Chapter 315 - The Catastrophe (Part Two)

"Really?" The soldier readied her blade. "I'd love to see you try." She dashed straight for him, throwing the plasma.

Helio- or rather, the shadow dodged.

The plasma missed and headed straight for Enira.

And just like the soldier had let him slash her before, he let her slice at him. He didn't flinch, instead, he grabbed her sword once it cleaved at his chest. It turned to dust.

The soldier was surprised for an instant.

And in that instant, he grabbed her arm and it fell off.

Disintegration worked just fine. After all, it was one of the Shadow's original abilities.

The soldier jumped back, gasping for air by sheer reflex.

Meanwhile- no apparent damage was on the shadow's body. Rather he was already regrowing his lost limb and all his wounds were healing at an astronomical rate.

Even if he received reflected damage- with this level of healing- there wasn't any need for concern.

He himself was a tad surprised at this. With Enira's power alone this was impossible.

Then- 'Hyora's?'

This healing ability was similar to Hyora's but he never felt the thirst for blood and surely, he didn't take in her blood, right?

But this wasn't the time to worry about that.

Rather- he just took a stance. His black saber spun violently like a chainsaw. "I 'will' kill you."

The purple soldier wiped her sweat with one arm. "Yes… yes! This is what I'd been waiting for!" She laughed like a maniac and made another plasma ball, throwing it in an instant.

A white plasma ball.

"Enira!" He commanded. 

Walls of barriers formed and stopped the ball and before it could explode, Enira warped in front of him and consumed the whole thing with one chomp. "Most of them will live, apart from the dead…" She said, before warping back.

"Alright." The shadow's expression still didn't change. He just glared forward and with slow motion, gradually turning up the speed, ran ahead. "Protect everyone. If there are still people on the island- form a barrier over them too."

His range had increased exponentially. He knew there weren't many left on the island; most had already evacuated.

"That woman… a Xene… no… A Nelean….?" The soldier turned to gold and started producing beams of penetrating light, firing it all straight at him. She also formed small plasma balls, firing them like bullets; all the while producing gamma radiation.

The shadow dodged some, blocked some while taking the rest as direct hits.

With eighteen holes, a blown off arm, and half of his face hanging off his neck, bleeding, he stood in front of the soldier; expression still the very same. "This is what radiation is." He proceeded to release a heavy concentration of gamma, denser than he could ever muster, and immediately started pummeling the soldier.

Wham!

With every punch- shockwaves spread.

He received reflected damage and the healing couldn't keep up; he didn't care.

"Argh!" She groaned but the shadow did not stop.

He followed his barrage of attacks by making a massive plasma ball- bright yellow. It was almost as big as the one he produced in the null realm.

"How are you still moving?" The soldier looked in amazement, she was way too excited. Her heart beat like that, that very day- that very day when she first fought Todd. "But won't you die too, if you-"

Or perhaps- it beat faster.

She also punched the shadow- and though the shadow kept on losing body parts- he didn't flinch.

"None of your business-" He proceeded to slam it on her head.

Boom!

Fires spread. The shadow was protected by a barrier but the fires were just too strong. He also took the reflected damage…

He didn't care-

The earth broke and the island started to crumble.

Crack!

A shockwave blitzed past the horizon followed by the cracks on the earth and dividing the island into multiple parts. If it weren't for the multilayered barriers- this island would have already sunk. The bodies and most of the academy were protected by multiple barriers.

But almost everything had crumbled. There weren't any buildings standing tall anymore.

A massive crater that was probably bigger than the academy resulted and in the middle was the soldier, smoking black.

The soldier, however, wasn't dead. She was incapacitated, her head hanging from her neck. Half of her body was too grotesque to describe; blood here, guts there; burns everywhere.

The shadow meanwhile, just recovered and healed himself like it was no big deal; of course, half of his body was too damaged to heal immediately but he pretended they weren't even a thing.

He was floating where the ground used to be. He went down. Most of his clothes were gone: he walked slowly towards the barely breathing soldier.

"I will be back!" She grinned. She had the best time in millennia, she was definitely coming back. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't speak and yet- she was far too excited.

Todd just wasn't enough.

Perhaps this time, she'd bring a stronger vessel?

Or maybe-

"I believe you." Even now, his voice was level. His eyes, however, were furious; red streaking through.

A pale grin- formed on the soldier's crumbling face. She didn't have arms to fight back, but she opened her mouth to launch a final plasma attack-

The shadow reached the soldier, put his feet on her face and-

STOMP!

-slammed it in.

The skull cracked- and got crushed; brains and blood spilled everywhere.

Her shrieks shook the earth, her body wailed around- before going cold.

The horns came off the head and squirted in the distance along with the blood.

The soldier was no more.

He reached down, to grab her head- so he could perhaps get the DNA necessary for him to cross the gates- after all, he was going to destroy them.

But the body just disappeared into the earth at the very last second.

Black hands pulled her away as particles flew.

Exhale.

He didn't rage around.

He didn't stomp the ground either.

He slowly flew up, and landed near the pile of bodies.

None of the unconscious were waking up. Some of them were probably never going to wake up.

"How's mother?" He said, body no longer steaming.

His face wasn't dark anymore either. He looked normal- far too normal.

There was no one in sight; only destruction.

"She'll live."

He didn't go to his mother's side. Rather, he sat down near his father's corpse. He touched his cheek and slowly bowed. "I'm sorry father." A drop leaked from his eyes. He stared at the rest of the corpses. "I'm sorry guys."

He proceeded to fall on the ground- unconscious.