The sky didn’t just turn gray; it ripped open like a cheap thrift-store sweater. Violet lightning, jagged and silent, carved through the heavy clouds above Tokyo, and for a heartbeat, everything stopped. Then, the world began to glow.Kenji was standing in the middle of a Shibuya crosswalk when the first pillar of light slammed into the pavement ten feet away. He stumbled back, his coffee splashing onto his shoes. Around him, the city erupted into a chorus of panicked screams and golden luminescence. People were shedding their human veneers, skin glowing with the terrifying, rhythmic thrum of divine energy."What the hell is happening?" Kenji yelled, shielding his eyes as a teenager next to him sprouted wings made of solid, flickering neon."Look at your hands, kid!" a stranger shouted, pointing toward Kenji’s trembling fingers. "You're getting a manifestation!"Kenji looked down. A soft, pathetic, pale-mustard light was weeping from his palms. It wasn't the brilliant crimson of a war

The heavy steel door of the supply room groaned as Kenji threw his shoulder against it, slamming the deadbolt home just as a searing white light sheared through the wooden frame of the doorframe outside. He collapsed against the cold, gray metal, his lungs heaving like a bellows."Lock it! Please tell me you locked it, kid!" Ares-Minus was pacing in a frantic, three-foot circle, his toga currently snagged on a mop bucket."I locked it! But for how long?" Kenji gasped, his hands shaking so violently he had to shove them into his pockets to keep them still. "That guy has a literal glow-stick of death. My towel isn't going to stop him this time.""Hey, don't sell the towel short. That was a high-absorbency moment! A masterclass in friction-based defense," the god countered, though his voice lacked any real conviction. He plucked at his sash, his expression shifting from panic to mild irritation. "Besides, I’m feeling a tingle. A tiny, microscopic tingle of divine energy. We might be able

The moonlight didn’t look right. It was too sharp, cutting through the smog-choked air of Tokyo like a surgical blade, illuminating the jagged ruins of the cityscape in a pale, sickly silver. Kenji stood at the edge of the Sumida River, his chest heaving. Across the dark, oily water, the great suspension bridge stretched out like a skeletal hand reaching for the horizon."Remind me why we’re going over the water," Kenji wheezed, wiping a smear of grime from his forehead. "Water is where things with too many legs usually hang out."Ares-Minus kicked a stray piece of rubble, his toga fluttering uselessly in the humid breeze. "Because, kid, the city blocks are turning into literal labyrinthine hellscapes. Every time we turn a corner, the geography changes. Bridges? Bridges have a fixed start and a fixed end. It’s the only thing that makes sense in this broken-physics disaster.""Everything is a broken-physics disaster," Kenji muttered, trudging onto the bridge’s rusted pedestrian walkway

The silence that followed the stranger’s arrival was heavier than the concrete slab that had nearly crushed them. Vax stood like a statue carved from shadows and aircraft-grade steel, the sword in their hand pulsing with a rhythmic, steady light that made Kenji’s own flickering mustard-colored aura feel like a dying candle in a gale."I asked you a question, kid," Vax repeated, the sword tilting just enough to catch the light. "I don’t like repeating myself. It’s bad for my blood pressure. So, what’s the story?"Kenji didn't stand up. He couldn't. His legs felt like lead weights, and his heart was performing a frantic, irregular tap-dance against his ribs. He gripped the heavy-duty flashlight—his only weapon, if you could even call it that—and stared up at the stranger."It’s not a story," Kenji rasped, his voice sounding like dry gravel. "It’s a disaster. We’re just trying to get across the river. We didn't know this was a nesting ground."Vax took a step forward, the sound of their

The sirens were not merely loud; they were a cacophony of screeching, digitized agony that felt like someone was sandpapering the inside of Kenji’s skull. Sparks rained down from the ceiling like a firework display designed by a pyromaniac, and the floor vibrated with the rhythmic thuds of escaping deities kicking their way out of heavy-duty containment units.Kenji hauled Ares-Minus through the wreckage of the laboratory, the god’s feet dragging uselessly across the electrified grating."I think I’m going to be sick," Ares-Minus wheezed, his face a shade of green that matched the failing security monitors. "Do you have any idea how much energy that static surge took? My soul feels like a dry sponge.""I don't care if your soul is a desiccated husk, keep moving!" Kenji barked, vaulting over a fallen cooling rack that was still venting pressurized nitrogen. "If we get caught in the middle of these gods’ breakout, we’re going to be collateral damage. And I have a strict policy against b