Author's Note: Before I begin, I'm going to give a couple of thanks to "I-Nex-I", "Dyliokhan", "muhammadalif9404", "gyroxydite" and "WarLord6968". Thank you very much for reading and posting a comment leaving your opinion and congratulations. I hope the story can be more understandable and interesting with each new chapter and/or revision.

Chapter 6: Bug x Machine x Dragon (Part I).

Two years before Vaccine Man's attack - M-City - 5:17 pm (Region M Time).

The afternoon ran quietly in M-City, in fact the whole region had been quiet for several days. No monster attack or natural disaster. Well, or so people thought. The truth was that quite a few monsters had appeared, but these were quickly eliminated by the city's guardian, before they could cause damage. The mighty Tornado of Terror, the heroine who never rested. Everyone respected her or feared her, and her family was no exception.

Blizzard of Hell, Fubuki.
Hero Class B rank #34
Blizzard Group Leader.
Style: Specialist.

Fubuki was sitting on the sofa in her apartment as she ate some delicious fine crepes, bought from her subordinates before the end of the day, and reflected a little as the night came. Class S had taken over her mind and was the only thing she had been able to think about in the last few weeks. That day her sister was promoted, she invited her to a celebratory dinner in her apartment. Tatsumaki, as he always did every time she went to visit her, again proposed that she go to live with her, because, in her opinion, her little sister only wasted money paying the rent of her apartment. And she, as always, had said no. She had fought too hard to get away from her sister just to back off after all that.

As for what her sister told her about the S-classes, she says, they weren't strong enough to be on the same level as her. And members of the Blizzard Group also believed the same thing. Class S was just another step, one that would be filled gradually as Class B and Class A were filled. Only to the first place on merit or luck and ready, good pay and guaranteed prestige.

But Fubuki knew things weren't that simple. Her sister had remained in Class A for months and no other hero of that kind could be compared to her. One of the members of the S-class was that fat man, Pig God, who had saved her from the ice cream monster that day she met Lily. That man had resisted the attacks she could not and had completely exterminated the monster, a feat she believed only her sister was capable of. Huge was her surprise when she learned that he was a C-class hero, and even greater when he was promoted to a category above her.

Class S was something never seen before, Fubuki was sure of that. For some reason they had gathered them all in the same place. She did not doubt that her sister was more powerful than all of them, but they all had something in common. They were beings out of the ordinary, capable of surprising whoever saw them. But at the same time, able to go unnoticed. So much so that she could only account for the strength of her sister and Pig God, for seeing them in action. And perhaps Blast, though the only image she had of him was the one that an older teenage sister offered her with idolatry and endeavor for years before reaching adulthood and calming down, or at least keeping that admiration to herself. But as for the rest of the heroes, little or nothing she knew about them.

Fubuki took a bite of her crepe and looked out the window, the atmosphere was already dark. She turned to see the clock, it had barely been a few minutes since last time and it had already darkened as if hours had passed. How did the afternoon disappear so suddenly? She couldn't even see the lights of street lighting or the few stars you could see with so much light pollution. What was going on?

Fubuki finished her crepe and, worried that this was something else, peeked out over the balcony. Everything was shrouded in darkness, she needed to get a better view of what was going on. She decided to use her levitation skills to climb the roof of his building. While she could not float through the heavens perpetually as her sister did, she could do it long enough to reach her present destination.

Fubuki came to the roof and stopped to observe the sky. It was black, as if it had been filled with ash. But this ash was moving alive. Fubuki could feel it, something perverse was causing this. She looked at her cell phone and texted members of the Blizzard Group.

"M-City, dark cloud. Blizzard Group, assemble."

Just a disaster appeared when the group was finishing their heroic work today. Spectacular. The Blizzard Group would take a couple of minutes to assemble at best, and less than an hour at worst. It meant she was alone against whatever was causing this. But she was a hero and wouldn't back down.

Fubuki extended her aura a couple of meters and began using the shingles that line the roof to attack the cloud. The cloud seemed to react slightly to that attack. Wait, something's coming down fast. A kind of low-cloud light orb, and loose around it. Stopping right in front of her. Seeing it carefully, Fubuki realized that it was a white moth, of the size of her hand, wiping its wings as it stared into her eyes.

Eye contact broke and the insect returned to the cloud. The cloud did not seem to react but after a second of inactivity, it began to shake frantically, and to emanate a buzzing sound. Fubuki now suspected that this was not a normal storm, but a swarm of bugs caused by something unnatural.

From the cloud, something started to fall. A slightly bright orange powder. Fubuki would take no risks and quickly, expanding her aura even more, conjured a dome over her and her apartment building to protect herself. Dust specks began to collide against it, but against all odds some of these particles began to crawl on the dome. Fubuki focused on feeling them with the aura she put on her barrier and there she saw them. They were termites! Next to the specks of orange dust, there were termites!

