Event Horizon

  Oliver hissed in anger at the nonchalance of his enemy and continued to swing with his arms, decimating everything in his way, the extreme amount of air resistance he and his vessel were supposed to be experiencing leaving him seemingly completely unbothered. Too unbothered. Eiken thought with a tilt of his head, not really moving in to stop the terrorist on a suicidal quest to destroy the very thing keeping him in the air. Doesn’t he realise that a fall from this height is gonna kill him? Plus, he’s still going pretty damn fast even if from my perspective it doesn’t really look that way. The hero looked up towards the sun to gauge what time it was and then turned back to the jet, “Look, I don’t know who you are, but I’d rather fight you than have you kill yourself,” he called out with a shrug, “If you just wait a some three hours this thing here will have stopped completely and I can safely teleport it back down to the ground with you inside.” The rebel answered with only a haughty chuckle before he slammed his feet into the floor of the vehicle, suddenly his entire body falling straight through the solid metal and leaving a human shaped hole in its wake. Well, damn. The Celestial thought while raising his eyebrows in mild surprise and amusement. He actually went and did it.

  Warpbreaker merely contented himself with watching in amusement as Oliver was promptly flung at over two hundred kilometers per hour through the air as soon as he left the general vicinity of where the hero had dilated space. “Well, off you go,” Six muttered to himself in amusement, taking a step in the air to instantly teleport to just one step behind the man flying through the air. He repeated this process in rapid sequence, never allowing the terrorist to get too far away, all while whistling to himself. Eiken watched from up close as the rebel flew in a wide arc while rapidly approaching the ground, his only real reaction being a head tilt and a curious raised eyebrow. How’s he planning to survive this? Or is it just a suicide? We’re gonna end up leaving Rome at this rate too. “Hey, fella,” Warpbreaker called out, teleporting to catch up to him and say his next words, “Is this just glorified suicide?” he teleported again, “That’d be lame.” Oliver growled in fury as his intense light brown eyes flicked between the places where the hero kept teleporting to, “SHUT!!! UP!!!” he roared with such unbridled anger that even Warpbreaker was taken aback, his eyes widening and brow furrowing. Wow, okay then. Sheesh. The hero was so distracted by his enemy’s outburst that he ended up hitting his forehead against a skyscraper’s reinforced steel beam while ‘walking’ through the air, causing him to recoil slightly with a light wince, “Ow. Didn’t realise we were this close to the ground already…” he groaned with a quick shake of his head, his eyes flicking over to the terrorist as he made a head-on collision with the very same building, phasing through it like it wasn’t even there. I take it his power is to just obliterate anything his body or clothing is touching at will. But how the hell does that help him survive in the slightest? As soon as he stops using his power he’ll bear the full brunt of such a massive fall and he’ll die instantly. Hey wait a minute- Eiken’s eyes suddenly narrowed as he took a step back in the air, teleporting a couple dozen meters away to look straight at the perfectly human-shaped hole that was now carved diagonally into the skyscraper.

  “Isn’t this guy the same one Breadman said he’d gotten rid of in Vladivostok way back in the same day the New York thingy happened? The super famous killer guy?” Warpbreaker whispered to himself while rubbing his chin, his eyes dimming, realization washing over him as a smirk slowly took over his face. “Yeah!! And Lev supposedly finished him off with a big ass fall too!” Eiken snapped his fingers and laughed for a moment, teleporting to the other side of the building with wide hopeful eyes, his irises blazing with navy blue light. Oh hell yeah. The hero pumped his fists, scanning the building once more to really confirm his suspicion; there was indeed no human shaped hole on the opposite side of the skyscraper. Judging by the angle and speed at which that guy was flung into the building, there should absolutely be a hole over here too. The fact that there isn’t means he somehow stopped his fall… And if he survived Four it means he survived this one too.

