42 Ceremony Finale

Ed weaved through the crowd until he reached his desired location. 'If my calculations are correct, then this should be the safest spot once things go to hell.' He yelled towards OP Baldy, "I don't want to fight you here! The innocents could get hurt!"

"Humph." Mr. Sai snorted as he walked forward. He pushed through the crowd as if he was Moses parting the sea. The people were pushed to the sides without any harm.

'It's almost time! Will he take the bait?' He raised his remaining arm in the air while smiling. "Fine. I surrender. I can't allow myself to be the reason these people get hurt."

"Good!" Mr. Sai nodded. "At least you have some commonsense. I'm placing you under arrest for the murder of the mayor, known connections to a sinner group, and inducing panic."

The people in the crowd whispered to each other. Several wanted to attempt stopping the man but didn't have the bravery nor means to do so.

Ed closed his eyes and sighed. 'It's time.' He used his powers flip a switch. He had kept a backup transmitter embedded within his own flesh near his shoulder. The one in his arm had only been a decoy.

"AGHHHH!!!" A high-pitched scream rang out. Yuki knelt on the ground while holding her head. Small streaks of lightning could be seen dancing off her body. Her hair became increasingly frizzy as the scream grew louder.

The crowd, Ed, and OP Baldy all turned to look at her. Her scream only lasted a few moments before she passed out. A loud thud rang out as she fell from her knees to flat onto the ground. OP Baldy turned towards Ed. Confusion and anger were visible in his eyes.

Ed made a sly grin. He silently mouthed the words, "I warned you not to interfere with my speech."

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" OP Baldy disappeared in a flash. No one was capable of seeing him even if they wanted to.

'God, I hope this works!' He had already planned for the madman's inevitable charge. He knew he stood no chance against the man. It would take a miracle for him to survive under normal circumstances. However, he had prepared something extremely crazy before coming here to give his speech. Countermeasures he had never even dreamed of doing to himself in the past.

A bright white light flashed and OP Baldy was visible again. His arm slammed straight through Ed's chest, right where a man's heart was located. As he was taller than Ed, his arm was pointing downwards. His hand was in a knife shape and a white light shot from it towards the ground. It felt like a mini earthquake occurred as the ground shook. Large cracks appeared on the ground for dozens of meters in each direction. The street itself was lowered as a pit formed from the strong pressure. Blood dripped down Mr. Sai's arm as his eyes glowed red with rage.

Ed smiled while blood dripped down from his lips. He whispered, "You lose." Then, the entire ground started to tremble once more. A deafening boom rang out as the ground shook with increasing intensity. People fell down and screamed in fear. Loud popping sounds rang out as manhole covers in the surrounding streets shot into the air. Large blasts of flames followed the manhole covers as they traveled fast enough to leave Earth's atmosphere.

The surrounding streets began to collapse over an area of several kilometers. Buildings fell from their foundations. Screams and cries rang out everywhere. The crowd panicked as they pushed and shoved each other in hope of reaching safety. Hundreds of people were quickly trampled to death in the process.

"YOU MONSTER!" Ed screamed in rage. "I surrendered, but you attack the people like this?! Do you hate your fellow citizens that much?! Just because they're weaker than you? The almighty god known as OP Baldy?!"

Mr. Sai looked around in confusion. At first, he had no idea what had caused the events around him. Then his eyes widened in realization as he looked back at Ed. He hesitated, deciding whether to finish the job or not. Espers were notoriously resilient. This was clear, based on how Ed had managed to still speak despite being stabbed through the heart.

Mr. Sai looked at his bloody arm and sighed while shaking his head. He pulled his arm back out and watched as Ed collapsed to the ground in a puddle of his own blood. He would die soon regardless of whether he bothered attacking again or not. But attacking again would only rile up the people even more. God knew how he would handle the publicity surrounding this event. He turned around and walked through the crowd. He didn't bother saving or helping them this time. They clearly didn't want his help, as they believed him to be the cause. He looked at his unconscious daughter and lifted her up into a princess carry. Then he was gone in a flash.

"Fuck!" Ed groaned in pain. 'That really hurt, god damnit.' He smirked while blood still covered his lips. 'I really need to thank Dupe. I couldn't have survived this without him serving as my precious research specimen for so long previously.' He had planned to get stabbed through the heart today.

It wasn't hard to find information about OP Baldy. He was too famous. He was known everywhere in the world. While it's true he usually only fought nightmares these days, that wasn't always the case. There was a time where he had also fought against sinners and mutants. His combat style was well-known and plenty of surviving sinners still passed down the stories. He usually chose to finish both people and mutants off by stabbing them through the heart. The reason for his combat style was that he hated wasting mana and strived for efficiency. This sounds ironic given the unfathomable power of the man. However, OP Baldy was not always the strongest esper. He was relatively weak when first starting out. But he never stopped growing in strength. Some even believe his power today is due to that efficiency and control as opposed to overwhelming strength.

Ed forced himself to sit up and quickly closed the wound. He had survived by melting his own heart before the speech. He had melted it and moved it to the opposite side of his chest. A single misstep and he would have died in the process. It was a bit of a tight squeeze having his heart moved near his lungs, but he managed to make it work. He would set things back to normal later.

