179 BECOMING SUPERVILLAIN
Now leading an army of monsters, Dan slowed his flight, his eyes fixed on a distant skyscraper.
The Veyran Industry Building.
"Good thing Eryn's not in HQ," he muttered after checking her location. "She's probably back at her residence."
Inside the tower, Valtor and Belgor Veyran stood frozen by the window, staring in disbelief.
The Black Halo himself was coming for them—
—and behind him, an army of colossal horrors marched with him through the city.
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[Veyran Headquarters]
"What the hell? Is that Black Halo going to attack us?" Belgor shouted.
Valtor pressed to the window, his eyes widening.
In the distance, Black Halo's silhouette advanced, flanked by monstrous beings unlike anything they had ever seen—each as massive as a building.
Soon, Black Halo hovered directly outside their windows.
"What are you doing here?!" Valtor scread, but the words were lost outside.
Black Halo didn't answer.
Instead, he wrote a ssage across the dusty glass with his finger:
"Happy Birthday, Valtor."
Then he vanished into the sky.
In his place, a grotesque at Heap slamd into the building like a living battering ram. Another followed, then another, until the Veyran Industry Building was under siege by a horde of these colossal monsters.
The building's force fields were strong, modeled after Zetheris Tower's…but even they were no match for so many Rank BBB monstrosities.
It was only a matter of ti before the defenses collapsed.
While the at Heaps hamred away, Dan moved unseen. He slipped back to the nearby rooftop, retrieved his bag of aurs, and took to the skies again.
His next stop: GenSyn Building.
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"Thank goodness you're back safe," Cyara said as Dan returned ho.
"Why are you still here? Go ho," he replied.
"No, I'm staying. Besides," she added with a smile, "the news reported Zetheris Tower has collapsed. I can't go back there."
"And you are smiling?" Dan smirked.
"What took you so long?" Dorin asked.
"You know… the whole city is swarming with corrosivers, and they can spawn powerful at Heaps," Dan explained. "It's not easy to avoid them."
"They're attacking Veyran Building right now," Lander added, a hint of irony in his voice. "Both of our enemies are being taken down by the mutants."
Dan frowned. "Do you know what this really ans? The corrosivers didn't just happen by accident."
Lander considered it. "The more I think about it, the more it looks like the work of so underground society bent on destroying lrose City."
"Who?" Dorin asked.
"The Alliance of Evolution. It fits their SOP… though normally they wouldn't bother with a small place like lrose city," Lander explained.
Dan's mind went further. "What about the Alliance of the Psyche—a sub-branch of the Alliance of Evolution?"
Lander pointed in acknowledgnt. "Yes. Highly probable. They were already operating in the city."
In Dan's mind, it was already fact.
Sienna's appearance at the Church of Rejuvenation, where many people had vanished, was the strongest evidence. The Corrosiver plague was her doing.
He didn't dwell on the conspiracy.
The city's loss no longer concerned him. There wasn't anything he could do to stop the tragedy happening anyway..and… His future wasn't here… he would soon be gone.
After a shower, he made his way to the dical facility and activated the android nurses to assist him.
"What are you doing?" Cyara asked suddenly jumping into the facility to surprise him.
"Why don't you go sleep?" Dan replied, irritated.
"I can't," she said softly.
The nurse injected tubes into him, and the machine humd as his blood began to change.
"Are you doing a transfusion in the middle of the night?" Cyara asked, surprised.
Dan thought for a mont, then offered a half-truth. "I need to grow stronger. Only a full transfusion of enhanced ta blood can strengthen
further."
Cyara didn't entirely believe him. "If it were that easy, everyone would be superheroes," she said, though she didn't argue further.
Her concern was him, not his thods.
She leaned in and kissed him while he was restrained on the bed, then ran back to her room.
"What was that for?" he asked quietly.
She rely laughs.
When the transfusion finished, he turned to the android nurse. "Is there a machine in this facility that can transform blood into crystals?"
"Yes, we have a crystallization machine," the nurse replied.
"Good. Send the blood for crystallization," he instructed. The blood he'd removed from his body was a treasure…it could be transford into Bloodstones.
Later, the nurse returned, holding a single small, crimson-colored stone. "Why is this Bloodstone so small?" he asked, turning it in his hand.
"The alien blood is far denser than ordinary alien blood," the nurse explained. "That's why we can crystallize it into a smaller piece."
Dan smiled, testing its weight. "This is convenient to carry around."
Before going to sleep, he checked his stats once more:
Na: Dan Dark
Strength Rank: B????ta Rank: B????Blood Rank: B
Strength: 693??|??Charm: 382??|??ta: 513??|??Command: 512??|??Blood: 831??|??Armor: 2195
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The next morning, Dan woke up and began preparing breakfast. The others were already awake, moving about the kitchen and common area.
"Dan, this is important. Co take a look," Lander called.
Curious, Dan walked over to the holoscreens. They flickered to life, showing the latest news feed.
"A new supervillain has appeared in lrose City," the anchor announced.
"Supervillain? What are they talking about?" Dan asked, frowning.
The footage shifted to scenes of destruction: Zetheris Tower reduced to rubble, Veyran Building under siege. In each instance, the at Heaps followed a single figure—Black Halo.
The captions labeled him as the orchestrator of the chaos: the destroyer of lrose City.
Dan froze.
Only a single night had passed, and now his alter ego had been branded a supervillain.
"What happens to a supervillain?" he asked quietly, a trace of unease in his voice.
"The SIA and League of Heroes will send heroes—or even Superheroes—to hunt him down," Lander explained.
Dan clenched his fists, feeling the weight of the realization. "Damn…"
"We must get out of the city as soon as possible," Dan said firmly.
"Is it really necessary to leave now?" Dorin asked, glancing at the chaos outside. "Even the train station is packed—there's no way we can get through."
"Then is there any other way out of the city besides the train station?" Dan asked.
"Unless you have a private plane…" Dorin shrugged.
"Damn… who even has a private plane, besides Zairgid?" Dan muttered, running a hand through his hair.
Suddenly, Cyara raised her hand. "I do. I have a private plane."
Dan blinked, surprised. "Well… that changes everything."
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