Rise of the Darkness Tycoon

Chapter 1- The Price of Loyalty

Far away from the shore, a private luxury cruise ship moved slowly across the ocean, the waves tossing and turning as turbulently as Calvin’s current emotions.

He was feeling an extreme level of frustration and anger, neither of which was overshadowed by the immense pain coming from his left shoulder and elbow.

He was dressed in his usual black T-shirt and jeans combination, one of his leather boots lost and destroyed somewhere, his bare foot leaking blood that flowed off the deck of the cruise ship and into the ocean behind him.

Several holes dotted his shirt across his torso and legs, each one dripping blood, while small blades of glowing white light protruded from his thigh, shoulder, and elbow.

Such a level of damage would've been fatal to a normal man, but Calvin was an elementalist with a body within the realm of superhumans.

Even among the strongest superhumans, there were very few Elementalists on the same Rank as Calvin.

Few, but not zero.

And five of those scarce few had combined their power to bring him down, and to make matters worse, their elemental powers were Calvin’s greatest weakness.

The power of Light.

To a Darkness elementalist like Calvin, Light was the only element he had to be wary of.

Calvin had been poisoned with a drink infused with faint light elements, and when he'd immediately sensed the danger, he was ambushed before he could spit it out, causing him to accidentally swallow it.

He glared at the elementalists at the head of the group of people standing against him, two women and three men with extraordinarily stunning appearances, all dressed in party dresses and suits.

Slowly, Calvin raised his gaze to the higher layer of the ship’s deck, where an old man with grey hair sat with legs crossed on a chair, silently swirling blood-red wine in his glass.

He had an air of coldness about him and piercing eagle eyes that made people instinctively shrink away from his gaze.

“…why?” Calvin muttered, squeezing the words out through his teeth.

His bloodshot eyes were filled with anger, pain, and regret, with not even a trace of the hope his assailants had been expecting to see.

He ignored the five elementalists in front of him and stared at the man with the eagle eyes, his expression contorting as he screamed.

“Why!? I served the family loyally for twenty years! I completed every mission I was given from day one without issue! I did all the dirty work you asked for! So why!?”

“How dare you raise your voice before the family head?!”

One of the ignored elementalists snapped at him, an orb of light forming in her outstretched palm before shooting towards Calvin as a piercing beam aimed at his heart.

However, Calvin’s right arm, coated in darkness, swept through the air and deflected her beam without even looking, his darkness and her light cancelling each other out with a small burst of energy.

“!”

The woman’s expression contorted at this, anger and shame welling up in the depths of her heart.

‘Even in this state, he can still block my attack!?’

She roused her power, about to attack Calvin once more, but before she could emit any light, a cold voice echoed across the deck.

“Stand down.”

The woman froze, her eyes trembling as she silently retracted her power and meekly bowed her head.

Above, the grey-haired man turned his brown eyes towards Calvin, meeting his obsidian orbs in silence for a moment before he spoke.

“You dare to ask why?”

Calvin didn’t respond, only staring at the man in silence until he continued.

“A dog that harbours rebellious thoughts towards his master, and yet, still barks loudly when he is put down.”

“…what?”

Calvin couldn’t believe his ears.

“Rebellious? ME?!”

The incredulity in his voice was clear for all to see.

“I was the one who cleaned up every mess you were too afraid to touch. I was the one who killed your brothers, so none of them could contest your seat. I was the one who erased every enemy that even made you hesitate to sleep at night.

And now you stand there and dare to call me rebellious?! I was your loyal SHADOW!”

The grey-haired man watched him in silence for a moment longer before speaking in an even tone.

“And yet you dared covet what was above your station.”

For a moment, Calvin said nothing, his expression briefly clouded with confusion. But then, his eyes widened, and he lowered his head slightly, a cold scoff escaping his lips.

“I now see,” Calvin spoke, his voice echoing through the silent deck, “I now see that you’re nothing but a cowardly old man who fears having his power surpassed by the younger generation!”

A wave of shock rippled across the gathered figures, gasps of disbelief breaking out through the crowd.

One of the five figures at the head of the group stepped forward and roared in outrage, “Blasphemy!”

Two others moved instantly, radiant light gathering in their hands as swords before they charged toward Calvin.

Before they could close the distance, a dense wave of darkness erupted from Calvin’s body and swept across the deck like a collapsing tide of ink, throwing everyone on that level backwards.

Dark orbs hovered around him in slow orbit as he raised his head once more toward the grey-haired man.

“You’re scared I’d surpass your power because I’ve now got the Dark Elemental King’s Core, and you—”

His words were cut off as the grey-haired man suddenly lifted his hand and released a beam of light that swallowed the space where Calvin stood, the impact cracking through the ship as the entire vessel trembled violently and the ocean around it churned under the force.

A moment later, darkness erupted from within the beam, swallowing the light whole and shattering the beam into fragments that vanished into nothingness.

Calvin emerged from the aftermath with his skin scorched and peeling, portions of his flesh looking as if they’d begun to melt under intense heat.

But despite these grievous injuries, Calvin shouted at the top of his voice, as if he wanted the whole world to hear.

“YOU DON’T HAVE THE LIGHT ELEMENTAL KING’S CORE!”

The grey-haired man rose from his seat, extending his hand forward as streams of light converged into piercing beams that fired toward Calvin’s mouth, but the orbiting dark orbs moved instantly and collided with each incoming beam, breaking them apart in bursts of dissipating energy before they could reach him.

“You can never surpass S-Rank and become a higher-level Elementalist! You’ve been deceiving the world into believing you possess the Light Core, but that’s a lie! The Light Core has been gone for decades, hahahaha!!”

Calvin laughed maniacally under the onslaught of light beams, his body trembling as he dropped down onto one knee. The last of the dark orbs was consumed at that moment, leaving nothing to intercept the descending spears that fell from above and pierced through his body, turning him into a porcupine.

Blood spilt across the deck, and still, Calvin looked up at the old man with a bloodied grin and shouted.

“You will never get any possession of mine. Nothing my mother left behind for me will fall into your hands, you bastard, Warren Osborn!”

He suddenly grabbed his wounded left arm with his right, moving it and smashing the screen of his watch against his forehead, the glass shattering instantly as a hidden signal was released at light speed.

Moments later, a distant blast echoed across the horizon, and the old man immediately turned in the direction of the sound, seeing a thick plume of smoke rising into the sky.

It was soon followed by another and another, multiple explosions erupting across different parts of the nearest city, with an entire section of the port blown to smithereens.

As the realisation of what Calvin had done dawned on the grey-haired man’s face, fury overtook him, and he leapt from his position with speed that belied his old appearance, closing the distance and grabbing Calvin by the shirt.

His fist, glowing with light, rained down punches on Calvin’s face, blood and teeth scattering with each impact, but Calvin just laughed through the pain, spitting his broken teeth at the man.

Eventually, the fabric of Calvin’s shirt tore under the violent motion, his body slipping backwards off the deck and plunging into the ocean below.

His body crashed through the waves, sinking downward like an anchor into the depths, and as his consciousness faded, the dark orb within his chest lit up with a dull glow, and darkness enveloped his body.