Nyz parked the van under the overpass, then stepped out of it and walked forward. Isabelle herself stood in front of another black, nondescript van, dressed in her combat suit, visor up. Nyz himself wore a normal suit, as was normal for his Nicholas identity, complete with sunglasses.

"Hello, Isabelle," Nyz approached. "You said you had a job? Will I need those weapons you got me for it?"

"No," she answered. "In fact, you don't even need those ever, do you, Nicholas?"

"What do you mean?" He asked. "I haven't needed them yet, but-"

"I've put a lot of thought into this," she said. "Nicholas, you were in Troak when something happened there. Yes, you were on the other side of the city, but… a few weeks later, we learned about someone who could teleport. With that, it would be easy to fool us into thinking you hadn't the time."

"Teleport?" Nyz asked. "That's not possible, Isabelle, teleporting is a fantasy, a dream. Nothing more."

"Really?" She asked. "Because the teleporter singled me out in the West Nubala Tower. I've wondered why they did that rather than deferring to my superior. Then I realized… it was because they knew me. It was you, Nicholas. You're the man who can teleport. We knew you had a second suit in your van before. That's the special one that can take attacks without issue, isn't it? It's the one you teleport in."

"I can't teleport," Nyz told her. "I'm sorry, Isabelle, but you've made a mistake."

"Right," she said. "I made a mistake. Whatever you did in Troak, it was an obvious failure, Nicholas. I'm not here about that. I'm here about the attack on the secret facility. Why did you kidnap Sen Asterox? Why let her go free, only to kidnap her again later?"

"Who?" Nyz screwed up his face in confusion. "I've not heard of Sen Asterox. How is she related to Hayden?"

"Stop with the game, Nicholas," Isabelle said. "I've been asked by her father to find out the endgame of the people who kidnapped her and showed her the truth. What is it you really want?"

"Phase One," Kal said.

"Isabelle," Nyz said. "Sen contacted a friend of mine and asked him to take her away from her father. She said she couldn't handle living with someone who advocated stealing from children, and would much prefer to live with the genius who created the FDKBs instead. To be honest, I find her a pest."

"A pest?" Sen's voice came over his comm.

"Shush, Sen," Kal said. "You're supposed to be listening, not talking."

"What's Phase One mean?" Sen asked. "I thought he was going there for a job?"

"Shush," Kal told her.

"So she is with you," Isabelle said. "Where? The teleport range can't be far. It's only a matter of time before we locate your hideout here in Valeros, Nicholas. Then we'll find out what you wanted in Troak."

"You're assuming that was me," Nyz stated. "I'm being annoyed by Sen because she's living with me, but that doesn't mean it's related to the teleport case you're apparently believing existed."

"I saw it happen in front of me," she said, then frowned. "You came without a combat suit in your van. Why?"

"Phase Two," Kal said.

"Because I don't need one," Nyz told her. "I'll be walking away from here no matter what you do. You've confirmed that you have other agents around me. Then again, I already knew. There are twenty-seven in Class B combat suits, and fourteen military soldiers in Class A. Plus you. A total of forty-two soldiers."

"So you do know," she said. "Why play a game?"

"What game?" He asked. "I'm not the one who thinks fourteen Class As and twenty-eight Class Bs can contain me."

"Nyz, we have a situation," Kal said.

"I'm busy," Nyz stated. "Let me kick their asses, then we can deal with the situation."

"Seriously, we have-"

"Hush," Nyz pulled out his commpiece and put it into his pocket, then stepped forward. Whatever the situation was, it could wait until after he finished dealing with the current one. They were in Phase Two, and he knew when to switch to Phase Three. Kal ran the procedure through his head several times before he arrived. "Come on, then. You clearly want to take me in for interrogation. I have a beef to pick with Asterox. They stole from me, and I want it back."

"Asterox hasn't stolen anything from you," Isabelle said. "You mentioned your friend invented the Beacons? Kal survived the AMF attack in Troak?"

"Yes," Nyz stated. "That was him in my ear. He's the one who invented the teleport technology."

"So that was you," she said. "Why did you help us against Gairal?"

"I hate terrorists," he stated. "Though with the demolition of the other tower, they've cemented their place as nothing but violent terrorists who will do whatever it takes to achieve their ends. Did you know their bombs in that tower were on timers? If a code wasn't put in every fifteen minutes, the countdown would begin. A five-minute countdown. It wasn't something that could be jammed."

