Again

  When does a word lose all meaning? Most would say that it happens when said word is repeated so often that it becomes sour in your mouth and the mere sight of it on paper feels wrong. However, that's simply not true. Concepts need to be explained, so it will never matter how bitter or wrong a word becomes, not even when it turns into an unrecognizable grey sludge in your mind. I was the ultimate proof of that; the entire dictionary had become like vomit, and yet I was still forced to keep using it over and over. Again and again. The word apple would always have a meaning, even after it has become unrecognisable.

  “I just received a message from Maquineer,” Empress announced seemingly out of nowhere, turning her head to look at me and Love Love, her eyes narrowed like a cat’s and her expression neutral. Jessica stood up quickly, her eyes wide and hopeful yet also anxious as she pressed her palms together, “W-What is it??” she asked nervously, shuffling her feet. Number Eight of the Celestials stared at her apprehensively for a few seconds before turning her gaze towards me in an almost lazy manner, the purple glow in her eyes as well as the subtle way in which her body had tensed up telling me everything I needed to know.

  “Oh well,” I muttered out, standing up with a groan and placing a hand on top of Jessica’s head to pet it right as Empress appeared next to me in the blink of an eye, her arm rupturing into my abdomen and carving a hole straight through my body like I was made of foam. Love Love’s eyes widened in surprise, gasping in shock as she took a step backwards in horror, already blood beginning to pour out of my wound. “Jeez…” I gasped softly with an amused smirk, lightly pressing my fist against Empress’ shoulder, her arm still sticking through me like a lance, “Can’t you at least let me say my goodbyes?? What a cruel woman you are…” Eight scoffed and retracted her arm, causing me to fall flat on my back, my vision already blurring, “There’s nothing for you to say,” she answered me, not even bothering to wipe the blood and entrails off her arm nor turn to look at the petrified Jessica who was only a mere couple of paces behind, “What’s the point of a goodbye if we won’t remember it?” I rolled my eyes at those words, “Heh. Fair eno-” and then she stomped on my head, caving it in.

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  “Plan one didn’t work,” I told Love Love casually, who was in the copilot seat of my car as I drove us to the Colosseum - this was immediately after I had told her that I’d go back to that precise moment in time as soon as a plan failed. “O-Oh!!” she breathed out in surprise, her eyes flicking over to me as both of her eyebrows raised, “Damn, that’s really kind of freaky, you know…” she turned away and placed her forehead against the window, “Fine. The plan didn’t work how exactly?” she asked softly, her pink irises glowing gently. “Warpbreaker died,” I answered succinctly, “But the battle was very close, at least.” I could tell because of the way Empress was staring at me. Jessica sighed and pursed her lips, “Then we have to go with plan two, I guess,” she groaned, almost as if afraid of the words that had escaped from her lips, a forced smile of nervousness spreading over her lips.

  I nodded while struggling to bob my head to the rhythm of the song Love Love had picked out for the ride to the Colosseum, clearly far more unbothered than her, “You remember what you have to do, right?” I questioned my sidekick with a raised eyebrow, turning to look at her. Jessica rolled her eyes and leaned back on her seat as if trying to hide her anxiousness, “Yes, I know what I have to do. Have some faith, Kronos!” she chuckled, punching my arm lightly, “I’m not a clueless child. I know what’s at stake here.” I rolled my eyes right back at her, smirking lightly as I shrugged, “Fine fine, I’ll stop being so overbearing.” A clueless child, huh? Even though compared to me you may as well be a toddler? Hah.

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  “Warpbreaker!!” Jessica called out with an innocent smile, approaching the Celestial casually as soon as everyone was gathered in the Colosseum and Empress had finished giving everyone their orders. Number Six of the Celestial Ten turned to look at the young woman with a tilt of his head and a furrowed brow, “Eh? What's a young lass like you doing here?! Do I know you…? Hey, wait a minute!! I recognise you, you’re Kronos’ little protege!!” he exclaimed, his entire expression lighting up and a vivacious grin taking over his face as he suddenly teleported right in front of my sidekick, causing her to awkwardly stop herself. The hero leaned down, his blue eyes ablaze with light as he stared at her intently up and down, as if checking her out, “I can’t believe it. The big man himself actually did it, huh? You really have to be quite something if One - well I guess he’s Zero now - actually decided to take you under his wing. Are you strong??” he asked excitedly, suddenly grabbing her shoulders.

