185 ONLY THE STRONG DESERVES VENGEANCE
The three hung unconscious, their faces pale, their chests faintly rising.
Erythos's smirk returned, trembling but triumphant. "Let's see how long your resolve lasts, Black Halo."
Dan's fists clenched, plasma flickering at his knuckles but not releasing. "Damnit… Ralph, are you looking for death?" he muttered under his breath, the rage building in his chest warring with the horror in his eyes.
His halo dimd. For the first ti in the battle, Dan hesitated.
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Dan glanced at his live display. The data shimred like heat over asphalt and he laughed, low and surprised.
He hadn't gained much from draining the ta-humans under Erythos …. his system refuses power weaker than his own.
Na: Dan Dark
Strength Rank: B ta Rank: BB Blood Rank: BB
Strength: 863 | Charm: 961 | ta: 1015 | Command: 1016 | Blood: 1610 | Armor: 3130
His ta had climbed a notch, now solidly BB…. but Charm had jumped the most. That, he thought, was the real prize: it was the buffer against psychic intrusion.
"This is where the real battlefield is," he told himself.
Not the fight with Erythos, or whatever ca next.
Sienna's voice cut through the room like a razor.
"Dan, I brought you gifts." She pointed to the faces …. the people he hated most- Ralph and his family. "You now have a chance to kill them."
"You are sick," he spat.
She smiled, untroubled. "You've never thought about it? About killing Ralph and his lot?"
Dan allowed the mory to surface …. Having to work in mine at night, the stolen support money, the beatings. He had cursed Ralph and his family a thousand tis. Ralph had made him work while the other kids slept.
Killing them would be simple and satisfying… they were rely collateral damage in his fight against Erythos Monarch.
"That thought occurred many tis", Dan replied.
But sothing tightened in his chest. They were still family and connected by blood. His father would have hated this if he killed them.
"Do what you want with them… the blood is on you…not . I may not kill these creeps but if you do if for … I would not stop you", Dan said with certainty.
"Dan, save us", Ralph cried.
Dan ignored him and turned, "Erythos, you've already lost. I'll spare your life this ti," he said, turning away.
"Argggghhh", suddenly lody scread as her body was crushed by Erythos' tentacles.
"I'll kill her first", Erythos cried.
Dan was motionless. "Be my guest," he replied.
Snap. lody was crushed…. Her body falling to the ground.
"No….", both Ralph and Beck scread.
But Dan made no reaction. His heart was hardened.
"I am not a hero… it is not my responsibility to save her… her death is not on ", he said.
Then Erythos crushed Beck.
Dan didn't help.
Beck too was broken and dropped.
Only Ralph was left.
"Dan, please save …. I beg you", Ralph pleaded to him.
A streak of tear fell from his eyes… it wasn't because of love or care or kindness…. There was nothing of such between them. Dan cried because he was losing the last of his humanity.
"Be content I didn't kill you myself Ralph", Dan said to him before talking to Erythos, "Using these pawns against …. is useless."
Erythos was about to crush Ralph when Sienna stopped her. "Save him…. it's obvious he wouldn't bend to your blackmail", she said.
Then Dan turned to leave.
Sienna warned him without moving. "Co back here. I didn't let you leave."
"What are you going to do to stop ?"
She didn't answer.
Hundreds of drones and autocannons erupted from hidden ports, whirring into the air. Argent's silver hair flashed as he steeled himself.
"What, drones?" Dan laughed.
Dan snapped his fingers.
Lightning forked from his fingers, arcing through the air in quick, hungry strikes. The bolts found the drones' circuitry chained between them with instantaneous efficiency. Chips were fried, rotors stalled, the sky beca a shower of collapsing tal.
The weapons crashed harmlessly to the ground.
"Silver hair, this battle doesn't have a place for you", Dan scread.
Argent stamred. Sienna's grin thinned.
The battle, plainly and finally, was between Sienna and Dan Dark.
-----
Suddenly Dan's view flickered. Images folded into his reality … he wasn't there but the mory shoved into his mind like a pressed coin.
