Chapter 163 — I Will Find You All

"Go call your superior. Inform her about what happened here. Play the devastated officer. Let them think you’re broken."

Damian’s voice carried no warmth, just clinical instruction.

"But feel that vengeance. Feel that hate. Let it burn in your chest like fire. That’s what will keep you alive now.

You don’t live for happiness anymore, Brian. Consider yourself already dead. You died the moment you walked into that house and saw your family’s bodies."

He crouched down, making Brian meet his eyes directly.

"Use everything for your vengeance. Abandon your morality. Abandon your sense of justice. They don’t exist. They never existed. They’re just comfortable lies the powerful tell the weak to keep them submissive."

Rain ran down both their faces, impossible to distinguish from tears.

"The only truth in this world is power. Get power and you decide what is right and what is wrong. Get enough power and you can make the people who did this suffer in ways they can’t even imagine."

Brian stared at him, something broken and rebuilt simultaneously in his expression.

Damian stood, his form silhouetted against the storm.

"You just make the call and play your part. I’ll do the rest."

Kuro materialized from shadows that shouldn’t have existed in the rain, the raven’s red eyes glowing.

Damian looked at his companion.

"Track them. The ones who did this... Can you find them?"

Kuro cawed once, affirmative, then launched into the stormy sky and disappeared.

Damian activated Sonic Blink and vanished, leaving Brian alone in the rain with his dead family and his burning hatred.

****

[Industrial District - Abandoned Garage]

Kuro appeared silently on a rooftop overlooking an old garage, his enhanced senses detecting multiple life signs inside.

Through their bond, Damian received the location and appeared directly to the raven’s position.

They observed together for several minutes, cataloging targets.

There were thirty people inside the garage. The highest was C+ rank. All of them were relaxed, celebrating and drinking.

Voices carried through broken windows.

"Did you see the old man’s face when we started on his fingers? Priceless!"

"The woman lasted longer than I expected before breaking. Tough old bitch."

"The kid though... fuck, that was satisfying. Little bastard actually tried to fight back at first."

Laughter echoed from multiple sources.

"Best job we’ve had in months. Torturing a cop’s family? Can’t beat that for entertainment value."

"Lucky our contact in the SFD gave us such detailed information. Made finding them easy as fuck."

What followed was more laughter and more casual discussion of torture and murder like it was a sporting event.

Damian’s expression remained completely empty as he listened.

There was no anger or rage. Just intense coldness.

He stood and walked toward the garage entrance.

Kuro remained on the roof, watching, ready to intervene if needed but sensing his bond partner didn’t require assistance.

Damian pushed open the door and stepped inside.

The conversation died immediately as thirty heads turned toward the entrance.

Someone had entered their hideout. Someone who shouldn’t know this location existed.

It was a young man... Teenager really. Soaking wet from the rain. Long crimson hair plastered to his face and shoulders. Eyes that looked through them rather than at them.

"Who the fuck–"

Damian moved.

No weapon art or skills were actuvated. Just pure physical speed enhanced by his transformed body.

He crossed the fifteen meters to the nearest terrorist in a fraction of a second.

His hand wrapped around the man’s throat, lifted him off the ground, and squeezed.

The throat collapsed as the windpipe was crushed with the vertebrae separating.

THUD

Damian dropped the corpse and moved to the next target before the body hit the ground.

"CONTACT! ENGAGE!"

Someone shouted, finally breaking through the shock.

Weapons appeared as Auras flared. Skills activated.

But... none of it mattered.

BANG

A gun fired, the bullet enhanced with Aura, aimed perfectly at Damian’s head.

His hand moved as he caught the bullet mid-flight, his enhanced reflexes and durability making the feat look casual.

He flicked it back at the shooter, the bullet punching through the man’s eye socket and out the back of his skull.

Three terrorists attacked simultaneously with enhanced melee weapons – swords, axes, spears all coated in various elemental Auras.

Damian’s body moved between the strikes like water, none of them coming close to connecting.

"AHHH!"

His fist caught one attacker in the chest, the impact caving in the entire ribcage, bones fragmenting into the lungs and heart.

