NOVEL WEB Chapter 14 – Blackout
Chapter 14 – Blackout
Because of the power outage, everything in the sprawling metropolis sank into darkness. The towering skyscrapers, usually bathed in neon and electric hum, now stood as looming black silhouettes against the night. The only light came from the stars, their faint twinkle barely cutting through the gloom. Yet, a far more ominous glow illuminated the city—the fiery trail of massive meteors streaking across the northern sky before crashing violently into the planet.
A blinding mushroom cloud surged upward, turning night into a brief, blazing dawn. Moments later, a thunderous shockwave rippled through the air, vibrating the very sky.
“What was that?” I muttered, my voice barely audible beneath the rising wind.
Then came the delayed explosion, a deafening roar that seemed to tear through the atmosphere itself. The force was so intense that even Myrrh, who always faced danger with a smirk, cried out and clasped her ears in pain.
“Kyah!” she shrieked, crumbling to the ground.
The ground beneath us trembled like a beast waking from slumber. Glass windows shattered in unison, sending shards cascading like a deadly glittering rain onto the darkened streets below. The once-pristine skyline was now littered with the glitter of broken glass, reflecting the chaos in sharp fragments.
It became harder to see. The outage left the city in a suffocating void of shadow. Only the pale glow of the night sky and the distant Earth hanging low on the horizon, illuminated by the reflection of the sun, provided any trace of light.
Myrrh stood shakily, trying to regain her composure, but her wide, panicked eyes betrayed her fear. Her voice trembled as she turned toward me, gazing back at the destruction with disbelief. “No way… Xyraxis has never had a power outage before. Even the Archonlight Tower… it’s completely dark!”
“What does this mean?” I asked, my own voice hollow, as if the answer would bring something far worse than a simple explanation.
Myrrh shook her head frantically. “Let’s go back!”
Without hesitation, we bolted toward the emergency exit, our footsteps echoing in the darkened hospital halls. The downward spiral of the stairs stretched before us, endless and foreboding. With the elevators dead due to the blackout, our only option was the stairwell. Thankfully, faint blue LED backup lights flickered on, casting eerie shadows on the walls and barely illuminating our descent.
After what felt like an eternity, the primary lights flickered back to life, filling the stairwell with a harsh, sterile glow. Relief washed over me for a split second, but that momentary comfort was shattered by the hospital's PA system crackling to life, its voice cold and urgent.
“Attention to all people in the Xyraxis Hospital. You are instructed to vacate the premises and follow the nurse’s guide to your designated underground bunker. I repeat, all people in Xyraxis Hospital. Please vacate the premises and proceed to the underground bunker.”
A shiver ran down my spine, like icy fingers brushing my neck. An inexplicable dread crept into my chest, mingling strangely with an unsettling thrill that made my heart race. Something terrible—something beyond my understanding—was happening.
“What the hell is going on here?” Myrrh muttered under her breath, her eyes wide and fearful as we continued down the stairs.
After what felt like hours but was only three minutes, we reached Miss Mirana's room. She was already standing, supported by a nurse, her face pale but relieved.
“Myrrh, Zaft… Thank goodness you’re okay,” Miss Mirana said, her weak smile a small comfort amidst the chaos.
Before we could respond, the nurse raised her voice urgently. “You two! Follow me to the underground bunker immediately! You’ll be safe there.”
Myrrh and I exchanged uncertain glances. My mind raced, questions swirling faster than I could process. But before I could speak, my watch vibrated, and a soft blue hologram flickered to life from the WEEB system on my wrist.
[Attention: All Support Students, please assemble at Orbital Tech Applied Kinetics University and standby.]
At the same moment, Myrrh’s morpher flickered to life, projecting a hologram identical to mine.
[Attention: All WAIFU Students, please assemble at Orbital Tech Applied Kinetics University and standby.]
Miss Mirana’s eyes shifted between the two holographic messages before she smiled, a weary yet satisfied expression crossing her face. “Looks like you two are up. I don't think you freshmen will be deployed immediately, but the university may assign you to defend the grounds once the Vanguard is stretched thin and needed reinforcements.”