Not by anyone other than Kal, anyway.

"So you helped us, even though you have some imaginary beef with Asterox?" She asked.

"No," he said. "I helped the world see the horror of Gairal. You just happened to be there. As for my beef with Asterox, it's not imaginary. Sen's father ordered an item stolen from us. An orb of vast power, enough to render reactors obsolete. Kal invented it as a power source for our base. Fortunately, it's pretty much impossible to use unless you already know how, so Asterox hasn't managed to use it. I want it back. Now."

"If such a thing existed," she said. "I'd have already heard about it. Now, will you come willingly and peacefully?"

"I think I already said I'm going to kick your asses."

"Very well, then," she pulled her visor down and drew a gun. "Keep it to stun, he's not in a suit."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Nyz stepped forward, then pushed off with that foot. Due to his inhuman speed, he knew he was nothing more than a flash to her, in one spot one moment, in front of her the next. His fist met her stomach with enough force to dent in her armor, throwing her into her van.

Gunfire began, and Nzy simply smacked the bullets and magic shots out of the air for a few seconds before attacking each of the guards in turn. He gave them long enough for their helmets to record his impossible feet, knowing that when they played back the videos, they would see how casual the movement was for him.

Something which went beyond what a bodysuit and combat suit could enable a person to do.

Phase Three was the warning phase. They wanted Asterox to know they were a serious threat. With the military soldiers there, the awareness of someone capable of inhuman abilities existing would reach the higher levels of authorities as well.

They would make Asterox take the situation more seriously.

At least, that was what Kal said, so when Nyz finished taking out the forty-two soldiers, he brought them all back to between the van and the car, dumping them there. Then, he approached Isabelle, pulling her forward and looking into the tinted visor. He couldn't see her face through it, but that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted the camera to fix on his face.

"Asterox," Nyz said. "You have angered Kal, and you have angered me. Return to us the property you stole from us. You have one week. Otherwise, I will come for you. The drop off location is the ruins of the Obritz Laboratory in Troak."

Nyz released Isabelle, dropping the soldier onto another Asterox employee as she moaned out his alias's name. Ignoring it, he pulled out his earcomm and put it back in place.

"Nyz, get to the West Gate NOW!" Kal nearly shouted. "The AMF is getting ready to attack! The military is already gathering outside in the hopes of being able to push it back, they have an increased presence due to the Gairal bombing the other month. They also have a few combat mechs. This is the first time they've had such a high presence in an attacked city, and they're hoping they'll succeed."

"You think they'll fail?"

"Of course they will," Kal said. "You've felt the Source yourself, Nyz. Do you really think it would lose to them?"

"It's here?" Nyz asked.

"Yeah," Kal answered. "After Honlar, I started monitoring changes that might indicate an attack. I'm going to guess that the Source personally shows up each time. But because humans aren't magic, they can't see or sense it, and they don't know it exists. All they're going to manage to do is fight the monsters that show up before the FDKBs are taken out. Your job is to stop the Source. Now hurry. I can't transport you outside of the city. The Source is causing an interference."

"Okay," Nyz began walking to the van.

"There's something on the driver's seat," Kal told him. "Grab it and go. With all the traffic from everyone heading to the shelters, you'll not make it anywhere in the van. I'll put the van into defense mode."

"Got it," Nyz opened the driver side door and grabbed a sphere the size of an orange, crimson lines glowing around it. "The fuck is this, Kal?"

"When you're before the Source," Kal said. "Push your mana into the orb, then lob it at the Source."

"Why?"

"You'll find out why I wanted phoenix blood," Kal told him.

"Oh, neat," Nyz slammed the van door shut, then took off running, leaping over people, vehicles, and buildings on his way to the West Gate. He wasn't surprised by the traffic, as over the last eight years, secure underground shelters with their own power supplies were constructed beneath the city.

It was the sole reason greater walls weren't constructed around Valeros yet. They wanted to ensure that the citizens were able to evacuate to a nearby shelter to await rescue by military and corporation units.

Despite how many shelters were constructed, however, the city was still large and populated, resulting in dense crowds and heavy traffic as everyone attempted to reach them at once.

