Requiem of the Broken

Chapter 51: Wildfire

Everyone stood rooted to the spot in shock. Questions raced through their minds, but not an ounce of worry. Ever since Dark Shadow had started gaining true sentience, its rages had been controlled. Or at least controlled enough to not attack most of its allies. There had been occasions where he had harmed allies, but such instances had decreased in frequency with each rage.

So it was surprising when Dark Shadow rolled over them and threw them all in random directions. There was a short cry as Sukōchi was grabbed by Dark Shadows' beak and carried off. Then as suddenly as it had come, it vanished into the tree line leaving devastation in its wake.

Everyone scrambled upright and looked out to where Dark Shadow had vanished into thin air.

"Was... Was that Dark Shadow?" asked Kirishima worriedly.

"He must have escaped, but whatever Zeus did to him must be having lasting consequences. He's out of control." Said Bakugo, scanning the area around them, blasts prepped in his hands.

Something slammed into the ground in the middle of where they had been standing previously. The body of Sukōchi lay torn in half, an ominous purple smoke wafting from his body and horrid black marks all over his body.

"What the hell... It's almost as if the bodies have been put through a vat of some kind of acid," muttered Mina.

Momo's mind flashed to the reports she had seen about Aria Lin, the failed super nomu. Has Zeus done something like that to Tokoyami? Before she could voice her thoughts, however, the light suddenly started fading.

Suddenly the shadows grew deeper and more solid-looking. All noise faded and soon perfect silence fell over them. Every small noise echoed around them, their breathing became audible. Then the rush of wind started coming towards them.

They turned and they saw Dark Shadow, but he was different. Dark, vision-distorting, gray fire trailed behind him. Whatever the fire touched it stuck to, but didn't spread, just sat and burned before fading away. Momo saw Todoroki shoot a pillar of fire at the oncoming shadow, but it opened its mouth and fired a stream of the gray fire at Todoroki's shining orange.

The twin streams collided and the fire splayed outward from the point of impact and went high into the air. Todoroki didn't let up, just started increasing his flames output but it was clear the shadow fire was its match. Momo noticed that the dark fire didn't emit light, instead, it seemed to eat it. The light of Todoroki's fire was drawn into the shadow fire but it didn't seem to fuel the dark either.

Momo raised her rifle and fired through the fire to where Dark Shadow should be. Whatever was happening, whatever Zeus had done to Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, they would have to fight like their lives depended on it.

"And if it should come to it... we will grant Tokoyami a final mercy." she thought darkly.

It wouldn't be the first time they've been forced to make that choice, and her soul shuddered at the mere possibility of doing so to a dear friend.

It quickly became clear that Momo's attack was doing nothing or missing. Not that she expected otherwise. Dark Shadow was nigh unstoppable, having no weaknesses outside of bright lights. Not even Shigaraki's Decay had worked on it, composed of shadow as it was. Still, if she could distract it, then it might make the difference.

Then the twin streams of fire twisted and started chasing each other up into a colossal swirling pillar of fire, creating a strange glow that didn't quite reach the surroundings as it should have.

"BAKUGO!" Yelled out Todoroki.

"ON IT!" Bakugo yelled back and let loose a massive explosion into the maelstrom of fire.