132 UMBROS' DEVOURING CLOUD
The convoy halted. The soldiers jumped from their vehicles, scanning the dark highway that stretched endlessly behind them.
"Thermal shows nothing, sir," one of the escort commanders reported.
Damen stepped out of the lead vehicle followed by Zairgid. The air was thick and cold, like breathing through glass dust. He could feel the pressure of a Rank B aura.
"Everyone, form a perimeter," Damen ordered. "Keep the headlights pointed backward."
The floodlights from the convoy sliced through the gloom, revealing shapes that weren't there before—veins of black mist, twisting in the air like liquid shadows.
Then, a figure emerged.
It walked through the dark haze like it owned it. Cloaked in a shroud of negative light, its eyes burned faintly silver, its presence radiating something that made even the Rank D soldiers drop to their knees.
"Meta signature confirmed—it's a Rank B!" someone shouted. "We're outmatched!"
The shadow man smiled faintly. "So, this is Damen Dark… the arrogant boy who bullies the weak."
"You picked the wrong convoy, freak!" Zairgid replied.
"And you Zairgid Aukouma, I won't forget you either. You are as guilty as him."
"Who the hell are you working for?" Damen asked the cloaked figure.
The dark figure didn't reply but soon raised his hand. Dark mists surged forward from him forming massive tendrils that struck the convoy. The rearmost vehicle disintegrated into smoke immediately, the other vehicles thrown aside. Soldiers screamed as their armor corroded on contact with the mist.
"We are under attack!!!!"
"I must do something now," Damen vowed.
Damen raised his hand. "Zairgid, fall back."
"But…", he wanted to stay and help.
"Now," Damen insisted.
Zairgid obeyed immediately, retreating to the armored vehicles while Damen stepped into the darkness.
"Cowards," the attacker said, watching them escape. "Hiding inside your cars won't save you."
Damen's eyes gleamed faintly. "You're right."
A message flashed on his Connect Vision view:
"Annunakin Form — Toggle ON"
The night twisted.
The cloaked figure raised both hands.
Darkness fell—not like a curtain, but like annihilation. Even the stars were swallowed whole. In an instant, the convoy's headlights flickered… then died.
"Enjoy being engulfed in my darkness," the cloaked figure screamed, delight dripping from his voice as he watched his prey curl inward.
But what awaited him wasn't fear.
It was resistance.
The sky detonated.
Thunder split the heavens, lightning crashing down in violent arcs. In the heart of the storm stood a figure clad in dark blue armor, its surface traced with thin circuits of silver light that pulsed like veins.
It was Black Halo.
The Angel of Darkness.
His eyes burned like carved sigils, his voice layered with cold mechanical resonance. "Begone, Bloody Darkness."
The cloaked figure recoiled. "Are you—Black Halo?"
"You know me?" Black Halo replied.
He had only debuted recently in the city. Few should have known his name.
"Yes," the figure snarled. "You're the reason I came to this damn city."
Black Halo's gaze shifted briefly toward the overturned convoy. "Then why were you picking a fight with students?"
"Those boys were a side order," the figure said. "You are my real mission. I was just wondering how to draw you out. Hahaha and you came to me."
Damen understood.
This wasn't a random attack.
The cloaked meta had been hired to eliminate Black Halo—a ranked B operative sent specifically for him. Damen and Zairgid was a mere distraction… a side quest.
Black Halo moved.
He vanished in a burst of light.
Each strike tore through the air, reality bending for a fraction of a second before snapping back with thunderous force. The sky lit up again and again, lightning answering every blow.
"Thunder Crush — Echo Enhanced."
The cloaked shadow shrieked and countered, unleashing a dozen writhing tendrils of darkness meant to devour him—
But they froze midair.
A single punch from Black Halo detonated outward, compressing space itself. The dark energy cracked, then shattered, obliterated by raw kinetic collapse.
"Momentum Collapse."
"No…" The word slipped from the shadow's mouth, hollow and disbelieving.
When the dust finally settled, the street was gone—replaced by a fresh crater. At its center, the Rank B meta knelt, his form flickering, darkness unraveling.
"You—what are you?" he gasped. "How did you break my darkness?"
Black Halo's visor flared, the silver circuits along his armor burning white-hot.
"Your Darkness?" he roared, his voice wildly distorted, overlapping itself like broken echoes. "Is that supposed to be powerful?"
He took a step forward. "I don't think so."
"You haven't seen all of me!" the shadow shrieked.
Its body collapsed inward, imploding into a violent vortex of smoke and unraveling energy. The darkness screamed as it was torn apart—then vanished.
One by one, the convoy's headlights flickered back to life.
Even the stars returned.
"What the hell just happened?" a soldier muttered. "The world went dark for a few minutes."
Zairgid cautiously peeked out from behind the transport. "Hey… buddy," he called. "What do we do now?"
"Leave now. This battle isn't over," he continued. "He isn't gone."
Zairgid was never shy of leaving Damen behind in a battle. That was the way he is…. In his mind that was the best way he could help Damen…by getting out of his way.
Soon, he drove off with his convoy leaving Damen… and Black Halo behind.
-----
Damen's Vision Connect flared to life.
Glyphs spiraled across his vision, chasing distortions invisible to the naked eye, sweeping through the darkness like hunting hounds. The night resisted—then fractured.
His eyes gleamed faintly.
Then a Lock was acquired.
Hidden within a fold of shadow, something pulsed…alive. Data streamed in.
Name: Umbros
Strength Rank: C Meta Rank: B
Strength: 328 Charm: 12 Meta: 536 Command: 537
"Damn," Damen muttered. "That creep's stronger than me on paper."
But the numbers don't explain everything. Damen wasn't fighting as an ordinary meta-human anymore. His Annunakin blood burned.
He wasn't Damen Dark now.
He was Black Halo.
Umbros moved first. There was a flicker and then a shadow lunged.
Damen raised his forearm in time to block. The impact shrieked like tearing steel as a powerful blade carved across his arm hurling him backward.
"Devouring Blades"
"Damnit, how did the shadow cut through my body armor so easily?" Damen complained as the wounds ran deep…and a strange element streaking into his body.
Then he countered.
His right hand punched as raw kinetic pressure blasted inward in successive pulsing waves. Umbros twisted aside, the shock tearing open large craters along the ruined road.
"Momentum Collapse—Echo!"
"I'll kill you with my Anti-Meta energy?" Umbros screamed and retaliated with a roar.
Tendrils burst from his back like black whips thrumming with strange anti-meta energy. They lashed through vehicles parked by the sides, cleaving trees, and vaporizing the air.
The area was turned into a site of destruction and decay.
"Devouring Whips."
Damen's body blurred.
He vanished—then reappeared behind Umbros within a single breath. His elbow came down like a guillotine.
The impact detonated.
Umbros's shoulder shattered, the blow releasing a concussive wave that ripped through the street, the ground screaming and breaking under the force.
"Sonic Smash — Echo Enhanced."
For one heartbeat, Umbros staggered.
"I'll admit you're a worthy opponent," Umbros snarled, darkness writhing around his broken form. "But you are only dangerous up close."
A cruel laugh echoed from the shadows.
"You are no match for my ultimate devour."
Umbros wasn't wrong.
Black Halo's greatest skills were close-combat techniques. Every decisive strike required proximity.
Umbros's body unraveled.
Flesh dissolved into vaporous shadow, spreading outward in all directions.
"What the hell—" Black Halo started.
The darkness surged inward again, collapsing into a single, suffocating mass. A sphere of absolute black formed around Black Halo sealing him inside.
"Complete Devouring Cloud."
The formless darkness swallowed Black Halo whole.