The sun was resting right above the group’s heads indicating the time of day to be noon, while the air seemed to be still as Alex focused his gaze on the two individuals in front of him. Taking in the two cultivators, Alex tried to size them up. They looked sloppy, but if his previous interaction with Jake and Amber was any indication, he couldn’t let his guard down; not now. His brain raced through branching thoughts as questions piled upon questions within the confines of his mind.

“What cultivation technique do they practice? Body, Mind, or Soul? Could it be a dual cultivation technique? Triple, even? Are the two practising the same technique or different ones? What kind of tricks do they have up their sleeves? Judging by their sabres, I would suspect a kind of physical attribute cultivation. No! Jake had a sword and he could shoot those sword-beams from a distance. Think. Think. THINK!” Alex’s mind raced.

As the two were still approaching Jane and Alex even now, they noticed the tension in the air, which made them raise their guard against any potential surprises. Raising their hands, they unstrapped the sabres from their backs and readied them for battle.

“It’s useless, the more time I waste, the more time I give them to prepare. It’s stupid, but I either run, or I strike first, and I’m done running.” Alex steeled his will.

Having made up his mind, Alex wasted no time. Kicking the ground beneath him, he shot with inhuman speed at the duo. Unfortunately, the time Alex took to take a decision proved a tad too long, and the two, who were already suspecting something, were prepared for Alex’s assault.

Seeing Alex charge like a human bullet at them, Pack and Bones made a weird hand sign, interlocking their index and middle fingers, and spoke a word.

“Fly!”, “Soar!” the two thugs incanted at the same time.

The instant the words left their mouths, their sabres started haphazardly floating around them. By the time Alex reached them, the two were already preparing their move. Immediately as Alex arrived in front of them, they jumped back a short distance while flicking their hands towards Alex at the same time. As if the flicks contained some cryptic commands, the sabres hastened to obey as they flew towards Alex with deadly intent.

The two sabres whistled through the air at a speed matching Alex’s own when they made contact, as the surroundings became saturated with the clang of metal on metal, creating a small shower of sparks. As the dust settled, both Alex and the thugs were untouched. Thankfully, still being in his state of hyper-awareness, Alex could see the trajectory of the sabres and managed to block both of them with his gauntleted hands, even though the impact sent him flying backwards, close to his starting position. The duo took this moment of respite as an opportunity to taunt Alex.

“Hah, look at this Pack, we have a knight in shining armour coming to save the princess. “ Bones ridiculed Alex with gusto in his voice.

“I know, right? This retard thinks he can take the two of us alone.” Pack joined in.

While the two of them chose to indulge in petty insults and even recalled their weapons, Alex took this time to reassess his situation.

“Okay, judging by the way they levitate and wield their weapons, their technique should either be Mind or Soul. Considering the distance they covered in their jump, I am almost certain they don’t cultivate their body. My best course of action is still the same, get in close and pummel them to death.” Alex formulated a new rudimentary plan.

Not having another alternative than rushing in as he did earlier, he once again started to approach them with his top speed. While Alex’s velocity was beyond anything the two could reproduce, it seems they had some experience fighting in a pair, as the instant Alex began his advance, the two jumped aside in opposite directions. This innocuous action created a new cluster of problems for Alex; his targets just split, and he couldn’t focus on both at once. Most Awakened Beasts didn’t pose this problem as their limited intelligence didn’t allow them to take the greatest advantage their numbers posed, but unfortunately for Alex, the same couldn’t be said about his current opponents.

Making a snap decision, he chose to focus on the thug with a scar running over his left eye. Immediately as the two of his opponents split, Alex focused his efforts on closing the distance with Pack as he forced his momentum to change, making a sideways turn towards him. As Alex darted towards his new target, he could feel the hairs on the nape of his neck rise in alarm. Driven by pure instinct, he ducked and rolled, barely evading Bones’ floating sabre aimed at the back of his neck.

Quickly getting up, he assumed a position where his front, or at least his sides, were facing both of his antagonists.

“Shit, now that they split, they can cover each other. No matter which one I go after, the other is going to attack me from behind.” Alex thought to himself somberly.

