The armada continued on, Polyphemus leading the way. They were almost on top of downtown Narragansett now. Air raid sirens drifted from below while the wind whipped at Isaac’s face. The star fort that served as military headquarters was nearly in view, lying low amid high rises and skyscrapers. Technicians readied the barrel for another firing, twisting knobs and pulling levels, steam hissing from pipes.

Babs stood before Isaac. “It didn’t have to end this way. You should’ve been standing here at my side. You and Reed both.”

“For what? Dictatorship and world conquest?” Isaac shook his head. “Not likely.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” Babs answered. “The only way to create true peace is to unite the world. As long as there’s competition, independent actors serving their own interests, there’ll be bloodshed. You might make Arcadia a land of peace, but that’ll only invite Elysia and the others to attack it. Peace requires order. We’re naturally greedy, self-serving people. That’s why philosophers must rule - only they can rise above it all. We need somebody pulling the strings to keep the planet at peace.”

Rage boiled up in him. “You know what pulling the strings in the name of peace gets you? Murdered brothers. Lobotomized friends. You talk so much about justice, but your puppeteers would be immune from it. I’m not changing this country just to exchange one tyranny for another. I’m gonna sever those strings.”

“And leave mankind to its own devices?” Babs asked. “An international system based on freedom resulted in the Unleashing.”

Isaac gritted his teeth. “We’ll do better this time.”

Babs scoffed. “You think the average person knows what a tariff is? How to handle international diplomacy? How to think rationally instead of emotionally?”

“Then I’ll teach them.” He jabbed a finger at her. “I thought philosophers were supposed to educate people to think for themselves, not demand they think the same way they do.”

Parasite fighters flew by. Patches of sunlight fell through the clouds on the cadet and the junior officer standing at the back of the weapons platform.

“You turned against Caesar for treating people like pawns, yet you’re doing the same thing,” Isaac said. “Once you’re in charge, with absolute power, what makes you think you’ll be an enlightened ruler? What’s there to stop you from ruling like a tyrant?”

“Because I’m not him,” Babs answered. “I’m me.”

“You think absolute power wouldn’t corrupt you?”

“What makes you think it wouldn’t corrupt you?”

“That’s why I’m not going for it.”

Babs took a deep breath. “I won’t become a tyrant. I’ll save this country and this planet. You want to know why? Because I know myself. Because I have complete faith in myself. Because I’m Babs fucking Morang!”

A rush of wind immediately greeted Isaac. Still powered by the sacrifices within the Heart, the gust, far beyond the usual powers of Circuit 2A, swept Isaac off his feet, slamming him backwards into a metal railing. Babs advanced on him, keeping up the pressure, letting out sharp whistles and precise hand motions. The railing dug into Isaac’s back, and his torso actually started to bend backwards over it.

She’s trying to snap me in half!

Isaac found the strength to shoot off an electric blast. It was weak and off-target, only striking the ground near her, but the wind relented just for a moment. Isaac rolled out of the way, down the backstairs, so the renewed blast of wind flew right over him. He leapt off the platform, onto the envelope, and pinned himself against its side, enabling him to avoid another sharp column of air. When Babs leaned over the railing to attack him, Isaac was waiting for her, ready with an electric charge. The column of electricity shot upwards, but Babs spun out of the way and then leapt over the railing.

The hull let out a metal squeak as Babs landed on it. Isaac tried to ruin her landing with a well-timed punch, but she easily deflected it and pressed him. The two traded blows, but Babs blocked all of Isaac’s attacks. He tried to grab and snap the tube coming out of her elbow, but she knocked his hand away then delivered a precise strike to his chest. The wind got knocked out of Isaac and he felt something inside him pop; his breathing now came out ragged and the flow of Rddhi through him felt interrupted.

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The star fort now came into view below the airship. Since Babs herself had to fire the barrel, as long as Isaac kept her distracted, the military headquarters would remain safe. It was ironic - he was protecting the very military he vowed to destroy. But Babs had a point about Arcadia’s enemies waiting in the wings to attack. He had to keep the underlying structure of Arcadia intact long enough to change it, rather than break it wholesale. Even if he defeated Babs, if she managed to destroy the junta, then anarchy would reign across the country.

