Beta Read by: In the Name of Love, and Axiomat
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Makima was a blur.
Her ponytail and bangs, soaked from the pouring rain, whipped and danced in the carving wind as she moved at supersonic speeds invisible to the naked eye. Every step was a staccato of gunfire as her feet caved into the earth below, leaving imprints in stone.
The falling raindrops struck her body with the force and lethality of a low-caliber round as she ran, her sheer velocity making up for their lack of momentum and mass. If the uniform of Devil Hunters hadn't been made from materials far superior to ordinary cloth, it would have been a beehive of holes.
Her path was filled with nuisances in the form of abandoned cars, crumbling ruins, and newly formed lakes. Mere annoyances at best, and avoiding them would have been trivial. A single leap would have carried her half a mile into the distance, and at her speed, running on water would have been no different than on dry land.
Instead, her invisible force ripped through all, manufacturing an open road paved for a single presence.
The Control Devil did not bother counting the number of cars or buildings she had destroyed, nor did she stop to think for a moment of the devastation she had inflicted on their owners. Her mind was fixated solely on what she had seen. Of a world more alien to humans than Hell itself. A dimension that was utterly foreign, even to Devils.
As she was recovering from that near-fatal blow, her birds and rats heard rumors of a man who had supposedly triumphed over the same creature plaguing her. Understandably, her interest was piqued. It did not take long for her to gather intelligence about this man; his name was on the lips of many. While much of what she heard was mere rumors and hearsay, some details had enough commonality to form a complete picture.
She needed pawns and was not foolish enough to waste the time the heroes had so selflessly bought. Thankfully, Lung fulfilled her needs to the toe in more ways than one.
Halfway through that fight, Makima was forced to admit she had blundered. She had toyed with the dog for amusement and had nearly been bitten for her troubles.
At the climax, his power had reached heights that threatened even her. His flames were excruciating, and his sheer strength surpassed Leviathan's. A single mistake would have been fatal.
But while he had the exterior of a dragon, he possessed the heart of a whimpering mutt. When adversity became too great, his will was broken with his power, having not a sliver of courage or a fraction of Denji's foolhardy valor.
To think that such power was in the hands of someone so worthless….
As he struggled in her grasp, she took his everything. His mind, his body, and even his very soul. But when she took his power, her chain connecting to its source…
What came to view was a marvel of untold proportions.
An island of bloody crystals floated above infinite darkness where space churned and folded, fluctuating stochastically in an indecipherable rhythm. It was a place of infinite mass, yet with definite boundaries—singular but connected to a greater whole, a mere spec within a boundless web.
Within the island stood a bizarre entity, an avatar of its function.
Makima stared in wonder, and the entity stared back in equal… no, greater fascination. Whatever alarm he had at her intrusion paled in comparison to his curiosity. Words were exchanged in incomprehensible mediums, but every emotion was felt with clarity. He was both sentient, though oblivious. Intelligent, but childlike.
As time passed in the nanoseconds, the avatar's fascination only grew, swelling well past mere interest and into obsession. To her shame, she flinched at its intensity and abruptly ended their connection.
When she returned to the world, she found it to have been irreversibly changed. A thin whispery line, no thicker than a strand of yarn, flowed from Lung's head and into the skies. To a place that was above but also below. To a place to her left, but also her right. Somewhere too far for her eyes to see and too twisted for her mind to discern.
Lung's line was joined by tens of thousands of its kind, spread throughout the horizon and filling the air with threads of light, all heading for the same destination while a small minority veered somewhere else.
Makima had seen much but learned little in her brief encounter with the avatar. Many thoughts filled her mind. What was it that she had seen? Why did they grant these humans powers? What was their purpose?
The sheer amount of questions that needed answering was vexing.
To control, it was not enough to be powerful. Batons and guns were the methods of an amateur, temporary at best, and no amount would ever move a person's heart. The greatest tool in establishing control was not armies and weapons but empathy. To know a subject's motivations, tics, and desires was to hold dominion over him. Just like how a man could turn on the lights by understanding the use of a switch, Makima could manipulate others by understanding them.
In other words, knowledge was the power to control.
And to not know was to lack that control.
Without understanding these Avatars and their network, she could not control them.
To Makima… To the Control Devil… It was unacceptable.
More than anything, that had to be fixed. She would learn. She would take. She would dominate and conquer.
Then, everything these Avatars had to offer would be hers.
But a thorough analysis could only be done by examining multiple variables.
She needed more parahumans.
With a burst of speed, she leaped into the direction of the nearest two lines, reaching them in seconds.
