Jera's outstretched, gloved hand.
CLAAAAANG!
The sound was not of a blade hitting armor. It was the sound of a bullet hitting a mountain.
Velocity was stopped dead. Her daggers hadn't even scratched his glove. She was frozen in mid-air, her arm caught in his grip, her eyes wide with impossible, physics-defying shock.
"I... said..." Jera grunted, his new, compressed strength effortlessly neutralizing her S-Rank kinetic energy. "...I don't... want to fight!"
"He's engaging! Fire the Disruptor!" Aegis-7 roared.
"Conduit," the third S-Rank, raised his cannon. "Firing S-Rank Mana Disruptor Bolt! This will tear his shield and his mana core apart! EAT THIS, TRAITOR!"
A massive, swirling bolt of pure, destructive S-Rank energy, five feet wide, screamed down the tunnel.
Jera's blood ran cold.
He couldn't block it.
He couldn't dodge it.
And he couldn't let it hit.
"Jera!" Seraphina screamed, seeing the white-hot light.
The bolt was pure mana. If it hit the rubble, it would be a feast for the Bleed. It would accelerate its escape.
Jera had only one, terrible, mortal option.
He let go of Velocity.
He turned, shielding the alcove.
And he tanked the S-Rank attack.
With his body.
The Disruptor Bolt hit him square in the back.
His DM-100 Mining Rig, his "Cain Walker" disguise, vaporized instantly. The A-Rank metal was gone in a flash of slag.
The S-Rank energy then hit his new, post-Trial, compressed body.
It hurt.
It burned.
Jera roared, a raw, human sound of pure agony, as his skin was seared and his muscles tore. He was thrown forward, crashing to his knees.
He was... bleeding.
It was the first time he had been truly wounded since his awakening.
The S-Ranks stared, their attack finished.
Jera was kneeling, his back smoking. His suit was gone. He was just a 24-year-old man in a ruined, high-tech undersuit.
"He... he tanked it," Conduit whispered, his cannon shaking. "He took a full S-Rank Disruptor Bolt... without a shield... and he's still alive."
Jera pushed himself to his feet, his back a map of searing pain. His human panic was gone, replaced by a cold, searing fury.
"You... idiots," he hissed, his voice no longer digital, but a low, dangerous growl. "You're feeding it."
"He's still standing!" Aegis-7 roared, his own confidence shaken. He raised his massive shield. "All force! He's not human! FINISH HIM!"
Aegis-7 and Velocity charged at the same time.
Jera had no more patience. His plan to "talk" was over.
He met their charge.
Aegis-7 smashed his S-Rank shield into Jera.
Jera caught it.
Velocity attacked from the flank.
Jera's other hand shot out and caught her by the throat.
He was now holding two S-Rank Hunters. One by the shield, one by the neck. Both were struggling, their S-Rank power useless against his raw, compressed, base strength.
"I... AM NOT... YOUR... ENEMY!" Jera roared.
He squeezed.
The sound of S-Rank, dimensionally-hardened armor creaking, groaning, and denting filled the tunnel. Aegis-7's shield was visibly bending in Jera's grip. Velocity was clawing at his hand, her face turning purple.
"Conduit," Jera said, his voice a low growl, his eyes, visible for the first time, burning with a white-hot light. "Fire again. I dare you."
Conduit was frozen. This was not a fight. This was an execution.
Jera threw the two S-Ranks. He didn't just push them. He threw them like garbage, sending them tumbling back down the tunnel to crash in a heap at Conduit's feet.
The three S-Rank Hunters, the elite of the Bureau, were defeated. Beaten in seconds. By a wounded, unarmored man.
A low, terrible, slurping, grinding sound echoed from behind Jera.
The mountain of rubble shivered.
Seraphina screamed. "JERA! IT'S THROUGH!"
A massive, oily, black tendril, larger than before, punched through the center of the rubble pile. It had eaten the rock. It had eaten Conduit's S-Rank mana bolt. It had multiplied its mass.
It ignored the S-Ranks. It ignored Jera.
It sensed Seraphina.
It sensed the Oracle. The "lock." The human who could read the Bleed.
It lashed out, not at Jera, but past him, aiming directly for the alcove where Seraphina was hiding.
Jera was too far away. He was holding off the S-Ranks. He couldn't get to her in time.
"SERAPHINA!"
The tendril was a black, corrosive spear, an instant from striking her.
Jera had no time. He couldn't punch it. He couldn't block it.
He made a desperate, impossible choice. He did the one thing his System could do.
He targeted Seraphina.
"STORE!"
Seraphina's terrified, screaming form vanished. She was sucked into his Unlimited Inventory an instant before the corrosive tendril hit the empty rock where she had been.
Silence.
The S-Ranks, pushed against the far wall, stared.
"He... he... my god..." Aegis-7 stammered. "He just... ate the civilian!"
The Corrupted Queen roared in absolute, baffled fury. Its target was gone.
Jera stood alone, his back bleeding, his armor gone, his hands clenched. He was now standing between an S-Rank kill team that thought he was a cannibalistic demon, and an enraged, un-killable monster from another dimension.
"...Oh, hell," Jera panted, his voice a whisper. "This... this just got so much worse."