Rockfish sighed as he looked back at Pueris.
The two were currently lying down on sun loungers by a refreshing poolside.
The humidity from the pool gave out a comforting atmosphere.
The artificial sun formed by Shrarld no more than a few years ago sent down numbing heat.
Rockfish cleared his throat.
"You know, I once thought that all Villains were evil, all Heroes were good all that hot stuff."
Pueris looked back in acceptance.
"Cool. I'm guessing... you think something else now?"
Rockfish smirked with minimal effort.
"Yeah. Villains are complicated. Heroes too. But Shrarld... that guy."
"He's pure evil."
BOOM.
A gigantic mass of muscles blasted through a small family, sending intestines, guts blood, and writhing emotions all over the place.
The poor things had been stuck in place by Shrarld's shadows without remorse.
Shrarld just kept on running onwards in top form not holding back in even the slightest way or form.
Those at the doors of the airport attempted to run, but shadows from their surroundings began permeating and swallowing them. Their eyes shook and moistened as they looked around in distress.
A balding middle-aged man who was about to return to his wife screamed with snot slathered down his lips.
"PLEASE. YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS."
Only his head stuck out as the rest of his body had been dragged into the gloomy shadows behind him.
Shrarld just kept on blasting forwards, his arms going back and forth like blurs. Shrarld met eyes with the man and grinned like a mosaic.
The man shrieked, his tongue flapping up and down in his mouth.
Shrarld just kept on driving forwards, the remains of his past victims slowly flying off the front of his tight leather jacket.
The sun-lit city of New York behind Shrarld wept in his indulgences.
Just as Shrarld was a hairs length away from turning the shrieking balding man before him into a pallor of crimson red innards, two basic white dice slotted themselves smoothly between the two.
Shrarld's eyes wandered down to view them in a tiny frame of time.
Like they had been ignited, the dice lit up until they had become pure radiant constructs of neon-white and then formed a barrier between Shrarld and the man.
Due to momentum, Shrarld forcibly activated the barrier.
Bang.
The balding man was still weeping behind his arms, his body had turned into a turtle shortly after gaining an ungainly fowl.
The man's eyes were tear-laden and he crawled away uncaring for anything else in the world.
Shrarld's figure shot back like a bullet, crashing into a car within moments.
The white dice had immediately released a repulsive force that had shocked even Shrarld upon contact.
The red Porsche that Shrarld had ravaged just by merely using as a crashmat toppled over after Shrarld calmly stood himself up.
A man stood straight in Shrarld's line of sight, unfearful.
His eyes were burning with determination and his figure was still with confidence.
He was...
"Roller."
A small boy within the airport pointed in glee. The day had been saved.
Roller possessed smooth grey hair that reached halfway down his forehead. His face had been known to be a charmer and he never faltered before injustice. His grey attire matched his hair flawlessly.
Roller breathed out in relief.
His mutters were inaudible to Shrarld.
"Thank god I rolled a 12 but even so, that should've been more than enough to send anyone out of New York."
Roller's face squirmed.
If his strongest and luckiest dice throw had only sent his Opponent back slightly then how would his others fare?
Shrarld grumbled and without a second of time to waste, he-.
He sat on the red Porsche that he had just thoroughly smashed to pieces through his momentum.
Roller chuckled.
"Bad move, big guy."
Holding out his right hand, the two dice that he had just sent in between Shrarld and the man using his mind flew back into his hands rapidly. Their glow had dimmed.
Roller chucked them in the air, unbothered by Shrarld's antics.
4+5.
Roller shrugged.
It would do.
With his ability, Shrarld could produce an oddity of attacks depending on what he got. Some were mysterious, others defensive, and some just pure power like his 12 roll. But he always knew that he could count on his dice.
Until he met Shrarld, that was.
As Roller's dice dived through the air smoothly right towards Shrarld, they were stopped.
Tugged, pulled, and yanked down by a legion of shadows from surrounding vehicles.
Roller's eyes squinted. He pulled his hand out and soon a forceful tug of war began.
The force of Roller's whole ability that centered around his dice was... outmatched?
Shrarld merely sitting down and enjoying the show was a slap in the face for Roller who couldn't retrieve his only fighting chance.
As an -A- Rank Hero Roller had always been respected and idolized but Roller felt like he had seen the man before him at some point in time long ago.
