CHAPTER 1
PLUNGE INTO THE DARKNESS, Part 7

 “Huff… huff… huff… huff…”

This battle… is not going my way. Meanwhile, my opponent seems tireless, driven perhaps by the desire to eliminate me. Maybe I should give up so he’ll leave my family alone.

No, if I don’t stop him, probably no one else can… and I don’t want to die.

“Stop!”

Taking advantage of one of his poorly executed slashes, I deliver a punch fueled by my dark aura and deflect the steel blade downward, driving his arm into the ground. Only now do I realize that we’ve moved the fight onto a pedestrian path (thankfully, I might add). My opponent’s body reverts to its organic form the moment it gets stuck in the asphalt. At least he won’t be able to break free easily without transforming. I need to take this opportunity to talk some sense into him.

“Ora falla finita! Non mi importa se non capisci la mia lingua, devi ascoltarmi comunque: chiaramente come me non sai controllare… qualunque cosa sia, ma anch’io mi sono svegliato con questi poteri assurdi, quindi preferirei la piantassi di attentare alla mia vita! Mi sono svegliato emettendo vapore nero e il bianco dei miei occhi è diventato nero. Credi mi piaccia avere il bianco dei miei occhi di tutt’altro colore? No! Come te sto avendo una pessima giornata e per quanto mi sembrasse impossibile, tu l’hai peggiorata! Per farla breve… Don’t. Try. To. Kill. Me.”

“Shut up!” In a burst of rage, the man breaks free and completely transforms again. This time, his entire chrome body is covered in spikes.

He goes on the attack, forcing me back onto the defensive. I dodge all of his attacks, but each time he misses, his spikes scrape me on my face, arms, and sides. Each cut is a sharp reminder that one well-placed blow from him would immediately do me in.

“Sir… please…” I should have realized by now that trying to reason with him is useless. I catch sight of my blood on the tip of each spike along his arm. He savors a little, licking it off the back of his right hand. “Wow! You’re disgusting.”

The steel man transforms his right arm into a blade. With a single strike, he cuts clean through a tree… Is he grabbing it!?

… He hurls it at me. Instinctively, I leap maybe about thirty yards. Panic! I never imagined I could jump that high, and the afterimages showing me just how high are not comforting—quite the opposite.

Still, he doesn’t give up. He picks up the fallen tree, then cuts off the part with the branches in a karate-like move. He waits until I’ve come back down enough, then closes the distance between us with a twenty-yard jump. He lands a kick to my stomach, sending me flying a few yards farther away from him while I’m still in the air.

At this height, there’s nothing I can do to fight back.

Finally, he slams me to the ground with the trunk, the way you’d swat an insect with a flyswatter.

I crash down. The impact leaves a crater.

…! I’m wedged into a groove in the middle of the crater that is shaped like my body. A searing pain shoots through me. If I were good at anatomy, I could tell exactly which bones I broke on impact. No wonder I have to retake that subject.

I guess this is the end. The man, who is now on the ground, approaches me slowly. My anxiety mounts as he relishes every moment before finishing me off. He proudly rests his foot on me, claiming his victory.

Before saying a word, he looks at the time on my phone. The teenager in me wants to snatch it back by tearing off his arm.

“Now, little boy, for my transformed body, for the man I had to kill, to free this world from an aberration like you, you will be eliminated. I don’t know if it was ever human or something else, and I don’t care. Farewell.”

He transforms his limbs back into steel blades and takes a five-yard leap to build up the force for the impending impact. Every move he makes seems so slow to me, as if he hasn’t even begun his descent, as if gravity hasn’t started acting on him yet.

I glance around for a moment, shifting my gaze. The birds flap their wings as slowly as a turtle. The ants—those still unharmed after my landing—leisurely move away from my weary body and climb up the crater. Then I shift my attention back to the enemy. He’s descending toward me with a maniacal look on his face, his blades ready to pierce me. I don’t want my final moments to be like this. I won’t allow it.

“What…?”

I spring to my feet, ignoring the pain coursing through me. My right arm radiates an intense, dark aura, and I instinctively assume a defensive stance. Before I even realize it, I’ve created a black shield to protect myself. It’s strong enough to have shattered my adversary’s blades (not to mention his arms). The impact hit him hard, and now he’s so stunned that he’s become even more unhinged. He screams like a madman, thrashing and stomping his feet on the ground like an animal.

T-t-those were… were his…! No! I haven’t lost my mind yet. I still have to…”

“I’m sorry for you, mister… but you asked for it,” I say.

The steel man loses control again. Long spikes covered in smaller spikes appear where his arms used to be. His entire body is covered in them as well. His steel teeth multiply and sharpen. So many have sprouted from his gums that it looks like he has the mouth of a shark. It’s funny that he thought I was the monster here. Not that it’s anything to laugh about.

“Die! Die! Die!” he repeats in rhythm with his attempts to bite me.

He keeps trying everything. Since he no longer has joints in his upper body, he has to throw his weight around to try to hit me. I dodge every attempt, and when I can’t, I defend myself by striking him with the front of my shield whenever he has a lapse in focus.

He grows more furious with each hit! But I must withstand his rampage.

“Everything ends here. Here and now.”

The air of superiority in my voice enrages him. I can see his veins pulsing through his tempered steel body. He tries to strike me, but I counter with a blow that pushes him back several yards—all thanks to my seemingly indestructible shield.

I watch him struggle to get back up. I admit that I feel terrible about what I’ve done to… Why is my shield evaporating?!

It has completely dissolved.

No… why?! I try to make it reappear… I want to make it reappear, but I have no idea how I did it before. I just can’t do it again!

“Nobody can save you now!”

He angrily rushes toward me, and I have no idea what to do. I can only get into position and brace myself when a violent shock surges through my hands.

A… black hole? I’m not sure, but a huge, dark chasm suddenly appears behind the steel man.

The opening is sucking everything in—cars, passing birds, even my family. I respond to the threat by transforming my hands into giant black versions of themselves and grabbing them just in time. The steel man puts up as much resistance as he can, but no matter how many steps forward he takes, he’s pulled back the same distance.

“Nooo!”

…

He’s been sucked in.

…

Then the black hole immediately closes, vanishing into nothingness.

…

Finally, I find a moment… a moment to lay my family members, who are still unconscious from what happened, on the ground. Then, I pass out. But I have a smile, albeit a weak one, like my body… utterly drained.