The back door of a grav-jet opened up. Bob stepped forward and leapt out of the plane. His suit’s grav-thrusters hummed to life and he shot towards his target.

A devastated mountain in the Himalayas.

Where a single alien sat on a rock.

The sound of metal striking rock rang out as Bob landed in front of him.

“And who might you be?”

Bob heaved a sigh.

Here he had hoped the aliens would have all been drawn to the ongoing battle. It seemed at least one had figured out his plan. But this much was within predictions. It's what the suit was for, after all.

Still, smart aliens are so annoying.

Captain Sildeth started to stand, slamming his fist into his palm.

“Well, guess it doesn’t matter. Looks like I’ll get to fight a bit after all. Hope you’re not too weak!”

Then he appeared in front of Bob, fist stretched out. Bob vanished, crashing into a nearby mountain.

Bob groaned as one of the protection enchantments flickered and vanished.

“...guess I’ll have to go all out from the start, huh? Superspeed is so annoying.”

Bob fired up the Elixir Engine.

His suit exploded with power, qi bursting out in a flame-like aura as he rose to his feet.

Captain Sildeth stood on the other mountain, arms crossed. He made a grin.

“Still alive, huh? Maybe this won’t be so boring after all.”

He vanished.

“I won’t get my hopes up though!”

He appeared in front of Bob, fist stretched back.

But this time he was moving at regular speeds.

Or so it now appeared to Bob.

So Bob kicked him in the stomach, sending the Captain hurtling off into another mountain as well.

The benefits of activating the Elixir Engine went beyond just a simple boost in raw power available to the suit. There were a number of systems that needed its power to activate.

For example…

An AI-driven Mass-Energy Manipulation Array was required for universal power replication, a large structure with a great deal of Iesnorium required. But what if Bob only wanted to replicate a single power with a singular use case? Then Kanna could get away with a smaller and more focused system, with barely any Iesnorium or possibly even none, that would grant the suit some hard-coded abilities.

Such as Chronolock’s ability to speed up her own time.

A terrifyingly complex power to replicate…had Elise not had several opportunities to observe it up close recently. And one with a terrifyingly massive power requirement to activate.

A bit of a waste really. There was more than one way to obtain super speed at a far cheaper cost.

But it was the only way for a normal human like Bob to reliably obtain super reflexes, as well as to effectively boost the speed of his thoughts. All the speed and power in the world wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t see his opponent move and decide how to react.

“Profiles Loaded: Gravity, Saydaa.”

A sphere of purple energy shot from the other mountain. Bob raised a hand, a gravity-magic combo barrier appearing in the air. The sphere exploded against the barrier…then Captain Sildeth appeared in front of him.

Bob pulled his hand back.

“Profile Loaded: Xiong Huang, fractional replication.”

Bob punched the alien’s stomach, launching him high into the sky. A panel opened on his shoulder, aiming a small missile into the air. The missile launched up and struck the alien…

Detonating a mini-Iesnorium warhead, with a universal EMP effect.

Captain Sildeth disintegrated as his cells lost their psionic cohesion and separated from one another.

But the alien had cells to spare, his body growing back with a flash of light.

“AHAHAHA, you’re not bad! And here I thought we got everyone worth fighting. Where have you been hiding all this time?”

Bob grimaced.

That was a very expensive missile, designed to instantly end the fight. But looks like this would be a war of attrition.

As expected of someone who fought Xiong Huang and survived.

Captain Sildeth grinned and channeled his psionic energy into his body, exploding with an aura like purple flames.

He appeared in front of Bob, his fist piercing straight through the armor suit…

Only for the suit to crumble into a pile of rocks, covered in seals.

“Profile Loaded: Shinobi.”

The seals whipped out, wrapping around the alien, sucking in the purple flames around him.

And then Bob appeared behind him with a puff of smoke, holding a sword of pure ice in his hands.

“Profiles Loaded: Icy Falcon, Icy Rose, Wu Zhengkang. Executing ‘One-Thousand Fold Arctic Thrust Protocol”

A thousand blue blades stabbed into the alien, ice expanding out on his skin wherever they struck. Soon his entire body was encased in ice.

And then the seals began to glow, filling to the brim with energy.

The characters exploded in a rush of purple flames, shattering the ice around them.

Bob flew back as another protection enchantment faded, holding his arm out with his palm facing the alien.

“Profile Loaded: Gabriel Le Blank.”

Countless beams of light fired from Bob’s hand, striking into the alien as he shook off the last of the ice.

“Profile Loaded: Pink Star. Applying Quantum Burglar and Arachnalich protocols.”

The beams of light turned pink and twisted into two clones right on top of the captain. The Quantum Burglar clone targeted the alien’s psionic power while the Arachnalich clone attempted to drain his life force.

He grinned and thrust his fists out to either side, immediately dispersing the two clones.

“Your technology is primitive but quite novel. I wonder though, if that extends to your mind?”

Bob grunted as he found himself in a blank, white world, with a towering wall of purple flesh in front of him.

But he had already triggered the protocol.

Inside his suit, a small sphere began to spin, emitting yellow light.

“Mini Mental Unifier activated. Loading Profiles: PSI Omega, Saydaa.”

Yellow lightning and red smoke swirled around Bob and shot at the wall of flesh, then he was ejected back into reality. The mini Mental Unifier wasn’t perfect, given that Bob never had access to that blueprint. But the data from Elise, both from her own experience as a target and from her scans of Londyn’s facility allowed for a partial replication.

Combined with the mind spell Saydaa learned from Baba Yaga, it would suffice for defense and counterattack, should the opponent open a link to Bob’s mind on their own.

