Victory was beautiful, embellished by the ruins of shattered glass-like composite and chunks of computers scattered in rings, and further back were the debris of segments of the bridge among scraps of android components.

In the center of the battle’s aftermath stood only one being, the victor, his right hand smoking with a frosty tint as he glanced around the room with heavy pants. His black cape continued to wave as he assessed the final server room after his lengthy crusade to dismantle the core of an army that had insisted it would bring an end to the civilization of a hundred worlds. Yet miraculously, they were defeated before they could conquer a single city.

Meditat let out a relieved sigh, glad that the operation was over with a success, and his plan had worked perfectly. He knew the risks when proposing it, but he also knew the reward if it were to succeed, and now he could bask in it knowing it had come to fruition.

His eyes surveyed the room casually, taking one last look for the road before planning on making a relaxing flight back to rendezvous with his team, who no doubt would have ample stories to tell of their own experiences fighting against a massive grand army of hard metal.

Silence brought tranquility to the room, as there was not a sound, and Meditat let himself take the moment to loosen himself and rejuvenate after the exhilarating task. He pivoted his head to observe the room one more time, just making sure he had gotten everything, and that it was in a state ready for his departure.

While he glanced around, a gentle sizzling sound came from the distance, which he at first didn’t notice. His eyes gazed around the result of his triumph, his cape waving behind him like a flag expressing domination after a long, strenuous war.

Amidst the sensation of success, Meditat faced the source of the sizzle, and that was when he noticed a faint red smoke rising up from the debris. He peered closer and took a step towards the smoke, perplexed at first as it was coming off the bridge which wouldn’t have electronics that’d fry. He stared for seconds in deep analysis, trying to piece together what was occurring when it seemed there was nothing else to concern over.

Upon closer inspection, he suddenly made a tremendously terrorized gasp as after the puzzle had aligned in his head.

Without another second, Meditat raised his head, and his body immediately rocketed straight up the room. He burst straight through the ceiling without hesitation, crashing through relentlessly in a blue streak. The sound of rocks and metal being decimated from high velocity impact continued to rise higher past the room, as he penetrated straight through the base.

As the crashes and booms drew further from the last server room, the debris that had fallen on the floor from the destruction in the ceiling began to also emit a gentle red smoke as if it was starting to burn up although it had a metal composition with no electronics inside.

On the other side stood the original four, all unmasked, all of their hair flowing gracefully with relaxed bodies and expression as the mission was a success, on both their side but the other clearly discernible by the deactivation of the entire force. Flynn had his hands behind his head to lean back on, relaxing his muscles after strenuous exercise. Beside him stood Calypso, completely opaque, as she saw no reason to remain protecting herself now that the threat had passed.

In front of the two stood Juno, who faced back at them, her eyes no longer shimmering but instead solid emerald, able to rest easy with the operation concluded. Past her stood Razi, standing over the beheaded body of the robotic leader, whose head flew all the way by the pile of bodies further beyond from the sheer force of the ultimate slash. His hair blew in the breeze as dust formed a wall around the pile from all of the abrupt crashes which happened in intimate succession.

Turning his back from the scrap metal, Razi approached the rest of the group with a calm expression and open shadowy eyes, no longer seeming tense. He approached Flynn, whose eyes were no longer surging with energy, and Calypso, whose eyes were now appearing normally purple without the fascinating galaxy within them.

He stood beside Juno, and by his own initiation, drifted his hand to hers and interlocked his fingers with her own, holding it tightly. Juno faced him after feeling the grab, and she warmly smiled, seeing that Razi was noticeably at ease and proud of the family.

All of them stood among the piles of destroyed metal in a saved city without one life stolen, a flawless victory that commended the great efforts of all five of them.

Leaning back against his own hands, Flynn casually wondered, “Egista, Meditat is coming to us, right? We should’ve probably just told him we’d pick him up, poor guy has to fly around the world just to get in the Box.”

Razi chuckled lightly to Flynn’s contemplation, and he informally assured, “Don’t worry, he’s quite fast actually. Shouldn’t take him too long, and we need to call the Box here anyways. Anyways, our case board has been pretty freed up, so there’s no need to haste. Maybe when we get back, we can all go to a nice Earth and relax for the day.”

He then raised his head up to notice that the massive supersun over the city was beginning to decline, very gradually, but noticeably. The day was deep into evening, gradually reaching sunset.

Juno raised her head with him, also noticing the moving day, and she remarked merrily, “Looks like that day is about to end too, but I’m sure it’s fine if we stay up late tonight anyways, at least a little bit more.”

That was when the distant sound of chains clanged once, and then another second later the same sound occurred. At first, Razi instinctively glanced behind himself towards the source, which was in the direction of the dust cloud formed by all of the destroyed machines.

Befuddled by the immediate tension, Juno also turned around towards the dust, to which both Calypso and Flynn leaned to the side to look past the shoulders of their team to peer at the haze that their leader seemed to find a sudden infatuation for.

That was when it happened again, the sounds of chains clanging, moving at the tempo of a slow footstep, gradually getting louder from the direction past the clouds. The sounds were abrupt yet repetitive, ominous after what seemed to be the end of the mission.

