Chapter Three

 

“Where are the rest of your people, Jareth?” Manipulation asked. 

“Jareth?” Antithesis said looking at the leader, down at Tristan, then back at the leader. 

“This man is what happened,” Jareth said, pointing at Antithesis. Annihilation, the android, rose from examining Emilio and Carmilla’s bodies. 

“The burns were caused by a different type of flame. These were traditional flames where as the rest were by an unidentified flame,” Annihilation announced to Manipulation.

“So, you killed them, Jareth,” Manipulation guessed, correctly. “Why is that?”

“They were going to abandon my family to leave us to fight this monster,” Jareth said as sweat dripped down the side of his cheek. 

“He’s lying,” Omniarch said after using x-ray vision to see Jareth’s heart, telling both Manipulation and his older brother, Omnicide. 

“What do you suggest we do with him, hun?” Manipulation asked Omnicide, for they were in a relationship. Omnicide said nothing as heat vision came from his eyes and burned clean through Jareth’s skull, killing him. 

“Dad!” Tristan said, ready to attack the nine. 

“Take your mother and leave, Delacroix,” Omniarch said. “You will not win any fight here tonight.”

Tristan reluctantly looked at the ground, then sullenly sauntered over to his mother, picked her up, and walked out behind the nine. 

“Who are you?” Antithesis asked.

“Friends of the one you’re supposedly seeking,” Manipulation said.

“How--”

“Telepathy, James,” Manipulation answered. “You’re seeking Domination who will not return to us without good reason.”

“Meaning?” 

“Meaning you’ll have to do something drastic,” Manipulation said with a smirk. “If you think you can accomplish that.”

Temptation stepped forward, shifting into Antithesis’s wife as she did. He stood his ground as he let her approach him. 

“Hey, honey,” she said, with a relieved face. “It’s good to see you again.”

Antithesis said nothing as he pierced her stomach with his Daggers of Deception. Then he made a crossing motion, spilling Temptation’s guts, forcing her to shift back before falling to her knees and keeling over. 

The remaining eight stare in amazement and confusion at Antithesis’s feat. 

“Manipulation,” Omnicide said. She held her head, digging through Antithesis’s brain trying to figure out how she could easily dispose of his wife like he just did. 

“He’s… I don’t know…” she said. “I… he still feels the burning passion to meet his family, but no longer feels love. As if he doesn’t believe in the concept.”

“Extermination,” Omnicide said. Extermination nodded and walked forward, withdrawing his buster sword with ease and the aid of his abnormal strength, a step above super strength. Antithesis acted accordingly and withdrew his Dimension Splitter sword. The two stood in a face off, before Extermination made the first swing. Antithesis parried Extermination’s sword, causing it to slice cleanly through his weapon, shattering it, then stabbed Extermination in the throat, killing him. Omnicide gritted his teeth. 

“How?!” he boomed.

“The weapon,” Omniarch answered. “Although Extermination had the gift of a sixth sense for danger, he was unable to identify or predict what the weapon would do, resulting in a split second where he was thrown off guard by the shattering of his blade and led to his ultimate demise.”

“You three,” Omnicide said, commanding Hide, Obliteration, and Algaiis. The three of them stepped toward Antithesis, but Algaiis took a stutter step, throwing the phantom off guard as the dark blue, demonic alien tackled him through the wall onto the naked, Haven City street.

Following them through the new hole in the wall, Omnicide, Manipulation, Annihilation, and Omniarch floated out and continued to observe the fight. 

Antithesis kicked Algaiis off of him, straight up into the air, then threw his chain after the beast, wrapping it around his waist. Before tugging on the chain, Antithesis took a second to heat it up with his plasmic holyflame, causing the chain to become the same whitish-gold as the flames. When he tugged, the chain burned through Algaiis’s skin, cutting clean through his insides as well, slicing the blue beast in half, killing him. 

“Annihilation, baby, try to identify those flames again,” Manipulation said to her android. Annihilation scanned Antithesis as he fought a risen, dead army that Obliteration just gave life to, along with Hide. 

As the spirit burned through the army, Annihilation reported that the flames were unidentifiable. 

“Maybe we should call Domination before he kills us as well,” Omniarch suggested. His older brother grabbed him by his neck and squeezed, beginning to choke him.

“Do you not believe your brother can defeat such a weakling?” Omnicide said.

“He’s killed… three of us already,” Omniarch strained. He looked over at Antithesis and changed the number. “Four.”

Omnicide looked over to see Hide being completely incinerated by the phantom along with the rest of Obliteration’s army.

“Then we’ll take him out together,” Omnicide said, releasing his brother. “Manipulation, stay back and play with his mind while we punish him.”

Antithesis sliced through Obliteration’s throat with a Dagger of Deception, killing the necromancer, as Annihilation, Omniarch, and Omnicide floated forward. 

“How many more of you have to die before the one I seek reveals himself?” Antithesis asked, trying to avoid further violence.

“You won’t receive an audience with him,” Omnicide said. “You face me now.”

