“Starbreaker!” Vincent yelled.

As he threw his fist forward, the surprised Archard didn’t have enough time to react. The void at the end of Vincent’s fist consumed the Godfather before spitting him out threw the massive windows behind him. Glass and wood splintered off, reflecting the evening light in the thousands of shards.

Vincent stepped forward and watched as Archard hit the ground, still standing. He continued to look at the Libra leader from above. His eyes stared blankly downward as the rest of the glass shards showered around Archard.

“That was quite the attack, kid,” Archard said with a smile. He moved his arms down from above his head and flicked off any glass that fell on him. “Do you like the view from up there?”

“I hate this view,” Vincent sneered. “I hate looking down on others.”

He jumped down from the third story and landed with a thud. The cold feeling inside of his mind began to thrum. He let it grow and cool him from the inside. Breathing out, his breath looked more like mist than air.

Archard took a step forward, his mental waves still humming around him. “A shame, really. If you had learned to like it, you could’ve been seeing it by my side every day.”

Vincent cracked his neck and knuckles. “Why would I want to see such a thing if you only saw us as tools? I ain’t gonna stand for that kind of crap, you selfish prick.”

“Selfish?” Archard laughed. “I’m simply taking what I deserve. After all, the people of this city love me; they adore everything about me and look up to me for protection. You should’ve been grateful to be picked by me as a tool.”

“I can’t believe I thought of you as a father figure. I guess I really can’t have any of those…”

The resonating waves around Vincent pulsed with empty energy. The coldness in his mind continued to grow and he allowed himself to sink deeper into that pit. He kept his mental waves resonating.

Archard raised his metallic hand. “Save me the pitiful backstory, I really don’t care. It’s too bad that you won’t obey me, but there are plenty of tools to pick from in this city. Everyone else is drawn to me by my sheer will. And my will is magnetic.”

“Your will is bullshit!”

Vincent released his mental waves out using projection. They rippled through the air until they reached Archard. With a cocky smirk, he used projection to counter the oncoming attack. The two mental waves clashed and pushed against one another. The shockwave from the impact cracked some of the stone ground.

“Your mental waves really have improved in such a short time,” Archard commented. “You took me by surprise earlier, but that was a fluke. My ability to resonate is far superior to you.”

The mental waves emanating from Archard swelled in power, overpowering Vincent’s. While there was still some resistance, Vincent found himself quickly under assault by Archard’s mental prowess. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was using a mental fortress to shield his brain, known as protection, he would’ve surely lost consciousness. Even still, the attack caused him to stagger in place for a moment.

Damn, Vincent thought. That shit hurt. I can’t take a lot of those. I gotta end this quickly.

“What are you standing around for, kid? Did those small waves of mine really hurt you that bad?” Archard taunted. “Let me show you my real power.” He reached his metallic arm out in Vincent’s direction. “Attract.”

Vincent braced his body in response, but didn’t feel anything change about him. After a moment of waiting, his farthest out mental waves sensed something moving with extreme speed behind him. He turned his head just in time to see a metal pole flying in his direction. With a fraction of a second to spare, he ducked out of the way and let it sail right over him.

Immediately, he raised his body back up and focused his attention on Archard. He saw that the Godfather was now holding that metal pole in his metallic hand, grinning. Archard wound his arm back and flung it forward.

“Repel,” he said, sending the metal pole rocketing back in Vincent’s direction.

Shit, I can’t dodge, Vincent thought.

Instead, he threw up his hand and lowered himself into a colder place. “Devoid,” he said, creating a void at the end of his hand. The black sphere immediately apparated, intercepting the oncoming threat. The metal pole collided with the void, bending it around and stopping in place. He dropped the void and the pole clattered to the ground.

“Now it’s my turn,” said Vincent.

Touching his hand to his chest, he used godspeed to create a void around himself, allowing him to quickly close the distance between the two of them. His body flew through the air in the straight line. In the second or two he had before he reached Archard, he continued to lower himself into a colder place.

“Starbreaker!” he shouted, launching the attack the moment he was within melee of the Godfather.

Just as he threw his fist forward, Archard smiled. The Godfather reached his hand up and to the right while still staring Vincent in the eyes. “Attract,” he said.

