The moment I stepped out into the open in front of the shattered mayor's building, the city answered. The members of the black cult were already there.
Ten of them stood spread across the street, black robes hanging still despite the faint currents of displaced air, their formation loose but it was clear they had been waiting for something to emerge from the ruin behind me, and at the center of that line stood the one I recognized immediately.
The level ninety who had taken me down once when I had been off balance, flanked by the two others who had fought alongside him before while the remaining seven filled the gaps, their levels sitting just below eighty-four, eighty-two, eighty….strong enough to matter, but not enough to change the outcome.
His eyes locked onto me the moment I appeared, the calm from before gone, replaced by something angrier.
"What did you do?" he demanded, the words carrying across the distance without strain.