He slowly stood and staggered forward. The ground was still shaking once every few seconds. More and more parts of the streets and buildings were collapsing. 'Looks like the dark and light powders are corroding the sewer walls well. The fire had a bigger impact than I expected. Was it due to the sewer gas?'

Suddenly, a voice rang out. "LET'S MOVE IT! SAVE AS MANY AS YOU CAN!"

Ed turned to look and his eyes widened in shock. Captain Fang and his men were atop a collapsing building. They rappelled down as the building slowly tilted and crumbled onto the building next to it. They began to move as they helped as many people as they could. But it was like a drop of water being used to put out a forest fire.

Captain Fang spotted Ed and walked towards him. He wasn't wearing his helmet and had a big smile on his face.

'Fuck! Are you kidding me?!' Ed turned around and tried stumbling away, but it was no use. His wounds were too serious. He may not have really been stabbed through the heart, but he had lost a lot of blood. More importantly, the rest of his body was slightly wounded as well. Even if OP Baldy concentrated his power extremely finely for efficiency's sake, the ripples from the attack still caused great damage to Ed's entire body.

Fang soon caught up and placed a hand on Ed's shoulder. "Relax. I'm not going to kill you."

Ed rose an eyebrow in response. This did not seem like the man he knew. This did not seem like the bloodthirsty demon that originally wanted to hunt him down when he thought he was an esper.

"We'll talk later." Fang whispered. "There are too many eyes and ears here. I can't afford to blow my cover." He passed a small piece of paper into Ed's hands. Then he grinned, "I know you're looking a bit rough right now, but think you can help us out here?"

Ed looked around at the devastating damage. Although it was limited in scope, it honestly looked worse than a nightmare attack. He sighed while shaking his head, "I can't help. My powers have a limited range. There are also too many people. What could I possibly do?"

Fang glanced at Ed's metal limbs. "You said you can give people power, right? I'm going to assume you're the one that really made those flesh limbs you had previously. You should be able to provide some type of basic medical treatment, right?"

He nodded. "If it's just that, then I probably can."

"Good!" The captain smiled while patting him on the back. "I'll carry you to our temporary relief center. I only want you to treat the highest priority patients that you think you can save." He grabbed Ed and lifted him over his shoulder. He didn't even give Ed a chance to protest the action. He began to push through the crowd and rappelled atop a building that still seemed relatively stable.

A steam quadcopter hovered in the air. A lowered rope allowed the duo on board. It flew only a few kilometers away to a large hospital. The city damage had been limited to a few kilometers around the city square. So overall, the city wasn't that damaged.

Ed was left in the emergency room. He informed the doctors he could help close and treat wounds using his powers. They were more than welcome to such an assistant after he gave a short demonstration.

He sat on the ground with his legs crossed. He concentrated his powers to attempt healing every person that came through the door. He succeeded for most since his powers were perfect for closing wounds, stopping bleeding, and doing repairs to ruptured organs. As long as the parts were there then he could fix them relatively easily.

"Thank you, Forge!"

God bless you, Forge!"

"I look forward to joining Harmony!"

"I can't believe OP Baldy would cause such a disaster."

To Ed's surprise, almost every conscious person he helped had great respect for him and his cause. They had all heard his speech. Many were close enough to see the attack and thought he might die. Yet here he was, extremely injured and covered in blood, but still helping to save others' lives.

He couldn't help but smile as he continued his healing. 'I'm the one that caused this whole mess, but they thank and praise me. The man who has dedicated his life to fighting the nightmares has become scorned in return. Oh, the irony. Oh, how I love this feeling of control. Puppets dancing in my hands to the tunes I've created. Chess pieces for I, the player, to use as I please. Pawns that will someday hand the world to me willingly with smiles on their faces.'

The disaster relief lasted for over three days. Thousands lost their lives and even more were injured. The city square was a complete mess. It would likely take more effort to clean up than some of the weaker nightmare attacks. Nightmares had a tendency to crush things to the point that nothing remained. In this case, the building rubble covered the streets. The streets themselves were completely leveled and destroyed. The sewers were likely beyond repair. There were already talks of just abandoning that entire section of the city.

Today was the day that Ed left the hospital. He had saved thousands of lives over the past few days. He had also completely recovered from his injuries and placed his heart back into the correct location. 'I wonder if I can make a few spare hearts in the future. Perhaps a few other redundant organs as well. Good systems plan for failures by including fail-safes. This is true for engineering, so why shouldn't it be true for the human body? Maybe I should throw a mutant heart into the mix while I'm at it... No, better not. At least not before testing it on someone else first.'

He glanced at the piece of paper in his hands. A location, date, and time were listed. He had debated heavily on whether to meet with Fang again or not. He felt like he could escape if the need arose. Sure, he might be walking into an ambush. But he was beloved by the citizens of Macon right now. It would be foolish to attack him in this territory. With that advantage in mind, he couldn't help but be curious about what the Sinless Captain wanted. So, he ultimately decided to go and meet with the man.