Roller's thoughts went crashing around his mind on a journey as his right arm reverberated. The force being put in to retrieve his dice was still thoroughly battling Shrarld's net of shadows that had ascended from several cars.
Eventually, Roller won through sheer willpower and force.
A smirk arose on his charming face.
Roller almost danced from joy.
As the dice flew back into Roller's hands a small mass of murky black remnated on the back of said dice.
And as the dice glided back into Roller's hands, the small murky black spots formed inky-black spikes that grew rapidly and pierced straight through the back of Roller's head.
Blood streamed out from Roller as his body slowly collapsed, in only a few seconds his brain had started malfunctioning. His lip quivered as his body hit the warmed floor.
His dice melted into the concrete below them. Becoming sloppy white masses of boiling liquid. Unlike Shrarld, Roller's ability was an internal one. Therefore it fell when he fell. The writhing shadows would be alive long after Shrarld fell.
Shrarld got up and immediately resumed his charge into the now noisy airport.
Shrieks and screams emerged from children as the wiser ran without guilt for those left behind.
Shrarld looked at all before him in impudence.
Boing.
As if thick-smooth black rubber had been pulled every single person in the airport lounge, whether old or young. Screaming or silent.
All of them.
All of them were pierced by flawless and beautiful arrays of shadows and then they all turned silent.
Deathly silent, to be exact.
Only in death, were all in the airport lounge equal.
In the resort of the Shadow Realm.
Pueris and Rockfish stood before each other, separated by a clear-blue ping-pong table. The net was a vibrant stringy green.
Pueris occasionally used his time-ability from instinct. The sight of a small red object coming towards him rapidly was quite frightening.
"Argh. You can't keep doing that Pueris."
Rockfish furrowed his eyebrows in frustration. He picked up the ball that had gone a little too slow for his racket with an irk plastered on his face.
It didn't help that Rockfish was unfairly masterful in the art of ping-pong.
As the two traded blows through a hollow red ball back and forth they engaged in idle chatter.
Rockfish sighed.
"And then Shrarld turned up to his father's hiding place."
Pueris raised his eyebrows in fake anticipation.
"And then he died?"
Rockfish chuckled.
"No, Shrarld tortured his father for 8 days and 8 nights."
The two had been on the topic of Shrarld for a while. Pueris found it easy to communicate through since he knew exactly which topics would have enjoyable and communicable answers.
The ball dropped to the floor before bouncing unpredictably.
Pueris picked it up patiently, aiding himself with his time-ability. The ball drooped in slow motion before Pueris snatched it in satisfaction.
Pueris did a light but swift serve.
"Still... How powerful do you think Shrarld is? I'm just wondering since I don't know his power level that well. Or rather, at all."
Rockfish shrugged as the two engaged in another back and forth, just trying to rack up numbers rather than trying to win the game.
"Well, although Shrarld might look strong to you, me... All of us. In reality, he's also severely disadvantaged."
Pueris nodded as his ears perked.
"As you know, when you have a powerful ability you get heaps of force. Technically Shrarld has a strong ability but it's in bad form. His ability lets him control external forces not his own. The only reason he has enough energy to perform the feats he does physically is because of his special constitution. In reality, he has little to no force but a lot of energy."
(Force= Mp. Energy= Stamina.)
Pueris tilted his head, whilst doing a return with his racket.
"And that means?"
Rockfish's eyes squinted.
"It means that Shrarld will never be able to master or even fathom a force-control with the amount of force he has. He can control the force of shadows somehow but has no force of his own. That's why I don't think he'll ever be able to surpass those like Justice 7."
Pueris caught a nasty return from Rockfish.
"I see. Anything else you think that's strange about Shrarld."
Rockfish scratched his head.
"Well, I don't know why but whenever he sees any sort of number it's like a laxative on him."
Pueris held back a chuckle keeping a serious demeanor.
"Meaning?"
Rockfish sighed weakly.
"Well. Your average high-school math teacher could probably beat him in a one-on-one if they fought in a classroom."
Rockfish let out a weak chortle.
"I doubt that guy would've even survived High-School."
The two left their game at that.
Rockfish opened up his phone, he swiftly selected the news tab. A white gleam shone up to his face like a divine calling.
"What?"
Rockfish's mouth twitched violently.
"What the hell has that guy been doing?"
{Massacre in New York, Heroes killed in minutes, innocents buried in the rubble.}
{The Funeral for Thunder-Split will be held on...}
{Apologies to the families of the following-.}