Yousef stood, placing a hand on his burnt arm, blood trickling from his forehead and chest. He watched Jasto leap to his feet. Akira tried to ambush him from behind, but Jasto spun and grabbed him by the throat.

"Predictable," Jasto said. "Never repeat the same tactic more than once in a battle. That's military tactics 101, in case you've never read it."

Jasto channeled heat from his hands into Akira's body. Akira screamed from the intense heat, feeling as if he were melting. But suddenly, Jasto took an explosion from behind that made him drop Akira. He looked back, astonished, to find that Yousef had launched target-seeking grenades from his suit. These grenades would fly into the air for a few moments, lock onto their target, and charge, exploding on impact.

Ten grenades rushed Jasto at once. He began to blast them all with heat from his hands, but he took several bullets in his body from behind. Akira had pulled his machine gun from his suit's back and was firing at him, aiming for his legs to immobilize him.

Jasto blasted a thermal beam at him. Akira vanished and reappeared nearby, firing non-stop. From within the smoke of the grenades Jasto had just detonated, Yousef appeared, running at full speed. He slapped a sticky bomb onto Jasto's back and fled. It exploded, sending Jasto flying and shattering his military suit. Purple blood flowed down Jasto's back, and a part of his milky, crystalline body broke off. But he collected himself, stood up quickly, and blasted intense heat from his body in every direction, knowing they would both attack him together now.

Jasto stood staggering after pushing them back. "You want to take me down with rifles and machine guns?" he said with disdain. "What is this nonsense? My body is a masterpiece of genetic modifications that cost me millions. It's unaffected by bullets and this foolishness."

Yousef noticed that Jasto's body was not like the other Franks' bodies. They had skin, but his body was hard as diamond and immune to bullets. But the explosives could shatter this body, bit by bit, until they reached his skin and heart. They were, without a doubt, facing an invincible monster.

Jasto looked at his hard, crystalline hands. Heat flowed into his palms with a bright golden color. He began to strike madly in every direction he glimpsed them. His focus was split between them, which prevented him from accurately predicting their movements, but he didn't care. He had decided to bombard them until they were charred, and this entire plain with them. The explosions thundered up to the sky, so much so that the Franks soldiers who were looking for their commander saw them. They knew that Jasto was at his peak, and if they got any closer, they would undoubtedly be burned.

Yousef ran like a gazelle fleeing a pack of lions. The explosions around him increased, randomly and insanely, until he found that reaching Jasto was impossible at this moment. As for Akira, he teleported himself into the sky, released the tracking bombs, leaving them up high to lock onto their target, then disappeared and returned to the ground. They shot toward Jasto, one after another, and began to explode on him. Despite his sharp eyesight, he did not see them, as he was focused on blowing up everything around him until the flames rose high and the dust and smoke thickened.

Jasto took several successive explosions that shattered several layers of his hard, crystalline body. But he quickly collected himself and ran away before the other bursts could hit him. He was surprised by Yousef tripping him from his feet, knocking him to the ground. But he rolled his body and somersaulted to his feet. A bomb exploded behind him, pushing him forward from the shockwave, but he kept struggling to escape. Akira appeared behind him, clinging to him, planting a sticky bomb, and then disappeared. Jasto tried to pull it off his back, but he heard the rapid beeping of the timer until it exploded on his back, causing him severe damage. And then, many more bombs came, exploding on him one after another in successive detonations.

Yousef stood next to Akira, panting, sweat pouring profusely from his body, mixed with blood and the traces of burns. "He can't have survived that. Humans in our time had reached the peak of their civilization and their military power before that civilization perished. We are masters of war and destruction. And I say that with sadness, not pride."

Akira breathed a sigh of relief, feeling every bone in his body ache. "We've defeated a general, then. There's no doubt this will have consequences we can't handle."