  The Celestial snapped his fingers and teleported himself inside the structure, appearing right in front of a woman with a cup of coffee in her hand, spooking her so badly that she screamed and threw her coffee into the air. Eiken turned away from her, flicking his wrist and teleporting the cup to a nearby desk and all of the coffee flying through the air right into the cup, “Nice chat,” he called out to the girl with a wave behind himself as he walked down the hall, “You should probably evacuate by the way.” Six looked around the hallway while on his casual stroll, the sounds of the broadcast echoing through every room of the apartment complex, but he didn’t care about that at the moment. Found ya. The hero wrapped his fingers around a batch of thin air, grabbing the emergency alarm lever without needing to break the protective glass around it, wiggling his fingers a little before he finally pulled down on it, causing an extremely loud buzzer to go off across the entire building. The Celestial sighed and combed back his hair with a hand, continuing on his way towards the Oliver-shaped hole carved through the interior of the place. That should take care of unwanted civilians interfering.

  “Big man, you still alive? I’m hoping for a yeeeees~” Eiken called out with his hands cupped over his lips, shouting down at the human shaped hole carved right into the ground, the outline making it seem like someone had grabbed an oversized gingerbread cookie cutter and slammed it into solid reinforced steel, floor after floor. Weird, the hole doesn’t seem to be changing in size or anything no matter how many floors down it goes. The hero teleported himself down the carvings until he reached the fifth floor of the skyscraper, where the holes had just abruptly stopped appearing. “Hello?” he asked again while pursing his lips and the alarms kept blaring all around him. A crumbling sound snapped Warpbreaker’s attention towards the wall to his left, his eyes widening as an arm erupted out of it and swung towards him. The hero jumped backwards out of instinct instead of teleporting, the hand of his opponent slapping into Eiken’s shoulder thanks to this blunder.

  The Celestial winced as he stumbled backwards, an intense burning sensation emanating from where his shoulder had been touched, his other hand immediately flying towards it to assess the damage. Shit, he might have just blown off my entire arm. The hero then furrowed his brow in surprise when he felt that his arm was not only still there, but his wound - while still a rather grave and hand-shaped - wasn’t really all that deep. “Huh?” Warpbreaker wondered with a raised eyebrow, his brightly glowing navy blue eyes snapping towards the terrorist as he emerged from the wall as if walking through air. “Get. Out. Of. My. Way,” Oliver hissed as a threat, pointing a finger at the hero while growling, “Or next time I’ll be aiming for your neck,” he finished while swiping at his throat with his thumb, making his intent clear.

  Eiken huffed and shook his head with a shrug, ignoring the searing pain erupting from his shoulder, “Dawww, scared?~ I mean, I guess I AM a Celestial, so it’s fine if you wanna be a whiny baby~ Come on, killing me’s the best and only shot you’ve got! All the other Celestials are in the Colosseum, you see. And Stalwart, that old fella, he’s got his barrier all around the place, so you can’t get in anyway,” he spoke confidently, giving the rebel a big toothy grin, “You aren’t getting to Breadman any time soon. He’s the one that fucked you up and gave you all those gnarly scars, wasn’t he, Grey Matter?” Oliver scrunched up his face in disgust at those words, visibly agitated by the hero’s use of his serial killer alias. The rebel trailed his fingers across the wall in response, cutting right through it as a show of threatening force, “There’s nothing my power can’t erode!! Even if that ridiculous barrier was made of his very flesh, it wouldn’t take me long,” he hissed while licking his lips.

  Thanks for the tip. Eiken thought with a cheshire grin, sheer malevolence suddenly emanating from every fiber of his being, startling Oliver into stopping his performance and furrowing his eyebrows in suspicion, taking a tentative step backwards. So living matter is your weakness? Of course. It’s only natural~ Now, there’s just one last thing I need to check… Warpbreaker wound up a leg and suddenly slammed it against the floor, connecting the space between his heel and the rebel’s chest as soon as he impacted the ground, causing Oliver to get flung backwards with an oomph. Number Six of the Celestials then clapped his hands together while his enemy was still airborne, the sound echoing through the hall for just a moment before the entire building suddenly vanished under his feet, leaving both him and the terrorist floating on thin air. “Ugh- FUCK!!!” the rebel yowled, entering free-fall, his eyes flicking upwards and catching a glance of the building he was just in, the structure levitating about a hundred meters above him, pieces of dirt and debris raining down from the bottom floor, Eiken’s blazing and merciless navy blue eyes piercing right through his soul.

