41: Invasion

  A yellow beam shot out, opening a hole through a small mountain of rubble, then a tiny figure followed, crawling out with disorientation.

  “Cough! Cough!” Ja coughed, struggling to clear the dust from her lungs. With her hands on her knees, she carefully looked arouraining room had almost pletely colpsed, and if she hadn’t reacted as quickly as she did, she knew she would have ended up buried alive… if she was lucky.

  “What the hell happened?” she wondered, a trace of fear still present, her hands trembling slightly. But she didn’t have much time to process the feeling of almost dying, as aremor, followed by the sound of gunfire and screams, made her realize that this was not the result of an act or natural disaster.

  ‘It’s an attack.’ With that realization, her body couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.

  What was she supposed to do? As a former civilian, her first instinct was to run and hide. But she wasn’t a civilian anymore, was she? She had been preparing to go to the front lines almost without rest. She had asked to join the war, and though she didn’t feel ready, she knew she had to step forward now, or all her efforts so far would have been for nothing.

  ‘First, let’s find out what’s happening.’ John should already be fighting somewhere along with Raven. If she was fast, she could reach them and help before they solved the problem themselves.

  With that in mind, she turned her gaze to one of the holes created by the colpse, from where the sounds were ing. Without hesitating any longer, she jumped, propelliiny body three meters into the air.

  One of the greatest advantages of her ability to shrink was that, somehow, she retained her strength and endurance despite being several times smaller.

  At first ghat might not seem like much, but when you go from weighing 50 kilos to weighing 5 milligrams, the ge in how you move is more than noticeable.

  With quid agile leaps, Ja began running through the base’s hallways, her expression growing darker with every step.

  There were not only more colpses,—bodies upon bodies of soldiers and non-bat personnel y sprawled in pools of their own blood. She had to look away multiple times because, very rarely, was a body still whole.

  ‘This is a massacre.’ Everything was happening too fast, and she didn’t have to search too long to uand why.

  "Grrrgh!"

  A group of soldiers huddled together, panic written all over their faces as they fired nonstop. Behind them, some of S.W.O.R.D.'s stists had taken cover. In front of them, a creature—both eerily familiar and disturbingly strange—advanced, barely affected by the dozen or so bullets that struck its naked body.

  Its form, like all others of its kind, was humanoid at the base but with obvious deformities. Where there should have been only two arms, there were instead eight—four on each side. Its legs, oher hand, were thihan they should have been, almost withered, f it to crawl along the ground using its hands like some kind of grotesque spider.

  It didn't seem to have ara onry beyond the metal helmet on its head, but that didn’t make it aerrifying to behold.

  Ja's pupils shrank as she took in the sight. Swallowing hard, she felt a small shiver run down her spine.

  ‘No! Don’t just stand there staring!’

  Overing her momentary fear, Ja gritted her teeth and raised both arms. A yellow light fshed from her palms, and in an instant, a trated beam shot out, striking the monster’s side with enough force to dent a tank.

  The creature shrieked in surprise and pain, colpsing to one side, its right fnk slightly scorched.

  Ja wasn’t surprised that her attack didn’t kill it. Though it hadn’t been her main focus in S.W.O.R.D., she had participated in several of the studies and experiments ducted over time on the bodies of the mohat had been brought to the base for research.

  She had a clear uanding of the level of durability these creatures possessed, and that was why—even as her legs trembled—she kept advang and firing.

  “Get out of here!” she shouted at the stunned soldiers and stists who had no idea what was happening. After all, given her size, she was hard to spot. But as more and more bursts of yellow light struck the monster, f it back, they realized this was their ce to escape.

  Ja heard them retreating, but she ook her eyes off her enemy and titag. Her experien bat was still limited, but not ent. She had trained in practice sessions with Raven and occasionally with John. She khat when dealing with something this tough and strong, the best strategy was to maintain distand she did exactly that.

  Of course, the monster wasn’t about to stay still a her keep hitting it.

  "GRRRAAH!"