Fubuki looked around and saw the buildings gradually disintegrating as the orange cloud fell on them. And as she turned to see her barrier again, she saw the termites trying to bite and cross it. She didn't want to imagine what it would cause if they fell on someone. And all of a sudden, she felt gaps starting to appear in his barrier. The termites were devouring their barrier! Were they able to eat aura? This was getting worse. And she didn't want to know what caused that dust if it fell on her skin or inhaled it.

She couldn't disperse whatever that dark cloud was, she didn't have enough power, so it would be best to condense it. Fubuki turned off her shield and quickly invoked her flagship technique.

Hell Storm.

Her aura began to swirl around her until she shaped a whirlwind that sucked everything around her. Both the falling orange and dark clouds that were in the sky soon began to be sucked in by the whirlwind. Fubuki was in the eye of the storm she had created, seeing the results of his ability. Although a new problem now arose, what should she do now? She could not use debris to attack the bugs, nor could she destroy her apartment and expose everyone there to such danger. Curses. All she could do was contain the cloud with her tornado. Even if that wears her down

Fubuki looked around, and saw that the whirlwind was staining with an increasingly opaque black, orange and white vomit. How big was the insect cloud? The whirlwind only kept sucking more and more and seemed to have no end. And it was starting to spin faster and faster.

Wait a minute, she wasn't doing that. What was going on?

The whirlwind began to expand. The eye of the storm grew and the walls of the eye moved away from Fubuki, forming a circular opening between the dark clouds, which let in the light of the orange sky in the afternoon. Dazzling Fubuki's eyes, that had become accustomed to the darkness of a moment ago.

-Awesome, to be just a human -Said a strange voice among humming.

Fubuki looked up at the fountain and saw it there. It was a kind of man-insect with long legs, four arms, an elongated torso, four wings, a wasp tail, termite jaws and a pair of large compound eyes. His entire body was covered in a prickly exoskeleton full of warm colors that did not make it more comforting to see such monstrosity. And around him floated several of the luminous moths from a moment ago. From afar, it was seen that he was much taller than Fubuki.

Muzhen-Bee.
Disaster level: Demon.
Style: Controller.

For Fubuki, chances are that it was the leader of the swarm of bugs. If true, it was the one who ordered them to exceed the rotation speed of her Hell Storm to overcome it and dispel it against her will.

Fubuki heard in her head a buzzing sound, similar to that of a mosquito passing through her ear and saw that the antennae of the monster commanding the swarm began to shake, and pointed one of his arms towards her. The message was clear: "Devour her."

From one of the walls of the whirlwind of insects around Fubuki, came a mass of bugs destined to enter her body to devour her alive from the inside out. Fubuki reacted in time, and channeled her power to push them back forcefully back into the swarm.

Now she was sure. If she destroyed it, the insect cloud would disperse. The problem is, this was certainly a demon level. Capable of causing damage throughout the city. She had never defeated one on her own. Anyway, she was the leader of the Blizzard Group, and she couldn't back down.

The monster began to emit more and more hums, each more furious than the previous one seeing that its waves were repelled by the human. Would she have been one of the humans responsible for the destruction of the mushroom kingdom? It would be best not to disperse the swarms before he takes down this human. In the meanwhile, he would take advantage of the whirlwind around him to spread the numbing pollen and neutralize any attempt at help.

Pollen particles began to leave the whirlwind, but something pulled them back. Fubuki had forced the particles even within her expanded aura to stay inside the whirlwind. Maybe she didn't control its speed anymore, but still its direction.

However, the blood began to sprout from Fubuki's nose. Indication that she was beginning to reach her limit and that if she wanted to maintain that level of performance, she would pay for it by hurting her body. Just like her sister. Too bad Fubuki not only lacked the massive amount of aura her sister possessed, but also the compatibility with her type of abilities.

The monster felt the drops of blood in the wind and knew that the abnormal human beneath him was weakened. Time to turn it into insect food. He gave the order to the whirlwind of insects to collapse around Fubuki.

The whirlwind's eye began to shrink and Fubuki exerted pressure to keep it in place, but gradually she was giving in. Muzhen-Bee prepared to perform a coup de grace to speed up the hero's downfall. He prepared his wasp sting, and shot.

Wasp Lance.

Maintain a whirlwind, contain pollen particles and now stop a high-speed attack. If she tried to stop the attack, the bleeding on her face will definitely increase. Well, so be it!

Fubuki deflected one of her hands to try to stop the shot, but in less than a second, everyone except Fubuki was paralyzed. Muzhen-Bee didn't know what was going on. Why had he, his attack and his swarm of bugs suddenly frozen in the air? What was this strange presence he felt watching with bloodthirsty eyes? It was too heavy, enveloping and overwhelming.

The monster focused his eyes and saw that they were all wrapped in a strange green aura. He tried to fight to free himself, but control over him was too strong. Suddenly, something ordered him and his swarm to ascend to heaven against his will and there he could see the cause of all this. Nothing but a human of short stature, green hair and slender context.

Tornado of Terror, Tatsumaki.
Hero Class S rank #2
Style: Controller.

Fubuki didn't know exactly how to feel about her sister coming right now. But she knew she had to tell her what she already knew.

