To his surprise, he wasn't pursued by the wielder of lightning, instead Sirius remained in the same spot, looking at him as if waiting for him to approach once again.
"Replication," Finn invoked.
Taking the freedom given to him by the confident figure, he prepared himself as his doppelganger emerged from the shadows. He didn't stop there, pushing the limits higher–
["Phantom"] [4:59]
["Phantom"]
For both himself and his copy, a shadow-born replication was summoned, increasing his own number to four. Using the advantage of numbers, along with having a complete understanding and connection to the aspects of himself, they all dispersed, taking different sides around the God of Heroes.
He sprinted along with his replications, constantly circling around the unmoving figure with enough speed to begin to blur. As he picked up such swiftness, he went further–
The two phantoms of himself also used ["Replication"], and thus did the subsequent clones, producing a total of eight versions of the assassin. As the many aspects of himself sprinted circles across the glassy sky, Finn felt his heartbeat elevating as his head throbbed.
'Eight is the limit I can sustain right now...Any more, and I'll risk hurting myself,' he thought, breathing out.
All the while he continued his confusing sprint with his copies, he readied himself, setting his eyes on the Storm King–
["Blink Slash"] [2:59]
["Blink Slash"]["Blink Slash"]["Blink Slash"]["Blink Slash"]
["Blink Slash"]["Blink Slash"]["Blink Slash"]
In unison, each aspect of the assassin warped to Sirius with visceral intent. So many coming in at many directions all at once, even so–
"Gah!--"
He found himself thrown back the instant he warped over, once more having the air knocked out of his lungs before landing on his feet. It was too fast to perceive, though he witnessed each of his copies be dispersed by the display of force.
'Having so many doppelgangers means they can't exactly take a hit...but what even was that? It felt like a wave of electricity expanded, though I only saw it for a split-second, maybe,' he considered.
Once again, he found himself staring at the man who had not taken a single step from the position he had confronted him in.
"I can tell you've grown a whole lot since I last saw you. Still, it doesn't change a thing–this isn't a fight you can win, Finn," Sirius said without arrogance, as if administering bad news to a patient.
It was taken as a provocation to the ears of the assassin. Perhaps it wasn't his fault directly, but he saw the God of Heroes' very existence as the reason for the deaths of Magnus and Nova.
"Let me make it clear to you," Sirius threatened.
The cosmos, in all of its daunting glory.
Yet, it was different than he imagined, though he'd never seen it firsthand before. Monuments the scale of stars hung in the reaches of space, overlooking the fragmented world; colossal heads, statues of faceless beings, encased in nebulae and crystalline growths of the cosmos.
"This is...?" Finn asked, finding himself somehow able to breathe.
"The Beyond," Sirius informed him, clutching his coat still as he looked up as well. "This is what lies outside our worlds–watching us, governing us, controlling us–look."
What the God of Heroes averted the assassin's attention to was what loomed over the First Order itself. Casting a shadow over the fractured planet was a being large enough to fit the world in the palm of its hand; a faceless humanoid of smooth, snow-white skin.
It hovered its hands around the sides of the world, peering down at it as its palms pressed against the surface of the planet, causing the fractures to extend.
"That...What is that?" Finn let out in quiet disbelief.
"That is the Apocalypse," Sirius answered, looking on towards the colossal entity as well. "I've tried fighting against it countless times. The truth of it is, the damn thing doesn't even notice when I attack it. Do you get it now? There's nowhere left in existence that's safe."
Seeing a being of such immeasurable scale made his stomach sink, even more so imagining that the man who dragged him up there, who dwarfed his own strength, couldn't budge it.
"I imagine one just like it is at your world. Likely just watching–for now, but the time will come when it takes action," Sirius said. "When that happens, you'll be able to do nothing to stop it."
It left him speechless before he refocused himself, turning his attention back to the one he still knew he had to defeat, "--That doesn't change what I have to do!"
Finn kicked his legs up, wrapping them around the arm that held him as he got the God of Heroes into an armbar, though it more so only seemed to annoy Sirius.
"You're persistent, I'll give you that–" Sirius told him.
As he squeezed his legs around the arm, Finn found his sight distorting as he was suddenly overtaken by overwhelming g-forces. It felt as though the skin was peeling from his face as his cheeks flapped, finding himself being plunged from the distorted cosmos back into the reach of the fragmented sky–
Crashing down as the one who held him descended like a bolt of lightning, he found himself tossed down by the hand of Sirius.
"Ngh!--"
He flipped himself around, finding at least his momentum lessened by the throw before catching himself back on the glass platform amidst the high-altitudes. Just as he found his footing, the lightning bolt crashed down, finding the magenta sparks dispersing around the God of Heroes.
"There's nothing left to say, is there? I've tried to be reasonable," Sirius claimed, bringing his hands together as the vibrant strands of electricity emitted between his palms. "--All that's left to do now is to fight. Like I always have."
The hostility of the divine figure was felt clearly by Finn as the air itself became electrified, lightly zapping against his body like touching a static piece of fabric.
In response, Finn regulated his breathing even as the energized oxygen shocked his lungs, focusing himself as he abandoned all other fears. All he placed his mind on was the enemy ahead; that's all he had to think about.
'I can do it–right now, right here–I have to,' he convinced himself, drawing in one more breath.
["Abyssal Agent: Hades"] [Mana: -2000] [1500/4000]