A vast modern city, complete with skyscrapers that pierced the low hanging clouds overhead, remained silent despite its impressive size. The traffic lights still shined below, though no cars populated the roads. Some windows were still lit up with the soft electric glow of a lightbulb, but no shadows danced about. The entire city was gray and lifeless, as if death had come for all its inhabitants.
At this moment, a deafening roar shook the entire city. Cracks spiderwebbed across buildings and skyscrapers creaked and swayed, their glass windows shattered from the sound and raining down on the streets below.
Above the clouds, on the tallest skyscraper in the city, a lone man clad in black stood solemnly looking over the trembling skyscrapers that jut out of the dark clouds. Though standing tall and upright, his broad shoulders seemed to bear an invisible weight.
He looked to be around 20 years of age, with fair skin and black hair long enough to curtain his eyes, but through the strands one can see the dull black pupils of someone who has experienced plenty of life.
He let out a sigh, breath visible in the cold.
"It has arrived"
His voice rang deep and clear, right as the dark clouds below were parted by a massive flesh colored tentacle, writhing with hundreds of eyes.
He frowned, eyes looking distastefully at the tentacle, before trailing down to what it was connected to.
A vast expanse of darkness stretched across the city, warping the space around it. The tentacle flailed around for a few moments, its disgustingly wrinkled flesh sagging from the weight. It stopped abruptly, before all of its pupils turned to look straight at the man.
A screech echoed from out of the darkness as the tentacle retreated back into an unknown abyss.
The man snorted, taking off the leather glove covering his right hand to reveal what seemed like a pitch black tattoo of a crescent moon within a black circle. Holding his hand out in front of him, the man muttered to himself.
"Shadow Dominion: Veil Of Darkness"
A burst of black mist exploded forth from the black mark on the back of his hand, rising up into the sky like black raindrops that defied gravity. Akin to an artist adding too much water to their paint, the sky above was slowly splotched with darkness, blocking all light and forming a domelike barrier around the entire city.
The man leaped into the air with leisure, his black robes fluttering around him as he stopped, high above the skyscrapers.
Holding up his right hand again, he snapped his fingers.
"Shadow Dominion: Hel's Throne"
The ground under where he floated cracked and split as a column of pitch black darkness rose. Within seconds, it reached him, and a black throne swirling with mist presented itself. He sat down, the swirling mist enveloping his body.
A moment of silence, before the man spoke again, "Slay the creature"
His voice echoed throughout his newly created domain, and in response, several dozen streaks of different colored light appeared to rise up into the blackened sky, before descending towards the warped space the monstrous creature had retreated.
As if sensing danger, the creature in the mysterious space let out an ear piercing screech. Dozens of tentacles emerged from the crack in space, lunging for the beings that approached it.
One of the lights slowed and dimmed, enough for any spectators to make out the figure inside.
A young man with blazing red hair and a wide smile slowly descended as several tentacles approached him with the intent to kill. His black robes fluttered in the wind as he extended his arms and legs.
"Transform!"
Instantly, his limbs turned reptilian, becoming much larger and sporting vicious claws gleaming with sharp light as massive red scales covered his muscles.
Twisting his body to the side, the man narrowly avoided a tentacle that had shot towards him as he drew closer. Extending out a clawed arm, he let gravity drag him down as his claws gouged long bloody lines down the tentacle.
There came a screech of pain from the void, but the man paid it no heed. Gripping down on the tentacle and using it to gain a foothold, the young man kicked off of it with such force that that section of the tentacle was blasted clean off.
The severed tentacle fell down, tearing through an entire building and sunk into the pavement as the young man lashed out at the other tentacles.
"Night Weavers!" he called out, "Sever the creature's tentacles and attack from a distance! We have to pull it out from the crack!"
Adhering to his command, the other light streaks slowed down, revealing other young men and women. Some lashed out with waves of fire and other elements, others struck down with pure physical might. Whatever the case, the exposed tentacles were quickly rendered unusable for combat.
