191 OFFER TO BE KING
Nicaesa took the badge, turned toward Damen, and pinned it to his chest.
Damen blinked. "What is this?"
"This," Nicaesa said, his tone both commanding and warm, "is the badge of an honorary General…one-star."
"What?" Damen's eyes widened. "How did that happen?"
"You turned back the tide of the Shadow of Anubis," Nicaesa said. "You saved Fortress Myrone. You earned this title."
"But it was just luck… the Shadow of Anubis didn't give its all."
The hall erupted in applause. Cheers echoed against the steel walls..
"Black Halo!"
"Our God of War!"
For the first time, Damen stood among them not as an outsider but as one of their heroes.
As the crowd settled, he leaned toward Lord Nicaesa and whispered, "You made me fight the Shadow of Anubis on purpose, didn't you? You wanted me to earn this rank."
Nicaesa's grin deepened. "It was about time you had one. You've done more for this fortress than anyone. Even if you hadn't stopped the Shadow, you deserved this long ago."
Damen couldn't help but smile.
For all the danger, for all the tests and battles, this was the first time someone of Nicaesa's stature had honored him for what he had become.
-----
[Liberty city]
Damen returned to Liberty City at last.
The skyline was no longer the one he remembered. The ruins had been replaced by new rising towers of steel and glass.
The scars of war were still visible in the cracked pavements and half-mended walls, but new life had already begun to grow through them.
The city had changed…utterly in the past year.
Though many of the old districts were gone, new streets teemed with energy. Markets bustled. Children laughed. The air was alive with industry and renewal.
To Damen's surprise, the people seemed happy.
These were the same people Sienna had once taken from the slums—the followers of the Church of Rejuvenation, who had vanished into her grand design.
Now, they walked the streets freely.
Their clothes were clean, their eyes bright. There were no nobles, no overseers, no chain of command dictating who could live or eat.
He passed his old middle school.
It was thriving again.
The classrooms were full, teachers smiling, young voices echoing in the courtyard. Poor children no longer needed sponsors to study; education was open to all.
It was one of Sienna's reforms…radical, sweeping, and impossible by the city's old standards.
Everywhere Damen went, he saw improvement.
Humanity and metahumans lived side by side without fear or division. The bullies, the corrupt officers, the self-proclaimed elites… all of them were gone.
The city no longer needed chains to stand upright.
He stood on a bridge overlooking the main avenue, watching the sun descend through the haze.
"Is this the world I wanted?" he murmured.
In truth, it was.
Deep down, he agreed with Sienna's dream… a world without oppression, without walls between the powerful and the powerless.
It was the method he had despised… the blood, the coercion, the blackmail…. the cruelty she had justified in the name of liberty.
But now, looking out over Liberty City's reborn heart, he could no longer deny it. The job was done. The past was written in ashes.
And the result… was good.
Out of curiosity he tried to track Liorea, Eryn and Cyara in his tracking function. To his shock, they were still in the city.
"Damnit Sienna, here I am praising you for a job well done", Damen said before adding, "and then you have to blackmail me again."
-----
[Liberty city- Queen Erythos's palace]
The ceiling of the throne hall split with a thunderous crack as he crashed through, descending slowly and deliberate toward Erythos's dais.
The courtiers scattered like leaves.
"How dare you break into my palace?" Queen Erythos screamed, her voice brittle with outrage.
Guards moved to seize him, but their bodies went slack as arcs of electricity snapped through them. Damen's fingers flicked as half a dozen lightning bolts lanced out and chained across the soldiers.
"Erythos, do you want to die again?" he asked, coldly.
She staggered back, stunned by how much stronger he'd become since their last encounter.
Sienna entered with Argent, flanked by meta soldiers. Behind them, Liorea, Eryn, and Cyara were escorted in, their hands bound.
"Hi, nephew. You're back," Sienna said, smiling a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Sienna reached for his mind as she always did… a subtle, probe. This time her psychic searching slammed against an invisible wall and ricocheted back.
She screamed, staggering as feedback burned through her.
"Arggh!" she spat. "What is this?"
"Don't try that again," Damen said. "It won't work on me ever again."
He knew she was testing him for his psychic tolerance. With a Blood Core Level 7, his psychic defenses were no longer playgrounds for her tricks.
"How did your psychic defense get so strong?" Sienna demanded, still recovering from the earlier episode.
"Forget that. Release my friends and I'll walk away," Damen said.
"You are in our territory. Don't be arrogant," Erythos shrieked.
"Really!!" Damen replied. "That coming from someone I almost killed a year ago."
Sienna's jaw tightened. Psychic probing has failed on Damen. Brute force wouldn't work on him either. But she still held leverage: the hostages.
"If you don't do as I say, I'll kill these girls," Sienna warned, her voice flat.
Damen laughed, "You tried that with Ralph and the others. How well did that work for you?"
Despite his bravado, he felt the hard knot of worry tighten.
If Sienna ordered the shots, nothing he could do at that moment would stop the bullets. These girls weren't Ralph and his family…. He would do anything to protect them.
Sienna's expression paled. She wanted to coerce Damen, but she doesn't want to break him. Damen wasn't her enemy.
Liorea broke the silence like sun through ice. "There's no need to be hasty," she said, calm and quick.
Sienna gestured for the soldiers to halt the execution.
She was relieved that the girl gave her the chance to de-escalate. If Damen was truly heartless and let the girls die, she would have lost her last leverage on him.
"What do you say?" she asked Liorea.
Liorea's smile was slow and measured. "You gain nothing by killing us. You can't blackmail my boss…he's known to have an alien heart."
"What do you propose?" Sienna asked, curiosity piqued despite herself.
"Negotiate. There's room for both sides to prosper instead of mutual destruction," Liorea said.
Damen felt relief washing through him.
He'd been on the edge of giving in. Liorea's deft diplomacy bought time and opened a path out.
"What do you want then?" Sienna asked.
"Depends on what you want," Liorea said.
Sienna's reply came smooth as a blade. "I need you to stay in Liberty City. I can offer you the throne… make you king. Isn't that a fair trade?"