While the eleven heroes on Deckstoru’s central beach went on a search for allies due to the dire situation they found themselves in, events of equal importance were taking place in several other locations across the city under attack. The first to take note of was experienced by Seiren’s younger brother – 15-year-old Goran Blackscale.

When the battle by the sea began, the only thing that had stopped Seiren from leaving his friends to go and ensure his brother’s safety was the knowledge he was going to be at home with his parents, i.e. there was no place where he would be safer. In reality, however, a couple of Goran’s friends had called on him in the morning to go out later on the very night when so many lives were forever changed.

And so it was that he and those two friends – Stello and Carz – were walking down the pedestrian-only main street that ran in parallel with Deckstoru’s central square when some of the invading forces reached it. With all the tall buildings in the area no one there had noticed the burst of pale green light earlier that had signaled the coming of the undead and so the atmosphere had remained peaceful, cheerful even. It was Friday night, after all – the time of long-awaited rest for all who had survived yet another work week and even more so – for all high-schoolers who had successfully graduated.

The first cause for worry came with the activation of the sirens whose wailing spread all around the square and the adjacent streets just when Goran and his friends were going to sit at the café between the hotel and the courthouse that stood across the street from the central square. From there, the three would have a perfect view of all the things worth seeing in the vicinity, starting with the highlight of the square – the Grobe Statue of Unity.

The grobe was the national animal of Barilia, populations of it having been quite common in the country’s territories many centuries ago and it having remained a symbol of its people since then. This creature had the front half of a lion’s body and the back half of a goat’s, with the head also having a non-lion feature – long goat horns bent outward, both its mane and back half of the body having black fur while the lion portion of it was dark red, its eyes being light green.

Of course, the statue of the animal wasn’t colored – it was made of gray stone as was the platform it was placed upon. Whenever Goran saw it, though, whether when illuminated by the rays of the sun during the day or by the lights placed throughout the square in the night, the boy imagined what the actual animal looked like. He had never seen one in the flesh and the only images he had to fuel his imagination were those in the museum and in the Biology books.

The view it provided of the grobe statue he liked so much was actually the main reason for him to choose the café he and his friends were about to visit now. Then there were also the other structures in the area that made for an even more fascinating scene. What lay just northwest of the square was the Eura Kin Tower – Deckstoru’s tallest and most advanced building, the moon now being perched atop the sharp roofs of its twin halves connected by a number of bridges and shining its light down on them to make the whole structure shine like the purest silver. Next to it was the City Hall – one of the oldest buildings in the city that made up for what it lacked in terms of height when compared to Eura Kin with plenty of width, its stony multi-pillar silhouette having an air of grandeur about it as well.

Even further beyond to the northeast was Light’s Heart Cathedral – the biggest in all of West Barilia that loomed over the City Hall despite there being distance between the two while to the west stood a whole complex of towering structures – the tens of skyscrapers that acted as the entrance to Deckstoru’s business district.

The sound of the sirens reached all of these landmarks and eventually filled the air to an ear-splitting level as it no longer came from one, but from all directions. Sirens had now been triggered on a city-wide level. Goran let go of the chair he was going to sit in, looking at the other people in the café in front of him and the square behind him, some of them still seeming to ignore the sirens. The rest had stopped dead in their tracks, out of their whole bodies only the heads turning in every direction to locate the source of the danger. Many of the members of the second group seemed worried, some even being afraid.

Coming from the troublesome Blackscale family, each of which’s members was more hot-headed than the next, Goran wasn’t under as much stress as the others, but had rather become more alert. He had only heard these sirens during training exercises that always took place during the day, but perhaps they had started conducting exercises of this sort in the evening as well. In the case that there was an actual danger on the horizon, however, he needed to be ready to act when it revealed itself. That happened no more than a minute after the sirens were first heard as another sound that was just as all-encompassing started filling the air, becoming louder the closer it drew to the square. It was the sound of the engines and rotor blades of hundreds of aircrafts which finally gave Goran something to worry about.

(Goran) ‘Let’s get out of here. We’ll stick together for as long as we can and then each of us will go to their family.’

(Stello) ‘I’d like to stick together all the way, actually!’

(Carz) ‘Both my and Stello’s parents left town this morning, so we’re better off staying with your family, Gor!’

(Goran) ‘I’m not going to my mom and dad’s.’

As expected, his friends looked at Goran after his announcement with the same amount of shock as that of the people all around who were looking at the sky without moving an inch. But that did not weaken his resolve one bit.

(Goran) ‘My house is quite far from here, so my parents should be able to handle themselves just fine. Last I heard, my brother’s on the beach, though, and whatever’s coming seems to be coming from the sea, so he may be in trouble already. I’ve got to go and see if he’s alright.’

Stello and Carz were about to say something in an attempt to dissuade Goran when the crafts finally came, the mixture of their snapping and screeching and the wailing of the sirens being painful enough to melt one’s brain away, due to which it was hard to concentrate on anything other than those sounds.

