The Five Evolution

『"We feel it in our bones, enough to make our systems blow..."』

The western tunnel opened into a larger underground chamber. One way in, one way out. Standing by the opening was War.

That didn’t matter, because they had no intention of running. However, standing their ground may have been just as fatal.

Raj backed up steadily, eyes locked on the towering Malice that advanced. Each footfall cracked the floor beneath its weight, leaving molten footprints that glowed red-hot and smoked.

Behind him, Hiro and Ethan spread out, trying to find an advantage in a terrain that offered none.

"So," Hiro said. "Anyone have a plan? Because I’m currently drawing a complete blank."

"Don’t die," Raj offered, rolling his shoulder. "That’s the plan."

Hiro nodded rapidly. "Okay. Okay, yeah. Not a bad plan as plans go—"

"Right?" Raj said with a forced smile.

Hiro rubbed his face. "No. It’s a terrible plan!"

The War Malice was done listening to their bickering. It didn’t give them any more time to do anything, and simply charged.

As it bulldozed towards them, the tunnel shook under its weight.

Raj met it head-on, because if anyone could match the War Malice in a battle of strength, it would be him.

His fist drove into the Malice’s chest with enough force to rip through steel like it was paper.

Each strike he delivered against its molten exterior echoed like thunder and sent out shockwaves that knocked loose stone from the walls. But the War Malice didn’t even stagger.

So Raj kept hammering.

Left hook to the face—BOOM!

Right cross to the jaw—CRACK!

Uppercut to the chin—THUNDER!

He drove in body shots, shoulder checks, chaining intense blows together without pause, desperate to stagger the towering monster. Despite the effort, War didn’t even flinch.

Instead, its hand shot out, faster than Raj could react, grabbing him by the arm. The physical contact immediately burned his arm.

This wasn’t fire, it was something worse. Radiation. Pure, concentrated, cellular-destroying radiation that poured from the Malice’s form, leaving Raj screaming in pain.

Even from several feet away, both Ethan and Hiro felt a wrongness in their cells and a nausea that had nothing to do with fear. The radiation was affecting all of them.

Raj on the other hand, had taken a concentrated dose upon direct contact.

His skin blistered and blackened, smoke rising from where War’s fingers touched him like meat on a grill. The pain was indescribable, and no matter how he struggled, he couldn’t pull away.

Every cell in his arm was dying simultaneously, nerves firing in agony before they too burned away. He could feel his DNA unraveling and bones breaking apart, feel his body trying desperately to repair the damage.

"Raj!" Red lightning crackled around Hiro’s form as he attempted to get in there and pull him out, but Ethan was faster, manifesting a thin 2D shield between Raj and the Malice.

The shield expanded, becoming 3D, forcing War to release its grip as it was pushed back a few feet, while launching Raj backwards, away from it.

Raj cradled his ruined arm after he landed hard against the chamber wall. "I’m good," he gasped. "I’m—fuck—I’m good. Regen. Just give me a second."

The burned flesh was already knitting back together, slow and agonizing. Raj’s breathing steadied as the worst of the damage faded, skin already regrown over exposed muscle.

Observing this, War tilted its head, studying Raj’s regenerated flesh. "That merely prolongs the lesson." It spoke like it was looking forward to testing just how far his regeneration could go.

It stabbed its gigantic blade into the ground, raising one massive hand, and the air around it began to shimmer. It felt like heat was gathering. No, not heat. This was something else entirely.

Energy coalesced in its palm, glowing green and red, reverberating in the air. The radiation signature spiked so high that even Ethan’s shields started to crack just from proximity.

Ethan looked at his barrier. "Shit..." His eyes widened. "Move!" He started running. "MOVE NOW!"

They scattered in three different directions as War released the attack.

The beam carved through the tunnel where they’d been standing as pure concentrated radiation shaped into a cutting laser.

Stone didn’t just break, it was vaporized instantly, transformed from solid matter to superheated gas in microseconds. Simultaneously, walls melted into slag that ran like water.

The beam didn’t stop at the tunnel. It kept going, cutting upward through rock, earth, and infrastructure, punching through to the surface three hundred meters above.

Transport aircraft hovering over Nakanoshima Station saw a lance of green-red light suddenly erupt from the ground, cutting into the sky and splitting the clouds.

Behind the beam came a shockwave of superheated air expanding violently and creating an explosion that threw all three of them off their feet like toys.

Raj hit the ground hard, Hiro bounced off a wall, barely managing to absorb the kinetic impact before it killed him and Ethan’s shields had taken the brunt of the blast.

The beam dissipated, leaving a perfectly circular shaft stretching from chamber floor to sky as debris of pulverized stone, melted steel, and ash rained down.

Through the hole, Raj could see stars. They were three hundred meters underground, and War had just punched through to open air.

"Okay," Hiro coughed, pulling himself upright. "So that’s what a Bishop-class can do. Cool. Cool cool cool. We’re definitely going to die."

"The girls are doing their best out there," Raj snarled, forcing himself to stand despite every muscle protesting. "So we’ll do our best too. We’re just—we’re figuring this out."

"Yeah," Ethan said with a smile, wiping blood from a cut across his eyebrow.

War watched this display of defiance and spoke. "The universe offers infinite paths to survival, yet you choose only the path of suffering."

It advanced again, slow and patient, like it had all the time in the world to break them. Which, from its perspective, it probably did.

"Its radiation aura," Ethan said quickly. "Every physical hit triggers it. That’s why Raj’s punch didn’t work. The aura vaporized the impact before it could do damage."

"So we can’t touch it," Hiro said. "Fantastic. How do we fight something we can’t touch?"

Without waiting for approval, Raj was already moving, circling to War’s flank, looking for openings.

"I can take more punishment than either of you. I’ll keep testing it, find weak points. You guys figure out how to actually hurt this thing."

"Raj, you’ll burn yourself out," Hiro protested.

"Then I’ll regenerate!" Raj charged again, this time he was ready for the radiation. No matter how much it’d burn and hurt, he would endure and heal.

His fist hammered into War Malice’s knee, trying for a joint, but the radiation flared, vaporizing the impact and instantly blistering his knuckles.

"Your defiance is loud," War said. "But your impact is as silent as your gravestone will be."

Its backhand caught him across the chest, sending him flying into a wall.

Raj slammed against the wall, cracking it and dropping to the ground as he coughed up blood. "...are you still talking?" he said, grinning through the pain.

Meanwhile Ethan watched and analyzed. He wasn’t going to let Raj’s actions be for nothing. "The radiation isn’t uniform. It’s stronger near its core, weaker at the extremities. If we can—"

The Malice raised both hands, interrupting his train of thought. Suddenly, the air was occupied fully with instruments of their demise.

Dozens of cylinders materialized from nothing, smooth metal casings that hung suspended in the air like constellations of doom.

Each one maybe six feet long, three feet in diameter, marked with a yellow and black trefoil, a symbol that meant death in every language humanity had ever created.

Nuclear warheads.

Dozens at first... then hundreds of them, filling up the space of the underground chamber.

"Huh..." Hiro breathed, and his legs simply gave out. He dropped to his knees, staring up at the suspended arsenals. "No no no no no—"

"Fallout," War Malice said simply. And with a casual gesture, they fell.