263 THE FOUR WARDENS
The emergency lights bled crimson across the barn.
Metal groaned under sudden strain. The farm felt hollow—like a body after its heart had stopped beating.
Godfather rose slowly from his throne.
"Intruder."
Damen was already moving.
"Damn it… how did he detect me?I have no time. I have to move—now."
Invisible and silent, Damen slipped through the hall like a knife through fog, shadows folding around him as he closed the distance.
Then…. the floor detonated.
Armored pylons burst upward in a perfect ring around Godfather, slamming into place with deafening force. Arcs of energy leap between them, weaving into a rotating lattice of raw power.
Damen skidded to a halt, his boots carving trenches through the stone floor.
"It's a defensive forcefield", he realized instantly.
"The bastard Godfather was prepared for an assassination."
Godfather lifted one hand.
"Release the Wardens."
The walls behind the throne split open.
Four massive figures dropped to the floor, each impact shaking the farm like a localized earthquake.
"Damnit, more super guards?" Damen complained.
The first stepped forward. He was a hulking brute clad in obsidian armor, with veins of molten energy pulsing beneath cracked plating.
Damen's Vision interface reacted automatically.
Name: Breaker
Strength Rank: 6AArmor Rank: AA
Description: Enforcer. Extreme brute force / reinforced defense.
Breaker didn't hesitate.
He chargedtowards Damen's direction immediately.
There was no technique or strategy in his assault- only instinct and annihilation.
His fist came down like a falling star….
… And the floor vaporized on impact.
A violent shockwave erupted outward, shredding debris, tearing pillars loose, and hurling shattered stone across the hall.
Damen twisted away at the last instant.
The blow missed him …. but the aftershock didn't.
Kinetic force slammed into him like a freight train, flinging his body across the hall and through a stone column.He stabilized midair, his boots scraping sparks as he landed.
He realized what just hit him.
"This Breaker released kinetic amplification after his punch", Damen thought grimly. "He is using skill similar to my fusion techniques."
Breaker roared, his molten veins flaring brighter.
"Where is that creep, don't hide behind your invisibility", he screamed.
The mansion shook as the Warden came down on Damen like a blind weapon again.
Then the air ignited again.
Heat twisted the world as a tall figure lifted from the ground, levitating with effortless authority. Burning sigils spiraled across his body, rotating like living equations. Solar fire poured from his hands—not wild, not chaotic—but honed into disciplined streams that hummed with lethal control.
"Leave that to me, he can't hide from my flame."
Damen's Vison Connect flared.
Name: Pyrelord
Strength Rank: AAMeta Rank: 6A
Description:Elemental,High-precision thermokinesis / energy conversion.
Pyrelord didn't unleash fire like a flamethrower.
He crafted flame.
Twin lances of compressed plasma scythed through the hall, intersecting midair with surgical precision.
Damen reacted on instinct.
His silhouette shimmered into existence as he slipped between the converging beams. Heat raked his armor, his health bar flickered screaming crimson. Shadow boiled off his body like vapor.
For a heartbeat, his invisibility tore away.
"There he is," someone said.
"This damn bloody flame," Damen muttered, skidding across half-molten stone. "It's catching and revealing my position."
Above him, Pyrelord hovered in perfect composure, his hands tracing elegant arcs as the burning sigils realigned around his body.
"Running won't save you," Pyrelord said calmly.
"Your energy feeds my flame."
The temperature surged.
Fire began to curve toward Damen.
"This bloody flame hurts less than it appears, although…. The bloody flame would reveal me from invisibility", Damen complained again.
Suddenly—
A blur tore through the air.
Hexblade was there.
He emerged behind Damen mid-dodge, his existence snapping into place as twin void-forged blades were already in motion. There was no warning.…. Just steel arriving where Damen was about to be.
Damen's interface screamed.
Name: Hexblade
Strength: Rank 6AMeta: Rank 3AArmor: Rank AA
Description: Duelist, Predictive combatant / temporal intuition.
"So, this is the real assassin", Damen noted.
Hexblade's blades fell.
Damen twisted away—but barely.
"How can he predict my every move so perfectly…whilst I'm invisible", Damen murmured. "He couldn't be always so lucky."
At his current output, with his Mind Core singularly active and his rank stabilized at AAA, evading a Rank 6A opponent should have been trivial.
But it wasn't.
The first slash skimmed his shoulder, shredding shadow and leaving a cold, void-scorched scar across his armor. The second cut missed his throat by millimeters.
Hexblade didn't chase…. he corrected his move.
Damen felt it then.
This wasn't speed….. This wasn't reaction time.
Hexblade was moving ahead of him even if he couldn't see him.
Memory surfaced—Damen remembered the Rewind Sisters. Those were enemies who could undo their own mistakes, rewinding moments to land the perfect strike again.
But Hexblade was different.
He didn't rewind…. He anticipated.
Every time Damen initiated motion, Hexblade was already cutting the future version of that action. Blades met intent before muscle, steel answering thought instead of movement.
"Damnit, this kind of ability is stronger than even my Autonomous Combat", Damen complained again.
Strike after strike carved into more than armor.
Each cut bit into Damen's control itself—disrupting timing, fragmenting rhythm, forcing his movements half a beat late. The battlefield no longer obeyed him.
His instincts betrayed him, arriving just after the danger had already passed.
Hexblade's voice was calm, almost respectful.
"You're fast," he said calmly. "But you're still thinking in the past—while I'm already thinking ahead of you."
Damen's position was deadly.
Pyrelord's flames scoured the space around him, burning the air itself to expose his invisible form. Breaker unleashed raw devastation, collapsing terrain and driving him into ever-tightening confines. Hexblade moved with ruthless precision, every strike guided by prediction, each one meant to be the killing blow.
It was a perfect trap.
And still, it wasn't enough.
Because they weren't facing Damen anymore.
They were facing Black Halo.
Suddenly… the farm sang.
A lone figure stood at the far end of the hall, unmoving, encased in concentric bands, glowing rings of segmented armor. Each ring vibrated at a different frequency, oscillating perfectly.
"Now what?" Damen murmured.
The air itself became her instrument.
Then the first note hit.
It wasn't sound—it was powerful mass.
The wave slammed into Damen's mind like a collapsing wall. His invisibility detonated, shredded apart. Blood burst from his ears as pressure crushed inward, rattling bone and liquefying equilibrium.
His body howled in response.
Name: Iron Choir
Strength: Rank AAMeta: Rank APsychic: Rank 6A
Description: Psychic suppressor, Resonant warfare / telepathic binding.
Iron Choir raised her head slightly.
"Lock him," she intoned.
The sound answered.
Multiple harmonics layered over one another, weaving into a crushing resonance cage. Gravity spiked—not naturally, not mechanically—but psychic.
Damen was wrenched downward, slammed to one knee, then forced lower as invisible pressure pinned every joint of his.
This wasn't telekinesis.
This was her mind pressing reality into obedience.
"Another bloody psychic again?"
His vision swam. Shadow peeled away from him, flayed by vibration, stripped him of concealment.
For the first time since entering the farm—
Damen stood fully visible.
"Damnit, this bloody music broke my invisibility", he complained. "And it's pinning me to the floor."
And every Warden in the room turned toward him.