  Jessica pursed her lips and fought off the urge to back away, instead deciding to just smile politely and remain still, “Sorry, but Kevin tells me it’ll still be a while before I can offer you guys a challenge, so I’ll have to politely say no…” Eiken pouted at those words and let go of her shoulder, sighing softly in disappointment while putting his hands into his pockets, “That’s to be expected, I guess… Anyway, you were calling for me?” he asked eagerly, recovering from the let down surprisingly quickly. Love Love nodded slowly, blinking a few times due to being stunned at just how fast the conversation was going, “Yeah! I uhh… I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with Maquineer about how you were thinking of going scavenging for emeralds one of these days-” she began hesitantly, but hastily swallowed up her nervousness, her eyes narrowing. I can’t get cold feet just because I’m talking to a Celestial. For fuck’s sake, I’m literally buddies with KRONOS. Ahh, maybe buddies isn’t the right word? Oh whate- “Ya did?! Oh wow!!” Warpbreaker interrupted suddenly with a childish voice, leaning towards her to the point that he was almost pushing her back, his eyes narrowing savagely and his head tilting menacingly as he stared deep into her pink irises - as if trying to overpower her with his piercing blue glow, “That’s interesting, because I don’t remember ever having a conversation of that sort. How curious.”

  Love Love’s mind raced, her fight-or-flight instincts kicking in as she nervously stared up into the eyes of a man who comfortably claimed one of the seats at the pinnacle of strength. H-Huh?! This isn’t what Kronos told me would happen!! Her lips pursed, her eyes trembling slightly as she began to take a step backwards in fear, a bit of pink glow beginning to rise around her as she began to consider using her ability to run away. No. She stopped herself, the glow dying down just as quickly as it had appeared, an uncomfortable smile beginning to set itself on her lips. He’d catch me anyway. She took a slow but deep breath and then merely looked back into the Celestials’ eyes, her expression filled with an impossible serenity given her situation. Remember what Kevin told you. “I will make sure there will never exist a reality where you die, so act accordingly.” “I apologize, Sir Eiken,” Jessica apologised with an unbothered breath, doing her best effort to hide away the deep rooted terror at the core of her being with a short yet graceful bow, “I must have been hearing things, I guess the nervousness has gotten to my head. I meant nothing by it.”

  Warpbreaker stared down at her intently, but then his gaze softened and he leaned back, resting his back on thin air and letting out a mischievous chuckle and a shrug, “Sheesh, it ain’t that big of a deal, dear gal. You don’t have to act all formal and reverential with me, creeps me out when people do that.” Love Love’s eyes twitched in anger, but she hastily suppressed her emotions as she lifted herself back up with a nod, “Okay then. Well, all I was going to say was that the news about someone finding emeralds in the Himalayas was a hoax. But ahh… I guess that doesn’t matter now. Sorry for bothering you,” she mumbled as she power-walked past him quickly, a single bead of sweat running down the side of her face that she was hiding from the Celestial, his animalistic eyes following her intently every step of the way. Ughhhh… Jessica thought to herself as soon as she rounded the corner, gripping her temple with a hand while the other was wrapped around her mouth as if she was about to vomit. That was the scariest goddamn experience of my LIFE. I swear to god, Warpbreaker has a screw loose in his head… How’s he gonna look at me like that and then say it isn’t a big deal?! I was about to piss myself!! At least I got the message through… Kevin better reward me with some frosted donuts, sheesh.

