The concreate road and the delivery road beneath it, in the grid 8 were practically unrecognizable.

Right now, in the middle of a working road, a Two-Star One-Way gate had violently manifested. Unlike loop gates or dungeons, one-way gates didn’t allow Exterminators to enter.

Instead, they acted as massive, dimensional tears that actively vomited Calamity Beasts directly into the real world until the Gate Guardian—the anchor entity holding the tear open was eliminated.

The local NEA response team was in direct combat with the beasts poring out.

Twenty professional, fully geared Exterminators had formed a defensive perimeter across the intersection. The air was thick with mana continuously leaking from the gate.

"Hold the line!" the squad captain roared, firing a burst of concentrated wind blast that shattered the front legs of an incoming beast. "The Guardian is coming through! Tanks, brace!"

From the center of the dimensional tear, a massive hand made of condensed, grey bedrock reached out and gripped the edge of the portal.

The Gate Guardian pulled itself into reality.

It was a D-Rank Golem, standing easily fifteen feet tall. It didn’t have a face, just a glowing, jagged red fissure running down its chest where its core resided.

It let out a deep, grating roar, causing the glass in the surrounding buildings to shatter.

The NEA tanks raised their heavy shields, bracing for the inevitable, bone-crushing impact.

But the impact never came.

A figure in a sleek blue jacket and pitch-black combat trousers casually stepped off the roof of a nearby bus stop, landing completely silently between the squad and the Golem.

Hide didn’t even draw his sword. He just cracked his neck, his blue eyes ringed with faint violet glowing in the overcast daylight.

"Zenith," Hide ordered. "Aegis."

The dark mana from his body expelled outwards and on his right rose Zenith, the towering, executioner phantom. Its featureless visor pulsed with a dangerous violet light, A pitch-black greatsword resting easily in its grip, which had been replaced in place of the beginner’s sword.

But from the darkness on Hide’s left rose something entirely new.

It was massive. Easily nine feet tall, its body was composed of incredibly thick, interlocking plates of dark mana that resembled heavy, medieval siege armor.

It didn’t possess the sleek, terrifying speed of Zenith. Instead, it radiated pure, absolute physical mass. Its arms were as thick as tree trunks, and it carried no weapon, preferring to rely on the sheer, crushing density of its gauntlets.

Hide had created it using the core of the C-Rank, lesser calamity lord named Slaughter Doll. He had named it Aegis.

"Break it," Hide said simply.

Aegis didn’t hesitate. The massive tank phantom surged forward. For something so heavy, its acceleration was terrifying. The D-Rank Golem roared, swinging a fist the size of a boulder directly at Aegis.

Aegis raised its massive, dark-plated forearm.

CRACK!

The Golem’s stone fist slammed into Aegis’s guard. The shockwave blew the dust off the street, but Aegis didn’t budge a single inch. The phantom tank absorbed the kinetic impact flawlessly.

Then, Aegis punched back.

The dark mana gauntlet buried itself entirely into the Golem’s stone torso with a deafening boom.

Before the Guardian could even register the damage, a blur of violet light bypassed them both. Zenith utilized Phantom Step, merging with the darkness and reappearing directly above the Golem’s shoulder.

It swung the pitch-black sword, unleashing a concentrated Dark Slash straight down.

The B-Rank equivalent dark mana sheared entirely through the Golem’s rock-solid collarbone, slicing cleanly down into the glowing red fissure on its chest and then through the crack Zenith pulled out the core.

The massive Golem froze, the red light in its chest dying out. Its body rapidly lost cohesion, violently crumbling into a massive pile of lifeless grey rubble.

[First Phantom ’Zenith’ has eliminated a Calamity Beast (Mountain Roller)]

Experience points gained: 1500

With the Guardian dead, the glowing dimensional tear above the intersection violently sucked inward and snapped shut.

The gate was closed.

The twenty NEA Exterminators stood behind their barricades, their mouths hanging open in absolute, stunned silence. They had been preparing for a grinding, twenty-minute war of attrition.

The kid in the blue jacket had ended it in six seconds.

Zenith presented the core to Hide and he slipped it into his spatial inventory.

"Hey!" the squad captain called out, finally finding his voice as he lowered his staff. "That was... unbelievable. Are you from the special task force? I’ve never seen shikigami’s like that."

Hide glanced over his shoulder. He commanded his phantoms mentally, and both Zenith and Aegis instantly dissolved into dark mist, sinking seamlessly back into his body.

"Just passing through," Hide gave a smile and a little salute action.

He didn’t stick around to answer questions or fill out incident reports. The NEA team could have the monster bodies for materials; he only cared about the core and the experience points.

He turned down a side alley, his boots crunching softly on the debris, and navigated his way back to the main transit lines.

It had been exactly seven days since he had left Area 17.

Seven days of impossible gates, Calamity Lords, and leveling up at an absurd pace. He had missed an entire week of his final year at the High school, but it didn’t matter anymore.

He was practically done with standard schooling. Maddox had officially admitted him into the Exterminator academy under his direct tutelage.

The World Exterminator Ranking Tournament was rapidly approaching.

But first, he had to go home.

Hide emerged from the alley and boarded an automated tram, riding it seamlessly to the central Area 5 Airbus terminal.

The terminal was bustling with activity just like when he first came here. He purchased a luxury cabin ticket back to Area 17.

He hadn’t seen Fuu since he had left the hotel room three days ago. Frankly, Hide didn’t care how the boy got home.

He found a seat near the window of the next Airbus, leaning his head against the cool glass as the massive transport vehicle lifted off the ground, ascending smoothly into the clear blue sky.

He pulled out his communicator. He had been texting Kai sporadically over the last few days, keeping the details vague but confirming he was alive. Kai had successfully turned the wood type core into a shaft and he was now officially an Exterminator in an agency, where his father held over 50% of the shares.

Hide sent a quick text: On the bus. Be back in a few hours.

He closed the communicator, his thoughts drifting to Risa, he needed to reach level 50 soon and buy that antidote.

Two hours and forty minutes later, the Airbus began its descent.

The familiar, slightly smog-tinted skyline of Area 17 came into view. It wasn’t as clean or affluent as Area 5, but as the transport touched down and the cabin doors hissed open, Hide felt a genuine sense of relief.

He was finally back home.