  Fed up with being a pung bag, the monster smmed all eight of its arms against the ground, making the entire hallway tremble as cracks spread in every dire.

  “Woah!” Ja lost her bance, and her shot went wide, giving the creature an opening to lu her at full speed.

  “Shit!” Seeing it ing, Ja shuddered, but if there was one advantage she had in this fight, it was mobility. Without hesitation, she threw herself to the side, easily dodging the charge.

  The monster crashed into the wall, causing the area to shake again, threatening ter another colpse.

  Ja charged another energy beam and fired, but this time, the creature had all its attention on her. It used one of its hands to shield itself while ung forward once more in atempt to crush her.

  From Ja’s perspective, it was as if a hundred-meter-tall titan was falling straight at her.

  It was terrifying, but Ja had long since grown aced to seeing things from this new perspective. So, without hesitation, she tried to dodge again, but this time it wasn't so easy.

  Maybe the creature wasn’t as intelligent as a human, but it still had enough instincts that its prey was much smaller than it was—and to adjust its attack accly.

  Its eight hands moved at incredible speed, smming into the ground like a torrential downpour. The monster began stomping everything around it with more force than an enraged elephant.

  Ja felt her vision blur for a sed, but thanks to her small size, she was able to leap between the creature’s fingers and nd on its back.

  Panicked, she g on as tightly as she could while the mohrashed about. She had never ridden any kind of animal before, but she imagihis must be eople felt like when trying to ride a bull—if the bull was the size of a small mountain.

  Holding onto a few strands of hair on the monster's back, Ja began to feel nauseous while also notig her fingers starting to go numb from all the force she was exerting to avoid being thrown into the air.

  ‘I ’t keep this up,’ she thought, quickly trying to e up with a pn.

  Her attacks, while able to hurt the monster, weren’t doing enough damage. If she wao end this, she o do something much more tu.

  With her eyes darting everywhere in search of something, Ja finally fixed her gaze on the creature’s head. The metal helmet covered many parts, but others were left unprotected.

  "With my size, I ehrough its ear," the idea came to her, but trying to execute it didn’t seem like it would be easy.

  ‘I o climb.’

  Grittieeth and fighting the nausea, Ja quickly began to move, sg up the monster’s batil she reached the nape of its neck.

  The creature began to halt its frenzy, its hands digging through the destroyed ground as if searg for her corpse.

  With fet movements ing from the monster, it was easier for Jao reach her destination, but when she did, she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose.

  ‘I ’t believe I’m about to do this.’ suppressing her disgust, Ja hurled herself into the ear cavity.

  "Grhm?"

  The monster froze for a moment. Then, it started thrashing wildly, all eight of its hands g at its head. In its panicked fusion, it rammed into the walls, letting out pained, guttural growls.

  "ARRGHNN!"

  Soon, yellow light repced the blue glow in its pupils. The radiance grew so intehat it even began seeping from its mouth and ears. Within seds, its entire head was engulfed in a blinding golden shine, and with a series of siing cracks, it began to swell and deform.

  Then, it exploded.

  SPLORbsp;

  Blood and brain matter spttered everywhere, and the monster’s body colpsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

  Crawling through the remnants of flesh and Blood, Ja returo her inal size.

  And vomited.

  Once her stomach was empty, she lost her band fell to the ground, staring at the monster’s corpse with an endless storm of thoughts she couldn’t quite name.

  ‘It was already dead, it was already dead!’ She repeated to herself over and over, trying to find some kind of fort, though without much success.

  ‘It was nothing more than an animal,’ she told herself again, recalling all the researd studies that had been ducted on them.

  Thinking about it in a colder, more stific way helped steady her trembling body. There was no time for self-pity—not when she could still hear gunfire and screams in the distance.

  ‘There are more of them.’

  She didn’t know how many, but if they were allowed to keep rampaging, more i people would die.

  Fog only on that thought, she mao stand up. Her body shrank, and soon she began taking long leaps, heading toward the sounds of the ongoing battles.

  .

  .

  .

  Moments earlier.

  With his body engulfed in fmes, Isaased as he stepped in front of the boratory door.

