"Fall back! Fall back!"
"Captain — Gukh!"
While they were running back to regroup, the Infected suddenly shot at an even greater speed than ever, straight at Harry. However, Aaron was able to react in time to create another one of his black portals where Desmond was about to hit.
However, he had already deflected one too many strong punches from Desmond, so this time his portal shattered and he spat blood. Nevertheless, the hit was taken by Desmond himself, so he got blasted away successful.
"Heh, gotcha." Desmond smirked as he flew out of control, towards Aaron.
'No! I was his target all along!' Out of everyone on the field, Aaron's ability was one of the most annoying one, and the one Desmond chose to get rid of after that underground snake trap.
As he launched himself towards Harry, he threw a punch right for the left side of his stomach, but Aaron's portal showed up and he was the one who got hit beside his body. And because of the force he had put in the attack, it was able to throw him at Aaron like a projectile, surprising the already exhausted man.
Aaron winced as Desmond's hand reached his face. However, a yellow light suddenly descended from the sky, at the flying palm.
"Tsk." Desmond took back his hand and without making contact with the floor, rolled in mid air. When the yellow light passed, the backs of his legs were striking down at Aaron's head instead.
Pang!
However, he struck a transparent barrier and Aaron was able to escape.
"You really want him dead don't you?" Nova's voice sounded from the sky.
"You're really annoying, aren't you?!" He broke off a large chunk of the floor and hurled it towards Nova.
But like she had been doing all this while, she dodged with little effort. Nova constantly used the difference in altitude between the two of them to attack while also being able to avoid Desmond's attacks at a safe distance. It was because of her constant intervention that Desmond was unable to kill another person apart from Liv.
But, if Desmond was to be asked what part of Nova he hated the most, then he had to confess that it was her ability. Nova's ability belonged to a one of a kind ability group called, 'Level rending' abilities.
These abilities were called that because of the power they could manifest. They were able to go against abilities of the same ability levels, and of a higher individual level. With a top level rending ability, a person could do fairly well against someone of at most, ten levels above them! So they were like cheat skills. And what made abilities obvious that they were capable of 'level rending ' was because of the one skill they had that made them transcend levels. This skill in particular though, came with a high cost. The higher the cost, the more levels it's user transcends.
And Albert's ability, [The Miser] was definitely a top level rending ability that allowed him to skip ten levels when going all out. But even though he did skip ten levels, Desmond was still nine levels apart from level 60. And the higher the level, the higher the difference in power; this meant that, nine of those levels left, were even stronger than ten of the ones Albert skipped.
BOOM!
A small explosion occurred as Nova sent another light dart at Desmond, followed by a couple more.
"Shoot!" Desmond, hurriedly, turned and dodged, moving through each and every one of the attacks, and trying not to allow them to touch him. Unlike Albert's straight forward skill that increased his strength and other stats, Nova's ability was definitely more tricky. Although, if hit by Nova, Desmond would be able to heal himself when he ate a blood ball, he was unsure of when that was going to happen again because of the annoying silver haired girl. And most of all, he didn't want her light ability to touch him again like it had once, because then, it hurt so much that he was still scratching the hit part. Desmond's slightly tougher than normal skin was still susceptible to her safe attacks.
"Now!"
As Nova yelled, she stretched one hand downwards and shot out a ball of light. And as that fist sized ball of light progressed with it's movement, it's size also increased rapidly.
As it reached in front of Desmond, the ball was already the size of a storey tall building.
Desmond pressed his legs against the ground and hit hard break from speeding, then bolted off to a safe direction. However, the giant ball of light suddenly exploded behind him, and soon his vision turned blank.
"What the?" Desmond kept on running, albeit blindly. It came as a surprise that the ball of light had only blinding properties and was otherwise harmless. Still, it had made him vulnerable.
BOOM!!!
The ground beneath Desmond's feet was suddenly busted open like before, when it was like the green snake. But now, nothing was underneath, it was just an abyss, a vortex of spinning sand.
But that wasn't all. Above Desmond's head was a giant spear lance. The spear was exactly Zhao Yun's but it now had an orange energy spear, three storeys long around it; and a wide cone made of earth, covering its tip.
As the spear descended, it pierced through the atmosphere, sending out violent waves of wind everywhere, some waves even strong enough to crack the nearby hills.
Desmond had nowhere to go. Beneath him was a seemingly endless tunnel of black, and above him was a spear attack that contained the abilities of four members of Squad 3. There was no way out. He was finished.
Harry clenched his fists as he looked onwards, hoping their plan would work. It should, because it had taken an awful lot of their energy to make.
This attack was their final card because, after they cast it, they would be useless for a while.
However, fate proved to be unfair once again,
"I have received a vision." Desmond's unexpected voice was clear in the midst of the chaos around him.
BOOM!!!
The arrow came down to the earth, turning everything within five hundred kilometers into dust and rubble.
The wind pushed violently, the earth shook and trembled and massive waves of dust and stones were being thrown everywhere. The squad had no choice but to close their eyes from afar. Only to open them to that familiar, heart wrenching sound.
KA!
Tony was the next to fall.
