Chapter 55 - Challenge – Part 6

Today, a small dark energy bubble appeared above Detroit. It was sucking everything in.

But some random people showed up and got rid of it.

Then later, many of these random people with powers tried to get rid of some bombs and the dark energy bubble.

The confused civilians were overwhelmed.

They had heard rumours of superhumans – besides Ion and Norse God - on the news but this is the first time they saw them with their naked eyes.

Soon after that, a massive dark bubble appeared which appeared above the city. It was starting to suck in everything it could.

The rooftops were flying towards the sky.

However, it soon vanished.

Being happy, they watched the superhumans from a close distance.

As another one came down, covered in blood, everyone’s eyes widened in surprise. They couldn’t see his face.

Nazar landed near Haru and the others, who were surrounded by civilians, but soon fell into the ground due to intense pain and a lot of blood loss.

Everyone watched in a dazed manner as Nazar fell to the ground.

Haru stopped wiping the blood off her face and crouched down immediately.

She checked Nazar’s pulse.

“…!!”

She used her psionic powers to check his mind.

Her eyes opened wide in surprise and horror.

“He…”

Her knees lost strength as she fell back on her butt.

“He is… dead?”

“Wh-wha-what?”

Eddie landed near them furiously. As he did, a small crater appeared in the street.

“What happened?”

Eddie crouched next to Nazar and tapped his face slightly.

He checked his pulse and noticed that he didn’t have one.

“Oh, he is dead.”

Eddie knew about all of his powers, and he also found out what happened to Nazar recently. But even then, he was not worried at all.

“What do you mean he is dead? With that much power…?”

Haru could not believe what happened.

Near them, Illya, who was flying with Arno, landed.

They stood over the dead body in a confused manner.

“I can’t believe this idiot died so quickly.”

Everyone looked at with a confused expression once Eddie laughed.

“He can’t die. So, don’t worry.”

“Wait, wait, wait…” Katie blurted out.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Haru sounded a little disgusted.

“I can heal him.”

Everyone watched in a dazed manner as Eddie held his palm towards Nazar’s chest.

Around his hand, a purple magical circle appeared.

“I don’t like using magic since it's not really fun but I guess there is no choice.”

Eddie took a deep breath.

“Here we go…”

The purple magical circle expanded.

Purple energy covered Nazar and healed his wounds.

However, he was already dead, so it was all useless.

Eddie sat near Nazar for a few and waited for his resurrection.

The others just watched in a confused manner.

“*Gasp*!!”

Suddenly, Nazar sat up while breathing heavily.

“Haha, you bitch,” Eddie said as he laughed. "For a second, I didn't think you would come back."

“I can never die. So, even without powers, I can will myself back into the land of the living.”

“So, what took you so long?”

"Some... stuff happened."

(Accessing Nazar 1.0.)

As his form changed, he felt intense pain.

(Accessing Nazar 3.0.)

His form changed back and forth but the blood didn’t vanish from his face, so his identity was still unknown.

“I killed myself over a thousand times in the last few days, but the poison is still intact. I can’t seem to get rid of it at all.”

He clenched his fist and slammed it into the ground.

“Fuck!! I need to fix Solace immediately. She might help.”

Nazar stood up.

“Let’s go after the gravity guy...”

Nazar shook his head.

“Don’t worry, I am going by myself.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Katie blurted out. “What the hell is going on?”

“Uh?”

“How did you get rid of that… that…” She pointed to the sky with her index finger. “That thing there?”

“Oh…”

Nazar smiled.

“I made two devices. But I thought that the anti-gravity one might not work, so I created an interdimensional teleportation device which sent the dark red bubble to an antimatter dimension. Of course, I still have the anti-gravity device which I will use soon. I think the other bomb might be a gravity bomb too, so it will be helpful there.”

The superhumans exchanged confused glances.

Nazar looked up and sighed deeply.

“Somehow, I will fix the city later on but for now, I am going after the gravity guy.”

Nazar flew away.

လလလ

Kingsville, Illinois, U.S.A.:

Inside a dome-shaped lab at the edge of Kingsville, Illinois, Chris Fisher took a deep breath. He was starting to look very happy and proud.

His power was responsible for the bombs that were shot towards Detroit.