The feathered woman was trembling underneath the rain, too petrified and frightened to do anything other than sob. The other seemed to be at work, building some mechanical contraption.
The moment Makima appeared before their eyes, their reaction was immediate. The crying woman shrieked in horror, falling to her bottom as she backpaddled away, only to be stopped by a wall barring her path. The other was far more uncouth, wild and rabid with her empty threats of violence as she withdrew a round cylindrical device. But despite her bravado, the fear in her eyes spoke the words she could not.
The Control Devil took them both, their respective expressions of fear and anger turning into one of empty tranquility.
With every parahuman that fell under her control, she was met with another island and its avatar. While remarkably different in shape and color, the sentient entities greeted her with the same enthusiasm as the first. But unlike her first meeting, Makima prepared herself mentally.
What she learned was that these Avatars were a symbiote, granting power in exchange for data. But beyond that, she learned frighteningly little. This was not a power she understood. These entities were so foreign in nature that she doubted she could use their full strength.
It was not enough. She needed more.
Without a second to waste, she ran toward a group of lines bunched together only to find them under attack by Leviathan. Careful to avoid his vile, false blood, Makima disposed of the lumbering mass. She would not allow him to deprive her of such valuable resources.
Once the annoyance was removed, she moved to subdue the group but stopped moments before acting as passion drained away and logic returned. Despite his pathetic nature, Lung had proven to be a threat, forcing her to recalculate the danger these parahumans posed.
Attacking so many unknowns that seemed to be affiliated with a greater organization while under siege by a city-ending monster was not just unwise; it was a mistake. She knew too little about this new world and even less about these parahumans. Any error could have her hunted by the rest of the world.
Caution was of necessity, and she had safer ways to access their avatars.
Contracts.
Unfortunately, that plan fell apart when this… Miss Militia vehemently set herself as an opposition.
Fortunately, Makima discovered that she could still speak to the avatars just by being in the proximity of their hosts. Her connection to the previous avatars seemed to have bonded her to a broader network.
Like before, the avatars responded with vigor. Curiosity and interest bleeding from their minds.
All except one.
The avatar of Miss Militia answered only with hostility similar to that of his host.
Makima was tempted to press the issue or take them by force, but there would be plenty of future opportunities. Patience was all that was needed; this would not be the last time they met.
In the end, she bore them farewell and wished them good fortune with sincerity lacking deceit. After all, it would be difficult to access the avatars if their hosts were corpses drifting in the ocean.
But before facing Leviathan, she had one more thing to take care of.
*****
"You… You died," Alexandria said.
"Did I? I must not have been notified."
The superheroine tensed, floating in the air along with her fellow green-clad superhero after having come to a stop upon meeting a dead person. Such an occurrence was a cause to celebrate, especially during wartime. But Alexandria exuded not relief but thinly veiled hostility kept down only through discipline.
The reason for the antagonism was a mystery. The caped woman could have somehow witnessed her recent dozen or so murders. Considering how diverse parahuman abilities seemed to be, it was indeed possible. But the dislike had been present since they had first met.
"Her armband must have broken," Eidolon hypothesized.
If his colleague heard, she showed no sign of it nor much interest. Her arms were crossed under her chest as her cape billowed in the wind, giving off an expression of relaxed confidence as she stared down at the only grounded member of the party. But despite her apparent calmness, the coiled muscles of her frame and the tautness of her tendons spoke a different story.
In response, Makima merely smiled, hiding her displeasure in a mask of civility. She was forced to look up while Alexandria looked down due to the elevation difference. One spoke of control and the other, submission, and she was so rarely not the former.
Exasperated, Eidolon interrupted the silence. "Makima, was it? It's good to see that you are safe. Would you like a lift? We're leaving."
"Leaving? I'm impressed."
"…..With?"
"I was on my way to give whatever aid possible, but I did not expect Leviathan to have been defeated so quickly. The greatest heroes indeed."
Eidolon paused, taking a moment to digest what was said fully.
"…You misunderstand," he said bitterly.
"Did I? What other reason could there be for a hero to leave a crisis other than the elimination of the threat?"
"There is no 'eliminating' an Endbringer," Alexandria snapped. "Not that I would expect some foreigner to understand."
"I had not taken you for a xenophobe."
"Quit the games. You know what I'm talking about. Unless you've lived in the boonies all your life, no one is clueless enough not to know Leviathan. I do not know what your Earth is like, but there is no victory against an Endbringer, and don't you dare presume otherwise."
"So you choose to run?"
