Making his way down the hallway, Ozen's heels clicked as he checked his watch.
"The damn Directorate. If this works. I'm going to spread their atoms across reality."
Reaching a pair of doors, Ozen reached out, pushing both the doors open. Taking a few more steps forward. Ozen's eyes wrinkled as he grinned at the view.
Having walked into a large open area, Ozen scanned the scenery. Five stories high, staircases were packed with armed individuals, all of their guns trained on him. Walking forwards, one of them took off her helmet.
"Oh my, how honoured I am to be present before the Directorate's favourite lapdog, captain of the Old Dusk. How are you doing, Ishni?"
Dropping her helmet behind her, Ishni trained her gun back at Ozen. "By order of the Directorate. Ozen, Head of Artefact research and wielder of the Crown of Shadow, an order had been issued for your arrest."
Acting shocked, Ozen held a hand to his mouth. "Wh- what?! But I haven't done anything wrong?"
Unfazed by his words, Ishni continued. "Our orders are to take you in dead or alive. Preferably alive, as the Board has questions for you. Now drop the act and put the Crown of Shadows on the floor." Watching his expression, Ishni bit hard. "Don't do anything dumb, Ozen, please. If you come back without a fight, I'm sure the Board will be lenient on you."
Holding out his hands, Ozen gently nodded. "Don't worry about me Ishni, if you all lay down your weapons, I will be lenient on you." He smiled.
Feeling her thoughts begin to numb, Ishni remembered what she was told. Within a second, Ishni aimed for his ring finger. Firing a single shot, the bullet severed Ozen's finger.
Grabbing his finger, Ozen howled as the floor was splattered with his blood. "You bitch!"
"I was warned you would try that. Without the Deceiver's tongue, you won't be able to brainwash any of us."
Clenching his fist, the black diamond on the crown glowed with black energy. A black glove covered his hand to staunch his wound.
Looking back to Ishni, Ozen put both of his hands together. As the lights began to dim, a dark mass began to grow between his fingers as the shadows grew around them.
Seeing this, Ishni shouted an order to her comrades. "Unit-1 Fire!"
As the Unit-1 opened fire on Ozen, their attempts were for nought as their bullets clashed against a shield of solidified darkness.
As the guns ran out of ammo and, hands quickly scrambled to reload for a second barrage. Ozen simply smiled at them. "You should have taken my offer, Ishni, their deaths are on your head."
Collapsing his hands down onto the dark mass, the energy surged along the floor, as dark as the night. The darkness opened like a titanic maw, encompassing the entire room, threatening to swallow all the humans whole.
--
Bouncing around the hallways, a ball of pure lightning tracked the Board's soldiers through the facility's corridors. Ricocheting off of the surfaces, it heard bullet fire from deeper in the facility.
Moving with increased speed, it reached the location in a matter of seconds. Bursting through the doors, the ball hit the ground, bouncing over the heads of the soldiers fleeing in terror. The ball flew past the edge of the platform.
The ball began to change shape as the bottom floor came into view. Changing into the form of a woman, her long hair trailed behind her as she observed the chaos below. Seeing Ozen and his darkness about to kill Unit-1, she sighed.
Putting both of her hands on her sheathed katana. She turned into a bolt of lightning rapidly descending, the bolt of lightning sent out numerous other bolts as it shot past the staircase. As this lightning touched the shadows summoned by Ozen, the darkness was burnt away. The members of Unit-1 were unharmed by the lightning.
Reaching the ground, the bolt of lightning changed once more back into the woman as she slammed her sheath into the ground, producing a blast of lightning that spread around the room, destroying Ozen's shadows.
Ozen's expression soured as he watched the lightning defend his enemies.
"Well, I'll be damned. I would have never thought the Directorate would want to bring one of you into their operations. You're not exactly filling your job description by being here, are you, Protector of the 6th World?"
Eyeing him up, Genzai stood. "You know they wouldn't bring me in unless it was necessary."
Ozen's eyes lit up. "Oh? The Board believe I'm a worthy enough threat to include a member of the Protectorate in their schemes. I feel even more honoured now."
"Stop talking with that liar's tongue, you piece of shit. You've sacrificed how many people for your tests. I can't believe you've been doing all of this right under my nose." Putting her left arm out, Genzai snarled. "Prepare to meet my judgment, Ozen!" Dropping her arm back to her side, Genzai put a hand on its hilt. Electricity prickled around the sheath. "Captain Ishni! Pull your men back."
