Black Mask clenched his teeth beneath the smooth obsidian mask, muscles tensing as he fought to regain control of his body. He could feel the power of his Dream surging to repair the wound in his chest. Still, when he glanced down and saw the gaping hole carved clean through his torso, his fury only deepened. The attack had pierced straight through his right lung and exited his back, leaving a perfect, smoking void.
Even as the wound closed, confusion and rage burned hotter than the pain. Soone had just fired a projectile powerful enough to tear through his body-and they had done it from so far away that even his perception, vast enough to cover continents, could not detect
them.
He scanned the battlefield. Nothing. Only the distant shimr of heat and ruin. Whoever the shooter was, he was so far away that he was invisible, yet still able to land a perfect shot.
Across from him, Cain was slowly regaining his footing. He turned toward the direction of the shot, his expression equally confused. He hadn't been able to call for help and didn't know anyone capable of making such a precise attack from so far away.
Who in all the realms could do that?
The thought barely ford when the air scread again.
"ZNNNNNN!"
Another shot.
Black Mask twisted aside at the last possible instant, but the projectile still tore into his shoulder. The impact hurled him backward like a rag doll, a spray of blood arcing behind him as he crashed through the
ruins.
"Damn it!" he roared, the voice distorted by fury and pain.
The projectiles were impossible to see-moving faster than light itself. They didn't shimr, didn't leave trails of energy. They simply appeared, struck, and vanished, leaving only devastation in their wake. No energy signature, no trace of origin. Even he, a being bordering on the Alpha-Oga threshold, could barely sense them before they struck.
But he had no ti to ponder the mystery, because Cain had already seized the opportunity.
The Neo-Demon surged forward, his exhaustion forgotten. Sky Devourer blazed in his grip, wreathed in scarlet fire and destruction essence. Whoever this mysterious sniper was, their interference was a gift-and Cain intended to use it.
He struck like a crimson storm.
The easy amusent that usually danced behind Black Mask's composure vanished. What replaced it was pure killing intent, vast and cold. Tendrils burst from his back, weaving into a barrage of mutated lances, each one a living spear of corrupted matter. They shrieked through the air toward Cain.
But Cain's golden eyes glead with unbreakable focus. His movents blurred, weaving through the storm of spears as if guided by instinct itself. Every near-miss burned holes through the ground, yet he reached his foe unhard.
He swung Sky Devourer, and the sword's energy detonated.
A blazing arc of power, wide as a canyon, tore through the battlefield and engulfed Black Mask in a blinding explosion. The masked figure was sent spinning through the air, his form cracking under the onslaught.
Black Mask recovered mid-flight, the wounds sealing as new arms sprouted from his back, tallic and grotesque. He counterattacked instantly, lunging toward Cain with speed that shattered the air.
Then it ca again.
"ZNNNNN-ZNNNNN!"
Two shots this ti.
Both found their mark-one slamd into Black Mask's shoulder, the other his knee. The precision was terrifying. The shots hit him while he was moving at full speed, breaking his stance and leaving him
completely exposed.
Cain's grin widened.
He let out a guttural roar as he triggered the full might of his Absolute Destruction Doomsday Body. His muscles bulged, veins crawling across his skin. Power flooded into his sword, transforming the weapon into a conduit of annihilation.
He struck.
"АННННННННННННННН!"
Black Mask's scream was torn from his throat as Sky Devourer sliced through him-from right shoulder to spine, nearly cleaving him in two. The ground quaked, the air shattered, and blood poured like molten tal.
Cain's eyes glowed with ruthless light as he prepared to ignite the scarlet flas within the blade-to let the destruction essence consu Black Mask from inside.
But before he could, the masked being exploded into hundreds of tendrils, scattering like smoke and reforging in the distance.
For a mont, it seed Black Mask had escaped. But then another shot scread through the sky.
The invisible projectile smashed into his face.
The obsidian mask shattered, fragnts spinning through the air. Half
of his skull tore open, exposing black ichor and cracked bone. Even with the regenerative power of his Dream, the damage was imnse- enough to paralyze him for a heartbeat.
A fatal heartbeat.
Cain was already there.
He drove Sky Devourer forward with all his might, plunging the blade through Black Mask's chest and pinning him to the earth.
The impact shook the ruined city.
"BOOOOOOO00000000OM!"
Scarlet flas erupted skyward, painting the firmant red. The
shockwave flattened everything for kiloters.
When the light faded, Cain stood over his fallen foe, breathing hard. Black Mask's ruined face stared up at him, one eye burning faintly through the ruin of bone and ichor. The other was gone.
Cain's expression didn't change. He reached down, his hand plunging
into the enemy's chest, and ripped free a beating heart still pulsing
with black energy.
Black Mask's single remaining eye widened. His entire body trembled
as he saw his own heart in Cain's grasp.
This was supposed to have been his victory-a flawless ambush. Instead, by the hand of so unseen sharpshooter, it had turned into
disaster.
Madness flickered in his gaze.
He released a guttural scream that split the air. The massive pillars that surrounded the battlefield-those sa structures he'd raised to trap Cain-responded to his call. Their symbols flared crimson and began to collapse inward.
Cain's instincts scread danger. He leapt back imdiately.
The pillars converged on Black Mask, slamming together and encasing
him in a cocoon of corrupted matter. The surface rippled like molten tal, sealing him within.
The cocoon pulsed once, then sank into the ground, vanishing in a flash of black and violet light.
Cain remained still, the silence around him almost deafening after the
chaos. His entire body ached. His vision wavered. Even breathing felt like lifting mountains.
But he was alive. And he held Black Mask's heart.
He enclosed the organ in a sphere of scarlet energy, sealing it away.
Then he turned toward the horizon-the direction the mysterious shots had co from.
User Comments
0 comments from readers