The fight never resumed.

Rather, it had never been a fight in the first place. This Lunar Remnant hadn't intended to defeat him, only to waste his time, like a particularly irritating fly buzzing in his ear.

And that was what it had done. It had succeeded in wasting his time.

For all he knew, the egg could be about to hatch already, even though it hadn't been that long since it had appeared and started harvesting souls. Every second counted.

That's why Sylvester ran for the windows.

Before he arrived, they were covered by the water generated by the shark's powers, forming miniature waterfalls. But not only that.

A jet of water shot out, hitting him in the center of the chest like a rocket. He could have said like a gunshot, or a heavy staff, but that would have been an understatement. For, though he braced himself and defended against the blow, the pressure of the water knocked his feet off the floor and sent him flying to the other end of the room as easily as a leaf in the wind.

Sylvester held his breath as the jet of water continued to press him against the wall. He could drown, but he wouldn't make it that easy for the enemy.

The water, which was like a pillar, was powerful. He felt that it wouldn't take long for the wall to collapse under that pressure.

The humanoid shark didn't waste a second. It jumped into that pillar of water, that spear stuck in his chest, and began swimming toward him at a staggering speed. It was as if with every passing second it was speeding up, instead of the other way around.

Opening its mouth wide open, showing its huge gleaming teeth, which looked like a meat grinder. It shouldn't be able to open its mouth that wide, because of the muscles and shape of its body, but it found a way anyway.

As he had predicted, the wall collapsed. Sylvester landed on top of the rubble, but was covered by the cloud of dust that rose up. He coughed loudly. At least the water pressure had left him, and now he could breathe.

Not for anything he had done himself, but he would take it anyway. He had to do something before the dust cleared. It was more dangerous than he had thought, seeing the various ways its power could be used.

"Where are you?" the human shark said that as it swam after him, its voice filled with a pleasure and excitement that bordered on insanity. Okay, maybe it did want to do more than waste his time. Maybe it wanted to sink its teeth into him.

He felt it coming closer. Sylvester rolled to the side, over more debris of course. They were digging into his back. He could think of his comfort when he was back home.

The shark crashed into and almost through a wall.

More importantly, close. Close enough.

"Where are you?"

To give it the answer. A silver flash cut through the air... and also the enemy's leg at the knee. It was more human than shark. It had two arms and two legs, now one shorter than the other.

His enemy fell to the ground. It writhed, screamed, as it clutched the stump of its leg. Strange. It wasn't bleeding. What was flying everywhere was water.

"I'm going to kill you, you hear me? I'm going to kill you, you fucking bastard."

Not so much fun anymore, huh? Just like the first Lunar Remnants he had crushed when this mess started, the fun soon ran out for them as soon as they realized that their victims weren't victims at all. They weren't helpless.

He heard it, but didn't listen to it.

Sylvester went out through the hole he had created on his way in. He headed back toward the windows. He crossed the waterfall and jumped into the sea of night, spreading his wings. It hadn't had time to interfere. To stagger without a leg behind him. Good.

The egg hadn't hatched yet. He didn't know how many other people had died while he'd been wasting his time with the shark, but it would be nothing compared to the lives that would be lost if that hatched.

"There's no place for you in this world!"

With no one to interrupt him, Sylvester ran the egg through.

Or that was what should have happened. But instead, some kind of black crystal materialized in the air and stopped the blade. So it had its own defense system. Inconvenient.

It was doing nothing but causing trouble and it hadn't even been born yet.

Another attack.

The black crystal, or whatever it really was, didn't even flinch. He wished he could simply go around it, but it had spread quickly, covering the egg completely and a significant chunk of the building's roof.

Sylvester swallowed hard. That was okay, he should be able to break it.

In time. But how much time did he have?

How much time did they all have left?

Sylvester moved back, still flying, of course. Not to pick up speed, so to speak. The katana wouldn't be enough even if he did that.

Fortunately, he had plenty of other weapons at his disposal.

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He returned the sword to its sheath. He would need both hands free for this. He fired anchors of darkness from both open hands, burying them deep into the black crystal, the last obstacle between him and the salvation of the world.

He pulled on them. A crackling sound. Looked like black glass, but it sounded more like huge mental doors as he slowly forced them open. There was nothing to tell him that the egg couldn't simply generate more of that black crystal to defend itself, or fix what he was breaking, but it didn't matter.

At this distance it seemed fine to him. He should have enough time to sneak through the gap he was now opening before it closed.

He'd have to bet too many things that he'd be able to do that, he had no choice, anyway.

Yes. It was a big gamble. Because something told him that if he failed, he wouldn't be able to try again. The egg would crack open before he could even think about trying a second time.

Crunch. Creak. The black glass doors gave way before his power.

He judged he had done enough and shot off like a bullet, wrapped in his own black wings. All he had to do was get there before the gap closed. Then he would have a clear path. Then he could do nothing more to defend himself.

Like a black bullet, he flew over ten meters and through the gap in the black glass wall an instant before it closed as he had predicted.

He had won, he had won, he had won, he had won, he had...!

No.

He was repelled as soon as his sword touched the egg. He didn't even see how, but what mattered was the result.

He fell at great speed, like a meteorite. The windows passed in front of his eyes blending into a blur. Sylvester should be able to soar, but his wings had disappeared even before the egg repelled him.

And now, impossibly, for the first time in a decade, the skill wasn't responding to him even though he had points to spare.