Becoming more concerned, Razi let go of Juno’s hand, and pivoted his entire body towards the pile. His keen eyes contracted into a stern glare, staring ahead amongst his team, who had apprehensive gazes all targeted at the same direction.

Deep in the void of night, the soft blades of green grass danced in the gentle breeze. That was only for a few seconds until an abrupt boom erupted on the surface, and a blue streak tore right through the ground in a discharge of flying dirt and rocks. The radiating blue comet flew over the following rain of dirt, moving at immense speeds.

The comet then arched in the black sky, where above were infinite glaring white stars and the full moon staring down with precise detail even from the surface of the Earth. The comet wasn’t interested in the cosmos however, but rather it flew towards the cliff of the surface, reaching the edge of the great mountain it had emerged from.

By the same cliff that it began the mission in, the blue comet landed down on the ground with a ripple that blew dirt in all directions, destroying the grass underneath. In the blue mist from the impact out ran Meditat, who panted heavily, consumed by dread as he ran to the edge of the cliff, his cape waving violently in the wind.

He then slowed down the closer he got to the edge, his run falling to a walk falling to a stumble, and at last he fell on his knees as his panting drew louder. He stared forward with a defeated body, for the sight beyond him was one of absolute terror.

Past the high cliff that Meditat was kneeling on was the remote village down below, but among the village were great flames that torched and ravaged the village, for there were little buildings still intact and the few resembling homes were eroding quickly.

The yellow flames lit up the black night ferociously, and judging by what was left it seemed it had been burning for tens of minutes, snuffing out what life there might’ve been. All of this carnage occurred so close to where Meditat had been, chasing the machine army and completely neglecting all the lives right outside.

Staring with despair, Meditat was frozen by the thoughts of what had happened without his protection, which allowed the befalling of the peaceful village on his quest to save humanity while also letting it die under his watch.

Constantly being shoved beat to beat, Meditat immediately gasped in horror revelation, for it came to him that the worst had yet to happen. This was merely an alert, however, it dawned on him what the mission had caused. The greatest fear plagued his mind as he immediately stood him, realizing that the concerns over the operation were flipped from the beginning without him noticing.

He wasn’t the one who was alone in danger.

They were.

Clangs of chains grew louder and closer towards them, who stood under the blue sky, unmasked to reveal their tense expressions. Calypso had a face of perplexion, Flynn had a face of apprehension, Juno had a face of anxiety, and Razi had a face of aggravation.

They all stood still in the center of the city, the wind blowing their hair backwards, thundering in their face as though a force was pushing against them.

In front of the four’s eyes, within the cloud of dust, appeared the slender silhouette of a humanoid, slowly walking forward. With every step taken by the silhouette, the chains were clanged again. The silhouette also seemed to have a cape waving in the wind similar to their fifth ally, yet the presence was the opposite of friendly.

Instead, the Shield were unnerved by the menacing figure that drew closer to them from behind the dust, moving with clangs, the walk slow and menacing. It was steady, unworried, dominative, confident. Even among the bodies of defeat, it seemed to hold no fear, but rather persisted towards the four.

Ultimately in front of the four unmasked heroes who saved the city, the silhouette emerged from the dust, stepping over the dismantled metal bodies and appearing before the team, finally revealing itself with clangs still following his steps.

Waving in the wind was a nearly black, dark red cape–made of a material resembling cloth with a galaxias texture– danced with wave trims on the bottom which resembled the inner curves of demonic wings, three on each side joined with a sharp tip in the center.

The cape piece also had a hood of the same material, which sat over a black mask with triangular goggles, shaped similarly to a parallelogram albeit without the bottom outer vertex, but instead the button inner vertex connected to the sole outer vertex, giving it a sharper and more intimidating glare which emitted a bright red glow. Protruding off the inner edge of the goggles were two streaks that rose up similarly to Meditat’s, curving outward past the hood which, also like Meditat, had a wider continuation of the streaks which continued up the hood, although it then curved inward in a pattern reminiscent of a goat’s horn.

On the black mask as well were ridges under the nose and temples, and over the jaw where the mouth would be was a gradual ‘U’ shaped curve that stroked across the face, shaped like an unhinged smile that emitted the same red glow.

Wrapped around the being’s neck and over the shoulders and upper arm was a smooth metal guard similar to Meditat’s golden guard, albeit this one was instead dark silver. The arms also had gauntlets which started from the elbow as a pad over the top of the forearm but gradually covered the wrist and hand, made of a lighter silver, the same material used for the boots that were up to its kneecaps with sharp curves from the front downward to the back.

Wrapping around each forearm were three chains composed of a jagged, unrefined mineral that appeared similar to obsidian but had an immensely dark crimson tint and due to its unrefined state wasn’t as shiny. Smaller chains wrapped around the wrist, palm, and fingers– resembling boxing tape– although individually wrapping fingers to give them free movement. That same material wrapped around the knees of the boots, but instead of it being chains it was merely rings of the same mineral, which wrapped around like buckles. The soles of the boots were also the jagged mineral, giving it tread that crushed the metal bodies beneath it.

