139

 

139.  Face of the Iconoclast

 

It felt so good to connect that crushing blow with Grayson's head that for the next moment, Vance simply froze, basking in triumph. Beside him, Averyl slowly picked himself up from the concrete as Grayson's psynergy dissipated.

 

Wait, what am I doing? Vance thought quickly. I can't give him any more chances!

 

Vance pulled back through the portal and wound up for another punch. Then, he watched as a glowing hand burst out of his own void and fastened its bony fingers around his neck.

 

A hollow laugh rose up from the hole, along with the thunder of green energy. "So that's what a maggot's punch feels like."

 

Quickly, Vance changed plans and dissipated his void. Matter snapped back into place, and Grayson's severed arm fell to the ground.

 

"I got him!" Vance shouted frantically. "Averyl!"

 

His uncle was already back on his feet, grinning and bloodstained. Outstretching both arms, Averyl materialized a massive black cylinder as wide as the crater Vance's attack had created. On the bottom side of the cylinder were rows and rows of diamond spikes.

 

"You heard him, Grayson!" Averyl yelled, "Now die!"

 

Vance watched in amazement as his uncle brought down the massive mallet into the pit. Quakes rocked the room, and cracks rippled out from the center to the building's walls. Averyl pushed down harder, gritting his teeth in glee as he ground the hammer back and forth along the ground, mashing his prey.

 

Then, a new split ruptured through the earth, followed by a seismic blast that blew the Zexaron building off its last legs. Green psynergy poured out from holes in the earth, sending the ceiling skyward and tumbling the thick walls.

 

The destruction continued as stone rained down on the parched desert bed. Frank tried his best to stand behind Vance and dodge everything, using the teenager's massive aura as a shield. Far from the center of the battle, Madeleine stood near the wounded bodies of Wendy, Bruce, and Winslow, shielding them as best she could with her pink aura. Far above on the dangling catwalk, Edward stood still, protected by a colorless shield.

 

Meanwhile, Averyl dissipated his fragmented hammer so as not to lose both of his transmogrified hands. Now that the cavity had been unsealed, Grayon's miasma cannoned upwards from its source. A gold-and-emerald pillar of psynergy stretched high through the black sky, piercing the heavens. Rising up in the center like a demigod bathing in his own might was Grayson Lee, legs fused with his own energy. There was no way to tell where his body ended and the psynergy began. Bathed in dazzling light, he truly looked like an angel.

 

The green glow stretched miles and miles from its core, enveloping the desert and the clouded sky above it. Slowly, it slid back, as Grayson focused his cosmos on a single finger.

 

"What's going on here?!" Vance shouted to Averyl. "I cut off his arm! I know I did!"

 

Suddenly, Vance realized where the Snake's finger was pointing. The beam of metapsynergy was so dense that it warped and twisted the reality through which it passed. Scorching dimensional fibers, it zoomed toward Vance's chest.

 

I can do this. Vance kept his eyes focused and brought up his barrier. This is... no... thing...

 

Despite the dense shield of metapsynergy fortified like a wall in front of him, Grayson's beam drilled through at a rapid pace. Vance frantically channeled more and more power from his body and emptied it into the shield, and soon a rift opened beneath his feet from the displaced power.

 

This time, there were no mind-crushing effects to Grayson's psynergy. He must know that he can't subdue me using his ability,Vance thought, as his body begin to slip in space. The only thing contained in this beam right now is pure power!

As Vance continued to skid back, he felt a black shadow embrace his body and keep it in place. At the same time, purple psynergy just a fraction of a shade lighter than his own enveloped him, razor-sharp and furious.

 

Averyl... Vance felt Averyl brace his shoulders and stomp his legs hard into the ground, mad eyes focused on the Snake's pillar.

 

"Destroy..." Averyl whispered, as he pumped psynergy into Vance's shield. "Destroy him, Vance!"

With Averyl's density supporting him, Vance was free to do as he wished. Despite being powered by both of their energies, the shield alone wasn't strong enough to cancel out Grayson's beam, but that didn't matter. Vance reached out a hand, lined it up with the exact point his own psynergy ended and Grayson's beam began, and then sliced cleanly through space. The Snake's beam shot through the hole and looped around to where Vance had positioned its destination.

 

And so, Grayson Lee's own energy beam cut through his body from a completely different angle. By this time, Vance and Averyl were in mid-air leaping toward their target.

 

Ignoring the smirk on Grayson's face, Vance attempted an uppercut. He saw his fist reappear over the head of Grayson, who raised a hand to snatch it, but there was only a split-second before Vance canceled out his initial rift, warped one more time, then slammed his fist into the man's cleanly shaven chin.

 

A plan which had taken barely a second to put into action had earned Vance another solid hit. Of course, his blow had been greatly padded by the insane amount of psynergy raging from Grayson's pillar, but that wasn't the point.

