TARGET ACQUIRED: JAYDEN PRIME.THREAT LEVEL: NEUTRALIZED BY SUPPRESSION FIELD.DIRECTIVE: EXECUTE.The three Executors did not speak. They did not taunt him. They simply raised their bloody titanium blades and walked toward him."Maya! Get the civilians out of here!" Jayden shouted without looking back."Don't die, kid!" Maya yelled. She grabbed the terrified teenager in the red hoodie and dragged him into a nearby alley to hide.Jayden stood alone in the pouring rain. He had no golden shields. He had no lightning speed. He could not throw kinetic blasts.The first Executor lunged forward. It thrust the titanium blade straight at Jayden’s throat.Jayden reacted with pure human instinct. He twisted his body to the side. The sharp blade missed his neck by an inch, slicing a deep cut into the collar of his grey coat.Jayden swung the heavy steel crowbar with all his normal, human strength.CLANG!The crowbar slammed into the side of the Executor’s grey helmet. The sound rang loudly in th

Jayden lay on the wet asphalt. His breathing was shallow. His body was completely broken. His left leg was cut open. His shoulder was bleeding. He had no magic. He was just a fragile, mortal man facing the end of the world.Right in front of him, sitting in a muddy puddle, was the small metal box.Director Smith had dropped it there. The box had glowing blue lights. Smith had promised that if Jayden pressed the button on the box, his magic would return. His Immortality Lock would wake up. He would heal. But it would only last for exactly ten minutes.Ten minutes to walk into the giant tower in the center of the city, kill Caelum, and destroy the Core.But if Jayden did this, he would be handing the entire world over to Director Smith. He would be giving the world to a man who wanted to rule with a brainwashed, emotionless army.Jayden looked at the blue lights. He thought about the choice. If he did nothing, he would bleed to death right here in the street. Maya would die in the alle

The Executor did not even flinch. It turned its blank face toward Maya and raised its blade.Jayden teleported across the street, grabbing the Executor by the neck and throwing it through the glass window of a closed store.Jayden looked down at his belt.05:45.He was losing too much time. If the timer hit zero before he reached the giant tower in the center of the city, he would turn back into a mortal man right in the middle of a killer army. They would chop him to pieces in seconds."I can't fight them all!" Jayden shouted over the noise of the rain and the clashing metal. "I have to break through!""Go!" Maya yelled, grabbing a fallen silver cylinder from the street. She didn't know how to use it, but she held it like a heavy club. "I will help the civilians get away from the street! Just run, kid!"Jayden gathered all the raw Prime energy in his body. He focused it entirely into his legs and his shoulders. He ignited his golden aura so brightly it looked like a second sun had a

The sound of the joint shattering echoed in the cold lobby. Because of the scrambled brain signals, Jayden could not even pull his leg away in time. The pain was absolute, blinding, and raw. The phase-anchored static from the boot sank into his crushed ankle, ensuring that the bone would not heal.He was being systematically taken apart. He was being dismantled faster than his human brain could process.They hit him, scrambled his brain, slowed his time, and broke his joints. All in the span of five seconds.Jayden lay on the wet, bloody marble floor. The rain blew through the broken windows, mixing with his blood.He was in complete agony. He was paralyzed by the scrambled nerves. He was bleeding out."Maya," Jayden gasped weakly. His jaw finally obeyed him for one second.He thought about his friend outside the tower. He thought about the three million innocent civilians trapped in the locked city of Seattle.If he died right here, the magic network would crash. Everyone would burn

The massive, heavy foot of the dictator came down. Jayden lay on the cold marble floor of the Seattle skyscraper. He could not move. He was bleeding from deep cuts. He watched Caelum’s dark, armored boot stomping down toward his head. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for his skull to be crushed.BOOOOOM!The sound was like a bomb going off. But Jayden did not feel any pain. He opened his eyes.Caelum had not stomped on Jayden. Caelum had stomped on the marble floor right next to Jayden’s head. The force of the nine-foot-tall monster’s foot completely shattered the stone floor. A massive shockwave of dark purple gravity exploded outward.The shockwave hit Jayden hard. It threw his broken, mortal body sliding across the wet floor, pushing him far away from the center of the lobby.Caelum did not look at Jayden. The Ascended dictator stood up straight. His fractured, multi-spectrum eyes burned with a toxic, furious light. He stared directly at Mr. Vance, the man who had chained him