"You have endured suffering, and I have witnessed it."

Morning light flowed over the streets like melted amber, casting a shimmering sheen across pavement still wet from last night's rain.

The boy's family stood on the apartment building's steps, surrounded by broken chunks of concrete and faded debris—traces left behind by the riots a few days earlier.

Across the street, other residents' doors gradually opened as well. Faces of all kinds peered through the cracks, their eyes filled with wariness and tentative curiosity.

An elderly woman leaning on a cane trembled as she took half a step forward, then pulled her foot back as though the ground were scorching hot.

The young couple next door clutched their baby tightly. The husband's fingers unconsciously rubbed the pistol at his waist; the chaos of recent days had made their habitual vigilance as hard to cast off as rusted chains.

An unusual stillness hung in the air.

There were no alarms, no gunfire—only the occasional sound of metal striking metal in the distance, like giants hammering at the city's bones.

Thud, thud—

Heavy footsteps came from the end of the street, shaking the ground like war drums.

Small stones trembled and bounced in puddles, and the boy felt a numbing vibration rise through the soles of his feet.

!!

He instinctively turned around, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Two giants clad in golden armor were marching toward them in synchronized steps.

Their armor gleamed blindingly in the morning light. The dragon patterns carved into their pauldrons rose and fell slightly with their strides, as though alive.

Their bodies stood over three and a half meters tall, casting shadows beneath their waists. When their magnetic boots crushed the road, they pressed clear footprints into the surface as if it were clay.

"Run! Run!"

"God! It's those monsters—and even bigger monsters!!"

A hoarse scream