Most of the tall albeit slim body was dressed in a crimson suit made of scales tightly packed together, and around the outer thighs and abdomen was a black hard mesh piece. On the center of the chest was an emblem that shined bright red, which was a wide rectangle tilted to the left with the bottom left corner being curved while the others were rigid, resembling an eraser. Coursing out of the center emblem were many streaks of radiating red, three of which rose straight from the top of the eraser into the shoulder guard. Two others extended from each side and followed through the side of the arms until reaching the wrist of the gauntlets.

On each side was an angled one that wrapped around the being’s back, and below were four which trailed straight down, forming columns over the outline of the being’s abs before branching off at the bottom with curves that, along with the four downward pours, passed beneath a metal belt that wrapped around the waist with the same dark silver material as the shoulders. The belt had ridges on both sides, and in the center was a miniature eraser icon same as the one on the chest, also emitting light.

Below the belt were two red streaks down each thigh, and on each streak two branches curved out on the outer side, wrapping around to the black meshes while the main downward streams under the silver boots that marched up to the detached head of the robotic leader.

With every step, a lengthy chain– of the same jagged mineral– that was wrapped around the individual’s neck twice had both of its ends, which rested over the being’s chest, swing into the red body, causing the sound of the clang.

All four of the heroes stared at the approaching being, who glared at them with its red eyes, clearly not part of the machine army as it didn’t even seem mechanical regardless of the metal in its suit. The suit also oddly mirrored Meditat in many ways, yet was nowhere as friendly, trading the bright gallant colors for dark hostile tones. In fact, even the way the streaks dipped down was reminiscent of blood trails as the entire body was draped in the shade of blood, and the way it stood in front of all of them further felt uninviting.

After observing the four who stopped the robot uprising, the being then bent down calmly, and scooped the disconnected leader’s head off the ground. The being then rose back up to stand straight, holding the android head in the palm of its curled hand, the dead eyes of the metal skull staring straight at the team.

After the long period of silence, the being finally spoke with the disturbing male demonic voice familiar as was its tendency for the pitch to fluctuate.

First, the being specifically stared down at Flynn before greeting, “Flynn Aspen Avery, born on this very Earth, you were one of the many children who were naive in not understanding what was shunned about being an Exhuman, and instead you had the belief that it made you some kind of superhero. You spent much of your teenage years using your abilities to fight small crimes, mostly small robberies, although they were best spent running from authorities. Those abilities of yours allow you to generate a unique plasma-based energy which allows you to access accelerated speed internally and externally, which you use to do anything from running to distorting molecular structures. However, the strongest use of your abilities is not what they let you do but what they are from, as your energy is one of the most pure forms of Exmatter generated by an Exhuman, thus being formidable weapons themselves, which you only realized after you let yourself use your powers for something more. Your greatest insecurity is failing to make the most of your abilities.”

Then facing directly at Calypso, the being addressed, “Calypso Alexandra Aóranai, born on Earth 45, from the moment your parents knew of your abilities they kept you locked inside the house until early adulthood. During that time, you received minimal education, and were mostly taught to believe yourself as dangerous. However, you then chose one day to escape your house, where you then had a nearly immediate explosive outburst that would have ended with you dead if not for the benevolence of those that surround you now. Those abilities consist of the ability to instill extra dimensional atomic properties that even now you understand little behind, but grant you abilities from harnessing your own structure to reduce your current dimensional presence thereby allowing you to cease from certain worldly effects such as space and density, and you’ve used it to tamper with the properties of other atoms which you can use to cause them to discharge controlled explosions. The strongest attribute of your properties similar to the man you see as a brother is the source itself, as while you reject using it for this purpose you can imbue properties into the structure of other people which would theoretically allow you to completely erase people from existence, although you’ve used similar yet less potent methods against non human combatants. Your greatest insecurity derives from your lack of socialization and that is your concern in being loved amongst people.”

Next, the being turned to Juno, and approached, “Juno Olive Diásimos, born on Earth 55, where you rose to fame on the internet through public videos and other shared content, garnering multiple of billion followers and connecting you to many other highly esteemed celebrities, none of which knew of your highly dangerous abilities. Those abilities are less concrete as you are an anomaly of Exhumans, harboring several kinetic-based abilities that allow you to manipulate space, heat, and even atomic structures. Your most frequent use of your abilities is exertion of forces, however the most lethal use of your abilities is the power to easily destructure any entity with a molecular structure, which you also refuse to do most of the time as you also have a weak stomach. Your abilities are the most potent of your comrades, yet your difficulty in controlling it is why you hid it for so long until you were captured by groups of the Novum Reges faction, who sought to enslave you as their new weapon. That is when you crossed paths with your leader whom I’ll get to in a second, and stuck with him as well as the rest of the group you later accumulated. Your greatest insecurity is not being lovable to those who know of your true power.”