-Sister, it's the big insect that commands the swarm, perhaps if...

Before she could say anything else, Tornado had already begun to twist the insect monster as painfully as possible. This loosened his grip on the swarm insects. And of these, termites, which were already bursting from the excess of consuming aura, were the first to try to attack heroin.

But it was too late, Tornado twisted the monster to give it the appearance of a twisted dirty rag, and this caused the insects approaching to attack to stop. It's not like they had a chance anyway.

From below, Fubuki saw the hidden aura covering the swarm fade away. Good sign, they couldn't be organized anymore and now they were just common insects. She diverted her attention to pollen and watched it go out and turn into coffee. Another good news, whatever the effect of that thing, had vanished also along with the monster.

While Tornado compresses what was left of the monster to make it disappear with one hand, with the other she makes another move and causes the entire cloud of insects around her to disperse in all directions to the outskirts of the city. Clearing the sky with it and revealing a beautiful sunset sky.

Fubuki was looking up at the sky. The light behind her sister meant that only the silhouette of her shadow could be seen, but that did not hide her intense green eyes. Again, she had come to save her from trouble, as always. She had come to remind her how weak she was before her, how dependent she remained of her protection.

-If you had problems with a monster, why didn't you call me Fubuki? -Tatsumaki asked with the greatest softness and affection that she was able to express as she descended to Fubuki's height.

-I kept it under control until I received reinforcements from my team -Fubuki replied, pulling out her phone to update her condition with her team.

Tatsumaki's eyelids trembled a little as she heard the last. And quickly, she ripped the phone out of her hands using her power.

-What would that band of losers have served in? Don't worry, I'll tell them that they don't need to come anymore -Clarified Tatsumaki with a smile and closed eyes.

Using her power and without the need to see what she was doing, Tatsumaki accessed the phone and, pressing the keys with her power, sent the message to the Blizzard group that everything had already been controlled.

-Wait, sister!

-Ready, sent. Now we go to your apartment Buki, I'll cure you of that bleeding and prepare you something delicious to eat to forget about those disgusting insects -Tatsumaki said, giving the phone back to her sister and turning around to jump off the terrace and down to the balcony of Fubuki's apartment.

Fubuki picked up the phone and read the message.

"Don't come. A real hero has already eliminated the monster. XoXo"

Fubuki sighed and decided to return to her apartment before her sister forced her.

As for Tatsumaki, she knew there were more monsters appearing in other cities. She thought she'd take care of them after dealing with the one who showed up in their city, but several of the other S-class heroes said on the phone that they'd take care of them. Although the idea of stealing their prey was tempting.

Well, if the association considered them strong enough to place them next to her. So, let them prove they deserved the title. Now she'd take care of her sister. Fubuki only had her, and that was enough. She needed no friends, no teammates, no team, no one but her attentive, loving older sister. Those people would just take advantage of her and make her suffer, just like that ridiculous lens bitch did in high school.

But for now, she'd let her keep playing with those drones who followed her like lap dogs. Although when it comes to the truth, Fubuki only had her, and she had Fubuki, isn't?

Two years before the Vaccine Man's attack - Region M & P Border - 5:26 pm (Region M Time).

The insect attack had begun earlier than he expected. Bofoi knew that the attack was an imminent fact from the moment his computer detected aura waves coming from the island south of supercontinent Amasiat and that his drones obtained images of the insect monsters on the island.

Maybe he didn't know the exact number of enemies, or the strength they possessed. But he believed that a pre-emptive tactical bombardment would be enough to wipe them all out, or at least undermine their numbers to more controllable sizes. The only thing he apparently couldn't anticipate was that the monsters decided to attack a week before the missiles were armed.

But he was a person ready for anything. And if conditions become unfavorable, he'd make sure they were back in his favor.

That's how Bofoi thought while piloting his favorite robotic body, the Metal Knight II. And while it was still baffled by the factor related to the rapid movement and appearance of insects inside the supercontinent, the situation remained under control. He was prepared to deal with the insects whether they decided to continue their foray united or dispersed in the process. Both scenarios already had an answer ready.

The robot was flying at full speed towards the swarm of insects heading towards Region P. The plan was simple, intercept them, bomb them, gas them and then send their autonomous robots to capture the survivors. And if anything went wrong, he had a little surprise ready for those monsters. One that could only be delivered in desert areas, evacuees or weapons test camps.

Bofoi looked with his three eyes at the surface beneath him and managed to spot the horde of monsters.

-Mmmm, Coleoptera, Orthoptera and Scorpions -Bofoi thought and said in his robotic body-. Time to start fumigation.

Body Ammunition.

Using his aura, Bofoi materializes 8 missiles in the missile launcher guns located on the back of the Metal Knight. The last weapons to reload. Now he was ready to start the battle.

-Launching missiles -Metal Knight said, and four missiles were fired from his cannons.

Missile Launch.

He began the bombardment of insect monsters and the missiles hit the ground, causing several of the beetles and grasshoppers that had not died to instantly undertake disorganized flight.

