Godfrey's eyes were locked on the Stone-Skin Giant, which flung its chains at Nathaniel's crab. The crab tried to scuttle to the side, but the thick metal ball struck the asphalt road, pulling it upward and throwing both a huge portion of the asphalt and the crab away.

Nathaniel swiftly retrieved it, while Lucian's vultures launched hundreds of steel feather projectiles, but they bounced harmlessly off the giant's skin.

Since humanoid summons had no appetite for humans, seeing the giant focus on dealing with beast summoners and their summons instead of crushing the barricade wasn't much of a surprise.

"Hmmm…" Godfrey squinted, inwardly noting the remarkable defense of the summon, which protected its summoner with one hand. If the giant could use both hands, it might have brought down the Polaris elites.

'Without the dome of the King Tier, Vegas City won't last long against a horde of undead. Isolde and the other members of the club are already there. I don't have much time… I have to deal with this thing quickly.'

Godfrey kept walking softly, his consciousness swirling in his mind as he maintained minimal scrutiny of his surroundings.

All of a sudden, a man stood before him, the elected leader of the combined Guild combatants gathered.

"Are you the only one here, or should we expect others?" the man asked.

Godfrey glanced at him. "I'm one of Manhattan's top ten elites. I can help you handle this," he answered softly, then walked past the man.

The combatant leader looked at a female hunter who shook her head. "I haven't seen him before. He must be new."

The man's eyes widened. "Wait—!"

Those words were blown back into his mouth as a huge gale exploded, swirling like a dust tide that sent the man tumbling backward. It was caused by Godfrey shooting forth at high speed in just one step.

Each step generated a gale. When Godfrey reached the giant's foot, his white sclera turned black, his irises gaining a golden hue as his strength rose from 8.3 to 9.3. His Black-Out State!

He lowered his body for a millisecond and burst upward. The speed at which he moved was even beyond his own calculations, almost making him miss the giant's head, but utilizing Lightning Fast Reflexes, Godfrey threw a punch.

A punch with all the force he could draw from his body, as he gained the stone skin the giant had. His fist caused the air to burst outward, connecting with the giant's head in the next instant.

Everyone heard a loud noise and turned toward it. Three hundred feet away, they saw the giant's head embedded in a skyscraper.

Rhode, the giant's summoner, stared at his headless summon with wide eyes as blood dripped from his mouth. His gaze followed Godfrey, who somersaulted before landing lightly, smoke billowing off his knuckles.

"Who is that kid?!"

Light faded from Rhode's eyes as he fell from the shoulder of his falling summon.

The lips of the man leading the combatants quivered. "W-What? He didn't even unleash his summon, and he killed a Lord Tier in one blow? I thought all the King Tiers were gone… where did this one pop out from?" he muttered, too low for anyone to hear.

Still cross-armed, Lotus slowly recovered from her shock and tied her pink hair, which had come loose from the gale generated by Godfrey's high-powered movements.

"He's cool," she uttered, still reeling in awe.

Charles nudged her. "Are you crushing on a high schooler?" he teased.

Lotus pouted. "The age difference between us won't be more than two. I simply chose to be a combatant. And besides, Godfrey looks like an eighteen-year-old with that muscular build and height of his."

Charles was stumped by Lotus's openness.

"Isn't that Godfrey?!" Lucian couldn't believe his eyes as he watched the sophomore walk away.

While they all wore shocked expressions, Nathaniel stared at the giant and thanked his luck that nothing had happened between him and Isolde that night.

Had Isolde, the girl Nathaniel thought about, been there, she would have been more shocked than all of them. The reason was that one of her visions had failed.

According to that vision, Tempest was supposed to kill the giant, and the entire world would come to know about Godfrey, leading to interviews and public fright over a summon that seemed angelic, like Cain's Dark Seraph.

It was a crucial part of Godfrey's future, yet that event had vanished all because of what she forgot to take into account.

Though she avoided telling him so the future wouldn't twist, resulting in something far worse, like Godfrey becoming a full-fledged Fanatic, Isolde's visions never once showed her this.

Their current friendship wasn't supposed to happen. Godfrey wasn't supposed to have a friend who was powerful enough to push him to grow even faster. His ambitions at the tournament weren't supposed to exist.

His emotions for her, that second warmth, were an anomaly, and they had birthed a tiny change. But this change was like a crack in a mirror; the probability of it spreading at the slightest touch was high.

Oblivious to all this, Godfrey raced through the streets. Maybe the Vagabonds wouldn't come too late this time. Maybe they wouldn't have to save an already broken boy. Or maybe he wouldn't be saved at all.

Fate had cracked. New tiers had arrived. And the King of the Shadows had finally made it to the Undead Desert Dungeon after a couple of hours.

Her presence alone couldn't change the future, Isolde had thought, and she was right. It couldn't.

But emotions could.

***

At Vegas, there were many injured people on stretchers, but there was no more battle, just people recovering from one.

"What happened?" Godfrey asked a hunter sitting at the back of a truck. The man looked at him and blinked.

"A girl ended the battle with her colleagues. I couldn't believe my eyes. Oh? You have the same jacket, are you among them?!"

Godfrey squinted. "Where are they?!"

"Climb up the wall. You'll see them."

Godfrey went to the wall and climbed to the top. What greeted his eyes was the frozen sight of almost four thousand undead.

The cries and roars of a dragon made him lift his head, to the dragon soaring through the sky.

....

A/N: So... female huh.

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