140

 

140.  The Ruin Immaculate

 

Tao?

 

Vance's mind reeled as he studied the man who had just dropped Frank like a bowling pin. Standing on a rickety balcony that lined the ruined second floor of the Zexaron warehouse was someone who looked quite similar to the Seneschal of the Guild of Dimensional Knights – only his body was shorter and bulkier. Clad in a white lab coat and black boots, with a sadistic smile, he seemed eons away from what the sagely peace-seeker had once been.

 

"Sasuke?" Frank sputtered, picking his charred body up from the ground.

 

"The meeting with the Shinsengumi went well," Sasuke's mouth spoke to Grayson. "But some of their men were still defeated and captured, despite having Greymatters installed. I told them the devices already work at maximum humanly output, but they insisted on clearance to test overclocking multiple Greymatters attached to a single person."

 

Grayson listened casually as he kept his distance from Averyl. "They should know more about that than we do, considering what they've done to that royal captive of theirs."

 

"Yes, they've installed so many on him that he's become little more than a vegetable. But he's never overclocked a single one."

 

"This is a business venture," Grayson scoffed. "Whether or not their army is annihilated using our products is meaningless. There are many other third-world dimensions we can exploit once they've dried up."

 

Sasuke's brow furrowed. "Yes, but if their factory gets destroyed, that will cost us more resources, and more importantly, time–"

 

"Phileas, if you don't mind," Grayson interrupted. "I'm in the middle of a fight here."

 

Finally, Frank could take no more. "What did you do to Sasuke?!"

 

Phileas gave Frank a tired glance. "Grayson killed him and retained his body for me. Unlike Tao, who he vaporized on the spot."

 

Vance's eyes widened. "Grayson killed Tao? But...when? How?"

 

Phileas eyed Frank and then looked back to Grayson. "I can eat them, right?"

 

Grayson let out a dry chuckle. "Sure...it's all you can eat tonight."

 

"Thank you," Phileas replied, as a mechanical whirring sound trickled out from the back of his head. "I've always wanted to taste a telekinetic."

 

Phileas summoned a ball of fleshy psynergy into hands, then shot it out toward Frank. The orb screamed downward into the ground, devouring another clump of stone as it exploded.

 

The smoke cleared, and all was silent except for a loud crack as Averyl leapt up from the debris and assaulted Grayson again. The smoldering crater was vacant – instead, Frank had

 

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

 

warped directly under the catwalk on which Phileas stood. As he heaved to catch his breath from the exertion, he glared up at Phileas, remembering his short stay in the estate of Paradis Perdu.

 

Images of the half-eaten corpse in Phileas' closet flashed in Frank's mind. "You're a monster. I should have known you wouldn't have died that easily."

 

"What a clever ability." Phileas put a finger up to his chin. "I can't wait to make you my new puppet."

 

"What the hell is wrong with you people?!" Frank cried. "Is killing all you think about?! Why do you have to destroy so much? I can't even believe we're the same species!"

 

"Oh, you'll believe it soon enough." Phileas snickered. "Once the tantalizing intoxication of psynergy sweeps through your world."

           

Frank glanced to the side as he saw Vance run up to Phileas. Moments ago, the teenager had been void of any psynergy, but Frank now noticed a faint violet glow blanketing his body.

 

"Managed to recover a little bit of your power, did you, Vance Darcouver?" Phileas called out. "Your father must not have wrung you out good enough."

 

Vance glared up at his new foe. "Don't worry, Frank. I got this guy."

 

"I should have let Mephistoclessia finish you off when I had the chance." The Rat's eyes twinkled. "If only I'd known what Averyl was hiding from us..."

 

Despite the pain that gripped his mind, Frank raised his hands and attempted to push Phileas away.

 

Phileas laughed and flexed his aura. "I'm afraid not, old man. Out-of-date vessels like yours stand no chance against our new technology."

 

"Shoot me up to him!" Vance shouted to Frank. "Hurry!"