It seemed that now, the full seriousness of the situation at hand finally reached the two thug’s brains, considering that this time they didn’t give Alex a moment of respite, but continued attacking instead. With another flick of their wrists, the sabres made their way towards Alex, slicing the air along the way as they continued to harass him, putting Alex completely on the defensive.

Bombarded by the flying weapons, Alex started to analyze the law by which the sabres abided as they advanced and retreated when he finally found a pattern. Firstly, the blades always took turns in attacking him; never doing so at the same time. Secondly; after each attack, they had to retreat a certain distance to gain velocity for striking back with enough force to pose a threat to Alex. From his observations, it seemed that the sabres were directly controlled by their wielders, which led Alex to his first conclusion.

“I’m almost certain the technique those two practice isn’t a Mind one, based on the simple patterns the weapons make while arcing through the air, which leaves one thing; Soul,” Alex concluded.

“Pro – this means I potentially have them beat both in physical prowess and processing power. Con – this still doesn’t help me with closing the distance, along with the fact they might have some weird last resort trick considering their Soul cultivation method.” Alex reflected.

Alex stoically stood his ground as he scrambled to block the flurry of cuts and stabs aimed at him when a new idea popped up into his mind.

“All this time, I blocked stuff with my gauntlets, but that’s not what the Musings are for; the Musings were made to destroy, not protect. How did the first verse of the Musings go? ‘Anything can be destroyed; anything.’ wasn’t it?” Alex thought, as a sneer slowly surfaced on his face.

Expecting the familiar attack and retreat pattern he was being subjected to until now, he plotted his next course of action. As he blocked one slash from a sabre and saw it start retreating, he immediately prepared for the incoming attack from the next one. Considering what he was about to do, he needed to find a state of absolute clarity and focus for this to work.

Steeling his will even further, he forced the Unity to start enhancing him at full throttle. The familiar feeling of all-encompassing sharpness enveloped Alex’s mind as the Unity threw waves of golden-coloured Divine Breath at his whole body and mind at the same time. This hyper-state allowed Alex to easily spot the incoming sabre, which was flying towards his head tip-first in a stabbing form. Relaxing his hands, he patiently waited until the sabre finally entered reaching distance, and grabbed it.

Having trapped the flying sabre with his steel-clad gauntlets, Alex opted to immediately retreat and dodge the other sabre, which was already making its way to him at this very moment. Jumping a short distance back, he finally gained a moment of respite by trapping one of the weapons in his hands, while dodging the other. Using this opportunity created by his ingenuity, Alex sent waves of power into his hands with one, singular purpose. To break the sabre he was holding in two.

Alex couldn’t be sure if whatever the two were doing was dependant on the sabres being intact, or if they could control the pieces if it would be shattered, but he supposed he would find out now. As he grabbed the sabre, he tensed his muscles to their absolute limits as he exerted crushing force on the slim frame of the blade in his hands. A second passed, which to Alex’s current senses seemed like an eternity, before he could hear the familiar creaking sound of folding metal.

In the exact instant that the sabre was on the cusp of shattering, its owner, Bones, yelled.

“RETURN!” Bones screamed in desperation.

As the scream rang out throughout the entirety of the courtyard, Alex could feel a strong pulling force affecting the sabre in his hands, working against the shackles of his arms. As the force aimed to free the sabres, Alex dug in with his claws even harder.

“That scream is all I needed to know; for whatever reason, they can’t lose their sabres,” Alex cheerfully thought.

Sending waves of power into his muscles, Alex redoubled his efforts. The sabre may be trying to escape, but that didn’t help protect it against Alex’s onslaught.

“Pack! Don’t stand around like an idiot, do something!” Bones yelled at his companion while exerting effort in freeing his weapon from Alex.

Unwilling to let this chance slip through his fingers, Alex mustered all his power as he yelled.

“Break already, stupid thing!” Alex screamed as his veins became visible on his arms and neck.

As the words left him, the clear sound of metal shattering suffused the whole area as the sabre splintered into small metal bits. Immediately as the sabre shattered, Bones let out a bloodcurdling scream and began swearing obscenities at the party at fault, mainly, Alex.

“You motherfucker! That sabre cost me all my contribution points! I swear I’ll kill you for this! That bitch hiding behind you too!” Bones screamed at the top of his lungs.

Having made his threat known, Bones’ face was covered with a mad look as he started making hand signs one after another.

