Time passed slowly. Moros stirred, trapped in the haze between dreams and reality. His body felt heavy, weighed down by exhaustion and grief. His eyes fluttered open, blurry shapes dancing before him.
"Misa…?"
Her silhouette moved toward him, soft and radiant. He reached out, his hand trembling.
"You're all right?" His voice wavered with emotion. "I've missed you…" Tears welled in his eyes.
Misa didn't speak. She leaned in closer, her lips brushing his ear.
"Wake up."
Her voice shifted, sharper, more insistent.
SLAP!
Moros jolted awake, pain stinging his cheek. He blinked rapidly, clearing his vision, just as Hanz raised his hand for another strike.
"Moros, wake up already!"
SLAP! SLAP!
"Stop it already! I'm awake!" Moros grabbed Hanz's wrist, holding it firmly. His eyes, still red from the dream, met Hanz's frustrated glare.
Hanz let out a breath, shaking his head. "I've been trying to wake you for half an hour. What the hell were you dreaming about that kept you in such a trance?"
"Nothing," Moros muttered, rubbing his face. He forced the lingering image of Misa from his mind. "Where's Josh?"
Hanz's expression darkened. His shoulders sagged as he looked away. "He… didn't make it."
Moros's gaze didn't waver. His face remained blank, his emotions buried deep beneath a hardened exterior.
"Understood." His voice was cold, distant. He pushed himself to his feet. "Let's move. We need supplies."
The corridors of the laboratory were dim, lit only by flickering emergency lights. Outside, monstrous roars echoed as creatures battered against the energy barrier surrounding the building.
"Faster, Moros! We need to rush!" Hanz shouted, his footsteps echoing down the hall.
Moros groaned, clutching his side as they ran. "Why the hell isn't the lift working? I designed it perfectly! Why is my lab so damn high?"
"Maybe because you never imagined it would be under siege!"
Finally, they reached the upper level. Hanz leaned against the wall, catching his breath.
"You seriously need some cardio, man."
"No time for that," Moros snapped, pushing past him to a console. He keyed in a code, and the heavy doors slid open to reveal the cluttered lab. Half-finished projects, strange devices, and weapons littered the tables.
"What are you looking for?" Hanz asked, scanning the room.
Moros didn't answer. He rushed to a tray of scattered gadgets, rummaging through the mess.
"I thought we were grabbing weapons," Hanz said. "Why are you digging through junk?"
"I'm looking for the greatest weapon I've ever made."
After a few tense moments, Moros let out a triumphant shout. "Found it!"
He held up two small boxes.
"That's it?" Hanz blinked in confusion. "You risked our lives for those?"
Moros opened the first box, revealing a swirling black matter encased in glass. He opened the second, pulling out a sleek metallic glove.
Without hesitation, he slipped the glove onto his hand and inserted the black matter into a slot on the wrist. A faint hum filled the air as the glove came to life, glowing with dark energy.
"That's your weapon?" Hanz raised an eyebrow. "It looks like Josh's prosthetic, and that didn't help him much."
Moros clenched his fist. The air around him shimmered. With a single shake of his hand, the nearest wall crumbled to dust.
Hanz's jaw dropped. "Holy shit."
Moros smirked. "What do you think?"
"That's… That's awesome!" Hanz exclaimed. "With that, we'll save her for sure!"
Suddenly, Hanz's expression turned serious. "But what's happening outside Ariandel? We've been running for days, and we still don't know how bad things really are."
Moros glanced at the console. "Let me show you."
Moros activated a series of drones scattered across the world. The console flickered to life, displaying live feeds from different regions.
Hanz stood behind Moros, eyes locked on the flickering console as the drones fed live images from the outside world. His face twisted with dread as he asked, "What's happening out there? What's left of the world beyond Ariandel?"
Moros's fingers hovered over the controls. His jaw clenched as he activated the global drone network.
"You want to know what's left?" Moros's voice was cold. "See for yourself."
The screen lit up, and the world unfolded before them.
The first feed showed the grand city of Etheria. Once a beacon of progress and civilization, it now stood as a graveyard of shattered glass and burning steel. Bodies littered the streets — men, women, and children twisted into grotesque shapes by monstrous claws.
A crowd of survivors sprinted through the ruined avenues, their faces etched with terror. Behind them, a towering beast, stitched together from the corpses of the fallen, stalked closer. Its misshapen arms dragged across the ground, leaving smears of blood. When it caught the slowest runner — a young boy — it lifted him by his skull and crushed it with a sickening crack.
Nearby, a group of priests gathered in desperation around a ruined temple, chanting prayers to forgotten gods. Their pleas were answered by silence — until the sky opened, and monstrous tendrils of flesh and bone descended, ripping the priests apart, one by one.
The drone zoomed in on a mother cradling her child. Her lips trembled as she whispered words of comfort. But when a creature crawled out of the shadows — a thing with too many eyes and teeth — she held her baby close and let the monster devour them both rather than endure the torment to come.