In the blink of an eye, he was gone. Fortunately, Vincent’s eyes and instincts were better than most people, and combined with his use of prediction, he knew where Archard went. His eyes gazed up at the roof of one of the nearby houses, and there stood Archard, his metallic arm grasping a flag pole that sat on top of the house. It had a tattered British flag situated on top.

Archard’s eyes looked down at Vincent, shaded by the setting sun. “Now that’s a better view,” he said.

“Shut up, asshat,” Vincent said, seething. He tapped his chest and used godspeed to propel himself onto the same roof.

The both of them stood eye-to-eye above most of the city. The evening wind blew for a moment, moving their hair to the side. Archard’s face continued to be deviously coy while Vincent’s was growing darker by the minute. And their mental waves reflected that. Archard’s grew more arrogant and energetic. Vincent’s, on the other hand, were more hollow and cold.

“Ha! See? Isn’t the view from up here much better?” Archard teased. “Once you see the world from above, you can never go back to the ground. I loathe the days I have to pretend to be a peasant and walk on the same ground as them.”

A bit of misty, cold breath left Vincent’s mouth. “And yet you still expect those ‘peasants’ to adore you? You make me sick.”

“Of course! People don’t care for who you really are, they only care for who they think you are. And I have made everyone think that I’m a charitable billionaire; they think that I work at the behest of them; they think that I love them and the country more than myself. After all, who could resist believing in me? My strength is magnetic!”

“To think that I once looked up to you,” Vincent scowled.

Archard’s face grew sinister for a moment. “To think that The One thought you had potential. It’s embarrassing that he even had me put any effort into training you.”

Vincent paused for a moment. “Did you say ‘The One’?”

“But I don’t care what he thinks right now,” Archard said, ignoring Vincent’s question. “We can build our utopia without you. Whatever he had planned for you, I’m sure I can do it better, anyways.”

Vincent took a step forward, his mind getting emptier and his waves growing in strength. “What do you know about The One? Answer me, Archard!”

The Godfather just laughed. “No more talking. I’m going to kill you now.” He smiled with dark intent. “Attract.”

Archard’s waved pulsed like static for a moment. As his metallic arm lifted in the air, the air itself got prickly, like hardened fuzz was dancing around the skin. It wasn’t painful, but at times, it pushed the boundary between uncomfortable and pain.

Instantly, Vincent used prediction, spreading out his mental waves around him. Instead of keeping them dense and close to his body, he allowed them to grow thin and spread out further. That allowed them to bounce off of more things in the vicinity, giving him a better idea of what was to come.

As he did that, he sensed dozens of small objects flying in his general direction, but they weren’t exactly heading toward him. He watched as dozens of small, metallic trinkets gathered around and stuck to Archard’s metal arm, forming an even larger, cobbled-together hand.

Archard pointed that hand in Vincent’s direction and brought back his middle finger before flicking it forward. “Repel,” he said.

One of the metal objects that was stuck to him, a tiny bolt, shot off in Vincent’s direction. Thankfully, because Vincent focused his mental waves in prediction, he was able to sense the intent of the attack moments before it happened. His head dodged out of the way as the bolt flew past him. He managed to avoid it, but only barely.

In rapid succession, three more metal pieces fired off of Archard’s hand. Vincent moved to the left, dodging the first attack, and then shifted his body right, moving out of the way of the second attack. However, there wasn’t enough time to dodge the last one; it was coming right for his head.

He raised a hand up and said, “devoid,” creating a void in front of him just in the knick of time. The metal object collided with it and dropped to the ground. Knowing that he can’t be on the defensive forever, he used godspeed to launch himself straight upwards. Releasing the first void at the same time. While hanging in the air, he used godspeed again to shift his momentum in a downward diagonal direction, aimed directly at Archard. As he sailed toward the Godfather, he readied another starbreaker.

He swung his fist forward and unleashed his attack. Just as he did, Archard stepped to the side. Vincent’s fist collided with the top of the roof instead, causing the void to miss its target. Still, he kept his eyes on the Godfather the entire time. He was ready to use another starbreaker.

As the thought and intention left his mind, Archard reached his arm out to the side and was thrusted in that direction. He landed on the roof of a house a few buildings away, his metallic arm stuck to the metal top of a chimney. He was standing straight up and grinning the entire time.

