Elric stood before the two glowing fruits, his enhanced vision analyzing them carefully through his Clairvoyance ability.
"Interesting," he murmured to himself. "Among these two Devil Fruits... one of them is a physical enhancement type."
Even with his Clairvoyance capable of scanning for miles in every direction, he hadn't bothered systematically combing every corner of the vast campus yet—there simply hadn't been time. So stumbling upon two wild ability fruits at once was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise that could dramatically increase their group's combat power.
He turned back toward the five women waiting behind him—Natasha, Jenna, Grace, Elsa, and Liana.
"You all head to that SUV up ahead and wait for me there," he commanded. "I need to retrieve something from the park grove. I'll only be a few minutes."
A matte-black Mercedes G-Wagon sat idling near the pathway about fifty meters away, keys still dangling in the ignition, driver's door left wide open—clearly abandoned in panic by whoever had been driving it during the initial outbreak chaos.
Walking everywhere on foot and constantly burning mental energy with his spatial swap ability would eventually exhaust even Elric's enhanced stamina. A vehicle changed the entire tactical equation—allowing them to move faster, carry more supplies, and conserve strength for actual combat.
"Okay."
"Got it."
"We'll wait there."
"Be careful."
"Don't take too long..."
They responded almost in perfect unison, without a single complaint or question. They simply trusted his judgment and began walking toward the G-Wagon, though notably they didn't actually get inside—just stood near the doors, waiting obediently for his return.
That kind of quiet, absolute obedience was something Elric had gradually become accustomed to. Power bred loyalty. Protection bred devotion. In the apocalypse, these equations were simple and absolute.
Elric vanished in a spatial flicker—Swap—and reappeared instantly beside the ancient willow tree in the campus park where the Devil Fruits hung.
Only... the willow wasn't ordinary anymore. Not even close.
The tree had grown to at least twice the height of a normal willow, its trunk thick as a small building, its branches now resembling steel cables rather than natural wood. The entire structure radiated faint supernatural energy.
The two glowing fruits hung from one particularly massive limb near the top—pulsing faintly with inner light like living organs, their spiral patterns shifting slowly.
Elric first attempted to swap them directly into his hand using spatial displacement.
Nothing happened.
The fruits didn't move. Didn't even flicker.
Just like before with other supernatural objects—the tree itself was somehow blocking spatial manipulation, anchoring the fruits in place through some unknown property.
"Tch. Fine then."
Elric lifted his right hand, fingers extending.
"Baton."
The long black combat blade hanging at his hip—Olivia's knife—shot forward like a bullet fired from a gun, accelerating under his telekinetic control.
SLICE.
The knife cleaved through the thick branch as if it were soft clay, cutting clean through wood that should have been harder than steel.
The severed branch dropped heavily to the ground with a substantial thud.
Elric caught both ability fruits in one smooth, practiced motion before they could hit the dirt, immediately storing them in his dimensional inventory for later distribution.
"A good blade really is a blessing," he murmured appreciatively, admiring the knife's perfect edge.
He turned, preparing to return to the group—
"—TSSSSHHHHHH!!"
A deafening rush of pressurized gas suddenly erupted from somewhere behind him—the sound like a massive industrial boiler releasing steam all at once.
Elric stopped mid-step. Turned slowly.
A towering surge of white fog was rising over the main campus buildings in the distance—so thick and dense it completely consumed the rainbow-colored mist that had hung over Houston since the apocalypse began.
The new fog spread with terrifying speed, rapidly swelling outward in all directions, rolling across rooftops and through streets like a tidal wave of vapor.
In mere seconds—it covered the entire visible sky, blotting out the weak morning sun.
"...What the hell?"
Elric's instincts screamed danger. He didn't wait to analyze further—he simply sprinted toward the G-Wagon at full speed.
But before he could cover even half the distance—
ROOOOAAARRR!!
A monstrous cry tore across the entire campus—so deep and resonant it shook glass in window frames and made the ground tremble beneath his feet.
The sound wasn't animal. Wasn't human. Wasn't anything that should exist in nature.
Then—
It appeared.
A creature crawled out of the white fog bank like a nightmare made flesh—massive beyond comprehension, its form violating every principle of natural biology.
Its skin was ash-brown and gray, stretched impossibly taut across a twisted, vaguely humanoid frame that seemed wrong from every angle.
Four arms extended from its upper torso—each one tens of meters long, muscular and segmented like insect limbs.
Eight legs supported its lower body like a grotesque crawling centipede, each limb ending in blade-like claws that tore through pavement with every step.
It had no head.
No eyes.
No nose.
No recognizable face.