At last, the individual glared at Razi, and acknowledged, “And finally, Razi Samsara, although it can be argued that that’s not truly your name. Born on Earth 95, when you were a young child your village was raided by the Novum Reges faction, who sought to control land in the Great Turf War that to this day wages between Earth 90 to Earth 100. In desperation to be free of the faction’s brutality, your parents offered your life, and even tried to market you. They did take you in and for the time being spared your village, and they then experimented on you for years in Project Purifier, which had the intent of creating the first manmade Exhuman. After ample years of testing, a great deal of which tortured you, they eventually did manage to give you Exhuman abilities, albeit minor as they only provided enhanced physical and mental attributes. However, that was still more than enough for them, and after indoctrinating you into their cause as a mind warped slave they sent you on operations against other factions to assassinate leaders, sabotage facilities, and they even sent you to finish their job at your village all those years ago with your own squad whom despised you for being a monstrosity. Eventually you were caught, trapped, and deserted in a coma for several years, and when you woke up Novum Reges had assumed you were deceased and were not convinced otherwise even when you returned as their loyal dog. They cast you out as an imposter, but the coma had loosened some of your indoctrination, and so you faked a new identity and hunted their faction to extinction. It took many years as you accumulated an arsenal and reputation as a fear mongering monster, but eventually after you met the rest of your band, you were successful in being the first to obliterate a participatory faction. The greatest weapon of your arsenal are your gauntlet blades, which were infused with experimental technology designed to embed Exmatter into weaponry, which has never been known to fail at penetrating its target, and your immense dexterity is the most vital of your enhanced attributes. Your greatest insecurity is the inability to have a life beyond vengeance and brutality, as that is what you were bred to have.”

After just having his entire life’s story exposed in such a taunting voice, Razi glared more aggressively before demanding, “And who are you, stalker?”

Finally being addressed, the being shook his head and casually admitted, “Oh, I guess I haven’t introduced myself, I nearly forgot! My name is Exitium, and I have come to assassinate each of you personally.”

Gritting his teeth after the declaration of war, Razi held his right arm up where his hand held the materialization of his double barreled shotgun, immediately primed and aimed at the intruder between the eyes.

He then threatened, “You can try, but we just stopped an uprising of machines who were intent on exterminating all of humanity in the Superverse. You’re nothing more than a nosy insect, I doubt there’s much of a challenge here.”

After staring dead set on Razi, Exitium suddenly burst out in maniacal laughter, leaning forwards as he laughed on and on in front of the team, who were now all glaring at him with stern eyes, prepared for battle after having their lives threatened.

Exitium straightened his posture and finally concluded his laugh, to which he taunted, “Wait, oh, you still don’t get it? God, maybe I was wrong about you all.”

Razi tilted his head with a perplexed gaze, and behind him the other three also appeared bewildered, not following what the man was leading on to.

Showing first, Exitium held the severed head of the robotic leader in his hands, and stood still as the eyes of the leader suddenly burst into red flames.

Behind him, all of the destroyed body parts of the androids also burst into red flames, and gradually began to decompose, the bodies evaporating from the red fire. Even in the distance were flames from faraway drones, all being erased.

Standing with the burning head as soon the top of the head also ignited in the red blaze, Exitium then slyly inquired, “So, how was the script?”

Even more befuddled, Razi simply asked, “Script?”

In continuation, Exitium elaborated, “Was it too corny? Too basic? I figured since there’s already been an A.I uprising before, I could bait you with the prospect of a sequel. I hope it was good, I spent years trying to perfect the story, I even had some pretty popular writers look it over before I had to…well…I couldn’t let it get leaked or anything. I do realize the leader’s dialogue might have been a bit comical, but I don’t know, I liked the charm. Really made it feel like ‘bad guy robot.’ Oh…god this took so long to set up…I’m so glad it was worth it. Seriously, there is a lot I’ve mastered but working with servers and that sort of connecting software is one challenge that really took me for a spin. Even then in the end it was outdated by centuries, I seriously don’t know how ‘he’ does it, but nevertheless it was good enough, and that’s all that matters.”

After the speech, the robot head completely vanished in the flames, and Exitium curled his hand into a fist. He then lowered his arm to his side, and finally earnestly inquired, “Did he really not ever tell you all about me?”

Razi shook his head, and curled his finger around the trigger of his shotgun. He then declared, “Look, I frankly do not care who you are, but what you know is information that no one should have, and if you truly wish to assassinate us, then I have no reason not to do this.”

Exitium simply asked, “Do what-?” right as Razi pulled the trigger.

A flash of red light merged with the orange light of the shotgun blast, and in the second after the shot, Exitium reappeared a few feet to the left with a red streak off his body from where he once stood, still unharmed. He then stood up straight, and taunted casually, “You thought that would work?”

Razi began to march towards Exitium, and he quietly ordered: “New objective: assassination. I hope he’s not anyone close to Meditat, because he’s not going to be around for much longer.”

To his side, a sky blue streak raced past him, straight into Exitium in a direct collision.

His arm extended out in the followthrough of an attempted punch, Flynn stood in front of Exitium, whose arms were crossed over his face. Flynn’s fist was caught against one of the chains around the assassin’s arms, which were oddly enough now bright red as though the metal was conducting a severe amount of heat, and for that it seemed to have completely absorbed the force of impact, for Exitium wasn’t even pushed back an inch.

Instead, Exitium leaped backwards as the chains became cooler and the red tint faded, and a soft red streak released constantly off his body as he flew up several feet in the air, away from the ground. He then glided backwards to which Calypso warped in the air in front of him, once again translucent with a purple tint, and threw her arm at him.