"I choose to be rational," Alexandria corrected. "Something that you seem to lack out of arrogance."
"Arrogance?"
"What else would you call someone who dictates the course of action despite being oblivious to reality? There is a time to fight and a time to retreat. This is the latter."
"Even if it meant condemning hundreds of thousands to death?" Makima asked.
"Just because we are not suicidal does not mean we don't care," Alexandria snarled. "Fighting would just mean adding two more to that score."
"Ah… So that's the problem. You have already lost."
Alexandria scowled. "That is obvious."
"Not like that," Makima said. "This world has become used to defeat, having never tasted victory. You fight not to win but to lose less. You enter battle expecting defeat, which is why you will never win. It is a depressing mentality and explains why this city is so diseased despite having a vaccine. After all, why do better when there is no future?"
"Do you think life is a movie? Where the protagonist turns the tides against all odds with nothing but hope? Optimism is worthless and will not save this city, much less the world. To think otherwise is the height of ignorance."
"Ignorance? That is one of the many blessings I do not have. I am new to this world, but I would be blind not to recognize the despair when it is plastered on every face, wall, and road."
"People are in despair because the city is under attack by a city killer. The infrastructure is in ruins because of the rain and flood," Alexandria scoffed.
"No, the problem stems much deeper. My world is much the same as yours. Half the population dies before seniority, and the remaining half live their lives only to see their works crumble. There is no sense of charity, kindness, or hope for a better future. That sense of hopelessness becomes so cloying that it is reflected in their physical surroundings as it has with Brockton Bay. The same despair that plagues my world plagues yours."
"I hate having to repeat myself. There is no victory. Do not act like you are innocent despite being the perpetrator of this entire mess," Alexandria seethed, tightly gripping her arms in anger. "Leviathan attacked weeks early at the time and location of your arrival using tactics never before seen, not to mention his strange persistence regarding you."
"I admit I know too little about these Endbringers to comment, but let us say you are correct. So what?"
"What?"
"Perhaps my arrival resulted in disaster, but that does not change your duty. Failure means condemning this city and its people to their deaths. Are you so valuable that you cannot afford to put your life on the line for thousands?"
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Alexandria struck the ground with an earth-shattering crash, landing on her knees as dust and stone exploded in a 360-degree radius.
"Do not speak to me about duty," she hissed, rising to her full height mere centimeters away from Makima. "I have lost, sacrificed, and forfeited more than you could possibly imagine."
"Then one more shouldn't matter."
The superheroine laughed, one of bitterness and mockery. "For this city? Brockton Bay is dead. I have already lost too much in this land; it's not worth the risk of losing two triumvirate members."
"A young lady asked me the same question," Makima calmly said in contrast to her rage-filled counterpart. "She didn't seem to think this city was worth fighting for. But she would be hurt to know that you agree."
"Good, she is wise. Far more than you," she said coldly, although Makima could hear a tint of self-loathing in her voice.
"Alexandria, we need to leave," Eidolon interrupted, floating down to the ground. "Ms. Makima, please reconsider. Think of the battles in the future, on how many lives you could save. But all that disappears if you die here."
"I look forward to fighting with you in the future, Eidolon. But I will not leave."
"Ms. Maki-"
"Leave her," Alexandria interrupted. "If she wishes to die so badly, who are we to stop her."
Eidolon turned, facing his comrade. "Don't let your emotions dictate your words, Alexandria."
"She's right," Makima added. "If things become unfavorable, I will retreat."
Eidolon paused, looking back and forth towards the two women before sighing. "Very well then. Just be careful. I will see you in Boston Alexandria," he said before taking off to the horizon.
Alexandria remained as she was, arms crossed over her chest.
"Should you not get going? After all, your life is a precious commodity," Makima asked.
Disappointingly, Alexandria did not rise to the bait. Instead, the anger dimmed into a cool ember as she let out a tired breath.
"I think we have gotten off the wrong foot. I will apologize for my behavior; it has been a harrowing day for us all," she said, softly. "Come with us; this is no place for you to die."
"Alexandria," Makima started. "When hope is crushed too many times, people become afraid to dream. You may have said that optimism was worthless, but you wouldn't be fighting if you didn't wish that something would be different one day. I have seen a child win against the impossible with nothing but the belief in victory. I would not be so quick to discount hope; it is my reason for living, after all."
The superheroine did not respond. For several moments, she was silent. While a mask covered her face, Makima could see something flicker across her eyes through the narrow slits.
"You will regret staying," Alexandria said finally.
"You will regret leaving."
