Midtown West, Manhattan — at night.
At this moment, the entire 121st block had been reduced to ruins.
Clatter…
The asphalt pavement was fractured into a spiderweb-like pattern, with cracks several meters deep leaking muddy water from ruptured underground pipes. Twisted fire hydrants spewed ten-meter-high columns of water, forming murky rain curtains amid the smoke.
Crackle…
Dozens of cars lay like the wreckage of a giant beast—some flattened into discs, others melted into grotesque metal sculptures by intense heat.
Shop windows on both sides of the street were shattered, their glass shards blanketing the sidewalks like a bloody sea of diamonds in the firelight.
A six-story apartment building had been cleaved in half, its exposed steel rebar jutting out like the fingers of a dying man. Rubble tumbled intermittently from the jagged cross-section.
The air reeked of burnt rubber, blood, and the acrid stench of leaking natural gas.
With a hideous grin, he bent his knees—and the ground collapsed instantly, spiderweb cracks radiating outward for dozens of meters.
BANG—!!
He launched himself skyward, his massive body hurtling toward a skyscraper like a cannonball.
BOOM—!!
Just as he reached the apex of his leap, a streak of purple lightning split the night sky like an arrow.
The thunderbolt struck the Abomination squarely in the left eye, and the violent surge of thunderous energy detonated on impact.
ROAR—!!
The Abomination howled in agony, his body lurching off balance as he plummeted from a height of 100 meters.
BANG!!!
The collision unleashed a shockwave that instantly overturned every vehicle and flung pedestrians within a hundred meters. A crater twenty meters wide blasted into the asphalt, its fissures spreading outward like radiation.
More than a dozen civilians—unable to escape in time—were hurled like rags into walls and streetlights, their fates unknown.
Crackle…
Amid the dust and debris, the Abomination slowly rose to his feet. A charred scar marred his left eye, but the wound healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.
"HOOO—! BUGS! GET OUT OF HERE!!"
His enraged bellow shook the air, the sheer force of the sound shattering the glass curtain walls of nearby buildings.
He seized a police car and hurled it like a stone toward a crowded intersection—just as it was about to crush an officer evacuating civilians…
WHOOSH-WHOOSH—!!
A dozen lightning-laced arrows struck simultaneously from every direction! They obliterated the police car midair, then—entwined with blinding purple electricity—impaled the Abomination's joints, throat, and temples with pinpoint precision.
SIZZLE! SIZZLE! SIZZLE—!
High-voltage current surged through his body, sending his muscles into violent spasms. Electric arcs danced across his blue-gray skin like writhing serpents.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The Abomination dropped to his knees in torment—but the pain only fueled his fury. With a deafening slam, he pounded the earth, and the resulting shockwave ripped up every slab of asphalt within a fifty-meter radius.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!
The flying debris shot through the air like bullets, piercing shop windows and car doors.
"I found you!"
The Abomination suddenly turned his head, his yellow pupils locking onto a rooftop. He coiled his legs, ready to pounce—
"Boom!!"
A purple bolt of lightning—thick as a barrel—crashed down from the sky, striking him squarely and sending him staggering backward. Smoke curled from his crown, now blackened by the blast.
The Abomination shook his head, rage radiating from his eyes like heat. His gaze fell on a nearby tanker truck, and a cruel grin twisted his scorched lips.
"Go to hell—!"
He charged forward, his massive hand tearing through the truck's metal shell as if it were paper. With terrifying ease, he hoisted the entire vehicle overhead—just as he prepared to hurl it at the office building.
"In the name of judgment!"
A clear female voice rang through the night sky. Above the chaos, Oz—Fischl's raven familiar—spread his thunder-wreathed wings, nearly ten meters wide, and hovered like a storm given form.
Lightning crackled in Oz's eyes as his wings beat violently.
"Boom!!!!"
A colossal pillar of purple lightning, over five meters in diameter, slammed down from the heavens, engulfing both the Abomination and the tanker truck in a blinding maelstrom.
The volatile mix of supercharged lightning and flammable gasoline ignited instantly. Fire erupted skyward, and the resulting shockwave shattered every window within blocks.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!"
In the searing, dazzling light, thunder and flame twisted into a vortex of annihilation. The reinforced concrete beneath them melted into magma-like sludge under the unbearable heat.
In an instant, all flammable matter within a 500-meter radius vaporized. Streetlamps bent and dripped like wax candles.
The thermal wave rippled across several city blocks—even causing billboards in Times Square, over ten kilometers away, to flicker and dim.
As the smoke and scorching dust began to settle, the Abomination reemerged.
His skin was charred and peeling in great patches; several bone spurs jutted at broken angles. Yet his muscles still twitched and knitted themselves back together.
Such injuries would have killed an ordinary carbon-based lifeform ten times over—but for him, they were merely fuel for fury.
"I'm going to tear you apart!!"
He glared up at Oz, his voice now a guttural rasp, scorched raw by the heat.
But he'd only taken a single step—
"Bang!!!"
A green figure—over four meters tall—slammed into the ground before him like a meteor. The earth buckled on impact, and the shockwave blasted away the remaining debris in a perfect ring.
As the dust cleared, the dark green behemoth rose slowly to his full height, fists clenched, eyes blazing with righteous fury.
"Hulk… finally, a decent opponent!"
The Abomination's grin widened into something monstrous. He forgot all about Oz circling above—and charged straight at the newly arrived Hulk.
"Bang!"
Hulk didn't hesitate. He swung a devastating punch straight into the Abomination's face. The collision of their fists sent a concussive blast rippling outward—toppling a parked car three blocks away.
High above, Oz circled silently, his obsidian feathers shimmering with residual electricity, his crow's eye fixed on the cataclysm below.
On a rooftop several kilometers distant, Fischl slowly folded away the ethereal Wings of Wind. In her right hand, she held a simple-looking bow; in her left, serpentine arcs of purple lightning danced between her fingers.
Her right eye flared violet. Through elemental resonance, she sent a warning to her familiar:
> "Oz… do not draw near that [Endbringer]. Not even my [Lightning Ward] could shield you from its wrath."
> "Understood, milady," came the raven's telepathic reply.
The night wind tugged at Fischl's twin ponytails. Her lightning-lit eye narrowed as she raised her right hand to partially veil her face, voice dropping to a theatrical whisper:
> "This… is merely the closing of the prologue. The true [Apocalypse of Eternal Night] has only now begun to unveil its crimson pages… hahahaha…"
With graceful flourish, she rose onto her tiptoes, lifted the hem of her skirt with both hands, and executed a flawless kneeling bow—her long hair catching the distant firelight like stardust in motion.