-First stage completed, starting...

A heavy blow to the robot's jaw pulled him out of his thoughts aloud. Disoriented him briefly.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 93%"

Metal Knight returned to himself and saw beetle monsters gathered around him determined to attack. He wouldn't let them. Increase the power of his thrusters to get away quickly. After him, the insects followed. Particularly grasshoppers.

Grasshopper warriors.
Disaster level: Tiger.
Style: Enhancer.

Metal Knight began maneuvering in several directions, there were some monsters that were following him and another that were not. For his plan to be effective, everyone had to go after him.

-Preparing machine guns -Metal Knight said-. Shooting machine guns.

Machine Gun Fire.

From both arms of the Metal Knight, a hail of bullets began to appear in all directions where an insect was spotted. The swarm was further stirred and angry, and the flying beetles joined the chase.

Cowboy Beetles.
Disaster level: Tiger.
Style: Enhancer.

Perfect.

Metal Knight changed his trajectory and decided to climb vertically. All the insects followed him.

-Activate deterrence measure -Metal Knight said-. Throwing Bengals.

Bengals Launch.

A dozen bright lights came out of Metal Knight and loaded all the insects that followed him. Now it's time for fumigation.

-Liberation of Nerve Gas -Metal Knight said.

Nerve Gas Deployment.

From the bottom of Metal Knight begins to release a cloud-like white odorless gas. Quickly, after a couple of seconds, the insects that entered it lost control, stopped flapping their wings and falling from the sky.

Metal Knight stopped ascending and remained in the sky as he heard dozens of bodies fall, waiting to spot any other enemy. Until out of nowhere, from the gas, came a ball of dirt that could not detect tricks with its sensors because it was cold.

Seeing through the clouds, Metal Knight saw who threw it. Another beetle monster that had stayed on the ground. Agglomerated dirt with its paws and throwing it.

Dung Beetle.
Disaster level: Tiger.
Style: Controller.

Well, it would just be waiting for the gas to come down and kill them. In the meantime, he'd dodge the dirt balls they'll throw.

Metal Knight dodged all the balls thrown at him and for a few moments, he was tempted to try to destroy them with his weapons, but he wouldn't waste his precious ammo. One last ball, bigger than the previous ones, passed near him and dodged it easily.

But behind him, the ball of earth exploded and from this came a large muscular insect monster with the appearance of a white, gold, blue and red beetle.

Khepri.
Disaster level: Demon.
Style: Enhancer.

The insect hit Metal Knight's back with all its might.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 67%"

-Damn it -Metal Knight said-. I didn't anticipate that they'd use the balls as a means to hide and get close.

Metal Knight saw several more balls of dirt approaching him. It was obvious what would happen.

Three muscular cuckold beetles came out of some of the balls and charged Metal Knight with their horns.

Rhino beetles.
Disaster level: Demon.
Style: Enhancer.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 51%"

The rhino beetles rushed to grab the arms of the Metal Knight. Khepri spread his wings and launched himself to hit the robot again. It was a fact, they were planning to dismember it in the air.

-Launching missiles -Metal Knight said.

Missile Launch.

Metal Knight fired the remaining four missiles to destroy the beetles. After moving away briefly, they headed towards their targets. Three of them hit the rhino beetles holding him. Although the explosion caught up with him. A small price to pay.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 48%"

But the fourth missile targeting Khepri had no effect and the monster hit the blow.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 31%"

Metal Knight fell at high speed to the ground filled with dozens of dead insect monsters. Where the gas he had released a moment ago was rushing.

Metal Knight stood up. His missile launchers were destroyed and his chest armor had been damaged. But his arms were still working.

The chemical smoke around him gradually dissipated and after watching with his three eyes. Around him, he saw that the swarm of insects fluttered around him and those who did not, gradually approached as the gas dissipated.

-I can't let them walk away thinking I've already been defeated -Metal Knight said-. They must remain close at all costs.

-Throwing Nerve Gas Grenades -Metal Knight said, as his back opened and fired, as if they were mortars, several gas-filled grenades.

Launch of Nerve Gas Grenades.

Metal Knight fired in four directions. Grenades traveled well before hitting the ground and starting to release their poison gas. Again he had stirred the hornet. Time to take flight and...

Something quickly hit the side of Knight metal. Too fast to be able to identify him.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 29%"

Without pausing, new attacks happened. Metal Knight tried to ignite his thrusters to ascend, but more attacks came, this time focused on his robotic legs.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 27%... 25%... 22%... 17%..."

Whoever the attacker was or were, they were not only pretty fast, but they were also immune to poison gas. With the latest attack, Metal Knight was able to identify them. There were several cockroach monsters.

Kitchen Cockroach.
Disaster level: Tiger.
Style: Transmuter.

-Damn cockroaches -Metal Knight said, pointing the machine guns in his hand in all directions-. Shooting machine guns.

Machine Gun Fire.