Exitium’s body dashed to the right, narrowly avoiding a purple streak from striking him. As he slowed down after the dash, he was suddenly suspended in air, unable to move as Juno aimed her hand at him, hovering off the ground with glowing green eyes.

Once again Razi aimed his shotgun at Exitium for a second shot at a forcefully frozen target, who glared at the one holding him still. Then from the open palm of Exitium’s left hand projected a chain made of translucent red energy, not physical but instead energy-based. The chain struck Juno’s knee before suddenly reeling back, causing Juno to slip forwards in shock to yet another ability similar to Meditat’s.

Razi fired another shot from his shotgun, but once again Exitium strafed in the air, freed from Juno’s hold. He began to dash rapidly as purple streaks started to appear coming for him, although he was able to dodge each and every one perfectly as if he had perfectly studied the attack patterns that’d be used against him.

On the ground, Calypso kept thrashing her arms back and forth, slashing at the assassin yet missing every strike. She groaned in irritation, realizing that due to the priming of every slash, all of them could be detected and thus evaded before it could reach the target.

The target was moving fast, too fast to be struck by a projectile, as whenever she tried to envision where to aim it was already too far. Summoning any attack wouldn’t work, she needed something truly instantaneous. That’s when she got that idea.

Dashing through the air above Flynn’s reach and faster than he could be shot at, Exitium remained mobile to stay away from danger. That was until a purple flash blinked behind him, and Calypso suddenly appeared from his back, grabbing around his torso to capture him as she was no longer translucent in order to hold him.

She succeeded, having taken the advantage by being able to travel at speeds beyond time and wasn’t bound to the ground. She gripped Exitium, her eyes once again like galaxies as she smiled in relief at her genius strategy.

She then shouted, “I’m holding him down! Quick, do it!” to which Razi aimed his shotgun again, able to now hone in on a slower target.

Pulled down by the added weight of the girl, Exitium struggled to admit, “I see why he admires you,” before from the back of his heels projected a red flame upwards, which then caught itself right behind Calypso in the shape of a long rod. The flame then suddenly transmuted into a long sledgehammer with a silver handle and a huge black block made of the same near black mineral as the ones embellishing his body, tilted horizontally a few feet from Calypso’s back. Then from the end of the handle, a red flash flared, and the entire sledgehammer shot forwards from the rocket burst.

The sledgehammer flew straight through Calypso with the curtling sound of flesh being punctured, and in that very moment, Calypso’s eyes shot wide open as a dreadfully shocked expression fell on her. Her mouth hung open as she froze still, and seconds after, her hold on Exitium loosened.

Before pulling the trigger, Razi noticed that Calypso let go of Exitium, and collapsed on the road. He then lowered his shotgun and looked down to assess what happened next to Juno, who also glanced, and Flynn who turned around to the ground.

On the ground from a tilted angle, the fuzzy vision could capture Flynn, who stood several feet in front of her with a horrified expression, his mouth hung open and his eyes wide in disbelief. The vision became more fuzzy as the sound of Calypso groaned in perplexity. She then turned to face Razi and Juno, who had the same expressions, although the reason as to why was beyond her.

Confused, Calypso weakly inquired, “Why…are you looking at me…like that….”

That reason was that, on the ground where Calypso laid tilted, a gaping hole was in her torso, so large and hollow that drops of blood from above could be seen as well as strings of guts. The hole was the size of a rectangle, sweeping her entire chest down to the top of her abdomen.

Her body then began to flicker, becoming translucent with a purple tint as though to preserve herself, but her control was destabilizing as she then soon became solid again. She kept fighting to phase herself, but to no avail, as her time was fleeting.

“Why do you look…worried?” Calypso muttered quietly, and that was then when her eyes slowly closed shut, and her body stopped phasing, but instead was left solid. She laid on the ground as crimson liquid formed a puddle under her body, leaking out of the gaping hole.

Her head rested on the black surface of the road, cold, as her expression was left as one of bewilderment, never knowing what had truly happened.

Several feet across the body descended Exitium, landing on the ground on his feet. He then turned to notice the body, yet he didn’t seem fazed at all, but rather just stared at it intently.

He then raised his head to look at the team, his red cape waving, uncaring to the events that just transpired.

With wide eyes of continual shock, Flynn slowly turned his body towards Exitium, not even seeming angry, nor sad, but just lost for words. He slowly raised his head up to gaze at Exitium, glaring at him for a few seconds in silence.

“What did you do?” he simply inquired, yet the question sounded earnest, as though he truly did not understand.

Exitium shrugged his shoulders casually, and returned with his own question: “What do you think happened? Did you forget that you can all die too?”

Standing still in front of Exitium, Flynn glared with shocked eyes, and plasmic blue streams began to emit out of his body, generating like a storm cloud as they flew several feet far before dispersing. Streams released all around his body, flying past his eyes, which began to illuminate blue, his pupils brightening as they eyed on one man.

Standing still on the road, Flynn then vanished in a blue streak, which flew straight through Exitium and continued far down the city for miles beyond what could be seen.

