Kevin’s shot bounced off his target’s defensive shield and caused both the supposedly controlled Kevin and the now godly Kain to be rather confused. Kevin had not fired his gun at Kain, but at Angela XI, heavily draining her papal throne’s built-in shielding system and causing his target to use her command console to force Kevin to lie prone on the ground.

“I should have known that your will would still remain somewhere deep within you!” Angela XI roared. “To think you would manage to regain control at this time of all times! Bastard! You were to be the chosen one, yet you try to undermine everything you were meant to be!”

Kevin let out a mocking laugh.

“I am what I choose to be; nothing less! It is my right to rule over the pathetic dregs of this world and use my enlightened understanding of things to bring about a golden age!”

Kain, who had not spoken a single word since his ascension, looked at the prone Kevin with disdain.

“A golden age brought through the enslavement and oppression of a single group who are treated that way due to their skin color alone is not a true golden age. And ‘enlightened’? Seriously? You consider yourself ‘enlightened’? Are you seriously so foolish that you can’t realize how insane you are?”

“For once I am forced to agree with the devil on something…” Angela XI added. “You were supposed to be a True Hero, but you acted nothing like what you were supposed to be. We were right to remake you and bind you to the will of the Church, for otherwise you would never have done as we wished and the dark heart of Darksol would still exist!”

“A White Man chooses; women and slaves merely obey!” Kevin retorted before forcing himself to rise against the commands being directly implanted into his body and mind. “AND I AM NEITHER A WOMAN NOR A SLAVE!”

Kevin tried to aim his Mega Pistol at Angela XI, but Kain stepped between them.

“You want to be erased first?!” Kevin screamed in fury and anger. “THEN BE MY FUCKING GUEST!”

Kevin fired his gun at Kain, who had lowered any and all defenses he had previously had up. Kevin grinned and laughed like a madman as the energy blast neared the Abominable King, but as soon as it connected, in that smallest of moments before his weapon’s ability took effect, Kevin’s face fell as he realized that he had fucked up.

In a single moment, one of the two super-powered men in the room blinked out of existence.

But it wasn’t Kain who was erased.

“Impossible!” Angela XI cried as she saw Kevin literally cease to be. “How?! How did you do something like that?! You were supposed to be erased, not him!”

Kain’s gaze turned from where Kevin used to be towards Angela XI who still sat upon her gold and ivory throne.

“He had to sacrifice things in order to erase something, right?” Kain asked in a monotone and uninterested voice.

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“Yes… but what does that have to do with anything?!”

Kain’s gaze shifted back to where Kevin used to be.

“He sacrificed everything he had to erase my city, wife and children, not to mention the people within as well. Even if he hadn’t done so, he would never have had enough to erase me. I was more than you could ever know, and I am even more than that now that I am what I am. The only thing he had left to sacrifice, the only thing he could offer to erase in exchange for erasing his target, was himself.”

Kain dusted off his clothing, looked himself over and with a smug grin he said something that put the fear of death into Angela XI. “And it would seem that offering his own existence as compensation was not nearly enough to erase even a single thread of my new outfit.”

Angela XI took a deep breath in as the realization of how badly she had screwed up set in. If only she had waited just a few more hours, days at most, she might have been able to erase this monster, this devil, this Abominable King and never have had to feel this horrible sense of dread.

“Now then…” Kain said, still speaking in a monotone and uninterested voice, “Shall we end this?”

Kain began to ascend the steps leading to Angela XI and with every step the fear and terror deep within the Battle Pope grew greater and greater.

“WAIT!” she cried in a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable.

“What is it? Are you trying to delay your fate?” Kain asked as he kept climbing.

“I want a duel! If you win, you can do as you will, but if I win you will submit to the power of the goddess!”

Kain ceased his climb and cocked his head to one side. He looked at the woman who, in his eyes, was grasping at straws in a desperate attempt to stop her doom from reaching her. Had she truly the faith needed to believe the lie that she could win against him? Kain considered permitting her to duel him, but what did he owe this woman or her faith aside from vengeance and justice? Did he need to humor her at all and engage in such a farce? No. No he didn’t.

Kain looked up at the woman sitting just twenty steps away from him and, with a voice that lacked all interest and was eerily similar to that of a certain yellow-armored super-human that loved fortifications, he replied to her request with a single word.

“No.”

With that word, he climbed the rest of the stairs and stood just a few short inches away from the terrified Battle Pope who was still in shock that her offer was refused. His massive body towered over her and even if she had stood up, she would still be several heads shorter than him. Angela XI slowly craned her head to look up and into Kain’s eyes, hoping to see some kind of glimmer of compassion, but all she saw was hatred, loathing and wrath housed in his eyes.

“This is a mercy you don’t deserve.” Kain muttered as he grabbed the woman by her hair through her big, fancy hat.

“W-w-what is?!” Angela XI stuttered.

Kain lifted her up so that her head was mostly level with his chest and with a single punch he made her entire head disappear. As her body slumped to the ground and her blood began to leave her body and trickle down the steps, Kain finished converting the flying fortress/city into something that better suited him. As he sat down in the now ebon and silver throne, he kicked Angela XI’s headless body down the steps. As her corpse landed at the base of the raised throne, he watched as the mentally broken Battle Priests and Warrior Nuns tore their former leader’s body to bits and did… unspeakable things to it.

As the noise of what had happened faded and the mad militant clergy left the throne room, Kain was left to his own thoughts.

“That was too merciful an end for that one. You really should have dragged it out longer. But as of now, it’s impossible to bring back that which has been erased.”

A voice from a… something… echoed through the throne room. Kain looked up and saw Lord Wolfenstein walked towards him, an amused smile on his(?) face.

“Then I suppose even you cannot return what I have lost.” Kain said with a heavy sigh.

Lord Wolfenstein seemingly ignored Kain’s sorrow as he(?) continued to walk towards the Abominable King. “Perhaps…” he(?) said before letting his amused smile grow even larger and a bit sinister. “But then again, we both know that I have ways to make the impossible possible. For a price.”