Once I absorbed this forcefield fully, I would release all of the energy in one big blast, hopefully blowing them all away. Or at least that stupid grandma and her stupid wrinkly face! While I had no idea whether Dante knew what I was doing or not, the fact that it’s been this long and I hadn't been stopped yet gave me a good feeling.

That was until I heard that hag, Teresa, call out to Jason, presumably to have him attack me again. My body tensed up, preparing to take the full force of another painful punch, but thankfully, a loud “No” from Daemon stopped the big guy from moving any farther.

“I already allowed that serial killer to get one shot in. Now let's see how my son handles this first.”

There was one thing I needed to figure out if I was gonna beat this piece of shit Dante once and for all. Where the hell was he!? The only people that were in this room from what I could see were me and these ‘Radius” guys. There weren't any obvious hiding spots here as the place was literally just a black open space with a large round table in the middle. The only place he could be to freely use his ability would have to be a different floor entirely.

Since this was still the top floor, the only place Dante could be in were any of the floors below us. And if I could kill a giant, radioactive bird with my nuclear beam, then destroying a few floors shouldn't be hard at all!

With the final fragments of the forcefield absorbed, I immediately started charging up my attack, hands next to each other, small green orbs circling near my palms. Then, with a thunderous boom, my attack obliterated the floor beneath me–not including where the Radius were standing.

I fell through the hole I created and landed on the 98th floor, scaring off every person that was on that floor. Though, out of the many people rushing through me to get to the stairs, there was one person there that caught my eye without any hesitation. The man who started this whole damn journey and took the one thing that I cared about away from me.

Dante Williams! He was standing just across from me–a forcefield next to him containing…my daughter! Inside the shimmering dome of the forcefield, she sat hunched, her body shrunken and slack, as if even the act of breathing took effort. Her skin was pale, head leaning forward. I knew my instinct as a dad told me I needed to run over to her side and get her to safety, but my emotions were still dulled by that woman’s ability. So when I saw Sunshine, I had a more “Oh, great. I found her "rather than a “I have to save her!”

“Jerome! Believe me when I say that I have a lot more left to lose today then you do! So why don’t you do something useful in your life for once and stand still.”

“And let my daughter get killed by your little group while I’m in there? Not happening?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Dante raised an eyebrow. “Kill your daughter? The hell are you talking about?”

“Don’t act dumb. The contagious disease Sunshine has that could kill anyone infected by it? Doesn’t that ring a bell? Now that I think about it, you were boasting so much about how you could kill her instantly but I’m surprised you haven’t done that yet.”

“I‘ve got no idea what you’re babbling about but the plan was never to kill this kid. At least, I was never told to do so.”

The moment he said this, Dante slapped his hand over his mouth—his face confused.

What did he mean he wasn’t supposed to kill her? After all the trouble those guys upstairs went through to tell me why they wanted to kill Sunshine and now apparently, none of that was true!? Am I being tricked right now?

“What’s wrong, Dante?” I said, cracking a smile in my mind. “I haven’t punched you in the face yet so what’re you in pain for?”

“Shut up!” He raised his hand to the ceiling and at that moment, dust and debris washed over me, clouding my vision. I glanced up and realized that the remnants of a forcefield were above me, pieces of brick falling onto my face as I did.

That bastard was too clever for his own good!

I bolted through the dust cloud and was about to begin my attack when I noticed that Dante had vanished. Suddenly, I was encased once more in another forcefield.

“Not only are you a pathetic father, you’re also prone to falling for the easiest tricks in the book!” I whirled around and saw Dante, sitting cross legged on Sunshine’s bubble. “Now that this is over with, I’ll call to have my guys get you.”

“Hey, let me ask you something. What are you people actually gonna do with Sunshine?”

“You know, you seem to be more calm nowadays. I expected you to try and break through my ability with your fists and fail miserably.” Dante took out his status board which looked like an actual cell phone now. “And don’t worry about this little brat. The last thing we need is her dead.”

He covered his mouth again, as if he regretted saying that just now.

“And why’s that?” I asked, discreetly placing my fingertips on the forcefield.

He uncovered his mouth. “Are you really that oblivious? Your daughter is a radius like you. She can alter and change the molecular structure of your brain to make you do or say things you don’t actually want to do. Hell, even make you act like a whole new…Gah! What the hell is happe…A whole new-No!”

I shifted my attention to my daughter and, to my surprise, there was an aura of green energy around her head that disappeared and returned every time Dante tried to get a word in.

Dante clenched his skull, sweat dripping down to his shiny black shoes. “This stupid bitch is ruining everything, dammit! We plan on studying her-No! Studying her brain to see how we can…That’s enough!”

Before I could finish absorbing his forcefield, Dante chucked Sunshine out one of the broken windows—his ability thankfully still active around her. Even after witnessing my own child fall out of a skyscraper, I already had plenty of reason to believe she wouldn’t be killed. And it wasn’t just ‘cause of that power of his.

Sunshine was using some special ability to make Dante say all those important things and I had the strong belief she did that knowingly to help me. She looked so out of it and yet, she knew I was here. I was sure of it.

I couldn’t let this newfound knowledge go to waste giving into anger or irrationally trying to save her now. The only thing I needed to worry about was the enemy in front of me. The enemy that just surrounded his body with a forcefield.

I really dislike that old hag but I’ll have to give it to her. That “healing” power of hers was damn useful! Even if I was a bit out of character.

“Hey, Dante. You ready?” I began to increase the speed of my ability. “I’m going to kill you now.”

Dante scoffed. “Give it your best shot, father of the year!”