Ihe ruins, blood seeped from cracks in the rubble. Any staff who hadn’t evacuated and the remaining soldiers outside were buried alive beh the colpsed structure. Zack hovered in the sky, surveying the destru with a calm expression. "Air superiority—it’s a beautiful thing," he muttered, gng at the sm ruins below.

  "Ego, s for survivors," he anded, his tone sharp. His AI responded instantly, activating the suit’s sensors to sweep the area. The battle wasn’t over until he was certaihreat was eliminated.

  "Sir, an underground structure has beeed," Ego reported crisply. "It seems the building also has a hidden base, likely housing their and personnel."

  Zack frowned as he processed the information. "An underground base..." he muttered. He didn’t have grourating missiles, and ventional explosives wouldn’t do much against a bunker buried that deep. Close bat might be the only option—but that came with its own risks.

  As he deliberated, Ego’s voice broke through his thoughts. "Sir, two fighter jets are approag NYC City!"

  "Fighter jets?" Zack's brow furrowed. "The Vanguard anization," he muttered under his breath. Their retaliation was faster than expected. The ander he'd interrogated earlier had firmed that the Bck Hand base was merely a branch of the rger Vanguard anization, whose main headquarters were located overseas.

  "Are they from the Vanguard?" he asked quickly.

  "No, sir. Based on satellite data, the two jets took off from Southeast Asia. They’re F-15 models," Ego crified.

  "F-15?" Zack’s irritation fred. "Wait a sed… It’s those two idiots, isn’t it?" His expression darkened. "I’ve left them alone, and now they’ve got the o e after me?"

  The timing couldn’t have been worse. As he stewed in frustration, a deafening soni echoed across the city. Zaced upward, his lips curling into a cold grin. "Perfect timing."

  "I’ve arrived," came a sharp, steady voice over the s. It was Ava, piloting a Avalon. The soni had been her arrival over Newark City.

  "Look below. See those ruins?" Zack gestured toward the destroyed Bck Hand building. "That’s our target."

  "Uood," Ava replied as she slowed her flight, her eagle-sharp gaze log onto the ruins below.

  "Drop a magic fluid cloud bomb on it," Zaanded, his voice calm but deadly.

  "Yes, sir." Ava didn’t question him. She pulled the Avalon into a dive, and when she reached the ruins, she pressed the release button. The bomb bay doors opened with a meical hiss, releasing a 600-kilogram magic fluid cloud bomb.

  The bomb deployed mid-air, exploding into a spray of magic spheres and high-energy indiary agents. Because of the calcuted drop altitude, the indiary agent spread over a tained radius, bing several city blocks, including the ruins.

  The e-hued indiary cloud desded like a toxic mist, its glow ominous against the skyline. Uhe influence of the bomb’s magic field, the fiery agent g to every surface it touched. Zack had already boosted himself out of the bst radius before the bomb’s payload fully dispersed.

  Underground, the anders of the base stared at the surveilnce feed, their faces pale as the glowing e mist covered the ruins above them. "What is that?" one of them whispered, panic creeping into his voice.

  "Rex. We’re teers underground. No surface on harm us," the base leader shough his torayed unease. But their fidence wavered when the s suddenly went dark, the masked face that had been monit them disappearing without a word. "Master Bck Hand, what’s going on?" one of the officers stammered, but there was no response—only silence.

  The light e indiary cloud finally touched the ground. A tiric spark ig.

  BOOM—!! A fiery mushroom cloud erupted into the sky, ing several city blocks in an instant. The bst wave shattered windows miles away, and the extreme heat ignited every fmmable surface. Even fireproof yers on buildings melted, fueling the inferno.

  "Evacuate immediately!" Zack barked into the s, ensuring Ava asded beyond the reach of the shockwave in time.

  On the ground, the se ocalyptic. The fmes sucked the oxygen from the surrounding area, suffog everything within kilometers. Zombies caught i zone vulsed violently, their eyeballs bursting from their sockets, internal ans rupturing uhe sheer pressure.

  At the epiter, the ruins of the building disied. The intense heat melted bricks and steel, redug them to molten streams of va-like slurry that flowed downward, seeping into the underground base.

  Ihe base, chahe molten liquid burhrough protective pipes, dripping into the and room. The anders didn’t even have time to scream as the unbearable heat and crushing pressure caused their bodies to implode. Their eyes bulged, and their ans were crushed outward by the overwhelming internal aernal forces. The grotesque age mirrored the fate of the zombies outside.Above ground, the firested, its fmes spreading rapidly across half of Newark City, redug it to a bzing wastend.

  "Let’s move," Zack said coldly, his expression bnk as he observed the devastation. He felt no remorse; the moment the Bck Hand and their allies had chosen to oppose him, their fates were sealed.

  "Uood…" Ava’s voice trembled slightly, the sight of the destru unnerving her.

  As Zad Ava retreated from the area, the two F-15 fighter jets finally approached NYC City. "Chief, we’ve reached the city," one of the pilots reported.

  The pilot's voice crackled over the el, breaking the brief silehat followed his initial transmission. It took a full three or four seds before Jock responded, his voice deyed and distorted—a clear indicator of their outdated satellite teology. Their unication relied on a general-purpose satellite rather than one specialized for such operations, resulting in unstable signals and noticeable g during long-distance exges.

  "I see something..." the pilot muttered, squinting as his aircraft desded over NYC City. His naked eye sed the se below. Their satellite imagery was too crude, providing only vague outlines of the ground. It was incapable of deteg specific details like Zack’s armor—his humanoid aircraft, which stood only two to three meters tall, weirely unnoticed.

  "Chief, chief! I’m seeing lots of small, robot-like things!" the pilot excimed, his voice rising with a mix of awe and fusion. Desding lower, the two pilots could make out ses ireets and alleys: meical beasts sweeping through hordes of zombies. The eerie efficy of the maes stood out.

  "Robots?" Jock’s voice came back, skeptical but curious. "Describe what you see!"

  A few seds passed before the pilot responded. "They’re not humanoid. Some look like spiders; others resemble dogs. They’re attag the zombies—there’s a lot of them. At least a hundred, maybe more."

  As the pilots surveyed the area, their eyes caught sight of a cluster of survivors. "Chief, I’ve found something—a small base in an industrial park. From my observation, there shouldn’t be more than 200 survivors."

  The roar of two F-15 fighter jets thuhrough the air, drawing the attention of those w withieel mill below. Survivors paused their wazing up at the sky in apprehension.

  "It seems this little group has some impressive tech," Jock remarked, his tone shifting to one of greedy i. He snapped an order: "Quick, broadcast a message. Let’s tell them why we’re here."