“Not bad, not bad at all! I’m starting to get excited! Now, show me what else you got!”

Bob heaved a sigh.

Regenerating aliens are so annoying.

He could only hope…that Londyn would be able to hold a while longer...

The battle raged for quite some time after that. Armored suit and glowing alien clashed in the sky time and time again, zipping around the mountains. Blasts of psi energy met superpowers, top of the line tech, and ancient technique time and time again. More than one mountain top had been leveled entirely.

Bob had tried almost every combination of powers he could think of.

And Captain Sildeth seemed no worse than he began.

Bob grimaced as he glanced at his reserves. His elixir stock was growing low, he didn’t have much time left with the cultivation furnace. His armor’s enchantments were nearly depleted as well.

And the updates from Elise were not painting a pretty picture at the moment.

In more ways than one, he was running out of time.

So it was time to make a play.

He landed on the ground and clasped his hands. Captain Sildeth was just landing himself. He directed the power of the cultivation furnace directly into the ground, allowing it to disperse into the Earth. Captain Sildeth just raised his eyebrow at the apparent waste of energy.

“I am one with the Earth, and the Earth is with me.”

The ground began to shake…

“...you are asking us even though we are not one and you do not know us. You are annoying. But this is the one who took our friend, so we will help you, just this once!”

Giant branches burst from the ground in front of Bob reaching for the alien. Captain Sildeth grinned as the branches wrapped around him and began to drain his energy.

He burst into purple flames, pouring his psionic power into the branches. They burst into flames as well, quickly blackening.

Bob already had his hand on the dead branches.

“Profile Loaded: Necrosaurus.”

A magic circle flashed on the branches and they melted into purple light. The light reformed itself into zombie Tyrannosaurus-Rexes, roaring as they bit into Captain Sildeth. At that range, he couldn’t avoid the creatures empowered by the very strength of the Earth itself. They tore him to shreds…

A flash of light and the alien reformed, still inside a Tyrannosaur’s mouth. He stirred up his strength, once again bursting into flames as he redirected his power into his body. He ducked down into the zombie dino’s tongue and leapt up, fist raised high.

He burst straight through the head of the dinosaur and thrust his hands forward, sending the power in his body through his hands.

A beam of psionic fire incinerated the T-Rexes, leaving nothing but ash.

And then he grunted as a black blade pierced his chest.

He gasped as something like burning fire spread through his body. He could feel his cells die as both his psionic power and his very life force itself was sucked into the blade.

And then he felt it.

Something else dwelling within that cold metal.

Something ancient.

Something foul.

Something hungry.

Captain Sildeth detonated his power, destroying his own body in the process. The blast of psionic power threw Bob into a nearby mountain. The alien frowned as he reformed in the air.

“What the heck is that sword?”

“I wonder…”

Bob let himself smirk. It seems even an alien of unfathomable psionic power was vulnerable to the Black Blade of the Ten Slaughters, Xiong Zhen. As expected of the demon sword that no cultivator below the Seventh Realm could even hold…without adequate protections that is. And even if he had a safe way to hold it, it’s not like Bob, a mere mortal, could unleash its full powers.

But he didn’t need to.

Xiong Huang had wanted nothing to do with her father’s weapon. So she hadn’t said anything when Bob had left with it, placing it into storage for many a decade. And so it had been many a decade since the blade had last been wielded, last fed the qi of its master…or last allowed to make a meal of a victim.

Right now it was absolutely ravenous.

All Bob needed to do…was bring it to a meal. The blade itself would feast, all on its own.

And Bob had not just been flinging explosions around all this time…

“Analysis complete. Captain Sildeth combat style analyzed, automated countermeasures determined and applied. Initiating close combat mode.”

All of Elise’s data from observing cultivators, ninjas, and the swordsmanship of a thousand year saga now combined. Perhaps that would not be enough to overcome the gap in skill with a true elite. But it would be enough to get blows in. And blows were all he needed.

He boosted the Chronolock time slow to its maximum. And then activated the Xiong Huang profile, as close as he could to ration out the power he had left. He then activated the Mini Mental Unifier and directed his thoughts onto the roaring power in his suit.

He thought of Xiong Huang.

He thought of never seeing her again.

He thought of his own mistakes, of letting her go off alone, of assuming she would come back the moment he called.

He thought of the man in front of him, who took her away.

Who stood in between them now.

An aura of qi burst around his suit, like roaring red flames as the qi patterned off of Xiong Huang’s cultivation accepted his rage.

He held the Black Blade up in one hand.

In the other, one final scroll rolled into place.

For there was one more thing Xiong Huang wanted him to take from her sight.

There was a puff of smoke.

In his other hand was a green glaive. The Avenger’s Crescent Blade, the weapon of Cao Xinya. The man who slew Xiong Zhen and his Eternal Night Sect.

He was sure both of the weapons wielders would roll in their graves seeing the two wielded together.

But in a certain way, perhaps it was only right when facing the one who took Xiong Huang away.

Captain Sildeth kept his eyes on the Black Blade, frowning. Eventually though, his frown curled in a grin.

“...I underestimated you it seems. Who would’ve expected there would be two people on the same planet with the potential to kill me? Looks like I’ll have to get a bit serious. How long has it been since I’ve needed to use weapons?”

He extended his hands. The air twisted around him as he reached into his pocket dimension.

In one hand…a mace forged from the heart of a dying star.

In the other…a bone sword, formed from the fang of a Stellar Wyrm, a dragon larger than a planet.

And so faceless minion and mighty alien faced off for the final time.