Lucien surged forward like a comet with light speed, every cell in his body roaring back to life, drawn toward one final purpose— Killing.
The monster saw it coming. It warped, blinked and vanished out of Lucien his sight.
Behind him.
Lucien's eyes widened in panic and fear as a chill surged down his spine. The monster reappeared, raising its claw at Lucien. For a split second, time almost froze.
But his fist—still burning, still charged with that cosmic punch—wasn't done.
Lucien twisted, spun midair, and swung with everything he had.
The impact didn't feel like a punch anymore.
It felt like creation breaking open.
The monster's body cracked. No— It shattered into pieces. Its limbs flailed out of sync, as if its entire existence was being rejected by the laws of reality. Temporal distortions spiraled outward from the moment they made contact. Space itself convulsed. A ripple of divine force exploded outward in a violent sphere of cosmic energy.
And then came the sound.
Not a boom or a explosion—a planetary scream of destruction.
Windows shattered all across Tokyo. Birds dropped from the sky because of the impact. Skyscrapers shook on their foundations as the shockwave thundered outward like a divine earthquake. Thousands of miles away, seismographs spiked up to a 7.5. In Shinjuku and Shibuya, what was left of the landscape crumbled into dust.
And what happened with the monster?
It disintegrated midair before it could even touch the ground.
A vortex of void, bone and mutated flesh collapsed into nothingness—its existence unmade. The near level 1 disaster that had bent space, time, and gravity had fallen to one single punch.
The Cosmic Punch.
Lucien, still glowing faintly, hovered for one breathless moment... then fell onto the grounf.
His limbs were limp. His eyes closed. His body, broken far beyond a human could endure, crashed into the rubble below him.
"Lucien!"
Rylen's voice tore through the silence. Jason was already sprinting through clouds of dust, his coat torn, face covered in blood. They reached him together at the same time—Jason lifting debris, Rylen grabbing Lucien's arm.
" Thank god he's alive," Rylen said, his voice shaking. "Barely. He's... still breathing."
Lucien's eyes opened halfway. His gaze drifted between them. A tiny smile tugged at his lips.
Then he fell unconscious.
—
Meanwhile, Emiluna still knelt beside Karu, her hands trembling over his almost lifeless body. Blood soaked his uniform. His chest had been pierced—once fatal.
Not anymore.
Her hands glowed with forbidden light as she activated Chronomend again and again, pushing herself to her limits and also time itself backward within Karu's cells. Her voice cracked with each whisper of incantation, and her tears hit his armor.
Then—another breath.
Karu gasped.
His eyes fluttered open again, but barely.
"You're not dying today sir," Emiluna whispered, clenching his hand.
Moments later, the sky opened as a trauma helicopter descended behind Emiluna and Karu. Medics rushed out, securing Karu with extreme caution. Emiluna climbed in beside him, hands never leaving him for even a second.
As the rotors lifted and they vanished into the smoke-filled sky, the battlefield began to still.
—
Kagetsu sat on a cracked slab of concrete, his severed arm now reattached thanks to Emiluna. He exhaled, sweat pouring down his brow.
Ayumu leaned against a broken streetlamp nearby, her breathing heavily. "That punch... I felt it in my bones."
"I think you meant that you felt it in your soul" Kagetsu murmured. "I thought the world came to an end for a second."
A chuckle escaped them both—bitter, dry, but relieved that it was over.
Somewhere further off, the Captain of Division Two limped into the arms of awaiting medics, blood dipping off of her uniform. She refused to be laid on a stretcher—until she nearly collapsed. They caught her just before she fell.
And as the sun rose, casting orange light over a city almost leveled to dust, the Nightguard survivors stood in silence.
Shinjuku. Shibuya. Completely gone like it never existed.
But the monster was gone too.
They had won the battle.
—
Three Days Later at the hospital.
Bright lights. Beeping. Sterile air.
Lucien's eyes opened for the first time in three whole days.