 

He isn't invincible. He can be hurt...

 

...I think? As Vance watched Grayson rocket backwards, he remembered the severed arm that had fallen on the ground. How did he regenerate that?

 

Grayson reared his head up and ran forward. Vance struck out in response, but the Snake didn't lift a finger. Instead, he twisted and mutated his aura into spikes and curves that came converging down on Vance.

 

Warping in and out, Vance attempted to dodge the onslaught. He noticed that Grayson's aura was not simply mutating, but constantly seeking out a new opening. Like a cognitive entity, it adapted to Vance's movements.

 

"Do you see what's happening?" Grayson asked calmly. "This is not my genius at work here, Vance. It's mere reality, adapting to my will. My existence is so prominent, so exalted in this mortal coil that it has influence over the very flow of how reality plays out."

Vance threw out a fist, only to see Grayson's aura shape perfectly to counter his blow.

 

It can't be... Vance gaped, remembering how Bruce, Wendy, and Averyl had all been so quickly countered.

 

"Your attack may be technically enabled to make contact," Grayson continued, "yet you still cannot. Can you understand this, trash? Can you understand the bizarre cosmic truth at play beneath the surface of our world? If so, then you should also understand the futility of it all!"

 

"How..." Vance growled. "How is that possible?!"

 

"Just like any other ability is possible," Grayson laughed. "As long as my psynergy proves mighty enough, my existence will supersede all else."

 

Erupting with frustration, Vance shoved his psynergy forward. Grayson's green aura continued to warp, constantly eluding him, but Vance didn't let up. Then, he felt it – green lightning sparking on the edge of his purple power. Vance stepped forward and unleashed a defiant punch – and as Grayson's aura warped to deflect it, Vance's aura warped simultaneously, crashing through Grayson's might and slamming him the face once again.

 

"Supersede that," Vance grinned, as sweat poured out from his forehead.

 

Grayson staggered backwards, grabbing his aching jaw. Blood spurted out from his mouth, but he simply stared ahead, incredulous as to what had just transpired.

 

"You..." Grayson seethed. "How did you do that?!"

 

Vance lunged forward, wrapping his hands around Grayson's neck. The Snake struggled, placing his own hands around Vance's and pouring out clouds of thick green mist. But Vance's aura thundered in return, bursting with neon green-and-purple. For the first time, fear had emerged in Grayson's emerald eyes.

 

Then, a silver blade packed to the brim with Averyl's psynergy came down on Grayson's head. Blood splattered Averyl's body as he rose up behind his prey and stabbed the sword deeper into his foe's skull. Pushing harder, Averyl butchered hot, pulsating muscle, drawing a wild geyser of blood as he cleaved major arteries.

 

Vance gasped and backed up. Behind him, Frank shivered in anticipation as he remembered a dark truth.

 

A devilish cachinnation cut through the silence of the Texan desert while Averyl continued his execution. Frozen behind the Snake, he carved his blade down through the man's spinal cord. The skin around Grayson's shoulders flapped downwards, allowing diced muscle to fall out and reveal severed lungs and nerves.

 

Bruce, Winslow, Wendy, and Madeleine gathered on the eastern side of the warehouse, watching the grisly mutilation with grim wonder. Averyl's blade continued down, guillotining stomach, intestines, and liver in a shower of gore. Finally, Averyl swiftly twained the man's genitals, separated both halves of the body and sent the ravaged entrails splashing down to the ground.

 

The splatter of viscera glowed strangely orange within Averyl's purple psynergy, purple flooded with bloody green. Averyl's thin, cold eyes drifted downwards, focused solely on the pile of remains.

 

"Averyl..." Vance called out shakily.

 

Averyl merely smirked, then opened a palm over the organs. As he formed a blast, the atmosphere around the potent man rippled in response. In the next instant, a purple orb of metapsynergy large enough to completely smolder the remains of Grayson dropped from Averyl's hand like a wrecking ball.

 

Averyl's face froze in a masque of horror when one of Grayson's severed hands firmly batted the psynergy away. A gurgled noise that hardly resembled a laugh slipped out from both halves of Grayson's mutilated head, and Averyl's lips slipped down.

 

"What the hell, Averyl?!" Vance screamed. "Kill him already!"

 

"No..." Averyl murmured in awe. "This...this shouldn't be happening..."

 

"Fine!" Vance ran up to Grayson's remains. "I'll do it myself!"

 

Approaching, he could see that the two halves of Grayson had already began to reform somehow, sliding and sticking back together through an ethereal, citrus aura.

 

Vance faltered. This feeling...it's so familiar. As he watched the flesh reconnect and respawn on Grayson's face, memories of Eden resurfaced in his mind. Healing, warm, citrus power...

 

"Why..." Vance's mouth quivered. "Why are you using Eden's psynergy?"