Bullets flew everywhere and hit some insects. But a new presence entered the cloud of smoke. A rhino beetle charged Metal Knight and gave him a blow that made him ascend from the Gas Cloud. He quickly jumped, reaching Metal Knight, grabbed his arm and struck him with another blow that sent him away from the cloud and crashed him into the ground.

"CPU Message: Armor Integrity at 9%"

Missile launcher, destroyed. Legs, unused. Right arm, destroyed. Pectoral armor, severely damaged. Head, minor damage. Left arm, functional.

-Awesome, we didn't expect the human plague to have such interesting toys -Khepri said after landing in front of Metal Knight and making a big impact.

-And I didn't expect evolutionarily inferior beings to have the ability to speak -Metal Knight said, raising his head to see the monster.

From close up, he could see that it was much taller than his robotic body.

-Laugh while you can human, I can feel you're inside that metal shell -Khepri said as he grabbed with his arm what was left of Metal Knight by his head and kept him suspended in the air-. You choose, or you go out and accept a quick death, or i crush your armor so that you die suffocated in the center of it.

Metal Knight began to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

And all of a sudden, a very malicious aura began to emanate from the robot. This made Khepri react, who let go of the robot and it fell to its knees. All the insects in the horde saw from afar what was happening, paralyzed and confused by feeling such a presence conveying a single desire. Destroy.

-And why don't you choose better? -Metal Knight said, emanating a surprising killer intent even for Khepri-. Do you want to die incinerated or poisoned with radiation?

What was this human talking about? He didn't have any more guns. His armor was shattered. Why was he loading the air with a wicked intention that he was unable to execute? Did he think he could just kill they with that? Wait, he's doing something...

Metal Knight raised his left hand and to everyone's surprise, he pierced his own chest. And in less than a flicker, a great glow occurred.

In the few milliseconds khepri had left of life, he felt the instinctive impulse to run for his life, but it was in vain.

A large explosion erupted and engulfed the entire area within a radius of 1 km.

Again, after several decades of not being seen after the end of the war, a new cloud tree sprouts and grows. Although this time, it does not appear to ravage humanity, but to guarantee its future. It will soon fade away and be a memory of those who saw him with terror or concern. But that won't change its meaning. That weapons that were once used against humanity are now only there to protect it.

At the same time... - 4:42 pm (Region U Time).

Away from the blast site, in an underground complex in U-City, an old man would reopen his eyes and leave his Zetsu state, giving a great sigh. The one-moment ago could have gone better. He did not plan to use the Plum Pudding -a name he had given it as the metal knight units' self-destruct device- against the swarm of monsters.

Although, seeing it differently, it was the only option left for a guaranteed eradication of so many demon-level monsters surviving their first attack. In fact, a threat of that magnitude could no longer be regarded as a demon, otherwise it would be like sending heroes to the slaughterhouse.

At least the "Player Controller" ability did not require him to also feel the damage suffered by the bodies in which he implanted the "Metal Brain" he materialized with his aura. The feeling of being dismembered and vaporized from the inside out was not something he'd like to experience.

Still, the lack of sensitivity did not make his survival instinct less while controlling, with his conscience, the robotic body as if it were his own body. In fact, the more he did, the more he was sure to understand Zero in his youthful days.

Thinking about those days just made memories come to mind. Days when his beloved Zero, despite being a full-blown sleader, went out with his best friend, Blast, to get lost for several days, only to return with blows all over his body after fighting any stranger who seems to be strong and skilled.

They both said they just got stronger and learned from each other's abilities. He didn't care so much back then, while Blast was covering Zero's back, he was sure he'd be back alive anyway. Another thing was for him to come back unscathed. But it was nothing his advanced technology could not solve.

And there, Bofoi stopped his train of thought. If he continued on those, he would think again of that abominable machine that he and his assistant at the time, a young adult and robotics fanatic whose name he did not want to remember, created and that would only be the beginning of the misfortunes of both.

But this was no time to remember the tortuous past. There was work to be done. He had to build the Metal Knight III. It had to be equipped with medium and high-capacity weapons, as well as more powerful thrusters and stronger armor. That was the only way to compensate for one of the conditions that required the use of his skill.

That all his thoughts could be heard by those around him.

He couldn't trust his enemies to always be mindless monsters. Such an advantage could make the battle more complicated and the only way to solve it was to acquire more defense and more offensive power. As for being completely vulnerable when entering Zetsu and closing his eyes... He could feel quite safe deep in his impenetrable underground lab in every way.

Bofoi brought down his chair, he came down from this and walked through his lab and underground home.

Some machines were up and running and some were not. Not that he didn't know, with his surveillance computer he could see everything and with his speakers he could put to work or rest the machines that wore his printed BFI logo, by making use of his other skill, the "Simon Says".

Eventually, Bofoi arrived at his experimental lab.

-Turn on -Bofoi said, and the whole room was filled with light and the machines were activated.

Metal Brain.

A cybernetic brain appeared in Bofoi's hand.

-Build Metal Knight unit skeleton -Bofoi said, casting the brain that conjured into the mechanical arms, who caught him and took him away to begin building the skeleton of the robotic body.