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  Ah man, I don’t have any good ideas!! Number Six thought to himself with a grimace as he teleported out of the way of the swinging arm of his enemy, twisting around mid-air and landing a whirlwind kick straight to Oliver's head. Grey Matter was pummeled into the concrete roads of Rome due to the hit, his body tearing into the asphalt like it was foam for a few moments before he came to a stop, lifting himself up while scrunching up his face in displeasure, cracking his head from side to side as a stream of blood began to flow down his back from where he had been hit. “Owie~” Eiken exaggeratedly muttered, looking down at his foot which now had a scoop taken out of the top like with his heel, “Your power is just too unfair~ Reminds me of John and his Everliving… Say, he could probably beat you to a pulp, huh? His power’s the perfect counter to y-” he was interrupted by a hand lunging for his throat, making him teleport away just in time. “SHUT UP,” Oliver hissed, his teeth gritting so hard they were beginning to crack, his chocolate brown eyes glowing intensely, “I just told you, I don’t want to waste my goddam time with someone who has no purpose other than stalling for time. Get out of my way!!” he growled, once more turning around to look away from the hero as he began to walk down the path towards the colosseum.

  Eiken pouted and sighed, closing his eyes and grumbling to himself as he tried to think of where he could possibly take Oliver in order to defeat him. My first thought was the Himalayas because they might still have some jewels hidden somewhere. But… if Kevin sent his chick specifically to warn me against it… He grit his teeth and clasped his hands together, a portal suddenly appearing in front of Grey Matter, causing him to nearly stumble through it and into the cityscape beyond. The rebel began to turn around to look at the hero only to be met with a punch straight to the face, forcing him through the portal and for blood to begin spilling out from his nose. Warpbreaker followed suit, teleporting through the portal and subsequently closing it with a snap of his fingers, rubbing his bleeding fist, “You’re cheating,” he breathed out, annoyed yet still grinning, “I’m comparable in strength to Dreamstress, which means that the only people physically stronger than me in the Celestial Ten are Empress and Breadman - and yet you’re barely taking any damage from my hits. It’s your ability, right? Since you’re eating into my body with each attack it’s like when you cushion your falls, only that you can’t do it fast enough so at least part of the strike goes through. It truly is the most cowardly power I have ever seen.”

  Event Horizon was special compared to other abilities that couldn’t directly interact with living organisms in the sense that it had a different definition of “organism” compared to said powers. As a rule of thumb, something stops being “alive” as soon as the majority of cells in a unit have died. This means that a fallen log, for example, only counts as dead as soon as most of its cells have died and not when it is cut - and the same goes for severed fingers or even a whole corpse. Warpbreaker could work around this restriction using the fact that his power allowed him to denominate large areas or objects as a “unit” and thus be able to manipulate them as long as he didn’t directly interfere with whatever was alive; such as for example lifting an entire building with people still inside despite not being able to directly teleport the people themselves individually.

  “Big talk for a bastard who refuses to even get hit in the first place,” Grey Matter growled furiously, standing back up and slowly wiping the blood dripping down from his nose, “You call me cowardly, and yet you continue to run and hide behind your little gimmicks!!! You disgusting hypocrite.” Eiken pursed his lips slightly, his eyes narrowing at those words, “You make a good point. Maybe you’re right,” he admitted with a shrug, seemingly unbothered by such words, “I guess I’m a hypocrite. Still makes you a coward, though~” Eiken concluded with a clap of his hands, a large boulder harmlessly falling on top of the terrorist’s head. The rebel paused for a moment in surprise at the response while the rock passed right through him as if it was made of air, furrowing his brow, “You-?!?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” the terrorist grinned partly, tilting his head slightly as his eyes began to glow more feverishly, “I guess we really are similar, you and I!!” he chanted with renewed vigour.

  Warpbreaker sighed and the corners of his mouth turned upwards in amusement, suddenly teleporting higher and higher up into the air, “Don’t get carried away, Oliver~ We are still way too different for you to be talkin’ so friendly-like to me,” he grinned, becoming like a distant ant in the sky. The rebel swished a foot backwards, looking around at where the hero had transported him with curiosity before suddenly noticing the building floating in the air in the distance, the structure still dripping bits of debris down to the floor below. Wha- We’re still in Rome!! He realised, blinking around in confusion. We’re just slightly further away from the Colosseum is all. What the hell is he thinking?? The rebel returned his gaze towards the hero up in the sky, witnessing as he spread out his arms and jumped off the air while twisting his body into an axe-kick. Is he just going to keep hitting me until he’s reduced to a skeleton or what?! Still, I’ve got a bad feeling…