His soul fell at his feet. He wasn't worried about falling, of course. He wouldn't die even if he fell to the hot magma in the earth's core. He could crawl his way out of even such a situation.

What worried him was that his worst fears had been confirmed.

If it could do something like this to him even before it was born, what would happen when it walked among them? Would it really be the end? An enemy he couldn't touch, much less defeat?

"Sylvester!"

He recognized her voice even in the midst of the chaos. It was one of the few times Cynthia had called his name.

He hit the ground.

His fall created a crater instantly. Like ants devouring a sugar cube, a dozen Lunar Remnants surrounded him.

His body swung the katana for him. The feeling of defeat didn't allow him to focus on defending himself properly, and he was operating on pure instinct alone.

Still, he killed almost everyone and rose from a pool of their blood and guts.

He only had eyes for the egg, despite the wounds it had sustained.

The black crystal had disappeared, but he had no doubt that it could reappear in less than a second to protect him. The egg moved as if it were alive.

Shrinking, widening, shrinking again. It was like the heart of some terrible beast, pounding. He felt each beat like a hammer in his chest. He felt as if their heartbeats had synchronized.

The cavalry had arrived. More. Not agents from other countries, but the army of this country in helicopter gunships. Equipped with the most advanced weaponry of this century.

But it was too late. Simply too late.

The egg was beating louder and louder, faster and faster. The time had come. Sylvester had missed the chance to stop this.

It hatched. Its fluids fell into the sea of night's darkness.

The creature inside rose on raven"black wings, moving with total naturalness. No one would say it had been born only seconds ago.

She had no clothes on, but you couldn't say she was naked. Her body wasn't skin and flesh. It was made of the same black crystal with which she had stopped him from destroying the egg before this could happen. He hadn't been able to stop this and anything that happened from now on would be his fault, all the blood spilled would stain his hands.

He was the only one who had had a chance to make it happen.

For the first time in ten years, he had failed.

The soldiers didn't even have a chance to lay down their lives for their country. Even if they had, their courageous sacrifice would have made no difference.

The thing that had hatched from the egg raised a hand, clenched a fist, and that was it.

The helicopter gunships came down burning in the night like shooting stars. Now that she had a clear path, she descended all the way to him. As if in silent agreement, the pandemonium that had reigned in the square since the incident began came to a complete halt. It was as if everyone was holding their breath, waiting and watching for whatever had to happen.

"What are you?" It didn't matter. It didn't change anything, but he felt the need to ask anyway.

This wasn't a Lunar Remnant. He'd fought enough of those things to know that. She wasn't human, she wasn't a hybrid, but she wasn't a Lunar Remnant either.

She was something else.

Her? Her, yes her. Though she had no sexual organs and he hadn't heard her speak yet, he knew she was a woman.

She grabbed his chin and pulled him in as if to give him a kiss.

Face to face. Sylvester's shadowed eyes against the slitted eyes of an inhuman creature, a creature that didn't even belong in this world. A creature unlike any other he had faced in the war his life had become, since that day ten years ago.

"Humanity's time has come to an end. That is all that matters."

He now had the feeling that it had been a very, very short time.

——

Cynthia had seen enough.

She didn't understand... Well, actually she understood perfectly well why she had been paralyzed, as if what had happened had nothing to do with her. It wasn't something you saw every day, come on. But enough. She had to do something about it before it became too much.

So she did the only thing she could always do. Point and shoot.

Once again, what came out wasn't bullets, but blasts of air. The attack had ripped a Lunar Remnant to shreds, killing it so quickly that it surely hadn't even realized it.

Shots with the force of a gale....

They did nothing to that thing.

The wind blew through that thing like it was nothing. And then, those inhuman eyes fixed on her.

Cynthia stopped breathing at that very moment. She had never seen such terrible eyes. Too much time passed between one heartbeat and the next, as if she was about to have a heart attack.

Pain. But it had nothing to do with that.

One of the revolvers fell from her hand. Twisting, breaking. Exploding, even, leaving as a trace only a little black smoke.

She felt as if 'something' had crushed her hand, not just the gun. But it was intact. The fingers still moved just fine.

Still.

But now it was her turn to pay for what she had done. Attack, counterattack, it was painfully simple. But Sylvester interfered before that evil creature had a chance to retaliate for an attack that hadn't even tickled it, grabbing the thing by the arm and squeezing.

"I am your opponent," he said confidently.

And he took a punch that sent him flying high, burying him in the wall of one of the many buildings surrounding them. Cynthia was surprised that he hadn't been able to dodge the attack, and imagined what a similar punch would have done if it had hit her.

It didn't take much imagination. It was obvious that she would now be here, there, everywhere.

Completely unrecognizable.

Sylvester had told the creature that it was his opponent and he was right. The only one of them capable of facing it, at least. If it hadn't been clear to her after her newly discovered wind shots had done nothing to it, that punch would have convinced her.

Only Sylvester had any chance of defeating it.

So, if he fell in combat, they wouldn't have to worry only about the lives brutally taken in this park.

At the very least, they would have to say goodbye to the city, right?

And then governments would bomb the moon in an attempt to stop this madness for good, after seeing that what they considered, not unfairly, the last line of defense had fallen.

For better or worse, Sylvester was its opponent.

Cynthia could only watch from the ground, helplessly, as two gods among men fought.