The brain was positioned in what would be the head, and cables began to come out that resembled a nerve network.

Bofoi left the room with the same serious face that he put on to solve mathematical problems and that left his big teeth in sight.

-Time to prepare breakfast -Thought Bofoi willing to eat his smoked salmon with potatoes and vegetables, perhaps while watching the construction works of the Hero Association's headquarters in A-City.

As for the rest of the insects, S-class heroes could take care of them without any problems. Oh, and he almost forgot, it would be better to warn the association that this explosion on the Region M & P border was his doing. It's not going to be that regional governments panic and point guns at each other again as in the past.

Metal Knight, Bofoi.
Unregistered hero.
Style: Materializer.

Two years before the Vaccine Man's attack - A-City - 5:23 pm (Region A time).

That strange explosion that could be seen from miles away frightened many, and the association was no exception. They had already sent the S-class hero rank #8 Tanktop Master, and some of his new apprentices who decided to follow him, to investigate. It wasn't going to be that insects would have been the cause of that.

And that blissful unregistered hero who called himself Metal Knight, but that everyone in the association already knew who he really was, contacted them to inform them of the situation didn't make them feel calmer. No sane man could be aware that this guy had weapons of mass destruction as personal toys. Several of the regional governments had panicked the association to identify the person responsible for the border explosion and classify him as a level of disaster.

Fortunately, Sitch had entered the scene citing the famous case of "Region O vs. Tatsumaki", about how the actions of an abnormally powerful individual, in that case a 17-year-old Tatsumaki, and its aftermath could not be directly classified as threats quickly without prior clarification.

In the end, regional governors only reassured themselves when Tanktop Master reported the situation at the site of the explosion, reporting dozens of bodies of dead and/or charred insect monsters, and the association pledged to affiliate the perpetrator and make him promise not to use those means without notice.

Of course, the association omitted the part where Tanktop Master reported a surviving insect that managed to escape. That would have only given governors an argument that the means used were excessive and at the same time insufficient.

But with that storm over, the association had a new one on this day. Dozens of demon-level threats were popping up everywhere, even as powerful as they had rarely been seen. It was time for S-class heroes. It was the moment the association was waiting for.

But they were not the army, nor the police to coordinate the heroes as soldiers and force them not to act when they felt that duty called them. And just as the S-classes answered the call, so did all the other heroes of the different classes.

And the newest, most promising and fastest-rising rookie in Class B was no exception.

Great Philosopher.
Hero Class B rank #7
Style: Specialist.

Great Philosopher had reached the suburbs on the outskirts of A-City following the report of several spider monsters attacking people. He walked for several minutes, with his book in hand, through the desolate streets, until he found a large hole the size of a house on the ground.

Encyclopedia of the Wise: Chapter 1. "The Natural, the Body and The Creatures of the World".

The pages in the book of the Great Philosopher began to turn until they stopped at a page where there were illustrations of spiders with highly detailed descriptions

"The nature of spiders is to take refuge in dark areas such as cracks and holes."

But this is a city, and between living in a cold hole and a heated construction. The answer was as clear as the water in a spring.

Now the question would be, which of all the buildings, was the hiding place of spiders?

A scream breaks the silence.

Great Philosopher made his heavy book disappear and hurried to find the source of the screams. He came to the backyard of a house and saw a teenager leaving a house and behind him, an abnormally large spider.

Giant Corner Spider.
Disaster level: Wolf
Style: Materializer.

The spider threw a web thread to catch its victim. The Great Philosopher came into action.

Encyclopedia of the Wise.

A great book, extremely heavy, reappeared in the muscular hero's right hand. He made a big leap and stood between the attack and the civilian. The web stuck to his arm and the buffogle spider and tried to pull without result.

Encyclopedia of the Wise: Chapter 2. "The Mundane, the Mind and the Monsters."

The book in the hero's hand opened and the pages began to turn at high speed. But suddenly, instead of staying on a page written in an illegible dead language, the book suddenly closed.

That's too bad. This monster seemed to be one of those mindless and therefore unable to unveil encrypted pages in his book and increase the weight of his knowledge. Time to finish it.

Great Philosopher pulled his arm, pulling the spider with it and when he was around, he crushed it with his book.

2 Tons of Philosophy.

The spider exploded and the hero regained his composure. He went to the civilian who was still in shock and helped him stand up. He quickly explained that the spiders kidnapped the people and took them to the Dangan hotel.

Great Philosopher escorted the civilian to the nearest shelter and set out on his way to the hotel, which was the only building that remained shiny, despite what was going on, in the fenced area.

Great Philosopher entered the Dangan Hotel and was, unsurprisingly, silent and desolate. It was much hotter than usual, though. Time to look for spiders and civilians.

Encyclopedia of the Wise.

The book appeared again in the hero's hand and the hero began to walk around the hotel.

But behind him, a spider watched him.

-Wow, wow, a juicy mosquito has come voluntarily to our web -Said a highly seductive and sensual female voice-. Bring it to me, my children.