He blinked slowly, the ceiling above unfamiliar—white, cold and clinical.
Pain throbbed through every inch of his body. But it was distant, like his nerves were still catching up.
"...He's awake guys!"
Jason's voice boomed through the entire hospital. Lucien turned his head —winced—and saw his team.
Jason, grinning like an idiot as always, holding two bags of snacks in both of his hands.
Rylen, arms crossed, smirking with watery eyes.
Emiluna, smiling softly, her hands folded in her lap.
Lucien tried to speak. All he managed was, "...What happened guys?"
"You happened," Rylen said, walking over. "You blew up half of Tokyo with one punch."
Jason dropped the duck in Lucien's lap. "You saved all our asses, man .Again. That punch? It was like a nuke mixed with god ´ s steroids."
Emiluna reached out and gently squeezed Lucien his hand. "It's finally over, Lucien. You did it Lucien."
Lucien let the truth settle over him. that punch felt... unreal.
Rylen placed a hand on his broken shoulder. "Rest for now. You've earned that atleast."
And this time, Lucien didn't fight the sleep pulling at him.
He closed his eyes again and let peace, however brief, wash over him.
Two days passed.
Lucien still remained in the hospital—wrapped in gauze, hooked to IVs, surrounded by machines that beeped loud as if it was reminding him he was still alive.
He hated the hospital.
He hated the quiet. The stillness. The way the world outside his window moved on like it hadn't almost collapsed because of him.
But then, the door opened.
Ayumu entered first, walking with a cane. Her arm was in a sling, but her face was the same as always. Showing no emotion. "You look like shit don ´ t ya."
Lucien huffed. "You should see the other guy."
"I did," Ayumu said, walking in slowly. "It no longer exists."
Kagetsu followed, holding a bouquet of pale red flowers. His reattached arm was wrapped in bandages.
"These are Red African Violets," he said, placing the flowers beside Lucien his hospital bed. "They symbolize loyalty."
Lucien blinked. "I… uh, thanks a lot."
Ayumu flopped into the chair beside him. "You really pulled a miracle out ther, Lucien. We were seconds from death. And you… you lit up the sky like a shooting star."
Lucien looked away. "I didn't do it alone."
"No," Kagetsu said softly. "But only one of us glowed like a god that night."
There was a pause.
Then a new voice: "Is this a bad time to come in?"
Lucien turned.
Lisa.
She stood awkwardly in the doorway, wearing a dark coat, her black braided pulled back. She held a paper bag.
"I brought you melon bread," she said. "Couldn't find the brand that Rylen said you liked, but... close enough i guess."
Lucien stared, stunned. "You… came?"
"Don't flatter yourself to much Lucien," Lisa said, walking in. "The commander of my division made me check on all Division members who were injured. I'm just following his orders."
But her voice was softer than usual. And when she placed the bag down, her hand lingered for a second too long.
"I'm glad you're not dead tho," she said, and then she left before anyone could say anything back to her.
Silence lingered.
Ayumu let out a low whistle. "Did Lisa just act like a human for once?"
"She brought bread," Kagetsu said. "That's basically love."
Lucien shook his head with a tired smile.
Two days later, he was discharged out of the hospital.
His body was still hurt, but the worst wounds were gone. Emiluna had healed the remaining damage most doctors would've called irreversible. Even tho Lucien could heal himself if he wanted to but he is too stubborn. When he thinks he's a failure he never wants to heal himself. That's just the way Lucien is.
Jason and Rylen helped him into the back seat of a black Division transport car. Emiluna sat beside him.
"I still think you should've stayed one more day," she murmured.
"I'd rather die in battle than rot in that room, and i could heal myself if i wanted too. So I don ´ t need those docters," Lucien muttered.
Jason laughed from the front seat. "He's back to his old ways, alright."
The car rumbled through the outskirts of Tokyo. What used to be Shibuya was now flattened—ashes and splinters. Military blockades, reconstruction drones, and anti-monster mechs lined the horizon.
