"You're an Awakener?" the woman gasped, her voice trembling with awe as she stared at Zane, who had just crushed a Silver Bear Gemini like it was a morning chore. Her dirt-streaked face, framed by tangled hair, gaped at him, her broken leg trembling.
Zane's eyes, sharp as frozen lightning, flicked to her. "I ask the questions," he said, his voice low and edged with impatience. He knelt, gently lifting the unconscious child from the concrete slab, her small body limp, blood seeping from a gash on her shoulder, staining his jacket. Her faint breaths rasped, her face pale under a layer of ash. "Tell me what happened here the last two days."
The woman's jaw set, defiance flashing in her eyes despite her pain. "I refuse," she said, her voice firm, though it quavered. She pointed a trembling finger toward a group of Awakeners in the distance, their silhouettes barely holding ground against a swarm of Geminis. "You look strong. Help those Awakeners over there, and I'll tell you everything."
Zane's grip tightened on the child, his smirk fading into a scowl. "Listen, lady," he said, his tone cold, "the deal was I take the kid, you spill what I need. I don't have time for games. If you won't talk, I'll find someone who will." He stepped forward, carefully placing the unconscious girl back into the woman's arms, her weight making the woman wince as she braced against a twisted streetlamp.
The woman's eyes narrowed, undeterred. "Everyone's panicking," she said, her voice steady now, seizing her leverage. "Good luck finding someone calm enough to talk." She nodded toward the chaos—Nays sprinting through the ruins, their screams echoing off gutted buildings, dodging falling debris as Geminis roared. A man tripped over a burned-out car, scrambling away as a beast's claws slashed the air behind him. The city was a graveyard of shattered dreams, its skyline a jagged scar under a storm-charged sky, rain mixing with ash to slick the ground with gray sludge.
Zane's gaze swept the madness, his jaw clenching. She wasn't wrong—nobody looked ready to chat. His thoughts flashed to Ariel, wondering if she was caught up in the chaos, time was slipping away. He turned back, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl. "Last chance, lady. Drag this out again, and it won't be Geminis you're scared of." Without waiting for her reply, he spun, his white hair flaring in the wind, and sprinted toward the Awakeners, their desperate cries growing louder as Geminis closed in.
"Damn it, where the hell are the reinforcements?" an Awakener bellowed, his voice cracking with desperation as he lobbed a weak fireball at one of seven twin-headed, wolf-like Geminis stalking Ashenport's shattered pier. The flame flickered, barely grazing the beast's sleek black fur, its four glowing yellow eyes narrowing as both heads snarled, saliva dripping from jagged fangs. The air reeked of salt and blood, the harbor's dark waves slamming against rusted pilings below.
"What the fuck you yappin' about?" a Black American Awakener shot back, his tone sharp despite the blood oozing from a deep gash on his arm, staining his ripped jacket. His face, broad and sweat-slick, twisted in pain as he hefted a dented axe, its edge chipped from countless swings. "All the bitch ass strong Awakeners are holed up in them motherfucking Zones! Same shit's tearing up every corner of the world. Can't snag a spot in a Zone? You're a goner. Look at us—barely clinging to life by a damn thread!" His chest heaved, his breaths ragged, his dark eyes wild with exhaustion.
The five Awakeners, drained to their bones, fought to survive, their backs pressed against a corroded shipping container, its faded red paint peeling like flayed skin. Ashenport's ruins sprawled around them—a graveyard of twisted metal and shattered hopes. Cranes jutted like broken spines against a sky churning with storm clouds, their cables swaying in the wind. Rain fell in a gritty mist, mixing with ash to coat the pier in slick, gray sludge, the ground littered with broken glass and scorched debris.
"What's the situation here?" a voice called, cool and steady, slicing through the chaos. The group turned, their eyes locking on a teenage boy with white hair, a faint scar slashing across his cheekbone. Zane Walker stood alone, his lean frame relaxed, hands buried in his pockets, his jacket flapping in the gusts with stains of blood from the child he held earlier. His eyes, swept over the scene, unperturbed by the Geminis' roars.
"Hey, motherfucker, this ain't no place for a punk like you!" the Black American growled, his bloodied arm trembling as he pointed his axe at Zane. Awakeners could sense each other—a magnetic hum, like iron drawn to a lodestone. But Zane gave off nothing, no spark of power. "Beat it! We don't need no dead weight dragging us down! We're sinking enough as it is."
Zane's gaze flicked over them, counting: five Awakeners, seven Beast-rank Geminis circling like vultures. "He's got a point," a middle-aged woman rasped, her voice frail, her face gaunt under a mop of matted brown hair. Her tattered robe clung to her frame, her hands clutching a cracked staff, her body swaying like a reed in the storm. "Get out while you can, kid. You'll just die here."
Zane ignored them, striding toward a twin-headed wolf, its massive paws scraping sparks from the concrete. "I'll clean up these puppies," he said, his voice low, a smirk curling his lips. "In return, you do me a favor." The Gemini roared, a bone-rattling bellow that shook loose rivets from the container, its four eyes blazing with fury.