Great Philosopher heard hisses and paws moving around him. The action was about to begin. He opened his book and the pages passed quickly. But again it closed again as it was the previous time. Again they were thoughtless monsters whose abilities were not something he hadn't faced before.

A golden-colored spider leaped at full speed behind him to ambush him.

Golden Spider.
Disaster level: Tiger.
Style: Enhancer.

Great Philosopher spun quickly and put his book to stop the attack.

Shield of Wisdom.

The defense completely overnulled the spider's attack. But another Golden Spider tried to ambush the other exposed side of hero. But he channeled his strength on his shoulder to Counterattack.

Philosophy Shoulder Tackle of Truth.

The other spider was hit by the heavy attack, pushing it away. The hero grabbed the first spider and threw it at the other. And with the two spiders together, it was time to finish them off.

2 Tons of Philosophy.

Both spiders were crushed. But this battle didn't help at all, it just slowed him down to save the captured people and it'd exhaust his strength. He had to find my way to the main nest of spiders.

Great philosopher approached the corpse of the two spiders that crushed and saw traces of very fine thread, resistant and that felt strange to the touch. Time to use the third chapter.

Encyclopedia of the Wise: Chapter 3. "The Divine, the Heart and the Force of Life".

The pages turned in quick succession and landed in one. Very nice!

"Gyo in the eyes, to see what the gods hid with In."

That meant there was something else behind these spiders. Something talented. Something thoughtful. Time to act.

Great Philosopher channeled aura into his eyes and saw the trail left by the spider thread. He followed him to the place where there was the greatest concentration of this, the event hall of the Dangan hotel.

Great Philosopher opened both doors to enter and what he saw was a large room without chairs, with a platform and dozens of cocoons on the walls, which in themselves were covered entirely with cobwebs. It looked like a scene typical of an arachnophobic nightmare.

-Welcome Human -Said a female voice with a seductive but at the same time threatening tone.

Great Philosopher looked up and saw a creature descend that appeared to be a hybrid between woman and spider. Her eyes were covered by a black and purple shell. She had a medium bust and big lips. The lower part of his body was a pair of legs but instead of feet he had two sharp claws. Behind her was a lump that seemed to be her insect tail.

Arachne.
Disaster level: Demon.
Style: Transmuter.

The Great Philosopher looked sideways, taking advantage of the shadow of his face that hid his eyes, and saw several cocoons twist. These people had to be taken to safety so that they would be cared for as soon as possible. It's not going to be that they've already been injected with a pregestive poison.

He had to take care of the monster quickly. At first glance it looked not only stronger than the other spiders, but also seemed to be the one who ran them.

Encyclopedia of the Wise: Chapter 2. "The Mundane, the Mind and the Monsters."

The book in his hand opened. The pages turned. And they stopped in a section where one page had text revealed and another with unintelligible text.

"Monsters are characterized by rejecting in mind, heart and body every bond with humanity..."

Time to uncover the rest of the encrypted text.

-Who are you a creature? -Great Philosopher asked.

-Oh, I'm Aracne, princess of insect kingdom spiders -Replied Aracne.

-What do you intend to achieve here?

-What's not obvious? Our kingdom is claiming back what once belonged to us, but for that we need food.

-What kind of food?

-The most abundant and easiest to catch -Aracne replied, approaching a depleted, caressing cocoon-. In fact, I was tasked with feeding our entire army, and I think it will still take several thousand more for everyone to have the second ration they deserve.

Great Philosopher looked in disguise at his book and saw that hieroglyphics on the page he had opened began to transform into readable words.

"... But their motivations can become -twistedly- very human."

Interesting.

-Tell me...

Great Philosopher refocused on the monster.

-Wouldn't you like to join us at our banquet?

-I think our Mayeutic conversation ends here -Great Philosopher declares closing his book knowing that he could not have a conversation with the monster without endangering captured civilians.

Retroactive Knowledge.

Great Philosopher launches his book against the monster. She dodged it and charged the hero to attack. But inadvertently, the book bounced behind her, crushing several spiders in the process, and returning to the one who threw it.

The book hits Aracne in the back of the head, slightly injuriating her and disorienting her.

The book bounced and returned to the hand of the Great Philosopher.

-"So, can she only see what is in contact with her web?" -Thought Great Philosopher.

The hero jumped into the air and swung his book.

2 Tons of Philosophy.

Spiders on the walls began throwing cobwebs at the hero's arm to stop the attack and defend their leader. With the first web that stuck to the Great Philosopher, it was enough for Aracne to know where he was. It was already very close, though. All that was left was to block it.

From Aracne's back came large spider legs that got in the way between her and the attack. The attack connected and generated a great roar but the cobwebs on the hero's arm subtracted much of the strength he had, causing Aracne's legs not to get hurt. Time for the counterattack.

Taking advantage of the hero being trapped, Aracne used one of the claws on his paws to sting the hero's immobilized arm. Time to get on with the rest of his body... What was that earthquake on the ground?

Out of nowhere, a wall exploded and a bright black car came out of it.

