Days of Darkness: Awakening

Chapter 21: Words Remembered

Diamond and Nadia ran for cover as the rooftop started to collapse. The situation was becoming grimmer by the second as the fight between Damien and Dante became more intense. Every blow came with a force of electric energy that sacrificed the structural integrity of the building that they were on.

The women knew that at any moment they could die if they stayed during the battle. So, they began to look for a way down. They ran around the fight over to one side of the building where a scaffold had always been. When they got there, though, it was hanging on barely by a cable. Seeing that the scaffold wouldn't work, they ran over to another side of the building to see if there was another exit. But every direction proved to be blocked by a wall of fire. Everything was beginning to look hopeless and, with the door that they came in having collapsed, it appeared that there was no way down.

Everyone on the ground looked toward the top of the Tower as the fight went on. They couldn't see the battle itself. Only the flames and lightning. The amount of lightning in the sky striking the spires and the rooftop was a clear indication, however, that the fight was raging on. And there would be nothing that they could do about it from the ground.

Amid the fight, Damien noticed that Nadia and Diamond were trapped. He quickly knocked Dante to the ground and attempted to run to help them. However, Dante grabbed Damien by his ankle and pulled him down to the ground with him. He, then, rushed Damien, got on top of him, and hit him repeatedly in the face trying to knock him out.

Every hit caused the rooftop to break apart more. Damien's anger blazed against Dante as he started to lose control. Damien screamed at the top of his lungs as he then reversed Dante's attacks and began to pummel Dante into the concrete. But Dante just laughed in an almost hysterical and maniacal manner. He enjoyed it.

"You won't hurt anyone ever again," Damien declared.

Damien lifted Dante off the ground and slammed him into the shut door. In a quick burst of speed, Damien rushed towards Dante, grabbed him by the neck, hoisted him high in the air, and began a series of devastating blows to Dante's face. Damien's anger was more apparent by the second as he continued to unleash blow after blow. He thought of his parents, his sister, Cyris, and the countless number of victims that Dante left in his wake. Eventually, all Damien could feel was hatred and vengeance. He wanted Dante dead.

Growing tired of Damien's onslaught, Dante began to charge up and generated an energy field to propel Damien away from him. Once he fell to the ground, he stood up, adjusted his mask, and took off his coat. Damien looked up at him with a defeated look on his face as Dante began to levitate himself. He hovered over him as he looked down at him. And as the women looked on, they both realized that Damien was in trouble.

"You see, Damien," he said. "You can't win. Not like this. You may have finally awakened, but you've barely tapped into what you can do. You're holding back. Don't, please. I want you to unleash it all. Let go of fear. Let go of restraint, of doubt. Dig deep, Damien..." He looked toward Nadia and Diamond. "...And protect those you love!"

Dante sent an electrical blast hurtling toward Nadia and Diamond. They stood in fear as it came flying toward them, thinking that this could be their final moment. Damien immediately gathered all his strength and rushed to their side and pushed them both out of the way as the blast hit, striking him in the chest instead.

"I told you, you're done hurting people," Damien said as he fell to the ground half-conscious.

Nadia ran over to care for Damien. She prayed over and over, hoping that he wasn't dead. As she embraced him, Damien appeared to be barely breathing, apparently winded and incapacitated from the blast.

As she began to cry, she caressed his face and said to him, "Damien, you can't leave me now. Do hear me? I need you here. We all need you here. We need you to fight. Use this gift you have and fight." Damien just lay in her arms - lifeless.