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  The hero slowly raised up his foot-less leg, blood oozing out of it and unto the concrete below in a steady stream. “I guess we really ARE similar,” Warpbreaker cooed with an amused smirk, “I don’t know how I feel about that, to be honest. You’re not someone I particularly respect after all~” Grey Matter flicked his hand-less arm, copious amounts of blood flying off it and sizzling onto the concrete, the ground being caved into wherever the red liquid struck. The rebel growled softly, lifting up his arm and clenching his remaining fist, “I don’t respect you either,” he muttered with grit teeth, “You fuckin’ lapdog of the World State!!” He swung his arm in tandem with those words, the hero teleporting backwards to dodge the strike only for Oliver’s blood to fly towards him through the air. His blood was carving right through the concrete earlier. Eiken thought to himself grimly, pouting and teleporting a second time to dodge the blood splatter. I think I just gave him an even more dangerous weapon than an intact hand.

  The Celestial had been too busy looking around for gemstones to use as weapons in the previous timeline to notice how his foe’s blood had maintained corrosive properties, but this time he had become hyper-aware of it. “And now you have projectiles too?! That seems a bit unfair to me,” Eiken whistled his complaint, teleporting behind the rebel and using his power to deliver a roundhouse kick straight to his enemy’s face. Grey Matter stumbled backwards with a wince, gasping in pain as he toppled over onto the concrete with a broken nose, groaning softly before slamming a fist into the floor and beginning to stand up again, “Hrgk-!! When will you fucking LEARN?! THAT WON'T WOR-!!” He raised his gaze, his body suddenly freezing mid-movement, his eyes widening as he witnessed the floating structure in the horizon falter for a moment before beginning a downward trajectory towards the floor, quickly accelerating, a spear dropped with the express purpose of piercing the heart of Rome itself.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Stay still,” Warpbreaker suddenly hissed violently in a tone far too unbecoming of his normal demeanor, his heel slamming into the back of Oliver’s head as the rebel was getting up and grinding his face down onto the concrete while his irises shone with blinding energy, already his foot beginning to slowly disappear thanks to Grey Matter’s power. The rebel grit his teeth muffledly while asphalt was forced into his mouth, “GET OFF!!!” he roared in desperation and anger, flailing his arms behind his head to try and grab the Celestial, only to realise that Warpbreaker was keeping him pinned down while still being a few steps behind - meaning that there was nothing to even grab or push off. Oliver’s eyes shone with deadly energy, his pupils locked unto the descending spear, resorting to punching into the concrete while turning off his ability in his arms in order to put more force into getting up. He no longer cared that his hands were getting scratched and torn as he desperately tried to pry himself off the floor, his only current thought being to get the hell out of there.

  Eiken laughed, stamping his leg into the back of Grey Matter’s head even harder, even grinding his foot from side to side against it to mock his foe. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that he was currently grinding his exposed tibia bone, blood pouring out and subsequently vanishing upon contact with the rebel’s head. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING, EIKEN?!” Oliver cried out, pawing at the asphalt desperately, rendering his remaining hand asunder and the stump on his other arm into an even more bloodied mess - however remaining incapable of escaping the Celestial’s cruel lock, “YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE FEET ANYMORE!!! LET GO BEFORE YOU LOSE YOUR ENTIRE FUCKING LEG!!!” Warpbreaker merely grinned sadistically, his voice dropping to a hushed and almost gentle whisper that nonetheless Grey Matter heard perfectly, “You know, thanks to Event Horizon, I’ve realised that I don’t really need legs all that much.” The building impacted the ground, all of its force transferring directly to Eiken’s knee and therefore making the structure come to a rather calm and collected stop.

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  Plan two failed. Warpbreaker killed Grey Matter. Love Love played around with that thought as she stared off into the ceiling of the Association building in preparation for the speech. She had already gone and talked with Eiken, warning him that the supposed gems found in the Himalayas had been a hoax, as well as planting the seeds for where he should try to go next. That was scary as hell. I nearly damn pissed myself… She muttered, shaking her head, looking down at her trembling hands. I should go warn Kevin about what just happened. The conversation he said Warpbreaker and Maquineer would have about gems never actually happened… Ughh… At least I got the message across. She grit her teeth and clenched her fist, her eyes narrowing as she made her way towards me.

