First Exposure - Part 1

* Longing Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale (by Yuna) *

***

Draven passed the countless monsters and the S ranker without paying attention to any.

His fiery eyes were focusing elsewhere.

The moment he got closer to where he 'knew', or rather felt, Maria was, he could already see how bad the situation was.

Although the girls have attempted to kill many monsters in order to rescue as much bystanders, as evident by the monster bodies lying around and the group of dead people behind them, it still was too much for them.

After killing so many of these creatures, they've apparently attracted the attention of the strongest amongst them.

Standing 4 meters tall, one of the skinny creatures, clad in grey armour, was toying with Maya. Literally, cutting the back of her blouse little by little.

Blood trickled down her body and pain radiated through her veins, yet she didn't stop hugging the falling Maria.

On the floor, Maria was laid on her back, blood covering her face and bare chest.

A deep cut could be seen, extending from her abdomen and all the way far up through her shoulder.

Covered by her still body, there was a small bleeding body. It was a toddler!

The scene was shockingly terrifying for Draven, the assassin that used to kill many without feeling a gust of pity.

But seeing his own family like this, made him lose his mind.

Unbeknownst to him, his azure ireses were long replaced by flaring dark purple ones, while his pupils had escaped from their socket and extended over to the sclera, turning its white colour into void black.

His sad desperate expression only lasted a second, before being replaced by that of a cold killing machine.

1. Remove immediate threats

2. Stabilize the targets' conditions

3. Exterminate all danger

4. Fully heal the targets

Those were the four objectives the cold machine had to achieve. Failure wasn't an option.

All of this analysis was done in a mere moment.

But the time the next moment had come, he was already kneeing the huge sickle monster in the shoulder.

The first contact caused an initial shockwave that extended through its body and out to the air.

As the hit landed, its humerus, scapula, and clavicle were turned into dust, one after the other. The force of the push was enough to push it a couple of meters away from its victims.

Because of the actual hit, a second shockwave was about to shatter the top part of the spinal cord killing in it instantly.

But Draven's now claw like gauntlet was already halfway through separating the head from the body, which when accompanied by the incoming shockwave, caused the spinal dust to splatter in the air.

From Camilla, the S ranker's point of view, it looked like someone was so high that they were throwing cocaine in the air for a party sniff.

"First objective completed" muttered the kid in a monotonous voice. "Proceeding onto the second objective."

With that, another bang was heard and he was already crouching near the two girls, with his glowing hand extended over Maya's fragile body.

"First target unconscious.

"Vitals in severe condition.

"Mana nodes closed

"Soul condition... Normal

"No immediate emergency detected

"Full healing possibility: 87%"

Before he'd even finished the last sentence, the white blue glow of his open palm was now radiating with an enormous amount of energy that created two stacks of magic circles.

Each stack contained three magic circles that surrounded Maya.

Collecting the surrounding energy made them radiate with a white light before it was all sent through Maya's head and through her body.

"Conducting stabilization attempts.

"Stabilization attempt number 1... success.

"Target is being stabilized."

Moving his hand over to Maria's body, he started muttering again.

"Second target unconscious

"Vitals.... nonexistent

"Mana nodes... shattered

"Soul condition..." At those words, his palm glowed red.

"... critically weakened

"As soul is present, resurrection procedures are halted", at that the glow turned back to it's white blue hue.

"Full healing possibility: 19%

"Emergency protocol launched."

As the last word was said, two small magic circles appeared. One below and the other above Maria's bloody body.

What followed that was a series of small to big magic circle, the last and biggest being as large as half of the soccer field, covering the sky just underneath the big dark rift.

The magic circles started glowing with radiant white hue that gave the illusion of a small sun.

"Conducting stabilization attempts.

"Stabilization attempt number 1... Failed.

"Stabilization attempt number 2 ... Failed

"Stabilization-

Although the kid was still attempting to save Maria's life, he wasn't defenceless.

Many monsters were drawn to the radiant light of the magical circles.

Those that were flying, mostly mages, trying to damage the magical circles, were dumbfounded by the results.

Where they were expecting to break or at least crack the magic circle, they saw tendrils of light absorbing their attacks, only to be fired at them again with twice the force and speed.

And those who were trying to flank the kid, were shocked to realize that all of a sudden they couldn't move their bodies.

The moment they crossed a specific array on the ground, they'd feel their own shadows strangling them to death, or just smashing their extended void claws into their chests, reaping their hearts out.

For those who even were outside the array, they were attacked by their dead companions' shadows. As the shadow won't die with its owner.

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(Note: the word "energy" and "mana" describe the same thing. Such terms will be used interchangeably.)

Camilla Rogers, the S ranker who was watching the events unfold in front of her couldn't help but open her mouth in shock.

'What rank is that kid at...?'

What she was seeing was by no means normal.

As an S ranker, she understood the basics of some of what he was doing, but not how he was achieving it.

'Those magic circles are sucking in the world energy! HOW?' a tinge of envy and fear could be seen in her pale face.

'It's supposed to be unstable! How's he doing it! And even if he used the magic circles to collect it, how does he transfer them into a different body? There's no scientific or magical way that proves it possible!'

Watching for a while, she noticed how almost every monster was attracted to the light show now, 'Well, f*ck! He leaves his back open and now expects me to swoop in and help?'

However, as she had that thought, she realised what was happening.

"Their shadows... H- Their orbs! No W-...."

Seeing and believing are different things.

And at that moment, Camilla's brain didn't agree, nor believe, in what her own eyes were watching.

----------------------

"Stabilization attempt number 21 ... Failed.

"Stabilization attempt number 22 ... Failed.

"Stabilization attempt number 23 ... Error... Soul cracked... Emergency resurrection procedure prearranged." at those words, the circles turned blood red.

"Soul shattering possiblity: 89%

"Due to high soul shattering possiblity, emergency resurrection estimated success possiblity is less than 5%

"Due to low success possiblity, resurrection procedure put on hold.

"Searching for possible solutions

"Choosing the solution with the highest chance of success

"Running multiple simulations...

"Solution: Transformation into a Soul Weaver

"Conducting transformation procedure"

After what seemed like eternity, but was actually 12 seconds, the magic circles turned deep purple, and instead of sucking in the world energy, the kid injected his own mana into it.

"Fueling magic circles

"Injecting mana surgically into the target's nodes... fixing nodes

"Mana nodes condition: forcibly open and fragile as a result of previous shattering accident

"Partialy purifying mana of own signature... Highlighting general soul weaver mana signature... Injecting into nodes

"Nodes condition: stable, ready to accept mana transfer

"Injecting mana into cracked soul... sealing... patching..."

After about 6 minutes, which had lasted since Draven's arrival and till now, countless monsters had died already.

The remaining lot were left scared sh*tless, at least those who were smart enough to comprehend the situation.

After another two minutes the kid spoke again.

"Soul Weaver transformation procedure completed

"Target still unconscious.

"Vitals in critical condition.

"Mana nodes weak

"Soul condition... Normal

"No immediate emergency detected

"Full healing possibility: 78%"

As the light turned bright white again, the normal healing process was conducted.

"Conducting stabilization attempts.

"Stabilization attempt number 24... success.

"Target is being stabilized."

"Second objective completed," muttering the last word, the expressionless kid stood up and started looking up the sky where the huge rift had by now covered almost the entire city, even extended down to cover the land.

It almost looked like a cell battle, where the white blood cell would attack and devour the virus. And Earth was the virus in this case.

"Starting the third objective...