In preparation for the final round, Volengi meticulously cleansed a slug planet, leaving no intelligent inhabitant alive. Their demise had been swift, with resistance surviving less than an hour, but every key ingredient of war flourished beautifully– the panic, terror, and rage; the strategy and communication; the predictable yet unpredictable chaos.

Only nature and wildlife remained, almost no trace of any civilization ever existing.

Volengi walked across one of the planet’s many barren deserts, ignoring the swarm of Spugs recording his every move in the sky. He heard Leland before seeing him, the distinctive sounds of a snare and kick drum booming out of the human’s headphones.

“H-hey, how is your day going?”

Volengi didn’t bat an eye, not surprised at the genuine attempt at friendly conversation. “Your existence is an embarrassment. Knowing you’re a broken organism, why do you continue to live? ”

“My day was g-good, too. Could we p-play chess instead to finish things?”

They locked eyes in a silent standoff, as if each was willing to wait years for a proper response to the other's question.

Leland took off his headphones and threw the device high in the air. Volengi smirked. The human’s genetic composition had altered so dramatically that it was almost classified as a different species entirely.

“You’ve changed.”

Leland looked up. “I h-have.”

They watched the headphones fall and sink through a portal. Volengi raised an arm. Leland clenched a fist.

*BOOM!*

Before Volengi could release an energy blast, Leland’s fist burst out of a portal, sending shockwaves rippling through his jaw. Volengi caught the next punch and squeezed. Leland grunted in pain, his reinforced bones snapping loudly. He kicked Volengi directly in the temple, sending him flying.

Volengi made no effort to avoid or block the attack. He couldn’t help himself. He had to measure the impact once more and accurately assess the amount of brain damage received before it healed. The blows were impressive, rivalling many of his Solarian comrades, but…

His lips curled into a twisted grin. Could this be a worthy opponent?

----------------------------------------

Leland’s heart dropped as he watched the alien hanging suspended in the air.

Why the fuck is he smiling?

The portal combo Cadell and Leland had rehearsed many times in Dimension Zero didn’t seem to be effective. And what was the alien made out of? Diamond?

Volengi exploded off an energy blast before teleporting. Leland ducked, inches away from losing his head, and stumbled backwards, weaving and blocking against an aggressive barrage of kicks and punches. However, as far as the superhero was concerned, he was not defending in the slightest. Or at least, that’s what it felt like. Each time his fist, shin or forearm connected with Volengi’s body, they fractured in several places, even with the super suit absorbing impact and his enhanced defence ability.

So he flipped backwards and took to the skies, starving for precious time to regenerate and think. Of course, Volengi chased.

Now fighting was one thing, but running away or, in this case, flying away? Leland was very confident in that ability. It was in his blood and, not to mention, very easy. Unlike brutal duels to the death, fleeing was largely fuelled by emotions and adrenaline rather than technique.

He fought the urge to yell as he flew over mountains, oceans and forests, zigging and zagging, never flying at the same altitude for more than a second. Volengi never lagged behind and hurled energy blast after energy blast until, out of nowhere, his fist rocketed towards Leland’s face.

“You won’t be alone. I can sync up my mask with yours. Everything you will see, I will see.”

Cadell’s portal separated them just before impact. Leland flew up and whizzed back down, using gravity to assist with an axe kick to the head. Volengi flew backwards… but not without grabbing Leland’s leg and using the momentum to spin multiple times and hurl him at a horrifying speed.

Leland zoomed through a portal in the ground and out of another, tackling Volengi mid- air and piercing through a mountain on the way down.

*THUD!*

They crashed onto the floor of a canyon. Leland sprung to his feet, and with one subtle arm motion, froze Volengi from head to toe. The ice melted in under two seconds, but that was enough time for him to get a combo going. He flipped back to create distance between them and hurled bolts of electricity, enormous fireballs, and blue energy blasts.

Once the smoke cleared, Volengi’s frown met him.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Why did you stop?”

Leland’s face dropped. Fuuuuuuck! The alien looked bored, let alone damaged.

“Human!” Volengi roared. “Is that it?”

“P-please can w-we just play chess? ”

Volengi responded by shedding his charcoal-coloured skin, exposing glowing crimson flesh. Just like during their first duel, the alien transformed into a monster. Its muscles expanded, one sharp tail protruded, and glistening facial scars leaked a blue substance.

But this time, Leland barely paid any attention to the surface-level features, more focused on the hidden ball of darkness swirling within the alien. It sent chills down his spine.

What is that?

I never want to know.

Instinctively, he knew the tides of the battle had shifted dramatically. That he was the prey. Unless…

Volengi sped closer towards him on all fours in the fraction of a second, but Leland was ready, one fist pulled back. Ironically, he didn’t need to speak to get rid of his stutter. He also didn't need to push his body to its limits to fully access the power which wiped out a version of Earth ten years ago. The key to open the door and knock down the brick wall was only a single thought filled with conviction, passion and mental effort.

