The wind swept sharply across the abandoned district as the Nine Hogate arrived, their armored boots thudding in steady rhythm along the cracked pavement.
The once-crowded marketplace was silent now, doors shut, windows broken, and dust drifting like thin smoke through the alleys.
It felt like walking through a graveyard, except the threat waiting above them was very much alive.
Their leader, Knight Argent, raised his hand, stopping the group.
"He's here," he murmured.
All nine sets of eyes lifted.
Atop the tallest building, seated casually on its edge as if the entire city were his throne, sat Ness.
One leg dangled lazily over the side. The other rested firmly, his elbow propped on his knee.
His attire fluttered in the wind, dark sleeves, sharp outlines, and an expression that made the knights instinctively grip their weapons.
Ness didn't stand. He didn't even lean forward. He simply raised his hand.
A pressure swept the street.
The eighth knight Sorell, barely had a second to react before a flash of force struck him.
His body crashed into the pavement beside the others, sliding across the ground in a burst of dust. His armor cracked. His breath hitched.
But he was alive.
Barely.
The attack was precise, calculated not to kill, only to warn.
The other seven knights instantly stepped around him, shields raised, blades ready, forming a half-circle to protect their fallen comrade.
Sorell groaned, struggling to prop himself up on one elbow.
Argen clenched his jaw. "Ness!" he shouted upward. "Striking one of us without even rising, that's your greeting?"
Ness tapped a finger idly on the roof. "Greeting? No. That was a reminder."
"Of what?" another knight snapped.
"That I let him live."
The streets shifted into silence. Even the wind seemed to pause.
The knights exchanged glances.
Ness finally stood, stretching as though he had just woken from a nap. His gaze locked on them, sharp and unblinking.
There was no anger in his eyes, only disinterest, as if the Nine Hogate were little more than chores he had been forced to deal with.
"I told your council to stay out of this," Ness said. "But they sent you anyway."
Argen straightened, planting his blade into the ground. "We are sworn to confront threats to the Vulgram empire."
Ness tilted his head.
"And you think I'm a threat?"
"You're sitting above a ruined sector," Argen growled. "You injured a knight without reason. What else should we believe?"
"Believe this," Ness replied quietly. "If I wanted you gone… you wouldn't be standing there."
A murmur rippled through the knights but none stepped back.
Ness smiled faintly.
"Still brave," he said. "Or foolish."
Argen pointed his blade upward. "We came for a fight, Ness. You won't scare us off,most especially when you hold the empire crystal."
The smile widened into something colder.
Ness lifted both arms slightly, shadows curling around his fingertips.
"Good," he said, voice echoing through the empty street.
"Come now and die, and let's get this over with."
--
The ground trembled long before the beast revealed itself. Dust climbed into the evening air, and the last rays of sunlight flickered uncertainly, as if even the sky hesitated to shine upon what was coming.
Civilians engrossed with more attention put into the last battle for the captain selection at hand, their voices trembling between fear and triumph.
Then the Hydra emerged.
The massive creature pushed its colossal body out from the fractured concrete plaza, its seven necks unfurling like serpentine towers.
Each head was wreathed in its own elemental aura, glowing with power that distorted the air around it.
The first head crackled with fire, breathing heat so intense that the streetlights bent under the wave.
The second swirled with water, its surface liquid and constantly shifting.
The third was surrounded by gusting wind, a cyclone wrapped around scales.
The fourth was plated in rough earth, with gravel rolling constantly across its hide.
The fifth glowed with a deep dark energy, absorbing the very shadows of the city.
The sixth gleamed bright with light, almost blinding to focus on.
And the seventh dripped venom, thick drops sizzling wherever they landed.
The Hydra roared, seven voices overlapping into one monstrous bellow and the civilians' fear peaked.
But standing against the beast were three figures.
Denis. Newt. Damian.
Heroes in their own right, but today, the trio was about to be pushed further than ever before.
---
Metal plates slid across Denis's skin like living armor, layering itself into articulated segments that gleamed beneath the burning sky.
His eyes sharpened, the metallic glow inside them reflecting his focus.
"You two ready?" he asked, voice echoing slightly with the metallic resonance of his power.
Newt rolled his neck, crackling green venom mist curling from his fingers.
"As ready as someone can be against… whatever that thing is."
Damian simply stepped forward.
He wore no armor, carried no weapon, and yet the shadows vibrated around him as if clinging to his presence.
A quiet darkness radiated from him steady, controlled, but undeniably dangerous.
Denis and Newt exchanged a look. Damian rarely spoke before a fight. He didn't need to.
The Hydra struck first.
The fire head lunged downward, spewing a burst of flame that scorched across the asphalt like a falling sun.
Denis reacted instantly.
He slammed his palms together, and metal from the surrounding streetlights, cars, and manhole covers tore free and converged into a massive reflective wall.
Flames billowed against it, scattering harmlessly into the sky.
