The sky above the ruined metropolis of Redgrave City bled a toxic, bruised purple. Ash drifted down like snow, settling on the shattered asphalt and the ruined husks of overturned vehicles.

In the center of the devastated financial district stood the cataclysm.

It was a class-zero demonic threat—a towering, writhing behemoth of molten slag, calcified bone, and entirely too many jaws. It had spiraled completely out of control, demanding the combined attention of the most dangerous women on the planet.

"Keep it pinned down!" Leonora's voice crackled over the comms, sharp and authoritative. Perched on a half-collapsed skyscraper, her mismatched green and red eyes narrowed over the rim of her sunglasses. With a fluid, practiced motion, she hoisted Kalina Ann onto her shoulder, her cropped leather jacket riding up as she braced her curvaceous frame against the recoil. A barrage of micro-missiles shrieked through the air, detonating against the beast's flank in a blinding symphony of fire and shrapnel.

Down in the streets, Nero didn't need to be told twice. "Eat this, you ugly bastard!" she roared. The heavy bust confined within her tight leather halter top heaved as she twisted the motorcycle throttle on the hilt of the Red Queen. The massive blade ignited with a roar of flammable propellant. Lunging forward, Nero swung the flaming sword in a devastating arc, severing one of the beast's massive, scythe-like appendages. The demonic gauntlet of her right arm—the Devil Bringer—pulsed with violent violet energy as she grabbed the severed limb in mid-air and brutally slammed it back into the demon's face.

Before the creature could recover, the temperature in the plaza plummeted.

A blur of blue and silver moved with breathtaking, deadly grace. Vergilia stepped out of a spatial tear, her immaculate blue coat untouched by the ash and grime. With an expression of supreme, aristocratic disdain, her thumb flicked the guard of Yamato.

Click.

In a fraction of a second, a localized storm of blindingly fast, dimensional cuts shredded the air itself. The beast shrieked as its thick armor was perfectly, surgically diced into a thousand pieces.

"Show-off!" a cocky voice echoed through the plaza.

Daniela plummeted from the sky, her sweeping crimson coat billowing like liquid fire behind her, flashing her toned midriff and deep cleavage. She landed heavily on the demon's back, driving the skull-hilted claymore, Rebellion, deep into its spine. She drew Ebony and Ivory, her custom twin pistols, and pressed the barrels directly against the monster's exposed, pulsing core.

"Jackpot," Daniela smirked, pulling both triggers.

The ensuing explosion was deafening. The cataclysmic demon let out a final, world-shaking death rattle as its physical form began to rapidly destabilize, dissolving into a massive cloud of demonic ash and noxious black smoke.

The four women regrouped at the edge of the crater, weapons drawn, chests rising and falling as the dust began to settle.

"Is it done?" Nero asked, wiping a smudge of soot from her cheek, her blue eyes scanning the wreckage.

"Don't lower your guard," Vergilia commanded coldly, her hand still resting elegantly on Yamato's hilt. "Something is wrong."

From the center of the dissolving demonic mass, a sickening scheluck sound echoed out. The beast's colossal stomach convulsed violently, as if rejecting a poison, before violently expelling a massive, biological sac.

The translucent, membranous pod soared through the air, crashing into the rubble with a heavy, wet thud and skidding to a halt mere yards from where the women stood.

Daniela raised an eyebrow, slinging Rebellion over her shoulder. "Well. That wasn't on the menu. Leonora? Did we get hired for a delivery job I forgot about?"

"Not a chance," Leonora replied, leaping down from the ruined building and landing gracefully beside them. She kept a customized submachine gun leveled at the pod. "That thing wasn't carrying luggage."

The pod was roughly the size of a human, covered in a viscous, steaming amniotic fluid that hissed as it touched the hot asphalt. Inside the semi-transparent membrane, a silhouette shifted.

Nero stepped forward, her Devil Bringer glowing with a sudden, erratic intensity. "Guys... my arm is going crazy. There's something alive in there. Something strong."

Vergilia's icy eyes narrowed, her posture stiffening into a flawless combat stance. "A parasite? Or perhaps a newly birthed demonic sovereign. Regardless, we cut it down before it takes its first breath."

"Hold your horses, Vergie," Daniela said, taking a cautious step toward the sac, though her grip on her pistols tightened. "Let's see what's actually inside before we start slicing and dicing. Could be a hostage."

With a sickening, wet tearing sound, the membrane split open from the inside. Thick, glowing fluid spilled out across the ruined pavement. The four women tensed, an ocean of lethal, devastating power aimed squarely at the crater.

From the steaming wreckage of the pod emerged User.

Silence fell over the plaza. The wind howled through the ruined buildings. Daniela, Vergilia, Nero, and Leonora stared down into the crater, completely unsure of what—or who—they were looking at.