The attitude adopted by everyone was to kill as many as they could before they couldn't anymore, at their own pace, no longer needing to care about anything else.
If they wanted to hide and rest before fighting, sure. If they wanted to be suicidal and give everything left in one last burst, also fine.
Naia seemed to be intent on doing the latter, much to Kael's chagrin.
The silver-haired man raised his hand again. When his hand compressed into a fist, the surrounding aliens also looked like they were crushed into themselves.
Hundreds fell within a second, but it also consumed much of his already-dwindled energy.
He took out a cold weapon from his space and then jumped over to deal with the other leaks while his own abilities recovered.
While he did so, his peripheral vision would always capture a certain redhead who was bravely rushing towards the enemies. He might've reduced the enemies so they wouldn't surround her, but going against more than one was extremely dangerous for Naia.
Naia's special ability, as it was now, was non-aggressive and very unique.
The ability was to temporarily enhance weapons, allowing them to emit an energy that weakened the aliens. To them, the touch of her enhanced weapon was like acid. Although the destructive power was limited, Naia knew how to maximize it when she could.
Naia was forced into the walls, finding herself surrounded. Instead of panicking, she chose a Brute that had also fallen in and stabbed it with her dart.
It rebelled and shook its body, but she allowed herself to be carried by the force, landing gracefully at the back.
Everyone in their generation was trained in various arts of battle and fighting, and Naia—who had always been conscious of the innate lack of destructiveness her ability had—worked harder than others.
She wrapped her rope around its neck, hearing the sizzle on its skin, and used the painful ropes to control the direction the insectoid was going.
Using its body and weight, she got rid of a few insects, and she skillfully used its mass as a cover. Brutes were big and strong, but they were a bit slower than others.
With her own energy dwindling, her methods of attacking had become more and more limited.
So she could only depend on using the enemy forces against themselves.
Before the Brute succumbed, she managed to kill about a dozen low-level aliens, and then she rushed into a building to avoid getting surrounded.
Guarding the walls soon became useless, and every survivor slowly moved inwards into the buildings. Soon, Naia was also surrounded, with nowhere to hide.
The enemy elites and brutes destroyed every building she hid in.
Naia paled as she heard people's screams, followed by the sound of squelching flesh and bones. She could already see herself in the same situation a moment later.
Before she could become minced meat, however, the insects around her stopped moving, shivering, and then imploded into themselves.
She heaved a sigh at the familiar technique, and she found herself above another building, one farthest away from where the main chaos was happening.
It wouldn't last long, but even a few minutes of respite was appreciated.
Before she could turn to look at Kael, she felt large, calloused hands grab hers. She flinched as it was followed by a cold sensation on her fingers.
"Huh? This…"
By the time she raised her hand by instinct, it was already there. A black ring.
No, black was not the right term. It was more like…the galaxy. The stone itself looked like the galaxy condensed into a tiny stone, smaller than the fingernail on her pinky.
Her eyes sparkled. "This..."
She had always been fascinated with the stars. In this world where everything was dead and dusty, a clear, night sky filled with stars—seen only a few times in a year—was indeed a sight to behold.
She stared at the ring, wondering what it was, what it was for, and what exactly it was made of. Also, what did this guy mean by giving it to her?
Feeling heat creep up her face, she gave him a teasing glance. "Looks like my 99th confession paid off."
Rather than receive an actual response, however, several implosions all over the base occurred.
Several building tops even crumbled.
Implosions, not explosions, and she looked at the guy with a blank face in front of her.
This was his ability going haywire again.
Fortunately, everyone was outside fighting; otherwise, there could have been innocent collateral damage this time.
"Tsk," he tutted expressionlessly, and then flickered out of her sight.
"..."
Naia sighed and rubbed her temples before her mood got better again.
Optimistically, she thought: Seeing her crush one last time before her death wasn't such a bad thing.
…
Time passed, and the battle ground completely moved to the interior of the base. Blood painted the floors and the walls, and everyone simply wanted to take down as many aliens as they could before they succumbed to death.
Even the ordinary people, as long as they killed an alien or two, could die with a smile on their faces.
For the awakeners, it reached the point of no tomorrow and no holding back, with everyone using all their energy to take down as many as they could with them.
The most lethal of them was none other than Kael, who had the very, very rare space ability.
Further, his space ability was much stronger than that of others.
He was able to create cracks in the void, pushing enemies to death like they would in a black hole.
The remaining awakeners and a few ordinary people alive slowly converged to a few places, fighting on building tops or plazas, back to back.
If their abilities matched, they worked in teams and tandems. The fire users and wind users would create explosive and fiery attacks with an increased range, the water and the rare thunder types would increase each others lethalities, and so on.
Naia looked at Kael, who positioned himself near the walls, exclusively targeting the enemies outside. The battlement around him was also cleared of monsters, as if to ensure he could concentrate on the enemies trying to enter.
He always did this because his ability was too domineering, and there was a chance of collateral damage if he used it inside the walls.
In any case, everyone fought valiantly, losing a bit of flesh every minute, if not entire appendages.
Naia's eyes were hot with tears as she watched the rest of her comrades fall down, one by one. Soon, even Kael was stabbed by a pincer, seemingly to come out of nowhere.
Naia gasped, surprised, not expecting him to meet his end like this—especially not before her. Her heart clenched.
Their eyes met and, while his facial muscles remained unchanged, his eyes were deep and expressive. Though Naia herself couldn't ascertain what they were trying to say, his eyes made her feel heavy.
With her final burst, she managed to take down a few more monsters while running away, jumping over enemy shells, and jumping over roofs to get to him.
He shook his head.
"The Queen has been sighted," he said, disappearing in the blink of an eye. The next thing she knew, immense energy concentrated deep into the mob.
She gasped, realising what was happening, and she climbed to the highest accessible rooftop to see for herself.
The Queen was massive, practically a small hill on its own.
Kael was going to fight this thing alone.
This was not even the only one in the world.
In fact, on their planet, there were three. The other two had already decimated their respective part of the world years ago.
Her pupils contracted as she watched the space around the queen change.
The space imploded for a millisecond, but like a balloon, suddenly exploded, clearing a good kilometer around the place.
Millions of insects must've died from that.
Naia was thrown back by the wind created by the impact, but she didn't feel any pain. Tears fell down, but she forced herself to compartmentalize.
She put the energy into anger, taking down many more enemies. Without the Queen, the enemies' lethality immediately halved, allowing her to kill more aliens even when she herself was already on her last leg. Literally.
Because of her ability, her body also had a superior regenerative quality. It was another reason why she, despite her lack of explosive abilities, lasted so long.
In the end, she was surrounded, and she knew she was the only one alive by this time.
When her neck was stabbed, she was not particularly startled. Even the pain took a while to onset. Then, it was dark, and she could tell she was being chewed to death.
And so, at the young age of 24, Naia perished, along with the rest of the world.
….
…
…
Naia opened her eyes to see the sky, dazed.
The sight felt a bit…alien.
Instead of the orange, dusty skies she was used to, this…was blue.
This alone was enough to put her in a state of confusion.
She moved around, using her hands—she was surprised she still had them—to get a feel of her surroundings.
"This…" she blinked, touching the soft and smooth green stripes she seemed to be lying on. "...Grass?"
She had only seen these through salvaged videos and books…
"Am I in the so-called heaven?" Though she heard those were made of clouds, this didn't feel much different.
She smiled. The movies weren't lying, after all.