He shot electric charge after electric, threw punch after punch, but with the Heart on her side, Babs was just too much. She delivered a haymaker into his jaw; when he stumbled backwards, she swept out of his legs. His back hit the metal hull and black spots entered his vision. Babs stood over him, raising both of her palms, and launched a wave of wind at him. It was so strong that it pinned both his arms flat against the hull while hitting his face at the same time. Worse still-

I can’t breathe. She’s going to choke me to death!

Isaac tried to squirm away, raise his arms, tilt his head, but it was no use. His head thundered and pounded as his lungs cried out for air. The blackness at the corners of his vision crept across his entire field of view. Babs’ straw cape flickered behind her and she increased the intensity of the attack. There wouldn’t be any mercy this time.

That’s when a commotion erupted on the platform. With Babs and Isaac so focused on their own showdown, Reed made her appearance. She sliced through the remaining technicians and then charged at Salvatore. Bullets ripped through her shoulder, but she ignored the pain and lunged towards him. Her sword sliced cleanly through his neck, decapitating him. In the same motion, a sound wave zoomed off her sword, the guitar noise wailing as it cut right through the tube connecting Babs to the weapon.

A heavy weight disappeared off the top of the airship. The lines disappeared off of Babs' face while crimson spewed from the broken tube. She immediately turned and caught Reed mid-air with her wind, sending her crashing against the weapon. Smoke and screams rose into the air - the wind pinned the already burned half of Reed’s face against the barrel, heavily heated by the use. When the wind disappeared, Reed had been scalded so badly that she simply collapsed onto the platform.

When Babs turned back to finish Isaac off, he was already slamming an uppercut to her jaw. She leapt backwards to create some space and then blasted him with wind, but he smacked it away with a superpowered fist. Her wind was now back to normal strength, making their strength equal. Babs recognized this, for she bit off a finger and activated the Whirlwind Reaper.

Isaac knew what to do. He deactivated his cultivation and stepped right through it. At normal strength, it couldn’t blow him away like earlier, and it couldn’t stop conventional attacks. There was a sense of irony to it all - months ago, he started this journey by unlocking cultivation when it became necessary to win a fight. And now - he was going to end things by fighting without it.

Even with her shield up, Babs could send out wind strikes, but they were greatly weakened. If she deactivated her shield, she would have to fight Isaac’s cultivation abilities, so she decided to keep it up, calculating that her weakened cultivation attacks could defeat his conventional ones. Isaac set out to prove her wrong. The two traded blows, knocking each other’s hands away, delivering strikes to the shoulders and torsos and stomachs, both sides at a stalemate. When he sent another punch at her, she caught his palm and tossed it away. Isaac followed up with a feint to her stomach - when she went to block it, he corrected course towards his true target, her throat.

When he made impact, Babs choked and sputtered, and the wind shield briefly flickered off and on. On her backfoot now, Babs tried to block his next flurry of punches, but one made it through, hitting her throat again. She stumbled backwards; when Isaac targeted her throat again, she raised her hands to protect it, only for him to follow up with a punch to her stomach. She keeled over, and Isaac followed with another blow to her now unprotected throat. Again and again, he hit her there, the shield decreasing in strength, until he finally hit her just hard and just right for something in her neck to crack.

The shield disappeared entirely as Babs struggled to breath. Isaac immediately activated his cultivation again, the red energy flaring and striking the hull, as he smashed an uppercut to her stomach. Babs fought wildly now, her wind attacks off-target but relentless, like a wounded animal cornered by its predator. She sent an all-out blast of wind at him, enough to tear cuts in his skin, but he ignored the stinging pain and knocked her hands away. She was teetering now, just trying to stay on her feet, the strength in her attacks draining away until she could only offer weak defenses.

Isaac kept on her, throwing flurry after flurry of punches. He hit her throat; he hit it again; he hit her stomach; struck her across the face. She was sputtering and coughing, her breath coming out ragged, pained, and labored, and that’s when Isaac went to finish things. He felt the energy surge in his bracer, directing it all into his right fist. Months ago, everything started with that first punch by his right fist, and now it would end that same way.

A couple of jabs with his left fist presented an opening for attack. Isaac reared back, the bracer glowing as crimson surged into his right fist, and sent one final punch directly towards her chest. Right as it made contact, there was an explosion of light and energy as he activated the electric charge.

Babs’ eyes widened and her lugs buckled as Isaac caved her chest in on itself, right through her heart.