  “Hey, calm down!” Howard nearly shouted at the sight of the fire.

  “But—”

  "I don't know what's going on, but it won't help anyone if you start setting the p fire. Save the fmes for when you really hem."

  Saying that, Howard moved to his main workstation, opening a bination-locked drawer. From inside, he pulled out a sleek, dark-metal firearm along with several matg magazines.

  ‘And here I thought I’d never get to use you.’ That thought almost made him smile—until a distant roar reached his ears.

  Approag Isaac, who had reined in the fire on his body, Have him a pat on the back, pushing him to leave the boratory.

  “e o’s find Miss Carter and the others.”

  With Isaac leading the way, the two left the b. The guards outside had already begun evacuating personnel, and Howard lost a bit of time givira instrus before finally heading toeggy’s office.

  Without b to knock, Howard smmed open the door to the offiotig that inside, many familiar people were talking on radios with varying levels of panid arm. His sudden arrival drew some gnces—mostly toward the naked Isaac—but the people at S.W.O.R.D. were already aware of the android’s existence, so those looks soon turned away.

  "Howard!" As soon as she saw him, Peggy abandoned what she was doing and hurried over.

  "Do you know where John is?!"

  Her question made Howard freeze for a moment. He had assumed that, no matter where John and Raven were, they would have immediately rushed into the fray upon realizing the base was utack, leading the teroffensive.

  But looking at the paate of the people around him and the worry in Peggy’s eyes, he khat wasn’t happening.

  "They must be nearby, probably already fighting," he said, trying not to incite further panic—though, in truth, he was mostly trying to reassure himself.

  Seeing that he had no more information on John than she did, Peggy bit her lip auro her spot, where she tinued unig via radios with the teams of soldiers around the base who were trying to protect the pce at all costs.

  "This is Rogers, do you copy? My team and I have reached Dr. Pym’s b, but the entire pce is empty. I repeat, the entire pce is empty."

  "What?!"

  Peggy barely had time to process that before another voice cut in.

  "The east wing has colpsed! More of those things are ing in—we ’t hold—"

  The signal abruptly cut off, and no one in the room had any doubts as to why. The atmosphere grew even heavier.

  Howard khey couldn’t afford to tinue like this. The distant roars were proof enough—there had to be dozens of Hydra’s monsters attag the base. And without John, that was a massive problem.

  'We don’t have enough vibranium oher,' he thought, gng at his pistol.

  Initially, mass produ of such items hadn’t been pnned due to how valuable the material was. Wasting vibranium on bullets was simply bad business—anyone would know that. But it wasn’t as if no one had sidered they would be used against on enemy soldiers either.

  No, they had always been intended for use against enemies like Hydra’s monsters. And sihe corpses of such monsters were always recovered for study, the projectiles used against them would also be retrieved, making it uhat they would carelessly lose the metal.

  ‘Now we have a bunch of those things in our backyard, but nowhere near enough bullets.’ Maybe he should have worked more oing more powerful ons for the on soldiers.

  "One is approag," Isaac's voiapped Howard out of his thoughts, making the man turn to look at him in fusion. But he soon uood what he meant when the ground began to tremble.

  Disengaging the safety on his on, Howard raised his arm and aimed at the door. The instant something smmed against it, bursting it open, he pulled the trigger.

  Bang!

  The sh out like a high-caliber revolver.

  Everyone in the room shuddered, then looked toward the door in bewilderment. When they noticed the enormous corpse of one of the monsters lying on the ground, many of them swallowed hard.

  "One down," Howard said, l the on, his shoulder and arm beginning to ache like hell.

  'o self: improve the design to reduce the recoil.' The only thing that kept his arm from dislog from the kickback was his experience shooting guns. He never imagihat going to so many shooting ranges when he was younger would e in so handy.

  "This pce isn’t safe anymore! We o move!" Peggy shouted upon seeing the monster's corpse. If one had made it to their door, it meant the teams that were supposed to protect the path to them were dead.

  She was relut, but it was clear now—they had to abandon the base.

