While discussing the Killing Game's true intentions were put off until each of them acquired the power that came with a set minimum level, their involvement within the game was another story entirely.
"When we declare our participation and enter on the day of declaration, what're we supposed to do? Baselessly kill until Alex drops a bomb, leaving only the strong to duke it out for themselves?" asked Ace, walking alongside the Detective.
"Of course not. I hate acting buddy-buddy with my enemies but I guess you're the exception. You see, instead of adhering to Alex's rules, I plan to slaughter as many 'bad people' as possible and use the points to create rules that the players have to follow. You see, following our exposure to Alex's Vita when we meet at the barrier, we'll likely be separated," Detective Karlo informed the ginger.
"Huh? What makes you think so?"
"Alex isn't stupid. We've already been marked so we're forced to participate in the Killing Game but he knows we're coming specifically. I think, instead of enforcing a restriction on the commissioned curtain that'll be surrounding Retly, he'll secretly start the game prematurely for those already ensnared by the barrier. He'll work through the players and rely on them to create rules that restrict not only other players, but more specifically, us," Azazel explained.
Ace momentarily remained silent. Numerous thoughts seemingly coursed through his head while he silently walked down the sidewalk alongside the Detective.
"So… long story short, there are already players inside the barrier waiting to ambush us the moment we enter?" he questioned.
"Pretty much." The two reached a bench ingrained into the curb's concrete—Detective Karlo crossed his legs as he sat. "What're you thinking?" he asked.
Ace plastered his bottom onto the same bench, seated to his uncle's right. Touching the tips of his fingers altogether, the ginger's eyes temporarily closed while one sigh vented from his partially-open lips.
"I don't know…"
The Detective observed his nephew's expressions. His stoic face leaned back—mouth briefly covered by his gloved hand. Removing the hand covering his lips, he looked back at the boy.
"Ace."
The ginger's head turned, having heard his uncle call his name. Peering through the fallen strands shadowing his pale face, Karlo sneered, now digging into his pocket. Ace's eyes stood locked on the Detective as he rummaged through his pockets, revealing a spliff between two fingers.
"How're you doing? Mentally, I mean."
His lips parted and his eyes widened in unison. Averting his gaze from his relative's familiar features, he slowly closed his mouth. The snow spikes littering his hair's outskirts hid his eyes' bright red coloration, head already dropped.
"I…"
…
Present-day, amid the Killing Game in Retly.
Lucifer threw both arms ahead, summoning multiple gateways to Hell behind him. Using Eternal Sight to mentally mark each gateway, Ace's face smeared into space after he dashed away. Heat-seeking beams targeted him, destroying every abandoned storefront and building. Exiting the restaurant he barged into from the window, the ginger stumbled onto the road, speedily zipping across the colony as he attempted to lose the projectiles.
'What speed. Is he even using Divergence to boost it?' considered Lucifer from afar.
He ran up a skyscraper, absolutely shattering the glass windows under his soles during his sprint and then leaping into the air once reaching the tower's summit. Turning around in mid-air, Ace looked down from overhead. Admiring Retly's cityscape from above, he exhaled through his mouth and nostrils, sparkling red eyes reflecting the chaotic civilization. If he remained idle up here, those blasts would decimate him in due time.
Ace threw his right arm behind his head, scarlet pupils glistening against the bright blue airspace. Having channeled enough Vita through his nervous system that the city's lamps started flickering, Lucifer perspired and smirked, witnessing it from below.
"You serious?!"
'Corrupted Bolt - Red: HARNESS!'
It was like a scene torn right from a fantasy. The clear sky surrounded by countless clouds accompanied by blinding sunlight was instantaneously dismissed and replaced by a crimson thunderstorm. Red lightning bolts falsely enveloped the Scarlet King, charging every dormant cell within him to the maximum—but it wasn't enough. Not yet. A sonic boom erupted in the sky above, sending the players on ground-level to instinctively cover their ears, excluding Lucifer Morningstar. Still, in awe at the way the King invoked his full strength, the Demon Prince giggled.
Once he finished blinking, there he was, throwing his charged fist across the air—red hair swaying in the wind. Lucifer raised his trident, initiating a clash between the dueling players. Their environment suffered the consequences in the form of crumbling buildings and level roads.
"Are you my dessert, ACE WILDER?!" Lucifer loudly asked.
"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!"
