Xinyuan tightened his grip on Wenzhi’s body, his red eyes locking onto the Espers, who were entirely convinced they had the numbers to bring him down.

If these bastards had actually used this kind of power and confidence to wipe out the rifts monsters instead of hoarding it to challenge him, the world would be so much better.

The alliance of the Old blood and the CEA was real, but looking at these engineered Espers, it was clear the Old Blood held the upper hand.

When Xinyuan offered nothing but a silent glare, Wu Youran let out a disappointed sigh. She gave a subtle nod to the male Esper standing beside her.

The man charged instantly.

A dense wave of grey mist, darker than Youran’s, bursted from his skin, shaping into jagged blades meant to tear Xinyuan apart.

Xinyuan didn’t even flinch. His shadows lashed and solidified into sharp lances mid-air, bypassing the Esper’s attack with terrifying ease.

They spiked directly through his chest and he dropped dead into the dirt.

Without giving the remaining four a single second to recover, Xinyuan narrowed his eyes at Wu Youran. Before they could launch a coordinated strike, his dark mist expanded into a massive, blinding dome, completely swallowing both himself and Wenzhi.

Wu Youran and the others lunged forward, unleashing their abilities to tear the shadow barrier apart but the moment their attacks connected, the dome collapsed inward and vanished into thin air.

The clearing was empty.

They didn’t give a single shit about their fallen comrade, but the realization that the target had slipped straight through their fingers made Wu Youran’s face twist in fury.

"Damn it!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the rocky ridges. "We need to track him right now! Move!"

The remaining four Espers exchanged cautious, uneasy glances. One of them, a casual-looking man lazily chewing on a piece of bubble gum, pointed a thumb down at the fresh corpse on the ground.

He looked back at Youran, earning a glare from her. "You know, we should probably calm down and actually think this through. Otherwise, we’re all going to end up exactly like that one."

Youran stormed toward him, her grey mist flaring as she grabbed him by the collar of his vest. "He ran because he had to protect his guide! Lin Wenzhi is badly injured! Now, if you do not want to get this job done, I will kill you my—"

Her threat choked off into a wet, horrific gasp. Her eyes bulged out of their sockets.

Right behind her, a familiar pressure slammed into the clearing, cratering the earth. A thick, sharp spike of solidified dark mist erupted right through the gum-chewing Esper’s back, tearing straight through his torso, and drove deep into Wu Youran’s chest from behind, impaling them both together.

Xinyuan had returned.

His arms were completely empty now, having safely secured Wenzhi in a hidden location. The restraint he had been fighting so hard to maintain was entirely gone. The glowing red chain markings had migrated up his neck, crawling across his jaw and mapping the side of his face. The look in his eyes was pure, unadulterated mania.

Seeing the horror of his unguided presence, one of the female Espers didn’t even hesitate. She wrapped herself in a thick grey mist and instantly teleported herself, completely abandoning the mission to save her own skin.

Xinyuan shifted his gaze to the other two standing Espers.

He didn’t even have to touch them. With a flick of his wrist, his dark mist rushed forward like physical hands, wrapping tightly around their throats.

CRACK. CRACK.

The shadows ripped their heads clean off their shoulders, tossing the bloody remnants into the dirt like slaughtered monsters.

Xinyuan turned his attention back to Wu Youran and the gum-chewing Esper. They were still pinned together on the shadow lance, Youran’s grip on his collar weakening rapidly as blood coughed up from her lips.

Xinyuan stepped over the fresh corpses, his boots clicking against the rocky ground. The manic red in his eyes settled into something deeply cold, his expression thoroughly bored, as if slaughtering Disaster-Class espers had been nothing more than a light warm-up.

"How many more are left of you?" Xinyuan gripped the male Esper by the hair. He yanked the man’s head back harshly, forcing his spine to arch at a sickening angle that made him choke on his own breath. "Answer me. Come on. I’m running out of patience."

"Eight," the Esper coughed out, dark blood spraying from his lips.

Xinyuan hummed, casually releasing his grip and letting the man’s head drop. He turned his gaze toward Wu Youran, who was barely keeping her eyes open.

"Does it hurt?" He crouched slightly, studying her. "I pierced straight through your heart, after all. And his... Well, it’s just a punctured lung. He might survive. But you, you just love running your mouth."

He tilted his head. "It’s impressive, really and understandable. Being a Disaster-class Esper, a whole different class, is amazing for you, isn’t it? You get the recognition, large amounts of funding from the Old Blood and the CEA... but this feels like personal beef."

"Fuck... you," Wu Youran rasped.

Xinyuan sighed. If he pulled back the mist out now, she would die instantly. "I do not want you to die this easily."

He grabbed her by the throat and smacked the other male Esper away with his free hand, letting him collapse uselessly to the ground, but he kept his mist impaled straight through Wu Youran’s chest and out her back.

"Of course you wouldn’t," she choked out, blood bubbling at the corner of her mouth. "You are an incarnate of destruction. You claim to save people, but you... you destroyed my city. You killed my family, my parents. You destroyed my fucking life! Of course I took the opportunity to destroy yours."

Xinyuan didn’t feel a single shred of remorse or sympathy. He felt only rage. For the first time in a long time, he couldn’t think clearly. He was sliding dangerously close to a total berserk state, and Wu Youran noticed.

A crushing pressure was beginning to emit from Xinyuan’s body, causing her features to twist in terror despite the pain.

Xinyuan looked at her. "Well."

His voice was quiet. "I am sorry."

Then, crack.

He snapped her neck to the side.

He retracted his mist, leaving her lifeless body to drop. The moment his power coiled back into his skin, the ground began cracking beneath his feet.

Large boulders and shattered asphalt began lifting into the air, gravity shifting under the heavy pressure of his presence.

But he didn’t stay to watch the clearing collapse.

He teleported back to the Old Blood City, materializing straight in front of a familiar villa with hyper-modern skyscrapers towering from every corner.

Within seconds, heavily armed security forces and snipers positioned on the roofs completely surrounded the perimeter.

Xinyuan let out a sharp, unhinged laugh as a chaotic noise of overlapping voices began to echo and scream inside his mind.

This wouldn’t have happened if they had just let him and Wenzhi go, he thought. This could have just been a fight for another day.

But no...

A catastrophic wave of dark energy exploded outward from Xinyuan’s body. The guards opened fire, a hailstorm of ammunition raining down on him, but the bullets dissolved into nothingness before they could even graze his skin.

The earth groaned as deep chasms ripped through the streets. The massive skyscrapers around him began to cave in, tilting on their foundations as the force began ripping the buildings right out of the ground.

Throughout the city, a high-pitched siren broke out. To the systems, it signaled that a large rift had just appeared but the reality was worse.

The streets jumped into pure pandemonium as people ran and screamed for their lives.

Xinyuan didn’t care about any of it. He was a force of nature actively leveling the district. The sky bled into pitch black as a massive tornado of dark mist materialized, ripping through the skyline.

He pressed his hands over his ears, his teeth gritted as he concentrated all his willpower on the villa.

The earth shattered beneath it as the entire structure lifted toward the heavens, cocooned in a protective layer of mist.

Feeling his berserk state peaking, he channeled his power into the major strongholds of the city, watching the high-rises buckle before enveloping himself in shadow and vanishing into thin air.