Factory Reset: Divine Corruption

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four:  The Fire in the Wake

The air stung with tainted energy as the protogen blasted through the hotel's walls, tearing apart the metallic pillars and concrete walls like they were mere twigs beneath their paws. Visors split open to reveal heinous and deranged smiles.

Time slowed with the vast amount of energy condensed in the area. Everything moved in slow motion as the protogen raced to meet the extreme Pattern-Screams, their pawsteps tearing the seams of the ground apart every time they applied pressure on the concrete and asphalt.

The protogen at the forefront, a ruby red one, had the most sadistic grin on his face. He was the most devoted to keeping his captain safe, and these Screamers have not only threatened him, but his sister and possible partner. They would receive no mercy.

He was seeing blood red at this point. As time distorted even more than it already had, he clenched his hands together, a permanent grin plastered all over his visor, displaying warnings and flashing lights. There would be no need.

"Boundless Detonation." The protogen whispered, his voice barely audible among the others. A deep, dark and menacing black-red glow overtook his body. The others attempted to retreat, but in the slowed state, they wouldn't make it.

But Fallout didn't care at this moment. He wasn't thinking rationally any more. He was programmed with an intense desire to Protect Mason by Scion and Axel. By all Hell he would achieve his purpose.

And he didn't care who died in the process.

The mass of superheated air and material manifested in his clawed hands, shaking with the vast amount of energy he was harnessing. His visor displayed that he was using almost everything to create this amount.

A deep purple glow took hold of most of the protogen behind him as Rallycry took hold of as many as he could, and tugged them towards Hannah and Cotton. Even in the diluted time, they moved with such speed that they appeared to be a mere flash of light.

They could barely process anything before a deep silence overtook the plain. Fallout's body went limp, but he held onto the massive explosion, just waiting to get released. The Patter-Screamers were so close to him he could almost feel them.

And with a groan of exertion, Fallout finished his attack. In a blinding light rivaling that of entire galaxies, almost every single drop of Boson Energy rattling in his blood was expelled. The boundless energy broke apart the very fabric of the reality around him.

Aberration was barely able to reproduce a high density shield using his power before the blast reached them, even at the slowed speeds. The shield expanded in a large bubble around them and the building behind them, cutting into the earth and cupping it completely.

The explosion rocked the ground and obliterated every single organic and inorganic matter. It shook The Fabric so hard that it had no sound. Nothing but a deep hum of something unnatural, something not meant to be able to exist. An explosion so powerful, yet contained.

The light was so bright that even when the Protogens turned off their optics they could see still, which should have been impossible. Hannah had to push her head against the earth and close her eyes, and she still felt her eyes burn from the light.

Eventually, after a full twenty seconds of intense white light, it started to dim. And by that, it meant that the light slowly changed from blinding white, to a shade of burnt orange, to one of red, before fading away.

Everyone was scared to glance up. Freefall was the first, her entire body shaking. She gulped mechanically, glancing around. Eighteen protogen, baring Cotton and the councilmembers, were inside the bubble.