  Event Horizon - Warpbreakers power - gave him the ability to manipulate and bend space to his whims. When Six ‘teleported’ himself, he was actually swapping his body’s position with the air in the area he wanted to appear in. When Eiken punched someone while being at a distance, he would physically connect his fist to the person he wanted to hit via directly folding the space between them. Warpbreaker’s portals were just areas where he would connect two different spots in space, folding the fabric of the universe for his convenience. However, this left open a question; if Event Horizon was so useful, then how come its wielder wasn’t all-powerful? Why didn’t he just simply use his ability to open a portal inside someone’s body and instantly kill them, for example? Why not forcefully teleport someone into the sun?

  Eiken was limited for the same reason why Crusader couldn’t just control the iron in someone’s blood to instantly execute them, or why Maquineer couldn’t just snap her fingers to disassemble a person in the blink of an eye. Life, or rather living matter, was immune to the control of the vast majority of powers - this was a simple fact of life obvious to everyone, much like how matter couldn’t be destroyed or created, or how even the most absurd of powers had to abide by whatever laws of physics they weren’t specifically meant to break. However, despite this, there existed a minority of powers that could indeed affect living organisms; be it either just the very wielder of the power (like Immortalis or Destructor) or any living matter (like Dreamstress or Love Love).

  However, there also existed a subset of abilities that existed somewhere in the middle; where they could affect living organisms, either under certain conditions or to a certain extent. Warpbreaker and Grey Matter both belonged to that last group, albeit in different forms. Grey Matter, he really is as dangerous as advertised. Six thought with a wince, the burning pain in his shoulder intensifying as he felt blood run down and stain his clothes. The hero sat down in the air in a criss-cross pattern to look down at his feet, confirming that the heel of his right shoe was no longer there, and the skin underneath had been chewed into pretty badly - revealing the sensitive reddish epidermis underneath. His power still affects living organisms, only not instantly. I imagine that it’d only take him a couple of seconds to disintegrate my neck if he managed to grab it and not let go though… Eiken smirked, getting back up with a kick of his leg to ignore the pain on his foot and shoulder, turning to look at the descending rebel with renewed interest.

  Damn that cocky brat!! Oliver thought to himself, enraged. Hasn’t he learned by now that dropping me from heights won’t work anymore?! He braced for impact, crossing his arms as he collided with the ground underneath. Grey Matter wasn’t someone whose ego could survive being defeated, and therefore had spent every waking moment ever since his ‘fight’ with Breadman concocting a strategy to counter the now painfully obvious flaw the hero had exploited. The rebel subtly, ever so subtly, lowered the efficiency of his ability over time once he was enveloped by dirt. He allowed himself to be impacted by the ground underneath him to very small degrees, allowing it to gently build up resistance against his fall and slow him down until he finally came to a full stop about ten meters in - not a single scratch on his body. Six grinned as he witnessed the serial killer claw his way out from the human-shaped hole he had carved into the ground, his eyes ablaze with eagerness. “Woah!!” the hero called out with a giggle, snapping his fingers, “Oh man, I am SO envious of you!! Your only bruise is where I kicked you right on the chest… But even then, kicking you hurt ME more than it hurt YOU!!” Warpbreaker smirked, suddenly teleporting right in front of the rebel, a fist pulled back as if preparing to launch a strike. Oliver snarled and swiped at Eiken, intending to smack him across the cheeks and rip his entire face off. Instead, the rebel blinked a few times as he continued to feel as if he were striking as fast as he could… except his hand had seemingly completely stopped right as it was about to touch the hero.

