206

Damon

I pulled up by the City Hall and put on my mask just as I alighted from the van. I had a team of five men with me, but according to Ted, this was where the majority of the explosives were since the hall was at the center of the city. I attracted many looks as I climbed up the stairs and went straight into the building.

"Leo," I called to the man beside me.

"Boss," he said, looking much cleaner and wearing clean clothes than he was before.

"Get everybody out of the building," I said. "Even if things were to go south, it'd be better if they were outside," I said to him.

"You got it, boss."

Just as I reached the stairways that led to the basement, I heard a loud booming roar followed by the sound of many people screaming.

"Can he really turn into a lion? I know you can turn into some sort of beast," I replied to Miguel's question. "But I haven't seen it before. I only saw a few videos taken by scared people that he was fighting against."

We reached the basement quickly. "There's another flight of stairs beneath this one," he said as he walked to a door and pushed it open. It was mostly dark save for the few light bulbs that were dim and far between, but it didn't matter. My eyes could see in the dark, and every 20 ft ahead, there was a small batch of explosives placed.

"They plan to set it off like pulses," Ted said as we ran into the center. In the distance, we could hear the men setting up the bombs.

"We've got to move quickly," one of them said. "They just stopped our plans at the aerodrome and some of the other locations. Hopefully, if you can set this one up in time, this city will still sink to the center when we're done," another voice said.

I picked up speed, leaving my men behind, and once I turned and descended another flight of stairs, I found myself face-to-face with the men planting the explosives. It was a small army down there.

"So, I know this. Those at least 15 minutes holding boxes of explosives and bringing them out, clustering them in a specific location. It was a pillar. The central pillar that held up the building that ran at least 100 ft deep into the ground," I smiled behind my mask as my men caught up with me.

 "Looks like we're going to have a party," I said behind my mask.

The first man dropped the boxes and began to retreat. "I've heard about them, boss. I hear they have superpowers. We're not going to make this one, let's just blow the fucking place up!"

"Not so fast," Even said behind the talking man and slit his throat so fast I barely saw his hand move. Or even began to slip through with practiced ease, and men began to drop one by one. I turned behind me.

"Are you going to let him have all the fun?" asked but I was too late. The men had already moved and began to fight. The leader of the men cursed and reached into his back pocket and pulled out the detonator just as I was conjuring a bolt.

Once it was condensed, I threw it at the man's arm, disintegrating his arm and letting the detonator fall to the ground. The man screamed and clutched his missing arm, splattered with blood.

"What are you?" he asked, his eyes filled with terror as he began to sweat profusely.

"I wonder what would happen when it's full," I said to myself as I took steps closer to him. He fell to the ground and hit a box of explosives, causing them to spill out onto the floor. He picked one up and threw it at me. I dodged it easily. "Stay away from me, you monster!"

"Monster? That's a bit of a far cry," I said as I moved closer and crouched in front of him.

"You're going to die here," I said quietly as I could feel the mask growing drunk by the second.

 "How does it make you feel knowing that those who sent you don't give a fuck about your life?" I said quietly, just as the last man screamed and fell, death fueling the mask with more blood.

Once I felt that the mask was full of over a thousand deaths, I felt my body grow stronger by the second, and my eyes began to heat up. I grabbed the man's neck and accidentally snapped it as I tightened my grip on it ever so slightly.

"Fuck," I said. "I only meant to scare him a little."

I walked over to the detonator and smashed it with my feet. "Park all the explosives," I directed my men, still feeling euphoric. "None will question your reign for hundreds of years," the mask said to me.

"Now, thoughts like that will make a man lose his grip on sanity," I said as I raised the mask to my face.

"Would you rather have me live past The Catalyst?" The mask stretched into a smile, making it look even more grotesque than before.

"The Catalyst would live as long as you do," the mask said. Miguel suddenly dropped the box. "Boss," he said, pointing at the mask. I turned to look at it. The mask was spewing a black inky substance, and immediately it entered my mouth. I fell as I struggled to breathe. I clawed at my throat as I felt I was being drowned by the strange substance.

"You are still weak. You have not unlocked even the tip of the iceberg of my power," the voice seemed to come from my own mind. "I will give it to you, and you will rule the world." I closed my eyes tightly and conjured the aura ball again, but this time I encased it inside me around the inky black substance that was already moving through my limbs.

 I couldn't densify and condense it because I felt myself slowly losing consciousness. It was slow, but it was working. I concentrated till I had it the size of a tennis ball located at the bottom of my belly button inside. I opened my mouth and sucked in breath, desperate to live. The mask lay in front of me with the red eyes now white.

"What have you done?" Alessandro asked as he crouched beside me. "You're almost possessed," he said. "But now it's like there's an ego inside of you. In a few years, it'll tear you apart.”