With a burst of air, the caped heroine vanished into the skies above. Her line that detracted from the majority quickly became a single strand among many.
It had been unwise to antagonize someone so influential, but Makima had no choice.
She was currently a nobody, a problem that had to be corrected immediately. But it was not due to mere ego that she sought prestige. Reputation was a power of its own and would allow her to form a sphere of influence without bending to the regional authorities. Once she eliminated Leviathan, doors that would have been otherwise closed would be opened.
If the Triumvirate had stayed, any victory would have been attributed to them. So, she had targeted Alexandria, who seemed to be the more emotionally vulnerable to leaving.
Much time was wasted in the process, but Leviathan seemed content with waiting at a harbor filled with rusting ships as if he knew she was coming.
It would be rude to let him wait any longer than he already had. While she could be cruel, she was not ill-mannered enough to be discourteous.
Makima broke the sound barrier as she vaulted into the air, flying over any obstacle that inadvertently blocked her path. Within seconds, Makima stood face to face with Leviathan, barely 100 meters apart.
"My, oh my. You have certainly been through the grinder."
Even when she had been mortally wounded, she had never once lost sight of Leviathan. Her birds had scoured the skies, tracking the Endbringer as he fought through the city. But it was only now that she could truly appreciate his disheveled form.
Her most decisive blows had merely cracked his skin, failing to inflict any lucrative damage, but these parahumans had ripped away so much flesh that he looked skeletal. It was not often Makima was impressed, but she had to admit that the heroes had fought as spectacularly as they had died. Watching them sacrifice their lives to save another from an impossible adversary was a sight to behold, far superior to any scripted scene from a movie.
While it seemed like a breeze could topple the thirty-foot-tall bag of sticks and bones, she was fully aware that he was no less dangerous. She had watched how he had dismantled the Protectorate heroes, deceiving his enemies with false weaknesses. He had played them, feigning injury before luring them into a trap.
The cunning was impressive but not remarkable enough to work a second time. She would repay the heroes who had footed her lesson bill with their lives by granting them what they could only dream of.
Makima Ability Activation: Lung
Power coursed through every cell within her body at the growing anticipation of combat, rapidly multiplying every aspect of her abilities, whether physical or immaterial. But while her strength grew by the second, no scale erupted from her skin, and no fire bloomed from her hands.
While her connection to Lung was stable, these parahuman powers had been tailored for humans, making it difficult for a Devil like herself to harness their full potential. Lung's Avatar had promised a solution, but Makima considered it a blessing in disguise. Turning into a colossal dragon with additional limbs would have hampered her combat ability, not enhanced.
The two combatants stood motionlessly as neither made the first move. Like the calm before the storm, silence engulfed the soon-to-be battlefield with only the sound of the pouring rain and crashing waves for accompaniment.
Seconds passed into minutes, but not a twitch could be seen.
Makima narrowed her eyes, frowning internally. Time was on her side. Every passing second added to her strength, so she welcomed the respite, but…
What is he waiting for?
Suspicion gnawed in the back of her mind like maggots, her honed instincts whispering that something was amiss. Leviathan had repeatedly shown tactical ingenuity. He would not waste time fruitlessly, meaning that this stillness was also to his advantage.
With her escalation slowing from the lack of stimuli, there was no need to wait any longer. If her suspicions were true, she needed to disrupt whatever he was planning. Makima extended her hand, a finger pointing at Leviathan, and fired a telekinetic force.
Her attack was true as her aim, striking him dead within his center and puncturing a hole through the chest from front to back before his form collapsed into a puddle.
A clone?
Makima caught a flash of movement from the corner of her eyes. Leviathan rushed to the side, juking without rhythm or rhyme as his after-echoes flooded the docks.
Tracking with her finger, Makima fired once more. Distance was almost meaningless to the invisible force. But the moment it reached his body, an after-echo boosted him out of harm's way with a sudden burst of speed, leaving behind only a watery image.
She fired again and again, altering the force's speed and radius, but every attack ended in failure.
Makima blinked. For the nth time that day, she was flabbergasted.
Her assault was nearly instantaneous and had no visible tells. To dodge was almost impossible and to dodge repeatedly was impossible. Even if he was tracking her aim, he should not have known when she would strike.
Leviathan closed more distance with every following miss. In moments, he loomed before her, slashing his talons diagonally-
-and bisected her from shoulder to opposite hip. Leviathan stumbled as he swept past, almost in surprise as if he had not expected his attack to land.
Torso falling and legs toppling, Makima turned, pointing at his back.
"Bang."