  ‘Where are you, John?’ Not for the first time, the thought of the man crossed her mind, but with no time to spare, she could only push it aside and run toward a bookshelf filled with many books, located at the back of the office. Grabbing one of them, Peggy activated the hidden meism, causing the tall piece of furniture to move on its own, revealing the entrao a long tunnel.

  The base was still under stru, but as a fent, peggy khere always had to be a other than the "mai," and so she had arranged for a secret tuo be built in her office with the help of Hank and his teology.

  The ability to make eons of earth disappear ihan a seade underground struuch faster in every aspect, speeding up a process that otherwise could have taken months.

  "Move! Move! Take only what’s essential—we don’t have time!" she ordered.

  Spurred by her and, people started grabbing what they could and rushing toward the tunnel.

  The vast majority of those fleeihe stists and non-bat personnel of the base. It was cruel, but they had no choice but to leave the soldiers behind.

  Well, others would have done so, but not Peggy. Ohe office was nearly empty, she returo the radios and began issuing several orders. To the soldiers nearby, she told them how to get there, hoping they could escape through the tunnel. For those farther away, she did not hesitate and gave them the order to retreat—there was no point in them dying in vain.

  Howard, of course, helped, while Isaac remained by the open door, staring ily into the darkness of the hallway.

  'Only ten minutes have passed,' the android thought, having been calg time sihe first arm had sounded.

  He didn’t know what he o do. Should he go and fight? For some reason, the idea appealed to him, but the el had ordered him to stay by Howard's side.

  He could not disobey orders, and at the same time, he cked suffit information to know whether his participation itle would help or not.

  Even if, as an android, he was naturally strohan humans, his creator, Dr. Horton, had designed him with domestic use in mind, not war.

  The art of bat was not in his programming.

  "Is this… frustration?" No, it wasn’t just that. It was something more. Remembering the corpses that he and Howard had entered on their way to Peggy’s office, Isaac’s fists ched.

  He khem. He had spoken with them, worked alongside them, watched their versations, learning from their as.

  Despite being an android, everyone on the base had treated him with kindness, teag him whenever he and sometimes sharing a little of their lives and families with him.

  He wasn’t supposed to have feelings. Seeing their corpses shouldn’t have affected him in the slightest—he was just an android, created to serve.

  Then why were his optical systems beginning to blur?

  He didn’t even know he was capable of produg liquid.

  "Requesting permission to leave and assist with the evacuations."

  His words made Howard look up in sternation, but when his eyes met his face, his words of reje caught in his throat.

  "You..." The smartest man in the world was left speechless for a moment.

  Notig this, Peggy also looked up, an equally surprised expression f on her face.

  But soon, the surprise passed, and without hesitation, she Isaac.

  "Go."

  With permission grahe android hurried out, pletely fetting that it should have been Howard, not Peggy, who allowed him to do so.

  "This world keeps getting more astonishing," Howard finally spoke, watg Isaac’s back as he moved away.

  "We stand here ier. Some of the soldiers should be arriving soon," peggy said, and just as predicted, some of the nearby teams began to reach the office.

  "Vice Director," Steve Rreeted as he entered with his team, which sisted of several of the Howling andos as well as other on soldiers who had joihem along the way.

  "Gh the tunnel. Other personnel members have already gone ahead, but you catch up to them if you’re quick. Make sure to protect them well," the woman instructed, but Steve didn’t rush forward.

  "What about you?"

  "We’ll stay until the st possible maurns, then we’ll leave too."

  "In that case, let us stay too. rotect the entrance." Knowing they were staying behind, Steve didn’t hesitate and decided they should as well.

  His team agreed with him, easily supp his decision.

  Peggy wao reject them, but she had heard enough about the team John had assembled to know she would only be wasting time trying.

  "If that’s what you’ve decided, then take this," Howard said, handing his on to Steve along with all the magazines he had on him. Normally, he would have beeant to part with the only thing on his person that could stand up to the monsters, but his previous shot was enough to tell him that he didn’t have the strength to use the on more than two or three times.

