Khalif sat in an alley. A plate of rather expensive food sat steaming on his lap, warming his legs as he read through his notifications.
He’d wanted to go with Micro, Oscar, and the BHC trainees to continue to purge the demons within the UnderCity, but had been given a task by Arson that he couldn’t ignore.
“Is this for real?”
*Descendant of the void: As one of the three remaining heirs to the void sky you have been granted a core avatar. As your primary mana element is of deeper darkness, you have unlocked the Shadow Avatar.
With this comes a direct link to the power once obtained by the first king of all skies. For every sun and star within heaven’s limits, there is the deeper darkness unbreathable to some, but not you, child of the void. Breathe, and remember that only the darkness may embrace all.*
“What in the sparks is that supposed to mean?”
Khalif ignored the notification, feeling the words to be gibberish. Until he stood, and felt a subtle change begin in his mind.
Woah…
Khalif nearly lost his balance as his own shadow grew. The light from the scar above washed across his body and his already large shadow grew even larger. A body sized shadow enlarged to titanic proportions on the wall behind him.
Khalif wasn’t entirely conscious of the giant entity now permanently affixed to his soul. A living being with a mind of its own now looking down on Khalif as he moved further into the alleyway. A guardian of unrivaled potential and power.
Khalif dropped into his own shadow and reappeared on a nearby rooftop. After a few more jumps he exited the limits of the UnderCity and pulled himself out of the edge of the scar. Traveling through the outer limits of Maelstrom during the day wasn’t nearly as fast as it was during the night for Khalif, but he still made good time.
He no longer used the portal system that most pedestrians used, as even the distances between the moving platforms of Maelstrom’s exterior were far shorter than Khalif could move in a single drop into the shadows.
Once upon a time Khalif would have had to use many of the inner city’s bridges, canal gondolas, or even hover trams to make his way toward the Silver Sector of Maelstrom, but now things had changed drastically.
A single flip through the air, ended with him diving into his own shadows, crossing city blocks in mere blinks. Even those that flew through the skies above him couldn’t match his current speed. Nor could his ability to remain unseen be equaled; the majority of surveillance systems only able to witness blurs of silver hair and musou black clothing.
He’d fallen in love with Micro’s flight suit, and asked Jasmine and Axis to develop for him the same style of equipment, and more into his own ensemble. His once casual business suit, was now fitted with not only functional armor that could manifest itself from thin air, but an additional set of glider wings that emerged from his back at the moment his body experienced weightlessness.
All of these changes altered Khalif’s perception of what was possible. His once limited thinking made him vulnerable, but as he grew, the limits he set on himself fell away like the chains of a freed slave.
He’d believed he would always be at the bottom. A knife in the back of an unlucky victim, or deft hand sliding into the pockets of those with seemingly more than they would ever need to live a good life. Now though, he was a guard, a protector of lives, with the talents to make change.
“Now this is going to be fun!”
Khalif caught sight of a sky ship floating well above the skyline, the ship’s underbelly providing the perfect shadow for Khalif to use. In the next instant he found himself plummeting. His gut immediately affected by G-forces, the sensation eclipsed by his own excitement at the feeling of flight as the synthetic wings propelled from his back and he begun to glide; his target finally in sight.
“Alister industries, here I come!”
With a single command in his Overlay, the suit he wore transformed. The business suit he had to grow to love, shifted into that of a musou black armor, reminiscent of ancient Shinobi wear. A demonic mask formed over his face made from solidified shadow as the runic system Xani was testing aided by Micro’s own nano-bots finished the shift. Khalif readied himself for his first ever solo corporate raid.
The beautiful series of buildings held within the Alister Industries compound came into view and Khalif took aim, becoming like a descending arrow. His overlay sending him more and more details as he closed in, diving at speeds well beyond terminal velocity.
Guard patterns. Defensive structures. Tactical weak points, all flaring up outlined in various colors to notate the levels of security inside the compound, which was large enough that it spanned the entire platform that was the oasis of Alister Industries.
“Get ready, Khalif, it's go time!”
…
Seven headed toward the security check point within Mr. Kim’s private office building within Alister Industries. The guards could be heard having a casual conversation inside the room he entered.
“Aye you all, it doesn’t take an entire morning to complete a guard change. Hurry it up!” commanded Seven after entering. The room was full of two separate teams of guards, as one group's shift ended and the other began. Seven did his best to make the chatty groups separate, but even as the first group was leaving an alarm was triggered that froze both parties.
“Yo, isn’t that the perimeter runes being triggered?” asked Seven with a glance toward the head guard on staff.
“Yes sir, pulling up the visual now.”