Her attack hit nothing but water as Leviathan nimbly recovered from his mistake and leaped to the side with dizzying speed.
Makima Contract Activation: Lung
While distance separated Makima and her latest tool, his veins connected to her own as his blood poured into hers, nourishing and mending her torn flesh. Tendons burst from both portions of her body and reached for the other like a tangling vine, hauling her upper and lower halves into a complete whole.
Her gambit had accomplished little, but she had learned much.
When she allowed Leviathan's attack to land, he stumbled. His recovery was immediate, but there had been a point in time when his thought and movement were dyssynchronous. It showed that he could make mistakes if reality did not coincide with his expectations.
But more importantly, she had grasped his range of vision. When she fired, she aimed not for his center but his left flank. In response, Leviathan leaped to his right, selecting the most optimal path for escape despite having no way to see her aim with his back turned.
He was not merely predicting and avoiding with his sense of timing; he was accurately seeing everything around him, meaning that targeting his blind spots was meaningless.
Her arms shot to the side, forming a thin barrier against the tail whip that slapped into her right. Instead of resisting the impact, Makima flowed with it, allowing it to send her flying and creating valuable distance. Despite her increasing durability, her arms were shattered. She felt no less than 7 breaks on her right and 9 on her left, along with 5 fractures across 3 ribs.
Blood flowed from Lung's veins into her own, healing her of all ailments and snapping her broken skeleton back together.
Feet skidding across the wet pavement, Makima shot three bursts of her force, not at the charging Endbringer but at the areas surrounding him. The first was aimed at the space encompassing his head while the other two sped towards his two flanks so that he would still be clipped if he tried to move out of the way.
But the monstrosity did not dodge to his left, right, or even above. Instead, he dived into a roll, tucking in his arms, legs, and tail while bending at his waist into a ball as her attacks passed by harmlessly.
If she was unsure before, she was certain now.
Leviathan could see her invisible force.
Somehow, he could discern something that cast no shadow and reflected no light. There was no radiation to detect, and even its shape and size were variable to her will. Yet, Leviathan dodged with certainty. There was no hesitation in his evasion, meaning it was no luck or guesswork. Despite the impossibility, he knew exactly where her attacks would go and what areas they would encompass.
Makima pondered the possibility of precognition like the Future Devil, but Leviathan would not have fallen for her last gambit if he had that ability. She needed to determine his method of perception before she could form any decisive strategies.
She leaned under a talon that swept over her head, barely dodging a cut that aimed to separate her into two. But Leviathan turned with the swing, adding rotational momentum into his tail that sliced at her midsection. She jumped backward, leaping out of reach, but an after-echo sprang from the tail's tip and bisected her in half.
Flesh erupted as her body healed even as she was being cut, only for her arms to be sliced off by a taloned uppercut that caught her from below.
For reasons unbeknownst to her, Leviathan was slower and weaker than before. She would have attributed it to his injuries if she had not seen him fight beforehand. But despite the decrease in his physical attributes, he fought with incredible fluidity and skill that made up for his deficits a dozen times over. Unlike their first battle, he fought not with the ruthless savagery that could overwhelm the unskilled but with the patience and planning of a Devil Hunter facing a far superior foe.
But what truly concerned her was not what he had revealed but what he had not. Leviathan had yet to employ his greatest weapon, the sea, despite being in its direct proximity. No wave struck the shores, and the water was as calm as a still lake. At first, she suspected trickery like the one that had slain the Protectorate, but the rats she had placed deep underground had not detected any unusual activity.
Makima retreated as Leviathan advanced. He slashed, swiped, and thrust a hundred times over in a tenth of the time as her flesh was gashed and her bones sawed. In 16 minutes and 32 seconds, she had suffered 16 amputations of the limbs, 3 beheadings, 1 impalement, and 8 bisections across multiple planes.
Every wound was unpleasant, but the pain paled compared to the indignity she suffered as her once fine clothing turned into a beggar's rags. Hopefully, this world had an equivalent to the Cloth Devil.
Eventually, Leviathan learned that cutting her into pieces was a futile endeavor. Instead of slashing with his talons, he bludgeoned with his mauled fist, trying and failing to crush her into a paste.
Makima lunged under the tail that sought not to cut but to seize and charged. She pivoted, launching a crescent kick at his leg as soon as he was within striking distance. But Leviathan easily put himself out of harm's way by taking a single step back. She advanced, trying to press her advantage but the momentum was already lost.