  A sturdy soldier like Steve could at least double or triple that number of uses, so it was safer for the on to be in his hands.

  "It’s a special on that was retly manufactured. Its bullets are made of the same material as the Captain’s shield—they’ll cut through those beasts as if their skihin paper. But the recoil is strong, so be careful."

  Hearing his expnation, Steve and his team members looked at the on with curiosity and amazement.

  "By any ce, don’t you have a dozen more of those lying around?" The one who asked was Bucky, and in response, Peggy drew the on that had been at her hip, its design not much different from Howard’s.

  "Just these two, and with every bullet ted, so be precise." With that said, she tossed the on and its magazio him. Bucky caught them with a grin.

  "Precision is my middle name, ma’am."

  "Alright, take your positions!. Bucky and I will be at the front," Steve anded, and the soldiers quickly began to move.

  With o worry about guarding the door, Peggy and Howard were able to focus more ily on unig via the radios, monit the situation inside and outside the base as best they could.

  After all, Sword wasn’t the only one utack—the Allied army base was as well.

  During this time, more people started arriving. Every now and then, someoioned a man on fire, but her Peggy nor Hoaused to ask too many questions before sending them through the tunnel.

  "Hello, anyone hear me?"

  Upon hearing the familiar voice, Peggy grabbed the radio and quickly responded.

  "Ja, is that you? Are you alright?!"

  It had to be hat Ja had been in the east wing—that is, the part of the base that had colpsed moments ago.

  "Alive and kig, though not by luck. A lot of monsters came through here, but… well, I killed most of them."

  Ja spoke while staring down at the st two corpses at her feet, her entire body drenched in so much blood that it was dripping from her in near streams.

  Upon hearing her words, Peggy oher end of the line was surprised, but not overly so, as it was to her that Ja had powers and had been training with John to be brought to the frontlines and assist the metahuman team against Hydra.

  "It's good to hear that. Where are yht now? I heard the east wing colpsed—did you mao escape?"

  "ly. A rge part of it colpsed, but there are still some intact spaces with a lot of people hiding in one of them. I get out, but I don’t know how to get them out too," Ja replied, recalling the people she had been helping and resg. With few pces left to ruo the colpses, she had only been able to guide them to one of the still-intact ste rooms while she ensured no monsters got too close.

  Once she figured out the right way to kill them, it became easy for her to keep doing it, even if it was disgusting.

  Above all, she learhat stealth was her best on. It was no use drawing attention and being a target. No, the quickest way was to reach their heads before they even noticed her, and then the fight would end before it even began.

  It wasn’t glorious, but it got the job done.

  Peggy furrowed her brows upon hearing that people were trapped. That was bad. Very bad. The entire pce was in chaht now, and with her evacuation iven, the base would soon fall. They simply didn’t have the means or capacity to help Ja get those people out.

  "Are you really uo get them out?" Her tone was almost pleading.

  Ja fell silent, looking at the cracks in the walls, ceiling, and floor. If it had been an option, she would have used her ability to fire lightning and bsted an opening for them to escape.

  But as things were, if a loud enough tremor happened again, the entire pce could—this time, for real—pletely colpse, and she would be the only oh a ce to get out.

  A situation that, iy, was only a matter of time. There were still many battles raging nearby, and all it would take was for a moo get close enough and strike the right spot for everything to e crashing down like a house of cards.

  Or maybe one of the remaining soldiers would throw a greoo close, not realizing that it would mean killing a bunch of i people.

  'What am I supposed to do?' The numb state her mind had retreated into after killing her first monster began to crack.

  She almost wao just curl up on the floor and cry. But as tempting as it was to give in to such desires, she knew she wasn’t allowed to—not when so many lives depended on her right now.

  ‘There has to be a way.’ She couldn’t just give up. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and started thinking until an idea came to mind.

  ‘This... would it work?’ There were many risks, but if she could pull it off, then she could get everyo.

  "I might be able to try something, but I don’t know if it’ll work," she finally said, deg to give it a shot.

