The pursuit continued through several streets.
Eventually, Damien noticed something strange on the vehicle’s dashboard. A small indicator light caught his attention, one he hadn’t noticed during his initial escape.
His eyes narrowed.
A tracking signal.
He stared at it for several seconds before understanding what it meant.
Then he remembered the vehicle itself.
Of course.
It belonged to the prison.
The authorities could probably track it.
"So that’s how they’re keeping up..."
His expression darkened.
He didn’t need to be a genius to understand the problem. As long as he remained inside the prison vehicle, the police would always have a way to locate him. Speed alone wouldn’t solve the problem. Eventually, they would coordinate enough units to surround him.
Damien looked toward the road ahead, then glanced at the pursuing vehicles in his mirrors.
A cold smile slowly appeared.
"Fine."
He began searching for an opportunity.
The pursuit continued through several more streets, with police vehicles attempting to intercept him from multiple directions. Damien repeatedly changed course whenever he noticed them forming a blockade ahead. He was no longer simply running from the police; he was studying them, anticipating their movements, and exploiting every weakness in their pursuit.
Eventually, he found what he needed.
A quieter stretch of road appeared ahead. There were fewer vehicles, and several large buildings lined one side of the street. On the opposite side, a narrow service road branched away between the buildings, leading into a darker and more secluded section of the city.
Damien’s eyes narrowed.
’That would do.’ He deliberately slowed the vehicle.
The pursuing officers immediately reacted.
"He’s slowing down!"
"He’s boxed in!"
One cruiser moved into position behind him while another approached from farther ahead, attempting to close the remaining escape route.
Damien’s lips curled upward.
They thought they had him. At the last possible moment, he turned sharply.
The vehicle shot toward the service road, forcing the pursuing cruisers to adjust their positions and follow. Damien drove deeper into the narrow passage before finally spotting the secluded area he had been looking for—a concealed space between several large buildings where the surrounding structures would block the line of sight from the main road.
He slammed on the brakes.
The tires screamed against the pavement, and the vehicle lurched violently as it came to a stop.
Before the pursuing officers could understand what he was doing, Damien had already thrown open the driver’s door.
He jumped out.
His boots struck the pavement hard, but instead of stumbling, he immediately recovered his balance. The strange energy flowing through his body surged instinctively, absorbing much of the impact and leaving him surprisingly steady.
Damien looked back at the vehicle for only a moment.
Then he disappeared between the buildings.
He moved quickly through the narrow passage, keeping his body low as he passed through the shadows. The sound of approaching sirens grew louder behind him, but Damien didn’t look back. He continued deeper into the maze of buildings before slipping into an even darker area and changing direction.
Within seconds, he was gone.
The police vehicles came rushing around the corner shortly afterward.
Several cruisers surrounded the prison vehicle, and officers immediately jumped out with their weapons drawn.
"Hands where we can see them!"
"Step out of the vehicle slowly!"
"Do not make any sudden movements!"
Their weapons remained trained on the vehicle.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
The engine was still running.
The doors remained closed.
Nobody emerged.
One officer cautiously moved closer.
"Suspect!"
He raised his voice.
"Put your hands in the air and step out slowly!"
Silence.
The officer glanced at his colleagues.
"Keep your weapons trained on it."
Another officer approached from the side, his weapon raised as he carefully inspected the vehicle.
"Could he be refusing to cooperate?"
"Maybe."
The officer reached the driver’s side and looked through the window.
His expression immediately changed.
"Wait."
He moved closer.
The driver’s seat was empty.
"What the hell?"
Another officer hurried over.
"What’s wrong?"
"He’s not here."
"What?"
The second officer looked inside for himself, and his expression immediately darkened.
The vehicle was empty.
The engine was still running, but Damien was gone.
The passenger seat was empty as well.
One of the officers immediately grabbed his radio.
"Dispatch, we have a problem."
A pause followed.
"The suspect has abandoned the vehicle."
Another officer turned toward the surrounding streets and scanned the area.
"Where did he go?"
Nobody had an answer.
They searched the immediate area, checking alleys, entrances, nearby buildings, and the surrounding streets. But there was no obvious trail. Damien had disappeared too quickly, and the chaos of the pursuit had given him enough time to put distance between himself and the vehicle.
The officer who had first reached the car clenched his jaw in frustration.
"Dammit."
He looked down the empty road, where the flashing lights of the police cruisers illuminated the darkness.
"We’ve lost him."
Several officers exchanged frustrated looks.
They had spent several minutes chasing the vehicle, believing Damien was still behind the wheel. They had coordinated an entire pursuit around that assumption.
All that time, they had been chasing an empty car.
Meanwhile, several blocks away, Damien emerged from the shadows.
He slowed to a walk, allowing himself a moment to catch his breath. His breathing remained surprisingly steady despite everything that had happened. He turned his head and looked back toward the distant flashing lights, watching the red and blue reflections flicker between the buildings.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"They actually thought I was still in the car."
He chuckled quietly.
Then his expression gradually became colder.
The prison was behind him.
The police were searching for him.
And nobody knew where he was.
For the first time in years, Damien understood just how drastically his circumstances had changed. He had escaped Blackridge Correctional Facility, a place he had once believed would hold him for the rest of his life. He had awakened an inexplicable strength, discovered the existence of Qi within his body, and used abilities he hadn’t even understood only hours earlier to evade an organized police pursuit.
The realization sent a strange sensation through him.
He was no longer powerless.
He looked down at his hands and slowly clenched them into fists.
There was strength in them now.
Real strength.
The kind of strength he had once believed belonged only to other people.
But power alone wasn’t what occupied his mind.
There was still one thing he wanted more than anything else.
Revenge.
The name surfaced in his mind almost immediately.
"Sophie..."
His smile faded.
Memories of her rejection, his humiliation, and everything that had happened afterward twisted together inside his mind. His resentment toward her had survived imprisonment, punishment, and years of isolation. If anything, the hatred had only grown stronger in the darkness of his cell.
Then another name surfaced.
"Stan."
Damien’s fists tightened until his knuckles turned pale.
The faint smile that returned to his face contained none of the excitement from his escape. It was colder now, sharpened by years of resentment and obsession.
"I’ll find you both."
He turned away from the distant police lights and began walking deeper into the city.
Behind him, the abandoned prison vehicle remained surrounded by confused officers who still had no idea where their prisoner had disappeared. They didn’t know what had happened inside the vehicle, and they certainly didn’t understand the transformation that had taken place within Damien.
As far as they were concerned, they were searching for a dangerous escaped prisoner.
They had no idea that the man they were hunting had become something far more dangerous.
Damien Bale was no longer the powerless inmate who had entered Blackridge Correctional Facility.
He was now one of the first humans on Earth to awaken to Qi.
And somewhere within the vast city ahead, he had begun his new life as a fugitive.
A life driven by power, hatred, and revenge.