And he was not feeling one bit regretful.

“That worked out much better than I expected.”

He was looking at the massive dark red bubble above Detroit.

He covered his mouth with his hands and laughed in an excited manner.

“I can’t believe I actually did it. I can’t believe I will destroy… destroy...”

He noticed something off.

Looking around with a worried look, he noticed that the scientists looked very worried too.

“Wh-what happened?”

“We… Let’s go through the numbers again.”

“- Don’t worry about the numbers... -”

They heard a voice from one of the monitors. It did not show a video or picture.

“Is… Is that the boss?”

Chris knew that but he wanted to confirm again. This is the first time he has come close to talking to the main boss of the No Names.

One of them nodded at Chris’ question.

“- Get out of there immediately. Don’t leave anything behind. Not a single thing. -”

The sound on the screen sounded angry.

“- We don’t want him or any of them finding out that I am involved in this shit. Got it? -”

“Y-yes.”

Everyone in the room said with unison.

The voice vanished and they started working on getting out of here.

In a few minutes, they manage to pack up everything and were about to leave but...

“Do you guys hear tha---”

Someone landed through the roof. The whole lab obliterated into small pieces.

Chris immediately placed a gravity force field around himself and protected himself.

All around him, there was nothing but dust and debris.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see that you are a villain, Chris.”

Hearing a cold voice, Chris’ shoulders tensed up.

“You have no idea how glad I am to see you push me to my limits today. I actually felt alive for the first time in the last few days.”

Chris could see a dark figure but faint in the dust.

“And I died too. I am impressed.”

The dust and debris started to twirl around the faint figure.

Looking closely, he noticed yellow glowing eyes.

“You know? Death is...”

The dust and debris broke apart and went different ways, revealing a figure covered in blood.

“Fun.”

Seeing the thin smile on Nazar’s face, Chris jumped back.

Swinging his right arm, a dark red gravity bubble was shot towards Nazar at high speed.

However, Nazar held his hand towards it and the dark red bubble stopped moving.

A yellow force field was surrounding the gravity bubble.

With the flick of his index finger, the dark energy bubble was flying towards Chris instead.

Chris immediately kicked the ground, cracks appeared in it. Manipulating the gravity beneath him, he decreased the gravity of the cracked floor and lifted it up while standing on it, at high speed. Thus, avoiding his own gravity bubble.

Chris looked behind him at the dark red bubble and it vanished.

“That was close...”

Letting out a sigh of relief, he turned his back towards Nazar.

But!

“Gyah!!”

Nazar was looking down on Chris with a very thin smile.

“The fun is just beginning.”

Letting out a low and psychotic laugh, Chris shrank back in fear.

“Now, where did you plant the bomb?”

Nazar clenched his fist.

“If you don’t tell me, in the next instant, you will find yourself in the middle of a desert”

Collecting all of the psionic energies inside him and from his surroundings into his fist, Nazar swung his fist.

“Speak!”

Chris struggled to breathe but he did manage to place a barrier around himself.

In the next instant, Nazar punched Chris in the chest.

Being hit with enough force that can break apart a large plane in half, Chris found himself flying high above the city and being thrown in a direction unknown to him.

He was facing the sky but he knew that he was far away from Kingsville.

As he was being thrown away at a very fast speed, a few miles above the ground, he tried to turn around and looked at his side.

For miles, he could only see small houses that seemed very far.

He looked forward once more and took a deep breath, which he found very hard to do so.

However, his heart skipped a beat once he saw Nazar flying right above him.

“How does it feel to be thrown away at Mach...?”

Nazar thought about it.

"Actually, I forgot to calculate it," he said very slowly.

“...!!”

Chris tried to say something but no words came out.

“Don’t worry, I just placed a barrier around you. You won’t die when you fall from this height.”

Chris was not sure how to feel about that.

Smiling thinly, Nazar clenched his fist once more.

“So, where is the bomb?”

Chris was not sure how, but he could hear Nazar even while moving over Mach 2.

“If you don’t tell me, I will break the barrier and kill you.”

Nazar shook his head.

“Never mind. I can’t kill you just now. I want to see where you are going. It will be interesting.”

He swung his fist and punched Chris in the stomach.