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  “Welcome to the Sahara desert!!” Eiken announced with spread arms, grinning at Grey Matter while snapping his fingers to close the portal behind him, stranding the criminal in the sand dunes. Oliver grit his teeth as sand swirled all around him, heavy winds blowing the vile substance all over his body while he struggled to stand up, his eyes still glowing menacingly even among the seeming hurricane around him. The sky above was pitch black, making it seem as if the mid-day had become the dead of night. “It’d be a lot more lovely and vibrant normally, y’know…” Warpbreaker sighed, teleporting behind the criminal with deadly precision and landing a backhanded blow against the back of his head, sending his foe staggering forwards only to be met with a knee straight to the face after Eiken teleported in front of him. “Grkh!!” Grey Matter hissed, a small amount of blood being spat out onto the floor, staining the sand underneath. “Really, I have to apologise!!” the hero continued with a mutter, blood beginning to travel down from his hand and his knee, both of which now had wounds in the form of dent-like scoops, “I reaaaaaally wanted to limit your vision, so I may have teleported a whole lotta clouds into the sky… That, and there are portals all around you blowing in air to keep this little sandstorm going~” he giggled slightly, raising an eyebrow and teleporting into the air once the rebel tried to get back at him with a lunge.

  I see, so that’s why Kronos’ little pet talked about the desert earlier. I knew that such a conversation was way too shady to not be a hidden message, I know how Kevin operates by now. Warpbreaker thought with a raised eyebrow, crossing his arms as he watched his enemy grapple with the sand blowing all around him, yowling out into the air as he tried and failed to tear away the sandstorm that was disorienting him. Both his blood and body aren’t chipping away at the sand, despite him obviously having the ability to do so. I think I get it now. Eiken smirked and clapped his hands together, the sandstorm around Grey Matter became much less potent instantly, half the sand having teleported away. Oliver’s eyes immediately locked unto Number Six as soon as he could see him, his face contorting into a snarl of rage, “COWARD!!! You know you can’t defeat me, so you just decide to run away where I can’t catch you!! What are you waiting for, for me to die of frustration?!” he pointed a finger towards the hero standing on thin air, “You can’t defeat me, and you know it!!!” Eiken closed his eyes and smiled in amusement at those words, taking a step backwards in the air and teleporting high up into the sky. “I disagree~” he called out with a shout, opening his eyes again to reveal the devastating dark blue glow within them, “I’m not the little bitch using the equivalent of a cactus strategy, after all~”

  ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  “Are you even human??” Eiken asked with a raised eyebrow, kicking his now foot-less leg as if to get accustomed to it. Oliver growled, speckles of sand getting stuck to his bleeding hand-less arm, a wide grin slowly spreading over his lips, “You’re asking ME if I’m human?! HAHAHA!! I guess we might have more in common than I gave you credit for, dog of the World State!!!” he half-laughed and half-roared, charging at the Celestial with outstretched arms. Warpbreaker teleported behind him in a split moment, landing a blow to his foe’s spine by kicking with his mutilated leg, “Hahaha!! I find myself inclined to agree!! However, I’m the superior version!!!” Eiken professed with absolute conviction, a wide grin of madness appearing on his lips. Grey Matter allowed himself to double over from the blow, gasping from the pain while a smug smirk took over his own lips where he thought the hero wouldn’t be able to see. Let’s keep playing this game, Number Six of the Celestial Ten. Let’s keep playing until you waste away attacking me uselessly over and over!! Your hits hurt, no doubt, but you keep breaking yourself apart faster than you can break me!! He thought to himself pridefully, a hit striking him right on the stomach from a wound up punch from the hero and causing drool to fly off from his mouth as the air was forced out of his lungs.

