x
"See, easily manipulated. You chose to save a few hundred insects but allowed me to take millions hostage in exchange."
"Didn't take you for such a sore loser," I said, taking in the situation.
You two are too close to the humans in your transformed states, Viraa stated.
Yeah, I was just thinking that, I responded as I noticed several humans near the top of different buildings were already struggling. I need to get us out of here.
Enhancing my vision, I could see every person below was petrified in gold, but their heads were free, allowing them to breathe as they screamed in terror. Aware of what happened to the city Verin destroyed, panic sparked inside me.
"You're not killing any of them," I said coldly.
"That's up to you," Avarice grinned as he manifested giant arms of liquified gold from the ground that twisted around buildings, shattering windows as the buildings cracked.
He's gonna crush the buildings despite them being filled with innocent people...
As I watched, some of the gold crept up the humans' necks as a warning to me. I knew not to trust him to spare them if I gave myself up. Then, there was the fact that the others were in no position to help out. Saving everyone there was on me. After a few seconds, an idea came to mind.
Good thing they can't move; this'll be a lot easier with stationary targets, I thought as I closed my eyes. I descended toward the ground slowly as I returned to my usual state, seemingly giving up.
"A wise decision," I heard Avarice call out from above. "But do you know what's so great about understanding your opponent..."
I focused on sensing everyone within his grip. After a moment, I opened my eyes as each human was wrapped in my spatial energy.
"You know when they're trying to play you," he concluded as he shot a wide blast of focused, violent sound waves at the ground. Glass shattered, and buildings shook as the projectile approached.
I reacted quickly and protected everyone by placing a stasis field over the area as I shot skyward, canceling his attack. But that didn't faze him. Instead, he looked pleasantly surprised by my actions.
"You should've given up earlier. I might've actually spared them," he said as he snapped his fingers. "Now they're suffering will be on you."
Avarice watched with satisfaction as the gold around the humans surged to encase them completely, but just as it was about to cover their faces, I burst back into my evolved form and simultaneously released a controlled flow of energy that instantly reached the humans and broke them free of their golden restraints.
"Didn't I say I wasn't letting you kill them?"
When he attempted to crush the buildings next, I used my powers to prevent that as I forcibly 'pushed' Avarice with a blunt force that sent him out of the city before I chased him.
"Someone's gonna have a field day mining all that gold," I muttered as I glanced back at the city.
When he finally came to a stop somewhere far from the city, we were in the middle of nowhere. Breathing heavily, Avarice gritted his teeth and used his c-chip to contact someone.
"Activate it now," he ordered.
I wondered who he was talking to and what he was planning now. He revealed his golden spatial bag and reached into it before he pulled out an odd-looking pole.
"What's that?" I asked skeptically.
"Something special I had developed..." he huffed as he stuck it into the ground and smiled as if he'd just assured his success. As he held the pole, his hands began to vibrate before he sent those vibrations through the pole and into the ground.
"It's a channel of some sort..." I realized. The ground started to tremble softly and intensified until it could be felt everywhere. Using All-Sight, I saw the Earth become unleveled in several places across the globe as earthquakes formed. I sensed several spots emitting the same energy as the pole before me.
"Stop! What are you doing?!" I yelled at him.
"You did this!" he yelled over the rumbling sound of the ground shaking. "Had you all fallen in line, some humans would've survived. I wouldn't have to resort to such drastic measures, but not only have you defied me, but you've taken a son from me and destroyed everything I worked millennia for..." he shook his head in grievance before continuing, "This world no longer interests me. So it doesn't need to exist."
"You'd go so far as to destroy the planet?!" I reacted in shock as I pushed him away and ripped the pole out of the ground.
"It's too late; that won't help y—" Avarice started before being cut off as the ground suddenly stopped shaking. He looked around, surprised and confused, before growing angry.
"Insolent human! How could she..."
His eyes widened with realization as he began to ramble. "Verin...you made her your pet. Knowing you, your first Order must've been for her only to follow your commands."
He clutched his messy hair in frustration.
"How could I overlook such a detail...a human deceived me...my Orders never worked on her..."
His eyes darted left and right erratically as he said, "No...a human deceived me...? I did this. I made humans too close to gods. I taught them our arts. I gave them our blood!" He looked around as if only now seeing the flaw in his 8,000-year master game.
"I was going to give them more of our blood..." He shook his head again and continued with a gleam in his eye that sent a shiver through me, "No, I can still make sure this stain is erased...I will cleanse everything. I vow this on my undying breath."
He looked at me, his eyes fixed with a determination I hadn't seen in him before.
"Starting with you," he said as he blurred toward me. I blocked his strike and met his gaze. The force of the strike caused the ground beneath my feet to give way.
"I'll study every inch of you down to your atoms. Then you will be eradicated just like the rest of your kind," he said, pushing me away and unleashing another flurry of strikes and kicks. "I see my mistake: no human should be able to rival a god. This world is wrong. I'll reset it and make it right. I have the tools to do so..."
So does that mean he won't destroy the planet? Now he's back to wanting only to kill all humans?
Not all, Viraa commented. It seems he now wishes to destroy most humans–not too different from his original plan; however, now he wants to revert humans to a time before the Age of Conversion. His mind is quite addled.
26Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLpP7lkLDoB