Her maximum physical attack range was three feet, while Leviathan could strike up to forty feet away. With over a dozen times the difference in range, the Endbringer was able to dominate the pace and intensity of the battle. With his superior height and long limbs, he masterfully kept himself out of her reach while always keeping her within his. Even her invisible force, the only ranged offense she had available, was useless as each blast failed to scrape their target.
This is getting ridiculous…
She theorized that Leviathan saw the world through vibrations like some insects, but the destructive capabilities of her invisible force were so great that low-density masses such as air were instantly obliterated before it could even vibrate, making it an excellent tool for a silent kill. Even objects with a higher density like rain-
Oh.
Oh…
The Control Devil paused for a single moment, no longer than a heartbeat. But it was a moment that Leviathan did not waste. Ground cracking under his feet, he sped forward, crossing the same distance he had previously struggled to maintain under a microsecond. His sudden acceleration enhanced the vertical haymaker that was sent pounding down upon the vertex of her head like a hammer meant to flatten a bug.
The blow connected with the sound of cannon fire. The resulting shockwave blew away every drop of moisture within the radius, momentarily creating an artificial dry zone.
But Makima could not be moved. Leviathan might as well have struck a mountain with straw.
While the Earth exploded under her feet and her legs were nailed under its soil, not a drop of blood escaped her skin and not a tilt could be seen from her head. Leviathan froze, disbelieving and in confusion.
Her tender hand gently caressed the jagged fist that rested upon her hair, briefly palming it before thrusting it aside. The sudden application of force crippled Leviathan's balance, but any weakness was brief, and he recovered instantly from the surprise.
The Endbringer twisted as he struck, a backhand whistling towards her side from the same limb she had tossed away, but she knelt under the blow and raised a hand above her head. From her fingertip detonated an invisible force, aimed not at Leviathan but at the sky above, emptying it of water for a mile away.
From her kneeling position, she leaped over a tail that punctured the same ground she had previously occupied.
Pointing down, her force sped through the air.
This time, it could not be dodged.
Leviathan was stabbed into the ground, buried under multiple tons of stone and dirt as the harbor was separated by long cavernous cracks that reached the very outskirts of the city. Dead ships were flipped upside down while the lighter vessels were flung into the air as the sea they resided upon tossed and turned, not by Leviathan's hand but from the tremors caused by the singular impact.
It seemed so obvious in hindsight that the creature that controlled water would see the world through water. He had known the exact size, shape, and velocity of her force from the raindrops it removed from the air.
Once she took the step to eliminate the falling rain beforehand, he was blind to the next attack. He had still been able to react to her leap, probably due to the fluids that clung to the little bits of clothing that remained and possibly her blood, but it was of little matter.
She had learned what she needed, and multiple plans to counteract his perception formed within her mind.
There was no need to hold back any longer.
Leviathan burst from the ground in an explosion of dirt, but all that greeted him on the surface was the rear of her foot. Black blood burst as the skin and flesh of his face was crushed by a soccer kick to the chin, sending him spinning across docks. Leviathan turned as he flew, balancing himself to land on his feet. But before those feet could even touch the ground, Makima appeared behind him with speed resembling teleportation.
Her hand shot out, gripping him by the throat mid-air and slammed him into the ground. One hand immobilized the Endbringer while the other pummeled down upon his face with Earth-shaking blows. A sound resembling artillery bombardment resonated throughout the city so loudly that every conscious soul could hear the cacophonic noise.
But Leviathan was no gentle lamb to be slaughtered. A clawed talon flashed into her flank, but Makima simply grabbed the offending limb, halting it in its tracks. A forty-fool tail slammed into her back with the force of a warhead, but she showed no signs of having been struck.
Makima tore and shredded Leviathan's neck and head without respite. The talons that had cleaved her flesh like a butcher's knife now bounced off her skin, and the fists that had broken bone failed to leave a bruise.
Even as the Endbringer resisted, the Devil ripped into his flesh, taking small bits of pleasure in his struggles. She was unsure if he felt pain but seeing him writhe like a worm fluttered joy into her heart.
But suddenly, the ground darkened as if the sun was blotted out. Pausing mid-punch, Makima turned, only to be greeted by a wave of cataclysmic proportions.
The wave stretched throughout the entire horizon and reached into the very heavens. It was a wave that could drown all of Brockton bay, but Makima knew its purpose was not to sink the city but to sink her.
She had been bidding her time throughout the fight, allowing Leviathan the upper hand until her strength had grown to the point that it could overwhelm him. She had wondered why no wave had struck the shore, why he had restricted himself to a melee when the entire sea was his sword and shield.
Now she knew.
Like herself, Leviathan had been delaying, building up power until he could unleash a killing blow of his own.