  I’m reaching my limit. The hero realised, wiping away the blood beginning to run down from his nose, blinking his bloodshot eyes as he teleported away from the slumped over rebel. I don’t think I can keep this up for much longer. He wasn’t, however, referring to his bouts with the foe before him. Oliver grit his teeth, spitting out sand with a grunt while straightening his back, the brown glow from his eyes lighting up the darkened atmosphere. “Your fingers are about to fall off from punching me so much,” he pointed out with a sigh, cracking his neck from side to side while grinning vivaciously, “And your remaining foot isn’t faring much better~ I may have lost a hand, but your head ought to be quite the consolation prize!!” he declared cockily, cracking his knuckles, ignoring the many bruises scattered through his body.

  Eiken grinned in response, clasping his hands together, “Hey, how come your power doesn’t decimate the air you need to breathe? How come you aren’t using your power on the sand that’s been sticking to your clothes and skin?” he asked, ignoring everything his enemy had just said. Grey Matter stopped for a moment, raising an eyebrow, “Because I don’t have to, duh,” he shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing ever, “If I used my power on the air, I’d die. If I used my power on the sand, I’d exhaust myself to death rather quickly, wouldn’t I? Plus, I can just reactivate it at any moment if you try anything funny like shooting sand at me.” It’s just like what Number Four said. The hero thought with a smirk, more trickles of blood emerging from his nose, his hands clasping together and making a clapping sound. This guy’s just letting me know exactly how his power works, the idiot. I more or less had already figured it out anyway, but the confirmation’s nice.

  “Fascinating!! I guess I was going about this the wrong way the whoooole time, huh??” Eiken laughed eagerly, a rather large portal suddenly materializing in front of him, “I was trying to beat you through brute force all this time, but I guess it just wasn’t the correct form of it!!” Oliver’s eyes narrowed at these words, his foot swishing backwards in the sand, his fists raised as he stared into the portal expectantly. Meanwhile, in Rome, a building fell from the sky. Number Four stared at the descending structure with narrowed eyes, beige tentacles emerging from the ground underneath the building and snaking their way through the sky towards it, the visual looking like something straight out of some cosmic horror nonsense. “Why are you doing that, Lev?” Immortalis asked him casually with a raised eyebrow, walking up behind the higher ranking hero, “Won’t Eiken want to use the force from the building falling in an attack or something?”

  Breadman’s eyes darted towards the young hero despite the rest of his body remaining unmoving, his arms crossed while yellow light emanated from around his sunglasses, “Not this time. If Warpbreaker wanted to use it, he’d have first teleported it from side to side a little in order to warn the rest of us not to stop it. Empress has been forcing him to do that ever since he almost killed a bunch of kids by letting a school bus drop from the sky,” he replied matter-of-factly, the tentacles rising from the ground making contact with the building and then immediately coiling into the form of springs, absorbing the impact and cushioning the fall of the structure. John blinked a few times at those words, tilting his head to the side slightly, “Damn. Warpbreaker really is a fuckin’ psycho, huh. Although I guess the rest of us aren’t all that much better…” he considered bitterly, voicing his thoughts out loud. Lev sighed, turning around and walking away as soon as the building was safely on the ground, “Don’t lump us all in with him, Number Seven,” he muttered with a serious yet somewhat softened tone of voice, “I, for one, wouldn’t consider myself a ‘psycho,’ and I recommend you never do so yourself. We must be better than that, if we are to call ourselves heroes - no, if we are to even consider ourselves human beings.”

  “Brute force?! What the hell are you talking abo-?!” Grey Matter was unable to finish his sentence, a torrential hurricane of sand suddenly spilling forth from the portal like a tsunami brewed by the very wrath of the gods. Every single grain of the substance had the speed equivalent of a bullet, making the flood appear more like a liquid than an agglomeration of solid particles. The sheer force of the impact would have been enough to completely tear apart a normal human to shreds in mere moments, stripping them of their skin followed by their flesh and finally internal organs in quick succession. It’s the equivalent of dragging him through sandpaper with a jet. Warpbreaker thought with satisfaction, his eyes becoming bloodshot as more trails of blood continued to flow down from his nose and down his chin, yet he refused to budge or even blink.

