Chapter Forty-Two

Ardentia eyed the team behind me, but I snapped at the air to grab her attention. Her glare locked on me and I sneered at her.

“No. One on one. I need to get revenge for the ones you killed before. And for being a genuine pain in the ass to kill with your bland-ass superpowers,” I taunted. She stood straight up and scoffed.

“Fine. Only because it won’t take long for me to kill you and put an end to this nightmare,” she stated. “It’ll take even less time to kill them.”

We began with a clash. She blasted her laser vision at me, but I was quick with the draw and crafted an ice sword in time to defend against it. But she held her red gaze and I was forced to reinforce the sword into a block of ice and I elbowed it at the consistent height of her gaze. The ice block coming at her forced her to turn off her laser vision and backhand the ice block away, but I used the block to close the distance and swung at her. But in less than the blink of an eye, she was to my left, having dodged my newly crafted ice sword. 

By the time I looked at her smug smirk, it was too late as she clocked me across the jaw across the compound all the way to the Alpha Corps Prison. I wasn’t sure if it was my super hearing or Aura Ray just being extremely loud, but I heard her scream out my name from where I landed. I assumed one of the other three stopped her from chasing after me and Ardentia floated above me as I got to my feet. As soon as I got to them though, she hammer-fisted me in the back, sending my face crashing into the concrete. As I attempted to rise again, she pushed the back of my head back down and held it. I heard her laser vision charge again and I placed my palm against the concrete, spreading ice that should have reached her…if she was touching the ground. 

“Ha. That was easier than I thought,” she said. It wasn’t, as I further pressed into the ice bed I created and forced spikes to rise. “SHIT!”

I quickly stood as she let go of the back of my head and I saw she had narrowly dodged my improvised trap. To my temporary dismay, the ice hadn’t touched her. She then flew above it all and looked down at me from above again.

“You’re going to have to rely on that laser vision more than you think in this fight if you want to win,” I said. My own hubris had surfaced. I had no reason to tell her this. “Try using your brute strength on someone who can kill you if you touch them.”

She sneered at me, then smirked. “Then I’ll just have to hit you faster than you can counterattack with your ice touch.”

She then flew directly towards me. I thought she was going for me so I preemptively prepared to let my ice explode from my body and land on her. However, she punched the ground directly in front of me and the forward force from the concrete springing up, knocked me up into the air. I tumbled through the air, seeing sky, the prison, the ground on repeat until I felt a sharp pain in my stomach that shot through my body as the spinning got to a point that made me want to vomit. I realized she hit me mid-air, but that wasn’t the end of her assault. A shockwave cracked through the air a few seconds after she hit me, but then she hit me again, this time parallel with the ground, but I was still afloat. 

Then a third hit came. Then the second shockwave from the second hit that was seconds ago. Less than. This pattern continued like she was playing a game with herself and I was the ball. Shockwave after shockwave were hurting my ears more than her punches though. I knew my body was being damaged, but either I had become numb to extreme pain or dying had nullified it. 

Ardentia finished the assault by hammer-fisting me in my spine again before shooting me with laser vision in the back while I was in a crater my body created. To my shock, her laser vision didn’t immediately disintegrate my body, which I was afraid of this whole time. Learning this, I couldn’t help but maniacally cackle as she finished her gaze and landed in front of me as I got to my feet.

“The fuck’s so funny?” she questioned.

“Might as well tell you since you’re gonna die at the end of this battle,” I said. This might have been the only time a villain said this and wasn’t lying. “Either that revive by the demon was more than I was ready for or that fight with Ache left you weak as shit.”

“Gr…” she said. I almost wanted to laugh again. Who in the history of humans existing has ever verbally said “gr” unironically?

She dashed at me again, going for a straight, predictable punch, but I caught it this time. For some reason I could see it coming. Either I was right about her battle with Ache or I was almost done healing from her assault, back to regular speed. It could have been both, but at the moment, I wasn’t concerned with why it was happening. I wanted to toy with her for a few seconds before actually killing my first Arch. I didn’t include Ash because I have no idea what the fuck became of him. 

I swiftly crafted an icicle with my other hand and swiped at her cheek, easily breaking skin. She winced and went to swing with her other hand, but I stabbed the icicle into her elbow crevice and this caused her to stop moving altogether. I dragged it up her arm, splitting it down the middle before I spin kicked her backward and froze her feet. She was still concerned with her now useless right arm, and tried to laser vision herself out of the ice at her feet instead of flying out of it and I closed the distance again while she focused on that. I returned a hammer-fist to the back of her neck and sent her face crashing into a rising knee, before I clocked her across the face twice then flash froze her head.