In the brief time she was distracted, Leviathan shifted underneath and threw her off with a sudden burst of strength. Like a snake in the dunes, he slithered away, rushing towards the approaching wave.
She made no move to stop him; there were more significant concerns. Once the wave reached the city, Brockton Bay would be finished, and everything she had fought for would be for naught. She intended to be the savior of this city and establish her power base within its borders, but that required the city to survive.
Gathering her strength, she swept her hand across the horizon. From her palm erupted an invisible force, far beyond in power and magnitude than anything she had ever wielded. The force curved as it flew, expanding multiple miles and cutting through the encroaching wave like a blade.
The wave collapsed, having been excised from its currents.
But while the biblical disaster fell, the million tons of displaced water had to go somewhere.
Makima gripped a fallen anchor as the flood crashed into her, resisting the currents that engulfed the remnants of the docks.
Something flashed before her eyes.
The next thing she knew, she was drifting away with the tide. The arm that had been hanging on to an anchor had been sliced off along with everything below her breasts.
Before her lost body parts could regenerate, she was seized by a taloned hand that covered her wounds so her severed flesh could not reconnect. Leviathan held her in his palm, like a doll in the hands of a child. Makima did not struggle or resist. She did not bother with futile efforts. The moment she was underwater, the battle was over.
She had lost…
But the Control Devil smiled.
"Save me, Lung."
A magnificent roar tore through the world, shaking and reverberating every atom deeply enough to be felt underwater. Her vision turned white as the water boiled, a lake's worth of liquid turning into gas in under a second. Leviathan barely had enough time to turn before a 30-foot-tall flaming dragon slammed into him, forcing the Endbringer to drop her to contend with a foe he had not seen for a decade.
Teeth snapped as claws locked against talons. The two rolled on the desert dry ground in a tumble of limbs and tail, biting and ripping with abandon. Talons and claws met flesh, showering the battlefield in a rain of black and red. But the rainfall of blood was brief. Lung's flames burned white hot, severing through every molecule of liquid within a hundred meters as the sea of water struggled against the sea of fire. While all the docks were buried underwater, a single circular area surrounded by the sea remained dry, like an arena dedicated to monsters.
A third competitor, more monstrous than the rest, joined the coliseum.
Makima flashed across the field, intercepting a fleeing Leviathan who had managed to disentangle from Lung.
The Endbringer aimed high.
The Devil aimed low.
A daggered hand missed, slicing through nothing but air.
But she did not; her low kick hammered into his painfully thin ankle.
Even as Leviathan stumbled, Makima continued to flow in a synergy of skill and speed. She spun with the grace of a ballet dancer and the ferocity of a whirlwind, every spin adding momentum and power to the second low kick that bashed into his second ankle.
The bloody mass toppled to the ground with both of his bases broken. He hurriedly recovered, leaping to his feet with surprising elegance and tried to escape the circle of fire, but it was too late. Lung was already upon him. Water burst from the surroundings in spears the size of skyscrapers as the two struggled once more, but every drop was burned away before they could come close.
Luckily, it seemed that she had obtained Lung's resistance to fire even if she could not control the same flames. Otherwise, the heat would have been debilitating. Her clothing however, lacked the same resistance and what little remained became ash.
Leviathan's talons pierced and shredded through Lung, silver scales falling apart like glistening pearls. The dragon with the heart of a mutt screamed in pain. His roar came to a halt only when he claimed Leviathan's throat with his jaw, black blood drying away as fast as it burst out.
A lance in the form of a tail pierced through the dragon's chest, forcing him to cough a bloody wheeze. Nevertheless, like a well-trained dog, Lung held on, biting and refusing to let go. But as the battle progressed, Makima could see he was faltering. The changes were minute, but his regeneration was becoming slower, his flames weaker, and his size smaller.
Makima sighed in disappointment. Even with her power augmenting his escalation, a leopard could not change his spots. His craven nature was difficult to overcome.
"Fight," she ordered, her voice clear despite the chaotic cacophony of noise. "Fight until you die."
As if receiving a message from God, Lung roared and attacked with renewed vigor, his strength escalating once more upon her command as he bit and clawed with greater ferocity. Grabbing the tail still embedded in his lungs, the dragon tore it out of his chest. Four of his hands gripped four of Leviathan's limbs and his tail coiled around the Endbringer's, keeping the appendage in place.
