PROLOGUE
"Why should I apologize for being a monster? Has anyone ever apologized for turning me into one?"
As Kronos looked down at the beautiful metropolis from the top of the skyscraper, he couldn't help but envy the peaceful lives of people. Soft lights radiating from the buildings illuminated the whole cityscape. A strip of a thin river which ran through the city glistened in the night of full moon. The stars studded in the sky shone like gems. Someone like him couldn't believe how convincingly tranquil did the city look from outside.
As he blinked his eyes, the scenery before him changed. The image in front of his eyes got leeched of its color. His vision became a monochrome of grey. The scent of blood brought him back to his senses. He mechanically extended his claws and leaped on the skyscraper in front of him. He kicked the curtain walls of the building, which shattered immediately when it came in contact with the sole of his shoes, and entered inside. He followed the strong intoxicating aroma which led him to the interiors of the building, along with the aquarium. At the center of the pool of blood, where he reached, was a girl, who was tearing of a piece of flesh from one of the numerous corpses sprawled on the floor. Not again, he thought regretfully.
"When they said you are a binge eater, they weren't joking," Kronos said, loosening the tie around his collar.
The red-haired girl turned around. Her red iris flared against the black sclera of her eyes. A smirk formed on her face. "I have to keep up with my impression, don't I?"
"I personally don't have any problems with your doings, unless and until it starts being a problem for us. I am sure that you are aware of the fact that you have just killed a person I really needed." Kronos said, bending down and dipping his finger into the blood to taste it. "You need to stop doing this. The number of CCG agents in this area has increased just because of you. Stop it or else, move to another place, away from hell's kitchen."
She stood up from her position wiped the blood on her white tunic. "Who the hell do you think I am to listen to you?"
"Well, I believe you to be another shitbag that has gone berserk." He said.
"Stepping into my territory, and still being alive, is something you should consider as a favor that I did for you." She said.
"Well, well, well. Look who is talking about favors. Do you even know who I am?" He asked.
"I don't, but you do look like another obnoxious loathsome shitbag who thinks too highly of himself." She said.
Kronos gave an airy laugh. "Do you know what the worst thing about crossing line is?" He asked. "It's that you still don't know when you have already crossed it." In a flash, he bolted towards her in an attempted to thrust his claws into her stomach, which she dodged with ease.
"What's the fun if you don't?" She wrapped her finger around his collar, slammed him against the wall. "Now I'll show you what really happens when I go berserk." She balled her fist and forced her eyes shut and four reddish black tentacle-like scaled structures, –almost six feet long –with sharp venomous tip emerged from her back."Do you want a taste of it?"
"Let's make it a fair fight," Kronos said. A single long brown appendage resembling the tail of a scorpion sprouted from the tailbone of Kronos. "You aren't the only one who has a kagune."
"You got to be kidding me." The girl said, stopping in her tracks. "This kagune... This belongs to Krios!"
Kronos gave an airy laughed. "Minor correction. Used to belong to him."
The girl lashed her kagune on Kronos which he evaded by ducking but the venom spewed by its tips managed to burn a portion of his tuxedo.
"This was my favorite tux." He scowled at her. "How dare you ruin it?" The scorpion tail wrapped itself around a broken pillar lain on the floor and threw it at her, which she crushed into pieces of debris with her tentacles. The girl was giving him a tough competition. He needed to distract her. His eyes fell on the aquarium which ran along the wall beside him. He inflicted a crack on its glass which shattered the whole glass frame of the aquarium itself. The water, along with the various creatures in it, flooded out, engulfing both of them in it. They dug in their kagune inside the tiles to attain grip against the water's force.
Once the water settled down, its level reaching his waist, the girl was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, she rose from the water from behind and wrapped her tentacles around his kagune and stabbed her claws into his shoulder blade. "Feels magnificent, doesn't it?" She said.
The wounds on Kronos body healed itself as soon as it came. "No matter how hard-"
His words were cut off by a loud pulsating noise followed by bright searchlights directed towards them. Through the curtain walls of the building, they saw three helicopters were hovering in the air, pointing the muzzle of its grenade launcher at them.
"It's the CCG," Kronos whispered. "It's not the time to fight within ourselves."
Subsequently, the building caved in thunder as the wall got blasted and twenty men or so men wearing exoskeletons, pointing the laser lights of the guns which they were armed with at them. Kronos and the girl froze at their positions and stared at each other, coming to a silent agreement. He knew she was thinking the same thing he was. He nodded grimly at her and they both started attacking the armed men.
Kronos shielded himself from the bullets with his kagune and advanced in their direction.
"The bullets won't do a thing to him. You need to harvest his kagune." said the man in the squad who was taking the lead.
The men removed the chainsaw strapped to their legs and activated it. But the machinery they were using didn't seem to be ordinary chainsaws. When the blades started to rotate, they turned into red-hot iron. As four to five of them surrounded him, he couldn't think of a solution. He was clearly outnumbered. A sharp
Even before he could react, one of the men sliced off a portion of his kagune. Pain seared to his entire body from the point of injury. He felt as if current passed through his nerves. His vision became dizzy and his senses became numb. Everything in front of him got engulfed in darkness.