  Grey Matter’s first layer of skin was peeled away nearly instantly before he panickedly activated his ability against the sand, revealing the soft pinkish dermis underneath. How the fuck is he doing this?! Oliver thought to himself in a maddened haze, the blur of yellowish-brown drowning out his field of vision entirely to the point where he couldn’t even see his arms outstretched in front of him. The amount of force behind this sand is insane!! He must be pulling something ridiculous to keep this up - surely he can’t last long like this?! Eiken grinned widely, having nearly completely lost track of Oliver under the unrelenting sandstorm, only able to keep an eye on him due to continuously teleporting away the sand directly above him. I can’t keep this up for long. The Celestial admitted to himself. He was doing something that could only be considered brutally inefficient even by the most generous of standards, and as such his energy was being drained at an unprecedented rate. Number Six was continuously teleporting over sixty tons of sand per second a kilometer into the air, letting it fall back down to earth where a portal awaited it at the very bottom where it would lead directly to the one the rebel had been staring into moments ago. The hero had also, to ensure maximum power, opened various portals to all the windiest places on earth and made them lead to the sand waterfall in order to blast high-velocity wind into the descending dust.

  I can’t keep this up for long. I have to get out of here before I exhaust myself to death!! Grey Matter growled internally, coughing up blood that would only fly right back into his mouth from the horrid amount of wind flying at him. The rebel attempted to start moving, gritting his teeth and trying to make his way out of the range of the portal threatening to tear him asunder the moment he was too exhausted to keep his power activated. “Oh nooooo~ You don’t!!!” The Celestial laughed wickedly, gargling on his own blood before spitting it out, clapping his hands together and moving the portal slightly towards where Grey Matter was going, making it clear to the rebel that there was to be no escape.

  Oliver snarled up at the flying Celestial, finally spotting him through the torrent he was trapped in, noticing the streaks of red flowing down from Eiken’s face and staining his clothes, “You can’t do this forever, lapdog!!! As soon as you’re too exhausted to keep going, I’ll-!!” he snarled, pointing a finger up at the hero before suddenly and unceremoniously falling to his knees, coughing up even more blood. Neither of them spoke again for the duration of their battle, they couldn’t afford it. Every last piece of their concentration and their energy had to be dedicated to maintaining their powers going, to the point where Warpbreaker was forced to teleport himself to the floor, knowing he couldn’t keep continuously teleporting himself to remain floating in the air if he wanted to win. In the end, the confrontation ended because of one single variable; Oliver was fighting for his life, and Eiken was fighting to win.

  Shit. I can’t… I have to stop now, or else I’ll seriously kill myself!! Number Six thought to himself bitterly, lowering his hands, all the portals closing, coughing up blood pathetically and staining the sand below him as he struggled to move. Oliver, meanwhile, slowly opened his eyes as soon as he realised that the assault on his body had stopped, blood pouring out of every orifice on his face while he slowly turned his head to look at the hero currently laying down on the sand, a villainous grin slowly beginning to spread on his lips. The rebel extended a hand forward, grabbing at the sand in front of himself and pulling on it, slowly dragging his body across the floor, his eyes fixated on the collapsed Celestial. Neither of them spoke, their throats too parched to produce a sound, but the message had been clear. Even now, even on the verge of death, Grey Matter would claw his way towards Eiken and claim his victory even if it cost him his life.

  Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck!! I have… To get… Out!! The hero grit his teeth, his eyes narrowing, pressing a palm against the ground below him. Now the variables had equalized, as he was fighting for his life, and like with Grey Matter, it gave him the last push he needed; his eyes sputtering one last flash of light. And then, he was gone. He teleported away, he fled. NO!!! Grey Matter furiously thought, punching the sand. And now what, I'll bleed to death in the desert?! Like THIS?! After having WON?! “Long time no see, Oliver,” a voice suddenly echoed out through the desert, causing the furious rebel to turn his head painfully towards the sound, his hazy and unfocused eyes visualising the silhouette of a certain man that the killer was all too happy to see. The man approached Grey Matter and extended a hand towards him, his eyes shining in a dark wine red color, “So, what will it be, Grey Matter? Do you want to slowly bleed out here in the desert? Or do you want to win?~”