Without a second thought, Allen lunged. He swung his obsidian axe with a primal roar, the blade screaming through the air toward Calibur’s neck. Calibur didn't flinch; he caught the strike with his right bracer, the metal sparking under the heat.

  "Don't you talk about things you don't understand!" Allen snarled.

  Calibur’s expression remained bored. With his free hand, he gripped the axe's blade—ignoring the searing heat—and yanked Allen forward. He delivered a gut-wrenching punch to Allen’s stomach. The force was so immense that Allen hacked up blood involuntarily. Calibur smirked as a single stray drop of crimson splattered against his cheek.

  "I’ll talk about whatever the hell I want!"

  At that moment, the earth groaned. A tremor rippled through the clearing, quickly escalating into a full-scale earthquake.

  "Ah," Calibur purred. "It looks like one of the remaining subjects has arrived."

  Allen let go of his weapon and scrambled backward, his face twisted in a mask of agony. "What do you mean 'remaining'? Wait... you don't mean—?!"

  Calibur’s grin was cold and cynical as he pointed toward the horizon. Standing tall against the Iron Wall was a nightmare: a gargantuan black goat with twisting red horns and eyes that burned with a hateful intelligence.

  "Exactly! Meet the latest success of Project Perfection: Gigax Aries. His rank? A solid Category 6. He’s the closest we’ve ever come to the Category 7 nightmare, the Umbralux Draco."

  The weight of the situation crushed Allen’s spirit for a brief second. He remembered Seira, a Category 5, and the sheer destruction she had caused. A Category 6 was an existential threat.

  "You crazy bastard!" Allen screamed. "You and that puppet master used Marc for this?!"

  Calibur laughed, a dry, hollow sound. "I remember Marc... Experimental Phase No. 5. I believe the Boss gave him the title of 'Zodiacal Dreamer of Aries.' A pity, really. There’s so little left of the boy inside that shell. If there’s anything left at all."

  The Gigax Aries took a heavy step forward. Dozens of pitch-black orbs materialized in the air around it. As they drifted into buildings and the ground, they detonated with the force of high-yield explosives.

  "Keep the Emotional Staff and the stones, Allen," Calibur said, tossing the obsidian axe back to him. "The Boss has cataloged them as 'useless junk' in the pursuit of perfection. Their value doesn't even match what we can harvest from a Category 4 corpse."

  Allen caught the axe and leveled it at Calibur’s throat. Calibur just chuckled.

  "Are you really going to waste your time fighting me while the Gigax Aries levels the city? What about the 'innocents'? Who will save them, Sir Knight?"

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Allen hesitated, his gaze darting between the genocidal S-Rank and the rampaging monster. Finally, he let out a frustrated growl. He wreathed himself in flames and launched into the sky, a red arc of fire that slammed directly into the monster’s snout.

  "Hah! Still a delusional Evolutionary Sentient Weapon," Calibur muttered. "A title far too grand for a man with no real power."

  Calibur turned his attention to Shinobi and Titan—the only A-Ranks left standing, their bodies battered but their eyes still defiant.

  "Shinobi... if you break down the original kanji of your name, it literally means 'Heart of the Blade.' An interesting name. I suppose that’s why Allen likes you. A shame you won't live past today. Do you know why?"

  Titan forced himself up, his leg bones grinding with a sickening crunch. He stared Calibur down. "A shame... that Allen... is the one who’s going to win."

  Calibur’s smile vanished. "Allen’s growth potential was deemed non-existent by the Boss. To put it in terms you’ll understand: he shouldn't even have the strength of an F-Rank. It was only through the Boss’s 'mercy' that he became that freakish hybrid."

  Titan laughed, blood bubbling between his teeth as he helped Shinobi to his feet. "Allen... Firmament... Mad Knight... whatever name he uses, he has something every other 'hero' in this city lacks. Passion. Will. Honesty. And Truth."

  "Allen will win," Shinobi added, his voice raspy but firm. "He did it to the Gigax Leo. He’ll do it to Aries."

  Calibur stared at them for a long moment. "Impossible. Allen beat Seira through pure luck and a temporary Level 1 spike fueled by resentment. He won't do it again. Not when you consider..."

  Calibur turned and walked away, leaving the two bruised heroes leaning on each other. He was thinking of a variable—a hidden factor—that was about to make the slaughter much more entertaining.

  High above, Allen’s blade sparked against the wool of the Gigax Aries. He hacked at the thick, black coat, but the moment his edge touched the monster’s skin, the force was violently repelled.

  He fell back, gasping. He had spent the last few minutes testing the beast. The Gigax Aries wasn't just strong; it was a fortress of combined abilities. It possessed a passive Repulsion Shield that made internal organ damage impossible. It could induce sleep in anyone who got too close, manipulate and harden its wool into spears, shift its own gravity, and turn its hooves into diamond-hard battering rams.

  He hadn't even seen its final ability yet, and his head was already spinning. He had to juggle the fight while manually carrying survivors to the few safe zones left in the rubble.

  "Damn it... Style Shift. Knight of Truth."

  Allen reached for the Emerald. He crushed it, the jade dust merging with the Prism on his staff. His red armor dissolved, replaced by a sleek, wind-cutting green suit. The heavy axe transformed into the high-tension crossbow. He took to the sky and began raining bolts down on the Aries.

  Miles away, the battle was being projected onto a wall-sized monitor.

  In front of the screen sat a man in a sharp black suit and a silk tie. He swirled a glass of expensive bourbon. Standing in a disciplined line behind his sofa were nine figures in ornate, high-tech armor—each one unique.

  "Marc’s potential has decreased since we added the multi-trait package, my Lord," a woman’s voice noted from the shadows. "However, Allen has shown a minor evolutionary spike."

  The man in the suit snorted, watching the green blur on the screen. "I couldn't care less. Allen is just a vessel. The only thing I expected from him was to prove that the evolutionary gene could exist in human blood."

  He took a slow sip of his drink and set the glass on the glass coffee table. He smiled at the screen, but his eyes remained cold.

  "'Knight'? I never imagined he would give such sentimental names to the results of the Emotional Elemental Weapon Project. A pity he couldn't stabilize the Darkness element. His potential would have hit Level 2. As it stands, he’s still insufficient—an evolutionary dead end. A weapon that cannot grow on its own."

  The woman remained silent. She knew that when the Boss spoke to himself, the only way to stay alive was to hold your breath and wait for orders.