Reborn With the Infinite Gods System

The room was shrouded in an unsettling silence, a tense air thickening with each passing second as Thor sympathized with Trisha. It was a quiet so profound that even their breaths seemed muted, the heaviness of their emotions weighing them down.

The silence remained until—

A loud, crackling sound ripped through the air. Dark and yellow sparks of light suddenly appeared, dancing in the atmosphere like malevolent fireflies.

The S-rank hunters immediately jumped from their seats, recoiling from the strange phenomenon. Fear and confusion flashed across their faces.

"What's happening? Is this you?" Andre asked, his gaze fixed on Commander Asher. But even before he finished speaking, they all knew—it wasn't him. The power that filled the room was foreign, something entirely beyond their control.

Asher's face tightened with urgency. "It's an attack! But don't react too violently. Don't release your full power. We don't want to attract more trouble!" His voice was commanding but edged with apprehension. He dashed to the side of the room, smashing a transparent glass case and hovering his hand over a red button that could trigger a facility-wide alert.

His fingers hovered over it, unsure if the situation had spiraled beyond control yet.

A moment passed, agonizingly slow, as the crackling intensified. The sparks grew, widening into a swirling black void, a portal that seemed to breathe with menace. The hunters were stunned, watching with bated breath.

"Where did this come from?" someone muttered.

"Why is it here?"

Their questions died on their lips when, one by one, four bodies tumbled from the portal, hitting the ground with heavy, lifeless thuds. The room froze.

It took a heartbeat for them to register who it was: Josh, Loki, Axel, and a stranger. Relief flickered in their eyes at first, seeing them return. But then… then they saw *him*.

Axel's body lay grotesquely broken on the floor, severed in half.

Blood drenched what remained of him, his torso drenched in crimson, one of his hands entirely missing. His face was ashen, pale from blood loss, his mouth weakly opening and closing, spewing blood in sickening gurgles.

Trisha's scream shattered the suffocating silence, piercing through the room with raw, gut-wrenching grief. "A-Axel! Axel! No! No!" She stumbled forward, collapsing to her knees beside him, trembling. Her hands flew to his face, her fingers brushing his blood-streaked cheeks as tears streamed down her own.

Her heart pounded violently in her chest, each beat more painful than the last. Her mind refused to comprehend what her eyes saw. This wasn't Axel. It couldn't be. He had always been indestructible, a beacon of strength. Yet here he was, broken, bleeding, and on the very edge of death.

"What happened?!" Thor's voice wavered as he approached, horror washing over him. His eyes flicked between Axel and Loki, but no answer came immediately. He wanted to comfort his friend, to express the relief of seeing Loki again, but that relief felt hollow in the face of the nightmare before them.

'Why couldn't I protect him?' Loki's mind raced, guilt clawing at his insides. He sat, slumped, his right hand yanking at his hair as frustration boiled over. His fist crashed into the ground, pounding it over and over, each strike fueled by a spiraling sense of failure.

"Fuck! Damn it!" Loki's voice cracked as he cursed, eyes bloodshot from held-back tears. He had let Axel down, and it was eating him alive.

Even Troy, usually the most composed, stood frozen in place. His hands trembled, unable to process the sight of his friend in pieces.

"Josh! What happened? What did this to Axel?" Haze's voice was frantic, the panic she tried to suppress bubbling to the surface.

But Josh only shook his head, his lips pressing into a thin, tight line. He couldn't speak. He couldn't find the words to explain what they had just survived—or failed to survive. The room was heavy with tension, awkward in its silence, drowning in the weight of their defeat.

"Answer us!" Commander Asher's shout sliced through the air, demanding an explanation, his voice sharp and unrelenting.

Loki's head snapped up, eyes blazing with fury. "We were fucking overwhelmed!" he roared, glaring directly at Asher. His words were soaked with rage, each one a slap to the face of the supposed 'S-rank' hunters surrounding them. "Shut your mouths, all of you! Don't you dare yell at me asking what happened!" He stood abruptly, his fists clenched, trembling with fury.

"You bastards were sitting here eating meals while we were out there dying! *Surviving on sticks!* You sicken me, calling yourselves S-rank when you ain't *shit*!"

Sarah stepped forward, her voice cold and cutting. "Are you out of your mind? Do you have any idea how reckless—"

"You *bitch*!" Loki spat venomously, cutting her off mid-sentence. "Did I *ask* you to speak?! If any of you had bothered to come find us, maybe this wouldn't have happened! Maybe Axel wouldn't be lying here fucking *dying* in front of me! It's your fault! All of yours!" His voice cracked again, breaking under the weight of his emotions.

He sank to the floor, his head falling into his hands as sobs wracked his body. "I can't—what am I supposed to tell Annie? How do I tell her her brother is gone? I tried to save him, but he saved me instead! He died for me… and I let him."

"Shit!" Thor cursed, pacing back and forth, his breathing ragged, his face contorted in guilt and anguish. His mind raced with memories of Axel, of every failure, every moment he could have done more. "I should've been there. I should've found you sooner. I'm a *disgrace!* I can't even protect the people I care about. Forgive me, Teras… Forgive me."

Axel's eyes fluttered open, barely. His vision was blurred, but he could make out Trisha's face hovering above him, her tears falling like rain onto his broken form. He wanted to speak, to tell her not to cry, that he'd heal, that everything would be okay.

But he couldn't. His vocal cords had been shredded by the Voidwalker's attack. His voice was gone, and worse, his power was failing him.

A notification flickered weakly in the corner of his vision.

**[Half of your system has been destroyed… Malfunctioning]**

*This… really is the end,* Axel thought, his mind growing hazy, his body heavy and cold. He had so many regrets. There were so many things he still wanted to do, so many things he wanted to say. But now, all he could do was stare up at Trisha, her face etched in sorrow.

*At least the last thing I see is you.*

A tear slipped from the corner of Axel's eye as he mustered one final thought, weak and fleeting as the darkness closed in around him.

*I wish we could have had a family.*

The room was silent once again, but this time it was filled with the weight of unspeakable loss.