A suspenseful atmosphere hangs over ZA2 as Zraldoyans appear before Darkin, who still protects his daughter from her own mother — a situation that is tragically ironic, for the man never expected his wife to be controlled by one of the most cunning entities in the universe.
He cannot overcome the fact that his wife is gone, nor is he sure whether another attack from the same entity is imminent. That’s why he still clings to his only daughter.
The old man, with his deep wound, looks at Darkin, who rests his gaze upon the beings that seem like a mix between tigers and humans due to their physical traits.
"Who are they?" Darkin asks the old man in a low voice, fury burning in the background, while the old man still presses his grave wound.
"They are the masters of the Zraldoyans."
"SURRENDER!!" a distant voice commands — from what appears to be the leader of them all, carrying laser weapons in their hands.
"They want to take over our planet and turn us into their slaves," says Ghuman.
"Well, that won’t be possible. We won’t let them."
"What do you mean 'we'?" asks Ghuman, coughing and spitting blood soon after.
"Shit, we need to do something now before you die. Unfortunately, Ashlem isn’t here to help us with this task. Damn it," Darkin says, then starts the car nearby. "Vickyara, take Ghuman to a safe place with a hospital. He needs urgent help." He looks his daughter in the eyes, receiving only a nod in response.
All the Zraldonkoyans wear tight suits, resembling plastic. From the sky descends something that looks like a massive burning ship.
The moment the man had always known would come — the time to face his enemies — had arrived. An alarm begins to blare in ZA2, indicating the base will soon be bombed to wipe out the invading monsters from the planet Zraldonkoy.
"You’ll make it," says the old man, coughing. "But I’d rather stand beside you in this battle, even if my life is slipping away."
"But you’re injured," says Darkin.
"That doesn’t matter now. It’s worth dying fighting. I can’t be a coward in this moment — not when we need to finish these invaders."
Vickyara sits on the ground, hugging her legs, still crying over the death of her mother, who unfortunately had already stopped being her mother — replaced by a hellish entity instead of Vrany, the perfect wife to Darkin.
Seeing his daughter sitting there crying, Darkin can no longer hold himself back and a tear escapes his left eye — marking the start of the battle against the Zraldonkoyans.
"WE WON’T SURRENDER. COME…" Darkin shouts, not thinking of anything else, nor of the consequences.
The Zraldonkoyans ready their weapons to eliminate the last three remaining humans in ZA2, to finish their mission and claim the land of Earth for themselves.
Suddenly, Vickyara places her hands on her head and begins to scream, her voice creating sound waves strong enough to damage eardrums. Her own father is shocked, knowing nothing of her unusual ability. Darkin stares at her, covering his ears from the painful impact of her scream.
The old man also removes his hands from his abdomen and covers his ears, and so do the Zraldonkoyans — forcing them to drop their weapons in a desperate attempt to save their hearing.
Darkin seizes the opportunity, transforming into smoke and advancing towards them. He steals one of their weapons and starts firing fatal shots, one by one, letting green blood spill from the bodies of the alien invaders who came to colonize Earth in response to an invasion they themselves had suffered.
Darkin’s ears begin to ache and bleed. When Vickyara’s scream ceases, a harsh silence falls over the place where many bodies now lie lifeless and earless. A large number of alien soldiers lie bleeding on the ground, others still clinging to life, which Darkin swiftly ends.
The burning ship descends from the sky accompanied by a lightning bolt splitting the clouds and a powerful roar. It drops closer and closer to the surface. On both knees, Darkin looks up and clearly sees a ship with highly advanced technological features.
"ZA2 WILL BE DESTROYED IN ONE HOUR," blares an electronic voice from a tower that powers ZA2.
"Calm down, Vickyara…" says the old man, gently placing a hand on the girl’s head. She’s now silent, but breathing heavily in anger as though ready to unleash another scream capable of killing everyone.
"I won’t calm down at all, because my intention is to finish you all, as my master descends from the skies to rule the Earth as the myth says. I am the third shadow of the eight demons of the universes."
"Shit… you… you’re fucking Yarnasky…" Ghuman mutters in shock before being punched in the right side of the face, thrown two meters back before collapsing near the wreckage of a Zraldonkoyan ship.
Darkin hears the punch’s impact and when he turns to look, he sees Vickyara completely changed — slowly walking towards him with glowing yellow eyes and a horn on her forehead.
"What the hell is going on here?" Darkin says, rising to his feet. "It can’t be… a Yarnaskoy… Shit."
Darkin bends down and picks up one of the weapons scattered on the surface. He stands, holding back his tears, knowing that standing before him is the daughter he once loved — his little princess, whose first cry he’d heard, who was supposed to be his eternal love.
He has no courage to shoot her. He has no courage to kill his own daughter, just as he couldn’t kill his wife — though he was forced to, having no choice.
"I’m so tired… I killed my father, even if not directly, but I did. I killed my paternal grandmother, I killed my wife… and now I’ll have to kill my daughter… How long will it have to be like this?" the man questions his own conscience.
He closes his eyes and lets the weapon fall, surrendering to death. Vickyara — now fully possessed by Yarnasky — strides towards Darkin to deliver a fatal blow. Yarnaskoy reaches Darkin, ready to end him, but the old Ghuman teleports in front of Darkin — though not fast enough to strike Yarnasky, instead receiving a punch that pierces his stomach, the fist coming out through his back.
Darkin’s eyes remain closed. He hears a noise ahead but feels nothing. He opens his eyes and sees the old man impaled, blood pouring out. Everything seems to happen in slow motion.
"'The Book of Eight' has it all… You can finish this…" Ghuman says, coughing, unable to finish the sentence, but adds something else. "Nothing is by chance, the Zvrodies know that… You are THE SMOKE MAN."
"I can do this," says Darkin, bending down to grab the weapon again and aiming at Yarnasky.
Before he can reach the weapon, a closed fist strikes him, sending him flying three meters away. He loses blood from his mouth, spitting a tooth along with the blood.
The figure that was once his daughter is now a monster, with terrifying features.
"Damn you, Yarnasky. I’LL FINISH YOU!" Darkin shouts, attempting to get up and fight.
Yarnasky, still holding Ghuman on his arm, lets out a roar that scares birds far from the combat zone, then throws the breathless old man aside.
"I liked this ability… now I’ll test it," Yarnasky says, teleporting to Darkin’s face. Darkin now holds a Zraldonkoyan weapon in his hands.
"What?" Darkin exclaims in shock, and without thinking, feeling the pain of losing his daughter, he fires furiously at the figure before him.
Countless shots pierce his daughter’s chest — now Yarnasky’s body — while the entity laughs heartily, reveling in the man’s agony.
Then, Vickyara’s body drops to the ground. Her eyes return to normal, she blinks once and, like her mother, softly speaks her final words before death:
"I love you… father…"
Her eyes close forever.
"I love you too, my daughter, I love you toooo," Darkin cries, tears pouring from his face like a flood.
He picks up his bleeding daughter in his arms and slowly walks away, moving in the opposite direction from the ship that now lands and opens its main gate…