Universal Power System

Mako continued to struggle on the ground as the purplish-black aura continued to swirl around his body. The aura wasn't causing him any pain but rather causing him the greatest amount of agony by accessing the deepest fears that he had kept hidden in the back of his head.

The aura was bringing out all of those fears and making them a reality for Mako, making him experience them again and again.

The scene in front of Mako quickly transformed and suddenly he was standing in the middle of a dark alley that somehow looked familiar. After looking around for a couple of seconds, Mako realized where he was; this was the alley in which he defeated a couple of gang members who were after two girls who had just left the nearby bar.

As soon as Mako came to the realization, he suddenly heard a painful shriek behind him.

Mako quickly turned out only two find the same two girls that he had rescued on that day getting burned alive by a couple of gang members that were surrounding them.

Their bodies were riddled with cuts, lashes, and bruises which showed that they had taken quite a heavy beating before the group had begun burning them alive.

Rage began to envelop Mako's heart involuntarily as he entered into his Rage Mode just like on that day and charged forward to save those girls again; however, unlike last time, Mako was blasted by a single punch from the gang member, embedding Mako's body deep into the brick wall behind him.

"You're too weak!" the gang member shouted as the rest erupted in laughter all the while the girls' screams of agony and pain continued to ring in Mako's head.

Mako's Rage Mode quickly dissipated as tears began to run down his face. Even though he didn't activate Rage Mode himself, it was the thing that he used to take down and kill all of those gang members the last time.

However, this time, a singular punch from one of those gang members had so much force and such strength behind it that blasted Mako so far back. Mako could barely process the amount of pain his body was in but he wasn't going to give up.

He quickly opened his eyes and summoned all of his strength to pull himself off the brick wall; however, the scene in front of him had completely changed as now Mako was standing in front of the bakery where he used to work.

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One moment he was standing in a dark alley fighting gang members, and now he was in the middle of Birds Eye Street, staring directly at the bakery's front door.

Most importantly, Mako felt as if he was standing there from the very beginning as if nothing had happened before that, although he could feel all the pain he had just experienced but couldn't explain why it was occurring to him.

Mako was in a trance where he himself had no idea what was happening and from his perspective he was going about doing what he would normally in whatever scenario presented itself in front of him with no recollection of previous events only for the pain and suffering to carry on with him as the scenes switched.

The street was eerily quiet and Mako couldn't see anybody else even though all the other shops were open.

Suddenly, Mako heard a loud scream come from inside the bakery. The voice was weighty and deep and Mako immediately recognized it.

"Sir Derek! I am coming!" Mako shouted as he quickly opened the front door of the bakery.

Mako paused in horror as in front of him was Sir Derek standing with a giant blade piercing his chest. Blood was dripping from his mouth as he struggled to breathe.

Standing behind Sir Derek was a man wearing a long black duster with a hood and a face mask to completely cover his identity. There was a massive sword in the man's hand which he was pushing deeper through Sir Derek's back, causing him even more pain.

More anger, rage, and despair consumed Mako's heart as he activated sprint and dashed forward at full speed to save Sir Derek.

However, no matter how much he ran, the room continued to extend longer and longer, the faster he ran making it so that he was making no progress in reaching Sir Derek.

The man standing behind Sir Derek continued to laugh maniacally while watching Mako struggle.

Tears once again began to drip from Mako's eyes as he couldn't figure out why he couldn't reach Sir Derek.

"Hang on! Sir Derek, just hang on! Please! I will think of something!" Mako shouted in desperation.

"SHUT UP!" Sir Derek suddenly shouted angrily at Mako with blood still dripping from his mouth.

Mako was frozen with shock unable to do anything. He was trying to save Sir Derek and he was yelling at him?

"Do you think you can save me, boy? You can't save anyone! You're just a pathetic, weak, disgraceful bastard that I felt sorry for! I wish I never gave you that job! You're the reason I am dying! You ungrateful brat! I will never forgive you!" Sir Derek shouted with immense anger and conviction.

Sir Derek's every word impaled Mako's heart with great force. Mako couldn't believe that the person whom he viewed as a parental figure would stay stuff like this to him.

All of a sudden, intense anger and hatred began to erupt from Mako and he involuntarily activated his red fire aura.

"I... AM... NOT... UNGRATEFUL! I OWE YOU MY LIFE, SIR DEREK! HOW COULD YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT!" Mako shouted with his red fire aura leaking from his body without his control.

Within a second, a blast of red fire aura erupted from his body and blasted outward, burning the entire bakery in an instant and slicing Sir Derek and the mysterious man clean in half.

A second later, Mako regained control of his red fire and he quickly retracted it back inside his body but the damage had been done.

"Oh no... What have I done?" Mako said in shock and panic as his blurry vision observed the burning bakery along with Sir Derek's corpse sitting in the middle in two parts.

Mako collapsed onto his knees with tears now flowing freely and his hands shaking. He was still unable to process and accept what he had just done.

Mako wanted to scream with all the anger and pain that was in his heart but in the next moment as he was about to do so, he felt his mouth restricted so that he couldn't open it.

As Mako opened his eyes, he found himself in a completely different environment once again. This time he was in an underground basement with a tiny window that let in a little bit of moonlight.

It took his eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the darkness of the room but once he did, he wished that he had just kept his eyes closed.

This was the torture room within the underground base of Victor Voss where he imprisoned his friends and tortured them for information.

As if right on cue, Mako's eyes landed on three people chained to the ground, inside the torture room; these three being none other than his friends Bill, Erin, and Iris.

Mako tried to move and shout but he wasn't able to do so because his arms and legs were also chained high up on the wall with a fifth shackle around his mouth that prevented him from speaking.

Mako struggled with all of his strength but to no avail, he couldn't break out of the chains as they were suppressing his powers.

All of sudden, the shiny metallic door opened and Victor Voss entered the room to greet his friends.

Mako watched with horror as he watched Victor interrogate his friends and torture them using the electric bat on Bill, the gas mask on Iris, and suffocating Erin in a bubble of water.

Mako was able to hear all of their screams of pain and agony and he tried again and again to break the shackles to try and help his friends but with the chain blocking his mana, he was powerless.

The torture continued on for a whole hour and by now Mako's face was filled with waves and waves of tears as he couldn't bear to watch his friends get tortured for one more second.

It was then that a goon entered the room and told Victor something that made him finally leave the room.

Mako took a sigh of relief but he along with Bill both noticed that he had left the gas mask on Iris before leaving and she was still trembling in pain with muffled screams coming out of the mask.

Mako could see Bill struggle with all of his might to try and escape and so Mako did the same summoning every ounce of power to try and break free; however, Mako was still unable to break the chains.

Unlike Mako, Bill was able to summon an extraordinary amount of strength as he activated the second level of his mutant gene.

Mako watched as Bill broke free from the chains and saved both Erin and Iris, but it was too late.

Iris was already dead.

Suddenly, Mako's shackles disappeared and he fell down onto the ground right in front of Erin and Bill.

Mako could feel his powers returning as the connection to his mana was restored; however, before he could even stand back on his feet, he felt a ferocious kick on his face that launched him several feet back, right into the wall from which he had just escaped.

Mako was terribly confused with blood dripping from his face from the force of the kick.

He looked up to see Erin and Bill both staring at him with eyes full of anger and hatred.

"You're the reason Iris is dead! I will never forgive you, MAKO!" Bill shouted as he lunged forward to attack Mako once again.