"We can't, Protector, we have orders to bring Ozen back dead or alive. We won't leave here without him."
Glancing back at Ishni, static electricity streaked across Genzai's hair. "I need room to move, captain. This is for your safety more than mine. If you stay, you can explain to your higher-ups why I wasn't able to contain Ozen."
After a moment to think, Ishni nodded. "Understood." Turning around, she hurried back to the staircase whilst pressing a button on her helmet. "Unit 1 pull back. The Protector has this."
As the soldiers quickly retreated, Genzai turned her full attention back to Ozen.
"What's up, finally finished talking?" Ozen snidely asked.
Slowly drawing her katana, electricity arced from the sheath to the blade. "Enough games rat." Crouching, Genzai drew her blade, cutting horizontally, a blast of lightning erupted from the blade's edge.
Unperturbed, Ozen held his hands out. His wall of shadows darkened as the lightning crashed against it.
"Come now Genzai, is that all you have. I doubt I would even need the crown to take you on if this is you trying your best." He snickered.
Exhaling one long breath, Genzai gently dropped her sheath on the ground. "You really want my best. Allow me to show you my full might as the 6th Protector."
Holding the hilt in both hands, a faint smile pierced Genzai's lips. As electricity began to arc around her body. Ozen could tell she was about to do something.
Disappearing in a flash of lightning, Ozen's head immediately darted behind him. Bringing a hand up, a blade made of shadow materialized in his grip. Just in time to stop Genzai from beheading him.
As their blades clashed, lightning continued to arc around them.
Her eyes narrowing, Genzai pushed against Ozen's strength. "When did you get so fast, oh right. I'm just weak at the moment. No matter, I can feel the presence of a 7th level artefact in this compound of yours. Is that what you've been using to experiment on innocent children?"
"They're as innocent as you and I, Genzai. No one is going to miss them. I selectively chose orphans so that no one would notice, I was trying to give them a new life." Rolling shadow around his wrist, Ozen sent a blast of shadow outwards.
Anticipating his attack, once more Genzai transformed into a ball of lightning, bouncing off of the wall behind them Genzai jumped over Ozen's head. Dashing back a few dozen feet to where she had dropped her sheath. Genzai's body changed back to normal. Snatching her sheath off of the floor, Genzai sheathed her blade.
"You've never been that charitable, Ozen. I would never believe that you're doing this out of the good of your heart. I just don't understand, why would you try and take away a child's life so callously."
Stabbing his blade into the ground, Ozen leant on it. "Oh well, since you asked so kindly my dear, let me spill all of my secrets to you. Children are malleable, the Flow within their body is still open to change. If one were to try and, say, fuse a high-level artefact into the body of an adult it would kill them as the Flow of the artefact would overpower the adult's own Flow and kill them in the process, but children." Ozen's eyes lit up. "A child's Flow is still open to change, as long as they are younger than ten or eleven. It is still malleable. I have worked on this for years, and I have finally found the perfect test subject. Crio's son. Finally, I have sacrificed so much-"
Genzai cut Ozen off. "You have sacrificed nothing in your pursuit of this. How many children have you killed, Ozen! How many lives have you cut short! And how did you manage to get your hands on Crio's son? He would bring the sky down on you if he knew about this."
Ozen's mouth curled into a twitching, toothy smile. "Oh Genzai, don't be foolish. I would have never experimented on his son… Without his full consent."
Genzai's eyes shot open, hearing this. "How?-" Looking to where Ozen's severed finger had fallen, Genzai.
"Looking for something?" Looking back to Ozen, Genzai saw him holding his severed finger. Taking the ring off, he sighed. "Yes, I used this on him. I have for a long time, many years in fact."
Gritting her teeth, Genzai couldn't stand this any longer. Crouching low, Genzai put a hand on her weapon. "I'm finishing this now, Ozen. I won't give you a chance to use that ring on anyone else."
Putting the ring on his remaining ring finger, Ozen chucked his finger over his shoulder. "I was waiting for you to say that." As the lights flickered, the shadows began to grow around Ozen.
Just as the two powers were about to clash, a voice came onto the intercom.
Crio's voice echoed throughout the facility. "Breach!"