The man pointed the tip of his machete at Ghost, asking arrogantly:
« Who the hell are you? »
Ghost locked his eyes onto the stranger's pupils. They were blood-red—the instantly recognizable hallmark of a Sigma. The DHA operative straightened his posture, sizing him up while questions raced through his mind:
"Who is this guy? I've never seen him around the country before."
Annoyed, the stranger pressed on:
« I asked you a question! You're definitely not one of ours, so tell me, who are you? »
Ghost offered no response. He let out a sigh and brushed his hand against a nearby structural pillar. Nothing happened. He withdrew his hand and tried again, but his power completely refused to trigger.
Instantly, a horrific dread gripped him. He slowly cast his gaze toward the upper rafters of the facility. Hidden deep within the shadows, he discerned a massive, seven-foot silhouette whose crimson eyes gleamed in the dark.
Ghost bounded backward, creating distance while using both hands to violently rip off two of his locks, hardening them into makeshift weapons.
« Hm... another one? This isn't good. It's getting way too dangerous here. »
The giant shadow slipped his hand behind his back and drew a heavy, silver broadsword, without uttering a single word.
Ghost retreated into a slight defensive crouch, keeping both adversaries within his field of vision. As he stared them down, a logical realization crossed his mind:
"Where the hell is Meta?"
The shadow-man seemed to read his thoughts.
« Looking for something? », he asked in a deep, hollow voice.
He vanished for a brief millisecond before reappearing at the exact same speed. In his right hand, he held Meta firmly by the throat. The latter was completely unconscious.
« Is this what you're looking for? », he muttered with cold detachment.
Seeing his teammate treated like garbage, a blinding rage consumed Ghost. Yet, on the outside, his facial features remained as still as marble.
« Drop him… right now », Ghost commanded in a freezing tone.
« I didn't quite catch that. You want me to drop him? », the man provoked, his voice echoing through the warehouse like thunder.
Ghost exhaled:
« I'm warning you… I won't repeat myself. »
For all answer, the shadow hoisted Meta high into the air before slamming him violently against the concrete floor.
« There! »
That impact marked the breaking point. Everything escalated in a flash.
Ghost instantly dissolved into a shadow on the floor. At the exact same time, Valkyrie pushed herself back up, re-arming her shield and sword.
A deathly silence settled over the room. Everyone remained on high alert, ready to leap at the slightest twitch. Suddenly, a steel rod shot out of nowhere from behind the shadow-man.
The colossus spun around to parry the projectile with his broadsword, but it was nothing but a feint: Ghost emerged from the darkness directly beneath his feet, delivering a devastating uppercut to his jaw. Carried by his own momentum, Ghost continued his vertical trajectory and vanished through the framework of the roof.
The shadow-man staggered back a step, rubbing his aching jaw.
Capitalizing on this opening, the man with the dual machetes rushed forward to back up his ally. Suddenly, a silhouette partially materialized on a pillar to his right. The attacker brought his machete down brutally on the spot. The target slipped back into the shadow just in time, and the blade struck the metal beam with such raw violence that the steel cracked clean open.
Without warning, like a phantom, Ghost erupted right beneath his feet. He seized him, locking him into a textbook chokehold. Propelled by superhuman momentum, both combatants shot straight up toward the ceiling. Ghost touched the shadow of the roof timbers, dragging his enemy into the void, and they reappeared a fraction of a second later, plunging headfirst toward the floor at a terrifying speed.
Boom!
The impact shattered the concrete of the warehouse in a staggering crash.
The shadow-man immediately lunged to intercept Ghost upon landing, but the DHA operative evaporated once more into his own shadow.
The machete-wielding hostile pulled himself up painfully, spitting a stream of blood.
« Yacine! I'm warning you, I won't be able to keep up this pace for long », he growled.
The shadow-man, Yacine, replied without breaking his scan of the area:
« Shut up. »
Bring! Bring! Bring!
The lightbulbs on the ceiling began exploding one after the other, at a steady rhythm of one detonation per second. The survivors watched the scene unfold, motionless. The atmosphere had just violently shifted into a literal horror movie. The darkness devoured the room, wave after wave, until the obscurity became total. Only a heavy, suffocating silence remained.
The air grew tight. The faint light from the last three surviving bulbs flickered wildly, while the metallic scraping of a loose wire hitting a beam heightened the tension. Ghost could now strike from absolutely anywhere.
At the back of the warehouse, a shape glided stealthily to the right, moving like a flash of lightning between the rare illuminated zones.
