138

 

138.  Honor Thy Fathers

 

Frank, Bruce, Winslow, and Madeleine stared down in horror at Vance as they pondered the final truth that Averyl had revealed. Wendy stood strong next to Vance, one protective arm around him, staring up with him at his dual fathers.

 

"Grayson will change everything, Vance, and you're more than welcome to join us," Edward boomed. "No more will people of the Earth live lost in their own weakness. Together, we will create a world without weakness. Where the powers that be intervene when need be, where strength is ultimate, kept in an eternal balance by the ultimate being!"

 

"No!" Vance denied. "That isn't what mom wanted!"

 

"But it's the destiny she created for you," Edward countered. "Join us, Vance."

 

"Join us." Grayson smiled. "Succeed where your selfish mother failed."

 

Wendy kept firm hold on Vance's shivering body. "Don't let them confuse you! You're stronger than both of them!"

 

"Who is that?" Edward looked down at the tall woman. "Get your hands off my son."

 

Wendy shook her head. "No one tells me what to do."

 

As milky white psynergy poured out from Wendy's body, Averyl stepped up to join her. Next came Bruce, standing beside the man he had once vowed to kill, while Winslow also readied himself.

 

"We're all beside you, Vance..." Averyl declared. "Everything's been leading up to this day."

 

"Your sister was a whore, Averyl," Grayson goaded. "And you were still foolish enough to lust after her."

 

Averyl grinned crazily. "I have nothing more to lose now. Chaos will be my epitaph, for I have lived this life not by justice or morals, but out of pure, selfish desire. We're similar in that way, Grayson! The only difference is that I love another more than myself..." The first flames of violet psynergy slipped from his mouth. "And that's what makes me stronger than you."

 

Vance watched as his uncle leapt to the scaffold, violet psynergy burning behind him like draconic wings. Averyl's right arm transmogrified into a glinting silver blade and came crashing down on Grayson's shoulder. The sharp edge cut straight through the Snake's dense metapsynergy and drew a sliver of blood.

 

"Come on..." Grayson laughed. "You know you envy me. Tell me the truth, Averyl. You lusted for her!"

 

Purple rocketed and thundered against green, threatening to swallow up the room as the two beings clashed.

 

"Admit it, cretin!" Grayson's wild eyes blazed as he reached up both arms and attempted to wrap them around Averyl's head. "You wanted to fuck your sister!"

 

"No!" Vance scrambled to his feet. "Averyl, can't you see what he's doing?!"

 

Bruce was the first to move. In mid-air, he used his right arm to whip out a spiral of flames. Behind him leapt Wendy, spewing out dozens of axolotls to every corner of the room. Each creature had just begun to produce a different weapon from its mouth as Winslow locked his psynergy on to the electromagnetic field that Averyl and Grayson were creating with their psynergy.

 

"This may be the quickest way." Edward's words just barely cut through the madness. "Watch, son, and realize just how far behind that man we stand."

 

Flames engulfed the balcony, imprisoning Averyl and Grayson. By the time Bruce set foot onto the grated metal catwalk, it had already begun to melt and distort. Winslow did his best to send psynergy through the room and ionize it even further, but his psynergy was rejected by the two tremendous auras that clashed in the center. As a result, not only did some of the metal lining the lobby's interior fly off and converge in the core of the polarized crux, but the flames currently melting through the north side of the room begin to glow and transform into matter-phasing plasma.

 

In seconds, the room had become a psychedelic extravaganza of neon lights and destruction. The northern balcony finally gave way, dropping Averyl and Grayson to the floor, where Wendy waited with her weapon-toting axolotls.

 

"You're just going to keep standing there, dad?" Vance shouted. "He'll end up killing you in the process!"

 

"You misunderstand, son." Edward shook his head. "Oh, how little you understand. Out of all the people in this room, I'm the safest one."

 

But the end of his father's words were cut off as a sonic shockwave cracked through the room, splintering its stone walls and loosening the foundation. Vance struggled to see what was happening in the center of the whirling vortex of auras, but for some reason, he felt like he already knew.

 

This is still the beginning. Vance watched in horror. They're both just warming up.