  "Something is better than nothing. If you ma, e to my office. There’s a safe passageway to escape through. If not, we’ll think of something else." With that, the unication cut off, and Jaepped away from the third corpse in the room. But uhe other two, this was the body of a soldier she hadn’t reached in time—someone she hadn’t been able to save.

  That was where she had gotten the radio from.

  Remaining silent for a moment, Ja averted her gaze and then started running toward the ste room, reag it in record time and bursting through the doors.

  "Listen! I need everyoo gather!"

  "What’s going on?!" one of the people, a stist Ja had run into a few times around the base, asked.

  "I’m going to try to get you all out," she said without expining further. Fortunately, they obeyed, and soon the small crowd huddled together in the ter of the room, pressing against each other almost like sardines in a .

  ‘Alright, Ja, you do this… theoretically.’ If someone had to point to an expert on Pym particles, Hank would undoubtedly be the first person people would think of. But if you didn’t t him, then Ja wasn’t far behind. In fact, it could be said that thanks to her powers, her uanding of Pym particles was intuitively superior.

  That’s why she khat, on paper, her body should be capable of not just shrinking—but also growing.

  She just had ested it before.

  ‘e on… in worst-case sario, it doesn’t work. in the Very Horrible-case sario, my body tears itself apart, and I end up in pieces.’

  Yeah. That st part was the reasoher Hank, nor John, nor she herself had ever sidered putting the theory into practice—at least not without a lot of specialized equipment ready to keep her from dying.

  Ja hesitated for a moment, staring at her trembling hands. But finally, she ched her fists and decided to move forward. Even if she died, it was better than esg alone. She khat if she were the only oo make it out, she might never be able to live with herself.

  ‘I guess it’s not so bad if I get to see Mom again.’

  With that final thought, Ja reached for the energy within her and pulled.

  Then, her body began to glow yellow.

  "Hrgh… HAAAH!"

  With a powerful cry of exertion esg her lungs, Ja felt her body rapidly and steadily expand.

  When her back collided with the ceiling, she hunched down and ed her arms around the crowd of people, shielding them beh her body, which tio grow until the entire pce began to tremble and the ceiling started to crack.

  Then, with a thunderous explosion, Ja rose, sending the debris flying to the sides.

  "It worked!" she shouted in astonishment, her voice rumbling across the area.

  She didn’t kly how big she was right now, but looking down, she could get a clear view of the situation across the entire pce.

  And it wasn’t good.

  She could see many small battles taking p different parts of both bases, and in eae, it was obvious that the soldiers had been forced to abandon the fight and start fleeing from the mohat were invading the pce.

  With her new field of vision, it didn’t take her long to find the spot where the beasts were ing from.

  ‘What the hell is that?’ Staring at the dark hole in the ground, surrounded by a blue light, Ja paused for a moment before shaking her head.

  She would deal with that ter—first, she had people to save.

  Slowly croug down, she lowered her hand and opened her palm.

  “Quick, get on!”

  Her strong voiapped people out of their stupor and amazement, and soon, they all climbed onto her palm with various expressions of disbelief.

  Some even pihemselves, w if this was some kind of dream.

  With the people safely in her hand, Ja looked up again until she found the pce where Peggy’s office should be, and carefully, she began to move forward, each of her steps shaking the grouh her.

  Of course, all of this immediately caught the attention of a dozen monsters, who abandoned what they were doing to turn their gaze toward this new, gigantic "prey."

  ‘This is bad.’ Seeing them start to rush toward her, Ja felt a moment of panic. The first moo reach her was crushed under a stomp that left a several-meter-deep crater. The was sent flying with a precise kick, but she couldn’t afford to stay still for too long—some of them had Hydra onry on their bodies, and anyone in SWORD knew how dangerous it was to be hit by one of those blue energy bsts.

  Raisiher hand, Ja prepared to start firing as well, but her expression quickly ged.

  ‘No! If I release more energy, I won’t be able to maintain my size!’ She hadn’t realized it until now, but the Pym Particles inside her were depleting at an even faster rate than when she shrank.

