The Rain Idol: Diva of the Divine

The rain in Singapore tonight felt like it was being dumped straight from the sewers of heaven. Heavy, cold, and downright infuriating. Genta wiped the water from his eyes and activated his Indigo Vision. Instantly, the world shifted. The city's aesthetic neon colors turned into a chaotic energy map. Fort Canning's meridian lines looked like short-circuiting wires.

"Damn, I can smell that fishy stench from here," Genta muttered as he leaped over the park's perimeter fence. He landed with an awkward thud, his shoes sinking into a muddy puddle. "Shit, I just bought these on Shopee yesterday, and now they look like they've been soaking in laundry water."

He wasn't out for a night jog. He was hunting a catastrophe. Beneath an old banyan tree with a pitch-black aura, Genta spotted something. Not a stray cat, nor a drunk who’d lost his way. It was a girl—Laras. She lay there helpless, her white dress a sharp contrast against the mud. And all around her, the air vibrated violently.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a shadow in the dark corner elongated, forming the silhouette of a hound with eyes glowing like truck brake lights. This wasn't an ordinary dog. It was a shadow hound sent by the God of War. A Shadow Hound. A low-class astral monster whose hobby was feasting on the remnants of human souls.

"Whoa, hey! Whose neighbor's dog got loose?!" Genta shouted, even as his hand reached into his jacket pocket to pull out a metal coin engraved with a mantra.

The shadow hound snarled, its voice not a bark, but the screech of clashing metal. It pounced, lunging toward the unconscious Laras.

"Don't you get cocky with me, you cursed furball!" Genta moved lightning-fast. He tossed the metal coin into the air. "Fortune Coin Shield, activate!"

Zing!

The coin halted in mid-air, emitting a golden light that blocked the hound’s dark disk of energy. Boom! An explosion of spiritual energy made the ground tremble. Genta didn't wait; he charged forward, kicking the monster’s shadow skull right in the snout.

Crack!

The sound of a fracture echoed. The monster recoiled for a moment, confused that a human could actually kick its shadow. "I'm on a diet, so don't think you can turn me into a snack," Genta taunted as he pivoted into position, catching his breath as he started to huff.

The shadow hound roared in fury, this time summoning two more of its kin from behind the tree. Now there were three. One on the left, one on the right, one in the middle. They began to circle Genta and Laras.

"Okay, three against one. It’d be fair if I had a bazooka, but since all I’ve got is good intentions and some loose change... oh well," Genta grimaced. He knew this was bad. His aura was already draining just from tanking the first hit.

One of the hounds leaped high, its shadow claws aimed at Genta's neck. Genta ducked, sliding across the wet grass, and jabbed his middle finger into the energy pulse point on the hound’s leg.

"Eat that, pressure point!"

The hound exploded into black smoke, but the remaining two pounced immediately without mercy. One of their claws managed to tear through Genta's jacket sleeve. Fresh blood dripped. Damn, this was starting to feel real.

"Laras! Wake up, hey! Don't sleep here, this isn't a capsule hotel!" Genta yelled at the girl, but there was no reaction.

Genta realized one thing. The aura surrounding Laras didn't belong to an ordinary human. It was ancient energy. The energy of a goddess being suppressed within a fragile host. If he didn't make contact soon, Laras would be consumed by those hounds before sunrise.

Genta lunged toward Laras, ignoring the two hounds pouncing at his back. He couldn't dodge. He chose to take the hit.

Rip!

Shadow claws tore into Genta's back; the pain was like being sliced by a hot blade. But Genta didn't care. His hand managed to grab Laras’s shoulder.

"Wake up, or we’re both dead meat!"

The moment Genta’s fingers touched Laras’s shoulder, the world suddenly went silent. The rain seemed to stop falling. Time froze.

It wasn't heat, but a bone-chilling sensation that surged from Laras into Genta's body. Laras’s eyes, which had been closed, suddenly flew open. There was no white in her eyes. There was only a blinding, glowing gold, like a sun rising in the middle of the night.

"Who..." Laras’s voice was no longer her own. It was the sound of thousands of souls speaking in unison. Heavy, majestic, and lethal.

A massive burst of energy exploded from Laras’s body. The shockwave pulverized the surrounding trees, throwing the shadow hounds back until they crumbled into astral dust before they could even bark.

Genta was hurled backward, his body slamming hard against a tree trunk. He coughed, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He stared ahead with his Indigo Vision, which was now nearly exploding from the overload.

Laras stood there. But she was no longer the Laras from before.

Her body was enveloped in a sharp bluish-white aura, like energy blades constantly spinning around her. Her hair billowed despite the lack of wind. She looked at Genta, her gaze devoid of any trace of humanity. It was the gaze of a goddess who had just awakened from thousands of years of hibernation—and she was furious.

"Where... is that damn God of War?" Laras asked in a voice that made the ground beneath Genta's feet crack.

Genta tried to stand, his legs trembling. He wiped the blood from his face and managed a wide grin, though his eyes showed he was scared to death. "Crazy... I just woke up something that should have stayed asleep. Good evening, Princess. Looks like we’ve got a bigger problem than just some stray dogs."

Laras stepped forward, and every stride left a trail of blue fire on the wet ground. She looked at her own palms in wonder, then stared at Genta with an intensity that took his breath away.

"You," Laras pointed at Genta. Her voice was cold, absolute. "You are the one who triggered this seal. You are mine now."

Genta gaped. "Huh? Excuse me? I was just trying to help, not sign up to be a contract slave!"

"Silence," Laras commanded curtly.

Suddenly, the sky above Fort Canning split open. The black clouds that had been pouring rain parted, revealing a glimpse of a celestial army descending with weapons of light. The God of War wasn't playing around. He’d sent a legion.

Genta swallowed hard. "Okay, just kidding. I think I’m going to pass out now."

Laras raised her hand, and in an instant, the thousands of gold coins scattered on the ground transformed into energy swords floating in the air. She was no longer human. She was the host of the Goddess Lanying, and this war had only just begun.

"Run if you want to live," Laras ordered coldly. "Or stand there and witness how I level this place."

Genta looked at the shadow army descending from the sky, then at Laras, whose aura was growing increasingly insane. "Good God... I seriously need a vacation," he whispered, just before Laras leaped toward the enemy horde with a speed that the human eye couldn't even track.

BOOM!

An explosion of energy split the night. Genta had no choice. He had to follow her, or die as a sacrifice of history. He ran after Laras into the eye of the war storm that had just erupted in the heart of Singapore—a city oblivious to the small apocalypse unfolding within it.

And in the distance, among the dark skyscrapers, another pair of eyes was watching them. Someone who had been setting this trap from the very beginning.