They broke their clash. Ace's head, devoid of white, moved with the wind as he surveyed with Eternal Sight from afar. Stabilizing his ragged breathing, the ginger peered through his prohibiting strands and started deeply inhaling. Having shattered his power's unspoken limit, he propelled himself forward uncaringly, throwing his leg forward. Wilder's kick hit Lucifer's trident, but he was blown back by the attack's force.
'Too… heavy!'
Lucifer launched down the road after Ace punched his chest. Jerking his wrist forward, he ran ahead, watching the golden thread entangle itself around Morningstar's ankle. Yanking him tightly before his enemy's back smashed into any infrastructures, Wilder painfully unhinged his jaw and threw him up into the air. Watching him soar beyond the clouds, Ace immediately vanished, looking around after having warped beside Lucifer.
Eternal Sight barely managed to process the slice aiming for his back, for Ace quickly managed to react and catch the trident's length. Slapping it aside, Lucifer grunted, watching with widened eyes as Wilder maneuvered across the clouds. The Scarlet King slapped him across the face, then punched him square in the chest, continuously striking his ribs. Morningstar was powerless to do anything, independently jolting once his body processed each attack's assured brutality.
For the final touch, Ace punched him in the gut, sunk his knuckles into his left cheek, and kicked him across the face. Lucifer spun throughout the clouds, blood splattering from his nose to dirty the left of the Scarlet King's uncaring features. The ginger jumped through the clouds, chasing after the Demon Prince.
"AGH!" Lucifer recoiled, spitting blood from the corner of his mouth.
He turned back to the fight. The Six Eyes of Satan analyzed everything. Then, Lucifer giggled, all the while he vanished into a cloud that suddenly appeared right behind him. Ace wasn't having it. His raised hand spliced the cloud in two, leftover sparks of Red's offensive infecting the surrounding air. On the other side, exorbitant swords, each designed and shaped differently, came flying toward him.
'Bloody Individual.'
Lucifer and Ace switched places. The sudden switch left Morningstar disoriented, experiencing flashbacks of his battle against the Reaper during the Old World's infamous Destructive Advent. Peering past the numerous blades heading his way, the Demon Prince glared into Ace Wilder's scarlet eyes. His intertwined fingers came into view, pulsating the same coloration his eyes were drenched in.
'Corrupted Bolt Enhancement - Maximum Vita Output: Spatial Condense.'
Crushing the space around each of Lucifer's limbs after invoking that technique left the Demon Prince lamenting his sudden mutilation. Soon, his entire body was penetrated all over by the numerous swords he'd thrown earlier. The light enlightening his satanic Six Eyes began dwindling once Lucifer was devoid of consciousness. Upon crashing through the golden clouds' false heaven, his body covered the sun. The fallen angel's unparalleled beauty wound up landing on a deserted rooftop. Bleeding from his body's every cut hole, Morningstar's horned head raised from the bloody puddle, lips, and nose scarred.
"So you can still move, even after that?" Ace asked, perched on a billboard overlooking the Prince and slouching with his right arm.
"There's a lot of shit you don't know about me… PETULANT REQUIEM ABOMINATION!!"
The building the two fighters used started rumbling. Ace worriedly jolted, momentarily checking his footing and then looking at Lucifer's floored body. Instead of moaning in despair, the demonic power within him surpassed all human limits, unfortunately consuming the human vessel in its madness. After enveloping his physical vessel in hatred, Lucifer newly stood, drenched in the blackness that expressed mist the same shade as his dark cloak. Blowing away long strands covering his two eyes, the Demon Prince grinned up at Ace.
"Let's end this."
The ginger scoffed. "Whatever you say," he said, jumping down from the bulletin and landing on the same rooftop Lucifer stood on.
Following the invocation of multiple projectiles, both Ace and Lucifer's techniques were momentarily depleted. However, that wasn't a problem for either of them.
Their arms quickly raised–the ginger's fists darting toward his demonic opponent. The Prince recognized that look inside Ace's bloody eyes. His manic smirk expanded, wielding his newly-manifested shadow trident all the while his blackened cloak swayed with the wind.
"I'll bring your dead body back to the Judge and gain my freedom… then SLAUGHTER EVERY LAST ONE OF THOSE ANIMALS THAT'S IN THIS WORLD!!!"
Whatever Lucifer cried was irrelevant to him. Right now, this battle was unimportant compared to that question the Detective asked many months ago by now.
'Ace. How're you doing? Mentally, I mean.'
His bloody retinas reflected the boundless blue sky. Red hair swaying courtesy of the wind's immovable flow, Ace's soft eyes admired the higher scenery as he slowly exhaled. Suddenly, he was sitting beside the Detective, quickly realizing he'd mentally returned to the past. His voice spoke words beyond his control. Despite that, the answer he gave was, from the bottom of Ace's heart, the unmistakable truth. Even him in the present believed that… without fail.