"Its not a bad strategy," a voice suddenly said.
The man atop the throne of darkness glanced to his side, where a young woman now stood.
She wore formal clothes. Crisp white collared shirt, a black suit, black tie and skirt, and a pair of black heels. If not for her ability to stand in midair, one would think of her as a simple office worker.
Pushing up her glasses which framed her round eyes, she began reading from an electronic tablet.
"Eclipse Squad successfully eliminated an Indigo grade Aberration, Nightfall cleared a Blue grade Devil with minimal issues..."
She paused, her brows furrowing as she frowned at the soft glow of her tablet.
"...The Nightmare Squad was forced to evacuate with 3 casualties"
For once, the man's expression changed, albeit only for a split second.
"Grade and Class of the Void Creature?"
The woman hesitated for a moment, before answering, "...Violet Titan..."
Upon hearing this, the man pondered for a moment, his dark eyes watching the battle below him unblinkingly. The Night Weavers had successfully drawn out the Void Creature, revealing a mass of tentacles attached to a fleshy humanoid, tiny in comparison to the tentacles that were taller than the skyscrapers around them.
Standing up from his throne, the man reached out with his right hand once more, the palm of his hand pointing towards the creature below.
"Shadow Dominion: Shadow Garden"
His voice was soft, tired and gentle. Despite that however, the battlefield was silenced, and everything froze.
Every particle of dust, every chunk of rubble, the blood, the Awakeners, as well as the Void Creature. Everything within his "Veil" had completely ceased to move.
Then there came a flash of purple light, followed by a wail of agony that sent shockwaves out in all directions. Every window in a several mile radius was shattered, and the nearby buildings were reduced to rubble.
The Awakeners felt their bodily functions return to them. They turned to the Void Creature, watching its fate in cold sweat.
The creature writhed in pain, its tentacles flailing about as its hunched form twitched. The Awakeners watched in horror as the fleshy beast's veins suddenly glowed an unnatural purple.
The man's voice echoed once more, "Full Bloom"
The creature's mangled and melted face paused for a moment, before its fleshy maw stretched out to an impossible degree.
Out from its mouth, glowing purple flowers bloomed, their petals undisturbed by the abomination's attempts at getting rid of them. Its throat filled until no sound came out, and its veins began to glow even brighter than before.
The sound of flesh tearing apart was apparent for miles, as violet roses dug out of the beast's flesh, gouging out chunks of flesh and blood.
The Void Creature was unable to scream out in pain, unable to lash out in anger, unable to resist the absolute power that had taken over its body. It could only twitch, as more and more flowers covered its body, draining its blood, until it was buried completely.
A mountain of violet roses formed, giving off a luminescent glow as rivers of blood pooled down underneath.
Then the flowers disintegrated, with millions of glowing petals floating up into the air to create a spectacular light show that contrasted the dark domain. The creature had disappeared, and what remained were 4 blue Star Cores.
"Shadow Dominion: Grasp of Purgatory"
From thin air, shadows condensed into clawed hands that reached for the cores. Sensing danger, the cores shook and tried to fly away, but the clawed hands caught up with ease, wrapping their dark fingers around the core.
The cores shattered like glass, dispersing into the air before they could converge into a Reverberation.
He lowered his hand, his veil disintegrating to reveal the night sky in its full glory. A vibrant galaxy of multicolored stars shone overhead, the dark clouds pushed away by the veil. In a radius of dozens of miles, a ring of dark clouds formed an imposing wall around the airspace above the abandoned city.
The man sighed, his breath visible in the cold night, his eyes devoid of light, a lack of purpose, a lack of reason to exist.
The woman flew towards him, stopping just a few feet away.
"400 miles westward, in Westridge"
The moment she finished, the man disappeared, leaving behind only gentle wisps of smoke. The woman pressed a button on a listening device she wore on one ear.
"This is a Code Black, evacuate Westridge completely. Harbinger Noah is taking over the subjugation"