Newt leaped to the side, landing lightly on a half-shattered car roof. "Shield us again like that and dinner's on me!"
"I want something expensive," Denis shot back, bracing as the wind head sent a slicing gale toward him.
Newt's eyes narrowed. With a flick, he released a wave of green toxin mist that met the gust.
The poison reacted with the compressed air, creating a shock of pressure that diverted the gale upward with a sonic crack.
"You're welcome!" Newt said with a grin.
But the Hydra was nowhere near done.
The water head roared, blasting a spiraling jet toward the trio, while the earth head slammed its massive jaw into the street, sending a quake rolling toward them.
The ground buckled and heaved. Concrete split into jagged teeth.
Denis grabbed Newt by the shoulder and vaulted both of them over the rolling ground just before it erupted. But Damian didn't move.
Instead, the darkness around him pulsed.
He lifted one hand.
The shadows at his feet rose like a living veil, forming a dome around him. The quake struck the darkness barrier and simply slid around it, unable to touch him.
Civilians watching from their sits in the arena supported by well structured pillars gasped.
"Look! He's not even flinching!"
"He stopped the earth attack alone, just the darkness around him!"
"Who is that guy?!"
Damian stepped calmly out of the dissolving shadow dome.
His eyes were fixed on the creature not one part of him showing fear.
Just focus. Relentless, razor-sharp focus.
Aaric, standing in front of his sit, watched the trio with interest. But his gaze always returned to Damian as usual.
"Damian… he's as rude as ever but he makes up for it with his strength. I just hope it will be sufficient," Aaric muttered under his breath.
Denis called out, "We split the heads! I take fire and earth!"
"Wind and water!" Newt yelled.
Damian didn't speak, but the dark head and the light head slowly turned toward him, as if recognizing him as a rival.
And then there was the poison head, its eyes locked on Newt with eerie intent.
"Fine," Newt muttered. "You want me? I'm not running."
The fire head rushed him again, flames curling into a spiraling inferno. Denis swept his arms outward, and the metal wall folded into a narrow funnel, redirecting the flames harmlessly skyward.
He followed immediately by launching metal shards like arrows. They clanged against the fire head's scales not piercing, but definitely annoying it.
The earth head slammed down beside him, its jaw cracking pavement like brittle glass.
Denis activated his full metal form.
His body glowed silver as plates locked into place, reinforcing his frame. With a grunt, he braced both hands and caught the earth head's jaw mid-strike.
The civilians' jaws dropped.
"He—he stopped it!"
"With his bare hands?!"
Metal claws extended from Denis's fingers, digging into the Hydra's stone-like hide.
He twisted sharply, forcing the head back enough to drive a giant metal spike up under its chin formed instantly from a demolished street sign.
The earth head recoiled with a rumbling groan.
Denis leapt upward, slamming both armored fists onto the fire head's snout. Each impact echoed like hammering steel.
Sweat dripped down his brow inside his armor.
"These two… are not making it easy."
Wind sliced toward him again, sharper than knives, but Newt rolled into a backward flip, landing on a leaning traffic pole.
His hands glowed a neon green as he inhaled sharply.
"Alright, let's see how you handle this."
He exhaled.
A massive wave of poison mist blasted outward, so thick it stained the air green.
The wind head snapped its jaws, trying to disperse it, but the toxic haze clung stubbornly, forcing it backward.
The water head countered, releasing a spinning vortex that crashed into the poison. Steam burst into the air, obscuring the battlefield.
The poison head dove through the steam, aiming straight for Newt.
But Newt had expected that.
He whipped forward, coating his arm in a toxic sheen, and slapped the beast's snout.
The scales sizzled, not from melting but from reacting chemically, making the poison head shake violently and retreat.
"Oh, you felt that one, didn't you?" Newt said with a smirk.
The three heads regrouped and launched simultaneous attacks; wind slicing from the left, water spiraling from below, poison dripping from above.
Newt's pupils narrowed.
He slammed his palms onto the pole he balanced on.
Poison surged through the metal, down into the ground, and erupted in a wide ring around him an enormous poisonous burst that shielded him from all three directions.
He panted heavily, sweat mixing with green vapor.
"That… was a bit much."
The battlefield around Damian had grown strangely silent.
Even the roar of the Hydra seemed muted as he faced the two elemental heads watching him with predatory intensity.
The dark head radiated a shadowy aura that consumed all surrounding light.
The light head shone so brightly it left streaks in the air.
Opposites.
Balancing forces.
Yet Damian walked toward them without hesitation.
The ground beneath his boots darkened with each step.
Aaric leaned forward, eyes wide.
"What is he doing…?"
The light head struck first, firing a pillar of radiance straight at Damian, bright enough to pale the entire battlefield.
Civilians shielded their eyes.
Denis and Newt turned instinctively.
But Damian didn't dodge.
He raised his hand.
A blade of pure shadow formed in his grip, qcurved, weightless, and humming with silent darkness.
He swung it once.