  Adding that to all the energy she had already spent before, she was now running on limited reserves.

  With a quick calcution, she knew she would be forced back to her inal size in just two or three minutes.

  ‘I have to hurry.’ This time, she ighe monsters and began moving faster while dodging as many attacks as possible, quickly reag her target area.

  With no time to be delicate, Ja aimed for a hole that had been opened during one of the battles and thrust her hand through it.

  “Go to the vice director’s office!”

  Of course, all the otion had also caught the attention of the people in the office. Steve, along with some of his men, had stepped into the hallway to iigate until they reached the hole.

  Saying that some of them screamed like little girls when a massive hand appeared would be an uatement of the shock they felt.

  Some nearly fired their ons, but Steve mao stop them wheiced the people in the enormous palm.

  Soon, Ja felt that everyone had climbed down from her hand and she began thten up agaiermio try to dey as many monsters as possible before her energy ran out.

  But stopping to lean down had given the monsters enough time to reach her.

  “Argh!” Ja gasped and nearly stumbled as a sharp pain shot through her leg. Looking at her ankle, she saw one of the beasts trying to tear into her flesh—quite successfully, if the red seeping from her skin was any indication.

  “Let go of me!” With a swift movement, she jerked her leg, sending the monster flying, but soon, many more closed in, threatening to crawl all over her.

  One even leaped several meters into the air, ung itself straight at her face.

  ‘Oh, shit!’ Seeing it ing, Ja almost started shrinking, but before she could, a fming figure shot out from somewhere, intercepting the monster mid-air.

  “Dr. Van Dyne!”

  “Isaac! You fly?!” Ja leasantly surprised to see the android.

  “I just found out,” Isaac admitted holy before f a fireball in his hand and hurling it at a monster on the ground. The fmes weren’t very effective, but the impact sent the beast stumbling back dozens of meters.

  Now that she had help, Ja regained her vigor and grinned fiercely.

  “Then cover my back!”

  She had little time left, so she was going to make it t.

  Soon, both of them engaged in an intetle against the monsters, gradually moving away from the office area. Ja deliberately made herself the bait, ensuring that everyone nearby had a ce to escape—something she managed with ease due to her massive size.

  Isaac covered her, preventing the monsters from getting too close and injuring her.

  The situation seemed to improve for the soldiers and civilians on the ground, who finally got a moment to catch their breath.

  he portal, a pair of pletely bck eyes watched Ja and Isaac with i.

  "It looks like I 't keep waiting." her of them resembled their intearget, but if things tihis way, his small army of monsters would be defeated before his true oppo even appeared.

  "Well, a little warm-up before the grand fio stretch this body's muscles wouldn't be bad."

  From the depths of the dark portal, shadows began to spread like a stain of bk. In just a few seds, hundreds of meters of ground were covered, and a figure ed in darkness rose into the skies.

  "What is happening?!" Ja, of course, noticed and instinctively took a step back. Isaac, who was flying nearby, furrowed his brows as a bad premonition formed within him.

  "Tremble, little mortals, for you stand before the—" Before the creature could finish its grandiose introdu, a radiant circle burst open in midair, and in a blur of motion, a furious et engulfed in green and golden fire shot through it.

  "What?!" Surprise turo shod pain as a gloved fist struck its face, sending several of its teeth flying.

  The shadows were torn apart, and the monster was sent flying out of trol until it crashed against the ground, f a massive crater.

  "Did you do this?!" John shouted, gring at the demon with seething rage.

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  Note:

  I promise I had every iion of closing the arc with this chapter! Seriously! But when I saw that I was getting closer and closer to six thousand words, I knew I needed one more.

  I know many hate cliffhangers, but I don’t think there could have been a better moment than this to end the chapter. But don’t worry, I’ll work hard t the one as soon as possible so I don’t leave you hanging ;D

  With that said, I’ll take my leave. I hope you e! Don’t fet to ent and point out any errors you may notice—that way, I fix them. Thanks in advance!

  Remember that if you want to support me, you do sh my Patreon ( patreon.maCruzader )