"I… ever since I was a kid, I couldn't look away when something was bothering me. Whether that be the weak, powerless, or less fortunate, it was irrelevant. I should be more careful about the people I save when I delude myself. After all, Lady Justice is blind for a reason. But, even so, I don't care about any of that. I want to be able to make decisions on my own, to save people unequally—regardless if they're ready for it or not. Everyone deserves an equal chance to be happy. Even if I'm the only one, I want to keep my eyes open."
In the present, Ace pushed together the tip of his pointer finger and thumb—the other three fingers pointed forward. Lucifer snickered, curiously tilting his head from afar. The Demon Prince couldn't wait any longer. And so, he pounced onto his prey, abandoning his sharpened trident, now bearing demonic claws. Unfortunately, that was where he made his mistake.
Despite his ambiguous morals, Ace knew the buildings surrounding them were abandoned. Because of this, he channeled Red into his fingertip beyond its normal capacity. The moment the Demon Prince leaped, animalistic claws shining gleaming in the sun, the Scarlet King had already finished charging his attack.
'You fought my old man during the Destructive Advent but I have access to most of his memories. When I said some of his memories still weren't unlocked, I wasn't lying. After thoroughly examining the memories I can access through Eternal Sight, I found out I have access to so much more than what meets the eye. June advances when I do—we're connected by something invisible, akin to the nonlinear Seas of Time. Theoretically, I use the correct hand signs and summon half of that power just momentarily… to use for myself. Divergence. Convergence. Multiplying results in the unbeatable mass that obliterates anything it touches.
Corrupted Bolt - Red. Orderly Thunder - Green.
Unmistakable Slaughter: Infinite Stream.'
By the time Ace lowered his arm from covering his eyes, the blast already hit. What lay before him was Infinite Stream's unmatched destruction—in the form of absolutely nothing remaining where hundreds of buildings formerly stood.
Ace sighed.
'I still have trouble controlling that technique. It kinda feels like overkill,' he thought, rubbing his nape.
"Hey, Luci! You still alive 'round here?!"
Once the remaining dust surrounding the rooftop settled, it revealed what he sought. Swaying in the wind, there stood the bloodied, beaten body of one Lucifer Morningstar. The light from his four eyes burned ever brighter. The ginger scoffed. His hands pocketed, he stepped across the platform and withdrew his left hand, throwing it onto his opponent's shoulder.
Lucifer suddenly felt reinvigorated. His half-dead pupils curiously slid across his eyeballs once his head turned, locking onto Ace's youthful face.
"You're… healing me?" he asked.
"I'm thinkin' about it. If you give me all of your points, I'll enter a pact with you and spare your life," Ace offered.
"Why?"
"Because I'm better than you. I came for something more than killing but you can't see beyond that so do yourself a favor and give the damn points before I remove my hand already," the ginger replied.
"Tch…"
Transfer complete. Ace Wilder now holds 1250 points.
By summoning life energy from his soul and outputting it through your fingers, 'Rejuvenation' is possible. Their power levels vary from person to person, but it's an inherited technique originating from Madisyn Rivera's Vita signature. It's impossible to completely revive someone after their soul leaves the mortal plane, but while they linger on the brink of death itself–like Lucifer here–complete regeneration remains within the realm of possibility.
The Demon Prince looked down at his previously annihilated body, jovial at his completed regeneration; bursting into maniacal laughter. Unfortunately, the second Ace removed his hand, he started walking away. All the Vita spent on rejuvenating Lucifer instantly returned to its source: the Scarlet King. The pact had been completed… but at the price of the Demon Prince's life.
Now holding 1250 points, Ace stood at the rooftop's verge, his hands pocketed. Ginger strands flying in the wind, Eternal Sight's vast perception embedded Retly's scenery into its memory. Then, its master decided to turn away, placing unscratched shades over his scarlet pupils. While walking away to find his next lead, those words streamed through his mind a second time.
'Even if I'm the only one, I want to keep my eyes open.'
Trivia: Eternal Sight can copy and adapt to any techniques excluding Divergence but Ace was being bombarded so he didn't have an opportunity to do so to Lucifer. Using support techniques like Eternal Sight and Rejuvenation continually is more stressful on the body than offensive techniques like Divergence but Ace stores leftover Vita within Eternal Sight so he easily bypasses this restriction.