The next feed shifted to the forests of Valoria. Towering trees that once stood as ancient guardians were twisted into grotesque shapes, their branches writhing like living things. The forest floor was a writhing mass of roots and vines that moved like serpents, strangling everything in their path.
Deer and wolves ran side by side, their primal instincts unable to comprehend the horrors they fled from. But there was no escape. The trees themselves opened their bark, revealing rows of teeth that snapped shut on any creature foolish enough to seek shelter.
A pack of wolves turned to fight, their snarls echoing through the trees. They lunged at the writhing forest — only to be impaled on thorn-covered roots. Their howls turned to whimpers as they were dragged underground, their flesh consumed by the living earth.
In the heart of the forest, a monstrous figure stood, its body made of bark and bone, crowned with antlers draped in human sinew. It whispered ancient words, and the very air turned poisonous, choking life from anything that breathed it in.
The screen shifted to the coastal cities. The sea had turned red, a viscous, blood-like substance that bubbled and frothed with unnatural life. Massive waves slammed into the shoreline, dragging entire towns into the depths.
The ocean itself had become a living entity, and from its depths rose creatures that defied logic. Leviathans with eyes the size of buildings, their bodies covered in barnacles made of human skulls, breached the surface and let out bone-shaking roars.
People tried to flee on boats, but the sea would not let them escape. Tentacles, dripping with black ichor, erupted from the waves, crushing vessels like toys. Survivors clung to floating debris, only to be pulled under by unseen hands.
On one island, the drone captured a horrifying scene — a lone fisherman stood on the shore, staring at the sea. His skin was pale, his eyes hollow. As the drone approached, he began to laugh, a hollow, broken sound.
"They said the gods would save us," he whispered. "But the gods are the monsters now."
Behind him, the sea rose up in a towering wave, and the island was swallowed whole.
The drone's feed moved to the desert. The sands, once golden, had turned black and scorched. Tremors shook the earth as something massive stirred beneath the surface.
The ground split open, and a colossal titan emerged. Its body was made of molten rock and bone, veins of magma pulsing through its form. It towered over the landscape, its eyes burning with malevolent intelligence.
As it walked, the very air around it ignited. Villages were reduced to ash in seconds. People fled into the open desert, only to collapse from the heat. Those who fell were not given a merciful death — the titan reached down, scooping them into its molten mouth, their screams cut short by the crackling of their flesh.
A caravan of refugees tried to outrun the titan, their camels stumbling in the shifting sands. The titan raised its massive foot and crushed them without a second thought, leaving behind a trail of charred bones and melted sand.
The next feed showed the skies. Storm clouds, thick with ash and lightning, loomed over the lands. Winged monstrosities circled above, their leathery wings casting shadows over the ruins below.
One of the creatures dove, snatching a screaming man from the ground. It soared higher and higher, the man's pleas fading into the wind. Then, with a cruel twist, the creature dropped him, letting him plummet to his death.
In the distance, entire cities floated in the sky, their foundations cracked and crumbling. People clung to the edges, desperate to avoid falling. The drone zoomed in on one such city, capturing a woman clutching her child as the building beneath her feet began to crumble.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, kissing her child's forehead before stepping off the edge. They fell together, disappearing into the abyss.
Finally, the drone feed displayed the northern continent. Once covered in pristine snow, it was now a wasteland of ice and fire. The glaciers had melted, replaced by rivers of molten rock.
A village of nomads struggled to survive, their tents shredded by razor-sharp winds. They huddled together for warmth, their breath visible in the freezing air.
Then the ground split open, and from the chasm emerged a beast of ice and shadow. Its eyes glowed blue, and frost spread wherever it stepped. The villagers screamed as their bodies froze solid, turned into statues of ice.
The beast let out a guttural growl, shattering the frozen corpses with a swipe of its claws.
Hanz stumbled backward, his hands trembling. "This… This is worse than I imagined. The world is dying. Everything is gone."
Moros deactivated the feed. "This is what happens when Chaos is unleashed."
Hanz clenched his fists. "We have to stop this. We have to save Misa."
Moros nodded. "We will."
"But how?" Hanz's voice cracked. "The whole world is falling apart."
Moros raised his gloved hand. The black matter pulsed with dark energy.
"With this."
Hanz stared at the glove, his eyes wide.
"This time," Moros said, his voice hard as steel, "we fight back."
The building shook violently as monsters breached the barrier.
"They've broken through!"
"Grab the jetpacks!" Moros shouted.
In a blink, they strapped on their gear and ran toward the hole in the wall. Outside, the crimson sky stretched endlessly, filled with monstrous shapes clawing their way toward them.
As they leapt into the air, the laboratory crumbled behind them, collapsing into ruins.
"We're lucky to be alive," Hanz said, his voice tight.
"We don't have time for luck." Moros's gaze was fixed on the horizon.
Misa… I'll save you.