 

A second shockwave ruptured through the warehouse, knocking Bruce, Wendy, and Winslow sideways, vaporizing axolotl on contact, and blowing the heavy front doors to the building out into the desert. Only Vance and Edward Darcouver remained standing. Although his eyes were firmly locked on the shadow of Averyl, Vance could feel the creeping aura of Edward behind him, cold and void of color.

 

Then, out from the crux of the chaos flew Averyl's body. Like a rag doll, he was crushed into the stone above the entrance and caught himself with his hands as he dropped to the ground. Blood dripped down from his shoulders, and sweaty black hair matted his face.

 

Heaving in rhythmic thumps, he slowly lifted his head up. One psynergy-ignited eye peered out from the black strands. "Grayson..."

 

Vance stared at his uncle in awe. Sometimes when we were fighting, he'd get mad, but he always seemed in control. I've never seen him like this before...completely berserk.

 

On the other side of the room remained a green cloud of psynergy, pulsating and swirling like a sea of energy. Walking out from the mist, Grayson boasted nothing but a small trickle of blood dripping down from his left shoulder.

 

"I am the Alpha and the Omega..." Green emanated from Grayson's eyes, while serpentine tendrils licking from his tongue. "Who is, and who was, and who is to come. The New Almighty."

 

Averyl opened his dark mouth wide and released an ear-shattering screech, coupled with a ray of scorching violet psynergy. The attack hit Grayson head-on, seemingly drilling into his chest and then dissipating, leaving nary a scratch.

 

Vance blinked. The attack cut straight through Grayson's barrier. I saw it! Why didn't he get hurt? It doesn't make any sense!

It was an unfathomable, green eternity that only seemed more impossible the closer Vance examined it. The worst part was how overwhelming it felt – heavy and enervating, an absolute depression.

 

As Grayson's psynergy spread out further, Wendy's axolotls were throttled. Every time one of them swooped in, their weapons exploded, dismantled, or accidentally stabbed into something else. Desperately, Wendy dashed up to attack Grayson directly. Hardening white psynergy around herself, she leapt through the Snake's barrier. All was silent for the next few seconds, and then Wendy's body went skyrocketing through the ceiling.

 

Simultaneously, Winslow trembled and attempted to use his psynergy to invade Grayson's electromagnetic field. Slowly and carefully he sent it out until finally he made contact, struggling to keep from being overwhelmed. Then, without warning, he felt his magnetic psynergy rush back toward him.

 

"What?!" Winslow cried. "The polarity reversed?!"

 

Suddenly, electric charges rushed through his body, electrocuting him. Bruce and Winslow were knocked to the ground, and Frank was left alone, crouched with Heakins behind the reception desk as the green mist reached them.

 

"What's happening?!" Vance shouted. "What the hell did you do to them?!"

 

Assessing the damage, Frank turned just in time to witness Heakins's head explode on the spot. As grey matter and bone fragments spurted upwards in a geyser of carnage, Heakins' body did not slouch, but rather burst. It wasn't a mere explosion, as if something inside had ruptured. Instead, every point detonated in unison, resulting in a ripple of gore. This conglomeration of entrails hung in the air for just a moment before slopping to the ground, as if shocked by its own appearance.

 

"He was so weak, he couldn't even bear to exist within my eminence. Is this what you wanted?" Grayson passed neon green fingers through the air. "To feel with your body the pain of your own weakness?"

 

Averyl seethed as he walked back toward his foe. "Come on. Is that all you've got?"

"Look into my eyes," Grayson murmured. "There's something I want to show you."

 

Averyl peered into twin voids of emerald and licked his lips. Instantly, green psynergy converged on his brain, telling it to stop, shut

 

*************

 

down, and drop everything without another word.

 

No...  Averyl grit his teeth. We've come too far...Vance has unlocked the potential he needs. We'll fight side by side, and we will obliterate him...

 

Averyl saw himself naked and covered in his enemy's viscera, still pummeling the empty husk that once housed Grayson's soul. He peered down to the grotesque omelet of blood and bone, searching for the face. The bones slipped down into the redness, and then crimson spread out and became his new reality.

 

A forked tongue slid across his naked back. Suddenly his arms were ripped behind, and his body was immobilized.

 

"Hello, Averyl."

