novelraw Chapter 36: The Flames of Rebirth
Chapter 36: The Flames of Rebirth
Abdu’s blade whistled through the air, a relentless storm of steel cutting down everything in its path—everything except Sane, who for his own sake he couldn’t touch amidst the chaos. My friends fought desperately, their breaths ragged, their lives teetering on the edge. Time was slipping through my fingers like sand.
The plan had to work.
“2.0! I need your help!” My voice cracked, raw with urgency as I reached out to the entity in my mind. “Tell me how your atomic manipulation works!”
‘It’s not something I can just explain,’ 2.0 replied, his tone steady yet pressing. ‘I have to show you.’
“Then show me! I want to...”
‘I’m inside your head, Cipher. I know what you want. Quantization of energy!’
A 3D image of an atom flickered into my thoughts—electrons spinning in tight orbits.
And then he continued, ‘When an electron drops from a higher energy level to a lower one, it releases energy as electromagnetic radiation. You want to harness that to boost your speed. But it’ll take time—more than you can fathom.’
“Then take me back to that place!” I demanded, my pulse hammering with urgency. “Where time doesn’t pass!”
‘Are you sure?’
“This is the only way to stop Abdu. Do it!”
In an instant, 2.0 plunged me into the frozen depths of my mind—a timeless void where memories froze and seconds unraveled into eternity. There, he peeled back the secrets of atomic manipulation. I watched, mesmerized, as 2.0 taught me how he reshaped molecules, knitted my wounds shut and he once transformed my skin.
To wield this power across my entire body, I had to master every atom, every bond, every pulse of energy thrumming through me.
The training was brutal. Simulations assaulted me—atoms splitting apart, energy surging and collapsing in chaotic bursts. My mind ached, my body screamed, but I pushed through.
Breakthroughs came in flashes: a molecule bent to my will, a surge of power igniting my veins. Twenty-five years passed in that mental crucible, though only seconds ticked by in the real world. When I emerged, my special ability—atomic manipulation—had soared from 15% to a blazing 65%. And now 2.0 and I both had mutual control over the ability.
It was worth every torturous moment.
I could now siphon energy from the air itself, shifting my subatomic particles to amplify my base power. My speed and strength exploded to dozens of folds. The only way to find out the exact figure was to test it.
This was my weapon against Abdu.
The five minutes my team had bought me—William and the others throwing themselves against Abdu’s onslaught—were up. I rose, the Solid State humming through me, my body alive with power. But before I could strike, a wave of dark, suffocating energy rippled across the battlefield—familiar, yet more terrifying than ever.
My eyes darted to the source. From a pile of broken bodies, a figure clawed its way out, blood dripping from every inch of him. I barely recognized him until he stood, hoisting the massive battle Titan like it weighed nothing. John Gray—back from the dead.
His presence was a nightmare given form, radiating the same dread I’d felt from Victor and Hira no.125. His eyes, once fierce with resolve, now glinted with something otherworldly, unstoppable.
Abdu noticed the Titan. He whirled toward him, fury twisting his face. “You just won’t give up, will you?” he bellowed. “Fine! I’ll kill you a thousand times if that’s what it takes!” He flung his sword aside, a crystalline spear shimmering into existence in his hand. In a blur, he lunged, the spear plunging into John’s abdomen with a wet, sickening crunch.
“There are no heroes in this world,” Abdu sneered, his voice thick with venom. “Accept your fate and be one with the tranquil of the dead.”
But as he yanked at the spear to remove it, his smirk vanished. John’s hand clamped around his arm, iron-tight. Abdu pulled, then heaved with all his strength, but he didn’t budge an inch. Panic flickered in his eyes.
Then John’s gaze ignited—crimson red, like coals flaring to life. Heat pulsed from him, the air warping around his frame. The temperature spiked, and Abdu’s bravado crumbled.
“What’s happening?!” Abdu’s voice broke, shrill with fear. “Let go!... Let go of my arm!”
John’s eyes swept over the fallen—his comrades, lifeless and scattered. A scream ripped from his throat, primal and shattering. His skin glowed, flames curling across his flesh, each breath a plume of fire. The ground beneath him softened, then melted into bubbling magma.
We stood transfixed, awe and terror locking us in place. The painting of the unseen.
