254 HUMANITY'S GREATEST NIGHTMARE
Graviton spread both arms.
The sky darkened.
Gravity spiked a hundredfold.
Black Halo was smashed back into the ground. The impact triggered a localized quake, the street collapsing into a deep crater as layers of earth compacted violently. His vision screamed warnings as internal supports strained.
Damen was a Rank AAA Strength Meta—but that meant nothing compared to the raw output of a Rank 6A.
The difference was immense.
He shut down all nonessential cores and rerouted everything into his plasma system. At maximum output, his plasma could reach Rank 6A levels.
Unless Graviton possessed innate thermal resistance, he wouldn't survive the heat.
Damen screamed and pushed back.
Silver light spiraled across his chest as energy flared violently, and with a roar, his plasma exploded outward.
"See how I make you bend with my Graviton Shield," Graviton hissed through his steaming hoses.
Graviton wasn't a novice.
He knew how to deal with ranged attacks.
His palm twisted, gravity folding into a spiral. Black Halo's plasma beam was dragged into orbit, whipping around Graviton at high speed, unable to break free.
Damen watched with interest.
The shield wasn't truly a force field—it was controlled rotation. Matter and energy spun around before they could touch him. Despite intercepting his plasma beam, the energy from his beam never ceases.
"Frankly, Graviton," Damen said calmly, "this is the worst defense you could use against my plasma."
Damen had been a top scorer in High School.
He never slacked in theory.
He knew exactly what happened when high-temperature plasma rotated around a confined core… Controlled Fusion.
Halo's Judgment continued to flare around Graviton, waiting to be released—
—but Damen wouldn't allow him the time to divert the plasma away.
"Now take more of this!" Black Halo roared.
He poured additional plasma into the spiraling gravity shield.
The air around Graviton ignited, heat climbing rapidly as the spinning plasma intensified. It felt like a miniature sun forming around him. As more plasma fed into the rotation, Graviton struggled to maintain control.
The spin destabilized.
The gravity field expanded outward, forming a dome around his body. But all the plasma was never released. They all spun around him.
Damen smiled.
"Perfect. That's exactly what I expected."
Graviton tried to speak—but no sound escaped.
Inside the plasma-gravity dome, oxygen was gone. Words, air, even pressure couldn't survive. His systems screamed as his body began to fail.
"Go ahead," Damen shouted. "Release your gravity now, dumbass. You'll trigger a fusion blast so massive there won't be anything left of you."
"How can you fire plasma continuously?! Are you an S Rank?" Argent screamed.
Damen didn't look away.
"Because I am the god of death and flame."
He couldn't fire endlessly under normal conditions—but once the Core of Genesis was active, he was burning his Blood Stats for power. He could continue indefinitely, at the cost of permanently relinquishing part of himself….his bad blood.
Which, frankly, wasn't a bad trade.
Argent understood.
The battle was lost.
He ran.
Moments later, a shuttle roared to life and lifted into the sky.
"Damn it—he's getting away!" Damen yelled.
But he couldn't chase him.
Not while he was still feeding fire into Graviton's collapsing gravity dome. He couldn't leave Graviton before he was dealt with otherwise, he wouldn't repeat the same mistake with his graviton shield.
"Come on, Graviton," Black Halo roared. "Just die!"
Damen glanced at his Vision Connect. Argent's signal was still moving—faster now—pulling farther and farther away. Then, with a soft blink, the dot vanished.
"Damn it," he snarled. "That bitch got away."
Minutes dragged by.
Graviton struggled inside the collapsing plasma-gravity dome, his systems screaming as the contained energy climbed past critical.
Then….he gave out.
The plasma detonated.
A blinding flash swallowed the district as a massive nuclear-like explosion tore outward, incinerating streets, buildings, and everything in between. A rolling mushroom of fire rose into the sky, turning night into white-hot daylight.
When the flames finally settled, Black Halo returned to the blast zone.
The ground was glassed. Steel had melted into twisted rivers. Nothing recognizable remained—except one thing.
His Vision Connect flared.
At the center of the devastation floated a dim, pulsing object.
Core of Gravity — Level 7
Damen reached out and closed his hand around it.
A faint pull tugged at his senses, subtle but undeniable—as if space itself acknowledged the Core's presence.
"Damn," he muttered with a grin. "That's a hell of a haul."
Earlier, after assimilating the Eye and Heart of Heka, Damen had gained a special skill—
Graviton Hold.
He had tested it before.The results had been… underwhelming.
Damen turned the Core slowly in his hand, feeling its weight—not physical, but conceptual.
"Think this'll improve my Graviton Hold?" he asked himself.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"…That's a thought."
A sudden chill crawled up Damen's spine.
Something was wrong.
It wasn't sight or sound—it was a familiar sensation, like a long-forgotten scent drifting back into his memory.
"Did the enemy send more warships?" he muttered.
Black Halo rose into the sky, scanning the horizon.
There was nothing in the air.
No reinforcements. No incoming fleets.
The wreckage of the previous armada lay half-buried across the city, crushed into the earth like the bones of fallen giants. Below, surviving soldiers and Meta heroes scattered through the devastated streets, scrambling for cover among ruins and craters.
Then….
…there was movement.
Damen's breath caught.
From the direction of the Aur Mine, something poured into the city.
Not machines.
Not soldiers.
Hunters.
Hundreds—no, thousands—of Shadow Hounds surged forward, their bodies writhing like living darkness. Behind them came other alien predators, twisted and feral, their silhouettes barely visible through dust and fire as they spilled into the streets.
They didn't advance like an army.
They flooded the city.
Damen hovered in the sky, watching in horror as the swarm spread outward, cutting through the ruins with terrifying speed.
There was only one explanation.
His fists clenched.
"…Damn it," he whispered.
"The portal to Anu has been opened."
Humanity's greatest nightmare has begun.
-----
[Some tima ago- back in the tunnel]
Drones and juggernauts finally advanced on Sienna and her team.
Erythos collapsed first.
Her powers were spent, her Meta humans exhausted, their bodies giving out one by one as she fell hard to the ground. There was no strength left to fight back.
They were completely defeated.
"Arrest them," Argent commanded coldly. "Kill them if they resist."
For the first time in her life, Sienna felt truly helpless.
She had never been out of control. Never this powerless.
"How did things turn out this way?" she cried.
Then a voice answered her.
It was not from her crew… or from Argent.
Someone else had appeared behind them.
"You should have listened to the Alliance's commands," the man said calmly. "Your little experiment—your little Alliance of Psyche—was never going to work in this world. Only absolute power and absolute control allow us to determine our fate."
Sienna turned toward him.
Despite everything, she smirked.
"So, the Alliance of Evolution has come to laugh at my failure?" she asked.
"No," the man replied evenly. "Your failure was expected."
"At least I tried," Sienna snapped. "I created a utopia for real people."
"And what happened to them?" he asked. "Those people you claimed to protect? They're gone. You used them as human shields to cover your escape."
The words hit harder than any weapon.
Sienna sank to the floor.
"I was this close to success," she whispered.
"You would never have succeeded without us," the man said. "The comet that nearly crashed into this planet—do you remember it?"
Her eyes widened.