225KIDNAPPING OF ARGENT
His mind raced. His plasma beams couldn't shatter it mid-air like before. The Scythe was faster, denser, reinforced by divine energy.
Then an idea struck.
He lifted himself slightly from the ground, energy cores glowing crimson beneath his armor. As the Scythe plummeted toward him, Damen fired…not upward,….
…. but down.
The plasma burst into the ground, carving a deep crater beneath his feet.
The weapon struck a heartbeat later.
A blinding flash engulfed the battlefield.
The land itself convulsed under the divine impact—the mountains shuddered, the sky cracked with thunder.
But buried deep below, inside the crater he had made, Damen survived.
The Scythe's energy dispersed across the terrain spread among the vast area. Damen by now was deep under the ground…burrowed.
He was still hurt by the tremor from the falling scythes.
But the shockwaves that reached Damenwhich could have vaporized a tank…only caused some pain, not death or serious injury.
"How… how did he survive?" the Shadow of Anubis roared. "Did he crawl into the dirt like a pest to evade us?"
Suddenly, rubble exploded upward.
Damen rose into the air, armor glinting beneath arcs of plasma. "Not like a pest," he said, laughing darkly. "Like a bug… an invincible bug."
It wasn't just bravado.
Protected by the vast desert, it was difficult to kill a pest burrowed deep within…. That was Damen's method of survival… burrowing.
The Shadow of Anubis realized the truth….his enormous Scythe was a liability against something so small and adaptive.
"Pest or bug makes no difference to us."
He roared and began to transform again, shrinking, compacting, until his new form towered only ten times Damen's height.
"What the hell…" Damen muttered. "So that's your next trick… shrink?"
At this scale, Damen couldn't rely on burrowing for cover.
Anubis lunged, faster than sound, his scythe arcing like lightning. Against any normal meta, evasion would be impossible.
But Damen wasn't normal.
His Level-6 Autonomous Combat System activated….calculating every angle, every motion, every weakness in real time.
He darted upward at the last possible moment, twisting mid-air, and fired a focused plasma beam. It sliced across Anubis's flank in a perfect counterattack.
"You were harder to handle when you were a giant," Damen smirked. "Now we're almost the same size. It's much easier to hit."
"Much easier?… try having more of me."
Anubis snarled…and his form split again.Dozens of shadows peeled away from his body, each forming its own blade.
"What the hell?"
"What about now, Black Halo?" the chorus of Shadows cried. "We are many—you are one!"
Damen's scanners flared red. The shadow has split into many.
Each clone carried nearly the same destructive power as the original and their weaknesses were still unknown to him.
"Damn it… now there's a whole pack of you," he muttered.
He moved like lightning, dodging, countering, firing in calculated bursts…. but even his Level-6 system couldn't predict every simultaneous strike.
One Scythe caught him across the chest.
The impact hurled him from the sky.
Damen crashed into the earth, coughing blood.
"Still so cocky, half-breed?" the Shadows roared in unison, descending upon him.
Damen rose again, his limp body stitching itself with raw will as the Shadows of Anubis harried him from below. Their scythes dissolved into jagged bolts of energy and tore after him like hunting stars.
"Damnit…at this rate they'll kill me," he hissed, his breath ragged.
His mind spun through plans and ideas.
Amid the chaos a tiny point of light winked on the horizon…an insignificant speck against the bruised dark sky.
An idea sparked in Damen.
"There is still a chance for me", he thought. "Not a chance but a gamble."
The Shadows pressed the advantage, their malignant strikes fanning out.
Black Halo parried and riposted with everything he had; the air around him tasted of ozone and scorched metal.
He could not block every beam. Cuts opened along his armor; each hit chipped away at his endurance.
The fight stretched into a brutal calculus of attrition.
Time eventually bled him.
His energy reserves dwindled.
At last his limbs finally betrayed him….his strength flattened.
He fell from the sky and hit the ground hard, coughing, blood fouling his vision. The battlefield swung above him like a cruel carousel.
Black Halo has fallen.
"This is the day you die, half-breed," Anubis bellowed, voices splitting into a dozen cruel echoes.
Damen laughed….his laugh low, ragged, and oddly calm.
"On the contrary," he breathed, tasting blood on his lips, "this is the day I'll live."
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[Palace of Revolution- Liberty City, before the closure of the space rift]
Argent raced toward the main hall.
Sienna and Queen Erythos had only just left for the Space Rift…why were they back so soon? His chest tightened.
"Something is wrong," he told himself.
He spotted them standing by the main doors, calm and expressionless.
"Sienna!" he called. "Why did you return so early?"
"Oh… it was nothing," she said softly.
Argent frowned. Her tone was…too flat. Her eyes were too cold. "Is something wrong?"
"Oh, nothing really," she repeated with her flat tone.
A chill ran down his spine. "No… this isn't right," Argent said, stepping back. "You're not…"
He turned to leave, but guards closed in around him.
"How dare you stop me!" he shouted.
"We have orders from the Queen!" one guard barked.
Queen Erythos raised her hand. "Hold him."
Argent struggled as the guards seized him. Suddenly security drones gathered to help him, but the enemy were quicker.
A nurse rushed in and plunged a syringe into his neck.
They had it all planned. There was no way Argent would escape once he came to them… into their trap.
"That injection will calm your mind," Erythos said coolly.
His vision blurred. Then darkness folded in.
He felt the world tilt as he was blindfolded and carried away. Faintly, all he could hear were Sienna's voice and Erythos's footsteps following behind.
But are they real?
The last thing he could do was to sound an alarm.
In the corridor, servants whispered nervously.
"What's happening? Why did the Queen arrest the silver-haired adviser?"
No one answered.
Moments later, alarms erupted through the palace.
"Red Level breach in security!" the intercom blared.
Guards rushed to the courtyard and froze….Queen Erythos and Sienna were already there, carrying Argent's limp body.
"What is it, my Queen?" one asked.
Erythos, panting, ordered, "Quickly…get us aboard the plane!"
They obeyed without hesitation.
The royal jet lifted off moments later, vanishing into the stormy sky.
-----
Less than an hour passed before a convoy roared back into the palace courtyard.
Queen Erythos and Sienna stepped out.
The guards stared in confusion. "My lady… didn't you just leave? You took Sir Argent aboard the plane. How…how are you here again?"
Sienna's blood ran cold.
She pulled out her phone. A message blinked across the screen:
Argent: "Sister, be careful. There's a breach in the palace's security. Don't come back."
Her hands trembled. "No…" she whispered.
"What's wrong, Lady Sienna?" Erythos asked.
"They've taken Argent," she said through clenched teeth.
Queen Erythos's face darkened. "Who would dare do such a thing in our own palace?"
Sienna crushed her phone in her hand. "The same people who attacked our servers before."
Erythos gasped, "Silver City. The Atheris family?"
Sienna shook her head. "No… this is beyond the Atheris. To impersonate us, infiltrate the palace, and abduct Argent… this took precision and organization far beyond a family syndicate."
"Then who?" Erythos demanded.
Sienna's eyes hardened. "I have an idea… but I don't yet know what they want with Argent."
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