Kaede walked alongside Vivi toward the looming gate as the first light of dawn crept across the skyline. Their footsteps echoed faintly in the empty street, accompanied by the soft, measured tread of a Hunters Association official in a crisp black suit trailing just behind them.
"Well, the gate should be opening any time now," Kaede said, stifling a yawn.
Vivi shifted her weight from foot to foot, her energy barely contained. "Good. All this waiting around is actually starting to get on my nerves."
Kaede glanced over her shoulder at the official. "How many S-Ranks are on standby around the gate?"
"Fifteen in total, ma'am." The man straightened his posture as he answered, his voice clipped and formal.
"That's a small audience," Vivi said, frowning slightly. "I thought the Association had put out a worldwide request for assistance. What about the Americans? Didn't they send anyone?"
"They couldn't spare the numbers," the official replied. "An S-Rank gate has also appeared on their soil, in the state of Maryland, to be exact. And that is not the only one. S-Rank gates have emerged in the United Kingdom, India, and multiple other nations in the last forty-eight hours."
"I see." Kaede's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "So the shortage of top-ranked hunters isn't just here, it's everywhere." She turned to Vivi, a faint smirk tugging at her lips. "But why does it matter to you? It's not like we need their help. I could clear this gate alone without breaking a sweat."
Vivi shrugged lightly. "They don't know that, though. And what's wrong with having an audience for our display of power? The more they see us, the stronger our reputation. We won't even have to ask for followers, they'll come on their own."
"Followers?" Kaede raised a brow. "Is this about your Flame Empire again? Was that how you gained so many loyalists?"
"Not exactly how I started, but Misery was pretty adept at drawing attention," Vivi said with a small laugh. Her gaze shifted lazily to the gate. "It's time, isn't it?"
A sharp crack split the morning air, making the official flinch.
"The gate…" he breathed.
Shatter!
The swirling black surface of the gate turned crimson, fracturing like glass. A violent wind, tinted with streaks of red light, roared outward from the rupture, whipping through the streets of Shinjuku like a storm.
"The gate has opened!" the official cried, his voice tinged with panic.
Kaede and Vivi stood before the gate, heavy winds whipping at Kaede's jacket, which flapped over the plates of her armor, and tugging at the crimson folds of Vivi's cape.
Boom!
Vivi groaned. "Again? I'm really getting tired of fighting giant monsters these days. Why can't we get perfectly human-sized ones for a change?"
Boom!
Kaede chuckled. "We can't all be winners."
From within the swirling light of the gate, a massive armored figure emerged, each footstep sending tremors through the ground. The thing had curling horns jutting from its helm and a mane-like mass of hair cascading over its shoulders.
A giant.
It hefted a monstrous axe, easily ten meters long, in one hand, the blade's edge dragging a furrow in the earth.
"G… Giants!" one of the hunters along the defensive perimeter shouted.
"They're giants!" another echoed in panic.
An A-Rank tank paled. "But they only show up as bosses in the highest-level A-Rank gates!"
"Except most bosses are giants anyway," Kaede muttered with a shrug. "They're overthinking it."
The appointed official had already bolted, leaving Kaede and Vivi alone at the front as more towering figures began stepping out of the gate.
Vivi grinned, bringing her fists together with a sharp crack, flames bursting outward in a rippling shockwave. "Definitely stronger than the stone giants. And wearing armor… means they're smarter."
The leading giant raised his axe high above them, bringing it down in a sweeping arc that would have crushed the street.
Kaede sighed, sounding almost bored. "Not smart enough."
Bang!
Before the weapon could hit, the giant's upper body vanished entirely, cauterized at the cut, leaving only smoking legs standing.
Vivi's arm was still extended in a punch, heat shimmering from her knuckles. She smiled like a predator. "Flash Fire Fist."
Silence fell over the battlefield, even the giants hesitating for a moment as they processed what had just happened.
"One hit," an S-Rank hunter muttered in disbelief. "She took out the giant in a single hit."
