Seconds after the battle noises stopped, the first army trucks forced their way into the ruined district.
Brakes screeched across cracked pavement. Tires rolled through ash and broken glass before the vehicles jerked to a halt. Doors burst open in rapid succession.
"Weapons up! Move! Move! Spread out across the block!"
Soldiers poured into the streets with rifles raised tight against their shoulders. Boots hammered across debris while laser sights swept over shattered windows and collapsed rooftops. Some advanced toward the burning intersections while others climbed over overturned vehicles and chunks of concrete still radiating heat.
More armored carriers rolled in behind them.
Then the heroes arrived.
Most slowed the moment they stepped into the battlefield.
For several long seconds, nobody spoke.
The district no longer looked like part of a city. It looked like something torn apart from the inside.
Entire sections of the road had collapsed into deep craters. Melted steel beams sagged over ruined storefronts. Smoke drifted between leaning buildings while small fires continued crackling through the wreckage. The air reeked of burned concrete, blood, and scorched metal.
A young soldier lowered his rifle slightly while staring at a building split almost completely in half.
"Jesus Christ…"
Rescue teams spread through the rubble the moment the area was declared stable enough to enter.
"Search every sector!"
"Check underneath those support beams!"
"Call out if you find survivors!"
A communications officer pressed two fingers against the earpiece built into his helmet.
"We still have not received confirmation codes from Tempestia or Moon-Light," he reported. "No visual contact either."
He turned toward the ruined avenue and shouted louder.
"Respond if either of you can hear us!"
Only the crackling of distant fires answered him.
Several soldiers exchanged uneasy glances before continuing deeper into the district.
A senior army officer stepped out from one of the carriers while tightening the gloves around his hands. His boots crunched over shattered glass as he moved through the devastation, scanning every ruined block carefully.
He stopped beside a crater large enough to swallow an entire transport truck.
His face hardened.
"What the hell happened here?"
Nobody answered.
Not because they did not want to.
Nobody knew what to say.
Search teams continued climbing through the wreckage. Heroes scaled unstable piles of debris while others shoved broken slabs of concrete aside with enhanced strength. One soldier dropped to a knee beside a crushed vehicle and swept a flashlight underneath it.
Nothing.
No bodies.
No signs of Tempestia or Moon-Light.
A hero jogged back toward the command group, breathing heavily. Sweat and dust streaked down the sides of his face.
"Sir…"
He removed his helmet and glanced back toward the ruined streets.
"We cannot find Rank Two or Rank Three anywhere."
His throat shifted uneasily.
"Did they… lose?"
The surrounding soldiers fell silent.
One woman adjusted her grip on her rifle until the material around her gloves creaked softly.
The commanding officer stared across the destroyed district for several seconds before replying.
"Let us hope it did not come to that."
His voice stayed controlled, though the hesitation beforehand betrayed him.
He looked toward the skyline.
"If they lost, then the enemy should still be nearby. Those things did not seem interested in hiding."
He raised his arm sharply.
"Load special rounds into every weapon immediately. Prepare all heavy artillery and keep it aimed toward the center of the district."
"Yes, sir!"
The order spread rapidly through the line.
Soldiers opened reinforced ammunition cases while others repositioned mounted weapons toward the ruined center of Ember City. Metallic clicks echoed through the streets as magazines locked into rifles one after another.
Search operations continued.
Minutes passed.
Then longer.
Blood was everywhere.
Dark stains smeared across collapsed walls.
Pools gathered near shattered intersections.
Bloody handprints streaked across broken concrete and twisted steel.
But none of it made sense.
A hero crouched beside a shattered support pillar and pressed two fingers carefully against dried blood coating the surface.
"There is too much blood here," he muttered.
Another soldier nearby swallowed hard.
"Could it belong to Tempestia or Moon-Light?"
The hero slowly rose back to his feet.
"They are ranked second and third in the entire country," he said quietly. "People on their level are not supposed to just disappear."
His eyes drifted across the battlefield.
"And if this much blood belongs to them…"
He stopped speaking.
A sudden shout cut across the district.
"Over here!"
Several heads turned immediately.
"Everyone get over here now!"
Soldiers and heroes rushed toward the center of the ruined block, climbing over debris and squeezing between collapsed structures.
Then they stopped.
At the center of the devastation stood something untouched.
A black stone figure.
One soldier instinctively stepped closer, his hand starting to reach toward it.
A hero immediately grabbed his wrist and yanked him backward hard enough for his boots to scrape across the pavement.
"Do not touch it!"
The surrounding troops raised their weapons automatically.
The black figure stood motionless between the collapsed buildings, untouched by fire, dust, or rubble.
The hero kept his distance while speaking.
"I saw Tempestia use something similar during an S Rank containment mission."
His breathing remained uneven.
"This has to be her doing. Whatever this thing is it might be one of the invaders."
The commanding officer pushed through the crowd forming around the object.
"Move."
Soldiers stepped aside immediately.
The officer walked forward slowly.
Then he finally saw it properly.
The massive horns.
The folded arms.
The towering shape frozen in black stone.
His expression stiffened.
"…The Demon king."
Silence spread through the street.
Even frozen, the inferno leviathan still felt wrong.
Several soldiers avoided looking directly at its face. One younger recruit unconsciously stepped backward after meeting the statue's eyes for too long.
Another voice suddenly shouted from farther down the avenue.
"We found another one!"
People immediately turned.
"There is a dead demon trapped inside some kind of water sphere!"
Weapons snapped upward again.
Several soldiers formed defensive lines while heavy gunners repositioned around the area.
Containment specialists carefully approached the rotating sphere surrounding the demon's corpse. Thick restraint cables were secured around the construct while military engineers argued over how to transport it safely.
"Careful with that thing!"
"If the containment collapses, we are fucked!"
Orders spread quickly to prepare the demon remains for transport to a fortified military research facility outside Ember City.
Meanwhile, the commanding officer remained focused on Megalodon's statue.
"Secure this entire perimeter immediately," he ordered.
His tone came out lower this time.
"Nobody approaches the statue without authorization. Nobody touches it. Nobody damages it."
He pointed directly toward the frozen Demon King.
"I do not care who gives the order. This thing stays exactly as it is until HeroCorp sends specialists."
Guards spread throughout the district.
Barricades were dragged into position.
Heavy weapons locked onto the statue from multiple angles.
The officer remained standing where he was.
Still staring upward.
"Damn it…"
The words slipped out quietly.
"Tempestia… what happened to you?"
The battlefield gave him nothing back.
The statue remained perfectly motionless.
(Days passed.)
News spread faster than the fires could be extinguished.
The names Tempestia and Moon-Light flooded every screen, every broadcast, every conversation.
Inside schools, students gathered around classroom televisions watching replay footage of the destroyed district.
Hero academies held moments of silence.
Children argued whether the two heroes were truly dead. Across Ember City memorial walls began appearing beside damaged streets, covered in flowers, candles, photographs, and handwritten letters sprang up across the capital and hero organisations.
People stood quietly in front of them long after sunset.
HeroCorp eventually released the official statement.
Tempestia and Moon-Light were classified as missing.
Presumed dead.
The announcement hit the country hard.
For many people, it was the first time heroes on that level had ever failed publicly.
The strongest defenders humanity had.
Gone.
Some called them martyrs.
Others called them legends.
And for the survivors who escaped Ember City that day, their disappearance became something else entirely.
Proof that saving the world always demanded a price.