“Pack, keep him busy. I’m going to end this!” Bones addressed his companion.

Pack’s sabre instantly started a barrage of attacks, not letting Alex come closer. Even though the attacks lessened due to the loss of one weapon, it was enough to at least slow Alex’s advance if not stop it completely. Making sure that Alex wouldn’t be able to just steamroll his way towards himself, Bones started chanting in tandem with the hand signs.

“I willingly offer my longevity to the furious Tyrant Saber! Bless me with rapturous might, and manifest death unto my enemy!” Bones finished his chant by connecting the palms of his hand into a circle.

As the chant rang out, small motes of red light started gathering above Bones’ head. As seconds passed, the motes of red light started to take form; the form of a giant red sabre. The sabre felt illusory, almost non-existent to Alex’s senses, but the pressure it gave off washed over him like a shower of fine needles, indicating extreme danger.

Seconds before the sabre was fully formed, Bones’ ill nature reared its ugly head in a last-ditch effort to unnerve Alex.

“You know what? I take my words back. We’ll only kill you and then we’ll have our well-deserved fun with that dumb bitch!” Bones spoke with malicious intent filling his voice.

The crass insult didn’t affect Alex in the least, considering he was wholly concentrated on one thing and one thing only at the moment. At this point, Alex’s energy reserves were starting to dip dangerously low, which meant that he had to finish this soon; the sooner the better in fact.

Watching the red sabre take a more solid form, the pressure Alex felt previously intensified. Weirdly enough, it was when Alex was exposed to this pressure that a weird feeling flooded his insides. A calm serenity that cleared all doubts from his mind permeated him, leaving him only ice-cold purpose inside. Letting the feeling wash over him, something finally clicked in his mind as he recalled the teachings contained in the Musings.

“True destruction is always dispassionate. Anger, hatred, disgust, and other emotions of their ilk can birth only lesser forms of destruction, never quite tapping into the true meaning of the Aspect. Only once the cold light of reason illuminates your being, can you tap into the final storm that is the Aspect of Destruction. Once you do that, you will finally understand that the only thing you need to know about your enemy is that he exists, when he shouldn’t.” Alex remembered the knowledge he absorbed in the Librarium.

As Alex went over each and every syllable contained in the passage, it all finally made sense to him. Pack and Bones were here when they should be elsewhere; alive, when they should be dead. It was that simple. Once that realization finally settled in the deepest parts of Alex’s being, he could feel a new, smaller trickle of power flowing inside him, alongside the golden-coloured breath generated by the Unity. Not quite intertwining, but not quite flowing separately; a weird state of symbiosis. The new addition was grey in colour, the grey of a fierce stormcloud, ready to rain down its punishment unto the world below it simply because it could.

“Destruction-attuned Divine Breath.” Alex thought to himself.

Still being in the realm of supreme clarity granted by the revelation he just received, he once again observed the current situation, this time from a new perspective. Bones was still focused on manifesting the red sabre into a more corporeal vessel while Pack sent his sabre flying towards Alex in the same plain pattern as before, making what came next extremely easy for Alex.

With one swift, effortless motion, he caught the remaining sabre with one hand, and simply willed it cease to be. The grey trickle of power coursing through his body answered the call immediately as it travelled towards Alex’s hand and coated his gauntlet. Feeling the power coursing through his hand, Alex simply made a gripping motion, and the sabre crumbled into parts. The steel shattered into metal dust, the grip, made of some kind of leather broke apart at the hilt as the grey energy seemingly forced the sabre to become not a sabre.

Seeing the astonished look on the thug’s faces did not bring joy or sadness to Alex, as the only thing on his mind right now was to unmake the two who stood before him. Feeling the Destruction-attuned breath agree with his intent, he recalled one of the rare Named moves recorded in the Musings, for the execution of which you needed Destruction-attuned Divine Breath.

Willing the trickle of grey energy along with the golden-coloured Divine Breath towards his legs, Alex raised his left one, and with tremendous force stomped the ground beneath him.

“Earthquake on the Shores of Hell!” Alex screamed, focusing his all on the attack.

The moment his leg touched the ground, the extreme amount of force generated by the stomp caused the ground to split open as the cracks snaked their way across the earth towards Bones and Pack. The shockwave from the attack hit them with such force, that they were flung into the wall of the building behind them as the sound of their bones breaking into bits and pieces could be clearly heard.