 

Grayson reared up behind the phantom like the hood of a cobra. Victoria's brother was now on all fours now, moving closer and closer to the remains of... the remains of... the remains of...

 

Victoria?

 

His sister's severed head floated up from the pool of blood. The woman he had idolized, loved, and served for all of his young life was now rotting in a pool of her own remains.

 

Grayson shoved Averyl's head down into the gore. "This is what you wanted, wasn't it?! To be one with your sister again – and all she loved! What a glorious occasion... Yes, what a holy moment!"

 

Averyl fell

 

*************

 

to his knees as green miasma invaded the man through every orifice.

 

Vance's face was warped with panic. It was as if Averyl's soul was being sucked out by some alien artifact, and his body convulsed accordingly.

 

Grayson took three more steps until he reached Averyl, then reached out his hands and fixated them around the killer's head. "Such a sad end. I was looking forward to something that felt more like a real battle...but I suppose I can chalk it up to divine intervention."

Grayson sucked his aura back in and channeled it through his hands, preparing to throttle Averyl's soul.

 

"Call it grey eminence," Grayson continued. "Charisma, witchcraft, whatever you want. This is my ability, Averyl. My existence is my power – the fact that I stand in this spot at this very moment ensures my imminent victory. Do you understand?"

 

Illusion blurred with reality in Averyl's mind, and all he could see was the looming face of Grayson, possessing his soul.

 

"It's not about strength," Grayson went on, "but quality. My power is something richer, realer, rooted in the very foundation of this universe. With the help of the Greymatter, soon every living being will come to bow before me. Should I want something, whether it be victory or control, all I have to do is want it badly enough."

 

"I told you!" Edward boomed. "He's unstoppable!"

 

"I was born to do as I please," Grayson continued. "My will is absolute. And if I get angry...well, you know what happened to your sister."

 

This is it... Vance thought frantically, watching Grayson's strain as he used his ability to overcome Averyl's dense metapsynergy. This is my chance!

 

At the same time, he felt traces of Grayson's aura skittering across the hairs of his body, filling it with new negative impulses.

 

It's useless...

 

You'll never win...

 

Join your father now, or you will never survive.

 

No. I know where these voices are coming from. Just like the Greymatters, this all comes from within, amplified by Grayson's ability.

 

They're shadows of myself – of a me that isn't dead, but merely outdated. I've evolved beyond how I used to think, act, and feel. That isn't me anymore, and I won't fall victim to this ever again.

 

"Don't fight it, Vance," Edward's voice called out. "We're your fathers...we know what's best for you."

 

"Fuck you."

 

"You may not like it..." They were the words Vance had heard ever since his mother died, the words that had inadvertently pushed him away from his own father and into Caskett's shop. "...but it's for your own good."

 

"Fuck you."

 

"I am immaculate." Grayson's eyes rolled back into his head. "My word is law."

 

"Fuck you."

 

Violent psynergy rose up from Vance, merging with the green miasma. Rather than clashing, Vance's aura snaked its own way into Grayson, mixing and growing ever stronger.

 

"Vance..." Frank murmured. "Yes, that's it! That's why Victoria gave you Grayson's blood! You're the only one who can overcome it! His power can't beat you!"

 

"I know..." Vance breathed slowly. "I know..."

 

"I should have never saved you from that basement, Frank!" Edward rasped. "Stop brainwashing my son! How can you not see that this man is our new god?"

 

Vance locked his eyes on the head of his secret father, a man to whom he could not lose. In a split-second, the tempestuous energy roaring deep within Vance's soul exploded, pouring through a rift in space. With a thunderclap, his right arm reached out, muscles flexed and taut, aiming nowhere but through the void.

 

His fist crashed down on the head of Grayson Lee, propelled by lament, pain and torment, a single bullet of muscular and psychic energies. Knuckles crushed the back of the man's cranium, ripping through his metapsynergy and cutting into bone.

Post-impact, a dark violet explosion erupted out from Vance's hand and drove the Snake's head and body down through rock and earth. As he drilled down, Vance kept his power grinding down on the back of Grayson's skull, never letting up as he spoke.

 

"Fuck God."

Next: Face of the Iconoclast