  “Tsk tsk,” Warpbreaker muttered with a grin, “I could extend the space right in front of a jet, and you think I can’t do that to your hand??” The Celestial then finally unleashed the attack he had been winding up, striking upwards in an uppercut with a chilling laugh. Although doing that is way tougher than just teleporting away since I have to be very precise with exactly how and where I want to extend space. Eiken thought smugly. Not that I’ll tell him. Oliver, still dazed and confused, suddenly had the air forced out of him due to a direct hit to his upper stomach. The rebel’s vision blurred for a moment as spit was forced out his mouth, wheezing as he pulled away his hand and fell to the floor on his knees. Eiken smirked and jumped backwards to avoid the falling terrorist, flicking his wrist in pain. Damn. He thought to himself through grit teeth. I only allowed my fist and his body to connect for a tenth of a second at the very maximum point of my strike, and it still hurt like hell. He looked down, the bones of his knuckles revealed and even slightly chipped into, flexing his hand while shaking his head. Grey Matter wheezed loudly while holding onto his diaphragm, grabbing the attention of the Celestial. Hero and rebel locked dazzlingly bright stares for a moment, the latter shooting up to his feet with a lunge, roaring as he attempted to grab the former.

  Eiken grimaced and teleported a few centimeters away, repeating the process as soon as Oliver delivered yet another strike at him. “Damn, you’re one hell of a sturdy bastard!!” the hero whistled, teleporting further away after Grey Matter attempted to strike him again, a white cloth appearing in his hands as he began to wrap his bloodied knuckles over it as some sort of bandaid, “I thought I gave you one hell of a strike, too~” The rebel shook his head and spat out again, snarling in frustration, “I don’t need your compliments!! If all you’ll keep doing is running away like a coward, then I have no business with you anyway,” he grumbled, turning around as if to tell the Celestial that he had no interest in him, “Enough distractions!!” Oliver grumbled to himself with grit teeth as he began to walk away. Six is powerless to stop me. All I need to do is reach the Colosseum and I can have my revenge.

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  Warpbreaker pouted at this, his eyes narrowing, “Am I really that boring?? I guess I have no other choice… Time for a change in scenery~” he lamented mockingly, snapping his fingers and opening a portal right in front of Grey Matter, causing the rebel to stagger in surprise as he was suddenly met with a face-full of strong winds flowing right into his face. Eiken took advantage of that one moment of surprise and slammed down a fist tackled with a giggle, his good hand making impact with the top of the rebel’s head despite not physically touching him. “Aghk-?!” Oliver gasped as he fell face-first into the rocky terrain through the portal, the hero teleporting into the air above him as the wormhole closed with a snap of his fingers. “Welcome,” Warpbreaker announced with spread arms, blood now trickling profusely from both of his hands despite his grin refusing to die down, “To the Tibetan plateau!! Now you can’t go around focusing on anyone else; it’s just you and me, big man.”

  Grey Matter stumbled to his feet, growling in rage as he looked around himself only to see endless peaks and valleys sprawling in all directions. The hero lightly fell to the ground, only giving a light wince thanks to the uncomfortable feeling of the jagged surface brushing up against the wound in his heel, “See this?” he asked his foe, taking a handful of dirt and letting it trickle down his fingers, “This is your prison, now. The only way you will ever reach your beloved Breadman now is through me,” he snickered. Oliver grit his teeth, his eyelid twitching, and swung at the hero once more in futility. But getting him away from Rome isn’t the only reason I brought him here. Eiken thought to himself with a grimace, getting into fighting position as the enraged rebel sunk his fingers into a nearby large rock and then lifted it, throwing it at the hero with surprising ease. Warpbreaker teleported to the left in order to avoid the rock, his eyes narrowing in on his enemy since there were no more distractions between them.

  I remember now. I asked Breadman after his fight with Grey Matter, I was curious if he had been a strong foe. Number Six had indeed talked to Four about the fight, especially since his opponent had been the infamous serial killer ‘Grey Matter’. Four had then launched into an extensive description of the battle, albeit doing so in such a technical and deadpan manner that Eiken lost nearly all interest rather quickly - and even now the hero was unsure if his comrade had done so on purpose. But he did remember something; the way Grey Matter's ability worked. Not once have I seen him stop even for a split moment to concentrate in order to disintegrate anything in the way Lev described. If his power works in a way such that dissolving any material he has eroded in the past 24 hours becomes automatic… Then that means that Grey Matter must have spent A LOT of time planning and preparing for today, gathering a plethora of objects so he could decay them all before hijacking the jet.