Exitium staggered backwards and placed his hand on his cheek, confused as to what happened, for it was so fast that it didn’t register. He then shook his head, and then faced Juno and Razi, seeing that it seemed it was only the two of them left.

He then tilted his head freakishly, and ridiculed: “Guess it was too much for him.”

That was then when Exitium noticed a blue tint in the street ahead of him, which called his attention to check. The moment he turned, he was struck by the blue streak, which caused him to stumble backwards as it flew down the city and vanished again.

Pushed again without registering what hit him, Exitium shook his head, trying to maintain a straight focus. He then faced ahead of himself, where he once again saw the blue tint, and before he could react he was punched backwards by the streak before it flew right past him.

Standing back up, it was only about five seconds before the streak shot right past him, grazing him with another invisible strike.

Then the next came four seconds later, racing through the city to deliver another strike, and as he ran past the roads were noticeably slightly cracked.

Over the oceans far away, high up in the sky raced the blue comet, moving as fast as it could around the world. Up in the sky, Meditat faced forwards, breathing heavily as he exerted as much as he could to move forwards, as much as he could let himself.

He then noticed a sky blue streak dart past him down on the ocean, right over the water’s surface. He tilted his head down to the water, where he then saw the streak dart past him again, moving so quickly that there wasn’t enough time for the residual trail to disperse.

Again, the blue streak raced past him, moving so fast that even relative to Meditat it moved faster than the blink of an eye. It kept moving in the same path, and as it did, tides began to form beside the trail as the water started to get badly affected.

From above, Meditat realized exactly it was on the ground, to which he amplified the volume of his voice and shouted, “WAIT, TACH?! TACH!! TACH, HEAR ME! TACH!!!” as the blue streak continued to race past him with every second, yet it didn’t stop no matter how loud Meditat raised his voice, as though it couldn’t hear him.

Every tick of a moment, the world around Flynn changed, so fast that it could hardly be registered. The only constant was himself, sprinting forwards, his eyes shining so brightly blue that it was as though he was wearing goggles. His hair was pushed all the way back, and streams of energy extended off the back of his body with such density that it nearly covered the afterimages behind him.

As the background around him was the ocean, he threw his arm forward, and for a single frame of time his fist struck the body of Exitium, whose body was flashing red covered in flames, before he was seemingly then in a green field, then a dense forest, then the ocean, then a random intense blizzard, then the ocean again, then threw a punch forward which struck Exitium, and then repeat. He eventually just held his arm forwards, not even throwing punches, but just running his fist around the world as every half second it met blazing Exitium, faster than there was any need to throw punches.

He then kept moving until it was every quarter second, until all of the scenery around him blended into one mesh as it became every eighth second.

Inside the city, the blue streak was now dense and constant, creating a thick line through the city’s streets which always collided with Exitium, who continued to stagger backwards seemingly from nothing as the man throwing the hits wasn’t even visible.

Down on the ground, Exitium was struck so hard that he flew in the air, and while in the air he continued to get pummeled. He was getting beat at such a rate that it seemed he was just constantly being pushed without any increment, as every insurmountably diminutive fraction of a zeptosecond, such a small portion that light seemed to be frozen in comparison, Flynn appeared in the city before landing another blow.

Cracks formed in the road as Flynn flickered in his own trail, keeping Exitium in the air, whose body released a red flame ahead of himself on the ground.

Suddenly without warning, Flynn reappeared in real time, as while a second ago he was moving faster than what could be measured, he was now completely still. The thick trail he kept overwriting dispersed, revealing that under him was an odd wide platform low to the ground with a surface of treads. The entire platform was moving constantly with Flynn’s movements, rolling below the platform like a treadmill, for that is fundamentally what it was.

Next to the platform was a transparent capsule connected to the platform by a wide transparent tube, and inside both was sky blue energy so dense that it seemed like a liquid. Flynn continued to run, but he ran still, and his eyes began to dim down as the high he was riding on started to decline after realizing nothing was happening.

He glared right at Exitium, who was now standing in front of him past the platform, no longer flashing red yet the metal of the shoulder guards were still noticeably battered and his black mask was dented. He then waved his hand, and explained nonchalantly, “I noticed your team uses the energy you produce as power for their base in some big run, so I figured that I could also make my own version of a siphoner but one a bit smarter so it didn’t need to be so clunky. This treadmill is powered by your own speed, and is moving just slightly faster, so no matter how fast you run, you can’t leave. I took way too long to design this, but-,” before he strafed to the right, dodging another shotgun blast.

Exitium returned his gaze back to Flynn, and apologized: “Sorry, guess that’s all I can say, looks like time is running out for both of us. I couldn’t even explain the grinder.”

Suddenly, the treadmill began to make an odd loud mechanical screech similar to an industrial grinder, and a moment later Flynn began to scream in agony. Down below, his feet began to sink into the treadmill, his shoes being grinded up by the treadmill itself and gradually tearing through him.

Across from the horror, Razi pointed at Flynn and shouted frantically, “Pull him out!!”

Beside Razi, Juno aimed her hand at Flynn, but she didn’t move it back until a few seconds later, where then nothing happened. She tried again, reaching for Flynn, and pulling to find that he remained on the treadmill.