Now that he used his newfound trump card, Alex could no longer feel the Destruction-attuned Divine Breath within his body, as it was seemingly all used up in his final attack moments earlier. As the grey trickle was gone, so was the feeling of calmness and clarity, leaving Alex reeling from the after-effects of overexerting himself. Feeling the pressure previously hanging over himself gone along with the dissipating red sabre, Alex finally exhaled with relief as he made the Unity stop overclocking his brain, but leaving the physical enhancement running, even if on a lower scale than before.

As the dust finally settled, he could see the havoc he caused in better detail. The ground, funnily enough, reminded him of the after-effects of an earthquake. Cracks snaked along the earth, small patches of ground were caved in while a waterpipe seemingly underneath was smashed to bits, spraying water all over the courtyard. Looking ahead, Alex could see the unconscious duo lying broken on asphalt.

As he turned his head towards where Jane was supposed to be, he saw her already making her way to him. A moment later, when she reached him, she immediately grabbed him by the shoulders as she started to look him over.

“Are you fine? Do you have any wounds?” Jane asked with evident worry in her voice.

“Just some shallow cuts and scratches. I’m dead tired though.” Alex replied.

“Is it…is it done?” Jane asked, looking towards where the duo was flung, but unable to see that far clearly with her mortal sight.

“It should be. If they’re not dead from that attack, they’ll die from their wounds. We’ll have to check to make sure though.” Alex replied with a tired voice.

With that said, he started walking towards the two bodies lying about in the distance, Jane quickly following in his footsteps. As he checked up on his two opponents, he was surprised to find that Pack was still alive, though heavily wounded, with most of the bones in his body broken beyond repair.

“It seems Bones died immediately, probably due to sacrificing a part of his life to summon that red sabre, which left him weakened before my attack,” Alex concluded grimly.

Taking a seat on a stone that was upturned during the battle, he kept looking at Bones' broken corpse beneath him.

“I killed someone for the first time, and yet, I feel nothing. Is it because I’m too tired to even begin feeling something? Or perhaps it’s the influence of either the Unity or the Destruction-attuned Divine Breath? Maybe a mixture of all three, or have I truly changed that much in such a short time?” Alex asked himself.

“Bones is dead. The other guy, Pack, is still alive. Barely, though.” Alex said, turning his gaze towards Jane.

Hearing Alex’s reply, Jane made her way towards Pack’s lying body and slowly took out her bowie knife. As she approached her hands towards his unconscious body, they started to tremble. Turning her head at Alex, she spoke.

“I have to do this…If I’m not the one to do it, it won’t have any meaning,” Jane said, seemingly trying to convince herself rather than Alex.

Looking at her with something resembling pity, but not quite, Alex simply nodded in approval.

“But how…how…how do I do it? I can’t, but I want to. No, I must.” Jane kept speaking as tears started to form at the inner corners of her eyes.

Comprehending that Jane did not need either advice or encouragement at the moment, Alex was content to simply watch what decision she would reach on her own. Moments passed, while Jane fought a battle against her own nature; the same nature which was nurtured in a so-called civilized society, the nature that kept telling her it was inadmissible to right a wrong by herself, the nature screaming at her that murder is a sin and a crime. This battle waged in the inner sanctum of Jane’s being seemed to be further and further from concluding when Pack started waking from unconsciousness.

The slight twitch of Pack’s eyelids, which was a clear sign his body was trying its best to regain its faculties, finally drove the final wedge in the battle raging inside Jane. Seeing the living, breathing Pack in front of her caused a primal urge to surge inside her, washing away all the inhibitions that were instilled into her from her birth.

To Alex’s eyes, Jane lit up in the brightest shade of red he had ever seen up to this point, expressing the unbridled fury coursing through her right now as she lifted her hands, and stabbed the lying Pack with a scream.

As the knife punctured his lung, Pack drew his last breath in this world before exhaling for the last time. As his heartbeat faded, and by all accounts he was dead, Jane’s fury reached its apex as she continued to stab Pack’s lifeless corpse time and time again.

“AARGH!” Jane screamed, driving the knife deep into Pack’s chest dozens of times while tears streaked down her cheeks.