Yousef saw a beam coming from within the smoke. He screamed at Akira to activate the super-suit's shield. They both crossed their arms, and the blue energy shield emerged, blocking the incoming beam. But its immense force pushed them back until they collided with a large rock. Several of Yousef's vertebrae were fractured, and Akira suffered a concussion.

Jasto emerged from between the smoke and flames like a demon come from hell. A large part of his crystalline body was gone, revealing his skin, parts of which were charred. Blood was flowing on his forehead and his face, which was half-burned, and sparks were flying from his eyes. He approached them quickly.

"You dare to disfigure my handsome face, you two wretches," he said. "I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to torture you to your last breath. And until I know everything you're hiding. Aah. Damn this pain! I haven't felt this much pain since I was a child. I'll have to pay a lot to fix my body and my face."

Jasto approached them. Yousef pushed himself and stood up, gritting his teeth from the excruciating pain in his back. He raised his hands in surrender. "We surrender. You are stronger than we imagined."

Jasto charged at him, kicked him, knocking him to the ground, and stomped on his face with his foot. "Do you think surrendering will save you from me?"

Jasto began to stomp on his body with his foot with force, until Yousef felt his bones shattering and his consciousness fading. He grabbed Jasto's foot with both arms. "Let me kiss your hand, then. This is our custom when we surrender on our planet."

Jasto stomped on Yousef's feet, breaking them. Yousef screamed in pain. Jasto, savoring his screams, said, "This is so you don't try to run away or trick me. You must kiss my foot first, before my hand."

Yousef was disgusted and wished he could rip his head off, but he was helpless. He forced his battered body and kissed his foot. Jasto laughed, then lifted him up, leaned him against the rock, and extended his hand for him to kiss, feeling the ecstasy of victory.

Akira shouted in pain, his head spinning, "Don't do it, Yousef! You'll become a damned monster!"

Yousef grabbed Jasto's hand, from which the crystal had disappeared and the skin was visible. "This is what must be done for us to survive," he said as he kissed it.

Yousef touched Jasto's hand and began to copy his genetic code into himself. His bones healed, and he felt his body changing. The crystal spread around his body, and he felt a great heat coursing through him, illuminating him.

"Don't do it, Yousef!" Akira shouted, the words choking in his throat. "Don't become like him!"

Jasto looked at this change in Yousef's body with wide eyes, his mind not comprehending what was happening. Then he felt fear. He pushed Yousef away from him and retreated, but it was too late. Yousef had become a monster.

Yousef saw Jasto's memories passing through his mind, even the memories that were recorded in the depths of his subconscious mind, which Jasto himself did not remember. Like the first months of his life. He saw quick images of Jasto being born, seeing the world for the first time, being thoroughly examined by a doctor, and then being given to his fat, ashen-faced father, who was wearing the clothes of a saint and looking at him with a clear frown of anger.

"He's a defective boy," the doctor said with sorrow. "Born with one eye, and his skin is deformed like an old man's."

The father held the infant and examined him with disgust. "This is not what I wanted, Doctor. How can this ugly thing inherit the Church of the Candles after me? It is the greatest house of worship on the entire planet of the Franks, and from it come the decisions that determine the fate of the Franks. The King of the Franks and the monks will not be pleased with him, and they may remove me from my position. You must get rid of him."

The doctor flinched, his face contorted. "Get rid of him? Are you joking, High Priest? Don't you know the consequences of killing an innocent child?"

The priest gave him a look that terrified him. "And I know the consequences of losing my position and the Franks losing a man like me. This child will bring me shame. If you don't want to get rid of him, I will get rid of him myself. But if you tell anyone, you know the consequences. There is a state of discontent throughout the planet of the Franks, and the monks are worried about the outbreak of a violent rebellion targeting them."

The doctor swallowed hard and nodded his head.

The High Priest went out, hiding the child under his robe. The rain was pouring down on him. He then left him on an empty sidewalk, crying and crying, got into his four-legged robotic carriage, and drove off.

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