  “Yo, terrorist fella, is there any material out there you didn’t get access to in preparation for your big revenge?” the Celestial asked the infuriated rebel sarcastically, wagging a finger at him before quickly teleporting out of the way of yet another rock being thrown at his head. Grey Matter grit his teeth, his chocolate brown eyes gliding over the windy surroundings, “My name is Oliver!!” he hissed, stomping his foot down on the floor and letting it sink in before pulling it out with force and shooting out a spray of high-speed rock pellets at the hero. Eiken sighed and teleported slightly to the left of the shotgun-like spray of rocks, only for his eyes to widen in surprise once he felt an impact straight to his ribcage which sent him barrelling backwards in the air. “Fa-h?!” number Six of the Celestials gasped, his eyes darting down at the large rock embedded into his body, teleporting away into the sky just in time to avoid the incoming hands of his enemy which had been aimed straight for his neck.

  Shit, did he predict me?! How?! Warpbreaker wondered, gripping the rock now digging into his bones apprehensively before janking it out with a wince and dropping it. His eyes then wandered over to where he had just been, noticing the three other rocks flying out towards the abyss below, his face then contorting into an amused grin. No, he distracted me with the kick and then threw four rocks in quick succession, hoping I would teleport into the path of one of them. Sly bastard. “Agh, that su-u-ucks,” he called out to the rebel below with a boisterous laugh, “That now marks the second time you’ve gotten a good hit on me without me getting a hit on you first!! I’m thinking I might have to reconsider my status as a Celestial. Oh, what a poor showing I’ve had… But your power really is quite something. Too bad you’re evil and need to be exterminated, cause you’d fit in quite nicely with my friends.” C’mon, where are you?? Eiken thought to himself, his lips pursing as he stared through the tiny imperceptible portals positioned right in front of his pupils as they opened and closed in quick succession. Goddamn, humanity REALLY stripped the earth bare if its gotten this bad!!

  “Your friends?!” Grey Matter called out with a coarse laugh, “The Celestial Ten are all just as bad as me!! Worse, even. Serial killers AND dogs to the World State!!” Six pouted at those words, shrugging as he suddenly teleported even higher up into the sky while dodging a boulder, “Awww, don’t go dissing the World State like that! How else would I get to have so much fun and at the same time live a life of luxury?? They are super convenient,” the hero laughed again and teleported upwards a second time, spreading out his arms and closing his eyes while grinning. Oliver’s eyes narrowed, crossing his arms as he stared intently up at the faraway Celestial. Both of them had suffered very minimal damage so far, that was for sure, but it was also quite plain to see who was worse for wear between the two; Grey Matter had suffered a few rather grim looking bruises - especially the one to his diaphragm - but Warpbreaker had literal chunks of his body no longer there.

  “Enough playing around, Eiken!! Are you just buying time for your higher ranking buddies?! Is that all you, the great Warpbreaker, amounts to??!!” the rebel hissed to the hero standing in the air menacingly, goading the Celestial by poking at his pride. Six cackled at those words, grinning from ear-to-ear in a rather unsettling and creepy way, his lips nearly reaching his ears, “Hah!! I have no idea what I ‘amount to,’ to be honest, but I do know that I have no intention of just buying time, don’t you worry!! I gotta make it back in time for the end of the speech and all,” the hero snapped his fingers and teleported multiple hundreds of meters straight up in the air, becoming naught but an ant-sized speck in the sky. Grey Matter pursed his lips and flexed his fingers, unraveling his arms as if preparing for what was to come, getting into a boxing position. What the hell is Warpbreaker planning this time? I doubt he’s stupid enough to just repeat the same strategies, but what other option does he have?! HAH!! The only Celestial who could POSSIBLY defeat me now is Dreamstress, and I know Destructor put her on the equivalent of life-support just recentlu~

  They really didn’t leave behind even a single speck?! Fine, I give up. Warpbreaker thought to himself with an internal sigh while closing the portals in front of his pupils for good with a wave of his hand. It didn’t take long for said internal sigh to be replaced by a maniacal chuckle unbecoming of anyone who dared call themselves a hero, however, madness raging underneath. I guess I have no choice~ Time for plan B. Eiken’s lips parted revealing a jagged and toothy smile, the glow coming out of his navy blue eyes being so potent it was still visible even from so high up, the sheer malice suddenly emanating out of his being making the rebel bellow shudder for a moment. Something’s fishy. I don’t like this. Grey matter thought to himself with a sneer, tensing up with slight anxiety.

