Five mechanical fingers, colored like the midnight sky, absorbed all the light in the room. Their owner wore a common black hoodie which could not compete with the darkness of his tyrannical hand.

“Protect the President! Everyone, take defensive formations! I do not know who you are, but if you offend the Martial Alliance you will never enjoy a quiet moment in this city again!”

The words hallowed through the grand apartment of the President. There was no answer. An all-consuming silence crept through the room until it engulfed every one of these so-called protectors. The guards drew their spirit guns. Truly, the ultimate synergy between modern technology and mystical cultivation.

But no matter how offensively strong these people were, they could not defend themselves from the occult, too long did the pragmatic strength of pure violence reign. There should not be a need for protection of the mind or so they thought. The absence of light opened the door to something far more nefarious than temporary blindness. Dark spiritual energy invaded the hearts of every single opposing martial artist. It fed on their hollow pride, it devoured their hopes and feasted on their very souls. In the end, only instinctive fear remained. A single nervous shot went off into the empty darkness. Their uniforms were soaked wet with cold sweat. Their breaches filled with hot piss. It was too much. They forgot their mission. No, They discarded it. All that mattered now was to survive. The one who spoke, the captain, was the first to run. Only two men remained in this proclaimed penthouse-arena on the peak of the largest building in the Kunlun Heights.

“Heh, weaklings!” A bent senior, called the President, cursed, “this old man can’t find a single competent employee anymore. Times have changed, I guess.”

Again silence.

The old man straightened and removed the top layers of his clothing. He laughed: “Not a man of many words, huh? I like it. If you want a fight, then this old man will humor you! The one who strikes first wins!” The old man sprinted forward with unnatural speed. His muscles bulged, ready to strike this strange foe down. He certainly did not have perfect night vision but he could make out the general shape of his opponent. The most deadly target on a human is the head. He had to end it as quickly as he could. His endurance deteriorated a lot since his youth. “Why am I still dueling at the age of 900 years?” he thought while aiming for the dark hood of his opponent. To his surprise, he hit without any hint of movement on his counterpart’s side. That is because he hit an empty hood which evaporated as the result of the collision. “A spirit? No! Sorcery!?”

The black hand cracked in acknowledgment to this challenge. Golden lightning emerged from its darkest crevices. It illuminated the peak of the Kunlun Heights only for a moment until it charged at the old man with the might of a thousand mecha-rhinos. The president invoked his cyber spirit, the Giant Silver-Inlaid Gorilla, to defend himself but it was meaningless against the heavenly thunder. It hurled him out of the window. He fell down hundreds of floors until he struck the ground. A vicious explosion followed the impact. Chaos erupted on the streets of Kunlun Heights.

“Another terrorist attack!?” Voices on the streets shouted in confusion.

People streamed out of the buildings. Thirsty for gossip and hungry for the misfortune of others. The news-feed crews were first at the crater but the police and other security officers did quickly take care to control the spread of information, as they always do.

A figure, clad in a common-looking hoodie, took advantage of the disarray and vanished into the streets.