Chris felt the increase of gravity and being pulled down.

A large crater appeared in the middle of Chihuahuan Desert once Chris fell to the ground.

At the last moment, he placed a barrier around himself to try and stay alive.

But even then, he coughed blood.

His vision was flickering and his whole body was hurting.

However, he still tried to stand up.

The dust in the place made it hard for him to see his surroundings but he knew Nazar was not done.

“So, how does it feel to be thrown over 700 miles?”

Hearing Nazar’s voice, he tried to move but his body was in too much pain. And he could barely keep himself awake.

“I remember this one time, I was fighting this insanely powerful person who threw me from one part of the galaxy to the other. It feels somewhat awesome but also hurts.”

Nazar laughed.

“Not being able to control your own gravity… And… It feels amazing.”

Swinging his hand, the dust swirled around him.

“And then you fall to the ground, accidentally blowing the planet up… Man, trust me, it feels amazing.”

The dust soon vanished, revealing Nazar smiling with a thin smile on his face.

Seeing that, Chris gulped.

“So, how did it feel, Chris?”

“...”

Chris found it hard to move.

“Oh right...”

Nazar moved and held Chris by his neck.

“Where is the bomb?”

Chris’ vision flickered.

“Why don’t they ever talk?”

Nazar sighed.

“I hate going inside people’s mind. I don’t want to see their ugly thoughts.”

His eyes lit up and he found out about the location of the bomb before Chris fell unconscious.

Leaving his body there, Nazar flew all the way to Chicago.

The bomb was in a subway station.

Knowing the location of the bomb, he made himself invisible to the naked eye and found a bomb near one of the pillars.

He increased his speed and flew towards space.

The bomb was timed, so he still had a lot of time.

Disassembling the bomb quickly, it was about to blow up.

Nazar could feel the pressure increasing.

He took out a device from his pocket and placed it within the bomb. As soon as he placed it, the bomb which was going to explode exploded.

However, differently.

A device exploded but the radius of the explosion was smaller than 1 meter.

Seeing that, Nazar let out a sigh of relief.

Nazar stopped moving and started to float.

“That was fucking close.”

He took a deep breath.

“I am not sure I could have saved myself if this thing blew up in my face. It seems much more powerful than the other ones.”

Nazar removed the bubble from around him and fell down.

“Well, I am glad that my anti-gravity device nullified the bomb completely. If that hadn’t worked, I probably would have died again...”

Nazar laughed.

“I am surprised that Chris has learned to control his power this much. It’s rather interesting.”

He laughed as he fell through the clouds.

“He just needed a little more push to improve himself. He has potential for great chaos. Maybe I should try and bring in their significant other into all of this? And maybe kill them?”

Nazar shook his head.

“Nah, that’s going too far.”

Nazar noticed that he was falling even faster and started to burn on re-entry.

He sighed and placed a barrier around himself.

“If I had my whole body splatter across the whole street, that would have been great.”

He chuckled.

“But I don’t want to scare them. Haha.”

လလလ

Yesterday - New York City, USA:

At the headquarters of Bradley Colongremates, Ishaya Bradley was looking at a screen which had Nazar’s face on it.

“So, it’s really him, huh?”

Ishaya leaned back in his chair.

“Ion… Nazar Hall… Why?”

He has been looking at the same screen for an hour now.

“Why would he leave clues behind?”

Ishaya thought of something.

“Search.”

“- What can I search for you today? -”

A holographic AI appeared in the room, in front of his desk.

It resembled a female human.

“Anything on the web that mentions Ion and me in the same place.”

“- I have found over 1,000,000 search result. -”

“The top one?”

“- It is about the event which happened a few weeks ago. Ion rejected the invitation regarding working close with you. Of course, it was to be expected but it damaged our public image a little. People started to come up with conspiracy theories about the company and-- -”

“For some reasons, I was expecting something else.”

Ishaya sighed.

“Thanks.”

The hologram vanished and Ishaya stood up.

From the top floor of a tall building, he looked down on the city.

“I sometimes hate this wor--- Argh?!?!?”

He felt a sudden pain in his head.

Memories of a life that should have never existed flooded into him.

“So… it was… him...”

The flashes of memory caused him to feel intense headache and fall to the ground.