(General P.O.V)
(500 years into the future)
(There was something in the water.)
Deadman had seen a lot of death and destruction.
Two things that followed a supervillain rampage or a fight with very high stakes.
He'd seen it when the Justice League had repelled the Apellaxian invasion. He'd seen it as recent as last week when Gotham had literally gone up in flames.
(The things in the water felt... familiar.)
This...this was an entirely different thing.
For starters the damage was not limited to one city. It looked as if the entire landscape had been ravaged by a storm of flames.
A storm that came by periodically based on the lack of any meaningful plant life.
The redwoods populating an entire area on the outskirts of San Francisco were nowhere to be seen.
The golden great bridge had collapsed into the murky waters of the bay. San Francisco was not an isolated incident either.
It shared the fate of a few other cities he'd already been too that were in ruins.
(They called to him.)
Deadman could not understand why his Goddess had brought him here. The last thing he remembered was...
"Focus."
He heard Rama Kushna's voice cut through his thoughts.
Deadman blinked, looking down at the passing ground.
The water churned with something. Or rather lots of something and along the shore line were destroyed barricades, trenches and the remains of barbed wire fences.
Deadman could guess what had happened. The authorities had tried to fight, those...things.
He couldn't ignore it anymore. The Trench stared up at his ghostly form with a ravenous hunger. White hollow masks on each of their faces.
Deadman knew what they were, it seemed that he had failed in the past. Vandal Savage had succeeded in his nefarious plans.
Deadman swiftly left San Francisco behind.
(Davian's P.O.V)
"You don't have a way to block his temporal erosion! This is madness."
Chase pointed out.
It was.
I knew it was. But there was something within me that felt it was the right move. I couldn't come up with something else to deal with this guy because...he was simply just better.
If I was really the Main Character of my story like all those self help books say then...maybe this would work.
Fuck.
I can't believe I'm putting my belief in the bullshit of plot convenience. Or at least the principles of dumb luck.
"Or maybe you just have a death wish!"
Chase yelled from within my soul.
I didn't have to try hard to convince myself that maybe he was right.
The closer I got to Barragan, the more I realized how outmatched I was. He exuded an aura that slowed things down.
Shit.
It made sense that time would be warped on a zone around his form.
The streaks of purple lightning running along my body disappeared as my speed got sluggish.
Barragan stared down at me, his eyeless holes as deep as the void.
"You shall pay for laying a hand on a king."
He promised while lifting a hand. The dark water pooled onto the ground begun to rise up...
Then it started raining backwards. Which meant drops of the blackish water begun to shoot towards the sky, coming up from under the two of us with different results.
Barragan created a sheet of black ice under his feet in an arguably cool flex of his power.
While I had to construct a shield around me to block the raindrops. Some had already landed on me, eroding the strings making up my costume.
The shield fortunately held up. The raindrops sizzling when they came into contact with it.
It was only a matter of time though. I was running out of Spirit energy. I needed to find a way to get closer to him.
I pulled on the soul of air once more, creating a mist from the humidity in the surroundings, plunging the whole area into a heavy fog.
"Hiding away? What else can I expect from an Ant."
He laughed.
I knew the ploy wouldn't work for long. He could sense Spirit energy after all.
But the few seconds of reprieve I had were more than enough.
"I can't win if I don't get close to him."
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I addressed my Zanpakuto.
Chase snorted.
"Finally understand the kind of clusterfuck you're in?"
He asked.
I merely smiled.
"No, I meant I can't win LIKE this. I need a distraction to get close enough and take his Battle Axe away. I don't want to get dismembered."
And so I explained to him the idea I had.
Chase couldn't stop cursing my name.
Under the cover of fog, Shunpo took me to Barragan's side.
The time dilation hit and even before I could react, the Battle Axe fell, splitting me or rather my clone in two.
A roar rang out.
The strings making up the clone twined and weaved into Chase's monstrous form. My Zanpakuto immediately jumped towards Barragan, his claw colliding with the shaft of the battle axe.
"What are you!? A hollow!?"
Barragan exclaimed at the 1 ton plus, purple cat with spurs and spikes around it's body, trying to bite his head off.
The Old Hollow King was immediately put on the back foot, his battle axe being the only thing that could stop Chase's teeth from sinking into him.
"Anytime now!"
My Zanpakuto cried out, exuding a large amount of Reiatsu that enabled me to hide my own spirit marker easily.
My form cut through the mist unimpeded. My target? The hand that was holding onto his weapon.
Push...
Pull...
A copy of Chesha Neko appeared in my hands, my fingers wrapped around the grip fiercely.
I slashed out as I passed by Barragan.
There was a loud clang from the collision. His Hierro managed to only hold me off for an instant, but eventually my sword won out.
It had to, I had basically shoved every last shred of energy I had into the edge, reinforcing the sharpness and durability aspects.
I appeared behind him holding onto his Zanpakuto. Damn. This thing was super heavy.
"Looking for something?"
I held it up, the bones of his right forearm still attached to the shaft of the weapon.
Barragan turned his skeletal neck to fix me with an anger filled glare.
"You shall die for that. Respira."
The miasma shrouding him rose up and consumed Chase's Beast form, eroding the strings making up his form.
But the plan had succeeded. Without his axe, he could only attack one way.
"Now what genius?"
Chase asked from within my soul.
"Now he'll try to prove that he doesn't need his Zanpakuto to deal with me."
I answered.
Sure enough.