  The hero subsequently assumed a dramatic olympic diver pose while bowing towards the rebel below and placing his hands over his heart, followed by doing an elaborate jump off a nonexistent platform and entering free-fall while performing an elegant frontflip into a downwards axe-kick. Grey Matter couldn’t help but stare in incredulity, his expression twisting into one of disgust as he witnessed Eiken’s actions, “YOU- You’re even more pathetic than I thought, Celestial!!” he roared in genuine anger, both at the hero for his foolishness and at himself for actually getting worried for a moment, “Wasn’t it you who said you hated glorified suicides?! Fine!! So be it, continue killing yourself against me for all I care!!” Oliver finished while pointing to the quickly descending figure in the air, literally digging his feet into the ground and gritting his teeth, tensing up his body and waiting for the strike to hit him at full force while closing his eyes cockily.

  One second passed. Two seconds. Five. The rebel opened his eyes in confusion, looking up into the air only to see the frighteningly close and yet still rapidly approaching visage of Warpbreaker nearing terminal velocity, the hero’s face contorted into an unhinged smile of pure malevolence. “Oh you’re one CUNT of a bastard, Six!!!” the rebel yowled out in fury at the realization of what was actually happening, the two foes reaching eye-level in but a heartbeat as they stared into each other’s glowing irises challengingly, Eiken cackling joyously the whole time. Oliver had only milliseconds to act, his hands instinctually reaching for the top of his head and covering it right in the bare nick of time. Warpbreaker’s and Grey Matter’s bodies were only allowed to touch for a tenth of a second; the booming sound of the impact ringing out through the mountain range, sounding more like an avalanche than a kick. The strike instantly tore Grey Matter’s left hand asunder, quite literally tearing it apart with such force that one could have easily assumed someone had planted an explosive within his flesh. The ONLY reason the rebel hadn’t instantly died was because he knew that Eiken couldn’t close the space between his head and the hero’s heel as long as there was living matter in the way - in this case sacrificing his hand for the sake of sheer survival. And even then, what had saved him could only be described as pure luck.

  Number Six of the Celestials giggled out loud, finally coming to a rest on the floor gently, having transferred all of his downward momentum onto his kick against his foe. “You’re still alive?!” he asked with genuine surprise, lifting up his profusely bleeding leg which was now lacking a foot. The hero had literally placed all of the energy from his fall to his foot, and thus the impact had completely blown it off just like it had done to Oliver’s hand. The rebel grit his teeth and slowly a pained grin of anger spread over his face without so much a scream of pain, catching Warpbreaker off guard, suddenly swinging his bleeding hand-less arm towards him. Eiken teleported a little backwards to avoid the strike just like how he had done the previous times, blood splattering him while lifting up his foot-less leg in front of himself as if to kick at his enemy, his eyes ablaze and any joy gone from his expression as he studied Grey Matter with fascination.

  “You… Are you even human??” the hero asked in awe, teleporting backwards yet again as Oliver took a step forward to strike with his other arm, “Your hand’s completely blown off, dude!!” Grey Matter smirked openly at those words, his chocolate brown eyes still as bright as ever, “HAH!!! This is light work compared to the pain of having my entire skin ripped to ribbons!! And you, Celestial, you have no right to complain about my lack of reaction!!” he stomped his foot against the ground, continuing to unleash a flurry of failed blows against the teleporting hero. Eiken sighed, a small smile returning to his face as he cracked his knuckles, including the ones with bone exposed, “I guess I’m being a bit hypocritical. But considering what I’ve gone through, losing my foot really is no biggie. I guess we might be more similar than we thought, eh, serial killer?” he half-joked, suddenly teleporting behind his enemy and delivering an utterly brutal uppercut straight to his kidneys with his already damaged hand - their bodies only making direct contact for 0.1 seconds like with all his other strikes. Grey Matter staggered forwards with but a gasp of pain, nearly falling over as blood continued to pour out of his wrist with impunity. Warpbreaker pulled back his fist, looking down at it and confirming that his knuckles were already half-gone; he couldn’t even flex his fingers anymore since the tendons had been snapped.