Taking a deep inhale, Lung breathed out. Instead of air, white flame spilled from his throat, torching and burning Leviathan's face until his flesh began to melt into a molten red. Incapacitated and forced onto the ground, the Endbringer could do nothing to resist
Eventually, the flames ceased, but his ordeal was not over. In place of flames, a small hand, pitiful in size compared to Lung's gripped his face. But from the palm detonated a force far more potent than any conflagration.
Makima struck with her invisible force, blasting one after the other and digging the trio deeper underground as thousands of tons of ashen dirt and melting rock were excavated. She did not count how many times she had fired, but Leviathan's head was now merely a seventh of his original size.
He struggled with all his might, but it was to no avail. The combined strength of his foes had proved too much for him to contend with. Makima was winning, but all she could feel was annoyance.
I cannot kill him.
Her strength, escalating by the second, rapidly receded as the danger became minimal. Her force carved his flesh, but every following strike dug shallower than the previous until it became practically impotent.
"Fly," she ordered.
Four leathery wings expanded into an overarching arc of 100 feet in span. With a heave of force, the wings flapped down, buffeting the area in a gust as he lifted off into the air with an unwilling passenger. Leviathan desperately tried to resist, slashing with his talons and stabbing with his tail. But Lung's limbs immobilized the Endbringer's potent weapons, and whatever meager damage inflicted was healed within seconds.
The sea rose with the two to stop the ascension. But Lung's size belayed his surprising speed as he rocketed far faster than it could rise. The rain in the skies condensed into a sea of its own and struck down like a spear, only to be met by a hot dense jet of flame with such heat that the fluids were disintegrated down to their molecular structure. The Dragon's fire flared so brightly that it was as if the overcast skies were illuminated by a second sun.
It was an unbelievable shame that she could not defeat Leviathan. Even if she could not control him, his corpse would have been invaluable. But he had proven himself far too durable to kill, even at her greatest. At the rate she was losing strength, it would have been a matter of time before the tables were turned.
With calm in contrast to the turbulent sea below and the raging blaze above, Makima raised her hands, cupping one over the other with a palm as her fingertip aligned with the wriggling masses that struggled for dominance in the firmament.
"Bang."
The two gargantuan beings were struck simultaneously. Two halves of a dragon toppled back to Earth, flames pouring from his gullet as his body was severed by something amorphous. Silver scales fell like shattered glass, shining as they caught the light of the sun and scarlet blood poured down with the rain with bits of flesh mixed in between.
But to Leviathan, the invisible force was not a knife that cut but a mighty shove into the very stars. The Endbringer rose dozens of miles into the air, breaking the sound barrier and more. An object needed to travel at 17,000 miles per hour to escape Earth's gravity, and Leviathan traveled at several times that speed.
"Bang."
Just as Leviathan slowed its ascent at the very border of the atmosphere, he was struck again by something that could not be seen and forced into the pitch black of space, far past the cosmic metal and dust that orbited the world below. After-echoes burst from his body, trying to propel him back into the dirt planet like a jet. But against the forced acceleration, his efforts were tantamount to stopping a plummeting mountain with a water hose.
"Bang."
The lack of air and gravity accelerated Leviathan to new heights as he passed the moon's pull so rapidly that his trajectory could not be altered. He fumbled and flailed, fruitlessly trying to stop his momentum.
"Bang."
"Bang."
"Bang."
"Bang."
"Bang."
"Bang."
"Bang."
Every blow that crashed into the Endbringer propelled him further into the darkness between stars. Nothing impeded his travel and every strike added to his propulsion as he reached unimaginable speeds, traveling one hundred thousand kilometers a second as he blazed past Venus, his velocity too great to be caught by the planet of vanity.
"Bang."
Leviathan sped through the empty void, with no other life in sight. Without a single molecule of water, the Endbringer was effectively blind. He could not appreciate the magnificence of space or the light of the shimmering stars, a sight many would have clamored to see. He continued to fly in the vacuum, invisible impacts striking periodically until an object finally barred his path. With speed and force beyond any falling meteor, the bloodied form of the Sinker of cities met the harsh, barren soil of Mercury.
One broke.
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I will be writing a PHO interlude on the premise that Uber and Leet recorded the entire Leviathan battle from front to end. If there is something you guys want to say while acting like a worm-verse netizen regarding this fight, post it up and I will add it if it is applicable.
Omake: Fight Summary
Makima: Hah! You activated my trap card!
Leviathan: Nu-uh, not so fast, I activate my trap card to counter your trap card!
Makima: Blast! Is what I would say if I didn't have ANOTHER trap card!
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As usual, I would appreciate any and all reviews in my writing, especially regarding the dialogue and fight scenes