The debris blew up. Aracne leapt away, but not being able to see the debris, she weeds quickly, and preventively, a cobweb to stop them and protect himself.

The debris hits Great Philosopher at high speed, and some break the nets that immobilized his arm. Now released, he leapt away from both Aracne and the cause of the hole in the wall as a precaution.

Great Philosopher looked towards the cloud of dust that formed, a muscular and imposing figure coming out.

Superalloy Darkshine.
Hero Class S rank #10
Style: Enhancer.

Great Philosopher felt some relief at the time of the arrival of reinforcements. But his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden instant burning in his arm, which he felt numb. Great Philosopher fell on one knee, still holding with his right hand his heavy book.

Darkshine looks around. He sees several buds, spiders and a hero leaning on one knee. He had to check his condition.

Darkshine approached Great Philosopher.

-I came following the sound of a great roar What is the situation? -Asked Darkshine.

-They have several people caught in these cocoons, she's the one who runs them -Replied Great Philosopher.

As the hero spoke, Aracne came out from behind her cobweb.

-She needs the cobwebs on the ground to be able to feel the movements and uses the sharp stings of the legs coming out of his back to inject poison, a single sting was able to numb my arm -Explained Great Philosopher, clutching with his left hand around the area with the sting on his right arm and squeezing it slightly until he splashed some poison.

Encyclopedia of the Wise: Chapter 3. "The Divine, the Heart and the Force of Life".

The pages passed quickly and stopped in a section.

"The life force is found in all objects, and can be transferred from one object to another, strengthening it."

Great Philosopher took with his left hand one of his long hairs, tearing it off, covering it with aura and causing it to roll tightly around his muscular right arm, stopping the flow of the poison.

-Will you be alright? -Asked Darkshine.

-Don't worry -Great Philosopher replied-. We have to defeat her and free the civilians from the cocoons as soon as possible.

-"Wow, usually the other humans were immediately paralyzed with only one of those stings -Aracne thought.

-Understood -Darkshine replied confidently-. Don't worry, I'll take care of her, her poison won't be able to do anything to me.

-"Won't I be able do anything to you?" thought Aracne. "Then come here and check it out black mosquito."

Aracne deployed all the legs of her back, gaining 4 additional limbs to her arms.

Darkshine began to approach the monster, and his excitement increased.

Suddenly, the spiders on the wall spat nets towards his arm, but Darkshine pulled them, dragging with him dozens of spiders, whom he struck with his other free arm, blowing them all up.

New nets fell on Darkshine's other arm, but he pulled again and began circling on himself. The spiders began to spin around him like a hammerball. And after a final lap, Darkshine let go of the cobwebs and the impulse caused the mass of insects at the end of the web to hit Aracne.

The impact drove Aracne away, causing her to crash into the wall. Aracne was annoyed by this and threw himself at the hero to sting him with his stingers.

A wave of stabs fell on Darkshine but quickly stopped. Aracne felt great pain in all his limbs and upon seeing them, she observed that her stingers had been shattered and that she was bleeding from his limbs.

-W-What? Aracne questioned in panic.

-Spider monster, maybe you can have a dark shine, but I told you, your stingers won't be able to puncture these muscles -Darkshine replied proudly-. Now, let me show you my dark shine.

Darkshine made a wrestling attack using his two arms, and, with the force generated by straining them, crushed Aracne's head. The shock wave generated by the act lifted by little dust around Darkshine. And when it dissipated, only the hero was seen doing the elegant bodybuilder pose of "Side Chest".

Great Philosopher was surprised by what he saw, Darkshine had a perfect and impenetrable defense. Not a single scratch, nor could he be stopped by the web.

And as Darkshine pulled his phone from who knows where to call the association and seek immediate attention for civilians still trapped in the cocoons, the book of Great Philosopher opened.

But to the Great Philosopher's surprise, the pages stopped at one of the most mysterious and intriguing sections.

Encyclopedia of the Wise: Apocryphal Chapter. "Subordination, Convergence and Harmony".

And new words appeared on the pages.

"When internal order breaks down, the path to harmony, convergence or subordination opens up."

The convergence thing was new, but the rest wasn't so much. Great Philosopher had already read something like this in the section of monsters, about how the heart was the great catalyst that gave rise to monsters by enslaving the body and/or mind when there was a strong stimulus that broke the inner order between body, heart and mind.

This generated many new questions.

What did this have to do with Darkshine? What was the nature of that blissful inner order? What were its limits before it broke? What was that state of convergence? Were there other forms of subordination? Could the mind also enslave the body and/or the heart? Would the body be capable of the same thing, too? And more importantly, what did that mean about "Harmony"?

Many questions to reflect with a good glass of ragweed and a bunch of grapes after being cared for by the doctors of the Association. For now, he had to stand up and help Darkshine get people out of the cocoons to make it easier for the association's paramedics to work.

Best regards. I originally planned to make this chapter much longer, but consider that it would be wiser to keep the average of between 6000 and 9000 words to prevent it from becoming much heavier. I hope you like this first part of the insect invasion.

Author's Note:
Edit (11/May/2021)