He was back in the apartnt with Ralph. Ralph reeked of cheap whiskey and fury. lody and Beck hovered at his side, pointing, laughing, spitting curses that landed like pebbles.
"What have I ever done to you people to deserve this?" Dan mouthed, more to the room than to them.
The world snapped.
Dan's mind cleared for a mont.
"Wait …. this is the past. I'm fighting Sienna now," he thought, but the thought felt thin, like a paper shield.
The nightmare wouldn't unspool. Ralph drew a rusty belt and flailed it. The pain wasn't only skin-deep; it invaded his mind, a hot, echoing brand.
Dan let out a raw, animal sound. Tears carved hot tracks down his face.
Every misery repeated in his mind: the mine's cold stone, the stolen money from his child support, the bullies on the streets, the nights he'd slept in the cold floor, shivering and trembling.
The loop played like a warped recording, each strike louder than the last.
"Keep calm. This is not real," he told himself suddenly.
It was a montary clarity of mind again.
"Where is it?" he asked as his hand busily found his pocket.
The phone was there. It was a relief.
He thumbed the screen while Ralph's blows fell in phantom arcs over his back, but he ignored them.
They weren't real.
"Core of the Blood Level 3 activated: 4/5," the phone chid.
Dan had been under psychic assault before; he knew the procedure. The Core of Blood was the solution to lock the mind down and stop the psychic assault.
As Ralph lunged again, Dan moved first.
He rose, planted both feet, and with a clean, hard kick sent Ralph slamming into the wall. "I told you… it is rcy for not to kill you myself."
The phantom staggered and crumpled.
"That's right," Dan said to the air, his voice steadier than he felt. "I'm controlling the narrative again."
------
Sienna's face was pale and drawn, her eyes glassy with strain.
"What is it, sister?" Argent asked softly.
She waved him off, her hand trembling. "He's resisting… how can he resist ?"
Argent blinked. "He's just a boy. That's impossible."
"The Oracle warned not to press him too hard," Sienna muttered, pacing. "Said there would be… consequences."
"But he's human, not a psychic. How could he fight you?" Argent pressed, disbelief creeping into his voice.
Sienna shook her head.
"There's sothing inside him… sothing far stronger than I ever imagined. Every ti he tries to probe my mind, I have to fight just to keep my sanity. It feels like… my mind is splitting apart."
She steadied herself on floor of the station… breathing hard.
Dan had tried before to check her stats with his live view function, to asure her strength but each attempt was repelled by her psychic defenses.
But every rejection cost her focus, draining her ntal energy in waves.
That was why she'd always avoided confronting him directly. She understood what slept inside the boy…. sothing buried and dangerous.
Awake it at her own peril.
But this ti was different.
Their years of planning, their fragile hopes and calculations, all depended on Dan remaining here… on keeping him within the prophecy.
Sienna straightened, resolve settling over her like steel.
"He cannot leave lrose city," she whispered. "Even if I must break my own mind to stop him."
------
The nightmare changed.
Dan watched with grim irony as Ralph and his family cowered before him, their faces twisted in fear. The three- Ralph, lody and Beck were tied, their heads placed inside guillotines.
"Ralph please spare ", lody pleaded before the blade fell…her head rolled off.
This was supposed to be Dan's vengeance for a very long ti…. To roll these people's heads down the drain.
The power had shifted. The nightmare belonged to him now… yet he was still trapped inside it.
"How the hell do I break free from this damn nightmare?" he muttered.
He scrolled through his phone again, searching for sothing—anything—that could sever psychic control.
There was nothing.
Every app, every tool was useless against the invisible grip on his mind.
"Stop it! You can't hurt us, even if you're stronger than us!" Beck shouted defiantly, .... just as the guillotine was about to drop.
"Wait a minute…", Dan said when he realized sothing from his words.
"Did you say 'Stronger'?"
The words hit Dan like an echo.
"Yes…" he whispered, with realization dawning upon him. "The stronger party. It is not guilt or compassion or enlightennt that can withstand this nightmare…. Only the stronger can resist."
His eyes hardened.
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