"-Code Black, evacuate Westridge completely. Harbinger Noah is taking over the subjugation," a feminine voice said through the intercom.
A middle aged man who was wearing this headpiece broke into a cold sweat, gray winds howling through his crumpled suit and messy hair as he and his companions rested atop a tall skyscraper.
He turned to his companions, all bruised and battered as they waited with baited breath.
"The Harbinger will arrive soon to deal with the situation"
Mixed reactions could be seen on each of their faces. Some displayed fear, others seemed visually dissatisfied with this development, while a few bore distasteful looks.
Meanwhile, a smaller group huddled around two bodies.
One of them was a young woman with ordinary features, while the other was a man with freakishly long claws extending from his hands. Both of them however bore the same hole in their chest where their heart was supposed to be, along with numerous other injuries.
One of the huddled figures, a young woman of short stature wearing a leather jacket cried with bloodied hands. A skull design with the Φ symbol in both eye sockets adorned the back, the famous insignia of the Nightmare Squad.
She rubbed her childlike face with her hands, a futile attempt at wiping away her tears. Blood from her sleeve smeared across her cheeks, tears still streaming down uncontrollably.
The middle aged man stepped forward, worry filling his face, "Leader... we have to leave now"
The young woman grit her teeth and stood up, only then revealing a severed hand that had rested on her lap, the owner of which was nowhere to be seen.
She cradled it in her arms, seemingly unwilling to let it go, "Bring the bodies of our fallen comrades, we need to give them a proper burial"
The team moved quickly, with two others carrying the bodies of their dead companions on their backs, ignoring the blood that spilled over their clothing. Collecting themselves, the group leaped off the skyscraper and away from a distant rumbling that shook the foundations of the city.
-
Boom!
A monstrous creature towered over buildings, resembling the shape of that of a common jellyfish.
That is, if the jellyfish was hundreds of meters tall with a body of flesh, its head resembling a brain that pulsed repeatedly like a beating heart and its tentacles being thousands upon thousands of elongated and deformed humanoid arms.
It glided along the roads silently, something uncharacteristic for a creature of this size, and only occasionally glided right through a building, crashing through it and scattering rubble in all directions.
The Void Creature continued like this for a few more moments before it abruptly stopped dead in its tracks. Its brain-like head quivered for a second before dozens of eyes opened up all over it. Fleshy eyelids opened to reveal giant black pupils, moving erratically as if looking for something.
And then it saw what it was looking for. All eyes snapped towards the distant night sky, where a purple speck was rapidly approaching fast, casting an eerie glow upon the night sky like the lights of an aurora borealis.
Trembling violently, the Void Creature extended its tentacles towards the approaching entity. Extending endlessly, the creature's limbs shot forth like bullets, breaking the sound barrier with ease. A sea of arms stretched out with the intent of drowning out the source of the purple light, seemingly unstoppable.
A few miles away, the man in black stopped in his tracks. His aura was flaring boldly, dying the sky a deep purple shade as he watched a sea of hands reaching for him at high speeds, merely a blur to the eyes of regular people.
Raising his right hand, the moon on his hand glowed with an unnatural light.
"Shadow Dominion: Mutilation"
A burst of purple light exploded from his hand, only to die down the next moment. It looked as if nothing happened at all as the man put down his hand.
It was at this moment that the Void Creature's tentacles reached him. The gnarly hands were outstretched, attempting to claw at his face.
And then everything froze, as if time stopped completely and only the young man remained isolated, clad in his black clothes with the wind sweeping through his hair.
One hand was merely inches from his face, close enough for him to see all the details, the contours of the skin and the cracks in the nails. He let out a sigh. the breath visible at the high altitude.
The visible vapor made contact with the hand, breaking the spell.
A burst of purple light spiderwebbed across the surface of the limb, still frozen in time. The glowing cracks spread from limb to limb, slowly spreading towards the main body of the Void Creature. The monster twitched and quivered, its eyes moving about erratically as if trying to escape its own body.
Yet it did not move, it couldn't move. It could only watch as the purple cracks spread, slowly coming for its main body like some unstoppable virus trying to take over its host, a parasite it could not get rid of.
The cracks reached the main body, purple light spilling out like water finding its way through the cracks in rock. There was only a look of anger, of defiance, before the powerful Void Creature fell apart.
Fell apart, as if it was nothing more than the pieces of meat scrap from a butcher's shop. Chunks of flesh fell from the sky, the pieces angular and clean like it was cut by a sharp knife. Every part of the creature's body came apart along the cracks that had formed.
6 violet star cores were revealed as the body came apart, yet before they could make an impact on the world, the mysterious man had already made a move.
"Shadow Dominion: Grasp of Purgatory"
Black shadowy claws appeared from thin air, grabbing the star cores and crushing them to dust, ending the subjugation.
He spoke into a receiver that was clasped to the collar of his black trench coat.
"...This is Noah Blackwell, the subjugation of the Violet Titan has been completed"
-
"-the subjugation of the Violet Titan has been completed"
The Nightmare squad stopped in their tracks as the voice came through their earpieces. All of them turned around to look at the city in the distance.
They were a few miles away, their feet digging into the sand as they traveled at full speed to avoid the destruction that could potentially result from a fight against a Violent Titan.
The last time a Titan class Void Creature subjugation occurred, it was without the Harbinger, and it took the lives of hundreds of Awakeners and lasted nearly a week.
And yet the Harbinger cleared it alone, and in minutes too, without any sort of tremor.
The leader looked at the city with a hint of reverence in her eyes. She clutched the severed hand in her arms and bowed deeply, gratitude radiating from her actions.
Straightening and turning to her squad members, the woman possessed a new steeled look in her eyes.
"Let's hurry along, we have to report back to the headquarters"
-
"-the subjugation of the Violet Titan has been completed"
The woman who had originally passed the message for Westridge to be cleared froze when she heard the voice come through her communication device.
It hadn't even been an hour, and yet the Void Creature had already been slayed. A Titan class was already horrific enough, capable of threatening the continent, much less a Violet Titan, whose strength is many times greater.
The woman smiled, pushing up her glasses, "His strength has not dwindled in the slightest…As expected…"
Her mind wandered to one thousand years ago, when she was a little girl. She recalled a scene from her childhood, staring at the tall and imposing back of the man that had saved her life...
Meanwhile, back at Westridge, Noah let out another sigh. He put on his glove again, covering the tattoo on his right hand. He looked tired and lonely, shoulders too tense to droop down to reveal the weight he carried.
There was no visage of victory present on his face.
He looked up at the sky, taking in deep breaths.
"I can't believe it's been one thousand years already..."
His voice was low, full of resonance and melancholy. And yet that tense feeling was omnipresent, as if he could not lighten up for even a second.
Noah looked down, scanning the empty city below with questions streaming through his mind.
Where did the past Harbingers go when they are immortal? Will there be enough positive energy for a Harbinger of Positivity to be born? What role will he play in this cycle?
Can he stop the cycle?
There was no one to answer his questions in the lonely sky, only the future that has yet to come, yet inevitable all the same. Only with enough time will the truth be revealed...