  “Ya little shit,” Grey Matter mused with a crooked grin, spinning around spontaneously and swinging at the hero with his hand-less arm. The Celestial merely teleported a few centimeters backwards, narrowly avoiding the flailing stump while assuming a boxing stance as even more blood stuck to him, “That’s weird. You seem to be in a very good mood right now, Oliver,” he pointed out with a raised eyebrow, delivering another blow to the rebel’s chin and subsequently causing his fingers to completely detach from his hand in exchange for making his enemy spit out dangerous amounts of blood. Grey Matter smirked through the blood tainting his lips, slowly standing up and pointing a shaky finger at the hero, “Oh, Warpbreaker. Haven’t you noticed? My power affects any living part of my body, and none of the blood I’ve been splattering on you has dried,” he licked his lips slowly, spitting out more blood onto the ground beneath and dissolving a hole straight through it where the spit landed. The hero’s eyes widened and he slowly looked down at the many small holes riddled throughout his shirt, the bright navy blue glow in his eyes beginning to flicker as blood began to pour out and stain his shirt with red, his lips slowly twisting into a wide grin as pangs of internal pain seared through his entire being, “Oh, I see now,” he muttered, the double entendre lost on the rebel. There you are. Right by my feet, too… He thought to himself even as he felt his lungs and other vital organs be pierced by the corrosive blood, his eyes fixated on a seemingly random spot on the ground. He had finally found what he had come to the Himalayas for. So small. I guess that’s why you weren’t taken with the rest of your brethren a century ago.

  The hero sighed and sat down on the floor for the first time in the entire battle, the light in his irises beginning to wildly flicker, turning off and then on again while he remained seemingly unbothered, reaching down into the ground and slowly producing an innocuous green crystal from it. Oliver slowly approached the hero with slow and deliberate footsteps, blood continuing to stream down from his arm while his hand remained half-way into his pockets, grinning with genuinity for the first time in the entire day, “What’s that? Some kinda memento?? You're saying your last goodbyes, you sadistic little bitch?!” he teased the hero relentlessly, “Maybe we really are similar.”

  Warpbreaker shook his head and raised up a hand, snapping his fingers while staring straight into the rebel’s eyes without an ounce of fear, the sound echoing far louder than it should have. Immediately Oliver’s eyes widened and he took a step back, having learned to not underestimate Eiken and raising both of his arms in preparation for some last ditch assassination attempt. One second passed. Two seconds passed. Only this time, there really did seem to be nothing. “Did- Hah!! You really spent the last of your life energy to mess with me?!” Grey Matter called out with half-hearted incredulity and even a little bit of admiration, looking all around himself as if looking for an attack that never came. “Nah,” Warpbreaker answered, lifting up the tiny green crystal he had between his fingers even while blood continued to stain his hero outfit with a sickly red, “This is an emerald, you see. Something I highly doubt you had access to in your little preparations before this fight with them being supposedly nearly extinct and all… oh and I might have just dropped the building I had floating in Rome this whole time~ You do the math, big guy.”

  Oh. The rebel realised, grasping the situation he was in just in time for the entire impact of a falling building to concentrate on the little rock held between the hero’s fingers. It all happened in what could only be described as an instant; the crystal was flung with such force that it shattered the hero’s fingers to smithereens and subsequently blew a head-sized hole into Grey Matter’s thigh before continuing off into the distance. The rebel fell down, his face hitting the rocks below as his entire leg was ripped off his body, screaming out into the void as the accumulated pain of all his wounds caught up with him. Meanwhile, the hero merely stopped smiling, “Ah shit, that didn’t kill you? That suuuuucks,” he groaned in frustration right as Oliver’s blood reached his heart, the light dying from his eyes as death finally claimed his soul.