It passed a second time, then a third. Yacine pointed his blade into the gloom:
« Virmo, that's enough. You can take him down now », he called out.
The man with the machetes, Virmo, took a step forward, a cruel smirk stretching across his lips:
« Thanks. I was just waiting for the word. »
The two Sigmas plunged into the pitch-black darkness in turn, leaving Valkyrie alone beside Meta's inert body.
For one entire minute, not a single sound filtered through. Not a step, not a breath, not the echo of a blow. Then, in the middle of this acoustic void...
Swing!
The metallic shriek of two blades colliding tore through the silence, spraying a shower of sparks.
Up near the ceiling, a blueish shockwave rippled through the space, immediately followed by another flash. The sounds of violent impacts multiplied at an insane speed, and the sparks became intermittent lightning bolts that illuminated the room for only a fraction of a second.
With every single flash, an image was captured: Ghost could be seen parrying a strike from Virmo with one of his hardened locks. At the next flash, Ghost was feinting Yacine on his right flank to block an assault. In another corner, he was fending off both attackers at the exact same time.
Amidst this chaos of light and steel, Valkyrie analyzed every single appearance to anticipate Ghost's next move. She drew her warhammer back, setting it into a throwing position. Matching her breathing to the rhythm of the flashes, she hurled her weapon with all her might, followed a split second later by her shield.
In the pitch black, the heavy trajectories of the shield and hammer locked onto their target.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Under the sheer violence of the impact, Ghost was violently blasted away, crashing heavily beneath the beam of the last remaining lightbulbs. He pushed himself up onto his knees. His mask detached and rolled across the floor, revealing his bloodied face. He tried to lean on his left hand to stand back up, but a sharp, agonizing pain made him grimace. Looking down at it, he realized it was fractured.
On her end, Valkyrie tried to recall her weapons, but they remained on the ground, completely inert.
Ghost stood up as best he could, fighting not to collapse. A roar of pure rage echoed right in front of him:
« AAH! I've had enough! I'm going to smoke him! »
Virmo materialized directly ahead of him. With animalistic agility, he glided behind his target's back, leaving a trail of blue energy in his wake that perfectly mirrored the shape of his body.
Ghost spun around to face him, but the enemy had already shifted positions. Virmo wasn't walking—he was literally sliding across the concrete, playing with him by constantly repositioning himself in his blind spot. Following one final movement, Ghost braced for another dodge, but when he opened his eyes, the twin machetes were hurtling straight toward his abdomen.
It was too late to evade. He no longer possessed the necessary energy to dive into the shadows.
« NO, VIRMO! », Valkyrie screamed from the distance.
At that exact microsecond, time seemed to freeze for Ghost. He cast one final glance toward Meta's prone body, then let out a heavy sigh:
"It's over, I'm done for… And the worst part about all of this…"
He turned eyes heavy with pure hatred toward the young woman:
"Is that I can't even take the devil down with me."
Suddenly, Yacine appeared above Ghost. He delivered a masterful kick straight to his temple that sent him flying against a metallic crate, cutting his momentum dead. The DHA operative tried to move, but his strength completely abandoned him.
Virmo stepped forward to deliver the killing blow, but Yacine clamped a firm, iron grip onto his shoulder to restrain him:
« Don't do something stupid that could cost us our lives. »
Virmo wrenched his shoulder away with a sharp, furious jerk:
« But they are enemies, Yacine! They are direct threats! »
Yacine didn't flinch. His question fell, heavy with implications:
« Do you want us to die here? »
As he uttered those words, the shadow-man reverted to his human form. He wore the traditional attire of ancient oriental warriors: a turban and a scarf that masked his face, leaving only his crimson Sigma eyes exposed. In his right hand, he held a silver gladius that shimmered despite the oppressive darkness.
Virmo hesitated for a long moment, then smashed a metallic beam in pure rage, the steel warping under the impact.
« Aah! Fine, whatever, I'll leave him alive. Only because I happen to care about my own skin. »
Further away, Ghost could only perceive fragmented pieces of voices as the black veil of unconsciousness closed in on him. His vision blurred. In one final spark of lucidity, he saw Yacine extend his hand to Valkyrie to help her up. She accepted his help.
Ghost closed his eyes and passed out.
What he failed to see before slipping under was that the moment she was back on her feet, Yacine brutally clamped his fingers around Valkyrie's throat, hoisting her off the ground like a simple dead leaf.
« Why did you try to save him? », the Sigma growled.