"Yo, is this motherfucker high on something?" the Black American barked, jabbing a finger at Zane, his eyes wide with disbelief. "Wanna die that bad? Go jump off a cliff, not here you nutjob." The others exchanged wary glances, their weapons trembling in their hands.
Zane's mind flashed to Zoic's grueling training once more. After mastering the organ-melting gas, Instructor Marius had forced them to hoist weights—iron blocks heavy as boulders—while still choking on the stuff. "I'll rebuild you from the ground up," Marius had said, his stone-carved face unyielding. When they finally breathed clean oxygen, Zane had nearly knelt in gratitude, the air sweet as life itself. But the reprieve was cruelly brief. A new gas came, harmless inside but corrosive outside, stripping skin, muscle and bone, only for their bodies to knit back together instantly. The pain was unending, a searing torment that drove some trainees to commit suicide. He died several times only to revive and suffer again. Zane endured, his will forged in that hell, his nightmares still raw with the memory of peeling flesh.
Now, facing a Gemini, Zane laughed—a sharp, wild sound that froze the Awakeners. "He's laughing?" the woman whispered, her staff slipping. "Must've cracked his skull."
Zane's smile vanished, and in a heartbeat, the twin-headed wolf before him collapsed, its skulls caved in by a single, unseen blow. The Awakeners gasped, their eyes straining as Zane moved—a phantom blur, too swift to track. In seven seconds, the remaining six wolves fell, their massive bodies crumpling like tin cans, ichor gushing across the pier, steaming in the rain. Zane stood, fists unclenched, his jacket untouched, his white hair sodden but his stance unshaken.
"He… he killed them with his bare hands," the mage stammered, his face pale as ash. "I didn't even see him move." The others stood frozen, their weapons limp, unable to grasp what just happened. Zoic's crushing gravity had made Zane's body a weapon, Earth's pull a mere suggestion. His movements were effortless, lethal, honed to a razor's edge.
The Black American let his axe clatter to the ground, his voice a hoarse whisper. "What the fuck are you, man?"
Then, the system message popped in front of Zane.
[System Notice]
Geminis killed: 7
Geminis Rank killed: Beast
Reward will be calculated and distributed after the Tutorial.
"Now you all owe me a favor, right?" Zane asked, his voice cool and sharp, brushing off the Black American's stunned question like dust from his jacket. His hair clung to his scarred cheekbone, but his blue eyes burned with unyielding focus, sweeping over the five Awakeners huddled on the pier.
"What do you want from us?" the woman asked, her cracked staff leaning against the rusted shipping container behind her, its faded red paint flaking like dried blood.
Zane's smirk twitched, his hands buried in his pockets, his stance relaxed despite the Gemini ichor steaming at his feet. "Nothing hard," he said, his tone low, almost casual. "Just tell me what's been going down the past two days." The Awakeners exchanged glances, their faces a mix of disbelief and exhaustion, as if he'd just asked what color the sky was. The mage, a scrawny man with bloodshot eyes, muttered something under his breath, his torn robe flapping in the gusts.
"The past two days have been nothing but pure hell," the Black American began, his voice rough, wiping blood from his gashed arm with a grimace. His broad face, slick with sweat and rain, hardened as he leaned on his dented axe, its blade etched with faint runes that pulsed dimly. "First wave hit like a goddamn freight train. People started waking up with weird powers—Awakeners, they call us. Under Blake Walker, the President of the United States, shit got organized fast. Scientists and engineers worldwide started messing with Gemini corpses the military bagged during that first bloodbath. The motherfuckers cooked up tools, weapons, all kinds of gear and shit from the beasts' hides and bones in a short time. Don't ask me how they did it, cause I don't know shit. This axe?" He hefted it, the blade catching the storm's dim light. "One of those. Cuts through Geminis like butter, but it ain't enough out here."
The woman cut in, her voice soft but heavy, "But it's all coming to an end now," she said, her words sinking like stones. Distant Gemini roars echoed, mingling with human screams.
Zane's brow furrowed, his fingers twitching toward his storage ring, where Ruinblaze lay dormant. "What do you mean, coming to an end?" he asked, his voice sharper now, his face tilting toward her.
The Black American spoke up, his voice rough but loud over the howling wind. "Them broken Awakeners are bunkered in Ravenloch, fighting like it's their last damn stand," he said, his dark eyes flicking to the horizon, where smoke twisted like a demon's smirk. "They're hunting the Gemini bosses—Elite ranks, maybe nastier. The big shots running the show are Valmer Valgrace van Ruvoch from Rome, Kenshi Aokawa from Tokyo, Kai Linwei from Beijing, that fierce bitch Yuna Lee from Seoul, and Ariel Walker, the President's kid." He paused, spitting rain and blood from his lips, clueless to the rage flaring in Zane's blue eyes at Ariel's name.