 

"Hah!" Phileas watched the young man run forward. "That eager to die, are you?!"

 

The staircase that led to the balcony had long since crumbled, leaving the high metal walkway inaccessible by mundane means. Frank let grey psynergy wash over Vance, plucking him up with an invisible hand.

 

"Go ahead," Phileas taunted. "Let's see you punch me."

 

Vance threw his fist forward as hard as he could. Without enough psynergy to open a void, he had no choice but to punch straight toward the Rat at point blank range. Metapsynergy exploded out from Phileas in an instant, accompanied by the mechanical whirring of the Greymatter chip in his head.

 

"Frank! Now!" Vance shouted, as he flung his fist uselessly toward Phileas' potent aura.

 

Behind him, Frank's aura slowly approached, as burgundy, raw psynergy ripped through Vance's own. As Phileas' blast mauled Vance, Frank's ability plucked him up once more.

 

A mysterious, grey psynergy mixed with Vance's and shifted him behind Phileas in the blink of an eye. Vance didn't miss this chance, and instantly swung a high kick right into the soft side of Phileas' neck. The Rat went jack-knifing off the balcony, coughing for air through his crushed larynx as his body fell into the pavement.

 

Vance caught his balance and stared at his father's friend in wonder. "Frank..." he gasped. "You're unstoppable!"

 

On the ground, Phileas hacked up blood. "Grayson! Grayson, h-help me!"

 

But Grayson had his own concerns, as Averyl closed in

 

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

 

and transmuted his right arm into a gargantuan set of fanged jaws. Chomping down on Grayson's aura, Averyl wriggled and ripped pieces of the man's power off like a mad dog would the flesh of a rodent. Grayson casually raised both of his hands, then clamped them on the glowing black jaws. Slowly, but surely, he began to twist Averyl's appendage around.

 

Sweat dripped down Averyl's brow as he attempted to overpower his foe. At the last second, he pulled back, giving Grayson the perfect chance to unleash another torrent of psynergy.

 

Even at full power, Averyl was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of Grayson's might. The gold-and-green miasma wafting from the man's fists seemed easily capable of rupturing an entire dimension.

 

With every blow, kick, and blast from Grayson, Averyl felt force capable of obliterating cities. But it was more than simply brute force. Grayson's psynergy truly was of a different quality, and that was the one thing that Averyl wasn't sure he could fight off.

 

Left with no other choice, he desperately began to transmogrify everything he could. Each hair on his body transformed into a silver blade, muscles and skin into stone, and ligaments into hardened antennae equipped with devices of mutilation.

 

Upon each of those things Averyl materialized a hundred more, swallowing up more and more of the night sky until he was nothing but a leviathan machine of death. Onyx trunks speared into the ground below him, mounting the man-weapon into the earth. From within the forest of knives and psynergy, two irisless eyes shot daggers.

 

 Grayson bent over with laughter, mocking Averyl's transformation. Instantly, a torrent of spikes rained down upon him.

 

Through bladed catacombs, Averyl cackled. "Just promise me you won't die too quickly."

Grayson was just about to retort when another loud voice joined the fray.

 

"Drop your weapons and cease fire immediately! This is the Houston City Police and SWAT Division! You have received your first and only warning!"

Averyl swerved his massive body, spotting a squad of police cars flanked by paramilitary vehicles that had surrounded the remains of the building.

 

"Perfect timing." Grayson chuckled. "Now I have some toys too."

 

"If we receive any resistance," a SWAT officer shouted, "air forces will be summoned! We repeat, air forces will be summoned!"

 

"The Houston Police Department." Grayson walked up to the officers with his arms raised. "I believe you were the first police outfit in America to receive advance copies of the Greymatter."

 

"That's Grayson Lee!" another shouted. 

 

"I was disappointed to hear your men could not properly adapt to the devices at first," he continued. "But I hear that in the past few weeks, there was a positive breakthrough. Is this true?"

 

Five SWAT officers stepped out of their armored vehicle and pointed submachine guns at the glowing man. "Tell all your accomplices to disarm themselves."