———
A lone man in black was treading slowly over a body of water. However, with each step he made, no ripples formed over the lake, he wasn't touching the water, but walking over it.
He turned his head to the sky in thought.
"Are you sure you weren't hallucinating? I mean you have been training for like, thirty days straight."
"I don't know. But she isn't home and I can't even track her location, so I'm not taking any chances."
Asher had searched the entire city, but even at that, he had not found Nova. The last place she was seen was Coity. And he knew that from the news report made by the people who witnessed her passing.
Although, her figure was covered in a white cloak, Asher was certain it was her. But as to where the highlands he saw in his 'vision' was or where she went, he was unsure. There was no such place on Ansel.
"Hmm... If you want to find her, then why don't you do the 'thing?'"
"Hmm? Don't you think that's the first thing I would have done since I came here?"
"Yeah I know but, that was child's play."
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't know how the world looks when you've mastered your primal instincts do you? Sometimes I wonder, if this really is your body... Or mine?"
"..."
"..."
Asher brought his head down and closed his eyes. His vision turned dark, obviously. However, soon he started to feel multiple threads coming at him from every direction. The threads were of different colours and sizes, and as soon as they came in contact with Asher's body, a multicoloured wireframe of his environment started to form in his mind.
The lake, the creatures in it, the trees nearby, and even a glimpse of the town surrounding the big lake. He could see a lot of things, alas, there was no thread connecting to Nova.
Asher had expected this however, so the disappointment he felt was little.
"Brains...? Multitasking...? Inefficiency?"
"What are you rambling on about?" Asher's eyes twitched as he tried to increase his focus under the Old Man's incessant mumbling.
"I don't know how those species' brains work, but the way you use your instincts is just like that. You just know what you want to do and let your body go automatic. But it's your body, own it, force it.
Come on, ask yourself, what do you need? You wanna find her right? Well she isn't here!"
"Then what the heck am I supposed to do!" Large waves started to rise along with Asher's frustration. "Search you said, I'm searching, but I can't find her scent. None of it!"
"Well there you have it." The Old Man laughed. "The smell of her hair, clothes, even her breath and skin. That's what you're trying to track right? But how long exactly has she been out in the wild? Those things get contaminated Asher, soiled, blocked. There will always be factors that manipulate those things in the short run..."
"Then..."
"Her damn soul Asher! You know what you are!" The surroundings quietened, the water beneath his feet, calming after being agitated by his rage and frustration.
"You've been avoiding it, not wanting to admit it because you wanted to preserve that image of your innocent little girl. But she's not that person anymore. With how putrid and prickly her soul smells like, it's not hard to get it is? Your 'sister', is a killer, a murderer, just... like... you."
BOOM!
It only had that much of a reprieve, before the lake scattered, almost splitting in two as Asher's seemingly infinite killing aura desecrated the atmosphere. But the Old Man wasn't done with his taunting.
"Hurry up and pick her scent, no one else is allowed to taste her black, black soul... but I."
Asher's red aura spread even further, covering the entire lake and killing every weak and unlucky creature that couldn't resist its strangle. His eyes turned blank, he couldn't control it, he couldn't control himself.
It was ironic how he was able to be the mastermind to countless shenanigans and crimes on Earth, yet, he couldn't even figure out how his body worked. He wasn't human, not an Animat, he wasn't even a beast.
Waking up one day in a child's body, of an unknown species, and an alive conscience, his confusion on what he was, was definitely grounded.
In the town surrounding the lake, a red mist started to spread and crawl into the houses and streets, from the center of the province, the lake.
It caused a riot as people started to flee from the unknown substance. But once there were no more places to run, eventually, the mist caught up to them.
To their relief however, the most did nothing to harm then. All they felt coming from it was a spine chilling vibe and the twinge that their inner selves were being watched.
The coiled, multicoloured threads around Asher suddenly started to straighten till they turned taut, a few started to disappear, while the rest that were there, were bathed into a crimson glow.
Now there were only three coloured threads around; white, brown and black, surrounded by red light.
The mist was absorbed into the threads, giving them new functions. Asher's mind was now fully black, thankfully, with the threads taking in the mists, he was able to regain control.
Focusing his sight on one particular path, he was able to find a black thread moving around in the air.
However, it seemed to disappear somewhere within space. But more intriguing than that black thread was a popular white colour. However, this thread shone brighter than every other thread in the environment and even had golden dots around it.
"Really putrid, blegh." The Old Man felt like puking from the cringe purity of that person's soul.
Asher smiled. He shouldn't have been scared to look in the first place, Nova was Nova, and her path was still very bright. He jumped off the lake and flew at breakneck speed, out of Coity, to the ocean. He rose his hands to where the black and white threads were moving around.
[Null]
That hungry black flame in his soul crawled around his sharp fingers as Asher plunged both his hands into nowhere in particular, ripping space itself. The flame roared and ate as much as it could of the scrumptious spacial manipulation energy in the atmosphere. But the feast was infinite, as the wall kept on repairing itself.
But just enough space was all he needed.
So making that, he jumped through the tear he had just created, and it shut closed, sealing him in nowhere.