"Is that even possible?" another asked, equally stunned.
"Holy shit!"
"Yeah! We can do this!"
"Not with them... with them at our side!" someone corrected excitedly.
Vivi shot Kaede a teasing smile. "See? What'd I tell you?"
Kaede only shook her head in amusement. "Haw haw."
The giants quickly shook off their shock, their expressions hardening as they roared and charged at the two girls, two living warheads disguised as pretty faces.
Vivi sprinted forward to meet them, her boots pounding the cracked earth before she launched herself high into the air.
What followed was a blur of motion that defied belief. The giants swung massive weapons and fists, yet the hunters watching from a distance could scarcely track their target, something so small, so fast, it was as if she was flickering between moments.
One of the more muscular giants swung a massive fist at the air, only for the impact to rebound violently. His arm snapped backward at an unnatural angle, the force jerking his entire body to a halt.
His head then whipped upward as if struck by a devastating uppercut, an instant before it was engulfed in a searing beam of fire.
Suspended in midair from the recoil of her strike, Vivi ignored the now-headless giant. Without missing a beat, she turned and unleashed a plume of fire at another giant attempting to flank her from behind.
The decapitated body of her first target began to topple, but before it hit the ground, a massive single-edged axe cleaved through its chest. The weapon's arc carried it toward Vivi in a horizontal sweep.
She flattened herself midair, the blade singing past her in a gust of wind, then spun fluidly and hurled a spear of flame at the axe's wielder. The projectile punched through the giant's skull, leaving a smoldering hole between his eyes.
The corpse released its grip on the weapon, and the axe tumbled end over end before embedding itself in the chest of another giant. Vivi dashed up the weapon's handle, then along the gleaming edge, leaping until she was face-to-face with her next target.
Her fist crashed into his cheek with bone-shattering force, the blow caving in and pulverizing the giant's skull in a single strike.
Using the momentum, she vaulted over another giant's grasping hand, sprinting along the length of his extended arm toward his head, only to abandon the approach when an axe came crashing down, severing the limb she stood on.
In retaliation, she unleashed [Cataclysmic Eruption]. The earth beneath the giant convulsed before erupting in a pillar of molten rock. The geyser of magma burst upward, punching clean through the giant's head just as his swing completed.
The force of the magma geyser hurled the giant's corpse high into the air, Vivi balanced effortlessly atop it. The massive body spun slowly from inertia, and when she passed beneath its bulk, she launched herself downward, her impact reducing the corpse to ash and scattering it in all directions.
[Flare Impetus]
Twin streaks of white-hot fire flared from her feet, burning bright as acetylene as she rocketed toward the ground. She landed squarely on the head of another giant, the impact crushing him flat from skull to heel in an instant. Blood and fire erupted outward in a grotesque explosion.
The sheer force of the blow sent Vivi soaring back into the air. This time, she had barely enough time to cross her arms in defense before a truly massive blade slammed into her.
A thunderous sonic boom split the air as Vivi was blasted away, the shockwave tearing through the city. Over a dozen skyscrapers along her path disintegrated, their steel frames shredded into dust.
Then, without warning, every skyscraper in that half of Shinjuku split neatly in two. Chain explosions echoed across the district as the upper halves of the towers toppled, crashing down in a rolling wave of destruction.
"Hmm?" Kaede tilted her head, a faintly amused glint in her eyes as she spotted the source. "Well… you're a big one."
The newcomer loomed far above the battlefield, towering over his kin. Where the other giants averaged around twenty-four meters, this one was nearly double that, an estimated fifty meters tall. His sheer size made the surrounding skyscrapers look like stools he could rest on if he wished.
All the hunters, S-Rank included, bolted at the sight of the monstrosity that had just swatted away what they considered their strongest with a single strike.
The giant's burning gaze locked onto Kaede. With a deafening roar, it launched itself toward her, moving with such speed that every pane of glass in the area shattered. In an instant, it was upon her, its colossal blade drawn back for the kill.