 

"Phileas," Grayson called back to the downed man. "You heard him."

 

A weak voice wheezed from inside. "F-fuck you!"

 

Grayson shrugged. "Doesn't look like he's going to comply."

 

Other officers stared in confusion at Averyl's conglomeration. "Did these people come and attack you here?"

 

"That's right, officer." Grayson nodded. "They barged in to my office and tried to kill me."

 

"We'll straighten that all out once we get 'em taken in!" a gruff voice shouted. "Arrest everyone, this instant!"

 

Ghostly traces of psynergy wafted from the two SWAT team members who first approached Grayson, prepared to utilize their newfound talents if their guns couldn't do the trick.

 

But they never got the chance. As soon as they stepped within a twelve-inch radius of the demigod, flesh was flayed and brains were blasted. Overwhelmed by Grayson's eminence, the existences of the two men were messily wiped from the map.

 

Shouts of incredulity were overwhelmed by a thunderous bellow: "Open fire!"

 

Ribbons of ammunition sprayed out from submachine guns, assault rifles, and shotguns. The heavy blams of sniper rifles echoed through the field as gunmen positioned far away commenced their war on a single man.

 

"You poor, poor fools..." Grayson laughed as every projectile flung at him was eaten up by his charisma. "How dare you attack your new god?"

 

"Tear gas, sting grenades, whatever! Stop him!"

 

Grayson moved a finger from left to right, covering a blanket of murder over the officers. Souls were ripped violently from their bodies, collapsing in piles of gore as they fell in the line of duty.

 

"20 earthlings just died for nothing," Grayson called out. "How does that make you feel, law enforcement? You don't even possess the strength to protect yourselves, let alone your citizens!"

 

Grayson swiped out his arm and splayed the hood and reinforced windshield of an ARV. As he skewered the heads of the weak with his fists, Grayson spread out his aura as far as he could, pulverizing all life.

 

Behind the slaughter, Bruce, Wendy and Winslow used the last of their power to shield Vance and Frank from the gunfire. Phileas crawled behind a caved-in wall, attempted to straighten his body back out.

 

Vance looked up at Averyl. "What are you waiting for?! Grayson's wide open!"

 

"We need time to let our psynergy recover," the tree-like abomination replied. "Besides, they aren't attacking us for the time being, which is infinitely better than the alternative."

 

"Winslow, can't you repel the cars or something?"

 

"Oh, yeah, sure!" the Rooster snorted. "I've almost lost consciousness twice in the past half hour, and I'm barely protecting you two right now! Why don't you do it, genius?!"

 

"It's your dad's fault, Vance..." Wendy spoke shakily. "I don't know how he did it, but he completely erased our psynergy."

 

"Whatever!" Bruce grumbled. "Let's just get the hell out of here while we still can! This shit's insane!"

 

"We're not running," Vance said defiantly. "This is our chance to stop him! We're going to corner Grayson, find out where he's hiding Eden, and–"

 

Phileas' wet chortles overcame Vance's weak declaration. "How blind can you be, boy? I was resistant at first as well, but I'm not foolish enough to ignore truth that's right in front of my eyes. Grayson has transcended this very plane. Not even God can stop him now!"

 

The remaining police fled for their lives as Grayson tore through vehicle after vehicle with massive swipes of green psynergy. "Your lives of ignorant security are over! There is nothing that can save you – not morals, not intelligence, not politics! Everything in this world shall perish! Everything!"

 

With that, Grayson punted a police truck splattered with bodily fluids like a soccer ball towards Averyl, who skewered it with his own blades. Rubbing his cactus-like extremities together, he sliced and molded the metal and flesh together like a meatball, then used blazing purple psynergy to toss it back downwards. As the two psychotic men began a sickening game of ping-pong, flame smoldered metal and dozens of dead Earthlings.

 

"Curse not me, but your own inferior destinies! And say hello," Grayson boomed, "to the end of the world!"

Next: The Ruin Impediment