My Special Ability is Growing Muscles

The city of Arcanum Nexus did not sleep that night.

Heck, the whole of the human domain did not have a wink of sleep that night as the ripple effects of the Demon attack stuck like a sore thumb, the news surging through all corners of the human domain like wildfire in a dry harmattan.

The attack on Nexus Academy had torn through the very heart of the human domain, and though the battle was over, its echoes rippled outward like a storm across a still lake.

The survivors of the coliseum sat wrapped in bloodied bandages, hollow-eyed, their bodies trembling not just from wounds but from the exhaustion and trauma of what they just survived.

It was already more than an hour since it happened as the rescue operations continued non-stop, more dead bodies being piled up.

And Kairo just sat and stared.

He sat slumped against the scorched wall of the ruined training ground, muscles shriveled, stomach still gnawing, yet alive.

Alive.

He could hardly process it.

The same thoughts went through his head over and over again it almost felt like he was a brain tumor patient, but it was just trauma.

'I survived… against all odds. But at what cost?'

Around him, Mira, Draven, Hugo, and the other applicants who survived their baptism by fire stared into nothingness. Sixteen had entered Round 6, only fourteen of them still drew breath. Sienna and Kael were gone.

The silence of the survivors was deafening.

They didn't cheer, they didn't speak, they simply sat, numb, the weight of the massacre pressing down heavier than any victory could lift.

But this reaction was just confined to the tiny walls of Nexus Academy. Outside, it was chaos.

Outside the Academy walls, panic spread like wildfire as order became a thing of the past. Civilians wept in the streets, their family members or friends having been swept along in the rampage of the Demons.

In the towering skyscrapers of major Guilds of the human domain, guild messengers sprinted between towers as the hierarchy simply fractured.

To some, it was the descendants and heirs of their guild leaders that died, and even that was enough to cause a storm within the respective guilds.

In other guilds though, their guild leaders perished in the coliseum!

Malgar, Ulfar, and Serika led the attack but all their attention was focused on stopping Major Pain and Principal Aelthar.

They were prepared though, having invaded with A-Rank Demon Commanders. These Commanders apart from instructing the lesser demons also joined the fray, targeting the important figures in the coliseum stands.

7 guild leaders were murdered in cold blood!

And that… spread ripples through the human domain.

Noble houses were not spared either as major heirs died in the attack. They sealed their estates even as whispers started spreading like a disease.

"The Demons infiltrated the Academy…"

"Thousands are dead!"

"Even nobles… even scouts… gone!"

"God, the world is coming to an end!"

"The Demons have finally done it!"

"We're dead!"

"Where are our leaders? Where is the Union President?!"

The heart of the human domain bled, and everyone felt it.

…

Far above the students and all the chaos and panic, inside one of the core chambers of Nexus Academy, the Principal's office, the real weight of the catastrophe was being laid bare.

Principal Aelthar sat behind his obsidian desk, his golden-rune robe torn at the shoulder, ash streaking his once-pristine white hair.

Major Pain stood before him, still bloodied, his eyepatch half-scorched, but his single eye burned sharp with restrained fury.

Arcane crystals lined the desk, each pulsing faintly, each carrying the latest reports from across the continent. Unlike the whitewashed version of the story that spilled to the civilians, they got the full detailed report.

It didn't paint a pretty picture; it was harrowing to say the least.

Learning of the true extent of the damage was hard to swallow for Principal Aelthar, as one of the main players in the human domain, but it was another report entirely that truly made his expression darken.

He broke the silence first. His voice was low and grave but it carried the unmistakable weight of command.

"They didn't just strike us," he muttered.

Major Pain's jaw tightened. "Where?"

One by one, Aelthar touched the crystals. Images shimmered in the air, war correspondents and spell-recordings flickering in raw detail.

The first crystal replayed the coliseum, the screams, and the dead. It replayed the sea of noble corpses among the ruins of Nexus Academy.

The second shifted to the northern human forges where black smoke covered the sky, Kravox Bone-Tyrant's skeletal army tearing through blacksmith halls, legendary weapons shattered beyond repair.

The third showed the arterial roads north of the city.

It showed as Zahrim Galeclaw's stormfronts ripped through caravans, while Vaelith Ember's flames consumed the bridges linking human supply lines to the Orcish domain. The artery was gone, burned to ash.

Major Pain's fists clenched at his sides.

"That alone is enough to tilt the balance…!"

But Aelthar's face was darker still. He lifted the final crystal.

"It is worse".

Major Pain's heart skipped a beat, wondering what could be worse than this.

BZZZ!

The crystal image flashed.

The image that bloomed to life left Major Pain frozen in shock.

This was not the human domain. The battlefield was deep in the Orc domain. Mountains split under force, and the sky bled red.

And there, towering like a demigod, stood a Supreme Chieftain, one of the Five Pillars of Orc-kind.

His tusks gleamed with runic etchings, his war axe wreathed in primal lightning. His aura alone warped the recording, SS-Rank surging from his form.

He roared, shaking the heavens. But then the shadows came.

Demon Lords and Arch Commanders.

They swarmed him, each strike tearing pieces of that titanic frame. The crystal flickered, static consuming parts of the scene, but the sound carried through… a guttural, earth-shattering cry as the Supreme Chieftain fell!

The image cut to black.

Aelthar's voice was barely more than a whisper, yet it crushed the room heavier than thunder.

"One of the Five Supreme Chieftains… is dead!"

For once, Major Pain did not speak. His single eye, so used to staring unflinching into hell, widened.

The Demons hadn't just struck at humanity, they had crippled the Orcs too.

And the first step into full-scale war had been taken.