Myrrh’s face softened, her usual fiery demeanor faltering for a brief moment. “I-I’m sorry, mother… it’s a call of duty,” she said, her voice tinged with sadness. A bittersweet smile tugged at her lips as she embraced Miss Mirana, clinging to her as if she didn’t want to let go.
Miss Mirana leaned in close, her voice barely a whisper. “Be careful out there, Myrrh,” she said, before turning to me. “And you too, Zaft.”
I met her gaze and nodded, returning the gesture with a reassuring smile. Words felt inadequate in the face of what was happening, but the gravity of her concern settled heavily in my chest.
As Myrrh released her mother, a silent understanding passed between the two of us. Her blue eyes, once clouded with fear, now burned with fierce determination. The intensity of her resolve sparked something inside me, filling me with a newfound sense of purpose. We shared a brief, resolute nod, and without another word, we sprinted down the corridor, leaving Miss Mirana and the nurse behind as they headed for safety.
“Hey, Myrrh, where exactly are we going?” I called out as we rounded a corner, our footsteps pounding against the cold, sterile floor.
“We need to figure out what’s happening first,” Myrrh replied, her voice steady and serious, though the urgency was unmistakable. “From the emergency announcements and the alerts on our devices, it’s clear that Xyraxis is in grave danger. If we can get to a high vantage point, we might be able to assess the situation.”
Myrrh and I finally reached the section of the hospital lined with tall glass walls. From here, we could see the chaos unfolding in the northern part of the cyberpunk city. Flames raged everywhere, casting an eerie red-orange glow against the once vibrant skyline. Among the inferno, the silhouettes of towering monsters loomed—Cosmic Beasts. There were five of them, wreaking havoc across the city. Buildings crumbled beneath their massive limbs as they rampaged, reducing everything in their path to ash and rubble.
“I can’t believe it,” Myrrh gasped, her breath catching in her throat as her wide eyes took in the destruction. “Xyraxis has never been attacked by Cosmic Beasts for ten years. Why now?”
I clenched my fists, staring out at the devastation. “Maybe it has something to do with the power outage. Didn’t you say the Archonlight Tower is what protects Xyraxis from the Cosmic Beasts? With the blackout, the city’s defenses must have gone down, and in that window of vulnerability, the Cosmic Beasts broke through.”
Myrrh nodded grimly, her eyes narrowing in realization. “That’s most likely it. It also explains the meteors that crashed in the northern part of the city.”
The Cosmic Beasts usually travel through space as massive debris, their burning forms often mistaken for meteors when they enter Earth’s atmosphere. It was only decades ago that humanity learned these "meteors" were actually living creatures.
Suddenly, one of the Beasts—a towering, thirty-meter-tall monstrosity—emerged from the smoke and flames. Its massive, gorilla-like body moved with terrifying speed. Hundreds of grotesque, writhing tentacle-tails sprouted from its lower back, while a sunflower-shaped mane encircled its head, its petals glistening like metallic blades. With each thunderous step, it crushed smaller buildings beneath its feet and smashed through taller structures as if they were made of glass. And it was heading straight in our direction.
“This is bad!” Myrrh’s voice trembled as she spoke. Her gaze flickered with fear. “The hospital is still evacuating patients. If that Cosmic Beast reaches us… then my mother…”
Her words hung in the air, heavy with dread. The beast was closing in, unstoppable and merciless. The thought of it destroying the hospital and everything inside—including Mirana Alicent—sent a chill down my spine.
Without warning, Myrrh grabbed a fire extinguisher from the wall, her movements swift and deliberate. Before I could react, she swung it hard against the glass wall with a loud crash. Shards flew everywhere, leaving a web of cracks splintering outward from the impact.
“What the hell are you doing?” I shouted, panic rising in my chest.
“I’m going to fight that Cosmic Beast! Zaft, assist me!” she declared, her voice filled with fierce determination.
