Online Game: Starting With SSS-Ranked Summons-Chapter 399: Powerful Awakeners

Maria Jayne stepped carefully through Detroit’s abandoned streets, her eyes scanning for threats that seemed mysteriously absent.

Lightning still crackled faintly around her fingertips, ready to erupt at the slightest hint of danger.

This area is too quiet. Where are all the demons?

The district stretched before her like a graveyard of twisted metal and shattered concrete. Smoke still rose from distant fires, but the immediate area felt eerily peaceful.

Could they all be concentrated near the rift? Am I walking into a death trap? She thought grimly.

A low growl sounded from behind an overturned delivery truck.

Maria’s body tensed as three defective demons emerged from the shadows, smaller than the ones she’d encountered earlier, but their burning eyes held the same malevolent hunger.

Level 2, maybe Level 3. I can handle this without any issues.

"Come on then," she whispered, electricity dancing between her fingers.

The first demon lunged at her, its mouth watering at the sight of her human flesh.

GROWL!

Maria sidestepped, her speed making the creature’s attack seem sluggish. Lightning erupted from her palm, striking the demon centre mass.

CRACK!

Electrical energy coursed through corrupted flesh, cooking it from the inside out. The demon’s shriek cut off abruptly as its nervous system fried. It collapsed in a smoking heap, charred beyond recognition.

[You have slain a Level 2 Defective Demon]

One down.

The remaining demons attacked simultaneously, learning from their companion’s mistake. Maria rolled behind an abandoned car, using the metal frame as cover.

They’re adapting. Time to get creative.

She narrowed her eyes, waiting until the demons got close to the car, before raising her hand in attack.

Electricity crackled along her fingertips as she channelled her lightning talent, sending a high-voltage bolt straight into the vehicle’s rear.

The gas tank, still half-full, had a thin layer of vapour built up inside, the perfect fuel-air mixture.

The bolt struck metal, and the entire chassis lit up as a temporary conductor. But it was the spark that did it, igniting the volatile vapours inside the tank.

For a fraction of a second, there was silence. Then—

BOOM!

The car exploded in a shower of sparks and superheated metal. The demons caught in the blast became living torches, their corrupted bodies unable to withstand the explosion.

SIZZLE! CRACK!

They fell as charred statues, their forms locked in poses of eternal agony.

[You have slain a Level 2 Defective Demon]

[You have slain a Level 3 Defective Demon]

Getting stronger. Need to keep moving.

The sound of rotor blades interrupted her victory celebration. A military helicopter passed overhead, its loudspeaker crackling to life.

"ATTENTION AWAKENED INDIVIDUALS! HEAD TO THE LARGE RIFT IN THE EAST! SAFETY AND LEVELING OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE! REPEAT—HEAD EAST TO THE DIMENSIONAL RIFT!"

Safety? Levelling opportunities?

Maria’s heart leapt. She’d been right—organised forces were handling the threat near the portal. Real protection instead of desperate survival.

Finally. Allies.

Lightning crackled around her legs as she increased her speed. Electrical energy flowed through her muscles, amplifying her natural athleticism beyond human limits.

Time to run.

She sprinted through the streets, leaving trails of sparks in her wake. Each step carried her dozens of meters forward, her lightning-enhanced legs propelling her at superhuman velocity.

East. Toward the rift. Toward safety.

Behind her, the charred remains of multiple demons slowly cooled in the abandoned street, a silent testimony to the deadly potential of human awakening.

...

Armageddon, Village #419

Jasmine knelt beside the comfortable bed in the mayor’s private quarters, her enhanced senses focusing entirely on Charlotte’s unconscious body. The girl lay still as marble, her breathing steady but clearly not healthy.

Golden-silver eyes swept over Charlotte’s pale features. Despite months of supposed cancer treatment, like Arthur had claimed, the cellular patterns didn’t match what he said.

I knew it. This isn’t a disease. This is something else entirely.

Her healing abilities activated automatically, dark and light energies flowing through her fingertips as she conducted the most thorough examination of her career. What she discovered made her blood run cold.

Massive mana concentration. Impossible levels.

Charlotte’s cells contained magical energy densities that should have been lethal. Not the chaotic corruption of demonic influence, but pure, concentrated power that her mortal frame couldn’t contain.

Her body is burning itself out trying to process this much energy.

The symptoms mimicked aggressive cancer perfectly—cellular breakdown, organ stress, systemic failure. But the underlying cause was magical overload, not malignant growth.

Jasmine’s inherited memories from Sylvia, the Queen of Healing, provided context for what she was witnessing.

Charlotte possessed enough raw magical potential that made Jasmine’s blood chill, but her unawakened physiology lacked the structural modifications necessary to channel such power safely.

She’s killing herself with her own strength.

The equipment Arthur had provided—rings, armour, enhancement items—had temporarily stabilised the situation by increasing Charlotte’s vital statistics. But it was a stopgap measure at best.

The power is still growing.

At the current rate of magical accumulation, Charlotte would outgrow even Epic-tier equipment within a week or two.

Arthur had been waiting for the merge for months to save his sister. What he didn’t know was that the merge and his sister’s awakening might have done the exact opposite of saving her.

Her mana density was increasing exponentially, driven by forces Jasmine couldn’t identify.

This isn’t sustainable. She needs more than just items.

Jasmine’s healing abilities reached deeper, analysing the cellular damage with microscopic accuracy. Charlotte’s body required fundamental strengthening—not just enhanced statistics, but actual physical reconstruction.

Body strengthening herbs. Mind fortification treatments.

The realisation hit her like cold water. Charlotte needed alchemical solutions that simply didn’t exist in Village #419 or Village #420.

Healing potions were useless against the magical overload of this magnitude.

Where can Arthur find resources like that?

Her inherited knowledge provided fragments of information about legendary herbs and rare minerals that could strengthen frames to handle supernatural power. But those materials were found in major magical cities, not isolated villages.

Caldera. It has to be Caldera.

The kingdom’s capital might possess the infrastructure necessary to create the treatments Charlotte required.

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