Losing her strength only somewhere after the thirtieth stab, at least by Alex’s count, Jane finally collapsed onto her back, heaving deep and slow breaths as she looked at the clear blue sky. As she lied with her back on the cold stone and felt the warm rays of light streaming down her face, she felt an overwhelming sense of relief. As if a dark cloud hanging over her head finally disappeared, allowing the rays of light, both literal and figurative, to wash over her, rekindling her hope; hope for a better tomorrow.

Seeing Jane, lying on the ground full of content in her confident, child-like smile, Alex decided to use this opportunity to look inside himself as he took to meditating, hoping to recoup at least some of the Divine Breath he expended in the previous fight.

“It seems the momentary epiphany didn’t last, and the Destruction-attuned Divine Breath is completely gone without a trace. Oh well, at least now that I’ve felt it, it’s only a matter of time before I can achieve that state at will; as long as I don’t slack off, at any rate.” Alex comforted himself as he closed his eyes and started revolving his Unity, absorbing the ambient breath.

After roughly an hour passed, Jane finally decided she felt stable enough to stand up. As she forced her trembling legs to listen to her, Jane finally stood up after a small effort on her muscle’s part. The motion created by Jane standing up broke the fragile trance-like state Alex was in as he suddenly opened his eyes. Taking a look at Jane, he asked.

“How do you feel?” Alex asked with a mix of concern and interest in his voice.

“Good,” Jane replied with a calm voice while taking a deep breath.

“Thank you. I know I didn’t do right by you, and yet you still chose to help me. I’ll remember this.” Jane added while looking with an intense gaze into Alex’s eyes.

Not quite able to find a suitable set of words for a reply at the moment, Alex decided that a simple nod of his head would suffice.

“So, what now? We can still go to the zoo if you want.” Jane asked while stretching her arms towards the sky.

“No. I’m not in any shape to be fighting the apex predators of this world in my current condition. We go back to the outpost. The administration would probably like to know about this, too. Objections?” Alex replied.

“No, I suppose not,” Jane replied wistfully.

“Good, we loot the bodies and move out,” Alex added with finality as he stood up from the stone he occupied.

At the same time, within the confines of the zoo, something eery was taking place. By all accounts, the average number of animals in a zoo numbered between two and three thousand, which meant that after the descent of the Divine Breath unto the world, the zoo should have become an assembly of some of the most oversized, exotic, and deadly creatures on this planet. Unlike the absolute mayhem and carnage that one could expect from a place such as this, both the corridors of the inner facilities as well as all the enclosures were deathly silent.

If someone were to take a leisurely walk along the territory of the zoo, the horrific sights they would stumble onto would make their blood curdle. Every single enclosure was empty, with the only thing remaining of their original inhabitants being their rotting carcasses. It didn’t matter which deadly beast inhabited the small cages, cells, or full-blown enclosures; starting from the smallest of rodents, and going all the way to the mighty bears or the prideful lions, all fell prey.

Somewhere in the deepest part of the zoo, in one of the biggest enclosures, the nefarious culprit was feasting on another one of his victims. Its glowing, amber eyes – focused on the carcass of an elephant under its maw. His flame-and-coal fur coat was hiding the monstrous muscles that rippled underneath from every slight movement. The surroundings' space trembled from his perpetual growls and roars as he devoured his prey.

Finishing his meal, Razor, the affectionally named resident Siberian tiger of this zoo lifted his humongous body the size of a small sedan car in one graceful movement, and swiped his tail at the carcass of the elephant, sending it flying into the wall.

After devouring every last living thing inside the zoo, Razor felt something different than usual. Ever since the weird air arrived and gifted him the means to achieve his freedom, he could feel something deep inside his genes driving him to eat, devour, advance. And after finally finishing off the last scraps of meat available to him right now, he felt on the cusp of something new.

As he stood tall, the Divine Breath within Razor changed fundamentally, becoming more dense and packed. As the roar bellowed across the whole zoo, physical changes started to affect him. His previously orange body fur took on the shade of darkest night, while his black stripes turned to a ghostly white. His size decreased from a small sedan car back to the size of a normal tiger, while the power hidden in his muscles more than quintupled.

As his new form finally stabilized, he let out a triumphant roar, letting the world know about his existence.