Seven turned to the wall of holo-screens as the guard pulled up the view of the compound from an aerial view. The many different camera views, disappearing to show a much larger vantage point of Alister Industries expanded across an entire wall, revealed an individual soaring at high speeds directly towards them.
“Who is this idiot? Do they really think we won’t shoot them out of the sky?” said Seven. A single look toward the lead guard and the woman gave him a nod in confirmation of understanding.
With the single press of a button on the security center’s station table, a mana cannon rose from its inactive state on the roof, and charged, ready to fire in a breath.
“Firing now, sir,” said the lead guard, before she pressed a button to shoot. In the same instance, the flying individual raised a hand in front of themselves, and fired what seemed to be a pressurized black sheet out in front of themselves.
The equivalent of a parachute fired in the wrong direction opened up in front of the skydiver, and the mana cannon fired. Seven’s brow furrowed as the intruder seemed to be wrapped up in the sheet before the mana cannon vaporized them completely, no proof that the person had ever been there left behind, after the burst of energy pierced the sky like a falling star sent rocketing into the heaven’s above.
“Well, that was easy,” said one of the guards next to Seven. Seven felt something was wrong, the same feeling he received in his gut when he made a bad bet soaring from the depths of his stomach up into his throat.
Then everything changed even before Seven truly knew what was happening. Another signal flared up, and a small portion of the wall showed one of the many hover trams used to fly from building to building within the compound in the corner of the wall, pulling the attention of every guard in the room to the new smaller camera view being displayed on the wall in front of them all.
The individual that had just been fired upon shot out from underneath the trams bottom like a bullet, their momentum completely unhindered. Seven’s eyes went wide, and before he could give the order to fire again, the individual on screen sped directly into an exterior window of the building they were now in as if it wasn’t even there.
There was no shattering glass, or even the sound of the deadly collision that Seven hoped for. Instead another camera showed the now successful invader melt through the window and slide across the ground of the 11th level of the 71 floored structure, moving with purpose.
“What should we do, sir?” asked one of the guards in a panic. None there ever experiencing a successful incursion on the compound to any degree.
Seven froze as the cameras on the wall in front of him continued to pop up and disappear as the individual flickered about the building, teleporting through the structure even though their anti teleportation runic systems were all active.
Guards shown from a plethora of cameras seen being beaten down before they could react or even were aware that something was amiss. Seven’s mouth dropped open as he watched guards be used as human shields, their weapons taken from their hips, now used by the demon masked individual on screen. Mana pistols used to shoot at ankles and knees. Used to disarm, and even shoot out the lights, which only seemed to make the raid on Alister Industries that much worse.
“Trigger the the raid alarm now and get people down there now!”
…
Khalif felt the efforts of his training. He felt bad about how easily he was able to shred through the building. He wasn’t there to end lives, but he had been trained to incapacitate his opponents, and he knew the injuries he caused would end the careers of many if not all he encountered.
Arms bent backwards, popped from their sockets. Knees caved in by perfectly angled kicks. Some even experienced what it was like to have their necks broken, only to end up on the floor still alive and paralyzed. The only body parts left with the ability to move were their eyes and the mouths they screamed from.
Even though Khalif was a rather deadly force while moving through the building, the overwhelming odds he faced were being snuffed out by Khalif’s newest ability. Unknowingly to the young man, the guardian that was his shadow, shifted the darkness around him, redirecting fired mana bullets, made him harder to see as he blitz each opponent, and even interacted with the world around him.
It wasn’t until Khalif found himself in an incredibly well lit area within the crossroads of a large hallway that Khalif even noticed the actions of his new ally. As he rushed by the intersection toward an elevator, he caught site of a guard in the middle of a spear tackle in his direction.
Khalif tried to turn, but wasn’t fast enough to complete the action, cursing himself for not being more aware. Only for a large hand the size of a car to raise from his massive shadow and grab the man mid air. Khalif’s eyes went wide and he froze, watching the man scream while being pulled into the void never to be seen again. Looking down at his own shadow, Khalif couldn’t believe what he’d just seen, the words of the notification he’d received earlier once more filling his mind.
Breathe, and remember that only the darkness can embrace all…
The man was nowhere to be seen and Khalif knew deep within himself that his non lethal mission had just been tainted. The memory of a kill made without Khalif’s own intention forever burned into a corner of his mind.
It was then for the first time that he saw his guardian as he stood there. His shadow loomed, stretched to an incredible size from his body in the wrong direction almost as if light no longer had any effect on his body. The position of the shadow’s monstrous form completely wrong, no longer a mirror to Khalif’s own stance.