The crystalline spear in John’s stomach dissolved into molten slag, taking Abdu’s right arm with it. Abdu staggered back, clutching the charred stump, his scream swallowed by the roar of the inferno.
But it wasn’t over. The flames around John swelled, a blazing testament to his wrath and rebirth. The fight, it seemed, had only just begun.
Power surged through my veins, a torrent of newfound strength and speed. My muscles coiled like springs, itching to unleash havoc. Abdu, still staggering from his wound, was ripe for the taking.
It was time to end it!
I gripped my sword, its blade humming with anticipation in my hand. One swift strike—that’s all I needed to finish him. But before I could lunge, a streak of light tore across my vision, a phantom too fast to fathom.
Victor emerged from the blur, his Solid State form shimmering with raw energy. He rocketed past me, a gale of unhuman speed that ruffled my hair and rattled my bones. My hyper-cognition flared—every nerve alight, my mind racing to keep pace with his lightning-quick movements. It was like my first clash with Randy: I could trace his path with crystal clarity, yet my body lagged, a mere mortal chasing a god.
Ignoring Abdu entirely, Victor zeroed in on John Gray. I’d assumed he’d come to back us up—wrong. With a thunderous crack, he drove his fist into John, sending him soaring across the battlefield like a comet cast from the heavens.
William lurched forward. “Why’s he attacking the commander? Has that kid lost his mind?” His words mirrored the chaos swirling in all our heads.
Victor didn’t relent. He pounced on John again, a whirlwind of fists striking from every angle. What we’d thought was the battle’s end was merely its opening act. Shadows clung to Victor now, a sinister edge twisting his once-familiar form. Dark energy erupted from both him and John, a vile echo of Hira no.125’s power.
It wasn’t Yukio’s negative dome—this was sharper, a creeping dread that clawed at the mind and squeezed the heart.
I stood unaffected by its grip, but one glance at my team told me they weren’t so lucky. Their eyes widened, faces paling as memories of the island battle resurfaced. Yet that fear was dwarfed by the sight before us. John Gray was no longer human. His body blazed red-hot, a living furnace that scorched the air and melted stone into bubbling pools. Hundreds of meters away, I still felt the heat prickling my skin. He met Victor’s speed head-on, their movements a frenzied blur of power and fury. How they defied physics escaped me, but their clash radiated danger—pure, unbridled chaos.
Victor’s onslaught was savage, each blow a reckless gamble of aggression that punished both foe and self. The heat around him swelled, fueling his velocity until he streaked like a meteor. John countered with equal ferocity, their collisions igniting the air with crackling shockwaves. Faster and faster they went, pushing the boundaries of speed itself. Then it hit me—the fear I’d buried since their fight began.
What happens when two forces nearing light-speed collide? A single punch could unleash a nuclear blast, vaporizing everything in its wake. Each strike sent tremors through the earth, the atmosphere sizzling as the threat of annihilation loomed.
Abdu’s nerve snapped. “What the hell!” he bellowed, his voice a shaky mask over raw terror. He shot us a wild glare. “I won’t let you stop me!” With that, he bolted, fleeing like a cornered beast.
I stood rooted, my mind a storm of indecision. Stop Victor and John before they obliterated themselves—and us? Or pursue Abdu, who was surely racing toward another city to spill more blood? My team faltered, frozen by the same dread that had gripped us on the island. I was ice, unable to decide my next move.
“Cipher!” The captain’s voice sliced through the fog, sharp and unyielding. I turned to find her standing tall, her hand clamping my shoulder.
Her gaze pierced mine, fierce and certain. “Go after Wardark! You’re stronger now—I can feel it. For us, for every life he’s taken, stop him. Prove him wrong.”
Her words struck like a spark, igniting my resolve. Around me, the others rose—Billie, Bill-board, William, Dmitry, Sane, even Yukio—each shaking off the suffocating energy. Their faces hardened, wills forged anew. The dread still lingered, but they defied it, driven by a force greater than fear: an unbreakable determination to see this fight through.
Something primal and fierce pulsed within us all, urging us to shatter our limits and charge toward destiny.
I turned, trusting my team to handle Victor and Commander Gray. I had to reach him in time, before he laid waste to another city.