The Failed Deal

"Who else?"

The icy voice struck fear into the souls of these battle-hardened alien soldiers. They began backing away, desperate to escape the monster who had just transformed before their eyes.

But it was too late. Mark flashed into their ranks like golden lightning, each punch claiming a life. He moved so fast that even with their Time Synchronizers, the soldiers could not follow him.

High above, Nolan narrowed his eyes.

Mark's strength was skyrocketing, but the speed of his growth was unnatural. A young Viltrumite would normally need decades, perhaps centuries, of combat and hardship to evolve so explosively.

Mark had done it in minutes.

Someone had to be behind it.

Nolan's sharp gaze swept the battlefield, searching for whoever it might be. He found nothing. Their presence was concealed perfectly, as though they had never existed.

Alarm bells rang in his head. Anyone who could hide so completely from him was far stronger than he was.

On the battlefield, Mark had cleared every soldier from the rooftop and the nearby airspace. But when he looked up, the hundreds of ships overhead still formed an impassable barrier. More enemies kept pouring out.

He could not finish them all alone.

Just then, the largest Flaxan flagship blared a piercing alarm.

Fine cracks appeared without warning across its sturdy metal hull, as if an invisible force were tearing it apart from within. They spread and widened rapidly, and the entire ship began to shake.

Then it started to age.

Its pristine metal hull rusted, corroded, and crumbled, as though thousands of years had swept over it in seconds. The imposing flagship became a cloud of metal dust and scrap suspended in the sky.

The eerie destruction spread through the fleet like a plague. One ship after another suffered the same fate,