“This can’t be good…”
…
Bernard Maelstrom watched Alister Industries being raided from a distance and his own smile grew. It’d taken him quite a while to realize how and why he’d lost to Alister Kim, but seeing the success of the demon masked combatant only a few buildings away inspired him.
A swarm of crows poured from his own shadow and started to fill the air above Alister Industries. The birds like a literal cloud of fog as black as the night sky spread through the compound in a blink. A deadly army of birds able to traverse the boundaries of light and dark instantaneously.
“Now this should be fun,” said Bernard with a chuckle. He had plans to conquer this compound and thanked the Maiden for whoever had sent a user of the dark, shadows and void. The raider the perfect tool for Bernard to use.
The screams started quickly after the employees of Alister Industries were consumed by chaos, literal crows being spat from their own shadows. Most if not all unable to defend themselves from the fervor of the demonic creatures.
Bernard exploded, his body also transitioning into crows as he sped toward the compounds main building.
…
Arson struggled to defend himself. He’d actively decided not to use any weapons or armor, nor any mana based abilities or skills after receiving the same notification he’d received as a child nearly 13 season cycles ago.
After defeating the giant robot, he’d discussed with his mother failing his first tasks, which she informed him he hadn’t. She’d specified that he could use his abilities if and when there was an emergency and felt that a giant army building robot fell well within those perimeters.
So, rather than grow complacent, he focused on his martial combat alongside Chozen. The two had both slowly approached the Living Olympian Armor left behind to instruct Cultivators in the 7th form of Omni.
Arson couldn’t help but be nervous, and Chozen could tell, glancing at him with each step they took toward the target, and Arson had to admit to himself that the fear of him running off that slowly crept onto her facial features was legitimate.
He may still be stuck with the title of the Fearless Godling of Potential, but the only potential he felt in that moment was his ability to flee in the face of overwhelming odds.
“Come on, man. I saw you fight with about eight opponents at a single time and you're really thrown off-guard by this thing?” asked Chozen as they finally flanked the armor after a very slow approach. Arson gestured toward the Armor, smiling before he spoke.
“No… I’m actually convinced we are about to die and this is a terrible idea. Something is obviously off here. The last time I entered, the armor activated straight off and me and my best friend were blitzed.”
Chozen looked between him and the armor, before a smile of her own fluttered across her face. Arson didn’t like the mischievous grin she wore and felt he could read her thoughts, his assumption confirmed by her next statement and actions.
“Well then, maybe I should take the initiative!” Chozen darted in, and Arson rolled his eyes, moving quickly to match the young woman’s speed.
The two met in the middle and the Armor activated in a burst of mana. Chozen’s alarm showed on her face momentarily, but she still managed not to pause or slow in her charge, throwing a superman punch as Arson lifted his leg to spartan-kick the armor.
The next few moments for Arson passed as if time was being twisted. Although everything moved slowly for Arson, the speed at which the pair and the Living Armor moved was incredible. With every blow sent toward the armor, another was sent back at the pair.
Neither Arson nor Chozen landed a blow, the armor blocking and attacking at the same time. A sweep sent toward a leg by Chozen, dodged entirely with a simple lift of a leg, the movement linked directly into a spin kick that blocked a punch from Arson.
Arson felt the kick had been slowed by an external force, realizing Chozen had done something to dampen the blow, yet the armor increased its pace as if it hadn’t even begun to move at its full speed or power. Even as he was barely able to block the blows, pushed back by precise strikes, he realized Chozen wasn’t in any better of a position.
The young woman was able to hold her own, but that was more than likely due to the amount of pressure Arson placed on the Armor. Both she and he could tell they were outmatched, yet they wouldn’t give in. Arson was doing his best to memorize the intricate movements of the armor, learning the unfamiliar style of consistent attack and defense.
The itching sensation underneath Arson’s arm grew and he had to focus to push the irritation to the bottom of his list of problems. Oddly enough Arson’s fears dwindled the longer they managed to fight the armor, but that was only because Arson could tell he’d improved drastically from his childhood. Even still the hairs on the back of his neck rose as a thrumming of power could be sensed growing inside the depths of the armor.
“Something is about to happen!” yelled Chozen, and Arson gave a single nod, even as he managed to dodge a palm strike aimed directly at his solar plexus.
An explosion of mana boomed outward and in that moment, Arson received an emergency call through his Overlay, an image of Khalif popping up in his periphery. The call automatically going through as his friend had a prioritization code for Arson’s Overlay.
A powerful kick smashed into Arson’s midsection sending him hurtling through the air, even as an image of chaos was displayed. The massacre in the corner of his vision enough to make his head spin even while he flew end over end through the air.
“Hey boss, I think we got a problem!”