“Not good enough,” Archard said. “You expect to be free with that kind of strength?”

Vincent maintained his empty resonance. “Strength? What does that have to do with freedom?”

Archard raised both of his arms in the air. “It has everything to do with freedom! How can you expect to be free if there are people stronger than yourself? If you’re weak, then you’re at the mercy of the strong. And that is why you can never be more than a tool for me! Trust me, if you think you’re strong now, then you have no idea what true power is.”

“I don’t care about all that,” Vincent replied. “Freedom comes from choice and nothing else. And right now, no one can choose anything with you being here. So I’m gonna choose to kick your ass!”

“That’s cute,” Archard said. “Too bad you can’t back it up.”

Wordlessly, with some cold anger in his eyes, Vincent tapped his chest and used godspeed. At the same time, Archard used attract to pull his body around. When he landed on a new roof, the Godfather would use repel to launch more metallic objects at Vincent, who in turn would dodge them at the last second or use devoid to protect himself. It was a cycle that continued to play out time and time again, but with intricacies that would differ each time. It was a delicate tango that required two people to switch from aggressive to defensive. One would lead while the other followed, and then they would switch positions. But if one of them slipped up for even a moment, or if one of them missed a queue, then the dance would surely end in one’s misfortune.

“I thought you said you were going to defeat me?” Archard taunted, pulling himself to another building’s roof.

Vincent pulled his hand back after releasing yet another missed starbreaker. His breathing was deep and cold.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said between breaths, “I am.”

He lowered himself into an even colder state. And then he kept going. His body was chilled so much that his muscles started to shiver sporadically. Every breath of his was full of mist. He knew that he needed a few bursts of mental energy for what he was about to do.

He tapped his hand against himself and used godspeed. Then he used it again before he ever reached Archard, causing his trajectory to change completely. His momentum shifted more in a diagonal direction, toward and away from the Godfather.

“What are you doing? Did you forget where to aim? Are you finally losing your edge?” Archard jabbed.

“Don’t worry about it,” Vincent replied.

He touched his chest and used godspeed, again going in a direction that wasn’t directly at Archard. And then he used it again. And again. And again. And again.

He was using this technique to encircle his enemy and increase his speed. He bounced around the air, flying in directions that seemed random and unpredictable. With each new use, his body grew colder but his momentum continued to build. He wasn’t going to give Archard an opening to pull away, and even if he did, there would be no time—Vincent was already too fast.

“Starbreaker,” Vincent said, appearing behind the Godfather, his speed greater than before.

His fist was inches away from colliding with Archard. He had him. But just before the strike landed, he felt a burst of pain and nausea course through his mind, causing him to drop his concentration on his attack. He continued to sail past and skid across the roof, stopping just before he reached the end and tumbled off. He grabbed his head in agony.

As he screamed out in pain, a cold hand grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him into the air. Opening his eyes, he was face-to-face with the Godfather.

“Did you really think that would work?” Archard asked. “You used a lot of mental energy doing all of those speedy moves. So much so, it seems, that your mind was not protected very well. You forgot one of the most basic principles of resonance: always have enough mental waves to use protection.”

“I…” Vincent tried to respond, choking.

“Honestly, I let you do all that in order to wear you down. It looked neat, sure, but at the end of the day, that was a weak attack. Let me show you a strong one.”

Before Vincent could respond, Archard slammed him against the roof, cracking it and a few of Vincent’s ribs. Then, without releasing his grip, he picked him back up and stared in his eyes.

“Repel.”

Vincent was sent flying up and away at an incredible speed. There was no time to look around. His surroundings were nothing more than a blur of grey and color.

I’m not metal. How did he…

CRASH. His back smashed into what felt like stone and glass. He tumbled for a few feet before coming to a stop. Looking around, Vincent found that he was inside some building or structure. It was a small, square space with a concrete floor. Around him on either side were slowly turning gears; some were as small as a finger, while a few were as large as him. On each of his cardinal directions, he found what looked to be the backs of giant clock faces, with the one directly in front of him smashed with a large hole in it.

As he stood up and got his bearings, he could hear the clicks of mechanism moving and the gentle scraping of non-lubricated steel. Even with the city half-abonded, it appeared that this clock mechanism continued to beat, just like the hearts of the misled citizens.