Watching Flynn gradually become grated as half of his feet remained, Exitium faced the two failing to be a savior, and he elucidated: “Sorry, but this treadmill locks the runner in place to keep charging, he physically can’t be moved. But if you want it to stop, I can do that for you.”

He then faced Flynn, who screamed in blood curdling agony as his entire feet were engulfed, and from there his legs were gritted in seconds, being torn to shreds as the black treadmill surface was splattered red. He cried out louder than he ever did until the surface was touching his waist, grinding half of his whole body.

Flynn shrieked in horror, unable to make words as he felt pain unlike anything he ever has, but that was until he was silenced by a silver tipped spear through the forehead, pushing his brain’s guts out with the reddened tip, which immediately silenced him. He then fell forward right as the treadmill burst into flames, the contraption being erased and allowing him to collapse on the ground. The spear then subsequently vaporized into red flames, leaving the body lying on the ground.

In front of the halved body with a gaping hole through the brain, Exitium turned to face Juno and Razi, having reduced their team by half with such speed.

Left next to be devoured, Razi knew he needed to work smarter, so he devised: “Juno, hold him and keep watch for anything he throws, I’ll go for his throat,” before he then began running forwards as Juno lifted off the ground several feet in the air.

She then raised her right hand down on him, to which Exitium suddenly collapsed to the ground. He groaned from the sudden move, but furthermore the ground below him began to crack from the pressure as a crater began to form below him.

On the ground, Exitium faced Juno up in the air, holding him down with an enraged green glare as her hair and skirt blew violently from exertion. He felt his body being crushed by the overwhelming invisible weight, and then turned to see Razi charging at him with the shotgun aimed forwards.

Without moving his body, a red flame shot out of Exitium’s arm towards Razi, which was used to erect four metal pillars around himself, and in the subsequent moment red translucent walls projected between each and every one of them including the top, boxing him in. He watched Razi fire shots out of the shotgun, only for them to be absorbed with ripples in the energy wall, shielding him from the vengeful leader.

He then glanced at Juno, who hadn’t shifted her glare, growling through gritted teeth as she continued to push Exitium further down into the ground, cracking it as he was pushed over a foot deep.

From the center of Exitium’s body released flames which flew through the laser wall, unaffected by matter, and once it passed it then transformed into large dark metal barrels reminiscent of railguns with barrels the radius of a sniper’s, all of which froze in the air as they were all able to hover independently, remaining stationary and aiming at their singular target.

In the darkness of every barrel, a red flash sparked, and an immense red energy ray fired at her at the speed of lightning, and with the immaculately concentrated force of a fusillade of nuclear warheads capable of crushing civilizations.

Juno held out her left hand in time, and at the head of every stream, the rays were suspended in motion, their pure energy being halted by her command and keeping them several feet away from her. She then pursued to hold Exitium down, seeing that Razi was having difficulty getting to him, but she couldn’t let up until he was gone for good. She then started to curl her right hand tensely, deciding to take initiative upon herself.

In the ground, Exitium began to feel his body getting crushed from every angle, as his body started to be pushed into itself. He groaned from the overwhelming pressure, and three more flames fired out of his body, transfiguring into the same nuclear railguns, but all stationed at different positions so as to not collide with the previously summoned, which then all beamed their own nuclear rays.

All three of the red bars froze before landing their target, suspended in air while Juno continued to pressure him, gradually crushing him.

More streams of red fire jut out of Exitium’s body, forming more railguns to hire at Juno, but they all met the same fate. The first four, the first six, the first ten, the first fifteen, more and more were being deployed against Juno without end until they practically surrounded her.

Encased by all of the red streaks facing straight at Juno, projected by the railguns which she began crushing out the sky into metal balls with precise commands that neutralized its battery to avoid a catastrophic suicide, Juno noticeably started to become fatigued, her hands jittering and her head sweating. She was hardly able to see from the constant deployment of railguns, and all of the work to stop them was getting overwhelming.

Down on the ground, Razi relinquished his shotgun, and instead extracted a blade from his right gauntlet. He then plunged it into the energy wall, which at first rippled to absorb the impact, but the wall began to slowly curve inward as though Razi was pushing through it.

Inside the walls, Exitium noticed that Razi was gradually breaking in, and he continued to produce more railguns against Juno relentlessly.

Juno kept her left hand up to hold back the rays, but it was now shaking violently as multiple beams’ heads were meeting her every second, and she was already fatigued from the prior mission. It was already difficult to resist against such powerful forces that she could feel their oppressive energies of, but its lack of solid state further made it difficult to contain as she couldn’t merely hold back an object but rather had to concentrate on every radioactive particle racing towards her. Her entire body started to shake intensely, and she gradually brought her right hand higher, as though prepared to let go of Exitium and instead focus on herself.

However, she couldn’t leave Exitium be, not with Razi so close, as he was right in a trap. She had to persist, and give her all to keep him down, perhaps even manage to crush him to death first. But with every second, more streams overwhelmed her, and the green light in her eyes began to flicker.

“RAZI!!” shrieked the woman in the green dress right before she lost control. At once, a storm of red streaks flew straight through Juno from every angle, seamlessly penetrating straight through her body before leaving gaping holes in skyscrapers and deep underground. The immediate surrender was blinding, but not as much as the effect it caused.