Barragan moved and I found my neck grasped in a tight grip. Even if I'd wanted to move...his speed still dwarfed mine.
"I do not need my Zanpakuto to deal with the likes of you."
He growled out, his cold boney fingers tightening around my neck.
I would have laughed if it wasn't for the fact that breathing was hard. A combination of having my neck squeezed and his heavy Reiatsu.
Instead I settled for a smirk, dropping the battle axe in my hand towards the ground, knowing it would make him mad.
Then with all the arrogance I could muster, I added something that would push him over the edge.
"Prove it."
Barragan went silent. I could imagine the image of burning flames in his eyes due to the fury he was feeling.
"Respira."
That one word decided my fate.
The Miasma around him rose up once again in a cloud of darkness.
I undid the strings around me, exposing myself to the effects.
A flash of fear went through me.
What if this didn't work?
Maybe...maybe I really was suicidal.
Then the cloud of time energy swallowed me whole.
(General P.O.V)
Maryland was the same like the previous dozens of cities he had passed through.
The interior wasn't as bad as places near the ocean but the conditions of living were even worse.
There were people but they weren't normal. He had come across large groups just working around aimlessly like Zombies.
"A disease caused by the Trench after they begun attacking the surface world."
His goddess' voice sounded in his mind.
"So what, they were turned into zombies?"
Deadman asked as he passed over a camp.
Hundreds of infected people surrounded the high electric fence of the camp filled with soldiers and other personnel.
Most seemed like scientists.
Deadman left them behind as he followed his goddess' instructions, moving ahead.
She had brought him here for a reason.
(General P.O.V)
Barragan was finally free.
He had been freed from that darkness by a being he couldn't quite understand.
The only request being...
"Just do what you want."
So he'd decided to rule once more. Both pieces of his being, the Ocean God and the Hollow King had naturally sort Dominion over the largest chunk of the planet, the ocean.
It was only his birth right.
But a king conquered. And so, the ocean alone hadn't been enough.
Then...that group had arrived with a proposition.
As a sea god, he could control all marine life. He could use that to conquer even more.
All they had wanted was a sample. A sample of his spirit energy.
Barragan had allowed it while deciding to destroy them after achieving his plans.
They had dared ask for what was his. Such impudence.
But even their fates would be considered a mercy to what he would do to this fool who had attacked him.
The ant thought he needed a weapon to crush it. How laughable.
"Respira."
He decided to show it.
That in the grand scheme of things, they were all below him.
Humans, soul reapers, hollows, lords of chaos, even gods...he was above all.
For only he would see Eternity. Only he would outlast the ravages of time.
He felt his power take hold on the boy. He felt it eat away at his vitality. It was a pity, the Ant could have made a competent minion.
A king needed subjects after all.
He let go of the quickly fading body, flying down while calling onto his Zanpakuto.
The Battle Axe had landed on the edges of a sheared off piece of the ground.
Barragan felt another burst of irritation at that. Xebel had almost been destroyed from a fight he could have ended in an instant.
He now regretted killing off the boy so quickly. He should have gone out more painfully.
His Zanpakuto cut through the air towards his remaining right hand.
Barragan blinked and 'HE' was just there.
A towering figure, almost 9 feet tall. They had their back, to him.
A white haori flapped in the air behind the figure, a sheath peaking out from under the haori.
The Old Hollow King tilted his head to the side.
"Another ant. Truly the lesser never learn their place."
Then he realized a problem.
His Battle Axe was in the figure's grip. And despite holding out his remaining hand Barragan could not call it to him.
His Zanpakuto simply refused to leave the man's hand.
Then Barragan realized another problem. He couldn't sense the man. He had just appeared.
All creatures had a spirit marker. This man was like a void. Like...That void.
"How old do you think I am now Chase?"
A rumbling voice escaped the figure.
"I feel... powerful. Man, I must have missed so many birthdays."
The figure lamented.
Barragan's hand lowered, the bones rattling against each other.
His mind was buzzing with fear as a scary possibility made itself known.
"Impossible!!"
The Hollow yelled, his Reiryoku and Divine Energy gathering inside his open maw.
The combination of both energies were instantaneous despite their clashing alignments.
The fusion happened seamlessly but in return caused the formation of something with a terrifying amount of power.
Barragan could not allow the possibility to be true! So he had to destroy this ant.
"Divine Ceroo!!!!"
A large golden-purple beam of energy blazed out of his mouth, speeding towards the back of the figure.
The man twirled Barragan's own battle axe and blocked the fired cero easily, the beam rebounding off it's flat side to fly off and land on the dome of energy around Xebel.
The entire thing rippled dangerously.
"How is that possible. What did you do?!"
Barragan was freaking out. How could such an attack be dealt with so easily?
"Handy."
The figure kept ignoring him, throwing the Battle Axe up into the air before catching it again.
"I think I'm going to keep this."
He spoke, finally turning around to fully face Barragan.
"Now, to deal with annoying flies buzzing around."
The figure said, clearly showing he was talking about Barragan.
Yet, the Hollow King reacted not with anger but fear.
The figure's entire face was covered in a white mask with long horns shooting to the sky.
His hair was jet black and held in a knot behind his
His chest was left exposed under the Haori, showing of the rippling muscles underneath it.
The Hollow King's entire body froze up.
He still couldn't sense the figure's energy and now he knew why. It was because simply put...
"Finally figured it out, huh?"
The figure teased, crossing his hands together.
Simply put... Barragan had been wrong about who the Ant was.