'Even if you have to gnaw your way through, my sweet boy. Live.'
Those final words were all his father left for him as he stared off at the limitless sea that lay before him, with the wind moving in tandem with his spiky hair, he could only shake his head and cover his eyes. Then again, who throw could he do? Sobs started croaking out lips as he smashed his hands against his face, holding his forehead as he collapsed to his knees, the tears oozing out his eyes' corner was like the never-ending magma produced in the bottom of a superheated volcano.
"Goddammit, you old piece of shit! Why couldn't you just stay with us… we could've been a normal family. June… Mom… Katie. But…. I already know the answer to that question," The crying stopped momentarily, sniffling audibly as he wiped his nostrils with the straitjacket's sleeve, the next exhalation that came out his mouth was an unfortunate shaky one, "I have to get off this stupid rock."
There remained one final challenge before he could reach the end of this short experience, locked within the suffocating walls of a prison named 'Paradise' of all things, there was one thing that unlocked him from that special hell. And it was the very Jester he'd chased after just months prior on Thanksgiving Day, 2021. Icarus's long hair moved, as well as the back of his satanic trench coat, all to the flow of the wind, promptly aimed to the left as he stretched his arms further to the air, tired joints started to move again,
"Nice to meet you. I don't think we've truly, officially met. Icarus Chrollo. Former leader of the Jester's Deck."
That smug introduction flowing out his lips as if he had no care in the world, Ace couldn't help but clench his fists just at the sight of it. The way he seemed to not care any about the subordinates he enrolled despite them having laid down their lives for him… their so-called all-powerful Jester.
"Let's just get this shit over with. I'm not afraid… if I die, then Katie'll kill your ass instead," Ace boldly claimed so the darkened tendrils with reddened outlines, courtesy of his father, could painfully unleash bone-snapping noises as they cracked out as part of his spine.
"Well, Mr. Wilder, your wish is my command. I'll obey, for now," Icarus revealed the back of his hands to his enemy, both with sigils of a notable demon engraved right into his skin, glowing with a crimson hue, staring ahead with pentagrams forming in the center of his black eyes.
"Would you like to know something cool?"
Ace ignored his enemy's obvious taunting, running right ahead with his arms flailing behind him, red lightning streaking right around his legs. The leap was predictable, even more so with the way the tendrils moved afterward, targeting right at Chrollo's chest, tips sharpened, zooming down to aim for his vitals. The oddest thing happened, yet again. It was the same phenomenon that occurred when he battled the Reaper below. Even with the Divergence's enhanced specs that allow for such… overpowered abilities, he couldn't sense the way he moved. Not without directly moving his eyes to the right to see the levitating body of none other than the Jester, directing his leg right at the side of his body, and kicking him onto the platform once more.
Landing on his toes, barely, pupils expanding, he rolled to the right and dodged an incoming fist. Black eyes immediately darting to the ginger as Ace got back onto two feet, a fist came connecting right to his nostrils, disconnecting them both so they could shatter upon impact to his knuckles. Coughing up blood in addition to the eventual stream out his nose, Ace held his throat before he was kicked at his skull's side once more, leading to him flying to the left, flailing around in mid-air. Just as he was about to tumble off the side then descend to the bottom of the ocean, the back of his head was weighed by the insole of a shoe cracking the rear of his skull.
It had only been a few seconds since the start of the battle, and even so, Icarus Chrollo had dominated every attack Ace could throw at him. Wiping away some blood from his face accompanied by an uncaring look visible over his eyes and face, a sigh was heard; sneakily slipping out his lips' crevice to enter the atmosphere.
"How irritating, you didn't even let me finish. As I was saying, I was gonna show you something cool. My power is that of life manipulation. In other words, I can completely and totally manipulate any facet to life without any weaknesses. You'd be best to give up now, for I'd hate to damage my new toy any more," Icarus's advice would go unheard as more tendrils snapped out his back, this time, in the form of six.
Jumping back just enough so he could dodge them before they were even able to land a scratch on his being, barely, the bottoms of his shoes' tumbled back to capture the balance as he stared ahead.
