066 RING OF GREED
"Damen Dark!!! It's not so easy to catch me," Kurt hissed, his hand gripping Damen's.
The Ring of Greed flared violently, trying to siphon Damen's meta power. Instantly, Damen felt his strength ebbing away, each heartbeat heavier than the last.
The Ring could drain a person's life force in minutes; even a brief touch had already leeched much of his power.
"Damnit! Are you stealing from me?" Damen shouted, pulling out his phone and tracked his stats in real-time.
Kurt laughed. "What, you need a photo of me… for an autograph?"
Damen quickly tapped his own stats to check what he had lost. His eyes widened.
Strength, Charm, Meta, Command—were all taken without discrimination. Every point Damen had secretly stolen since his return from Fort Myrone had vanished.
His scores were plummeting below his Rank F baseline.
"This is a bloody disaster. I'll revert to Rank F in no time," he muttered.
Kurt roared with wild exhilaration, his face twisting with manic delight. "I feel strong… invincible!"
Damen opened Kurt's stat screen again. All his Metas had skyrocketed—but two unfamiliar attributes had appeared: Blood and Armor. Both were rising fast, faster than any other stat.
A grin crept across Damen's face. "This is perfect. I was racking my brain for a way to get rid of this damned curse, and you just volunteered to save me."
Kurt frowned. "What the hell are you talking about? You think draining you will save you?"
"Take it," Damen said softly, almost taunting. "Take more."
Kurt didn't hesitate.
He drew from Damen with reckless hunger. But he didn't know—what he was absorbing wasn't just ordinary Meta energy. He was also taking the blue blood of the Annunakins coursing through Damen's veins.
"I feel invincible!" Kurt screamed, his veins pulsating with stolen power.
"Soon," Damen said quietly, "you'll feel nothing. You'll become a mindless monster."
"No! That won't happen!" Kurt protested, but Damen's smile only widened, knowing the transformation had already begun.
Sounds echoed from the hallway. The teachers and guards were on their way.
"Damnit, I haven't lost enough blood yet… but the guards and teachers are coming," Damen thought.
"It was time to end it."
"Hey, monster," he called to Kurt. "People are coming. Do you really want to continue this? You're not going to kill me, you know."
Kurt hesitated. The leech from Damen felt different and there was no sign he would be fully drained soon. "I'll come back for you another time", Kurt told Damen.
Then he released his grip, preparing to flee.
But Damen's hand was faster. He caught Kurt's wrist and aimed for the Ring of Greed from his hand.
"You're not taking this with you," Damen said calmly.
"No…" Kurt snarled, his hand curling into a fist.
Suddenly, blades of bone burst from his knuckles, slicing the air and forcing Damen back. Fist form Blade was a meta skill granted by the blue blood and Kurt already manifested the ability.
"Damnit—he's turning into a Deacon already?" Damen hissed.
Shouts echoed down the hall.
Security guards and teachers were flooding the corridor, their weapons raised and eyes wide at the sight of Kurt's mutation.
Cornered, Kurt's gaze darted wildly—then he spun, sprinted for the balcony, and vaulted over the rail. He crashed through the night air and disappeared into the darkness below.
Damen didn't move to follow.
"With his Live Feed," he murmured, a satisfied smile creeping across his lips, "I can track you no matter where you go."
Zairgid stumbled out of the room, nearly falling into Damen's arms. "Buddy… you saved me again, I was praying for you to show up," he gasped.
"I heard noises from your place and came out to check", Damen replied.
He quickly helped Zairgid and his girlfriend back into the room.
Suddenly, Zairgid froze, staring at his girlfriend. "Who… who are you?" he demanded.
The woman had changed. Her youthful form was gone, replaced by the appearance of an old, haggard woman.
"I'm Betsy… darling, don't you recognize me?" she cried.
"No…" Zairgid whispered, horror-struck him like lightning.
Damen stepped back, closing the door behind him, leaving them to process the shocking transformation.
Then the teachers arrived at the scene.
"What happened here, Damen?" Principal Misk asked, with narrowed eyes.
"An intruder attacked Zairgid," Damen explained. "He chased him out, and the intruder jumped from the balcony into the fields."
"Weewoo weewoo"
Within minutes, the police arrived, followed closely by the SIA team. The situation was under control — for now.
------
"What happened here? Was anybody hurt?" Dorin asked Damen.
"A girl was hurt, but she lives," he replied.
"How badly was she hurt?" she pressed.
"You'll know when you see her," Damen said quietly.
"Was it Kurt who did it?" Lander asked.
Damen nodded. "He was trying to steal meta power from the girl, but my friend was there and stopped the process midway…" He explained what had happened — leaving out the part about Kurt stealing from him.
"Were you hurt?" Dorin asked.
"No, I'm fine. Just a little exhausted, that's all."
"We'll post more guards around the school in case he comes back," Lander said firmly.
"Yeah, that's comforting," Damen muttered under his breath.
----
After the SIA team left, Damen was alone in the dim corridor. He pulled out his phone and opened his personal stats display.
Name: Damen Dark
Rank: F?
Strength: 53 | Charm: 49 | Meta: 42 | Command: 41 | Blood: 82 | Armor: 127
Damen stared at the numbers for a long moment.
He'd lost all the human meta stats he had gained since returning to Melrose City and probably dropped a rank — but the loss wasn't that bad.
The bulk of what Kurt had drained was his Blood, followed by Armor, though at a slower rate.
Cursed blood still remained on him. The Ring of Greed hadn't been able to cleanse him of every drop of blue blood.
Damen smiled faintly. "This is a big harvest for me," he said under his breath.
He'd purged much of the blue blood still lingering in his system while keeping the majority of the Annunakin armor intact.
Damen exhaled and turned his phone back on. His thumb hovered over the interface before he activated Live View.
"Let's see where you're hiding, Kurt…"
The screen flickered, then steadied. Damen's eyes widened.
The Live Feed showed a park—probably Central Park of Melrose. Bodies were scattered across the ground like discarded dolls.
"What the hell… he's started killing again?" He asked shocked at the scene.
Suddenly, the killing stopped.
At the center stood Kurt, trembling, facing a woman whose hand shimmered with an eerie, otherworldly light.
Then the feed cut out—static, then darkness.
"Damnit," Damen muttered, slamming his fist lightly against the phone. "This has been happening a lot lately… damn connection."