The pillar of light split perfectly down the middle, parting around him like water around a stone.
Gasps erupted from the watching crowd.
The dark head lunged next, jaws parting into a void-like maw but Damian stepped sideways, vanishing into shadow and reappearing above it, driving his blade down in a controlled arc.
Darkness struck darkness but Damian's was deeper, sharper, absolute.
The dark head recoiled, its aura rippling unnaturally.
"That's impossible," the minister of academics , Principal of the Derngian institute of magic whispered.
"He overpowering darkness with… more darkness?"
The light head attacked again, beams whipping at Damian from every angle. He spun his blade, creating a vortex of shadow that absorbed each blow like a black hole.
He dropped from the air, landing lightly, cloak rippling behind him.
His expression never changed from calm focus.
Newt yelled from across the battlefield, "Damian! I swear, if you're holding back on us again—!"
But his voice was drowned out by a high-pitched shriek.
All seven heads of the Hydra turned toward Damian at once.
Even Denis paused mid-strike.
The civilians fell completely silent.
Aaric held his breath in anticipation and high hopes.
Damian stood alone at the center of the battlefield, dark energy swirling around his feet, rising in slow, deliberate spirals.
"Is… is he about to do something?" Denis muttered.
Newt swallowed. "Something big and honestly at this point I won't want to be that Hydra."
The Hydra lunged.
All seven heads.
Fire spiraling toward him.
Water roaring downward.
Wind slicing.
Earth smashing.
Darkness consuming.
Light burning.
Poison dripping.
The entire sky seemed to collapse toward Damian.
Denis yelled, "MOVE!"
Newt raised his hands in a panic, "DAMIAN!"
But Damian didn't move.
He simply exhaled.
And the darkness around him collapsed inward, then erupted outward.
A dome of black energy exploded from his body, swallowing the Hydra's combined attacks.
Fire dimmed. Light vanished. Poison disintegrated. Earth cracked apart. Wind dissolved. Water evaporated. Dark energy trembled.
Everything disappeared into the abyss-like pulse.
The shockwave hit the Hydra like a falling mountain. All seven heads recoiled violently, crashing into buildings, cracking the earth beneath them.
Civilians screamed but not in fear this time.
In awe.
"He… he stopped all of it…"
"With one attack…"
Denis stared, stunned. "That wasn't even his full strength…"
Newt whistled. "Remind me never to annoy him."
Aaric grinned, eyes sharp.
"Yes… yes, this is the potential I sensed when I first met you Damian."
The Hydra wasn't defeated, but it was overwhelmed.
All seven heads writhed weakly, stunned by the wave of darkness.
Damian shifted his stance.
He gripped his shadow blade with both hands.
And the darkness around him thickened like a storm gathering before the final strike.
Aaric's eyes widened. "He's condensing it… He's going to try to—"
The air around Damian shattered into fragments of shadow.
The civilians braced.
Denis and Newt ducked.
Damian moved.
One clean, silent step.
Then he vanished and reappeared above the Hydra.
His blade traced a perfect crescent.
A massive arc of darkness sliced downward, striking the Hydra's central neck the place where all seven heads met.
The impact sent a shock through the entire creature.
Dust blasted into the sky.
The ground cracked like glass.
And for a moment an entire second the Hydra didn't move.
When the dust cleared…
A massive gash lay across the Hydra's central neck.
Not enough to sever it but deep enough to leave the entire creature trembling.
Civilians gasped.
"He almost cut its head off…"
"With one attack!"
Denis stared in disbelief. "Damian… what even ARE you?"
Newt raised an eyebrow. "Show-off."
Aaric stepped closer, eyes shining with interest and something deeper.
"So you really are capable of that level at your age, at this rate unlocking your mana zone will be easier… interesting."
The Hydra roared weakly, struggling to lift its heads again.
But the damage was already done.
Damian landed lightly on the ground, shadows fading from his blade.
He exhaled once more.
"Finish it together," he said calmly.
Denis and Newt nodded instantly, no hesitation, no doubt.
Because after what they'd just witnessed, they understood one thing:
Damian wasn't just powerful.
He was the reason they still had a chance.
And the civilians watching would remember this day forever not because of the monster…
But because of the calm, dark warrior who almost sliced the Hydra's head off with a single strike.....
...The heavy boots of a palace soldier echoed sharply as he approached the grand doors.
Inside, the emperor sat in rigid calm, while Socreor Supreme Lord Aaric watched the distant battlefield through a hovering scry-orb.
Before entering, the soldier bowed and pulled Aaric aside into the shadowed corridor. His voice dropped to a tense whisper as he delivered the news;
Vulgram had been attacked, and Ergan too, struck almost simultaneously. He warned that the pattern suggested these would not be the last.
Aaric's eyes narrowed, not in panic but in calculation. With a quiet wave of his hand, he dismissed the soldier, letting him retreat down the hall.
Then Aaric straightened, returned to the chamber, and refocused on Damian's rage.