The black vans screeched to a halt, flanking us from both ends of the pristine street. Six Iron Guards stepped out, their metallic shock-rods humming with a violent purple energy.

  "Citizens 4-09 through 4-12," the lead Guard droned. "Submit to re-calibration."

  "I'm done with re-calibration," I whispered. My golden Zoryn hissed at my fingertips.

  "Yuna, now!" Kaito barked.

  A Guard lunged, swinging his rod. Yuna didn't flinch. She threw her hand up, and a brilliant blue Zoryn Aegis flared into existence. The rod slammed into the shield and shattered like glass. Yuna’s eyes glowed cyan as she absorbed the kinetic shock and blasted it back, sending three Guards tumbling into the gutter.

  Shouta followed up, his hands glowing silver. He unleashed a raw "Reshape" blast—a concussive wave of energy that crumpled the front of the lead van like it was made of paper.

  But the victory was short-lived. The air suddenly grew heavy, pressing down on my lungs. A massive figure in carbon-fiber armor dropped from a nearby roof, cracking the pavement. A Sector Warden. He swung a Zoryn-infused mace that glowed with a sickly green light.

  "He's too heavy for us!" Shouta yelled, diving out of the way.

  “He is an ant, Raizen,” Zero’s voice rasped in my head. “Strike the flow, not the armor.”

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  I channeled the golden heat into my right fist. As the Warden swung, I stepped into his guard—faster than I ever thought possible—and drove my fist into his chest plate. The gold energy didn't just dent the metal; it bypassed it entirely, rattling his very soul. The Warden collapsed, his green light snuffed out instantly.

  "Is that it?" I panted.

  "No," Kaito said, his face going pale. "Look up."

  The sky turned a bruised, violent red. Descending from the clouds was a man in a crisp white uniform with a crimson cape. A State General. The sheer pressure of his aura forced Shouta to his knees. Yuna tried to raise a shield, but the moment the General’s red energy touched it, the blue barrier cracked like a frozen lake.

  "Earthlings," the General sneered. "So much raw Zoryn, wasted on bugs."

  He raised a finger, and a sphere of compressed red force began to form. We were seconds from being erased.

  "Eyes on me!" Kaito roared.

  Kaito’s Zoryn exploded. It wasn't fire, but a massive, multisensory Illusion. Suddenly, a hundred versions of us were running in every direction. "Raizens" were jumping onto rooftops; "Yunas" were firing beams. The General’s sensors shrieked in confusion as he began incinerating the fakes in a blind rage.

  "Move!" Kaito hissed, grabbing my collar.

  While the General was distracted, we sprinted to the fallen Iron Guards. Zero reached through my fingers, his Soul Manipulation flickering. He didn't just change our clothes; he "stitched" the Guards' flat, boring soul-signatures over ours.

  To any sensor, we weren't rebels anymore. We were just four more Iron Guards rushing toward the Sector exit to "call for back-up." We walked right past the General’s hovering drop-ships, our faces hidden behind black-glass helmets.

  We didn't stop until we crossed the boundary into the Dead Zones—the lawless forests where the "Peace" couldn't reach. I pulled off the heavy helmet, gasping for air. We were alive, but we were officially ghosts.

  To be continued...