Nyz reached the Gate in under a minute, finding the military still sending vehicles, guards, and combat mechs through it. Ignoring them, he walked through, surprised no one tried to stop him.

"Kal, no one tried to stop me."

"Because they were warned by their superiors," Kal told him. "Your fight was watched, they saw you grab that and run. Right now, they aren't sure if you're the reason for the attack or if you're there to help, but whatever the reason, they're sure they can deal with you with that many people and mechs."

Nyz glanced around. There were several hundred soldiers, in addition to twenty beetles, twenty spiders, and five tigers.

"That's a lot of mechs," he commented as he walked forward, a line of soldiers with shields parting for him to step past them.

"I did mention the military increased their presence there after the bombing," Kal said. "They basically locked down the city pretty tight. You should see how things are in Jusits. There are a lot more big-shots there than there were in Valeros. That place is insane right now out of fear that Gairal will try something there."

"Ah," Nyz said. "It's here."

"It is?" Kal asked. "It's screwing with my scanners. I really need to finish updating them, but my other projects got in the way."

Nyz tossed the orb up and down a few times, testing the weight.

"Please don't do that," Kal said. "It's not as stable as you might think, and if you drop it-"

"Your plans never fail," Nyz stated. "My catch never fails."

Tendrils of a mist-like substance began to reach out of the fog, and the immense pressure of the Source filled the air. Even the humans behind Nyz could feel it, their caught breaths reaching his ears, even with them wearing combat suits.

The Source continued to move forward, eventually revealing an amorphous form the tendrils stretched out of, the form itself shifting, pulsing and undulating, expanding and shrinking as if it were breathing.

Nyz felt more than the humans behind him did. He could feel the raw power within the Source, the condensed Anomalous Magic Force within it. Unlike humans, he could tell just how powerful it was, his draconic instincts warning him against it, warning him how much more powerful than he it was. He could sense that it possessed the ability to wipe out the entire city by itself, and that Nyz himself wouldn't last a moment in a fight against it.

So Nyz did the only thing which felt right to him. He pushed his mana into the sphere and threw it.

The sphere met the Source, the red lines glowing ever brighter, and then it stuck, suspended a few inches inside of one of the tendrils.

"Nothing happened," Nyz said. "It looks weird."

"Something's about to happen," Kal told him. "I put it on a delay to ensure it wouldn't be in your hand when it activated."

"That was obviously a bomb. I'm not going to keep holding it once I activated it."

The Source continued traveling closer to them, the main body making it one hundred feet into the zone cleared by the FDKBs before the lights on the sphere went out.

"Uh, Kal?"

"Here we go!" Kal exclaimed, a primal glee in his voice.

The sphere exploded in a swirl of flames, the fire quickly spreading out as an otherworldly wail filled the air. As Nyz watched, the AMF itself caught fire, burning, fueling the flames as they spread. The speed of the attack was so great, only Nyz himself could witness the entire thing. The Source was aflame, then the fog behind it.

Then nothing. From start to finish, the entire attack took less than one one-hundredth of a second. Only the extended zone cleared of fog, the charred ground, and the scent of burnt flesh in the air from the monsters caught in the attack left any indication something occurred.

"Uh… Kal?"

"That is what the phoenix blood was for!" Kal whooped. "Take that, AMF! By the way, the AMF readings have gone down. You're about to be asked what the fuck just happened. Tell them you used a bomb which ignites AMF, using it to fuel the spell. It doesn't last very long, so it doesn't affect a wide range of area, but it's effective for, well, that."

Nyz turned around, glaring at the soldier approaching him.

"What did you just do?" The soldier asked. "Why-"

"Inform Asterox," Nyz stated. "That I'm coming for them. They have the deadline and the location. You have seen what Kal can create. There is more where that came from."

"Transferring in three… two… one!"

Nyz found himself back in Kal's lab, Sen sitting beside his friend.

"The teleports are just you hitting a button?" Sen asked in shock. "There's not an actual reason for the countdown?"

"The reason is so Nyz can prepare himself," Kal said. "Nyz, that's not what I told you to say."

"They will deliver the message."

"No," Kal sighed. "Nyz, they're probably going to realize we only had the one bomb, and figure that it needed the AMF to work. They're going to try to take us out."

"Let them," Nyz said. "It's not like they can succeed."