As I predicted, I saw red heat glowing from behind the thick ice, but with one punch, I shattered her head into hundreds of thousands of pieces.

I had done it. I had killed my first Arch. But it didn’t feel like a victory for some reason. Perhaps because I was there to celebrate it alone. Or maybe it was because lightning struck her body and it healed up entirely as if our fight never occurred in the first place. In dealing with problem after problem that was placed before me, I had forgotten about the Archs getting one revive like I did. This might have been the worst original Arch to revive because now she was back at full strength.

She cracked her neck and flashed her smug smirk again. “Round 3.”

I was fast enough to react, but this straight punch I felt as I blocked it with my forearms. The concrete around us exploded from beneath us and the sound from the punch came after as another shockwave came. At this point I wondered if shockwave generation was in her arsenal of superpowers or if every punch she threw, she threw with that speed. The latter was ridiculous to think about and made me wonder if she went all out like this for every fight. If this was the case, what was the peak in power Ache reached before he died?

She swung again and connected a body blow that sent me into the brick front of the Alpha Corps Prison building, but I moved out of the way before she could send me through the building, and slashed at her back with an icicle. I was well aware I had physical boosts as well, but I knew I wouldn’t match the physically strongest Arch and Noble so I decided it was best if I used my ice abilities. At least for this fight. 

She shot out a short burst of laser vision that stunned me then clocked me across the jaw again. The shockwave came, but I still stood and counterattacked with an upward slice of my icicle now turned sword. She dashed back in time to dodge it, then just punched through it, shattering it. She then uppercutted me into the sky before she tackled me back into the ground, forming yet another crater.

“What was the name of the demon that revived you?” she asked as I got to my feet, healing from the denting wounds she just dealt to my body. 

“Athan. The son of the Devil,” I answered. She exhaled and wiped sweat from her brow before continuing.

“So you’re dead at the end of this anyway. You know he’s going to take the life he gave you back once you’re finished, right?” she said. “There’s no winning with them.”

“How would you know? It’s not like you ever even left your cozy tower to see how regular people were doing after you ‘saved’ them. No, you stayed in your fuckin’ tower,” I said. 

“I spoke with the archangel that just revived me,” Ardentia told me. “None of them are to be trusted.”

“And your archangels are? Those dumbasses decided to entrust ridiculous power to children,” I responded.

“They had a reason for doing so.”

“They ever tell you that reason?” No response. “Even in dying, they couldn’t justify choosing you and your friends with power you weren’t ready to handle. Power that got my little brother killed.”

“We were saving the planet! Casualties--”

“Is that what Asai told you?” I asked. She stayed silent, waiting for more information. “Tch. You really have know idea what went down that day. The reason I stand before you now. The reason you’ll only see your friends again in the afterlife.”

“Why try and kill me? Depending on whether I believe you or not, you might convince me to join your cause,” she said. It seemed like she was bargaining. In a stage of grief for her own life. Pathetic. 

“Have your archangel explain everything,” I said. I was done talking, and I was done with this fight. I dropped the surrounding temperature and my eyes began to glow. She grit her teeth and dashed at me from behind this time. I ducked her hook punch and spun, stabbing her with an icicle in her exposed stomach. Her costume was in poor taste in my opinion, but I guess it was more for show than practicality since she was basically invulnerable. Up until now.

I stepped back from her, leaving the icicle in her body and caused the black ice growing within her to rapidly speed up as she tried to dash at me again. Instead of connecting a punch, she dropped to her knees and held her wound. She was heavily panting as the black ice spread faster and faster within, causing her immense pain and slowly shutting down her body.

I walked up to her, towering over her this time. “What? No last words?”

“Do what you have to do. You accomplishing revenge will leave you hollow. Only hell awaits you past this point,” she said.

“Been there.” I kicked her over and stepped on her head until it popped and exploded beneath my feet, her brains splattering the bottom of my shoes. “Done that.”

I looked up to see the Noble married couple of Ripple and Plethora pull up in their souped-out mobile. They both got out and had a look of horror come over their faces as they realized what I had done. A smug smirk came over my face.