Unlock.

*CRACK!*

Their fists connected with such force the ground trembled. Sparks of blue energy danced around Leland and a long list of superpowers along with their definitions hung in his mind, as if they had always been there. He felt like it was Christmas. Even better, he felt like he had all the cheat codes to a video game.

7 superpowers were currently active.

1,204 superpowers were inactive.

2 superpowers were exhausted forever.

“Dome!” Leland instructed. The secret part of his brain that he could never fully access sent signals to all over his body, rewiring his genetic code to facilitate the new superpower spoken.

Volengi pounced forward but it was too late. A large barrier surrounded him.

“Reinforce!” Leland stepped back into Cadell’s portal to hover high in the air and proceeded to quickly create four more dome barriers, each subsequent one larger than the next.

Volengi shot him a glare from below, one eyebrow raised. “Really?”

“Yes, really!” Leland yelled, letting gravity sink him down to the highest barrier. “You almost decapitated me, Mortal Kombat style. My life flashed before my eyes.”

*THUD!*

*THUD!*

*SMASH!*

Volengi broke the first barrier with three thunderous strikes. “What are you talking about, human? You defended yourself well and it seems you’re not a defective omni mutant anymore. This is the perfect time to fight.”

“See, that’s the thing,” Leland replied fluently, dropping down to the surface of the highest barrier. “I don’t want to fight you. This is all very pointless.”

Volengi raised an arm, and a glowing crimson energy beam exploded from his palm, shattering three more barriers. He rose in the air. Only one barrier separated them.

“You destroyed my father’s legacy and our reputation.”

“Me? Actually, if we’re going to play the blame game, I would say it was Staress. Did you know she wields a crown that grants her the ability of omniscience? This means she could have prevented all of this from happening in the first place by— whoaa!”

Staress suddenly appeared in front of him, shaking him about like a rag doll. “My fault? You little shit! You’re going to bring that up to him now? We’re supposed to be a team. You can’t just throw me under the bus like that. I thought we had reached an understanding.”

Leland shrugged. “Yeah, but that doesn’t change the facts. Don’t look at me like that. I’m not wrong.”

“No, no, Your Majesty, I wasn’t directly responsible,” Staress said, smiling sweetly down at Volengi. “If we’re going to be serious, the real culprit was Cadell. As I’m sure you’re aware, that disturbed man halted your coronation ceremony with a portal the size of a black hole.”

Cadell stumbled out of a portal onto the dome barrier. “Seriously?” He hollered, slightly laughing out of disbelief. “You’re the one who barged into my prison cell door! Until you showed up, I was minding my own business reading my beloved Berserk manga.”

“I have no idea what he’s talking about,” Staress said.

“Me neither,” Leland agreed, shaking his head twice for good measure.

““King Volengi, my good pal,” Cadell yelled. “Leland is the true source of your pain right now. He publicly humiliated you. He made you an absolute fool. That stupid slug unfairly defeated you in–argh!”

Leland lunged for Cadell’s neck while Staress shook Leland violently by the shoulders. They bickered further, swearing and speaking over each other loudly until–

“Silence!” Volengi yelled. “I don’t care who is most responsible. A true Solarian never needs a point to fight the strong. Even if primitive, you are a worthy opponent. That’s all that matters. We finish this now, human.”

Leland noticed the excitement in the alien’s red rimmed eyes and his heart sank. He had seen it several times before in Maggie and Mark when they talked about their respective sports and in Staress before she went up on stage. There was nothing the alien wanted to do more than fight him. There was no avoiding. Not anymore.

He sighed. In that case…

*SMACK!*

Leland slammed one fist into the other, causing blue sparks to fly about. He exchanged a knowing glance with Staress and Cadell, and without hesitation, they quickly stepped into a pitch-black portal. To an outsider observing the scene, it appeared as if Leland had entered and exited the portal within a matter of seconds, but the experience inside felt like it had stretched across many hours.

In Dimension Zero, he had created a special ability. Something that encompassed everything he was about. His identity. His fighting style. And most of all, his reluctance.

*CRASH!*

Volengi shattered the last barrier with another red energy beam. The two hovered parallel to each other, face to face, and lowered to the ground at the same time.

“Where did your friends go?” Volengi asked.

“It doesn’t matter. This is between you and me. We’re more similar than you think, you know. For a long time, I’ve been fuelled by shame too. It sucks.”

Volengi smirked. “Is this an illustration of what humans call 'empathy'? We are two different species with wildly different moral values and beliefs. I stepped on slug planets before I was ten years old. Let’s not bother trying to understand each other.”

“Fair enough.” Leland’s eyes glowed blue as he intertwined over 50 superpowers. “Then let’s play some chess, shall we?”