'The hell? His energy… it's different.'
Ace wobbled as he reassumed a tall position, squinting his skin closer to focus Divergence's heightened power just a bit further, he could make it out. The visible embodiment of not only Icarus's life energy glowing a blood-red, like that of the demons', but himself's, as well. This was nothing new for him for the squinting motion wasn't even needed to spot the flow, it was the difference in his. It seemed his mind's hunch hadn't deceived him, after all… in reality, it was true. Icarus Chrollo had expanded his inventory of targeted demonic-life energy with malicious intent and bloodlust.
Maybe it had something to do with the cut over his temples oozing blood in a causal downward pour, just barely curving around his right eye and over his nostrils to drip off his chin.
"Are you seriously that pissed from damage one time? How childish-"
Ace didn't even get the chance to finish his sentence, the next thing he saw was the sky as the figure to his front, just a few short feet away had vanished. In short, the result was thanks to a lack of training, likely thanks to Convergence's easy weakness of being covered with enough fold to be dimmed. The back of his head slammed against the metal platform, Chrollo just barely turning his head so the corner of his eye could stare upon the unconscious body of his ginger opponent.
"How filthy. Either way, I win… meaning, I get a whole week to do whatever the hell I want to you. Hope you're ready, Wilder, this's gonna be one helluva ride.."
In the present…
Ace's hair had forgotten the usual plain-red coloration, now with snowy edges at the spiky tips, he could only stare at his fingers, painted with black shading. Convergence's scarlet pupils darted from side to side, only mere of his tormentor's body could be seen, meaning… that the darkness couldn't touch him. Of course, there was always a counter to these situations. Before, it wouldn't be used so swiftly as a resolution, but, thanks to the agony he endured helplessly, he was locked away for hours on end. Lots of thinking snapped away at his brain like the edged teeth of a shark- the core of Life itself.
"Spatial Condense - Lock-On!"
Icarus couldn't help but turn his head, like a wolf was stalking their prey, carefully hiding their furry body within obstructing bushes.
'Is that-?'
A usually invisible sphere of red mist-like energy had locked onto his soul, with the singular objective to uncover the truth and make him pay. Chrollo turned his head, kicking his feet off a wall, the trench coat was thrown off, bare feet sliding against the cluttered floor. Snapping his fingers to the circle targeting him, a black spark, almost like generated electricity- appeared.
"Why are you standing still, you fucking idiot?"
Icarus hadn't realized that he was preparing an attack while completely idle, right in front of his victim begging for blood and vengeance. There remained too many variables still available for him… too many that discussed his defeat, though brief. Though maybe that was fate, and even if Ace noticed, he'd be none the wiser to the information about to be shared with him. And so, seeing no other way out to the future ahead, confident of his ability to live, Icarus raised his arms, smugly stating with a smirk painting his chapped lips,
"Alright, alright, I give up!" But it would never be that easy, for even the Jester knew the second he announced he be defenseless, the attack would aim at his heart, "Shoulda expected that."
"You… 'give up?' After everything you did to me, after reading me apart, piece by piece… YOU THINK YOU GET OFF THAT FUCKING EASY?! YOU DON'T GET ANY RIGHT TO SURRENDER YOURSELF AND EVEN ATTEMPT TO MAKE A TRUCE WITH ME!! I'LL RIP YOU APART!" Ace's angry declaration wasn't one of half jest, for the evidence to pack up such a claim was right in front of him, as the tortured ginger started to grow more tendrils.
Icarus's observation of these new lengthened tentacles was something differing from the signature, for there were spikes embedded on the sides, not to mention with the way they were drenched in the user's blood- the way they slithered out his flesh. Like a centipede sniveling around within brain matter, having been locked within the confines of someone's mind, Ace couldn't help but fall to his knees as more maniacal laughter unleashed via his broken lips.