A shadow then appeared in the open clock face.

“Well, what do you think?” Archard asked, stepping into the space.

“Of what? Where are we?” Vincent replied. His eyes never stopped staring at Archard and his guard never dropped.

Archard gestured to the space around. “What do you think of the inside of Big Ben?”

“I don’t care,” Vincent answered.

“A shame,” Archard said. “It’s pretty empty, just like you.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

The Godfather chuckled, and the walls of the space reverberated the sound, causing it to grow louder and echo for longer. “Well, all I’m saying is that you have nothing going for you. You have no ambitions, no motivation, and no real care in the world. You’re a nobody.”

“What are you talking about, asshat?” Vincent replied. “I want to save the world. I ain’t a nobody. I’m the Chosen!”

“Chosen?” said Archard, sarcastically. “The only thing you were chosen to do was be a tool for me. After all, that’s always the fate of the weak. That’s why freedom comes from power.”

“Screw off,” Vincent said, lowering himself into a colder state.

However, before he could prepare any attack or resonate further, Archard raised both his hands up toward Vincent and clapped them together. “Conjoin,” he said.

Just then, Vincent sensed movement from both sides of him. Purely using instinct, he ducked just in time to avoid two massive gears that collided and stuck together. If he was even a second slower, he would’ve been sandwiched and crushed between them.

He charged at the Godfather, readying his fist with another starbreaker. The light of the setting sun was now beginning to make itself known, causing the silhouette of Archard, who was standing in front of the smashed clock, to elongate and fill the space. His shadow continued to drape over Vincent as he charged forward. But Vincent did not care. He needed to end it all.

He threw his fist forward, but found that it was slowing down. No, that’s not quite right. It was as if the air had become thicker or some kind of invisible force was pushing it away. It was at that moment that he saw a small spark of electricity come off of Archard.

“Repel,” said Archard.

At once, Vincent flew back and collided with the back wall, smashing past the clock. He was high in the air now, beginning to freefall. He twisted his body around and watched as the ground was quickly approaching. But he didn’t panic. Rather, he has lost the capacity to for a while now. His body and mind were both very cold.

Once he fell about two-thirds of the way down, he used godspeed to change his direction and momentum. Rather than falling straight down, he was shot out at a nearly-flat angle, causing him to tumble and skid across the ground, rather than smashing into it.

Although it took him a few seconds, he stood back up. His body was full of cuts and bruises, and a few ribs and other odd bones were broken. Even still, he gathered himself and looked up at Big Ben. Standing on the edge of the broken clock was Archard, looking down on him.

“It’s pitiful to see how far you’ve fallen,” Archard said.

Vincent dusted off his shirt and pants. “Shut up! I’m gonna kick your ass. I already hit you once.”

“I told you that the first attack on me was a fluke. It’s obvious how weak you are—you barely survived that attack. We are on completely different levels.”

“I’m still gonna kick your ass!” Vincent huffed. “You called me weak, but I can resonate and my mental waves can compete with yours.”

“You think that makes you strong? You still don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“The difference in our power. Sure, you can resonate, but that’s only half the battle.” Jolts of electricity sparked around his body. “You still haven't Awakened your powers yet.”

For a brief moment, the image of Fang appears in Vincent’s mind. “Awakened?”

Archard’s head lowered a bit and shadows obscured his eyes. “When a Resonator’s mind and body become one, their powers are considered to be Awakened. For Apparators, it’s pretty literal—you saw it with Fang, although it wasn’t controlled. Them and their Apparition merged and became one being. For us Dominators, it’s a little more…fun.”

The ground quaked and the buildings rumbled. Chunks of the ground, entire roofs, light posts, trash, stone, and metal all flew upwards as if their gravity had been inverted. Like the darkened shadow of armageddon, a massive cloud of debris gathered and swirled above Vincent. It was at least five times larger than the one that fell during the war against Aries.

“What’s going on?” Vincent asked, a sliver of panic in his voice. “I thought only metal is affected by magnetism.”

“Everything revolves around me,” Archard stated. “Everything is attracted to those with power. The weaker magnet is pulled by the will of the stronger one. Such is the world with me. And if I’m magnetic…” his voice grew deeper and more static-like, “...then so is everything else.”

He slammed his hand down.

“Raining Chrome!”