Beneath the oppressive canopy of clouds that had finally choked out the last of the moonlight, the world was plunged into a lightless void. Utaha Kasumigaoka squinted through the gloom, her eyes following the resonance of the newcomer's voice.
She couldn't see his face—the darkness was too absolute, a thick velvet curtain draped over the street—but as she stared, a brilliant, pulsating radiance flickered into existence. It wasn't a lamp or a flashlight; it was a concentrated glow centered on the man's waist. A belt of burnished gold, intricate and imposing, shimmered with a rhythmic, breathing light.
What is that?
The sight was hypnotic. In the face of imminent death, Utaha found her terror momentarily sidelined by a sense of profound, cosmic gravity. She could feel a strange pressure in the air, a distortion of the very atmosphere surrounding that golden artifact. It didn't look like a toy, nor did it look like any piece of technology birthed on Earth. It felt ancient, yet futuristic—a Singularity of power strapped to a mortal frame.
"Sav— Please... help me..."
The word "save" had caught in her throat. Even now, the haughty, sharp-tongued author struggled to cast aside her pride, but the crushing weight of the creature's presence forced her hand. She pleaded, her voice a fragile thread in the dark.
The Spider Amazon, its focus broken, hissed in frustration. It tore the hood from its head, revealing a nightmare of biology: a bloated, chitinous face with multiple compound eyes that glistened like wet marbles. Its mandibles twitched, dripping a viscous, foul-smelling enzyme onto the pavement.
"You... what are you!?" the monster shrieked, its voice the sound of dry leaves being crushed by a boot.
Utaha's breath hitched. It really is a monster. The headlines weren't fabrications or urban legends. The creature standing over her was a predator of another order entirely. Her only lifeline was the man in the shadows, Rin Kuga.
Rin let out a short, dismissive huff—a sound of pure, regal boredom.
"Standard villain dialogue," Rin Kuga's voice carried over the distance, calm and cutting. "Usually, that's followed by a very messy death."
The Amazon's fury boiled over. "Puny human! You dare look down on me?!"
With a sickening sound of tearing fabric and snapping bone, eight jagged, chitinous legs erupted from the monster's back, shredding its jacket. They slammed into the concrete with the force of jackhammers, propelling the creature forward. It moved with terrifying, arachnid speed, a blur of twitching limbs and predatory hunger screaming toward Rin.
"Run! Get out of here!" Utaha screamed, her lungs burning. She couldn't watch another person die because of her—especially not someone who carried himself with such misplaced confidence against a literal demon.
BOOM.
The impact wasn't the sound of flesh being torn. It was the roar of a physical law being enforced.
The Spider Amazon's primary scythe-like limb had been caught mid-air. Rin Kuga hadn't even buckled. He stood his ground, his hand wrapped around the jagged appendage, the golden belt on his waist flashing a warning of incandescent light. The force of the blow rippled outward, shattering the glass of a nearby storefront and sending a shockwave that kicked up a cloud of grit and dust.
"As I said," Rin Kuga remarked, slowly lifting his head. His eyes seemed to catch the golden glow of the belt, reflecting a power that felt old as time itself. "Villains like you usually end up as nothing more than a footnote in history."
"What?! Impossible!" The Amazon struggled, its eight legs scraping frantically against the pavement, unable to budge the man even a single inch.
Utaha stared, her pupils dilated in shock. The man wasn't just resisting; he was dominating. Amidst the despair of the dark street, he stood like a pillar standing defiant against the tide of madness.