And yet when the younger Blackscale brother saw the outlines of all the vessels the older one and his friends had dubbed ‘black hearts’ and ‘silver waspers’ as well as their larger counterparts – the troop-carrying planes and three-rotor helicopters – that managed to shift his focus in an instant.

The sirens, the rotors and the engines were now muffled. All Goran could hear was the throbbing in his ears that was so intense it shook his being to its core and almost made him feel light-headed. His heart was pounding faster than it ever had, his body feeling too heavy and torpid as it was gripped by fear. And all these feelings were multiplied numerous times when the aircrafts shot down bullets of the standard type and rockets, missiles and rays powered by pale green energy.

Every noise was further muffled by the explosions that erupted across the whole square and its neighbouring buildings, though the addition of the screams and cries of Deckstorians of all ages was prominent enough to be noted. Goran’s attention did not stay focused on them for long, however, as an impulse the likes of which he had only felt a couple of times in his life had made him overcome the unimaginable weight of his terror and move again. Not only did he move, but he did it fast enough to push both Stello and Carz back when one of the missiles landed right next to the three friends.

With the pale green ruin of the projectile’s blast engulfing him, another instinct stirred in the boy, this one activating his deva with no thought being given to the limit placed on his output. His will to survive had become stronger than any such limit as the present nightmare unfolded.

Organic spike-like blades which were brown in color with yellow outlines covered the whole of his back, his shoulders and the back of his head a mere moment before the explosion reached him. This caused his T-shirt to be ripped in half at the back, the rest being destroyed by the force of the blast that managed to throw the boy right at his friends despite the layer of protection he had armored himself with.

Being left half-naked was the least of Goran’s worries, though, as soon enough the waves of pain that were a result of subconsciously going beyond his deva output limit bombarded his nervous system. To maintain the cover of organic spike-like blades any longer would only make the experience more agonizing for him, so Seiren’s brother removed it with a nonverbal command, trying to find comfort in the fact both he and his friends were still alive.

Stello and Carz gave him a hand to get up, as he did that the smoke of the unknown enemy’s first barrage having cleared a bit. The survivors of that barrage were now faced with the horror it had left behind that made many people wish their torment could’ve been ended sooner.

Trees had been felled and set on fire as many other objects were, pieces of the buildings in the area having been thrown around, mixed with ripped-off pavement stones from the main street, pieces of wood from the benches on the square and parts of the vehicles that had been blown up. Tens of victims were caught between all this – some lied in bloody puddles after being crushed by rubble, others having shrapnel of different sizes sticking out of their bodies or having thorn off their limbs and then there were those whose bodies burned next to the fires. It was in the midst of such a dreadful scene that several enemy aircrafts made their descent, blowing the smoke further away with the spinning of their rotors’ blades as they landed.

But these vessels weren’t the only thing that set down as more than a dozen silhouettes landed in the rubble near them as well, each of which was enveloped in an energy deva of a different color. What they had in common was all their energy cloaks had a tinge of pale green to them, their attire also being similar – they wore partial high-tech armor over their uniforms, some also being armed with one kind of energy-powered weapon or another. These soldiers’ helmets as well as what could be made out of their uniforms under the armor matched the appearance of the ones who had attacked Seiren and his friends less than two months ago and again a month later. Now they had made their third and most destructive appearance.

Only one among the group stood out – that person alone had their whole body put in high-tech armor and only they had a cloak that mixed two types of energy. From what Goran had learned in school and from his family, both of these energies were members of the group of the eight energy compounds, one being the scarlet-colored Daroid used for increasing the user’s speed. The other was as black as can be, looking like a mass of shadows pooled together, some purple outlines being visible here and there that seemed to form tentacles that twisted around each other again and again in an endless tangle of madness. That was without a doubt the Karaid, the complete opposite of the white Goroid that held the position of the most powerful energy compound alongside it.

Seeing it combined with Daroid was a first for Seiren’s brother, though, wondering why one would need such heavy armor if they already had two energy compounds. Unless, of course, that armor was the source of those compounds, in which case that person as well as the others around were all ordinari. Ordinari wielding technology more advanced than the youngest member of the Blackscale family had ever seen.

And as if that wasn’t terrible enough, the only fully armored among the attackers turned his attention to Goran, Stello and Carz just after they had overcome the initial shock brought upon by his appearance. The fact that a number of soldiers also armed with an arsenal powered by pale green energy exited the aircrafts that had landed around the armored ones wasn’t even relevant at this point. All that mattered was the sound made by the heavy metal-clad feet that now moved toward the three boys as the villain who had targeted them gave orders to his troops.

‘Kill the living. Gather the dead. The captains and the lieutenants focus on the deviants while the lower ranks take out the ordinari. Move it, gentlemen. Let’s clear this place up fast so General Deathaxe can come in.’

He now pointed at Goran and his friends in particular.

‘Those three are mine, though. They seem unruly enough to provide me with some entertainment.’

Hearing that, Seiren’s brother realized Stello and Carz were no longer paralyzed by fear, appearing to be quite battle-ready instead.

(Goran) ‘What are you two doing?’

