Deviant: No Longer Human

He was lost in thought, considering the prospect of opening his own garage, when his focus sharply returned to the road.

"Xiao! Xiao! Look at that!" Anran abrutly exclaimed, her voice bubbling with excitement as she pointed vigorously towards the distant mountains.

??

Wang Xiao offered a quick glance, nodding appreciatively. "Yeah, they\'re beautiful," he acknowledged briefly, his eyes returning to the road.

Anran wasn\'t satisfied with his brief acknowledgment. "No, you have to really look! The way the sun hits the peaks—it\'s like they\'re glowing!" Her enthusiasm was never-ending, but Wang Xiao felt a tug of concern that kept his eyes fixed ahead.

"Just a second," he murmured, his brow furrowing slightly as a chill of apprehension trickled down his spine.

He couldn\'t shake the feeling that something was off.

"Xiao, you\'re missing it!" Anran protested, her voice laced with a hint of frustration.

She grabbed his arm, trying to draw his attention back to the view.

"!"

Honk!

At that moment, the blare of a horn broke through their conversation like a glass.

"!!"

Wang Xiao\'s head snapped forward, his eyes widening as he spotted a semi barreling down the road towards them.

His grip tightened on the steering wheel, preparing for evasive action.

"…It\'s okay, it\'s on the other side," Wang Xiao exhaled, his voice betraying a steadiness he did not feel, his heart still hammering in his chest.

"!"

"What...?"

A chilling sensation crept over him, unexplainably ominous, as if the world had suddenly dimmed to monochrome, leaving only two piercing eyes fixed upon him through the gloom.

"??"

Anran\'s voice floated in the background, her words blending into an indistinct murmur, her enthusiasm failing to penetrate the fog of Wang Xiao\'s sudden, intense focus.

Buzzz.....

Buzz.....

Buzzz....

His ears rang with a high-pitched echo, drowning out the normal sounds of their journey.

As he fought to shake off this eerie trance, his eyes sharply narrowed at the figure driving the opposing semi-trailor.

"Hmm?..."

"...Is that even human?" he thought to himself.

The driver, clad in a nondescript jacket and hat, failed to completely conceal long, silver hair that shimmered unnaturally.

More striking was the skin, an eerie greyish-blue that seemed to suck the warmth from the air, and the face—sharp and angular, utterly devoid of any facial hair.

The figure was eerily reminiscent of a character from folktale—an ancient, cursed mage, perhaps, something from a dark fairy tale.

As if sensing Wang Xiao\'s scrutiny, the driver turned slightly, offering a slow, knowing smile that sent a shiver down Wang Xiao\'s spine.

"!"

The smile wasn\'t comforting; it was sinister, filled with an unspoken threat that seemed to reach across the divide of the highway and straight into Wang Xiao\'s core.

"!!"

Wang Xiao\'s grip tightened on the steering wheel, his instincts screaming a warning.

"Get out of the car!" Wang Xiao shouted, urgency spiking his voice as he saw Maliketh swerve the semi, steering it directly toward them with terrifying intent.

"Huh?" Anran was stunned, her mind struggling to process the rapid escalation of events.

Swoosh!

All she could register was the massive semi-trailor just meters away, barreling straight at them with deadly intent.

"Shit, it\'s too late!" Wang Xiao cursed under his breath.

He summoned all his strength in those critical seconds, trying to use his powers to halt the deadly charge, but the reality of the situation turned him cold to the bone.

"!!"

The psychokenisis unexpectedly didn\'t work!

"Hahahaha...." Maliketh\'s eerie laugh echoed from the semi as he flung the door open and leaned out.

He supported himself with one hand against the frame, his slight body somehow causing the massive vehicle to tilt as if his mere presence could topple mountains.

In that moment, the entire area around them shifted into a shadowy grey haze, the world losing its color as if dipped into an old, monochrome film.

Maliketh laughed mockingly at Wang Xiao, who was frantically trying to use his psychokinetic abilities to stop the vehicle.

But his efforts were futile; his powers seemed inexplicably neutralized, leaving him cold feet.

Boooooom!

In the next moment, the highway erupted into an inferno as the truck collided with the car.

Booom!

The Audi was flew backwards, skidding nearly a hundred meters across the asphalt as the semi truck slammed into the safety barrier and exploded, a monstrous fireball rising into the sky.

Boooooom!

Above the chaos hovered Maliketh, untouched, an ominous dark cloud-like aura swirling around him.

"Hahahaha... It feels so exciting to be alive again!"

His laughter echoed over the roar of the flames.

Materializing above the wreckage, he stood in the middle of the raging inferno, untouched by the lick of flames.

His eyes, glowing faintly red, fixed on Wang Xiao, who, realizing his powers were nullified, had leapt from his car at the last second.

Buzz.....

Buzz....

Wang now lay sprawled on the ground, his ears ringing, as he struggled to his feet.

With a mere flick of his wrist, Maliketh directed a stream of flames toward Wang.

Hiss!

The air sizzled as the fire seared the fabric of Wang\'s clothes, and his eyes widened in terror, feeling the intense heat scorching his skin.

"!"

Despite the numbness shielding him from the worst of the pain, a chilling sensation crept up his skin—a reminder of his sizzling back being grilled alive.

Whoosh...

Maliketh landed gracefully on the still-warm asphalt from his airborne stance.

As his bare feet touched down, the road beneath him cracked ominously.

"So pathetic... Is this what humanity has been reduced to?" Maliketh sneered, his voice filled with disdain as he extended his hand toward the sky, summoning more power to his call.

Above Maliketh\'s outstretched hand, the air rippled as if torn apart by an invisible force, as his lips twisted into a grim line against his greyish-blue skin.

Swoosh!

An ominous black cloud materialized, swirling with subatomic particles that danced and collided with ferocious speed, mimicking the violent beauty of a particle collider.

This was no ordinary energy; it was antimatter, the nemesis of existence itself, encapsulated within a pulsating electromagnetic field that he controlled with deadly precision.

As the antimatter interacted with anything in its path, it annihilated it completely, leaving nothing but void.

"Such a waste to expend my strength on mere ants... But the humans from my domain were begging for vengeance..." Maliketh\'s voice was a low mutter, resonating with the power he wielded.