 

A slimy snicker escaped Grayson's mouth as he regenerated in mere seconds. Somehow, he stood once again on two feet: whole, naked and pristine.

 

"Edward!" Grayson shouted. "It's time to make yourself useful. Get this trash out of my face."

 

"As you wish, my lord," Edward answered. Frank and Vance spun around to see a vacuous aura shoot down Edward's arm, assisted by a mechanical whirring that echoed from the back of his cranium.

 

"Ed!" Frank screamed. "This is your son down here!"

 

"Yes. And he must learn to do as his fathers tell him." A vein popped out on Edward's head as he continued. "Vance, I will give you one chance. Step away from Grayson or suffer the consequences."

 

"No!" Vance spit back. "I don't care what you say, dad. I'll kill you too if I have to! No one's going to stop–"

 

Vance's voice was stifled as a horrible shiver racked his body, followed by the unthinkable.

 

His psynergy disappeared.

 

It didn't shatter or dissipate as if he had been struck by a crushing blow. Rather, it felt as if it had been swallowed up piece by piece. Instantly, Vance experienced a degradation into powerlessness, something even more terrifying than the depression he'd faced during his battle with Grayson.

 

"Is this what Grayson was talking about?" Vance glared at his father. "Is that why Mom chose you?!"

 

Next to Vance, Grayson leapt up toward Averyl, and once more the two were locked in a furious fistfight.

 

"Step away, Vance," Edward boomed. "That's all you need to do."

 

"No!" Vance shrieked. "Averyl needs me! Stop, Dad! Please!"

 

Edward pushed his hand out further, oblivious to his son's wails. "Son. Do as I tell you."

 

From the floor, Frank saw his old friend standing on the charred balcony with arms shoved out dramatically like a dark warlock. Across from him, Wendy approached from the debris, watching as Vance struggled to pull something, anything out from his emptied arsenal. She was bloodied and tattered just like Bruce and Winslow, but couldn't simply stand by any longer.

 

"Vance!" Wendy called out. "Just stay there! We'll help you!"

 

Winslow and Bruce channeled their psynergy together one final time to produce a torrent of plasma. Before it could reach Grayson, it was dissipated simply by the potent green-and-citrus metapsynergy that surrounded him. Meanwhile, Wendy, tried to send helpful axolotls in to carry Vance out from the void. In response, Edward's eyes rolled back into his head, and the void spread over Vance's allies as well, negating on all they had.

 

No... Vance slowly felt the last specks of his power disappear. How can this be happening? He looked around, only to see Bruce, Winslow and Wendy writhing in resistance. This is a nightmare...

 

"Forget about me!" he shouted. "Go do something about my dad, quick! Otherwise, he'll end up killing us all!"

 

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Vance spotted Frank in the distance, frozen with both hands pressed to his head.

 

"Push him..." Frank

 

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

 

called out to the strange power that lurked inside his mind, aiming it toward an object like he had done over and over again during his practice sessons. He envisioned the body, soul, brain, and ability of Edward in his mind, all as separate pieces of a puzzle. One merely had to be snapped from the rest.

 

Frank screamed as a horrible migraine racked his brain. At the exact same instant, Edward moved. His body was not flung, hit, or bounced away – it was instantly transported to another spot in space, forcing him to fall face first on the ground, as far away as Frank could muster.

 

Vance watched with wide eyes. "Frank, what was that?!"

 

"Telekinesis," Frank coughed out. "A gift from Sasuke."

 

Suddenly, Averyl was knocked out of the sky with a sharp kick, and his metapsynergy fractured as he hit the ground. Above him floated Grayson, drenched once more in a golden-green glow, with long hair flowing out freely behind his neon eyes and mouth.

 

"Telekinesis," Grayson mused. "That's why Victoria kept you by her side? Mere telekinesis?!"

 

"Yeah." Frank tensed up, but didn't step back. "Care to try me?"

 

Grayson laughed. "How can you still not understand that you're all going to die here?"

 

"Cover Frank!" Vance ran forward. "Just get in front of him and buy him a few more seconds, any way you can"

Despite his lack of psynergy, Vance dove forward, followed by Wendy, Winslow and Bruce. Just touching Grayson's aura burned his skin, but he bore the pain and prayed that Frank would be successful.

 

Frank watched in horror as the four were blown back with laughter and a seismic shockwave. Desperately, he emptied his mind, quieted his raging soul, and attempted to push Grayson far, far away.

 

That's when Frank felt a hot, searing blast of burgundy psynergy rip through his back, hammering him onto the ground.

 

"Sorry. I got held up." From a dark chamber in the tattered east wing stepped the body of Sasuke Fukunaga, a twisted grin parting his wrinkles. "Now may I devour this Earthling?"

Next: The Ruin Immaculate