Crunch

His other hand grabbed the second attacker’s head and twisted, the neck rotating a full 180 degrees with a wet crack.

The third attacker’s spear thrust toward his back.

"Ughh–"

Damian spun and grabbed the spear shaft, ripped it from the terrorist’s grip, and drove it through the man’s mouth and out the back of his head, pinning him to the concrete wall.

A C rank terrorist activated a fire-based area attack, flames exploding outward in all directions.

Damian walked through the fire without slowing, his enhanced vitality and self-healing making the burns irrelevant.

He grabbed the C rank by the face, lifted him, and slammed him into the ground hard enough to crater the concrete.

Then again.

Then again.

Bam Bam Bam Bam

Kept slamming until the skull shattered and brain matter mixed with blood and concrete dust.

The terrorists were panicking now, their coordinated attacks dissolving into desperate individual attempts to survive.

Someone tried to run for the back exit.

Boom

But Damian’s telekinesis grabbed a piece of rebar from the destroyed floor, hurled it like a javelin, the metal punching through the runner’s back and emerging from his chest.

Two terrorists tried to attack from opposite sides, thinking they could overwhelm him with simultaneous strikes.

BAM

But Damian grabbed both their heads and slammed them together with enough force to crack both skulls.

He held them there, pressed together, as they convulsed and died.

The C+ rank terrorist finally engaged, his Aura flaring to maximum, his weapon – a massive hammer – swinging with technique-enhanced power.

Damian caught the hammer with one hand.

The terrorist’s eyes went wide with disbelief.

BAM BAM BAM

Damian ripped the hammer away, swung it in a devastating arc that caught three more terrorists and pulverized them against the garage wall.

Then turned back to the C+ rank and smiled.

It wasn’t a human expression. Just baring teeth in a way that promised violence.

BOOM

His free hand punched through the terrorist’s stomach, grabbing his spine, and ripped the man’s back bone out through the front of his body.

The C+ rank collapsed, somehow still alive for several agonizing seconds before death claimed him.

Damian moved through the remaining terrorists like a force of nature, killing with brutal efficiency.

Neck snaps. Crushed skulls. Torn limbs. Shattered spines.... Each death was quick but visceral.

Within five minutes, thirty bodies littered the garage floor, blood pooling and mixing into a crimson lake.

Damian stood in the center of the carnage, completely covered in blood, his breathing steady despite the exertion.

Then he reached into his spatial ring and pulled out a knife.

He methodically went to each corpse and severed their right hands, collecting the trophies in his ring.

’There will be a day when I have the hands of the whole Shadow Council. This is just advance payment. The real masterminds... hide all you want for now. One day, I will find you all.’

Thirty hands... Thirty pieces of the people who’d tortured Brian’s family.

From the start till the end, he said nothing... Just did the work and left.

Kuro followed silently as Damian disappeared into the night.

****

[Two Days Later - Memorial Service]

Rain fell softly on the gathered mourners, the weather matching the somber atmosphere.

It was a small ceremony. Brian’s family hadn’t been well-connected. Just normal people who’d lived normal lives until violence found them.

The caskets were closed. The damage was too severe to allow viewing.

Brian stood at the front, dressed in his SFD uniform, his face empty of any expression.

Damian stood beside him, wearing black, his long crimson hair tied back, his presence drawing attention despite his attempts to remain unobtrusive.

Various SFD officers attended, showing solidarity with a fallen colleague’s family.

The ceremony was brief. Generic words about tragedy and loss. Platitudes about finding peace.

Brian didn’t react to any of it as he just stared at the three caskets without seeing them.

As the service concluded and people began filtering away, a woman approached them.

It was Ashley Blackheart. S rank awakener. Brian’s superior officer in the SFD. Known as one of the most powerful officers of SFD.

She was also the one always relentlessly trying to find something to use against Damian, ever since he was involved in the Norrington incident.

She was beautiful in a severe way, her black hair pulled back tightly, her black eyes showing genuine compassion.

"Brian. I’m so sorry for your loss. We’re doing everything possible to investigate how Shadow Council obtained your family’s information. I promise you, we’ll find who was responsible and–"

"How did they find my details?"