[4:53PM]

It was quiet…almost too quiet. Vincent was sitting on an embroidered bench in a large lobby in the Gold Pillar, right above the Collider. Even though there were many people walking past him, talking, for some reason the room seemed so silent to him. Maybe it was his intense focus, maybe it was him blocking out all the pointless banter, or maybe it was something else entirely. No matter what the answer was, he continued to sit on the bench, completely still.

His eyes watched the many people pass by him on their way to the Collider. Each time, he clocked them, read them up and down, and then he would move on to the next one. For over 2 hours he had repeated this process. And he would continue to repeat it until he found who he was looking for.

Finally, like a splatter of blood against a marble floor, a familiar man made his presence known as he walked across the room. In his hand were 4 metal chains that connected to the metal bands that were affixed to the necks of 4 people. Those slaves each had deadend eyes to them, and even though they were unfamiliar to Vincent, he could strangely tell the amount of pain that brought them to have such a empty glare.

Effortlessly, he stood up and began to make his way towards the man. As he did, he saw the man laugh at something another patron said to him. As he laughed, he slapped the exposed back of one of the slaves.

Undeterred, unbothered, Vincent continued to move forward. Even when the man’s multiple bodyguards moved to block Vincent’s path, he didn’t care. For some reason he heard no noise nor did he see anything other than his target: the laughing man.

The constant pulse of his heart began to make its way up his neck and finally to his head. His brain began to mimic the beat while his eyes tunneled inwards. Everything on the edge of his vision began to blur, nothing seemed to matter, and his whole being became focused on his goal.

With a final deep breath of resignation to the fate he placed himself within, Vincent lowered his mind in the coldest place possible. He felt his body chill with the freezing cold of a hundred blizzards, but his heart continued to flare, keeping his body alive.

“Hanzo!” Vincent called out, just as Hanzo’s bodyguards cut Vincent off.

Hanzo turned around with an annoyed glance and arrogantly replied, “Do I know you?”

Just as the words left his mouth, a slight twitch of recognition sparked across his face before he regained his composure. “I don’t want to deal with you right now. Guards, beat him up or something.”

The people that were in the vicinity averted their gaze and awkwardly paused their conversation. Even those that were dressed in the most extravagant attire began to hastily make their way out of the room. Only a few truly despicable individuals remained in the room and their deadset eyes showed their excitement for whatever was to come.

As a guard placed a forceful hand on Vincent, Vincent declared, “This place’s time is up! Every ceiling you created will be broken.”

Vincent then returned the forceful hands of the guards with his own and whispered devoid. As he did he created a void at the ends of both of his hands, consuming the two guards that began to flank him.

Within the span of a second, both guards were sent rocketing in opposite directions. Reacting to the sudden attack, the rest of Hanzo’s guardians came charging towards Vinecent. With the calmest demeanor, Vincent walked forward.

Each time a guard approached time, he unleashed a starbreaker, sending them flying to their defeat. Even when one of them got the idea to draw their pistol, he was ready. He pulled out a small stone and void threw it at them.

The stone collided with the guard, causing them to get distracted just long enough for Vincent to close the distance. With an icy fist, Vincent unleashed another starbreaker, launching that guard to join the rest of the unconscious defenders.

With the last of his paid defense disposed of, Hanzo stood exposed and nervous. With a few panicked breaths, his eyes darted around but couldn't land on anything reassuring. Finally, he tightened his grip on the chains and shouted, “Slaves, protect me!”

The slaves looked around to each with fear in their eyes and then back at Vincent. As their quivering eyes met Vincent’s firm and determined eyes, they began to back up.

After a few steps, Hanzo yanked on their chains, and with a voice mixed with desperation and anger, he yelled at them, “What are you doing?! I own you and you must work for me!”

And still they chose not to move on his command.

With his hands now in his pockets, Vincent strolled up a few feet next to Hanzo and stared him dead in his pathetic excuses for eyes. As the visible breath left his mouth, Vincent said nothing.

For a few seconds, there was a frigid silence. Nothing could be heard, nothing could manifest sound, and nothing mattered more than the tension of the air. Giving into the atmosphere, Hazno swallowed and began to say, “W-What do you want? Money? I can give you—”

Vincent put a finger on Hanzo’s lips to silence him. “I want it all to break,” Vincent replied. “I want the walls that have long protected you and the rest of the Upper Echelon to come crumbling down.”

Hanzo’s eyes grew wider and he barely peeped, saying with a whimper, “I don’t want to die.” As he said that, he released the grip on the chains and the slaves proceeded to run far away.

With a slight grin, Vincent responded, “Godspeed.”

With that, Vincent used Godspeed to launch himself high up in the air. While floating up there, time seemed to almost grind to halt. He saw the rest of the halls either cower or run away in fear. Beneath him, he saw the once proud-standing Diadem on his ass with the fear of God in his eyes. Hanzo’s eyes were staring up and they were locked onto the devil that had come to finally have him pay what he owed.

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At the apex of his flight, Vincent used Godspeed again to propel himself downwards towards Hanzo. At the last possible fraction of a second before he collided with the ground, Vincent unleashed a starbreaker on the horizontal Hanzo.

As the attack connected with the Diadem, pinning him between a void and the ground, Vincent continued to force his power downwards. Using the momentum from his Godspeed in addition to his own strength, he continued to push his attack downwards onto the broken man.

As he pressed, the floor began to crack, Hanzo’s bones began to break, and Vincent's eyes continued to deaden. With each second that he used his powers, he felt pieces of him shrivel and grow cold. Either way, something had to give—his spirit, Hanzo’s body or the floor.