Instead, where a chest should be, there was only a massive circular mouth—at least five meters in diameter, lined with hundreds of jagged, uneven fangs arranged in concentric circles like a lamprey's maw.
Inside that horrifying mouth, dozens of fleshy tentacles writhed and curled hungrily, tasting the air, reaching, searching.
Elric halted completely, his enhanced vision taking in every detail of the monstrosity.
"...Disgusting," he muttered with genuine revulsion.
But more than disgusting—this thing radiated power on a completely different scale than the mutated animals and early fog creatures they'd encountered before.
If he had to compare it to something from his system knowledge database—
It looked disturbingly similar to the Ten-Tails from Naruto. An eldritch, Lovecraftian being with a form not meant for human comprehension. A creature that existed to consume and destroy.
"This is what hatched from that cocoon..."
The realization hit him like ice water.
Just when he was about to leave campus safely—now it had to emerge. The cocoon had finally burst open, and the creature gestating inside had reached maturity.
The timing couldn't have been worse.
The massive creature raised its eyeless, headless body toward the sky and released another earth-shaking roar.
ROOOOOOOO—
Elric didn't wait to hear it finish. He sprinted toward the G-Wagon at absolute maximum speed—his shoes barely touching the ground, his Swap ability blurring his movement as he displaced forward in rapid succession.
Behind him, the monster moved.
One of its four massive arms—easily forty meters long—extended outward like a whip made of muscle and bone, stretching impossibly far.
Then—
BOOOOOM!!!
It slammed down into a four-story classroom building with catastrophic force.
Concrete shattered like glass. Steel beams twisted like paper. Entire walls collapsed inward.
The people inside—faculty members who had been hiding, students who thought they were safe—didn't even have time to scream before the structure crumbled around them like a sandcastle.
The creature's arm clawed through the debris with terrifying efficiency—gathering bricks, desks, computers, and the crushed bodies of professors and students into a massive pile.
Then it shoved the entire grotesque collection into its enormous circular mouth.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
The screams echoed across the entire campus—high-pitched, desperate, cut short.
Blood rolled down the main plaza like floodwater, pooling in the cracks between tiles.
But the horror didn't stop there.
Because the monster had eight more arms.
BOOM — BOOM — BOOM — BOOM —
The boys' dormitory. The girls' dormitory. The faculty apartment complex. The closest dining hall.
All smashed apart like cardboard boxes, one after another in rapid succession.
Only a handful of people on the lower floors managed to crawl out of the collapsing structures—stumbling into the open air, running blindly in any direction, like ants escaping a burning nest with nowhere safe to go.
The campus had become a slaughterhouse in under sixty seconds.
"Get in the car! What are you standing there staring at!?"
Elric's voice cut through the chaos as he reached the G-Wagon, yanking the driver's door fully open.
Natasha, Jenna, Grace, Elsa, and Liana all snapped out of their shock-frozen states and scrambled desperately into the SUV—Natasha in the front passenger seat, the others piling into the back.
Elric slid behind the wheel and slammed his foot down on the accelerator—
The powerful engine roared to life.
Just as the vehicle lurched forward with squealing tires—
"Natasha! NATASHA!! It's you!"
A disheveled man in a torn button-down shirt suddenly stumbled into the road directly ahead of them, waving his arms frantically overhead.
Andrew Chen. Natasha's boyfriend from before the apocalypse.
He had been eating breakfast inside the dining hall when the monster's massive arm struck. Pure random luck had allowed him to survive the initial collapse by being near a doorway.
Now he saw Natasha through the windshield—sitting in the front passenger seat—and ran directly to the hood of the G-Wagon, pounding on it desperately with both fists.
"You can't leave me behind! I'm your boyfriend! Natasha, tell him to stop! Tell him to let me in!"
Natasha visibly stiffened in her seat, embarrassment and conflict flashing across her face. She opened her mouth, hesitating—
"Get—"
She didn't even finish forming the word.
Elric stepped harder on the accelerator.
THUNK.
The G-Wagon's heavy front bumper struck Andrew squarely in the chest, sending him flying backward across the pavement where he sprawled in a heap.
Elric didn't even blink. Didn't slow down. Didn't swerve.
Then—
CRUNCH.
The SUV's heavy all-terrain tires rolled directly over Andrew's body as they burst through the campus gate at high speed, leaving a trail of red behind them.
No hesitation.
No guilt.
No looking back.
There was no time for mercy now. No room for sentiment or old-world relationships.
Not in this world. Not anymore.
Behind them, the massive creature continued its feast, and the screaming continued.
But the G-Wagon was already gone—racing toward the west side of the city.
There is 50 chapter Advance, in my patreon. If you are interested can check it out.
patreon.com/B_A_3439