275 THE INVASION OF SILVER CITY
Liorea's smile faded as she considered it. Then her eyes sharpened.
"You're right," she said slowly. "This could be a prison. A perfect one."
She looked upward. "This can be my private Alcatrax. An inescapable prison."
Damen followed her gaze to the sky.
The glowing commands hovered above them, silent and eternal.
"The Death Note didn't just merge with your space," he said. "It became the conditions of this realm."
Understanding struck him all at once.
"Nullrose didn't expand her anti-meta field," Damen said. "What we're experiencing outside… it's this place. These commands in effect… extending its domain."
A chill crept into Liorea's voice."You mean—"
"Yes," Damen said. "The Meta Blackout is being enforced by this space."
Silence swallowed the temple.
Liorea whispered, "…That means as long as this temple or well exists—Silver City stays in a power blackout?"
"There is an order… Meta power comes first," Damen said grimly. "Eventually, psychic power fails. Then blood-based power. And after that—"
He pressed his hand against the stone beneath him.
"Gravity finishes the job."
The floating commands flared brighter, reacting as if acknowledging the truth.
Liorea exhaled slowly. "So, we're standing at the heart of the blackout."
Damen shook his head, considering a troubling possibility.
"It's not that simple," he said. "The blackout may be following you. Wherever you go, this realm goes with you."
Liorea stiffened.
"…Damn it," she muttered. "So sooner or later, the only people who can stay near me are you and Kail?"
"It looks that way," Damen said quietly. "But—look on the bright side. Your enemies won't be able to come near you without being crushed."
She shot him a look. He stopped smiling.
"That's not funny."
Silence settled between them, heavy as the gravity pressing down on his shoulders.
Liorea drew a slow breath.
"I need to know if this blackout is bound to me," she said.
"How would you find out?" Damen asked.
Liorea paused, thinking carefully.
"I might have a way."
-----
From the horizon poured the Shadow Hounds of Anubis—vast, skeletal beasts wrapped in living darkness, nearly invisible beneath the night sky, their eyes burning with embalmer's gold.
They struck the streets like a divine execution.
Claws tore through concrete. Jaws snapped shut on screaming civilians. With every step, the world collapsed—lights guttered out, shields failed, entire districts plunged into darkness.
This city had lost its will to live.
The superheroes meant to stop the invasion were gone, stripped of their powers, reduced to ghosts hiding among the ruins.
The few remaining defense drones drifted uselessly through the air, while armored convoys thundered down the avenues, escorting the rich and influential to safety. Soldiers formed living walls around limousines and evac ships.
No one was left to stop the monsters.
The Shadow Hounds of Anubis feasted.
They leapt through apartment blocks, shredded barricades, and dragged the helpless into the dark. Sirens died mid-wail. Towers fell silent. The city became a slaughterhouse, echoing with divine howls.
Then the wind changed.
A pressure swept through the streets—and the shadows recoiled.
A lone figure stood at the end of the boulevard, his coat snapping as invisible currents coiled around him. It was Damen Dark.
Damen raised his hand, his eyes cold and unreadable.
The air screamed violently.
Blades of compressed wind tore forward, ripping through the first hound in a burst of black vapor. Another lunged—only to be cleaved in midair, its howl severed into static. Damen advanced, each step measured, every motion carving death into the storm.
The Shadow Hounds turned toward him as one.
They recognized him.
He was their greatest enemy.
For the first time since the invasion began, the hunt stopped.
And the city—broken, abandoned, and betrayed—watched as a single man stood between it and annihilation.
------
"Are you sure you can take on an entire alien army by yourself?" Liorea asked over the comms.
Damen smirked. "These are just the entrées. The real demon invasion hasn't even arrived yet."
He was still using his powers, powering them through his blood essence—but he could already feel the resistance. The flow was slowing, thinning, slipping through his grasp.
Silver City had fallen into an unnatural blackout.
They already knew why.
The source was the Well of Fracture—the space Liorea obtained after assimilating the Death Note. Buried deep within it were a set of absolute commands:
BLOCK ALL DEFENSES
BLOCK META POWERS
BLOCK PSYCHIC POWERS
BLOCK BLOOD ESSENCE
UNLEASH GRAVITY
One by one, those commands were being enforced across the city.
First, meta defenses vanished.Then meta powers collapsed.Psychic abilities followed.
Now even blood essence was being targeted.
Damen could still fight only because the fourth restriction hadn't fully taken effect yet—but it was closing in.
"Damn it," Damen muttered. "The fourth command of the Well of Fracture is activating."
"Hey—don't rush off without me!" Liorea shouted.
Panting, she sprinted after him.
"I'm leaving the city boundary," Damen said over comms as overlapping wind-blade conjurations shredded another wave of Shadow Hounds.
"I'm coming with you," Liorea said without hesitation.
Damen slowed. "Liorea… what if the blackout follows you?"
"There is that possibility but we don't know for sure…. Which is why I'm going out of the city with you," she replied. "I need to know for certain if I'm bloody cursed by the damn Well."
They had a theory: the blackout originated from the Well of Fracture, and its range might be bound to Liorea herself. If she moved, the blackout would move with her.
They pushed on—past ruined districts, beyond the fractured skyline, until the city lay behind them.
Then something changed.
Damen stopped.
His blood essence was still flowing.
More than that—his meta powers surged back, snapping into place like chains falling away.
He stared at his hands, then let out a sharp, relieved laugh.
"Alright," he said. "We can be certain of one thing. The blackout doesn't follow you like a curse."
"Hooray," Liorea said, grinning. "I knew it. That cursed blackout couldn't be attached to me."
A hologram flickered into existence beside them.
"I feel like I missed something important," Kail said. "Care to explain, sis?"
Liorea's expression shifted as realization dawned upon her.
"The Well of Fracture never assimilated into my space," she said slowly. "I didn't absorb it. I only gained access—to open a portal to it. That is the reason even I can enter it. It would be a paradox if I could enter my own created space."
She looked back toward the distant burning city.
"It's still anchored where it always was…. Probably at the abandoned church."
"So… what now?" Kail asked.
Liorea's gaze hardened. "Now that we know what caused the blackout, it's time to set things right."
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