The tip of Akira's dagger made contact with the cluster of multifaceted eyes. It wasn't the sound of metal tearing, but a horrifying, wet crunch, like shattering glass and pulverising bone at once.
The Mantis froze mid-swing.
For a microsecond, the hundreds of eyes reflected a single, panicked image of Akira's face, multiplied endlessly across its vision.
Then they exploded.
Black ichor sprayed outward in a viscous arc, splattering across Akira's face and chest. The warm, foul-smelling liquid burned his skin like acid, but he didn't stop.
Following Ai's guidance, he pushed the full length of the blade deeper into the creature's skull, leveraging his entire body weight.
The hard chitin plating offered no resistance to the direct strike on the ocular array. The dagger sank in up to the hilt.
"DIE!" Akira screamed, twisting the blade.
The Mantis emitted a final, deafening shriek that was pure digital static mixed with agonizing pain.
The sound was so wrong, so fundamentally unnatural, that it made Akira's teeth vibrate and his vision blur. The green light veins in the floor flickered violently, and the air around them pulsed with waves of unstable energy.
The creature's huge, insect-like body started to convulse. Its sharp blade-arms, which were lifted to strike Ayaka, dropped heavily and uselessly to its sides as it collapsed on the floor.
Akira's dagger held the monster's ruined head, which was now just shattered shell and leaking black goo, firmly to the ground.
[GRADE DELTA GUARDIAN: THE SCRAP MANTIS... DEFEATED]
[CRITICAL STRIKE REWARD GRANTED]
A massive surge of energy, hot and buzzing like a thousand electric eels, rushed out of the dying Mantis and slammed into Akira.
It felt like his very cells were drinking pure power, every nerve ending lighting up with overwhelming sensation.
"Gah!" He stumbled back, his body convulsing as the essence flooded into him.
[REWARD: +100 PERV-POINTS]
[SKILL UNLOCKED: PRECISION STRIKE (LVL 1)]
[TITLE UNLOCKED: QUICK KILLER]
[NEW ITEM ACQUIRED: SCRAP MANTIS ESSENCE CORE (1)]
[QUEST(S) COMPLETE: CONTAIN DELTA THREAT; ENTER GATE AND DEFEAT GUARDIAN]
[REWARD: +10 PERV-POINTS]
[TITLE UNLOCKED: DEMON HUNTER]
Akira felt a wave of dizzying exhaustion crash over him, but beneath it was something else… a profound sense of empowerment.
He stood over the massive carcass, breathing heavily, his entire body shaking from adrenaline and essence overload.
"Holy shit," he whispered. "I actually killed it."
Ayaka rushed to his side, her own body clearly depleted from using the last of her power. She gently gripped the dagger's hilt and pulled it free from the Mantis's ruined head.
The action released a final, dense plume of black smoke that smelled like burning rubber and rotten meat.
"You madman," she whispered with genuine awe. "You actually chose the instant kill option. Against a Grade Delta threat. In your first real combat." She looked at him with something that might have been respect. "You... you actually did it, Akira-kun."
"Yeah, well..." Akira wiped black ichor from his face with his forearm. "I'm still alive, so I guess that counts for something."
"More than something. Most humans would have died from fear alone facing that creature."
Akira was about to respond when the entire chamber suddenly shuddered. A deep, grinding groan echoed through the walls, and chunks of corroded metal began falling from the impossibly high ceiling.
"What's happening?" Akira grabbed Ayaka's arm to steady himself as the floor beneath them cracked.
"The Guardian's death!" Ayaka's eyes widened in alarm. "The guardian of a gate stabilises it; now that it's dead, the entire dimension is collapsing!"
The walls began to buckle inward with sounds like twisting steel. Larger pieces of debris crashed down around them, one nearly crushing Akira's foot. The green veins of light in the floor were dimming, flickering like dying fluorescent bulbs.
"We need to leave! NOW!" Ayaka shouted over the growing cacophony.
She grabbed his arm, practically dragging him toward the shimmering portal they'd entered through. But as they ran, Akira noticed something… the portal was shrinking.
"It's closing too fast!" he yelled. "We won't make it!"
"RUN!" Ayaka screamed. "Stop talking and keep running!"
They ran for their lives toward the collapsing portal, their feet hammering the stone that was disintegrating beneath them. The suction from the imploding dimension felt like fighting a hurricane.
"Jump!" Ayaka yelled.
They dove together, headfirst, through the rapidly shrinking barrier. Akira felt the dimensional membrane scrape across his skin like ice and fire simultaneously. For a horrifying instant, he feared they were too slow, that they'd be trapped forever in the collapsing pocket dimension.
They hit solid ground hard, rolling across concrete and gravel.
Behind them, the Gate imploded with a violent whoosh that sucked in everything within a ten-foot radius.
Then it vanished completely, leaving nothing behind but a small, smoking crater in the middle of the construction site and the acrid smell of ozone.
Every inch of his body ached; his ribs were probably bruised, his back was screaming in pain, and the Mantis's ichor had left stinging acid burns on his skin.
But he was alive.
"It's over," he wheezed, staring up at the dark sky. The stars had never looked so beautiful. "We actually did it."
Ayaka collapsed beside him, equally exhausted. "You did it," she corrected, her breathing laboured. "I merely provided... minimal assistance."
"Minimal? You distracted that thing three times. I'd be dead without you."
"Perhaps. But you made the killing blow against a Grade Delta threat. With a single strike." She turned her head to look at him, silver hair spread across the concrete like a halo. "Do you understand how rare that is, Akira-kun? Most demon hunters train for years before attempting something like that."
"Yeah, well..." Akira coughed, tasting blood. "Most demon hunters probably have better equipment than a rusty dagger."
Despite everything, Ayaka laughed. It was a genuine sound, different from her usual calculated amusement. "True. Very true."
They lay there for several minutes, catching their breath, letting their bodies recover from the ordeal.
The construction site was silent now except for distant city sounds filtering back in. Whatever supernatural pressure had been emanating from the Gate was gone.
Finally, Akira forced himself to sit up, wincing at every movement. "We should get back before someone notices we're gone."
"Agreed." Ayaka rose with more grace than should have been possible given her exhaustion. She offered him her hand. "Can you walk?"
"I think so." He took her hand and let her pull him to his feet. His legs were shaky, but they held. "Though I'm going to feel this for days."
"The essence you absorbed will help with healing. By morning, the worst of it should be manageable."
They started walking back toward the apartment, moving slowly. Akira's mind was already racing ahead to what awaited… specifically, a very angry Mia.
"Ayaka," he said after they'd walked a block in silence.
"Yes?"
"What you said earlier... about the Mantis knowing I was an 'essence bearer.' What did that mean?"
Her expression darkened. "It means the supernatural world is aware of you now. Grade Delta threats don't appear randomly, Akira-kun. That Gate opened because of you… because of what you are, what you're becoming. The ritual we performed earlier attracted attention. Dangerous attention."
"So this is going to keep happening? More Gates? More demons?"
"Most likely. The essence is like a beacon of power. And power attracts predators." She glanced at him. "But it also attracts allies. Like me. You're going to need more of both if you want to survive what's coming."
Akira absorbed this information grimly. One week ago, he'd been nobody… a creep, a joke, a viral humiliation fodder. Now he was apparently a target for interdimensional threats.
"Fantastic," he muttered. "Just fantastic."