Antithesis exhaled as the three powerhouses dashed at him, but all they would end up doing is crashing into the building across the street as Antithesis had teleported behind them with his back turned to Manipulation. 

She caused him to drop to his knees in agonizing pain as she brought back memories of his family dying in his head, from the several different viewpoints of his wife, son, and daughter. Omnicide, Annihilation, and Omniarch spun back around to see Antithesis under the control of Manipulation. 

“His mind is strong,” she said. “But I think I can-- AAH!”

She reeled back in pain, holding her head as Antithesis broke free of her control. Angered for making him live through his family’s death again, the spectre turned to Manipulation, plasmic holyflame streaming from his eyes. But before he’s able to lay a hand on her, he’s shot through the stomach, chest, and forehead with heat and laser vision from the three powerhouses. Manipulation was able to move out of the way of the blasts because she was telepathically communicating with the other three Executioners remaining on what they should do. 

Antithesis hung his head low, but did not drop to his knees as his stomach, chest, and head regenerated in a matter of seconds.

Before he shot a chain out at her, Annihilation grabbed him from behind. 

“Leave, mother,” the android demanded. Manipulation nodded and Omnicide and Omniarch swooped in to carry her out of the area, for Annihilation planned to blow up the entire city block.

Antithesis could only think of one thing to do as a soft beeping began sounding from Annhilation’s body. He broke free of the android’s grasp, turned and wrapped his chains, infused with plasmic holflames, around it and teleported it back inside of the Delacroix hideout. As Omniarch looked down at the city block from above, he notified the other two that Antithesis had disappeared. His brother told him to scout the area.

As Omniarch landed, he found his gaze locking onto the hideout. And when he did, it exploded, the explosion being much smaller than Annihilation had anticipated due to Antithesis suppressing it, but still destroying the building the hideout was located in. 

Omnicide placed Manipulation on a nearby rooftop and told her to wait for him to return. And as he joined his brother, Antithesis emerged unscathed from the orange glow of the building. He stared down both Semigonic threats then turned his attention to Manipulation, teleporting to the rooftop before the brothers had a chance to react. Then, from behind, he penetrated her brain with the Dimension Splitter, instantly killing her. 

“NO!” Omnicide shouted. 

“That won’t bring her back, blue one,” the phantom said bluntly. 

“No, but killing you might cheer me up.”

Omnicide, followed by his brother, lunged at Antithesis, who still remained on the roof. He charged up his heat vision and blasted it as he flew at the spirit. Antithesis withdrew his sword and parried the blast back at the brothers. They were both quick enough to dodge though as they got close enough to face the wraith in hand-to-hand.

Omniarch swung first, with super speed and intended accuracy, but Antithesis is swift enough to dodge both brothers simultaneously. Omniarch swinging for accuracy and precise power and Omnicide being the opposite swinging wildly out of anger for his loss. However, together, they made a coherent enough duo that made it look like they knew what they were doing and that they had fought together many times before. 

Both of them also tried to coordinate heat vision blasts at staggering intervals in between their swings, but trying to leave an opening for a counterattack. But as Antithesis reached the edge of the large roof, he seized the opportunity to teleport behind the both of them, focus on Omniarch and tackle him off the building.

Omniarch could have easily flown upward, making sure neither of them hit the ground, but he wanted to see if he could slam the phantom into the concrete. Antithesis made it look like he had the upper hand, letting his own back face the pavement, but before they landed, Antithesis teleported away, leaving Omniarch to slam his fists into the pavement.

But, Omniarch rose, unscathed and searched for the location of the vengeful spirit, as his eyes glowed red from the resting heat vision. 

Antithesis landed a surprise attack before Omnicide could land near his brother. He grabbed Omniarch’s cape and pulled him backward before Antithesis choked slammed him into the Earth, then drove his sword through Omniarch’s throat, letting him bleed out for a couple of seconds before choking on his own blood. 

As Omnicide landed, Antithesis removed his sword from Omniarch and turned to face the final threat.

“Why couldn’t my brother regenerate? What is your sword composed of?” Omnicide asked. Antithesis said nothing. “It destroyed Extermination’s sword and killed Obliteration.”

“I cannot answer, for I do not know, blue one,” Antithesis said.

“Hand-to-hand only. Strength and speed granted,” the Semigonic alien proposed.

“Why would I comply?” Antithesis asked. 

“You are without a doubt the strongest being I have come across in many years. And I have come into contact with gods,” Omnicide complimented. “I want to truly test my skills against you.”

Antithesis said nothing.

“I’m giving you a compliment,” Omnicide said. 

“Save your compliment,” Antithesis said, sheathing his sword and raising his hands. “Prepare to die by my hands.”

Omnicide smirked and the two then charged at each other. Trading blows that shattered the street around them and windows on other blocks. Both continuously regenerated from the dents they gave each other. 

The more Antithesis fought, the more he learned his opponent and the stronger his blows were dished out. As Omnicide reached his breaking point, their fight would become interrupted by four more presences.