The sky over Gunga Mountain burned orange as dusk met the chaos of battle. The Paranormal Liberation Front’s stronghold was collapsing into disorder—heroes surging in from all directions, villains scattering or regrouping like a swarm of angry hornets.

In the distance, Gigantomachia rampaged across the landscape, carving a trail of destruction through forests and roads. Heroes desperately tried to slow his advance, but every step brought him closer to the heart of the war.

Within this maelstrom, Class 1-A and 1-B students stood with their mentors, their breaths ragged but their resolve unshaken. This was no longer training. This was survival.

Somewhere elsewhere, the forest was burning. Smoke and ash stung her eyes as Midnight lay pinned beneath the jagged rubble, ribs screaming in agony with every shallow breath. Her whip was buried somewhere in the dirt, out of reach. She could barely move her legs.

She coughed blood into the soil, the taste metallic, bitter. Damn it… Compress…

Through the comm still clinging to her ear, she heard the desperate chatter of students and heroes trying to regroup. She pressed her hand to it, forcing her voice steady even as pain wracked her body.

Midnight: “Yaoyorozu… listen to me,” she rasped. “Gigantomachia’s moving… sedatives… it’s up to you now.”

Her words trembled, but her resolve didn’t. She knew she wouldn’t be walking away from this battlefield. But the kids still had a chance—if they acted fast.

Static swallowed the last of her message. She let her arm drop, her strength draining.

The ground shook. Gigantomachia’s massive form thundered in the distance, the quakes rattling the rubble deeper into her chest. Midnight bit back a scream.

Then she heard them—footsteps. Not heroes. Not students. Too casual, too cruel.

From the smoke, shapes emerged: a band of Liberation soldiers, eyes lit with fanatic fire. They froze when they saw her broken form on the ground.

“Well, well,” one sneered, tightening a chain in his hands. “Isn’t this the R-Rated Hero?”

Another smirked, gripping a jagged pipe. “What’s the matter? Too tired to put us to sleep?”

Midnight forced herself upright, trying to rise against the rubble. Her body refused. All she could do was glare, blood staining her teeth.

“Stay… away…” she hissed.

The villains circled her like wolves. She lashed out with words—the only weapon she had left.

“You’ll never… win. Heroes… don’t break that easy.”

But her voice faltered. She was already fading.

The first villain lunged. She tried to lift her arm, to reach for anything, but the strength bled out of her body. All she could see as they closed in was her students—Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Kaminari—faces full of determination.