(Stello) ‘Paying you back for just saving our lives, Gor. We won’t leave you alone against this guy.’

(Goran) ‘What I meant was why should we even fight him? Won’t it be easier to just run away and let the police deal with this?’

Looking between the one and the other’s face, Stello and Carz hardly managed to suppress their laughter while smiling confidently after their friend said that.

(Carz) ‘Do you really think the police would stand a chance against monsters like these alone? Plus, the more attention we draw to ourselves, the more of the people here will be able to escape with their lives.’

Having received confirmation that they’re on the same page, the younger Blackscale brother smiled back at the hot heads on each of his sides as he covered his arms in spike-like blades up to the elbows and took a battle stance himself.

(Goran) ‘Let’s not waste any more time then and get to …’

A flash of scarlet got the armored commander right in front of Goran in less than a second, his right hand that was enveloped in Karaid already having swung to make contact with the boy’s skin.

(The Armored Commander) ‘I’m glad you want to wrap this up quickly as well, boy. Now all that’s left is to not embarrass yourself during you final moments.’

While knowing full well this time around he was going to go beyond his allowed output, Goran momentarily covered the entire front of his torso with several layers of his deva the moment he saw the attack. This was only the most recent case of him pushing his abilities beyond the 15% his chip could tolerate, after all, and he and Seiren had always held the opinion that the ends justify the means for the Blackscales. If the present time didn’t call for extreme measures, then such a time was never going to come.

The Karaid-clad hand touched the blades, due to the toughness of the armor it was covered with receiving no damage from them while being saturated with the black energy caused them to whither and decay. Luckily for Goran, the extra layers of protection he had put on himself saved him from any damage as the decay couldn’t reach past all of them. And there was another matter regarding which luck was on his side as well – that the armored warrior had decided to attack him first. Out of the three friends, he was the one with the best defense and could take plenty of hits by the enemy to distract him while the other two unleashed their attack.

Stello stuck his tongue out, it suddenly changing to a much darker hue of pink that bordered on purple and splitting itself up into six tentacles, the tentacles quickly growing in width and length and  wrapping around the villain’s wrists, ankles, waist and throat. Karaid was run through the appendages that had formed from the boy’s tongue, but Carz intervened before any permanent damage could be done, shooting dark yellow laser beams from his eyes and right at the armored one’s head.

All three youngsters most likely thought they had outwitted their opponent and their victory was assured, but their hopes were shattered when the villain himself shot out beams from his eyes. The one that came from his helmet’s left eye was Daroid-powered and the one that came from the right eye – Karaid-powered, the two mixing into a scarlet-black beam that easily overpowered Carz’ attack.

Seeing this, Goran jumped in the way of the dual beam before it could reach his friend, this time cladding the entire upper half of his body in spike-like blades. While he felt the heat of the beam piercing through the blades and the Karaid in it eating away at the layers of his organic armor, the damage taken from those could be withstood by him just long enough to move Carz out of the way.

By then Stello had been forced to release the trio’s foe due to the decaying of his tongue-tentacles, the commander reaching him in the blink of an eye with his Daroid and crushing a Karaid-charged headbutt in his forehead, apparently having decided to finish him off first. Goran wouldn’t have that, however, leaving his other friend to try and attack the dual energy user from the back.

With both an offense and defense as formidable as this one’s, there was no other way to stop him but to risk it all and go for a 100% output. So Seiren’s brother covered his entire body in spike-like blades and spun as he jumped in the air, becoming an organic drill aimed at the back of his adversary’s head.

Coming as no surprise, he managed to dodge the attack with the speed granted by his scarlet-colored energy compound, probably having predicted the two targets he had saved for later would try and attack him again. Goran didn’t mind that, considering the drill was only the first stage of his charge.

He spun around again right after he had hit the outside of the café next to which the battle was taking place, detaching all the spike-like blades of his armor and launching them at the commander. As the boy returned to his normal appearance, the consequences of his latest assault caught up with him, raining more pain down on him than he had endured in quite a while.

The only source of relief he could find was that while the armored warrior had formed a cloud of Karaid in front of him to stop the spike-like blades, Stello had managed to wrap all six tentacles of his tongue around his helmet and rip it out of his head. With his bald, fair-skinned and pale-green-eyed head being left unprotected, Carz seized the moment to burn through it with the yellow laser beams coming out of his eyes.

This time the beam successfully reached him before the commander could counter in any way, Goran who had now suffered both a number of burns and hemorrhages on his skin only being to able to hold back his screams of agony because of how happy he was of the three’s victory. At least until a pulse of Karaid mixed with a strange type of flames passed through Stello and Carz, directly cutting their chests amid a spray of blood.

With whatever strength he could muster under the circumstances, their friend turned his head around to find the one responsible for this, that someone coming out of a massive Karaid projectile that had just landed on the grobe statue in the square and had smashed it to pieces. After the black-colored energy compound disappeared, a horned figure taller than any creature Goran had ever seen and exuding more power and evil than he had ever felt was revealed.