184 ERYTHOS
"Damen Dark … even your power couldn't breach Gusto's force fields," Stacy, the Erythos Monarch, laughed.
Her voice echoed through the air as black tentacles writhed behind her. From each tendril, bodies began to form … meta-humans once free, were now puppets to her will.
One by one they stepped forward, their eyes empty and gleaming with violet light.
Damen started Scanning...
Gusto — Rank B. Power: Force Fields.
Frey — Rank B. Power: Kinetics.
Asera — Rank B. Power: Flame Bolts.
Menan — Rank B. Power: Lightning Strikes.
Kartue — Rank B. Power: Stone Body.
...and more. There were dozens of Rank B and hundreds of lesser ranks.
This was an army…. An entire city's worth of power or more… now bound to one monstrous queen.
Erythos spread her arms wide. "You see, Damen Dark? You have no chance against us!"
From the side, Sienna smiled faintly, her tone deceptively sweet. "Nephew, don't resist. You could have this entire army under your command if you join us."
Damen floated higher, blue lightning crawling across his arms.
"Dammit," he thought. "I can't defeat all of them. Not yet."
His blood burned from the recent transfusion.
His current rank was- Blood Rank: B. Meta Rank: B. Facing Erythos, a Rank BB and her horde was … suicide.
"You can become stronger if you join us," Sienna said, stepping forward. "I'll help you, Damen, just as I helped all of them. Just accept your place."
He looked down at her, realization cutting through him. "So, that's why Melrose City is suddenly full of high-rank metas. You've been manufacturing them…. like the Atheris cloning meta humans."
The Alliance of Evolution have artifacts such as the Ring of Power and Ring of Greed which could turn ordinary people into powerful meta humans. Sienna was using such instruments to create an army of powerful metas.
He shook his head. "No thanks. I'll get stronger in my own way."
Erythos's face twisted. "Then you'll die screaming."
The ground shook as her army advanced, but Damen didn't move. Instead, his gaze fixed on the nearest Meat Heap — one of the grotesque abominations thrashing nearby.
A plan sparked in his mind.
He shot into the air, his aura flaring crimson-black.
"HALO'S JUDGMENT — ECHO OUT!"
A storm of plasma beams tore through the sky. Each beam split and echoed again, colliding into the Meat Heap in overlapping waves. The creature shrieked, its body splitting apart … half liquefying, half disintegrating into dust.
"Why is he attacking the Meat Heap?" Gusto shouted, his shield shimmering.
"Hah!" Erythos laughed. "Because that's all he can kill! Pathetic!"
But Damen ignored them. He felt his blood ignite, and data flickering before his eyes. Hus Blood stat was rising fast…. Killing the corrosivers gives free stats.
Blood Rank: BB. It was his own stats.
"Perfect, finally," he whispered.
Menan frowned. "Why do I feel like he's becoming stronger?"
Kartue slammed his stone fists together, his voice booming. "Stronger or not … he's nothing against my body!" He leapt out from Gusto's shield, breaking free from Erythos's tentacles and charged.
"No…" Erythos warned but couldn't stop him.
In an instant, Damen was gone in a black flash and crack of thunder.
When Damen reappeared, his hand was around Kartue's throat. The air trembled.
"Die."
Lightning flared in a blinding, violet surge.
Kartue convulsed, his stone skin cracking apart like brittle clay. His energy was drawn into Damen's body in an instant, leaving nothing but a scorched husk that fell lifeless to the ground.
"Drain."
The battlefield went silent.
"Did… did he just kill Kartue?" one of the metas whispered.
Gusto's shield flickered as fear spread through the ranks.
Erythos's laughter faltered for the first time. "Form around the shield!" she shouted, fury replacing her amusement. "Stay close … he's feeding off the kills!"
Damen hovered above them, his black halo burning brighter than before. His eyes glowed like molten suns.
"One down," he said coldly. "Plenty more to go."
-----
"Are you not going to help Erythos, sister?" Argent asked, his voice calm but edged with curiosity as he watched the storm of light and smoke erupt across the battlefield.
Sienna folded her arms, her eyes fixed on the dark figure darting through the chaos. "No. Damen is strong, but he's still inexperienced. Erythos should be enough."
Below them, Black Halo moved … as a streak of black lightning cutting through the air. He crashed straight into Gusto's shimmering force field and unleashed a barrage of rapid punches, each one striking with mechanical precision.
Gusto laughed from within his barrier. "Ha! Does he think baby punches can break this shield?"
But his laughter froze halfway through.
Lightning suddenly bloomed behind the barrier, hundreds and thousands of them crackling through the air like a living storm.
Each punch Damen threw left a mark … and from those marks, lightning spears were formed, bypassing the force field entirely.
It was his fusion technique …. physical and meta attacks woven into one.
"Chain Lightning Strikes — Echo Out!"
Bolts exploded outward, forking through the ranks of meta-humans. Each strike chained half a dozen times, leaping from one victim to the next in a cascading storm.
Screams filled the air. "Arrghh!"
Dozens of Rank B metas convulsed as arcs of electricity danced across their bodies. Though their energy levels read as Rank B, their strength was artificial … their foundations weak and brittle.
Their nerves fried in seconds, and one by one they collapsed, twitching and smoking.
Above them, Damen smiled. On his Connect Vision display, he tapped the Drain command.
Instantly, faint streams of energy bled from the fallen metas into him … violet wisps pulled into his body like threads of mist.
His energy bar rose steadily, keeping his lightning flowing without pause.
"Enough!" Erythos screamed, her tentacles lashing out.
With a surge of power, she pulled the wounded metas and even Gusto back into her inner space. The massive force field flickered, then shattered like glass.
She admitted defeat and wasn't ready to sacrifice her people needlessly.
Now only two figures remain on the battlefield —Erythos and Black Halo.
Black Halo flexed his fingers, as arcs of plasma spiraling between them. "Looks like it's just you and me now," he said.
Erythos's eyes narrowed, her tentacles twitching. "Don't get cocky, child. You've barely begun to understand my power."
Damen smiled, halo flaring behind him like a dark sun. "Then let me learn …. from you."
Damen's halo pulsed violently, the symbol on his chest glowing like a newborn star. Plasma erupted from him in blinding bursts — each blast tearing through the air, slicing apart the dark tentacles that surrounded Erythos.
One after another, her limbs exploded into ash and smoke until her butterfly form dissolved completely, leaving only a trembling woman suspended in midair.
"No… how can you destroy all my limbs?" she cried, her voice trembling with disbelief.
"Next," Black Halo's voice boomed through the storm, "it will be you."
Erythos's mind raced.
She couldn't fall here …. not to him.
Her survival, her position in the Alliance of Psyche, everything depended on winning this battle. Panic twisted into fury.
Argent watched with detached interest. "Are you not helping her now, sister?"
Sienna smirked, her golden eyes reflecting the light of the fight. "Not yet. I want to see how Damen handles her next move."
Argent tilted his head slightly. "So, she still has something left?" He didn't expect an answer.
Erythos's expression shifted from rage to realization. "You think I have nothing left, boy?" she hissed.
Her body convulsed … and new tentacles sprouted from her back, slick and writhing. But this time, they didn't lash toward Damen.
They reached into her own body, dragging out shapes … human shapes.
Damen froze mid-attack as three limp figures emerged, bound by black tendrils. His plasma blasts faded instantly.
He recognized them at once.
"Ralph… Uncle Ralph? Aunt Melody? Beck?" His voice cracked.