For a moment, the battlefield went silent.
The abominations froze, their monstrous forms rigid with disbelief at what they had just witnessed. The boy had torn one of their own apart with his bare hands before blasting the head of the other with their weapons.
But the pause didn't last.
Rage and madness surged through their twisted minds, and all at once, chaos erupted again. Those with ranged weapons turned their sights toward the forest, raising cannons, rifles, and bio-mechanical arms that pulsed with energy.
"Kill him!" one of them shrieked, its voice half-human, half-metallic.
They opened fire.
Bullets and explosives tore through the trees, shredding trunks already weakened by the flames. Explosions echoed through the forest, and the smell of burning sap mixed with the acrid stench of metal and blood. The ground shook under the rain of destruction.
Blood splattered against the roots of a nearby oak, drawing a roar of triumph from one of the creatures.
"Got him!" it howled.
Then the largest among them, an abomination with a massive shoulder cannon fused into its torso, charged its weapon and fired. The blast flattened the area in front of it, a shockwave of dust and flame tearing through the clearing.
When the smoke cleared, nothing remained.
"Is it over?" one asked.
But the blood they'd seen was not the boy's. It dripped from the corpse of the first abomination still pinned to a tree like a grotesque offering.
"A trick." The abomination with the cannon uttered those words just as a metallic click echoed.
Something small and sharp whistled through the air and struck the cannon-wielder in the head. The creature stiffened, gears grinding as sparks erupted from its skull. Then it collapsed.
The others turned in shock. The weapon embedded in its face was unmistakable, a metallic claw.
They looked toward the source.
There stood Sylar, his eyes glowing red through the drifting ash. His expression was calm. Unflinching.
[You have reached Level 2]
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"Strength," Sylar commanded silently.
He felt the system obey, raw power flooding into his limbs, tightening muscle and bone beyond human limits. But he didn't let the sensation distract him.
"That's your Lord's power?" he said coldly, his voice carrying across the burning clearing. "Pathetic."
After that taunt, the young boy's figure vanished once more behind the trees.
The abominations roared in fury.
"Kill the ant!"
They lunged forward, crashing into the forest like a stampede of steel beasts. Their mutated bodies crushed roots and trunks alike, but subtle intelligence flickered among them. They spread out, maintaining line of sight with one another.
One of them was enormous, plated in dark iron and cables, its right arm replaced with a belt-fed artillery piece. Its eyes rotated independently, scanning every shadow.
A branch creaked.
The abomination swung its weapon upward and opened fire, blasting apart the canopy. Bark and leaves exploded, but what fell wasn't a boy.
It was a rock, tied to a strip of cloth. The makeshift decoy hit the ground with a dull thud.
Too late, the monster realized its mistake.
A whisper of movement came from its right. Before it could turn, a small hand gripped the barrel of its cannon and twisted.
Sylar's crimson eyes were the last thing it saw.
The boy's punch struck like a meteor, crushing its skull inward with such force that the creature's nose shattered through the back of its head. It dropped lifelessly to the ground, its weapon still humming.
[Congratulations! Level 3 Achieved]
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"Agility."
The command formed in Sylar's mind, and suddenly the world slowed. His reflexes sharpened, every sound and flicker of motion crystal clear.
The improvement came just in time.
A crack split the air, the report of a sniper rifle. A bullet screamed past, carving a perfect hole through the corpse of the fallen abomination and slamming into a tree behind him.
Had he moved a second later, he would have been split in two. Even so, the shockwave tore through his shoulder, ripping skin and drawing blood.
However, that didn't stop him.
Sylar surged forward, closing the distance between him and the shooter. The rifle-wielding abomination frantically tried to reload, its mechanical hands shaking as it chambered a round. Three others began to close in from different sides, their blades and hydraulic arms ready to crush him.
But they were too slow.
Sylar reached the sniper first. The creature fired, but before the bullet could escape the barrel, Sylar grabbed the muzzle and wrenched it sideways. The shot discharged directly into the chest of another approaching abomination, blowing a hole clean through its body.
The weapon overheated instantly, burning Sylar's palms, but he didn't let go. He gritted his teeth and swung the rifle, along with the screaming creature attached to it, like a club, striking another abomination.
The two abominations collided, their twisted bodies folding together under the force of the blow. Sparks flew as their armor shattered, the air filling with the scent of ozone and blood.
Sylar dropped the rifle and turned, raising his arm just in time to block a strike.
The last abomination was upon him, its massive arm glowing molten orange. The heat radiating from it made the air shimmer. It swung down with terrifying power, the impact like a wrecking ball.
The blow hurled Sylar across the clearing, slamming him into a tree so hard the trunk splintered. His body rebounded and hit the ground with a crack.
Blood filled Sylar's throat, thick and metallic, but even as it spilled from his lips, his eyes stayed razor-sharp. The abomination roared and swung its molten arm down, the air shimmering with heat.
Sylar didn't flinch. He snatched a rock from the scorched ground and hurled it with terrifying speed. The stone struck the creature's crystalline eye, shattering it in a burst of light and molten shards. The monster screamed, staggering as its strike veered wildly off target.
Sylar moved before it could recover. He pushed his body forward with every ounce of strength he had left, slipping beneath its guard and driving an uppercut straight into its jaw.
The punch landed like an explosion. Metal and bone fractured in an instant; the creature's mechanical jaw disintegrated, and its head burst apart in a rain of oil and blood. The abomination fell, twitching once before falling still.
[Congratulations! Level 4 Achieved]
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"Vitality."
The command echoed through his mind, and warmth surged through his body. Torn muscles knit themselves back together, his breathing steadied, and the pain dulled enough to keep him standing.
Silence fell over the forest. The ground was littered with corpses, twisted metal, and flesh scattered like debris after a storm. Only one creature still clung to life, the rifle-wielder, its body mangled but not yet dead.
Sylar walked toward it, expression unreadable. The abomination rasped and convulsed, its single red eye flickering weakly. He placed his foot on its head and pressed down. The skull cracked, then burst beneath his heel with a sickening crunch.
He didn't look back.
Without another word, Sylar ran. Out of the forest. Toward the orphanage.
The battle hadn't shaken him. The monsters hadn't broken him. But when he reached the ruins of his home, his heart began to tremble.
The orphanage was gone, a mountain of rubble and smoke. Sylar stepped forward slowly, his boots scraping against ash and shattered glass.
He began to dig.
His hands tore at the debris, moving stone and metal without thought. He didn't know what he was searching for, only that he had to keep going.
Then he saw it.
A small hand, pale and limp, reaching from beneath a slab of concrete.
He froze.
Sylar knew that hand. The same small fingers that had tugged at his shirt just hours ago. The same hand that had clung to him whenever she was scared.
Joi.
The little girl he had promised to protect.
Something inside him shattered.
A sound tried to escape his throat, but nothing came. Then, slowly, the silence broke.
"Ahhh…"
His voice cracked.
"Ahhhhhh…"
Then the scream came, raw, guttural, tearing through the night.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
It echoed across the ruins, shaking the air. It carried pain, rage, and despair. Yet no tears fell, yet his eyes began to change, growing yellow.
As the scream faded, the sky began to change. Clouds spiraled above, thick and heavy, glowing white from within. Lightning crawled across their surface.
Just as the yellow light was about to cover his eyes, the boy heard it.
"Sylar."