"She's having fun, though," Kaede remarked casually, not even bothering to move from her spot.
In the same moment, Vivi appeared between them, her palm resting lightly against the giant's chest. The massive creature abruptly folded forward, his momentum broken as though he had slammed into an immovable wall.
Behind Vivi, the skyline was ruined, every building and skyscraper in her return path warped, melted, and collapsing into slag from the shockwaves of her sheer speed.
The collision of her momentum with the charging giant's own was catastrophic. The force drove him backward, his frame buckling under the clash.
[Flamation]
Vivi's palm glowed with a soft, pure white flame. If the giant had the capacity to feel pain, it would have been a torment beyond comprehension, as every atom in his body was repurposed as fuel, burning him from the inside out.
The fifty-meter giant became a living inferno, a blazing silhouette that lost all form within seconds. Not even ash remained.
Vivi descended slowly, weightless as a drifting feather. Her feet never touched the earth, hovering just two centimeters above it, small puffs of dust spiraling outward from her presence.
Whoom!
A crater nearly ten meters wide erupted beneath her, carved not by impact, but by the crushing weight of her aura alone.
Kaede smiled knowingly. "Yeah… I remember that exact high when I Reawakened too."
Vivi's gaze swept over the remaining giants spilling from the gate, her grin widening into something almost feral. Without a word, she hurled a blazing sphere of fire high into the sky.
It burst overhead in a silent flare, an instant before twenty-three ropes of searing lightning, each ten meters thick, tore down from the heavens. Every strike found its mark, slamming into a giant with blinding precision.
Shinjuku bore witness to a sight that would be remembered as the Endless Pillars of Light.
The ground trembled with each detonation. Shockwaves rattled through streets and buildings, sending glass cascading in glittering sheets. Hunters and civilians alike clung to anything they could grasp, their knuckles white, the air roaring with the symphony of fire and thunder.
Kaede stepped lightly to the side as Vivi descended beside her, her landing a touch unsteady. "Got it out of your system?" she asked.
Vivi panted, her chest rising and falling as a broad smile split her face. "Hah… hah… that felt amazing. Like, like I was in bliss. Wow."
Kaede chuckled. "Good. That means your body's acclimating to its new influx of power."
"Heck, you handled it better than I did when I Reawakened. I was pretty much hysterical. Even used a swear word for the first time."
"...Ok?" Vivi straightened, rolling her shoulders before gesturing toward the yawning gate. "Alright then. Let's go in."
Kaede gave a short nod.
In perfect unison, the two leapt forward, vanishing into the gate.
On the other side of the gate, they landed in a massive hall. The ceiling stretched so far above that it could have been mistaken for the open sky.
"This place is massive," Kaede murmured, her voice tinged with awe.
Vivi gave a low whistle. "Guess it's fitting, giants need room to walk through without scraping their heads."
Kaede's expression shifted. Her eyes narrowed. "Vivi… do you hear that?"
Vivi tilted her head. "Yeah. You too?"
A deep, rolling laughter rumbled through the hall, faint but resonant, like thunder trapped in the walls.
"That's… a weird laugh," Vivi said.
Kaede gave her a flat look. "You were laughing just like that a second ago."
"That is that, and this is this!" Vivi shot back defensively.
Kaede's gaze grew more intent. "An enemy just broke through the gate and they're laughing." She placed a thoughtful hand under her chin. "Interesting. Let's go."
---
"Hahahaha!"
"How amusing! How amusing indeed!"
Clang!
"You despicable Rulers! Look who has come to see me first!"
The voice grew clearer as they approached, until the source came into view, a massive figure kneeling at the center of the hall. Several dozen thick, black chains impaled his body, pinning him in place.
"Welcome… Monarchs," the figure rumbled.
His skin was a dull, ashen grey. His upper body was bare, every muscle corded and tense despite the restraints. Beneath him, etched into the stone, a massive red magic circle pulsed faintly, casting the scene in a bloody glow.