Rays sliced through her arms, through her kneecaps, and through her head, completely slicing her up in seconds from the relinquishment.

Razi immediately froze and retracted his arm before turning around to see that from the sky descended Juno, falling straight into the road abruptly.

He then retracted his blade, and sprinted towards the crash site a few feet ahead, only to find that laying on the ground were severed parts of his lover. She laid on the ground, her head facing him which had a wide cut between the eyes, splitting her head slightly to reveal guts of her brain and allow blood to spill out in mass quantity.

She stared up at him, dismembered, with detached fingers laying on the ground in their own pools, and chunks of her hip far from the rest of her torso. Guts were spilled out from her open stomach, laid out on the ground under the darkening sky. It was a horrid sight, a brutal one that showed no mercy, no respect.

Razi lowered his arms as he silently gazed down on his fallen lover, as the world grew dark for him, the sunset nearly upon him. His black hair covered his head as he momentarily tuned out everything around him, for the only existent entity in the world other than himself was the woman that made him human again. He stared down at her remnants, lost for words, his bangs covering his eyes as he temporarily lost sight of the battle.

Behind the teamless leader, the metal pillars combusted, deactivating the energy walls. Seconds later, Exitium crawled out from the crater, staggering forwards and panting heavily. He stood up straight, facing the final man standing, and he held both of his arms down.

Out of both of his hands released flames which were warped into viking axes each with a silver handle and a blade made of the same immensely dark crimson metal making up the chains on his body. Both of the axes’ blades ignited with red flames to strengthen power as he stood behind the leader, ready to take down the final member of the original four, his blood splattered cape waving in the air from the atrocities he committed.

Without taking any chances, Exitium charged at Razi, raising both of his axes in preparation to take down the final target. He let out a roar, and swung for the body.

Exitium staggered forward after the swing, finding himself only standing over the butchered body of the woman, but there was no leader in sight.

That was because the leader was standing behind Exitium, leaning forwards facing opposite from the assassin. The leader’s arms were extended forwards in both directions, and from each gauntlet a black blade was out.

Standing befuddled, Exitium suddenly felt cuts from above his waist, and realized that blood was gushing out of his hips. He then turned around to face Razi, who slowly turned his body around, and gradually lifted up his head.

Raising his head, Razi glared forward through black bangs in between his shadowy eyes, which were sharper than ever, but furthermore, terrifying. His teeth were wide and clenched, as the expression was the most horrifying ever displaced, the face of a monster.

Immediately after the first attack, Razi charged straight at Exitium, who instinctively rose both of his axes over his body, using them to shield himself. Razi then slashed at the axes with his right blade, sparking on impact, and he then slashed again with his left blade, also being blocked. He didn’t stop past that however, but instead he kept swinging unrelentlessly, growling like a feral beast as he swung and swung without end.

Exitium stumbled backwards, letting Razi push forwards with the precise swings of a master assassin, the rage he had so well controlled for years beginning to rise to the surface. Exitium kept blocking the swings, but with such immense speed of his opponent, it was clear he was being flooded with no easy escape.

Two more swings were made, which Exitium attempted to block with his crossed axes. A second after the swings, both of Exitium’s axes were lowered off his face, yet they were still attached to his hands, which also lowered. In fact, both of his wrists fell off his body, and blood spurted out of his arms, leaving him entirely defenseless.

Before there was time to react, Razi lunged straight at Exitium, and plunged his left blade straight into Exitium’s abdomen, which penetrated straight through the body. He held the blade inside the body, glaring at him with vengeful, savage eyes, growling as he kept pushing forward, forcing the handless Exitium to stagger back.

Razi then held his right arm out, and extracted the second blade from the right gauntlet. He then slowly brought his arm up, and held the tips of both blades right in front of Exitium’s eyes, the black tips staring directly at the red lenses.

Slowly and torturously, Razi moved his arm towards the assassin’s face, moving the blades closer towards his opponent’s eyes. It didn’t matter how brutal the ending was, all that mattered to him was that it would end.

Stuck without being able to move from the blade stuck in his body, all Exitium could do was scream, crying out in fear as he seemed to finally shatter in spirit. His confident aura diminished as he cried desperately, staring death straight in the eyes.

He howled like a demon as the floor beneath Razi lit red for a moment, and a second later a massive stake shot up from the ground, straight between Razi’s feet.

A moment before the blades would pierce the assassin, the leader flew straight up into the air, carried by the stake. The left blade slit up the assassin’s body up to the shoulder, causing Exitium to groan from the massive cut he endured.

He staggered backwards, away from the stake –made of the same dark crimson metal composing his chains– that extended far past him, straight up into the sky. He panted heavily, and then raised his head up above.

Tens of feet up in the sky hovered Razi’s body, which had been impaled by the stake from between the legs up through the skull. His body limply stood held by the stake which was splattered with the crimson blood and spilled brain matter of the leader. His shadowy eyes remained wide in the rageful expression right before death, taken from the world before he could avenge his family. Instead, he fell with them.

With that, the supersun began to set.