"But we are ordered to assemble in-"
Before I could finish my response, Myrrh leaped toward the fractured glass. Her body hit it with full force, shattering the wall into countless pieces that glistened like rain as they fell. In a blur of motion, she dived out from the seventh floor of the hospital, her silhouette against the burning cityscape. As she plummeted toward the street below, she raised her morpher high.
“Frame Unit, Awaken!” she shouted.
In an instant, her body was engulfed in blinding light. Armor materialized around her, expanding and growing until she transformed into a towering, twenty-meter-tall mech. Its sleek, white-and-gold armor gleamed under the reflection of the distant fires, and glowing blue circuits pulsed across its form like veins of energy. Its neon-blue eyes lit up, casting a sharp glow across the battlefield.
The gorilla-type Cosmic Beast roared in rage, its garbled voice an unintelligible mess of sounds.
“^*(HBKG((%^*NL%!”
The monster, easily thirty meters tall, began its brutal charge toward the hospital. Its massive fists smashed into the ground, sending tremors through the street as it prepared to ram through the building.
But Myrrh wasn’t going to let that happen. With a powerful cry, she lunged forward and met the beast head-on, tackling it mid-charge. The ground trembled beneath their weight as the two collided, locked in a fierce grapple. Myrrh's mech dug its massive right foot into the asphalt, the ground cracking under the pressure as she fought to hold the beast back.
“I won’t let you destroy this place! Yaaaaaah!” Myrrh screamed with everything she had, pouring all her strength into the fight.
Her mech’s servos whined under the strain as she redirected the Cosmic Beast’s momentum. With a sudden surge of power, she twisted its massive body to the left and hurled it across the street. The beast crashed into a nearby park, the impact sending chunks of concrete and trees flying. Its enormous form tumbled into the man-made lake, splashing water and debris everywhere, narrowly missing the surrounding buildings.
Enraged, the Cosmic Beast rose from the lake, its deep, guttural growls shaking the ground.
“6BK()#@(NF)^!” it bellowed, slamming its gorilla-like arms into the earth with explosive force. Craters formed beneath its fists, tearing up what little remained of the park and throwing dirt and debris into the air. The ground quaked from its raw fury, but Myrrh stood firm, her mech’s glowing blue eyes locked on the creature with unwavering resolve.
Even though the WEEB system instructed us to assemble and standby at the University, we couldn’t just leave the hospital unprotected. The patients were still evacuating, and if we didn’t make our stand here, they’d all be doomed. This was no longer a training exercise or a simulation. Shit just got real, and I had no choice but to fight alongside Myrrh or we’d all be wiped out.
I tapped the interface of my WEEB System, my heart pounding in my chest. A holographic display flickered to life, revealing my weapon options.
[Weaponry Enhancement Engineering Bios]
[Clearance Level 3]
[Weapons Available: [Laser Sword], [Beam Rifle], [Light Shield]]
I barely hesitated as I selected the laser sword and light shield options—this was close-quarters combat, and I needed to equip Myrrh for a direct fight. With a surge of adrenaline, I raised my hand toward her massive mech, shouting, “Laser Sword, Light Shield, Equip!”
As soon as the words left my mouth, blue circuits pulsed along my arm, crackling with energy. The same glowing lines appeared along Myrrh’s mech, linking us in a flash of light. In her right hand, a shimmering, blazing laser sword materialized, the blade humming with raw power. In her left hand, a steel light shield formed, glowing faintly as it adjusted to absorb incoming damage.
Myrrh wasted no time, gripping the sword tightly. She swung it through the air in sharp, precise arcs, the blade slicing through the space around her with a sharp hiss. Then, with a powerful roar, her leg thrusters activated. Jets of blue flame erupted from beneath her feet as she launched forward with a deafening jet engine roar.
“This will mark your end! Yaaaaaaah!” she screamed, her voice filled with fury and resolve.
Her mech shot forward like a missile, closing the distance between her and the gorilla-like Cosmic Beast in an instant. The force of her charge kicked up a whirlwind of dust and debris, and the sound of her thrusters reverberated across the battlefield like thunder.