And something did.

The cracks in the floor spiderwebbed out across the entire room, and eventually, the floor gave in. Every ounce of structural integrity ceased to work and everything in that room began to fall.

Plummeting downwards, Vincent and Hanzo fell. Below them was the entirety of the Collider. The floor that just broke was also the ceiling of the arena. Covered by the debris, they continued to descend in a slowed down time.

The seats were full of patrons, the arena floor had two competitors, and all of the luxury box seats were filled. In that moment, everything in the Collider shifted its attention towards the beaming rays of light that now shone through the shattered ceiling.

After a few seconds of colliding with the ground, Vincent stood up out of the wreckage. Even though he had fallen several floors, he didn’t feel an ounce of pain. In fact, his entire body was numb to almost any sensory touch. However, it felt pretty nice to him.

Digging into the rubble, Vincent pulled out the unconscious and bloodied body of Hanzo. With a single hand, he lifted the man by the head and presented him to the stunned-silent crowd. Taking a deep breath, Vincent shouted the last embers of passion that were held in his chest.

“Now is the time to fight!” he yelled. “The reason why you are all in this place is not because of your actions or because luck is not on your side. The fault is not on the individual—the fault is in the very system that you live under. Rise up against it and hope for a better day! The days of the Diadems are over! Lucretia’s reign ends today!”

Even after such a declaration, the entirety of the Collider remained silent. Even as stary rocks from the floor above continued to hit the floor, they were the only sound that reverberated. The shocked eyes of every other person spoke louder than words ever could.

After a few more exhaustive breaths, Vincent followed up his previous assertion, yelling, “This is a resistance, led by me, the champ! Let's finally fight back!”

Still not a soul moved from where they stood. In fact, those that had any movement to them began to run away. No one’s eyes had any sense of determination—just confusion and fear.

Then the sound of dozens of running stomps could be heard coming from the entrance doors to the Collider. Heavy footfalls that echoed off of the hollowed halls were haunting, seeing as they seemed to be the sole source of sound.

Soon enough, dozens and dozens of armed casino guards stormed the arena. They surrounded Vincent from all angles. While most of them were on the floor, about a third of them were stationed in the stands, encircling the floor.

“Didn’t you hear me?!” Vincent asked out loud. “This is where you join me!”

The guards began to close the distance, most of them pulling out whatever weapon they had on them.

“Why aren't you moving?”

Every pistol was now pointed at Vincent’s head.

“This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. I’m the hero. I’m the champ. I’m the chosen.”

A few guards were now only a few feet away from the borderline hopeless Vincent. As he continued to absently stare forward, one of the guards grabbed him and began to restrain him.

“Help…” he barely whimpered out.

Just then, an explosion reverberated from the left. Snapping his head in that direction, he saw a giant dust cloud emanate from one of the Collider walls. Before he or any of the guards had any time to process what just happened, 10 impossibly fast, tiny projectiles shot out of the cloud. Those earthy bullets collided with a couple guards, including the one restraining Vincent, knocking them unconscious.

Pushing the slacked body off of him, Vincent stared at the dispersing dust cloud with his mouth hung open. Jumping out of the cloud, roaring as loud as their high-pitched voice could, Baako charged forward towards Vincent. “Don’t give up!” he shouted.

With a perplexed smile, all Vincent could say was, “What’s going on?”

When the kid got to Vincent’s side, he replied, “What do you mean? The resistance, of course!”

“I don’t…” Vincent tried to say, but the words failed to form.

“And look,” Baako added, shifting his attention back towards the dust cloud, “I brought help.”

As Vincent turned his head back in that direction, he saw many figures leap out and run directly towards some of the guards. He recognized some of them as other fighters in the Collider—namely Paper, Stefen, and many others.

The most noticeable presence in the crowd, however, was a hulking figure. As Marezi stepped into the light, the dust itself moved around her as if it felt a sense of reverence. She then gave a quick half-smile to Vincent and then focused her attention on the guards that were starting to flood their way into the arena.

As she looked at the oncoming attackers, she cracked her neck and flicked her wrist towards them. A scattering of pebbles flung their way over to them like a shotgun blast. All but one of the attackers were knocked down. The one that remained barely stumbled to her feet.

Upon seeing that, Marezi accelerated up to her and clocked her across the face, knocking her out cold. Marezi then accelerated over towards Vincent and Baako. “You crazy bastard,” she said to Vincent with a reluctant smile.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Vincent asked. “I thought you had no intention of fighting back.”

“I didn’t, but a certain someone,” she replied, looking at Baako, “convinced me otherwise. Still, I can’t believe we managed to get so many people on our side.”

Looking at the chaos and warfare that was going on around him, Vincent asked, “Yeah, how did you manage to light a fire in all those broken spirits?”

“Hope,” Baako answered. “Just like you said.”

“What?” Vincent happily laughed. “Hope in what?”

“You.”

Vincent had no words. That being said, his body did all the talking. His smile showed the absolute relief and joy that he was feeling, while his hands that were up in the air showed how confused he was by the statement.

Baako returned the smile and said, “I told them how awesome you are and what you did for me.”

Marezi put a hand on his shoulder and added, “We were all shocked about how positive this young man was in the face of his situation. He even kept a smile when being forced to fight.”

“B-But how did you know the rebellion was today?” Vincent stammered.

“We didn’t.” She then looked at Baako. “We just never stopped hoping.”

Vincent then stood up on his own two feet, grabbed Marezi and Baako’s hands, and stated, “Let’s do this.”