No words could describe the scene that they were seeing.
Rylen looked over his shoulder. "You did that Lucien."
Lucien didn't reply.
He wasn't proud. Not exactly. Just… changed.
And then—mid-ride, without warning—the world around him froze again.
Time stopped moving.
Raindrops halted in midair. The hum of the engine went silent. Even the wind held its breath.
Lucien blinked. "No not again."
From the seat beside him, she appeared—not Emiluna, not a person. A presence cloaked in pressure and warmth, older than the universe itself. Her form flickered—woman, light, something beyond form.
The Creator of Gods appeared.
"Hello again, my dear vessel of vengeance," she said, her voice echoing inside his skull and soul. "You've done well in your last fight."
Lucien's mouth was dry. "You—why now?"
"Because your spirit is becoming more stable. And because you've tasted the edge of divinity."
She reached out, fingers tracing the air near his chest. Lucien felt power awaken inside him again—slumbering circuits reigniting.
"I've unlocked more of your powers," she whispered. "You may feel different in the coming days. Stronger. Sharper. But know this—you are still at less than one percent of your potential Lucien."
Lucien's breath caught. "...What am I?"
She smiled. "Not a god. Not yet. But you are no longer bound by the weak human limits."
Lucien stared at her, the words weighing heavily in his chest.
Then she leaned closer.
"And one more thing before i leave"
Her voice, once vast and cosmic, softened into something gentle. Almost maternal.
"Your parents are soo proud of you Lucien."
Lucien's heart stopped beating.
He felt the words ripple through every fracture of his being. Felt them fill the hollow places he didn't even realize were still bleeding.
His throat tightened. "How could you possibly know that?"
"I made them," she said.
Tears welled in his eyes. Not from relief or pain. From something deeper than both those things. Something he couldn't name.
She touched his forehead once, and then—
Time returned.
The car jolted slightly as it hit a bump. Jason cursed. Emiluna blinked beside him. "You okay Lucien?"
Lucien didn't answer her.
He looked down at his hands.
Power still lingered in his hands. And so did the weight of her words.
He said nothing.
And that night, after returning to the Fifth Command Post, after the team split up and went to sleep...
Lucien laid in bed, wide awake.
He didn't tell them one single thing about what happened today.
Not about her. Not about the voice. Not about the new powers stirring inside him. Not about his parents being proud of him.
He couldn't tell them.
Not yet.
He stared at the ceiling as midnight crept by, and the words played again and again in his mind.
"Your parents are proud of you."
He didn't sleep the whole night.
Not even for a second.
[Epilogue chapter 20 – Dawn Whisper]
The next morning came.
Mist drifted between the shattered ruins of old Shibuya and Shinjuku, now nothing more than silent skeletons of skyscrapers and destroyed buildings.
A light wind brushed over the cracked streets, carrying the distant hum of drones and the low groans of reconstruction machinery.
And then—
In the heart of ground zero, where Lucien had landed the final blow against the monster, the air shimmered.
A tear in space opened—small and unnatural.
From within stepped a figure in black, face obscured by a mask. Cloaked, elegant, tall. Not human. Not entirely.
It knelt in the crater, brushing fingers over the scorched ground.
A faint pulse—residual divine energy.
The figure inhaled. Slowly.
"So… this is where he bloomed."
The voice was neither male nor female—just ancient, refined, and curious.
Another portal flickered open behind it.
A second figure emerged. This one smaller but wider, hooded in silver, with eyes that shimmered like dying stars.
"Do we report it to the Council?" the second asked to the first.
"No, not yet," the first replied. "Let him grow more."
They both turned to look up—into the sky, where the clouds were beginning to split for sunrise.
"The Vessel has finally awakened."
And with that, both figures vanished into the wind, leaving earth behind like they were never even here in the first place.
The sun rose slowly over Tokyo, as if afraid to touch what remained of it.