"Jesus Christ, I really fucked ya up, didn't I? Heh… I'm gonna love the challenge of making you mine," Icarus's creepy declaration had sent nothing but more haziness to the eyes of the Scarlet King to his front, snarling as if a rabid animal had possessed the ginger, foaming out every corner of his mouth with clenched teeth.
Licking his lips over his clear fangs, Icarus took a defensive stance, legs directing backward, aiming the tips of his toes forward, aiming his hand ahead. Fingers pushing out the gritted sign, Chrollo's breathing, contrast to Ace's cousin and how she had to carefully manipulate the flow of oxygen entering then leaving her lungs, was nonexistent. It was almost like fighting a reacting corpse puppeteered by an unseen monster pulling the strings of an unseen chess game.
The next thing he saw was the equivalent to null, for a singular flash of red was all that could be registered at least somewhat resembling his spiky-haired opponent. Nevertheless, he stood on the defensive, however, outmatched he be, the future was never set in stone. Eyes darting around, completely engulfed by the darkness of the demons, a complete 360 as he raised his limbs led to a block.
The full weight of the weapons utilized met his arms, bones snapping beneath that skinned layer, blood spitting out his lips, but even so, the momentary defense was as short-lived as the sanity of Ace Wilder. Icarus went flying out to the wall, another tendril sneaking around his chest like a snake's lengthy tail, Ace clapped his palms together, then slamming them against the metal ground below. The projectile flailing Chrollo had subtracted within his skin yet again as the Jester smashed against the metallic floor, leaving nothing but a broken back in the attack's wake, even for him, the leader of the Deck... it took a mere 10-seconds to heal. Just enough time for Ace to enforce the insulator he was standing above with that signature energy that always surrounded the bulk of his unique soul's shape.
"You're not the only piece of shit who can use Life to your advantage, CLOWN!"
That vivid cry to his enemy just behind where the chair formerly stood, in mere pieces. For what he'd witness next, Icarus would confirm the words of the Scarlet King were no mere boast, but a warning to all those who heard outside these caging walls of the dominant power of a Rivera blood incarnate in the Old World. Chrollo... had switched places. A simple ability, however, in its simplicity, there laid such daunting disorientation, vertigo not only in the pits of his stomach but the veins of such reaching even into the cells of his brains, riddled with an inescapable confusion.
"I can locate and mimic the exact coordinates of someone's life energy to match my own. From here on out, I want to make one thing clear."
Remote Activation: Implanted Corrupted Bolt - Red.
It was excruciating. For every joint cracked, wobbling skin silently screaming to be torn off sticky flesh, indistinct agonizing cries leaving lips. The steam was as hot as the sun's superheated surface as it left his burnt back to enter the atmosphere... Ace couldn't help but silently snigger at the sight of his tormentor falling over, so helpless. Face-planting the floor, no signs of blood exiting whatever cuts likely made, Ace's eyes turned to the left and right, shrugging his shoulders back.
"..."
The spiked tendril that had penetrated Icarus' back to ensure his demise coasted across the ground, like dragging a limp arm without weight to wield it upright, Ace walked right out the front door with sure shoulders. The taste of the fresh air against his face, the smell of the City's distant pollution just some ways away, in the end, he couldn't help but smile. Despite the torture he'd endured for the sake of cruel sadism, Wilder could grin at the face of beauty. The bucket of mutilated fingers and toes would go abandoned, for Paradise had sunken to the bottom of the sea, right where the wretched place belonged, Ace Wilder took one long look.
"Good riddance."
And like the Chesire Cat, he vanished to nothing but a red streak, for the venture back to the Evolutionary Capital was a mere few feet away... so close, so far. The arms of his cousin, the beautiful face of his adorable little sister... things the old Ace would wish. But having shed the phantom of the old self, the new Wilder's feet touched against a rooftop, the morning sunbathing him in bright rays as if the specialized hand of God were blessing only him... Ace looked off to the horizon.
Who knew what atrocities lay ahead of that endless blue sky ridden with Fantasia's creatures made incarnate into this cruel world where the apex predators preyed on the weak? Only time... would tell.