Author's Preface
“I’m gonna go play with Thomas, Mom. Be right back!”
“Okay, dear. Try not to get too hurt this time.”
“Hehe!”
Adrian, a young shura boy around 8 years of age, sprinted out the door in excitement. Ever since the Human Extermination Act was passed just two weeks ago, roughly 65% of the human population in Urr had been eliminated. Today, a human hanging event would be hosted in just 15 minutes, and his friend, Thomas, had invited him to see the execution unfold in person.
Today would be his first time seeing a human.
I wonder what kind of expression it will make? He wondered, gleefully skipping towards the center square.
“...Huh?”
A star? No, a comet? There was a light, a bright, flashing light, that soared through the sky with the passion of a second sun.
“It’s pretty!” He knew not the phenomenon by which the light was produced, but he appreciated its beauty nonetheless. The dot grew brighter and more intense. He reached out, grasping the light until—
BAM!
The star had crashed into the earth, the boy’s body being incinerated moments before impact. Perhaps one could consider such a fate merciful compared to what would happen next. The boy’s death, along with the tens of thousands of citizens obliterated within a half-mile radius, served merely as a prelude, an opening act to the play.
“Weak,” Keresaspa proclaimed. “Such weakness. Have the people of this planet never tasted battle?”
Out of all the Problem Children, she was given the easiest responsibility—to take up as much enemy attention as possible. It was a simple task, perfectly suited to her. It wasn’t that Keresaspa was unintelligent or incompetent. The issue lay in her Uniqueness.
The cost of a Uniqueness can take two distinct forms—compulsory restrictions on one’s behavior, or a condition on the ability activation itself. Keresaspa’s cost was the latter type.
Though the specifics were unknown, the battlefield was the prime condition for awakening.
“Hm…did I overdo it? Nobody here seems to be a warrior. Well, nobody is here at all. I guess Shura aren’t all that durable.”
Staying here was a waste of time. If she wished to fulfill her mission, she needed to find more people.
“...” She closed her eyes, circulating her Mang throughout her body. The scent of burning flesh, the sensation of rising smoke—her sensory organs had increased in effectiveness a hundredfold, allowing her to locate anything within a 20-mile radius. This was a technique called [Flow] , one of the most basic techniques of Mang manipulation.
In the hands of an ordinary Mang user, it wasn’t particularly impressive. Most fighters do it instinctively during the heat of battle, but Keresaspa’s mastery over the technique lay far beyond perfection.
“—There!”
She soared across the smoked-addled sky with a single bound, her enemy now marked for death. Beyond the boundaries of her destruction lay countless helicopters, tanks, and dozens upon dozens of mechanical soldiers. They stood at a staggering 10 feet tall, with a military-grade mini-gun mounted on their left forearm and an arm-blade on their right. Their surface glimmered with a silver finish, their glowing red swivels analyzing their enemy.
[Type 6 Threat. Civilization-ending threat detected. Initiating immediate suppression.]
The mechanized soldiers raised their arms in unison, unleashing a torrential wave of ammunition into Keresaspa, who smiled with excitement.
“So, you make up for your physical inadequacy with superior numbers? I have never seen these tiny pellets before. They sting greatly!”
Sting was a light way of putting it. The bullets tore through her flesh and crushed her bones. One could barely even call what remained of her a corpse. It was a pile of offal, crushed and thoroughly obliterated.
“Hold your fire.”
Standing before the squad of androids was a tall, imposing man with a stern expression. His hair was a light green, his mien carrying a piercing expression. Deep wrinkles and smile lines adorned the man’s face. This man, General Squall of the United Urr Defense Force , was no amateur in battle.
“Evacuate the city, and enact a multi-layered barrier around the subject’s corpse. The retrieval team will be arriving shortly.”
General Squall was no stranger to foreign invasions, nor was he inexperienced in dealing with Mang users. They were anomalies, creatures who defied common sense and bent reality to their will. Given the human invader’s lack of resistance, they were likely playing right into her hand, and the General knew it.
“Its ability is likely regeneration, or perhaps a recoil effect scaling with damage taken. Containment is preferable over direct damage when dealing with these types.”
“Close, but not quite.”
Even when reduced to a pile of beaten flesh, Keresaspa’s voice rang out with her familiar cordiality. This was not a case of incompetence or even mistaken judgment. With the information provided, no better countermeasure could be produced in such a short time. It was simply a matter of magnitude. In other words…
“Invocation—Release!”
There was an overwhelming difference in strength.
[Aži Sruvara!]
“—?! Everyone! Get back!” The General ordered.
Squall dashed towards Keresaspa, sword in hand, ready to end the human menace in an instant. Time was of the essence. If he were even a second late in interrupting her revival, then the frontline would be lost!
“URRAAAAAH!” With a raging cry, he swung his sword at the woman’s half-regenerated neck. Though he himself could not wield Uniqueness, his Mang control had been refined to the level of a master.
Enough of this!
It was an admirable display of courage. Anyone worth their salt would recognize this valiant soldier as a man bursting with virility, be it human or shura. Had it been anyone else, he might have won. Alas, life does not dull out luck in equal measure.
Even the hard work of a thousand men could not overcome the latent ability of a warrior god.
“HA!”
The sword snapped upon contact, and with it, an opening emerged for Keresaspa to exploit. With but a single punch, a gaping hole opened in the man’s chest, ending his life in an instant.
“Thank you for the wonderful battle. You truly were a warrior!”
Having acknowledged the man's worth, she snapped his head from his spine like a grape from its vine, carrying it as a spoil of war, bound to her waist by its hair.
The remaining shura soldiers had long since run in accordance with their late General’s words, leaving only the lifeless androids to fight back against the menace.
[Overriding Command. C5 Engine Engaged.]
Lesser androids emerged one after another, engaging Keresaspa in close-quarters combat. At the same time, the advanced models took to the rear, firing countless bullets and explosives in a desperate attempt to hold her back.
“This won’t do,” she said. “I’ve already come to understand your technology. Show me something creative, yeah?”
What occurred next could hardly be called a fight. Each blow rumbled the earth, eviscerating countless androids in her wake. Steel was nothing to Keresaspa’s physical strength. She tore through metal and wire as if they were paper and string. The bullets that once tore through her flesh were all effortlessly evaded.
2 minutes was all it took to reduce their frontline defense to a ruinous junkyard.
“Androids are no fun. They’re completely predictable.”
She considered letting the enemies come to her, but waiting for forces to mobilize was a lengthy process, and whether they would actively engage her or not was also up for consideration. It was too long, boring, and unlike that of a warrior.
“I see…then how about this?”
Dashing through the streets of Urr’s 34th District, she finds the nearest vantage point she can, a radio tower, and climbs the structure to its peak.
“People of this nation,” she shouted at the top of her lungs, gaining the attention of everyone in the District, “I present to thee a declaration of war!” In her right hand was the head of the recently slain General Squall, his eyes still retaining their color.
“I shall ravage your homes, tear through your weaponry, and seize the head of your king! Now come, mighty warriors, let us do battle!”